Golden Trail (53 page)

“True enough, Jas,” Layne put in and Tripp
swiveled around to look at him as Jasper’s head turned and his eyes
focused on Layne. “Still, you go over your limit, I’ll be
pissed.”

“She’s hot, Dad, gotta keep her hooked so no
one moves in,” Jasper explained.

“Boy, why do you think I bought you that
goddamned car?” Layne asked, he’d stopped and he crossed his arms
on his chest. “Right about now, when you’re feelin’ like that, you
stop playin’ it cool and her ass is here or your ass is there, you
stake your claim and you don’t do it through fuckin’ texts.”

Jasper sat up, dropping his feet to straddle
the bench. “You cool with Keirry bein’ here when you’re not?”

“Just as long as I don’t have to set up a
crib in the corner of your bedroom, that is, if I win at hand to
hand combat defendin’ my son against a gonzo Joe Callahan,” Layne
answered.

Jasper grinned and crossed his cell phone
over his heart before he lifted it in the air, “Swear. Gentleman.
Totally.”

Layne stared at his son then looked to Tripp
who was also grinning at him and who decided to add, “Giselle
Speakmon’s parents are totally devout. When I get in there and we
hook up, there won’t be any cribs for me either, Dad, because I
reckon they’ll make her wear one of those chastity belts, knowin’
Jas is my brother and all.”

Layne felt his brows go up and he beat down
any thoughts of his youngest being sexually active. Jasper was the
first born boy, his leap to manhood Layne took in stride. Tripp was
still just a kid in his eyes. Layne was not ready to go there, not
by a long fucking shot.

Still, he asked, “You like her?”

Tripp nodded. “Got her talkin’ to me and
she’s cool and she can be funny, in a quiet way that’s kinda
awesome.”

“She at church today?” Layne asked and Tripp
nodded again, his smile getting bigger.

“Yeah, she was the blonde who sat next to TJ
in church.”

Layne felt his body lock as he looked at his
boy. “Right next to him?” he asked quietly.

Tripp’s grin faded at his father’s tone and
he answered quietly back, “Yeah.”

“She’s here after school too or you’re
there. Jasper will be your ride,” Layne ordered instantly.

“Her parents won’t –” Tripp started and
Layne cut him off.

“Then you call in Rocky. Even if her
family’s religious, they won’t question Roc. They know she’s here,
they’ll know Giselle is good. I’m not here and Roc’s not here but
at her apartment, you’re over there with Giselle and I’ll talk to
Rocky.”

“Dad,” Tripp’s voice was still muted. “She’s
cool. She’s there because she’s religious. I don’t even think she
likes TJ.”

Layne felt his gut squeeze. “She was sitting
right next to him, Pal.”

“She doesn’t like him but he way likes her,”
Tripp replied and Layne’s gut twisted.

“She’s here or you’re there. You tie her up
one way or another, Tripp, you get me?” Layne asked and Tripp’s
face got pale.

“Do you think –?” Tripp started to ask and
Layne interrupted him again.

“I don’t think, Tripp, you don’t either.
This is now, we move on from here and you tie Giselle up and you’re
glued to her at Youth Group meetings.” Layne stared at his son and
finished, “Now, do you get me?”

“I get you,” Tripp whispered.

“She got a cell phone?” Layne asked and
Tripp nodded. “Got her number?” Layne went on and Tripp nodded
again so Layne nodded back. “Go text her now.”

Tripp slid from the chair and whispered,
“Got it,” then walked to Jasper’s room.

Layne looked at Jas to see his son’s focus
was intent on him and he ordered, “You have his back.”

“Giselle’s a favorite, Dad,” Jasper
muttered.

“You have his fuckin’ back,” Layne returned,
Jas stared him in the eyes and nodded. “I want an address or the
make, model and color of his car by tomorrow, Bud,” Layne ordered
low.

“You’ll have it,” Jasper assured him and
Layne walked close to look down at his boy.

“We’ve passed finesse,” Layne told him
quietly. “We’re goin’ forward hard.” Jasper nodded up to him and
Layne continued. “You don’t gotta be cool about this. He cottons
on, I don’t give a fuck except you and your brother are in the
middle of this shit.
That
you play cool, you play smart, you
have Tripp’s back, you listen to your gut and you
communicate
with me.
You walk down the halls, you know who’s walkin’ behind
you. You have a chat with a Youth Group kid, you pay attention to
what’s goin’ on on their face, not what’s comin’ outta their mouths
and you also pay attention to who might be listenin’ in. You drive
down the road, you check your rearview mirrors, you see a car more
than once on your ass, you get a plate. You with me?”

