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“Was there a specific girl in his life at that ti sure not to refer to the man as Tate’s father

Another shake of Tate’s head “No,” was all he said His lack of a response told me there was more to it than just that, but I didn’t press him In reality, it didn’t matter

“Look, if I knew more, I’d tell you,” Tate said as he finally lifted his eyes “Just…just leave us alone, please? I can’t help you”

I steeledin his voice as well as the pity I felt for hiaze as I said, “Yeah, you can And you will”

Chapter Four

Tate

My whole body seized up at Hawke’s words and I kneas fucked I’d been foolish enough to forget for a few minutes that this man was not my friend My desperation to have someone to share my burdens with had blinded me to who he was and why he was here And as his hard blue eyes held ut build I willed myself not to escape intocoet to me

But focusing was harder than I thought as I kept hearing the doctor’s ain

Leukemia

Cancer Matty had cancer My sweet, funny, kind-hearted little boy had cancer

And he was just that – my little boy He’d becoht from the doublewide trailer I’d shared with Denny and Buck I was his father and there was absolutely nothing I could do for hi to protect him from the worst kind of evil, but I couldn’t protect hih his blood And I couldn’t protect him from the man across from me either I could try, but Hawke could best me physically and, based on the certainty of his voice aaway h me as I realized I was back exactly where I’d been two years earlier…only now I had a new jailer

“What do you want?” I h my voice sounded like a hoarse croak

“A couple of days of your time, that’s it,” Hawke said easily…too easily

“For what?” I stammered I hated that the man sat so comfortably in the chair across fro the breeze I wondered if the son of a bitch liked playing with me because he had to kno scared I was