Malice

by Jennifer Jaynes

  “Yeah. But one more block, and he would’ve been a goner.”

  “I’m glad you managed to catch him,” Daniel said. He made the introductions. “Mia, this is my sister, Claire.”

  Mia forced a smile and held out her hand. Claire stared at it for a moment. When she finally accepted it, her hand was moist, and her handshake was limp and quick.

  “This is Ben,” Daniel said. “Ben, Mia.”

  Unlike Claire’s, Ben’s greeting was warm. He walked around the table and threw his arms out by his sides, inviting Mia into a hug. Daniel had said Ben was a good guy. That he was a great provider and dad to his nephews. He also considered him a saint for putting up with his sister.

  Mia accepted Ben’s warm embrace and hugged him back.

  “Welcome to the family, Mia,” Ben said with a wide smile. “It’s so great to finally meet you. Daniel here has been selfish, keeping you to himself all this time.”

  Mia watched Claire shoot her husband a dirty look, but Ben didn’t seem to notice. In Mia’s experience, men didn’t catch half the things women noticed or did.

  “It’s great to finally meet you, too,” Mia said. She glanced at Claire. “Both of you.”

  Claire eyed her suspiciously as they took their seats.

  Mia felt Daniel’s hand on her thigh. He squeezed it as though trying to reassure her.

  The waitress appeared and took their drink orders. Claire and Ben ordered Perrier. Mia noticed that when Daniel ordered a whiskey on the rocks, Claire looked peeved.

  “Dan says you’re from Phoenix,” Ben said when the waitress walked off.

  Mia nodded. “That’s right. Born and raised.”

  “What brought you out to LA?”

  “I needed a change,” she said, repeating the lie she always told. “And I’d always dreamed about living here, so I figured it was now or never.”

  “Been here long?” Ben asked.

  “About two years now.”

  “Like it?”

  “Love it.”

  “I’m sure you do,” Claire interjected, her voice sharp as glass.

  Mia looked curiously at the woman, taking care to keep her own expression pleasant.

  “And what is it you do again?” Claire asked.

  Mia knew well from the correspondence she’d read that Claire already knew what she did and didn’t approve of it. She seemed to think that because Mia was a waitress and had married a doctor, she was automatically a gold digger.

  Mia told her again what she did.

  “A waitress,” Claire said slowly, as though she was amused. “That’s pretty . . . what’s the word I’m looking for? Ambitious?” Her smile was obnoxious.

  Mia bit into the inside of her cheek, then quickly relaxed her jaw. “Yes, I suppose it is. Kind of like working in retail sales,” she said with a smile of her own. “That’s what you did before you married Ben, right? Worked at Sephora?”

  The corners of Claire’s mouth pulled down.

  Yes, I did my homework on you, too, sweetie. Mia tried to keep the expression on her face pleasing, to appear completely at ease, in control, but her body wasn’t cooperating. Something dark had risen up inside of her, and now adrenaline was coursing through her bloodstream.

  Calm down, she told herself.

  Claire had no clue what she was capable of.

  Mia picked up her wineglass and took a long sip of her merlot. She stared back at Claire, whose eyes were now angry little marbles.

  “Okay, now you ladies are even,” Daniel said. “Can we try to play nice now? We’re family, after all. Whether we all like it or not.”

  It was obvious that playing nice was the last thing Claire wanted to do. She scowled at Mia and picked up a knife and a roll. The rounded blade of the butter knife glinted beneath the candlelight, sending old laughter echoing through Mia’s head. Of the girls in middle school. The blonde who had thrown the cockroach in her hair was named Audrey. She’d been the leader of a small gang of popular girls. After Mia had beaten the shit out of her, Audrey had avoided her and gone after other girls. Mia wondered what a girl like Audrey was up to now. If her crimes had gotten any worse over the years.

  She thought about all the female bullies who had come after her. Much older ones, later in life. Three had been wearing orange jumpsuits. Mia had retaliated with a meat cleaver and spent two days in the hole.

