“Layla…” Eli starts.
“You don’t talk to her,” Will says. “Who are you?”
“My name really is Eli Briggs,” he says after a beat. “But I’m not with the school paper. My father was an investigative reporter for the Charlotte Observer. He was investigating Gregory Meyer when he died last year. Meyer killed him.”
“What?” Eliana’s eyes are huge and she’s trembling.
“Claire, take her in the kitchen,” Luke instructs. “Layla, you go, too.”
“No. I’m not going anywhere.” I look at Luke and he knows I’m serious. I brought this into our home and I have to know what’s going on. I won’t wait for some watered down report from them.
“What do you mean Gregory killed your father?” Luke asks.
“My father, Alexander Briggs, spent five years investigating the bastard…all his ethics violations and flagrant abuses of the law. And just when he was so close to blowing Meyer out of the water, he dies.” Eli’s eyes are fiery. They aren’t the same soft and friendly eyes I met in the coffee shop. They’re on a mission.
“You still haven’t told us how Gregory Meyer killed your father,” Wes says. “I’m getting impatient. You don’t want to see me lose my patience.”
“He had his goons give my father a pretty severe beating. My dad’s heart wasn’t so great. At least they took him to the hospital after they beat the crap out of him, but even that couldn’t save him. His heart just wasn’t strong enough to handle the stress. He had a heart attack.” Eli’s tone is filled with disgust. I understand his hatred for Gregory Meyer. It’s a common thread we all share. “Can I show you something?”
Wes nods and shifts his position slightly so Eli can retrieve his binder. He pulls out a photo of him and his father. They’re sitting on a picnic table on what looks like a beautiful day with gorgeous Carolina Blue skies behind them. His father, an older, attractive man with salt-and-pepper hair, looks happy. He also looks familiar.
I see Wes’ eyes get big and he immediately stands up. We make the same discovery at the same time. I’ve never seen Wes’ eyes so filled with fear. He excuses himself leaving Luke and Will with confused expressions painted on their faces. I follow Wes out, knowing that I am the only who can reach him right now.
“Two, Layla. Two! I’m responsible for the deaths of two men!” he says as I meet him on the patio. Wes paces a few times before landing on a bench and covering his face with his hands.
This has to be devastating for him. The man in that picture is the same man I saw Wes and Cline beating that day outside the law firm. It’s difficult to process. Until now he had been no one. I never considered that he could be someone’s husband or father. I was sad for him at the time and hoped the wrath of Gregory Meyer would be short, but that wasn’t the case.
“You took him to the hospital, Wes,” I say reassuringly. “You weren’t some monster that beat him up and left him for dead. Your heart has always known the right thing to do. You did your best, Wes.”
“I don’t know how to fix this.”
“You can’t.” I sigh. “You know, when Meyer came to my family and tried to tear me apart from Luke and Claire with his House Call, I was furious. I was furious at Luke and Claire for not telling me about my father. I was furious at my father for doing something so stupid, but Will helped me realize that the person to be furious with was Meyer. All he does is destroy people’s lives.
“Wes, he took advantage of you and manipulated you. He didn’t care that you would lose everything that was important to you. You have to see it for what it is. Now, I don’t know what Eli wants, exactly, but if he was going to expose us, don’t you think he would have done it by now? You have to let this go. Take that rage you’re feeling and direct it where it needs to go.”
“You really are the best,” he says squeezing an arm around me.
“I love you, Wes. You’re my family and I will always look out for you. Are you ready to go back in and see what Eli wants?”
“Yeah, but I can’t make any promises. If he threatens you…”
“Let’s just cross that bridge when we get to it, ok?”
We enter the Great Room in time to hear the tail end of what sounds like Luke summing up whatever it is that Eli is after. It sounds like he wants the dirt that Luke has been collecting all these years. I don’t know if Luke is actually considering giving it to Eli or not. It’s a real risk. Even if Eli doesn’t divulge his source, there’s no way Meyer won’t know that Luke gave it up because there are things that only Luke knows. Perhaps Luke won’t give him those pieces of evidence.
