“I don’t—” he tried to say but was quickly cut off.
“And assaultin’ a police officer,” Z tacked on. “With his car. Well, technically, nothiscar, butacar.”
Brantley set his coffee mug down. “What the fuck, Z?”
“It sounds worse than it is.”
“I’m not sure that’s even possible,” Brantley retorted. “You’ve got a drug dealer who stole somethin’ and hit a cop with his car, and you want us to find him?”
“Nothiscar,” Z clarified. “The car is the somethin’ he stole. And technically, the drugs weren’t his—”
“Z!” Brantley hissed.
“Fine.” Z laughed. “It was all a misunderstanding. A series of misfortunate events, if you will.”
“Was it?” Reese bit out, his tone just shy of hysterical.
Brantley stared at the man, realizing then that he was definitely missing a huge piece of the puzzle.
***
Reese could feel Brantley’s gaze on him, knew he was wondering why he was … well, he didn’t want to admit he was freaking out, but yeah, he might be. Just a little bit.
Why wouldn’t he though? His brother was asking them to play bounty hunters for a day. Or a week. Or however long it took to find a man who’d clearly gone and lost his ever-loving mind. And there was no doubt, the guy had crashed through the crazy forest and hit a few too many trees along the way. And that wasbeforehe’d gone and gotten himself in a world of trouble.
“I take it you know who Z’s talkin’ about?” Brantley asked.
“Oh, he knows him, all right,” Z answered for him, a smile in his voice. “Uncle Toby used to be a big part of our lives.”
“You have an uncle?” Brantley’s incredulity caused his voice to pitch higher than usual.
“Technically, no.” Reese rolled his eyes and moved the pan away from the heat. “He just liked to refer to himself that way.”
Brantley’s forehead creased, concern lighting his eyes.
“Nothin’ creepy, I assure you,” Reese clarified.
“So, you’ll do it?” Z asked, clearly not keen on listening to Reese relay the details to Brantley.
“Depends,” Brantley stated. “I have no desire to make another trip to Dallas right now.”
“Good. Because he’s in Austin. Or rather, that’s where his last known address is.” Z exhaled, sounding relieved. “I’ll have the info sent over. Keep me in the loop?”
“You’re gonna owe us for this,” Reese told his brother.
The sound of Z’s laughter grated on his last nerve before the call ended.
“All right, spill, Tavoularis.”
“We really should’ve told him no,” Reese said, grabbing another skillet so he could cook the eggs.
“That bad, huh?”
“Let’s just say Toby’s not the kinda guy you wanna be chasin’ all over town.”
Brantley refilled his coffee mug. “Since it sounds to me like wewill be, maybe you could fill me in on the basics.”
“I don’t even know where to start.”