  “Mia?”

  It was Daniel’s voice.

  Mia blinked herself back to the present and realized she’d been staring hard at Claire.

  Claire was watching her, a startled expression on her face.

  Shit. She’d lost it for a moment.

  “You okay?” Daniel asked.

  “I’m fine,” Mia said, forcing herself to smile. She glanced at Claire. “Sorry, I didn’t sleep well last night. I must have checked out just now.” As she spoke, she could feel the weight of Daniel’s stare. She knew she’d screwed up.

  “Look, I’m going to come right out and say it,” Claire said. “Some things have really been bothering me. So, it’s not enough that you guys just up and get married within months of meeting each other, but it bothers me that you didn’t sign a prenup.” Her eyes locked on Mia’s. “No offense, but my brother has had a rough life, and he worked very, very hard to get to where he is now—”

  “Claire!” Daniel barked.

  “What?” Claire snapped. “I mean, prenups are so common nowadays. It’s actually strange not to have one, especially when one of the spouses is obviously so much more successful than the other one.”

  “Your brother didn’t ask for one,” she said, forming her words carefully.

  “Well, he should have,” Claire hissed.

  “And he’s not capable of making that decision for himself?” Mia asked.

  Claire glowered at her.

  “Look, Claire,” Daniel said, “you’re my sister, and I will always love you. But frankly . . . my marriage is none of your damn business.”

  Claire turned crimson.

  “He’s right, Claire,” Ben said.

  Claire jerked her head toward her husband, and her eyes flashed. Clearly, she wasn’t used to being spoken to the way she was being spoken to tonight. Mia couldn’t help but wonder why.

  The table went quiet. Mia felt the weight of Daniel’s stare again. She turned to look at him and saw his eyes were no longer on Claire. They were on her, and a worried expression marred his face. What now? she wondered.

  “Mia, are you okay?” he asked. “Your nose is bleeding.”

  She brought her hand to her nose and came away with blood. She grabbed the napkin from her lap and pressed it against her nose. “Excuse me,” she said, as she stood up, and headed for the ladies’ room.

  CHAPTER 11

  DANIEL

  AS SOON AS Mia was out of earshot, Daniel turned on Claire. “For the love of God, Claire! You are way out of line tonight. Even for you!”

  His sister stared at him, her nostrils flaring. “Now I know why you waited so long to introduce us. Come on, Dan, seriously? She looks like a freaking Victoria’s Secret model. I know you know better.”

  Daniel was opening his mouth to respond when her lips started moving again.

  “Not just that, but did you see how she just looked at me? She looked like a freaking psychopath. Where the hell did you find this woman?”

  Claire was right. The way Mia had been staring at his sister had been strange. It reminded him of a similar incident on their honeymoon. But the first time it happened was so fast, like a blip, and he hadn’t really thought anything of it. Now he wondered if maybe it was a medical issue. Something he should have her look into.

  Daniel always tried to have the utmost patience with his sister because they were blood, they had a long history together, and he loved her. Neither he nor Claire had been very social children or even adults for that matter . . . perhaps because people had always let them down. Other than their now-deceased brother, his relationship with Claire had been the o
nly real bond he’d had for the first couple of decades of his life outside of his high school friend, Billy Hayes. Also, Daniel knew that Claire’s heart was in the right place. She was just being protective of him. She’d grown up with the same father and had seen the long line of beautiful but parasitic women he’d spent his free time with. She had formed the same prejudice against them that he had.

  Claire had seen firsthand what those women had driven their father to ultimately do. They’d all taken advantage of him, each new woman worse than the one before her. Because of those women, their father was hardly there for them and was always broke.

  As children, Daniel and Claire learned to quickly distrust women who looked like the ones their father dated. One night years ago, their father had just had a breakup with yet another one of them and, drunk out of his gourd, left the living room where he, Daniel, and Claire were all watching television. It had been one of those rare times when they’d spent an evening together as a family. Their father’s eyes had been glazed over that night, and he’d been especially quiet. Usually when they were together, he told corny jokes and a lot of them. But not that night.

