The email, the picture, I wanted it to be on purpose. A moment in his life where he couldn’t help but think of me. That he wanted to know how I would make him smile.
My head scratched that tickle with a bit of reality.
I’m just someone he worked with. Someone whom his best friend hated. Someone whom couldn’t wait to run from him when he was near. We worked together, so it was best nothing would ever come of my feelings.
As I was about to push the laptop aside so I could go to the kitchen to fill my downward spiral with Moose Tracks, I double checked the address that sent me the email. It’s was a Mimir address but it wasn’t Edgar’s.
SEVEN
Edgar
“Remember the naked 7-Eleven incident?”
A roar of laughter caused me to hold the phone away from my ear. It had been two weeks since I realized Ashton Graham was missing. Evaleen sent me an email last week that she couldn’t get a hold of him and even his friends and neighbors hadn’t heard from Ashton. I didn’t know how she would know that, but I had learned not to question her.
Because of what she told me, I decided to reach out to one of my old friends, Kingston Marks.
“Yes, how could I forget? The promise of group sex with sorority girls only to discover I was naked in a convenience store. You know, King, that’s not why I called—”
“Man, I had never seen anything so pale as your ass running across Deering Meadow that night trying to get back to your dorm unnoticed. I thought it was the moon. Turned out I was right.”
More laughter, followed by a snort.
“You got me, I have a pale ass.” I didn’t even remember the last time I rolled my eyes, but I felt that moment warranted it. “Listen, King, I wanted to ask about your dad.”
“Oh, he’s doing well. Had a heart attack a few years ago, but I have to say it was the best thing that ever happened to him. He gave up smoking and eats healthy, even finished his first marathon last year.”
“Wow, I had no idea. I’m sorry for the heart attack. That must have been scary.”
I swiveled my office chair to watch a few fat snowflakes meander down to Michigan Avenue below. The last time I talked to King he was still studying to become a doctor. We drifted apart, not having time to hang out together with his studies and residency and me helping my brother turn Mimir into a billion-dollar company.
Now I wish I had been there for him and his father. He doesn’t have a mother like I do or a brother, or even a sister. It was always just King and his dad.
“I’ll be honest, Edgar, I nearly peed myself when they called to tell me Dad had a heart attack and was in the hospital. I was doing my residency in New York and had to fly back. Longest plane ride of my life. But I finally let him have it. It was me lecturing him this time. And it seemed to work. He’s healthier than me now.” There was another chuckle but this time not deafening.
“I’m glad things turned out okay in the end. I really am. Hey, does he still do investigative work?”
“Oh yeah, that’s the one thing he can’t give up. I think that’s why he never married again because his real love is being a private investigator. I can text you his information if you need it. Got a female stalker, huh? I told you one day your Nordic Don Juan ways would catch up with you.”
My nickname in college, the Nordic Don Juan. Henrik Payne, who was my roommate back then was known as Goof, which didn’t fit him anymore. Tragedy struck his life a few years after we graduated and he hadn’t been the same since. But King seemed to be the same guy. I wondered if all that time studying to be a doctor stunted his maturity.
“No, something happened at work involving an employee and I want to get to the bottom of it. I just have a funny feeling about it.”
“Okay, well I’ll text you. It was nice catching up with you, man. Hey, I just moved back to Chicago. I work for Northwestern now; can you believe it? I’ll be spending most of my days catching babies like footballs over at the women’s hospital off Michigan Avenue.”
I couldn’t help but frown. I suddenly felt pity for the women who had King as their doctor.
“Yup, we should have a beer. Henrik rarely goes out anymore. It will be nice to have someone to hang with at night.”
“The Goof is there? Oh man, he has to come out too. This Friday night we will all legit party hard. If I have to come to your brother’s building to drag the Goof out, I will.”
That image made me laugh. He probably will have to drag Henrik from his desk. “Sound’s good. I’ll let you—”
“Oh, that reminds me. You will never guess who I saw on the plane ride back to Chicago when I moved back here last month?”
“King, I have no idea. Just tell me.”
I liked King, I did, but I could only take him in small doses. It’s like hanging out with an eight-year-old. Sure, it’s fun to do silly stuff like when we were kids, but then you start to wonder at what age all your energy dried up. When did the jungle gym make you feel like having a heart attack after only a few minutes of play?
King was always trying to make me guess what he was thinking, or go streaking, or ride bicycles drunk. I’m almost thirty-five, I wouldn’t do those things even if a woman wanted me to, let alone my immature friend.
“Damien Rosen. Remember that douchebag you had my dad try to hunt down after walking out on your mom? He looks a little different now. No more clean-cut, light brown hair. It’s jet-black and shaggy now, but other than that he appeared almost the same. I tried to follow him but he got into a limo after we landed at the airport and I needed to pick up my luggage.”
It was as if his words were a fist that landed a straight shot into my gut.
“I thought for sure that son of a bitch would be dead by now or at least in jail. He must be after another family if he’s getting into a limo.” King kept talking, but all I could think about was that Damien was here, in Chicago.
