The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy #2) - Tijan by Tijan

“Don’t call me baby.”

“Anything for you, honey bunches.”

“Chrissy!”

She laughed. “I’m just messing with you. What’s up? Are you coming for dinner tonight? That’d be great. I can do this all to your face and in person. Think of the hugs and the patting on the back and the cheek squeezing—”

“Chrissy!” Forget it. I was going back to what I was used to. “Are you behind Marie still being gone?”

Silence.

I waited, my heart starting to pound.

More silence.

Crap. That was the answer right there.

“I just had your back against Matt, Mom. If you were the reason Marie left, call her back,” I said with a soft voice.

More silence, then her voice was just as soft. “You called me Mom again.” She sniffled.

My head jerked upright. Excepting the time I’d been kidnapped, both times, and when she knew I’d find out about Peter, she never sniffled or even teared up. What was going on? I shot Matt a look. He was right. Something was going on at the house.

I spoke into the phone, “Are you okay?”

A second sniff. “I’m totally fine, honey. Really. Just midlife emotions. You wouldn’t know about that yet. And I wasn’t behind Marie leaving, but your father told me that she and her husband wanted to go on a cruise, so he arranged for that to happen. That’s all.”

I tensed.

Something wasn’t right.

“Then why is my brother finding me at my school, and why is he so motivated to do that because Theresa was giving you the side-eye?”

Matt moved closer so his voice could be heard. “Theresa doesn’t give the side-eye unless it’s earned. And she was giving it to you.”

Chrissy sighed on the other end. “I don’t know why she was doing that, but it’s not about Marie. I can tell you that. I didn’t even know Marie was going until suddenly she was gone. That had nothing to do with me.”

“So what did?” That was from Matt.

Chrissy hesitated again on her end.

My stomach fell. My mom was hiding something. I could read the signs even over the phone.

Enough was enough.

“Mom, about tonight.” I held Matt’s gaze as he heard me, and his frown was now a scowl. “We’re coming for dinner. Six, right?”

Once I hung up, Matt was in my space. “What the hell, B.?”

He called me B. It was the first time I got that nickname from him, so I indulged in a moment to savor it.

My brother had given me his first nickname.

The moment was done.

“My mom’s not lying about Marie. I can tell. But she is lying about something. Or she’s purposefully not telling me something, something that she knows I would want to know. That means we’re going there for dinner. You. Me. Kash.”

“Kash is flying to Brazil today.”

“Oh.” He hadn’t told me. Brazil? Wow. “Then you and me.” I raised a hand up in a fist. “Team Batt.”

The scowl lifted. A grin took its place, a fond grin, and his entire face warmed. He laughed shortly before hitting my fist with his own. “We should use a code name like Team Dracula. It’s too obvious, otherwise.”

I was having another moment. Team Batt was a real thing, and my brother was joking about it with me.

“You’re right. Dracula it is.”

He laughed again before tossing an arm around my shoulders, and we began walking back down the hallway. He was taking in everyone. “So this is what a certified nerd building looks like from the inside. I always wanted to know.”

Well. Now he knew.





TWELVE


“They’re sleeping together.”

Kash told me this when I was on the phone with him, as I was driven from school to the apartment. He called to ask how my day was, to let me know where he was flying (which Matt had already told me) and that he would be heading back late in the night. I had just finished filling him in on the rest of my conversation with my brother when Kash delivered this bit of news, and I almost dropped my phone. I was that surprised. He announced it so easily and quickly, and almost lazily, as if he’d known for months and hadn’t realized I might want to know.

“Matt and my mother?” My voice might’ve gone shrill for a second.

“What?”

“Who’s sleeping together?”

He started laughing. “Not your brother. Peter and your mother.”

I didn’t let that sink in, not quite. “We were talking about Matt and my mom. You said they’re sleeping together.”

“Your mom and Peter are sleeping together.”

Now I let that sink in, and my stomach was curdling. There was a sour taste in my mouth. “How long have you known and why didn’t you tell me?”

Again, no hesitation.

“I’ve known awhile, but you had other things going on. Also, nothing’s going to happen from it.”

“What? Why not?” That sour taste turned bitter.

“Because your father is a cheater. I owe a lot to Peter, but I’m not blind. Your father has always had one weakness and that’s pussy.”

“Kash!” Seriously.

“Women. You know what I mean. And Chrissy Hayes is like her daughter—she doesn’t take shit from anyone, even if she’s momentarily weakened because her daughter was almost kidnapped for the second time. Hayes women are strong and bounce back, and your mom, she might be forgetting Peter’s history for a moment, but it’ll just be a moment. Something will happen and your mom will remember that he’s not the baby daddy to just her kid.”