‘He won’t be,’ Hoburn said. ‘I’m going to look out for you today. My guys are putting the listening devices in and we’ll park just around the corner. We can be inside this apartment within four minutes, so if you feel threatened and need help—‘
‘This is my brother, Gary would never hurt me.’
‘A few days ago you would have promised me that Gary would never kill,’ Hoburn said.
‘A few days ago he was in jail and I don’t care how messed up he is, he loves me and would never hurt me. If he wanted that he could’ve done it last night while I was at his place and he didn’t.’
‘Because he believes that you’re going with him.’
‘And he’ll keep believing that. I’ve packed a bag, so as far as he knows, I’m ready to leave.’
Talking about betraying her only family was nauseating. It was bad enough that it was her plan to set her brother up, she despised this conniving.
‘How long until he gets here?’ Hoburn asked, glancing at his watch.
‘About an hour.’
‘Good, that gives us the chance to get everything ready.’
Hoburn rose and the tech guys went to the door with their kit, indicating that they were done. Bri followed him to the exit.
‘I never thought I’d be in this position, doing something like this.’
‘Look at Blaser, bet he never thought he’d be the respectable business owner that he is now. Things change and eventually we all have to grow up.’
‘Thanks,’ she said. Hoburn might be trying to make her feel better, but she still struggled to contain her stomach acid.
‘In a few hours this will all be done.’
‘And Gary will be back in jail.’
‘Where he’ll have a chance to get clean and won’t be able to hurt anyone else.’
That kind of optimism kept her moving forward, kept her believing that this was right. Gary would thank her for this one day, she just had to keep believing that.
His alarm hadn’t gone off, so the first Blaser knew of the new day was the pounding on his door. Exhaling his exhaustion, he groaned and coughed as he sat up to stretch.
‘Blase!’
His twin’s voice rattled his skull and his hand went to the vacant side of his bed, Bri wasn’t there, he hadn’t woken up beside her for years, yet his subconscious still sought her out. He was ready to get on with their future together, he just had to pace himself, to not be overeager, because Bri still had issues. The only thing he could be sure of was that he’d be right by her side to work through them all.
Stretching again, he turned to plant his feet on the floor and with another yawn he fumbled for the clock on his bedside. Keys rattled in his front door, prompting him to forget about checking the time. He got to his feet to head for the sound.
He got to the living room to witness Colt closing his front door, to his left was another man, his six foot five little brother. Just the sight of Ruger was enough to shake all remnants of sleep from Blaser. Storming past the couch, he grabbed his brother’s shirt and thrust him against the wall, nudging the TV in the process and sending it wobbling, not that he cared about that now.
Ruger’s open hands came up in surrender and Colt was on Blaser’s back, pulling on his shoulders.
‘No, Blase, come on!’ Colt said.
‘I’m sorry,’ Ruger called out as Colt hauled Blaser away.
‘I told him everything we know,’ Colt said, putting himself in front of Blaser.
‘I’m sorry,’ Ruger said again. The usually smiling, joking man was solemn now. He was actually pale and contrite.
‘It’s true?’ Blaser asked. Any doubt he had was gone now, not that he’d ever doubted Bri, but he didn’t think it was beyond those who held her captive to lie, adding psychological torture to the physical ordeal she went through.
‘I told him everything you told me and what Lyssa filled me in on. I know that you’re pissed, but like I fucking told you, you’re going to hear him out just like I heard you. If after that you still want to kick the shit out of him you can go ahead.’
Blaser pinned Ruger under his glare and had difficulty accepting what Colt was saying. Somehow the anger and hate he wanted to focus on Bri’s attacker rippled through him. Despite only being in a pair of boxer shorts, he was ready to fight like those men in the ring he’d witnessed on fight night.
Respect for Colt made him back away until he sat on the couch. ‘You want to talk? Then talk,’ Blaser said. ‘You explain to me how the woman I love was stolen from the street because of shit you were mixed up in.’
‘I don’t know,’ Ruger said, sinking into the chair near the front window. He leaned forward, and with an elbow on his knee Ruger rasped his fingers over his stubble.