“Yeah, Dad,” Jasper whispered.

“You’re in this house, alarm is armed. At
all times, Jas.”

“Right.”

“Roc’s on his radar and Tripp laid claim to
her today. Because of that, when light dawns, he’ll know where she
sits with this. That means, I’m not around, you have her back
too.”

“Gotcha.”

“He got any other favorites?” Layne asked
and Jasper nodded.

“Alexis McGraw.”

“The redhead today?”

“Yep.”

“Any ideas how to keep her clear?”

Jasper shook his head. “She’s in deep. She
thinks he’s the shit. They’re always together.”

“Fuck,” Layne whispered.

“I’ll think about it. She used to have a
thing for Seth. Maybe –”

Layne cut him off. “Seth’s got enough to
deal with.”

“Yeah, which means, I figure, takin’ his
mind off of that shit will do him good,” Jasper returned. “We’ve
talked about this, before Tripp and me started undercover and Seth
thinks it’s creepy as all get out too. I reckon he’d come on board
and he’d be cool, Dad. After yesterday, he’d do just about anything
for you and Rocky. Alexis is a freshman and Seth is a senior but
she’s cute and it isn’t unheard of. Jamie’s a senior and he’s
datin’ a freshman and Seth and Jamie are tight.”

Layne nodded and asked, “Any bright ideas of
how to shut the rest of it down?”

“Yeah,” Jasper whispered and stood, clearing
the weight bench and bringing him close to his old man. “We don’t
have to play it cool anymore, I start a campaign. Kids think it’s
weird, teachers think it’s weird but no one’s talkin’ out about it.
It’s all real quiet. Whispers. I talk out about it. Make like I’m
goin’ as a joke. Get Seth and some of the team to go with me. Start
fuckin’ around at Youth Group and, at school, make it uncool other
than to go for shits and giggles, a place to fuck around and pick
up girls.”

“I don’t know, Jas, bold play but could have
the opposite effect, make the devoted more so and make it popular
for kids to go, even if they’re fuckin’ around which might put more
girls on the line. It also puts Tripp out there if Giselle is
religious. She’ll want to think he’s into that too and her family
will definitely want to think that if he wants to spend time with
her.”

“Just because Giselle’s family is religious
doesn’t mean she has to go to Youth Group,” Jasper replied. “Tripp
can play her and, in the end, she’s still a shy girl who’s got a
chance at the only freshman on the football team. She pushes it
that she prefers to be with Tripp, her parents’ll cave. The other
shit, leave it to me.”

Layne smiled and asked, “Lots of parents
cave?”

Jasper smiled back. “Totally. Especially the
girls. How do you think I hit so many? Before Keira that is.”

“Jasper Layne, football stud,” Layne
muttered, still smiling.

“Off the market stud,” Jasper muttered back,
also still smiling. “Just like his Dad.”

Layne chuckled as he lifted a hand and
curled it around his boy’s neck, pulled him in and gently bumped
foreheads with him before he let him go.

“All right, Bud, you play it how you feel it
but you communicate with me, okay?”

“Okay.”

“You call your Mom today?” Layne asked.

“Yeah, twice,” Jas answered.

“Good man,” Layne murmured. “Homework done
and tomorrow, thank your Gram for cleanin’ your room. She deserves
it especially since, for most humans, it was a no go zone and I
reckon Keira will be spendin’ time in it and we won’t want to rush
her to the hospital after she’s exposed to the fumes.”

Jasper shook his head, grinning. “It wasn’t
that bad.”

“Boy,” was Layne’s only reply as he turned
to walk away but he thought better of it and turned back. “Did you
get your sentences diagrammed?”

Jasper’s grin died and he looked confused.
“What?”

“Your sentences. Did Roc help you get them
diagrammed?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure,” Jasper mumbled.

“Jas?” Layne called his son’s attention to
him. “Did you have sentences to diagram?”

“Yeah,” Jas answered and Layne stared at him
so Jasper’s eyes went to the double doors, he walked the two feet
Layne had moved away and he whispered, “Two weeks ago. I got a C on
the assignment. Next time, I’ll ask Roc to help
before
I get
the final grade.”

