CROSS (A Gentry Boys Novella)(18)
Gaps told us a little small town nepotism could come in handy sometimes. He had a relative who was a judge and Deck was owed a lot of favors for things I couldn’t begin to guess. All that added up to a break for us, as long as someone showed up at the Emblem jail with a stack of green paper. I almost despaired over hearing that because even if my mother had the money I doubted she would part with it for our sake.
It turned out she wouldn’t need to. Even though Gaps hadn’t been able to reach Deck, he’d talked to Cordero, one of the triplet cousins I barely remembered. They’d lived way out in the desolate hinterlands of outer Emblem, where most of the Gentrys had squatted and lived and died for generations. There were still some left; chronic troublemakers who had made our last name a local curse. Cord and his brothers, Chase and Creed, had famously run out of town the first chance they got but their parents remained. I saw them sometimes – ruined Maggie and violent Benton. If rumors of our parentage had ever reached Benton’s ears he never showed it, thank god. Everything I’d ever heard about him pointed to a brutal man I’d rather not know.
Stone and I practically leapt out of the cage as soon as Gaps unlocked the door. He told us to keep quiet and ushered us out the back way, where there were no curious staff or visitors to wonder why we deserved such a quick, unofficial release.
They were waiting for us. The triplets. I remembered them as being larger than life; three rowdy teens who didn’t give a shit about rules or reason. The men who waited for us now were serious and almost parental. They checked us out, raised eyebrows at each other, and smirked. After all these years I felt something like awe, being face to face with them again.
“Shit,” I blurted out, “it’s the famous triplets.” I moved in to shake their hands even as Stone stood silently back. “How the hell are ya?”
The one who was covered in tattoos and had already confirmed that he was Cordero thought I was funny.
“Famous,” he exclaimed. “Hey guys, did you know we were famous?”
I couldn’t help it. The hero worship was setting in. When Stone and I were little we used to pretend we were the Gentry triplets. We were forever rotating which one and it never seemed to occur to us that we were one brother short of the trifecta. I poked Stone in the side to shake him into remembering but he just scowled at me and jerked his head like he did when he was showing off that he didn’t care about a f*cking thing.
“It’s true,” I told them. “You’re legends in the stuffy halls of Emblem High, even after all these years.”
Chasyn, the last one to shake my hand, snorted over that. “All these years. Such ancient history. Predates electricity.”
I couldn’t tell if he was really offended or not.
“Yeah,” I finally said, just because I felt like I needed to say something.
Creedence, the big guy, snapped his fingers at us. He was the one who seemed the least excited to be here. No wonder. I knew they lived somewhere up in the valley outside Phoenix and they probably had far better things to do with their Friday night than drive all the way down here for the sake of two kids they hadn’t seen in a decade.
“Let’s move out,” he said with all the militant command of a drill sergeant. He stepped aside to say a few words to Gaps, who glanced at a fat envelope in his chubby hands and nodded before clearing his throat and looking our way.
“Don’t do this shit again,” he warned, and even though I didn’t have anything against Gaps I couldn’t help but feel laughter bubbling up. Some men were born with the aura of authority and the rest weren’t. Gaps wasn’t. But I tried to be serious when I answered.
“Of course not, Officer. We’re sorry. I don’t know what we were thinking. Stone, do you know what we were thinking?”
“Sure,” said Stone easily. “I was thinking about how much hot ass I was gonna get out of this.”
I shot him a look. No good would come out of mouthing off right now. “He didn’t mean that.”
My stupid brother kept right on going. “Yeah I meant it. When girls get close to trouble they just can’t seem to keep their tits contained. Hell of an incentive.”
“Shut the f*ck up,” I hissed with a quick glance at Gaps, but Gaps was shaking with silent laughter.
“Gentrys,” he chuckled, then told our cousins they were free to do with us as they pleased.
Stone, the perennial moron, shook free of Creed’s firm grip and decided to get a parting shot in at Gaps by lying that our mother was hoping he’d start coming around again. Gaps looked all sadly hopeful for a painful moment before Stone started laughing.
“That was f*cked up,” I told him.
Stone grabbed me around the neck. He was too damn strong. “Did I hear you tell me to shut up in there, you little puke?”
I’d had about enough of my brother’s cynical company so I answered by head butting him against the side of the jail.
“Fucker,” Stone howled, trying to get under my armpits so he could throw me off.
“Dick breath,” I growled and took aim again.
Creedence lost his patience and tore us apart. He’d make a much more effective cop than Gaps. I was secretly pleased when the guys insisted on driving us home. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to them yet. Chase even got his way over cranky Creedence and arranged for us to stop and get some of those gut-busting cheeseburger hot dogs always on the heater at the gas station.