by A. C. Arthur
The man, the son that none of the Senior Donovans wanted to claim, took a slow step back. He straightened the black suit jacket he wore and he frowned at Brandon.
“I had nothing to do with that,” Dane said.
Brock grabbed Brandon by the arm, pulling him back into the room they’d reserved on the first floor of a hotel in downtown Houston.
“You’re a liar,” Brandon continued.
“No,” Dane replied in a voice that was way too calm for Brandon’s liking. “Your father is the liar. And so is yours and yours.”
He’d looked towards the other side of the table where Trent, Linc and Adam stood and then to the chair where Keysa—who was now glowing in her fourth month of pregnancy—sat while her husband, Ian, stood beside her.
“We’re not here to talk about what our fathers did or did not do,” Linc told Dane. “We’re here to find out what it is you want to happen once those DNA results are in.”
Dane was tall, like the other Donovan men in the room. His shoulders were broad, and his suit, tailor made. He had a dark complexion, a goatee and close cropped hair. He stood further in the room now, away from the closed and locked door, staring them all down as if he didn’t have an ounce of fear. Something else, Brandon hated to admit, that resembled the Donovan men.
“What I want is to be finished with the secrecy,” Dane began.
Keysa sighed. “We’re all fed up with that,” she said. “Are you hoping to be invited to family reunions and Christmas dinners? Or do you just want what you perceive as your share of the Donovan money?”
It was a direct hit by a cousin that usually had more patience than the others. But Keysa was not only dealing with being pregnant, Brynne, her younger sister, was not taking the news that their father might be Dane’s father very well. Brynne still hadn’t responded to any of Trent’s emails and as Keysa had told them before Dane arrived, she was having a hard time catching up with Brynne. Her sister was answering calls and texts sporadically and was adamant that she did not have time to deal with her father’s transgressions. Aunt Joceyln was worried about her and Keysa was getting frustrated. So it stood to reason she’d want to get this meeting and the DNA tests done as soon as possible.
“I don’t need your money,” Dane replied with a smirk. “I have my own, which I’m sure you all know by now.”
“You have your own because you stole someone else’s company from them. Not very gentlemanly of you,” Adam said.
Dane shrugged. “I’m a businessman, just like the rest of you. My goal is to make money and if that means I buy companies that are in trouble and turn them around to make a profit, then so be it. There’s no law against that.”
“Is that what you’re trying to do with Donovan Oilwell?” Brandon asked. “I know you’ve been talking to some of the customers, getting them to switch suppliers and then buying up all the stock at lower prices that the drop in business is creating.”
“Like I said, I’m a businessman,” Dane told him.
“And a murderer,” Trent added.
Dane only turned his head to look at Trent. No other reaction to the statement was visible.
“I did not harm anyone. You know that or you would have had your SEAL buddy cuff me and take me in to the authorities, especially since he’s been tailing me since I left the hospital last week.”
So Dane knew about Devlin. Brandon figured he wasn’t the only one in this room that considered that fact interesting.
“Look, I stopped wanting revenge a long time ago,” Dane told them. “What I do want is acknowledgement and respect. It’s what every man wants and deserves, regardless of whether or not his mother made the bad decision of sleeping with more than one man, brothers at that. I didn’t ask to be born to my parents, so I shouldn’t be punished for their transgressions. But I’m not a threat to any of you, at least I shouldn’t be.”
Brandon didn’t believe him and he could tell that Trent was having a hard time accepting this guy’s word as well. Linc, on the other hand, had stood, walking over to stand in front of Dane.
“I don’t begin to understand what you’ve had to go through or how you feel. What I can tell you is that I love my family and I will do anything to protect them. Anything means, I won’t hesitate to break you and your mother if these ‘accidents’ or ‘incidents’ continue. Because whether you have a hand in them personally or not, they are connected to your claim for acknowledgement.”
Linc spoke calmly but there was no doubt the oldest cousin was dead serious.
“Now, we’ve arranged for them to take a DNA test today. Provide your sample to this lab here in Houston. Have your mother do the same and we should have the results in a few days,” Linc finished and handed Dane a business card.
Dane nodded, looking down at the card now in his hand and then back to Linc. “I’ll pick her up and take care of it.”
“I’ve instructed the lab to send the results to you and to me. I think its best that we wait to open them until all of us can meet again. These results don’t only affect you. They will affect this entire family and if you are a Donovan,” Linc paused only slightly after saying that. “If you are, then you have a responsibility to handle this appropriately.”
“I’m not a part of your family,” Dane replied. “But I agree, this needs to be handled quickly, discreetly and with all that are involved communicating with one another. When we get the results we’ll schedule another meeting to reveal them.”
“Then we can all get on with our lives,” Adam said.
“Or can we?” Keysa asked.
Ian rubbed his wife’s shoulders. “I’m not sure we’ll be able to stay in Houston for a few more days. Keysa and I are both working on big projects at the office right now and I don’t want her flying back and forth. We’ll participate in the next meeting via Skype.”
Linc nodded. “That’s probably a good idea. You shouldn’t overwork yourself, Keysa.”
