SafetyInNumbers-Final (17 page)

“You ain’t gotta put so much emphasis on the T, man,” Robert-no-emphasis-on-the-T complained, and Billy felt the thin grasp on his temper slip.

He had two younger brothers, Robbie and Timmy, though he had to wonder if Timmy was now Timothy since Robbie was now Robert. It was confusing as fuck. He was just Billy, always had been, and had no desire to be called anything else. Well, except Billy Bear, and only by Liam. When Ty said it to fuck with him, it was just wrong. Names aside, he hadn’t spoken to the sibs since his last trial when his small family had completely washed their hands of him. When he called twice a year without fail, his brothers usually stood in the background shouting for their mother to hang up on him. If Robert-no-emphasis-on-the-T thought he’d be jumping with joy over this phone call, he’d be sadly mistaken.

“You still there?” Robert asked into the silence.

“Still waiting for you to get to the point.” Billy watched the clock and figured if his brother didn’t spit it out in the next sixty seconds, he was hanging up.

“You’re still a real shit, aren’t ya, Billy?” Robert’s insult rankled. Yeah, he’d been a real shit at one time, but he wasn’t anymore and if they had given him a chance, he would have proven it. “Well, I don’t want to take up too much of your precious time. I’m sure you have little old ladies to knock over or ice cream trucks to rob…”

“Enough!” His list of crimes may be extensive, but he’d never knocked over a little old lady. “Tell me what’s going on or I’m hanging up.”

“Fine.” Robert inhaled loudly enough to be heard over the phone and said, “Tim’s been arrested.”

Well, fuck. They were so judgmental over his mistakes, so holier-than-thou, that it was the last thing he’d expected to hear. In fact, last he heard, both his brothers were in college and Mom was so very proud of her two angels. “What’d they get him on?”

“Some assholes knocked over the SunTrust bank on Miracle Mile two weeks ago and they’re saying they have video of Tim driving the getaway car.” Robert’s voice rang with disbelief. “It’s gotta be a lie. Tim’s in his last year of college at UF and he’s not due back in Miami till November. Why the hell would he come back mid-semester to rob a bank?”

Billy had no answer. The brother he knew wouldn’t have done it, but if the cops had video, how could any of them dispute it? “I don’t know.”

“They dragged him out of class in handcuffs, Billy,” Robert screamed into the phone, his attitude and composure completely gone. “In front of his peers and his professor. Do you know what this will do to his career? How could they do that to him?”

“If they have video of him—clear enough video that they went all the way up to Gainesville to drag him out of class—then he did it to himself.” It wasn’t the answer his brother would want, but it was the only lesson Billy personally learned in prison. The percentage of wrongly accused men doing actual time was far less than the percentage of guilty men screaming they were framed. Even when he hadn’t personally committed the crime, it was own damn fault for taking the fall.

“So you think he’s guilty,” Robert said in disgust. “I should have known you wouldn’t do anything to help us. Mom tried to tell us you changed, that you were making a good life for yourself and staying out of trouble. That’s probably just the shit you tell her so she’ll forgive you. Well, I don’t forgive you, and when I tell her you won’t help Tim, she won’t forgive you either!”

“Slow the fuck down!” Billy shouted. “You want to hate me, Robbie-boy, then hate me. Roll the fuck around in that hate and let it marinate, but you damn well better leave Mom out of it. Now, you want to give me the details or you just want to yell at me some more?”

There was total silence on the other end of the line and Billy was the one wondering if he’d been hung up on. Not that it mattered, he didn’t need them to find out if Tim had been charged and where they were holding him. No, that would be the easy part. As for helping Tim, Billy just wasn’t sure what Robbie or his mother expected he could do. Video was a bitch to fight in court.

Finally, there was some fumbling on the phone and then a new voice said, “Hey, this is Anthony. I’m Rob’s roommate at Valencia.”

“Are you going to mediate for us, Anthony?” Billy could just imagine his brother pacing around his room and pulling out his hair.

