Havoc Read online

“I can be, do you need a hug?” I ask her softly.

  Her bottom lip trembles and I can hear her sniffle, trying to keep it in. “Yes, yes I do.”

  I throw my arms around her, holding her as her shoulders shake against me, as she sobs. Desperately I want to know what’s happened, I want to make sure the person under that tarp isn’t Caleb, but I’m scared to ask the question. “It isn’t Caleb,” she finally says.

  “Thank God,” I breathe out. “I was worried.”

  “Me too,” she nods, pulling back as she wipes her hands over her face. “When we got the call, I knew this was the type of thing he’d be at, at his age. I didn’t expect what we found.”

  Looking around again, I try to figure out where all the blood came from. I don’t see anyone with a weapon, or one that’s been discarded. Trevor and Holden are walking toward us, each wearing their vests with their badges proudly displayed. MTF in yellow letters glow in the darkness of the night as they approach.

  “I need your help, Leigh,” Holden tells me when they come to a stop in front of us.

  “My help?” Now I’m really confused. How in the world am I going to be able to help with this? But I know without a doubt I’ll do anything for this man. Putting my hands in the back pockets of my jeans, I rock back on my feet. “Whatever you need, you know I’ll give you.”

  He’s carrying a bag, and he pulls a jug out of it, showing it to me. “Is this your family’s?”

  I examine the jug. Ours don’t proclaim them to be ours in many ways. They’re usually clear glass, without what looks to be any identifying marks, but they’re there. You just have to know where to look for them. I flip it over, looking for the etching. I gasp when I find what I’m looking for, my eyes meeting Holden’s. “Did they drink this?”

  “Yeah.” He nods, his face grim as his eyes search mine.

  “Oh my God.” Immediately tears come to my eyes and I curse my dad. “What the fuck was he thinking?”

  “Tell me what it means, baby girl.” His tone is light, like he’s scared I’m going to leave. Honestly, there’s a loving lilt to it that I’m not sure I deserve.

  My hands shake as I bring it over to him. “This right here,” I show him one of the markings, “says it’s our brand, our batch.” My voice is low and I clear my throat as I try to get out the rest of the words. God this hurts to know my family doesn’t care a thing about the people’s lives they destroy, about the kid they killed here tonight. “This marking,” I close my eyes and let the tears fall, “says it’s a bad batch.”

  “So what are we dealing with?” Tank asks quietly.

  “More than likely Methanol Poisoning.”

  “Fucking son of a bitch,” Tank fumes from where he stands beside of me. “So they knew it was a bad batch, and gave it out anyway.”

  I nod. “Probably at a discount, so these kids thought they were going to get wasted for less money than they can go buy a keg for. They had no idea, they couldn’t have.” Immediately a thought occurs to me. “Oh my God! Did Caleb drink any of this?”

  “No.” Holden puts his arms around me, bringing me into his chest. “No, Caleb stuck to beer and called us when things started getting out of hand.”

  Blaze joins us as Tank quietly tells her what I’ve told him. “Explains why they were puking up so much blood,” she sighs. “As young and small as they are, as much as they normally drink, it probably ate through their stomach lining.”

  “One of the reasons the old-timers call it rotgut,” Holden curses as he rubs a hand over my hair. “You didn’t do this, you know.”

  “But I didn’t stop it, either,” I fire back. “When is enough, enough for them? You’ve gotta arrest him.”

  Holden’s eyes flash. “I arrest him, he knows you told me. You’re already on their radar for telling me what you did at the Founder’s Festival. You know that, right?”

  “What’s my life for that kid over there?” I point to the stretcher with the tarp still covering it.

  His eyes are hard when they meet mine this time. “You are my life. We will figure this out.” The promise is there in his voice, and I have to wonder what he’s willing to do to protect me and keep me with him forever. At some point my family has to pay for what they’ve done, and I don’t know how much longer I can sit by and watch lives get destroyed while I live the happiest one I’ve ever known. Glancing around, I see Caleb, and I know I have to go to him.

