by Cora Brent
“What kind of things did you write down?” I asked him.
“The truth,” he said. Then he let out a low chuckle. “Well, the wholesome version of the truth.”
“It’s perfect, Con,” I said sincerely. I meant it. The gift he described wasn’t one that could be bought with ten million dollars. Conway was destined to be an excellent father.
“Thanks for the ride,” Con said as I pulled up to the curb in front of his house.
“Sure. You’ll call me first if anything exciting happens?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Stone. Who the hell else would I call first?”
I was smiling as I drove away. I hadn’t told Evie to expect me early today and I couldn’t wait to surprise her. We didn’t have any plans between now and Cord’s party tomorrow evening so unless we got a call to rush to the hospital, the next twenty four hours were wide open. And I planned to fill those hours doing pornographic things to my wife in every room of the house.
“Merry Christmas to me,” I muttered, my head already full of delightfully smutty thoughts.
CHAPTER SEVEN
CONWAY
“Go fish.”
“Fuck that. Take off your shirt.”
“Conway!”
“Roslyn!”
She shook her head. “No.”
I tapped the playing cards against my hand. “You’re the one who wanted to play this boring game. At least give me something pretty to look at so I don’t fall asleep.”
She pouted. “It’s nostalgia. When I was a kid my dad and I used to play Go Fish at Christmas time.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Tradition.” She winked. “Don’t you believe in tradition, Conway?”
I reached for my mug of coffee and considered. “I believe in tits.”
Roslyn laughed. It was a beautiful sound and she looked beautiful doing it. I was really glad now that Stone had pushed me to put the ‘Closed’ sign up yesterday and keep it up until the day after tomorrow. He was right. There was only a slim chance we’d miss out on customers during this time. Today was Christmas Eve and the day had dawned even colder than expected with skies an ominous deep gray. I was grateful to be home with Roslyn this morning, though I planned to find time for a quick mission this afternoon. Eli had finally texted me back yesterday evening, asking if it was all right for him to spend another night in the garage. He promised it would be the last time. Since I was already home with Roslyn for the night I didn’t want to conjure an excuse to go out again just so I could cart Eli to a cheap motel. But then I hadn’t heard from him since I gave the okay and I was getting a little worried. I hoped to convince him to forget about whatever was keeping him here and head to California where he’d be with his family and out of immediate danger. Then Eli would be safe, I could stop stressing over keeping a secret and all would be as it should.
Roslyn chewed a piece of the buttered toast that was leftover from the elaborate breakfast in bed I’d prepared this morning. “You should stop using profanity so freely,” she warned. “Any minute now you’re going to be a dad.”
“Is that your way of telling me it’s time?”
She wiped the bread crumbs from her hand. “No. I wish.”
“Oh. I was going to comment that you looked awful calm for a woman in labor.”
“You can expect a slightly different demeanor when the real thing hits.”
“Just as long as you don’t scream that I’m a rat bastard while trying to twist my testicles off.”
She smiled charmingly. “Why would I do that, honey? I’ve grown rather fond of your testicles.”
“In that case you should know that they happen to appreciate your tits too.”
Roslyn seemed to be thinking as she played with the top button of her flannel pajama top. I was about to get an early Christmas treat when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I thought about ignoring it but when I glanced at the screen I knew that wasn’t an option.
“Con, who is it?” Roslyn asked curiously.
“Nothing. Just Stone.” I rose with a sudden weight of anxiety on my chest. “Listen, I need to head down to the garage for a little bit. You okay?”
“Unfortunately.” She frowned. “Not even a hint of contractions. Looks like Tadpole won’t be a Christmas baby after all.”
I bent down and gave her a quick kiss. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Something the matter? I thought you and Stone agreed to close until after Christmas.”
“No,” I said and goddamn it to hell I hated myself for telling a lie. “Nothing’s the matter at all.”
“Love you,” she called as I left the room.
“Love you too,” I called back.
My heart was pounding as I got behind the wheel of my car. Eli’s text could be taken any number of ways but none of them were good.
Trouble at the garage. Get down here. Sorry.
Yesterday’s rain hadn’t yet dried up before the overnight freeze moved in. The pavement was covered with a thin layer of ice and I had to force myself to drive slowly to avoid skidding. I saw a pickup truck careen off the road and wind up on the sidewalk but luckily no one appeared to be hurt.
Eli was nowhere in sight when I pulled up to Brothers Gentry. I got out of my car cautiously, wishing once again that I still carried a gun. Impulsively I grabbed a crowbar out of the trunk and started walking slowly after I left the driver’s side door open in case I needed to make a quick getaway.
No other cars were around, either in the garage parking lot or the tiny strip mall next door. Between the holiday and the dangerous ice we weren’t the only ones with the idea to close for business the day before Christmas. A few dozen yards away the occasional car rolled past but other than that everything appeared deserted. I shivered anyway, not just from cold. I’d seen my share of bad situations go down in in places that seemed deceptively empty.
“Con?” Eli’s head appeared around the door as he opened it and cautiously looked around.