“Yeah, something like that. Look Rob and Carol are real upset and they didn’t know what to do. It was my idea to call you.” Billy took that to mean Rob, or Robert-no-emphasis-on-the-T, or Robbie, told Anthony all about his gang banger brother. It made him wonder how close he and Anthony were. “They’re pretty lost over here, man.”

“I get that and I’m not sure what they think I can do for them, but yelling at me isn’t the best way to get me to do it.” Billy forced himself to take a slow breath and opened his eyes. He nearly came out of his skin when he found Ty looming over him. “Fucking shit, man, warn a guy.”

“Not as much fun.” It was standard Ty, but his tone didn’t indicate amusement.

Looking at Ty reminded him that they shouldn’t have known to call him here. “Hey, Anthony, how’d you get this number?”

“Rob had it in his phone.” Anthony sounded as confused by his question as Billy was by the answer. “Is there a problem with us calling you here?”

It wasn’t a problem, he just didn’t understand how they knew unless they were somehow keeping tabs on him. That brought up a whole host of questions that weren’t really important in the grand scheme of things, at least not now. “Look, there’s not much I can tell them until I talk to Timmy and his attorney.”

“Right, okay, he’s at Metro West on forty-first and he’s got some public defender dude. Alton, Ashton, hold on...here it is. Alton Lane.” Anthony rattled off the number. “We tried to talk to him, but he said he couldn’t unless Tim gave permission.”

“You mean he hasn’t?” Billy thought that made Tim sound even guiltier. He remembered the feeling of shame the first time he’d been arrested and how he didn’t want to face his mother. He was a minor at the time, so he didn’t have a choice. If asked, he would have refused too.

“No, man, no one’s talking to us.” Anthony’s frustration came through the phone, leaving Billy to wonder just how close Robbie’s roommate was to his family. Apparently closer than him.

“I hear ya.” Billy tapped the notepad and frowned when Ty took the pen out of his hand to scrawl beneath the attorney’s phone number.
Gang?
“Who else is on the video?”

“Rob says they were guys from your old crew.” Anthony muffled the phone and it sounded like he was arguing with Robbie. “He says it wasn’t your guys specifically, just the same colors.”

Billy tried to be shocked, but it made sense. As much sense as anything else in this fucked up situation. “Right. Is my mom with you now?”

There was more fumbling on the other end and he panicked when he realized Anthony was handing over the phone. Then there was just breathing and Billy realized his mom hadn’t wanted to talk to him, and that Anthony probably forced the phone on her. He waited, hopeful that she would say something, and watched the clock. Sixty seconds and he was hanging up.

Thirty seconds later, he felt like his head was going to explode. He couldn’t sit there listening to her breathing—
her judgmental breathing
—and feel anything but anger. They called him for help, not the other way around. “It’s gonna be okay, Mom.”

No, it really wasn’t okay. Not by a long shot, but he wasn’t going to beg or, worse, show how hurt and angry he was. She put up with enough for him and now Timmy was walking his path. Somehow that would be his fault too.

He had his finger on the end call button when he heard, “Billy.” Everything in him screamed to hang up the phone and not give her a chance to put this on him. “Billy, are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.” That’s right, Billy Mason, vicious criminal, couldn’t not answer his mother. “Anthony gave me all the details. I’m not making any promises, okay? I don’t have the power to get him out of jail, but I can make some calls and get him the best help.”

“We appreciate that.” Her tone was so cold and formal that he felt the chill through the phone. “He’s such a good boy, Billy. He’s never been in trouble, you know, and he’s got such a bright future ahead of him. This just has to be a mistake, that’s the only possible answer. Tim would never do this.”

Though she didn’t say it, Billy heard ‘unlike you’ at the end of every sentence.
Tim was such a good boy, Billy, unlike you.
The unspoken implication made his eyes burn and his stomach roll dangerously. “I hope so.”

More fumbling was the only indication that his mother was done talking to him and then Anthony was back on the line. “Sorry about that, man. She’s really upset and, well, she’s really upset.”