Layne swallowed down laughter before he
muttered, “Good call.”

Then Layne turned back to his room and
walked to it as he heard Jasper say, “’Night, Dad.”

“’Night, Bud,” Layne replied and opened the
doors.

Rocky was diagonal on the bed, on her
stomach, papers spread in front of her, pen in her hand, bare feet
swinging in the air and Layne knew Jasper didn’t have to whisper
his secret because she had earphones in her ears, an MP3 player on
the bed and between the sound and her concentration on the papers,
she hadn’t noticed he came in.

He rounded the bed wide until he got to her
side and then moved in. He put a knee to the bed and was dropping
forward with a hand on either side of her when she cried out,
jumped and started to turn but his torso hit her back and he pinned
her to the bed.

She popped an earphone out, he heard the
music through it and she twisted her neck to say, “Layne, you
scared the bejeezus out of me.”

He didn’t reply. He smiled at her before he
leaned around her, putting his mouth to the opposite side of her
neck at the same time his hand went into her hair and he tugged out
her goddamned ponytail. He’d left her and her hair was down which
was how he liked it so now it was going to be down again.

“Would you
quit
pulling out my
ponytails?” she asked, sounding annoyed and trying to roll but he
moved his lips up her neck and then nipped her ear with his teeth
and she quit trying to roll.

“Don’t like ‘em,” he whispered in her
ear.

“I don’t care,” she replied. “I do.”

“I don’t care.” He ran his tongue along the
curve of her ear and her body froze. “I don’t,” he finished.

“Layne.”

There it was. Breathy. Needy. Beautiful.

“You’re either gonna have to wait, baby, or
let me gag you or fuck you in the closet again. The boys are usin’
the weight room to study and fuck around,” he said softly in her
ear.

“I’ll wait,” she whispered, his head came up
and she twisted her neck to look at him. “Do they stay up
late?”

He grinned at her then leaned in and touched
his mouth to hers before he suggested, “We could take a
shower.”

“Hmm,” she mumbled and her eyes dropped to
his mouth.

He liked her eyes on his mouth, so much, if
he did something about it, they wouldn’t make it to the shower so
his eyes dropped to her papers thinking he’d be seeing homework
assignments but they weren’t.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he studied
the papers.

Her head moved and he saw she’d looked down
too.

“Lesson plans,” she answered and then
twisted her neck to face him again. “Next week is
To Kill a
Mockingbird
week. It’s my favorite week of the semester.”

He got that. It was her favorite book. He’d
read it in high school, thought it was pretty good but didn’t think
much of it until she’d gone on about it. Because she’d loved it so
much, he’d read it again and he’d appreciated it a fuckuva lot
more. His favorite book was
Slaughterhouse Five
, then and
now, but
To Kill a Mockingbird
was a close second.

Looking at her face, suddenly he realized
he’d pay money to watch her teaching it.

“You nearly done?” he asked.

“Nearly,” she answered. “I was about to
finish up.”

“Good,” he muttered, pulled her hair away
from her neck, kissed the skin there again and then looked at her.
“I’m gonna go make coffee and secure the house. Meet you in the
shower.”

He started to knife away from her but she
caught him by saying, “Okay but you can’t get my hair wet.”

He stared in her eyes before he asked, “Come
again?”

“You can’t get my hair wet because if you do
I’ll have to blow it out before going to bed and that’ll take
forever and –”

He cut her off. “Baby, your hair’s gonna get
wet.”

“Layne –”

“Blow it out tomorrow.”

“I can’t, it’ll be –”

Layne rolled off her, pulled her on top of
him and then rolled her to her back, Layne on top of her. Then he
kissed her until her arms were tight around his back, her leg had
hooked around his hip and she was mewing in his mouth.

Then he lifted his head and whispered, “Your
hair is gonna get wet and your gonna blow it out tomorrow,
yeah?”

“Yeah,” she whispered back immediately, eyes
hooded, arms locked tight around him.

Christ she was cute
and
she was
hot.

“Look at me like that a second longer,
sweetcheeks, I won’t give a fuck my boys hear you moan,” he warned,
her eyes got wide and he grinned before he brushed his mouth
against hers and ordered, “Finish then shower.”

“Right,” she murmured.

Layne knifed away and Rocky rolled to her
stomach.