His cousin sighed. “You all sound just like my mother. She’d lock me in the house if she could. I’m only pregnant, not disabled. But I do need to get back to Detroit.”
“Flying adds undue stress to any woman carrying a child. You’re handling more accounts now at work so that has to be taking its toll as well. You should take it easy,” Dane said surprising everyone in the room.
When he noticed how they were all looking at him, he kept a nonchalant face as he stated, “I’ve made it a priority to know everything there is to know about every member of this family. A good businessman knows all the players before he steps into the game.”
With that, Dane used the business card to do a mock salute and then walked out of the room.
“He’s not what I thought he would be,” Keysa said immediately after he was gone.
“No,” Brandon said, not sure what that meant. “He’s not what I thought he would be either.
#
“We’re going to know in a few days,” Al said moments after the woman Brandon had arranged to take their DNA samples had left.
He was sitting on the deep cushioned dark gray couch in Brandon’s living room. Essie lying comfortably across his thigh. He didn’t know when he’d decided to pick the tiny dog up and have a look at it, but it seemed like he’d been carrying her around the house all morning.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Everette said.
He wore brown slacks and a cream colored shirt and had paced back and forth across the room while the woman took the few minutes to do cheek swabs on each of the three Donovan brothers.
“Too long,” Henry added.
Beverly and Alma had returned to Las Vegas on the family jet this morning. After what happened last night, Henry and Everette decided it would be safer for their wives if they were away from Dane and Roslyn. Al figured Beverly did not like being sent away and that she was going to give Henry a piece of her mind about that later. She was like that, always doing the right thing outwardly, keeping the ‘all is well’ pretense but never failing to let her
opinion be known behind closed doors. That’s how she’d been raised, he supposed. Darla had been that way. Even after she’d received that letter from Roslyn, she’d let Al accompany her to her last chemo appointment and held his hand as if there weren’t a million questions and accusations soaring through her mind. She hadn’t had the strength to argue with him about the letter on their way home from the hospital but had only said, “We’ll deal with this later,” when he’d left her in the bedroom where she’d said she was going to lay down.
Al had no idea when she’d decided to get up and get into her car. If he had he would have stopped her. If. Would have. Should have. All too little, too late.
“I was going to have someone dig up some dirt on Roslyn,” Bernard spoke from the chair across the room where he’d been sitting, puffing on a Don Arturo Destino Al Siglo cigar. Reginald had given each of them a box for Christmas. The younger brother’s attempt to win the battle of the cigar war with Bruce, who preferred the Don Arturo Siglo de Amistad.
“I figured we could turn the tables and blackmail her this time, keep her quiet a little longer,” Bernard continued.
“She’s done being quiet,” Al said. “That woman’s fed up.”
Henry sighed heavily. “So am I. If I’d known all those years ago how this would turn out.” He paused steepling his hands in front of his face as he dragged in a deep breath and released it in measured gasps.
“None of us knew she’d go this route, Henry,” Everette said. “We wouldn’t have let it get this far if we thought for one moment things would take a violent turn. Our thought was that it was all about the money. Pay her and she’d go away. That’s what we wanted to happen.”
“That’s what did happen,” Bernard added. “For a time. Then she got greedy.”
“Did she?” Al asked. “Or did she just want what was right?”
“You’re defending her now?” Henry asked his brother. “She just bombed your house and you’re defending her.”
Al rubbed a hand over his unshaven jaw. “No. I’m not defending her. I’ve just been trying to understand. As I lay in that hospital bed wondering if I’d live or die I had a lot of time to think.”
“You were medicated, you weren’t thinking clearly,” Bernard said.
He chuckled. “You always think you’re right, Bernard. Even when we were little you acted like you were the oldest, like your word was the last word.”
“That he did,” Henry said with a small smile.
Everette shook his head. “I never wanted to be the oldest. Dad had very high expectations of you.”
“He had high expectations of all of us,” Al said. “Dad and Uncle Abraham and Uncle Aaron did too. They wanted us all to be better men than they were and to have better lives.”
Bernard nodded at that. “How long has it been since we’ve seen them?” he asked. “Dad’s only living brother and sister.”
Everette dragged a hand down the back of his head as he thought about that question. “Since Uncle Aaron’s funeral. That’s the last time Uncle Abraham told us to keep the legacy going. Aunt Birdie kissed us all and put red carnations behind our ears. She said it was for good luck, remember?” He laughed at that.
The other brothers did too.
“Good ‘ole Aunt Birdie,” Henry said.
“Roark has filled Aaron’s shoes damn well,” Al said. “He’s running Donovan Oilwell UK just like his father did.”
“Your boy’s been in touch with him,” Bernard mentioned gruffly.
Albert nodded. “Yeah, Brandon’s been talking to Roark. They’re trying to save the company.”
“The company doesn’t need to be saved,” Henry insisted.
Everette nodded. “Maybe not at this very moment, but we all need to be on guard. We need to work on keeping our customers out of that boy’s hands. He’ll take us down if we don’t.”
“His name is Dane,” Al said. “I didn’t call him that when he came to see me in the hospital, but that’s his name.”
They all went silent when the door opened and Brandon and the others walked in.