It wasn’t Anthony’s fault and Billy felt sorry for him being stuck in the middle. “That’s fine. I’m gonna make some calls and see what I can find out. Is this a good number to call back on?”

“Yeah, it’s Rob’s cell.” He could hear Robbie object in the background and Anthony snap out, “Chill the fuck out, dude, we
want
him to call us back!”

It would have been funny any other time. “Sounds like you got the situation well in hand over there. Let me see what I can see and I’ll ring you back.”

He clicked off before Anthony could say anything else and looked at Ty. “The dumb fuck was riding with guys from my old crew.”

Ty nodded as if that’s what he suspected. “Anyone reach out to you lately? Someone with an axe to grind, maybe?”

“No, there’s no reason. I wasn’t a rat.” Billy banged his head on the desk. “Either way, I’ve been out over four years. They wouldn’t have waited this long.”

“Then he fucked up all on his own.” Ty waited for him to acknowledge that. When he didn’t, Ty kicked his leg. “Right?”

“Right. This isn’t my fault.” Much. He could easily go down the what if path—what if he’d been a better role model, what if he’d been a better brother and son—but who was that going to help? Actually, he had been a really good role model for what not to do and his supposedly smarter-than-him brother hadn’t learned the lesson.

“Good enough.” Ty patted him on the shoulder and walked back to the bike he’d been working on before Robbie decided to ruin Billy’s day. “You’re looking at the wrong ass, Billy Bear. Your man’s across the lot. Go talk it through, make your plan, and let me know if you need help.”

He looked across the lot and saw Liam laughing with Javier. They’d been happy the last couple of weeks and Billy was loath to be the reason for Liam’s unhappiness. This shit was not going to make either of them happy. Maybe he could check into things first, see how bad they really were, and then decide what to say to Liam...if he had to say anything at all.

“Don’t even think about it,” Ty said, even though Billy hadn’t uttered a word. “Not that I wouldn’t mind a ringside seat to the beat down if you tried to handle this on your own, but my amusement is not as fragile as your balls. If you want to get laid again this year, you handle it together.”

Ty was right, but he wasn’t foolish enough to tell him. “You know I hate when you call me Billy Bear.”

“That’s why I do it.” Ty waved over his shoulder and stuck his headphones in. Much like his mother’s abrupt dismissal, their conversation was over too.

Another laugh from across the lot drew his attention and he saw Liam smile his way. They were in it, whether the road was smooth or rough, and he wouldn’t disrespect that by going behind Liam’s back. That knowledge gave him the confidence to walk across the lot. They’d handle it and their friends would help, and if his family wanted to blame him, that was their issue, not his.

Chapter 15

Liam

If anyone tried to tell him that he’d ever willingly set foot inside of another jail, Liam would have called them crazy. Yet here he was with Billy, following Kieran deeper into the bowels of just such a hell. After Billy relayed the details of his brother’s surprise phone call, they wasted an hour on the internet looking up news stories and public records trying to find anything that would help. Calling Kieran to ask for another favor seemed like their last resort option until Owen took the decision out of their hands and had his brother-in-law call them.

The concept of family was a hot topic for all of them and it had been on Liam’s mind a lot since the big conversation with Chris. Though they weren’t born into it, they were brothers, and as far as Liam was concerned, nothing would ever change that. Bull expanded their little family unit by welcoming them into his life and offering them a place in Saul’s house. Through Bull, they had an extended family in the Connors and Owen only reinforced that.

Now with Billy’s family in need, Owen was in a position to help the Masons mend some fences. It had been a selfless act simply to help Billy, but Liam could see the potential long term impact it could have on all of them. Was there a future where their extended family would grow to include the Masons? It didn’t really seem possible until Kieran called again to say that Tim agreed to meet with Billy, making the impossible suddenly very plausible.

Of course, Chris had been furious and insisted on going with them, but Kieran said he could only bring two of them into the meeting. He thought Chris’s head was going to explode when Liam refused to let him take his place. Billy was his and Liam was going to stand by his side, even if being there terrified him.