Page 184 of Crew
"Lame joke."
She shrugged. "What can you do? It's a mess, all around."
"Are the two moms talking?"
"Not from what Race says. His mom is using the money from her settlement to buy a house in Fallen Crest. He told me he's worried she'll want him to move since they have a better school."
I grunted. "The rich one or the public one?"
"Either, honestly. She did good with the settlement." Pulling one of her pillows onto her lap, Taz began to pick at the edges. She didn't look back up.
"Race wants to stay?" I asked.
She raised a shoulder. "I don't know. I mean, I can't blame his mom, you know? Fallen Crest doesn't have crews."
"Yeah, but they have other problems."
"Besides." She put the pillow to the side. "It might not matter. If she buys a house in Fallen Crest, he can't go to Roussou anyway. Can he?"
"The district lines are weird. I know of someone who lived by Fallen Crest but went to school in Roussou. It could happen, I guess."
"Yeah. Maybe." She sounded dejected. "So." She seemed to force a lighter, happier tone. It made me cringe. "How about you? How's everyone treating the new Bren and Cross?" She laughed. "And I so saw that coming--for, like, ever."
I smiled. "It's going just fine."
Though it was great just to see her, I remembered the reasons I'd come. It must have shown on my face.
Taz laughed. "Out with it. I know my brother sent you to find out about Race's stuff. Everybody's been wondering. What else do you need to know?"
Alex was out as the Ryerson crew leader. He'd been kicked out months ago, and while everyone assumed Race would step into his role, he hadn't.
It was crew business. We had to know. "Is Race going to join the Ryerson crew?"
She shook her head. "No. He's trying to stay out of all of it."
That was good. But also not good.
"They've never not had a Ryerson lead." I was mostly talking to myself.
"They still do."
"What?" Was Alex coming back? Were they taking him back in? That was...surprising, if that was the case.
Taz shrugged, shaking her head. "I don't know who it is, but a couple of the members talked to Race. He was asked to join and lead. He turned them down, but then they came back and said they were going to be fine. There'd be a Ryerson leader after all. That was it. Race didn't ask. I don't think he wants to know."
Well. Shit. I didn't know if that was good or not.
A new Ryerson was stepping up to the plate. Problem with that was, there were no Ryersons left.
"Maybe a cousin or something?" Zellman wondered an hour later when I relayed the information to the guys at Jordan's warehouse.
"Maybe." Cross grabbed two beers and brought one over, sitting down next to me. "They have a big family, and douchebag seems to be in the genes. I wouldn't be surprised."
"We're not going to know until whoever it is makes his presence known. So..." Jordan put his drink on the table and focused on me. Or, no--he focused on Cross and me. "Let's talk rules. This has been put off for too long. You two broke ours."
Zellman broke out in a wide smile. "Yeah. No couples in crews."
"That's our rule, but it's not like we planned this." Cross put his beer on the table as well, taking point for us.
