Troublemaker

by Bladon, Deborah

  "You didn't look happy at the Hamptons house." She trails a finger down the back of my suit jacket.

  I feel visibly nauseous from the touch. "Hands, Damaris. Remove your hands from me."

  "Baby." Her voice grates on my last nerve. "It doesn't have to be like this. We can go back to having fun."

  It was fun until it was a fucked up nightmare of epic proportions. "It does need to be like this and I'm not interested."

  "Your little blonde friend might be."

  That turns me on my heel. I stare at her. She's dressed in a crisp white blouse, matching pants, and shoes. It's in stark contrast to her dark hair and eyes. She hasn’t changed at all since I pushed her out of my life four years ago. "Don't talk about her. You don't get to mention her."

  "Kade said you're just friends." She coughs up a laugh. "As if I needed him to tell me that. She's clearly not your type."

  She's wasting my time and my breath. I don't need this bullshit in my life. I walked away from her because I saw the evil that lives inside of her firsthand. She manipulated my pain to take anything she could from me. "You need to leave and stay gone."

  "Your blonde friend would never satisfy you the way I did."

  I look down at her. "Shut up, Damaris. You need to shut the hell up."

  "She's more Kade's type, don't you think?" She taps her finger on her chin.

  "She's too good for him."

  "I think she's perfect for him." The silver bracelets on her wrist jingle as she lifts her hand. "Maybe I'll arrange a lunch and discuss that with her. There's no good reason why Adley York and I can't be friends."

  The fact that she dropped Adley's full name is a warning. I know how she operates. I know what she craves and it has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with money. "I'm not giving you another dime, Damaris."

  "Did I ask for a hand-out?"

  She didn't and judging by the clothes on her back and the expensive shoes on her feet, she's found someone to keep her happy.

  "Stay away from Adley." I warn. "I don't want you near her."

  "Any friend of yours is a friend of mine." She picks up her clutch from my desk. "I didn't come here to talk about any of that. I came to tell you that I'm working for Kade now so we'll see each other at the board meetings."

  "We won't." I round my desk to put distance between us. "Only board members are allowed in those meetings, not employees."

  "We shall see."

  I don't give two fucks if she's in a board meeting. I usually show up at the Benton tower across town late. Then I spend the time I am forced to sit there making notes on my tablet about Matiz business. Typically, I'm out the door before the meeting is adjourned.

  "Are we done?"

  "I never wanted us to be."

  I don't acknowledge that with a response. She was someone I was drawn to for reasons that have nothing to do with love or happiness. She was a warm and willing body when my world shattered. I held onto her to help me coast through the aftermath of that and when I finally found my way back to the surface, I realized that we were wrong for each other in ways that had damaged us both beyond repair.

  "Leave, Damaris." I point out the open door of my office. "Don’t come back."

  She glances at the door before she looks back at me. "I'm glad we ran into each other in the Hamptons. It reminded me of all the good times."

  I don't respond. I don't want to think about the time we spent together. Damaris is my past. Adley is my future. Neither of those points is up for discussion.

  Chapter 37

  Adley

  "I told you I had plans." I stand in the doorway to my apartment. "I need to leave in a few minutes, Crew."

  I didn't expect to see him. I told him last night after he got back from Boston that I had plans for tonight too and yet here is, with a bouquet of wildflowers in hand and a devilish grin on his face.

  "I brought these so Sydney could put them by your bedside." He brushes past me. "I suppose now that you're here, I can do it myself."

  "I'll do it." I reach for the vase and tug it from him. "Thank you for these, but it wasn't necessary."

  "It was necessary." He leans forward to give me a soft kiss on the lips. "I want you to wake up to something beautiful every morning."

  It's a sweet sentiment, and at any other time, I'd tell him that I would love to wake up to the sight of his handsome face, but right now my focus is singular and it's not on him. "I wish you would have called first."

  Those words send his brows shooting up. "Why is that?"

  I move to set the vase down on my coffee table. I'm agitated. It started this afternoon with a woman who made it clear to the entire clinic that she thinks I suck majorly at my job. Then I missed the train I wanted to catch to come home, so I had to board a bus, which was overcrowded. I made it home with just a few minutes to spare, so I changed into a simple outfit of black pants and a white blouse without the benefit of a shower or any makeup beyond a light coat of mascara and a swipe of clear gloss over my lips.

  "You knew I had plans."

  "I didn't think you would be here."

  He's right. It's not as though he made a point of coming over here to distract me on purpose. "I'm sorry, Crew. I'm on edge."

  He moves to rest his hands on my shoulders. It does little to calm me. It just notches up my uneasiness in an entirely different way. I'm still sore from what we did two nights ago. The ache between my legs is nothing compared to the pounding of my heart when I feel his hands on me.

  How could I not want a man who made me feel things I've never felt before?

  "Take a deep breath." He bends at the knees to rest his forehead against mine. "Slow and steady breaths, Ad."

  My phone chimes on the table next to the vase.

