Read Broken Online

Authors: Travis Thrasher

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BOOK: Broken
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“Going somewhere?”

“That’s my workout gear.”

“Really?”

“Go ahead and look.”

“Good to see you’re still taking care of that body of yours. Would be a shame for that to go to waste.”

He steps into the mostly empty family room. “So lifeless in here, you know that?”

Laila is still by the door.

“Why don’t you come in here for a moment?”

He studies her as she walks. She’s wearing jeans and a baggy Chicago Bears sweatshirt. Something in her steps, the way she
moves her arms, the sweatshirt she has on—something about all that gives it away.

“You have a gun on you?”

She stops and freezes and then looks at his hands.

“I’m not going to do anything to you,” he says as he sits on the love seat. “Comfy.”

“So why are you here? Why do you keep showing up?”

“I’m waiting for some type of acknowledgment. Some type of apology.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says.

“You don’t? You’ve more or less acknowledged it anyway.”

“I want you to leave.”

“That I’m not going to do,” he says. “You can come in the room. I’m not going to bite. Not now.”

She stands against the wall.

“I want to know why.”

“That’s all you want? An explanation? Reasons?”

“No, that’s not all I want. Think of what I might want. There are two things I can think of.”

She keeps her guard, continuing to watch his hands, his eyes, his movements.

“The most obvious—well, I’m not like my brother. My brother had his issues. His—what do you want to call them? His appetite?
His preferences? No, I’m a lot more practical. It’s a whole different world out there today.”

“Practical meaning what?”

“Meaning cash. Meaning money.”

“How much do you want?”

He smiles. “Oh, what, you going to just go and write me a check?”

“How much?”

“A lot more than what you could give me. Today that is.”

For a moment he sits on the edge of the couch. “You have no idea, do you?”

“What?”

“Who you’re dealing with?”

“That sounds like a bad line.”

“Bad line or not, you have no clue. No idea. You think you got away with it, don’t you? But I’m going to tell you something
right here and right now and you better remember it, okay? I want you to remember it for however long of a life you still
have left. Whatever life that might be. I’m never, ever, ever going to let you go. I’m going to make you see Connor’s face
for the rest of your life, you got that? And no amount of anything can ever repay what’s been lost. I’m willing to deal with
the hand I’ve been dealt, but you gotta play too, lady. You got that?”

“I can give you everything I have, but it’s not much.”

He laughs. “There are other ways of getting money. I’m not stupid.”

“How?”

“Are you going to keep lying to me? Playing this game?”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Brady, Texas. Ring a bell?”

Her face doesn’t change. He curses out loud. “You’d be a good
poker player, you know? I know. I know your family. I know everything.”

“So what?”

“You’re a very rich little girl.”

“Not anymore.”

“You can be again.”

“No,” she says.

“Your family—well, all I can say is there’s been some interesting developments down there.”

She hovers back and forth, anxious, but remains quiet.

“You don’t have to believe me. But I know. Lex. Ava. Rafael. Or should I say Mr. Torres. I know them all. Funny—never would’ve
guessed a Mexican could do so well for himself, you know? But then again, you and your siblings aren’t a hundred percent,
are you?”

“You can go to hell.”

“Yeah, maybe, but you can join me there. Right with my brother.”

Laila appears nervous. He knows he’s getting to her. Just the very mention of the names.

“You really haven’t been in touch with them, have you?”

“And I don’t plan to either.”

“Yeah, I think you’re going to.”

Laila pulls at the side of her sweatshirt and twists, then pulls out a .38 and holds it firmly as if she’s practiced quite
a bit.

“Ah, there’s the gun. Is that the same one?”

“Get out.”

“Get out or what? What are you going to do?”

“Get out.”

“I’m not playing around here.”

“And you think I am?”

He smiles. “That’s the same gun you used on my brother, isn’t it?”

“I’ll use it again.”

“Ah, there we have it. An admission.”

She curses.

“That’s right. Sure. Go ahead. Why don’t you go two for two?”

“You need to leave right now.”

