Page 82 of Love at First Ride
When I make it back to Scotch and park up, I’m surprised to see Echo and my mom both smoking rollups, sat side by side out on the porch.
‘Look who’s showed up,’ Echo says in his leather jacket and bandana, looking me up and down when I climb the steps, still holding onto my helmet. ‘Hell you been, boy?’
I look at Mom. She looks like she’s been crying. ‘Everythin’ all right?’ I ask.
‘Tyler Rosen got busted last night,’ she tells me. ‘Got caught tryna steal a convertible from Boulder Creek. Canyon P.D. cuffed him and took him downtown.’
I know that Tyler and Noah were friends. ‘Shelley Rosen’s kid?’
‘Uh-huh. Barely thirteen years old. Younger than Noah.’
‘They gonna charge him?’
Echo flicks ash across the porch. ‘Shelley’s downtown with him now. He’s been allocated an attorney.’
I feel a muscle flinch inside my jaw. On the porch, I shift my weight to my other leg. ‘Flood Brothers again?’
‘We don’t know that for sure,’ is Echo’s response.
I snort out a laugh, because Echo knows as well as I do that Tyler’s arrest has the Flood brothers’ greasy hallmarks all over it. ‘And you just gonna let that trash slide, huh, Echo?’ I ask.
‘We talked about this, AJ. I’m not in the business of making things worse out here for all of us.’
I level my eyes on his. ‘You could have fucking fooled me.’
I see anger flash in his eyes when he half gets out his chair to holler at me. ‘Just thank your lucky stars Noah got picked up by the mayor’s stepdaughter and you got him to safety. Tyler won’t have the same good fortune your brother had.’
I’m done listenin’ to this shit. I shake my head in disgust and march off the porch, my knuckles white where I’m gripping my helmet so hard. I head round the edge of the building to the staircase that leads up to the attic space.
‘Ajax, wait!’
I turn to see Mom racing after me, wearing the pretty red dress with buttons down the front that I know she’s had since I was a kid. My free hand grips the railing. She catches up. Up close, her eyes have dark circles around them. Looks like she’s been smoking way too many cigarettes.
‘I came by your room early this mornin’,’ she says. ‘You didn’t answer.’
‘I spent the night in Canyon.’
‘Oh?’
‘At a, uh… friend’s house.’
‘Right. Everything all right?’
‘Fine. Apart from the fuckin’ Flood brothers wrecking our kids’ lives. Not that Echo seems to give a shit.’
‘Echo’s got enough on his plate right now, honey.’
I sigh. ‘So everybody keeps sayin’.’
‘What I mean is, don’t do anything dumb. Echo saved you, a year ago. You wouldn’t have a room above this bar if it weren’t for him, and he can’t protect everybody. Don’t be going after any Floods and offering to give them a beat down.’
I can feel a muscle flexing in my jaw. ‘I won’t. However much I want to.’
‘Good. Now. I didn’t know that… about the mayor’s stepdaughter. Echo told me that she was the one who took Noah in?’
‘She came with me to Rita’s. Her name’s Hollie.’
She looks surprised. ‘Oh. And are you and Hollie… close?’
