Chapter 16 Leo
LEO
“Tim…what the fuck.” I can’t even believe what I’m looking at. “What is…” The questions are flying out of my mouth faster than I can think to form them.
Tim nods. “I know,” he says. “I know. It’s a lot of money.”
“What the… Are you out of your fucking mind?” My stomach sinks, and my palms start to sweat. “Where did you get this money?” This is serious money. Stolen, I assume, from some seriously bad people. “Is this drug money?”
I start to panic.
Maybe it would have been better if I’d found a body in the trunk. This? This is the big time.
The risk he exposed me to by keeping this here…it’s even worse than him actively making me lose the business or the house. He’s made me an unwitting accomplice to crimes I can’t even comprehend have taken place.
“What the fuck did you do this for?” I’m pacing now, terrified. “What if someone found out it was here? Who did you steal this from? What were you going to do with this?”
I know before he admits it that he was not going to use this money to save my house.
A selfish, drug-abusing user would rather steal money from bad guys and steal the house right out from under me than face the music the honest way.
Not to mention his total disregard for the danger stashing this shit in my shop brought down on me, my business.
“You’re going back to fucking prison,” I say, grabbing my phone.
In the heat of the moment, I consider it. I consider dialing 9-1-1 and letting the cops pick up my deadbeat brother and take his ass away for good, but Tim’s hand on my arm stops me.
“This is the only thing keeping Lia alive,” he reminds me. “That money is what they want. They only want me because they think I have it.”
And just like that, I hang up the phone.
“So, now what?” I ask. “I’m guessing you’re not going to show up with me at midnight and let me hand you over to the assholes who have Lia. That or show up with a bag of cash and propose a new deal.”
Tim shakes his head. “You don’t have to. I have a plan.”
“I already don’t like it,” I mutter, but he’s my best chance to get Lia back.
“Give me a break, Leo.” Tim is pleading with me. He’s not being shitty.
He looks scared.
“I can’t go to prison. Locked up away from Juliette. Away from life. I can’t. I won’t do it.”
“You’re a fucking drug dealer, Tim. You deserve it.”
“I’m an addict, Leo. If I could get clean, do you really think I’d deal?
I hate this shit. Okay? I hate it! I hate how it makes me feel, how it makes me think.
I hate being a junkie. And don’t even pretend that’s not what I am.
I know what you think of me. I’m not trying to pretend I’m a hero.
But bank robbers get out of jail with less time than they’ll give me if I go back. ”
“So, what?” I demand. “You were going to let me lose the house while you and Juliette and this nice wad of cash sailed off into the sunset? Until what? You shoot that money up your veins, and then you’re broke, high, and back in the goddamn clink?”
He walks up to me and looks me right in the eye.
“No, Leo. Okay? That was never the plan. There’s a place in Costa Rica…
” He gets this dreamy look in his eyes. “Juliette and I planned on going down there and getting clean. We could pay ten thousand for both of us, spend a few months in rehab down there, and have enough money left over to start new lives.”
I don’t know shit about Costa Rica, but that sounds like a pipe dream to me.
“Well, as happy as I want to be that you had this whole happy ending planned out for you and your wife, your entire plan still hinged on screwing me out of the business, the house…fucking me, Tim. Your plan all along has been to fuck me.”
“You see that bag?” He points to a small grocery store sack.
“Uh, yeah?” It’s empty and sitting beside the canvas bags that are piled high with cash.
“Juliette was going to leave that for you. Filled with cash.” He grimaces at me. “It probably wouldn’t have been enough to save the house,” he admits. “But I told her to leave you at least fifty. It would have been something. It would have made a dent.”
“A dent,” I echo. “A dent is all you have room for when it comes to your brother.”
I slam the trunk of the Cadillac closed and turn on him.
“Now what, Tim? You’re wasting my time. I don’t give a fuck about your future and your bullshit lies about getting clean and starting over.
Some thugs have Lia, and they want you. You have their cash, which you want to run off with to Costa Rica.
I don’t see a happy ending to this story. ”
Tim huffs a huge sigh. I look closely at him. I still can’t believe this guy is my blood. My brother. He looks nothing like the healthy, fit guy who used to play beach volleyball with his friends.
“I can take you to where they’re keeping Lia.”
“What?” I bolt upright. “Why the fuck didn’t you lead with that? You know where she is? How do you know?”
“Barry Kasterson,” he says. “Barry’s one of the suppliers I used to work for.”
He explains how he got out on bail, reaching out to Josh, his high school buddy, for help with the bond. But I stop him right there because I know this part of the story. I didn’t know that he planned on fucking over Arrow too.
Intentionally.
“Wait, wait, wait.” I’m seething, seeing red, and I don’t even give a shit about Arrow. “You’re telling me you went to a high school buddy for your bond when you knew full well you were going to skip out?” I ask.
The layers of how my brother planned to fuck people are just…I can’t believe it.
“No. Jesus, Leo. Would you give it a rest? I get that you think I’m a total asshole.
” He calms down and sits. “I was planning on fighting the charges. There were problems with my arrest and some evidence shit, I don’t know.
I had a lawyer for a while. I got out on bail, tried to get a real job.
Tried for months, actually. I was gonna get clean and fight the charges, Leo. I was.”
He looks at me, and all I see is the ruin.
The futility.
“I couldn’t go straight, Leo. Nobody wants to hire a white trash motherfu…”
“Shut the fuck up already. Take me to Lia, or I’m going to end you right here.”
He wipes his face with the back of a sleeve. “We give that to Barry, we take Lia, and we’re even.”
“You think it’s that easy?” I ask. “We take their hostage, leave the cash, and what? You got a greeting card? Maybe we should stop at the market for a thank-you note. Make sure they know who left the bag of fucking cash in place of their prisoner.”
