The Hot Brother (Romance Love Story) (Hargrave Brothers - Book #5)

by Alexa Davis

  "Where's Javi?" I asked wondering why our resident paramedic was absent.

  "That's the problem, boss," she said quietly. "He's treating four more in back. These guys don't know it, though. I tried to avoid attracting attention."

  "Oh fuck," I felt my heart drop to my stomach. One we could explain as a reckless club kid who over did it, but five was way too many to explain away. "What the fuck happened?"

  "Not a clue," she replied.

  "Did the shipment arrive?" I asked.

  "Yep, they brought it in just like clockwork," Kesha said.

  "Did she buy the new stuff?" I could feel a wave of dread building as I started considering all the terrible possibilities.

  "Not sure yet," she said as the paramedics loaded the girl onto a gurney and wheeled her out to the ambulance. I held the door for them and nodded when the investigating officer told me not to go anywhere.

  "Fuck! Go check on the others," I said. I didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to the other club goers, but I also didn't want four dead kids in my back area when the cops came to search it. Kesha took off for the back. I crossed my fingers that Javi had been able to get to them in time.

  When Kesha came back out and gave me the thumbs up, I asked where Riza was. Kesha pointed up at the office and I hightailed it up the stairs to talk with her.

  "Ri, what the hell is going on here?" I demanded to know as I stormed into the office.

  "Hey, get off my tits. This club is not my domain," she said as she stared at me.

  "What the hell is wrong with you these days?" I was genuinely confused as to why my best friend and second in command had turned into a mean girl since Lydia's death.

  "You really don't have a fucking clue, do you?" she said shaking her head. "You're such a self-centered asshole."

  "Riza, what is going on?" I walked over and took her by her shoulders and shook her gently. "Talk to me. Seriously."

  "Dax, you are so wrapped up in your business and pursuing this new lawyer," she spat. "Yeah, I see how you look at her and rush off to go fuck her all over town. Don't act like you’re shocked or offended."

  "Wait, you're pissed because I'm after a chick?" I said, shocked to realize that Riza might be jealous.

  "Oh God, don't go getting your panties in a wad," she said rolling her eyes. "I'm not jealous of her, I'm pissed because in this whole fucking mess you seem to have lost sight of family, dipshit."

  "How have I lost sight of family?" I was bewildered by her accusation.

  "You locked Beck up in a fucking mental hospital!" she screamed. "You don't do that to family!"

  "I didn't lock Beck up in a mental ward, Ri," I said. "I told you that I put him in a rehab facility so he could dry out and stop using. That's not forgetting family, that's taking care of them!"

  "He didn't want to go!" she yelled. I could see that she was extremely upset, but I couldn't understand why she couldn't see that what I'd done for Beck was to save him not hurt him.

  "Yeah, well, kids don't want to eat their vegetables, but you make them eat them for their own good, right?"

  "That's not the same thing, Dax!" she yelled. "You've always done this! You always think of what you want and what you need and you never fucking ask anyone else what they might want!"

  "Riza, what the hell is going on?" I shouted. "Why are you so over the top about Beck? He's my brother! I know what's right for him!"

  Riza stopped pacing, stood staring at me with her hands on her hips like she used to do when she was a kid. Stubborn and opinionated, she had never failed to stand up for me or Beck with Papi, and now she was yelling at me like I was him.

  "Forget it," she said shaking her head as she dropped her fists and turned toward the door. "You're always right, we're always wrong. You win, Dax. You always win."

  With that, she walked out the door and slammed it so hard the room shook. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew that I had to find out because things were quickly slipping out of my grasp. If I wasn't careful, I'd lose control of everything and send us all crashing to the ground.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  Brooke

  At eight o'clock, I heard Alma come in and begin her morning routine. I didn't get up, because one thing I'd learned about Alma was that she did not like her morning routine interrupted and that she'd come talk to me when she was good and ready. I continued reading Dax's file until I heard a knock on my door.

