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It was a stupid lie, but really, what did it matter? Brandy was mine with or without a piece of paper, and I’d burn down this whole fucking school if I had to in order to get the answers I needed.
“The first day of Spanish class when they called out Cherry’s name, she said present. I knew right away that I was sitting next to Brandy and not Cherry because Cherry always said here. Nobody ever figured it out when they switched places except me. Like I told you before, Brandy didn’t ignore me the way everyone else did.”
For a woman who, I suspected, spent a large chuck of her life staring at the floor, she was highly observant.
“Brandy spent most of that block doing her math homework, not even listening to the teacher, and still aced the first test. She’d always been the more academically gifted of the two, but still. Even if she’d taken the class before as herself, there was no way she would be fluent enough to carry on a conversation with the teacher when the rest of us struggled to string together a sentence. So, I looked for her after classes ended for the day. To find out what her secret was.”
Her narrow shoulders folded in on themselves. “Now I wish I hadn’t. When I finally found her and saw her face as she left coach’s office, I knew what he’d done. Because he’d done the same thing to me.”
Jesus Christ. Middle school girls? Fuck that. His own daughter? Brandy and Cherry’s old man was a sick, twisted, perverted old cunt.
“Did you ever report what happened to you? What you saw?”
She flinched. “It would have been my word against his. Who was going to believe the handsome hometown football hero and beloved coach was molesting the weird girl, let alone his own daughter? And on school grounds? Nobody, that’s who.”
It seemed I’d be paying old daddy dearest a visit. Good thing I knew exactly where to find him.
“One person does.”
I turned around and hadn’t taken more than a few steps away when I heard her soft voice from behind me. “What are you going to do?”
“Make him pay.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I dug it out as I pushed in the metal center on the glass door. Bea’s name flashed on my screen, and I swiped to answer her call.
“What have you got for me?”
The same two idiots of my brother’s slumped down in the seats of their car, purposely looking anywhere but at me. They were total shit at their jobs and a part of me wanted to be an asshole and wave at them as I walked past.
“Hello to you too, dear brother. I’m not sure why you felt the need to leave me a message earlier. If Piotr had done something besides golf, work on his tan, and fuck girls, I would have said so. Would you like me to text you the next time he takes a shit?”
What the fuck kind of shit show was Piotr running? He couldn’t even be trusted to keep our sister out of trouble, let alone run the Braterstwo. My baby sister might have grown up, but she could check her attitude at the door. It was time for me to remind her of her responsibilities to this family.
“What I would like is for you to act like a fucking Kowalczyk before you get us all killed. Trying to clean up the mess that is our incompetent and power-hungry brother is bad enough, but I didn’t think I needed to worry about you. Let me remind you that if I die or go to jail, and Piotr fucks up, like we both know he will, that you die. There’s no escape from the Braterstwo and you for damn sure can’t run it if you can’t even keep your mouth shut.”
“What are you talking about?” she whisper hissed, a door closing behind her.
My eyes scanned the parking lot as I straddled my bike, searching for Marek’s son. He was much better at concealing himself than the other two idiots, but I should still be able to find him. It was odd that I couldn’t.
“Do you think Piotr is the only one with spies? You forget yourself, sister. Pick your side carefully, because it may be the last thing you ever do.”
“You want me to help you secure the Braterstwo, yet you dare to threaten me?”
Jesus. Was I the only one left in this family without a penchant for theatrics? I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a deep breath in so I wouldn’t be tempted to reach through phone and strangle her.
“Please, Bea, you know me better than that. I’m simply extending you the courtesy of a reminder. If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not eat a bullet over my family’s stupidity.”
She breathed into the phone. Seethed, actually. Bea never could take being bested and there was nothing she could say to refute me. She needed to be reminded what was at stake, not only for herself, but for the rest of us. Unfortunately, that also now included the club.
“At one time I thought I did.”
A dial tone replaced the soft rasp of my sister’s voice, and I looked down at my phone. What the hell did she mean by that? Whatever bug she had up her ass would have to be dealt with later. There were more pressing matters that needed my attention before I catered to the emotional whims of an eighteen-year-old girl. Besides, if things didn’t go according to plan and I wound up dead, it wouldn’t matter, anyway.
Shaking my head, I looked up, watching an SUV slowly drive past. Now this recent development was worthy of my attention. These men didn’t stick out like a sore thumb, but nor were they here at this time of day to pick up or drop off a student. It seemed my brother had replaced Marek’s son with some new goons. He must be growing bored with this game and sped up his timeline.
Marco wasn’t lying when he called himself a ghost. No matter where I went on the dark web all I found was chatter about his late father, Miguel, and his brother, Diego. When I searched Mexico’s public records, there was no birth certificate or immunization records for him. I even hacked into the posh private school they attended. There were photos and grades posted for Diego and Valentina, with Valentina clearly being an overachiever, but, again, nothing for Marco. Whoever had wiped him from existence had done a damn fine job.
My hand hovered over the mouse as I debated if what I was about to do was sheer genius or criminally insane. I supposed only time would tell. They say history favors the bold, and hacking into the DEA’s database was about as ballsy as a person could get. But what other choice did I have? I couldn’t very well use Marco to save my sister if the DEA already knew about him.
