Breathe (13 page)

“Good luck with that too.”

Clinton shook his head. “I don’t think you’re understanding me, Chace. Newcomb has approached all of my colleagues, sharing he has these items and his intentions. He’s received remuneration for their return and has reneged on his part of that deal and asked for more remuneration. This cannot go on.”

“I can see you got a big problem there, Bonar, and I know you boys are thorough so I know you know this but I’ll tell you all the same. Newcomb lost his job, he’s a disgraced cop, no way in fuck he’s gonna find another position anywhere and his daughter has leukemia. He has no insurance but he does have a strong desire to do whatever the fuck he can to keep her alive. The shit he has to do costs a fuckin’ whack and is never ending unless, God forbid, she dies or she beats that shit. So my advice, settle in because he’s gonna take you for a long ride.”

“We all agree it’s unfortunate Newcomb’s family is suffering and we hope the outcome is a positive one. That being said, my colleagues feel they should make their own choices as to what charities they’d wish to receive their donations.”

“Then they shouldn’t have done stupid, fucked up shit and got caught doin’ it by Fuller and his band of asshole brothers. That’s also their problem and not mine.”

He leaned slightly forward, Chace’s body went alert so he wisely leaned right back but did it speaking. “I’ll remind you, your father is one of the men who might, if he stops paying, be exposed.”

“And I’ll remind you I don’t give a fuck.”

Clinton continued, “He’s exposed then your mother learns about his…” he paused, “inclinations. If you find them unsavory, a man, a police detective, imagine what it would do to Valerie.”

Chace leaned in this time and even seeing Bonar’s body go alert, he didn’t lean back.

“You got me with that shit years ago. I swallowed that bitter pill and jacked my life doing it.”

“If this is true, why did you approach IA and offer yourself to go undercover?”

“That pill wore off, Bonar, and when it did, I couldn’t live with that shit anymore.”

“You made a lot of powerful men very vulnerable doing that, Chace. They don’t like to feel vulnerable.”

“I don’t give a fuck about that either.”

“You made Valerie vulnerable.”

Chace successfully fought back the urge to suck in a sharp breath, and the stronger urge to grab the man by his fancy-ass silk tie and slam him to the hood of his car, before he replied, “Then it’s time I had a chat with my Mom. It won’t be pleasant and it’ll fuck her up but it’s better comin’ from me than from the media or one of your goons.”

“Chace, you are not understanding me and you need to understand me. My colleagues find this situation untenable, they want it to be over and they have the means to see to that in ways you will not like all that much.”

“Is that a threat?” Chace asked.

“You know these men don’t make threats.”

“Then here’s the same, you or they fuck with my mother or me, what I do they won’t like all that much.”

“Because of Trane, we understand that Valerie and you are off-limits. That said, there are a number of citizens in this town you love so much you’d betray your own father to protect it. These men will not mind doing what they have to do to get what they want and laying waste to this town in the process. Starting with Tyrell and Alexa Walker.”

Feeling his blood heat and his palms itch, Chace took a step into him, getting chest to chest, nose to nose and forcing Clinton to press himself back into the grill of the SUV.

“You fuck with Ty or Lexie, you fuck with me. You fuck with anyone in this town, you fuck with me. Those men wanna lay waste to Carnal, they gotta get through me first. Something you forget, Bonar, I may have left home, I may have become a cop but for seventeen years, I was at the hand of Trane Keaton and I learned every trick he has. To protect what’s mine, make no mistake, asshole, I’ll use them.”

“Calm down, Chace,” he replied placatingly.

“Fuck calm,” Chace growled. “My father gettin’ off on sick-fuck, jacked up kink made
my
life a livin’ hell for far too long. I’m clear. I’m stayin’ clear. You tell your boys to stay clear, man up and take whatever’s gonna come to them.”

“We’re simply asking you to have a conversation with two men. Walker, to get him to collect his tapes, Newcomb, to get him to deliver on his part of the bargain. Very simple.”

“Gettin’ either of those men to do that is not about havin’ a conversation. It’s about usin’ a strong arm and I’ve done that for you and your boys. I’m done doin’ that too.”

“As you’ve brought it up, at this juncture, I unfortunately have to remind you that you have, indeed, acted as an enforcer for my colleagues. If this was leaked, you’d find the questions asked by your superiors very uncomfortable and you’d undoubtedly lose your standing in this town as its saving grace hero.”

“It’s not a role that fits, you know why since you and your
colleagues
jacked my shit. So leak it. I’ll take it.”

“It’s conceivable this would make the news. You were held up as the poster boy for bravery against corruption. The media enjoys building a hero. But they enjoy it more, tearing him down. It could destroy your life.”

“Clue in, asshole, my life’s already in the toilet. Not only would it be a relief but, I don’t think you get this, I know my father’s plays but I am not my father or any of the men you work for. I got a pair. Shit happens, I don’t hide behind my money and men like you. I deal. Dish it out. I want you to. I already live under a cloud. Nothin’ you or those douchebags you work for, who keep you in your expensive suits and shoes and haircuts, could do could make it any worse.”

“You are very wrong, Chace.”

“Try it and see.”

Clinton held his eyes and Chace let him.

Then he said quietly, “There could come a time when Trane can’t protect you.”

“Let that time be now,” Chace invited. “I don’t want that piece of shit’s protection.”

“This is the wrong decision,” Clinton whispered.

