The Undercover Brother…In-Law Part 2

Thank you to Engineerd for being a great beta reader.

Chuck grabs a beer and his coffee mug and heads over for the table. He slides the beer over to Bryce and sits casually in the chair across from him.

"Chuck?" Bryce says, looking up at him.

"Bryce." Chuck takes a sip of his coffee getting ready for the verbal chess match with his long time friend and enemy.

John walks into the bar and scans the room for Chuck. He sees him sitting with Bryce. Carina had shown him a picture of 'the SOB that got Sarah pregnant and kicked her to the curve' as Carina told him.
'How did Chuck know Bryce was there? Why'd Chuck lie about where he was going?' John thought to himself as he ordered a scotch.

He watched them start to talk like two buddies that hadn't seen each other in a while.

'Maybe Bryce and Chuck were friends and Chuck was watching Sarah for Bryce. Maybe Chuck knew Bryce was going to go to Sarah's house and let on purpose so Bryce could hit Sarah.' Hundreds of thoughts ran through Johns head as he watched the other two men. He had never paid much attention to the handyman but it was time he did. He was a government officer after all; if something bad was going to go down between these two and Sarah then he was going to stop them. The less trouble his girlfriend's sister got into the more time he could spend with Carina.

"Thanks." Bryce picks up the beer Chuck brought him.

"Just take it easy, you wouldn't want to get violent and hit an innocent person."

Bryce gives Chuck an inquisitive look as if he knew what he did but how could Chuck know?

"How have you been?" Chuck asks.

"I'm doing okay. You?"

"Same. So what brings you to the West coast?"

"Business. I'm an accountant."

"Hey, I heard. For some big wig company, right?"

"Yeah. How about you? What are you doing these days?"

"I'm a handy man."

"A handy man? What happened to your architect degree?"

"It's in a box somewhere. After the divorce my dad called all his friends and told them I was an 'unreliable, irresponsible architect that would take your money and leave.'"

"Harsh."

Chuck nods. "How about you? I'm sure your life doesn't suck."

Bryce leans back on his chair and takes a swing at his beer. "I made a huge mistake."

"Who's wife you'd get pregnant this time?" Chuck half jokes.

Bryce slumps over. "Chuck, I want to apologize for…"

"There's nothing to apologize about, Bryce. That was…what…5 years ago! It wasn't your fault…a least not all your fault. It was mine. I was too busy working to pay attention to her needs."

"Have you heard from her any? Do you know how she is? How the baby is?"

Chuck hesitates. "No. I'm sure she's fine though. She did get most of my money so…I'm sure she and your child are living a very glamorous life. Have you talked to her?"

Bryce nods. "I called her once. She hung up on me. I don't even know if she had a boy or a girl."

"How about this new woman you knocked up? Who'd you steal her away from?"

"She was my girlfriend…also my boss' daughter. We had a boy. She ran off with him a couple months ago."

"You sure you didn't scare her away?"

"Look Chuck, this woman is crazy. She ran off with my child. I know they're here. I need him back. I don't what she's doing to him. I'm doing this for his safety."

Chuck did not believe single word that was coming out of Bryce's mouth.

"What's her name?"

"Sarah Burton but she changed her last name to Walker. I'm telling you Chuck this woman is crazy. She'll change her name just to get away from me with my child."

"What's the kid's name?"

"Travis. I think he's about a year old."

"You think?"

"Okay so I wasn't a very good father but I want to fix that, I really do. But I need to find them first. Maybe with Sarah's help and we can be a family."

"Do you love her?"

"Sure."

Chuck looks at Bryce with a questioning look.

"It's complicated."

"Everything is with you." Chuck stands up. "You want another beer?"

"Yeah."

As Chuck walks over to the bar to get two beers he sees John sitting at a table. He makes it looks as if he didn't see him and keeps walking.
He gets two beers and walks back to Bryce.

"Finally decided to drink, I see." Bryce says to the beer in Chuck hand.

"One beer will do me some good. I do have to sit here and listen to your problems after all."

Chuck and Bryce laugh.

