“Fancy party,” Sandy said.
“We have a number of those to attend this season, too,” Aden said. “They’re taking our place this time.”
“All of this – you, the kids, everything. It’s all what I’d always hoped and dreamed about,” Sandy said. “Thank you doesn’t seem like enough.”
“This jewel, and the trip, pale in comparison to how much I love you, how much the kids love you. To the joy you bring us.”
Sandy hugged him.
“Happy birthday.”
~~~~~~~~
Friday afternoon – 1:07 P.M.
Jill stalked the Castle side door waiting for the mailman. Aden’s surprise trip to Cancun had put a crimp in their girls’ day at the spa for Sandy’s birthday. Jill had ordered a perfect-for-Sandy yellow bikini. It was supposed to be here Wednesday. Denver’s Postal Service never missed a chance to prove reaffirm its status at the slowest in the country.
Jill looked through the metal gate. A few photographers lingered across the street but the pressing hoard had been cleared off by the city. American Disabilities Act. Honey needed free and easy access to her home.
The mailman waved from the gate. He laughed when she squealed over the bikini package. He also gave her the stack of letters, magazines, and other Castle junk. Thanking him profusely, she waved as he walked away.
“Anything for us?” MJ met her at the door.
“I think Honey has a stack for you, MJ. Did you see it?”
“I was kinda busy last night, Miss Jill. Had to work off a trip and a diamond ring!” MJ impulsively kissed Jill’s cheek. “I know I’ve said this, but thank you for the diamond. She’s so happy. I never would have thought...”
“Girls like bling, MJ,” Jill laughed.
“I love this place.” MJ leaned close to her. “Do you ever get used to the whole thing?”
“I haven’t,” Jill said.
MJ touched her arm then wandered down the hall toward their apartment.
Jill laughed. Flipping through mail, she shook her head to MJ. With her package under her arm, she was about to set the envelopes down when she saw a postcard sticking out of one of Valerie’s magazines.
Her pulse quickened at the picture.
Costa Rica.
Turning it over, she saw that it was addressed to Jillian Roper. Sweating, she glanced around to see if anyone was watching her. Looking back at the card, she read:
Your mother would like to see you marry Jacob Marlowe.
Jill fainted.
Chapter Fifty-One
A very bad day
Friday, November 14 – 4:30 A.M.
“I’m sorry, Jill. I want to understand, but I don’t,” Jacob said.
“Maybe you should try harder.” Jill turned her back on him to look out the window.
“Ok,” Jacob said. He went to her side so he could see her face. “We picked up our wedding license the morning of Halloween. We were going to surprise everyone at the Halloween party. That’s why we were having such a big party! Then WHAM! All of a sudden, you can’t do it.”
“Well, I can’t,” Jill said.
“There are fifty billion people around so we can’t talk about it and you haven’t been able to talk about it since!”
Jill shook her head at him.
“Did you change your mind? Do you not want to get married?” Jacob asked. “Or is it that you don’t want to marry me?”
Jill turned to look at him. Her arms crossed over her heart. Her face was closed to him. He’d never seen her so shut down. Her entire manner was one hundred and eighty degrees from where she had been two weeks ago. Not sure what to do, he returned to the facts.
“Claire Martins sent, by your words, your amazing wedding dress. She even made, again by your words, an unbelievable dress for Katy. We worked with Delphie for a month to finalize our vows.”
“And?”
Jacob clenched his jaw to keep from screaming at her. Letting out a breath, he attempted another tack.
“Do you want to marry me?” he asked.
Jill’s face flushed. Her eyes echoed with longing. She nodded.
“Then...” His eyes asked the question.
She turned away from him again.
“Why was it so easy to marry Trevor?” Jacob immediately regretted the words. Incapable of stopping himself, he added, “Would you marry me if I beat you? Belittled you? Cheated on you? Stole your money?”
