“Yeah, some girls at the airport wanted to take selfies with her.”
“Do you know about what happened after the reality show?”
“No.” I had no clue and I was quickly losing my patience. If my mom didn’t spit it out I was about to go drive over to my brother’s house and find out for myself from the source.
“There was a—” My mom paused and I found myself holding my breath. “—video leaked of her.”
“Okay.”
“And in it, she was…being intimate with someone.”
“What are you talking about? Like a sex tape?”
“Yes.”
Josie didn’t strike me as the type to do that. That wasn’t a judgment, it was just an observation. She seemed too private for that.
“It was of her and her boyfriend, who she met on the show, Gio Alexander.”
That explained why she’d gotten weird when those girls had asked about him. I remained silent, waiting to find out why that information had inspired my mom to warn me about Josie.
“It went viral. Josie had no part in releasing it. She hadn’t even known that she was being taped. Gio recorded it without her knowledge.”
I saw red. All I could think about was all the horrific ways Gio could die.
“And that’s not all. She was a virgin. It was a huge plot point in the reality show. Gio denied knowing how the video got leaked but it was pretty obvious by all the press he did that he’d done it to capitalize on his fifteen minutes of fame.”
My blood was boiling, but before I tracked that fucker down and beat the shit out of him, or worse, I needed to make sure I had the facts straight. “That asshole took her virginity, secretly filmed it, and then released it to get fucking publicity?”
“Yes. She sued the distributor and got an injunction to have it removed. But by the time she got the video off the site, it was everywhere.”
My hands balled into a fist and I could feel my nostrils flaring. I felt like a bull in an arena with a red cape being waved in front of me. I was ready to charge and destroy anything in my path.
“I’m gonna kill him.”
“Don’t worry.” My mom began knitting again. “I already took care of it.”
I doubted that my mom was an undercover Dexter, murdering scumbags without anyone knowing. But then again, if anyone could do that and get away with it, it was Dolly Briggs. That woman could do anything she set her mind to.
“How did you take care of it?”
“I prayed that he would be castrated in a horrible boating accident,” my mom replied as casually as if she was asking me to pass the salt.
“Wow. That’s oddly specific.”
“I saw it on Strangest Emergency Room Visits.”
I had to smile. “I don’t think you’re supposed to pray for things like that.”
“Prayer goes both ways.” She shrugged. “And disregard what I said earlier.”
My mom had said a lot of things in this conversation, and I had no idea what she was referring to. “Disregard what?’
“You don’t need to keep your distance.”
“I don’t?”
“No.”
“Why the sudden change of heart?”
“I saw what I needed to see.”
My mother didn’t normally speak in riddles. But I had no idea what she was talking about. Sadly, before I could ask her what she meant, the screen door opened and my dad walked in.
“Look who’s finally up!” His large hand landed on my shoulder. “Half the day is gone, son!”
My dad poured his second cup of coffee and he and my mom talked about whether they thought their next grandbaby was going to be a girl or a boy.
I sat quietly, sipping my coffee, battling between rage and protectiveness. Every Cro-Magnon cell in my body was screaming for me to take action. I wanted to get in my truck, drive to my brother’s, throw Josie over my shoulder, drag her off to my cave and kill anyone, with my bare hands, that ever tried to hurt her.
I couldn’t wrap my head around my reaction to her. It was so completely out of character for me and also massively out of proportion. How was it possible to feel this much intensity, this much possessiveness about someone I’d known for less than forty-eight hours?
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea that I was leaving tomorrow. Maybe it was exactly what I needed.
Chapter 12
Josie
“When faced with two paths, always choose the rougher terrain, it will lead to the more breathtaking destination.”
~ Josephine Grace Clarke
“What about Skylar?” I suggested weakly. The girl had