A couple of drinks later Chuck has Bryce spilling out his guts. (Not literally)

Bryce slurs his words as he talks. "But the real reason I'm here is because I have a client who loves kids. She's head over heels for them."

Chuck also slurs his words as he talks. "Let me guess, you told her you had a kid?"

"Yeah! See, I told her I was a single father, that my girlfriend had died in a terrible accident and had left me to take of our son all alone."

Chuck and Bryce laugh.

"Wait! Wait! That's not all! She felt so sorry for me she took me to her house to comfort me and she also said she'd pay me double for my services to her! I'm gunna be rich!"

"What if she finds out it was all a lie?"

Bryce leans over and whispers. "See, that's the best part, it'll all be true." Bryce smiles.

"What, you gunna kill Sarah in a horrible accident and take the kid?"

"Yeah. That kid's gunna make me a millionaire. I have it all planned out. My client's gunna feel so bad for the kid she'll offer to marry me and be his new mommy!"

Chuck laughs. "That's great! That's a great plan!"

Chuck's phone rings. He sees its Sarah and turns off his phone.

"Who was that?"

"This girl I'm seeing. She has me on a string. I better get going. I need to be good to her too. Her father's a millionaire and I really need some money." Chuck stands up and rocks back and forth.

"Yeah, I need to be going to."

Bryce and Chuck walk outside to look for their cars.

"So Sarah? You seen her lately?"

"Actually I did. Just before I came here I went to go pay her a visit."

"What happen?" Chuck says as they walk into an alley.

"She was un-cooperative and I had to sort her out."

"You hit her?"

"Right in the mouth!" Bryce laughs.

John follows the two drunks to the alley. They're swaying back and forth talking.

"Hey," Bryce says looking around. "my cars not over here."

Chuck stands up straight and is suddenly sober and not slurring his words. "Good guess."

Before Bryce or even John can react Chuck punches Bryce in the eye making him fall to the ground.

John walks over to Chuck as he kicks Bryce on the floor.

"You had me fooled, Handy man." John says, stopping Chuck's attack.

Chuck turns to look at John. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see what my sister in-laws boyfriend was doing with her ex-boyfriend. How do you know this scum bag, anyway?"

"He's the one that got my wife pregnant."

John grunts. "Well isn't that convenient. How'd you know he'd be here?"

"We use to come here when we were younger. Why?"

"I was starting to think that maybe you two were planning on killing Sarah."

"Well he is. That's why I got him drunk. I wanted to know what he was really up to."

"And?"

"He wants to kill Sarah and get Travis so he can get married to this rich lady."

"Hold on, I saw you drink though. How are you not drunk?"

"I have my ways. Now I need your help."

"You want me to kill him?" John says as he takes out his gun.

"NO! I want you to beat me up."

"What?" John says as he puts his gun away.

"I want to make it look as if we were jumped. Here." Chuck hands John his wallet then he leans down to take Bryce's wallet. He takes out all his money and credit cards and gives them to John then he throws the empty on the floor. "Alright, rough me up, not too hard, than called the police. The officer will see we're drunk and not waste his time with us."

John stuffs everything in his jacket and shakes his head. "You surprise me, handy man. I never pictured you doing this. I like it though."

Chuck puts his hand on Johns shoulder. "Well thanks."

"I didn't say I liked you though." John says before punching Chuck in the stomach.

John did as Chuck asked and called the police. The police arrived in minutes.

"You called?" The officer asks as he walks over to John.

"Yeah." John shows the officer his DEA badge. "Found these two here. Seems they've been robbed."

"Serves them right. They're drunk. You know them?"

"Curly haired one is my fiancés sister's boyfriend. Never seen the other one."

"Alright well…" The officer walks over to the two unconscious guys on the ground. "I have to take them into custody. I'll write a report once they're awake. I'd doubt they'd remember anything in their drunk state, though."

'Okay so the handy man's plan wasn't going exactly as planned.' John thought.

Okay, no more fighting until Bryce finds out about Chuck and Sarah or Chuck's dad returns.

Thanks for reading. Please review.

Next Up: You got some 'splaining to do.