Shallow Creek Read Online Free PDF Page B

brother.”
    She shrieked joyfully as she flew from the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck.  Not knowing what to do, he carefully pushed her hips back from his own and looked into her vacant, sunken eyes.  These were not the eyes of someone so young.  She’d lived some hard years.  When she smiled, her yellow teeth looked rotten, and Brendan caught a whiff of something atrocious from her body.
    Powerful arms wrapped around his chest from behind and plunged him backwards through the bathroom and into the living area.  Brendan couldn’t regain his balance and his foe launched him backwards into a recliner, which flipped over with the impact, allowing Brendan to crack his head against the wall.
    Before he could recover, the man lifted him up and slammed him against the wall.  In the background, his sister’s screams arrested both men’s attention.
    “Serge!  Let him go!” she cried, pounding on the man’s back.  “He’s my brother!”
    Serge’s glare bored into Brendan’s eyes, and he didn’t dare blink.
    “If I let you go, will you fight?”
    Suppressing the burning desire to break this man’s face even more than he already had, Brendan shook his head.  Serge slowly released him and backed away as Taryn lunged forward to embrace Brendan again.  Without listening to whatever it was she was saying, Brendan eased her aside and stormed up to Serge.
    “What the hell is wrong with her?  What did you give her?” he demanded, pointing back at his confused sister.
    “That’s not your business,” Serge said.
    Now Taryn cautiously walked around next to Serge and clung to his giant tattooed arm.
    “What do you mean, ‘What the hell is wrong with me?’” Anger creeped into her voice.  “Just what the hell does that mean?”
    “What is it?  Coke?  Meth?”
    Brendan saw the slap unfurling both in his sister’s mind and then in her arm, but he made no move to stop the clumsy effort.  She connected forcefully with his cheek before spitting on his shoes.
    “Get the hell out of here and don’t come back.” She pointed to the open door.  “If I want to see my judgmental family, I’ll just go to Mom and Dad’s.”
    “But—”
    “But nothing,” Serge interrupted, easing Taryn away gently and leaving an open path to the door.  “I suggest you leave now.”
    Confused and bitter, Brendan saw no other option.  He couldn’t even meet his sister’s disdainful glare as he skulked away with his tail between his legs.

Chapter 9
     
    “Hey, Brendan.  Long time no see, man.”
    Brendan looked up from the cup of coffee in front of him.  Taylor Hunziker recoiled slightly at the sight of him.
    “Uh, you d on’t look so good,” Taylor said.
    “I’m okay. ” Brendan poked at one of the bruises on his face.  “Go get your drink.”
    Taylor hesitated, furrowed his brow a bit, and then proceeded to the Starbucks counter.  The damn coffee chain was everywhere now, but Brendan had a bigger concern.  Taylor didn’t look like the pothead he’d once been in high school, so it wasn’t likely he was still smoking.  This guy was the only lead Brendan had found when he’d scoured his phonebook after his run-in with Serge earlier.  The bungled break-in at his folks’ had rattled his sense of purpose slightly, but seeing his sister all screwed up on something had jolted him straight into top gear.  It was time to sort this town out.
    Taylor returned to the table with an iced drink of some description.
    “I was kind of surprised to hear from you, man,” he said.
    “Just looking up old friends since I’m back in town.”
    Taylor squinted a little and scrunched his nose up like he’d just stumbled upon a three-day-old corpse in the Afghan heat.
    “Yeah, about that,” he said.  “I don’t remember being that close.  Especially after the, uh, accident.”
    The urge to lash out violently took a few moments to wrangle into submission.  Why did everyone feel the need to bring up the fucking