Melt (Steel Brothers Saga 4)

“Oh, yeah? You have money you want to throw my way?”

“I don’t have any money. Not that I’d give it to you if I had it. But I do need some information.”

“I told you. I’m not naming the others.”

Bryce shook his head. “I get that. But I want to know something else. I want you to tell me what happened to my cousin. Luke Walker.”

My heart thrummed against my sternum. If Larry told Bryce… I should have seen this coming. I had to be the one to tell Bryce about Luke, not this degenerate. I should have told him before we came. Instead, I’d taken the easy way out, putting off the unpleasant—hell, unpleasant was stating it mildly—until later. One thing was for sure. I couldn’t let Larry tell him. I opened my mouth to put an end to Bryce’s question, but Larry spoke first, his eyes wide.

“Come again?”

“You heard what I said. What happened to my cousin?”

Larry erupted in laughter. Evil laughter. “Steel, you haven’t told him?”

Bryce, still standing, turned and looked down at me. “What’s he talking about, Joe?”

Why hadn’t it occurred to me that Bryce might ask Larry about Luke? It should have. Definitely not my finest moment. I’d been desperate for someone to accompany me, and I hadn’t been able to ask either of my brothers for obvious reasons. And Bryce had offered…

I opened my mouth to speak, but Larry beat me to it.

“I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of what happened to your cousin,” he said. “And neither does Jonah here. There’s only one person you know who can tell you for sure what happened.” He cocked his head. “Actually, there are two people.”

One was Talon. Who was the other he was talking about? Who else would be able to tell Bryce? The only other people who knew were—

The other two abductors.

Was Larry insinuating that Bryce might know one of them?

I stood and addressed the guard. “Get this piece of shit out of my sight.”

“What was he talking about, Joe?” Bryce asked after the guard had led Larry away. “What happened to Luke?”

I didn’t relish this moment. How exactly was I supposed to tell my oldest friend in the world that his cousin had been killed, chopped into pieces, and stuffed inside a garbage bag?

“Let’s find a bar and get a drink,” I said, nearly choking. “And I’ll tell you everything.”

“How could you keep this from me?” Bryce took a long drink of his beer. “I thought we were friends, Joe.”

“We are friends. I only just found out about this a couple weeks ago myself. What would you have done in my place? I haven’t seen you in years, and first thing I tell you is that your cousin was chopped up while my brother was forced to watch?”

“Why did you want me to go see Larry with you? Surely you knew I’d ask about Luke.”

I sighed. “I probably did know in the back of my mind. I just wanted the company. And you do have a stake in this as well. Luke was your cousin.”

Bryce shook his head. “Damn,” he said. “Twenty-five years. I haven’t given this a thought in…over a decade at least. So now, all of a sudden, why is it so damned raw?”

I didn’t know how to answer my friend. Yes, twenty-five years had passed, and it had been raw for me the whole time. Bryce didn’t know how lucky he was. “It’s raw because it’s heinous. It’s unthinkable. Inhumane. Unbelievable that people like those three exist in the world. I wish I knew what to tell you. But just remember that it was twenty-five years ago. Luke is long gone. He was dead before they took Talon.”

Bryce finished his beer and signaled the waitress. “You want another?” he asked me.

“No.” Beer wasn’t my drink, and I was nursing the martini I’d ordered. “Look, I was going to tell you. I just didn’t know how.”

He nodded. “I understand, man. Not exactly news anyone wants to reveal.”

He was taking this better than I expected, and for that I was very grateful.

“I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you before