“Stop being such a worrier; it’s nothing. I’m just decompressing from our trip, I guess. I’ll be back to normal by tomorrow; pass the ball.” I didn’t push because I knew he wouldn’t budge until he was ready to. But I have other ways of getting answers.
He left to go home a little while later, and I headed up to my room. I’d removed Pop’s bells and whistles from my home PC and added some extra security. He had no reason to spy on me now since my search for grandpa was out in the open. If he said anything, then he’d have to admit to not trusting me, and the deal has always been no more spying after I reached eighteen. Not that I expect him to stick to that, but it’ll buy me some time in the meantime.
I went to my computer to check the progress of the search I’d left running before picking up the phone to call Unc. He answered on the third ring. “Hey, Unc. How are you? Did you like the gifts?”
“Loved them. I plan to come by tomorrow to meet your grandpa; sorry, I’ve been too busy all week to come by.”
“That’s okay. Listen, I want to do something special for Lance. Have you heard anything about his placement in the special program on the force?”
“Oh, that, well, funny, you should ask. I don’t know what to tell you. He got a call as soon as he came back. He seemed pretty excited about it even went to meet someone; I have the name written down somewhere. Anyway, I don’t know how things went, but when he got back home, he didn’t seem as excited. In fact, he seemed upset, but he wouldn’t say what happened, just that he’s not interested in joining the force anymore. Didn’t he tell you about it? That’s surprising.”
“Maybe he forgot to mention it with everything else that’s been going on around here. Thanks for telling me. I guess I’ll see you soon.” We exchanged some more small talk before I rang off. What the hell happened? Did something this mystery person said scare him off? It can’t be.
Lance has always known that joining the force was a fool’s errand. That he’d put in all the work, put his life on the line, and get nothing for it in return but underpay and complaints. If it was something like that, he would’ve told me, but instead, he’d lashed out. Why?
Well, hell, I can’t very well work on my shit if he’s in this type of mood. I picked up the phone again and called him. “Where are you?”
“Just pulling into my driveway. Why?”
“Meet me at the ice cream place; I need to get Gianna her nightly fix.”
“Didn’t I just leave you?”
“I know where you live, punk, be there in ten.”
I hung up and headed for the door.
He was there waiting when I pulled into the parking lot, and we headed inside. I worked my magic until he broke, and ten minutes later, I was peeling into the driveway madder than hell with him speeding to catch up. “Pop, Pop.” I walked through the door, yelling for him.
“Gabe, chill, don’t… Oh, hi Unc, sorry.”
“Lancelot? I thought you left; what’s up? What’s all the yelling about?”
“Tell him, or I will. Better yet, I’ll handle it myself.”
“Tell me what? What’s going on? Why are you so upset, Gabriel?” I just looked at Lance to start talking.
“I met with one of the recruiters today. He uh, dammit.”
“Just spit it out, son; what happened?”
“He said he wanted to use my connection with you…. Ah, crap. He said if I wanted to join the force, I have to give you up.”
“Come again!”
“Yeah, he said something about no one being able to get anything on you and some other things that made no sense. I told him to… I told him I wasn’t interested. I’ll just go to college, I guess.”
“What’s his name?”
“Dempsey.”
“Gabe, take Lance upstairs, call your dad and tell him you’re spending the night. You boys don’t worry about a thing you hear me?”
“Yes, sir.” I wanted to punch the wall at his hangdog look. I’m going to leave this hump whoever he is to Pop, for now. “Come on, let’s go watch some crappy shows.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“What?” He pointed to the ice cream I was still carrying.
“Dammit, I’ll be right back.”
* * *
DRACO
* * *
Dempsey, Dempsey, that’s a new one. I don’t have a file with his name on it. Guess he’ll be joining the others. When it’s not one thing, it’s another. I’m not really surprised that a grown man was low enough to pull a stunt like this, and I’m in no way bothered by his shit. But the fact that he went after Lancelot is going to cost him. Like I have time to deal with this shit on top of everything else.