Inferno Part 2

~123~ You're A Better Man Than Me

Taylor's POV

Since no one but Wes is home, I'm cleaning my guns in the living room. Ellie would be mad, but literally the only other person who is home is the one who knows as much about them as I do. He is silently watching a movie. Normally he would be helping me, and trying to talk me into buying the next best one.

It's weird he's not. It's sad. I miss my brother.

My phone starts ringing, and I set my 9mm down to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Taylor, it's Lance."

"Hey man"

"Josie is in trouble. Can you come get her?"

"Uh...You do know I'm not her guardian, right?"

"Yeah. She's adamant that she wants you. I already called Mason, and he said just to take her home if you were good with it."

I sigh. "Yeah, that's fine. What did she do?"

Lance is quiet for a moment. "Got caught with pot."

"Damn"

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

"Me too. This one sucks. I'm on my way."

I hang up and shake my head. I can tell by Wes' body language that he wants to ask what happened, but he doesn't.

"Can you put this stuff back in my room for me?" I ask in a rougher voice than I should have.

That's the first I've spoken to him in two days. This has been the longest week and a half of my life.

"Yeah," he says without even looking at me.

I grab my stuff and go to the school. When I get in, I look at Josie hard. I can immediately tell there's more to the story. She doesn't look scared. She looks absolutely devastated.

When I sit down, she looks at me and her eyes fill with tears.

"There's more to this story, isn't there?" I ask immediately.

Shock crosses her face, along with Lance's.

She says nothing.

"Talk to me now," I say in a stern voice.

Still nothing.

I sigh and look at him. "Lance, I'm pulling a card from Ellie's deck. There's more to this story. Can you hold off on the life sentence until I find out what it is? I want to take her home for a bit and talk to her in private."

Lance gives me an incredulous look. "She got caught with it."

I give him a look saying that he better not fight me. He immediately straightens his back.

"Yeah," he says simply.

"Thanks. I'll bring her back in a bit. Come on, J," I say softly.

She silently stands up and follows me out of the office.

This girl doesn't make a sound the entire way home. I'm not sure, maybe I've been with Ellie so long that I'm becoming crazy too, but something just doesn't feel right. My gut is screaming at me loud right now.

We get in and Wes is still there, but my guns aren't.

"Jocelyn, you're going back to school one way or the other; How is up to you. Either you can start talking and we can figure this out together, or you can try and do it on your own and have a very sore bottom. What'll it be?"

Once again, nothing. Huge shocker.

I sigh as I go up to her and put my hands on both of her shoulders and stare into her gorgeous blue eyes. She is really becoming a beauty.