Chapter Fifteen

Rio

I closed the fridge door with more force than necessary. I’d been on edge all day. My morning visit to Bryn’s had soured my mood, and I hadn’t been able to come back from it. As hard as I had tried, I’d couldn’t shake her words from my head.

“You break the damn fridge, and you’ll buy a new one,” Saul drawled as he stood, watching me from across the kitchen with a beer in his hand, leaning on the counter.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

“Want to talk about it?” he asked me, looking as if he would rather do anything other than talk about my current anger problem.

I shook my head.

“Good,” he replied, shoving off from his relaxed position and heading for the back doors that led to where my sister was currently relaxing with a cup of tea and a book with her scenic view of the Gulf of Mexico.

He was almost to the door when Drake walked into the kitchen. “Jesus, what a fucking day. Did you hear the cops busted up Garth Harden’s meth trailer this morning? Place was loaded with folks. Two of the guys in Hollow Gun got arrested. One was their fucking drummer! They can’t play without him.”

Saul had paused at the door to listen to Drake. I had hoped he would go on outside. If he heard about Tory, he’d tell Henley. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with my sister worrying over that shit tonight.

“I heard,” was all I said, hoping Drake would shut up.

“Meth is insanity. I never did understand it. Just get fucking drunk,” he added as he opened the fridge to grab a beer. “Oh,” he said, his eyes wide as he turned to look at me. “Tory, the crazed bitch I went out with, like, twice. You know, the stripper’s sister. She was in there. And I heard it wasn’t her first arrest. She’s probably headed to Montgomery or wherever the hell they send folks like that. I dunno.” He shook his head then and took a drink.

I could feel Saul’s eyes on me. He had put the pieces together quickly enough. Unlike Drake, he paid close attention to things. I turned my head to meet his gaze. He said nothing, and I knew he expected me to talk.

“What?” I snapped. I didn’t have to say anything to him. If I had wanted to tell him, I would have. This wasn’t his fucking business. Just because Henley was going to give a shit didn’t mean I had to give him any information. This was not my sister’s problem, and she needed to stay out of it. “Tory is trash,” I added.

Saul turned to look out the window at my sister, who was blissfully unaware about all of this. I wanted it to stay that way. Couldn’t he just let it go?

“She doesn’t need to know,” I told him. “She can’t do anything. There is nothing to do.”

Saul sighed and then looked back at me. “I wish I didn’t have to tell her, but damn if I’m keeping shit from her. I’ve been down that road, and I don’t intend to do it again,” he said. “The sister, she has the kid?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I went by their place this morning when I got word Tory was being arrested. I told her.”

“The stripper? Y’all talking again? Even after the shit with the Jeep?” Drake raised his eyebrows. “I don’t blame you. She had some incredible tits. I’d forgive her too.”

“She’s not a stripper. And, no, I’m not talking to her the way you think. Or at all. I just—I told you, she’s a part of my past. That’s it. And then there is the kid.”

Saul nodded his head toward the balcony. “You can tell her, or I can.”

I wanted to go take a shower and stay in my room all night, alone. Talking about shit I could not fix was pointless, but if Saul went out there and told Henley, she would just come search me out to talk about it. Getting it over with now would be easier.

“I’ll do it,” I told him.

“Now,” he replied.

If the fucker wasn’t my best friend, I would hate him at times. I glared at him as I walked past him and jerked open one of the double doors that led onto the elaborate balcony. It was two levels. The second level was where the pool overlooked the beach. Saul’s father owned exclusive resorts and apartments all over the world, putting him on the Forbes list. One day, Saul would be on that list too. However, if you met Saul on the street, you’d never know it.

Henley looked up at me and started to smile but stopped when she noticed the scowl on my face. Her gaze went past me to see Saul, and she put her book down in her lap, as if to prepare herself for whatever we had come out here to tell her.

“Hello, boys. From the looks on your faces, I am not going to like what you have to tell me,” she said, shifting her gaze from me to Saul.

“Tory was arrested this morning in a meth lab, completely fucked up. This isn’t her first time to be arrested like this. She won’t be getting out soon or easily. Bryn knows. I went to tell her this morning as soon as I heard it was happening.”

There, she knew. I could go get a shower now.

Henley swung her legs off the lounge chair she had been sitting on, putting them on the wooden boards beneath her, then stood up quickly. “You know where she lives?” she asked me.

I didn’t want to tell her yes because she looked like she was about to go somewhere. I just stood there and stared at her, trying to think of a lie to stop whatever she was thinking.

Henley’s fingertip hit my chest as she looked up at me with determination. “If Tory is in jail, then Bryn has a little boy who has been told today that he might not see his mama for a while. She has no other family. It’s just them. She can’t go to work at night if she’s taking care of Cullen. She needs help. So, tell me where she lives.”

“You aren’t getting mixed up with this. Hell, for all I know, Bryn is on the same shit. She works at a strip club and lives with a druggie. She could be using too,” I said.

Her eyes flared, and I heard Saul cough or cover a laugh behind me. I wasn’t sure which it was.

“When did you become this-this heartless, judgmental jerk? Bryn isn’t that child’s mother, but she sacrifices for him every day, the way a mother is supposed to do for her child. She’s come in the shop enough for me to see her with the little boy. He trusts her. She loves him. It is clear as day. I do not believe she bashed your Jeep. I don’t care if you saw her put the pole through a window of your Jeep; there has to be an explanation. Even if there isn’t, then you must have done something to deserve it. And I absolutely do not believe she is using drugs. Now, I am going to see Bryn and find out how I can help her and Cullen. Tell me where she lives, or I’m calling her.”

Deep down, I guessed I had known this was what Henley would want to do. It was one of the reasons I hadn’t wanted her to know. Did that make me a heartless, judgmental jerk? I hadn’t even considered Bryn wouldn’t be able to work or didn’t have help with the boy. She had trashed my Jeep, but she had said she didn’t know it was mine. Maybe she had been telling the truth. Didn’t make her any less crazy for it though. She had demons, and Henley could never understand something as dark as the life Bryn had been raised in.

“I’ll take you.” It was all I could agree to.

I stood behind what I’d said about Bryn’s past damaging her. I didn’t trust what she had become because of it, and I wasn’t going to let my sister get hurt. Henley had no idea the kind of life Bryn had lived and how it had ruined her.