  I rush away from him to pick it up. I read the message and it just ups the tempo of my heart all over again. "That's the driver. I need to go."

  "A driver?" He walks over to where I'm standing, canting his head to get a look at my phone. "You ordered a car?"

  "No." I shake my head. "John sent it."

  "Ad." He touches my chin and tilts my head up so our eyes meet. "Assure me again that John is not someone I need to punch in the throat."

  I laugh because his smile says more than his words. "He's helping me figure out a few things."

  "That's cryptic." He stands back and looks at me. "I'm always here to talk too. You know I'm the best problem solver around."

  I drop my gaze. "It's not a problem. It's a dream."

  "A dream?" He moves closer pulling me into his strong embrace. "What dream?"

  A soft knock on my apartment door takes me from his arms. I cross the room quickly and swing open the door to see the familiar face of John Tate's driver.

  "I need to go." I look back at Crew. "I can do anything I set my mind to, right?"

  "You know it." He moves toward me with a confident stride. "I believe in you more than I believe in anyone. Follow your dreams, Adley. I'm right beside you every step of the way."

  "You don't know what the dream is yet," I whisper as I arch up on my heels to kiss him.

  "It doesn't matter what it is. You'll make it come true."

  ***

  I take a shortcut through the Emergency Room after spending more than three hours on the seventh floor of the hospital. I shared the elevator ride down with two doctors and a nurse who talked in low whispers about a patient that will be moved to hospice care tomorrow.

  We might not have the same jobs, but I know all about death. I've had to watch people crumble when they've heard the news that their cat didn't make it. I've listened to the wails of children after being told that their dog would never come back home.

  Death is a part of medicine. It's a sad but integral part of the cycle of life, and I'm strong enough to handle it. I know I am.

  The elevator dings our arrival on the first floor and when the doors swing open the mad rush of the ER is what greets us.

  Both doctors head straight for the r
eception desk. I have no idea if they are ER physicians or not. What I do know is that every single person who works in this building plays a pivotal role in patient care. It doesn't matter if it's the head of cardiology or the people who work tirelessly in the kitchen. They all are essential to the well-being of those who come here for help.

  I scan the area. The noise and frenetic energy don't overwhelm me. I take comfort in the knowledge that there are trained professionals who will do their best to help everyone here.

  I take a step forward while I dig in my purse for my phone to order an Uber to pick me up.

  John offered to call his driver to take me home, but I insisted on finding my own way. When he rushed off for an emergency consultation in the ER, I stayed back and spoke to a surgeon for ten minutes until he too, had to run to help someone who needed him.

  "Adley?" A familiar male voice pulls my gaze to the left.

  I search the faces of the people standing near the reception desk. Every one of them is looking for an answer to an urgent question.

  "Over here." The voice calls again and I shift my focus more to the right and when I do my eyes land right on him.

  "Kade?" I say his name as I move toward him, brushing past a woman with dark hair who is rushing in with a child in her arms.

  "What are you doing…" I start to ask what he's doing in the ER at eleven o'clock at night, but my words get caught in my throat when I look past where he's standing to see the face of Crew's sister, his mother and his older brother, Curtis. I've met Lark before but I recognize the others from the photographs in Crew's apartment.

  "Kade." I reach for him once I'm close enough. "Where's Crew?"

  He points to a corridor that I know leads to a series of exam rooms. "There. He's down there."

  I steady Kade's shaking hand in my own. I draw a deep breath because whatever it is, Crew is strong. "What's happened?"

  "You don't know?" He scans my face looking for an answer to a question I'm not aware of. I don't know why any of the Benton family is here.

  I crane my neck to look down the corridor but it's just a steady stream of medical personnel going in and out of cubicles. "No. What happened to Crew?"

  I bite the corner of my lip suddenly overcome with a rush of emotions. He can't be hurt. I can't breathe if he's hurt. I need him. I care about him so much.

  I think I love him.

  "It's our dad." His voice breaks as he buries his face in his hands. "He had a heart attack. It doesn't look good."

  Chapter 38

  Crew

  I stand in the exam room with my hands in the pockets of my pants staring at the frail man on the stretcher. He's hooked up to machines that monitor his heart, oxygen is being pumped into his nose, and his gray eyes look sunken and cloudy.

  "You came," he whispers when he finally notices me standing at the foot of the stretcher.

  I came as soon as my sister, Lark, called me. I was having dinner by myself at an Italian place a block from my apartment. I was staring at my phone. The temptation to call Bill was pressing.

  I've held off asking him where he took Adley the other day when he picked her up outside her apartment. I wanted to know tonight, but just as I was about to make the call, Lark called me in a panic.

  I paid the check, walked out of the restaurant and hailed the first taxi I saw to bring me here.

  "You knew I would," I answer quietly. "I'm always there if someone from the family needs me."

  It's the truth. Even when my asshole of a younger brother is in need, I'm there for him. I have been there for all of them since day one. I will always be there for them.

  "I might not make it this time."

  He's right. The doctor who first examined him told us as much. His heart is failing. He's already lived through a minor heart attack. This one is a tsunami compared to that one.

