Always Us (The Jade Series #8)

by Everhart, Allie

I direct my attention back to William. “Did you hear all that?”

  “Yes. I’m just a little confused.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I talked to Eleanor this morning to see how she was holding up and she said Holton had improved overnight.”

  I keep my eyes on Garret. “Oh. We hadn’t heard that.”

  Why is William calling Garret’s grandmother? Are they friends? And why does Eleanor answer William’s calls, but not Garret’s?

  “I didn’t know you knew Eleanor that well,” I say to William.

  Garret’s giving me a strange look, trying to figure out what’s going on.

  “The Sinclairs have been friends with the Kensingtons for many years,” William says.

  “I know. I just didn’t know you still talked to her.”

  “I haven’t for quite some time. But when something like this happens, it’s customary to reach out and offer any assistance.”

  I try to gather my thoughts because this whole conversation is throwing me off. “So what did she say about Holton?”

  “Just what I told you. As far as I know, he’s still in a coma, but he’s improving a little more each day.”

  “That’s good.” I hope I don’t sound as nervous as I feel right now. “I should let you go. I know you’re busy.”

  “Yes, well, I just wanted to check in on you and Garret. Call me if you need anything.”

  “I will. Bye, William.” I end the call and set my phone down.

  “What was that about?” Garret asks.

  “William said your grandfather is getting better.” I’m in a daze as I say it, my mind slowly realizing what this means.

  “How does William know?”

  “He talked to your grandmother this morning.”

  Garret grips my arm. “What exactly did he say? Is my grandfather out of the coma?”

  “No, but his condition is improving. I don’t know what that means.” I rub my forehead. “I feel sick. What if he recovers?”

  “He won’t. He’s in a coma. A lot of people die in comas.” He whips his phone out and makes a call. “Voicemail,” he says to me, then says in the phone, “Dad, call me when you get this.”

  I stand up, picking my backpack off the bench. “I have to go. I have class.”

  Garret stands in front of me, his hands on my arms. “You okay?”

  “I would be if I hadn’t heard that news.”

  He hugs me. “Just forget about that. He’s not getting better, Jade. There was probably just a slight improvement in his blood work and the doctors are making a bigger deal out of it than it is to make my grandmother feel better.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Jade, stop worrying about it. Go to class, and when you get home we’ll turn on the Christmas lights and watch a movie. We’ll get a pizza for dinner so we don’t have to cook.”

  I know he’s trying to make me feel better but it’s not working. But I smile and pretend that it is. “Okay. That sounds fun. I’ll see you at home.”

  I walk to class, my eyes darting around to see if anyone’s following me. I know Holton’s still in a coma, but I feel like he can still see me. Like he’s watching me. Plotting to kill me.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  16

  GARRET

  After Jade leaves for class, I check my phone for any updates about my grandfather. I don’t have any messages from my dad or anyone else in my family. But what William said had to be true. He wouldn’t lie about something like that, which means my grandfather must be getting better. What if he comes out of the coma? Shit. This is bad. But even if he wakes up, he still has to recover from the stroke. That could take months, or maybe even years.

  I’m too on edge to go to class so I skip it and go home. As soon as I’m there, I turn on the TV. There isn’t a single story about my grandfather. No updates. No news that he’s getting better. Nothing.

  I fire up my laptop to see if there’s anything online. I go to click on the Internet icon but notice something strange on my screen. An icon I don’t recognize. I wonder if I accidentally clicked on an ad and it downloaded something to my computer. The icon looks like a dial with numbers on it. I’m not sure if I should click on it because it could be a virus. But my curiosity wins out and I click on it.

  A series of numbers pop up on my screen, each one in their own little box. The last one keeps changing, scrolling really fast. Then I notice the second to last number has now changed.

  An icy chill courses through me as I realize what this is. It’s a timer. A countdown to the end of the year.

  “Fuck!” I drop my laptop on the couch and back away, like it’s possessed. The numbers keep scrolling, the seconds rolling by, the minutes right next to it. And then the hours and the days. I quickly calculate it in my head to make sure this really is what I think it is. And it is. Based on today’s date and the current time, the numbers on the timer are set to count down to the end of the year.

  I pick up my laptop and click on the icon to shut the timer down. The numbers go away, but in their place are the words, Time’s running out. And then the program closes and I’m left with the icon again.

  How the hell did that timer get there? Did my grandfather do that? Is he awake now? I get my phone out and call my dad. His voicemail picks up and I leave another message. Why isn’t he calling me back?

  I need to know my grandfather’s condition. I need to know if he’s still in a coma. William said he was, but that’s just what my grandmother told him. Maybe she lied. Maybe my grandfather’s out of the coma but she doesn’t want anyone knowing until she makes an announcement to the press. And maybe my dad knows, but has been lying to me so I don’t worry. Maybe that’s why he won’t answer my calls.

  I call my grandmother for the millionth time this week. And like all the other times I’ve called, she doesn’t answer. What the hell? I need someone in my damn family to pick up the phone.

  I try to think of who else to call. Who else would know the truth about my grandfather? Katherine. I hate her, and she’s the last person I want to talk to, but she’s my only option right now.

