by Ava Sinclair
I sit stunned in my chair, unable to move. My father looks down at his desk, then looks up at me.
“Stop acting like I haven’t done you a favor. You’re a Tremaine, Iris. When this is all over, you’ll remember that. You’d have just let him down anyway.”
It’s all I can do to rise from my chair. I feel numb, and heavy with grief and fear as I leave my father’s office. I pass Rita on the way out. She doesn’t look at me. When did she arrive? Did she hear? Of course she did. She probably knew what my father was going to do.That’s why she came in late. She’s in on it. I can no longer respect her.
I wait until I get in the car to cry. Everything in me screams that when I see Cal, I should comfort him, apologize to him for whatever it is my father had those men do. I know he won’t go to the police station; he will be too worried about what my father will do to me if he does. It’s how he is.
A ragged sob escapes my throat, and the grief is palpable as my mind floods with memories Cal’s given me. Our relationship has been so short, but it feels longer, like I’ve known him all my life. My skin tingles at the memory of his touch. My vision blurs with tears as my mind’s eye fills with the vision of what could have been—moonlight swims, hot nights of fucking while the summer breeze flutters curtains in the bedroom window of a simple country house.
I was prepared to walk away from my father, from my inheritance. But my father realized in his own shrewd, manipulative way, that I’d found something of greater value, and that the only way to bend me to his will was to threaten that, too.
I have a wild thought. I could go to the police, but I’m afraid. My father is friends with the Sand Ridge County police chief. Who’s to say I can trust him? The knot of tension winds tighter inside me the closer I get to Cal’s hotel. At the traffic light, I look through the intersection to see his truck is still in the lot, parked in front of the room where we spent that first sultry night. I wipe my eyes, knowing what I have to do.
I’d worried that my wealth and privilege would be the biggest barriers to our growing relationship. Now I know that the biggest hurdle was fear. My father sowed it in me. As long as he knows what scares me, he can control me.
Cal, Miguel, Ray, me. My father will destroy any life he can to gain the advantage.
A car horn honks impatiently behind me. The light is green. I edge through it, forcing myself to suppress my emotions. I can’t protect Cal unless I do exactly as my father says. It won’t be enough to tell him it won’t work. I have to show him it can’t. It’s the only way to make sure my father doesn’t hurt Cal. I have to reject the man I love, and to do it so thoroughly that he’ll not only fall out of love, but will hate me forever.
Chapter Nineteen
Cal
I suppose it could have been worse. They could have killed me. There were two of them, maybe three. I don’t know anything about my attackers other than they were cowards and racists given the names I heard them hurling my way when they sucker-punched me.
The blow from the crowbar is still bleeding. I’m just shy of a concussion, but I’ve had enough bangs on the head to know I don’t need to go to a hospital. I’m not stupid enough to think this is random. The men were waiting for me when I came in, which means someone let them in. I’m thinking a hotel maid has some extra spending money tonight.
It wasn’t a robbery, either. My wallet is on the table, but my phone is missing.
I’d pulled myself to standing, wincing. The steel-toed boot fractured my lower rib. All I had to wrap my head was a single, thin towel soaked in cold water. It helped with the bleeding, but I could tell the headache was going to be a bastard.
The even bigger bastard? Roger Tremaine. Who else would send men to rough me up? Somehow, he knows about me and Iris. And if he did this to me, what will he do to her? My only solace, if you can call it that, is knowing Iris has an ace in the hole. She has the video. She can ruin her father if he makes trouble.
I don’t know what the hell to do. Should I go to her? Show up at the field? I press the wet cloth to my throbbing head, and when I pull it away to examine the bloom of blood against the white fabric, I hear the distinct sound of a car pulling up in front of my room.
Iris’s car.
My heart leaps in my chest. She’s here. Damn.
I don’t want her to see me like this. I don’t want her to worry about me. She’s bound to be shaken up after talking to her father. She’ll need comfort. I stand up from the bed, feeling slightly dizzy, and rush to open the door before she can even knock.
“Hey…” I step back as she walks in. Her face is ashen as she looks up at me.
“I, uh…I slipped and fell, I tell her before she can ask. I don’t want her to know, don’t want her to worry. “Clumsy, right?”
Iris doesn’t answer. She looks around the room, no doubt taking in the blood, the broken chair, the lamp on the floor. She knows I’m lying, and I’ll tell her what happened later. But my first thought is to shield her from worry.
“You didn’t fall.” She looks up at me, but doesn’t reach out. “I know what happened, Cal. I know my father sent men over here to beat you up.”
“I didn’t want you to fret about it. I wanted to protect you from…”
“No, Cal.” She looks down for a moment before meeting my gaze. “I’ve been thinking. This is just too much trouble. I don’t need your protection. I don’t want it. It can’t work, Cal. My father will never allow it, anyway. What he had done to you was a warning to both of us. It could have been worse. In his own warped way, he’s done us both a favor. He’s making me admit the truth.” She pauses. “You’re not right for me.”
“Iris…”
“No. Don’t. I’ve known you for less than a month, Cal, but my daddy raised me. He’s a fighter. He’ll do anything to keep me from doing something…” She looks down. “….stupid.”