  "Come in," I called as I looked up and saw our office secretary standing at the door with a worried look on her face. "Good morning, Alma. How can I help you?"

  "Good morning, Ms. Raines," she said. Alma was holding a sheet of paper in her hand. "This is not good, not good at all."

  "What isn't good?" I asked as I looked at the sheet she was holding.

  "This," she said as she crossed the room and held it out to me. "It came on the fax machine a little while ago. This is not good, Ms. Raines."

  I gave her a confused look as I took the paper and scanned it. It was a standard fax sheet with my name and our law firm's name clearly printed in the recipient boxes. What was disturbing was the drawing below the information. It was set up in triptych form with a hand drawn picture of a woman kneeling, then a second with a gun held by a hand without a body pointed at the back of her head, and the third panel was the same woman with a dark spot in the center of for forehead floating in a body of water. Her eyes were two large X’s, and in all of the drawings, the woman was nude.

  Underneath the drawings was a note that said: You're next.

  I looked up at Alma and then back down at the fax. "When did this come in?" I asked.

  "Just a few minutes ago while I was making coffee," she said as she stood in front of me with a miserable look on her face. "This is not good, Ms. Raines. This is not good at all."

  "So I've heard," I said, immediately feeling guilty for feeling frustrated with the woman. "Alma, are you alright?"

  "Ms. Raines, I've never worked in an office where there have been death threats made," she said. "I'm not comfortable with this level of violence in a law firm."

  "Well, don't worry. We're going to get to the bottom of this and no one is going to be harmed," I said trying to reassure her. My mind was spinning as I tried to think calmly about why someone would send a threatening fax to our firm and why they would threaten me specifically. "Have Jordie and Roger come in yet?"

  "Mr. Lee called to say he was on his way and Mr. Lewis came in when I did," Alma replied as she twisted her hands and plucked at her sweater.

  "Alma, I don't want you to worry about this, okay?"

  "Okay, Ms. Raines, I'll do my best to carry on and not worry," she nodded. I knew she was lying, but I needed her to keep the front desk together while I tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

  As soon as Alma went back to her desk, I walked down the hall to Roger's office and tapped on his door. "Roger, you got a minute to talk about something weird?" I called as I cracked the door.

  He was on the phone and hadn't heard me knocking. I cracked the door a little wider and was about to call his name, when I overheard him talking to someone on the other end of his phone.

  "No, she has no idea," he said. "Yeah, I think I can get what I need from her. No, I don't think she has any idea that we're onto her. Uh huh, I'll take care of that this afternoon. Okay, now stop calling me, you're gonna get us both in trouble. Okay, bye."

  I stepped back out into the hall and pulled the door partially shut before I tapped on it again and called Roger's name.

  "Hey Brooke, c'mon in and have a seat," he said in his surfer dude tone. There was something unsettling about having heard him talking in such straightforward terms to the person on the phone and then switching back to his laid back voice to talk with me. Somehow, it felt like it should have been the other way around.

  "Got anything on the Malone case, Roger?" I asked as I watched him closely.

  "Yeah, actually. I'm going to head out to the marina this afternoon and c
heck out the boat," he said as he shuffled papers around on his desk. "I think one of the dock managers saw Lydia out there alive a few days before she turned up in the water, so I want to get his statement before he forgets everything."

  "Good thinking," I said nodding. I wanted to ask Roger about the fax, but my intuition told me that I should wait until Jordie arrived and then discuss it with him first. "Anything else?"

  "No, why? Should I have something else?" he asked as he looked up from his desk and smiled.

  "Nope, I guess not," I said and turned to go. "Hey, how's the girlfriend? I forgot to ask in all the excitement."

  "Eh, she's yesterday's news," he said waving me off. "You were right. It was another false hope."

  "I'm sorry, Roger," I said, feeling genuinely sad for him. "Hey, you know that wanting to be in love isn't a false hope. It's just thinking that you can be in love with everyone that is."

  "Yeah, I'm starting to realize that," he said with a wry grin. "But thanks."

