Busting Broncos Pt. 07

"But I always wanted to be you." I said. "I'm a midget, I was always the runt. I thought if I was good at sports maybe you'd want to be my friend. I always wanted to impress you. And then later, you grew up so handsome. You look like a movie star. Just naturally a hot man. I would have given anything to be you."

"So would I." Tony said. He climbed off of Steve who sat up. We were all crying by now.

"I just wanted you to be my big brother." I said and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"We just wanted you to love us." Tony said and then he grabbed Steve in his arms. We all sat on the floor holding onto each other and sobbing.

The kitchen door burst open and daddy and Will came in and saw us all where we sat.

"What in the hell is going on now?" daddy asked. "Will came running up and told me you were killing each other. Now I find you all hugging and blubbing. Have you all lost your minds?"

"We're just happy to be brothers." Tony said.

Daddy stood there looking mystified for a minute and then he turned to Will.

"Don't come running after me again unless somebody's dead." he said. "I don't have time to deal with these lunkheads." He went back out the door and Will stared round eyed at us for a moment and then followed him.

* * * * * *

Later that night, I phoned Bennie from my room.

"I'm still okay, mother." he said when he answered, knowing it was me.

"I'm just calling to let you know you don't need a guard anymore. There'll be no more shooting."

Bennie was silent for a moment and then in a different voice he started to ask, "Did you...?"

I cut him off and said, "The problem has been neutralized."

He was silent for almost a full minute and then he said, "God, I love you, you vicious little cocksucker."

"Sweet talk will get you nowhere." I replied. "Now, get some sleep and heal."

I disconnected before he could reply.

* * * * * *

Early the next morning, just after breakfast, the sheriff's car pulled into our drive. Steve, Tony and I were just finishing breakfast.

"What could he want this early?" Steve said.

We all got up and went outside and walked up to the sheriff, who met us half way. He took a long look at Steve's bruised and beaten face and said, "What the fuck happened to you?"

Steve smiled and spread his arms and pulled each of us close to his sides. I wrapped my arms around his waist and Tony rested his head against his shoulder.

"My little brothers beat the hell out of me." he said.

"We sure did." Tony said and giggled.

The sheriff stared at us for a minute and said, "I just wait for the day when I get a call to send the men in white coats to come and carry the whole pack of you off to the loony bin."

"Well, today's not your lucky day." Steve replied. "What else can we do for you?"

"I just wanted to ask Andy about his relationship with Kevin." he replied.

"It isn't a relationship." I answered. "We fucked once and it went really, really badly. That's about it."

"I knew him when we were in school." Tony said. "Oh, and we saw him last week at the market."

"And I can't stand the weird little fucker and stay as far from him as possible." Steve said.

"Well, he was found dead late last night." the sheriff said.

"I'm sorry to hear that." I said.

"I'm not." Steve said.

"How did he die?" Tony asked.

"He was out at the old picnic grove and it looks like he ate something that brought on his allergy. He didn't have his pen with him."

"Suicide?" Tony asked.

The sheriff was quiet for a minute and you could see the wheels turning in his head.

"I hadn't considered that but it would explain a lot." he said. "Have you all noticed anyone sneaking around here at night?"

"Not really. Someone cut the brake lines on the truck the other day, though." Steve said.

I could tell that the sheriff was weighing how much he should say.

'Kevin left behind a journal at his place. He had some kind of obsession with you all, especially you, Andy."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He wrote about trying to impress you, about how the two of you were soul mates and meant to be together, weird shit. Then it changed and he started writing about revenge. He planned to get back at you and your entire family."

"Now I'm really glad the little fucker is dead." Steve said.

"There's other stuff in it, stuff he says he did. I think I'll be able to close some cases I've had questions about, based on what he's written."

"I guess you can never really tell what anyone is truly like." I said, trying to look innocent.

"I've been thinking something along that line for a while now." the sheriff said, staring at me.