Rare - Briar Prescott Page 0,4

of information from Alex’s file. Surprisingly, the man himself hadn’t been the least bit bothered to learn that Alex was bisexual. He treated it as a nonissue, which had frankly surprised the hell out of Alex, but to this day, he had to give his father reluctant props for not turning Alex’s sexuality into an issue.

Right then, the flash of appreciation fizzled away under his father’s disapproving stare in no time at all, though.

Alex leaned back in his chair. He felt a childish sense of accomplishment because he’d gotten his father to react, which in Alex’s mind seemed to mean that he was noticed. That his father cared that he existed. That his father acknowledged him.

Daddy issues really were a bitch.

It was stupid and self-destructive behavior at its finest, but Alex couldn’t seem to change anything about it.

“Judge Renner and I have come to an agreement about how you can repay some of your debt to society,” his father said as he shifted in his seat.

Alex snorted. “This should be interesting.”

His father quirked his eyebrow. Alex had to hand it to the man. He had expressive brows.

“He has agreed to keep this little… indiscretion off your record, and he has also agreed to drop the charges, which I might remind you, is a big deal. You’re already walking a thin line with NYPD.”

“Whoop dee doo.” Alex’s tone was bored, but he was somewhat relieved. He was about to start his senior year, and in a record-breaking accomplishment, it was going to be his second year in a row in the same school. That hadn’t happened since middle school. Not that he particularly liked his school. It was the same as every other obscenely expensive private school in the world, but Alex did feel reasonably content in New York, and over the last year, he had discovered that it was kind of nice to be on his home territory for a change. Plus, he was ready to be done with high school. He was already older than most students since his inability to follow the rules had caused him to repeat a grade when he’d been fourteen and had gotten himself expelled from three schools in one year.

For a while there, his father seemed to think that sending Alex to Europe was the answer to all his prayers. Alex had no idea why the man had changed his mind last year and what had made him bring Alex home. Might have been that he couldn’t find a school that would take Alex or he got tired of flying across the ocean every time Alex was expelled.

Whatever it was, Alex was back in New York, and he didn’t feel like being sent away to another in a long line of boarding schools. At least, when he was at home, he could pretty much do whatever the hell he wanted, since his father was always working anyway, and unless he was forced to directly deal with the consequences of Alex’s actions, he left his son well enough alone, which suited Alex just fine.

Also, it would have been nice not to go to jail or forced labor camp or whatever other means they used to punish delinquent citizens these days.

His father threw him an annoyed glance that said, I don’t appreciate the sarcasm. Alex, on his part, couldn’t exactly claim to enjoy the little father-son bonding time that had been forced on him, either, so he guessed they were even.

“You should be thankful Thomas Renner is such a good acquaintance and has so far been willing to take your cases and deal with the mess that accompanies you. Otherwise you’d be in a world of trouble.”

“I wasn’t aware there was a case.”

“How did you think you got out of that police station so fast?”

“I’d hardly call eight hours fast,” Alex said as his father spoke over him.

“The point is, Judge Renner has had enough of your antics, so he’s come up with a solution for your issues.”

“How nice of him.”

His father’s nostrils flared, but when he started speaking again, he was as calm and unaffected as he usually was. Apparently, Alex wasn’t even worth getting angry over.

“You have laundry list of misdemeanors and petty crime after your name. I can ignore those. Boys will be boys. But the DUI and the drug charges, Alexander? Those would have gone in your record had I not stepped in. This has to stop. Your behavior is really getting out of hand, so we’ve come up with a