“I saw, Frank. But, I’m begging you, don’t do this. You did your job. It’s out of our hands now. Frank. Please.”
Frank heard Dean’s words. He saw Robbie. As much as he wanted to just end it right there and then, he couldn’t, he couldn’t pull the trigger on his only brother. Frank placed the gun back into his harness. He released his grip on Robbie’s neck, tossing him to the floor. “You’re as good as dead now anyway.” Frank stepped over Robbie’s body and began to leave the room. He had to walk away, he had to calm himself down. His heart beat so strong that it hurt. As he made it to the doorway between Joe’s office and the examining room, Joe, followed by Henry and Miguel, came rushing in. They too had heard Ellen call out.
Joe knew by the look on his son’s face, something terrible had transpired. “Where’s Ellen? What happened?”
Frank leaned in the archway, head resting on his arm, and he pointed his thumb back. “Ask the piece of shit.”
Joe looked into the examining room, Dean was helping a beaten Robbie to his feet. “Frank, I’m asking you. What happened?”
Frank slowly turned and faced his father. “When I got here, Robbie was trying to rape Ellen.”
“Oh my God.” Joe closed his eyes. “Did he?”
“I . . . I don’t think. I don’t know.” Frank rubbed his eyes, trying to keep his emotions intact.
Joe gripped his son’s shoulder, and squeezed it as he walked past him. “You did good.” He walked into the examining room. “Dean, leave us.”
Dean knew it was not a time to say anything. He walked from Robbie, and from the examining room.
Joe stood near the door. When Dean had left, Joe closed it.
Robbie, whose head rested on the counter, lifted it to his father. “Are you going to shoot me?”
“No.” Joe slowly walked to him. “Do you even comprehend what you have done?” Joe asked calmly of his son. “Do you? That was Ellen. She is family. Family. And what about your brother? You know how he feels about her. I’m surprised you aren’t dead right now.”
“I would have been. Dean walked in.”
“Then you owe your life to Dean.” Joe walked up behind his son. He spoke sternly, yet quietly in his ear. “What you did was wrong.”
“I know that.” Robbie began to cry. “I’m so sorry. Sorrier than anyone knows. I need another chance.”
“You need to be grateful that you are still breathing.” Joe leaned closer to him. “You have no one to blame but yourself for what happens to you. No one. We let you in here, we fed you, we trusted you. We loved you. So listen to what I’m telling you. You are not the son I raised. You are not the son I trusted. You are nothing. Nothing to me, to Frank, to anyone. I don’t even know who you are. If you could do something like this, you are nothing. Do you hear me? Nothing.” Joe backed up. He said all he had to say. His mind was made up. He walked to the examining room door, and opened it. His office was silent. George had joined the group. “We know what has to be done.”
George placed his arm around Joe. “I’m sorry. I know this is hard for you.”
Joe walked to his desk and sat down. “We’ll do it soon.”
Dean approached Joe’s desk. “Joe, this is your son. This can’t be done. He searched for you. You are his family.”
Dean’s words shocked everyone. Henry who stood by the file cabinet looked up. Miguel stepped from the wall he leaned against. Frank turned from his archway and gave an ‘it figures’ look.
Joe looked up only with his eyes. “I won’t argue with you on this, Dean. I’m right this time.”
“He’s your son. We have no one to blame but ourselves. We pushed him from containment. Maybe he really wasn’t ready. Let’s work with him some more. He of all people deserves your second chance. Henry.” Dean turned around to Henry. “You’re reasonable. Tell them we can work with Robbie. No one has to know about this, it’s only the five of us.”
Henry shook his head. “And Ellen. Do you really expect Ellen to walk around this community with him still here?”
“Ask her! Someone ask her. Because I would bet my life she would not want him gone.” Dean waited for someone’s response. He received none. “Look I have never agreed to the oustings, ever. All of you know that. This time I am asking you to look who it is. It’s Robbie. When will we stop? Where do we stop? Soon, will we toss someone out for disagreeing with you, Joe?”
