‘Yeah, Marshall was gonna come and pick you up, but if you’re here now, I guess—‘
‘I’m not going anywhere with you,’ she said, backing toward the door.
‘You’re my sister and I look after you. I got out of that shitty jail and Marshall gave me an update. Soon as I heard what was going on with Rafe, I went over there and took him out. Then I came to Blaser’s place to get you, to keep you safe, and you turned around and stabbed me in the back. You chose him when it’s me who has always been there for you. I’ve always looked after you, even when you were being a bitch, I was the one there for you.’
‘A bitch?’
‘Yeah, screwing around with my best buddy in high school. Fuck you, Bri, you started all this shit! Then dancing in that club and setting Blase on me. I let you get away with all that shit. I loved you and I looked after you.’
‘You didn’t do any of it for me. Blaser at least faces up to what he did, he paid his debt and what did you do? Nothing! You’re here now, exactly the same as when we were kids, only now, you’re buzzing! You’re taking drugs that we promised would never be a part of our lives!’
‘You need to grow up, Bri,’ he said, turning his back on her. ‘This is life. This is who we are.’ Facing her, he pointed to the drugs on the table. ‘People like us need this shit just to make life bearable!’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t need it and neither does Blase. I can’t believe you… you murdered a man! You took a life, Gar!’ Hot tears cascaded over her lashes, grazing her cheekbones and slithering to her chin. Her brother, her only family, was unrecognizable to her. Maybe this was who he always had been and she’d been too busy idolising him to notice.
‘When we found out that Rafe was gonna come for you, I had to act.’
‘We?’
‘Yeah, Marshall knows one of Rafe’s guys,’ Gary said. ‘I was desperate to get out of that jail, I knew what I had to do.’
‘You didn’t have to… murder wasn’t an option, it shouldn’t have entered your mind!’
‘Don’t be immature, Bri, the guy was bad news. I took care of the problem you caused.’
‘I didn’t cause any problem! Would you rather I’d worked off the debt with Rafe? Is that what you wanted me to do?’
‘You’ve never been able to look after yourself,’ he sneered. ‘You shouldn’t have gotten involved at all, but you just walked right into it.’
‘Easy to think that, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘You don’t know anything, you just… you got involved in something that wasn’t your business. Blaser—‘
‘It’s not my business but it’s his? Don’t you see how fucked up that is?’
‘We are living our lives, moving on. Blaser dealt with Rafe and we were putting it all behind us.’
‘Guess you don’t know what he’s cooking up with Mattie Warner then?’ he said. ‘You’re still so fucking naïve.’
‘And you are clueless. The Rafe problem was solved.’
Gary shrugged. ‘Don’t care what Warner told you. All I know is I got out of prison and the first thing I did was take care of the bastard hurting my family, I didn’t need anyone’s say so. Rafe was going down and I was going to make damn fucking sure of it.’
‘It was done,’ she said. ‘Blaser—‘
‘He can’t take care of you. He’s a schmuck who pays his taxes and only crosses at the green, that’s not the kinda life you want.’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘No…’
Her back met the front door and ignoring her impulse to flee, she scrutinised her brother and took in the surroundings of this small apartment with no flooring and barely any furniture. He was just like Erika, he hadn’t changed at all. If he had changed, it was for the worse because he’d sold everything of any value and after witnessing the rocks on the table, she knew why. He was throwing his life away, just like their parents had. She wanted to help him, to tell him that they’d get him help, except he saw nothing wrong with the way he lived.
He could have straightened himself out, he could have refused to start taking drugs just as they had always promised each other. But instead of wanting out of this oppressive life, he was trying to entice her into it. Gary offering her drugs was an alien concept; he wasn’t the brother who had stood up for her and protected her from their father, now he was a stranger.
‘I love you, Gary,’ she said, the stinging sensation inside her skull was trying to make her cry and give her a migraine at the same time. But she kept her eyes on her brother. ‘This wasn’t the life that either of us was supposed to have and going on the run, that’s forever, you can’t… You can’t live your life that way, neither of us can.’
‘You’re going to stay here? With him?’
‘Blaser loves me, we can have a life together and a family. I want you to be a part of that, but you can’t be unless… you can’t run away from what you’ve done wrong.’
‘The cops already want to throw me in jail,’ Gary said. ‘I’m bailed until the trial and then—‘
‘You have to do what’s right,’ she pleaded, wishing that he would show some sign of remorse.
‘I do what’s right for me.’
‘You want to leave, you’re going to run away, where are you going to go?’
‘Marshall’s got family who run a hotel in Cancun, says we can go there. Sun and sand, it’ll be like a vacation twenty-four seven.’
‘You can’t… you would never be able to come home.’
‘Why would I need to if I’ve got all my family with me?’ he said, approaching her. She tensed with every step nearer he got. ‘Come with me, you’ll find a new life there, away from all the bullshit here, away from all the crap that you went through. We can be whoever we want to be down there.’
Some of his anger had receded and he was nodding, like he really believed every word he was saying. ‘I don’t know if—‘
‘I can look after you. I’ve always looked after you, Bri,’ he said, picking her fingers off her purse, when it slipped to her wrist, he took hold of her hand. ‘I took care of that Rafe prick, didn’t I?’
