He sees we’re interested and says, “Alright I’ll tell you.”
Shelby and I listen and react to every twist and turn of the crazy story. As he guides us to the small couches being vacated by a group of guys in khaki shorts and polo shirts, he asks, “You didn’t hear about it? It was all over the news. I hated every second of that media coverage. Had to disappear into my farm to remember who I was when it was all over.”
“We never watch the news,” I tell him over loud conversations and a retro 80’s playlist.
Shelby explains, “It’s all negative and hyped to increase viewership. Not good for the soul.”
Ben laughs, “Can’t blame you,” and asks, “What are you ladies having?”
Thinking about it, I decide to go light. “After the tequila, I’d just like some lemonade. No, wait. Make it a vodka lemonade.”
Shelby laughs, “I was going to say!” She smiles up at Ben from her seat. “Vodka cran for me. Oh, let me give you my card.”
He walks off, “Yeah right. Put your purse away.”
But she’s already fumbling through it. “If Carter hears that guy bought me a drink he’ll lose it.”
“How will he know?”
“I’ll know and that’s enough,” she says on a quiet snort as she locks eyes with me. “He is so hot, Paige, I swear to God if you don’t take him I will.” Her head bobs to her wallet. She rummages around and blinks at it, neck lengthening. “My debit card isn’t here,” she mutters, digging around some more.
“Did you leave it in your hoodie after class? I do that sometimes.”
Shaking her head she digs through all the compartments, even the ones she’s checked. “No. I always keep it here because my aunt Joanie told me that how you treat your money is how your money treats you.” Meeting my eyes, Shelby says, “I never forgot that. It’s always in my wallet.”
Staring at her I remember Bobby running from my bedroom with Shelby’s purse in his hands last night. My throat goes dry and I rise up on wobbly knees. “I have to go to the bathroom. Will you excuse me?”
“Don’t be so formal, Paige. It’s just me.”
Just you who doesn’t know about my brother’s gambling problem and that he didn’t come home last night after you told him to grab your purse for you.
“Sorry,” I mutter, snatching my small clutch bag up with shaky fingers. “I’m nervous from Ben, Gabriel, everything.” Rushing off I search my contacts and hit the call button.
Uncle Taylor answers, “Paige! Well now, kiddo! What a surprise. And on a Friday night? Aren’t you supposed to be partying like all the girls your age?”
I croak, “Is Bobby with you?”
He pauses. “No, I haven’t seen your brother since Christmas. Why?”
Everything spins as I whisper, “He said he was visiting you. He’s not there?”
With concern he hesitates and slowly says, “Bobby’s not here. Is he in trouble? Are you okay?”
Lying has never come easy to me and now is no exception. “He’s probably gone away with some girl. We were supposed to watch a movie, that’s all.”
“Oh, well, can’t blame him for not wanting to check in with you. A boy’s gotta become a man someday, you know? Come and go as he pleases. Can’t have his older sister looking out for him the rest of his life!”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s it,” I whisper. “Sorry to bother you, Uncle Taylor.” I hang up while he’s talking and stare at the cement below my feet. Is it supposed to be moving like that?
Ben is sitting next to Shelby when I hobble back. She’s smiling at him like she’s forgotten all about her missing debit card.
“Shelby?”
She glances to me and her smile fades. “Paige, you’re pale. You okay?”
“Bobby stole your debit card last night.”
She blinks at me, then a frown slashes her forehead. “What?! Why?” She and Ben stand up as she swims in confusion. “Are you sure? I mean, why would he do something like that?”
Over the sharp lump in my throat I drop the bomb I’ve been hiding for so long. “He has a gambling problem.”
“You didn’t think to warn when I said, Bobby get my purse? Are you crazy!?”
“He doesn’t normally steal. I mean, he hasn’t for a couple years. I was so nervous about the date I wasn’t even thinking!”
She stares at me. “Oh well that’s good to know! He doesn’t normally but he chose me to fall off the wagon with?”