She moves a little closer toward him, and as she does he jumps off the couch and swats the gun out of her hand. It’s so easy,
too easy in fact. Then he grabs her by her throat and launches her into the wall with a gasping thud.

“Listen to me, you skinny little whore. If I wasn’t in a bind, I would have killed you three days ago when I first spotted
you, you got that? Unfortunately for me, but very, very fortunate for you, I need cash. And a lot of it. Otherwise I would
just keep—squeezing—and I wouldn’t—stop until your pretty blue face popped.”

He lets her go. Laila crumbles to the floor, coughing, gagging.

He takes her mass of hair and jerks her head to look up at him.

“You listen to me. You have until tomorrow afternoon to have a nice little family reunion via the phone. I don’t care how
you do it, just do it. Your life—and your family’s life—depends on this. I don’t want anybody else involved. I just want money.”

“How much?”

“Start with a hundred grand. That’ll be worth my time having to chase you all the way to this hick city.”

She rubs her throat, shaking her head. “It isn’t going to happen.”

“Yeah, it sure as hell will. You don’t have any other options. What are you going to do? Go to the police? The only reason
I haven’t done that is because I don’t need them prying into my family business. But that doesn’t mean I won’t. Nor does it
mean I won’t decide to take another trip to the Lone Star state. You don’t want me doing that, Laila. Not again. Because there’ll
be only one reason I’m going there, and you won’t like it.”

With that warning, he leaves.

But not before picking up the weapon from the carpeted floor.

•   •   •

“What are you talking about? Are you serious?”

“Do you?” Laila asks Kyle again over the cordless phone.

“No. Why would I own a gun?”

“A lot of people do.”

“Do I look like one of those ‘people?’”

She hears him laugh but doesn’t laugh back. She doesn’t say anything as she gently massages her throat that still throbs with
pain.

“Look, my cousin does. He owns about fifty. He probably wouldn’t even know if I took one from him.”

“Can you borrow one?”

“If you tell me what’s going on. Are you in trouble?”

“Yes.”

“Like—right now?”

“I’m just—I’m just worried, and I don’t—I can’t involve the police.”

“You need me to come over?”

“No. Not now. Just—I’d feel better if I had something here. Just in case.”

“Just in case what?” Kyle asks.

“In case someone breaks in.”

“What? Laila, what is happening? Why would someone be breaking into your place?”

“I can explain but not now, not over the phone. Just—it would really help me. Or at least give me peace of mind.”

“Look, if you need a place to stay, you’re welcome to stay at mine. My roommate wouldn’t care. And I could sleep on the couch.
It would be no big deal.”

“That’s kind. Thank you. No. I just wondered if you could help me out.”

“By getting you a gun?”

“Yes.”

“I’m assuming you’re talking about a handgun, right?”

“No, I need a shotgun. Of course.”

“Look, let me put in a call. Just—you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes.”

“You promise?”

“Yes.”

“Let me see what I can do. I’ll give you a call back. Are you talking like—would you want me to try and get it tonight?”

“As soon as possible, if you can.”

Kyle doesn’t say anything for a moment.

“I know it’s a lot to ask.”

“It’s not that. It’s just—it’s a gun.”

“I know,” she says.

“Okay. I’ll try.”

Laila puts her phone on the table and then glances at the clock. It’s a little after eight. She rubs her neck and winces,
then lets out a deep sigh.

She goes into her bedroom and pulls out the suitcase that’s already half full. She unzips it and begins to cram in items.
There’s very little she needs to bring. Everything of value is already in the duffle bag, the one James had spotted, the one
she had filled earlier in the day.

Even slight mementos and reminders of her time in Greenville will stay behind. There’s no reason to take them.

The question that rolls around is where she will go.

And she thinks of the phone again, thinks about calling her family. But she can’t and won’t.

That door closed a long time ago.

She’s already dead to them.

The phone rings, and she picks it up.

“Okay—I’m heading over to my cousin’s. Do you need me to stop by before I go?”

Laila shakes as she hides the tears and controls her voice. “Thank you.”

