by Malone, M.
“Uh, hi. I’m here to see my father. Is he here?” I probably should have called ahead but I was going on instinct.
“You must be Tank. I’m Charlene, your father’s personal assistant. He’s handling something right now but I’m sure he’ll want to see you. Follow me.”
His personal assistant. I wonder what the other lady was. His second assistant? Assistant to his personal assistant?
Is this what I’ll be like in twenty years?
It’s a strange thing to think of the future now. There was a time I wondered if I’d live to see thirty at all. Longevity isn’t assumed when you spend your time watching the world through a scope.
But I have an entirely different future to look forward to now. Since my mom’s astronomical hospital bill was cleared, I can use my money to set up the other treatments she needs. We can afford for her to try some of the therapies offered overseas. Things that aren’t approved yet in the U.S. but have been saving lives in other countries.
I’m not used to feeling gratitude but that’s what this is. He’s given me back my hope for a little while. The least I can do is say thank you in person. It makes me feel guilty that I assumed he was so cold. He’s asked for very little actually. He just wanted to see me.
As we pass through the outer doors into the main area of the hotel suite, there’s a sudden, loud voice. The door to one of the bedrooms opens.
“Don’t think this is the last you’ve heard from me, old man. I know everything.” Mr. Boyd exits followed by two of the big, burly guys I remember from last time.
As they pass, Boyd points a finger at me. “He manipulates everyone around him. Don’t for one minute think you’re any different.”
One of the guys grabs him by the arm. “Come on. You’ve said your piece.”
“He hired that girl to draw you in and it worked. But he’ll get rid of you just as quickly as he did me when he’s done with you.”
I reach out and grab his arm. He’s so startled that he halts his tirade. I hold up a hand to the two security guys.
“Wait a minute. Let him speak.”
His skin has turned a sickly shade of green under his spray tan but he must sense this will be his only chance.
“You should know the truth about him. He uses his money to control everyone around him, including his children. He probably figured one million was a cheap price to pay to get you right where he wants you. You’re a fool if you believe otherwise.”
Everything inside me shrivels up into a little hard ball.
“You said he hired that girl. What girl?”
“Emma Shaw.” He sneers her name and I immediately want to wipe the syllables from his mouth. It’s wrong for him to even speak her name. Not to mention the unholy look in his eyes.
“What does Emma have to do with anything?”
He laughs and my hands clench into fists.
“You actually thought she cared about you? Girls like that start coming out of the woodwork when you have money. I’m doing you a favor. At least you didn’t marry the bitch. That’s what he would have done.”
He’s goading me and I know it. My mother is one of the women he’s referring to. It would be foolish to respond to the obvious taunt. He wants me to hit him so he’ll have something to use against me.
I need to walk away. Be the bigger man.
Then I think about it again and decide, Fuck it.
“I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t.” Then I punch him right above the nose. He buckles and drops to the ground like a stone.
The two security guys are grinning at me now.
“I’m done with him. You can take him … wherever you were taking him.”
I honestly don’t care at this point.
The door to the bedroom they just exited hangs open. My father is sitting next to the window. He turns his head as I enter the room. “Tanner? What are you doing here?”
“I was coming to thank you for paying mom’s hospital bill. I had this whole speech worked out in my head about how I’d misjudged you and you really were just looking to start over with us. Then I find out you hired Emma to what, seduce me?”
“It wasn’t like that. Emma is a nice girl. It was an opportunity for her to earn some money for her education.”
“Normal relationships don’t work like this. You can’t just pay people to be your friend or to do what you want. That’s not how it works.”
“I didn’t mean to cause trouble between you two. That’s not what was supposed to happen.”
His words only fuel my anger. Things always happen the way he wants them to and no one ever says no. Money has greased the wheels of his life for so long that he doesn’t know how to operate without using it. He doesn’t know how to have a normal relationship based on give and take.
“You want to know why you don’t have family around to take care of you while you’re sick? Because of shit like this. You manipulate people and use them to get what you want. You’re like a cancer. A sickness that spreads and devours everything around you. You wonder why you’re all alone? This is why.”
His mouth opens and then closes again but no sound comes out. His skin pales even further until he looks almost gray. My anger recedes as I realize that he isn’t responding to anything I’ve said. Not the anger or the accusations.
He looks stricken. For a moment, I feel guilty for how I’m lighting into him. He looks old and frail. His hand is shaking when he puts it to his forehead.
“Well? Say something.”
The hand resting on the side arm of his wheelchair shakes before falling to the side. His entire body slumps over, his head falling forward wildly.
“Dad? Help! Somebody.”
The doors to the suite burst open. The redhead who answered the door looks between me and my father in shock.
“Call 911.”
She recovers then dashes to the phone on the table. While she’s dialing, I press my fingers to the side of my father’s neck. I can’t feel anything and I’m not sure if it’s due to the angle of his body or the adrenaline racing through my own veins.
“Come on. Come on.”
I’m not sure who I’m talking to, my father or the god I stopped believing in long ago.
