Unbridled. Diana Palmer

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      “Who the hell was that other boy?” John demanded, black eyes flashing.

      Tonio swallowed. He could cross tongues with the meanest of other students, even teachers, but he quailed in the sight of his father’s muffled fury. “Uh, that was, that was David,” he began.

      “Who’s David?” came the softer, more dangerous question.

      Tonio got up. “You said supper?” he asked, trying to soothe his father.

      It didn’t work. “I said, who’s David.”

      Tonio grimaced. “Okay. He’s a guy from school. We play online together. He’s in my clan.”

      “Your what?”

      “We have clans in Destiny,” Tonio explained. “It’s like guilds in other games. Groups of us play together.”

      “You still haven’t answered the question.”

      “He’s in eighth grade,” he said finally. That was two grades above Tonio. “He plays Destiny with me, and we talk back and forth.”

      John’s eyes narrowed. “I cuss. You don’t,” he said. “And I don’t want you around kids who do.”

      Tonio laughed.

      “What’s funny?”

      “I’m in an alternative school, Dad,” the boy said. “Not exactly church, is it?”

      “You’re in alternative school because you attacked a teacher at Jacobsville Middle School,” came the sharp reply. “And you’re lucky Sheriff Hayes Carson didn’t arrest you. The teacher saved your neck, even though you were expelled.”

      “He pushed me,” Tonio said, repeating what he’d told his father before, but he kept his head down when he said it.

      “We’ve been through this before,” John said quietly. “He was trying to get you away from the other boy, who was hitting you. You thought the teacher was attacking you, so you punched him in the stomach. That’s assault,” he added curtly.

      “Then why didn’t they arrest Teddy? He was hitting me!”

      “Doesn’t work the same way between students as between students and teachers,” he replied. “The world is changing. You have to change with it.”

      Tonio bit his lower lip. “I don’t like the new school.”

      “So? You didn’t like the old one, either.”

      “Jake goes to school in Jacobsville,” he said. “I only have David in San Antonio.”

      David. The boy who cursed like a sailor. For not the first time, John worried that he’d made a mistake taking his son to San Antonio for his education. But he hadn’t had a great deal of choice.

      “That fancy chicken again.” Tonio sighed, making a face as he and his father sat down at the table.

      “It’s elegant chicken,” Adele chided, “and you like it.”

      He made the face at her, too, but he smiled. He loved Adele. “I’ll eat it. Go ahead. Use me for a guinea pig for all your recipes.”

      “I will.” She dropped a kiss on his head and finished serving the meal. She pulled off her apron. “Leave the dishes, I’ll be back when I feed my brood!”

      John chuckled. “Thanks, Adele.”

      “No problem.”

      * * *

      “I miss Mama,” Tonio said suddenly.

      “Yeah. Me, too,” John replied tersely.

      Tonio’s cell phone rang. They could both hear it coming from his room.

      “Leave it,” John said. “No electronic devices at the table.” That had been the psychologist’s advice. It did seem to be working, a bit. At least the two talked, although not much.

      “How was school?” John asked.

      Tonio grimaced as he picked at his food. “Older kids just love to torment us.”

      “That’s life. Get used to it. There’s a pecking order everywhere you go. I have a lieutenant who tells me what to do, he has a captain who tells him what to do. That’s life,” he repeated.

      “David’s sister went to the school and raised...she raised the devil,” Tonio said, “when an older kid picked on him.”

      “I don’t interfere unless I have to,” he was reminded. “Listen, son, you won’t learn to stand on your own two feet if I fight all your battles for you.”

      “Sure.” His dad never fought any. The first time he’d even been to Tonio’s school in Jacobsville was after the fight. Other kids had both parents, and they took an interest in what their children were doing. Tonio’s parent was rarely even home. His job took up almost all his time. Tonio got what little was left. At least at the supper table they could exchange one or two sentences. Not that it would last long. He sighed. Any minute now...

      Sure enough, the pager on John’s belt buzzed. He pulled it out and looked at it. He didn’t even glance at his son as he went to retrieve his cell phone from the pocket of his shepherd’s coat. He punched in a number.

      “Ruiz,” he said.

      “It’s Alice. Autopsy’s in an hour. You coming?”

      “I’ll be right there.”

      He hung up and swung on his coat. “I have to go back to the city. I’ll be late. Finish your supper, do your homework and get to bed early. Adele will make sure you do.”

      “Okay.”

      John swung on his coat, grabbed his keys from the holder beside the front door and went out to climb into the black SUV he drove to work.

      Tonio sat at the table all alone, thinking about how miserable his life had become. His father hardly noticed him, except when he was acting out. He had only one friend in the world, and now Jake was involved in soccer at his school in Jacobsville, as well as being an active member of the school’s agriculture club, and he hardly ever had time for Tonio after school or on weekends.

      That left David. His father didn’t know who David really was. He didn’t realize that Tonio’s new friend was actually the same boy who’d helped him run away from home last year. David was a member of Los Diablos Lobitos. He and his brother, Harry, had lived with their grown sister, Tina, who was a call girl. The older brother had been killed three years earlier. There were rumors that Rado Sanchez had done it.

      Tonio was afraid of Rado. But Tina always looked so nice, and she smelled sweet. She’d been kind to Tonio the two days he’d lived with them. She’d teased him and picked at him and ruffled his hair. He liked her a lot. He knew what she did for a living. David said she hated it, but Rado made her. He said Rado was always around. Tina got along with СКАЧАТЬ