The Clarke Brothers (Complete Series)

by Lilian Monroe

  “Daddy,” I sob. “I don’t know what to do.”

  I hate how small my voice is, and I hate having to ask my dad for help, but as soon as he starts asking me what’s wrong, his voice lends me a bit of strength.

  “What’s up Mads? Come on, stop crying. Come on kiddo.”

  I snort as I try to laugh through my tears. “You haven’t called me kiddo in years.”

  “You’re still my kid, Madeline,” he says gently. “Come on, tell me what happened.”

  “There’s a boy,” I blurt out. “A man, I mean.”

  My father makes a knowing sound and I can imagine him nodding. His voice is like a hug through the phone, and I lie back in bed, bringing my hand to my eyes.

  “His name is Aiden. Dad,” my voice catches in my throat. “Dad I think I’m in love with him.”

  “Oh, Mads,” my dad says gently. “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”

  I snort again as I try to laugh. “And I messed up at work and now the project is stopped and it’s all a big mess and it’s my fault.”

  My father chuckles. “You work for an international construction company on a multi-million dollar project. I can guarantee it’s not completely your fault. Tell me what happened.”

  I take a deep breath and start talking. I tell him everything, from the town hall meeting to the community garden to the beauty of the mountains. I tell him about Aiden, and how he’s cared for me and been gentler with me than any man before. I tell him that I don’t know who I am anymore, and I don’t know what I want. I tell him that I feel like I’ve been lying to myself this whole time.

  He listens to it all. By the end of the conversation my voice is steady and my eyes are dry.

  “You’ll figure it out, Mads,” he says. “Go back to work and fix things with your boss. Tomorrow you can talk to Aiden once you’ve both calmed down.”

  I nod. “Okay. Thanks, Dad.”

  “I love you, kiddo.”

  I laugh, and this time it actually sounds like a real laugh. “I love you too, Dad. It’s nice to talk to you.”

  “Thanks for calling. Let me know how it all goes.”

  We hang up and I hold the phone to my chest. I take a long, shuddering breath and sit up. I may be a grown woman, but having a heart-to-heart with my dad has always made me feel better. He’s given me the courage to go back to work and own up to my mistakes. Tomorrow, I’ll go to Aiden and own up to my mistakes with him.

  Once that’s done, I’ll let the cards fall as they may and deal with whatever comes. My dad is right. I’ll figure it all out. I wipe my cheeks one more time and take a deep breath. Time to go back to work.

  34

  Aiden

  When I get to Ethan’s house, I bang on the door until he answers. I barge in past him and pace back and forth in the living room until he clears his throat.

  “You all right, Aiden?”

  “No! I’m not all right. That fucking hotel is driving me insane.” Maddy being mad at me is driving me insane. “They’ve stopped construction because of that petition that Bill started. I don't know, I feel like it’s temporary.”

  Ethan nods and I flop down onto his sofa. I let all the air out of my lungs as Ethan sits across from me and studies my face. He rests his elbows on his knees and tents his fingers under his chin.

  “What’s changed?”

  I stare at him and shake my head. “I just… The McCoys… The site.”

  Ethan nods his head up and down and frowns. “You look like shit.”

  I look up toward him and see the grin playing on his lips. “Thanks,” I say. Ethan shrugs and leans back in his chair.

  “You didn’t answer my question. What’s changed?”

  I know that Ethan won’t let this go. Where Dominic is too quiet, Ethan is always talking things out. He can smell a lie a mile away. I take a deep breath.

  “Maddy,” I say simply. “She left.”

  “Ahh,” Ethan says. “The girl.”

  “She’s not just a girl,” I say. I feel my heart squeeze and I think of the look in her eyes this morning. She looked so hurt, and it was all my fault. “I can’t explain it, Ethan. I know that she works for the hotel, but she cares. She cares about it all. She cares about Lang Creek. She found out about the petition and got into shit at work and she thinks I was hiding it from her.”

  “Were you?” I frown, staring at Ethan. He shrugs again. “Were you hiding it from her?”