“No,” Chace did not whisper. “Your boys are runnin’ so scared at the same time thinkin’ their money and position can buy them anything, they haven’t been payin’ attention. Your first move is against Ty and Lexie, you’ll create a shit storm so extreme it’ll never blow over. Not only is Ty Walker a man who has taken enough and is not about to take any more and will do what he’s gotta do to protect himself, his wife and the family they’re makin’, he’s a man who’s got some serious power at his back. He stubs his toe and it looks suspect, the full force of the media, Samuel Sterling and whoever Sterling can round up will be all over your asses. I got their back and I’ll have it any way I have to have it even if it means throwin’ myself on my sword. Think of that in your strategy sessions. And since I’m handin’ out advice, Darren Newcomb is a racist asswipe, dirty cop who beat his wife so badly, the only play he gave her was for her to leave him and her kids. But he loves his daughter. He’ll go down for her. You fuck with him and any chance he has to help his daughter beat that shit eatin’ away at her, he’ll make it ugly. So counsel your boys to take on a new charity and learn to hope Newcomb doesn’t get greedy. You see his daughter through that shit, deal with him after. He deserves it. His daughter does not.”

“I’ll take this under advisement and share it with my colleagues.”

“Good call.”

“But you haven’t addressed the matter of your mother.”

Chace couldn’t beat it back this time and sucked in breath.

If his mother knew about his father, it’d kill her.

She’d been a beauty her whole life, even now, at age sixty. She came from money, had been spoiled but it didn’t make her like Misty, grasping and entitled. Nothing could beat his mother’s sweet. It was how she was because it was who she was.

She loved and adored her son.

She loved and worshiped her husband.

Trane Keaton was a lot of things and not one of them was good. Except the fact that in his sick way, he felt the same about his wife. Like Chace, he handled her with care, like she was exactly what she was, a delicate, fragile thing who gave nothing to the world but beauty.

But she wasn’t perfect precisely because she was fragile. The kind of fragile it took medication to strengthen or it would come flying apart. The kind of fragile that, before the meds and even sometimes after them, led to episodes that were at best unpleasant and at worst, especially when he was a kid, terrifying.

Fuck, she’d had a bad break that put her into treatment after reading an article about a little girl who’d been kidnapped, molested and murdered. As terrible as that shit was, she totally couldn’t deal.

Finding out her husband was unfaithful to her repeatedly throughout their marriage and
how
would end her.

Chace knew that. His father knew that. But it was Chace knowing it that bought them his cooperation, until he couldn’t stomach cooperating anymore because he couldn’t even look in his own eyes in the mirror.

His threat to tell her had been a bluff at the time and Clinton knew it. But now, as he had when he made the decision to approach Internal Affairs and offer to assist in exposing the corruption in Carnal, Chace had to weigh his mother’s mental health against the well-being of an entire town.

And he loved her a fuckuva lot.

But Ty and Lexie Walker had been through enough in their lives and they had a baby on the way.

Just they tipped the scales.

The rest sent them crashing.

“You force my hand, I’ll do what I have to do. I do what I have to do, I’ll deal with the fallout but
you
will deal with my father,” Chace replied.

Again, Clinton’s shades stayed locked to Chace’s eyes.

Then he murmured, “Please step away.”

“I will, I get your assurances I don’t see you again or hear from any of your crew of assholes.”

“I cannot guarantee that, Chace.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Chace whispered.

Clinton continued to hold his eyes long moments before he requested quietly, “I’m asking you to step back.”

Chace drew in breath at the same time he realized he couldn’t do what he very much would like to do. Use his fists to provide Clinton Bonar with the experience Darren Newcomb’s daughter was very familiar with and that was a prolonged hospital stay.

His only play was to step back and walk away.

So he stepped back and walked away. The direction he walked was toward the library.

“This isn’t finished,” Clinton warned his back.

“It never is,” Chace muttered, not knowing if Clinton could hear him and not giving a fuck if he could.

He watched the library coming closer as he thought of dancing with Faye after midnight to a fantastic fucking song while she smiled at him and let him hold her close. He’d sat in her truck, smelling her perfume, watching her expressive face, hearing her sweet voice using a variety of different tones that were as expressive as her face.

He’d bought her coffee. He’d watched a kid who had nothing grab five bags full of what he would consider gold that Faye Goodknight gave to him out of nothing but kindness.

He’d had a good morning, his first good morning in a really long time that his father and his bullshit had turned to shit.

And that was exactly what he felt as his long legs ate the distance from his truck to the library. Shit. He smelled it. He felt it. He tasted it in his mouth.

He had to get rid of it.

He knew only one way to do that. Only two times in fucking years he’d smelled nothing but sweet, felt it and, only once, tasted it.

Dancing with Faye and kissing her.

The library wasn’t open yet but he still wrapped his fingers around the handle of the front door and pulled.

It opened.

Thank fuck, she was in and hadn’t locked the doors.

He walked in, vaguely seeing the layout, the shelves, the books, smelling that smell that only libraries had but his focus was on scanning the space.

To the right, the long checkout desk.

From a door behind it at the back left, Faye came out.

“Hey,” she greeted in her sweet voice. “Did you see where he went?”

Chace didn’t reply, he stalked to her.

When he started moving, she dipped her ear to her shoulder, her head jutting slightly forward, her face going from curiosity to scrutiny.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

Chace rounded the side of the counter.

Cute, tight skirt that skimmed her hips, cupped her ass and hit her knees. Her low-heeled, brown boots. A scoop-necked tee under a cardigan. Skin displayed above the neckline of the tee highlighting an unusual and attractive three-tiered necklace. Auburn hair falling in sheets over her shoulders and down her chest, a hank of it at the top, right of her forehead pulled to the side in a cute bobby pin. Makeup subtle and appealing.

She looked like a librarian who had good taste in clothes and a light but expert hand with makeup. Her own style, a style that did nothing to emphasize the obviously attractive features of her face or frame and because of that, they contradictorily accentuated them. It was a style that worked for her in a huge way.