“So tell me why I shouldn’t throw you in my trunk and leave you stranded in the middle of the Everglades?” Wes says.
“Because I’m on your side.” Eli is standing now and has summoned the audacity to take an intimidating stance in front of Wes. He’s a lot braver than I realized. “I want to take down Gregory Meyer just as much, if not more, than all of you. I don’t care about your little secret here. Kudos to you for pulling it off, though. I don’t want to expose you. I want to crush Meyer.”
“Does your editor know you’re here?” Luke asks.
“Um…” Eli hesitates.
“Does your paper know you’re here continuing your father’s investigation?” Luke says with more aggression.
“I’m not working for the paper. I’m here on my own.” Eli looks away, like he just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“Are you kidding me?” Wes moves forward and Eli takes more than the coordinating steps backward.
“I’m not going to reveal my sources!” Eli says in his defense.
“It doesn’t matter! You’re not affiliated with a news agency! You don’t have the right of protected sources!” Wes is back to pacing again. I imagine it’s because he’s afraid that if he doesn’t move away from him, Eli is going to end up face down on the floor again.
“You have no idea what you’ve done. You came down here, snooped around, and put our lives at risk so you could somehow avenge your father’s death?” Will moves in on Eli, closing the distance between them so they’re toe-to-toe. “I love this girl with every breath I breathe. I have and will continue to move mountains so that I can spend the rest of my life with her. If you have jeopardized that in any way, be clear on one thing: I. Will. End. You.” Will takes my hand and, without saying a word, takes me to our place on the dock.
Chapter 26
I’m quiet while Will moves around the dock, sporadically whispering and sometimes yelling about taking chances and risking lives. In all that we have been through I have never seen him like this. The night he told me he loved me before his father questioned me at dinner, the day he came to me and suggested we run away together, and not even the day after graduation when he knew he was leaving me to begin the charade of his disappearance compare to the torment of feelings Will is experiencing right now.
“Will?” I say softly.
“What?” His reply is sharp and stings a little at first until my mind and heart register that his cutting tone is not directed at me.
“We need to talk about this,” I tell him.
“What is there to talk about? Oh, wait, yes, I know…let’s talk about where we’re going because we can’t stay here anymore!”
“Will…please…”
“Please, what? What, Layla?”
“Please can you calm down? You’re scaring me.”
Will stops pacing and looks at me seriously. Taking me by the shoulders my breath catches and I feel the intensity Will is intending to convey. “I have risked not only my life, but my mother’s life, so you and I could be together. And this dick comes in here and starts overturning every rock we’ve hidden under just so he can avenge the death of his equally nosey father. So, no, Layla, I will not calm down.” I wince a little and Will realizes that he’s squeezing my arms tighter and tighter with every passing moment. Releasing me he backs up a step and runs his fingers through his hair.
“W
e can figure this out,” I say. “Let’s just stop, put everything on hold for a minute, and really think about this.”
“Put everything on hold. Right. Well lucky for you Eli showed his hand when he did, otherwise you’d be stuck setting a wedding date with me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I say, not hiding how offended I am.
“C’mon, Layla…really?”
“We talked about this. I thought you understood where I was coming from. Last week…the lanters…” I’m astonished and so incredibly hurt that Will would think, especially after our talk at the restaurant, that I don’t want to marry him. The bubble of excitement that I have been blowing for the past week just burst.
“Yeah, well…” Will turns away from me and faces the water. Putting his hands on two posts I can see his back rise and fall with his heavy breathing.
“You know what?” I say, calming myself. “You’re upset right now. There’s a lot going on. So…I’m going to go inside and give you some time to think.”
Will doesn’t say anything in reply. He just stands there, looking out on the water.