  He was in his office, heading a meeting when he collapsed face first on the boardroom table. It's a fitting slice of irony.

  The man who will push anyone aside to make a dollar, falls victim to his greed and the stress that comes with it.

  "You have a great doctor, dad."

  I test the water, but the shark, even in his weakened state, strikes.

  "Sir."

  I bark out a laugh. It stopped hurting years ago, long after the first subtle correction at the dinner table when I was an innocent kid, excitedly telling his parents about a science award.

  "Call me sir, Crew. That's what I want all my boys to do."

  He has three boys, yet only two are allowed to call him dad; the two who were born with his blood running through their veins.

  He's dad to Lark as well, but never to me. Not in any significant way.

  I say what I've always wanted to say to him because for him there may not be a sunrise tomorrow. "I forgive you."

  "For what?" Both his graying brows rise. "Forgive me for what? I gave you a better life than anyone else could have."

  In his eyes he has.

  I was adopted because my birth mother, a single French woman, couldn't handle me.

  I was a troublemaker she'd tell my father every day when she showed up to work for him as his secretary twenty-six years ago. Until one day when she didn't show up at all.

  She gave me up that day. I was three-years-old.

  Foster care was my home until my mother, Pauline Benton, convinced her husband, Eli, to take me in. They ran through the process to become my foster parents, and eventually my adoptive parents when my birth mother's rights were willfully terminated because she left me without so much as a glance back.

  Her family back in Paris wanted nothing to do with her, or me.

  I began this life as Jordan Fournier.

  I live my life as Crew Benton.

  "For everything," I answer his question.

  "If I ever raised a hand to you..." He stops to hold his hand against his chest, his face twisting in pain. "I did my best with you. You were never like your brothers. You were always getting in trouble."

  I was a typical child who tested the limits and explored without any thought to consequence. The biggest crime in his eyes is that I'm a Benton by default, not by design.

  "I'm going to grant your dying wish." I walk to the side of the bed and stand over him.

  He stares up at my face. There's not an ounce of tenderness in his eyes. That's reserved for his grandchildren and his children. It's never been directed at me.

  "The company? You'll sign your shares over to me?"

  I laugh because he's about to endure a surgery he may not survive. "To Lark."

  His brow furrows and his hand presses harder against his chest. "She works at Matiz. She knows nothing about what we do at Benton. She already has enough shares. If you give her yours and I die, she'll have controlling interest."

  "As it should be. She's more equipped to run that ship than anyone else." I lean down and kiss his forehead. "You've been a bastard to me, old man. You should have given me a chance because I loved you. All I wanted was to be loved back."

  Before he can respond, I stalk across the room to the curtain that separates the exam room from the corridor and I leave behind the man who took more from me than he ever gave.

  Chapter 39

  Crew

  I walk out of the exam room and into my mom's arms. She's a small woman, but her arms have always been the safest place on earth to me.

  She's loved me without reservation from the first day we met. She read to me, taught me how to tie my shoes and when I graduated college she was in the front row screaming my name with tears streaming down her face.

  I am her son as much as Kade and Curtis, my older brother, are.

  "You talked to him?" She takes a step back to look up at me. "How did it go?"

  "Fine, mom." I kiss the top of her head. "I said my peace. He said his. We're good now."

  She's at peace too. Her life hasn't been easy. I've tried my best to offer her refuge from the storm of his temper. He's never touched her in anger.
My siblings have always been safe from that too.

  I wasn’t as fortunate.

  It was never overt. I didn't have bruises but the pushing and shoving and name calling created scars that no one can see.

  "He'll need to have surgery. Kade will stay here with me." She squeezes my arms. "I want you to go home, sweetie. Take Lark with you. Her son needs her, and there's a woman who needs you."

  "What woman?"

  Her hand brushes my arm as she points into the waiting room. "That beautiful woman over there talking to your father's doctor needs you more than I do."

  I look back over my shoulder and see the woman I love.

  Adley is deep in conversation with Dr. John Tate, the cardiologist brought in to take over my dad's case. My mom requested him personally because of his reputation for being a leader in his field.

  No one expected him to be in the hospital this late since he's not on call tonight, but he was in the cardiology ward. When I mentioned to the admitting doctor that I know Dr. Tate's daughter, Sydney, personally, he relayed the message, and within five minutes I was shaking John's hand and thanking him for his help.

  I watch Adley as she plays with the hospital visitor badge strung around her neck on a lanyard. I see how focused she is on everything he's telling her.

  I see her dream now.

  The stack of medical books on the coffee table in her apartment.

  The catalog for the New York School of Medicine that was on her kitchen counter.

  The poster of the human heart hanging behind her bathroom door.

  I assumed it was Sydney's dream to follow in her father's footsteps, but this is Adley's dream.

  She turns toward me then, her face searching for mine. I know she feels the same connection I do and when she finally locks eyes with me, I have no doubt that I'm looking at the future Dr. Adley York, Cardiologist.

  ***