“Not like that matters now,” Jax said. “Mona is messed up with Isaiah and owes him money or, knowing our luck, a ton of heroin.” Jax leaned against the cushion, dropping his arm along the back of the couch. His hand landed on my opposite shoulder, causing me to jump. “And that has spread to Calla.”

“Got it,” Reece clipped.

As I sat there and listened to the boys, I thought about the last night I’d hung out with my friends back at Shepherd—Cam and Avery, Jase and Teresa, Brit and Ollie, and even Brandon and what’s her name. We’d talked about school, going to the beach, and traveling the world. Not heroin and a drug lord who probably had a lot of experience giving people a cement swim.

“If you know he runs drugs, how is he not in jail?” I asked.

Both guys stared at me, and then Jax murmured, “Cute. She’s cute.”

I shot him a look that said go jump off a bridge.

“When I said Isaiah is powerful, I wasn’t kidding around. The cops that aren’t in his pocket have tried to take his ass down. Even the feds are on his ass, but evidence . . . well, it just doesn’t seem to stick,” Reece explained carefully, and I had this feeling there was a lot that he wasn’t saying. “There’s a world out there that doesn’t operate by right and wrong and all we can do is try to minimalize collateral damage.”

Collateral damage. Wow. It was then, in that moment as I stared at my fingers, I realized I was collateral damage. And the world out there, that little bit of it that I had a taste of growing up, was much bigger and much worse than I ever knew.

“We need to find my mom,” I said, looking up. “I have no idea where she could be, but maybe Clyde knows. Or maybe I can try talking to Isaiah, explaining my—”

“You are not getting anywhere near Isaiah,” Jax said, his hand tightening on my shoulder. “And there are some places where we can check for your mom, but they’re shit holes you aren’t getting near, either.”

“Excuse me?” I twisted toward him as I jerked forward, but his hand remained. “The last I checked, you aren’t the boss of me, buddy.” Yeah, that wasn’t a very clever response, but whatever. “This is my problem.”

“It’s my problem.” His eyes locked with mine.

A shiver coursed down my spine. “It’s not your problem.”

“The hell it isn’t.”

My hand squeezed the juice box, crushing the cardboard. “Mona might be your boss, but she’s my mom. It’s my problem.”

“Boss?” Reece muttered.

Jax leaned forward, his face getting right up in mine. “It’s my problem, because it’s your problem.”

“That makes no sense!” Frustration pecked at my skin, mixing with confusion. “You barely know me, Jax. You have no reason to get involved in this.”

“Oh, here we go again, with the ‘barely know you’ crap. I don’t need to be your best friend forever, honey, to get involved,” he shot back, eyes the darkest brown I’d ever seen. “The truth is, I have known you for a while now. You just didn’t know me.”