CHAPTER 13

Bax

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN Gus knew more than he was letting on. That old coot didn’t let anything get by him, and I should’ve been more clued in by the fact that he wasn’t more alarmed by Race’s disappearance than he was. As it turned out, my friend was hiding out in the apartment Gus kept above the garage for personal reasons. Reasons that involved more than one girlfriend and a jealous wife. Race had been right under Novak’s nose all along, so close it was really going to chap his ass when everything played out. Served the bastard right. That’s what happened when any one man tried to play God over so many other people’s lives. I couldn’t wait to laugh in his face and put my boot on the back of his neck.

Of course I was going to have to get the bitter taste of the last look Dovie had given me out of my mouth before I did anything. I could see it in her eyes; she wanted me to ask her to stay with me, to change my mind about going into the lion’s den. I couldn’t do it. Not only because she would be eaten alive if she tried to stay by my side, but because tonight I had come very close to crossing a line I never would have imagined myself crossing. She got under my skin, made me want to make things different, but that wasn’t going to be possible, so I put her in the passenger seat of Race’s cherry ’66 Mustang without a kiss good-bye and closed the door. I watched her eyes turn from the color of the forest to the color of the night sky, and it twisted something up inside my chest so hard, I thought it was going to take me to my knees.

Race watched the entire thing with a frown, and when I told him if anything happened to her I would hold him personally responsible, instead of getting offended or hostile, he just nodded his head solemnly and told me, “I understand, Bax. Be careful.”

There was no such thing as careful when playing Russian roulette with a guy like Novak, so I didn’t bother to respond. I lit up a cigarette and watched as the taillights disappeared around the corner. It was already close to dawn and there was no going back to bed, not after having a gun in my face and the ensuing tussle with Race still thudding in my blood. Plus I felt like I was choking on the disappointment I could feel bleeding off of Dovie as she walked away. I couldn’t pretend like she didn’t matter, but I also couldn’t pretend like I didn’t know she needed something better than what I would end up bringing her way. She didn’t need to spend one second of her time visiting a grave or the penitentiary, and those were about the only two options she was going to get if we kept going the way we were together.

I dug my phone out of my back pocket, and for the third time, which was more than I ever had in my entire life before, called my brother. He didn’t answer right away, so I finished the cigarette and went back up to the now thoroughly trashed apartment. I hadn’t really wanted to hurt Race, but no one was going to pull a gun on me and get off lightly, even if I could understand his displeasure at finding me naked and totally wrapped around his sister. That wasn’t anything a big brother wanted to walk in on.

I was stripped down and getting ready to rinse the entire night away in a scalding shower when my phone decided to ring from the other room. Sighing, I wrapped a towel around my waist and went to answer the callback.

“Now what?”

Titus sounded annoyed and I couldn’t really blame him. He had called off the cavalry when the neighbors had reported the disturbance earlier. He was pissed Race had shown up out of the blue, and even more pissed when I told him about the nine-millimeter wake-up call. I think he was starting to regret forcing this brotherly-bond thing when he knew good and well it only mattered to me as long as I could use it to my advantage.

“I have the flash drive.”

I didn’t think he was going to need any more information than that, and I was right. I heard him suck a breath in.

“Race gave you the video?”

“A copy of it. It’s stored on a hard drive somewhere in Gus’s shop, which is where he’s been this entire time, by the way.”

Titus swore. “Shoulda known that old bastard knew more than he was letting on.”

“That’s what I said when he told me.”

“So you’re going to turn the video over to me so I can arrest Novak.” It wasn’t said as a question.

I scowled at my ragged reflection in the mirror over the bathroom sink. Every single week since I had been let out, I had managed to find myself in some kind of physical altercation. My life was violent, filled with blood and uncertainty, and there was no place in it for a girl like Dovie, even if I already felt like there was a hole where she had been.

“I’m going to take Novak down.”

Silence met the bold declaration, but I expected nothing less. My brother was a law-abiding citizen, a cop, a man who saw things clearly as right or wrong, which is why we could never really operate on the same wavelength. His world was all solid shades of black and white; mine was a muddy gray, tinted with vibrant shades of red and green. Red for blood, green for dirty money.

