Chill Factor

“Oh, I get it now,” he said with a laugh. “This is a threat.”

“Whatever you want to call it.”

“Scott,” he said in a patronizing tone, “Wes doesn’t need me to supply him with steroids. They’re easily obtainable. If I don’t provide them, he’ll get them from somewhere else. He can buy them online, for chrissake.”

“Not without risk of being found out. There would be records. You’ve made it easy for him. I’m here to tell you to stop.”

“I suppose there’s an ‘or else.’ ”

“Or else I’ll tell the state board that you dispense pharmaceuticals without prescriptions.”

“You can prove this?”

“By clearing out my mother’s medicine chest.” That struck home. For the first time Scott saw a glint of apprehension in William’s eyes. He pressed the advantage. “If you and my dad give me a fight over this, I’ll expose you both. He’ll have to stop coaching, and your pharmaceutical license will be revoked.”

“Oh, I doubt you would do anything that extreme.” His voice reminded Scott uneasily of a snake slithering through tall grass. “The repercussions would be too, too great.”

“I don’t give a damn about the repercussions.”

“No? Are you sure?” William stood up and gave him a sad smile. “What about your mother?”

That was the one disturbing hitch to taking a stance against his dad. What would it mean to his mom if the real Wes Hamer was exposed, with all of his artifice, deceit, and bullshit stripped away? She would suffer public ridicule, and that would be painful for her.

But Scott reasoned that by saving himself from Wes, he would be releasing her, too. No doubt she knew about his dad’s infidelities, and looked the other way in order to keep the family intact, or simply because she didn’t care. This afternoon, when she had learned about the steroids, she’d stood up to Wes. His mom had more backbone than people gave her credit for. Especially his dad.

“My mom is none of your business.”

William regarded him closely for a moment, then reached out and touched Scott’s hand. Repelled, Scott snatched it out of his reach. William merely smiled, but it wasn’t a warm expression. The opposite in fact.

“I caution you to reconsider, Scott. If you begin revealing secrets, you’re likely to create a lot of unpleasantness for yourself. Exposing secrets tends to have a snowball effect. Once one is exposed, others inevitably follow, and each becomes larger and more destructive. Are you sure you want to start that ball rolling in your direction?”

Scott tried to keep his alarm from showing. He must not have been successful, because William chuckled. Leaning forward, he whispered, “You do have a dirty little secret, don’t you, Scott?”

“No.”

“Of course you do. It involves Millicent.”

CHAPTER

26

I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.”

Scott turned to leave, but William grabbed his arm and whipped him around. Ordinarily the druggist wouldn’t have stood a chance against Scott’s athleticism. Scott could have broken him over his knee like a brittle stick. But he was so surprised by William’s aggressive and sudden move, he didn’t resist.

“Then allow me to make myself perfectly clear to you, Scott. I’m talking about Millicent’s affair with Wes, although the word affair lends their fuckfests a romantic connotation that’s misleading.”

Blood rushed to Scott’s head. “You don’t know—”

“But I do, Scott. I do. See, your dear dad has twin compulsions. One is to screw every woman he can. The other is to boast about it. Surprising, isn’t it, and rather reckless, that he hasn’t realized the two traits are incompatible. It’s a fascinating psychological tendency that really should be examined.

“But I digress. Where was I? Oh yes. Had there been any romantic love between him and Millicent, it would have been a Greek tragedy. A messy ménage to say the least. As it was, to hear Wes tell it, their entanglement was purely physical. He once referred to her as being constantly ‘in heat.’ ” William grinned. “Imagine. And this was going on while she was officially your sweetheart. Practically under your nose.”

Scott’s heart was thudding. He was producing saliva at a vicious rate and couldn’t swallow it fast enough. A tide of heat rushed through his system, bathing him in sweat.

“So, Scott, I advise you not to come to my house threatening me with exposure ever again. You’ve got far more at stake here than I.” Tilting his head to one side, William said, “You know, you’re very much like Wes, whom you seem to dislike. I didn’t realize until just now how similar you are.

“Like him, you think your handsome face and powerful body entitle you to bully people. Wise up, son. There are various kinds of power, and one of the most effective is knowing things about people they would rather not become known.