I’m proud of myself as I walk calmly, if not just a tad bit quickly, back to the house. What I wanted to tell him was that he was being a total and undeniable jerk. That his implication that I didn’t want to marry him was the harshest thing he’s ever said to me, and that he’s not the only one who has made sacrifices for us to be together.
But what if… What if all of it was for nothing? Not nothing but…just not forever. What if Will and I aren’t really meant to be together forever? What if we just served a good and solid purpose in each other’s lives for a reason? I needed his love so I could be strong enough to move past the torment of my life with Gram, and he needed my love to gain the strength he needed in order to move out from under the tyrannical rule of his father. And now, here we are, two people trying to move forward in the direction we thought we were supposed to go when it seems there is sign after sign that there is no moving forward.
I stop as I approach the back door and take a deep breath. Just like Will, I’m letting all this insanity and stress get to me. There is no doubt in my rational mind that Will and I belong together. I may still have some things to overcome, but I know that once things settle down again, Will and I will be able to handle them together.
Eli is still here, only now he’s back in the chair Wes put him in when we started this disastrous discovery. He’s yelling at Wes again, which tells me Wes hasn’t unleashed his wrath on him…yet. I’m proud of my bonus uncle. I know it’s taking an incredible amount of restraint not to make Eli shut up.
“Dad, what’s he doing?” I ask as I watch Wes rummage through Eli’s bag.
“He’s looking for all the notes Eli has taken on us since he’s been here. Turns out he’d been following you for a week before he met you in the coffee house,” Luke says.
“Geez! What is it about me that says ‘please stalk me’?” I can’t believe I’m finding a place for a bit of humor here, but I suppose it’s either laugh or cry.
“Ok, that’s all of it here. Are there any more notes about Layla anywhere else? And before you consider lying to me, you should know that I have very effective ways of finding things out.” Wes is full on Furtick and I can’t help but smile a little. Furtick saved my life and, while I love Wes, I don’t want Furtick to ever go away completely.
“Yes…that’s all I had on Layla and Will. Do you have to be such a douche?” Eli says. I don’t think this has gone exactly as he thought it would. It’s his fault. He stalked me, misrepresented himself, and ambushed us in our own home.
“It’s part of my charm,” Wes smirks. “Where did your father keep the stuff he found on Meyer?”
“I’ve got it,” Eli tells him. “There’s a hidden compartment in my bag.”
“What? You’ve got it on you? Luke! Get over here!” Wes is frantically searching through Eli’s bag again. “This idiot has the Meyer evidence on him!”
“These aren’t the originals. Is this the only copy?” Luke asks, thumbing through the pages, being the calm to Wes’ storm.
“Yes. The originals were in my father’s safe deposit box. I made this copy before…” Eli starts as he looks as me.
“Before what, Eli?” I ask.
“Before someone broke into it and stole it.”
“You’re an idiot,” Will says, startling me with his presence. “If you think for a minute that my father isn’t going to toss your place and have you followed to make sure there are no copies, you’re stupider than you look.”
Will is calm now…at peace. He looks at me and takes my hand in his. His eyes are bloodshot and his face is stained with tears. I stare into his eyes that are now so much bluer after crying and see the pain that was misdirected on the dock. He’s clearly had time to run the gamut of emotions that were going wild within him and come to some kind of resolution. He’s in a much better place to have a rational conversation.
“Wes, can you check on…” Luke begins, but Wes is already down the hall and in the office doing whatever it is that Wes does to make sure we’re all protected.
“My guy on the inside says they’ve already tossed his apartment. He must have left town before they got anyone on his tail. They’re exhausting all the search efforts before nosey-boy over here gets a physical shake-down,” Wes reports as he re-enters the room.
“Eli, what is it that you want from us?” I ask, adding a little softness to the otherwise overly-testosterone filled room. They’ve done their due diligence and thoroughly scared the crap out of Eli, even though he’s trying not to show it. It’s time for a more gentle approach and since Claire is still in the kitchen with Eliana, it looks like I’m up to bat.