  “No! I mean, I signed it, but I didn’t think it would come to anything. Petitions are bullshit! They never change anything!”

  “Right. Except this time it did.”

  “For now, yeah.” I sigh again and rub my temples. “I can’t stand the thought of the McCoys squeezing more money from this town, but when I think of Maddy…” My voice trails off and I stare at the carpet between us. Ethan stays still, waiting for me to continue. “I care about her, Ethan. Like, really care about her.”

  I finally look my brother in the eye and he lifts an eyebrow. “Love?”

  “No!” I blurt out. “I mean, I don’t know. Fuck, man…” I sigh. Ethan chuckles.

  “Look, I can’t help you with her. But once this place is built, do you think she would stick around? You said yourself she’s a successful engineer. What life is there for her here? She’s here for one reason, and it’s that fucking hotel.” He pauses, and we stare at each other for a moment. I nod slowly and he continues. “When the hotel is done, when it’s all over, she’s going to leave, Aiden.” He almost whispers the last part and I drop my head into my hands.

  “I know,” I say. My chest feels like it’s being squeezed by a huge hand and I can hardly make my voice louder than a whisper. “I know.”

  “I’m sorry, Aiden. I’m sure she’s nice. But look around you.”

  His eyebrows are drawn together and I see real concern in his eyes. What he’s saying hurts, but it only hurts because it rings true. I take a deep breath and push myself up so I’m standing.

  “I’m going out of town for a few days,” I say, making a snap decision. “I need some time to think.”

  “Where will you go?”

  “Don’t know. Wolf Mountain, maybe. Somewhere with no cell phone towers, no hotels, and no women.”

  Ethan grins. He nods his chin once and reaches his hand toward me. I grab it and he pulls me in for a hug.

  “Take care of yourself, Aiden,” he says. His voice is muffled in my shoulder and I nod.

  “Yeah,” I say. We pull apart and he puts his hand on my shoulder. He looks me in the eye and for a moment I see my father’s eyes in his. In a way, he’s the one who’s most like our dad. He’s reasonable, level-headed, business-minded. He can talk to people and they like him.

  He grins at me and I see my father’s smile. I smile back and shake my head.

  “You remember when Dad took us camping down the river and you got stuck in that tree?”

  Ethan laughs. “Got stuck in the tree! More like got tricked into going up there. If I remember correctly it was you and Dominic who lifted me up there.”

  “You cried for the whole day and wouldn’t talk to us for a week,” I laugh.

  “You guys were assholes,” he says. “But I guess not much has changed.

  I grin, and he claps me on the shoulder. “If I can survive growing up with you guys as brothers, you can survive this.”

  “I’ll see you in a couple days,” I say. He nods, and I see something in his eyes. They spark, and then there’s a darkness behind them. It’s gone in an instant, and we nod at each other again.

  When I get into my dad’s old truck, he’s standing at his door waving me off. I watch him in the rear-view mirror as he turns back inside and closes his door, and it feels like the end of something.

  I don’t know what it’s the end of, or what’s going to happen, but it feels significant. I turn the truck onto the main road and head north. I’m going to drive until I find somewhere to stop, then I’m going to set up my tent and stay out the
re for a few days. I’m going to figure this whole thing out. Maddy, the McCoys, the hotel – I’ll figure it out. I just need time to think. I need to feel the mountains and hear the birds and breathe the clean air that I grew up in. I just need a bit of time, and then I’ll know what to do.

  35

  Madeline

  When I walk back into work, Barry looks up from his desk. The little patch of red skin is gone, and he nods his chin down at me. The worst of it seems to have passed. I slide into my desk and start my computer. Once it’s on, I check my emails and read the report from the Department that revokes our work permit. I sigh. It’s not going to be easy to reverse this one.

  Barry appears next to my desk and nods his head toward the conference room.

  “Can I talk to you?”

  He looks almost apologetic, so I nod my head and follow him in. We both sit down and Barry takes a deep breath.

  “I didn’t handle that properly. I shouldn’t have brought up your personal life.”

