Skirt Steak (Grade-A Beefcakes 5)

??d done this once before. Last year, Tommy had taken my mother’s silver tea set in and pawned it. I’d discovered it missing when I’d been cleaning. I’d confronted Tommy about what he’d done and raced to the pawn shop in the hopes of getting it back. Fortunately, there wasn’t a big rush for tea sets, and it had still been in a display case. He’d been kind and sold it back to me at the amount he’d given Tommy. I had it hidden away now in the linen closet behind the sheets. It wasn’t like Tommy ever changed his, or slept on them anymore.

While my twenty-year-old brother still technically lived with me in the house we’d grown up in, I rarely saw him. He’d never had any ambition to go to college. Hell, he’d barely finished high school. He had zero work ethic and held a minimum wage job with a now-familiar irregularity. Most of his time was spent at the casino off the highway. I had no idea where he slept at night.

“Thank you,” I told the pawnbroker. I was thankful.

My anger morphed into sadness. Yes, the brooch meant something to me. Besides the house and the ancient car I drove, there wasn’t much that had belonged to my mother and held sentimental value. I’d had to sell quite a bit to pay for her funeral expenses, and I loved that brooch.

I cleared my throat, but couldn’t say anything yet.

“I’ll sit it in the back,” he continued. “If you want to come in, you can have it for what I gave your brother. Fifty dollars.”

Fifty dollars. Tommy was giving away one of the last pieces of our mother for a measly fifty dollars. To do what? Gamble it away at the casino. The money was probably already gone on a hand of blackjack or the spin of the roulette wheel.

“Yes, I’d love it if you’d hold it for me. I can come in tomorrow.” I didn’t have extra cash before payday, especially for something like this, but I could take it out of the food budget. It seemed it would be PB&J until next Friday.

I thanked him and ended the call, tossed the cell back in my bag.

I looked up at Liam and Porter. “I’ve got to go.”

Liam frowned. “Stay. Talk to us. Whatever’s going on with your brother, we want to hear about it. We want to help.”

God, he was so sweet. They were so sweet. But this was my problem, my brother. I’d been through this before. Again and again. I couldn’t drag them down into this. I knew I wasn’t going to be good company, not after that call. It wasn’t fair to either of them to ruin their Friday night.

I shook my head, stood. They rose to their feet, too. “You stay. Eat. I’m not in the mood now for company.”

“You said he pawned some things but can get them back?”

I nodded, knowing they’d only heard half the conversation, but had recapped it pretty well.

“You’re not thinking of going to a pawnshop by yourself, tonight?” Liam asked, putting his hands on his hips. He’d come right from work and wore his uniform shirt. The star on his chest caught the restaurant lighting and reminded me this was Sheriff Hogan asking me this, not just Liam, the man. Both sides of him were ruthlessly protective.

“No, of course not.” Tomorrow, I would. It was in Clayton, Montana, not some rundown part of a big city. I’d be fine.

“You’re not going to go searching for Tommy?” he added, clearly worried I was going to go off by myself to shady places.

I shook my head. I had no idea where to start with that. He could be anywhere from the casino on the reservation to any bar—besides Cassidy’s—in the county, to some low-life’s house where he was crashing these days. I was upset, but I wasn’t stupid. “I’m going home.”

“Sweetness—”

I knew Porter was going to try and talk me out of it, so I lifted my hand, cutting him off. I had to go before I cried. I hadn’t cried in years… all the tears had dried up when Mom died, but looking at them, seeing the concern on their faces, made a lump form in my throat. I’d held it together for so long on my own, I wasn’t sure if I could handle them right now. I’d fall apart, I knew it. And what then? They’d want me even less. What guy wanted a needy woman?

No, I’d go home, hope Tommy was there, but since I hadn’t seen him in two weeks, I highly doubted it. I’d call him, text him, get him to respond. Yell at him. Then get the tub of ice cream out of the fridge and read a book and try to forget.

“Please. I’ll… I’ll see you both soon.”

I avoided looking at them as I grabbed my coat and purse and fled, knowing Tommy had ruined everything.

Me: OMG. How could you? That was Mom’s pin!

* * *

I texted that to Tommy from the car. When I had no response by the time I got home, I tugged on my flannel pajamas and thick socks, texted him again.

* * *

Me: Where are you? Come home so we can talk.

* * *