by K. M. Scott
They walked in and tipped their hats to us at the top of the stairs. “Evening, Mr. Spear. My apologies for our being late,” one of the men said.
Dalton smiled and extended his hand out to me. I took it and stepped forward to stand next to him. He looked at me with a gentle glance and whispered, “I think it’s important you see this so you understand my true intentions.”
“Don’t you fucking touch me, you idiot! These nails cost more than your house!” Hailey screamed as Dalton’s men dragged her into the foyer.
“That’ll be her then?” the chief asked with a grin. From the sound of it, she was throwing a legendary tantrum, but no one seemed to be concerned about it very much.
They handcuffed her as she kicked her legs wildly and bucked to and fro. Justin was in tow also, but had decided to use his right to remain silent and kept his head down in shame. That made me almost as happy as seeing Hailey hauled off to jail. After all the lies and deception, it was he who had to hang his head in shame, not me.
As they were paraded out before me, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of victory. After all this time running from them, they now looked like little more than second-rate con artists. Hailey caught sight of us at the top of the stairs and her jaw dropped. In that moment it was clear that everything had really come crashing down on her. The man she thought she’d swindled and the woman she thought she’d get away with murdering were both standing on the balcony of her now former home. It had a wonderful poetic justice to it.
“Dalton baby, please. Don’t let them do this to me. It isn’t like she says. I swear!” she begged pitifully.
To my immense satisfaction, Dalton didn’t say anything. The look on his face screamed volumes, though. Instead of meeting her eye contact or even looking at me, he simply lifted his chin to let her know that she was, in every way, beneath him. It was silent, but it cut like a knife and Hailey felt the snub.
The police started to pull her towards the front door and she screamed about how Dalton needed her and how he could never live without her. Still no one responded to her, only infuriating her further.
With a final twist and jerk of her body, she looked back and make eye contact with me. “I’ll make you pay for this you, bitch!” she screamed before the door shut and they were all gone.
Dalton squeezed my hand and smiled. “Jordan, this has been quite the exciting day for me. I lost my fiancé and met you. Would you and your mother mind if I laid down while we spoke a little more?”
He looked a bit pale so I let go of his hand and nodded as my mother did too. “Of course. Lead the way,” I said as my mother took my other hand in hers.
The three of us walked to the room next to the one I’d been in and he gingerly eased himself into bed. He reached over to the nightstand cluttered with pill bottles and took a sip of water before settling back in bed and offering me a seat in the plush armchair next to it.
“So tell me about yourself, Jordan. What do you do?” he asked with genuine interest.
“I’m an elementary school teacher, though I’ve probably lost my job since I was kidnapped and have been on the run,” I said, pushing away the stress over my job. Certain things were just going to have to wait.
“I bet your students love you,” he said, smiling up at me.
“I really love them and the job.”
“And what about your personal life, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I live in Brooklyn in an apartment I used to share with my friend Nina before she married Tristan Stone.”
He furrowed his brow. “Why do I want to say I know that name?” he asked, puzzled.
“Tristan’s the owner of the Richmont hotel chain.”
“Ah, yes. I know of him.”
“And then there’s Gage. I met him through them. He owns a security company. I figured he was the one who found me with Hailey, to be honest. Do you know what she did with him?”
Dalton shook his head sadly. “I don’t know where Gage is, Jordan. I only knew what Hailey did to you. I didn’t know someone else was involved until today.”
“I need to call him,” I muttered. “I know you want to get to know me, but I need him to know I’m okay.
“Use the one on the, on the…” A terrible cough that sounded like it started low in his chest made him double over in pain.
“Dalton? Are you okay?” I asked, but he only coughed more violently in response.
My mother ran to the door and yelled, “Help! Someone help!”
His coughing grew worse, and I saw there was blood on his mouth and chest. He managed to whisper something as two men ran into the room.
“Jordan, I want you to know I’m truly sorry I didn’t get to spend more time with you,” he said as the men dialed for an ambulance.
“I am too, Dalton.” I really was. I wished I had gotten a chance to really know the man who was my father.
“Can you forgive me?”
It wasn’t the coughing, or the blood, or anything else in that room that convinced me in that moment that I could. What use was there going through life holding someone’s past against them?
“I forgive you,” I said, placing a kiss on the top of his hand.
He smiled wide despite the cough that wracked his body. “I need Helen. Please bring her here.”
The sweet elderly lady I’d seen when I opened my eyes just a few hours before rushed to his bedside and nodded as he tried to tell her in his last breath all that he’d waited to say.
“Don’t be sad. I lived a good life, and now that I got to meet Jordan, I know it wasn’t a life that meant nothing. Be sure my lawyers take care of her marriage and my will. They know what to do. I love you. Thank you for being a wonderful mother to me. Get to know your granddaughter so you won’t have to say you missed out.”
Helen sobbed but promised him she’d take care of everything he asked for. Then she backed away so he could speak to me.
“Listen to me, Jordan. I never got a chance to do the right thing by you and now I can. Today has been the happiest day of my life.” he said, pausing to cough again. “Will you stay with me?”