  “How are you doing?” I ask quietly as I approach Caleb. He’s sitting off to the side, watching the guys work, taking in the cleanup the paramedics are doing. I’ve watched him for what feels like hours, but I know it’s been less than that. His eyes are glazed over, and his stare is remote.

  “How the fuck you think I’m doing, Leighton?”

  I’m taken aback by the harsh tone of his voice. He’s never spoken to me like this. In the moment, he’s more of an adult than he’s ever been. What I’m seeing is the man he’s going to turn into, and I’m scared at the rage and anger in his eyes. “It’s okay to be upset.”

  “Upset? The kid over there on that stretcher with a tarp over his body? He was my teammate. He was the first person to come up to me at my first practice and introduce himself. He let me eat with him at lunch for a week until I made new friends. He never made me feel like the new kid, even though he was a senior. He was a good guy, had a scholarship to go play in the fall, and now look at him. He’s got nothing.” There are tears leaking out of his eyes, and I want to give him comfort.

  Instinctively I know it’s not something he gets most of the time. We’ve both lived without mothers, there’s something about the way they take you into their arms and hold you close, neither one of us have had. “Do you want me to go get your dad?”

  “No,” he sobs. “I don’t want him to see me like this, he’s working. God, I wish I’d never have fuckin’ called him. But I got scared when they started puking blood. I knew something was wrong.” He wipes his nose on his arm. “Dad screamed at me over the phone, asked what I thought I was doing. I tried to tell him, being normal for once. Not worrying about being the good kid, blowing off a little steam.” He puts his face in his hands. “I met a girl out here,” he shares with me.

  “Is she one you like?” I try to get his mind on something else besides the blue tarp.

  “I’ve been trying to get her to talk to me for months. She texted me this address and asked me to come out. She and I stuck to beer,” he reveals his actions. “Because neither one of us likes to get fucked up. We were behind the barn, she was on her knees giving me a blow job while my friend over there was dying.”

  I’m speechless. Beyond speechless at what he’s telling me.

  “I was getting off, while he was dying,” his voice breaks as he continues to sob. I can’t take it anymore as I pull him into my arms, holding him tightly against me.

  “It’s okay, Caleb. It’s okay.”

  He doesn’t say anything as he buries his face in my neck, his shoulders shaking. I can’t hold back the tears either, as I rub his back, hoping to offer him a little bit of comfort for this shitty situation. Across the field, my eyes meet both Holden’s and Mason’s. Both of their faces are wrecked, their eyes haunted, and I wonder how this community is ever going to come back from this. How is Caleb ever going to get over this? I know he will, we all figure out how to move past the pain of circumstances in our lives, but this is something I never would have wished on my worst enemy.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Havoc

  “When does this end?” she questions as we lie in bed a few days later. I’ve had to report my findings to the state, and while I want to keep her name out of it, I have to figure out a way to do so. We haven’t come this damn far in our relationship for me to have to lose her over something like this. “When are we allowed to be happy?”

  “We are happy,” I remind her, pushing her hair out of her face as she leans against my chest. “It’s the other bullshit we could do without. The outside influences, a
nd the people who want to make things difficult for us.”

  “My dad,” she sighs. “It’s always going to come back to him. He’ll always want me under his thumb, under his control. Until he’s out of the equation, we’ll never be able to let our guard down, Holden.”

  I know she speaks the truth, but I have a plan. One I happen to think is foolproof and will get this bastard away from us for the rest of not only our lives, but his as well. I’m scared to tell her, afraid that she may still have some loyalty to him. I mean, it’s her dad, how could she not? Not to mention I don’t want her caught in the middle of this. She’s been caught in the middle of too much in her life. This is one thing I want her to be out of.

  “We’ll get through this,” I promise. “I’m working on a way to take your dad down without your name being mentioned.”

  “How are you going to do that? I’m the one that pointed the finger. I identified the moonshine. When you arrest him it’ll be because of me.”

  “You let me worry about it. I’m telling you, I’ve got this.”