“Shit!” I exclaimed because two things were apparent to me right away.
The first one was that Eli had gotten worked the hell over. His right eye was purple and nearly swollen shut and there were patches of dried blood just below his hairline.
The second thing I noticed to my dismay was that the small window beside the front door was shattered. Bits of broken glass littered the pavement and the lower half of the windowpane was missing. Stone and I had considered covering the window with bars but thought it looked tacky. Anyway we were planning on getting a full security system installed after the holidays so it didn’t seem necessary.
Eli looked awful, not just beat up, but miserable. He couldn’t meet my eyes as he waited for me to approach. I noted with some relief that the front door seemed to be in one piece. My relief was short-lived when I stepped inside though.
“What the fuck, Eli?” I yelled.
There was a hole in the wall by the front desk, a broken chair laid out underneath it and scattered papers were all over the floor. I even saw some dark smears of what looked like blood on the ground. In the midst of all that were the ruins of Evie’s Christmas decorations. I knelt down and picked up a pink invoice for some belts that Stone had ordered.
Stone.
How the hell was I going to explain this mess to my brother?
Eli dropped down beside me. “Fuck, I’m sorry, Con,” he said glumly.
I let the invoice fall out of my hand. “What the hell happened?”
He took a deep, ragged breath and explained without sugar coating a thing. Eli had failed to mention that he was recovering from a relapse of an old addiction. I knew he’d been addicted to amphetamines since he was a troubled teen but as long as I’d known him I’d never seen him actually hit anything harder than a bottle of Jim Beam. But now that he was down on his luck the old struggles had resurfaced and yesterday afternoon he’d taken a bus up to a sketchy neighborhood close to the university where he knew he could score something. Obviously
he’d used the cash I’d given him but it seemed beside the point to bring that up right now.
Anyway, when he was in that neighborhood a pair of street rats started hassling him. He scuffled with them a little but ultimately got away. Then last night he made his way back here and curled up on the cold floor. Somewhere in those long hours he decided enough was enough and he called his girlfriend in California, promising he’d go to her as soon as he got his car back from the impound lot. Eli was a little late on coming to the conclusion that it made no sense to hide from every shadow in Arizona when he could start fresh only a state away. He was going to call me this morning to ask if he could borrow enough to pay his fine and then be on the road by noon. Things didn’t go as planned though. He stepped out for a cup of coffee and the same shitheads who messed with him yesterday spotted him on the street two blocks away. He didn’t know if they’d followed him down here or if it was just a coincidence but since one of them flashed a knife and all he had was his dick in his pocket he bolted for the garage, figuring he could hide out inside until they moved on. From the sound of it the two troublemakers were probably homeless and maybe getting a little desperate with more bad weather on the way. I didn’t really have a clear idea about what came next, but they broke the window somehow and drew Eli into a confrontation that wound up in the lobby of Brothers Gentry. There were two of them but Eli was a decent fighter and the knife they were flashing turned out to be a harmless toy. Blows were exchanged and Eli managed to run them off, although the brawl made a hell of a mess out of our lobby.
“You look like you need a doctor,” I remarked, gesturing to the cut on his head.
“No, it’s not gonna bleed anymore. Just a flesh wound from broken glass, it looks worse than it is.”
I surveyed the scene grimly. Aside from the hole in the wall and the broken window the damage could be cleaned up in an hour. Nothing appeared to be missing but the sight of the place in shambles, the place Stone and I were working so hard to build, gave me a sick feeling, most of all because I knew this outcome was all my fault. Even though I could probably get everything cleaned up and repaired today I’d still need to tell Stone.
Should have fucking done that in the first place.
But first there were still a few questions that needed to be answered.
“What about the drugs, Eli?”
He raised his head and managed to look at me straight. “In my pocket. Didn’t take ‘em, Con. I swear.”
“Right.”
“On the life of my daughter I swear.” He started digging around in his back pocket and came up with a folded baggie. He stared at it for a second, then sighed and passed it over. “See?”
I recoiled. “Fuck, I don’t want it!”
“Okay.” He swallowed. “I’ll go flush it or something.”
“Sure you will,” I grumbled. “I don’t trust you at this point.”
Eli looked miserable. “I don’t blame you.”
I felt like I couldn’t deal with anything else until that little bag of horror was out of the way. “Fine, I’ll get rid of it.” I held out my hand. “Give it to me.”
Because the window was broken the temperature in here was already close to freezing. But the frigid breeze that pushed its way in through the suddenly open door was more than winter. It was fate. It was what I deserved.
I knew who would be there and I stood up to face him. Stone stared at me with disbelieving eyes. I saw him glance first at the bag Eli was in the process of handing over, then around at the damage and disorder. I saw his face fall before it was overcome with a look of unmistakable pain and betrayal.
“Conway,” he said. “What the hell are you doing?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
STONE
I remembered the letters to Santa Claus while I was standing at the stove, scrambling some eggs for breakfast.