Ben’s voice is low as he takes our arms and guides us away from the patio where people have begun to stare. “Is there a reason why he would do this?”
Numbly I’m staring at Ben when I realize he’s leading me to answer the truth that he overheard when we were waiting for Officer Timothy.
Licking my dry lips I tell Shelby, “We’re getting an eviction notice Monday.” Her eyes are flitting back and forth on mine. “He’s trying to win the money to pay for us to stay in our apartment.”
Softening she moans in frustration, “Why didn’t you tell me that? How come I’m just now finding out about all of this?”
“He’s my brother, Shelby.”
Ben takes a sharp breath. “She’s protecting her family.”
“I’m her family, too!” Shelby says, hitting her chest. She looks at me with hurt in her eyes. “I spend more time with you than anyone. I love you like my sister. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be fucking homeless so I could help you?”
“I was embarrassed. I’m ashamed.”
Covering her face, Shelby starts to cry. “I don’t know how to feel right now. Betrayed? Left out? Robbed?” Her hands drop as she asks in a pleading voice, “Is it possible he’ll win?”
“Maybe?” As she stares at me for the truth, I shake my head. “He never leaves when he’s winning.”
“Paige, I have to call the police!”
Ben pulls out his phone.
She asks him, “Are you calling the cops?”
Tears fly up as my heart leaps into my throat.
PAIGE
Shelby and I barely spoke all day at work. Her consistently bubbly nature was absent, and people noticed.
As she counts the register and I turn the sign around in the window after closing, she asks, “Have you heard from him yet?”
“Bobby?”
“No, Ben. Did he call or text you? Did his uncle find your brother? I would think you’d have told me if he called but since you don’t tell me important things I didn’t want to assume.”
Rolling my eyes I mutter, “He texted the search was still on.”
Shelby exhales through her nose and keeps counting.
I walk from room to room and turn the lights out.
She doesn’t even have the music playing. It’s as if we’re working in a morgue. “Did you sleep last night, Shelbs?”
“No. You?”
“Not at all.”
She glances up from the money. “You look sick.”
“I haven’t eaten.”
Her eyebrows twitch as she goes back to counting, as if to say I deserve this. “I should have told you.”
“Ya think?” she saltily mutters. “I can’t believe you kept all this from me.”
“It’s not like you and Carter have room for us. And up until last week I thought we had enough money to get by and beg the landlord for another month of patience. But then Bobby gambled the money he’d just earned on some small house painting job, so what was I going to do?”
She shoves the register closed. “You know, you’ve always said I’m family to you but you don’t treat me like that when it comes to your blood family.”
“Shelby…”
“NO! It’s true, and it makes me feel like shit. If you have problems I want to know about them. That’s what best friends are for.”
Walking to my purse I mumble, “Then it would have been both of us feeling awful. It’s not like you had the money to loan me.”
“Well I ended up giving you guys all the money I had
anyway, now didn’t I!” She grabs her purse as she passes me for the door like she can’t get away fast enough. Whipping around she jams a finger in my face. “He took my debit card! He violated me, Paige. We were up on that roof laughing and acting like friends and the whole time he had everything I earned in his pocket! It’s so shitty I can’t even wrap my head around it.”
“I know, it’s a disease.”
“Fuck that!” she snaps, bursting out the door.
I follow her, “Shelby, don’t give up on me!”
Throwing her arms up she shakes her head. “I haven’t called my bank to tell them it’s gone yet, because I love you that much. I’m giving you and Ben this chance to find that fucking thief and then I really don’t know what’s going to happen with you and me. I’m just…I’m really hurt. I’m dying here.” She walks to her car and climbs in as I watch, helpless.
Locking up the studio I stare inside and see the ghost of our dance party that happened less than a week ago. And now look where we are.
My phone rings as I climb into my dented old car. I jump to answer and see Ben’s name on the screen. “Did he find my brother?”
