Page 54 of Love Bleeds Red
“Do you know who that was?” I ask. She mulls it over for a moment, sipping her tea, avoiding my gaze. “Mum?”
“Yes,” she admits. “I’ve never met the young man, but of course I knew who he was. Alfred’s shown me plenty of photographs over the years.”
I struggle to keep my jaw closed. “What is this relationship you have with the man that abandoned us? That barely helped support me until I turned eighteen?”
“Leon, I?—”
“Nevermind, Mum. I have work to do,” I say, getting up from the table. “Thanks for the tea and the meds.”
She scrambles up, wrapping her hand around my wrist. “Son, wait.”
I sigh, not in the mood for this shit right now, but face her anyway. “What is it?”
“James—he came here to warn you. Last night—whatever it was that had both you boys looking like you’d been through hell, well... he overheard something.”
I set the bag of peas down and give her my full attention. “What kind of something?”
“After the fight, he was getting patched up when he overheard a few associates of your father. They were talking about you. I don’t know what they said, but James wanted to tell you to be careful.”
I shrug and pick up the peas again, pressing them against my temple. “I can handle myself, Mum.”
“Leon—”
“I’m fine. Really.” I turn, taking my tea with me. “I’m going to get some work done upstairs.”
Once I’m behind my closed door, the guilt hits me. I feel like shit for treating Mum badly, but what does she expect? I can’t deal with that right now. Especially not while my head is still pounding.
I pull out my phone and read through my texts with Bailey. They help me feel better, more centered. I stop before the messages from that night. Reading those right now would only make things worse.
Before I can go back to sleep for a few hours, something that James said bugs me. I pull up my search engines and type in his name, along with all the other details I know offhand about him.
There’s the usual hits. Private school photos where he’s posing with rowing teams and debate clubs. University announcements about academic achievements. A few society page mentions at charity galas, always photographed next to Alfred, looking like the perfect father-son duo.
But then I find the more interesting stuff.
An article from two years ago about a gambling ring bust at his university. I have to scan a few paragraphs to find his name. He’s listed as a student who was questioned but not charged. Then further down, another article about him being asked to leave Cambridge after an undisclosed incident.
Wonder what that could have been?
The most recent hit is from six months ago. I open it, blinking against the brightness on my screen. There’s a brief mention in a financial gossip column about young Colter and his mounting gambling debts at several London clubs. Looks like they’ve been enjoying speculating about whether Alfred would continue bailing him out.
I shut my computer down and flop into bed.
I’m not surprised Alfred cut him off. And no wonder James looked so desperate last night when he was talking aboutfighting for money. The bigger they are, the harder they fall and all that.
At least now I finally understand why my half brother ended up in that basement. We’re both trying to escape Alfred’s shadow. I just chose a different way to do it.
BAILEY - JULY 6TH
We went on our first real-ish date last night. I’m going to romanticize it by writing it like a scene in a book again because… well, I figure when I look back at this diary years from now, I’ll have all the details right. Or as best as an amateur-ish writer who frequents fanfic sites could do it. And I want all the details. It was too good to skip anything.
Leon wouldn’t tell me where we were going, just said he wanted somewhere quiet. Somewhere we could be truly alone. My pulse skipped erratically all day knowing I’d have him all to myself. I even fumbled some orders at work during the lunch rush, which I never do.
Finally, around five, Mom and Dad announced that someone left a gift card to their favorite restaurant on the table for them but it expired that night. That they were sorry but we were fending for ourselves, before they practically ran out the door.
Jasper was kind of hanging around all day, saying his old football injury was acting up… just being generally grumpy. Damon wasn’t around, so he was probably just bored.
I don’t know what kind of miracle worker Leon is, but about two minutes after Mom and Dad left, Jasper got a call that one of his hookups got her shift covered and she could actually come over after all, and that she was on her way.
