Page 35 of Brick

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Brick

Brick couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he pulled up to the Decatur site. The plumbers were working on the Burgundy Street house today, which meant he’d only be in the way there, but he could still do a lot to help the team here.

Kane raised his eyebrow as he settled in next to him in the space they would eventually turn into a garage. “Have a good night last night?”

He ignored the tease and rifled through the toolbox.

“I saw you leave with Will’s sister. I thought you said nothing was happening there, brother.”

Shit. He hadn’t considered whether Kane or Matt might have seen Olivia at the site yesterday. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her reputation or for word of their meeting to get back to her brother. “I meant it,” he sighed, “but she knows what she wants, and it’s really fucking hard to tell her no.”

Today Kane had his dark hair in a low ponytail with a black bandana tied across the top of his head. Tugging at the fabric, he considered Brick’s words. “It’s only hard to tell her no because you don’t want to. So, if she wants it and you want it, why are you fighting it? Will? Cause if you can make his sister happy, I think he could learn to live with it.”

“It’s not only about how Will feels. I wish he was just an overprotective brother who thinks I’m not good enough for his sister. The problem is, he’s right. You know the kind of shit I’m involved with. Olivia’s probably never even heard of Sucre de la Cruz, and I’m glad. I want her as far away from his cesspool of an existence as humanly possible. As long as she’s around me, she’s linked to it.”

He rubbed at his eyes. The pressure building behind them sent sharp spikes into his brain. Saying this shit aloud made it real all over again. “All it takes is one fucking junkie to find out about her, and he’ll use her to get to me or—even worse—Sucre could find out. He’d break her to remind me who’s king. She hasn’t lived like us. She’d never recover.”

Kane dropped a hand on his shoulder. “You’re talking some harsh shit, brother. Can’t you get out? I mean, don’t you want to get out?”

A dull laugh escaped his mouth. “You know, no one’s ever asked me what I want before.”

Kane shrugged. “People see what makes sense to them. They see a big guy like you, a killer, they don’t understand how someone could trap you. You’re the monster because you look like one.” Gesturing to himself, Kane swept his hands down his body. “I get it. I also get what it’s like to feel trapped by a certain kind of life. It’s why we both come here and do this, am I right?”

He nodded sharply.

“Do you think you can stay away from her?”

“Truth?” He exhaled slowly. “No. I can’t.”

Kane spoke over the noise as he started hammering his two-by-four again. “Then you need to figure out how to keep your two worlds apart. Because you’re right. She’ll be your weak spot. The first person who finds it will destroy her. And you.”

***

Kane’s words still rattled around in Brick’s head as he hit the street with Tre hours later.

He stole a peek at his trainee. Tre wore a bright red leather jacket, and it looked even shinier next to his dark skin. Most guys in this line of work dressed in black. They’d blend into the night, so their prey would never see them coming.

Tre was a different breed of predator. He wanted them to see him coming. He fed on the fear.

He held back a shudder as he imagined what someone like Tre would do with the knowledge of Olivia. He’d rape her, no doubt. Even worse, he’d hurt her as much as possible. He wouldn’t kill her, though, at least not right away. Tre would find a quick death too merciful. He’d squeeze out as much pain as possible…to show Brick he could, but also because he’d fucking enjoy it.

Tre could never, ever know Olivia existed.

Unaware of his scrutiny, the kid scoped out Bennie’s duplex. Their mark lived on the right side of the shotgun house.

As far as he knew, the other side sat empty. A weak light cast shadows against the thin curtains on Bennie’s half of the house. The vague shapes of several men moved behind it, including the stocky frame of their Mexican target.

“How many of ’em do you think we can take?”

“Think smart, Tre. There’s no need to walk into a free-for-all. We wait. We watch. It might mean we end up coming back tomorrow. It could be an ambush. When you work for Sucre, you’re always going to have some dumb assholes plotting to get the better of you. Being stronger than them’s not good enough. You’ve got to be smarter too.”

Tre kicked a rock on the crumbling concrete at the curb. “So, he gets away with not paying because he invited his friends over? What kind of pussy are you?”

He growled and slapped the smaller man across the face. “You are reaching the end of my fucking patience.”

The kid backed down, but the hate in his glare was unmistakable. “All I mean is, what kind of message are we sending by giving him a pass?”

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