Unhinged by Timberlyn Scott Read Free Book Online

wiping my
hands again. Seeing that it was my father, I was tempted to ignore it. I knew
without answering just what he had to say.
    “Yo,” I greeted after
putting the phone on speaker.
    My father hated that.
    “Where are you?” he
asked, the frustration in his tone echoing through the cavernous space.
    “Garage. Why?”
    “Where’s Aaliyah?”
    “School.” Not that I
was her keeper or anything.
    “Why the hell did you
tell Payton that no one was home?”
    “I didn’t know her from
Eve,” I lied. “What was I supposed to do? Let her in to rummage through the
house?”
    In case I hadn’t
mentioned it, I lived to torment my father. We had a love/hate relationship
that we’d perfected over the last few years — ever since I was introduced to
him.
    You see, I’m Conrad
Trovato’s dirty little secret. Or my mother was anyway.
    Needless to say, we
didn’t particularly like each other, although he’d insisted on taking me in
when my mother died. I’d been fourteen at the time, and since I didn’t have any
other family willing to take in a wild kid with a growing juvenile record, I
hadn’t had much of a choice.
    I was still wild, more
so now. The only difference was that I didn’t get caught anymore.
    Conrad didn’t appreciate
my wild living, and I didn’t appreciate how he had treated my mother. Or the
way he talked down to me. We’d come to an impasse before I was twenty-one and
the years hadn’t improved our relationship one fucking bit.
    “I need my phone,” he
groused.
    “Come and get it,” I
snapped.
    “Sebastian,” Conrad chastised,
drawing my name out in way too many syllables.
    I didn’t say anything.
    “You need to grow up,
Sebastian,” he finally added.
    And you need to go to
hell ,
I thought to myself.
    “Was there something
else?” I asked, pretending my head wasn’t about to explode.
    “Actually, there is,”
he stated.
    Damn.
    I bit my tongue,
knowing he would eventually say something.
    “We’re having a party
tomorrow night.”
    “Great. Have fun.”
    Unfortunately, Conrad
and his wife Lauren had a penchant for throwing parties all the damned time.
They claimed they were for charity, but I knew better. My stepmother loved the
limelight. She loved to show off her riches and inviting other affluent
assholes to their home was the easiest way for her to do that.
    “We’re announcing the
new concept car.”
    Fucking shit.
    “I want you to be
there.”
    “Not a chance in hell,”
I told him firmly. Rather than argue because I know the next phase, I simply
added, “Look, I gotta work.” With that, I hung up on him.
    I’d hear all about it
the next time I saw him, I was sure. The old man lived to bust my balls, which
didn’t make me want to do him any favors.

Chapter Seven
    Payton
     
    “Party?” I stared back
at Mr. Trovato, praying my mouth wasn’t hanging open while I tried to
comprehend what he’d just asked me.
    I was pretty sure my
jaw was on the floor.
    I’d been back in the
office for all of an hour, eating my turkey sandwich at my desk while Mr.
Trovato left to attend his lunch meeting. He’d been gone less time than I
figured he would be and when he returned, I had been filing some paperwork that
had been signed last week. I had greeted him as soon as he reached the top of
the stairs, and on his way to his office he had mumbled something about a
party.
    Yes, a party.
    Maybe I was hearing
things because it sure sounded like Conrad had invited me to a party at his
house.
    He stopped in the
doorway, his hand on the frame as he turned back toward me. “Tomorrow night.
Seven o’clock. Black tie. My house. I’ll make sure you’re added to the guest
list,” Mr. Trovato clarified.
    Yep, it was official. I
wasn’t hearing things.
    I nodded, purely
because I had no idea what to say.
    As much as I liked my
job, despite the bizarre encounter I’d had with Mr. Trovato’s mechanic, or the
peculiar expression I’d been met with when I explained to Conrad before he