Better When He's Bad (Welcome to the Point #1)(66)

“What’s up, Officer King?”

He cut me a look. “Race beat the crap out of you. You got a wicked bruise on the side of your face.”

“I know. He got me in the ribs even worse. Can’t say I blame him. I was all over Dovie, and there were no clothes involved.”

“What’s the story with you and her anyway? She doesn’t really strike me as your type.”

I chomped on a piece of the bacon and gave him a considering look. “How would you know what my type is, Titus? It’s not like you were around when I finally figured out what girls were for.”

He looked at me and frowned, his mug of coffee stilled halfway to his mouth. “Just because I wasn’t around didn’t mean I wasn’t keeping tabs on you. If I hadn’t kept a finger on the pulse of the felonies and misdemeanors of the infamous Shane Baxter, your ass would’ve been in prison a lot sooner than when you turned eighteen.”

I’d had run-ins with the law on and off since I was old enough to remember, but really, luck had always been on my side. Sure, I spent a month or two in juvie and was way more familiar with the back of a squad car than anyone should be, but my record was mostly clean, except for the last big f**kup that had kept me on lockdown for five wasted years.

“Why? Why interfere? Why pretend like I mattered when you were off being supercop? Those two things don’t seem to go hand in hand.”

“Because you’re my little brother and have always been a pain in the ass. I wondered all the time if things would have been different if Mom had managed to get her shit together when you were younger. I wonder if you had never been forced to steal, forced to break the law, if you would’ve just finished school and ended up a regular douchebag like most twenty-three-year-olds.”

I snorted. “Doubt it.”

Titus smiled around the coffee mug. “Yeah, I doubt it too. So about the girl?”

I grunted and leaned back in the booth. “She’s sweet and hot. She grew up the same way I did—rough—but it didn’t seem to touch her at all. She’s as loyal as I have ever seen one person be, and right now she’s right in the center of this mess with Novak. I sent her off with Race because I don’t know where else she’ll be safe. Once I let Benny know I have the video, he’ll tell Novak and all the dominoes are going to start to fall.”

“Shane . . .” I was getting real tired of people calling me that. I felt like every time they did, it was chipping away at the solid steel armor that was Bax. “I need you to take one second and look at this from the other side of things for once in your life. I know for you it’s easier to go in with guns blazing, ready to cause a riot, but I’m telling you that isn’t how things are going to work out.”

I flicked my gaze away from him and looked out the grimy window of the diner.

“As soon as Novak knows you have the tape, he’s going to try and destroy everything you care about, and I’m not talking about the Runner.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t think anyone qualifies for that list.”

“You’re an idiot.”

I scowled at him. “Fuck you.”

“Mom, Race, Gus, me, and now the girl. That’s a long enough list to put the ball solidly in Novak’s court. You might not see it, Bax, but you do not exist in the world unaffected by those of us who love you despite yourself.”

I just stared at him. I couldn’t argue his point. I thought it would be me and Novak in one epic showdown, but the reality was probably much gorier, with a far higher body count than I was seeing.

“So what then, Titus? I just hand the video over, and you and the boys in blue waltz in and arrest him for a murder that happened over five years ago? We both know some slick lawyer will get him off before it even goes to trial, and then he’ll just get rid of anyone and everyone who can speak out against him. You tell me how this ends on the side of all that is good and right. The only way to deal with a man like Novak is to get your hands dirty. You know that, Titus.”

“I do, and I also know those hands do not have to be yours, Bax.”

“If not me, then who?”

“I’m not so sure of the answer to that question just yet. You and Race need to keep your heads down, keep the girl out of Benny’s hands until we can come up with a plan that gets everyone out alive. You think you can sit on it for a few days?”

I didn’t want to, but in the harsh light of day, there was no denying he was right.

“Novak knew Race had the tape, he knows about the setup. The only reason Novak hasn’t done anything is because Race’s dad is laundering his dirty cash, and Race doesn’t want his mom dragged into the gutter with the old man, who, by the way, tried to hire Novak to kill Dovie.”

Titus’s eyes flared with a blue fire, and I saw his hands curl into fists on the top of the table between us.

“Who are these people? How did we end up in a place where people’s lives are nothing more than moves on a chessboard?”

I lifted a broad shoulder and let it fall. It made my battered ribs scream at me in protest. “It’s the Point. That’s how it’s always been. You were lucky to make it out before it poisoned you like it did the rest of us.”

He blinked at me and opened and closed his mouth. Then he just gaped at me. “You really believe that, don’t you?”