Despite the drama Blaser had to smile at his brother, yes, Colt was concerned for the outcome here, but the happiness he exuded just talking about Lyssa lightened the load for a few seconds. Too soon Blaser had to shake off that contentment and the envy he had toward Colt for the security he had with Lyssa. He vowed to himself that as soon as this was all cleared up he was going to find that same stability with his girl.
Chapter Twenty
The bouncers were just throwing out the last of the patrons when he got back to the club. Going in through the back, he passed the dancers at the rear exit, but he didn’t speak to any of them even when they called out to him.
When he stuck his head into the locker room, Crystal and Destiny were the only two people present. ‘Where have you been?’ Crystal asked him.
‘Where’s Bri?’ he asked, ignoring her question.
‘Out front, but—‘
There was no time for explanations, he had to get to Bri. Hoburn or another detective could come for him at any minute. With the witnesses and a gun showing up on his property they had enough probable cause.
Hoburn had only been decent enough to let him go because he had history with Colt and Lyssa too, but even he wouldn’t be able to stop the arrest if a judge felt that his alibi was insufficient. The witnesses had said they saw Blaser threaten Rafe, not kill him, that’s what Hoburn had said. The detective would be wise enough to know that was flimsy, circumstantial evidence which wouldn’t be enough for a conviction if they ended up at trial; especially if the ballistics of the gun found on his property didn’t match the murder weapon.
The waitresses took on the roles of cleaners after their shifts and with all the lights on they were sweeping up and clearing glasses. Interrupting the collegial banter, he took the brush from Bri, propped it on the bar and threaded his fingers through hers to pull her away from her work.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked as they went through the backstage door. ‘You were here then you disappeared with Crystal. She came back, but you didn’t. Where have you been?’
Storming into the office he closed the office door then held her against it.
‘Blase—‘
Bending his knees he stole her mouth, her plump lips gasped in a breath of surprise giving him the chance to dip his tongue inside her, past her teeth he licked and tasted every crevice of what he could be stolen from.
If he had needed further confirmation that he didn’t want to go back to jail then tonight was it. This kiss was his incentive, this woman his reward for being good. With his eyes still closed he forced himself to release her mouth but couldn’t separate his body from hers.
‘Rafe’s dead,’ he said and her pliable body became rigid. ‘The cops searched my place and they found Gary’s gun.’
‘Oh my god,’ she said. Although she increased pressure on his chest, he didn’t give her more than a couple of inches of room. ‘You’re a felon, you shouldn’t have a gun at all, should you? Did you tell them that it wasn’t yours?’
‘I said it belonged to a friend and the detective in charge of Rafe’s case is checking the ballistics.’
‘Rafe,’ she said and her gaze flitted around his chest. ‘How did he die?’
‘I guess he was shot,’ Blaser said. ‘Colt might be able to get more information.’
‘Will he be awake now? Won’t he be pissed if—‘
‘The cops took my place apart, Suzette called Lyssa, Colt got to my place not long after I did. He’s on the case, he’ll see what Chavez can glean from others.’
Chavez was a cop and another of the Warner cousins, Colt still had plenty of sway. ‘What will he find out? I mean, what does it matter? He knows that you didn’t do it, doesn’t he?’
‘Yeah, it helps that he and Lys can provide an alibi, except…’
‘What?’ she asked, curling her fingers into his tee-shirt.
‘There are witnesses who saw Dax and me there on the morning that Rafe died. He was alive when we left and I figure the witnesses said that or I would be behind bars right now.’
‘So they’re looking for Dax too?’
‘Hoburn didn’t ask me about him. Either the witnesses didn’t name him or the cops think he can’t be responsible, maybe they just can’t find him. I don’t know. I guess that will come up when I go to the station to answer their questions. Colt told Hoburn I’d go tomorrow with a lawyer. I think Hoburn wants more time for the forensics evidence to come back. After that, he’ll know if he’s got the murder weapon or not.’
‘You went over there, to Rafe’s, with Dax?’ she asked. ‘To give him the money from the fight night?’
‘What he was owed, yeah.’
Her face downturned and he resisted the urge to shake her or force her to look at him. Absorbing events still consumed him and the novelty of it had worn off. She needed to take in all of this information herself, and he had to give her some time to process it.
‘You could go back to prison,’ she whispered.
‘I didn’t do it. Why would I go to the trouble of having the fight night with Dax if I was just going to shoot the guy?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘They could pin it on you and the only way you can argue what really happened is to admit that the fight night took place. You’ll go back to prison.’
‘I went to Rafe’s to give him money, they don’t need to know where that money came from. I won’t rat out Dax.’
‘And Gary?’ she asked. ‘You’ll have to tell the police what happened that afternoon in your apartment. It’s the only way to explain the gun.’ Her hands drifted to his abs. ‘Tell them it’s mine.’
‘Yours?’
‘Gary is my brother, I would’ve taken the gun away from him to protect him. People will probably have noticed that you and I have been spending time together.’
‘I’m not going to put any guilt onto you. None of this was your fault.’