“Ah, dammit,” I swore, thinking of the wide-eyed boys who’d entrusted me with their secret wishes. Of course I knew mailing letters addressed to a mythical figure at a pretend location wasn’t exactly useful but I’d made a promise. Even if no one ever knew whether or not I’d kept it I would always know. It seemed like especially bad karma to break a promise to kids on Christmas Eve.
I switched off the stove and transferred the eggs to a cool burner while I finished the sausage in the neighboring pan. Evie appeared, looking sleepy and beautiful all bundled up in a blanket over her warm red nightgown. She smiled at me and I felt like I was in one of those coffee commercials depicting a perfect holiday scene.
“What are you doing up?” she yawned.
“Making breakfast for you.”
She slipped her arms around my waist. “Can we go back to bed after breakfast?”
“I’d love to, baby,” I said, groaning a little when her hand teased lower. “I’ve got a quick errand to run though.”
“An errand?”
“Won’t take long,” I promised, spinning around and planting a kiss on her forehead.
I felt her small body shiver against me. “It’s so cold. How can you be standing here barefoot?”
“I’m made of caveman stock.”
At my insistence Evie went to the table with her blanket and waited to be served. She liked to eat her eggs with grape jelly, a strange choice but just one of the thousand and one quirks that made her Evie. I sat back in my chair with my coffee, watching her eat. She always swirled her food around the plate with a flourish before raising the fork to her mouth. This wasn’t the first time I had watched her like this while thinking about what it would be like to have someone else sharing our table, someone who carried around pieces of both of us.
“What?” she demanded after she swallowed.
“Huh?”
“You’re sitting there grinning like you know a secret.”
“No secret.” I set my cup down and leaned over to kiss her. “I want to tell you something later though.”
“Tell me now.”
“Sorry. This time you’ve got to wait until Christmas, little girl.”
The hot water was in short supply so I hurried through a shower. As I was getting ready to walk out the door I realized Evie was watching that ‘Wonderful Life’ movie again. She was all curled up on the couch and I badly wanted to curl up with her.
“When will you be back?” she asked after she accepted a kiss.
“Should be less than an hour. You need anything while I’m out? Wrapping paper? Tinsel? Candy canes?”
“Nope. All set.” She gestured to a pile of presents beneath the elaborate Christmas tree. “You remember that we’re supposed to be over at Cord and Saylor’s house at six, right?”
“Couldn’t forget if I tried.”
Outside the air was frosty as hell but I didn’t mind. It seemed fitting the day before Christmas and the meteorology folks were still promising snow.
Before I drove away I considered texting Con to see what he was up to but then thought better of it. He was probably enjoying a quiet morning with Roslyn. It was bound to be one of the last they would have since that baby had to show up sometime.
I turned to the radio station that played Christmas music all day every day. If anyone happened to look in my car window they would probably wonder why I was grinning at nothing like a damn idiot but I couldn’t help it. When you feel like everything is right with the world you smile.
I wasn’t expecting to see Con’s car sitting there in front of Brothers Gentry. It was positioned rather crookedly, like he’d parked in haste. More than likely he’d just dropped by in a rush because he’d forgotten something, kind of like I had. There certainly wasn’t any reason to be alarmed.
The glass on the ground caught my attention just as I was about to walk through the door. I paused, staring at the jagged pieces and the broken window. It must have happened during the night. Maybe Con was driving by and had seen it and that’s why he was here. It was something that would need to be dealt with, whether it was Christmas Eve or not.
I f
lung the door open with my brother’s name on my tongue but I stopped dead before I got a sound out. Conway was crouched on the floor with a guy who looked vaguely familiar, a guy who had blood on his face and was handing over a bag of something that sure as fuck didn’t look like candy.
“Conway!” I roared. “What the hell are you doing?”
The two men on the floor froze. Then Con dropped his outstretched hand and jumped to his feet.
“Stone,” he started to say.
I swooped in and grabbed the baggie from the other guy. I remembered him now. He was one of Conway’s friends. A group of them used to live in a crappy old downtown hotel. Then Conway had gotten together with Roslyn and gone straight. Or so I thought.
It didn’t require much examination of the contents of the bag to understand it wasn’t aspirin. I hated the shit. Fucking hated it. Never tried it myself but I’d seen it ruin enough lives in its various forms and seductions to swear off the temptation forever. My own wife’s twin brother had gone from a promising young man to a hardcore addict who skated in and out of rehab and prison. And the pain never subsided for the family who loved him. It never would.
Leaving Con and his buddy in the messed up lobby, I bolted to the bathroom, dropped the contents of the bag in the toilet and promptly flushed.
Conway was waiting for me exactly where I’d left him, pale and slack-jawed. Now that I was getting a better look I realized just how fucked up the situation was. A sizeable hole existed in the wall to my left, more broken glass littered the floor and there were papers and broken things everywhere. It looked like a tornado had blown through here and exited out the window.
“It’s my fault,” blurted the other guy and I had to give him a little grudging credit for not flinching under my steely-eyed gaze.
“And who the fuck are you?”
“Eli. We’ve met before, Stone.”
“I didn’t remember your name.” I gestured to the damage. “So all this is thanks to you?”
