The Nature of Things

Chapter 24

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Brian slammed the car into park, crossed the parking lot and walked into the jail outwardly calm. The guard tried explaining that it was past visiting hours, but Brian insisted that he be allowed to see Casey.

After several minutes of arguing and several hundred dollars, Brian was led into a windowless room. Casey sat at the table, hands cuffed behind him, smiling at Brian.

Brian closed the distance in one long stride and before either knew what was happening Casey was in a chokehold against the wall.

"If you go through with this, it will be the last thing you ever do," Brian seethed.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Casey squirmed under the pressure of Brian's hands. He knew exactly what the other man was angry about, but he wasn't about to let on.

"You stay away from Molly and anyone in her family or I'll see to it that you get a taste of what prison life is really like."

"You have no pull in here, and you don't scare me. That's my baby and I plan to raise him to be just like dear old dad."

Brian let the younger man hit the floor and stood above him with his foot planted on Casey's throat.

"Let me explain something to you, you little piece of shit, I am your worst nightmare. I can and will destroy you if necessary. Stay away from Molly and Justin."

Brian left the room and paid the guard to wait twenty minutes before taking Casey back to his cell. In the meantime Brian placed a call that promised to get his message across to the man lying in the jail.

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"Justin, you have to stop him." Molly was alternating between hysterics and an eerie calm.

"Molly, you know as well as I do that when Brian gets started, there is no stopping him. Besides this may be the best thing that could happen. Maybe Brian can talk some sense into Casey."

"Justin, honey, I'm not sure that Brian was calm enough to talk to anyone when he left," Jennifer reminded both of her children.

"Listen, I know Brian better than anyone here," Cynthia began and corrected herself when Justin shot her a look. "Well maybe Justin knows him a little better, but he's not going to do anything stupid. Brian's smart, and resourceful, you have to trust him. He's not going to do anything that would hurt you Molly. Now we need to focus on something else at the moment. The rape trial is coming up in two weeks, we should go over the things the D.A. talked about until Brian gets home."

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Craig paced the kitchen listening to the guard's account of what had happened between Brian and Casey. Craig had hired the guard to keep an eye on Casey and to make sure he stayed out of trouble. He never expected that the man could bring him Brian Kinney's head on a silver platter.

When he'd started this game, he never envisioned getting any dirt on Kinney. The man kept his reputation spotless outside of the bars and no one on Liberty Avenue was willing to say a bad word against him. Either he had deep pockets or he'd earned their respect.

No matter with the photos his hired hand took, he could bring the self-rightous fag to his knees. Maybe he'd even take the time to find out why it was he was the stud of gaytown.

Then he'd kill him.

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Brian strode into the house two hours later and all eyes were on him as he opened a beer, downed it in one gulp and headed out back to the pool house.

Justin followed, while the others hovered near the sliding door, trying to catch a little of the conversation. Justin found Brian in the bathroom, changing into swim trunks.

"What did you do?"

"I took care of the problem." Brian avoided looking at Justin, knowing that the younger man would be disappointed in him.

Justin grabbed Brian's chin and forced him to look him in the eyes. "What. Did. You. Do???"

"I. Told. You. I took care of the problem, now leave it alone."

"I can't; this is my sister's life you're playing with, Bri."

"You think I don't know that? You think I wouldn't give my life for Molly and that baby? She's my family too, Justin. I did what had to be done to keep that lowlife away from her."

"God, Brian, you don't think at all sometimes, do you? You could've just given him the ammunition to take that baby from her. For heaven's sake, Bri, her rape trial is in two weeks. She has to walk in that courtroom and face him day in and day out. Do you have any idea how hard that already was before you went and kicked his sorry ass?"

"I took care of the problem. I had a nice long chat with *your* friend. I told him to leave her alone, or what happened to him today will be a walk in the fucking park compared to what they will do to him inside that prison. No one else has stepped up and given that shithole what he deserves."

"Because we all know that hurting him will only hurt Molly's case. You can't see past your need for revenge. It's just like it was when my dad came after you and when I started seeing Ethan."

"This has nothing to do with you, Justin. This has to do with that girl in there, whose whole world was destroyed. Now she has to face the possibility that this fucking piece of shit could take away the baby she's carrying. A baby that she wouldn't be making decisions about if he hadn't raped her. That's what I'm thinking about."

Brian pushed his way past Justin and dove into the pool, ignoring the stares from the kitchen.

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Casey sat alone in his cell watching the rather large man pace back and forth in front of his door. Every few minutes the redhead pushed his face against the small pane of glass and smiled at him. Casey knew that this man was not trying to be friendly. This man was there to remind him that Brian Kinney meant business.

Only Brian Kinney didn't know that Casey being behind bars did not mean that Molly and his baby were safe. He had his own contacts and his own plan to carry out.

Sooner or later the bitch would get what she deserved and if he couldn't be there to deliver it in person, he'd have one hell of a time jerking off to the pictures.

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