  I shake my head. “I should have run through the changes with you on the application. I swear I didn’t know about the petition, Barry. I would have told you.”

  He nods. “I know. I shouldn’t have accused you of that. I know you care too much about doing your job right to do something like that.”

  I take a deep breath and feel a tiny fraction of the weight lifting off my shoulders. Barry doesn’t seem mad at me, and my dad is right. It’s not my fault this project has come to a halt. It couldn’t be just one person’s fault.

  The site is stood down, so we spend the rest of the day doing paperwork. I start working on an appeal for the petition and get to work sorting through all the conditions that have to be met for the work to be reinstated.

  Before I know it, I’m right back in the swing of work, putting all my effort into getting this hotel built. It’s not until I’m back in my room at the end of the day that I realize what’s happened. Maybe I do want to build this thing. Maybe I do really believe that it’ll be good for the people of Lang Creek.

  I care about my job, and my job is to care about the environment while constructing these projects. It doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. I stare at myself in the long mirror in my room and stand up a little bit taller. I’m definitely not a bad person. It’s not evil to be building a hotel in a beautiful place. It’s not going to ruin the place. It just means more people will be able to enjoy the beauty. I never would have seen this place if this hotel wasn’t being built.

  I never would have met Aiden if this hotel wasn’t being built.

  Pretty soon, my eyelids start feeling heavy. My brain starts slowing down after buzzing all day and my whole body feels more and more tired. The adrenaline and emotion of the day knocks me out, and within minutes I fall into a deep sleep.

  A loud banging on my door wakes me up. I jump up out of bed, still fully dressed in my work clothes. I fell asleep on top of the covers, collapsed in bed straight after work. I rub my eyes and head to the door, pulling it open to see Cecilia with her arm raised to bang it again.

  “Cecilia, what’s going on?”

  “Maddy! The hotel!”

  “What about it?” I look back toward my window and see the dark night sky. “What time is it?”

  “It’s just after midnight. I tried calling you. Barry is on his way to site with the fire department.”

  “What? What are you talking about? What’s going on? Cecilia, slow down.”

  “Maddy, the hotel is on fire.”

  Her words almost knock me back. I take a step backward and finally see the horror in her face. A siren rushes past the front of the street in the direction of the site. I hurry to the window and pull it open, poking my head out to see a huge plume of smoke in the distance. It smells like wood burning. I glance back at Cecilia, my eyes wide and my heart thumping.

  “It’s on fire?”

  “They’re calling in the helicopters. They’re saying it could turn into a forest fire. Come on, let’s meet Barry.”

  I’m in a daze. I’m a zombie, being led down the steps and out to the car. I get in the passenger seat of Cecilia’s car and watch the trees rush by as we drive toward the site. I hold my phone in my hands, and it feels heavier than usual in my lap. My finger hovers over Aiden’s number, but I don’t have the courage to call him. Not yet.

  We’re stopped before we can get to the site offices. The fire department has barricades set up, but I can see the fire raging higher up on the hill.

  The heat of the fire is in the air, and the smell of smoke is strong. I look at Cecilia with my eyes wide and she shakes her head. The flames have consumed the entire hotel and are starting to lick the nearby trees. The entire site is a mess of yellow and red and orange.

  From this safe distance it looks almost beautiful, in an awful kind of way. I get out of the car and watch as one of the main supporting beams at the front of the hotel collapses. We just put that in two weeks ago.

  Barry’s car is parked over to the side, so I walk over next to him. He’s on the phone, but when he sees me, he rolls down the window and turns toward us.

  “Arson,” he says. My eyes widen and my heart drops to my stomach. My hand slips into my pocket and I feel my phone again.

  “How do you know?”

  “We won’t know for sure until the fire’s out and we can get some forensics, but the forest was soaked with all the rain we’ve gotten. The Fire Marshal said there’s no way this is a natural fire. With all the opposition we’ve gotten…” his voice trails off and his eyes move toward the fire. He shakes his head from side to side and I think I see a tear forming.

