After work, I stopped by a grocery store to make good use of the newly discovered benefit of not being asked for an ID when shopping with a company credit card, went home to eat, and did some more research about what Bill had told me regarding those guys’ porn productions.
I was basically trying to ease my guilt with each video I found, telling myself that the women I saw could have been the women of my family. Especially after I had tracked a few of those women down and learned what had happened to them after their videos were sold and published. Then, I finally drank myself to sleep in the living room. Not that it took a lot for me, I would never be much of a drinker with the low tolerance I apparently have, but it was also around that time when I started shooting awake at night, driven by the urge to check every door and window in the house.
I had received word from Aaron that Logan did indeed reach someone on Thursday, albeit not the one he was expecting. The call was answered by someone Logan had never spoken to before, but who was quite interested in what he had to say, so I mentally prepared myself for visitors checking out his story.
They rang our doorbell on Saturday, Ava’s birthday, the day Logan had told them the family was supposed to be back.
“Yes?” I greeted the two men standing in front of me, after I had opened the door.
“Yeah, Hi. Logan around?” the taller one of the two asked.
I had scanned them the moment I opened the door, and knew there could be trouble when I noticed the same telling bumps underneath both of their shirts. Going by the size of those bumps, they were carrying guns instead of just knives or batons. The two in front of me looked nothing like the guys I had met in the parking lot, nor like the people I had seen on the bar’s surveillance. They were clearly not part of the Bookie’s crew, too young and dressed in pricey brands, so I suspected they belonged to the guys I stole from. Hopefully they were just going after the Bookie’s current affairs to try and get some of the money back, instead of looking for leads for where the money went.
“No, sorry. The rest of the family is out.” They shared a look when I told them that.
“You happen to know when he’s back gonna be back?”
I watched them for a moment in overplayed suspicion.
“What did the dipshit do this time?” I asked in an exasperated tone I hoped to be convincing, causing them to exchange another look.
“Come again?” The look on his face as he asked was a brilliant mix of confusion and suspicion.
“Let me take a wild guess. You’re going to UT Austin with Logan and he owes you money?” I asked, giving them a knowing look. “He has a habit of bailing on his bills.”
“Huh. That makes this a lot easier. Who’re you and how did you guess?”
“I’m Logan’s brother, and growing tired of fixing his shit. That’s how I guessed. So ... how much is it this time?” I was reaching for my wallet as I asked, playing my act.
I tried not to let them notice how my body tensed when me reaching for my wallet caused their hands to move part of the way to their guns. Any indication I gave that I was expecting more than just regular college mates of Logan’s, would give them cause to see through my already poor acting. They would know that I knew, making the family’s absence look like what it actually was: Protective hiding. I was just pulling through by overplaying my displeasure about Logan’s character, but I was surprised at how calm I really was. For some reason, the thought of this going bad for me wasn’t nearly as unnerving as it should have been.
“I’m afraid it’s more than you carry around.”
That caused me to look up in surprise. I was expecting them to just take the money I offered, and then tell me it wouldn’t be enough, keeping my money as extra. These two were a lot more professional than I had seen from the bookie’s crew. Which didn’t bode well for me! Luckily, I was able to play it off as surprise about the level of Logan’s newest debt.
“Wait ... how much does he owe you?”
“‘Bout ten grand.” he said, matter of fact, watching my reaction.
I blinked at him for a moment, as my hands holding my wallet slowly dropped back to my sides. Did they increase his debt or did fucking Logan fucking lie about the amount, even as we were preparing to fucking fix it for him!?
“Did he take you out for drinks and you woke up the next morning in a bathtub full of ice cubes, missing a damn kidney?”
“He gambled. And made us cover his debt.” he informed me, still watching me curiously. When I put up a pensive act instead of responding, he asked. “What?”
“I’m thinking if I shouldn’t just let you guys bust his kneecaps instead of keep paying for his shit.” I answered in an aloof tone, causing the taller one to actually chuckle.
“Well, we wouldn’t go this far. But we’d really like to set this straight. He said he’ll be back by today.”
“Yeah, that was the plan because the Princess’ birthday is today. But something went wrong with Granny’s hip surgery.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that. Why are you not with them?”
“Some of us have to work.” I explained.
“Any way you could reach him? Maybe call him?” I could hear his voice become slightly displeased.
There was no way I could call Logan now, he’d fuck this up. But if they didn’t get an answer immediately, they would simply keep looking for him. And I feared, if I couldn’t pay them off now, they’d probably go to the hospital Granny wasn’t actually in, to put pressure on the rest of the family and thereby expose our legend. If this call played out well, however, it could further deter their suspicions, give whomever I called the opportunity to warn me if they were close by the house, and tell me if anything happened on their end.
“Sure ... let me try calling them real quick.” I said as I pulled out my phone, thinking about which one of them I should call.
Logan was out of the question, he’d panic, screw up, and my still broken rib was protesting when I just thought about fighting two guys. Aaron’s acting skills had just been proven to be non-existent a few days ago, when he tried to cover for his princess. I didn’t know if John had already joined them or was still dealing with his work stuff. I dialed Claire’s phone and she answered surprisingly quickly. I didn’t put the call on speaker, but Claire was one of those people who all but screamed into their mobile phones, so the two guys could probably hear her side of the call anyway.
“Baby?! Everything alright? Did something happen?” I heard her greet me. Me calling her obviously made her believe something was wrong, because her voice sounded like she was preparing herself for the worst.
“Wow, Mom, thanks for the vote of confidence. I haven’t burned the house down. Yet. No, I’m calling ‘cause two of Logan’s friends are here asking for him. He’s not around, is he?” I laughed while turning my back to the guys, so they wouldn’t see my face when I faked the laugh, and hoped Claire would pick up on me uncharacteristically calling her ‘Mom’ in a chipper tone. I also hoped she would notice that I really didn’t want her to go find Logan. It seemed to work, because after only a few seconds she had caught herself and played along.