Page 88 of Holding On to a Hero
I was an asshole, and I needed to apologize and soon.
But as much as I couldn’t stand not clearing the air with Will immediately, it wasn’t the right time. We needed to talk to Brian and get The Big Plan rolling so we could catch the fucking shooter and get our lives back on track.
We all moved to the living room and I set the satellite phone down on Spence’s mother’s coffee table. It might’ve been petty but I was disappointed that it was 9:00am and I wasn’t going to wake Brian up. I knew Cole was right and I’d have to forgive Brian someday, but that day was not today.
Also, being angry at Brian was a great way to avoid thinking about my own screw-up with Will.
The object of my ire answered the phone. “Barker’s Bakery.”Able to talk and not under duress.
“Hey, little bro.”Able to talk and not under duress.
“I’m glad you called. Where are you guys?”
“We’re in Oklahoma visiting Spence Tranh. He’s here with us now.”
“Spence? Hey, there? I, uh, didn’t know you’d moved to Oklahoma.”
“Hi, Brian, how are you? My mom lived here. I’m putting her house on the market, but these guys have talked me into road tripping with them back to Austin.”
“Oh, okay.” Brian cleared his throat. “When are you guys planning on getting here? I need to set up a safe house.”
“Probably this weekend.” I cleared my throat too. Fucking awkward. “We wanted to walk you through the plan we’ve come up with.”
“Okay, good. I’m ready to get this fucker caught. The cops don’t seem to have any leads. Ballistics came back and the bullets in Will’s truck were shot from the same gun used to shoot at Will and Cole six weeks ago. So at least that will keep the investigation going.”
“For now.” Cole being publicly a target of the shooter would keep the investigation front and center for a while, but the cops and Rangers had other cases too. And those were probably easier to solve.
“Right. So tell me about your idea to get the shooter out in the open.”
“Well, you’re not going to like it.” Because I didn’t. Risking Cole and Will scared me to death. “But I need you to promise me you’ll run it by Ranger Ramirez or the detectives anyway.”
Brian cleared his throat again. He’d heard my implied reference. “I promise, Jason. No matter how hairbrained this idea is, I’ll tell them.”
I sighed. “It’s not hairbrained, it’s just dangerous.”
“Jason….”
“This was my idea, so I’m going to pitch it,” Cole interrupted. “It won’t be dangerous if we have enough undercover cops around.” He looked around at the rest of us and we all nodded in support.
“Brian, I want to have my PR team announce I’ve come out of my coma. And not only that, but my brush with death has given me some clarity about my priorities. I’m going to do an exclusive interview with Anne Shipman, if she’s available.” Cole had been interviewed by Anne several times over the years, and she was the only person he gave an interview to after he announced his retirement. He trusted her, and she’d love to get the story, that’s for sure.
“We announce the interview a few days in advance, and then we leak the information that I’m going to say I’m gay and in a relationship with not just one but two men. And one of the men is the Good Samaritan who saved me from the shooter. The gossip will spread like wildfire across the internet, and there’ll be no way the shooter will be able to miss it.”
“So, what, the three of you are going to just arrive at some TV studio and hope the shooter tries to kill you as you walk from the car to the door?” Brian sounded like his head was going to explode.
“Um, not exactly.” Though it was pretty damn close. “But this is the part where we’ll need input from Ranger Ramirez. Maybe she can help us figure out a location we can use where we can control the crowd and put undercover cops all over the place. We also have Spence to help us now. With some sunglasses he can pretend to be me, and we can get some cops that look like Will and Jason too.” Cole paused. The Big Plan was pretty thin, now that it was laid out for someone else.
Brian groaned. “I hate this plan. I hate it even though I can’t think of anything else to try.”
“Well, I’m hoping the cops have a way to fine-tune it to make it easier to catch the shooter, but we couldn’t come up with anything else.” I was not looking forward to putting Cole, Will and Spence, not to mention all the cops, out in the open in front of the shooter. But we couldn’t go on like we had been for the last six weeks.
“Okay. Can you hang tight where you are for a few days? I’m guessing it will take Ranger Ramirez some time to evaluate the logistics.”
We all looked at Spence and he nodded. “Of course. We can all camp out here for as long as we need to. I could use the help getting the furniture to the thrift store, to be honest.”
“Great. I’ll be in touch.” We all said goodbye and Brian hung up.
The three of us looked at each other. “The Big Plan sucks,” Cole whined.
