The joke was on me though because Alec was sitting on my front porch and trotted over to meet me halfway. “Hey Corey, I heard what happened at the hospital. I am so sorry that happened. Especially after all you did for Lou last night.” He shook his head and placed his hand on my shoulder, “I know Micah can be really rash at times but I  do not think he means anything harsh by it. He was just worried about his little brother.”

I scratched my head and chuckled awkwardly, “I get being worried about your brother and all but throwing things around in a hospital room and stressing Louie out like that while he is trying to recover is no excuse.”

Alec pursed his lips and thought for a minute, “I don’t think him or Noelle told us he threw anything.”

“I’m honestly not surprised. Noelle seems rather scared of him and he wouldn’t admit to it even if you saw him do it. I know his type. I dealt with a lot of guys like him at my old job.”

He looked at me quizzically, “Oh yeah? What line of work?”

“I used to be security for high end clubs back in the city. I dealt with guys like him basically every d@mn night.”

He rubbed his neck and started walking back towards the road, “I will try to talk to Micah and try to get him off your back. I rather not have another son in the hospital.”

I was about to turn around but stopped in my tracks, “Wait you are Micah and Louie's father? I thought that Beck Abergathy was Micah's father?”

Alec about fell over laughing at my question. He wiped tears from his face as he answered, “yes and no I suppose. We are all family round ere. I know it may be rather confusing for a city guy like you but most of us are just found family. We all just care of each other.” He turned around and flashed a smile at me, “So don't be surprised if I call you son when talking to and about you.”

“Oh, I suppose that makes sense. I don't have much of a real family. Honestly I dont have anyone back in the city that I ever wish to see again. I aint even seen my parents since I moved out of their house.”

He rushed back to me and gave me a very tight hug, knocking the wind out of me, “Well we will be here for you Corey. You don't have to do things alone around here. I dont care what you did in your past. You been nothing but amazing to my family and I will be here for you if you need any help with anything.”

He let go and patted my back, “I am going to go take care of Micah, he shouldn't be an issue anymore, and if he is, just tell me or Beck. We will put him back into line.”

We both chuckled and parted ways.

Once finally in my house it was nearly 9 pm. So much for getting stuff done around the house. I flopped onto the couch a little frustrated. “Man I really wanted to get some of these boxes unpacked finally but now I’m too tired to care.”

I looked over at the large stack of boxes in my dining room. Sigh “I should probably make something to eat and sleep early so I can just do all this tomorrow. I still have so much to do. AND I still need to find a job. I can’t live for very long on my savings.”

I sighed and got up to go into the kitchen when I saw the dried blood left on the couch from last night, “D@mnit. Now I have to try and get blood out of the couch too? Maaaan I just got this couch too.”

I rolled up off of the couch and meandered into the kitchen to look for some cleaning supplies. “D@mnit. Of course I didn’t think to get any sort of cleaning supplies. What the hell am I supposed to do now?”

I decided to forgo worrying about the blood for now and decided to make something for dinner instead. As I sat down with my food though I got a message from an unknown number.

“I need your help. Come to 18765 Parish road when you are released. Things got out of hand last time we were together and I didn’t mean for all that to happen. I just want to talk to you about what happened. I promise I didn't mean it at all. You know I love you. Remember to tell no one.”

I stared at my phone for what felt like hours trying to figure out what the hxll this text meant. “Maybe they just sent it to me by accident and they entered the number in wrong.”

A second text came through:

“I’m sorry Corey, that was probably confusing. It’s Louie. I wanted to forward that message to you. I am scared if I am being honest. I do not know if I should go or not. This isn’t the first time I have landed in the hospital because of this person, but I don’t think he means to hurt me. But then again, I’m still scared. Do you think you could go with me?”

I breathed a slight sigh of relief. At least it wasn't Clay finding my number and knowing where I went. “Man what did I get myself into.”

I sent him a response:

“I do not think you should go BUT if you absolutely think you need to go there and air things out, you can count on me.”