27. Travis
TRAVIS
I pushed away from the table and stood. I wished my brother was sitting down like Dax and Ambrose. I hated how all of them towered over me, but I’d feel even more ridiculous if I stood up on my chair.
“I appreciate all that you two have done for me,” I said, looking back and forth between Beau and Dax. “But I’m tired of you talking about me like I’m not here. I’m not a child.”
Beau started to speak, but I cut him off. “Yes, I know I’ll always be your little brother, but the days of you having to take care of me are over. I’ve grown up. I chose to walk away from everything you did for me. I’m sorry for that, but it doesn’t mean I need you doing that now.”
Beau nodded, and I turned to Dax. “I know you want to keep me safe. I know you want to protect me, but if this is going to work between us, I have to be able to do what I need to do for myself.”
I held Dax’s gaze as I said the last statement. I saw the moment he realized I was right. He slumped forward and let himself lean against the counter.
“As long as you’re never out of my sight, then fine, we have a plan.”
I looked at my brother. “Beau?”
“For so many years, I wasn’t there to protect you. Now that I can be, I hate the idea of sending you into danger, but you’ll be with two men I trust more than anyone else. Yes, we have a plan.”
Ambrose grinned at me. “In case you’re wondering, they are always this difficult.”
By the next morning, we were ready to put our plan into action.
Blackjack had come through with information we could use against Winston.
He’d been the lead on a murder investigation that gained national attention when the police were accused of a cover-up.
The primary suspect was a friend of the chief, and a reporter uncovered evidence against the suspect that should easily have been found by the police.
“You think he was part of it?” I asked.
Ambrose shook his head. “I think he was tricked into it. He was trapped in a position where he had to go against his chief and his partner, and there’d been so much tampering he wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t. I think he quit because he wasn’t going to be manipulated like that again.”
“Which means he’s not going to want to be manipulated by us.”
Ambrose nodded. “True, but we’re offering him help. The chief had nothing to offer him but continuing to do his bidding like a good little stooge.”
I wasn’t sure our offer would be enough to convince him, but we had to try.
“Go on and get ready.” Ambrose waved me toward Dax’s bedroom.
Ambrose thought it would be best if I dressed to look younger than I was. I could still pass for eighteen or less if I needed to. I was sure that was one of the things that had attracted Rob and his friends to me.
Remington had gotten Henri to order me some clothes, and he’d had them sent over.
I still couldn’t get used to the fact that they could just buy whatever they wanted whenever they wanted with top-notch service.
Dax wasn’t as flashy as his cousins, but I knew he had access to the same kind of money.
How was I ever going to fit into this world?
I pulled on the outfit Henri had chosen: skinny jeans, a baseball shirt, and a hat. I combed my hair out, making it extra shaggy, then slid my feet into the vans Henri had gotten me.
“What do you think?” I asked Dax
He frowned. “It’s unsettling.”
“You look just like you did at sixteen,” Ambrose said. “It’s perfect.”
Dax shook his head. “I don’t like it. You should just wear your regular clothes.”
Ambrose snorted. “You just don’t like it because he’s hot, and it bothers you.”
“It’s not just that. He looks so young. And those jeans… They’re obscene.”
Ambrose rolled his eyes. “He’s not going to get hit on. He’s just trying to look young and clueless.”
Dax growled.
“Get over yourself,” Ambrose said. “Let’s get in the truck.”
I laid my hand on Dax’s arm. “The sheriff is most likely straight. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
Ambrose cleared his throat. “Actually, he’s not.”
Dax scowled at him. “You’re telling me he’s gay, and you knew that, and Travis is?—”
“Winston’s sexuality was the first secret Blackjack found. Winston managed to keep his relationships hidden from the guys he worked with in Baltimore, and I assume he wants to stay in the closet here. I couldn’t use that against him, so I told Blackjack to keep digging.”
Dax’s anger seemed to dissipate. “Thank you for that. I would do anything to protect Travis, but?—”
“There are always more secrets. We’re allowed to pick and choose.”
I was glad Ambrose had looked deeper. I wasn’t sure I could have gone along with the plan if we were going to use the sheriff’s sexuality against him.
I’d had my gayness used against me more times than I could count.
I wasn’t someone who could easily pass for straight, not like Dax and Beau.
Winston was probably like them. I imagined him being big, masculine, and clean-cut.
Beau had found a beat-up rusty truck for us to use.
Dax and Ambrose argued over who would drive.
Ambrose had won because he knew where we were going, which seemed sensible to me, but I wasn’t about to say that.
When we reached the spot where we hoped to lure Winston, Ambrose drove the truck off the side of the road, sending the front end way down into the ditch.
The vehicle looked completely stuck, but he and Dax assured me they could get it out when it was time to go.
I’d seen Beau get cars out of worse predicaments, so I had to assume they weren’t just bluffing.
