Page 69 of Broken Chorus

“Shouldn’t what?”

“Love me.”

“Too bad, ‘cause I do, so get over it.”

Hey, what’s going on, I just noticed you blowing up my messenger?

“Thank fuck,” Hawk muttered. “Aaron, Kelly just replied to me, I need a moment to explain to him what’s going on so he can get moving and I can throw a bag together and explain to the kids that I need to leave for a few days.”

“No.”

“Aaron, I already told you it’s non-negotiable.”

“NO!”

“Why the fuck not!”

“’cause what if they get scared that you won’t come back the way their folks did!” Aaron blurted. “What if something happened to you, trying to get here to help me? No. You can’t come. You can’t leave them and you can’t bring them. You can’t risk it.”

“You listen to me right now,” Hawk said, keeping his voice low and firm because Aaron’s had been steadily getting higher and louder and Hawk needed him to listen, breathe and realize that Hawk wasn’t going to leave him to deal with this on his own. “Nothing is going to happen to me.”

“You don’t know that!”

Okay, arguing with him wasn’t going to do anything but get him more worked up, and while Hawk had been trying to type to Kelly while reasoning with Aaron, he wasn’t making himself clear on that end because Kelly had sent back WTF and question mark memes.

“I gotta go. Don’t you fuckin’ dare show up here!” Aaron snapped before ending the call, leaving Hawk infuriated and scared to death about what might happen after he went back to that house for a second time.

Instead of finishing his message to Kelly, he hit the green phone icon to call him again.

“Hey, what’s going on, you never blow up my messenger that way,” Kelly said by way of greeting. “Did something happen to one of the kids?”

“No, it’s Aaron.”

There were rumbles in the background and someone asking if he was okay, which meant Hawk had been right about band practice, but it also meant that he needed to be careful about what he revealed in front of Micah and Declan or Aaron might never forgive him.

“I fuckin’ knew I should have gone with him, even if I had to shadow him so he didn’t notice me until we were on the plane!” Kelly snaped. “What happened? I swear to god, Hawk if those bastard did anything to hurt him or make him relapse….”

“His mom died.”

“Wait…his what? I thought she’d passed away when he was a kid, that’s why he was living with his grandparents.”

“Apparently they never thought to tell him that she was still alive until they needed him to come home and bury her,” Hawk explained.

“The fuck? Oh my god, those assholes, are you fuckin’ kidding me?”

“I wish I was,” Hawk said. “Aaron was with her when she passed, and now he’s on his way to break the news to his grandparents and aunt, at which point I don’t know what’s gonna happen. There were already issues when he showed up like they requested. He said that he didn’t even make it through the door before they were on him about his tats and clothes.”

“Fuckin’ bastards.”

“I don’t give two shits about them at the moment,” Hawk explained. “I need you to get on a flight and get your ass here so I can get to Aaron. The kids and I will meet you at the airport. Text me when you have your ticket so I’ll know how to schedule my flight. Just throw shit in a backpack, if you need anything else just raid my closet, I just need to get there before the walls start closing in on him and he goes to find a bar and you know which one he’ll find, too.”

The exhaustion in Kelly’s voice was evident when he replied. “Whisky Wildz.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m already shutting things down over here,” Kelly said. “I’ll text you as soon as I know when I’m supposed to land.”

“Thanks Kelly.”

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