“This was when? A few weeks ago?”
“No, last month. Hey, my dad still has all the info he gathered on him. I can tell him to pull it up and give it to you when you call him.”
“Yeah, that would be good.”
There was silence which I was relieved about so my mind could settle back down after the Damien bomb.
“You know what stumped me about the whole thing, Edgar?”
“No, what?”
“My dad told me he found him back when we were in college and even gave you that address. He told me because he wanted to make sure I was there for you when you both went to confront the bastard. But you never took my dad up on his offer to contact Damien.”
More silence.
“After what he did to your family, I figured you would be itching to find him, but then you said nothing about it after that.”
King’s father, Mr. Marks, was like a dad I never had. My father died when I was three and I don’t remember him. Jacob does, but he won’t talk about him.
I remembered when Mr. Marks called me into his office one day the weekend before spring break while Henrik and I were over playing video games with King. He sat me down and explained that he found Damien.
He handed me a file containing some photographs of him with his current girlfriend and her address. Mr. Marks presumed he lived with her and knowing what I did about Damien, I agreed.
Mr. Marks came to my side and crouched down to be eye level since I was in a chair. “Edgar, I am only giving this to you because you asked me to. But I want to come with you when you reach out to him. It would be unwise to do this yourself. We are here for you, King and me. We will help you in any way we can.”
I remembered agreeing that I wanted him to come with me but when he left his office, giving me a minute to collect myself a very different idea popped into my head.
“You know, King, I was a scrawny kid back then. I thought I was tough but in the end, I was too scared. Your dad knew that too, that’s why he promised to come. I always imagined what I would do if I saw him but then reality hit and that’s not how
it happened.”
“Yeah, I hear ya, Edgar. You always were the wise one. Even back then you could see what a bad idea that was to confront a dangerous man like that.”
Bad idea. That’s exactly what that was.
Too bad I was attracted to bad ideas.
EIGHT
Edgar
May 30, Fifteen Years Ago
Alone in darkness but anger helped me see.
My fingers traced the cool metal that lay on the seat next to me as I sat in my ten-year-old truck at eleven o’clock on a Saturday night.
I should start back up the engine and leave. Go to that party King mentioned. Find some girl willing to fool around with me, willing to help me forget, and leave what was inside that house behind me. Mr. Marks warned me not to come here without him. But I didn’t listen.
If he came then he would know what I took from his locked desk drawer. The one that King thought was so cool when we first met during my senior year in high school after he transferred from New York. The one he showed me when his dad wasn’t around.
More than being caught with something that wasn’t mine, I didn’t want his dad or anyone to stop me.
No one knew I was here. Not even the person in the house I couldn’t take my eyes off of. If Damien Rosen knew, he’d run.
I kept my eyes locked on that small two-story house. My wish, that Damien would walk out that door. Or better yet, appear at a window and I could get a clear shot. But there was no movement in the house yet. Just a few lighted windows.
The house itself wasn’t much to look at. It had some siding missing and there wasn’t much landscaping in front. Just grass and a big tree. I wondered how long they had lived there.
My thoughts didn’t last long on their length of stay.
Why this woman? King’s dad showed me a picture of Damien with her and she was attractive, but so was my mom. My mom had more to offer. Much more than a rundown house.
I’d been looking for Damien for the past five years. What he did to my family, to my mother, was unforgivable. My brother had to quit college. He came home to work and support us. I was still in high school at the time, but I took any job I could get to help pay the bills.
When King told me his dad was a private detective, I couldn’t believe my luck. It took a while to convince Mr. Marks that I needed his help. But the more he got to know me, the more he realized I wasn’t just some kid with a grudge against a guy who broke my mom’s heart. He understood Damien Rosen had done real damage to my family.
When Mr. Marks told me earlier today he had an address for Damien, who now went by Shane Reynolds, I wanted to run and tell my mother. I drove home from Mr. Marks’ house to find my mother using duct tape to fix a cracked plastic folding chair she had for the dining room. I told her I would run out and get her a new one, to throw the broken one away.
I remember my heart sinking when she said, “Honey, we can’t afford new things anymore. It’s fine, I’ll just tape it. See, good as new.”
Only it wasn’t. It looked like something you would find in someone’s trash pile waiting for the garbage man to pick up. It wasn’t that I felt entitled to spend money on anything I wanted. It was that I didn’t want her to cry every time a bill came in the mail. Or see the fear in her eyes as she looked at her bank statement.
I wanted Damian to pay for what he took from us.
I started to tell my mom but her response was swift and strong. “Never mention that man’s name again. He is dead to us. Let’s just move past that and focus on the future, Edgar. Like your brother Jacob. He finally got an investor for his company, Mimir.”
Of course, Jacob was the dream son. When mom was in trouble, he swooped in and saved the day. He dated beautiful women and didn’t just have fun with them, but stuck around. Mom kept telling me that she thought Jacob was going to propose any day to his current girlfriend, Danni.
