Edge of Danger (San Antonio Security #2)

Chapter Twenty-One

Brax rocked back on his heels. Not much in life had the power to render him speechless, but the sight of his lying, stealing, cheating, runaway half brother standing in front of him with the nerve to smile and act like nothing was wrong came pretty close.

Close enough to leave Brax at a loss for words.

Fortunately for him, he wasn’t alone. “What do you think you’re doing, showing up here like you didn’t turn Brax’s entire world upside down?” Chance demanded.

“Not just his world either,” Luke muttered, dangerous and low, his hands curling into fists.

That made two of them—no, four of them, because a look around the entry area told Brax that all of his brothers wanted to take a swing at Robert.

Robert, meanwhile, glanced around and sighed. “Can we talk privately?” he asked Brax, ignoring the others.

Brax’s blood only simmered harder than before. “If you have anything to say to me, you can say it in front of them.”

Robert smirked. “Yeah, but you know how certain people are. Hot-blooded. Not able to listen to sense.”

Weston’s short, nearly silent hiss spoke volumes at Robert’s racist comment. Brax lunged forward, taking Robert by his shirt collar and dragging him to the conference room. “You’re lucky I need information from you, or else I’d let the three of them pull you apart while I watched and laughed.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The fact that he could feign ignorance after his racist comment ratcheted Brax’s fury to another level. He threw Robert into a chair and slammed the door behind them, knowing his brothers would be able to watch and listen to everything through the surveillance equipment installed in there. They’d probably be observing from Weston’s office.

“So,” he grunted while turning to face Robert. “What’d you come back for? You here to saddle me with more kids?”

The remark had its intended effect. Robert winced. “Hi to you too.” He adjusted his clothes like Brax might’ve somehow hurt them.

Everything Robert did made Brax more inclined to kill him. His attitude, his racism, then preening like he was the injured party. Of all the nerve.

“People like you are good at playing the victim, aren’t you?” Brax asked, forgetting everything else for the moment in favor of trying to understand his brother just a little.

“What do you mean?”

“If you can jump in and pretend to be hurt first, you’re deflecting from the problem at hand. It’s how you go through your life, isn’t it? Always trying to stay a step ahead, trying to distract people long enough so that they won’t have the opportunity to kill you for the harm you’ve caused.”

Something flickered in Robert’s eyes. Something like understanding. Maybe even fear.

It cleared quickly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course, you don’t.” Brax pulled out a chair. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

The trick to this little interrogation would be avoiding the topic of Tessa. He couldn’t let Robert know she was back in Walker’s life or that he’d even met her. Tessa was supposed to be dead, according to the little story Robert had told, and if Brax had any hope of prying the truth from somebody so disassociated from truth, it would mean stepping carefully.

A shame, since it would’ve been gratifying to see him sweat over the legal ramifications of falsified documents.

But no, what mattered more was Tessa. If Robert contacted CPS and they took Walker away from her again, it would break her. Brax had no doubt.

He glanced up at one of the discreet cameras mounted in the corner of the room. They’d be watching.

It was Robert who spoke first. “I want Walker back.”

Brax whirled on him. This was the last thing he’d expected. An explanation, maybe. A sob story, likely. But this?

“What are you talking about? You had the paperwork drawn up and everything. Is this some kind of a game to you?”

“Things have changed.” How the man could sit there, unblinking, and deliver such a load of...

Brax shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. You don’t drag the law into something and then up and change your mind. What gives?”

Robert didn’t respond.

Brax took a chair, straddled it, facing his brother. “I mean it. Fess up. What’s this really about?”

“I told you. Things have changed.” Only now he was shifting slightly in his chair. Uncomfortable.

Brax decided to press harder on that uncomfortable spot. “You just decided you want your son back? After awarding me guardianship? It doesn’t seem like the sort of decision a person randomly changes their mind about.”

“It wasn’t random.”

“So why, then? Why is he suddenly convenient to your life?”

Robert rolled his eyes with a heavy, put-on sigh. “I miss the little guy. He’s my son. Isn’t it right that I miss him? I mean, you’re the moral authority. You tell me.”

Brax snorted. “Moral authority? Fine. I’ll give you moral authority—you can’t pass your kid off like an inconvenient house plant whenever you feel like it, then decide you made a mistake and want him back. I know he’s just a baby, but it’s not good for him to lose his routine like that. You’ve already done it once. Now, he’s in a routine with a nanny he likes.” That was as much as he could admit about Tessa.

“You just said it yourself. He’s a baby.” Robert drew this out like he was talking to one just then. “It doesn’t matter yet. He won’t remember any of this.”

“Because you’re an expert in child development now?”

“Are you?”

“You might be surprised what I’ve had to learn on the fly,” Brax murmured, holding Robert’s gaze. “When a few days turned into this many weeks.”

