His jaw flexed.“You trying to say something?”He took a step forward.“Just fucking say it, man.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Britta cut in, pulling out of the space between us and putting herself where both of us would have to go through her to get to the other.“I think we all just need to calm down.”She pointed at me first.“You’re riding a high right now, Swift.”Then at Tyson.“And you have just been an ass the past couple of days.”
That was fair.
Didn’t mean I liked hearing it.
“We should talk about this later,” she said.
Reasonable.
Level-headed and very Britta.
Tyson held up both hands and started backing toward his apartment.“How about I just stay away,” he said bitterly, “and then you and the biker can end up dead, yeah?”He turned and stormed down the hallway.
“Tyson,” Britta called after him, but she didn’t chase him.Instead, she ran her fingers through her hair and sighed like the weight of both of us had just landed square on her shoulders.“Did you really have to say that to him?”she asked me.
I shrugged and moved toward her still-open apartment door.“Your brother pisses me off, sugar.I’m just trying to keep you safe, and he’s acting like I’m trying to get you killed.”
She followed me inside, and I shut the door behind us.
“Can you blame him?”she asked.“I was shot.”
“Not by the club,” I pointed out.
She turned to face me fully.“No, but the two crazy guys were in the bar because of the club.”
I didn’t have an argument for that one and didn’t try to force one either.
Britta paced once in front of the couch, then turned back to me.
“You really think my brother had something to do with you being shot at?”
I moved to the living room window and cracked it open, then pulled a cigarette from my pocket and lit it.The first drag grounded me and I exhaled slowly.
“I didn’t,” I admitted.“Not until I told Twister and Wheels about what happened before I went downstairs.”I looked back at her.“The only people who knew I was going to be outside at that exact time were you and your brother, sugar.”
“You’ve never heard of a coincidence?”she asked.Her voice wasn’t defensive exactly; more tired and trying to find something that made sense.“Maybe whoever shot at you was headed to the clubhouse and just happened to see you outside.He took a shot because of your cut, not because my brother told him you’d be there.”
That was possible.More than possible.Hell, in a city this size, with us making noise and wearing patches, it could’ve just been a lucky opportunity for the wrong person.
“Yeah,” I said.“Sure.That could’ve been what happened.”I took another drag.“But your brother also could’ve told them I was going to be there.”
Britta crossed her arms and looked down for a second before meeting my eyes again.
This was the line.
The one neither of us wanted to step over.
She understood what the club had to do.Understood that we had to consider every angle, every possibility, no matter how ugly.
And I understood Tyson was her brother.That I couldn’t just throw suspicion at him and expect her to nod along like it didn’t matter.
“So where does this leave us?”she asked finally.Her voice was softer now.Careful.“You really think my brother is part of all of this?”
I shook my head once.“No.”That much was true.“But I can’t rule it out.”
I let that sit between us.
