Page 22 of Alfie: Part Two

CHAPTER 15

Alfie Scott

If he didn’t come home soon, I was gonna run out of cuticles.

The kids were happy with their new backpacks and lunch boxes; they’d been fed and entertained, and now I could pace the driveway like a madman and sneak a smoke here and there while Colby kept an eye on things inside the house.

I checked my phone again—and nada. I had a missed call from Dad, but I was gonna have to deal with that later. He probably wanted to know when I was coming over for dinner.

Since my frosty fallout with Mom, he’d become a passive peacemaker, texting me sporadically to get shit sorted and telling me that Mom was making something I liked.

For the record, I liked everything she cooked.

There was nothing I could do, though. I’d have to wait her out until she was ready to forgive and forget.

The front door opened, and Colby poked his head out on the low stoop. “Any word from West yet? I finished the book.”

“Nothin’ so far,” I replied, walking closer. “What book?”

If West gave you a book, it meant he cared. It was a thing. The book was always in reference to something.

Colby held it up, and I wasn’t surprised for shit to see the title. It was about Napoleon.

“I’m just curious,” I said. “Under what circumstances did he give that to you?”

Colby scratched his forehead and shrugged. “It was the other day. He warned Ellie not to carry all the pool toys at once ’cause she’d fall, and she didn’t listen. So I was gonna go help her, and he held me back and said something like, never interrupt your enemy when she’s making a mistake.”

I smiled and dropped my chin. That definitely sounded like him.

“He’s big on quotes sometimes,” I said.

“Yeah, I guess. I thought it was a cool saying, and then he handed me this and asked me to read it.”

Look at that. West wasinvested.

“You don’t think he’ll quiz me, do you?” Colby lifted his brows.

I chuckled. “Nah. He’ll just wanna have a conversation about it.”

“Aight. It wasn’t bad. But I want, like…a gold star or somethin’, so lemme know when he gets back.”

Oh, he wanted more than that. I could tell. West wasn’t the only one thoroughly enjoying the living arrangements. Colby was a cautious kid, and no wonder. He’d had no one to rely on. But he was slowly discovering that West was solid as a rock. And it was easy to get drawn to those people.

“You like it here.” I smiled.

He huffed a laugh. “You kiddin’ me? Have you seen my room? My TV? It’s luxury. And three meals a day—and he restocks the snacks in my cupboard when I’m wit’chu.”

My smile widened. Fuck me, West had to accept me somehow—or let me leave the syndicate. It was going to suck, but West was my world. I couldn’t live without him.

Unfortunately for West, Colby was already turning into an earner for the Sons. The kid was fucking brilliant with a computer, so Kellan and I had set him up with a workspace in the condo I worked from too. We spent hours there every day.

“You know he won’t give up on seeing you off to college,” I said.

Colby shrugged, which he did about two hundred times a day. “That’s a long way off. Right now, I just hope he’ll give me a heads-up before he wants me to get my own place.”

I shook my head. “Ain’t gonna happen. He’ll want you here. He gives a fuck.”

That made Colby a little uncomfortable, and I understood him. He wasn’t used to anyone acting like a parent.

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