Page 122 of But For You

“Attacked you?”

“Well”—I gestured at the poor Mercedes he couldn’t see—“yeah, I mean, the van, not me. No, technically me, but mostly the van. It would have been me if he could’ve reached me, but⁠—”

“Jesus Christ, Jory! Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m not hurt. Were you listening? I was in the minivan, and it just got beat to shit.”

“Where”—his voice cracked, bottomed out—“are you exactly?”

I read him the street sign I could see from where I was and told him to hold on because the policeman had to talk to me.

“Put him on the phone.”

“But, Sam, I⁠—”

“Put him on the phone,” he growled.

“Fine. God, don’t make that noise,” I snapped, passing my iPhone 3GS to the officer.

He looked confused.

“Just”—I nodded, gesturing for him to put it to his ear—“talk to the federal marshal.”

Fun to watch the man’s eyes go all big and round, and he started answering questions that were being fired fast, judging from the brevity and quickness of the answers.

Apparently, Mr. Parker’s ex-wife was now suing for sole custody of their son based on the incident with Kola at the school. Until the custody got sorted out, Oliver was with his mother, and she had filed a restraining order against her ex-husband as well.

If Sam had not been a marshal and an ex–Chicago police detective, he would not have been given all that information, but as it was, the officer spilled it all and did a lot of yes, sir, no, sir, very good, sir until the phone came back to me.

“Don’t move. Sit your ass down on the curb and wait for me.”

“But what about the⁠—”

“I’m sending a tow truck for the van. Just … sit.”

“How in any realm of possibility can this be my fault?”

“You’re a trouble magnet.”

“I am not!”

“I bet you said that with a straight face!”

“Sam!”

“Get off the phone. I have to call Aaron Sutter, which is gonna make my whole fuckin’ day!”

“He really likes Duncan, you know.”

“Oh, that’s fantastic news.”

“The sarcasm is not lost on me.”

“I couldn’t give a fuck! The only⁠—”

“Oh, come on. You care a little—I can tell. You and Duncan Stiel are⁠—”

“Like I started to say, the only thing those two are gonna fuckin’ do is make each other fuckin’ miserable, but they’re both bastards, so they deserve each other!”