“So that’s what I am, then?” There’s a tight feeling in my chest that hurts almost as bad as the pounding in my head. “Something stupid?”
“No. I didn’t say you’re stupid. But what we had…it was fun and passionate. Fun and passion doesn’t last, though.”
“He’s making you say this.” I look down at her, trying to unlock the truth with my stare.
“He’s not, Cal. But he is forcing me to think more clearly. He doesn’t want me to ruin my life.”
“Only because he wants to ruin it for you, Iris.” I don’t believe her. “Iris…”
I reach for her, but she pulls away, crossing her arms as she backs up.
“Don’t bullshit me,” I say. I’m angry now. “I know what he’s doing, and so do you. He’s blackmailing you. He knows you love me. He’s threatened to hurt me, hasn’t he? To hurt me worse if you don’t do what he says.”
“No!” She turns away, then whirls back, facing me with a hard expression. “Don’t you understand? My father may not be a good man, but he’s practical. He can destroy your miserable life with a word. He’s got money and money is power. It opens doors to a life you can’t understand. I got too caught up in the good sex to realize if I left everything behind for you, I’d be miserable once the novelty wore off. Yeah, I’d have the satisfaction of going my own way, but where would it lead? Following you from one odd job to another while I worked on some shitty local newspaper? Let’s not kid ourselves. Without my daddy’s money, I’ll end up in a doublewide trailer. I’d lose my friends, my family…it’s not just my dad who’d never accept you. No one would.”
“You don’t mean this.” I feel myself getting angry at how well she’s playing the part, if she’s playing.
“Only because you don’t want to believe it,” she says. “Look. I know you’re disappointed. I know I’m the closest you ever got to the good life. You’ve been encouraging me to do the right thing, but I can’t. I have to face the press today. If you’re the kind of man you say you are, you don’t want me in your life anyway.”
“And Miguel? What about him?”
“What about hi
m?”
“You said you’d protect him.”
“I was wrong. I can’t. I have to look at the big picture. Hundreds of men stand to lose their jobs. Miguel isn’t the only one with a family.”
“And Ray? You’re going to be able to live with what you’re about to do?”
“Life isn’t fair, Cal.”
I walk to the door. It’s sinking in now that she’s made her choice, that when the rubber hit the road, she proved herself to be Roger Tremaine’s daughter.
“Go on then.” I open the door.
She hesitates. “Are you going to be okay?” She nods in my direction. “Your head?”
“I’m in better shape than Ray,” I say. “I’m in better shape than Miguel’s kid will be without insurance.” I don’t even try to hide the disgust in my voice. “Go on and get out, Iris, if this is how you really feel. I’m going to need a shower to get the shame off of me for believing you were anything other than a selfish brat. And I did believe in you, Iris. I really did. I guess that does make me stupid.”
She winces as if I’ve hit her, meeting my eyes only briefly as she walks to her car, her heels clicking on the hot pavement. I shut the door behind me, avoiding the urge to peek through the curtains and make sure she gets safely in her car.
Iris is gone. For the second time, I’ve been told I’m not good enough for a woman I thought loved me. But this time, it hurts worse, because I really loved Iris.
Chapter Twenty
Iris
I keep looking in the rearview mirror, half hoping I’ll see the grill of Cal’s truck bearing down on me. But why would he follow me? I’ve abandoned him, and even if it was with his safety in mind, that’s a cold comfort now.
I’m overcome with nausea as my mind replays the cruel words I used to drive him away, thinking how selfish I must have sounded. The first night we were together, I’d asked him why he was alone, and he’d mentioned that his ex wanted someone better. I could tell he didn’t want to elaborate. Now I’ve triggered the same pain by telling him he’s not good enough for me. He thinks he doesn’t deserve me, but the truth is, I don’t deserve him. No woman born to Roger Tremaine deserves a man like Cal.
I don’t know how I’m going to get through a day that began with hurting the only person who’s ever shown me genuine love. Having destroyed someone who trusted me personally, I now have to face the media and destroy the reputation of a man I don’t even know. And then there’s Miguel. I’m sure he’ll be fired, or worse. Cal gave Miguel his word that he’d be protected based on my promise.
The phone buzzes on the seat beside me. I look down, seeing my father’s number. I want to hurl the phone out the window. I want to gun the accelerator and keep driving past the oilfield. I hate him. I hate myself. I don’t answer, but then I panic. What if he thinks Cal has done something to hurt me? What if he sends his men to check? I hastily pick up the phone and call my father back.
“Iris, where the hell are you?” He sounds winded.
“I’m on my way.”
I wait for him to ask how it went. I hear cross-talk in the background, a voice on the office speakerphone. I recognize it as one of the attorneys. I hear Rita, who’s also in the room.
“Get back here fast. We’ve got a goddamned incident.”
He clicks off. Another incident? Now I’m panicking, imagining another accident, more injured men. I drive faster, heading down the flat stretch of road outside of town faster than I should. I’m doing seventy when the first news van passes me.
Fuck. Now what?
