Page 187 of Finding Us

“What news?”

“Are you someplace private? Is anyone listening to this? Is Jade with you?”

“Jade’s in class. I’m at a coffee shop but nobody’s around me. Tell me what he said.”

“Your grandfather is getting a promotion.”

My mind immediately thinks of Kensington Chemical but that doesn’t make sense. He owns the place. And he’s retired. Then I get it. He’s being promoted in the organization.

“Garret? Are you there?”

“Yes. So how much of a promotion?”

He sighs. “All the way to the top. Same level as Roth.”

This isn’t a good thing. Being at the top means making decisions. Big decisions. The kind that affect millions of people. I don’t know what those decisions are, but I assume they’re not good. My grandfather always talks about making sacrifices. He’s always saying how only a few people can be leaders because most people aren’t strong enough to make the tough calls that need to be made for the greater good.

When I heard him say those things in the past, I always thought he was talking about Kensington Chemical. I thought he was referring to how hard it is to find good managers, people who are willing to fire employees who aren’t performing. But now I realize that wasn’t what he meant.

It makes sense that he would be promoted like this. He’s exactly the type of person they need at the top. He’s someone who can always find a way to justify doing bad things. So I see why they picked him. I’m just surprised they would, given how I acted last year.

I ask my dad about it. “Why would they choose him after what happened with me last spring? He had to have lost some respect among the members.”

“I wondered the same thing, but apparently they put all the blame on me. They assume I wasn’t strict enough with you. My father has given them a multitude of reasons why you acted that way and they all come back to me.”

“So he threw you under the bus to make himself look good.”

“Yes, but it’s true. Your behavior had nothing to do with him. If anything, they should be blaming him for howIturned out.”

“Why? You didn’t do anything out of line, at least not that they know of.”

“Everyone knows about my involvement with your mother. That was a huge embarrassment to my father. That’s why after I married her, he pretended I didn’t exist. But now that I think about it, doing that gave him some clout. It proved where his loyalties lie. Garret, we really shouldn’t be talking about this. Is there a reason you called me?”

“Yes. I wanted to tell you that some guy robbed one of the houses next to ours. It was that guy I told you about. The one in the white car who kept driving by our place. And Jade saw him last Saturday when she was out running.”

“Did they catch him?”

“Yeah. A cop came to our house last night and told us they got the guy. The cop was acting strange. He knew I was a Kensington and he told me the security cameras were making us a target for crime. It was almost like he was encouraging us to take them down.”

“Who is this man? Did you check him out?”

“Yes, and he’s on the force. I just wanted you to know what was going on in case anything happens.”

“Don’t talk like that. Nothing’s going to happen. Send me the officer’s name. I’ll do some more digging. It’s probably nothing to worry about. You know how those small town police are, always trying to scare people, make you think you need them around.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.”

“Garret, you need to talk to Jade about getting a gun. I know she’s opposed to the idea but you need to explain to her that being a Kensington means needing protection.”

“She’ll never go for that, Dad. She doesn’t like guns.”

“She needs to get over it. Explain to her how you can’t count on others for protection. She should know that after the incident with her father.”

It’s true. Royce walked right up to our property that day and killed our security guys. My dad and his gun were what saved Jade and me from being shot dead by Royce.

“I’ll talk to her.”

“I need to go. Good luck on your first day of classes. Tell Jade I said hello.”

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