‘It wasn’t yours either and I’m not suggesting I should take the blame for the murder. There’s no way that gun is the murder weapon.’
‘You don’t know where Gary got it from, it could be stolen, and maybe it was used in other crimes. You don’t take ownership of a weapon that you know nothing about.’
‘I’m not saying it’s mine. I’m saying that I took it from Gary and left it at my boyfriend’s home. That’s plausible.’
‘Plausible, yes, but the slug in the kitchen? Will you tell them that Gary was waving it around and that Dax took it away from him?’
Not knowing what was going through her head made his mind work in overtime. She eased him aside and wandered deeper into his office. Giving her time to absorb these developments, he remained by the door but had to put his hands into his jeans pockets otherwise he’d do some fidgeting of his own.
She slid her pinkie through the fingers of the other hand then used it to draw around them then go back. When indecision fled her, she dropped her hands and went for the door.
‘Where are you going?’
‘I’m glad that we… that we got the chance to be together again,’ she said.
‘I don’t like how that sounds,’ he said, intercepting her hand on its journey to the entrance handle.
‘I’m not saying goodbye. I just… I needed to let you know. Anything could break any minute and if they took you from me before I got the chance to…’ Smoothing her hands around his waist, she brought her form into the cocoon of his to hold him. ‘I love you, Blaser.’
‘Will you wait for me?’ he asked.
Startled, she brought her attention up to him. ‘What?’
‘If they put me away… If this all goes wrong and I end up doing time again… will you wait for me?’
‘You didn’t ask me that the last time.’
‘There wasn’t time and I was a different person back then. This time I’m asking.’
‘You won’t call me into visiting and dump me again, will you?’
‘I don’t want any other man to have you. I couldn’
t stand to have you out here, on the market, for any guy to lay his hands on. You’re my girl, Bri… I need to know.’
‘I’ll wait,’ she said.
Seeing some of the uncertainty clear, her features relaxed and he brought his hands up to her face to guide their mouths together again.
‘What do you say we leave the scut work to the lackey’s tonight?’
She wasn’t tempted by his flirting. Bri left his embrace with a pat on his chest. ‘Another night,’ she said. ‘I have to get this straightened out. I’ll wait for you if I have to, but I’d rather not have to.’
‘What does that mean?’ he asked, snatching her hand again to prevent her exit. ‘I won’t let you go out of here alone.’
‘You don’t have a choice. Where I’m going, you’ll only make things worse.’
‘Make things worse? Where are you…?’
‘I’m going over to Gary’s,’ she said.
‘He’s going to convince you not to be with me,’ Blaser said. An ache of panic clambered up his spine and fumbled its way throughout his ribs. Right now they were all a little lost but one fact he knew with absolute clarity was that Gary didn’t want Bri anywhere near him.
‘He will try, just like he always does,’ she said. ‘But tonight’s visit isn’t about us.’
‘It’s three in the morning, he’ll be asleep.’
Dropping the door handle, she came back to him. ‘Every minute that we waste here is another minute that the police are investigating. The police might end up at Gary’s place. I have to talk to my brother while there’s time.’
‘If he had anything to do with this he’ll run.’
‘You don’t… do you think that he did this?’
‘No, I… I don’t know. You saw how desperate he was when he came into my apartment.’
‘Oh god,’ she paled. ‘He made a comment about taking care of Rafe and I corrected him.’
‘I’m sure he wouldn’t—‘
‘I don’t even know my own brother anymore. All those years I stayed away I only talked to him a handful of times and he never came to visit. Is it…? Is it possible that he…?’ Avoiding eye contact she went to the door and pressed both palms to the wood.
‘Gary’s a lot of things, but a murderer?’ Blaser asked unable to believe that his old friend would go that far. Though his erratic behaviour of late could be a symptom of a larger instability that Gary hadn’t faced in himself.
‘What if it was an accident?’ she asked. ‘Like with you, you said he shot you by mistake, maybe he was threatening Rafe and—‘
‘Maybe,’ Blaser said. ‘He could try and explain that to the cops.’ But Blaser knew the cops wouldn’t believe it, not with the way Gary’s rap sheet was laid out, especially of late.
‘Our father was violent with my mom. He’s in jail for murder… do you think…?’
‘I don’t know,’ Blaser said. ‘On purpose or an accident, it’s a possibility, so I don’t want you going over there alone. Take Dax if you won’t let me be there.’
‘He’s not our personal bodyguard. When I was outside your place with Ivy and the gun went off… I was terrified that something had happened to you, but Dax was in there because of us, if he had been shot… if Ivy had lost her husband…’
‘Lys is family, she patched me up great.’
Trying to lighten her burden wasn’t what she wanted now because she completely ignored his reassurance.
‘If he had been hit, Ivy would’ve been alone because of us. Gary has to know that his behaviour is damaging, or one day he will kill someone… if he hasn’t already.’
Blaser wanted to stop her, but Gary had never threatened her harm. If he went then a confrontation would ensue, it always did. So as she left the office he listened to her footsteps recede. Inhaling, he told himself to go back to his routine and he would, right after he called Colt for an update.
