Page 102 of Relentles
“Rebel—”
“I. Want. To. Go. To. My. Room.”
“You honestly think I’m cheatin’ on your ma, baby?”
“You aren’t thinking straight, Daddy,” Rebel said after a moment’s silence. “I don’t think youhave, but I think youmight. You’re so…” Voice trailing, she shrugged.
Vulnerable. Dad had been for the past month.
“Who you protectin’? Me or your ma?”
“If I protect you, I protect her,” Rebel said crossly. “You are her entire world, so much so that she’s allowingUncle Johnnieto get in her head when I’ve heard you tell her with my own little ears that you don’t want any more children. Whatever that sneaky traitor let her listen to has her so fucked up in the head, doesn’t matter. That’s why when I cut that motherfucker’s tongue out, I’m going to store it in preservatives and laugh every time I see it.”
Dad shook his head. “Leave Johnnie alone. He’s goin’ through a lot right now. It’s Christmas, too. The season of forgettin’ and forgivin’.”
CJ looked at each of his brothers, searching to see the same shock he felt on their faces. It left them all speechless and nonplussed.
Had Dad lost his fuckin’ mind?
“You a kid, Rebel,” Dad said again. “I just overlooked…me and your ma overlooked correctin’ you and your brothers as much as we should have. It wasn’t fair to none of you.”
Dad was calm again. CJ was coming to detect his father’s level of anger or ease by the way he talked.
“That ship has sailed, Daddy. I’m three years and four months away from eighteen.”
“You not a grown-up, baby. You don’t know…what you think you see not always the full story.”
“Whether I’m a girl or a grown woman,thisis what I saw: a very beautiful woman touching you, studying you, and smiling up at you. I saw you laugh and not try to push this beautiful woman away. I saw you reach into your wallet and give thisbeautiful woman a hondo and I saw this beautiful woman stare at you in adoration. I watched the whole thing though the fucking window, Daddy.”
Oh, fuck. CJ and Diesel exchanged glances. Had Torie mistaken the meaning behind Dad’s responses to her texts?
“I ain’t got time for your bullshit, Rebel.”
“Of course not. You never have time for me! No one does.”
“We do, Reb,” Ransom said. “We make time to find ways to make you cry.”
“Shut up.” Rebel sucked in a breath. “If I cry now, I’ll fucking kill you, Ransom.”
“That would be cold-blooded murder. Since I wouldn’t be the one to make you cry. At least if you killed mebecauseI made you cry, you could plead temporary insanity.”
“I told you to stop talkin’ to these motherfuckers about law, Diesel.”
“I stopped, Uncle Chris,” Diesel said. “I swear!”
“Rebel, I’m tired,” Dad began, his face haggard and fatigued. “There’s a lot going on.”
“Says you,” she replied, refusing to give an inch. “I followed you because Momma was curled up on the bed, sobbing.”
“You ma was doin’ what?”
CJ wished he could’ve been anywhere except there, witnessing his father’s devastation upon hearing about Mom.
“Why you ain’t…you should’ve called me.”
“I did!” she yelled. “You didn’t answer.”
“Your call didn’t come through.”