Good for him. But Jacob wasn’t me. Sure, I would love to have investors interested in a company I made, a beautiful woman who I could worship forever, and my mom’s adoration. But we can’t have everything we want in life, now can we?
I decided, after my mom told me not to mention Damien again, to keep this information to myself. That’s why I took Mr. Marks gun and told no one I was coming here. Maybe if I made Damien beg for forgiveness, then my mom would look at me the way she did my brother.
Glancing up toward the house, I noticed something hanging from the second story window. A pair of legs.
Then a large bag hit the grass as it fell from that window. Everything happened so fast, I thought whoever was attached to those legs had fallen. But that person had swung themselves to the tree and climbed down like an animal in a forest.
When they emerged from under the branches the street light hit long, blonde hair. While it was dark, the street light hit the girl in such a way that for a moment, I thought she was naked. The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I drank in every curve of her body.
That cheesy pick-up line popped into my head about an angel falling from the sky.
I shook my head, realizing she was wearing light-colored pants and a matching sweater. She wasn’t naked and even though I couldn’t make out the features in her face, she was enthralling. I tried to rationalize that my quickening heartbeat was due to nerves of being caught watching her. Not because I wanted to know her.
Her head tilted back as if she was taking a deep breath and I noticed how young she was, maybe a few years younger than me. That wasn’t the woman Damien was dating, but she looked similar. I guessed the girl must be the daughter Mr. Marks mentioned the woman had.
A chill rippled down my back as she picked up the bag and glanced back at the house. I could only see part of her expression, but if the way she wiped at her face and how she held herself was any indication, I suspected she was making a very hard decision. It didn’t take a genius to know Damien and then see a young girl at night with a big bag sneak out of her home, to realize she was running away.
I watched as the girl appeared startled and then ran behind the tree. When I glanced back at the window, I saw my wish coming true.
Damien appeared at the curtain. His silhouette barely lit from the street lamp in front of the house. I could just make out enough features on his face to know for sure it was him.
In that moment as he leaned out the window—obviously looking for something—I realized I didn’t want him to come outside anymore. The last thing I wanted was for Damien to find her.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly. She turned her head to glance at the window. When Damien stepped back into the room and pulled the window shut, her hand went to her heart. Her head fell back as she closed her eyes in relief.
I started to lean over to the passenger’s seat to open my car door but stopped myself. Why would a girl climb into a strange guy’s car at night? But I really wanted to find out why she was running. No one snuck out of the house for one night with a huge bag like that.
My curiosity grew as she slid down the tree trunk and covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders shook and I knew she was crying.
After some time passed, the girl wiped her face and stood. She reached into her bag and pulled out some white paper. Again, she gazed at the house before she turned her back toward me and pressed her hand to the tree.
Finally, she picked up her bag and began to walk across the street toward me. I slid down in my seat, just enough so she wouldn’t see me. As she made her way in front of my car, her head turned and I saw her haunting blue eyes gaze right at me.
As if it was high noon and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
I wondered if she saw me, but believed the darkness hid me well enough. The way her eyes fell on me felt uneasy. As if I was looking at someone stepping out of childhood and into adulthood far too soon.
Then she disappeared. I tried to follow her in my car but she was on foot and could walk through backyards and woods, so I lost her within minutes.
I made it back to that house
later that night and went to the tree. All thoughts of confronting Damien forgotten with that girl taking his place. Sticking out of a knotted hole in the trunk of the tree was a piece of paper. Pulling it out, I grabbed the sealed envelope and read the one word scrawled across it—Mom.
Images of earlier kept flashing in my head. All I could see were her heartbreaking eyes. So, I did what any normal nineteen-year-old guy would do, I took the envelope.
NINE
Evaleen
She was biting her lip. Never a good sign.
I realized I was going to have to explain it to her. At least, as much as she needed to know.
“Is this the only paperwork you needed me to sign, Evaleen?” Morgana adjusted her glasses and I couldn’t help but smirk.
First day back at work for her and she was already weaponized with Payne’s kryptonite.
“Yes. I just wrote it up as a leave of absence. As far as anyone is concerned, you were never fired, Drake.”
I lied.
“Really? Not even Mr. Mimir? Because when he came to the meeting at RT Mitchell before I was fired . . .” Her jaw tightened before she took a breath and continued. “I was definitely fired from there. No mistaking Gregory Mitchell the third yelling, ‘Did you just have sex on our conference table, Ms. Drake? That is against company policy; you’re fired.’ But right before that meeting, Mr. Mimir acted—”
“Don’t worry about Mr. Mimir, Drake. I reminded him how much better you are for the company than Payne. He seemed to agree that you were an asset but refused my recommendation to fire Payne.” I shook my head.
Morgana pushed some of her red hair behind her ear as she signed the paperwork. She tilted her head up to me with that deer-in-headlights look she got sometimes.
“Sunshine?”
I bent over my desk and snatched the paperwork back before hiding it in a drawer. “Never mind about any of that. Only Mr. Mimir needs to read that part. So, I think we are done here. Let’s get you settled back into your desk.”
The Attraction File (Cake Love Book 2) Page 4