Drill rested his forehead against the door. He had to come up with something that Catfish wanted, some way to help him get out.
The only thing he could think of was the farm, he realized. Catfish needed money — and with Drill’s half, maybe it would buy Drill his freedom. Which meant telling Maddy and Thuy, and using them to help him escape the mess he’d gotten himself into.
Chapter Thirty-One
The following Monday, Thuy sat in Maddy’s father’s Lincoln Continental, taking advantage of a scheduled day off from the library to drive her bestie to the OB-GYN in Knoxville. It was a bit like steering a land yacht, but she managed. It would’ve been easier if her friend was talking to her. Not that Maddy was giving the cold shoulder, per se. It’s just that Maddy wasn’t being her usual cheerful, bubbly self. Instead, her comments and answers had been short, her whole countenance withdrawn.
Thuy finally sighed. “Are you super pissed at me?”
Maddy let out a little laugh. “No, I am not super pissed at you.”
“You sure?” Thuy pressed. “Because you’ve said hardly thirty words to me since breakfast this morning. And we haven’t talked about… you know. Last Thursday night.”
“You don’t owe me an explanation,” Maddy said quickly. “But you’ve got to admit — it’s weird.”
“What’s weird?”
“My best friend. With my big brother. On my dad’s couch.” Thuy glanced over to see Maddy shudder. “That’s just a lot of weird to unpack, is all I’m saying.”
Thuy grinned, changing lanes carefully. “That’s fair.”
“It was like the perfect storm of weird.” Maddy added. “At least you weren’t, y’know, totally having sex. That would’ve been even weirder.”
Oh, God. That didn’t even bear thinking about. Thuy felt her cheeks flame at the thought.
“Mostly, I’d say I’m… worried,” Maddy said thoughtfully. “I love you, Thuy. And despite the butthead my brother has been at times, I love him too. I just don’t see how this ends well, for either of you.”
Thuy sighed. “It’s not like we’re a couple or anything,” she said. “I just — we talk. Talked. He’s going through some stuff with the club.”
“Is he in trouble?” Maddy’s voice went sharp with fear.
“No. Not… no.” She didn’t want to worry Maddy any more than she had to. “I think he’s just questioning some of his choices.”
“Really? Huh.” Maddy’s voice sounded contemplative. “I would’ve thought he’d be in that damned club till he died. Which, unfortunately, would’ve been sooner rather than later, the way they run.”
“Anyway, he needed somebody to talk to, so I listened. And I told him some stuff about my past that I thought might, you know, help. Give him some perspective,” Thuy said carefully.
“You told him about your family?” The shock was evident in Maddy’s tone.
“A little,” Thuy downplayed, then shrugged.
“And then…” Maddy paused. “You… jumped him?”
Thuy let out a surprised laugh. “Um, yeah? More or less?”
“That sounds like more than just some attraction,” Maddy said. Thuy glanced over to find Maddy worrying at the handle of her purse, fidgeting nervously. “I mean, Teddy — Drill — wasn’t exactly a ladies’ man, but he was only a kid when I knew him. He’s never been that serious about women. I could imagine him hitting on you, because you’re beautiful —”
“And you are my best friend and you always say that,” Thuy said, touched by Maddy’s loyalty.
“Regardless, it’d be one thing if he just flirted with you. I saw him doing that. If you were attracted to him, too… well, okay, that’d still be weird,” Maddy laughed. “But it’d be your business. As long as I didn’t have to see or hear anything, I wouldn’t say anything. I’d be a little grossed out, but hey, he’s my brother.”
Thuy snickered.
“But it looks a little more serious than that. Especially if you’re telling him stuff about your past. You never talk about that.”
Thuy knew Maddy was right. “He looked so lost, Mads.”
“You trust him?”
Thuy thought about it, then nodded slowly. “I don’t know why, but I do.”
“I’m worried for both of you, then.” Maddy sighed. “He might be having second thoughts, but given any opportunity — the club has been his life. He’ll always choose the club. He chose it over family. I know he’s still steamed at me for not selling the farm, but I know that if the club tells him to stay away from me, even if we’re living in the same town — he’ll pretend I don’t exist. He’ll do the same to you, too. Or ask you maybe to sneak around with him. And you deserve better than that.”