Jill’s shoulders vibrated with sobs. Unable to contain his anger, Jacob stalked toward the loft door. Jill ran after him. He stopped in place when she grabbed his shoulders. Turning, he saw her exhausted face streaming with tears. His rage and jealousy vanished in the face of her sorrow.
“You have to trust me. Please,” Jill said. “It’s not you. It’s not you. It’s not you.”
He scooped her up to hold her close.
“You say all those things… and I deserve them,” she said between her sobs. “It’s complicated. I...”
“You ask me to trust you. But, Jill, you aren’t trusting me,” he said. “Trust me. Tell me what’s going on. If you don’t tell me, my mind goes...”
“But you’re a psychic! Why don’t you ...”
“It doesn’t work like that, Jill,” Jacob said. “No real psychic is any good at predicting their own future. I’m too invested to be impartial. I want you to be my wife. I want to grow our family. Any feedback I get is muddled by my own desires and emotions.”
Jill cried into his shoulder.
“Jake, we’ve got to go,” Sam yelled from the door. “It’s snowing.”
“I’ll be right there,” Jacob said to Sam. Turning back to Jill, he added, “We’ll talk tonight?”
Jill nodded. Almost as an after thought, she pressed something into his hands.
“I love you, Jacob,” Jill said.
He kissed her then hurried after Sam. He stuck the card into his back jeans pocket, grabbed his jacket and ran to Sam’s idling truck.
“We have to figure out whether to close sites or leave them open,” Sam said.
He took off out of the Castle driveway. Turning right on Colfax, he drove as fast as the traffic would allow.
“We have a few sites ahead of schedule,” Jacob said. “Don’t worry, Dad. We’ll make up the time.”
“Time is money, son. Every day we’re behind is another financial projection we haven’t met.”
“It’s like this every fall,” Jacob said.
“We account for that,” Sam said. “We have to meet our projections this fall or...”
Jacob scowled at the snow. Sam’s ‘or’ was that the board wouldn’t allow him to do what he had spent the last four years working toward. He shook his head.
“I have this funny feeling about today,” Sam said. “Delphie wished me ‘Good luck’ this morning when I left. THEN she said, ‘This just has to happen.’ Scared the crap out of me. You don’t have any...”
“Sorry Dad, I’ve been a little distracted.”
“Jill?”
“Ah fuck Dad, I don’t know.”
Jacob’s irritation made Sam laugh. Jacob turned on the radio to listen to the weather forecast. They drove in silence toward the Lipson construction corporate office off of Kalamath and Third Ave. At the office, they were greeted at the door by a sweating, pale Blane.
“I have the weather projections for every site,” Blane said. “We’ll need to close these three at least – County Line, Golden, and Louisville.”
“We can’t close Golden,” Sam said. “We’re four days behind there.”
“No choice,” Blane said. “It’s dumping snow.”
“Fuck,” Sam said.
Jacob touched Sam’s shoulder. They continued their way into Jacob’s office for their morning check-in.
“Just a second,” Blane said. He ran into the single toilet restroom.
“How long has he been like that?” Jacob asked Aden.
“All morning. He’s in the middle of the ribiviron treatment.
Heather says it’s expected. But...”
Blane looked even worse when he came out of the bathroom.
“You have to go home,” Jacob said.
“You need me here,” Blane said. “We have to keep this company on target or we won’t be able to sell! We’re already behind and...”
Blane’s anxious words reflected the mood of the entire office. Jacob noticed that the lights were on in every office. The doom laden snow brought every corporate employee to work early this morning.
“Go home,” Jacob said.
Blane sagged. Jacob grabbed him before he hit the floor. Aden took his other arm. Together they negotiated him into an arm chair in Jacob’s office.
“I’ll call Heather,” Aden said as left the office.
“Don’t call her!” Blane protested. “I’ll be fine!”
“Just rest,” Jacob said. “We really need you well.”
“Hey Jake!” Jacob’s company phone squawked. “It’s Honey. I’ve got some bad news.”
“What’s up?” Jacob picked up the phone.
“I don’t have any idea what happened.”