I look in my rearview to see more news vans following. I wasn’t going to call the news conference until this afternoon. This doesn’t bode well. I turn on the radio, scrolling to see if there’s anything breaking on the local stations about an accident, but there’s nothing yet, and there are no police or ambulance sirens wailing from either the oil field or coming up behind me.
The van is stopped by a gate guard at the entrance to the field. I drive around him and am ushered through, heading to the office. If my father has already called the news conference, I’m not ready. I don’t think I can be composed enough to face them. I don’t even want to face my father, but I don’t have a choice.
I pull into the space behind the office and am about to turn off the radio when I hear it, a breaking news alert that explains the media’s presence. “Ray Miller, a foreman injured in the accident at Tremaine Oil & Gas, emerged from his coma last night. This morning he spoke to a reporter with the Associated Press and blames the accident on inadequate monitoring equipment the company refused to replace.”
I cut the engine, absorbing what I’ve heard. My father’s plan to blame his foreman won’t work now. I pick up the phone on my seat, start to put it in my purse and then change my mind as I get out of the car.
I can hear him cursing as soon as I enter the office trailer. I don’t speak to Rita, whom I now see as my father’s accomplice.
“Shut the door,” he says when I enter his office. “Ray Miller woke up.”
“I heard,” I say. “It was on the radio.” I try to keep the satisfaction out of my voice, but can’t.
My father glares at me from across the desk. “How’s lover boy? I suppose you did what I told you to?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you’d better keep doing what I tell you to do or next time my boys will hurt him a lot worse. And it won’t matter where he hides, either.”
“What do you want me to do, Daddy?”
He reaches on his desk for a stack of papers. “All these are signed affidavits from men who swear that Ray didn’t install the equipment. I thought ahead, had them prepared as a backup plan. Smart, huh? I’ve got one from Rita, too. I can get everyone of these men to swear that Ray is…how can I put this…misremembering what happened.”
“But it’s not true, Daddy.”
“The truth, honey, is what I say it is. And my truth is what’s going to pay the salaries of hundreds of other men. Ray is one man.” He holds up a fat finger. “One.” He pivots his hand and points the finger at me. “Just because something isn’t ethical in your eyes don’t make it right. Buying the loyalty of these men is just like any other investment in the company.”
“What about receipts?” I ask. “What if the media goes to the company that sells the monitoring equipment? They’ll know it was a lie.”
“Don’t worry about that. Everybody has a price. I’m already working on getting backdated receipts. I want you to go out there, smile pretty, say the Tremaine family thanks Jesus that Ray Miller is okay. Then you’re gonna say how much you regret that he’s obviously too impaired to remember things correctly, and how heavy-hearted you are to have to present signed statements from the other men who know he didn’t have the equipment installed like he was supposed to. You’re going to pass these out, and then you’re going to remind those media jackals how much Tremaine Oil & Gas sinks into the local economy, and how sick all Texans should be over government regulators who’ve been on a witch hunt aimed at harassing us.”
I shake my head. “You really want to use that term, Daddy? Witch hunt?”
“Damn right. It’ll play well for the audience. I’m not talking to those government bastards. I’m talking directly to the people who have sons and fathers and brothers and customers working for us. They’ll know whose side to be on.”
“And you can’t do this without lying?”
“It’s not called lying. It’s called fighting for our survival.’” He leans and yells around me. “Rita! Go ahead and tell the guys at the gate to let those reporters in. They’ll have a half an hour.”
He turns back to me. “Now go do what you’ve got to do, honey.”
I stand. Just as I said all along, I have no choice.
“I will, Daddy.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Cal
I was settling my hotel bill when I heard the news on clerk’s radio. Ray Miller is awake and talking. I wonder if someone got
to him before the media did, or maybe he just somehow knew he’d be blamed. The radio announcer says a news conference will be taking place soon, with company spokesperson Iris Tremaine expected to address reporters.
My plan had been to leave as soon as my headache eased up enough for me to drive. I’m going home, back to Louisiana. I came out here to start over, to save money, to lay down new roots and maybe find someone to share my life. Had I not given in to the sweet temptation of a rich man’s daughter, I’d still be among the other men keeping their heads down and their mouths shut.
The interior of my truck is so hot I could fry an egg on the dashboard. I roll down the windows until the air blows cold enough to cool it down a little, and then pull to the stop sign at the end of the parking lot. East would me to the freeway exit, where I can head back to Louisiana. West would take me to the oilfield, where Iris Tremaine is set to lie for the man who had the shit kicked out of me.
A car has pulled up behind me. The driver, a heavyset man, taps his horn, impatient for me to turn. I look west, thinking of all I will leave behind.
It wasn’t easy coming out here. I’m quiet. I’m not a joiner. The prospect of decent pay and the opportunity for steady work lured me here. But it was Iris who brought me the first real satisfaction. I can’t believe she meant the hurtful things she said. I can’t believe the woman I held and fucked can be that heartless. There’s only one way to convince myself she’s really as cold as she pretended to be. There’s only one way to prove to myself that she’s the kind of woman who can stand up and ruin Ray Miller’s reputation. I need to see her do it. I can’t accept that it’s over until then. I can’t leave for Louisiana until I know.