  She picks up on the second ring. As usual, she skips any kind of greeting. “Your father isn’t home. And Lilly is at school.”

  “I called to talk to you.”

  “Is that so?” I can almost see the smirk I know she’s making. “And what would you like to talk about?”

  “My grandfather. Do you know how he’s doing?”

  “Yes. In fact, I just got off the phone with Eleanor.”

  “And? What did she say?”

  “She said Holton was up and reading the Financial Times. He still has no appetite but—”

  “Wait. When did he get out of the coma?”

  She sighs. “Why aren’t you asking your father these questions? I don’t have time for this.”

  “Dad’s busy. I keep getting his voicemail. Just tell me when he got out of the coma.”

  “Yesterday. He gradually became more alert and by this morning, he’d improved even more.”

  “How is that possible? Everyone said he was dying.”

  “He’s getting the best treatment in the world. And he’s a very important man. They’re not just going to let him die.” I hear her heels clicking as she walks. “I have other commitments to attend to. I’ll tell your father you called.”

  She hangs up.

  I feel like I might throw up. My grandfather’s out of the coma. So why wasn’t it on the news? Why didn’t my grandmother tell the press? Do the doctors think he’ll have a relapse? Why hasn’t anyone called me? I should’ve been told as soon as he woke up.

  My phone rings. It’s still in my hand and I answer without looking. “Hello.”

  “Hello, Garret.”

  When I hear his voice, my heart shuts down. I stop breathing. And wait to see if it’s really him.

  “It’s your grandfather. I wanted to let you know I’m doing well and am expected to make a full recovery.”


  I force myself to breathe again. I don’t want my voice to be shaky. I need to sound strong. Let him know I’m not afraid of him.

  I clear my throat. “How are you feeling?”

  “My appetite isn’t quite back to normal and I’m still a little tired, but other than that, I feel fine.”

  As he’s talking, I realize his speech isn’t slurred or impaired in any way. That doesn’t make sense. If he had a stroke, he wouldn’t sound like this.

  “You didn’t have a stroke.” I blurt it out.

  “No. Apparently I was drugged. The toxins in my system caused the coma.”

  “But the news said…” My voice trails off.

  He chuckles a little. “Garret, please don’t tell me you’re that naive. After everything you’ve seen and heard over the years, you can’t possibly tell me you still believe the stories you hear on the news.”

  I ignore his insults. “Who drugged you?”

  “I can’t say for sure. It could’ve been any number of people. I have no shortage of enemies. But when I find out who did this, it will be the end for them. I might even take care of them myself.”

  He says it like it would be fun. Like he’s looking forward to it.

  “Garret, have you made a decision yet?”

  “There IS no decision. You’re not doing this. The plan is off.”

  Shit. I shouldn’t have said that. He has to be in control and I just told him he’s not. He’ll take that as a challenge. Shit!

  “You know, Garret, when you’re faced with death, as I was earlier in the week, you realize that time is precious. Hours. Minutes. Seconds. They pass by so quickly and then they’re gone. It’s a shame to see them wasted. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  “What are getting at?”

  “Your life, Garret. Your future. It needs to begin now. Today. Giving you this month to decide just seems wasteful. Think of all you could accomplish in that time.”

  My heart’s beating again, going so fast I’m having trouble breathing. “You gave me a month. You’re not taking it back.”

  “Things have changed. And after further consideration, I—”

  “No! This is YOUR game! And those were YOUR fucking rules! You’re not changing them now.”

  The only sound I hear is my heart thumping in my eardrums.

  He’s silent. And then, “Fine. The rules remain. Goodbye, Garret.”

  He hangs up and I toss the phone aside. I remain on the couch, my hands over my face, rubbing my forehead. My head is pounding, probably because I wasn’t breathing for most of that conversation.

  I sit up and notice my laptop next to me. I wake it up and click on that icon again to make sure the timer is still running. It is. It’s still counting down to the end of the year.

  How the hell did that get on my computer? He must’ve hacked into it. But how? He’s in a hospital bed. He just got out of a coma. How did he have time to get this done?

  Someone’s helping him. There’s no other way he could do it. And if someone’s working with him, they could be anywhere right now. They could be in this town. They could be on campus. Watching Jade. Following her. Fuck!

  I grab my keys and sprint to the door. When I open it, I almost run the mailman down. He’s standing at the door, the mail in his hand.

  He holds it out to me. “I was just putting it in the box, but if you’d like to take it.”

  I grab the mail. “Yeah, thanks.”

  I toss it in the house and as I go to close the door, I spot a large white envelope with the Yale seal. I step inside and pick up the envelope and rip it open. It’s an official acceptance letter along with registration instructions.

  “Shit!” I toss it on the floor and race out to my car. When I get to campus, I go to Jade’s classroom and peer through the glass panel in the door to make sure she’s there. She doesn’t see me but some other girl does and rolls her eyes. What the hell’s her problem?

  I wait outside the classroom on a bench in the hall. I call my dad again. This time, he actually answers.

  “Hello, Garret. Katherine said you called.”