* * *
At the hospital, the doctor disappears behind the swinging door and leaves me standing in the waiting room feeling like someone just clawed an open wound in my chest.
He’s alive. Barely.
“Is there someone I can call for you?” The nurse behind the desk is watching me with the kind of patient, gentle expression I imagine they must teach at nursing schools.
She’s an older woman, with dark brown hair pulled up into an elegant knot at the back of her head. She looks like the kind of lady who has a husband and three well-behaved kids. I briefly consider asking her if she’d adopt me.
I wouldn’t even know what to do in a normal family.
“No. I’m going to call my brother.”
I pull out my cell phone and retreat to one of the uncomfortable waiting room chairs. I dial Finn’s number and the voicemail picks up.
“Finn. I’m at the hospital. Norfolk General. Our father has had a stroke. Or a heart attack. I don’t even know exactly. I just … need you to come. Just in case.”
I hang up and scrub my hands through my hair as I settle back to wait. The time passes slowly. I’ve never liked hospitals and this waiting is just brutal. I look at the clock on the wall for the millionth time.
The doctor still hasn’t come back out to tell me what’s going on. I’ve been waiting for a half an hour. I glance at the nurse behind the desk. She looks at me and then her gaze skitters away.
I stand and pull out my phone again. Shouldn’t there be someone else I should call? Does my father even have friends?
There are probably a million things I should be doing right now but I have no idea what they are. Things a good son would do.
But then I’m not a good son, am I?
I was yelling at him. C
hrist.
The door from the outer corridor opens and Finn walks in. A second later, Gabe and Zack follow.
A sense of relief fills me to overflowing. I sit down suddenly, sagging against the chair.
“I came as soon as I got your message.” Finn takes the chair next to me. Gabe and Zack take the ones across the aisle.
“How is he doing?” Gabe asks.
“I don’t know. They won’t tell me anything.” My voice cracks slightly.
Finn’s hand lands on my shoulder. “He’s going to be okay. He’s too cranky to die. Isn’t it only the good who die young?”
He’s trying to make me feel better but his words just work on the guilt I’m already feeling.
“I was yelling at him. I told him he was a bastard who would die alone.”
“It’s not your fault.”
I look up at Zack’s voice. Gabe and Finn look over at him, too. He speaks so rarely it’s always something of a shock.
Gabe grins at us. “Yeah, he comes out to play sometimes.”
“Shut up, Gabe,” Zack responds, but there’s a wealth of history behind it. It reminds me of how I fight with Finn.
“All I’m saying is, it’s not your fault. Any one of us could have been there when it happened. Hell, I yelled at him when I saw him, too.”
He runs his hands over the shaved sides of his head. The intricate designs tattooed on his scalp stand out in stark relief against his pale skin.
I glance over to see Finn watching me.
“You guys were getting along better. There’s got to be more to this story. What happened?” he asks.
Strangely enough, I have somehow pushed the conversation about Emma to the back of my mind.
“It was about Emma. He hired her.”
I stand up. I just can’t sit in these stupid beige chairs any longer pretending like everything in my life isn’t completely screwed up. The one person I thought of as normal, perfect and untouched has been a part of this screwed up business from the beginning.
“He hired her?”
“According to Mr. Boyd. But Dad confirmed it.” I give a bitter laugh. “He paid her to convince me to agree to his terms.”
Finn blows out a breath. “Damn. That’s pretty cold.”
“He said he wasn’t trying to cause trouble but I can’t trust anything that comes out of his mouth. I’m not sure what’s really going on but we should probably all be on guard. He has his motives for bringing us back into his life.”
“Tank! Finn! I got up here as soon as I could.”
For a brief moment, my heart lifts at the sound of her voice. I guess it hasn’t gotten the memo yet that she’s not really mine.
Finn turns apologetic eyes to me.
“She was in the shower when I got your call. I told her to meet us here.” He glances over to Gabe and Zack. “We’ll go get some coffee.”
Emma looks between us uncertainly. She can surely feel the difference in the way Finn is treating her. He doesn’t even look at her on the way out.
“How is he?”
“Are you asking for my sake or your sake?”
She looks puzzled. “Both. I want him to be okay, too.”
“So he can pay your salary?”
She freezes and her eyes lock on mine. “No. It has nothing to do with that.”
I am so fucking wrecked over this girl. It kills me that she still has secrets. But I’d only known her a month before we started hanging out. The fact that she occupies most of my waking thoughts doesn't make me an expert either.
“I know about the money. Jonathan Boyd told me all about it. That’s what caused the argument that gave my father a heart attack. We were fighting over you.”
She flinches as if each word pierces her through and through. Even though I know she’s a liar, I want to pull her close and shield her from pain.
Because this hurts. This really fucking hurts.
“I told him I didn’t want the money. That I just wanted you. You’ve had so much loss in your life. I didn’t want that again for you.”