‘Not good enough,’ Blaser snapped.
Colt held up a hand. ‘Give him a minute.’
‘I know Victor and I know the fucks who he was working with,’ Ruger said, wrapping his fingers around the opposite knuckles. ‘What Bri said about me… about what I do…’
‘All these years you let me believe that I was the fuck up. Colt would lecture and—‘
‘I should’ve done more to stick up for you, I’m sorry, but… it’s been irrelevant since you got out of the joint. You’ve done good and… I thought that if you found out I was mixed up in illegal business that it might give you the excuse to get mixed up in crime again yourself,’ Ruger said. ‘I didn’t want that to happen.’
‘You were protecting me?’ Blaser said, unable to feel gratitude. ‘You think that ‘cause you fucked up that I might want to fuck up too?’
‘I’m sorry. I was worried when I heard you were kicking around with Bri again, but I did tell Colt to keep his nose out of your business… I had no idea about… that anything unseemly had happened to her in Jersey.’
‘We were meeting up to go out on a date,’ Blaser explained. ‘I didn’t tell any of you guys that we were getting together, I knew you’d judge me and I wanted to be sure that… that Bri and I were going to be together for real… You guys weren’t a big part of my life before prison because you didn’t agree with my lifestyle… Least that’s what I thought,’ Blaser threw his words at Ruger.
‘I know and I’m sorry. The jobs started out small, I started in college. I realised I could make a fortune, I worked with my roommate back then, he got me into it, now I work alone. After college it sorta snowballed, people called me when they wanted things or had things that they wanted rid of. I kept it away from here, from family, because I didn’t want anyone hurt.’
‘Too late,’ Blaser said. Though he blinked as little as possible and kept focus on Ruger. Ruger scrutinised Colt, who wouldn’t look at their youngest brother.
‘I’m sorry,’ Ruger said. ‘I promise you, I’ll find out what happened.’
‘What happened is my girlfriend came out onto the street to call me when I was late to the restaurant and your pals grabbed her and held her hostage for a week, during which time some dirty ass motherfucker knocked her out and raped her!’
‘Why were you late?’ Colt asked. ‘You didn’t tell me why you were late to the restaurant.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Blaser said. ‘It’s stupid, I…’ Just to move things along he thought it best to confess. ‘I was at the florist picking up a dumb corsage thing I got her, it was the same as the one I got her for prom… The guy fucked up the order and I had to wait around while he fixed it.’
‘What did you do when you got to the restaurant and she was gone?’ Ruger asked.
‘Waited. She left her coat so I figured she’d be back, when she wasn’t I tried to call her. I thought she was just angry and had forgotten her coat by accident… I called her and called her for two days straight. When I called the cops, they pretty much said that she was a grown-up who was allowed to duck my calls and disappear if she wanted to. I really just thought she was angry, so I kept calling. Two weeks later she answered and told me to go to hell… about a month later I got an
email… she told me what had happened.’
‘When I found out what Victor and his benefactor were doing I left,’ Ruger said. ‘I told them they were sick fucks and there was no chance of me working with them. I split.’
‘Which I suppose is when they hatched the plan to take Bri,’ Colt said.
‘Yeah,’ Ruger agreed. ‘I didn’t hear about it again until a guy I met on that job got in touch about something else. I tried to tell him where to get off and that’s when I found out Victor and his crew were dead, that was… months later.’
‘Rushe?’ Colt asked and Ruger nodded.
Blaser was deflated. He couldn’t be angry because Ruger had done the right thing, as Bri had said. His younger brother hadn’t intended for Bri to be sucked into the sick bastard’s game.
‘How is she?’ Ruger asked, glancing in the direction of Blaser’s bedroom.
‘She slept upstairs, she’s still working through things.’
‘Oh, Colt said that you were—‘
‘We are and we’re together, but something else happened last night and—‘
‘The cops tore your place apart,’ Ruger said. ‘That’s a battle that—‘
‘Bri took care of it,’ Blaser said and both of his brothers wore taken aback frowns. ‘It doesn’t matter, it’s done. What I give a shit about is how our holy saint little brother is actually a criminal deviant.’
