Free Protecting You (The Boston irkpatricks #1) by S. Donahue Page A

about the previous owner. I never even knew there would have been one.
    While Brendan locked up, I checked my emails. There was one from the captain asking how I was. I replied back telling him that I was okay and I would have some kind of preliminary report for him by the end of the week.
    “I’m back,” Brendan said.
    “Okay. I’m ready to get out of here.”
    “Once the bartenders are done cleaning up and the DJ leaves, I’ll close my office up and we can go home.”
    About an hour later, everyone was gone. I locked the door behind Mike. Brendan was in his office. I tapped on the door. It was open halfway.
    “Come in,” he said.
    I pushed the door open and was surprised to see him with his hands in his head.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “It’s been a long day.”
    “You’re telling me!”
    “There are some things that I need to tell you,” Brendan said, with a look of concern on his face.
    “Do you want to tell me now or at home?”
    “Let’s go home. I had enough of this place today.”
    He looked so distant, like he had a lot on his mind. He wasn’t being his usual perverted self. I needed to find out what was going on.
    The car ride home was taking forever. I just wanted to get in my pajamas and relax.
    When we arrived home, I immediately showered. I put on my oversized Phillies t-shirt and cheerleader shorts to match. Brendan was sitting on the sofa when I came down.
    “Feel better?” he asked.
    “Yes, completely. I’m going to make tea, you want some?”
    “I think I’ll take a beer. There’s some wine in there too.”
    “You know what, that sounds good. I think I’ll have a glass.”
    I brought the beer to Brendan and set my glass of wine on the coffee table.
    “Do you want me to take notes? I’m going to have to document this information if it going to help me with this case.”
    “Sure, that’s fine.”
    “Brendan, talk to me,” I said, grabbing his hand. “If something’s bothering you, I need to know what it is.”
    “I’m upset about what Carmen said.”
    “About the previous owner?”
    “Yes.”
    “I thought you were the only owner.”
    “No, there was someone before me.”
    He had this sadness about him. I couldn’t pinpoint it. I just wanted to hug him. He wanted to speak, but he was hurting.
    “Who was it?” I asked.
    “It was my brother Connor. He passed away.”
    “I didn’t know you had a brother. What happened?”
    “He overdosed on pills.”
    “Oh Brendan, I’m so sorry.”
    “He had a gambling addiction. It started getting really bad. He was going to lose the club, or so he said. He came to me for money. I told him I would give him the money the next day. I wanted to look into the status of the club. I didn’t trust him with the money because of his habit. He wanted $100,000. For whatever reason, he needed it. He couldn’t wait. He took his life that night with a bottle of pills.”
    “That’s horrible.”
    “Yeah, well I blamed myself for a long time. If I would have given him the money when he asked for it, he may still be here.”
    “Brendan, you don’t know that for sure.”
    “After the funeral and everything, I found out he was losing the business, so I paid off the mortgage and remodeled the place. I made it drug free. I mean can you see why I’m anti-drugs? I do believe that he needed that money for something else. I just can’t find out why.”
    I cannot believe what this poor guy has had to endure. “You can’t blame yourself.”
    “He passed away during my divorce to Jessica. I was a mess, emotionally. I kept Billy at the club to run it. I couldn’t handle it at the time. He is my cousin and he and Connor were inseparable. Connor would have wanted me to keep him there. This is why I can’t fire him. I feel an obligation to my brother and I’d rather have the police handle it. I also think Billy knows a whole lot more about Connor’s situation, but I can’t question him.”
    “Now I see why you didn’t fire Billy. I was