Game (Gentry Boys, #3)(60)

I’d already pocketed the cash Al gave me but I didn’t know if she’d seen anything. The expression on her face was unreadable, as was the expression on Al’s. Finally he nodded slightly, offered me a brief slap on the back and headed back to his car.

Stephanie waited for me to join her on the sidewalk.

“Hey,” I smiled, kissing her. “You headed into work?”

“You know I am,” she answered, not smiling back.

Al had to pass within a few feet as he pulled out of the parking lot. He stopped for longer than he needed to and gawked at the two of us standing together. Finally he gave a short wave and pulled the car into the road.

Stephanie stared after the departing car. “How do you know Alonzo?”

“Friend from rehab,” I said, not lying but not telling the truth either.

“Oh,” she nodded, seeming thoughtful, but not upset.

I watched her carefully. “You know him well?”

She made a face. “He’s from back home. He was Robbie’s friend.”

Stephanie scarcely mentioned her brothers although I could hardly blame her. One had been murdered and she had no idea where the other one was.

I figured she might question me more but she seemed willing to accept my explanation at face value, or else she didn’t want to talk about Al and his connection to her dead brother.

She took my hand and we started to walk to the restaurant. Truly met us at the door and I kissed Steph goodbye since it made her nervous when I hung around staring at her while she struggled to be nice to the public.

“Chase,” Truly called after Stephanie headed to the lockers to stow her backpack. Truly bit her lip and looked a little anxious. “You planning on being there tomorrow night?”

Creedence was going to playing at a place called Club Devil and it was kind of a big deal. The converted warehouse straddled the border between Tempe and Scottsdale and it was a sizeable venue. Tomorrow there was some kind of retro Eighties Night thing and he’d been rehearsing covers for Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen.

“He’s on at 10:30, right? You can bet I’ll be there,” I told her and she broke into a relieved smile. I doubted Creed had asked her to question me because Creed didn’t ask for favors. Still, I knew he would be happy if I showed up and I had every intention of doing so.

When I started to walk home I couldn’t help but glance over at the gym since it was across the street from Cluck This. Mostly I avoided thinking about the attack. On that day, one minute I’d been squinting into bright sunlight and the next minute the world went black. I’d awakened to the sick feeling of blood running down my face and a sharp agony in my abdomen that I was afraid to dwell on because I knew it was bad.

And it was bad. The head wound wasn’t severe but I had internal bleeding and needed two surgeries to repair the damage. Creed and Cord were at my side constantly and I was more worried for them than for myself, Creed especially. I understood how Creedence saw the world. Things were one way or they were the other. The middle ground didn’t hold a lot of weight with him. Someone had f*cked up his brother and so he needed to go f*ck up whoever was responsible. It was tough to reason with someone who was so resolute.

Creed was playing when I got home. He continued while I sat on the couch and watched him. The apartment seemed to be otherwise empty.

“Where are our roommates?” I asked when he took a break.

“Looking at houses,” he said, tightening a string on his guitar.

I knew there was a scowl on my face and there shouldn’t be. Cord and Saylor were starting a family for god’s sake. It’d be tough to raise a couple of kids in a noisy apartment smack in the middle of a party town. They were hoping to find a small house to rent by the holidays, to give them plenty of time to get settled before the babies arrived in the spring. I was being selfish, wanting to keep my brothers close and fearing that things were changing too much.

“Have you thought about it?” I asked Creed. “What we’re going to do with this place? I mean, I guess we can cover the rent between the two of us but the lease is up next month anyway.”

“Yeah,” Creed said slowly. He put the guitar down and leaned forward. “Truly and I have been talking.”

I tensed. If he was going to lay into me about Stephanie again then we were going to have a problem. That wasn’t what he meant though.

Creed cleared his throat and continued. “We were tossing around the idea of getting our own place.” He looked around and let out a deep breath. “It’d be nice to get a little further away from all the drunk college kids. There’s a lot to choose from on the south side of town.”

The possibility had never occurred to me. Then I felt supremely stupid because it had never occurred to me.

“Damn,” I whispered, because I was so surprised I couldn’t say anything else.

Creed thought I was upset and he quickly sat beside me on the couch.

“I’m not talking about leaving you out, man. There’ll be a place for you wherever I’m at.” He patted me awkwardly on the shoulder. “You know that.”

“I’m not your responsibility,” I said, a little too sharply. “I can do just fine on my own.”

I figured Creed would issue some kind of harsh retort to the contrary but he didn’t. He kept his eyes on me and nodded eagerly. “I know you can. You can do anything, Chase, anything you set your mind to.”