The Jealous Kind (Holland Family Saga 2)

“There’s something I need to tell you,” I said. “Maybe you won’t like being around me anymore.”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?”

But I heard the resolve slip in her voice.

“Saber threw a brick out of my car at Grady’s convertible in Herman Park.” I could hear the rain beating on the window in the silence. “It hit a guy named Vick Atlas.”

“Vick Atlas from Galveston?”

“Yes.”

I saw the blood drain from her face.

“He might lose an eye,” I said. “A detective was at my house this morning.”

“Oh, Aaron.”

I looked away from her.

“Do your parents know?” she asked.

“Neither one of them has had a very good life. I try not to add to their problems.” I felt like a fool, someone who had gotten himself in trouble and wanted others to save him from himself. “I don’t see any way out, not unless I give up Saber.”

“He has to go to the cops. On his own. You didn’t do it,” she said.

“They’ll send him to Gatesville.”

“He didn’t mean to hurt anyone. They’ll take that into consideration.”

“Loren Nichols went to Gatesville for shooting a guy with an air pistol after the guy molested his sister.”

“Your friend is not acting like a friend.”

“Saber always stood up for me when nobody else would. He’d always get even with the bullies. He doesn’t have anybody except me.”

It was obvious she didn’t know what to say. How could she? She was seventeen. I wanted to go back into the ferocity of the storm and take her with me so we could disappear inside the rain or be gathered up by a giant funnel and carried out to sea.

“Maybe I could talk with Vick Atlas,” I said.

“My father knows the Atlas family. Don’t go near them.”

“How could your father know them?”

“He was with the OSS. It became the CIA. The Atlas family helped Lucky Luciano get out of prison. They also helped him set up gambling operations close to navy shipyards so the workers would lose their money and stay on the job. You don’t ‘talk’ to people like the Atlases.”

“Can I use your phone? I’m supposed to be at work by three. The traffic lights are probably out.”

“Stay with me,” she said. “You have to stop doing things on your own without talking to somebody first. You understand that?”

“What should I do, Valerie?”

“Nothing. Stay with me. That’s all. Just stay with me. I want you here.”

“I don’t want you hurt.”

“They won’t hurt me. They know better.”

“What do you mean?”