Chapter 47 – Larson
Brynn looks like I feel. A defeated, deflated mess. But I hope I don’t look that way too. I need to give her some hope.
“I’ve figured out that the clowns aren’t buying stuff at the stores,” I tell her, as if that’s very helpful. “They have to have some more organized secret operation going on. This has to be bigger than something random and troll-ish.”
“I agree,” she says, looking like she’s going to cry but not actually crying. “At first I thought Steven was behind this. That he was doing it to say I’m a bad parent and take Caleb away from me. But I called him and he sounds clueless and he basically said he wants to sign away his rights to Caleb.”
Now she is crying, and I wrap her up tight in my arms.
“I’m sorry, Brynn,” I tell her, kissing the tears away from her face. “That’s horrible.”
“In a strange way I’m sorry he’s not behind it,” she tells me, looking at me earnestly. “It would suck that his dad was that shitty to want to kidnap him just to get at me. But it’s even shittier that his dad doesn’t even care that much I guess. And at least I would have known he was safe. Now I don’t know what to think.”
“Brynn,” I tell her, pulling her up against my chest. “I have to tell you something. I didn’t want to tell you earlier because I’m not good at talking about it. But I had planned to. And now I need to. Because I think it could have something to do with whatever happened to Caleb.”
“What?”
She pushes back and looks at me with a mixture of confusion and anger. As she should. I know I should have told her. But I honestly didn’t know that Caleb could get caught up in this. Although I should have. These people are fucking ruthless. They’ll do anything to get back at me.
“I had a wife, and a son,” I tell her.
“You did?”
She looks absolutely shocked, but why wouldn’t she? It’s pretty shocking information to be just learning for the first time.
“I did. And I had to do a job against someone who was a terrorist. He had done awful things against the country. So I did that job. But his family retaliated.”
“They did?”
“It crushed my whole world. I wanted to die myself. I wish I could have traded places with them."
"Oh my god. I'm sure. I'm so sorry…"
"Shhhh," I tell her. "You don't have to be sorry. Just listen. Because I don’t want history to repeat itself. History is not going to repeat itself.”
She’s shaking now, and crying.
“What are they going to do to him?” she asks me, tears spilling down her face.
“Nothing,” I say. “I’m going to find them.”
“So this is the main reason you kind of live life in hiding?” she asks me.
“There’s multiple reasons,” I tell her. “I had to do the job against the guy. It was justified, and part of my job, but, like I told you before, the law doesn’t always care about the reasons people do things. The cops may have… understood my motivations and reasons.”
She just nods, her chin against my chest, as if it makes perfect sense. And I guess it does. I just needed to get it out but I was afraid she would reject me because of it.
“There’s a warrant out for my arrest that they just don't enforce, as long as I stay on the straight and narrow."
“I see.”
“So I can’t get caught doing anything,” I tell her. “I can’t really stick around when things get shady and the cops come. But behind the scenes, as I’ve said, the Desert Dogs and I protect this city. And we will protect you and Caleb. I know we will.”
She nods but doesn’t look entirely convinced. And I don’t blame her.
“And yeah,” I tell her, to finish answering her question. I want everything out there now. No secrets between us. “I also have to stay on the downlow because I don’t want his family to find me. I think that if they were going to kill me or something, they would have done that by now. His family doesn’t seem to have the ties he had. They’re not straight up killers or terrorists. But I think they want me to go to jail for taking him away from him.”
Suddenly Brynn sits up straighter.
“What?” I ask her.
“It just… reminded me of something,” she said. “That Clay said. When I was on the phone with him.”
“You were on the phone with Clay?”
“Yeah, and that asshole just laughed about the clowns at his party and said they weren’t connected with what happened to us. I’m not sure I believe him, although I can’t fit all the pieces together to make any sense out of why they would be involved in this. But basically he said I need to pull myself together and do some work for him this weekend. And that he wants to sleep with me and always gets what he wants. More or less.”
“What a fucking asshole,” I say.
“I know.”
She puts her head back down on my chest.
“But I don’t know what to do about it,” she continues. “I guess I need to quit. Maybe I can work with Riley’s organization and help vets or something. I don’t really need that much money if I live here instead of in New York. We’ll have to let Esmeralda go, but I’m sure there’s some other family that will take her. That is, if we ever even find…”
“Don’t say it,” I tell her, forcing her to look at me. “We are going to find Caleb and he is going to be fine. They all are. Also, there’s no reason to worry about money. I make good money for what I do, and I want to be with you. And Caleb.”
She hugs me tight.
“I love you, Brynn,” I tell her. “I said it and I mean it. I love Caleb too. And now we just have to find him and put this whole mess behind us. It’s been unresolved for me for a very long time.”
“The thing that Clay said when I was talking to him, that made me stop and think just now,” she says, looking up at me once again. “He said something about hoping you haven’t gotten arrested. I thought it was a weird thing to say but I was so distraught at the time that I wasn’t paying a lot of attention.”
It clicks for me now. Or at least, I think it does.
“I knew that fucking Clay Tucker was a weasel, but I didn’t know he’d go to these lengths to get what he wanted.”
“What do you mean?” Brynn asks.
“One of Clay’s companies does women’s fashion type stuff, right? Makeup and shit?”
“Yeah,” she says. “But I’m not sure what that has to do with anything.”
“I do,” I say. “I’ve heard that he made a fortune catering to the alternative beauty market or some such shit, is that right?”
“That’s true,” she says. “Like emo and goth people who like tattoos and dark makeup. Guys and girls alike. It’s a bigger industry than anyone else had foreseen. Clay— well, with his family business and family money— capitalized on it and made even more money than they already had. But still, I’m not following what this has to do with anything.”
What’s the name of his makeup store?
“Beauty Bee,” she says. “It’s at the mall.”
I call Jensen.
“Go to Beauty Bee at the Cottonwood mall,” I tell him. “Ask if there has been an influx in purchases of their gothic makeup and their neon- colored hair dye.”
“Um, Larson?” he says. “It’s Beauty Bee. That’s the kind of shit they sell.”
“Then wait there for whoever buys it,” I tell him. “And do what you need to do until you find one of them who admits to being a clown hired by Clay Tucker.”
“What the fuck?”
“Just do it,” I tell him. “And let me know when you have one. Because I’ll make him take me to Riley and Drew and Caleb and James.”