“Of course, Dalton. I’m right here.”
He smiled and nodded. “You have green eyes just like me. I like that.”
I looked into his eyes and saw how green they looked now. I hadn’t noticed that in all the time he’d been right in front of me that day or all that time I’d spent staring at his picture online. I started to tell him he was right, but his coughing started again with a vengeance. I held his hand as he struggled to breathe. Helen returned a few minutes later and sat on the other side holding his other hand and helping to administer some medicine she said would ease his pain. It did for a short time, but the end was coming. About an hour later, the ragged rise and fall of his chest stopped and he was gone.
I was a little surprised when the tears started rolling down my cheeks. After all, I hadn’t known this man. Still a dull pain settled into my chest.
“Thank you for giving him such a wonderful last day.”
I stood up from the bed and placed one more kiss on Dalton’s hand, silently wishing him peace. Looking over at Helen, I smiled even as I continued to cry. “I’m so sorry.”
I hadn’t known the man for long at all, but he was my father and she was my grandmother, even if we’d just met. As we left his room to let the EMTs do their jobs, I took her hand in mine and we walked down the hallway together with my mother.
It was strange and something I’d never anticipated, but there we were, three generations of my family in Dalton Spear’s home. I didn’t know what would happen next with us, but it was nice to know I had a chance to meet the man who helped give me life before he was taken from this world.
Chapter Twenty-One
Gage
I sat in Daryl’s dingy office on a battered leather couch while Daryl rallied his resources to find Jordan. It had been hours and nothing was working. It was like Jordan had vanished from the world.
“Get back to me if
you hear anything,” Daryl said before hanging up the old black telephone on his desk.
“Who the hell still uses a landline?” I asked, busting his balls a little. If I didn’t, I was going to go out of my mind. None of my connections knew anything and Daryl’s were just as much in the dark.
“It suits me. Makes me look like one of those old gumshoes from the forties,” he answered, sounding like some gangster from an old black and white movie.
I couldn’t help but laugh. The guy was a lot of things, but more than anything else, Daryl was a good guy. Strange and from another time, but a good guy, nonetheless.
“We’re going to find her, Gage,” he said quietly, his joking falling away. “Try Nina and Tristan again. Maybe something new has developed.”
I did as he suggested and dialed Tristan’s number, but just as before, he didn’t answer. I started to dial Nina’s, but before I could, she called me.
“Hello, Nina?”
“Gage! I’m so glad to hear your voice. I’m sorry we haven’t been answering. Diana had to go to the hospital because of an ear infection, so we’ve been without cell phone service. What is going on? Is Jordan okay?”
It pained me to have to tell her that Jordan wasn’t with me. “Nina, calm down. It’s going to be okay. I’m here with Daryl, but we can’t find Jordan. Have either of you heard anything? Have you had any contact at all from her since we talked in New Orleans?”
“No, none at all. That’s why I’m so worried, Gage. Do you think she’s okay? Oh God, what if they’ve done something to her.”
I winced at the idea of Jordan gone from the world. Even the mere thought of it made my heart ache. She had to be okay. If I ever found her…no, when. It had to be when we found her, not if. I refused to accept a world where Jordan was no longer in it, and I once again silently vowed to do whatever it took to have the woman I loved back in my arms where she belonged.
“She’s going to be all right, Nina. Is Tristan there?”
“Yes, he’s right here. Hang on.”
There was a pause and I heard Nina crying in the background when Tristan began speaking. “Hello, Gage. What can I do?”
His tone was even and calmer than Nina’s, but I had seen Tristan scared before and there was no doubt that something in his voice told me he was scared right now.
“I’m not sure. I know Daryl was your suggestion in the first place, but do you know anyone else who might have information on where she is?”
“I might. Give me a minute and I’ll make some calls.”
“Thanks, Tristan.”
We hung up after saying goodbye and I looked over at a discouraged looking Daryl. We sat in silence for what felt like ages before Daryl, frustrated, muttered, “I’m putting the game on.”
He flipped on the television but instead of the game it was a news story. The bubbly female newscaster was a sharp contrast to my dreary existence and immediately irritated me.
“We have confirmed reports that billionaire businessman Dalton Spear has passed away from cancer today. Throughout his life he dedicated himself to…” the announcer rattled on but I stopped paying attention. All I could think about was how if Dalton Spear was dead, Hailey had won.
“They didn’t say anything about Hailey,” I heard Daryl say, but he sounded miles away.
I stood up from the couch and walked out of his office without a word. There was nothing more to be said. If Dalton Spear was dead that meant the odds of Jordan still being alive and us finding her had just disappeared.
It didn’t take me long to get back to my apartment. I opened the door and it felt like it had been years since I had been here. Everything around me felt foreign, and the only thing that made sense was the bottle of Jack Daniels on the kitchen counter.
I didn’t bother getting a glass but instead opened the bottle and poured a gulp down my throat. Lost in misery from the idea that Jordan was gone, I sat down on the couch and hung my head, letting the tears out for the first time since all this began. Three quarters of the bottle later, my mind had begun to haunt me with the fear and guilt I’d harbored since receiving the first letter threatening Jordan’s life if I didn’t leave her.