Chapter Twenty-One
Gary had lived in the same shithole one-bed apartment for a couple of years, she knew it because she sent him a Christmas card every year, not that she ever got one back.
Only after Bri moved in with Erika did she come to visit her brother. The damp stained walls and cracked windows didn’t entice her to repeat that experience. So after that first and only visit she made to his place, she never came back. When they wanted to get together, Gary came over to Erika’s.
But today she embraced being here because today she was going to do what she should have done years ago: stand up to her brother and have him face facts. Getting to Gary's door she didn't waste any time waiting to knock.
At this time in the morning, he should have been fast asleep. But he didn't take long to answer the door as if he was expecting something or someone to come over. Whatever he was waiting for, it wasn’t her, and his surprise at her presence was palpable. He tensed and tried to come into the hall, but Bri wasn't going to be blocked out, so she crowded close to keep him on his side of the threshold.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘You told me I could come and stay with you and now I'm not welcome? Aren't you going to ask me in for coffee?’ She could already tell that he didn’t want her to come inside and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to know why that was. ‘Are you alone?’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I’m alone.’
‘Great,’ she said. ‘Just milk for me.’
In the long delay that followed he had to be trying to think of excuses why she couldn’t come in. But he must have come up short, because he grumbled and stepped back, holding open the door. Bri went into the living room ready to lecture him about the mess, but when she clocked the real reason he didn’t want her here, she stopped.
On the coffee table was a glass tube with a spherical end and beside it was a rock she couldn’t mistake. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ she exhaled and whipped around to glare at her brother.
‘What? I’m just chilling.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘No, you’re not.’ He passed her to saunter back into the living room and he took a seat at the head of the table with the meth in front of him.
‘It’s not that bad, come here, you might enjoy it.’
She couldn’t speak, she couldn’t even think. Bri wanted to run over there and beat him around the head. She wanted to scream and cry and ask him how he could do this.
‘You’re asking me to take drugs,’ she whispered. ‘Gar, how could you…? After everything that we went through with mom and dad, you promised you would never, that neither of us would ever—‘
‘What did you think I was going to do when you disappeared on me?’ he shouted and pounced up onto his feet. ‘You just fucked off to suit yourself and left me here alone!’
‘You had friends, you were… you were always more social than I was and Blaser—‘
‘Yeah,’ he snarled, snapping his growling eyes up to her. ‘You just locked yourself up with that fucking bastard and when he was gone, away in prison, you didn’t have any reason to hang around, did you? After all I did for you—‘
‘For me?’ she said, she wouldn’t stand for him pinning his troubles on her. ‘You loved it! You loved the attention, every time you brought in a new stolen car, you’d gloat, never once thinking about the person you’d taken it from or what it would mean to them. Then you sold off the parts and got rich quick, but the money never lasted, did it? You bought clothes and treated your numerous girlfriends, was that for me, was it? Did you do that for my benefit?’
‘I was getting us by! I was looking after you!’
‘No,’ she said, clenching her fingers around the strap of her purse. ‘In the early days, sure, you and Blase took over my life and didn’t give a thought to what would happen if you were caught! It was the money you loved and the credibility you had among the idiots and ingrates that hung on around you. At least Blaser came home to me every night, you would fuck off for weeks at a time!’
‘We’re family,’ he said, marching over to her. ‘We stick together!
You fucked off, not me! I might have taken a vacation or two, but you, you left me alone here for six years! What did you think would happen to me?’
‘I thought you would get yourself straightened out. You never needed me to look after you, and you didn’t need Blaser either. You were the king, you looked out for you, you should have realised that we were moving on and you should’ve got yourself together.’
‘Oh like your fucking saint boyfriend, huh?’ Spreading his arms, he kicked the end of the couch. ‘Let me tell you about that prick, you know he had an illegal fight night in that club of his, he—‘
‘I know all about it, and I know why he did it. He was trying to help me, he was trying to make sure that Rafe would leave me alone so that we could finally put all of that life behind us and move on.’
‘I took care of Rafe! I fucking told you—‘
‘What does that mean?’ she asked, lowering her voice. ‘You said it to me before in Blaser’s place, but what do you mean that you took care of—‘
‘What the fuck do you think it means?’
She couldn’t remember her brother being such an angry person. Maybe it was just easy to ignore that aspect of his character in the early days because everyone was getting along and life was good as far as Gary was concerned. His lowered chin and narrowed eyes gave her chills, but the long blank stare was what she fixated on.
‘You… you did it, didn’t you?’
‘Yeah,’ he exhaled and a wry smile took time to build on his face. ‘Are you proud of me?’
‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘How could you think that I would…? Who the hell have you turned into?’ The sad answer to that question was that Gary had turned into their father, cold and uncaring, only reacting when he was provoked and managing to overreact every time. ‘You can’t expect… you left the gun at Blaser’s, you didn’t even ask for it back.’
‘Don’t need it back,’ he said. ‘He can take the rap. We’re leaving in the morning.’
‘We?’
Risk It All (Risqué #2) Page 23
