Page 87 of Property of Stone
“Did you tell your teacher?” Taryn asked a little more quietly, but Stone could see her anger simmering right beneath the surface.
No doubt she had better control over her temper than he did.
“No. He told me if I snitched, I’d get stitches.”
With her mouth hanging open, she glanced at Stone. Then with a shake of her head, Taryn asked Sunny, “Is bullying typical at your school?”
Sunny shrugged. “How would I know? Nobody fucks with the Kings.”
A snort shot out of Stone’s nose before he could stop it.
“That’s not funny,” Taryn muttered under her breath.
“Yeah, but true.” Stone once again addressed his daughter, “Sunny, you make it clear to everyone in that school that he’s under the Kings’ protection too, yeah?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Do I have to?”
His eyebrows shot up his forehead. “Did those fuckin’ words come outta my mouth?”
Sunny’s mouth twisted. “Yes.”
“Then there’s your answer.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and turned to stare out of her window, a clear sign she was done with this conversation.
Only Stone was not. “You make it known, Sunny. Then, Baby Bird, if they still fuck with you, you let me know. Gonna handle it.”
A groan could be heard from the passenger seat. “As his mother, I would handle it, not you.”
“Sunny, do what I said. It don’t work, Momma Bird’s gonna handle it.”
Taryn sighed.
“What? Am I wrong, Momma Bird?”
She simply shook her head. He needed to head off any further discussion of this shit when they were alone. No doubt it would go sideways and get heated.
He hoped to get sex from her later, not an argument.
“Here’s the deal…you gotta go into that school ‘cause some asshole kid needs a reckonin’, then my ass is gonna be right by your side.”
“I said I can handle it.”
“Yeah, you’re gonna handle it and I’m gonna make sure it’s handled. You get your lunchbox back?” The last was directed at the annoyed woman’s son.
“No.”
“You tell that little bastard he don’t give it back, I’m gonna break all his fuckin’ fingers.”
“No! Don’t you dare say that, Wren. You might get kicked out of school and you just got enrolled there. I’ll call the principal in the morning.”
Stone met Wren’s gaze in the rearview mirror, and as soon as the kid gave him a small smile, Stone smothered his own and began heading home.
Chapter Eighteen
Stone scoopedup the sleeping boy, careful not to wake him. Taryn had mentioned the other morning how Baby Bird slept like the dead. He sure as fuck hoped that was true. He didn’t need her son waking in the middle of Stone’s plan and fucking it up.
A plan he had come up with while he once again stared restlessly at the ceiling from the goddamn couch.
