Blaze: Steel Brothers Saga: Book Twenty-One Read online

  BLAZE

  STEEL BROTHERS SAGA: BOOK TWENTY-ONE

  HELEN HARDT

  This book is an original publication of Waterhouse Press.

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  * * *

  Copyright © 2022 Waterhouse Press, LLC

  Cover Design by Waterhouse Press, LLC

  Cover Photographs: Shutterstock

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  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic format without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Continue reading the Steel Brothers Saga with Book Twenty-Two

  Message from Helen Hardt

  Also By Helen Hardt

  Acknowledgments

  About Helen Hardt

  For Dean

  PROLOGUE

  CALLIE

  The door of the bank opens then, and a woman wearing jeans and a red T-shirt walks through. The shirt reads Karen’s Locks.

  Rory and I abruptly stand.

  “You’re the locksmith?” Rory asks.

  “Yes, I am. I’m here to see Michael Keats.”

  Mr. Keats approaches us quickly. “Karen Bates?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry I’m late.”

  “Wait a minute,” Rory says. “Is the baby okay? The one who was locked in the car?”

  Karen smiles. “She’s fine. She slept through the whole thing. The poor mother cried like a baby, but the little one was just fine.”

  Rory lets out a relieved sigh. “Thank goodness.”

  Yes, my sister will be a hell of a mother. I hope she gets that chance.

  “Come on back, all of you,” Mr. Keats says.

  I inhale a deep breath, gathering all my courage.

  In a moment, we’ll find out.

  We’ll find out if our property was stolen.

  And if it was… I don’t know what we’ll do.

  The four of us—Keats, Karen, Rory, and I—crowd into the room. The walls are lined with locked boxes of various sizes. I cast a glance around. Which one of these is Donny’s? My gaze falls on Box 451.

  That’s it. That’s the number that was on the key inside the glasses case. Funny that I only now remember. How did I think, for one minute, that Donny had taken our key?

  Karen opens up her toolkit and pulls out a drill. Keats nods to a plug on the wall. Several minutes pass while Karen readies her tools. The boxes on the wall seem to move in closer. The room is shrinking, closing in on us.

  Then the piercing shriek as she drills into the lock.

  CHAPTER ONE

  CALLIE

  The girls’ restroom on Monday following homecoming is a veritable gossip fest. Makes it hard for me to stay invisible. I walk in. All the stalls are occupied, so I get to wait.

  Several girls huddle around the sinks, their backs toward me.

  “I heard she almost died,” one of them says.

  “I know. It’s scary,” says another.

  “How much of it did she drink?”

  “No one really knows. She went to the hospital later, after the bonfire.”

  I’m never one to force myself into a conversation, but I saw how sick Rory got Friday night after drinking a cup of the hairy buffalo spiked punch. I force myself out of my comfort zone to insert myself and approach the girls.

  “Who are you talking about?” I ask.

  “You haven’t heard, Callie?” It’s Sarah Harger, a B-lister.

  “Would I be asking if I had?”

  I don’t really know these girls. I mean, I know their names. Snow Creek High School is a small school.

  “Diana Steel,” the second girl says. Her name is Mary. I think her last name is McCullough.

  “What about her?”

  “She’s in the hospital.” From Sarah.

  My jaw drops. “Is she all right?”

  “We don’t know,” a third girl, Lavinia Ross, says. “No one’s heard. They say she has alcohol poisoning or something.”

  “From what?”

  “No one seems to know,” Sarah says. “Probably from that stuff Friday night at the bonfire. Didn’t you have any?”

  I shake my head. “I didn’t, but Rory and Carmen did.”

  “I did too,” Sarah says. “I’ve never been so trashed.”

  I don’t add anything, but I do remember Carmen looking really pale. Of course, she’s fair and redhaired anyway, but something was different about her. She was out of it. And Rory? Rory is always outgoing and boisterous. She’s a singer. A performer. Her personality has always been flamboyant. Plus she was just crowned homecoming queen and was on top of the world as the most beautiful and popular girl in school. She drank a whole cup of the punch.

  “Wow, Callie,” she said after downing it. “That is the sweetest stuff I’ve ever put in my mouth.”

