5. Beau
BEAU
O ver the next week, nothing happened that was as serious as a body appearing, but I received another threatening note, learned Marley had skipped town and wasn’t responding to my calls or anyone else’s, and several of the cars in our lot were vandalized.
This shit wasn’t going to go away, not that I’d thought it would.
Ambrose and I were no closer to finding out who was behind all of it, so I was going to have to pay my brother a visit.
I hadn’t spoken to him since the day I’d been arrested, and I’d vowed never to speak to him again, but if anyone knew what was going on, it would be him since he’d taken up with Rob and fallen right in with Rob’s plan to destroy me.
I called Sam into the office at the end of the day and told her I’d be gone for an unspecified amount of time.
She frowned at me. “Where are you headed?”
“It’s best if you don’t know too much.”
“I assume it has to do with the body in that Mustang?”
I nodded. “I’m leaving you in charge here. If there’s any trouble you and the guys can’t handle, call this number and say you got it from me.”
She stared at the card I handed her. “Who the fuck will I be speaking to?”
“Someone who will help.”
She tapped the card against her palm. “Beau, it’s me. You can trust me. I’ve got to know more than this.”
“I don’t want to endanger you.”
“I’ll be in more danger if I don’t know what the fuck is going on.”
I sighed. “Fine. That number will connect you to Remington Theriot.”
She glared at me.
“He’ll help you.”
“In exchange for what?”
I shrugged. “Whatever it is, I’ll deal with it.”
“Beau, I’m worried.”
“So am I. That’s why I’m going to track down my brother.”
“How long will you be gone?”
That depended a lot on Travis. “I wish I could tell you, but I’ve got to find him, then force him to talk. It could be a few weeks.”
She blew out a long breath. “Mardi Gras is coming up, and we’ve got?—”
“I didn’t choose the timing. I’ve got to deal with this shit now before we lose everything.”
She stuck the card I’d given her into her pocket. “I know it’s not your fault. Take the time you need. I’ll keep things running here one way or another. Stay safe out there.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Tracking my brother down took even longer than I expected.
I finally found him back in our bayou hometown working at a gas station and looking thinner and more tired than I’d ever seen him.
At least he didn’t seem to be beholden to any of the crime bosses working the area.
That would have made his extraction a hell of a lot more complicated and might have involved owing the Theriots even more than I had when they’d sprung me from prison.
I waited until he got off work, then grabbed him as he walked home in the dark, stuffed him into my car, and took off for the place my family still owned deep in the bayou.
As soon as I’d learned where he was, I’d stocked it so we could hide out there as long as necessary.
Until this was all settled, Travis could stay there, away from any trouble.
When I’d grabbed him, my brother had struggled until he’d realized it was me, then he’d just curled in on himself in the passenger seat, seeming to try to get as far away from me as he could.
“If I wanted you dead, that would have happened a long time ago.”
“Why the fuck are you here? You left me alone all these years. Can’t you just stay away? You see how I’m living. Isn’t that enough revenge?”
Rob had lured Travis in with promises of all the things he would give him—cars, homes, trips to exotic places, but the only exotic place Rob had taken him was a barn in the middle of nowhere that Rob used to hide the cars he stole.
I glanced over at Travis before returning my attention to the road. “Did you kill him?”
“What? Who?”
“If you’ve killed anyone, I’d be interested to hear about that too.”
“No. Fuck no. I haven’t killed anyone.”
I huffed. “Not directly.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about or why you’re here.”
I knew how deceptive Travis could be. He could look at someone with his big, blue eyes and his boyish face, and they’d believe everything he said.
That trick didn’t work on me, not anymore.
I’d believed him one too many times, and the last time it had sent me to hell.
For the moment, though, I believed him. He was shaking and pale, and his voice held none of the fake cheer he put into it when he was lying.
I’d known he was fucking lying on that god-awful day when I’d gotten arrested, but I’d let him deceive me because I’d wanted to believe him. That wouldn’t happen again. “Rob.”
“What?” Before I could respond, his brain kicked in. “Wait. He’s dead?”
Either his surprise was genuine, or he’d become a much better actor in the years since I’d seen him. The only reason I dismissed that possibility was because of where I’d found him. If he’d gotten better at pretending to be something he wasn’t, surely he’d be shacked up with a sugar daddy.