  “Yeah, and she told me the truth about Grandfather. Why the hell would you lie to me about that?” I hear how loud I am and lower my voice. “I needed to know! I need to protect her!”

  “I wasn’t lying to you. I just haven’t had a chance to call and tell you.”

  “And you knew he didn’t have a stroke?”

  “Yes. But that can’t be public knowledge. Very few people know what really happened.”

  “Do you know who did it?”

  He clears his throat. “No. But your grandfather has numerous enemies who would be happy to see him gone.”

  “What am I going to do? He called me just now and—”

  “My father called you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m surprised he’d call you. He hasn’t even called me yet.”

  “He called to tell me the plan is still on. He tried to move up the timeline but I wouldn’t let him. Dad, there’s a countdown timer on my laptop. Who would’ve done that? You think he’s working with someone?”

  “I don’t know but I’ll find out.”

  “Until you know, what should I do? I’m waiting outside Jade’s classroom right now because I don’t want to leave her alone. I don’t trust that she’s safe.”

  “If my father set the rules, he’ll abide by them. She won’t be harmed.”

  “Maybe not now, but she could be in a few weeks. The end of the year isn’t that far away. I need to stop him.”

  “Just stay out of it. I told you I’d take care of it and I will.”

  “I’m not going to just sit here and do nothing!”

  “You need to calm down or Jade’s going to figure out what’s going on.”

  “She already knows.”

  “I told you not to tell her.”

  “I didn’t have a choice. Carson was—”

  “Garret, I can’t talk right now. I’m meeting with some people and they just walked in. We’ll talk later.”

  He hangs up just as Jade’s class dismisses.

  She spots me as she walks out. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’ll tell you when we get to the car.” I take her backpack and hold her hand and walk her out of the building.

  “What’s going on, Garret? Is this about your grandfather?”

  “Yes.”

  She sees the serious look on my face and knows I’m not here to give her good news. We don’t speak until we reach our cars. I parked right in front of her.

  I unlock her car and open her door for her. “You go first and I’ll follow you.”

  “Wait. You said you’d tell me what’s going on when we got to the car.”

  “Let’s just go home. I’ll tell you there.”

  We drive home and go inside and the first thing she sees is the letter from Yale, which is still on the floor.

  She picks it up. “Is this an acceptance letter?”

  I take it from her, tossing it back on the floor as I lead her to the couch. We sit down and I tell her what happened while she was at class; my talk with Katherine, then my grandfather, then my dad.

  Jade’s trying to be strong, but she looks terrified, her arms crossed tightly over her middle, her foot nervously tapping the floor. “So what does this mean? We just wait for your dad to do something?”

  I shake my head. “No. I’m going out there. I’m going to go see my grandfather.”

  “What good’s that going to do?”

  “I don’t know, but I can’t sit here and do nothing. Maybe we can work something out. Maybe I’ll just agree to take over the company.”

  “Garret, no. You’d hate that. That’s not what you want to do with your life.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I have no life if you’re not in it. So if taking over the company means he’ll leave you alone, I’ll do it. I’ll even go to Yale. Maybe you could go back to Moorhurst. We could get an apartment in between. It wouldn’t b
e that bad of a commute.”

  “Are you seriously considering this?”

  “I don’t have any other alternative.”

  “But he wants you back in the organization.”

  “Maybe if I do this other stuff, he won’t push me to be a member.”

  “So am I going with you?”

  “I don’t want you that close to him. I like the idea of keeping you thousands of miles away. But I also don’t feel good about leaving you here alone.” I stop to think of how to keep her safe while I’m gone. “Maybe William could help. He has really good security. Maybe he could loan us one of his security guards to watch the house.”

  “Why wouldn’t you just ask your dad?”

  “Because I’m not going to tell my dad I’m going out there. I’m going to try to talk to my grandfather alone first. If I can’t get him to change his mind, I’ll get my dad involved. But I can’t tell I’m going. He doesn’t want me there. He told me to stay out of it. If he finds out what I’m doing, he’ll try to stop me.”

  “I don’t like this, Garret. I don’t think you should go out there. You should just let your dad handle this.”

  “I tried that, and he didn’t do anything. And I can’t keep waiting for him. I need this to end.”

  “How do you know your dad didn’t do anything?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your dad was the last person to see Holton before he went in the coma. Do you think he—”

  “Jade, no. It wasn’t him.”

  She nods. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know he wouldn’t do that.”

  Actually, I think he would. But when he talked about what happened to my grandfather, he didn’t sound guilty or nervous or anything. Then again, he’s good at hiding that shit.

  “So when are you leaving?” Jade asks.

  “I’m going to try to get a flight out today.” I take my laptop, facing it away from Jade. When the screen pops up, I pull the timer icon to the trash bin. “But first I need to see if William can get someone out here to watch the house.”

  “Why do I need that? Holton’s at the clinic and he said he’d leave me alone until the end of the year.”

  I was hoping I wouldn’t have to tell her about the timer and my theory about how it got there. But I have to tell her in order to explain why she needs protection and why she needs to be extra careful while I’m away and even when I get back.