Risk It All (Risqué #2)

by Scarlett Finn

‘No, we didn’t spend the night together and I’ve been at the garage all day.’

  ‘She’s working tonight.’

  ‘Yeah, but I’ve sort of been keeping my distance.’

  That afternoon Bri had been over to Lyssa’s again, he knew because when he called Colt to check if he’d heard from Ruger, Bri had been there. The help that Lyssa was giving her was getting her back to her old self, she was confident again, smiling more, and engaging patrons in conversation.

  ‘If she’s worth her salt then she’ll have noticed that. A woman doesn’t like to be ignored, Blase, I don’t care how much money you have, or how many vacations you take, you have to be able to pay her attention.’

  ‘Exactly,’ he said, swiping her ankle to move her leg aside. ‘How many mornings will she have to wake up alone, huh? And I’m in here almost every night, how long will she put up with that?’

  ‘She’ll be alone a lot more if you’re in prison,’ Crystal said. She sat up and reached for his shirt, taking hold of it, she pulled him close to her. ‘Look, you’ve worked really hard for everything that you’ve got. It’s not always fun and yes sometimes you’re a tired old grumpus…’

  ‘Thanks,’ he grumbled.

  ‘But you’ve done so much and you have to be proud. If she’s the type of girl that wants diamonds and your undivided attention then she’s not the girl for you. I’m sorry to say it, but if you can’t talk to her about this then one of two things is going on, either you’re worried she’ll say yes that you should do it and you actually don’t want to, or…’

  ‘Or?’

  ‘You’re worried she’ll say no, that she doesn’t want you to do it.’

  ‘And if she says no?’

  ‘Do you think that you’ll lose her if you don’t provide her with your time and money?’

  ‘Bri won’t care about the money,’ he said. ‘She was never material oriented.’

  ‘So it’s the time that you’re worried about?’ Crystal asked. ‘She’s dependent on you and needs you there with her all the time?’

  ‘Not all the time,’ he said. ‘But how many dates have you seen me go on these last few years? Maybe I don’t have the time to dedicate myself to a full-time relationship.’

  ‘Hmm,’ Crystal said, pressing her hands to him. ‘Are we talking about Mattie’s offer, or are we talking about you being scared to commit?’

  ‘I want to be with her, I love her.’

  ‘And you have no trouble with commitment, you own two businesses for chrissakes… Talk to her, it’s all you can do. If she tells you to do it, then I say dump her, ‘cause the rest of us wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves if you didn’t keep this place together.’

  Crystal did have a way of cutting through the crap and he was more grateful for her than he’d ever told her. She’d managed to get him laughing again and his mind was much clearer. The office door opened and he turned to see Dax coming in.

  ‘What’s the—‘

  ‘Give us a minute, darlin’,’ Dax said to Crystal, who shrugged and sashayed toward Dax, each of her slow, measured steps got her that little bit closer to the exit but without any hurry. She trailed a finger the width of Dax’s chest as she walked out and Blaser could only laugh at her gall. It had been years since she’d been the slutty party girl, but it was an act she remembered well.

  He headed toward the desk. ‘What’s up?’ Blaser asked when Dax closed the door.

  ‘You want to get home, now.’

  ‘What? Why? The club is open for hours yet.’

  ‘Ivy just called,’ Dax said, marching to the desk Blaser had just sat down at. ‘There are cops all over the place.’

  ‘Cops?’ Blaser asked, springing to his feet. ‘What do they want?’

  ‘They have a warrant.’

  ‘A warrant for what?’ Blaser wasn’t sure he actually wanted the answer. The aloof fighter wasn’t giving much away, but cops swarming around the apartment block would be enough to give all of the residents the creeps.

  ‘They’re in your place, that’s all I know.’

  ‘You think they know about the other night?’

  ‘If they did then they’d be here,’ Dax said. ‘And no one has knocked on my door yet.’

  ‘So what else—‘

  ‘I don’t know what shit you’re mixed up in, but you better get back there and get it straightened out, and if there’s anything that you need to tell your girl…’

  ‘She knows,’ Blaser said. ‘She knows about the other night, she was pissed, but she got over it.’