She didn’t want her brother throwing his life away, murdering for her, the very thought made her nauseous. But she couldn’t ignore what had happened either. Gary could be past the point of redemption, but until she made him face what he had done and pay his own debt, she couldn’t be sure of that.
‘You can’t pick me up at the apartments, Blaser will never—‘
‘I don’t give a fuck about what that bastard will—‘
‘If you wait,’ she said. ‘If you can wait until he’s at the club or the garage, then you could pick me up.’
His eyes lit. ‘If you stay here right now and—‘
‘No, I want to go back and pick up my things,’ she said. ‘And I want to say goodbye to him, even if he can’t know that it’s goodbye. Please, Gary, what’s a few more hours?’
Bri hadn’t confessed that the police had been at the apartments searching Blaser’s place. Gary might find out, but if he planned to stay in his apartment getting high until they left then he probably wouldn’t be talking to many people.
‘Two o’clock,’ he said. ‘That’s when we’ll leave. Bring your passport and don’t say a word to anyone.’
She nodded and lunged forward into his arms, he squeezed her tight and she had to hold her breath to dam her tears. When he relaxed his grip, she looked up to see a smile the full width of his face.
‘We’ve got this,’ he said. ‘We’re going to be a family again, you and me.’
‘Yeah,’ she said, swallowing to moisten her mouth. ‘We are.’
Slipping out of the apartment, she got out of the building on autopilot, this was a quiet street and she had to walk to the end of the block before she had any hope of finding a cab, but she needed a cab now, quickly, before she could rethink what she was about to do.
The adrenaline kept her going through the cab ride and when she eventually got to her destination heat was per
meating her pores. She wasn’t going to back out, and she wasn’t going to sleep on it. It didn’t matter that it was the middle of the night, almost daybreak in fact, sleep wasn’t going to slow her down.
Running up the stairs into the building the cab had brought her to, she went up to the front desk and waited for attention.
‘Can I help you?’ the desk attendant asked.
‘I’m Brianna Wilcox,’ she said. ‘I need to speak with Detective Hoburn.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
As if Blaser didn’t have enough on his mind, when he got back to his apartment after closing up Risqué, Mattie was sitting in his car in the parking lot waiting for Blaser to return. For years, he hadn’t seen anything of his cousin and now he was becoming a regular feature in his life. He hadn’t seen Mattie with this kind of frequency since before he did time in prison.
‘What do you want now?’ Blaser asked, unlocking his apartment and going inside without waiting for Mattie.
‘I heard the cops were here,’ Mattie said. ‘As soon as I heard I got in the car.’
The place was still a mess, but Blaser retrieved a bourbon bottle from the kitchen unit and two glasses. If Mattie was here anyway, there was no point in Blaser being rude. He poured two measures and slid one across the kitchen table to Mattie, though both men remained standing.
‘Looks like I’ll be going away for a while again.’ Blaser emptied his glass in one gulp and resisted the urge to pour another measure because until Bri was back, he was going to remain on alert.
‘I’ll get you a lawyer, a decent one, not like last time, and this time you won’t be pleading guilty. You’re going to fight this.’
‘What’s the point?’ Blaser asked. ‘If they’re going to get me for it anyway I might as well try to cut a deal and all I have to give them is a guilty plea.’
‘Self-pity is what you’re going with?’ Mattie asked, swirling the liquid in his glass. ‘What does Bri say?’
‘We haven’t had a chance to talk about it. But she knows there’s a chance… they could come for me anytime, it all rests on the ballistics. If that gun is the one that killed him…’
‘She won’t let you take the fall,’ Mattie said. ‘I’ve got a few cops on the take, we might be able to—‘
‘What? Get me in deeper? Get me on bribery charges too?’ Sucking breath through his teeth he tipped his head back and lifted the glass, ready to pitch it across the room, but he couldn’t let Bri come back home to that mess. This could be the last opportunity for them to spend a night together and he didn’t want to spend it fighting.
‘You’re family,’ Mattie said, sliding his glass onto the table though the alcohol remained untouched. ‘You know that I’ve always had a soft spot for you, why do you think I was so eager to have you on my side back in the day? You’re smart and you’re loyal, two things that a guy like me needs on his side.’
Mattie wasn’t here out of the goodness of his heart. His words were kind enough, but Blaser knew his cousin too well. ‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying that I can make this go away.’
‘How would you do that?’
Shrugging, Mattie displayed a humble smile that wasn’t quite convincing. ‘All it takes is a few witnesses.’
‘We’ve got those, witnesses who say I had beef with Rafe and they were right. I did.’
‘No one needs to know that, and it’s easy to shut guys like that up. Then all we’re left with is the gun and that can be explained as a plant, or we make it disappear from evidence. What I’m saying is, there are ways around these things, how do you think a guy like me has stayed out of jail for this long?’
‘Why would you do that? Why would you use your money and influence to help me?’
‘We’re family,’ Mattie said. He must have known that Blaser wouldn’t buy that because he carried on. ‘You know Marshall?’
