Page 24 of By The Book
“Iam. You have no right—”
“I do, actually.”
“How on earth do you figure that?”
“Claire, I have a job because kids like that grow up to be men who can’t control their anger. They hurt the people around them, or they stalk someone because they can’t handle reality. All of those raging hormones and all of that anger need to be channeled into something fast, before Tommy self-destructs.”
She deflated at his words, knowing it was true. “I don’t… He’s different now. He wasn’t like that before his dad… I’m not sure how to handle it,” she said softly. “But he’s never done that before. He’s never hurt me.”
“Maybe not. But now that he has, the next time won’t be as big a deal.”
“It was a one-time thing. I’m sure of it.”
Oh, the way Denz stared at her. The look he gave her.
“Are you? Because it’s not just you we’re talking about here. It could be a future girlfriend or a violent incident at his school.”
No.“Stop. Please. Tommy’s not going to hurt anyone.”
“He already did—you.”
She sank onto the arm of the couch, legs weak.
“Claire—”
She got up and turned away again, moving toward the window to stare down at Tommy below. “Before Scott died, Tommy was a straight-A student who never got into trouble. This year? He barely passed and was suspendedthreetimes. He’s fallen into the wrong group of friends, won’t do what he’s told. That’s why we had to cancel our visit a few weeks ago. He had to serve his punishment.”
“So that’s why you’re here,” he said softly. “It’s not for a simple visit or vacation.”
She closed her eyes, shook her head.
“I can talk to him.”
She glanced at Denz and frowned. “Like you did earlier?”
“If that’s what it takes. Look, Claire, you can’t let this continue. You have to set him straight now.”
“You sound like my father.”
“Does Tom know any of this?”
“Only that Tommy is struggling. N-nothing else. Dad told me that if you had to take Tommy to task, something big must have happened and I needed to do something.”
“You know he’s right.”
“Telling Dad about Tommy getting suspended is one thing, but I can’t tell Dad that Tommy…” She lifted her arm slightly to indicate the bruises.
“Your father might surprise you.”
“Maybe. Or he could get rougher with Tommy than you did, and that’s not something I’m okay with.”
“You don’t want them fighting. I get it. Tom knows I handled something, though. And that I’ll do it again if needed.”
If needed? “I’ll talk to Tommy. I-I just… I don’t know what to do,” she said softly, the words bitter in their truth. “I ground Tommy and he sneaks out. I drop him off at school and watch him go in the front door only to get a call later that he’s skipped because he’s walked out after I left. He’s completely and totally obsessed with that game system. It holds the most leverage, but when I take that away, he freaks out.”
“That was the cause of the fight this morning?”
“Yeah. I went to wake him up and discovered that he’d stolen the system out of my room. When I told him he’d lost it for another month, he…grabbed me. We fought and he took it.”