‘It’s not like that,’ Ruger said. ‘I don’t steal and I don’t hurt anyone, I’m just the fence, the middleman. I’m a guy who knows how to get stuff.’
‘What kind of stuff?’ Blaser asked. ‘People? Weapons?’
‘I’ve hooked people up with guns before,’ Ruger said. ‘It’s something we were all raised to know well. Mostly it’s tech, security or surveillance stuff, how do you think I know a guy like Pinch so well? Sometimes it’s boring stuff like furniture, premises, antiques, or vehicles.’
‘What did Victor want?’
‘At first it was men, thugs for hire, you know? He needed vehicles and an indoor water pool… then he needed cuffs and other restraints so I started to ask questions… When I got the answers, I bailed, I thought that was it.’
Everyone who had harmed Bri was dead so he couldn’t get his hands on them. But one person remained alive who Blaser needed to talk to. ‘The cop who got her out, do you know him?’
‘Jansen,’ Ruger nodded. ‘Knew him on the job. But Rushe filled me in after about his real identity. He was an undercover cop. When Victor found out who Jansen was, he took Jansen’s girl, forced him to lie to his colleagues, it really fucked him up.’
‘I know how he feels,’ Blaser said.
‘How could you have lied to us about this, Ruge?’ Colt asked. ‘I thought you had a sales gig, I knew you got hard to find items, but I had no idea it was crooked.’
‘I’ve never been involved in anything as shady as Victor’s deal, I try to work on the side of the good guys, like Rushe.’
Rushe didn’t look like he was on the good side of anyone at first glance. But he’d proved himself to the Warners by how he had saved Lyssa from her stalker.
‘It’s still illegal,’ Colt said.
‘Yeah, and I knew you’d give me shit for that. I’m sorry, really, ok? Blase was getting himself straightened out, it didn’t seem relevant after that.’
‘And me going to prison didn’t scare you into straightening out?’ Blaser asked.
‘I don’t actually do anything illegal myself, it’s the people who I acquire from and sell to that are breaking the law.’
‘Dealing in stolen or illegal merchandise is against the law, genius,’ Colt said.
‘Yeah, but how many cops care about the middleman unless they can squeeze him? They’re into the big fish, not minnows like me. Any time I’ve come across a cop looking for information, I give it to him.’
‘And how many times has that happened?’ Colt asked.
‘I don’t give a fuck about that,’ Blaser said, holding a hand up to each of his brothers. ‘Yeah, you’re a fuck for letting me take the heat when some of it should’ve been yours. What I care about is Bri, and you’re gonna go up there and apologise to her, and if she doesn’t accept your apology then as far as I’m concerned you can stay the fuck away from me.’
‘Wait a minute,’ Ruger said, coming out of his seat. ‘You can’t disown me because of…’
‘Yeah, I can,’ Blaser said and from the way Ruger’s words trailed off, he was well aware of how awful what he’d got Bri mixed up in was.
Ruger considered this, and Colt too, the three men reflected for a good few minutes. ‘I’m gonna do you one better than that,’ Ruger said, retrieving his cell phone from his back pocket.
‘What are you going to do?’ Colt asked.
‘We’re gonna talk to Rushe.’
‘About what?’ Blaser asked. ‘Bri said all the fuckwits who were involved are dead.’
‘All the bad guys, yeah,’ Ruger said. ‘But not all the good guys.’
‘The good guys?’ Colt asked. ‘What do you think they’re going to do?’
‘Rushe will tell us how to get in touch with Jansen, he’s not on the force anymore.’
‘Like someone else I know,’ Blaser said, looking at Colt. ‘Do you all become disillusioned eventually?’
‘Most cops, yeah,’ Colt said. ‘Those of us who don’t quit just go through the motions until they can collect their pensions.’
‘As soon as he gets back to me I’ll track Jansen down,’ Ruger said. ‘He’ll tell us how those bastards died.’
