Page 132 of Clean Slade
THIRTY-ONE
SLADE
Itried to get home to him. To stop whatever his father was trying to accomplish, but the whole island seemed to be jammed with after-school traffic.
I was stopped at a red light when the man on my phone showed something to King that made him uneasy.
That was when things took a turn for the worse, and my stomach plummeted. Nino started shouting at his father. Tony Sr. kept talking as if nothing was happening, insisting his son call the dealer, and King…
King wasn’t doing much of anything. Just stood and watched his father in terror.
How could he not when the man who was supposed to be a beacon of family and virtue was threatening to kill two of his most vulnerable family members?
King was right not to trust him. It had been a mistake to let him come back into our lives in the first place.
We should have acted earlier. We should have dealt with him sooner. Why hadn’t we dealt with him sooner?
What am I gonna do? What the hell am I gonna do?
How was I supposed to get her backandsave King at the same time? How was I supposed to do anything when I was so far away?
“How can I do anything with this fucking traffic!” I punched the wheel, but it offered no answers.
It was a pointless exercise, but I kept staring at the phone as if it would offer me a magical solution.
Sounds blared all around me, but only when there was a tap on my window did I jump and realize the light had turned green.
The man at my window cocked his head before hopping into the passenger seat.
“Slade? Are you okay?” Asher asked.
Since the honking didn’t stop, I pulled up on the sidewalk and gave him the phone, showing him the live feed from the house.
“Shit,” he said.
“And that’s not all.” I told him about Mac and King’s grandma, all while trying to keep it together and not break down.
“Oh shit,” he repeated with a much heavier tone that matched the doom I felt growing dark inside me. “What can we do? How can we find them?”
“I know where they are. But I can’t split myself in two. I can’t save both of them.”
“You don’t have to.” Asher put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You’ve got us. Now what do you want us to do?”
“I…” I’d forgotten what it was like having a team to back you up. “I want to be there for Mac.”
I knew that’s what King would want from me. And it was what I wanted. King could take care of himself, especially if he had the team behind him.
“Then let’s go, brother.” Asher nodded, and I raced to the old house Grams and Nino had thought was a secret. We should have known better.
Damn it.
While I drove, I filled my teammate in on the situation, and he alerted the others.
And somehow, either on purpose or by some miracle, King had called Wyatt instead of the dealer.
It was the most comforting sound in the world to hear Wyatt’s voice come through the house feed and buy us time.
Maybe this wasn’t over just yet. Maybe I could still save the piece of King’s heart that mattered the most to him and me.