Joe dropped the pen he was holding and shook his head with an angry laughter. “Oh, I suggest you drop this conversation now. This is serious. This isn’t an arguable crisis. What happened here was against the law here. A law you, me and all of the ‘originals’ wrote. Drop it, Dean. Now is not the time.”
“Just take a look Joe. He just didn’t know how to handle himself. He’s been out there for five years. He comes here. He depends on and falls for Ellen. All of us know that. She invites him here at nine o’clock at night. No one’s around.”
Frank turned slowly from his archway to Dean, he took one step to him. “Are you saying she asked for it?”
“I’m just saying . . .”
It was the wrong thing for Dean to say to the wrong person. Frank would not stand for it. With one single punch, he sent Dean’s five foot seven body, hurling across the room. Frank stormed to him again, he flung chairs out of his way as he did so. No one except for Miguel, budged. Miguel, knowing what Frank would and could do to Dean, stepped in the path of Frank. Stopping him.
“Frank.” Miguel held his hands to him. “You made your point. Back off.” He reached down, grabbed Dean from the floor and lifted him to his feet.
Frank knew he was wasting his time and energy on Dean. He reclaimed his spot in the archway.
Dean touched his throbbing eye. “I guess some are allowed to be violent. And some people aren’t.”
Joe stood slowly from his chair and leaned against the desk to Dean. He had passed the point of shouting in anger. “Now I’m going to make a suggestion to you. Before I do let me tell you. This is turning out to be one hell of a week. Don’t piss me off anymore. Now my suggestion, is that you turn your little body around and walk out the door. The next time you say something that callous, like you did about Ellen. Whether you mean it or not. I will not stop Frank. And this discussion is over.”
“Fine.” Dean threw his hands in the air. “Fine. I’m leaving. It’s on all of your consciences. Not mine.” He left the receiving center.
Joe sat back down in his chair. “George, I need you to go to Robbie’s house. Get all the stuff he brought with him, not the things we gave him. Pack it up with anything we’re holding that he brought in.”
“Got it Joe.” George patted Joe on the shoulder once, then walked out also.
“Henry, Miguel. I need you two to get Robbie. Take him to holding until George is ready to fly him out.”
Robbie heard it all, he jumped to his feet and ran to Joe’s office. “No. You really can’t be doing this. I looked for you. For five years I searched and this is what I get?”
Joe motioned to Henry and Miguel. They walked over to Robbie and grabbed him.
“No.” Robbie tugged and pulled, he wouldn’t budge. “Frank. Frank.”
Frank wouldn’t look at him.
“Frank, please don’t let them do this to me. Please. Frank, I’m your brother.”
Frank turned to Robbie, his words soft and cold. “I don’t have a brother. My brother died five years ago.”
“No!” Robbie screamed the whole way that Henry and Miguel dragged him out.
Joe took a deep breath. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. At that moment in Joe’s life, it would have been impossible for his heart to break anymore.
***
Dean opened the front door. “What is it, Frank?”
“I’m here to see Ellen.”
Dean began to close the door. “She’s upstairs. She needs her rest.”
Frank stuck his foot in the door to stop it from closing. He flung it open with his hand and barged past
Dean to the steps, taking them two at a time.
Hurrying behind him, Dean stopped him before he went in the bedroom. “Frank, just let her go for tonight. Please?” he asked.
“I can’t.” Frank opened the bedroom door, shutting it immediately behind him. He saw Ellen, her back faced him. She stared out the window. “El?”
Ellen turned around. Her cheek swollen, her lip bloody. Her face truly reflecting the wounds of her battle.
“Oh my God.” Frank ran to her. He gently cupped her face in his hands. “I’m so sorry.” He kissed her cheek. “I’m so sorry he hurt you.” More than anything Frank wanted to take it all away from Ellen. His eyes weld with tears of anger and sorrow when he saw what his brother had actually done to her. He released his hands from her face and tried to hold her, but Ellen stepped away. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t you touch me.”
“O.K.” Frank believed he understood why. He held his hands up. “I won’t touch you. Can we sit?”
