by Cora Brent
“See you tomorrow, boss.”
“Drive safe, Curtis.”
The last time I’d been to Chase Gentry’s house was for a family birthday party. Chase and Stephanie and their three boys always struck me as a happy, raucous bunch, always a blast to be around. As I rang the doorbell I wondered if I was imagining the new gloomy mood surrounding their family home.
The door was opened by the middle son, Kellan.
“No soliciting,” he declared and promptly closed it.
I waited, wondering if it was possible he didn’t recognize me. That would be really weird. I hadn’t changed much lately.
Then the door opened again and he was grinning. “Gotcha.” He beckoned with the hand that was still in a cast due to a fractured wrist sustained in the accident and his face still showed bruising. “Come in.”
There was no one else in sight. A baseball glove and bat probably belonging to Thomas had been flung in a corner. There was a plaque hanging on the wall that declared Chase Gentry had won Teacher of the Year.
“I hope it’s okay that I dropped by without calling,” I said.
“Sure it’s okay.” He looked at my hands. “Especially because you bought a cake.”
I glanced down at the chocolate cake I’d stopped to buy at a nearby grocery store. I held it out to Kellan. “I thought there might be a cover charge for entry.”
Kellan reached for the cake. “Not necessarily but I’ll take it.”
I sniffed the air. “Is something burning?”
“Oh shit,” he swore and continued to talk as he walked toward the kitchen. “You just missed my folks. Uncle Creed and Aunt Truly came by to cheer them up by dragging them out to karaoke. They didn’t want to go but Uncle Creed growled something about getting the hell out of the house and when Uncle Creed growls, people tend to move. I would have liked to go too but no one invited me so I’m stuck here with the boys. Do you want any macaroni and cheese?”
I followed him to the kitchen. “No thanks, I’m good.”
“Where’s Cassie?” he asked as he handled the boiling pot of pasta one handed before draining it into a colander.
“She’s got school tonight,” I said. “Wrapping up a summer session class. You must be getting ready to start pretty soon.”
“Yeah. Freshman orientation at ASU is in two weeks.”
“You planning to live at the dorms?”
Kellan squeezed a foil pouch and bright orange cheese dribbled out over the pasta.
“No,” he said and his face was serious all of a sudden. And sad. “I was going to live at an off campus apartment with Derek but he’s not going back and it’s too late to register for the dorms.” Kellan stirred the pasta and cheese mess he’d made. “I’ll commute for now and see if I can get into the dorms next semester.”
“How is he?” I asked. “How is Derek?”
“You’re free to ask him yourself,” said a deep voice.
I turned to find Derek Gentry standing in the kitchen doorway. He looked exhausted and unshaven. His clothes were wrinkled and the playful arrogance was gone from his attitude. In its place was a kind of world-weary misery that seemed to drain his youth.
“So how are you, Derek?” I asked him.
He swallowed and threw a pained glance at his brother’s bandaged hand.
“I’ve been better,” he said with quiet honesty. He tried to smile. “How are you guys? Is Cassie here too?”
“Nope. I’m afraid it’s just me.”
“But he brought cake,” Kellan said. “So we’ll forgive him.”
Derek nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. He looked thinner than he had at the wedding.
Maybe Kellan had the same thought. “Hey D, why don’t you eat some macaroni and cheese?”
Derek raised an eyebrow. “Is that what that is?”
Kellan stirred the pasta and frowned. “Yeah. Either I burned it or I missed a step.”
“I’m not hungry anyway.”
“But Mom made me promise I’d feed you.”
Derek snorted. “You the babysitter now?”
“Damn straight so eat your dinner or no video games for you.”
“I’ll be working in the garage.” Derek held up a hand. “Good seeing you, Curtis.”
Kellan sighed after his brother departed. “I’m not sure Thomas will even eat this crap and Thomas eats anchovies.”
“And where is Thomas?”
“Probably in the backyard firing baseballs through the tire swing. Kid’s got a baseball for a brain.”
I leaned over and peered at Kellan’s macaroni and cheese efforts. The pasta appeared gooey and ridiculously overcooked. It really did look disgusting.
“Brecken tells me Thomas stopped going to Dalton’s training camp.”
“Did he?” Kellan said but I could tell by the way he said it that this wasn’t news to him. “You want to do me a favor and go out back and tell him I want him to come inside for some dinner? Derek would rather step on a nail than do anything I say but I like to kid myself that I still have some authority over Thomas.”
“You got it,” I said and immediately exited the kitchen in search of the backyard.
I found Thomas exactly where his brother said he’d be, poised at the far end of the wide yard and throwing baseballs through a tire swing hanging from a tree at the other end. He threw five in a row without missing, bouncing them against the stone fence.
“You ready for the majors yet?” I asked.
He jumped at the sound of my voice and then smiled.
“Curtis,” he said, walking toward me while wiping the sweat from his face with his t-shirt. “What are you doing here?”
“I was just in the neighborhood. And no, I didn’t bring Cassie. Or Brecken. There’s just me. And a cake.”
He was interested. “What kind of cake?”
