“I wanted to give you this.” He dropped five hundred-dollar bills on the bed next to me. “I thought it could help.”
“Where did you get this kind of money?” I looked up at him and frowned. “Please tell me you haven’t been dealing with Joey?”
“Joey didn’t make me do anything.” Jared’s eyes flared at me. “I don’t know what you have against him, but he doesn’t control me.”
“Joey is bad news, Jared.” I shook my head as I held the cash in my hands. “I don’t want to get into it, but he’s not to be trusted.”
“You know the only people I trust are you and Vincent.” Jared sighed. “Joey is my friend. He does my bidding, trust me, bro.”
“What are you doing to get this kind of money?”
“We bet on the horses.”
“The horses? How old are you? Sixty?”
“Joey’s old man does it. He knows a few guys that are trainers. We get some tips, who’s looking good, who’s not. What jockeys are excited, that sort of thing.”
“I don’t know about this, Jared, gambling’s not a good thing to get into.”
“And stealing cars is?” Jared’s eyes bore into mine. “I love you, bro, but you can’t do this much longer. Things are getting worse.”
“It’ll be fine. Vincent will get his degree and you will get your degree and we’ll be fine.” My voice held conviction; it had to be fine.
“And what about Dad?” Jared’s voice was hoarse. “I want to leave, Logan. I don’t want to deal with this shit anymore. He’s a f**king drunk. He’s not going to change and I’m not going to put up with his bullshit anymore. I’ve had enough.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Until he hits you again or, God forbid, gets a gun.”
“He’s our dad, Jared.”
“He needs to go to a facility or something. He needs to get help.”
“I know.” I sighed and stood up. “Don’t you think I know that?”
“Where did you go this morning?” His eyes held a question, and as I stared at him, I knew I couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“I went on a drive.”
“To?”
“Manor Road.” The words slipped out of my mouth bitterly.
“Why?”
“I wanted to see the house.”
“It’s been a while, eh?” Jared sat down on the bed and I sat on the chair in the corner. “Do you think Dad even thinks about it anymore?”
“I’m sure.” We stared at each other for a while and we both thought back to our childhoods and our weekly drives out to Manor Road.
“Why did you go?”
“I met a girl.” I sighed. “And I mean just met, so don’t go getting any ideas. We kinda hit it off, I thought she was cool. Hot, but a bit kooky, you know how some girls can be.”
“Trust me, I know.” Jared laughed and I joined him. Jared was a player, but a charismatic one. Girls loved him on sight, and they never seemed to stop calling him, or wanting to be with him. I stared at my brother and his too-long wavy black hair and I shook my head.
“You need to get a haircut.”
“Don’t change the subject, tell me about the girl.”
“I took her for a ride, we had some fun, but turns out she’s a rich kid.”
“Oh.” Jared made a face.
“Yeah, exactly. And to make matters worse. It turns out she’s Maddison Wright.”
“The mayor’s daughter?” Jared gave me a shocked look. I sighed inside. He was going to play the game with me.
“Yeah, she goes by Maddie, though.”
“Maddie, as in mad in the head?”
“Yeah.” I laughed and thought about Maddie and her forward nature. “I wouldn’t be surprised if her name has rubbed off on her.”
“So, you like her?” Jared cocked his head at me and leaned forward.
“Did you not hear me? Her name is Maddison Wright.”
“Yeah? So?”
“Do you think I would date the mayor’s daughter?” I rolled my eyes. “Granted, she’s pretty and dy***ite in bed.” I laughed. “Do not repeat that.”
“Maybe you should date her.” Jared sat back. “Maybe this is the way.”
“The way for what?” I squinted at him.
“Maybe this is how we can get vengeance for Dad.”
“What do you mean?”
“So-o-o,” Jared took a deep breath, “I met Maddie.” He paused and looked at me.
“Continue.” I held my breath. I had known as soon as she told me she had met one of my brothers with Joey, that it had to have been Jared.
“She knows Joey. I guess they went to school together at some point, and she is good friends with his sister. And every summer they hang out, and they go to college together somewhere in Boston.” He looked at me anxiously, and I gave him a look to hurry it up.
“So anyways, we were hanging out at Joey’s place one day, and Maddie was there. And Joey’s sister was like, ‘This is Logan’s brother,’ and she went all googly-eyed and asked me a bunch of questions about you.”
“She did?” I frowned. “But why? She doesn’t know me.”
“I guess you were the pin-up boy of all the girls in River Valley. She had some crush on you. And so, I kinda told her where you’d be yesterday.”
“Dude, why would you do that? What if she had called the police on me or told her dad?”
“She’s way too into you to do anything like that. She has a serious crush on you, bro. Like, she could be a stalker. She was going on and on and on.”
“That’s weird.” I made a face, but inside I felt a fire light up inside of me. So maybe she didn’t just hook up with every guy she met.
“So anyways, I was going to tell her to f**k off, but then I thought, this was the perfect opportunity. She’s the mayor’s only child, and supposedly, he is really, really overprotective, and she’s the apple of his eye. And I thought, what perfect retribution for Dad, if the mayor’s daughter is caught up with a Martelli. You could date her for a little bit, and then just ditch her. It would devastate this girl. She thinks she is in love with you or something.”
“She doesn’t even know me to love me.” My head was spinning with all the information he was giving me.