“My uncle finally heard back from his friend in the police department. There are three illegal games happening now, but one has been going nonstop for over a week.”
“That’s probably the one he was at before. It’s gotta be how he knew where to go.”
“We’re going to check it out tonight when my uncle can get away. My Aunt Jaimie has a charity dinner at The Atlanta Women’s Foundation and he’s going to head out as soon as she leaves.”
“He doesn’t want her to worry,” I whisper, staring out my windshield. “Why is he doing this for me?”
“Because I asked him to.”
“Ben,” I groan, laying my head on the steering wheel. “Thank you.”
“I’ll call you after, tell you if we got him or not.”
“I have to be there! I’m going with you!”
“Paige, that’s not a good idea. These illegal games are dangerous.”
“That’s why I have to be there, Ben! If anything happens to Bobby…Don’t leave me out of this.”
After a moment of silence he exhales. “Fine. I’ll text you when I’m on the way to pick you up. I don’t know exactly when but it will be sometime after eight.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
Thanking him and hanging up I call Shelby. She waits until the last ring to answer which means she didn’t want to. “Yeah?”
“They might have found him. We’re going tonight to see, and I didn’t want to leave you out.”
“I’m coming with!”
PAIGE
Our headlights illuminate the exterior of a dirty warehouse with a row of fancy cars parked out front. There is nobody within a mile of this paint-chipped place. They do not belong here.
“This is where your uncle said it was?” Shelby nervously asks.
Another car pulls up and Ben says “That’s him,” as he engages the emergency brake and withdraws the key from the ignition.
Exactly as handsome and intimidating as he appears in photographs, Justin Cocker, Gabriel’s father and former Senator of Georgia, steps out of a black Audi and straightens his suit jacket as he meets Ben’s eyes through the windshield.
We all climb out.
Ben hugs him. “Uncle Justin.”
“Glad you didn’t try to be a hero and run in without me.” Their voices stay low as they separate. “Did you see my son’s concert last night?”
“I did.”
“How’d he do? His mom was tearing her hair out with jealousy not being there herself to see it.”
Ben’s eyes flit to me and he clears his throat. “I thought Aunt Jaimie hates how the girls go all Beatles-nutso over him.”
“She does. But she also hates missing it. It’s a battle. Being a rockstar’s mother isn’t easy. That’s what she always says. I tell her, wait until you have a President for a son.”
Ben chuckles and runs a self-conscious hand through his hair. Now that the polite, Southern chitchat is over Gabriel’s dad stares at the warehouse and I study his face without meaning to. He’s a blonde, clean-shaven, older version of his son. They both have the strong jaws, cute nose, intense pale green eyes. And they both feel unreachable.
Sensing I’m staring at him, he glances to me and Shelby for the first time. “Who is the sister?”
I raise my hand halfway. “Me.”
“You two are dating?” he asks Ben.
We simultaneously answer, “No.”
Shelby helps us out by lying, “I’m dating Ben. It’s really new. And she’s my best friend. Her brother stole my debit card.”
“How’d he know the password?”
“It’s my boyfriend’s name plus the number one, so…it wasn’t hard.”
Mr. Cocker cocks a blonde eyebrow. “You have a boyfriend and you’re dating my nephew?”
Clearing his throat Ben explains, lying, too, “They just broke up. I kind of fucked things up for them.”
Rolling his eyes, Mr. Cocker mutters, “You’re just like your father. Let’s do this. Ladies, stay here.”
Ben’s staring after him for a beat like, what did you mean I’m like my father? But bigger things are happening so he doesn’t push for an explanation as they walk to the door and disappear inside.
After a few minutes, I look at her.
“Shelby, I can’t wait out here.”
“Yeah, fuck this. What year is it?”
My hands are shaking as I open the door. She and I exchange a look and head in. The air is filled with smoke and we can hear low male voices engaged in tense conversation. I recognize my brother’s and suddenly my feet have a mind of their own.