“Okay, okay, I admit I lost my head a little.” Robert sat back, hands in the air. “It happens to everybody. I couldn’t see myself making it work. I figured I was no good for the kid and you would be a better parent. I mean, look at you. All settled into your fancy office and your bros out there.”

“Watch it,” Brax warned, always aware of those cameras.

“But I changed my mind,” Robert continued. So intense, like he believed himself.

Not that it mattered.

“You can’t change your mind. What about this isn’t getting through to you? What happens if you decide to change your mind again? That’s not how this works.”

“Where is he?” Robert’s eyes narrowed. “I went to the house but it was empty. It looked like there was a fire there.”

Brax’s jaw tightened. What would’ve happened if there hadn’t been a fire and Tessa had been at the house with Walker when Robert had showed up? The thought made him sick.

“He’s somewhere else, with the nanny. They’re doing fine. The fire was just an accident, but it didn’t spread beyond the living room.”

“That’s good to hear. I hate to think of my son being in danger.”

“Accidents happen,” Brax muttered, teeth clenched at the nerve of the man in front of him. “He’s perfectly safe and happy right now.”

“Where’s he staying?”

“Why does it matter when I have legal guardianship and you don’t? You handed him over to me, and I take that seriously. When you decide to float in and out of his life, I have to question why.”

Robert laughed. “I’d think you would be happy to be free of him. No more daddy duty. You should be thanking me!”

Brax held onto the arms of the chair to keep from throwing a punch. “I’m pretty happy with the way things turned out, actually. Sorry if you thought I’d throw the kid at you and run in the other direction, but that’s not how this is going down.”

Robert swallowed, eyes darting back and forth over Brax’s face like he was trying to sense whether this was a game or not.

It was like magic. Robert deflated bit by bit. The shoulders slumped. His mouth tugged downward at the corners into something like a sad clown’s grimace. He slouched in the chair.

“I need him back.”

They were getting closer to the truth, finally. “Why? Why now? What changed?”

“There’s people after me. Bad people.”

What a big surprise. Brax glanced at one of the cameras, knowing what his brothers would be thinking then. It took long enough for him to admit what they’d known for days, ever since Tessa had revealed all.

“That’s all the more reason to leave Walker with me, isn’t it? To protect him from the people after you?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Are you kidding? How else could it possibly be? You’re in danger. Why would you want to bring your son back into it?”

Robert shook his head, looking at the floor. “It’s complicated.”

“When is it not?” Brax leveled his gaze, staring straight at Robert. “Who are these people?”

He drew a deep breath and let it out slowly before answering. “The Solomon family.”

Brax rocked back for the second time that day. He hadn’t expected this. “The family that owns casinos all over the country? That Solomon family?”

“Yes.”

“They’re insanely wealthy.”

“I know.”

“And you got on their bad side? I mean, I can see rubbing elbows with them, but you’d have to be a real idiot—”

“Okay, okay. I don’t need the insults.”

Brax gritted his teeth. It was one thing to be a professional gambler, but to get on a casino owner’s hit list? It took a special kind of stupid to cross a family with that kind of power and influence.

“Do you owe them money?” It was the easiest guess.

Robert nodded. “Yeah. That was the money I was trying to scratch together when I left Walker with you.”

“Right.”

Still, Robert stared at the floor, fingers picking at the armrests. There was more to the story. “What else? This isn’t all about money. Don’t bother lying and wasting my time.”

A heavy sigh. “I was sort of involved with a member of the family.”

For the sake of everything. “Okay.”

“Gabrielle Solomon. She was visiting the Eagle Pass casino. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen her, but she’s hot. And smart. Into the business side of things, not just spending the family money. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.”

Or his hands, Brax would’ve bet.

“The first time I talked to her, she told me she loves kids. Babies, you know. I told her I had a kid. She lit up.”

A sick certainty started unfurling in Brax’s gut, but he needed to hear it from Robert. He wouldn’t let him off the hook.

Robert lifted a shoulder. “So I played up the single-dad thing. She fell in love with Walker, and it brought us closer.”

Which was why he’d stolen Walker away from Tessa. So he could seduce some wealthy woman, who might’ve been smart, but wasn’t smart enough to see through him.

If there had ever been a time Brax wanted to kill Robert, this was it. All the agony he’d put Tessa through, and all so he could rope a woman.

“I screwed things up,” Robert admitted, rubbing his temples. “I was so stupid. I cheated on her.”

“On Gabrielle Solomon?”

“Just the one time. A couple nights before I went to you. She threw a fit, told me she’s not the sort of woman guys cheat on and get away with it. Threw me out. She told her brother Victor, and he decided all the money I owed them was due immediately.”

“Do I even want to know how much?”

Robert cringed. “Fifty thousand.”

Brax closed his eyes for a moment as this washed over him.

“I’ve been running from them ever since. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Robert shrugged before bending forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands.

