Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals #2) - Heather Long Page 0,48
this.”
It was a last-minute call, but it hit him like a slap in the face.
“She deserves better,” I reminded him. “You can fight this. We’ll have your back. But you gotta do the work, man.”
“Jasper’s right,” Vaughn offered up, and Freddie twisted to look at him and then Doc.
“Don’t look at me,” Doc told him. “I’m on Jasper’s side in this. Little Bit doesn’t need to hurt because you want to drown your pain.”
Well, I wouldn’t have put it like that.
“She cares about you, Freddie, hell if I know why, but she does. And seeing you like you were that night hurt her.”
I frowned. She’d been taking care of him, rubbing his back and soothing him. What the fuck had I missed?
More to the point, what had Doc seen?
“I’ll do better,” Freddie said slowly. “Just…don’t kick me out. You guys are my family. I don’t have anything outside of you guys. I don’t…I don’t want to go away.” He swallowed hard and grimaced as he tried to take a deep breath. Cracked ribs were a bitch, and he’d be hurting for a while. “If I do the work, maybe I can do one of those outpatient places?”
The last thing I wanted to do was cut him off. We never left family behind. “Maybe,” was all I said though. “And we have to see the work, Freddie. We can’t be watching you twenty-four-seven.”
“I can hang out with Boo-Boo when you guys are…”
“No,” Vaughn said before I could. “You’re not putting this on her. She already felt bad that you fucking disappeared when you were supposed to be looking after her.”
“Yeah,” I told him. “You did. Worse, you fucked our trust. You’re not out, Freddie, but you’re not all the way in anymore, either.”
His eyes rounded, and even Vaughn looked startled.
“Get your shit and let’s get out of here. We’ve taken up enough of Doc’s space and his time.”
“C’mon,” Vaughn said, clasping a hand on Freddie’s shoulder and guiding him back inside all the while shooting me a side eye. Yeah yeah, I got it. We didn’t abandon anyone, and what I’d just said probably sounded an awful lot like I was considering it.
I wasn’t.
I’d no sooner leave Freddie behind than I’d willingly cut off my own hand. But maybe it was time Freddie knew that even my patience had limits.
“I’ll come by daily,” Doc offered. “Do piss tests for a while. That will encourage him to stay clean.”
“And if you get to see Emersyn, all the better, right?” I should have just kept my mouth shut, but Doc’s interest in her was just…
“Exactly,” Doc said with an easy smile. “Get used to it, Jasper. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Fuck you, Doc.”
“You’re not my type, and you should have told me who she was when you brought her here in the first place.”
“You didn’t need to know.” I dropped the last bit of the cigarette and crushed it with my boot before glaring at him. “You’re not one of us. You made that clear. Remember?”
“This is not a Vandals thing.”
“The hell it isn’t,” I countered. “You tell yourself whatever stories you want, but you enlisted, you went away. You went to school. Made yourself a whole other life. Then you come back here to grace us with your presence after a near decade long absence?”
Uh-huh. He could fuck right off.
“It wasn’t like that,” Doc began, and I cut a hand through the air.
“It was exactly like that. You know it. I know it. Raptor knows it. You tell yourself whatever story helps you sleep at night.” Then, because we had enough battles, I blew out a breath. “You want to see Emersyn, fine. You can see her as long as she wants to see you, but only at the clubhouse. You’re not taking her anywhere.”
Not without one of us, and I had zero intention of letting him make any moves on her. Fuck, he was old enough to be her father.
Doc just gave me a look and said nothing. He could hide so much behind those granite eyes of his and that expressionless face. The door opened, and Freddie led Vaughn out. Vaughn tossed me one of the duffels and then lifted his chin toward his car. “Am I taking Freddie?”