Zay jumped to his feet when he spotted West and Mr. Salazar heading toward the front of the station. He waited impatiently for them to draw closer.

"Well?" he called out when they came into the lobby area.

West sighed. "I'm not under arrest, at least for the moment."

"For the moment?" Josh asked him.

West shrugged. "The only evidence they have is that one image and since I admitted I assisted in the theft they couldn't exactly beret me into confessing."

"Wait, hold up a minute, you confessed but they're releasing you?" Alyssa scowled at him. "How does that make sense?"

A grin appeared on West's face. "Because there's one thing Seth never knew about that car theft."

"Um ... what?" Zay asked in confusion.

"After I broke it off with Seth and walked away from him and the gang I felt awful about stealing that pickup. I hired a private investigator and told him I kept seeing a pickup following me. I gave him the license plate number and he got me the info. He thought I was going to go to the police with it, but I went to the guy's house and apologized, I even offered to pay for the truck however I could."

"You didn't?"

West nodded. "I did. The guy was a contractor and losing his truck set him back quite a bit. He had materials for a job in the truck and most of his tools, not to mention without the truck he couldn't get to the locations where his current jobs were."

"That sucks," Alyssa said.

"Yes, instead of flat out asking for the cash he had to pay out to replace his truck the supplies, and everything else, he told me I could work it off. So, I worked for him for a couple of summers until he decided I'd made up for it. I still help him out at no cost when he needs an extra hand on a job. I gave the detectives his number and told them to call him and ask if he'd still like to press charges, if he does then I'd be more than happy to turn myself over to their custody."

"And?" Josh asked him.

"Mr. Murphy told them if they pressed charges he'd be the first one to testify in court that I've paid my debt. If they decided to uphold the charges against me then he'd lodge one hell of a protest."

"I guess it's a good thing you have a conscience," Josh told him with a huge grin.

"Yes, it is, they definitely didn't expect it. I have another client I have to go meet with. Call me if you need anything else," Mr. Salazar told them before he left.

"I think this calls for another celebration dinner! To my house!" Josh shouted, thrust a hand in the air, and ran out the door like a superhero on his way to save the world.

"He is such a dork, what is it you see in him again?" West asked Alyssa.

"His dorkiness is rather attractive in an odd sort of way." She shrugged. "My life is never dull that's for sure."

With a laugh, she followed Josh out the door. West shook his head and grinned at Zay. "They are something special."

"They are and I'm glad I have them in my life."

"I'll second that. Come on, let's go before an enthusiastic Josh rushes off and leaves us behind."

Zay laughed and they headed out to the car. Josh babbled excitedly the entire way back, talking about the epic belated birthday bash he was gonna throw once all of this was over.

"It will be a celebration of not only my birthday but the fact we kicked Seth's ass and you two are free!"

Zay shook his head. "West beat him, I am nowhere close to kicking his ass in any possible way."

"Hey, come on, we have to keep hope alive!"

"Yeah, we can hope he wipes out on that bike of his and crashes through a guard rail and ends up dead in a ravine!" Alyssa said excitedly.

"Har har, you are so funny," Zay replied. "As much as I hate the guy for all of this, I don't want him dead. He hasn't had it easy, his parents were shit."

"So were yours and you turned out fine," Alyssa pointed out.

"Mine are crazy, but they love me, Seth's parents didn't love him. He was nothing to them."

"They loved you right up until you told them you were gay," West said with a scowl. "Seems as if there were conditions to their love."

"Yes, I suppose so. But I didn't live in fear of being abused. Neither of them is an alcoholic or a drug addict. My life was pretty normal. I was cared for, I had clothes and regular meals. I didn't want for anything."

"Except the freedom to be yourself."

He sent Alyssa a glare. "Yes, but all I'm saying is I can understand why Seth might have ended up the way he is. No one cared about him so why should he give a shit about anyone else? I can't condone his reactions, but I get it."

"You're a much better person than I am. I'd love to see him in a ditch." West turned away and stared out the window after making that statement.

"I'm with West on this one. Just because your life isn't perfect doesn't mean you get to be a complete asshole by default," Alyssa said.

"Okay, that's enough debate on the subject of Seth Bradford, let's discuss what we're having for dinner!" Josh announced.

***

Seth wasn't prone to worrying about things. He tended to believe everything was going to work out as planned, especially since he was the one making the plans. He wasn't an idiot and he knew how to plan so things never fell on him. He didn't like chaos, he was meticulous about planning everything out. He never took a step forward unless he was completely certain his foot would land on solid ground. Everything he planned had a contingency plan on top of several other contingency plans. He hadn't counted on several things with his latest schemes.

He hadn't counted on Alyssa and Josh accepting Zayden back into the fold. In his experience once trust was broken it remained that way, people didn't tend to forgive and forget. The fact that Zayden still had a support system was proving to be an issue. Harrison had provided him with a lawyer, he had been certain that Zay would be alone and end up with some witless public defender. Actually, he'd counted on exactly that happening. He had the perfect patsy lined up to represent Zayden. Now that wasn't an option, there would be no railroading Zay so a conviction was a foregone conclusion. Throughout this entire thing, he'd been counting on Zayden's naivete and trust in people. With Josh, Alyssa, and Weston back on his side things were not looking up.

"And that bastard Weston hadn't counted on him either," he muttered. No, he hadn't counted on West's conscience getting the better of him. Who would have predicted he'd tracked down the bastard whose truck they stole and offer to pay for it? He laughed. "Not me. Not ever."

"Quite a shit show, eh son?" his uncle asked as he stepped into the back office.

"Don't worry, I'll get it all back under control. I may have lost an opportunity to rope Weston into the charges, but Zayden is still in the running. Ferrel and Blaine will make certain he's charged."

Joey nodded. "I don't want to see you dragged down, kiddo. I keep telling you that you're meant for more than this petty shit. You have the cash to go to school and get a degree. Do something with your life."

"I am doing something, I'm running one hell of a theft ring."

"You are, but if you're caught—"

"Then I wasn't good enough and that is that. I'm not planning on getting caught, Uncle Joey. I have dozens of backups in place. I don't choose my people randomly, I do my research before I approach them. I'm not an idiot."

"No, you aren't. But you need to remember that there's always going to be someone smarter than you out there."

"Whatever. I need to get to work."

"Be careful, Seth."

He waved a hand at his uncle and headed for the door. Joey grabbed his arm as he passed.

"You call your mom yet?"

He shook off Joey's grasp. "No, and I'm not planning on it either. She made her choices and I wasn't one of them. She needs to live with that and so do I, there is no going back. Stop asking me because it isn't going to happen." He stalked out the door.

Yeah, his parents made their choices and he was caught between them. Nothing but a nuisance to their existence. If his mom had decided to clean up her life, goody for her, he still wanted no part of her. He'd written her off long ago. With a growl, he yanked the door of the tow truck open and climbed inside.

"I do not care about that bitch. I don't," he muttered and gave the key a violent twist in the ignition. Whether he'd said the words because they were the truth or because he was trying to convince himself they were the truth, he couldn't say and he chose not to look into it too deeply. He had more important things to worry about than his mother trying to apologize because her AA sponsor told her it was the next step in her recovery. If she wanted forgiveness then he would have to believe she was doing it because she wanted to, not because it was part of her twelve-step bullshit. Even then, he doubted he'd forgive her for all she'd done or in her case, hadn't done.