Page 123 of Dirty Like Seth
“Drug money?” Dylan asked, and he didn’t sound surprised. None of us could be,exactly.
Really, it madesense.
“We’re talking about the Kings,” Zane said. “What other kind isthere?”
Jude shot Zane a look. “We are not talking about the Kings. At least, notjustthe Kings. Seth owed some other guys, some seriously bad guys, some serious money. I don’t have to explain to you all what that means. It’s common fucking knowledge you don’t ever wanna owe shit to men like that. And you allknowthat’s all I’m gonna say aboutthat.”
“How much money?” Zanepressed.
Jude sighed again. “He was snorting it faster than he could make it. I covered his debts for a while, and he looked out for Jessa for me in return. Because I asked him to. Told him to,actually.”
“You didwhat?” Clearly, that did surprise Jesse. Actually, he looked totally fuckingpissed.
It surprised me,too.
“I warned him,” Jude said. “Threatened to cut him off, did cut him off, and he turned elsewhere for his drugs. Then I found out how much he owed around, and I knew he wouldn’t be payingmeback anytime soon. So I went to my brother. Piper took care of it. That’s all you’ve gotta know.” He shook his head, like he was kinda wishing he hadn’t even said that much. “Fuckingmeanwhile, Seth told me what he saw—Jessa and her girlfriends at parties, with some of these piece-of-shitguys.”
“Sinners,” Brody said, putting two-and-two together, just as Idid.
The Sinners were a rival club of the Kings, notoriously dangerous, and if Seth was getting drugs from bikers in Vancouver who weren’t Kings… Jude wouldn’t say so, but that had to be it. Anyone who read the news knew the Sinners were deeply involved in the drug trade on the westcoast.
“FuckingRoni,” Brody growled under hisbreath.
“It’s got nothing to do with Roni,” Jude snapped rightback.
Well,shit… Even Jesse appeared taken aback by Jude’stone.
I had no idea what Roni, a girlfriend of Jessa’s, had to do with any of this, other than the fact that we all knew she had a thing for bikers and had dated Jude’s brother, Piper, a long time ago? But why Jude would bite Brody’s head off for mentioning her, I couldn’tsay.
Unless Jude was sweet on her orsomething?
God, how deep didthisrabbit holego…?
I didn’t even want toknow.
“Please just tell me there are no bikers after Sethnow,” Isaid.
“No,” Jude said. “Lucky for him, he’s in Piper’s good books thesedays.”
Well thankfuck.
“I can’t believe you didn’t fucking tell me about this,” Jesse said. He was shaking his head at Jude, and clearly, he was nothappy.
“Jessa was starting to come toourparties,” Jude replied, “and we couldn’t stop her. But she knew when she did, she’d get kicked out. She wasn’t welcome. That meant she was gonna find somewhere else to go, to get what she wanted. And she did. She started going with her friends to other parties, hanging with a different crowd, ones I couldn’t be at to keep an eye on her. I couldn’t babysit your little sister. And where were you?” He looked around at each ofus.
No onespoke.
“We all had other shit to do,” Jude said. “But Seth wasthere. He was there for Jessa in a way none of us could be. So I told him to keep an eye on her. I’m not saying it ended well. I’m not saying it was the best thing. But at the time it was the best I could do. She was going to those parties and getting high whether you or I liked it or not. While she was there with Seth, I knew she was at least safe. I kept him supplied, and she was getting her shit from him, from the Kings, so I knew it was clean. She was safer than any other girl at any of thoseparties.”
“Yeah,” Brody growled. “Safe from everyone butSeth.”
Brody and Jude looked at each other across the room, and I could feel the tension smashing betweenthem.
“Who the fuck do you think Seth Brothers is?” Jude demanded. “You’ve totally demonized the guy because Jessa came crying to you with some sob story that has less to do with him than it does with her, and you were so blinded by your infatuation with her, you couldn’t even seeit.”
Brody rose to his feet. At first, he looked stricken… But then he got pissed, quick. “Is that how you fucking seeit?”
Jude took a breath and seemed to bite his tongue. Maybe he knew he’d crossed a linethere.