  I was pretty close to tasting it myself…until I saw Carmen acting like—no lie—she was about to walk right into the bonfire. I nudged her away from the fire and kept one eye on her the rest of the evening until her cousin picked her up and drove her home. I also made Rory promise not to drink any more of it.

  And now…Diana Steel. The sweetheart of the Steel family and the freshman class homecoming attendant. In the hospital? With alcohol poisoning?

  “Do you know when Diana went to the hospital?” I ask.

  “No,” Sarah says, “just that it was sometime after she went home. But haven’t you heard? The Steels are offering a reward for anyone who can tell them who spiked the hairy buffalo.”

  “Could have been anyone,” I say.

  “But they want to know,” Lavi
nia says, “because it wasn’t spiked with just alcohol.”

  I resist the urge to widen my eyes. Lavinia’s words are surprising yet not surprising. I saw how that stuff affected Carmen and Rory.

  “You think someone drugged it,” I say.

  “No one knows.” Mary applies a stroke of blush to one of her cheekbones.

  Except the Steels know. If Diana is in the hospital, she probably had her blood tested.

  “How much are the Steels offering for this information?”

  “I don’t know for sure,” Sarah says. “I heard it was ten thousand dollars.”

  Again I resist the urge to widen my eyes. Ten thousand dollars? Wow. We Pikes sure could use ten thousand dollars.

  But anyone could have spiked the punch. The punch at bonfires is almost always spiked. We’re all disappointed when it isn’t. Usually it’s just alcohol, though, and never enough to cause any significant damage. Finding out who did it this time will be near impossible because usually no one cares.

  “Let me know if you hear anything else,” I say.

  “Oh, sure thing, Callie.” Lavinia offers a saccharine smile.

  I’m used to saccharine smiles from B-listers—the A-list wannabes. They’re nice to me because I’m Rory’s sister. Jordan’s cousin. I’m related to A-listers, though I don’t make the cut myself.

  They won’t tell me what they hear. Why should they? I wouldn’t either. If I find out who’s responsible, I’ll go running to the Steels to capture that reward.

  And I plan to do exactly that.

  The shriek… The horrific shriek of Karen’s drill.

  It won’t be long now. Within seconds, Rory and I will know if our evidence is still in this safe-deposit box.

  Images float through my head. After that conversation in the bathroom, when ten thousand dollars clouded my brain and I was determined to find out who was behind the hairy buffalo. I prepared to investigate, but I needn’t have bothered.

  The investigation came to me.

  Being invisible has its perks.

  Perks I put to good use.

  Sure, I was on the homecoming court, but by Monday morning, I was plain old Callie Pike again. Snow Creek is a small town, and I’m the kind of person who listens. Who observes. Another perk of being invisible. No one sees me, but I see everything. I hear everything.

  And I’ve got all my senses on alert for ten grand.

  I didn’t see who spiked the hairy buffalo Friday night at the bonfire. But there is one group at Snow Creek High School who tends to be responsible for all the crap.

  The FLMC—short for the future lawmakers’ club. It’s a newer club. Rory says they started it her freshman year, so it’s only three years old. It’s supposedly for people who want to go into law enforcement or into law. Except it’s not. Not at all.

  The law has always been my calling, so last year, when I was a freshman, I attended a meeting of the FLMC. We didn’t talk about law at all. We talked about how to stick it to the man.

  I wasn’t interested in sticking it to anyone, so I never went to another meeting. Soon after that, the club became invite only, but it’s not an exclusive club—not by a long shot. Anyone can get an invite, but you have to prove you’re willing to stick it to the man. What this entails, I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.

  FLMC takes credit for a lot of the crap that goes on at Snow Creek High. I don’t even know who all the members are, but I’m willing to bet I’ll find the culprit among that group.

  Except I don’t need to research the FLMC, because the answer comes to me.

  Yes, being invisible has its perks.

  After school later in the week, I’m still sitting in my algebra classroom, going through my backpack, which is a mess. Mr. Frost, the algebra teacher, has left the room and so has everyone else. Algebra is my last class of the day, so the halls are bustling with people checking their lockers and then leaving the school grounds.

  That’s when I hear the voices.

  “Yeah, we need to keep it under wraps.”

  “I don’t know, man. The Steels… They can find out anything.”

  “Why the hell did you let her drink that shit?”

