Page 31 of A Brother's Secret

The rest of the guys finally ended up getting here, starting with Dragon and Ghost with some New Zealand tribal motherfucker named Zeb, traditional tribal face tattoos that I could seriously appreciate and all. Additionally, there was a guy named Blue, but with how nervous he looked about being here instead of wherever he’d come from, I immediately labeled him ‘Little Boy Blue’ in my head as well as a liability.

The final man in Dragon’s retinue was a rough-looking sort with a blue denim motorcycle cut instead of black leather. I wondered if that was a preference thing but didn’t ask. He had long, shoulder-length brown hair shot through with gray and a beard getting on the long side that was much the same. His blue eyes sparkled and he had an air of crazy around him but it was crazier like a fox if that made sense. He was introduced as Lucky and I didn’t think it had anything to do with a rabbit’sfoot.

Finally an older guy, bald, with a handlebar mustache came in with Revelator. A tall, skinny young guy, covered neck to fingertips in wild ink walking through the door behind them. Everyone was introduced as I wound my hair into a tight knot at the base of my skull and waited to see who would be comingnext.

“Looks like we’re all here,” Dragon declared as a last and final bike had just shut off outside.

“Fuck you, man!” A ginger guy, sweeping a hand through his hair which was getting long on top said, coming through thedoor.

“Well, then hurry your fuckin’ ass up, Thirteen,” Dray commanded.

Ginger Thirteen grinned savagely and let fly two one-fingered salutes in Dray’s direction and it was out of my mouth before I could stop it, “Can’t argue with you there.”

The guys all laughed and I took a deep breath letting it out slowly. I was definitely out classed, outmatched, and for once in my fucking life, should probably watch my mouth.

“Go ahead, Data… let us know what you’ve found.”

Trigger pushed off the edge of Kyle’s setup and walked over, shoving a Styrofoam clamshell of food at me with a plastic fork with a wink and I gave him a wry smile. Good man, definitely not a dick. If I were shoving food in my face I couldn’t talk and I was fucking starving.

I opened the lid to soggy French toast soaked in syrup and several sausage patties, likewise drowned in same and didn’t bitch. It was food and last night’s dinner was a long time ago. He leaned his jeans-clad ass, which was framed really nicely in black leather chaps, against the footboard of the bed, back to me, and all eyes were on Kyle as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“I got nothin’,“ he said, and without missing a beat added, “and I hate to say it, I really do, but it’s not like Mali is in the ‘know’ and she ghosted off the grid so efficiently…”

I swallowed the bite of food in my mouth and swear it went down sideways, sticking in my throat that was suddenly tight.

“You were good at this computer shit even back then,” I said honestly. “I didn’t need you finding me. I couldn’t stand the thought of you, of all people, becoming yet more collateral damage in whatever my dad got us involvedin.”

“I know, babe, but it’s made it a royal pain in the fucking ass to figure out who or what is behind all of this.” I sighed and straightened up, doing a second’s worth of battle with the food that was suddenly trying to fight back onme.

“Forget what we don’t know,” Dragon said and rubbed a giant paw over his beard. “What havewegot?”

“Well, what we have got is one grade-a fucking shining beacon,” he said holding up my laptop. “Only problem is, that will bring themhere.”

“Yeah, but if it’s organized crime like you suspect…” Trigger said and I cut himoff.

“It is. I don’t know who, there are a lot of flavors to choose from, but these guys are tactical ready. They showed up at my brownstone with fucking tear gas and shit. Followed us in a black SUV… White guys, but beyond that, I don’t know. My dad was great at keeping me out of it right until I shot one of them to protecthim.”

“Well, shit. There you have it right there,” Dragonsaid.

“What?” Kyle asked, frowning.

“Only way someone like her gets hunted to the ends of the earth, even seventeen years after the fact is if she killed someone important.” Looked like Revelator had some brains to go with that brawn.

“Yeah, I thought of that,” Kyle said unhappily. “I have algorithms running through old news reports looking for any crime-related anything… but do you know how long that could take? This is the criminal underworld we’re talking about here, and while I can go hacking into the NSA, FBI, and whatever other alphabet law enforcement soup you want to come up with, it’s really inadvisable unless I have something specific to go diving their web servers for, youknow?”

“You got anything for us, girly? Anything at all?” Archer asked and I felt my shoulders drop as I searched through all my memories begging and pleading with it to just come up with that one thing that would make everything fall into place and any one of these guys go ‘ah-ha.’

I let out an explosive breath and said, “I got nothin’. I legitimately have no fucking idea what my dad was into and I was honestly just a kid. Even when he was drunk, that made him even more of a closed-mouthed bastard with a side of violent. He didn’t get to talking about anything more. He was gypsy, even if he was outcast, and fuck… our lineage knows how to keep a secret.”

“Not helpful,” Reaver said with apout.

“Thank you, Captain fucking Obvious,” I rolled my eyes and shoved the forgotten food aside. I suddenly wasn’t all that hungry anymore, my stomach churning with nerves.

I mean, it was pretty obvious these guys weren’t terribly interested in getting involved and I totally got why. Most of them, according to Kyle, had just found their true loves in life. Most of them also had children, some of those children only months old. All of them had recently lost one of their brothers to a nasty accident, and he’d told me the story of Little Boy Blue and his woman, Hayley and their son that was on the way who might not even be genetically his, but possibly the only remaining, living, breathing, relic of his partner and best friend. I guess they’d been working on being some kind of triumvirate before he’d died so unexpectedly.

I sighed, I didn’t want to be the cause of such a great strife with these people. I was falling, spiraling down, I knew the feeling and I was so frustrated… By making love to Kyle last night, had I made a right choice? I mean, I knew it’d been a good choice, but had it been the right choice? There was sometimes a difference.

I scrubbed my face with my hands, frustrated. I’d worked so hard and been so alone these last few years to protect the other people around me, and now I was here among all of these people Kyle clearly cared about with a stigma attached to me like no other. I was a regular Typhoid Mary in their midst and I could destroy so many lives simply by beinghere…

---