Golden Trail (The 'Burg #3)(199)
Cosgrove didn’t go so far as to tell Tyler to compromise Keira, just to remove her shirt and undo her jeans. Under not-so-delicate pressure from Colt and we’re-all-men-we-get-it bullshitting from Sully, Tyler had given up that he felt this was a golden opportunity he wasn’t going to pass up. His intention was to take advantage of Keira who he suggested, lamely and by no means convincing anyone in that room, had a thing for him.
What he didn’t plan on was that Jasper and Keira were as tight as they were and Keira wasn’t big on leaving her boy’s side so she didn’t except to go to the bathroom and, on the way back, accept an ill-advised shot after which she wasted no time in getting back to her boyfriend. He also didn’t plan on Jasper turning the tables and enhancing his reputation by publicly taking care of his girl.
The door opened and Sully and Colt walked in but Cal and Layne didn’t move, Cal probably couldn’t move for fear he’d commit murder.
Tyler’s head came up, “But Dad –”
Travis Berger leaned forward and roared, “Shut the f**k up! Jesus Christ, whose kid are you?” Tyler blanched and Travis threw his hands out then clenched them in fists. “You drugged a girl for f**k’s sake! Who does that?”
“Dad, Coach Cosgrove said –”
“I don’t give a f**k what that twat said. Jesus, Ty, Jesus, the man beats his wife and kid. Jesus. You see a man like that, that man hands you an illegal substance, you call the f**kin’ cops, you do not take direction from him! Fuckin’ shit.” Travis shook his head but his eyes didn’t leave his son. “Jesus f**kin’ shit. What do I even do with you? I gotta deal with you and I don’t even wanna look at you.”
Tyler’s face crumpled and Layne knew he was going to cry. He didn’t need to see that shit so he forced his eyes away, reached out to flip the switch to shut off the audio and looked at Colt.
“You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” he asked and Colt nodded.
“Yeah, man, but you don’t know what I know,” Colt replied and Layne felt Cal move to position himself at Layne’s side.
“What do you know?” Cal growled and Colt and Sully looked at him.
“Hendrick’s County Hospital had seven admissions last night, six females, one male. All unconscious or incoherent on admission for reasons unknown until the test results came back and all of them had been roofied. Last, all of them had been drinkin’ at J&J’s Saloon,” Sully answered.
Layne shook his head. Cal planted his fists on his hips.
“Was Cosgrove seen at J&J’s?” Cal asked.
“Yep, Cheryl clocked him, pointed him out to Darryl and Darryl showed him the door. That said, it was Saturday, it was a madhouse as usual and Cheryl, Morrie, who was also on, nor Darryl know how long he was there before Darryl chucked his ass out,” Colt answered.
“So, Cosgrove is metin’ out payback. I confronted him, Cal’s providin’ safe harbor for his wife and kid and you’re both sittin’ sentry, that the play?” Layne asked but he knew, that f**king dick, he knew.
“That’s my guess,” Colt replied.
“Goes without sayin’, I want his ass in a cell,” Cal snarled.
“Goes without sayin’,” Colt agreed.
“Also goes without sayin’ I want that punk-ass piece of shit in that room to face some serious as f**k consequences,” Cal went on, jerking a finger to the observation window.
“Goes without sayin’,” Colt repeated.
“Good news on that is, it’s pretty clear his Dad’s feelin’ much the same way,” Sully murmured.
“No, Sully, he’s not. He’s not feelin’ the same thing I’m feelin’ right… f*ckin’… now.” Cal’s voice was a scary whisper.
“I get you, man,” Sully whispered back but his whisper was conciliatory. “I’m just sayin’ you won’t have a battle on your hands on top of all this shit. He’s not gonna fight his son’s side ‘cause he knows his son doesn’t have a side. He didn’t step in once when we were questioning him. He’s gonna let that boy swing.”
Cal was silent and so was the rest of the room, everyone stuck with pretty f**king unhappy thoughts.
Sully broke the silence. “Got shit to do. A bulletin to put out. Bar patrons to interview. Shit like that. Am I gonna be able to get down to that or am I gonna get a busted lip and split knuckles losin’ my fight to lock down you three badasses?”
Layne and Colt instantly relaxed, Colt’s lips even formed a small smile.
Cal didn’t think anything was funny. Then again, Cal’s stepdaughter narrowly missed getting raped the night before. It was going to take awhile before Joe Callahan cracked a smile.
“We’re good, Sul, do your work,” Colt muttered, Sully studied Cal, must have read what he wanted to read, he nodded and walked out.
Cal turned to Layne. “You straight with your kid?”
“Yep,” Layne answered.
“You gonna share that shit?” he jerked a thumb at the observation window.
“Not sure about that,” Layne replied because he wasn’t sure. He shared what Tyler Berger and Adrian Cosgrove had planned, Jasper would be uncontrollable. He knew it because that shit happened to Layne, he’d be uncontrollable.