Chapter Twenty Six

As soon as Casey walked into Angelo's to start his delivering shift the next afternoon, Brax pulled him into the back store room. "I want you to take care of the restaurant tomorrow. I'll give you the keys and you can be the boss for a day," he said to his youngest brother. Casey, being the smart and curious Braxton, obviously had questions. "What about Heath?" he asked. "He's the one who usually takes control when you're not around."
"He'll be busy with me," answered Brax.
"What with?" Casey questioned.
"Nothing you need to know," said Brax. "Just tell me you can stay here tomorrow?"
"I had plans with Ruby."
"Cancel them," Brax said immediately.
"I can't just cancel on her."
"Yes you can, I'm sure you do all the time. Surely she cancels on you too."
"Tomorrow is suppose to be my day off," Casey said angrily. "Besides, I'm only ever the delivery boy. What about Liam? Can't he take over?"
"No, he's busy."
Casey wasn't pleased with this at all. He shot his brother a glaring look. "How come when I'm busy I have to cancel my plans, yet you accept the fact that Liam's busy?"
"Because you're my brother-"
"Yeah, my brother not my dad," interrupted Casey.
"Yeah, whatever. You can go and start your shift now," said Brax. Casey knew better than to argue with his brother. Brax always seemed to get what he wanted because he was the oldest brother of the three.

Brodie and Heath walked into Angelo's just as Casey was about to leave for his third pizza delivery. He noticed that the two boys pulled Brax outside. They started whispering between each other suspiciously. Heath looked slightly nervous and kept glancing to and from the restaurant's entrance as if he was afraid of somebody finding out about what they were discussing. From what Casey could see, it looked like Brax was going to take everything in control. How typical, he thought. Brodie, on the other hand, was the same as Heath. He looked just as nervous. All Casey could think about was what the three boys were up to. Casey headed towards them, wanting to find out what was going on. He pretended like he needed to talk to Brax.

Neither Brax, nor Brodie, nor Heath saw Casey coming towards them. When Casey was roughly half a metre away from the boys, that's when they nudged each other and suddenly stopped talking. "What do you want Casey?" asked an annoyed Heath. Brax shot his brother a quick death stare, hoping he would get the message to stop talking and he would handle it with Casey.
"I just needed to talk to Brax..." replied Casey slowly.
"Alright then. Come with me Case," Brax said and led his youngest brother back into the restaurant, in front of the bar. "Yes?" he asked.
In a flash, Casey came up with the stupidest question. "Can Ruby come here with me tomorrow?"
Brax looked at him as if he was slightly out of it. "No," he replied sarcastically. He then saw his brother's face expression. "Only joking mate," he said. "Of course you can as long as you have the restaurant under control." Casey sighed. "Now if you don't mind, I have some stuff to do with the boys," Brax added hastily.

Casey watched as his oldest brother hurried back to Heath and Brodie. Brax didn't seem like himself, Casey thought. Neither did Heath nor Brodie. The only reason Casey could think of was that the boys were hiding something. They hardly ever stopped in the middle of something when someone interrupted them unless it was a secret. They even had to notify each other that Casey was heading to them. Nobody does that in a normal conversation. Casey noticed that once he had gone to them, Heath couldn't stand still and Brodie started fiddling with his fingers. Brax seemed to be the only one who didn't do anything odd, although that was unusual. He always knew what he was doing, and always seemed to be capable of talking himself out of trouble or awkward situations.

Casey jumped onto his scooter to deliver pizzas to Irene's house. He took the quickest route along the beach. Noticing that the River Boys were the only ones on the beach who were huddled as close as he had ever seen them, he slowed down a little. He tried to catch bits of the conversation, but all he heard were the words "equipment," "park," "trail bikes," and "vans." The hand gestures by the boys weren't much of a giveaway as there were no gestures. All the boys had their arms folded tightly. Out of the corner of his eye, Casey noticed Pee Wee taking a small plastic bag out of his pocket. Casey squinted to look closer at the bag. The letters "M" and "W" were labelled on them. "This made more sense now," Casey said to himself. He couldn't believe his brothers were at it again. Everything the boys did was familiar to him again. Every time before they got more crops, they would carry around those bags. Obviously they were heading into the national park with equipment in vans and some of the boys on bikes. Usually Casey would want to go along with them because he thought it was cool, but he had finally learnt. The boys could get into serious trouble. He needed to stop them before they started. Heath had already been busted many times by the cops at Mangrove River. He didn't want to see it happen again so he headed into the opposite direction to talk to Brax again.

Casey stormed into Angelo's. He pulled Brax from behind the bar and into the store room.
"What the heck do you want Casey?" Brax yelled.
"You have to stop," Casey ordered. "You can't go through all this trouble again. I thought you knew better as you've been with Charlie, but obviously not. She kept you in line Brax. You tried to get out of this, but guess what? You've been sucked into it again. When Heath wanted to do this, you'd tell him it was no good, but I guess you're just a hypocrite."
Brax pretended to look puzzled. He acted as if he knew nothing about what Casey was going on about. "Don't look at me like that. I know you know what I'm talking about." Casey shouted.
"Keep your voice down mate," Brax whispered loudly. "What are you talking about?"
Brax was never this thick; obviously some of Heath's personality had rubbed off to him. "The national park, the equipment, plants... Do you want me to go on?" Casey said angrily.
Brax went bright red and knew Casey was onto him. "When are you going?" Casey asked, and that's when it hit him. He spoke up again. "You're going tomorrow aren't you? That's why you want me to look after the restaurant isn't it?"
Brax nodded slowly. "Look Case, you have to keep quiet about this."
"Why are you even going?" Casey demanded. "You haven't done this in ages."
"I need the money."
"Dude, you've got a perfectly fine restaurant going here."
"Yeah, well the stock for the restaurant needs to be paid for doesn't it?"
"No, they just give it to you for free," Casey said with the biggest amount of sarcasm.
"Just keep your mouth shut about this," Brax commanded.
"Fine, whatever you say," replied Casey and walked out of the restaurant angrily. He knew there was no way to stop this. Once Brax had an idea in his head, there was no way you could get it out of your head. Brax was the most stubborn person you could ever come across.