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“Always,” I promise, nodding my head then stepping around her. I wipe the tear from my eye and move on to my bike.
My cabin door bangs, but I ignore it, and Brax doesn’t bother trying a second time before he lets himself in…
“You seen Jes… he stops and stares at my TV screen like he’s never seen one before. “…What the fuck are you watching?” He looks at me, shocked.
“The Bodyguard it's a… never fuckin’ mind.” I sit up from where I’m lying across the couch and scrub my face. I need to pull my shit together.
“What do you want?” I ask him. Since he barged on in, I’m assuming it’s important.
“Jess never came home last night. It’s unlike him, almost as weird as you watching this shit,” his head nods toward the TV again.
“This is actually a great movie. He’s a kick-ass—”
“Save it. I already know. Gracie made me watch it a few months back.” He stops me from continuing like he’s in a rush. “Have you seen Jess or not?”
“No, not since I left after the funeral yesterday. What time even is it?” I look around at all the empty bottles surrounding me. I recall sending Storm out for pizza, at some point but now it’s daylight.
“It’s 3.30 in the afternoon.” Brax shakes his head at me.
“And we’re worried about VP, why?” I massage my temples to try and stop the thumping in them.”
“Because he and Maddy had a fight and when he rode out, he was pretty upset. You know what happens when Jessie gets upset.” He raises his eyebrows.
“I hear ya, brother. You tried calling him?”
“Ain’t answering.” Brax shakes his head.
“Then have Maddy trace his cell.” Jesus, I thought he was supposed to be one of the clever ones.
“He’s turned off his phone, which makes us even more worried. He doesn’t want to be found.”
“Then leave the man in peace. He clearly wants some time out.” I stand up and head to the bathroom to take a slash, and Brax is still there when I get back.
“And what you gonna do for the rest of the day?” Brax asks, looking around the room judgingly.
“Well, I sure ain’t chasing around town trying to find my VP because him and his old lady had some stupid fight,” I assure him, balancing a smoke between my lips and looking for a light among all the junk on the kitchen table.
“Screw, you got a light?” I yell through to my brother’s room.
“He ain’t there. He rode out with Troj to look for Jess earlier,” Brax informs me, taking a zippo from his back pocket and tossing it at me.
“This is serious, Squeal. Jess just found out Chop killed his old man. Prez and Mads have been hiding it from him, and he’s feeling betrayed about it.”
“What?” I kick open the back door to let some fresh air in, it smells like shit in here.
“He doesn’t know it yet, but I knew too. In fact, this is kinda all my fault.” Brax follows me out onto the deck and takes a seat on the plastic chair in the corner.
“You’re gonna have to back right up and tell me from the start what the fuck you’re talkin’ about.” I check my phone to see if Alex has returned my call, and that's a negative.
“So, you know how I've been wanting for a while now to make Chop pay for what he did to mine and Nyx’s mom?” he starts scratching at his neck. “Well, it was going on back when Brian was running the Utah Charter, and I was Prospecting. I knew Chop was getting into Mary-Ann.”
“Hold up. I thought no one knew about that until the video Mads found on her laptop?”
“I was making a lot of runs between here and Utah in my prospecting days, I used it as an excuse to keep an eye on Chop. And I wasn’t the only one who learned what he was doing. Brian must have found something out too because he called him to the Utah Charter, and he gave him the opportunity to come clean with Prez before he told him himself. I taped that conversation on a dictaphone under the table in Brian’s office, and two days later, Brian was found dead in a motel on Route 15. His kid was hiding in the wardrobe and saw the whole thing.”
“Jessie,” I breathe out.
“I can’t help thinking all this is my fault, Squealer.”