I was surprised he didn’t immediately launch into a lecture or give me the runaround about how it was the law’s job to handle Novak, to protect the Point. Instead he grumbled something foul and asked, “Wanna grab breakfast in a couple?”

My eyebrows shot up. “Sure, why not.”

We made plans to meet at a diner close to the precinct Titus worked out of, and I finished trying to wash Dovie’s memory and scent off of my skin. The cut on my side was open again and Race had gotten a couple good blows to my ribs, so I was moving a little slower than normal. It wasn’t until I went to get dressed that I realized Dovie had left still wrapped up in my new hoodie. I didn’t want to admit that the idea of her holding on to something of mine made something in my gut settle down. I had never really been possessive of anything in my life, aside from my car and my friendship with Race. Whatever I was feeling for Dovie trumped all of it. It felt like hope and promise and all the things in life I had never imagined would apply to me.

I found a place to leave the Runner where I thought it would be inconspicuous and not draw attention to either me or my brother. Titus was already seated in a booth at the back, a plastic menu covering his face. He flicked the edge of it to the side when I sat down across from him and grunted a greeting at me. He looked tired and older than his twenty-nine years. His bright blue eyes were rimmed in red and his dark hair looked like he had used motor oil and a ceiling fan to style it. He had also ditched his cop wear of a pressed white shirt and tie. The guy sitting across from me looked like he could give me a run for my money in the pit at Nassir’s—or be found riding shotgun next to me in one of my boosted rides. We always kind of looked alike, apart from the eye color, but now there was no denying we were built from the same stock. He looked just as rough and dangerous as I typically did.

The waitress came over and Titus asked her to just leave the pot of coffee she was holding. He ordered a massive breakfast and I just got some bacon and eggs. I wasn’t hungry, I was anxious to get the ball rolling.

“What’s up, Officer King?”

He cut me a look. “Race beat the crap out of you. You got a wicked bruise on the side of your face.”

“I know. He got me in the ribs even worse. Can’t say I blame him. I was all over Dovie, and there were no clothes involved.”

“What’s the story with you and her anyway? She doesn’t really strike me as your type.”

I chomped on a piece of the bacon and gave him a considering look. “How would you know what my type is, Titus? It’s not like you were around when I finally figured out what girls were for.”

He looked at me and frowned, his mug of coffee stilled halfway to his mouth. “Just because I wasn’t around didn’t mean I wasn’t keeping tabs on you. If I hadn’t kept a finger on the pulse of the felonies and misdemeanors of the infamous Shane Baxter, your ass would’ve been in prison a lot sooner than when you turned eighteen.”

I’d had run-ins with the law on and off since I was old enough to remember, but really, luck had always been on my side. Sure, I spent a month or two in juvie and was way more familiar with the back of a squad car than anyone should be, but my record was mostly clean, except for the last big fuckup that had kept me on lockdown for five wasted years.

“Why? Why interfere? Why pretend like I mattered when you were off being supercop? Those two things don’t seem to go hand in hand.”

“Because you’re my little brother and have always been a pain in the ass. I wondered all the time if things would have been different if Mom had managed to get her shit together when you were younger. I wonder if you had never been forced to steal, forced to break the law, if you would’ve just finished school and ended up a regular douchebag like most twenty-three-year-olds.”

I snorted. “Doubt it.”

Titus smiled around the coffee mug. “Yeah, I doubt it too. So about the girl?”

I grunted and leaned back in the booth. “She’s sweet and hot. She grew up the same way I did—rough—but it didn’t seem to touch her at all. She’s as loyal as I have ever seen one person be, and right now she’s right in the center of this mess with Novak. I sent her off with Race because I don’t know where else she’ll be safe. Once I let Benny know I have the video, he’ll tell Novak and all the dominoes are going to start to fall.”

“Shane . . .” I was getting real tired of people calling me that. I felt like every time they did, it was chipping away at the solid steel armor that was Bax. “I need you to take one second and look at this from the other side of things for once in your life. I know for you it’s easier to go in with guns blazing, ready to cause a riot, but I’m telling you that isn’t how things are going to work out.”