‘What about Jansen’s girlfriend?’ Blaser asked. ‘Did she get out alive?’
‘We’ll find out.’
‘How long does it usually take Rushe to…?’ Colt’s words disappeared. Blaser was too caught up in trying to come up with a way to repay the debt he owed to this Jansen guy to pay attention to his brother’s distractions. ‘What is that banging?’
Blaser heard it too, a low thud, three times like… his head came up then he was on his feet. ‘Shit.’
‘What?’ Colt asked.
Blaser got to the front door and realised he wasn’t dressed. Rushing through to the bedroom he started to pull on his jeans. ‘It’s Bri, upstairs, she’s in trouble.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gary had come upstairs and into her apartment without any hesitation. His sense of propriety was no doubt bloated by his latest criminal act, and he would delight in telling Blaser that they were leaving the country to let him take the heat if the men came across each other. So he had nothing to fear in striding into her apartment.
Marshall was an unexpected addition to the visitor list, but if she’d worried that Gary would clam up in front of an audience, she would have been wrong. Gary had already told Marshall what was going on, so when she started to ask questions, Gary had gone through every detail of what had happened in Rafe’s apartment when Gary murdered him.
Her tears had dampened her cheeks, to see a man so animated while talking about the demise of another was disturbing, and the fact that it was her brother overwhelmed her. This was the same man who had refused to let her work in that seedy club, who had started his illegal activities just to support her. Now it was clear to her just how he revelled in being bad. Blaser had said that he wasn’t as turned on by being bad as he had been. But Gary had gone in the other direction, taking pure pleasure from watching the life slip away from another human being.
When Marshall came to hug her, she was too upset to be surprised by his compassion. It was nice to be comforted though she wished she could have Blaser here instead of Marshall. But knowing what her brother was capable of she didn’t want Gary to ever be in the same space as Blaser again.
In her living room, in Marshall’s arms, she tried to calm herself because she knew what was really going on here, and that involved Gary not being free in society until he was no longer a threat to it.
‘God, Bri, quit your bawling for chrissakes,’ Gary said. ‘I get
it, you’re not into it, but I took care of business.’
‘She’s upset,’ Marshall said. ‘You’re talking about killing a guy. Why the fuck would you do that with your sister in the room?’
‘I need her to know that I can do it. I can look after her when we’re away from here. I’m the only guy she’ll ever need in her life. When we get to Mexico—‘
‘You’re not going to Mexico,’ Marshall said, still holding her in his arms.
Her body stiffened when he spoke and Gary’s prolonged silence made her stress level increase. ‘What the fuck you talking about, man?’ Gary said, following it with an awkward grunt of a laugh. ‘We’re leaving now, today, getting the fuck outta dodge.’
‘We’re not,’ Marshall said. He yanked on her, flipping her around so that her back was on his chest, exposing her to Gary, who was in the kitchen.
‘What’s…?’ Her question of what was going on died on her lips when she heard the hammer of a gun, then felt metal tangle in her hair.
‘What the fuck!’ Gary hollered and started to come toward them, but Marshall shook his head, which she felt by the movement of his jaw on her scalp.
‘Stay there!’ Marshall said. ‘I’ll put a bullet in her, I swear I will.’
‘You won’t fucking dare, you bastard! You hurt her and I’ll—‘
‘I’m not gonna hurt her, not if you do what I tell you.’
‘You fucking asshole! What the fuck is this! You’re a bastard, I swear to fucking god…’ Gary’s rant went on and on, he began to pace then put his fist through the drywall.
Gary was losing it, he wasn’t going to be rational enough to help her. Here she was, being held hostage by one of Gary’s oldest friends. ‘Is this because of Rafe?’ she asked, trying to help herself while Gary stood fuming.
‘Rafe? No, who gives a fuck about his shit? This is because of your boyfriend.’
‘Blaser?’ she asked, trying to fathom why Marshall would be connected to Blaser.
‘Keeping him out of jail is my boss’ goal and if your brother fucks off out of the country, that’s not gonna happen, is it?’
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