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“It’s going to, whether you want it to or not. And he’s going to find out, whether you want him to right now or not. Wouldn’t you rather he heard it from you?” He gave her shoulder a final squeeze and left the room, softly closing the door.
Was she wrong? It’s not like her intentions were to keep it a secret forever, just until…
Until when?
Until after the arrest? The trial?
Her father was right. There would be no right time.
She only knew it wasn’t now.
A day became a week. One week became two.
And still he waited.
Every time his phone went off, Brendan expected it to be Phil or Murphy with the news that today was the day. That hadn’t happened. So he sat on pins and needles. Waiting. Worrying about Katelyn. Wondering how she was. Missing her.
He’d picked up his phone to call her countless times, and stopped himself from doing it just as many. He didn’t go anywhere near Beanie’s so he wouldn’t be tempted to go in and see her, or even catch a glimpse of her through the window. The photo of them still sat on his shelf. Brendan looked at it often. That was painful enough.
Dillon was helping him out at the club every day. Most days he didn’t want to go in at all, but everyone insisted, and Phil agreed, that he keep to his usual routine. They’d been looking at candidates to manage nightly operations, and there was an Austrian couple that looked promising, so at least there was that. Brendan was trying to tie up as many loose ends as he could in the time he had to ease the burden on his cousins.
Venery was downstairs in the lower level studio. Brendan could hear the music as soon as he stepped inside their Park Place office. They had a small gym set up downstairs too. Brendan made use of it daily, releasing his aggressions and pent-up frustrations in there. He skipped it this morning, and went into the lounge for a cup of coffee.
The lounge, as Taylor dubbed it, was a casual space on the main level that resembled a living or family room, probably because it was once. It was where they worked together and spent the majority of their time—more than they did in their individual offices on the second level. It was comfortable, with overstuffed chairs, cushy sofas, and low-set tables. Enlarged photos in sepia hung on the exposed brick walls. Vintage buildings they’d bought and restored to their former glory. An old framed map of the city.
Jesse and Kyan were already here, seated on the eggplant velvet sofa and thumbing through Kyan’s drawings for their latest renovation project. Oddly, Kodiak was here with them. Lazily sprawled in a club chair with his feet kicked up on an ottoman, he tapped away on the MacBook in his lap.
“Hello, Bren.” Kodiak looked up from his screen with that sinister-looking smirk of his, like he was up to no good. It would be off-putting if he didn’t know the guy.
“Kodiak.” He tipped his chin as he headed over to the coffee machine. “How’s it going, man?”
He chuckled. “It’s going.” And he winked. Maybe he was up to no good.
Brendan sat down in the vacant club chair and set his coffee on the table. Kyan pushed his drawings to the side. He looked up with a smirk. Jesse had a grin on his face too. He wasn’t sure what the fuck everyone looked so happy about.
“What?”
“Expect a call, Bren.” Kyan’s smile widened. “I spoke to Billings about an hour ago. The investigators are bringing Eric Brantley back in for questioning today.”
“Why?”
Kodiak set the computer to the side and straightened, his feet now on the floor. He cocked his head to the side, still grinning. “I might have sent them some information they couldn’t ignore. A copy went to the prosecutor’s office too. Anonymously, of course.”
“What information?”
Kyan answered, “All of it, Bren.”
“What do you mean, all of it?”
“Well, I dug a little deeper into the Brantleys,” Kodiak said. “And it sure looks like Daddy Hugh’s financial troubles weren’t of his own making…” He steepled his fingers and grinned wider, raising his brow. “…and when you look at the paper trail it’s pretty easy to see Eric was stealing assets right out from under Daddy’s nose. With Salena’s help, if I were to guess.”
“Is that right?”
“Backfired on him, though,” Kyan added, shaking his head. “Poor Hugh had to claim bankruptcy and liquidate his holdings because of his own son.”
“Wait.” Brendan knitted his brow. Was he missing something here? “What do you mean with Salena’s help? She didn’t start seeing Eric until after he put Hugh into the nursing home, right?”
“That’s where you’ve got it all wrong, my friend.” Kodiak was positively gleeful. “I’d say they’ve been together for quite some time, considering he paid the rent on her apartment for the last three years.”
