“In that case, I’m getting a better brand,” Matt said and signaled the bartender. After he’d ordered another round, he turned back to Bennett. “You know my sister was tangled up with a Darcy a while back… they have any relatives in Ireland as far as you know?”
Bennett laughed. “Don’t give me shit about this when you’re doing fishing of your own.”
Matt didn’t even bother to look guilty. “Loralei had it bad for this guy and he really did a number on her. I don’t have anything against Mia, Clayton or Quentin, but they’re not a bunch you want to tangle with if you don’t have to.”
“Why is that?”
“Because they’re all still circling around Samuel like he’s the center of the damn universe,” Matt answered. “Milk curdles when that son of a bitch walks past it. Never did like him.”
“Tell me how you really feel,” Bennett said with a grin before taking a long pull from his beer.
At that point, Matt’s phone went off. He cursed. “Looks like you’re going to have to owe me that beer for a while longer. I’ll text you anything I find out about Erica McCoy, specifically any vehicles registered to her that might fit the description.”
Bennett thanked him and watched Matt go. While he was in town, he thought, he’d swing by and see Loralei. Heading out of the bar, he walked the few short blocks to Loralei’s shop. Set between an upscale wine market and a jewelry store, it screamed ‘money’.
Opening the door, the little bell above it tinkled. Immediately, Loralei came from the backroom, holding some creature in her hand that might, if you stretched the imagination to the breaking point, be considered a dog. “What the hell is that thing?”
She wagged her finger at him. “Haven’t seen you in a month of Sundays and the first thing you do is insult my dog?”
Bennett grinned and then hugged her, ignoring the disgruntled huff from the creature in her hand. “Baby, I hate to break it to you, but whoever told you that thing was a dog… well, they just lied.”
“This is Churchill,” she said, pointing to the tiny, black pug that was snuggled in her hand.
Against his own better judgement, Bennett gave the little thing a scratch on its head. Immediately, its tongue dropped out of its mouth and it was panting happily. “All right. It’s a dog. I wouldn’t call it a smart dog, but it’s a dog.”
“Oh, no. Churchill isn’t smart,” she agreed readily. “He’s a dumb as a box of rocks. It’s part of his charm. And speaking of charm, what brings you to town? You never come here!”
He lifted the pug from her hand and cuddled it. It couldn’t be more than a few months old. “Why on earth did you slap a dignified name like Churchill on this poor ignoble creature?”
“He isn’t named after a prime minister,” she stated, moving behind the counter. “He’s named after the cigars that belonged to my stepfather… after he chewed up the last one, Franklin told Mama that he had to go.”
Bennett winced. “That had to be ugly.”
“Oh, it was. Franklin was shouting down the roof, but that’s the benefit of being somewhat less than brilliant like Churchill here… people yell and scream and you just don’t care,” Loralei added, with a cheeky grin.
That smile took him back to days of cutting school and cruising around in an old beat up car with her and Mia and whatever boy Loralei was crushing on at the time. She’d never settled on any one of them for long, though. Still, he missed those days. Sunshine and giggling girls in short shorts. “I’ve missed you. You ever coming back to Fontaine?”
“As long as my mother remains married to Franklin Bell … that would be a big No. She comes to town, we have lunch. She tells me I’m fat and should only order a salad. I cry. She gets offended and goes home. It’s our monthly routine,” Loralei added. “What about you? You can come to Lexington anytime you want. I keep telling Savannah whenever I see her that she needs to think about opening up another store here.”
“It’s on the table,” Bennett said. “We need to build up our stock a little more, but the damn stuff sells quicker than we can make it or find it… Speaking of siblings, I just had a beer with your brother.”
Loralei rolled her eyes. “What was he bitching about now?”
“He’s not real fond of your ex-boyfriend. Wondered if maybe there was a family connection between your ex and mine.”
“Matt needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut,” she said quietly. “I don’t know if Ciaran has any connection to the Darcys or not. We’re not exactly on speaking terms these days.”