“It’s the best shot we have.”
“No,” I correct him. “It’s the best shot you have. I can call the cops right now and have you, and this Barry motherfucker, put away for a long, long time.”
Tim is quiet. “What about this?” he asks. “I’ll go with you to get Lia. If she’s safe, I’ll hand Barry the money myself.”
I think about that for a second. “You mean we go together? You’d bring me to the drug dealer you stole from, return his money, and help me save my girl?”
Tim nods. “Barry’s an asshole, but he’s small time. He’s no murderer. Why do you think I stole from him? He’s small enough that he trusted an asshole out on bail to deal for him. I really think this could work. He wants his money, Leo. He only wants what’s his.”
I want what’s mine too.
Lia.
She’s the only thing that matters.
Not the house.
Not my brother.
Not even the memories.
I think it over. It sounds like an absolutely terrible plan.
“All right,” I tell him. I hold out my hand.
“Until this is all done, I’m going to need the key for that Caddy, and when it’s over, you’re not forgiven.
You’re not in my life.” I motion for Tim to sit.
“This asshole isn’t expecting to make the trade until midnight tonight,” I tell him. “I need to make a call first.”
I punch in a number.
Forty-five minutes later, Dog pulls up to the shop in his truck with a flatbed trailer on the back.
I head out front to meet him.
“What’s the news, Prospect?” He jumps down out of the truck and checks his watch. “Ain’t it a little early for auto repair work? Tiny would have a shit to end all shits if he knew you were working when his kid is…”
But just then, my brother walks out of the shop, his head hung low.
“Dog,” I say cautiously. “This is my brother. Tim.”
Dog eyes me with a look that can only be described as “Boy, have you lost your mind?”
I press the Red Pelican key chain into his hand. “Don’t lose this,” I tell him. “Tow it home.”
“My home,” he says, confirming that I mean the compound, not my house.
“Yep.” I nod.
Dog is looking really uncomfortable.
“Tim,” I say. “We can head out now that Dog’s here. You wanna grab your shit?”
Tim nods and heads back into the shop to grab the sack of money. As soon as we’re alone, I give Dog the bare minimum.
“Give this key to Josh,” I tell him. I press the Red Pelican key chain into his fist.
“Any instructions?” he asks. “Anything you want me to say to Tiny?”
I shake my head. Tim’s already coming back through the door, cradling the cash behind him so Dog can’t see it.
“Nope,” I tell him loudly, acting like everything’s all good. “My brother and I are going to handle things from here. I’ll be back soon with Lia.”
“Should I—” Dog is standing there looking confused and highly concerned.
I shake my head. I don’t want Tim to suspect I’ve asked Dog to alert Arrow.
“We’ll be back,” I tell Dog and motion for Tim to get into my truck.
There are no cars parked in the lot, so I’m wondering how Tim even got here.
I wait until Dog has the Caddy on the flatbed before I lock the shop and watch him pull away with Tim’s toxic haul.
All that money. I seriously can’t believe it.
I say a small prayer that nothing happens to Dog on the way.
The last thing I need is this getting any messier than it is.
“You’re no dumbass,” Tim says, watching as his entire life is towed away.
“Just insurance,” I say. “How’d you get here if you didn’t drive?”
“Juliette dropped me off,” he says. “She was supposed to wait ten minutes, and if I didn’t come out, to go wait for me at your house.”
“My house?” I start at that. “Tiny’s at my house, Tim. If she goes there and Tiny…”
“Who the fuck is Tiny?” he asks.
“Lia’s dad. I called him when she went missing.” I look at him sideways as I back my truck out of the lot. “Wait a fucking minute. Did you know that Lia was taken? Did you show up here to make things right because you knew my girlfriend had been kidnapped?”
Tim fiddles with the handle on the plastic bag of cash.
“Hide that shit, you idiot,” I snap at him. “We get pulled over and I got a wanted felon carrying a bag of cash? Jesus.”
“What the hell do you expect me to do with this?” Tim snaps, and slides the cash under the passenger seat and leans back. “I’m sorry, man.”
“For what now?” I ask.
“Boat’s leaving tonight. I’m leaving. Juliette and I are going to hop a boat. Sail to Costa Rica tonight.”
“You were gonna break in to the building and steal the money back?”
Tim is silent.
“We have security cameras, you dumb fuck,” I say.
“Juliette scoped them out. That’s why we brought the car in to you.
We needed a safe place to store the cash until we could get a boat squared away that could take us all the way.
You took like fifteen minutes looking at the car to tell her how long you’d need it.
More than enough time for her to assess the system.
She knew right away all you had were those cheap internet motion-sensor cams.”
I huff a series of curses under my breath.
I was better off when my brother was on the run, far the fuck away from me.
If Lia hadn’t gotten dragged into this, he’d be on a boat tonight, and I’d be none the wiser.
Although, I’d probably have been stuck with a useless Cadillac and a lot of unanswered questions.
“I’m sorry, Leo.” Tim looks at the radio before reaching across the dash to flip it on.
I slap his hand away. “Fuck you,” I snarl. “I need an address.”
He tells me the address, and I punch it into my phone’s GPS.
“What are you doing?” Tim asks, suddenly paranoid.
I hold the screen of my phone up to him to show him the navigation. “You wanna tell me where to turn, or should I use the app?” I can’t keep the shittiness out of my voice. It would serve him right if I called the police, fire department, the local news, and God himself.
He reaches for the radio again. Again, I slap his hand away.
I don’t wait for him to respond. This isn’t a road trip. Passenger doesn’t control the music.
“You’re an asshole, Tim.”