Brax thought it over for a little while before pointing out, “They’re not going to kill you, if that’s what you’re worried about. That’s not how they’ll get their money back. If I were you, I’d go back and take my beating, then work out a plan.”

When Robert flinched, Brax added, “I know it’s easier said than done, but they won’t let this go. Would you rather live on the run for the rest of your life?”

“Well...”

“Don’t tell me there’s more to this.”

“One of the guys on their security team...hates me. It’s personal.”

“What does that mean?”

“I said some things back in the day, he took it the wrong way. Overly sensitive,” he scoffed.

Brax rolled his eyes. “What’s his name?”

“Jakob Hawkins. He wants to kill me.”

“Robert.”

He looked up, his face hard. “He does. When he finds me, he’s going to kill me. He’s made that clear to everybody he knows.”

“And you thought what? Get Walker back and make up with Gabrielle? Or use him as a human shield, hoping this Jakob would change his mind when he saw the baby? That was your big plan? What if this Jakob found you and killed you anyway? What would happen to your son?”

Robert had no answer for that, which hardly came as a surprise. Brax knew he hadn’t thought about his son, not really. Walker’s future meant nothing when compared to Robert getting himself out of the latest crisis.

No way would Brax let that happen. Robert wasn’t about to get his hands on Walker, not ever again. Even if he hadn’t known about the history with CPS and Tessa, this situation on its surface was more than enough for Brax to keep Walker as far from his father as possible.

Still, the longer the Solomon family was after Robert, the longer they’d be after Tessa. He couldn’t let that continue. Especially since they’d asked her where Walker was when they’d threatened her in the mall parking lot.

Did they want to use Walker as a pawn to get to Robert?

Brax wouldn’t let that happen either.

“Well, I don’t have the money, if you were wondering.” Brax stood. “But I think there might be something I could do for you.”

Robert’s eyes lit up. “What’s that?”

“Give me forty-eight hours. I was lying about the nanny having Walker right now. My parents do, and they’re out of town. It’ll take time to get him.”

“Your parents?” Robert scoffed. “Great. I hope they don’t take him out anywhere, or people might wonder.”

Brax’s patience snapped. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hey, hey!” Robert held up his hands in mock self-defense. “I’m not the one saying it. I just bet other people are, is all. Like why are they out with a little white kid? You need to get a sense of humor.”

He grinned on his way out of the conference room. “See you in forty-eight hours, bro.”

It took every scrap of self-control not to break Robert’s head open. He waited until he heard the front door open and close before leaving the room.

Weston’s office door opened at the same time, and his brothers filed out. They didn’t say a word about Robert’s comments, though the set of their jaws made words unnecessary.

Chance cleared his throat. “Weston found information on this Jakob Hawkins.” He nodded toward the laptop Weston had brought with him.

One look at the photo on the screen was enough. “That’s the guy. I recognize the pockmarked skin.”

“Now we probably have a good idea why he hates Robert so much,” Luke muttered. Everything about him screamed tension, from his voice to his folded arms.

“Yeah, imagine the sort of so-called jokes Robert made at his expense.” Brax’s lip curled in disgust. “You have no idea how much of me wants to let him get what’s coming to him, but as long as he’s on the run and they’re not finding him—”

“It affects Tessa,” Weston confirmed.

Brax sank into a chair and blew out a long breath while looking at the ceiling. There were bits and pieces of a plan moving around in his head, but it was still shadowy. Sketchy. He didn’t have much time to solidify things.

“Do you think the Solomon family itself want Robert dead?” Chance posed. “Is this coming from them, or is it strictly because Hawkins hates Robert and wants an excuse?”

“The Solomons are rich,” Brax mused. “But not stupid. And they’re powerful, but they’re not a crime family per se. I don’t know whether murder is in their bag of tricks, but wouldn’t we know if it was? Word spreads.”

“Odds are they don’t care one way or another about Robert,” Chance decided. “The money is a drop in the bucket. A lot to us, but nothing to them. They probably wouldn’t blink an eye if he ended up dead. Especially after he cheated on Gabrielle.”

“An honor thing,” Weston muttered. “But if they’d put their money behind finding Robert, he’d be dead by now. No question. This sounds like Hawkins and a buddy of his working on their own.”

“Not to rain on anybody’s parade, but you have bigger problems than this Hawkins guy being after Robert.” Chance offered a shrug when Brax looked his way. “Prince Riviera?”

“Of course, but this Hawkins might be a threat to Tessa, and I can’t let him hurt her. I can deal with the cartel after I know she’s in the clear. Besides, there’s still the idea of me having to go away. I don’t want to, but if things come down to that, I’ll need to know Tessa and Walker are free of Robert forever. I couldn’t stand it otherwise.”

He stood, slid his hands into his pockets, and looked at his brothers. “I have a plan.”

He turned to Weston. “I think you were right about involving the police in this. Can you call some of your old colleagues with the San Antonio PD?”