  I follow his gaze and once again I’m almost mesmerized by the fire. It’s not until Aiden’s voice rings in my head that the horror really starts to set in. One little thing he said last time I saw him, when his eyes were full of anger and his voice was hard and cold.

  “Short of burning the fucking place down, that petition was the only thing I could do.”

  I can hear his voice as if he were standing next to me. It plays over and over in my head as I watch the fire destroy everything we’ve built.

  I take a few steps away from the cars and pull out my phone. In a few quick taps, my fingers are once again hovering over his name. My heart starts pounding and the tears fall on my cheeks.

  Cecilia appears beside me and wraps her arm around my shoulders.

  “Come on,” she says. “The smoke is getting to you. Let’s get back somewhere safer.”

  It’s generous of her, to blame the smoke for my tears. I slip my phone back in my pocket and let her guide me back to her car and pack me into the front seat. I let her drive away, and I can’t bear to look at the raging fire behind us. I let her take me back to the hotel and guide me up to my room.

  There, she helps me take my shoes off and pours me a glass of water. I’m catatonic. I know I am, but there’s nothing I can do to change it. She finally leaves and I lie back in bed and stare at the ceiling.

  I can’t believe that Aiden could have done this. Was it him? Is he capable of something like this? Of arson? Of destroying something so big?

  I know that he didn’t want the hotel to be built, but is he a criminal?

  The peaceful sleep that I had earlier seems like a lifetime ago. Now all I have is dread and horror and questions and betrayal. My mouth tastes like ash and my chest feels empty.

  My phone is ringing beside me, and it takes me a few seconds to recognize the sound. I turn my head to see my mother’s phone number on the screen. I move slowly, as if my limbs are suddenly twice as heavy as they were an hour ago.

  “Mom,” I say into the phone. My voice is hoarse and I can’t manage anything else. Some part of my brain registers the sound of her sobbing.

  “Your father,” she says between sobs. “Your father. Come back, Maddy. He’s leaving us.”

  I don’t want to understand her, so I don’t. I stare at the ceiling and listen to her crying as if it’s happening to someone else.


  “What do you mean, Mom? Where is he going?”

  She takes a deep breath and sighs into the phone. “He’s dying, Madeline. Come home.”

  36

  Aiden

  After a couple nights under the stars, I’m ready to face the world again. I’ve heard the birds chirping and heard the crickets at night. Last night there was an owl nearby, and I fell asleep to the sounds of the wind in the trees.

  I realize now that the hotel isn’t the problem. The hotel might be huge, and ugly, and bring in lots of tourists that don’t respect the area – but it will also bring trade and breathe life back into our dying town. The hotel could be a good thing.

  The problem is the McCoys. Their opportunistic, vulture-like attitude to business has always been a cancer on this town. If I can’t stop the hotel, then at least I can take back my father’s businesses.

  I’ve finally allowed myself to think about the past. Even though it hurts as much as ever, it doesn’t seem as hopeless as before.

  Ten years ago, Mara McCoy and I were dating. The whole town knew that we’d get married one day. My father’s business was booming. He ran a small transportation business, Clarke Transportation, with a fleet of a dozen trucks that ran routes throughout the area. The three of us brothers were set to inherit it.

  Our two families were inseparable, and we’d gone down to the creek for a summer picnic. That day, Mara fell into Lang Creek and my father jumped in to save her. He was in the icy water for a little too long, spent a little too much time fishing her out. With his typical stubbornness, he refused to go to the doctor. It wasn’t until the pneumonia was too far gone that he finally went to the hospital.

  That’s when I learned his health insurance wouldn’t cover his care. He stayed in hospital until we were completely broke. The McCoys offered to buy up the business to fund his hospital care. It wasn’t until he died that we realized what we’d done. They’d taken advantage of three teenage boys to acquire the most profitable trucking company for a hundred miles. They renamed it ‘McCoy Trucking’ and paraded the business in front of us until the three of us fled town. Dominic and I to the mountains, and Ethan away to school. The ultimate shame was having to go back and work for the people that betrayed us.