“Did you ever wonder?”
She shrugged. “He was very good at distracting me whenever I asked questions about his past… Now, I’ve got a question for you, Bennett! Why are you suddenly so interested in the Darcys again?”
Bennett considered telling her, but then thought better of it. Loralei would be nothing but a cheerleader for him and Mia, but there was no point in getting her hopes up just to dash them. Mia had made it very clear that whatever was happening between them at the moment was only temporary.
“Just curious,” he hedged.
“I have never, in all my life, seen two people who belonged together more than the two of you.”
“She left me, remember?” There was a little bit of anger in his voice, a little bit of the hurt pride still rolling under the surface.
Loralei looked at him archly. “She had reasons. Good ones that you don’t understand yet. Hopefully, someday you will.”
He shook his head. “You still stick together on everything, don’t you?”
“I might not see her often anymore, but I’ll always have her back. And vice versa. Don’t break my girl’s heart, or I’ll make you pay.” Loralei picked up a necklace from the display stand he’d been staring at, a confection of sheer ivory ribbons and amber beads. She put it in a gift box and handed it to him. “Give that to her when you see her. I thought of her the minute it came in.”
He didn’t deny it. There was no point in even trying. Instead, he kissed Loralei’s cheek, then headed for the door. “I’ll be seeing you,” he said softly before exiting her shop and heading home.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Mia left the office a little early. She’d completed the paperwork she’d had to and anything that wasn’t completely necessary, she’d put off ‘til the following day. Preoccupied with thoughts of Bennett, she hadn’t been able to concentrate through most of the day.
The eagerness she felt for him, to be near him, to have his touch, was terrifying. But, she reflected, at least she was feeling something again. The unending, numbing sameness of her days had finally broken. There was something that she looked forward to, something that she feared losing. It had only been days but all the old feelings had come back almost immediately. But then she could admit, they’d never really gone away. Her relationship with Bennett had never ended, it had just paused.
Climbing behind the wheel of her rental car, she made the relatively short drive home without incident. She wasn’t paranoid, but she did find herself checking the rearview mirror more frequently, watching the road a little more carefully.
Entering the house through the backdoor, she hadn’t noticed her father’s car parked out front. Walking into the kitchen, finding him seated at the island, drinking iced tea and smiling flirtatiously at her mother’s new caregiver was not how she’d envisioned ending her day.
As always, Samuel was the epitome of an elegant and distinguished southern gentleman. His suit was perfectly tailored. His silver hair was well groomed and combed back from his high and perfectly bronzed forehead. He could easily have graced the cover of any magazine that catered to the old money set. It was a look that he’d always admired and strived to emulate but there was a darkness underneath it all. He was selfish to the bone and ugly with it to the depths of his soul. As far as Samuel Darcy concerned, everyone was fair game as collateral damage as long as he got what he wanted in the end.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, uncaring that
her tone was clearly cold and unwelcoming.
The caregiver, Elizabeth, gave her a sharp glance, but said nothing, as Samuel turned toward her with a cool glare.
His smile was perfect, all gleaming teeth and dead eyes like the shark he was. “That’s hardly an appropriate greeting for your father, is it?”
“Excuse me,” Elizabeth said and left the room quickly, obviously unnerved by the acrimonious undercurrent.
“You’re hardly an appropriate father, are you?” Mia shot back with a bitter laugh. They had an arrangement that worked. They saw one another at the office when he deigned to show up otherwise, he stayed far away from her mother and from her.
He set his glass down on the counter top, his controlled movements a stark contrast the fury in his gaze. “I am you father, regardless of what you think of me. You won’t take that tone with me, girl.”
“I’m not a girl. I’m a grown woman. And you don’t live here anymore. You hang your hat wherever your latest twenty-something mistress lives. You don’t get to just walk in and make yourself at home.”
