Play It Safe(57)

“When I left you, Ivey, I was hurtin’. Did somethin’, we go to the cops, they might put two and two together and know it was me.”

God!

My stupid, stupid, STUPID brother.

“What’d you do?”

“What I did, they nail me, I’ll do five to ten in the local penitentiary.”

Yes, my stupid, stupid brother.

“Get up, pack a bag, we gotta go,” Casey ordered.

At that, my heart clenched.

“Go?” I whispered.

“Go, honey, go. We gotta go.”

“But I can’t. I have a job, rent to pay…”

Gray.

“They followed me, they’ll find you. Won’t be hard, Ivey and all these folks, someone shields you, they’ll buy it. You cannot do what you’re doin’. You and me, we gotta evaporate, sis, to stay alive and to keep these folks safe.”

“Who are these people, Casey? Where did we play them? How are they here?” I asked.

“I’ll explain on the way,” Casey evaded.

“Casey!”

Then he turned the light on, just for a flash but in that flash I caught his mangled, swollen face then he plunged the room back to darkness as I sat frozen in my bed, his image burned on the backs of my eyes.

“Get up, get dressed, get packed, Ivey, we don’t got a lotta time if we have any at all.”

I sat in the bed, breathing heavy.

Then I told my brother, “I have to write Gray a note.”

“Sis, I told you, we don’t got a lotta time.”

“I’m writing Gray a note!” I hissed.

“Fuck! Whatever! Just do it and let’s go!”

Heart beating wildly, lungs working overtime, I got up, got dressed, got packed and wrote Gray a note.

Then I stole out into the dark spring night that was still cold but not freezing and took off with my stupid, stupid brother.

* * * * *

Buddy Sharp

Eight hours, twenty-three minutes later…

“You gotta go to her place, she left a note,” Casey whatever-the-f*ck his name was whispered in his ear.

“That’s been seen to,” Buddy Sharp told the moron. “Be sure to lose this phone.”

“Good phone, shame to dump it,” the idiot replied.

“Yes, it would be, so do whatever you want. It isn’t me who has to explain the phone to your sister.”

There was a pause then, “See your point,” he muttered.

Fuck, this guy was a total, f**king moron.

“You go to the bank in Cheyenne I told you about, you’ll find the rest of your money just like I explained,” Buddy informed him.

“Right,” he kept muttering.

“This is done. You do not come back. You do not hit me up again. You do not bring that bitch back here. And you make certain she doesn’t come back or what me and my boys did to your face to convince her to go with you we’ll do for real and we will not stop. Is that understood?”

“Jeez, bro, I speak English. I know the deal I agreed to.”

“No communication between her and Grayson Cody at all. She tries to phone, you stop her. She tries to come back, you tie her down if you have to. She sends a f**kin’ birthday card, you infiltrate the United States Postal Service to steal that thing. I’ve paid you ten large to make this happen, you f**k it up, I’ll find you and you know I will. I got the resources and I got the motivation. Now is that understood?”

“Seriously, bro, I’m not an idiot.”

He was wrong.

“We’re done,” Buddy stated then flipped his phone shut.

Then he looked out the window of the bank.

Then he grinned.

* * * * *

Six hours and thirty-six minutes later…

The door to Buddy Sharp’s apartment opened and Cecily walked through, lugging a bag and grinning.

Buddy didn’t grin on the outside but he sure as f**k was smiling on the inside.

“You take care of it?” he asked.

“Got in right after I saw them take off. Got everything that was hers. There was a bunch of stuff, looked like it was Janie’s or something, sheets, an old TV, shit like that. Left that.”

“Tomorrow, you get your girls talkin’. They saw the brother. They saw her go with him. Right?”

Cecily nodded. “They’re all set and my cousin in Grand Junction is gonna come for a visit and talk about friends of his that got hustled at pool by a blonde with attitude and a lotta hair.”

That was when Buddy nodded then asked, “Did you get the note?”

Her grin got bigger; she dumped the bag, opened her purse, pawed through it and came out with a folded piece of paper.

Buddy took it from her.

Then he read it.

Then his lips curled into a sneer.

Then he took it to his fireplace, grabbed a match, struck it, set it to Ivey’s note to Gray and it caught fire.

He threw it in the fireplace and watched it burn to ash.

Only then did he smile.

Then he turned to Cecily, threw her on the couch, pulled and tugged her clothes just enough to provide access to the areas he wanted and he f**ked her even though she was still mostly dry. Then again, Cecily was shit in bed, never loosened up, never got very wet.

And it never occurred to Buddy Sharp that she didn’t because he didn’t put enough effort into getting her that way.