Vicious Minds: Part 2 (Children of Vice 5)

“Mom,” I laughed, turning to her. “Seriously? Are we going to do this again? It feels like when I was going away to school all over.”

“There is no need to leave in the dead of night. Ethan’s plans can wait a few more days. I still don’t understand how he could possibly think you could just go and start your own gang overnight.”

“It’s not a gang…it’s a—”

“It’s an organized crime ring? Does the title really matter? Are you going to be in any less danger?” she snapped at me.

I sighed, looking to my father, laid back on my bed, beside my suitcase reading…none other than American Gangster. “A little help, please.”

“If you can’t even handle your mother, you definitely will get your ass handed to you out there,” he said, flipping the page.

“I do not need to be handled,” my mother said, taking my socks and tossing them at my father’s head. “Though I would like for you to please convince your son to think it through a little more before diving headfirst into the streets.”

Ripping the socks from her hand and throwing them to me, my father sighed, putting down his book and looking over at me. “You have a plan?”

“Yeah—”

“You have contacts?”

“Yeah.”

“Cash stored?”

“Yes.”

He looked back at my mother. “He’ll be all right.”

“I disagree,” she shot back.

“He’s not a child anymore, Cora. He’s made his choice. We should respect that,” he said, trying to adjust back down to enjoy his book.

“Thank you—”

“Helen’s an adult also, and yet you go around torturing Wyatt for their choice,” she shot back, and my father froze.

He cracked his jaw to the side. His eyes shifted back to her, but she crossed her arms.

“Mom,” I said, putting my hands on her shoulders. “Really, don’t worry. Even if you think so little of me that I can’t do this by myself, Ethan will surely keep tabs on everything.”

I said it jokingly…though I didn’t plan for Ethan to get involved. I wanted to do this. Ethan wasn’t rushing me to leave right this second, but my mind was already preoccupied with this change. It was time for me to break away.

“Ouch, Mom,” I hissed at how hard she had pinched me.

“I have immense faith in you,” she declared, putting her hands on my shoulders. “It’s just overshadowed by my immense desire to protect you.”

I smiled and reached over, hugging her. “Don’t worry. With all of you hovering over me, how can I stumble?”

“Which I find ridiculous,” my father interjected back to fake reading. “All this ceremony and protection. He’s not going to open a cupcake shop. He’s going to commit crimes. He needs to toughen up. Instead, you are babying him.”

My mother grabbed the pillow and threw it at his head. “Who asked you?”

I rolled my eyes. My father was right, but still, seeing him trying to be stern while my mother pelted him with anything she could get her hands on would be funny if it didn’t also seem as if they were flirting.

Ugh. I cringed. “Can you two take this outside of my room?”

“You’re leaving; you don’t have a room,” my father replied.

“He always has a room,” my mother argued back