Kyle is a good man. She knew she could rely on him, and regardless of his motives, he’s helping her out.

“I can swing by if you want.”

“No. Just—if you wouldn’t mind, could you bring it over right away?”

“Of course.”

“And stay. Just for a while?”

“As long as you want me to.”

Laila stares at the suitcase and finds herself lost, thinking of nothing and feeling tired and feeling everything. Then she
fades out of her trance as she sees a small edge of something white lying underneath a T-shirt.

She picks it up.

It’s an old picture of Isabella. It’s a black-and-white square photo, a kind that she hasn’t seen in years. Isabella is standing
proudly showing off her white coat.

“She’s actually gray,” Laila says, mimicking her father’s accent. He would teach her things about horses. Nevertheless, Isabella
was a tall and striking horse that looked white and shimmering and something out of a fantasy.

Laila never brought any photos of Isabella with her when she left Texas.

The image twitches at something deep inside of her.

For a moment she feels more pain than when James Brennan was over and almost squeezed the life out of her.

She takes the photo and puts it back in her suitcase, not sure where it came from and too tired to try and figure it out.

•   •   •

Lex twists his head, and something in his neck snaps. He howls in pain and tries to remember what side the phone is on. Then
he realizes the ring filling the room isn’t his cell phone. He reaches for the receiver in the dark.

“Yeah?”

“Lex?”

“Yeah.”

“Come on down to the lobby.”

“Who is this?”

There’s nobody on the end to answer the question.

He finds a light and turns it on, stretching as he stands up and searches for his jeans. The fancy alarm says that it’s 3:16
a.m.

“This is probably very stupid,” he says as he tries to comb back his mass of hair with his hand.

The only person in the lobby is a man wearing a sports coat and pants with a casual shirt underneath. He isn’t particularly
large or threatening, but he doesn’t give any sort of greeting either.

“Are you Rodney?”

“Come with me.”

“Whoa, hold on. Where’re you going to take me?”

“To a car waiting outside. He wants to meet you.”

Ignoring his instincts, Lex climbs in the open town-car door. This is his only chance to find Laila. Another man waits inside,
examining him with a tired, dismissive glance.

The car starts to drive off with the first man behind the wheel.

For a moment nobody says a word. The man in the seat next to him is stocky, maybe in his late forties, mostly bald, with a
long face and narrow eyes.

“This is all very mysterious,” Lex says, looking around the town car.

“What do you want from me?”

“Are you Rodney?”

“You said you had something for me. Something from Laila.”

“How do you know her?”

The man shakes his head and lets out a chuckle. Then his jaw tightens as he grabs the back of Lex’s hair and slams his head
into the seat in front of him.

For a moment everything goes white and Lex remembers getting hit square in the face with a baseball when he was in high school.
This feels about the same.

He also feels something leak out of his nose.

“You said you had something for me.”

“I just said that—look, she’s my sister. Laila is my sister, and I’m looking for her.”

The man has a big hand, and that hand finds his face. He grips his forehead and twists like one might do to an orange when
juicing it. Lex coils back and tries to push the man off him.

When he’s finally let go, Lex rubs his forehead and tries to gain his vision back.

“You’re looking for Laila?”

“Yeah.”

“You look like her.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“If you didn’t I seriously might throw you in the lake somewhere.”

“She’s my older sister.”

“Didn’t know she had any family.”

“I didn’t mean anything calling. I don’t have any leads, and I’m just concerned.”

“Are you, Lex? That’s interesting because so are we.”

They are on some highway somewhere, driving with few cars around, the world passing by in a blur.

“And you haven’t spoken with her recently, have you?”

“Not at all. Not for years. That’s why I called you.”

“You don’t look like a liar, Lex.”

“Why would I lie?”

“Most people lie,” the crack of his mouth says, his eyes like the windows of a tank. “Everybody lies, in fact. But you better
not be lying.”

“I’m not.”

“Why are you looking for her?”

“Because I think—because I know—she’s in trouble.”

“Really?” The man laughs. “And why would that be?”

BOOK: Broken
5.64Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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