Around the corner we come upon a long oval table with eight players. On one side is the dealer. My brother is on the end with piles of chips in front of him. I don’t know their value but he’s not losing. He doesn’t have the biggest pot. A few other players are ahead, too.
There are three bouncers along the walls waiting to strike now that there’s been an interruption from someone who’s considered a ‘good guy’ and doesn’t do illegal things like this. They know he has power in high places and they could be in trouble, which they don’t want. Things could get very nasty in here. Everyone is watching Mr. Cocker wondering how he found them, and what he’s going to do now that he has.
The former Senator is coolly explaining that Bobby is leaving now and to cash out those chips. “I assume we won’t have an argument?” he pointedly asks the man who appears to be in charge. This guy looks like he walked off a plantation, his linen suit pale yellow, and a cane rests on his chair. He’s Southern old money, most of it dirty if I had to guess.
“I’m not ready to go!” my brother snaps.
Frightened I can’t keep quiet anymore. “Bobby…?”
The room goes silent.
All heads turn toward me.
“Paige!” His eyes flit to Shelby and he sinks in his chair.
She is too scared to yell at him, react or even move.
Ben’s fists are at his side ready for use.
Mr. Cocker says it again. “Are we going to have a problem?”
“That all depends now, doesn’t it, Senator,” Yellow Suit says in a thick drawl. “What we’re doing is merely for sport, you understand.”
Mr. Cocker wears the expression of a man who’s seen the dark underbelly of too many illegal situations. “How ‘bout this, Franklin? You keep playing and I won’t shut down your private ‘sport’ as long as you promise never to allow Bobby Miller in the game ever again.”
My brother jumps out of his chair.
The bouncer grabs him.
I scream his name.
Ben grabs me and holds me in place.
“Shhhh,” he whispers.
My eyes are locked on my brother in the arms of that beast, as Shelby starts to cry.
Mr. Cocker eyeballs e
veryone and settles his calm and steady gaze on the old man as if none of this fazes him. “Do we have a deal?”
Franklin smiles. “I don’t enjoy drama at my parties. Remove him.” The bouncer wrestles my brother out, breaking my heart every step of the way. “Oh, and Robert?” the old man calls after Bobby, using his whole name in a sleazy way, like he knows him better than I do. The bouncer grabs Bobby’s face and makes him listen. “Don’t come back…understand? You do and Boone here won’t be so gentle. Take him away.”
I yank at Ben but he’s too strong. “Just wait. He won’t hurt him today.”
Franklin overhears this. “That’s right. Your brother is a lucky boy…today.” He nods to someone I hadn’t seen before, a man standing against the wall, hands clasped low, one foot casually perched. “Cash him out.”
Nobody else at the table has said a word, which is eerie and unsettling. They look like wax figures to me.
Gabriel’s father walks to collect the money for my brother. His trim body is tense as the chips are counted and the cash is placed in his open palm.
“Carry on,” he tells Franklin with a single nod.
Shelby hurries out with us as the dealer shuffles. Coming to life, the remaining players pick up their cards as they’re dealt. A shiver drifts down my body.
Outside, the bouncer gives a surly scan before he vanishes inside the warehouse.
Bobby doesn’t look like himself. He’s shifty-eyed like he needs his fix. He’s not sure how to behave now that he’s been forced to stop when the money hasn’t run out.
I’ve seen this look in our mother’s eyes before she joined the rooms of Gambler’s Anonymous. I hoped I’d never see it again.
Shaken, Shelby asks, “How much did you take from me?”
His desperation fixates on the cracked asphalt and he won’t meet her eyes.
Mr. Cocker asks how much she had in her account. She tells him and he counts from the stack. There’s disgust in his eyes as he sneers, “I’m going to assume he cleaned you out. I’ve known addicts before.”
Cocky Rockstar: Gabriel Cocker (Cocker Brothers of Atlanta Book 10) Page 9