“What do you mean?” Jacob asked.
“Our trench shoring’s slipped over night,” Honey said. “Bambi’s in the trench now trying to assess the damage.”
“How does trench shoring slip?” Jacob’s voice rose with frustration.
“Don’t yell at me, Jacob Marlowe. I am just the messenger,” Honey said. “You need to take a few breaths there, bro.”
Jacob let out a breath. His loud question drew the corporate employees from their office. They were gathering outside his office. He closed his door in their faces. Aden came in the door as soon as he closed it. Jacob nodded to Aden then turned his back to the door.
“Ok, I’m calm,” Jacob said. “How did that happen?”
“We don’t know,” Honey said. “We’re sending the overnight tape in to you now. We’ve been trying to make up the week we’re behind. Everyone’s been working fast and long hours. I think it’s some combination of the trenches not set right and the snow.”
“How long will it take to fix them?” Jacob asked.
“We’ll need a couple days, Jake. Do you want to talk to Bambi?”
“That’s all right. Did it crush any pipe?”
“No,” Honey said. “We dug the trench and set the shoring last night. We haven’t laid pipe in this section yet.”
“No one was hurt?” Sam said.
Surprised, Jake looked up at his father’s voice. Sam had let himself into Jacob’s office.
“Was anyone hurt?” Jacob asked.
“No. It was like this when we got here,” Honey said. “Just so you know, our guys think it’s sabotage.”
“Paranoia always reins supreme,” Jacob said. “Thanks Honey. You’ll let me know?”
“I will,” Honey said.
Turning back to the office, he shook his head at Aden, Sam and Blane.
“Did you close the sites for snow?” Jacob asked Sam.
“I did,” Sam said.
“This is number four,” Jacob said. “We can catch up tomorrow or the next day. But this site’s out for a week. They think it’s sabotage.”
“Fuck,” Blane said. His forehead rested on his hand. “I can review the tapes.”
“After you rest,” Sam said.
“Hey Jake,” the box on Jacob’s desk squawked again. A man’s voice repeated, “Jake? Are you there?”
“Yeah, Jerry, I’m here,” Jacob said. “What’s up?”
“Our guys uncovered some remains yesterday afternoon,” Jerry said. “They didn’t tell me because they didn’t want to delay the site.”
“HOLY FUCK, Jerry!”
“I know,” he said. “It looks to me like it’s an entire dwelling. Either early settler but probably some kind of Native thing. I saw it this morning when I walked the site.”
“Have they laid pipe over it?” Jacob asked.
“Yes,” Jerry said. “But not much. We can pull it. Easy.”
“What happened?” Sam asked.
“Native dwelling at the sewer site out East,” Jacob said.
“Holy fuck is right,” Aden said. “What the hell is going on?”
Jacob held up his hand for the men to be silent.
“Did you make the call, Jerry?” Jacob asked.
“No, the men wanted me to call you first,” Jerry said. “Now I know that we’re real concerned about meeting our goals, but Jacob Marlowe, Lipson’s never ever constructed over a grave. Your mother would have a fit. You cannot ask me to...”
“Okay, Jerry. Okay,” Jacob said. “You’re right. We’re not going to become something we’re not.”
“I don’t want to buy a company...”
“OKAY,” Jacob said.
“Okay?”
“Close the site. Call the local cops and we’ll call the museum. I’ll contact the owner.”
“Fine. That’s fine.”
Jerry ended the call.
“How many is that?” Sam asked.
“Three closed for snow. Honey’s site closed because of the trench shoring. Now this,” Aden said. “That’s five.”
“We’re never going to...” Blane said.
Blane clutched his stomach. Sam got Jacob’s trash can under him seconds before he threw up. Blane missed the trash can.
“My office?” Aden asked.
“Oh God, I’m so sorry. Oh my God,” Blane threw up into the trash can.
“Listen, I know this seems really tough,” Sam said. “But we’ve been through tough times before. We can’t let this get us down.”
