He grinds his teeth. “When did you become someone who gives up on others?” he demands. He looks over his shoulder at Case and points an angry finger at him. “Hell, sis, you have been fucking Case for a month now and the entire time you thought he was a drug dealer. So you can fall in love with one but you can’t help your dad out when he’s one.” He gives a dark laugh. “Mom would be so disappointed in you.”
When did he turn into Dad and bring Mom up? “Fuck you!” I shout. “Case has saved my life! Twice! He’s never called me in the middle of the night to bail him out of jail. I haven’t gotten a call from the hospital at five in the morning informing me he was so high he passed out and hit a light pole. I haven’t walked in on him passed out cold on the floor. He has protected me. He has been there for me. And he sure as hell doesn’t bring up my mother every single time I tell him no!” I’m so mad that my body is literally shaking. “Let me ask you, Blane. Did you contact Case on your own? Or was it Dad’s idea for you to put your life in danger to save his own ass?” I demand.
“I knew I could get the job done.” He snorts.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I snap. Looking over at Case, I ask, “Did he contact you on his own, or did my father contact you and offer up his son?”
Blane looks over at Case and narrows his eyes. “It’s a little more complicated than that,” Case says slowly.
“How so?” I demand.
“Blane called me because I was the one who put your dad in jail in the first place,” Case announces.
“Excuse me?” I ask stupidly.
Blane places his face in his hands and lets out a sigh while Case continues to talk. “I was in Pekin taking care of some business when a car ran across the center median and almost hit me head-on. I swerved out of the way, and he hit a tree when his car ran off the road. I pulled him out of the car and called it in. I put him in handcuffs and waited until an officer arrived to take him in. The car wasn’t registered to him, and when we searched it, there were drugs in the car and several loaded guns within reach of the driver’s seat.”
I feel tears start to sting my eyes as I look over to Blane. “Guns?” I rasp. “What are you gonna do when he kills someone, Blane?”
“He’s suffered loss, Taylor,” he replies softly.
I look back at Case. No one in this room understands the loss he has suffered, not even me. I may be the only who knows, but that doesn’t mean I understand what he went through. “That gives him no reason to put others in danger,” I reply.
“That’s why I’m trying to save him.”
“You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved,” I say slamming my fist on the table. God, it’s like talking to a brick wall. “He’s never gonna change, Blane. We were only kids when Mom died,” I say a little softer. “He wasn’t there for me. You were. He wasn’t there for you. You had to be. It’s been nine years, and you still have to pick up his mess.” I shake my head.
He looks up at me, and his blue eyes shine with unshed tears. “I would never give up on you, Taylor. Never!”
I place my head in my hands and let out a shaky breath. “When he called me that night, he told me the drugs they found weren’t his,” I say not even replying to that because he knows I wouldn’t even get myself in that situation. So it’s irrelevant.
“His prints were all over the bags of drugs and the guns,” Case informs me. “Even if they weren’t his, he still handled them.”
I look at him in thought. “Why didn’t you let him out? Let him do the job Blane volunteered to do?” I wonder.
“It was too late for that,” Case answers. “He had been in jail for three days by the time he called you. Word of him being arrested had already spread like wildfire to everyone he sells and buys from. If we had let him out, they would have known it was to make a deal with the police. And even if we could have agreed to do that, it wouldn’t have worked because he’s too much of an addict. Three days without a hit …” He shrugs. “He would have put his addiction before any deal he would have made with us.”
I sigh as I run a hand through my hair frustrated. “So now what?” I look at Blane. “What are you going to do?”
“What I promised Dad I would do. I’m gonna get the guy Case wants in exchange for Dad’s release.”
“No, you’re not,” Case says flatly.
We all look over at him. “And why not?” Blane demands.
“Because the deal is over,” Case replies, but he doesn’t take his eyes off me as he says it.
My brother stands from his chair across from me and turns to face Case. “We had a deal. You cannot just go back on it whenever you want,” he snaps.
“I can.” Case leans back against the counter, arms crossed over his chest and his eyes move to him. “They know you work for me. They don’t know I’m an undercover cop. But I didn’t spend the last five years of my life pretending to be a drug dealer for nothing. They know you’re not buying in order to supply your addiction. They know who Taylor is.” He looks over at me quickly before looking back at Blane. “They shot up my club, and my partner and longtime best friend is in the hospital with a bullet wound. The deal is off.”
“They know who Taylor is because you fucked her,” my brother growls in response.
“Maybe. But I told you that first night you brought her to my club that you could not protect her, but I could. And that’s why I got close to her in the first place.”
I flinch at how cold he makes getting with me sound. That may have been how it started, but that’s not how he feels now. I don’t need him to declare our love to anyone else to know the truth.
He sighs heavily as he runs his hand through his dark hair. “It wouldn’t matter anyway. The situation has been compromised.”
“How so?” Blane demands.
Case looks over at me, and his eyes soften. “It doesn’t matter.” He shakes his head. “The deal is over and that is final.”
All this started because of my father. Back when my mother passed. Maybe it’s time I stand in front of him and make him tell me why he has decided to screw up our lives. I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to be so addicted to something that you give up the people who love and would support you. “I want to go see him,” I blurt out.
Everyone turns to face me. “Taylor …” Case softens his tone.
I hold up my hand to stop him, and I look at Blane. “You obviously think I’m a cold-hearted bitch.” He rolls his eyes. “But I want to see what he has to say. He’s been in there for over four months now, so maybe he will change his mind. Maybe he no longer wants you to risk your life for his.” I can hope.
“That’s not how things work.” Case speaks. “Blane may be willing to risk his life for your father, but I’m not willing to risk yours in order to see him. If someone were to see you up there visiting with him, it could bring you trouble.”
My heart skips a beat at that, and I turn to look at him. I want to smile at him, but instead, I say, “I’m going to see my father, Case. Can you make that easier for me or not?”
He looks at me for a very long second before he finally nods his head and pushes away from the countertop. I watch him walk out of the kitchen and down the hall to his bedroom. I take a deep breath as I follow him.
CASE
“This is a bad idea,” I say softly. As far as I know, she hasn’t physically seen her father in three years. Not since she left her hometown to come to Chicago for college. And even then, I’m not sure how they left things. I do know she only hears from him when he needs help, so I’m guessing it wasn’t pleasant.
“It’s the only idea I have,” she says without looking at me as she walks past to enter the bathroom.
I reach out, grab her upper arm, and bring her to a stop. “You don’t have to do this.” I reach up and push a few long brown strands behind her ear. “I can see what I can do to get him out,” I tell her. But in all honesty, I agree with her. People like her father are best in jail. Where they are unable to harm themselves or put other people in danger. “Seeing him won’t make it better for you.”