Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Dare strode up to the room number Annabelle had given him and knocked once.
“Who is it?” a muffled male voice asked.
“Management,” he muttered back.
The door yanked open. “I told you I’d get you your money soon.”
Dare slammed his foot in the entry before Brian could react and pushed the door open with his hand. “How are you going to do that when you can’t even pay your gambling debts?” Dare shoved his way inside, ignoring McKnight’s grumbling and cursing under his breath.
Dare didn’t know what smelled worse, the man or the room. Empty liquor bottles, food wrappers, and an empty pizza box littered the floor and night tables.
“What do you want?” Brian asked.
To get the hell out of here, Dare thought. “We need to talk.”
Dare took in McKnight’s bloodshot eyes, his overgrown beard, messy hair, and wrinkled clothes. With a shake of his head, he made a decision. “First, we’re going to sober you up.”
Brian scowled. “I’m not drunk. I haven’t been in days. I’ve just got a low-level buzz going.”
Dare raised an eyebrow.
“Because I’m nearly out of alcohol,” Brian said before Dare could even ask why. “I have no money to buy more, and I need to ration what I have left. If I keep a buzz on, I won’t go out looking to gamble with what little I might still own.”
Dare blinked, surprised at the other man’s honesty. He glanced around the disgusting room once more. “Go shower. We’ll talk after.” He pointed at the bathroom and waited for the argument.
Instead, Brian passively walked into the bathroom and shut the door. A few seconds later, he heard the water turn on.
Dare took advantage of the time alone, grabbing the plastic garbage pail and going around the room, tossing the trash and wrappers. When he found a half-eaten fish sandwich, he figured it was the source of the worst of the odor and deposited the pail outside the room. Back inside, he opened a window, then pulled out a chair and settled in to wait.
Brian emerged fifteen minutes later, a towel wrapped around his waist.
Dare cocked an eyebrow.
“I don’t have a change of clothes,” he muttered.
Dare shook his head and groaned. “I have a pair of sweatpants and a shirt in my truck for after softball. Hang on.”
When he returned, Brian dressed and sat down on the bed, looking marginally better but at least smelling clean. “Why are you here?” he asked.
“I’ve been asking that myself. The easy answer is because I love your sister.”
But that wouldn’t be the whole truth and damned if Dare wasn’t all about honesty at the moment. He wanted peace from his past, and that meant dealing with this bastard.
“The harder answer is I’m here for me. We have unfinished business.” Dare stared at Brian from his seat across the small room.
Brian hadn’t looked him in the eye since he’d arrived. Hadn’t reacted to his pronouncement about being in love with Liza. Obviously, he was wrapped up in his own misery.
“You here to give me more shit like you do at the station?” Brian asked.
“Oddly, no. I want to talk about the party.”
Brian wrinkled his forehead. “What party? I know I have blackouts, but—”
Dare stared at the man in shock. For over a decade, the word party had only meant one thing in Dare’s mind. The night he couldn’t forget. “The one you threw when you were in high school? When Stuart Rossman died?”
Brian winced. “I don’t like to remember that night,” he muttered. “What’s it to you?”
He didn’t know, Dare thought. Brian had no idea Dare had been there that day. “I was there.” The admission almost stuck in his throat. “I saw everything…and I did nothing.”
Pain and humiliation rushed through him with the force of a hurricane. “And I’ve been living with the guilt of that day ever since.”
“And you think I haven’t?” Brian rose and began to pace like a cornered animal, back and forth between the bed and the wall. “I’ve spent every day since running from what I did. What my parents covered up.”
“You let them,” Dare reminded him, unsure where all the anger he’d expected to feel had gone. Instead, he looked at this broken shell of a man and felt something closer to…pity.
Brian didn’t reply.
“That escape you’ve been looking for? Did you find it in the bottle?” Dare couldn’t help but ask.
Brian looked up, his eyes bleak, as he shook his head.
“How about the gambling? Or stealing from the firm your sister works so hard for?”
Stunned. That was the only word Dare could find for the expression on Brian’s face. “Liza knows?” he asked, horrified.
Dare nodded. “And she loves you anyway. Go figure.”
Brian lowered himself onto the bed, his entire body shaking. “It’s bad enough she knows I owe Mikey Biggs that money, and he went to her for it—”