them had called him a lawyer. Apparently one of them had tried to pin this on him.
But he had his brother. For the first time in forever, Kai was going to make sure that Jared had his brother.
“Thank you for getting me out of there.” He held his hand out to Harrison, who shook it.
“The pleasure is mine,” he said with a smile that reminded Kai of a hungry tiger. “I look forward to taking this one on. Jared, you understand the terms of your release?”
Jared stopped, briefly looking Harrison’s way. “I do. I won’t leave the city. I’ll check in with…who am I checking in with?”
“His name is Simon Weston. He’s going to be the McKay-Taggart contact,” Harrison explained. “He and his partner are already on the case. They’ll want to talk to you in the morning. Hey, you can watch them work and maybe get some research out of it while they clear you.”
“I won’t need it. The production company will fire me in the morning. I’ll be lucky to come out of this with my TV job intact,” he stated flatly. “They’ll likely fire me, too. Or the network will cancel the show and everyone will be out of work.”
“You didn’t do this,” Harrison replied. “If they fire you, we’ll sue them.”
Jared shook his head. “Doesn’t work that way in Hollywood. Oh, we can sue and they’ll pass me some cash, but my career is over. I’ll always be a killer to some people no matter what the outcome is. The cloud will never go away. I’m going to catch a cab and find a hotel. Mr. Keen, if you could send me a bill for your services tonight, I’ll pay it. I’ll find my own lawyer tomorrow.”
Jared pulled his phone out of his pocket and started walking toward the front of the station.
Kai turned to Harrison. “He doesn’t know what he’s saying. We need you on this case.”
Harrison shook his head. “Explain to him that he needs to talk to Big Tag. Until Big Tag fires me, I’m not off the case. That is one Dom I’m not about to piss off. Night all. I’ll be in contact in the morning.”
“Fuck,” Case said with a frown. “They can’t fire him. Can they?”
Kai was already moving, following his brother. “I’m sure they can. Go on ahead of us. I’ll get my brother home.”
“No can do,” Case shot back. “I promised Ian I would see you home safely. He put up the million for Jared’s bond.”
Shit. Although it made sense because how the hell had Jared been expected to do it in the middle of the night with no one helping him. “I’ll make sure Ian gets his money back.”
“He’s not worried about that, damn it. He’s worried about you. He’s worried about you and your brother. Sean brought my truck up here so I’ll pull it around and I’ll wait for you in the front. Talk to Jared and then you need to get your girl because she was pissed and right now she’s at Erin’s. I can only imagine how that’s going to go for you. Erin could be teaching her how to take your balls off.”
He didn’t have time to worry about that right now. One massive cluster fuck at a time. It’s what his life had become. He needed to deal with his brother first and then he would figure out how screwed he was with Kori.
Kori, his sweet girl with so many walls he’d only barely managed to climb the first couple. She was likely erecting more. Higher walls. Stronger walls. These walls would be fortified against him.
Did he even deserve a second chance with her? He stalked out of the station and saw his brother staring down at his phone.
He’d walked away and left Jared alone. What would Ian have done if he’d found Sean with a woman Ian thought he’d loved? Would he have walked away and never spoken to his brother again? Or would he have beaten the shit out of Sean, dumped the girl, and started over again?
Because they were family.
For so long family had seemed like a cross to be borne, like a stone dragging him down. He couldn’t look at his brother without seeing their mother in her hospice bed, wasting away. There’d been nothing to do. No magic tricks, no amount of discipline and work had made her better. Tired. He’d been so fucking tired. Tired of poverty. Tired of worry. Tired of the feeling in