“All I want is your help in taking Meyer down. I know, from my father’s notes, that you were his closest confidant,” he says to Luke.
“I wouldn’t use that term. But…when it came to business, I knew more than anyone…more than I should.” Luke considers all he knows and it visibly shakes him to his core.
“Why didn’t you just report him?” I ask. “Isn’t there an ethics committee, or something?”
“It’s a very hazy line. Greg got around a lot of things by having me on retainer as his attorney. It’s unusual to do that within the same firm, but Greg doesn’t typically follow the norm. Under attorney-client privilege, I can’t divulge any crime that he told me about.”
“But that doesn’t mean I can’t,” Wes says. “The smartest thing Luke ever did was to suggest that Taylor, Cline, and I keep records of all interaction with Meyer…and record our conversations.”
“You have recorded proof? Oh, this is awesome!” Eli charges to his backpack and scavenges for a pad of paper to start writing.
“He can’t hear those recordings, Luke,” Wes whispers.
“I know. He’ll leak them and then the case Agent Croft’s been building will be destroyed. But…that’s not what you mean, is it?” Luke asks quietly.
Wes takes a moment before speaking. “I just don’t think he wants to hear his father having the crap beat out of him.”
Luke gives Wes a nod and redirects his attention to Eli who is still searching under the mess Wes made for something to write on.
I love that Luke didn’t even flinch when Wes told him about Eli’s dad. Luke knows that Wes was working under duress and would never, out of his own volition, beat up a total stranger. They have the kind of brotherhood it seems he wasn’t able to have with my father. My heart leaps for them both, knowing that their bond grows stronger every day.
“Eli, you can’t write any of this down,” Luke instructs him.
“Why not? This is the stuff that’s going to take him down,” Eli retorts.
“Because you’re not a member of the press doing investigative research. You’re a son on a mission to avenge his father’s death. There’s a difference. Now…” Luke says before a deep breath, “I’m willing to work with you but every single aspect of this a
rrangement is on my terms. This is about my wife and my daughter and I do not take their lives lightly.”
“I thought she was your niece?” Eli has an understandable look of confusion on his face.
“You really want to argue?” Luke counters. Eli shakes his head as Wes takes a half step toward him. “Good. Now do we have a deal?”
It takes a good minute before Eli replies. I know this isn’t how he imagined getting Gregory Meyer to pay for how he destroyed his own family’s life, but if he wants to see justice, he’s going to have to get on board.
“Deal. What do we do now?”
“We do not do anything. Wes and I will take your father’s notes and compare them with what each of us has. We’ll figure out what he’s got that we can corroborate and not draw attention to ourselves. You are going home. You’re going to go back to school or work or whatever it was you were doing before you started this mission of yours. We’ll contact you.” Luke’s directive is clear and to the point but is not a satisfactory solution to Eli’s quest.
“NO! I didn’t bust my ass to get this close just to be tossed out!”
“I understand that you want to have a heavy hand in bringing Meyer down, but you’re not equipped to do that. You’re a little boy who’s pissed off. If you go to the paper with your sob story they’re going to pat you on the back, tell you how sorry they are, and send you off. Why? Because none of them, no matter how much evidence you have, wants to put their lives on the line to take down the Gregory Meyer. You’re an even bigger idiot if you think he doesn’t have every newspaper within a hundred mile radius in his back pocket.
“And if you’re actually daring enough to go to Meyer with it in some ridiculous attempt in getting him to admit his wrong-doing, well pick out a matching headstone next to your father’s because that’s where you’re going to end up.
“So pull yourself together and know that you did the best you could. Let us handle things from here, and I swear to God, if you breathe a word of our secret to anyone, you’ll wish you had faced Gregory Meyer’s wrath and not mine.” Wes always has a way of laying everything out on the table and not holding back. You never have to wonder where he stands.
Troubled Waters (The Lake Trilogy, Book 2) Page 23