“But I do,” he said with a smirk. “My name is still on the deed. The woman in that bed, in what used to be my office, is still my legal responsibility. By law, as her husband, it is my duty to see to it that she is appropriately cared for.”
Mia sneered in disgust. He made her skin crawl more and more every day. The very idea that his blood coursed through her veins made her feel tainted. “You’ve never once given a damn about what kind of husband you were to her… or what kind of father you were to us. You’re a megalomaniacal, sociopathic bastard and we both know it. So just cut the crap. I don’t have the time, and with your advancing years and bad habits, you definitely don’t.”
He continued as if she hadn’t even spoken, probably because she was deviating from the script he’d already mapped out in his head. People weren’t real to him, they weren’t three dimensional beings with thoughts and feelings of their own. Everything, in his self-absorbed and narrow little world, revolved around him. “Then, of course, there is my moral obligation to ensure that her caregivers have only her best interests at heart. You and I had an agreement, Amelia Renae, and I think you need to be reminded of that.”
It shouldn’t be possible to hate someone this much, she thought. The darkness, the bitterness and the consuming fury all whirling inside her should have swallowed her whole. Or if there was any justice in the universe, they should have incinerated him on the spot.
“I’m unlikely to forget it. And if I should,” she added, “You’re always eager to remind me.”
His gaze was hard and cold when it settled on her. “The way I see it, your overnight guest violated the terms of our agreement. You were supposed to stay away from Bennett Hayes.”
“Spying on me?” she asked, opening the refrigerator and grabbing a bottle of wine. She poured one for herself but made no motion to offer him any. When he reached for the bottle, she snatched it back and placed it in the fridge. It was a small gesture, but she felt small inside. Mean and petty and full of fury.
“You’re not making it difficult, what with him climbing out of your bedroom window in the wee hours of the morning,” he said. “But you always did like to court gossip.”
“And you liked to court everything else… though court might be too rarified a term for some of the women you’ve entertained.” He had her on the defensive and she didn’t like it.
He rose to his full height and stood close to her. It was an old tactic, intended to intimidate her. Somehow, over the years, it had lost some of its power. “Mia, we’ve not seen eye to eye in a long time, but you are my child and I naturally want what is best for you… That will never be Bennett Hayes.”
“I didn’t assume it would be,” she replied coolly.
“Then why are you making this so hard? You know what you have to do, Mia,” he said, and his tone was deceptively soft and contrite. “You have to end it.”
She hated him more for pretending to care than for not caring at all. He could couch his protests in any manner he liked, but the truth was, he didn’t like Bennett because of his last name. There’d never been any reasons beyond that. He deemed the Hayes family too low on the social scale and too close to old scandals that could tarnish the Darcy name. It wasn’t about what was good for her. It never had been.
Taking a deep shuddering breath, she met his gaze and refused to back down. She was violating the spirit of their agreement but not the letter of it. It was a tactic she’d learned from him. “Right now, I can’t take care of Mama physically. Until my wrist heals, I have to depend on others to do that for me. Once it’s better, everything goes back to the way it was. And as for our agreement, I never said I’d stay away from Bennett. I said I wouldn’t run away with him, and I didn’t. So you have no reason to be here.”
Samuel nodded thoughtfully. “It really would be a shame for the truth to come out… for people to realize the hand that Hayes—and you— played in your mother’s unfortunate accident. People might not look so favorably upon him and his sister in their little enterprise if it were discovered that your mother’s life, in all but the basest of essences, was taken from her as a result of the selfishness of the two of you.”
It didn’t matter how many times he reminded her, the twisting of that particular knife would never cease to hurt. But then Samuel was always good for going for the jugular.
“Yes, and you’re always so eager to point it out,” she replied. “Whatever is happening between Bennett and myself, it is temporary. He knows that, and so do I. There’s no need for you to concern yourself… but there is every need for you to get the hell out. The sight of you sickens me.”
He leaned closer, his face only inches from hers. “You forget who has the power here.”
