Free Rush by Tori Minard Page A

me.”
    “You want your brother’s girl,” he said
with a knowing look.
    I sighed. “What’s your point?”
    “Trent could make a lot of trouble for
you. Give him any excuse and he’ll be after you.”
    “Thanks. I didn’t know that.”
    Fred tilted his head slightly to the
side. “Are you trying to provoke a confrontation?”
    “I’ve got nothing to hide. You know
that. What could he do to me that he hasn’t already done?”
    “You’re breaking the law, Max.”
    “Not at the moment,” I said with a
shrug.
    He smiled wryly. “Quit smoking
marijuana. I don’t want to see you go to jail. After all, I’d have to visit you
there and I’ve seen enough of prison to last me for eternity.”
    Fred had gone to jail for a few years in
his youth for an unspecified crime. Unspecified to me, that was.
    “Why would you have to visit me there?”
I said. “Not that I don’t appreciate the offer, understand.”
    “You’re my descendant. It’s my job to
look out for you.”
    I stared openly at him, forgetting all
about the other people in the room. “You’re what?”
    “I’m your great-great-something or other
grandfather on your mother’s side. Didn’t you know?”
    “I had no idea.” In all the years I’d
known him, I’d never guessed he was my ancestor. No wonder he looked so
familiar. We were relatives.
    “It’s why I came to you in the first
place.”
    He’d appeared to me when I was eleven,
still so torn up over Carter’s death I could barely function. I’m not sure I
would have survived if it hadn’t been for Frederick. He talked to me in a way
my dad couldn’t—or wouldn’t—and helped me understand that the accident was just
that. An accident. Not that I fully believed him—I had been playing with a gun,
something I’d had no business even touching.
    “Your mother was gone,” he said. “And
your dad didn’t seem to care about you anymore. In fact, I was starting to
think he was going to murder you during one of his rages. I had to do
something.”
    “Thank you,” I said through a tight
throat.
    Here I’d thought no-one gave a shit
about me and all along Fred had been looking out for me. Even if he couldn’t
physically interfere with my dad, he’d kept me sane and whole in my mind. He’d
made it possible for me to survive long enough to grow up. If we hadn’t been in
a public place, I might have given him a hug, something I rarely did with
anyone. There were too many potential witnesses here, though.
    Let’s face it, talking to your invisible
friend isn’t nearly as bizarre as hugging that friend.
    “You know, you don’t need Caroline’s
cooperation to deal with any of this,” Fred commented.
    “I realize that.”
    The problem was I wanted it. I wanted an
excuse to spend more time with her and I wanted to protect her from whatever
spirit entity was trying to intrude on her. Not that I thought Caroline was in
danger, but I didn’t like the idea of her being made uncomfortable or afraid.
    She claimed not to believe in ghosts. I’d
seen fear in her eyes, though, when she’d described the blonde to me. Part of
her believed, even if she hated to admit it. And she was no witch, like Selene;
she’d have no tools or experience to fall back on in this situation.
    Damn it. What was I doing? The only
reason I was friendly toward Caroline was to take her from my stepbrother. I
wasn’t supposed to care about her or get emotionally involved with her. I
needed to get hold of myself before I blew the whole project.
    A disturbing thought wormed its way into
my brain. Was it truly so important that I hurt Trent? Did I really want to use
Caroline that way?
    I pushed out my breath without looking
at Fred. Yeah, it was and I did. The gods knew he deserved some kind of
consequences for everything he’d done to me over the years.
    She’d seemed so upset, though, and the
ghost-girl wasn’t the only reason. Trent had told her about my past. He’d put
the worst spin on it that he could,