  That night he’d slowly but steadily emptied more and more beer cans, enough of them to create a sizable tower on the TV tray he kept next to his moth-bitten La-Z-Boy recliner. During a break while watching Star Search, he’d disappeared into his bedroom. A minute later, a gun fired. Daniel knew what had happened the instant he’d heard the gunshot. He told Claire to run to a neighboring trailer and have someone call 911. Then he’d gone to his father’s bedroom and opened the door. The gore he’d seen on the other side had been permanently etched into his brain.

  Daniel waved down their waitress and ordered another drink. When she walked off, Claire spoke again. “How the hell old is she, anyway?”

  “She’s thirty-seven. Our age. She just looks younger.”

  “And how well do you know her?”

  “I know her very well.”

  That’s a lie, and you know it.

  Be quiet!

  Claire shook her head. “Very well? Seriously? How could you? It hasn’t even been a year. A year is nothing, Daniel.”

  “Claire,” Ben interjected.

  “What?” Claire snapped.

  “I know everything I need to know,” Daniel answered, his tone matter-of-fact. He was beginning to wonder if it was true, but it wasn’t any of his sister’s business. “Anyway, when did it become a crime to marry a beautiful woman?”

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. They’re all the same, and you know that. Seriously. You really want to follow in Dad’s footsteps?”

  Daniel bristled. That would be the worst thing he could do.

  “She’s nothing like any of Dad’s women,” he said.

  Claire snorted. “She looks exactly like all—”

  He slammed a palm down on the table. “That’s enough, Claire!”

  Claire jumped a little in her chair and blinked at him. But at least she shut her mouth.

  “Look, I’m not sure what you’re trying to accomplish here except for making everyone miserable. In case you missed it, Mia and I are already married. And I’ve already decided not to sign a prenup. It’s done. So, live with it.”

  “You’re right, Dan,” Ben said. “She seems very nice.”

  “Yeah, nice,” Claire said, glaring at her husband. “I’m sure that’s the word that comes to mind when you look at her.”

  “Get to know her before you judge her,” Daniel said. “She’s going to be part of your life for a very long time.”

  Claire crossed her arms. “We’ll see about that.”

  “You don’t understand. She won’t even let me hire a housekeeper. She insists on doing all the cleaning herself. And she didn’t quit her job. So that kind of throws your little theory out the window, doesn’t it? She’s a good woman. You’ll see. And she treats me like a king.”

  Claire’s arms were folded tightly across her chest, but she was listening.

  Silence stretched between them. “I hope to God you’re right,” Claire finally said.

  “I am.”

  No, you’re not.

  Daniel watched Mia make her way back to the table. He cleared his throat, alerting Claire to cool it.

  He smiled at Mia as she sat down. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Sorry about that. My nose always bleeds this time of year. It’s just the change in the weather.”

  “Happens to our oldest son, too,” Ben said.

  Daniel watched his sister stare at his wife, concern creasing her face. Then her eyes swung to his and softened a little. “The boys have an appointment with you tomorrow.”

  “Which ones?” Daniel asked, glad to finally shift the conversation.

  “All four of them.”

  Daniel rubbed his chin. “Is everything okay?”

  “We received a postcard. About that new medicine.”

  Daniel’s stomach tightened.

  “Seriously, Dan, when did you guys become such salespeople? First, I get an email, then a postcard, and then someone from your office calls this morning, asking if I want to make an appointment. What does this miracle drug do? Babysit?”

  The last thing he wanted to talk about, much less think about, tonight was Respira. He filled in his sister with as few details as possible.

  Her eyebrows knitted together. “Seriously? The last I heard, people just got a cold, and they were okay.”

  Jesus. Is this dinner almost over?

  “Well, you’re the doctor,” Claire said. “The boys and I will be there in the morning.”

