Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(50)

Cord didn’t say anything of the kind though. He said something else.

“I’m dealing with this shit. All right? I’m taking the fight.”

I looked at him. He meant it. Gabe had been itching for Cord to take my place since he was the more proven fighter. If Cord had called Gabe already…

“No f*cking way,” I said, standing. “You are not taking the fight. I will break your goddamn leg if I have to.”

He smiled a little grimly. “You would, wouldn’t you?”

“You’re damn right I would. And when I’m done I’ll hold you down and let Saylor break the other one if that’s what it takes to keep you home.”

His head dropped at the mention of Saylor’s name.

“Cord,” I said softly, sitting down again, “you didn’t already volunteer, right? Tell me you f*cking didn’t.”

He didn’t look up. “I f*cking didn’t.”

I relaxed a little. “I can do this. You should see this guy. Who the hell wants to root for a crazy-eyed racist?”

Cord’s eyes found me then. They were haunted. “I’ve got some money saved.”

I shrugged. “So? You planning on placing a bet?”

“No. I’m giving it to you. You could clear out of here for a while until all this blows over.”

He didn’t understand the stakes, not like I did. I hated to crush the note of hope in his voice. “Won’t work. Gabe will just come after you guys.”

Cord snorted with scorn. “Yeah okay, let him. I’m pretty sure I could take that shithead down with one tap.”

“He won’t come himself, Cordero. He’ll send someone else.”

My brother sighed. He looked around the apartment. “Then we’ll all go. You guys always wanted to get out of Arizona anyway. Might be nice. Fresh start and all. There’s no way you can convince me Gabe Hernandez has a multi-state reach.”

“No,” I muttered. “He doesn’t.”

Cord began to look encouraged. He started talking about moving somewhere by the water. When we were kids we always dreamed that someday we would get to live close to water.

I listened to him for a minute and then had to cut him off. “No. Chase finally got himself in school. He also has a few issues he needs help with. And then there’s the question about what to do for cash. You’re finally on the path to something good. Took us a while to even get this far and if you look around you’ll notice this isn’t really that far.”

Cord waved a hand. “Chase would be fine. We’d take care of him. Get him clean, get him back in school. As for jobs, we’d find something.”

I hesitated. There was something else that I needed to bring up. “Heard Saylor in the bathroom several times this week.”

Cord tensed. He looked away. He knew what I was getting at.

“Would be tough,” I said slowly, “being on the run with a pregnant girl. And then what the hell would you do once the baby’s born?”

He still didn’t look at me.

“Unless,” I continued, “you’re planning on leaving her behind.”

“NO!” he shouted.

I nodded. “Good. I didn’t think you would. And frankly I’ve got something right here I’m not so ready to walk out on.”

He was stunned. “Truly?”

I laughed. “Don’t look so shocked. I do have a heart you know.”

Cord blinked. He bit his lip in the way he used to do as a kid when he was getting the shit kicked out of him and trying not to bawl about it. “I know you have a heart, Creedence. You always have.” I heard the pain in his voice and it killed me. “I couldn’t f*cking take being without it. Can’t lose you, man.”

“You won’t,” I said coolly. I was trying to give him a measure of confidence that I wasn’t sure I felt myself. “Hey, I’ve got some incentive, right? There’s a little tadpole just waiting for me to play uncle.” I thought about that, surprised at how much the idea warmed something deep in my chest. "I’ll be a damn good uncle.”

“I believe it,” answered Cord. His face lost its look of tragedy and he smiled a little.

I checked the time. “Don’t you have to get going to work? That ink won’t paint itself.”

“Today it’s gonna have to because I’m spending the day with my brother.”

“Well then,” I stretched, “what’ll we do?”

Cord dragged me to the gym and was no nonsense about it. We didn’t go to the place by campus where Chase had been attacked several months earlier. The one we went to was three miles away. It was older, grubbier, and filled with more rough characters than a Gentry family reunion. It suited us better.

“Don’t step, Creed. That’s your f*cking problem. You take a big step before you swing and you advertise exactly where you’re going. Don’t give out hints for free.”

I was sweating hard. We both were. We went round and round in an endless battle that wasn’t meant to have a winner. When Cord came at me I had the surreal feeling I was fighting myself.

After we’d gone around like that for more than an hour we took a break on the mats. Cord draped his shirt around his neck and swallowed a bottle of water. Sometimes when I sat quietly beside one or both of the boys, my mind played weird tricks on me. I was flooded with memories that began before I understood what memories were, before I understood anything at all.