  "No problem," I said as I turned and left his office. I walked back to mine wondering what on earth was going on with Roger and why he was hiding information about the case. I looked at the stack of legal documents from Banks and Associates on my desk and vowed to get the truth out of Jordie when he finally arrived.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  Dax

  By the time Javi had revived the club goers in the back room, the sun was high in the sky and I was in desperate need of coffee and some breakfast. I wanted to see Brooke. I dialed her number and was surprised when she actually picked up.

  "What's up, Malone?" she said in a rushed tone.

  "Just needed some breakfast after a rough morning and was wondering if you might join me," I said casually.

  "As legal counsel or something else?" she asked in the direct way that made me very aware of the fact that she'd started something that we weren't going to be able to finish over breakfast.

  "Legal counsel, of course," I said as I rolled my eyes and grinned.

  "Don't roll your eyes when you say that," she shot back. "I can hear it."

  "Sheesh, you are one tough cookie," I said.

  "You seem to keep forgetting that it's my job to keep you from being sent to prison for a murder you didn't commit," she said dryly. "I need to be tough."

  "Of course you do," I replied. "Breakfast?"

  "Where and when?"

  "Meet me at the LID in twenty minutes," I said before adding, "I've got information that might help the case."

  "See you in a bit," she said and disconnected. I stood there staring at my phone shaking my head. Brooke Raines was something else.

  When she walked into the diner twenty minutes later, I grinned as I saw that she was still wearing the clothes I'd removed from her body a few hours before.

  "Stop looking at me like that," she ordered as she slid into the booth and picked up a menu.

  "I ordered you coffee," I said as the server put the steaming hot mug in front of her and asked if we were ready to order. Brooke nodded and proceeded to order and I added mine to it. "Sheesh, order the left half of the menu why don't you?

  "Very funny, I'm hungry," she said as she sipped her coffee carefully. "In case you forgot, last night was a busy night."

  "Oh, I remember, all right," I said as I eyed her appreciatively.

  "What do you have for me?" she asked, brushing me off in favor of maintaining a professional distance. I told her about the situation at the club and what had happened, except that I omitted Javi and the club goers in the back room. "So, don't you have people drinking too much on a regular basis? It doesn't sound like much of an emergency to me."

  I looked at her and realized that this was the moment when I either told her the truth or I hid everything. If I hid things, I was most likely going to go down for Lydia's murder and the thought of never seeing Brooke again, never holding her against me or doing things that made her moan with pleasure, well, that was a little more than I could take. So I took a deep breath and began speaking.

  It took me almost an hour to tell Brooke everything, and to her credit, she listened patiently and asked questions when she didn't understand the scope of something. I told her the history of my organization and how the club was the cover for our other business, while also carefully explaining the background and scope of it. When I finished, I looked at her and waited for her to speak.

  "Okay, I'm glad you told me this," she said as she signaled the server for more coffee. "I'm not sure how we're going to deal with it in the case because it puts a whole new spin on the reasons why you might have wanted Lydia dead. But I got some new information this morning and I think maybe I might have a lead on who actually committed the murder."

  "Oh? What's that?" I asked wondering what the cops had come up with now.

  "This is a copy of the message that came into the office fax this morning sometime between eight and eight fifteen," she said as she handed me a sheet of paper with three drawings on it and the words “You're next” underneath the drawings.

  I looked at Brooke and then back down at the drawings before I pulled out my wallet and threw a wad of cash on the table and stood up. I looked down at her as I felt the rage rising in my chest and said, "I will take care of this." Then, without saying another word, I turned and marched out of the diner and back to the club.

  No one was going to threaten Brooke. Not if I had anything to say about it.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Brooke

  I couldn't shake the feeling that Dax knew who the fax had come from, and that he was going to do something dangerous in retaliation. He hadn't said anything specific, but I just had a gut feeling. And, watching him walk out the door of the diner made me feel both worried and aroused. I couldn't help but admire his muscular body and remember the things that he'd done to me and with me last night.

