Ten (My Brothers Best Friend) (29 page)

I
hear gun shots as I walk up to the entrance of the bar. The lights are on inside when I shut them all down. I could be walking into a trap but I can’t not go in. I psych myself up to ready myself, and crash through the door, holding my gun out in front of me. My eyes can’t take everything in. I locate my uncle on the floor next to a chair that has some bloodied up man in it.
It’s
Jonah.

I wait for the hate to demand retribution but my heart fucking shatters and disintegrates into black ash when I see my girl tied to the pool table. She’s naked and crying. I rush to her, keeping my gun on Keith who’s struggling to raise his on me.

“Dalton,” she sobs, and I want to cry with her.

Her bruised and battered body from the wreck exposes the scar from her surgery. It looks angry and is seeping blood. There’s sick in her hair and down the side of her face.

What the fuck did they do to her? I pull at the restraints, loosening them while keeping my eye on Keith. When I get down to her feet, I see Tim with his trousers down and a snooker cue through his eye. I turn to look back at Alex and my eyes travel up between her thighs.

No, no, no. There’s blood there. I point the gun at the body of Tim and shoot.

“ARGHHHHHHHH”

“Dalton! Dalton!” Alex cries out, trying to cover herself with the arms I’ve just freed. I use my forearm to wipe the tears from my face and continue to free her legs. Keith is spitting blood and laughing at me.

As soon as her legs are free, she climbs into me and breaks, her body shaking with so much force I’m frightened she will fragment and never go back together.

“My jacket, baby. Take my jacket,” I tell her, slipping it off while keeping Keith pinned with the barrel of the gun.

She grabs at it, wrapping it around her body, and then she runs to something behind me. I chance a quick look and see Six lying unconscious on the floor, bleeding. She checks his pulse and lifts his head into her lap.

“I told him I’d kill him.” Keith nods to Six.

I look over at Six again and Alex nods and whispers, “There’s a pulse.”

“Looks like you didn’t kill him.”

“Doesn’t matter now, anyway. We got Jonah. Help me up.” He clearly has lost too much blood if he thinks I’m going to help him to his feet.

“He is the traitor,” Keith growls, and Jonah stirs in the chair.

“You’re the traitor! You chose Dalton over yourself.” Jonah leans forward and spits blood to the floor. He’s in bad shape and looks too fucking white.

“Shut up!” Keith shouts, and before I can react to what’s happening he points the gun and fires. Jonah’s head flies backwards and Alex’s screams whip through the air like lightning. I feel her body push past mine and take the gun from my hand. Shots ring out as she blasts the gun at Keith. He drops his gun and his body convulses. My gun falls from her hand and clanks on the floor as she runs to her brother and cradles him to her chest.

I run to Keith and scoot the gun away from him. I don’t want the fucker having any more chances at pulling that trigger. Blood pumps from his mouth and he gurgles, trying to say something.

I lean down to watch the light leave his eyes. “Your Dad chose you to take the fall, not me,” he manages to wheeze out, and smiles before all the air leaves his lungs.
My Dad?

“This will be the best education you can get Dalton, being inside will teach you things you could never learn out there. It toughens you up and prepares you for our life style”

Bastard.

Sirens blast in the distance and red and blue lights dance through the windows as a barrage of armed police come through the front and back door. They point their guns at me and I’m forced to my knees and watch in a numb state as Alex is dragged from her brother’s dead body and covered with a blanket. Voices call out and paramedics enter, rushing to Six. There’s blood and bodies; it looks like a scene from a horror movie.

Jimmy runs inside and sees the carnage. His mouth is moving but I can’t hear anything he’s saying. I blink a few times when I see Jude next to him, and they’re talking. Jude has a badge on his hip. What the hell?

“Dalton, look at me!” Jimmy shouts, clicking his fingers in my face. “They’re going to take the cuffs off, okay? Keep it together.”

I nod and he okays the officers to release me.

“Not how I wanted this to go down,” he assures me. “Come on. I’ll take you to Alex; she’s going to need you. They sedated her for her own safety. This is going to take some getting over.”

One Month Later

I
don’t feel like I should be here after spending ten years fantasizing about him being dead, but in the end he was Alex’s brother and my best friend, manipulated by a man he wanted approval or attention from. We will never know if Keith knew he was Jonah’s father when he killed him. Alex’s Mom had a nervous breakdown at the news about Jonah, and was hospitalized for two weeks. Alex suffered some minor internal injuries but she was released two days later from hospital. She will need therapy - a fucking shit load of it - but she’s the strongest woman I know.

Her hand releases from mine as she steps forward to drop her rose into the grave. They take longer to release the bodies of those murdered so we’re only now getting to bury Jonah.

Jimmy had already called in the cavalry for raiding the truck yard that night. Hence all the back up at our houses and the bar. They seized the truck yard and all its assets. Turns out Jimmy had been making a case for two years against Keith, and when I came out, he planted Jude to find out my role within the operation. Jude played my father and me. He played everyone. The two years travel he took after school was really for him to train as an undercover detective. His Mom knew, but no one else. He was the inside guy Jimmy was talking about. I know I got lucky. Jimmy cut me a big fucking break and it’s not something I will ever forget. Jude had Dad on conspiracy to commit murder, hiring him to commit murder amongst, and a long list of other shit that totaled his sentence up to the point where he will never see outside those cell walls.

Six is made of fucking steel. That motherfucker took five bullets protecting my family. He spent three weeks in a coma and is now in a special treatment part of the hospital for physical therapy on his hip and leg.

He claimed self-defense for the murders he committed and the evidence was there to prove it. He had no charges brought against him, even if his methods did make a few of the officers sick.

I owe him everything. I signed the bar over to him and left him the house as well. I don’t want any of it. Me, Alex, and DJ are going to start fresh and finally live our lives.

H
is scent wraps around me, cocooning me in his embrace. The sun is up and the room is flooded with its glow. I love waking up to the crashing of the waves. This is our second honeymoon. On the first one, we took DJ with us, not ready to be apart from him, but it’s been five years now and he’s away with his hockey team at a training camp for three weeks, so we decided to make the most of it.

“Can we discuss this baby number two now?” Dalton growls in my ear before kissing down my body. He takes his time over my scars, taking extra care to kiss every inch.

“That’s not discussing.” I giggle. “That’s getting straight to making.”