AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Elijah looked sad, too. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks.” Jace went back to eating, but everyone was watching him. Slowly he put the fork down. He only had one more bite left, but it felt wrong to eat when they were waiting.
“Keep eating,” Val said. “We’re curious about you, that’s all.”
“I reckon y’all have a right to be,” Jace muttered before taking the last bite on his plate.
Val spooned more eggs onto his plate. “You said last night that school ‘didn’t take’ for you but that Dianne homeschooled you. But you went to public school before that.”
“Yes’m. Until my mama died.”
“So until you were nine. Did your teachers talk to you about learning disabilities?”
He glanced up at her, surprised. “I think so. One said she could help me read, but that was the year Mama died and Aaron took me out of the school. He said the school done fu—um, messed me up, so Dianne would homeschool me. It didn’t take, either.”
Why was she asking about this? Was she punishing him for driving the van Monday night? By making him embarrassed about being too dumb to read?
“Well,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice. “I’m thinking that Dianne wasn’t trained to teach kids with learning disabilities, so I’m not surprised that her homeschooling didn’t work.”
“I don’t understand,” he admitted.
“She’s saying that it wasn’t your fault,” Elijah said. “That you’re not stupid. Your brain just works differently, so your teachers needed to teach you differently. Val was a teacher.”
“Not a reading teacher,” she said quickly. “I taught math. Wherever you end up, you can get help with your reading. It’s not too late for you to learn to read if you’re taught the right way.”
Jace’s eyes suddenly burned and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from crying. If he could learn to read... I could have a good life. Get a good job. Not have to live with Corey. “You’re serious?”
“I am,” she answered. “You’re smart, Jace. Not everyone can work on engines. And not everyone can read a map like you did last night. Or remember their way out of the bayou.”
I did. I read that map. Not like reading a book, but... “You think it’s really not too late?”
She smiled at him and it was like... sunshine. Warm and bright. “Not too late at all. Once you’re settled, we’ll talk. I know some teachers here in New Orleans who can help you.”
Overwhelmed, he turned back to his plate and finished his second helping quickly.
“No more bacon for Czar, Elijah,” Val said, but she sounded like she was laughing.
“He likes bacon,” Elijah said with a grin. “When does Phin get here?”
She checked her watch. “Soon. Why don’t you clear out your closet so that he can work?”
Elijah looked disgruntled, like he wanted to stay. But he nodded. “Okay.”
Jace wondered who Phin was, but he didn’t ask.
“He’s one of us, so don’t try anything,” Lucien supplied, but he sounded less angry than before. Maybe he’d just been hungry. “You’re cuffed to me until Burke and André get back.”
“Yessir.”
“Another question,” Val said, checking over her shoulder to make sure that Elijah had gone upstairs. “Do you think Corey will come after you?”
Jace was glad he’d finished eating, because he wouldn’t have wanted any more food after that. “I think so. He’ll want to punish me. If there’s anywhere else I can go, I will. I don’t want to bring him here. Not again, anyway.”
“Us either. Do you think he’ll come after Elijah?”
Jace hesitated. “I don’t know. Before last night, I would have said no because Corey was so mad at us, but Captain Holmes told me about the note Corey had taped to Rick’s chest.”
Lucien’s eyes widened. “He told you about it?”