  ‘That’s something,’ Dax said. ‘Maybe I should’ve asked you about any other enterprises you had going on before I got involved. Everyone seems to think that you were whiter than white these days, are they wrong?’

  ‘I don’t know what the cops are looking for,’ Blaser said, heading for the hat stand by the door where his jacket hung. ‘But they’re not going to find anything at my place or on any of my premises if they want to look further.’

  ‘Ok.’

  ‘Are you coming?’ Blaser asked, swooping his jacket around onto his shoulders.

  ‘Not a chance,’ Dax said. ‘I was taught to run away from cops, never toward them.’

  ‘Ivy’s over there. If trouble is looking for you—‘

  ‘Ivy really is whiter than white,’ he said then a smile quirked his lips. ‘As far as the law is concerned anyway.’

  ‘Yeah, I don’t think there’s any doubt what she is behind your bedroom door.’

  ‘You calling my wife a slut?’

  ‘No! I meant ‘cause of what happened with Suzette, who got the full live-action audio.’

  Now Dax really did smile. ‘That really pissed Ivy off.’

  ‘Yeah, the whole block knows.’

  Dax opened the door for him and they started toward the stairs. ‘Go find out what the pigs want, having them sniffing around isn’t what we need now.’

  Blaser didn’t need to be told that. For five years, he’d stayed out of trouble and he’d had no contact with the police, they certainly hadn’t come looking for him. The raid a few weeks ago was inconvenient, but it didn’t bother him because he knew that there was nothing to find.

  Now that the police were at his home, he was concerned. With the fight night and his run-ins with Gary and Rafe, this wasn’t the time to blip on police radar. He would have to go home, get rid of them, and then keep his head down until all of this had passed.

  Police cars angled toward his apartment in the parking lot had their flashing lights still on, there was nothing discreet about what they were doing. Various uniformed officers stood in a haphazard perimeter to stop snooping eyes and nosey neighbours from getting too close.

  Ivy was standing on the top balcony when he pulled up to the block and Suzette stood beside her. It seemed that his misfortune had been enough to bring the women together, at least for tonight. If Suzette was witness to what was going on then he had no doubt that she’d have called Lyssa, which probably meant that Colt was on his way.

  Colt still had friends down at the station so it could be useful to have him here. He could usually get more information than those actually involved in the crime. Not that Blaser had been involved in anything criminal, not here at the apartment block anyway.

  Killing the engine, he wasted no time in getting out and crossing to see what was going on. A uniformed officer stopped him before he could reach the walkway to his apartment.

  ‘That’s my apartment,’ Blaser said. ‘I have a right to know what the hell is going on.’

  ‘It’s ok.’

  Blaser recognised the voice of Detective Hoburn, a homicide detective who knew Colt from his days on the force. Hoburn came out of a car parked a few feet from behind the officer, the door had been open, but Blaser hadn’t been looking for any occupants.

  Hoburn came to him and nodded him over to the side. They moved together to the front of the building but didn’t get near Blaser’s apartment so he couldn’t see what they were u
p to.

  ‘You’re in some trouble, Warner,’ Hoburn said. ‘Where were you day before yesterday?’

  Although he didn’t know the exact time, he knew it was the early hours of the morning. Yesterday he’d spent the day at the garage then gone straight to the club, all the while fretting about Mattie’s offer. The previous day was Bri’s therapy session and all the revelations that came with that.

  ‘I was at Lyssa’s, then I saw Colt at the club,’ Blaser said. ‘I brought my girlfriend back here and we were here until we went to work at Risqué.’ All of that was true, he’d just omitted what happened with Gary while he and Bri were here.

  ‘Who is your girlfriend?’

  ‘Brianna Wilcox,’ Blaser said. ‘What is this about?’

  ‘And they’ll all corroborate your story?’

  ‘It’s not a story, it’s the truth,’ Blaser said, trying to look beyond the cop. ‘You can’t just show up here unannounced and start emptying my apartment.’

  ‘We can,’ Hoburn said. ‘We have a warrant.’

  ‘How did you get a warrant for—‘

  ‘We got an anonymous tip.’