Thuy fell silent, focusing on guiding the big behemoth of a vehicle down the freeway. “It’s too early for me to be thinking relationship with him. For God’s sake, I just met him a couple of weeks ago. And so much has happened — I mean, I quit my job, got the new job at the library. I’m going to be living on a farm. I’ve fed cows!”
Maddy snickered. “That, you have.”
“I’m not looking to settle down and have fat babies and live a good long life,” Thuy said. “I fooled around a bit with Drill. And talked with him a little. It’s really not a big deal.”
She wasn’t sure if she was trying to persuade Maddy, or herself, but she kept up a brave face.
“All right,” Maddy said, after a long pause. “It’s a free country, and like I said, it’s none of my business.”
“Yeah, but when you say ‘it’s none of my business’, isn’t that totally a Southern thing?” Thuy pointed out. “Like when someone says something judgy, then sips tea and murmurs ‘but that’s none of my business’?”
Maddy laughed out loud. “Next thing, I’ll be blessing your heart.”
“Heaven forbid,” Thuy said. “Not a drive-by heart-blessing.”
They both laughed at that, until Maddy wiped at her eyes. “Just… be safe, okay?”
“Okay, Mom,” Thuy said. “I’ll make sure he wraps that rascal before I…”
“Oh, eww,” Maddy interrupted. “I meant, don’t get your heart broken, okay?”
Thuy blinked. “I’ve never had my heart broken, sweetie,” she said firmly. And it was true. She’d been in several relationships, and she’d ended most of them. But even the ones who had broken up with her hadn’t broken her heart. Pissed her off? Yes, absolutely. But she’d never felt the need to bury her sorrows in ice cream or anything. Usually, it was Maddy talking her down from slashing somebody’s tires.
“You haven’t told anybody about your family, either,” Maddy reminded her.
Thuy swallowed against a throat that was suddenly dry as the Mojave. Drill was different, she realized.
I’m not getting my heart broken, she told herself sternly. I won’t even mess around with him again. Things are getting too serious.
She just needed to remind herself the next time the two of them were alone… and hope to God this time, her body actually listened.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Drill went back over to the farmhouse the next day. The truck was gone, and he knew that Thuy had gone to the library to work. He’d texted his sister that morning to ensure she’d be at home. He parked. He could hear music coming from the greenhouse, so he moved that way. The day was sunny, even if the air was crisp and cold.
Walking into the greenhouse was like walking into a sauna. It was warm and wet and smelled like soil and leafy, living things. Maddy was misting something in one hand, holding a small pair of pruning scissors in the other, trimming off deadheads. It had been a long time since he’d been in the greenhouse, but he recognized a few plants. Some of them were fruit trees that would be put up for sale in spring, or shipped off. Some of them were things like various orchids, specialty stuff his father seemed to have a deft hand with. There were dwarf plants, bonsai trees, even some vegetables that shouldn’t still be growing, like tomatoes.
“Dad got really random,�
� he said, wondering why his father hadn’t specialized more.
“I’m still trying to figure out what his system was,” Maddy agreed, moving placidly between the plants. She was wearing a pair of leggings and an oversized sweater with an unzipped coat over it. Dirt already smudged the side of the coat, and one knee of her leggings. He grinned at the sight.
“You really want to work with all this again?” he asked quietly, gesturing to the haphazard mess of pots and dirt and seeds. Right this second, and just for a moment, it wasn’t about Catfish. This was about Maddy. “Have you really thought this through?”
She pursed her lips. “I’m trying really hard to think of this as you asking me because you care about me,” she said slowly. “Not because you think I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, or that I don’t know my own mind. I know I can make decisions quickly, but that doesn’t mean they’re rash. And I already told you: this is what I want, what I’ve always wanted.”
“You didn’t want it enough to stay,” he pointed out, but winced. “But yeah, I know why you wanted to leave.”
