Hi :)
So it's been a while :)
Thanks for the PMs and alerts over the past few months. Thanks so much for your reviews. They make my day.
Apologies for the super incredibly late update xo
Here is Chapter 3.
.
.
.
"I think this is all just a bit of a game to you. I reckon you're bored in here and you need a bit of entertainment."
"And you think that you're my entertainment?"
"Why not? You always liked riling us up."
"You're forgetting, Darryl, that Heath came to me. I didn't come crawling to you. Plus, if I wanted to rile you up, I'd have told you everything else Jake Perovic said about your little girlfriend."
Heath anticipated Brax's move far quicker than Danny did and Brax found himself being pushed away from the visiting area, visibly shaking in anger.
"Mate, killing him isn't going to get Buckton, back. Let's go, I think he's enjoying this way too damn much."
.
.
.
"Oi, let me help you work out a plan," Heath said during the drive home.
He'd given Brax some time to calm down and figured a break in the silence was needed.
"I don't need help or a plan," Brax responded coldly, happy enough to leave his brother out of the situation completely.
"Yeah mate, I think you do. Think about it, what's the worst that could happen if you get him out."
"He takes off. There's no way for me to even check that anything he said was true," Brax yelled, smacking the steering wheel with anger Heath knew wasn't directed at him.
"Yeah and if that's the case, good riddance."
"You've changed your tune."
Heath exhaled loudly, "Yeah well, turns out there's more on the line now isn't there? I don't need to remind you what the best case scenario is do I?"
"Nope, I got that one covered," Brax answered as he pictured Charlie's smile.
"If you leave him in there, he's right, you're just going to be left wondering."
Brax nodded but a thought plagued him. "He hasn't told us what he wants yet?"
"His freedom?" Heath answered as if it were the most obvious thing.
"Nope, you know dad, there's got to be more to it than that."
"He's been in there a while, what else could he possibly want?"
"He'll want free reign when he gets out. He'll want to be back in control and have us running jobs for him."
"When he gets out?"
The conversation paused momentarily.
"I can't risk her, Heath. He's saying that there's a chance she's alive, I can't risk her."
"Well then we'll work out the rest when we come to it, bloke."
.
.
.
The events that followed in the next few weeks progressed at an incredibly fast pace. In less than a month Danny Braxton had been released back into society and the thought that he was responsible made Brax cringe.
"Where am I gonna stay?" Danny asked on the drive home from the correctional facility.
"I don't know and I don't care."
"That's not nice Darryl; didn't your mother bring you up better than that? On that thought maybe I'll go and stay with her?"
Brax's grip on the steering wheel tightened. He was being baited and he knew it. Unfortunately even knowing this, there was nothing he could do to stop himself from picturing his mother's bloody and beaten face, a scene from his childhood that he would never forget.
"You got one night on the couch, the rest is up to you but you don't go near mum."
"That's more like it," Danny grinned. "I won't need more than one night. Hey, you gonna buy your old man a drink?"
"Doubt it."
"Hospitality only goes so far huh?"
"You know there is one reason and one reason only as to why you're sitting in this car. Don't confuse it for anything more than a means to an end, dad."
Brax didn't give Danny a chance to respond. He turned up the volume of the radio so that it was now loud enough to drown out any conversation attempts.
Danny didn't seem to mind and for the rest of the drive Brax did everything he could to convince himself he was doing the right thing.
They finally pulled into Brax's driveway and Brax could see Heath's car parked on the street.
"So this bird... is she a looker?" Danny asked as he pulled himself out of the car.
"Do you want a return ticket to the lockup?" Brax asked, slamming his door.
"I'll take that as a big fat yes, good on you, son?" Danny crowed as he led the way into the house.
.
.
.
The next morning, Brax was the last one out of bed and found Heath, Casey and Danny together at the kitchen table.
"Good morning, son," Danny called to his eldest.
Brax shook his head and made a quick coffee.
"So what's the plan?" Brax asked Danny.
"I haven't even been out for 12 hours and you're keen to kick me out."
"You know what I'm keen for. I know you dad; you've had a plan since before I even showed up at the jail. Get moving."
"So where are we going?" Casey asked.
"We?" Brax repeated.
"You haven't figured it out yet?" Danny asked his youngest brutally.
Casey's eyes found Brax's and both appeared confused at the two conversations happening.
"What's he talking about?" Casey asked his eldest brother.
"Dad thinks Charlie's alive. What's this we about?"
"Dad's asked Casey to go on a road trip with him," Heath answered.
"Ha, forget it."
"I didn't think you'd be too keen on the idea, good thing Case and I don't give a damn right Casey?" Danny asked his youngest but his eyes remained on Brax."
"He goes back to school in a week."
"He's 18, he doesn't need his big brother telling him what to do."
"No, his father's doing that for him."
"Well, seeing as I'm not needed for this conversation. I guess I'll leave you to it," Casey said before leaving the house completely.
"Good job guys," Heath commented through a mouthful of toast when neither Brax nor Danny made a move to apologise to Casey.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm taking my youngest boy on a road trip to get a bird for my eldest boy."
"He isn't going."
"Well I'd like to see you try to stop him!" Danny said before leaving after Casey.
"It's Casey's choice mate," Heath said when they were alone.
"It's the wrong damn choice, he doesn't even know dad."
"That's why he's going."
"You and I both know that there's a big possibility that there's no road trip, dad could just disappear."
"You knew that when you got him out of jail."
"And if he disappears with Casey too?"
"Casey wouldn't survive a week without you being in his corner, he'd find his way back."
"I don't like it, Heath."
"It's not up to you mate, it's up to him. To be honest I don't think it's the best idea but, hey, what's the worst that could happen?"
"He'd use Casey as his scapegoat like he did with you or worse, put him in hospital. You remember that Heath?"
"How come you hate him so much when he never did anything to you?"
"You're my brother, that's reason enough. I couldn't do anything back then but I can now, for you and for Casey."
Heath nodded. "The kid's made up his mind though, and he's going. He's on holidays for another week. We can't stop him. He needs to make up his own mind about the old fella, not just go by what you say."
.
.
.
"I don't like this Casey," Brax confided once Heath and Danny left to pick up a car for the road trip that Brax realised he couldn't stop.
"I know you don't, Brax but I want to do this. I want to spend some time with him. I wanted to do this even without knowing that Charlie could have been alive and that's just pushing me more now."
"That doesn't matter to you."
"Of course it does and more importantly it matters to you. Don't you think Charlie would want to see a familiar face when we find her?"
"Casey, don't get your hopes up and don't say when you find her, it's an if Casey, it's a big damn if. There's still a damn good chance he's just used me as his get out of jail free card.
"But there's a chance he's not."
Brax shook his head not wanting to comment further.
"Here," he said holding out his hand.
Casey took the bundle of notes.
"That's for you and you only, don't give it to him, and don't tell him you've got it. It's for emergencies, yeah?"
"Yeah," Casey breathed stunned.
"Don't get too excited, it's only 500 but it'll at least get accommodation for a night if you need it and it will help you get in contact with Heath or me."
"You think he's gonna do a runner."
"For your sake I hope he doesn't," Brax finished with a pat on Casey's shoulder.
.
.
.
How was that?
I will definitely continue this story but my Home and Away watching has lulled considerably lately as I'm sure you've figured out from my lack of updates.
I still check it a little bit but not as much as I used to.
Thanks for reading.
xoxox