I heard a vehicle coming long before I saw the sheriff’s SUV.
When he pulled up behind me and stopped, I couldn’t help but glance toward the woods where Dax and Ambrose waited.
Dax was positioned so far back I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was there, and I was sure he was keeping his eyes on me.
I could just make out Ambrose, though his gaze was focused on Winston, never wavering as the man approached.
I’d guessed right. The sheriff had that clean-cut look—short, military hairstyle, broad shoulders.
He wore his uniform well. He was muscular but not overly bulky.
I was sure Dax and Ambrose could easily take him in a fight, though most drunks and common criminals were probably easy for him to put down.
“Hi there. I’m Eric Winston, the sheriff. I understand you’ve got a problem with your truck.”
Why did cops always state the obvious? Of course there was a problem with the truck.
The back bumper was hanging off, and it was nose down in a ditch.
I was surprised the pile of junk had made it this far.
It didn’t look worth saving, but I had to convince him I was desperate to get it back on the road.
That wasn’t really a stretch for me since a few months ago, I would have given anything for a truck just like it. I wouldn’t have cared if I had to hold it together with a prayer and some mechanical knowledge.
“Yeah, I… I don’t know what happened, sir. Maybe the steering went out or something, but it just slid right off the road, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
“Hmm.” He approached the truck, and I glanced nervously up and down the road, praying no one came by. Ambrose had assured us this road was rarely used by anyone except a few people who lived back in the woods past the end of it.
“It’s going to take a tow truck to get this out. I wish I’d known that before heading out here. I would’ve brought somebody with me.”
Thank God he hadn’t. We didn’t need anyone else involved. “Well, I… I just didn’t know. I thought maybe you’d have one of those, you know, pulley things. And you could, like, put it on the front of your SUV.”
“A winch?”
“Yeah, that sounds right.” It was fucking painful to act this dumb. Beau might think I didn’t know as much about cars as him, but I was far from stupid. Still, this bullshit would be worth it if we could bring down LePlatt.
It was all I could do not to look for Dax and Ambrose again. Dax was probably ready to kill his brother as he watched me interact with Winston, but there was absolutely no sign the man was attracted to me. He was as polite and mannerly as one of those small-town sheriffs in a Hallmark movie.
“I do have a winch, but even if we get your truck out, I won’t have any way to get it to town.”
“I was hoping I could just drive it then.”
The sheriff studied the truck. “I wouldn’t count on that, and even if it’s technically drivable, you’d probably damage it more. Let me call?—”
“Please don’t. I can’t afford it. I’ve got to get the truck out and make it run, or I won’t have any way to get to work. I don’t have money for repairs.” I scrubbed my hands over my face, hoping I looked like I was about to cry. “What am I going to do?”
He frowned, studying me closely. I was waiting for him to ask if I had insurance, but he didn’t. Could he really be nice enough that he didn’t want to have to cite me for that? If so, we shouldn’t be doing this. He deserved better, even if he was fucking law enforcement.
What choice did we have, though? Ambrose said we’d be better off working with Winston than against him, and Dax agreed. They’d promised me he wouldn’t come to serious harm in the end unless he was extremely uncooperative.
The sheriff glanced between his SUV and my truck and sighed. “All right, let’s give it a shot.”
Success. Now I just needed to get him down in the ditch examining the truck where Ambrose and Dax could approach and encourage him to talk to us.
I was fairly certain they’d be encouraging him at gunpoint which made my stomach jumpy.
I knew they did far worse than this on a regular basis, but this was a decent man, not someone like Rob or Jean-Charles.
Winston opened the toolbox on his truck and started lifting out rope and tools.
“Shouldn’t we get a closer look at how stuck it is?”
He looked at the mucky ditch, then down at his pants.
“I guess this isn’t how you wanted to start the week, huh?”
He laughed. “No, but you’re right, we need to make a better assessment. You stay up here. You’ll lose those shoes in that muck.”
I glanced down at the sneakers I had on and then at his sturdy boots. He was probably right. I wasn’t supposed to be dressed like I was ready to wade into swampy water, but I wished I’d brought something to change into.
I insisted on crossing the ditch with him, but we found a place where the water was shallower, and I could leap across it with his help. I could almost hear Dax growling when the sheriff took my hand to help me.
We walked along the far bank of the ditch until we were parallel with my front left tire. Water almost covered the tire, and I was sure it was sunk deep into the soft mud at the bottom.
Winston frowned. “You’re really in there good.”
“Yeah, I thought I was going to flip right over.”
He nodded. “At least you’re safe. I can’t promise much for your truck, but I’ll give it a try. If I can’t get it, we’ll have to call for a tow.”
“I bet you can do it.”
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I needed to keep him talking so he didn’t turn around. The goal was to avoid a standoff. If Dax and Ambrose could approach without the sheriff drawing his weapon, we stood a much better chance of keeping this from escalating.