I’d asked my mother about that when I’d been younger.
I’d been sixteen when I’d gotten into trouble with the law in a neighboring town. Uncle Curtis had smoothed things over with the cops and had managed to make it so no one would find out the specifics of my crimes. Since I’d been facing actual jail time, I’d been grateful, of course, but I hadn’t understood why a man who’d never been fond of me had gone to such trouble to help me.
My mother’s response had been straight to the point and had struck a chord.
It’s what families do, Ford. They take care of each other.
Uncle Curtis had gotten me out of trouble and my mother had given me a second chance to be a part of the only family I had. It wasn’t something I took for granted, even when Jimmy’s fists flew. I understood that I had to take the bad with the good. Cam was a distraction and as good as he made me feel when I was around him, that was all he could ever be… a distraction. And a temporary one at that.
I needed to be grateful that Uncle Curtis had arrived when he had because I’d been about to do something really stupid… something that had gone against everything I’d been taught.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
Uncle Curtis waved his hand. “Mr. Wilson at the bank called. Seems a teller is complaining about some money missing from her purse or some shit like that. Your brother was working that day and someone’s saying they saw him in the break room around the time the money went missing.”
“Isn’t that something the sher… the police should handle?” I stupidly asked.
“Your brother’s out on bail, you little shit! A judge would revoke it in a heartbeat over this. You want your brother sitting behind bars until his trial for that stupid prank he pulled at those queers’ place?”
I very wisely did not answer that question.
“You’re probably gonna have to say Jimmy was meeting with you for lunch or something if I can’t smooth things over.”
“No. I can’t—”
“Then you can explain to your mama why her boy’s in jail! You know what happens in those places? No, you don’t, because I kept your ass out of there! Should’ve let you rot in there… sure cure for being a faggot sissy is being some guy’s bitch in a place like that!”
I flinched when Uncle Curtis got in my space but managed not to move. He’d never hit me but his verbal attacks were much like Jimmy’s physical ones. If I showed any kind of weakness, it would be just as bad as if I’d mouthed off. Unlike Jimmy, Uncle Curtis tended to be more in control of himself. He quickly glanced around the neighborhood when he realized how loud he’d been yelling. There was no one around, though.
“Tell Jimmy to call me,” he snapped impatiently, then he stormed back to his car.
I waited until he was gone to head back to the house. I wanted to use the time to call Walter and then head to my studio to try and get some work done on the mural I was mocking up for Maddox. I’d decided to toy around with it on my studio wall before painting it for real at the sanctuary. I wanted it to be absolutely perfect for Dallas, so I needed to make sure I had a clear idea in my mind of what I wanted to do. I didn’t usually overthink stuff like that, but I’d also never had a job that had meant so much to me before, either.
Except maybe Newt’s helmet.
My thoughts returned to Jimmy as I entered the kitchen. Uncle Curtis hadn’t said what day the theft at Jimmy’s work had occurred, but it didn’t matter. There was no doubt that he’d stolen the money. He hadn’t gotten enough money out of me to get the high he’d been seeking, so he would have been desperate. The idea of covering for him made me sick to my stomach, but I knew I didn’t really have a choice. My mother would be devastated if I let Jimmy get tossed in jail. And while the Jimmy I knew today wasn’t the same brother I’d known when I’d been little, he was still my brother.
I couldn’t tell Cam about Jimmy.
My mind spun as the memory of Cam’s disappointment jumped to the forefront of my thoughts. I desperately tried to shove the image into the little box in my mind.
But not surprisingly, like most things with Cam, those few seconds of betrayal I’d seen in his eyes before he’d masked it refused to be ignored.
“Wow.”
“Is that a good wow or a bad one?” I asked. I couldn’t stop tapping my foot and drumming my stained fingers against my arm as I waited for Maddox’s answer.