  I shivered as I remembered how it felt being pressed against his chest as we rode the wave of need and desire together. I shook my head to clear it, knowing that if I got lost in my fantasy, I'd never figure out a way to keep Dax out of prison.

  Something fishy was going on, and I needed to get back to the office to talk with Jordie. I grabbed my purse and hailed a cab to take me back to the firm.

  When I walked through the door, I knew something was wrong. The front desk was empty. It was twelve-twenty and I knew that Alma always took her lunch at one on the dot, so she had to be in the ladies’ room or in back making a fresh pot of coffee for the guys.

  "Alma?" I called as I walked down the hall. I started to worry when I got no response. "Alma? Are you back there?"

  The office was silent. I peeked into Roger's office, but it was empty. I walked down the hall, starting to feel the beginning of panic welling up inside me.

  "Jordie?" I called. "Alma? Jordie? Are you here?"

  "Hey, Brooke," Jordie said as he came striding down the hall. "I don't know if you know what's going on around here, but Alma was pretty upset by a fax that arrived earlier. So I sent her home for the day."

  "Wait, what?" I said. "You know about the fax?"

  "Yeah, Alma showed me, and I talked about it with Roger before he headed out to the marina," Jordie said. "We're not sure it's safe for you to be here right now."

  "That's silly," I replied. "I'm working on a case. I can't be scared away from the office by a child's drawing and a vague threat."

  "Brooke, someone has it in for Dax Malone," he said with a serious look. "His former lawyer is dead and now you're getting faxes that say you're next? That's not good, my friend."

  "Jordie, there is something incredibly weird going on around here," I said as I turned and faced him. "We need to talk about why Dax is being accused of a murder he didn't commit and why this whole case is spinning out of control. Why on earth would Dax want to murder Lydia Banks?"

  "Jesus, you haven't heard, have you?" Jordie said shaking his head. "Brooke, you might want to sit down."

  "I'm not a fragile daisy, Jordie," I said waving a h
and at him as I grew irritated. "Just tell me what the hell is going on."

  "Okay, well, don't say I didn't warn you," Jordie took a deep breath and began. "Dax Malone is a drug kingpin in LA. He uses the club as his front to cover the drug running he does, and he sells the drugs out of the club to the members who have passed the vetting process."

  "Huh, really?" I said utterly unsurprised, since Dax had just spent the past hour filling me in on all the details surrounding his business.

  "You don't seem surprised," he said in a disappointed voice.

  "I'm not because I already knew it," I said. "Now, what I'm concerned with is why Lydia Banks was offed and who is trying to frame Dax for the murder."

  "How do you propose we figure that out?" he asked.

  "I don't know, but Roger went to the marina to check it out, so there's that," I said. Then, I remembered the stack of papers on my desk and turned to go get them so I could show Jordie. "And, there's something else I want to show you."

  "What's that?" he asked.

  "Do you know anything about a deal we did with Banks and Associates last year?" I asked as I searched through the stacks of paperwork on my desk. "It would have been around the time Jake left me, so I was pretty useless then. But do you remember you and Roger doing any deals with them?"

  "No, I don't remember anything like that," he said. "Do you remember what it was for?"

  "Some kind of land contract for property near Skid Row," I said as I continued searching. I knew I'd left the paperwork on my desk earlier, but now it was missing. Maybe I'd stuck it my briefcase along with the files I wanted to discuss with Dax. I checked and when I didn't find them, I started feeling concerned. Had someone taken them?

  "Huh, no I don't remember anything like that," he said as he watched me. "Did you ask Roger?"

  "No, he was gone by the time I remembered I had the papers," I said, feeling bad for lying to Jordie about our friend. I had a weird feeling about Roger, and at the moment, I wasn't sure what side he was on. I knew that Roger was always on Roger's side, but this time there seemed to be more than just his side and our side. I couldn't put my finger on the source of my unease, but I knew better than to draw Jordie into the middle of it without proof. Not only would it destroy the firm, it would drive a wedge through our friendship and maybe for no reason at all. "I can't find the papers, maybe Alma filed them."