I grinned. “Chocolate. I think your brother’s made a mess of dinner but luckily your pretty cousin has taught me a few things and I can whip up some wicked good omelets if you’re hungry.”
Back in the kitchen Kellan had given up on his culinary efforts and dumped his disastrous creation in the trash. Luckily there was a carton of eggs in the fridge along with some cheddar cheese and a package of cold ham so I was able to make good on my omelet promise.
Kellan sat at the table and took a cautious bite before cracking a smile.
“You can actually cook, Curtis,” he said with obvious surprise. “Cassie should keep you.”
I grinned. “Cassie can keep me forever if I have anything to say about it. But she’s a far better cook than I am.”
Thomas swallowed a big bite. “Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked me.
“Maybe. But first I’m going to see if I can tempt Derek out of the garage.”
“Good luck,” Thomas grumbled, forking another piece of omelet.
“Uncle Conway brought over an old junker for him to work on,” Kellan explained. “And nowadays when he’s not working at the Brothers Gentry garage he’s out there in the heat tinkering with it. I guess it keeps his mind off things.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
Derek was in the garage with an old mustard yellow Pontiac. The hood was up but he wasn’t peering into the guts of the car. He was sitting on a wooden crate and staring out of the open garage into the empty street while drinking from a clear plastic bottle.
“I’m a slightly better cook than Kellan,” I said, pulling up another wooden crate to sit beside him. “So how about an omelet? It might be the only thing I can make really well but your brothers were impressed.”
“Thanks for the offer,” Derek said, “but I’m really not hungry.”
I wracked my brain for something else to talk about. “I hear you’re an excellent mechanic. I’m sure Stone and Conway are glad to have you working at the garage.”
“Yeah, I just talked to Stone today about coming on board full time,” he said and took another drink. He saw me watching him and raised the bot
tle. “It’s water.”
“Okay.”
“I’m not a fucking alcoholic.”
I didn’t say anything.
Derek exhaled loudly. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t owe me an apology.”
He winced. “I owe more apologies than I’ll ever catch up with. But this one is for you.”
I was curious. “Why?”
His blue eyes were red now but he didn’t flinch. He looked at me directly while he said what was on his mind.
“I’m sorry I lied to you at the wedding when you caught me drinking. I really didn’t think I was drunk.” He took a deep breath. “You ought to know I have thought of that conversation in the hallway a hundred times since then and every time I ask myself, ‘Why the fuck didn’t I just listen to Curtis?’”
“Derek, you’re not the only who keeps thinking about that. I could have told your folks. I could have followed up to make sure you didn’t end up driving.”
“No,” he said sharply. “Don’t do that. This is all on me. Hale’s death. What I’ve done to Hale’s family, to my family. Whatever I fucking get I’ll deserve and it will never be enough.” He choked back a sob. “Goddamn. There’s no undoing this.”
“No,” I agreed. “There’s no undoing this.”
He crushed the water bottle in his hands and lowered his head. I wished Cassie were here. I was afraid I wouldn’t say the right thing and Derek desperately needed someone to say the right thing.
“You might have heard things about me,” I said. “About the kind of life I led up until a few years ago. They’re all true. I’ve made some really shitty choices in my past.”
He raised his head. “Did your choices ever kill anyone, Curtis?”
“No,” I admitted.
“That’s good.” He nodded. “It’s a hell of a thing to live with.”
“I’m sure it is. But destroying yourself won’t do any good. No one wants that. Not your family. Not Dalton. Your life isn’t over, Derek. You can recover from this.”
He sniffed and swiped at his eyes while I looked away to give him a moment to cry if he needed to.
“Curtis?” he finally said.
“Yeah?”
“Were you really a gang member down there in Emblem?”
“Sure. I got started early. I was a teenager, same age as your brother Thomas.”
“But you got out.”
“Eventually I realized I was wasting my life on bullshit. Plus I had to clean my act up because my family needed me.”
Derek thought about that. “Looks like it worked. Here you are making dinner omelets in my parents’ kitchen and giving out pep talks.”
“What can I say? I’ve been domesticated.”
He nodded. “I just have one question.”
“What’s that?”
“While you were out there cooking in the kitchen did you wear my mother’s pink apron?”
I pushed him off the wooden crate. “Fuck you.”
Derek got out a real laugh over that and we left the garage in favor of air conditioning. Then I made a few more omelets and we all sat around the table together, me and three Gentry boys, all of us eating omelets and chocolate cake. That’s where Chase and Stephanie found us when they arrived home. I could tell the sight of their three sons around the table pleased them.
“Thanks for coming by,” Chase said as he walked me to my car.
“How was karaoke?” I asked.
“I killed it,” he said proudly. “I sang Wrecking Ball with unrivaled enthusiasm and ignored Creedence who kept heckling me, whining about how I was abusing his eardrums. Then he decided to show me up by getting up there and belting out Sweet Caroline like he was freaking Neil Diamond. Man, my brother can still sing.”
I laughed and Chase smiled before getting serious.
“Thanks again, Curtis. Tonight’s the first hint I’ve seen of the old Derek.” Chase stared at the house and looked worried. “He’s got a long road ahead of him. Longer than he realizes. Steph and I are under no illusions about that.”