  “Hey, man, I thought it was just alcohol.”

  “Bullshit. What was that stuff, Lamone?”

  My ears perk. Pat Lamone. The male homecoming attendant for the junior class, who’s been trying to date Rory for months.

  A short pause, and then, “The dude told me it was angel dust.”

  “What the fuck?” another voice says. “You could get in some deep shit.”

  “I won’t, and you won’t, as long as we don’t tell anyone.”

  “Right, Jimmy.”

  Jimmy Dawson? My escort? Who couldn’t keep his eyes off Diana’s ass?

  “We’ve got to keep it under wraps. No texting about it. No talking on the phone. Who knows what kind of surveillance the Steels have?”

  “In fact,” the first voice says, “this is the last time we speak of this. Ever.”

  Hustling and bustling gets softer and softer, and when I’m sure they’re gone, I finally peek out of the algebra classroom. The halls are empty. Rory is probably outside chatting with her friends as usual and waiting for me, also as usual. She’ll drive us home.

  This was almost too easy. I was ready to move about quietly and observe everything, but the information came to me instead.

  Yes, being invisible definitely has its perks.

  The only problem? Lamone and the others will deny it. I’ll have to get proof. And I know just the one person who can help me.

  Rory. My sister. The homecoming queen and the most beautiful girl in school.

  She can get anyone to say anything.

  CHAPTER TWO

  DONNY

  After prosecuting two speeding tickets and a jaywalker, I’m back in the office and trying not to think of Callie. She’s still in Denver, having her safe-deposit box drilled open.

  I don’t know what’s bothering her. She wanted to tell me Saturday before I left, but I shushed her. I already know I have to let her go, so I didn’t want to drag something out of her that she wasn’t ready to talk about anyway.

  Now I wonder if that was a mistake. If I knew, I could fix it for her. I can’t be with her. I can’t have a relationship with her, but I can at least take care of her past.

  I’ve already decided to funnel money to her family somehow. I just haven’t figured out how to do it yet.

  “You’re a dick,” I say out loud, staring at my closed door.

  Here I am, trying to fix everything with my money. Maybe it will work. Maybe Callie doesn’t love me as much as I love her. Maybe the money will be enough.

  I scoff. I know that’s not true. I know Callie feels the same way I do. Not solely by her words, but by her actions. By the way she comforts and cares for me.

  Damn her. She probably won’t take the money. Neither will her family.

  They’re too proud.

  My thoughts turn to Pat Lamone, who told me the Pikes were gold diggers.

  And I can’t help but wonder…

  Why did he say that? And is he part of the reason Callie is so troubled? She seemed fine until we ran into him at the hotel that night.

  She’ll be home tonight, and she’ll have to come by to bring me the car.

  My phone buzzes. My mother. I say a frantic hello.

  “Hi, sweetie. I have good news.”

  A swooshing sigh of relief leaves me. “Thank God. I could use some.”

  “Dad’s being released today. We’re coming home, Donny.”

  “That’s great.” Despite the fact that I’m happy with this news, my tone sounds anything but. My mom will no doubt call me on it.

  “It certainly is. But you sound kind of…”

  Yup. There she goes. “Everything is fine, Mom. I had a good morning in court. Everything’s under control.”

  It’s not a lie. Everything is under control at the office. Of course, the cit
y of Snow Creek could probably run itself, but I won’t say that to my mother. She takes her job very seriously.

  “I’m glad to hear that. I knew you would be a great assistant city attorney. In fact, I have a lot to talk to you about.”

  “What?”

  “Let’s leave it until we get home. We’ll talk after we get Dad settled back in.”

  “Sure, Mom.”

  Just as well. As much as I would love a distraction from everything else that’s going on, I’m not sure I can handle anything new my mom is going to throw at me. She certainly sounds like it’s good news. Or she’s just happy that my father is finally being released from the hospital. Probably both. I’m pretty good at reading my mom. If it were something bad, I’d be able to tell.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m sure looking forward to getting back home,” she says.

  “It’ll be great to have you both home,” I say.

  “I hear Dale and Ashley are almost moved out.”

  “They’re working on it.”

  “I’m sure you’ll be happy not to be living with your parents.”

  “You know I don’t mind that. In fact, I’m happy to stay longer if you need help with Dad.”