  She looks like she doesn’t want to believe me, and honestly, that’s okay. I’ll prove it to her, my plan will work. It has to, because I refuse to live my life without her in it. We’ve come too far, and she means too damn much to me.

  “Go to sleep.” I kiss her nose. “Tomorrow is a new day, and we never know what it’s going to bring.”

  She giggles. “Sometimes you’re so corny, Holden.”

  “It’s my old man coming out.”

  “I happen to love that old man,” she whispers as she snuggles in next to me.

  As I hold her tonight, I hold her with strength and with a hope I haven’t had before. A hope we can get out from under this shadow. We have a chance, and I’d be dumb not to take it.

  * * *

  Coming to the state pen isn’t my idea of a good time. It especially isn’t on my day off when I could be spending it with my wife, but I’m here for a reason today.

  “We’ll go get him for you, Havoc,” the officer working the front desk tells me as I show him the paperwork I have which allows me to talk to a prisoner.

  “Can you tell me what room we’re going to be in? I want to be there when he comes in.”

  He points to a room two doors down the hallway on the right. I’m nervous as I go in. Which is odd. Not many things in this life make me nervous, but this means more to me than most things in my life do. As I hear the clangs, beeps, and bangs that signify they’re releasing the prisoner into the room, I sit up straight and look ahead. When the door opens, the person throws their head back and laughs.

  “Holden Thompson, what the fuck are you doing here?”

  Holding out my hand, I indicate the seat in front of me. “Have a seat, Brooks. We have a few things to talk about.”

  “We don’t have shit to talk about,” he shakes his head.

  “That’s where you’re wrong – we do.”

  There’s a battle of wills that ensues between the two of us. We stare one another down, and I can see Brooks trying to piece together why I’m here. I know Leigh’s come to see him before, but I’ve never stepped foot in here to see him. As far as I know, no one else besides her has either.

  “You’ve got five minutes before I ask them to take me back to my cell.”

  “Five minutes is all I need.” I have a bag at my feet, but I won’t put it on the table until I’m ready. “Do you love Leighton?”

  “What the fuck kinda question is that? She’s my sister. Of course I love her.”

  “Then I need you to listen to me closely. I need you to man up and be the person you should have been for her, her whole life. I need you to stop being selfish, and I need you to want to be a better person. Want something else for yourself, want something else for her. If she and I have kids, I want you to be able to see them as babies, and not in here like this.”

  “What’s your fuckin’ point?” he interrupts me.

  I lean forward, so we can look each other straight in the face. “I can get your time reduced.”

  “What do you want from me? That shit doesn’t come for free.”

  Now I seem to have his attention. “Leighton clued me in to something, and I know you can clue me in, too. I need someone to testify for the DA and it’s sure as fuck not going to be my wife. She’s not going to have that bull’s eye on her back. I want you to share some knowledge with me. And if you do, I’ll make sure you’re out of here in two years tops. Trevor Trumbolt agrees with this. You being honest with us will get a lot more off the street than just your dad; it’ll shut down the entire Strather operation.”

  “What about my grandfather?”

  I know he asks this question because he’s worried about the old man. But Merle is stubborn – he’ll hold on to the old ways until he’s dead and buried.

  “He’s not up to me. And he’s not up to you. He’s picked the life he’s wanted to live for the past seventy-five plus years, Brooks. You have your whole life ahead of you, and so does Leighton. Want to live it? Help me.”

  I let my speech sink in and hope Brooks has some common sense left in his head. “I know you hate it in here, I hear things. Let me help you, by helping me.”

  Eventually I see him close his eyes, mouth the word fuck. And I know I have him.

  “What can I do?”

  It’s the most grown-up question he’s ever asked, and believe me, I know what it cost him to ask. Reaching over, I pull the jug out of the bag and set it on the table. “Two things – how do I know who’s that is and what batch it is.”

  Watching as he flipped it over the same way Leighton did, I see the minute he recognizes what he has in his hands.

