My heart sank and I paused in the foyer of the house. No one in Orono called me Cat. If something had happened to Tiffany I didn’t know what I would do. I swallowed hard. “Yes. Who is this?”
“I’m Kerri, Brian’s girlfriend?”
She posed it like a question, requesting confirmation that I knew of her existence, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. It wasn’t someone calling with horrible news about Tiffany. But then I did stop to wonder why the hell my brother’s girlfriend would call me. Maybe she was calling with terrible news, not about Tiffany, but about Brian. “Oh, hi. How are you?” It was an inane thing to say, but I was caught off guard, and a tiny bit of fear crept back in. I might despise my brother most of the time, but I didn’t want anything horrible to happen to him.
I pulled the front door open.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but Brian is having, um, a problem tonight.”
“What do you mean?” So he was alive. That was a relief. Annoyance replaced fear.
“He’s drunk and he’s angry. I locked myself in the bedroom, but I was hoping maybe you could come and calm him down.”
Wonderful. I sighed. “If you’re locked in the bedroom, maybe you should call the cops. Has he hurt you before?”
“No! Of course not. He just you know, like throws things sometimes. But never at me.”
I started down the sidewalk. “Look, Kerri, I’m the last person who is going to be able to calm him down. I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your attention that he and I don’t speak to each other.”
“But… he’s ranting about you tonight. That’s why I thought maybe…” Her voice trailed off and she sounded timid, defeated.
I didn’t want it to be my business, but he was still my brother whether I liked it or not. “About me? Why, what is he saying?” I felt sorry for Kerri. Brian was a complete and total dick when he drank. Actually, he was a dick the majority of the time.
“Something about money and the house and someone named Heath.”
Hold up. “He is talking about Heath?” I had actually managed to successfully ignore what Ethan had said, that Brian went up to the Tavern and Heath gave him drinks.
The last few days had been amazing with Heath and I hadn’t worried or wondered or doubted. I had been too busy enjoying being with him, in love. He was at work, it being a Friday night, but I was going back to his place after shopping and he would be home later to wake me up in a way I could never get used to, but found intensely sexy, romantic. “What about Heath?” I asked Kerri.
“That Heath played him and he’s going to kill him.”
That changed my plans. “Where do you and Brian live? I’ll come over. But if he gets violent with me I’m calling the cops.” After I slapped him. I had to admit I’d always wanted to do that. I’d fantasized about it after the scene at my father’s funeral, and I hadn’t even felt guilty for wanting to do it. I wouldn’t now either, not if he was trash talking my boyfriend for no reason.
It was Brian’s fault that Heath had left me four years earlier. Whatever Heath had done, and I doubted he had done anything, couldn’t be as awful and evil as Brian’s phone call to social services.
I could hear a loud pounding through the phone. Kerri gave a small sound of distress.
She gave me their address and I hung up so I could map it. It was only a few minutes walk to the apartment building. I ran up the stairs and rang the bell for apartment five. The door swung open and Brian glared at me.
“You’re the last f**king person I want to see.” He started to shut the door again but I inserted myself between the door and the frame.
Unfortunately he was so drunk that his actions were nonsensical. The door bounced off my shoulder painfully as he kept trying to close it. “Let me in. I want to talk to you.” I shoved at his chest, knowing it would make him stumble backwards.
It did. He swore. I went into the apartment and rounded on him. He was wearing sweats and a T-shirt that looked like he hadn’t washed it in about six months. The whole apartment smelled like sour milk. Brian’s eyes were glassy, his jaw unshaven. I’d seen him like this before. This was probably day two or three of a bender if he was that loaded at eight o’clock.
There was a bottle of whiskey on the counter of the kitchenette and I went over and grabbed it. You would have thought I was dangling his newborn child over a bridge the way he lurched forward.
“What are you doing? That’s my last bottle!”
I put it behind my back. “You’re scaring your girlfriend. Promise me you’ll save this for tomorrow.” The goal was to just keep him away from it, and then calm him down until he passed out for the night. By the looks of him, if I could get him to sit down, he would be out in five minutes.
But first, I needed some answers.
“You can’t just walk in here and confiscate my booze. Fuck you.” He reached for me.
I took three steps backward. “I’ll pour it down the drain! Back off, Brian.”
He knew me well enough to know that I would do it. “Shit. Don’t. What do you want?”
“I want to know why you’re talking shit about me and Heath. Didn’t you do that enough four years ago?”
He snorted. “I should have followed through on it and had his ass thrown in jail for statutory rape. Would have saved me some trouble.”
“But I hear you’ve been drinking on Heath’s tab, so what are you whining about?” I only had Ethan’s word on that, but this was the only way to find out if it was true or not.
“Yeah, well, I thought he was just being nice. You know, brotherly. I was an idiot to fall for that. That motherfucker has no loyalty, Cat. None. He’d sell his own mother for a buck.” He cleared his throat and drew up some phlegm, which he turned and coughed into an empty pizza box.
I tried not to gag. “What are you talking about? If he was giving you drinks, he was risking his job for your sorry ass.”
“No, he was trying to manipulate me. Soften me up.” Brian stumbled over to the couch and picked up a legal envelope packed thick with papers. “Look at this.”
I took it from his hand and pulled the papers out. The address to the house in Vinalhaven was prominent in bold near the top. “What is this?”
“Your ex-boyfriend got me shitfaced and talked me into selling him the house. He f**king ripped me off. He’s a shit sucking ass**le and if I see him I’m going to put my fist into his face.”