All Grown Up (Eden High)

“She’s upstairs. Should I tell her you’re here? Is this about Miss. Cassie’s birthday? She showed me the stuff you got her; nice to see someone remembers my poor little girl.” There was just a little bit of bite in her tone. I have to remember to get her something before we go back east. It’s evident that she, at least, loved my girl.

She caught herself realizing that maybe she’d said too much and cut herself off with a blush. “I’ll just tell her you’re here; you can wait in the study right through here.”

“Is Mr. Thornbird in?”

“No, he had to go somewhere first thing.” She hurried off to find her employer after showing me into the study.

I realized as I stood in the room that there was nothing of Cassie here. No pictures, nothing that said a teenage girl lived in the house. From what I remember of Sian’s home before Stanley bombed the shit out of it, her parents had walls of pictures of their kids. My own fuck ups for parents had not only pictures but also a portrait of me on the walls spread out around the home. Broke my heart but made my resolve to take her away that much stronger.

Mellie Thornbird came into the room five- minutes later, looking like the big screen megastar that she is. She was all flamboyance and verve as she breezed in with a smile in place. “Alex, nice to see you again; Stella says you wanted to see me about Cassie’s birthday? It’s so sad that we can’t have the big to-do I’d always wanted to mark this milestone, but this damn pandemic has destroyed so many things. Knowing my little girl, she won’t be too put out, but it was nice of you to come home to be with her.”

“I’m not here to talk about her birthday.” Was she always this hyper? She seemed…on edge, either that or she was on something.

“You’re not? Then…”

“Did your husband talk to you?”

“About what?”

“About the notes, Cassie’s been getting.”

“Notes, what notes?”

Shit! I’m not sure whether to treat her as a hostile combatant or a victim of this shit. I can’t quite get a bead on her, and so far, nothing Cassie has said about her has thrown up any red flags. All I know from Jace is that she was suffering from postpartum depression after her son was born, and her husband started screwing a much younger woman. I’m pretty sure those two things together fucked with her head, and as much as I want to take it easy on her, neither she nor her deadbeat husband had given a damn about their daughter.

Now it’s my turn to put her first, and though it might make me an asshole, I can’t sugarcoat shit for this one who seems to have bounced back pretty well and who still has no idea of what her kid had been through or was now enduring because of something she’d done. “Someone’s been threatening her with what you and your husband did to Mandy Taylor.” You could’ve heard a pin drop.

MOUTH

“Uncle Al, don’t say anything, keep smiling; I need a solid.” I kept my arms around him in a welcoming hug as the others around me called out their greetings.

“Little Ari, how’ve you been? Where are the kids?”

“Unhand my woman, you ass?” Shit, I hadn’t seen Shane in the group of guys who made up the welcoming committee.

“I’ve got you.” My uncle whispered before going on to annoy my husband.

My head was too full of other things to play referee, and since I’d done what I came to do, I left them to it and went in search of my kid and her little friend. Since our first visit to the Lyon’s home a few weeks ago, Shane and I had done some digging and now knew most of what our kid had been getting up to.

I don’t kid myself that we know all of it, but we know enough that I have a pretty good idea that they’d be able to help me with my little problem. The thing is to get them to help me without giving away too much. I found them in the clearing they use to practice their shooting and waited for the Lyon kid to take her shot before alerting them to my presence. My kid is a damn good teacher if she’d taught her that shit.

“Mom, what are you doing here?” The smile on her face told me that she wasn’t too put out by my presence. I was already having second thoughts about what I was about to do. Maybe I should ask the twins to do it for me, but then they’d tell Mob boy, and that would defeat the purpose.

After the women’s powwow the day before, I’d done some snooping and had put the story together pretty much. Cierra seemed to know the most about the shit that went down in Cali with the kids, and though I’m not one for sticking my nose in other people’s shit, I’m doing it for two reasons. One, knowing that my mother was a part of whatever this is that Mancini has going on here has made it something I automatically want to be a part of, and it’s apparent that those kids are a part of it.