With a look of disgust, Ellen’s bruised lips parted and she shook her head at him. “Get out, Frank. I want you to leave. In fact, I don’t I want to see you again. What’s the distance from north to south in Beginnings? Ten miles? Try to stay that distance from me.” She turned from him.
“What?” Frank grabbed hold of her arm. He spoke soft. “El, look, you’ve been through a really bad time.”
Ellen ripped her arm away from his grip then followed with a pummeling arm-down that pushed him back. “Why are you talking to me like that? Am I standing here crying, am I standing here traumatized? No!”
“El, I understand what you are . . .”
“You don’t understand shit!”
“Can you please . . .” Frank closed his eyes. “Can you tell me why you are so mad at me?”
“I’m pissed at what you did to Robbie. Your brother.”
Frank’s body jolted as he tried to speak. Her words had shocked him. “What? What I did to my brother? What about what he did to you. Look at you.”
“Robbie didn’t know what he was . . .”
“Robbie knew exactly what he was doing. Don’t defend him. Don’t.” Frank’s hand cut through the air. “You have always defended him. Well this time, El, he didn’t rip off a drug store. This time, El, he didn’t steal the neighbor’s car. This time . . . he hurt you.”
“You don’t know.”
“Know what!” Frank threw his hands up. “That he tried to rape you?”
Ellen closed her eyes tightly at the ugliness of that word. “It was not his fault. He’s not the blame.”
“How can Robbie not be to blame for attacking you? How! Explain that to me.” Frank lowered his voice to a raspy whisper. “And don’t you let me hear you blame yourself.”
“Why not? Huh? Why not blame us all, Frank. You, me, Dean, the whole lot of you that strived to get him out of containment. The whole bunch that insisted that he was ready when he wasn’t.” Ellen’s strong words streamed together emotionally. “And I knew. I knew he could snap. And I led him on. Intentionally or not, I did. And look what happened. Then, then instead of just stopping it. You went after him, Frank. You beat him like I have never seen you beat a man before! Your brother. A brother that spent five years searching for you. Living in a world so horrible that we avoid it.”
“And you think I give a shit about that?” Frank stepped to her. “Do you he deserves my pity? Let me tell you something El, he doesn’t. And whether we live in a TV fuckin perfect old-style world, or the hell on earth we’re in now, my reaction still would have been the same. I still would have gone after him because he was wrong. Wrong.”
“No, you’re wrong. And you don’t see it because it’s what you do.” With edge and severity, Ellen delivered her words. “You go in and ‘right’ a wrong, without regards to who they are or how you stop them. You’re cold and ruthless and you love it. And somewhere in that sick, demented mind you get off on the fact that you think you’re a hero. I got news for you, Frank, you’re not a hero and you certainly aren’t . . .”
“Ellen.” The door to the bedroom flung open and Dean stormed in. “That’s enough. Stop it. Don’t say another word to this man. He saved your life. If it wasn’t for him you would have been raped. Or worse, dead. Now whether I like him or not, I will not let you degrade what he did for you.”
The sneer on Ellen’s face said it all as she glared at Dean then Frank and backed up to the door. “Both of you can get the hell out of my life. I have to find Joe. We have to deal with Robbie.”
Dean reached out and stopped her. His voice softened. “Robbie’s . . . been dealt with. He’s . . . he’s gone, El.”
Ellen’s eyes grew wide and her aching body trembled. Stumbling some in her turn, Ellen took off from the room, charged down the steps and out the front door. Every pounding footstep to Frank’s jeep hurt, but she had to continue on.
The keys were still in the ignition when she jumped inside. And without a second thought and ignoring the calls from Dean and Frank, Ellen sped off.