“I’ve forgotten nothing. Not the way you cheated on her before she was even injured. Not the way you manipulated, controlled, and lied to every one of us. I haven’t forgotten that you nearly bankrupted the family business. I. Haven’t. Forgotten. Anything.” She finished with the last words coming out between clenched teeth. “I’m done with this conversation. You can see yourself out.”
“I’ve warned you, Mia. You’re my daughter and I don’t want to hurt you… but I will break him. Whatever it takes.”
“Why do you hate him so much? What the hell did he ever do to you?”
“He reminds people that we might not be entitled to everything we have… and I can’t let that happen,” Samuel replied. “Do him a favor, and cut him loose. But if you—in your all too familiar, selfish and stubborn ways—have to have your fun, do it. Then you can break his heart all over again.”
He left, the door slamming behind him, and Mia actually felt the temperature of the room go up. Her blood was boiling and her stomach churned in the aftermath of their bloodless conflict.
The caregiver came in then, carrying the empty bottles used in her mother’s tube feeding. “I’m sorry about all that,” she said. “I didn’t realize that you and your daddy weren’t on the best of terms or I wouldn’t have invited him in.”
“He has a key,” Mia said sharply. Realizing that she was being a snappish bitch, she forced a smile and softened her tone before continuing. “It’s fine, Elizabeth. He can be very charming and very persuasive. He also likes blondes. I’d be wary of being too charmed by him, if I were you.”
The woman nodded her understanding. “I will certainly keep that in mind.”
Wanting desperately to change the subject, Mia asked, “How is Mama tonight?”
“She’s doing fine,” Elizabeth said, clearly just as eager to escape the awkwardness. “I gave her a bath earlier and did her hair. Nothing fancy, just a braid. I thought it would be more comfortable for her in bed like that.”
Mia smiled sadly. “That was very thoughtful of you. Do you need help turning her or getting her repositioned?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Not at all. She’s all settled in. I’ll turn her again in a couple of hou
rs. She’s been fed for the night… It isn’t my place to say, but I think she’s in there. I think your Mama hears and understands everything going on around her. I worked as a nurse for five years, mostly on a unit taking care of people in similar conditions. You can tell when they know.”
Mia felt the tears burning behind her eyes. The words had been said kindly, and she appreciated them in that light, but at the same time, it scored straight to the bone. The idea that her mother was there, aware and just trapped inside her own body was a double edged sword. It meant, on the one hand, that there was hope. On the other, it meant that Patricia Darcy was in a daily, living hell.
Mia drained the remainder of wine in her glass, and as an afterthought, grabbed the rest of the bottle from the fridge. Looking like a lush, under the circumstances, was the least of her concerns. “Thank you for that, Elizabeth. Since you don’t need me, and I’m not feeling the best, I’m going to head upstairs for now. I’ll check in on Mama later.”
Elizabeth sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I spoke out of turn—.”
“Not at all. I’m glad that you see her… that she’s a real, whole person to you. Excuse me. It’s been a long and difficult day.”
Mia climbed the stairs feeling like she was a hundred years old. In the safety of her room, away from any prying eyes, she stripped off her jacket and the high heels that she hated and laid down across her bed. Much like she had as a brokenhearted teenager, she hugged the ancient teddy bear she’d had since she was a child and just let the tears flow.
*~*~*
Downstairs, Patricia lay in her bed. Quiet as always. The television was on, the low hum of voices doing little to penetrate the quiet of the room. There was the monotonous beeping of her IV machine and the steady drip of fluid through the tubes. While her fluid needs could be met well enough with her tube feeding, the anticonvulsants required to keep her from seizing were another matter. In the deeper shadows of the room, someone moved. The lamp on the desk in the corner clicked on, followed by the ruffling of papers. Drawers opened and closed. The file cabinet was next. It was chocked full of old homework assignments and homemade cards. Tax returns from more than a decade ago were in there along with old bank statements.
Bennett (Bourbon & Blood #1) Page 8