“Rob is very dead. His decomposed body was sent to my shop in a car we bought off Marley.”
“Shit. That’s bad.”
“Yes, it is, and you’re going to tell me who killed him?”
Travis shook his head. “I can’t. I… I haven’t seen him in years. I don’t…”
“You’re lying.” He never hesitated when he was actually telling the truth.
“I’m not. I haven’t been in contact with him. I swear.”
I was determined to get something out of him. “You don’t have to talk to someone to know who their enemies are.”
“I don’t know what he’s been doing or who he’s been working for or any of that.”
“Then make some guesses.”
“I… I can’t.”
I let it go. I was too angry after over a week of searching for him.
Yelling at Travis wouldn’t help. He’d just clam up more.
If he was someone else, I wouldn’t hesitate to torture the information out of him, but despite all the fucking mistakes Travis had made, he was still my brother.
Rob had manipulated him like he’d done me, but that didn’t make Travis blameless.
An apology at some point in all these years might have made me more sympathetic toward him.
I turned off the paved road onto the track that wound though the strips of land between bayous. Travis didn’t utter another word until we pulled up to the house.
“What the hell are we doing here?”
“It’s one place where no one will find us.”
He shook his head. “Rob knows?—”
“Rob is dead.”
“You’re absolutely sure?”
“I told you I saw his body. He was already starting to rot. Unless he comes back as a zombie, you won’t be seeing him again. Since he’s alligator food now, even that’s not going to happen.”
“He’s…” Travis swallowed hard. “You…”
“What did you want me to do? Bury him behind my shop? Call the police to investigate? Of course I got rid of the goddamn body.”
“That’s… good.”
I didn’t like how scared he sounded every time I mentioned Rob. I knew Rob had dumped him as soon as Travis was no longer useful to Rob’s plans to become a big man in the crime world, but that should have made Travis angry, not scared. “He threatened you?”
Travis shook his head.
I laid a hand on his arm. “What did he do?”
“I can’t… I can’t talk about it.”
If the asshole wasn’t already dead, I would track him down and put an end to him like I should have when I’d first gotten out of prison. I was angry with my brother. I didn’t know if I’d ever fully forgive him, but if Rob had hurt him even more than I knew… If he’d…
“Please don’t make me think about it. I’m glad he’s dead. That’s all.”
I’d find out more later. “Tell me who he was working with.”
“You’ll get yourself killed.”
“So that means you know, but you’re?—”
“Protecting you. I didn’t do that before, but now… Just go back home and stop asking questions.”
He had to know me better than that. “I only started asking questions because someone is obviously trying to frame me for his murder.”
He fiddled with the lock on the car door, pushing it closed and then open again. “If you haven’t seen him since?—”
“He came to see me once, about a month ago. He was scared, not at all the man he’d been. He begged for my help, and I told him to fuck off and that if he ever showed up at my place again, I’d kill him. Everyone in the shop heard me.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. So now you’re going to tell me what I need to know.”
Travis shook his head. “I’ve only heard rumors. I don’t know anything for sure, and you do not want to fuck around with the people I’ve heard whispers about. You need to ignore this.”
“A former friend’s dead body in my shop? I’m supposed to just ignore that?”
“The more you push, the harder they’ll come for you. I don’t want you to die.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “You could have fucking fooled me.”
Travis recoiled like I’d hit him. I pointed to the couch, and he sat while I started a pot of gumbo. I didn’t like how thin he was. He looked like I could knock him down with nothing but a hand on his shoulder. “Are you using?”
He shook his head. “No. I quit. All of it. I don’t even fucking drink anymore.”
I thought of the beer I’d placed in the fridge. I’d need to get rid of it. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Fuck yes, and it hurt like hell. Grandma Jeannette’s friend Loretta sent me to rehab. She used up all her savings, then she got sick, and… I won’t fuck this up, not when she did this for me.”
Shit. I didn’t want to feel sympathy for him, but I did.
I still wasn’t ready to believe him a hundred percent, but my gut told me he was telling the truth.
Then again, he knew how to tug at my heartstrings, and he knew what few other people did—that I was soft inside.
I thought I’d lost that in prison, but a few months out in the world again, spending time with the people I worked with and realizing the Theriots were good people despite how cold they could be when it came to business, had helped me find that part of myself again.