“You know, you really don’t,” she said, putting down the misting bottle and crossing her arms. “I loved Dad, in my own way. But he was harsh.”
Drill rubbed his jaw, remembering some of his “discussions” with their father. The kind that ended with him getting smacked around. “I know.”
She looked immediately sympathetic. “I know I was lucky he was never as hard on me as he was on you,” she said. “And I think… well, I’ve gone to therapy about this. And Walter touched on it a little, at the will reading. I think that once Mom died, he thought that we’d be ruined. He didn’t know how to handle kids. So he was just as hard on us as he could be, out of fear of screwing up.”
“And that worked out really well.” Drill clenched a fist, then stuffed it in his jacket pocket. He hadn’t had therapy. And he wasn’t feeling quite so fucking forgiving. “But this isn’t about the past. This is about what we’re going to do moving forward.”
She was quiet for a second. Then she looked at him, her gaze both piercing and pleading.
“When you left — when you got in that big fight with Dad, and you decided never to come back — it meant a lot of changes for me.”
Drill huffed, his chest feeling like concrete. “Dammit, I couldn’t stay. You know that. And if I thought he was mistreating you, hitting you, I’d have figured out some way to get you out, too!”
“I know what the teen girls who wound up with the Wraiths turned into,” she said quietly. “Strippers, if they’re lucky. Junkies if they’re not. Somebody’s old lady, or just somebody’s toy. They never get the chance to become a biker and make a difference in the club. They just get used.”
He stopped. “It wouldn’t… I wouldn’t have let anything bad happen to you,” he said, but he realized he was shaky. It hadn’t come to that. It wouldn’t have come to that, if he’d needed to take her away from their father.
Would it?
“I thought about running away,” she said, and though her voice was dispassionate, there was a lot of pain in her eyes. “I mean it. Dad felt like with you gone, I was the last chance he had to do something right. If I didn’t get straight A’s, he wouldn’t let me leave the house. He told me I was lazy. I had to beg him to stay on the softball team, because I knew it would be my best way out. He thought I’d just go to Knoxville for school, or maybe skip it altogether and run the farm with him.” She rubbed her eyes. “He was so angry when I told him I was going to Berkeley on a full scholarship, he tried to stop me. But I was eighteen by then. He couldn’t. Still, he shoved me out and told me never to come back.”
Drill hadn’t known about this. How could he know? Guilt gnawed at him like a feral dog.
“Hey. Hey! I’m not telling you this to make you feel bad,” she said quickly, moving to his side and putting a comforting hand on his wrist. “I’m telling you because I had to make choices for myself. I had to take care of myself. I love farming; I just didn’t want to farm with Dad. Now that he’s gone, I have the opportunity. I know that cuts you out, and that sucks, and I’m sorry. But I am making the best choice for me, one that will take care of me and my baby. It will be hard, but I know I can make it work. It’d be easier with some help from my big brother, but I know that you’ve got your own problems and you’ve got to make your own choices. I just want you to respect mine.”
He sighed. “I am trying,” he said quietly. “But… like you said. I’ve got my own problems.”
“Oh?” She waited. Then her eyes widened. “Oh. Shit. You mean with the club, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“So… this isn’t about me,” she said quietly, rubbing her stomach in an unconscious protective gesture. “You’re in some kind of trouble. And you need the money.”
“Not exactly,” he said. “But… yeah. The money’s an issue.”
“How much?”
“However much half of this farm is,” he said quietly.
She blinked slowly. “What do you mean?”
“They want my half of the farm.”
“And you’d just give it to them?” She looked appalled. “They… you’d… what the hell!”
“I’m still working that out.” Drill shifted his weight, haphazardly picking at a plant until Maddy walked up and smacked his hand. “I can’t even get into all the shit the club’s been through, especially in the past year. They’re in trouble.”
“So, you feel you’re responsible for bailing them out?”
That was the thing. He didn’t feel responsible — or at least, he didn’t want to feel responsible. And he was getting pretty damned resentful at Catfish’s attitude. “I’m wrestling with it,” Drill finally said, through gritted teeth.
