“I… they’re… she’s not stupid. She’s –”

“I don’t give a f**k what she is. You’re not a good actor now, you got an hour to learn to be one and you stay in character all the time. When you get up, when you go to bed, when you eat, when you take a shit, when you’re f**kin’ sleepin’. All the time. Towers gets tweaked, we’ll take it out on you.”

Jeremy didn’t move, didn’t nod, didn’t blink. He just stared at Layne.

Layne continued. “What you gotta know is, we let you go, you try to disappear, we’ll find you. We find you, we’re not cops, we don’t have rules and when we find you, we’ll do you a favor. We’ll make it so you won’t be so attractive, and we’ll make that permanent, so when you do time you won’t be instantly made into somebody’s bitch.”

“I –” Jeremy started, that one syllable a squeak but he stopped when Layne bent over him, getting in his face.

“You’re good, we’ll talk to the cops, see what we can do since you cooperated. You’re not, Towers and Rutledge disappear, this gets f**ked in any way, our sole focus, our only reason for living, is to find you and f**k you over so bad, Jeremy, swear to God, you’ll regret bein’ born. You get me?”

Jeremy didn’t answer, he just stared into Layne’s eyes, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

“You played with girls, young girls, you f**ked with their heads, you freaked them out, you betrayed their trust, you took advantage and you did it through a church,” Layne whispered. “Young girls who should be worried about a pop quiz of if some boy is into them not worried about bein’ caught up in the shitty, creepy, f**ked up games you’ve been playin’. That’s some f**ked up shit, you ass**le, and you’re gonna pay for that. But I’m givin’ you a break, a break you don’t deserve, and you get to decide how much you’re gonna pay. Now, I asked you, do you get me?”

“I get you,” Jeremy whispered.

Layne straightened away from him but looked down at him as he crossed his arms on his chest. “I’m glad to hear that, Jeremy. Now, I know you’re not too bright but I want you to concentrate real close on what I’m sayin’. We got you covered. We know your every move. We know where you live, what you drive, where you hang and who you f**k.” Part of this was, of course, a lie but the look on Jeremy’s face said he bought it. “So, just to repeat and make sure you get it, you are on our radar and there is no hope of camouflage. You’re playin’ our game now.”

“Right,” Jeremy was still whispering.

Layne stared at him a second then he cut his eyes to Devin and Ryker and walked out of the room.

On the landing outside his office, he turned to both men when the door closed behind Ryker.

“Find out everything you can from him,” Layne ordered Devin. “Dave Merrick should be here soon. He’s going to be listening to the bugs and he’s got two friends by the names of Ernie and Spike who are gonna be helping him. They’re all ex-cops, they know what they’re doin’ and they’ve been briefed.” Devin nodded and Layne carried on. “And I want a device on his car. You’ll find them in the storage room.”

“Key,” was Devin’s answer and Layne dug his keys out of his pocket, twisted the key to the storage room off his ring and gave it to Devin.

Then his eyes went to Ryker. “You’re gonna get a call from Garrett Merrick in about five minutes. He’ll tell you where to meet him. You take Jeremy there. You don’t have to handle him with care. He falls down half a flight of stairs, shit happens.” Layne watched Ryker smile his ugly smile and kept talking. “He’s scared but I want him shit scared. You stay while he talks with Garrett then you take him back to his car and turn him loose.”

Ryker nodded.

“Game on, men,” Layne whispered.

“Fuckin’ A, bro,” Ryker grunted.

Devin just stared at him then nodded.

Layne turned away and walked down the stairs. The Bachelor Auction Powwow would be done soon which meant Rocky would be alone soon and he needed to get to his woman.

* * * * *

“How together are you?” Layne, standing outside on Rocky’s balcony, his phone to his ear, asked his youngest son.

“Today freaked me, Dad, but I’m cool,” Tripp replied. “I did what Rocky said, texted Giselle to tell her I was glad she was all right, Giselle called me back and Giselle’s parents are lettin’ me go over there tomorrow to watch football then have dinner. It’s all good.”

Layne scanned the landscape as he repeated to his son, “How together are you?”

Tripp was silent then he asked, “I don’t know what you’re askin’, Dad.”

“You’re fourteen, Pal, and I got somethin’ I wanna tell you. But I gotta know you can take it.”

“Is it bad?”

“It could have been.”

More silence then, softly, Tripp said, “He was gonna hurt her.”

“Yes,” Layne answered, “but he didn’t and part of the reason why he didn’t was because you made it impossible for him to get to her. That’s the part I wanted you to know.”

Complete silence.

“You did good, Pal.”

More utter silence.

“You took care of your girl.”

Another beat of silence then, “Thanks, Dad.”

“Nope, Tripp, I gotta thank you. This is all gonna be over soon and you and Jasper made that happen.”

“Cool,” Tripp whispered but he didn’t sound like he thought it was cool. The word was heavy, he’d felt the weight of what could have gone down and even though that weight was lifted, the memory of it was fresh.

The door opened, Roc stuck her head out and said, “Sorry, sweetheart, dinner’s almost ready. Do you want me to put it to warm?”

“I’ll let you go,” Tripp, obviously hearing Rocky, said in his ear.

“Give me a minute, Roc,” Layne said to Rocky, she smiled and closed the door.

Layne watched her strut through the living room and into the kitchen as he asked Tripp, “You okay, Pal?”

“I’m good, Dad.”

“This shit starts f**kin’ with your head, you call me, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” Layne muttered.

“Dad?” Tripp called.

“Yeah?”