  “Did he sell this?”

  “Yeah,” the laugh I left out is harsh and dark, “to a bunch of high school kids having a field party. Two are still in the hospital, one is dead, and a class of incoming seniors won’t be graduating with someone they’ve been going to school with since kindergarten. It’s a fucked-up situation that could have been prevented had your dad not sold a bad batch.” I lean forward. “I want him on this, but I don’t want it to come back to Leighton. You feel me?”

  He knows as well as I do how much trouble she would be in, how big of a betrayal it would be if anyone knew she talked to me.

  “For one time in your life, Brooks, do the right thing and protect her. She’s spent her whole life trying to protect you. You do this, and I promise I’ll get you out of here; I’ll help you when you get home, and I’ll show you that you can change. This doesn’t end you, man. Lots of people come back from shitty situations, but help me put an end to Jefferson.”

  “It’s this.” He points to the two etchings Leighton showed me. “This one means it’s the Strather brand, and this one means it was a bad batch. We mark it so we don’t get them mixed up. Because of the methanol they have to be dumped. And we don’t want to dump good batches.”

  “He knew exactly what he was doing?”

  “Exactly what he was doing,” he confirms. “He didn’t want to waste any money. Times must be hard.”

  “Yeah, I imagine they are.”

  I can’t help the feeling of triumph I get from knowing I’ve made it hard on them. Good. They’ve ruined everyone’s lives they’ve touched. Including the one sitting in front of me and the one who sleeps in my bed every night.

  “I’m gonna take them down, Brooks.”

  For the first time, the kid looks like a man to me, with the harsh set of his jaw, the growth of beard on his face, and the experience in his eyes.

  “I know, and I’m glad to have helped you. Now don’t fuck me over.”

  I put my hand out to his for a shake. “I’ll send the DA here with the deal and to talk to you about testifying. Please don’t share this with Leighton if she comes to see you. I don’t want her to know until it’s done. I don’t want her in danger. Right now I’m going to get the warrant to take your daddy down.”

  He nods and gets up, his shackles clanging as h
e makes his way back to where he’s been destined to live for now. But he helped me, and I’ll gladly help him. Tapping my knuckles on the table, I get up with a spring in my step.

  I’ve promised Jefferson that I will rain down hell, and that’s exactly what I’m about to do.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Leighton

  “Did you hear about the barn party?” I ask Brooks as we sit in the same room we occupied the first time I came here.

  “Yeah.” His voice is devoid of emotion. “It was Dad, wasn’t it?”

  I nod, I can’t put it into words. Not here, not now, not when I feel like I’m failing everyone by not being able to put the man who raised me behind bars. That’s mostly Holden’s doing though, and not mine. He doesn’t want me involved, but I don’t see how he’s going to prevent it.

  “It’s not our fault,” Brooks’ voice is strong in his conviction. “I’ve done a lot of things that are my fault, and a ton of shit I’m not proud of, but this, Lee Lee, isn’t us. It’s time Dad takes responsibility for the lives he’s wrecked, just like I have.”

  The phrase is jarring coming from him, and I realize he’s right.

  “It’s not going to be easy.” I push my hair back behind my ears, in a gesture that’s more nerves than anything.

  “Nothing we’ve ever done is,” he reminds me. “But I suggest you listen to your husband.”

  My head snaps up. “Have you talked to Holden?”

  “All I’m telling you is let him handle it. We’re going to see the light at the end of this tunnel. Both of us are.” He stops, twisting his fingers together. “Holden’s a decent guy, and I’m glad he’s taking care of you when I can’t.”

  “He’s the best guy,” I amend.

  Brooks smiles at me, looking younger than he did the last time I was here. “And you deserve nothing but the best.”

  * * *

  As I pull my car into the driveway, I see that Holden’s not home yet, and it makes me a little sad. I’ve counted on him more lately than I ever have. He’s been a rock for me, and we’ve been closer since the barn party. Caleb’s having a rough time, but we’re talking, and I know he’s going to pull through this.