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“Never saw the dude in my life before,” Zag called.
“Yeah, me, too. We had a class of thirty-seven, and we all knew each other. Hell, we knew all of the classes.” Zig pointed his fork at Bristol. “Do you remember him?” he asked.
Bristol shook her head. “Nope. I assume he was kind of an outsider like I was, and I have no memory of ever seeing him.”
“Then how the hell is he in your fucking yearbook?” I shook my head. “He was there, guys. Records show he moved to Rockton his sophomore year and graduated from Rockton High two years later.” How did his guy have such a hate for the Devil’s Knights, but no one knew who the hell he was?”
Maybe that was why he hated the Devil’s Knights. They didn’t know who he was.
Bristol flipped two waffles onto a plate and set it in front of me.
“Hey,” Ransom protested.
Bristol shrugged. “He’s got like seventy-five pounds and a foot on you, Ransom. He needs the nutrition more than you do.”
Ransom lifted his middle finger and flipped me off.
I grabbed the syrup and coated each waffle.
“Is he anywhere else in those yearbooks?” Bristol asked. “Maybe he’s in a picture with someone else and you could ask them about him?” she suggested.
“The only picture I can find of him in the three yearbooks is the one posed one.” Ransom sat back and ran his fingers through his hair. “We know this fuckers name, and pretty much all his history, but we still can’t find him.”
“We’ll get him.” I cut the waffle with my fork and moaned at the first bite.
“Good, right?” Zag laughed. “They’re like fluffy pillows.”
I nodded and shoved more into my mouth.
“Can I get a cup of coffee?”
I knew that voice.
“Sure thing, Apollo,” Bristol chirped. She turned and grabbed the pot of coffee on the counter behind her. “I didn’t know if you want to be disturbed since Greer got in late last night.”
Apollo Banachi. The reason why I hated the Banachi’s.
I watched him out of the corner of my eyes.
“Bro,” Zag whispered.
I looked at him and grunted.
“You need to breath or something, brother. I can feel the rage boiling off of you.” Zag moved back. “Seriously.”
“I figured the club would be here. But I’m surprised to see you are here, Detective.” Apollo grabbed the coffee cup from Bristol and leaned against the island. “Though, I know Bristol’s waffles are hard to resist.”
“We needed to have a chat with these guys and found them here. Coincidence that it’s waffle day, but Bear and I are glad about it.” Ransom nodded toward me.
The smile on Apollo’s face faltered when he looked at me. “Bear,” he grunted.
I was the last person Apollo Banachi ever expected to see sitting in this house. I was surprised as fuck that I was there, too.
“Banachi,” I grunted.
Pie looked at Apollo and then me. “You two know each other?”
“You could say that,” Apollo drawled. He had recovered from the shock of seeing me and had pasted his smile back on his smug face.
I stabbed my waffle and shoved a bite into my mouth.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you knowing each other is not in a friendly way.” Zig grabbed his glance of juice and shrugged. “I, for one, would like the details to go along with these delicious waffles.”
“No real details to tell,” I growled.
“I do believe that there are,” Apollo disagreed.
If Apollo wanted to go into the details of why I thought he and his family were lowlifes, he was more than welcome to. I would love to hear just how he would spin the story to make himself look better. “Have at it.”
“Eight years ago, one my of cousins on my mother’s side got into some trouble and decided to jump bail,” Apollo started. “Bear was the man who was able to track Al to a state park in Arizona. From what I understand, Al gave Bear the slip after Al fell off one of the cliffs with Bear right behind him.”
Ransom slowly turned his head toward me. “Apollo’s cousin was that crackhead?”
I grunted and shoved another bite into my mouth.
“Al seemed to just bounce off the ground and got right back up. Bear was not so lucky.” Apollo shrugged. “Even with injuring himself, Bear was still able to apprehend Al two weeks later in Colorado.”
Zag motioned between Apollo and me. “I don’t really get why he hates you so much, though.”
“Before I was able to get my hands on Al, I managed to track him to one of Apollo’s estates.” I turned to Apollo and locked eyes with him. “Apollo thought his crackhead cousin’s life was more important than mine. He fired three rounds into my truck and almost killed me.”
Apollo tipped his head to the side. “A move that I regret to this day. My aunt had been feeding me a line of bullshit that I unfortunately believed. My loyalty family was one of my faults those days.”
“What was she telling you?” Zig asked.
“It’s not of importance now, but I will say my aunt and cousin were very good actors.” Apollo pushed off the counter and gripped his mug in his hand. “Unfortunately, they both met their demise shortly after Al was arrested. Al got tangled in some bedsheets in jail, and poor aunt Phyllis had a gas leak in her apartment that went undetected before it was too late.”
“Holy fuck,” Zig gasped.
Apollo inclined his head to me. “Again, my apologies for everything.” He nodded to Ransom. “I need to get back to my wife. Please let me or Marco know if you need any help with your investigation.” Apollo strolled out of the kitchen and down the hallway.
“No. Way,” Zig whispered. “He killed his own cousin and aunt because they were lying to him.”
“He didn’t say that,” Bristol scolded. “They died of natural causes.” She glanced at Pie and cringed.
Natural causes, my ass. I knew that Al had died in prison, but I had no idea about the aunt being involved.
I had always thought that the Banachi’s had something to do with Al dying because he was embarrassing the family name. It was news to me he had been offed because he was lying.
Ransom glanced at me. “You good?”