  ‘Oh, you’ve had them before,’ Blaser said. ‘On the back of that, you managed to convince a judge—‘

  ‘Didn’t have to rely on that,’ Hoburn said. ‘We followed up and found two witnesses who saw you threaten the deceased on the day that he died.’

  ‘The deceased?’

  ‘Guy you know as Rafe.’

  ‘Rafe is dead?’ Blaser asked.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘And he died…’ Blaser didn’t have to ask. Rafe died on the same day that he and Dax had gone to visit him, and he’d bet any money that the two weasels sitting in Rafe’s living room were the ones who gave statements to say that he had threatened Rafe.

  Another car came into the parking lot, and the distraction gave Blaser time to think. ‘Would you come down to the station and answer a few questions?’ Hoburn asked.

  ‘Uh, sure,’ Blaser said. Someone got out of the new car and he was actually relieved to see Colt coming across the asphalt. ‘Let me talk to my brother.’

  ‘Ok,’ Hoburn said and turned to make his way into Blaser’s apartment. Typical that strangers could rifle through his things but he wasn’t even allowed to set foot in his own home.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Colt asked when he reached him.

  Some of his own confusion lifted when he read Colt’s cop face, this was all business, and here was where he got answers. Blaser took Colt’s arm to pull him away from the bodies moving around, in and out of his apartment with purpose.

  ‘Rafe’s dead,’ Blaser said, knowing that the slow way Colt lifted his head wasn’t good. ‘It happened day before yesterday.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Blaser said. ‘Didn’t ask. They want me to go to the station for questioning.’

  ‘You’re going to be honest, right?’

  Scanning around to make sure they weren’t overheard Blaser lowered his voice. ‘If I tell them everything, about how I got that money to Rafe, they’ll put me away again. And it means ratting out Dax and his contacts, they’re not the kind of guys you fuck about with. They’d gut a guy and sell the dismembered pieces to the highest bidder.’

  ‘Maybe you should’ve thought about that before—‘

  ‘Yeah. Yeah. There’s the self-righteous Colt we all know and love,’ Blaser said. ‘I didn’t kill him. Why would I bother getting that money together if I was just going to slit the guy open?’

  ‘Day before yesterday?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Can you account for the full day?’

  ‘I got up, went to the club, then Dax and I paid Rafe a visit, we paid him his money and we left. That was it. He was alive when we left.’

  ‘Then what?’ Colt asked, angling his back to the corner wall of the apartment building.

  ‘I went to the garage for a while, came home to shower and then I took Bri to Lyssa’s, they had a session. From there I came to you at the club.’

  ‘Lys and I can back you up on that and Bri will—‘

  ‘Yeah, Bri will tell Hoburn that, but after we came back here… Gary came to visit, he threatened me and Dax took him out.’

  ‘Took him out?’ Colt asked. ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘Not murdered him if that’s what you think. Gary was pointing a gun at me, Dax made him drop it.’

  ‘A gun?’ Colt asked.

  Activity near the apartment door made both of them turn to watch. Something was carried out of the building and taken to a vehicle, then Hoburn came out and split away from the group to come toward them.

  ‘You ready?’ Hoburn asked Blaser. ‘I can give you a ride down there.’

  ‘Are you arresting him?’ Colt asked.

  ‘Not yet,’ Hoburn said. ‘But unless what we just found checks out…’

  ‘What did you find?

  ‘Did you petition for the right to own firearms?’ Hoburn asked Blaser. ‘Despite your convictions being non-violent—‘

  ‘You have a gun?’ Colt asked. ‘What the hell do you need a gun for?’

  ‘I don’t… Shit.’ He did have a gun in his apartment, but it wasn’t his. The gun that was in his apartment had been left by Gary.

  ‘I’m pretty sure that what we found in your bedroom was a firearm. And the slug in the kitchen…?’

  Rubbing his mouth, the prickle of foreboding sent adrenaline to his heart. ‘I’ve never fired that gun, you can test my hands, my clothes, there’s no residue—‘

  ‘Is this where you took the bullet that you claim didn’t exist?’ Hoburn asked.

