Fortunately, Lenny knew Gray. His glance was faster and he had a hand in Gray’s chest by the time Gray’s gaze cut back to Casey, his body leaned forward in preparation for launching another attack and his rage filled the room.
Gene edged closer to help Lenny control the situation and Barry’s arms got tighter so I didn’t do anything stupid.
“Keep your shit, Gray,” Lenny growled, arm up but now his weight was in it.
Gray continued staring at Casey.
“Gray, son, listen to me. Keep…your…shit,” Lenny repeated with variation and additions.
For a scary second, Gray continued staring at my brother then he pulled in a deep, audible breath, his rage saturating the room eased and he took a step back.
Lenny dropped his arm.
Then he looked at Casey. “You thinkin’ clearly enough to hear what the witness said?”
Casey was bleeding from the lip, nose and a cut by the side of his already swelling eye but he was also back in the room and I knew this because he was scowling at Lenny.
He didn’t reply.
“It go down like that?” Lenny asked.
Casey continued scowling.
“It went down like that,” Janie chimed in from behind me.
“Exactly like that,” Gene confirmed.
“Yeah, just like that,” Barry, still holding me in his arms, threw in.
Lenny looked at each of them then back to Casey.
“Now, I can take you in for disturbin’ the peace, assaulting your sister and scrappin’ with Gray. This means I gotta also take Gray in. I’m seein’ you probably like that idea but Gray’s got no priors, he’s got no outstanding warrants, he’s got family local who’ll look out for him and he’s got a certain reputation so a judge will probably not go hard on him. You, I don’t know. You, I figure need to think smart right about now about how you wanna play this. Usually, I don’t mind arresting people. It breaks up my night. Tonight, I’m not feelin’ it. So you lucked out you play it smart and get your ass outta this bar. But my kindness comes with conditions. When I say get your ass outta this bar, I mean get your ass outta my town and while you’re at it, outta my county. You feel like communicatin’ with your sister who clearly has the urge to share her pretty face with the folk of Mustang for a spell, you send a greeting card. Are you reading me, son?”
Casey glared at Lenny then he shifted his glare to me.
Then he whispered, “I gave it all for you.”
That went in like the plunge of a blade but not for the reasons it used to.
And because of that, I returned, “And then I started giving it all for you. Difference is, I was twelve, Casey. I had no one else and I needed you. When I started giving, you were twenty and you just took it from me.”
My brother had it in him to wince before he kept at me.
“You’re all I’ve got.”
“I’m sorry, honey, but you aren’t all I have. Not anymore,” I replied quietly.
On my last word, Barry’s arms moved from around me and Gray’s arms took their place.
Casey’s eyes went up over my left shoulder then his face twisted and they came back to me.
“Did what I did because I loved you, sis.”
I knew that. Way back when, I knew it. Casey was everything to me and I was everything to him. Before we ran, we had a Mom who was less than nothing and we had a lot of troubles and a whole lot of nothing else.
All we had was each other.
But now that had changed.
“Then keep loving me and let me keep what I found,” I whispered.
I watched him swallow.
Gray’s arms got tight.
My eyes filled with tears.
Without another word, looking down to his feet, my brother turned away and walked out of the bar.
I knew he had no money, no skills, nothing.
I had no idea where he’d go, what he’d do, how he’d get there and how much trouble he’d catch when he landed wherever he landed.
And it killed me.
But one thing my brother Casey taught me was to look out for myself.
So the tears slid silently out of my eyes, down my cheeks and Gray turned me in his arms to face him. My arms closed around him, I shoved my face in his chest and I concentrated on that rather than running after my brother and giving him all of my money just to keep him safe for a little while.
Instead, for the first time since I was fifteen, I didn’t look out for my brother.
I cried in Gray’s arms and looked out for me.
* * * * *
“Dollface, know you’re awake.”
I blinked at the pillow, sighed and turned to face Gray.
He looked beautiful in the sunlight, in the moonlight, in the lights of the bar, in the light thrown from a TV.
But he never looked more beautiful than in the morning with his head on a pillow beside me.