There wasn’t a part of Ellen’s body that didn’t hurt with the strong pounding of her heart. Centered on getting to the hanger, she drove despite the fact her left vision was blurred. But her determination proved futile fast. Not even a quarter mile up the hill that led to the hanger Ellen knew that the painful end had come. She heard the noise and saw the lights from the rising helicopter. She stopped the jeep and jumped out, trying to call out, but it was useless. The helicopter kept on lifting. It was over. A very traumatic turn in all of their lives had come to an end. Robbie was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
May 31st
Frank rolled his head to work out the kinks in his neck. The sun shone bright through the closed blinds in Ellen’s bedroom. The chair he had slept in the whole night, seemed soft at first, but grew harder as the night went on. Of course, he did not get much sleep. Whenever he seemed to doze off, the vision of Robbie on top of Ellen crashed into his mind, making him sit straight up. Every time he closed his eyes he saw that, he heard Ellen’s screaming. Frank angered inside, along with hurt.
He rested his elbows on his knees as he stared upon Ellen. His fingertips touching his nose as he rocked back and forth. She looked peaceful as she slept. Lying on her stomach, her nude back barely covered with a sheet. The bruises from the night before were predominant and a painful reminder of what had happened.
Slowly he stood from the chair, walked over to the bed and crouched down by her pillow. Ellen faced the other way, her hair flowed back to him. Just to see if she was all right. Frank lifted his hand to her.
Ellen jolted awake by the light touch of his fingers. She tried to lift suddenly but her sore body stopped her. With a moan, she plopped back down and opened her eyes. “Frank?”
He let out a slight joking breath. “For a second I thought you were gonna call me Dean.”
“Where is he?”
“Working.”
“Why aren’t you?”
“Because I got someone to fill in for me. It was either me or my dad sitting with you. Someone had to be here.”
“I don’t need anyone.” Ellen lifted her eyes catching glimpse of her robe on the headboard. She pulled it down as she struggled and rolled over. Bringing her robe to her, she painfully sat up. “I thought I made that clear last night.”
Frank nodded and stood up. “Yep. You did. Right before we found you passed out in the jeep.”
“I’m fine now.” Ellen put on her robe and rose from the bed closing it. “You can go.”
“Nope. What do you need?”
“For you to go.”
Frank tossed his hands up. “I’m not. You’re hurt. You need someone here. You can talk or ignore me. Don’t matter. I’m staying, So . . . what do you need. Want breakfast, coffee . . .”
“I want to take a shower.” Ellen walked across her bedroom. “Does Dean know you’re here?”
“Dean doesn’t have a choice. He didn’t last night. He doesn’t now.�
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Ellen stopped and looked back at him. “How can you say that? Dean lives here. He lives with me. If anyone doesn’t have a choice, it’s you, Frank. You’re the outsider here.”
Frank kept his emotions in check. His jaw twitched slightly as he stepped to her, but he hid it well. “You know, you can lash out at me all you want. Just know that I can take it. If it helps you feel better, do it. Say whatever you want. In fact . . .” He walked to the chair he spent the night in and bent down to the floor, lifting a tablet. “I’ve been writing down things I want to tell you. Here . . .” He ripped the top two sheets and handed the tablet to Ellen. “Why don’t you write down everything you hate about me. Anything. Write it. Feel better.”
Ellen glared at him, tablet in her hand. Then without saying anything else, she slammed the tablet into his chest and walked from the bedroom to the bathroom.
She shut the door, and after immediately starting the shower, she reached for the medicine cabinet. She opened it, retrieved her toothbrush and got it ready. As she opened her mouth to brush, her jaw locked. Pain shot through. It was bad enough she couldn’t open her mouth, but the burning as the toothpaste hit the corner of her lips, made her cringe. Ellen rinsed. The cold water felt good.
As she stood up straight and closed the mirror, she caught glimpse of her reflection. Her face looked much worse than it had the night before. The entire left side of her face looked like something from a horror movie. Her eye slightly closed, a small cut above her eyebrow. Her cheek bone swelled some, but was encircled by a huge, blue bruise. And the corner of her mouth was entirely red. The more she stared, the angrier she became. If her face looked like that how bad was the rest of her? Ellen undid the robe and looked down at her naked body. It was worse. She slid her had across her abdomen, and covered her mouth. Her hand trembled across her bruised lips. Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself together. “I will not let this get to me,” she spoke out loud. “I will not.” She dropped off her robe, turned on the water, and stepped cautiously into the warm shower.
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 58