Temptation Trails (The Haven Brothers #3)

He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and his eyes were wide. “Uh…”

I didn’t say anything else. Just raised my eyebrows and waited for him to talk. Sometimes silence was plenty intimidating.

It dawned on me that I was thinking in terms of interrogation techniques with my son. Was that a good or a bad thing?

He drew his eyebrows together. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m asking the questions. Why aren’t you in school?”

His mouth twisted and his eyes narrowed. His angry face wasn’t nearly as cute as it had been when he was two.

When he finally answered, his tone was dripping with defiance. “I just felt like coming home, okay?”

“No. That’s not okay. Get your stuff. I’m taking you back.”

Rolling his eyes, he groaned. “I don’t wanna go back.”

I laughed, which was clearly the wrong move. It just pissed him off more. But what the hell was he thinking? I was going to just let him ditch school?

He didn’t get up. Just glared at me.

I was about to lay down the law—this kid was not going to defy me—when a voice in the back of my head told me to slow down.

The voice that sounded suspiciously like my mom.

What was going on that he was so determined to stay away from school? Was I missing something?

I took a deep breath and softened my voice. “What’s really going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Seriously, Owen.” I stepped closer to the couch. “Did something happen at school? You can tell me stuff, man. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

His eyes widened again, like I was doing something alarming. What was going on with him? I was just walking toward him, not even that fast. He’d never acted afraid of me before. Why was he—

Then I saw it. His backpack was on the floor next to the couch, the compartment wide open. It was full of plastic bags, some of them open.

Cookies from Angel Cakes Bakery.

“Where’d you get those?” My voice was back to stern.

“I had money.”

He was lying. Right to my face. Damn it.

“Owen, I know you’re lying.”

He crossed his arms. “I’m not lying. I bought them.”

Great. Not only had he ditched school, he’d stolen something. It was the worst cliché. The deputy’s kid decides to rebel and becomes a criminal.

My first instinct was to blow up at him. But I didn’t. Somehow, I stayed calm.

“You don’t have any money. You spent the last of it two weeks ago at the Quick Stop. I remember because you didn’t have enough for the slushie and the giant bag of chips you wanted, so I spotted you two dollars. You’re fourteen and you don’t have a job, so unless you have another source of cash I need to know about, you wouldn’t have had enough for all that.” I gestured to the sugary contraband in his backpack.

“Fine. I stole them. What are you going to do? Arrest me?”

I thought about it. I really did. I wouldn’t actually arrest him for stealing cookies. But toss him in the back of my car and take him to the station? Make him sit in an interrogation room for a while? Scare the shit out of him so he wouldn’t dream of pulling a stunt like that again?