"Hey Kyle, got a minute?" Heath asked his brother. Kyle was closing up at Angelo's and Heath had come here hoping to catch him alone, it was time to let him in on the plan.
"Yeah, I'm almost done here." Heath waited while Kyle finished up with the till.
"Grab us a couple of beers ay?" Heath suggested, taking a seat at a booth. This might be the last time he ever got a chance to do this with this particular brother.
"Alright," Kyle agreed and Heath knew from his tone that he already suspected something was up. Kyle brought the bottles over and took a seat. "What's this about?"
"Can't a bloke just have a beer with his brother?"
"This brother? No." Heath knew it was true and he was sorry about it. He had tried harder than Casey and Brax to make Kyle feel like part of the family, but he also knew he hadn't tried hard enough. But Kyle was a Braxton, there was no doubt about that, and he had more brains than the rest of them put together, he'd be okay. And he had Tamara back, he wouldn't be alone. "Start talking Heath, I'm scared you'll hurt yourself if you keep thinking so hard."
"Shut up," Heath said, throwing Kyle an unimpressed look. Kyle grinned at that, and they both relaxed a little.
"So?"
"Well first I guess I wanna thank you for looking out for Ricky."
"Of course," Kyle said, "that's what family's for. It's gonna be hard for her being a single Mum." Heath knew Kyle spoke from experience, their deadbeat Dad had left Kyle's mother alone to raise him, not that he'd done much better for Heath's own mother, being in jail for much of Heath's childhood, but at least they'd had some semblance of a family.
"It sucks growing up without a Dad huh?"
"Yeah, it's tough," Kyle agreed.
"I've come up with a way to solve that problem for Ricky's baby." Kyle looked at him dubiously.
"You're not gonna marry her are you? Cause I'm not sure that'd be in the kid's best interest." Kyle finished with a smirk and Heath smacked him up the head for being a smartarse.
"No Chuckles, we're gonna bust Brax out."
"You can't..."
"Yeah we can, and we are. It's all set, once he's out the four of us are gonna run."
"Four?"
"Casey's coming too."
"You planned all this without me, I'm your brother too, I wanna help."
"No-"
"C'mon, let me help Heath, I'm good at this stuff and I wanna have your back on this."
"I know you are mate, and you will. You've got the most important job of all. But you have to be here at the restaurant when it goes down. You can't leave this bar and you have to make sure lots of people see you. You need a watertight alibi. You'll be the first one the cops haul in when they figure out we're gone and you have to tell them you know nothing about it." Kyle didn't seem to be able to decide which point to argue first so he asked a question instead.
"Where will you go?"
"The less you know the better."
"You can trust me, I won't dob you in."
"I know, but it's less lies you'll have to tell, it'll be easier for you this way." Kyle looked at Heath skeptically, obviously not sure if he should believe Heath's motives for excluding him. "Here, I bought you a present." Heath pulled a new phone from his pocket and sat it on the table.
"What's this?"
"It's for us to keep in touch. Once we're settled, I'll call you on this. It won't be for a few months though. This way it'll give the investigation time to settle down and if the cops do find this, there'll be nothing for them to trace. Keep it charged and I'll call."
"And if you're not okay?"
"I'm sure you'll see it on the news." They lapsed into silence as Kyle thought it all over, Heath knew it was a lot for him to take in. There were so many variables, so many implications and so many things that could go wrong. Eventually when Kyle did speak, it was to ask the obvious question.
"Why can't I come too?"
"I need you to stay here, remember I said your job was the most important."
"What? To run a restaurant?" Kyle said moodily.
"Partly," Heath agreed. "We'll need money, I've set up an account for you to pay fake invoices into until we get on our feet. I'm sure you can handle the details."
"Wow," Kyle said appreciatively, "you've thought of everything."
"I hope so."
"So what's the rest of this important job?" Heath looked Kyle in the eye before he spoke, needing Kyle to understand the gravity of this.
"I need you to know I'm serious when I say this. There is no one else I can trust with this, no one else I would want to trust with this." Kyle looked back at him intently. "I need you here for Darcy. She's alright with Connie, but if anything happens or she ever needs anything, you'll be all she has." By doing this Heath had made sure he didn't need to worry about Darcy, but he'd done it for Kyle too. Heath could think of no better way to tell him he really was a part of their family.
"Heath..."
"Yes, I'm giving you my daughter, take care of her Kyle."
"I will, I promise." Heath nodded, Kyle had understood.
"Now there's one more thing. Keep an eye on Bianca. I'm going to tell her about this. If she ever needs me for anything I'm going to tell her to come to you. She should be okay, but technically we're still married and if she ever decides she wants to take things further with Maguire it could be a problem. Help her out if you can, and call me if you can't."
"Alright." They lapsed into silence again, Heath wondering if he'd remembered everything he needed to tell Kyle. It was Kyle who broke the silence. "Once you're gone, will I ever see you again?" It was a good question.
"I don't know."
AN: So, the way I see it this fic has three chapters to go. They could be a while though, I've got a decision to make. Happy ending or not so happy ending? Got any thoughts about it? PM me or leave a review… Thanks for reading :)