‘Gary’s friend Marshall?’
‘Yeah, he’s been in my employ for a while. He’s a sort of informant for me, an ear to the ground with the underclasses. I heard about Bri’s trouble with Rafe, thought for sure that you’d come to me.’
‘Is that why you asked her out?’
‘I asked her out because she’s hot,’ he said. ‘Yeah, I thought she might ask for help. I didn’t know that you two were back on.’
‘You wanted to win her over because she never really warmed to you. You knew that she was the reason I didn’t accept your offer to join your crew, so you wanted to know if she’d changed? If she was open to your kind of business now?’
‘Something like that maybe,’ Mattie said, then took a deep breath. ‘I asked her out because I needed to spur you into action. I knew that another guy making a move on her would force you to counter and make your own move on her. Yeah, I thought I might have gotten some sex out of it first, but what I really wanted was you two back together.’
‘Why would you care about that?’
‘Because when you’re with her, you’re willing to consider anything. You’ll do whatever it takes to look after her. I already knew that Rafe was giving her trouble and if you two were together, well, I thought you’d be open to working with me.’
‘All of that effort just to get me onto your crew?’
‘What effort?’ Mattie asked. ‘Going on a date with a beautiful woman? I didn’t even need the date, just asking her out was sufficient enough to piss you off, and you moved in on her, just like I wanted you to. My work was done.’
‘Congratulations,’ Blaser muttered knowing that he had walked right into that one. Mattie was known for being conniving in order to get what he wanted. Blaser had acted exactly as Mattie knew he would when someone tried to annex Brianna from him.
‘I was right about you doing anything to protect her. But when I heard about the fight night, I really couldn’t believe it… That was… it was something, Blase. You showed that you still had the same spirit, the same smarts that you’d always had. I sent Marshall along to keep an eye on it, even he was impressed.’
‘Well that’s why I did it, cuz, I just wanted to make you proud.’
‘You did,’ Mattie said, ignoring Blaser’s sarcasm. ‘And now it’s my turn. I will get this murder charge off your shoulders, I can make it disappear. You can have the girl and the freedom.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Maybe not just like that, all I want from you is the club, just like we talked about.’
‘You want me to sign Risqué over to—‘
‘Not sign it over, she’s yours, that club is your baby. But talk to Dax, get the fight night set up as a regular feature—‘
‘Not a chance,’ Blaser said, shoving his empty glass onto the kitchen counter.
‘It’s a small price,’ Mattie said.
‘You want the fight nights happening in a club that’s under my name so that all of the liability lands on me when the cops hear about it.’
‘I’ve proven I can take care of you.’
‘For your own gain, you want to protect your lifestyle. You’d throw me to the wolves if it protected you.’
‘It’s human nature to want to protect ourselves and those we love,’ Mattie said. ‘Isn’t that what you were thinking when you took care of Rafe?’
‘I didn’t kill him.’
‘No,’ Mattie said, his certainty didn’t waver. ‘Gary did.’
His thoughts cleared and for a few stunned moments, he said nothing. ‘You don’t know that.’
‘I do, Gary told Marshall everything, and Marshall brought it to me. I know that Gary killed Rafe with the gun that the cops found in your bedroom tonight. How long will it be before the ballistics are confirmed? You’re right, you will do time, you will go away because without my help there’s no way to explain why that weapon was here. You would be lucky if the cops listened to you when you denied ownership and are you really going to drop Bri’s brother into the mess? He’ll go down for life, will she forgive you for putting her brother behind bars?’
‘How can you be so sure about this? Maybe Gary—‘
‘Marshall has never lied to me,’ Mattie said. ‘Gary told him everything, including his plan for the future. He’s going on the run tomorrow, moving down Mexico way to stay with some relatives of Marshall’s…and his sister is going with him.’
‘No,’ Blaser said. ‘She’s not going anywhere.’
‘She’s over there right now making plans,’ Mattie said.
‘She doesn’t know anything about this,’ Blaser said, rounding the table. ‘She doesn’t know anything about the murder or what Gary did… We don’t even know that he did it, the prick mouths off about—‘
‘About things he did,’ Mattie said, unintimidated by Blaser’s proximity. ‘Gary’s not smart enough to lie, he told that cop the truth. It was you who lied about him shooting you to cover his ass. Just like you always did. You went to jail for stealing a car that you didn’t steal! You could’ve dropped Gary in it, but you kept your mouth shut, you took the heat… We’re all grateful for that.’
‘Yeah, as long as your secrets are safe, right?’
Passing his cousin, he went into the living room and collapsed to sit on the couch. Resting his head against the back of the couch, he closed his eyes and contemplated how his life had managed to turn to shit so quickly.
The gun tied him to the murder and unless he ratted Gary out to the cops, he had no way to get out of the charge that would fall on him. And with the history that he and Gary had, it would be easy for Gary to call Blaser’s statement lies in a bid for revenge. Gary was an idiot, he never thought things through, and his impulsive actions were usually predicated around someone disrespecting him. Maybe that was why Gary had felt the need to assert his masculinity by putting a bullet in Rafe.
Risk It All (Risqué #2) Page 24