Page 92 of Drift

But… run. Drift could do that. Read, no problem. Use coding that was a mass of numbers and symbols that made little sense to anyone else, yeah. Even nail his Korean symbols. But write one fucking sentence without it taking everything out of him? The street didn’t give you the resources to sit and learn to write, not properly. It came out as a massive scribble belonging more to a five-year-old and why Jackson would always see him as that kid.

But it was the main reason why he didn’t have a phone. Texting he wouldn’t… couldn’t do.

“Rule one,” said Jackson, and he leaned in and held up a finger. “No sex here. Sixteen’s the legal age limit outside of those doors. In here, it’s eighteen because I don’t want rozzers eating into my skin over running a fucking whore house for the nonces out there. Which I never fucking will. Musical skill keeps kidshere because that’s how I learned to survive on the streets. I won’t have anything else tainting it under this roof, we clear? Grant certainly fucking wouldn’t.”

That sobered Drift. “I paid my dues for messing around with Keyne, over a month’s worth of dues,” Drift said quietly. “If I remember rightly, you let Keyne get out of paying his. So you’re bringing this up now because?”

“Because Keyne’s baseishere,” snapped Jackson. “I cut himandWest slack because they’re my top earners. All of their earnings come back into the base to help keep it a safe zoneforother kids. But you?”

Drift looked his way. “What about me?”

Jackson leaned his way. “You drift. And when you do, I lose West with it. She went out on to Ava’s streets, trying to find out who was calling this Jude’s fucking name, and you bit. You went off on your own last night, and she followed you again.”

Drift avoided his gaze, so damn quickly. “I didn’t know she was looking.”

“And there’s your whole goddamn fucking problem,” said Jackson. “You don’t know because you run around blind so many goddamn times. You don’t know because you don’t base fucking anywhere or feel the hurt until the danger’s passed. And that left her out there on her own.” He leaned a little closer. “That what you want, hm? Her out there with Ava, feeling a hurt you can’t?”

“No.” He snarled that, then dropped all attitude with how Jackson eased back.

“Yeah, I know you don’t, you idiot.” All aggression seemed to drop from his eyes. “It happens, though. And you…” He reachedover and tugged Drift’s arm free to thumb at one of the pads to his fingers. “You know firsthand what happens when you get caught out on your own with Ava at night. Everything you can lose.”

Drift jerked his hand away, but he avoided the hangman’s noose marking that scarred its way over Jackson’s throat more in that moment.

A rub came at his arm. “Look, asshole, learn the bloody lesson I keep trying to teach you: the hurt catches up to you. But where we all have something to run from out here, finding someone good to runto?” Jackson offered a frown. “That doesn’t come along very often, not on the streets. And you always leaving the window open to bolt through, getting both of your heads turned Ava’s way no matter how much you hate that bitch? Drifting keeps the head safe, but it offers no loyalty with this.” He tapped at Drift’s chest. “West won’t ever trust you fully with hers, not if you keep drifting away from her window to watch through Ava’s, even if it is only to see if she’s coming after ours, you see that, right? How you keep running from all of us with her in mind?”

Drift eased his touch off. “The choice to drift wasn’t ever mine. I’m not fucking welcome anywhere after touching her, where my head goes because of it.”

Jackson frowned. “I’ve not walked away yet. I never have because I know just how fucking young you were. She fucked your head up. Still does. But this isn’t just about you here, Drift. You need to understand that. West… her skill is with her voice. But her skill on the roofs and running? It won’t ever be yours and Ava’s. And you learned the hard way over how to get out of trouble high and fast. I know you don’t want her to have to learn that way too, because it’s the only way you really do learn out here. I know you damn well don’t want Ava coming back ourway to hurt the other kids basing here as well, which we’re damn lucky there was no repercussions after Wales.”

Drift’s stomach twisted. No, not hurt West. Not like that. Not Brighty.

“So did you find out who he was? What the noise was all about?”

Drift looked up.

“This Jude. Did you find out why his name’s been running the street over the past month? West was worried a Night-walker was calling for him.”

Drift quickly shook his head. “Old-guard nightwalker looking for some kid, nothing more.”

Hurt, but a flash of anger that seemed a buried a little too quickly flashed across Jackson’s eyes. “One that’s going to bring trouble our way?”

Drift shook his head. Mentioning family and psychopaths back at the manor along with talk on Ava? He couldn’t put it on Jackson’s shoulders. “I’ll move on again in a few hours, take it away from here just in case.” West would get to hear about the supermarket, and part of him didn’t want to see the hurt in her eyes most. Yeah, he went out looking for Ava, still got caught in her traps, ran from most, but his intent was pure with only needing to keep an eye on where she was, like a black widow let loose in an orphan’s home. He just had to know which corner she weaved her web from, that morbid fascination over seeing her weave her web when he did find her. Hate… loathe every part of her fibre entirely.

“No you fucking won’t. You keep your ass low here untilIknow it’s clear, understood?”

Drift shook his head. “I’m not bringing any trouble your way again.”

Jackson flicked him a look. “It’s not a friendly invite, cunt. Along with breaking boundaries set by me with Ava, Essex gave you some shit a month back, and I know a few weeks away will have given you time to get a damn sight heavierbecauseyou followed Ava. So you stay here until I know you’re clean. You were damn stupid to go in with West and the fire rope with anything like that in your system. It’ll also give me time to work out your dues to be paid, and we’ll start with a two-week cut of whatever you’ve earned out of town for the past month. And I mean the cut you never tell any other crew you managed to shack up with out there.”

Drift went to tell him tofuck off, but—

“Threefucking weeks,” said Jackson. “Don’t make it four. Basics of the discussion: You both come talk to me about concerns over Ava and her Night-walkers, no one else, am I clear?”

Drift held his look, then tugged out his wallet. “You know if West ever decides to get a place and trust me with a key, we’re out of here,” he said as he sorted through his notes.

“You getting that old you need a key to get in, Drift? Disappointing.” Jackson snorted coldly. “And prawn sandwiches. I do the best here, if I remember rightly. You’ll be slipping back in through the closed window until they carry you out in a sodding prawn sandwich wrapper.”

Damn him, he had a point. Drift finally managed a snort and tossed a three-week cut of his money on the table as he stood. Then he added a fourth for the grief. “Tosser.”

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