“What are you doing with that?” was the first thing Brandon said when he saw the dog in his father’s lap.
“She was tired after we walked to the end of the block and back. Her little legs just couldn’t carry her anymore,” Al said, looking down at Essie who had immediately lifted her head at the sound of Brandon’s voice.
“She’s a dog, dad. Not a baby,” Brandon told him.
“She’s adorable,” Keysa said when she walked over and touched Essie lightly on the back.
The dog licked her hand and Brandon sighed.
“You’ve got pets now?” Brock asked his brother with an arch of his brows.
“No, it’s Amber’s dog,” Brandon said and heard the hush fall immediately around him.
He’d crossed the living room and was looking down at the phone on the sofa table to see if there were any messages or missed calls while he was out. He was certain that Amber wasn’t the type of woman to answer the phone in a man’s house and his father barely answered the phone in his own house, preferring to only answer the cell phone he could carry around in his pocket. As he’d spoken, he realized that this was the first time he’d mentioned Amber to any of his family. It hadn’t even occurred to him last night, with all that had happened so fast and Amber’s visit being such a surprise, that she was meeting his family. He’d never brought a woman to meet his family.
“Who’s Amber?” Adam asked finally.
“I am,” she said coming from the direction of the bedroom.
She wore a dress today, tightly fitting and black at the top, a swirl of turquoise, pink, blue and gray at the bottom. Her hair was straight and pulled to hang over one shoulder.
“Amber McNair, these are my cousins,” Brandon said, going through each one of them by name. “I presume you’ve already met my uncles. I met Amber on the cruise.”
“And she’s staying with you now?” Brock asked, concern and disbelief clear in his tone.
“I had a meeting in Miami,” Amber said, her smile in place as if she were still on her tour meeting new people. “Jenise and I are good friends so she invited me to dinner at your Aunt Carolyn’s house. Then I decided to visit Brandon before I return home to Chicago.”
“Hi Amber,” Keysa said as she walked over to her and extended her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, too,” Amber said to Keysa. “And congratulations. When are you due?”
“On Halloween of all days,” Keysa replied while rubbing her small baby bump. “I’m hoping he or she comes before that. Healthy, but before Halloween.”
“My first grandbaby will come when it’s good and ready to come,” Bernard said with his chest poked out just like a proud grandfather.
“He’s gonna be a pain with this grandfather role,” Everette added.
“Yeah, but he’s new to the game so we’ll cut him some slack,” Henry said with a nod toward Bernard.
Albert held Essie in one hand now, rubbing her head lightly with a finger from the other. “Guess I’ll have to settle for you, Essie, since my kids haven’t seen fit to give me grandkids yet.”
Brandon wanted to groan. Why were they talking about grandchildren? Why, in spite of all that was going on, did this moment in time seem like a normal family get together? And why, lastly, did Amber look so damn pretty and way too at home as she’d sat on the couch next to his father and continued to converse with his cousins and uncles?
#
I don’t know where my mother is. Will let you know when she submits her sample.
Brandon scowled as he read the message that Linc had forwarded to them from Dane, three days after their meeting at the hotel. They were supposed to have the results by now and this wondering was supposed to be over.
Brandon resisted the urge to curse, especially since he was in his office at TJB and didn’t want anyone to hear him. Then he would have to explain to som
eone else what was going on in his life and he simply just did not have the energy for all that. Instead, he sat back in his chair and looked out the window, his cell phone still sitting on his desk.
Margaret Withers was going to be fired at the end of this week. Tim Chavis was too. Tim had arrived at work yesterday morning wreaking of alcohol. His assistant had attempted to help him cover up the fact that he was drunk by taking all of his calls and keeping him closed in his office. Until she finally had to go to the restroom and when she did, like a mischievous child, Tim snuck out. His venture through the third floor started with him removing the flowers from a crystal vase on the receptionist’s desk and sipping from the water with a complaint of being thirsty.
Minutes later he was peeking into the conference room, while a meeting was in session, telling the employees to ‘Make us some money, dammit!’” That little action had the floor supervisor coming out of the meeting intending to approach him, but Tim was already on the elevator. He went up to the sixth floor, where Margaret’s office was. Needless to say Margaret didn’t know what to expect when Tim barged into her office. She definitely did not know he was going to call her a “racist bitch” within the first five minutes of being in her presence.
After reading the incident reports for the third time, Brandon was certain Margaret had not hesitated a second at Tim’s words, but immediately replied calling him “nothing but a thug, just like the rest of the blacks that were allowed to walk free”.
They’d both been given verbal and written reprimands. As for Margaret, this was simply the tip of the iceberg, coupled with the already written complaints about her racially biased attitude, and the fact that they’d found an email that Margaret had received from Doris Gettings from Imagine Energy Corporation. Doris was a white woman, as deduced from the red-head woman’s picture as her icon at the top right corner of the email message. Doris was the head of customer accounts for Imagine. She’d been the one to give Margaret the tips about the Donovan stock. And while those tips had scored business for Margaret and her client accounts flourished, they had also put the nail in Margaret’s coffin. They already had enough with the allegations of racism, now there was a direct incident with numerous witnesses. She was done at TJB.