“Hey Jake,” Jacob’s phone squawked. Jacob looked at the phone debating whether to answer. Sam grabbed the phone from him.
“Hey Georgia, I’m going to leave you on speaker,” Sam said. “What’s up?”
“Remember how we turned the water on at Steele Street yesterday?”
“Yeah,” Jacob said.
“Well, we blew a clay pipe in Country Club.”
“Where?” Jacob asked.
“Circle Drive,” Georgia said.
“Oh fuck,” Aden said.
“These rich folks are pissed off, Jake,” Georgia said. “Tony’d be here to tell you but they are screaming at him. Here...”
The sound of a homeowner screaming at Tony, the site manager, came through the phone.
“Pissed off,” Georgia said. “What assholes.”
“Did you turn off the water?” Sam asked.
“Yep,” Georgia said. “Just made them madder. At least one homeowner is talking about suing. But it’s not our fault their pipes are ancient. Like a hundred years old.”
“Thanks Georgia,” Jacob said.
“Tony’d like it if Sam came out,” Georgia said.
“We’re not quite sure what we’re going to do today,” Jacob said. “But we’ll get back with you.”
“Thanks Jake,” Georgia said. “You know Tony’s just sick about this. We were on time and on budget. If we have to fix this? And for free? We’re going to take the whole company down.”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we need to,” Jacob said. His hand rubbed at the tightness growing in his chest. “Thanks for letting us know.”
“What’s next?” Aden asked. “It can’t possibly get…”
“DO NOT SAY THAT,” Jacob screamed.
“Jake?” the intercom to Jacob’s office phone squawked with Sam’s administrative assistant’s voice.
“Fuck, always. Things can ALWAYS get worse.”
“Okay, Jacob, okay,” Sam said. “You can’t let this get to you.”
“Yeah?” Jacob said. He pressed his office phone to speaker.
“I’m sorry to bug you,” she said. “But Sam asked me to take your calls since Blane’s sick. There’s a call from your lawyer, Max Hargreaves. He says it’s urgent.”
“Thanks. Can you put him through?”
“Jake?” Max Hargreaves voice asked.
“I put y
ou on speaker because if it’s urgent Aden and Sam need to hear.”
“Hey Sam, Aden. Blane?”
“He’s here,” Jacob said. “What’s up?”
“I had a call from a contact at your bank last night,” Max said. “The bank’s calling your debt.”
“WHAT?!?” Jacob screamed. “We have two years operating expenses in that bank! We’ve an excellent credit rating!”
“That’s what I said,” Max said. “I wanted to check everything out before I called you. Your contracts specify a week’s notice. But given the ‘national banking crisis’, the bank says that your contract is null and void. They are giving you twenty-four hours to fulfill your debt or, get this, secure it with a tangible property.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Jacob asked.
“They want the Castle,” Max said.
“WHAT?!”
“Listen, Jake, a few of the board members sit on the board at your bank,” Max said. “They’re orchestrating this entire thing.”
“Why would they do that?” Jacob asked.
“Hostile takeover, Jake,” Max said.
Without saying another word, Jacob stormed through the crowd of employees outside his office and into the executive restroom. He flipped the lock. He made it to the plastic chair near the sink before falling down. The pain in his chest was unbelievable.
Gasping for breath, he opened the towel rack where he had stashed his nitroglycerine spray. He sprayed the nitroglycerine in his mouth and worked to catch his breath.
“Jake?” Sam’s voice said at the door.
“Just a second, Dad,” Jacob said.
“You all right?”
“I just need a moment, Dad,” Jacob said.
He had these episodes off and on since the assault in June. Angina. That’s what the doctor called it. Daily exercise had reduced his angina to the point where he thought he’d kicked it.
He’d never had an episode this bad. He sprayed the nitroglycerine into his mouth one last time before he passed out.
~~~~~~~~
“What’s going on, Sam?” asked Tres Sierra, their CFO.
“We’ve six sites down,” Sam said. “And the bank’s called our debt. They want to take the Castle.”
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