“But he’s got an incredible family to back him up,” I said. “And that makes a hell of a difference.”
“It does,” he said softly, still watching his house where the lit windows blazed through the encroaching darkness. “I know I would never have made it without my family, without my brothers.”
Then he shook off the heavy mood, slapped me on the back and invited me to accompany him on his next karaoke adventure. I told him I’d be honored.
As soon as I was in my truck I checked my phone to find a text from Brecken. His friend’s mother was going to drive him home at nine if that was all right. I texted back that it was fine. I had just started the ignition when my phone buzzed with a call. Dalton didn’t usually call me out of nowhere just to chat so I knew something had to be up. I was right.
“You busy right now?” he asked.
“Nope. What’s going on?”
Dalton took a deep breath. “Remember when you said all I had to do was ask if I needed you?”
Of course I remembered. I didn’t say such things every day and I didn’t say them at all unless I meant them. “I remember.”
“Well,” he said. “I’m asking.”
“Tell me where to be and I’ll be there,” I said and put the truck into drive.
CHAPTER TEN
Dalton
Curtis didn’t ask me a lot of questions and I was grateful because I didn’t have a lot of answers just yet. It was enough that he would come running at a moment’s notice just because I asked him to. I knew that kind of loyalty didn’t come around every day.
Andy hailed us from a booth in the corner as soon as we stepped into the diner.
Curtis stopped. “Wait, that’s him?”
“That’s him.”
He chuckled. “I saw that guy at the funeral. He seemed to be watching everyone so I assumed he was up to no good.”
“He gets kind of intense and yeah, he is in the habit of watching everyone. He’s a detective on the Phoenix force. Andy’s an old friend though. He was out of town and couldn’t make it to the wedding but you’re right, he was at the funeral.” I nudged Curtis toward the booth. “Let’s have a seat.”
Andy stood and shook my hand before appraising Curtis. “You brought your lawyer, Dalton?”
Curtis raised an eyebrow. “Do I look like a lawyer?”
Andy grinned. “No.”
“Andy,” I said. “This is Curtis Mulligan. He’s family.”
Andy shook Curtis’s hand and got down to business after calling the waitress over for some more coffee cups. He was full of news and while he couldn’t tell us everything he wanted to reassure me that the situation was under control.
I wasn’t so sure. “What about the package I told you about? It seems pretty clear he’s threatening Cami over this alleged debt from Hale.”
Andy nodded. “I understand your concern. But no amount of cash is going to do Bruno and his buddies any good at this point.”
“I don’t believe it’s all about cash,” I said, thinking of the man who’d barged into my office. “I think he was angry at Hale. Implied that Hale had double crossed him somehow.”
Andy nodded. “Again, I realize why you’re worried. But I promise we plan to keep them under tight surveillance in case they make bail, which is not expected to be awarded given the nature of their alleged crimes.”
“And what is the nature of their alleged crimes?” Curtis asked and I was glad he did even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
Andy, however, became a little wary. I wasn’t too familiar with police procedure but I doubted he was supposed to be sitting here discussing a sensitive case. He shifted his eyes back and forth to check out the scattered handful of patrons and lowered his voice to nearly a whisper.
“According to the charges, the parties in question were using legitimate tanning salons as a front for illegal drugs and human trafficking.”
Cami’s reporte
r friend had been correct. That wasn’t a huge surprise. But there was still another question to ask even though I hated doing it.
“What was Hale’s role in all of this?”
Andy started to speak but then something caught his eye over my shoulder and he waved. I turned to see who he was waving at and saw a petite, attractive Hispanic woman who looked to be in her mid thirties.
She acknowledge Andy’s wave and made her way over to us.
“Dalton,” said Andy, “I’d like you to meet Maria Velasquez.”
Andy shifted over in the booth so Maria could sit down. While I certainly didn’t begrudge any friend of Andy’s a place to sit, I was anxious over the interruption. Now that I’d asked the question about Hale I couldn’t think straight until it was answered.
Maria gave me a warm smile. “Hello Dalton.”
“Hello,” I said, beginning to wonder if Maria was Andy’s girlfriend. He’d been married and divorced twice already.
Then Maria said something completely unexpected. “Hale told me a lot about you.”
I looked at her more carefully. She met my eye and seemed on the level. “You knew my brother?”
Her smile was regretful and her eyes suddenly filled. “Yes. I knew him well.”
“Are you on the force too?”
“No.”
Andy cleared his throat. “Maria is the founder of Operation Optimism, a highly regarded organization that helps victims of sex trafficking build new lives. I asked her to meet us here so she could explain a few things.”
I absorbed that information. It didn’t answer my primary question.
“How did you know Hale?” I asked Maria.
Her eyes flashed with pain at the sound of his name. “I’m very sorry for your loss,” she said. “I went to the funeral but I couldn’t bring myself to go inside. I ended up sitting in my car until it was over.” She cocked her head. “Hale never mentioned me, did he?”
“Not that I recall,” I admitted. “But then again my brother has never been up front about the details of his life.”
Maria didn’t appear bothered. “He had a good reason for keeping our association quiet.”
“And what reason was that?”
“He was helping.”
