Page 44 of Wicked Ends
I blasted through the doors of The Clutch and immediately saw my brother sitting at the bar. Ari had stood me up, which was predictable, but irritating, nonetheless. Now, I had nothing but the conversation with Cole to look forward to. Yippee. I almost hoped that he wanted to talk to me about my dad some more. The alternative was club business, and that felt even more dangerous.
Lately, he’d been getting worked up about some kind of MC business involving a new revenue stream for the Hounds. Arms. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I wanted to survive college, play hockey, and get drafted. It was all I cared about. Cole couldn’t seem to get it through his thick skull that not everyone dreamed of living the MC life. As it was, now and then, he had me delivering bags of questionable contents or picking them up when I traveled for away games. It was fucking dangerous, being that my hockey career would be the first thing to disappear if I got caught with anything illegal, but that didn’t stop my brother. For him, I was a messenger with plausible deniability.
“What is it this time?” I asked curtly.
He lowered his beer bottle from his mouth and gave me a sidelong glance. “What’s wrong? Got a book report to write?” His mouth curled up in a mocking sneer.
“Yeah, maybe I do, and an apple to shine for my teacher, so make it quick.”
He set down his beer on the bar top. “I’m going to see Dad tomorrow. He wants you to come.”
I was relieved and pissed off at the same time. “Pass. I have a game tomorrow, an important one.”
“I’m sure Coach Williams can find a sub for you.”
I let out a bitter chuckle. “You would think that. Believe it or not, I’m actually good at playing, and the team would miss me.”
“They’d survive,” Cole muttered.
“Yeah, well, so will Dad without seeing me, unfortunately.”
Cole frowned at me. “Why do you hate him so much?”
“The real question is why don’t you? He ruined your life, Cole, and he’s trying to ruin mine.”
“Ruined my life?” Cole tsked. “And what great and exciting life do you think I was going to live if I hadn’t stepped in to take over the Hounds? Be a farmer? A fisherman? Maybe work at the gift shop on Main Street?”
“Yeah, well, maybe any of them would have been better than being like him.”
My older brother sighed, his tattooed hands flexing on the counter. He was a big guy, just like me, but a hell of a lot more intimidating. Cole had the energy of a man with nothing to lose, and that was always dangerous.
“I’m like him, whether I do what he does or not. It’s in my blood, Marcus. Bailey blood.”
“No, it’s not Bailey blood. I don’t feel that way.”
Cole nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Your blood is all mom… and she never wanted a fucking thing to do with us—her family—either, so that tracks.” He scrubbed a hand over his face before continuing.
“The only chance Dad has of winning his appeal for early parole is to lean on the family man angle. He’s missing out on his youngest son’s vital years, denying him a father figure?—”
I couldn’t stop the laugh that left me. “I’m sorry, what? Who wants a felon as a father figure? And since when has that man ever given a shit about me, what I was doing, how I was… if I lived or died? Never. Only now, when he needs something from me. He’s a user, Cole, and he’ll use both of us up if we let him.”
Cole stared at me. So much sat unsaid between us. Yes, Dad had gone to jail, and yes, I’d been put into a group home. Maybe if Cole hadn’t had to get me out and take responsibility for me, he could have left Hade Harbor and escaped the Bailey legacy. He could have started over and been his own man… but he’d never even considered it. He’d been there for me, visiting every day, working on getting custody, providing, manning up, when he’d been little more than a teen himself. The truth was that Dad’s legacy had set Cole on the path he was on now, but I’d kept him on it. It was a heavy burden across my shoulders. A debt I could never repay.
Cole seemed to decide to drop it, for now. I knew he’d return to it eventually. He jerked his head to a table in the corner.
“Go tell Cash congratulations. His old lady finally popped, and it’s a girl.”
I nodded and backed away from my brother and the explosive things we didn’t want to feel boiling under the surface. It was all my dad’s fault. My brother and I had our rhythms, and we coped fine. Dad trying to get out was fucking it all up.
I stopped and turned back.
“If he gets out early, will you quit?”
The question seemed to freeze my brother. His huge shoulders tensed, and his eyes narrowed.
“If I help him get out early, if he’s here, with us… will you hang up your cut and do something with your life that you actually want to for once?”
Cole rubbed his thumb back and forth across his lower lip. “It’s not that easy, Marcus. Some things cannot be undone. Some people are too far gone.”