“Loss? Yeah I’ve known loss but that doesn’t mean I believe everyone is like my dad. My mom stuck around and she took the best care of us that she could. My daddy issues don’t blind me to reality. This isn’t about my family. It’s about me and you.”
She pales. “I know. It’s about how I screwed up. That’s why I didn’t want us to get involved. But I just couldn’t stay away from you. Every time I wanted to move away, you just pulled me back in.”
“You know, I told myself not to fall for you because it was too soon and the risk was too high. These kinds of whirlwind things never last. Somehow, with you, I thought it was a risk worth taking. I thought we would be the exception.”
In the sudden silence, I glance around. The other people in the waiting room are watching us with wide eyes and open mouths.
I grab her by the arm and pull her into the stairwell. “Tell me the truth. All of it.”
“When your dad offered me all this money just to ask you to meet with him, I thought it was the answer to my prayers. We’re friends, I didn’t lie about that. I thought he was just a sad old man who wanted to reconnect with his family.”
“That’s why you suddenly wanted to go out. For the money.”
She looks up at me, her eyes swimming with tears. Her face is a mask of guilt and confusion. But I can’t think about whether she’s sorry yet when I’m still not clear about what she’s done.
If we’re going to rip the wound open, I’d rather do it all at once.
“It was more than enough money to pay for my undergraduate degree and my tuition for veterinary school. It was a chance to start over. All for nothing, really. Just talking to some guy and asking him a question. I wasn’t prepared for things to get so complicated. I wasn’t prepared for … you.”
Her answer stuns me into silence. But I can’t deal with that. Not here. Not now.
“Yesterday, I tried to give the check back but Jon ...” Her face crumples.
“He was there?”
Then I close my eyes. I have truly been blind this whole time.
“Your sister’s boyfriend Jon is Jonathan Boyd, my father’s lawyer. Of course.”
She nods, tears slipping down her cheeks. “Yes. He thought I was trying to get more money. I was just trying to give it back.”
“My father’s security guys told me that he has an open warrant in another state. I’m sure they were the ones who told the authorities where he was. He’s in jail now but if I had known … fuck. I had that guy right in front of me. I should have done more than punch him. I’m going to kill him.”
She clutches at my forearms. “I don’t want you to kill anyone. I didn’t want any of this.”
The door behind us opens, the light from the waiting room spilling into the dark stairwell. The brunette nurse looks between us uncertainly.
“Mr. Marshall. Your father has just woken up. He’s asking for you.”
I turn back to Emma. “I have to go. Will you … where will you be?”
“This is a family thing. I shouldn’t be here. Go and be with your brothers. And here.” She pushes an envelope into my hands. “I don’t need this. I never did.”
I stuff it in my pocket without opening it.
“Tank? Even though he was wrong to do what he did, I think this is what he really wanted.”
She points at me and then at Finn, Gabe and Zack standing just inside the doorway.
“I think he just wanted to bring you all together, before it was too late.”
Chapter Nineteen
Emma
I leave the hospital and it feels like I’m escaping a war zone.
The woman who interrupted us gives me a sympathetic look as I pass the nurse’s station. I probably look like hell. I press the backs of my hands to my face.
My eyes already feel swollen.
Outside on the curb, I pull out my phone and call Sasha. When it goes to voicemail, I hang up and reluctantly cal
l Ivy. She hasn’t been there for me in the way that family should be lately but she’s still my sister.
And she’s the only family I have left.
It rings several times. When the voicemail picks up, my heart sinks.
Are we back to that already?
She’s not going to answer my calls. I don’t want to go back home. Even though Jon is in jail, I don’t feel like I belong there anymore.
I look behind me at the double doors leading into the hospital lobby. The only place I want to be is back there in that waiting room with Tank. He looked so devastated. So broken.
My phone rings in my hand and Ivy’s number pops up. I answer it immediately.
“Ivy?”
“Emma? What is going on? Jon just called and asked me to bail him out of jail.”
“You didn’t do it, did you?”
Sudden panic closes my throat at the thought that Jon might be out roaming the streets freely.
“No. We’re not together anymore. So much has happened, Em.”
“Yeah for me, too. It’s a long story. Can you come get me? I’m at the hospital.”
She agrees and I sit on one of the metal benches out front to wait. Fifteen minutes later, Ivy pulls up in front of the Emergency entrance. I run over to the passenger side and get in the car.
When she sees my face, she gasps. “Oh my god, Emma! What happened to you?”
“Jon happened to me. He was at Mr. Marshall’s suite when I went there yesterday. It’s a long story but he’s been embezzling from Mr. Marshall and he thought I was going to tell the media.”
She lays a hand over the bruises on my wrists. Then her lower lip trembles. “What have I done?”
Whatever I was expecting when I called her, it wasn’t this.
“Ivy, it wasn’t your fault.”
She clenches her hand into a fist. “I brought him into our lives. Our house. You tried to warn me so many times and I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t see how right you were until he hit me. I had never seen him like that. I’m so sorry I accused you of being jealous when you called.”