Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,65

the files poured in. I turned to call Matt over, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to be looking at yet. Probably best to open the documents without anyone reading over my shoulder. Ben was in enough trouble and I wasn’t sure how to keep it from spreading or dragging him so far under he’d never be able to get out. Asshole or not, he was still my brother.

I waited for the entire download to finish and took another glance to the living room area to confirm the three of them were still wrapped up in the game. And Uno had fallen asleep on the ottoman.

The first documents I found were the same ones I’d seen when Ben had…what? Attacked me? I still wasn’t sure I could call it that, so I let the thought float away while I opened the rest of the haul from his encrypted partition. There were folders full of spreadsheets. The latest created file looked like a tally of gambling debts…I couldn’t tell if they were Ben’s or not, but it looked like it. I had no idea he was a gambler, and in so deep. There was a list of names of bookies and amounts, with little asterisks under a column titled ‘Diversion.’ Did that mean something about someone else who was involved? A red herring?

It took all of five minutes and some borderline illegal hacking to get addresses for each of the names under the ‘Bookies’ column, and by then, my skin was buzzing with excitement.

I thought about telling the brothers, but when I turned around, Sean was in the kitchen, Matt was on his way to the bathroom, Eli and Uno were nowhere in sight, and it was better if I took the rescue mission into my own hands. Because certainly, Ben needed to be rescued. That explained why I couldn’t find him, why he hadn’t answered any of my emails or calls, why he’d disappeared. Someone had him and he needed me to save him. I respected the eight brothers because they had saved themselves from the shitty hand life dealt them, and I wanted to be more like them. I wanted to be more like Derek. And following his example, I decided to man-up and find Ben on my own.

With the addresses in my phone, and my phone in my pocket, I slipped out through the front door. Easiest thing in the world since they trusted me now. I was going to track down the bookies, find out where Ben was, and get the answers I needed. Then maybe I’d be ready to figure out what the future held for me with Derek…and his brotherhood. Because it was clear now they were a package deal.

19

Derek

“Bay five, doctor.” Shae shoved another file in my hand as I passed her in the corridor, running from one ER bay to the next.

“Get me a wish, Shae!”

“Yes, sir! I’m making a beeline to D-4. Candy bar coming up.”

The shift had been a shitshow from the minute I stepped into the hospital and was getting worse by the hour. It started with three back-to-back overdoses, and now a multi-car pile-up on the highway had brought in a dozen more patients than we had space for. The last two hours had been nothing but blood and broken bones with no sign of a break before my shift ended.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, I wasn’t entirely focused. I knew this morning before I left that I shouldn’t go, Like I knew Seb shouldn’t be the one poking around the hard drive. But instead of checking in at home, I’d been too busy to check my personal phone, so I had to trust my brothers were keeping an eye on him. We’d come this far. Surely things would be fine for one more day.

Shae leaned against the wall while I finished the end of my shift. She wagged her eyebrows at me. I lifted mine in response, and she bit into a chocolate bar with a comically loud crunch. I did a double-take then laughed as she swayed to imaginary music and held up her hands to receive the accolades of her imaginary audience. “Queen of Fate! She has risen! Bow down, minions and receive your fortunes.”

I bowed low as I dried my hands and waddled backwards toward our locker rooms.

“Want your wish?” Shae waved the wrapper at me.

“You know what? I’m out of here only half an hour late, and I’ve got a cute