Page 8 of Reckless
Not sure what that said about me, although, to be fair, I didn’t grow up in Midpark, so maybe it didn’t apply.
“Jaz, you’d be surprised what people are capable of.” That could go for both Archer and myself, I supposed, but right now we weren’t focusing on me. Right now it was all about her. Her and the mess she was in.
Piper and Oliver returned a few moments later, and I had to subject myself to getting grilled by a mother who was the very definition of a helicopter parent. Really. I had to sit down on one of the chairs in the living room while Piper paced back and forth, Oliver and Jaz standing in the background, as she asked me question after question, trying to ascertain for herself whether her daughter would be safe with me.
Of course, she didn’t know at this point that her daughter and I had been alone on numerous occasions, though not all of those occasions had ended how I wanted them to.
To think, if I’d had my say, Jaz and I wouldn’t have crossed the line. She’d be simply a client, a young one—okay, a young and pretty one—but that’s it. Alas, like I’d told Jaz before, I wasn’t as good of a man as I wanted to be. If there was one thing I was weak to, it was her.
Jazmine Smith had become my greatest weakness, and I’d do anything I had to, to make sure she stayed safe.
Chapter Three – Jaz
I never thought going to school would be so terrifying, but after being arrested and dragged out of it the day before on murder charges, the next morning was just that. Terrifying. There really wasn’t any other word for it.
Mom had told me that maybe I should stay home, that she could make a run up to the high school and collect my work for me for the week, but I knew she only wanted me to stay at the house so she could watch over me like a hawk.
Needless to say, Mom wasn’t too thrilled about Jacob’s sudden addition to our lives, but at the same time, she knew having him watch me was better than not having anyone. I didn’t think she knew how close Jacob and I really were, and I hoped it would stay that way. The last thing I needed to do was explain to my mom how I’d wound up in the bed of a disgraced ex-cop who was at least ten years my senior.
Yeah. Mom would go ballistic on that. Of course, Mom would go ballistic for a lot of things. Me being charged with murder was just the icing on the cake.
I mean, sure, if I sat down and thought about who I’d like to, for lack of a better phrase, end for good, the top of the list would be Brittany Pots—but did that mean I was the one who killed her? No, and I’d never brought it up to Dante or Vaughn, either. Somehow I had the feeling this mystery was deeper than that.
Mom and I stood before the front door; Jacob’s car sat outside, idling. He waited for me to come out so he could drive me to school. Ollie was in the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee, but I would bet any money he was listening to my mom and me right now.
I felt bad for what his sons had done, felt worse that Zane and Thorne had destroyed someone else’s life, aka Jacob’s—but besides being perpetually exhausted, Ollie seemed to be handling everything really well. Like, by now, he was used to it. Used to the blood and the murder, used to things taking a turn for the worse in Midpark.
What an awful life that must be. I guess I could understand why he wanted a live-in maid. It was someone to fill the vacant silence in this house, another soul to remind him that there was still a world out there.
He’d probably got more than he bargained for when he hired my mom, but that was beside the point, right?
“Are you sure you want to go to school today? I won’t be mad if you want to stay home,” Mom was busy saying, her arms folded across her chest, her disapproval written across every feature. She’d been so happy to have me go to Midpark, get a good education, make connections and everything that I could use when I graduated.
And now? Now Mom didn’t want me going at all.
“Mom, I need to go,” I said, hoping, praying I sounded as confident as I was trying to be. Did I want to go to Midpark High right now? No, but I also didn’t want to put it off forever. Odds were most, if not all, of Midpark High had already heard about what happened. The rumor mill had nothing on the truth this time; there was nothing worse than murder.
I still had no idea how my DNA had supposedly gotten to the crime scene, but with any luck, with Ollie and Jacob on the case, the truth would soon be revealed.
“Hiding from it won’t change anything,” I added, trying to use my mom’s own logic against her.
You know, that advice could pertain to other things, too, things which Mom had chosen to keep from me my entire life. My dad. My sperm donor. Whatever you wanted to call him; she’d kept the fact that she knew who he was, that he was out there somewhere, alive and well. How else could I look like him?
It wasn’t a shock to learn I looked like my father. My mom had the natural yellow hair, pale skin, and watery blue eyes while I was a bit darker all over. Everyone said Mom looked young for her age, but me? I’d grown up hearing comments that I looked more mature for my age, and I had to owe that particular aspect of myself to him.
Someday soon, when things calmed down, my mom and I needed to sit down and have a long chat about that.
“I’m worried about you,” she told me, her expression softening. “I don’t want the other kids to—”
To gang up on me? To hate me? To believe what the police believed, that I murdered Brittany? Well, it was definitely too late for that. The kids at Midpark believed everything they heard about me, probably because I was an outsider from the beginning and didn’t play by their rules. Oh, and I’d fucked Brittany over from the beginning—though I’d argue that was a clueless mistake I would not have made if I’d known Archer was taken.
“I’ll be fine, Mom,” I told her firmly, meaning it. I would be, unless whoever killed Brittany looked to make me their next victim. Did I think it was Archer? I…I’d like to say no, but I knew enough about Midpark now to not make any assumptions.
I really couldn’t trust anyone here, though I did make an exception for Jacob.
And sort of Vaughn.
And kind of Dante.