Maddy looked paler. “I’m really not selling the place so you can bail those assholes out,” she hissed. “I don’t care what you think you owe them. I have never asked what kind of shit you’ve gotten into since you left the house. I love you, and frankly, it was better for my sanity to not know. But I am sure as hell not selling this place so you can fund their criminal activities. And don’t try to bullshit me!” she shouted, half-shoving him when he started to try and talk. “Don’t act like I’m stupid! I know what the Wraiths do… run drugs and guns and God know what else. Selling the place would be like me handing them cash to keep doing it, and I am not doing it, damn it!”
“C’mon, Maddy,” he said quickly. Her color was now getting hectic, and she was rubbing her stomach, which made him nervous. “Don’t get yourself all worked up. It’s not good for the baby.”
“Don’t fucking bring up the baby,” she yelled. Yes, yelled. Her eyes were wide, her hair wild. “As far as I’m concerned, if the Wraiths just disappeared, it’d do the world good! So don’t you dare come in here and ask me again about selling the place, because it’ll be a cold day in hell before I give up the farm, you hear me?”
“I think they can hear you in Nashville,” Drill said, trying to joke a little. She was breathing hard. “Come on. Let’s go inside. I’ll make you a cup of tea.”
She harrumphed at him. “I mean it, Drill. Don’t bring it up again.”
“I won’t,” he said. “I promise.”
“Oh, and another thing,” she said. “What the hell were you doing, making out with Thuy?”
“That question sort of answers itself, doesn’t it?” He put an arm gingerly around her shoulders, leading her out of the building, back towards the farmhouse.
“I don’t want you to play with her, Teddy,” Maddy said, her tone reprimanding. “She’s my best friend, and if you hurt her…”
“I don’t want to hurt her. Why? Did she tell you something?” He found himself very interested in the answer. More invested than maybe he should have been.
She stopped, and he stopped with her. She stared at him for a second.
“You like her,” Maddy marveled.
“What? Yeah. She’s cool.” He winced. He sounded like an idiot.
“No. You like-like her.”
“What are we, twelve?”
Maddy shook her head. At least she wasn’t looking stressed out over their talk anymore.
Unfortunately, he still was. Maybe he shouldn’t have been honest with her. Or maybe he needed to be more honest with her. But now, he saw that she’d dug in, and he couldn’t blame her. She wanted the farm, the life, for her kid.
Now, he just needed to figure out how to placate Catfish, before Catfish decided to do something more serious.
Chapter Thirty-Three
It had been a good day, if a long one. Thuy rubbed at her shoulder a little after waving to Naomi Winters, who was locking up. She’d spent some of her shift shelving, but most of it getting that third computer fixed. Fortunately, it wasn’t anything major — nothing some re-booting and hardware driver replacement couldn’t fix. Julianne looked surprised when she said that it was taken care of. She still hadn’t agreed to let the teens use the computers for extra time, but Thuy hoped that she might wear the woman down… gradually, of course, and gently.
She’d spent her lunch break on the internet, putting out the call for YA book donations. So many of the authors she knew on social media were both delightful and generous. She had high hopes that the YA section of the library would be filled very soon.
That night had been teen night, and as usual, it was mostly middle-grade readers. She’d let Naomi handle doing a craft with them, something Christmas related, while she focused on the teens who’d attended. Her “usual” crew of Kevin, Jeremy and Ginny had shown up, along with a few friends. She’d deliberately brought a few decks of Magic: The Gathering and made some fantasy reading recommendations. She was lucky she’d packed a few decks for the trip to Tennessee in case she and Maddy got bored. She’d definitely bring more from the apartment in Oakland once it was all packed up and moved.
All in all, she was feeling pretty pleased with herself. She waved another goodbye to Naomi, who drove away in her car, and headed for the truck. She hadn’t thought she’d fit in as well or as quickly, but she felt like Naomi was beginning to be a friend, and she liked the kids. Now, all she wanted to do was head back to the farmhouse, have a quick dinner, and settle down.
Prose Before Bros Page 17