If only I hadn’t given in back then, she’d still be alive and with me. We’d be happy. She’d be teaching her students and still living in that apartment in Brooklyn. Or maybe we’d be living together somewhere in the city. Wherever we were, we’d be starting a life together.
A regular life of days filled with work and nights filled with each other.
Sitting there daydreaming about that life was worse than when I had been in that abandoned building. Now the memories didn’t have a hint of sweetness to them but instead were cruel as they mocked me. I wasn’t chained up this time, but I might as well have been. It wasn’t the alcohol that kept me sitting there, wallowing in my memories.
It was regret, and I couldn’t see a time ever again when I didn’t wish I had done things so differently. If only I had.
I downed one more gulp of booze and checked for any messages from her, hoping against hope she would have sent one. I saw nothing.
Closing my eyes, I threw my phone against the wall, watching it shatter into a hundred pieces, and choked back the utter sadness that filled me. She was gone because I hadn’t done the one thing she needed me to do.
Protect her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jordan
My fingers ached as I pressed the call button on my cell phone again. Under his name, a picture of Gage smiling that crooked, sexy grin of his stared back at me. Once again, the call went directly to his now full voicemail.
“You’re going to leave burn marks on the carpet, dear,” Helen said softly from across the room.
“I have to know he’s okay,” I muttered, hitting the call button again.
Helen nodded and walked over to me. Putting a hand on my shoulder, she said, “You wake me if you need me. It’s very late and I need to rest.”
I’d been so focused on getting in touch with Gage that I’d forgotten Helen had just lost her son. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be insensitive. I didn’t meant to act like what’s going on here isn’t important.”
She waved away my concern and smiled. “Dalton and I knew the end was coming. I made my peace with it a while ago. If you need anything just yell and someone will come help you. If you want to talk or need company, I’ll be in my room,” Helen said with a motherly smile.
“Thank you and good night,” I said quietly, still listening to the agonizing sound of Gage’s voice telling me to leave a message and he’d get back to me. Something in my heart told me that if his phone was still on, maybe he was alive.
Fucking Hailey! Even when Dalton asked her, she wouldn’t say what she’d done to Gage. Had she killed him after deciding he wasn’t useful to her, or had she hidden him somewhere to torture until he gave her what she wanted to know about my whereabouts?
For two days, it was all I could think about. Both possibilities made my heart contract in sadness. I had to find him before it was too late.
I dialed Nina’s number over and over after filling up Gage’s voicemail and got no answer from her either. Was everyone I loved gone from me?
Three hours later, I’d said goodbye to my mother and promised her I’d come home to see her and my father as soon as everything calmed down. Exhausted from everything that had happened and my inability to find Gage or Nina, I lay down on the couch in Dalton’s study and closed my eyes to wish for my life to go back to what it used to be.
My ordinary, commonplace life.
When I opened my eyes again hours later, Helen and two men in business suits stood around Dalton’s desk shuffling papers.
“What’s going on?” I asked groggily as I wiped the sleep from my eyes.
The older man with a grey beard and matching eyes smiled and said, “Good morning, Ms. Wright. As soon as you’re ready, we have some papers for you to sign.”
Barely awake enough to comprehend
what he was saying, I stood on unsteady legs and made my way to the desk. “Papers for me to sign? Why?”
He smiled like he was used to confusing people. “We don’t typically meet this way, but your father’s last wishes must be observed.”
“Last wishes?” I asked as he offered me a seat behind the desk.
“I am Henry Billings of Billings, Billings and Cartwright. We were your father’s lawyers, so now we’re your lawyers, should you decide to keep us. What you have in front of you are the important documents you may need over the coming weeks as everything is transferred into your name. The house, the cars, the business, and the plane. Your father’s company will continue to be run by the CEO, Thomas Spring, and the board of directors will continue according to legal statutes governing corporations in the state of Texas, but your father ensured his shares of the company were transferred to you, so you now hold controlling interest in Spear Industries.”
“Excuse me? Did you say plane? I thought I was just getting some shares of the company and the house. What are you saying?” I asked, flabbergasted.
The two men smiled at one another and then at me. “What we’re saying is Mr. Spear left you everything, and we mean everything.”
My mind raced. What had he said in the beginning? A plane? Next thing, Tristan would be asking me to race him if this day kept going the way it had begun.
“You said plane, right?” It was like a beaming, shining ray of hope had shined down out of the dreary sky my life had become.
“Yes, two of them, actually. Although, I do believe one of them is currently being worked on. Routine maintenance is normal and is usually done in such a manner as to not interrupt your plans. It is best to tell the pilot a week in advance… ”
Leaping from the chair, I smoothed my messy hair and straightened my clothes. “I’m sorry to cut this meeting short, but I really need to go do something important. Do you need me to sign something?”
The two men looked confused. “Well, just a few signatures will do for now, Ms. Wright.”