  Blaser had been shot weeks ago, before Gary was taken into custody, and that had happened nowhere near here. But letting the cop believe that he had been shot was better than letting him think that Blaser had been the one to do the shooting.

  ‘No one was shot here,’ Blaser said. ‘The gun went off by accident and I took it away from a friend so that he wouldn’t hurt anyone.’

  ‘What friend?’ Hoburn asked.

  Blaser sealed his lips and the hope in the cop’s eyes became suspicion. If he gave Gary up, then there was a chance Gary would go back to jail and Bri might never forgive him for that.

  ‘Maybe I should talk to a lawyer,’ Blaser said.

  ‘Maybe you should,’ Hoburn agreed. ‘If I check the ballistics of that weapon against the bullet taken from the victim, what am I going to find?’

  Gary was out of prison because of Mattie’s hotshot lawyer, but Blaser knew nothing about his movements before he came into Blaser’s apartment waving that gun around. Since then, Gary had stayed away, from him at least. He had been so preoccupied with his own issues that he hadn’t checked in with Bri, so it was possible that she had heard from her brother.

  ‘I have to get back to the club,’ Blaser said and took a step toward his truck, but Colt’s arm came up to block his chest preventing further movement.

  ‘You have to come to the station to answer my questions,’ Hoburn said.

  ‘You said that you weren’t arresting him,’ Colt said. ‘He has the right to an attorney either way and it’s unlikely his attorney will be available at this time of the morning.’

  ‘It doesn’t look good if he refuses to come to the station and talk,’ Hoburn said.

  ‘We know how it looks,’ Colt said. ‘But you know he’s not a flight risk. You’re not arresting him because you want to wait until the ballistics are back, after that, if they match you can get an arrest warrant without a hitch. Right now, you have nothing except circumstantial evidence.’

  ‘We have the word of two witnesses.’

  ‘Witnesses who have little credibility,’ Colt said. First bringing his arm up between them, Colt put his own body between Blaser and the detective.

  ‘How do you know—‘

  ‘Because if they were upstanding members of society you wouldn’t have bothered with the search warrant until after you obtain
ed the arrest warrant… You don’t trust the witnesses, but you do know my family. Blaser was with Lyssa the day before yesterday and he was with me. You’ll also be able to check out the club cameras to see that he was there.’

  ‘You’re saying he’s innocent,’ Hoburn said.

  ‘Yeah, I am.’

  ‘As a brother or a former detective?’

  ‘Both. My brother isn’t going to fuck up everything he worked for just to wipe out some street scum. It doesn’t make sense, and you don’t think so either.’

  ‘I know that he’s been framed before,’ Hoburn said. ‘I know that the raid on the club was bogus and that there’s a history of people trying to get him into trouble.’

  ‘Which this could be another example of,’ Colt said. ‘If Blase was going to start murdering people then he wouldn’t start with that piece of shit. He’s never been violent, check out his rap sheet.’

  ‘I have.’

  ‘Then you know he’s been straight since he got out of prison. You’ve worked with him. You know he’s not the type to go around shooting people.’

  ‘And in your experience at the precinct, does every criminal seem like the type?’

  Colt drew in a breath. ‘He’ll come to the station, tomorrow morning, with a lawyer and he’ll answer all of your questions… gives you time to gather more facts.’

  Blaser knew that Colt was using a favour for him. Hoburn and Colt had history and it wasn’t all positive, they’d reached a tentative truce recently, and after this Colt would owe the detective in charge.

  ‘Fine,’ Hoburn said. ‘But stay in touch. I’ll be asking questions.’

  Hoburn left the brothers and Colt wasted no time in turning to Blaser. ‘Get back to the club, tell Bri what is going on and talk to Dax, we have to know if he’s with us or not.’

  ‘Ok.’

  ‘I’m going to do some digging on my own.’

  Colt turned to leave, but Blaser caught his shoulder. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘You’re my brother,’ Colt said. ‘Where else would I be?’

  ‘You could be warm in bed with your sexy as sin fiancée right now instead of out here in the cold cleaning up my mess.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Colt said, offering a smile. ‘She’s ovulating next weekend. If you get yourself in trouble then, you’ll be on your own.’