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I close the file and tap my nails over it. It’s been a whole week, seven full days since Squealer sabotaged my date with Mark. Call me naive, but I'd actually thought we’d taken a chunk out of the barrier between us. Instead, I’ve heard nothing from him since. Haven’t even seen him around town.
If I didn’t know better I’d say he was avoiding me, but that makes no sense.
Why does it even bother me anyway? Squealer’s a pain in my ass.
An incredibly hot pain in the ass, who just so happens to know how to use that oversized penis of his.
Sighing, I take another sip of wine and stare over all the post-it notes scattered across my coffee table. Tonight, I needed a distraction from thinking about him. He doesn't deserve the headspace I’ve been giving him lately, and he certainly doesn't deserve the time I’ve wasted staring at my phone waiting for him to call.
I stare harder at the case file my brother had started putting together on Hawker a few months before he died. He’d gathered enough to suggest Hawker is as dirty as they come, but he had nothing that’s solid. There’s evidence he was working with Alteo Osmani, and Ivan Cooper, but it’s weak, and both of them seem to have vanished. There’s another name that features heavily in the reports. Phoenix. Maybe it’s coded because that person is on the inside too.
Whoever it is, Danny was close to uncovering the truth, and Danny died because of this file. My brother was a good person and a great officer. I owe it to him to get justice. But this has gone way past me doing the right thing by the law. This is about revenge for me now. It’s about making a man pay for the future he took from Danny, and the brother he took from me.
Closing my eyes, I recall that last conversation I had with him. I’d just finished a double shift, I was beat. Maybe if I’d listened more carefully, I'd have noticed how scared he sounded. I could have talked him out of whatever he was doing. Regret, I’ve come to learn, is one of life's greatest tortures. It’s a scar that will never heal, and eventually, it will eat you up from the inside until there's nothing left to feed on but emptiness.
“What do you want?” I pick up the call as I’m letting myself in through the door of my apartment, dumping my bag on the counter. I balance the phone between my ear and shoulder while I scan the fridge for something I can make up using minimum effort.
“Alex. Listen to me. I need you to do me a favor.” I can only just make out my brother's voice through the loud music on the other end of the phone.
“Whatever you’ve done, I’m not breaking the news to Mom and Dad. You’re twenty-eight years old, Dan, you don’t have to answer to them any—”
“Will you just stop and listen to me, Alex; this is serious,” Dan snaps at me, and I grab a beer, cracking it open before taking a seat on the couch and kicking up my feet.
This isn’t the first time Dan’s called me up on a night out. My little brother works hard and plays even harder.
He can get away with that shit in the boring little town where he’s stationed.
“So what do you need me to do?” I roll my eyes and picture him drunk in some bar. We’re supposed to be going home tomorrow for Mom’s birthday, he should already be on the road.
“I’ve sent something out to you, it’ll arrive tomorrow. I need you to keep hold of it for me, keep it safe.” He sounds sketchy, like the time when he was fifteen and got busted by one of Dad’s colleagues for smoking dope at a party.
“What kinda something?” I laugh to myself. It’s hard to take him seriously when I picture his face that night.
“It’s a case file. I had to send it to someone I trust, just in case…” He’s doing that thing he does when he tries to make something not seem like a big deal.
“In case what, Danny? What’s all this about?” Something tells me this isn’t about Mom’s birthday anymore.
“It’s something I’ve been working on… Shit, Alex, I’ve really fucked up. I have to go. Listen, there's something else I need you to do.”
“Besides holding on to this mystery file?” I’m being a sarcastic bitch, but it’s late, and I’ve been dealing with assholes all day. Danny's clearly drunk, and yeah, I’m a little bitter about that.
“There’s a girl, her name’s Abby Barnes, and she’s staying at the Blue Spruce Resort here in town. Write that down, Alex. The Blue Spruce Resort.” I hear a loud thud in the background and the sound of glass smashing. Perhaps Danny’s sleepy little town isn’t so sleepy after all.
“Dan, where are you?” I ask, starting to get worried. There’s something erratic in his voice that I don’t like.
“Just write down the name, Alex!” I quickly search around for a pen and something to write on.
“Got it. Blue Spruce Resort. Abby Barnes.”
“She’s with the Dirty Souls,” he adds.
“The Dirty what?”
“Souls. If anything happens to me, I need you to make sure she’s taken care of. And the package I’ve sent to you, that needs to stay between us until I can—”
More loud noises in the background and a horrible feeling in my gut make me suddenly nervous.
“What do you mean if anything happens to you? Danny, how much trouble are you in?”