  The waitress finally appeared and set his drink in front of him. Daniel thanked her and took a long swig of his whiskey. He set his glass down. “Look, why don’t you cancel their appointments for now?”

  Claire’s brow furrowed. “Cancel? Why?”

  “Let’s give it a few more months.”

  “You were just talking about it like it was the best thing since sliced bread, and now you’re saying to wait?” Claire’s eyes narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Christ. Why can’t she just take my damn word for something sometimes?

  “What’s your concern, Daniel?” Ben asked. His eyes narrowed. “Is it not safe?”

  “Of course it’s safe. It’s just that it’s very new, and I’d rather my nephews wait until it’s been on the market for a little while. That’s all.”

  He realized all three of them were staring at him. Waiting for him to go on.

  But he wasn’t going to. He was done talking about Respira for the evening.

  “Well, that was lovely,” Mia said with a little laugh as they pulled out of the restaurant’s parking lot and headed home.

  “I am so sorry for my sister,” Daniel said tiredly. Between the things on his mind and Claire’s rudeness toward Mia and their marriage, his nerves were fried. He was ready to be home, in bed with his wife lying naked beside him and his dog at his feet. “It’s not you, I promise. She’s been this way for as long as I can remember, especially when it comes to women I’m involved with. But she got out of hand tonight—even for her.”

  He reached for Mia’s hand and squeezed it.

  “She’s just protective of her brother,” Mia murmured. “I think it’s sweet.”

  “Sweet?” Despite his lousy mood, he felt a smile tiptoe across his face. “You’re being charitable. I don’t think that’s a word anyone has ever used to describe Claire. Not even as a kid.”

  At least he’d gotten the dinner with Claire out of the way, and she’d had a chance to meet Mia. Maybe she’d quit blowing up his phone and email now.

  As he guided the vehicle onto the entrance ramp to the highway, he circled back to Mia’s behavior earlier. It was the first time he’d seen her angry. But then again, maybe anger wasn’t the best word to describe what he’d seen. Her behavior had been strange—as though she’d been having an episode of some kind. Maybe even a seizure.

  He
thought again about his lie to Claire. There was still a lot he didn’t know about Mia. Specifically, about her past. Of course, he’d realized this before, but he hadn’t much cared. What he cared about most was how she made him feel and what she contributed to his life. What they could contribute to each other’s lives going forward. Their pasts were now beyond their control. She’d mentioned her childhood had been bad, troubled. His past had been troubled, too. The last thing he wanted to do was relive those terrible years again by talking about them. But now that he’d caught her in a lie, he wondered if he had been naive.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Fine. Why?”

  “You checked out a little. Right before your nose started bleeding.”

  “Oh, that. Sorry. I’m just exhausted. I haven’t been sleeping well.”

  She looked as though she wanted to slit your sister’s throat, Daniel.

  Daniel had to agree. She had.

  “Are you sure?” he asked. “Maybe it’s something you should have checked out.”

  “It’s really nothing to worry about. I just need to get more sleep.” She angled her body toward him. “That new drug your sister asked you about? Isn’t it the same one you were talking to Andy about the other night?”

  He exhaled loudly. “Yeah. They’ve been having some problems with it in Tarzana.” The car was quiet while he tried to decide if he wanted to say more. “And on top of what Andy told me, I have a patient. This eighteen-month-old. Really cute little girl. She wound up having a seizure hours after getting it and—”

  “Oh, no. Seriously?”

  He shook his head. “It’s probably nothing. Young kids get seizures. It’s not uncommon these days.”

  The car was quiet for a little while. Just the sound of tires on pavement.

  As the Tahoe hugged the mountain, he glanced out the window and stared at the black water of the Pacific glistening beneath the moonlight.

  “But if you don’t think it was the drug that caused the seizure, why tell Claire and Ben to wait?”

  Because my gut told me to. He rarely went with his gut when making decisions, especially medical ones—and he kind of hated that he had this time. Decisions, most of them, anyway, should be based on logic. On facts, not feelings.