by Lacey Silks
He nodded. My finger was already on the phone when a message from April came in.
APRIL: Bring the money to her work. One hour. Unarmed.
SEAN: How do I know she’s still alive?
My phone rang with April’s cell ID on it.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, is Parker all right?” she asked. The fear in her voice tore through me. Yet I couldn’t be more relieved that I heard her.
“Yes. He’s been very brave. Does he—”
“— she’s alive.” Simon’s voice came on. He sounded like the asshole I’d always imagined him to be. “I’m not gonna call again. This phone is being turned off.”
And he hung up.
“Is Mom okay?” Parker asked as he threw the soiled pajamas in the laundry basket.
“Ahm, she’s with…”
“My father?” He looked at me from below, and if I could have shifted the world off its axis and turned back time, I would have, just so that Parker wouldn’t have to know Simon. At least not in the way I knew him.
“I heard his voice,” he whispered.
“Yes, it was your father.”
“He’s not a good man,” he said.
“No, he’s not.” I took him into my arms and held him as if he were my own son. He let out a long sigh of relief, which made me complete. Something strange passed over me. At that moment, I realized that I loved Parker as if he were my own son, and I would do anything to protect him.
“But you are,” he said. It made my conviction about him and April that much stronger. “You’re a very good man, and you can help Mom.”
“I hope so, buddy. Are you ready to get your mom?” I asked. There was no way in hell I would leave Parker on his own; and at this point, with Simon’s time stipulation, I’d need every minute of the next hour to get to April’s work on time.
I buckled him into the seat behind me, saying, “Whatever happens tonight, I need you to promise me you’ll stay in the car.”
He nodded.
I stashed my gun in the back of my jeans and took off. We had fifty minutes left until Simon’s deadline. I wasn’t yet sure what I’d do when I got there. The stupid fucker had no idea how much paperwork and how much time it took to legally transfer fifty million in cash into the country. Not to mention all the strings Gord would have to pull and how many hands there’d be to grease to not leave a trail. At this moment, the money was somewhere in Europe, probably still being counted. It wouldn’t be transferred until the afternoon at earliest, but I had no time to explain that to Simon. Besides, it was my only leverage right now. My only priority was to get April. I pushed the pedal harder, going the maximum speed I could without jeopardizing Parker’s safety.
The storm we’d had earlier in the day returned, and blobs of rain pounded against the windshield as if they were trying to break it. If I went any faster, I’d hydroplane. Any slower, and we’d be late. I didn’t want to take that chance.
“I shot him,” I heard Parker’s voice from the back.
“What?”
“I shot my dad.”
“Two years ago?”
“Mom doesn’t think I remember. I don’t talk about it because I don’t want to upset her.”
My gaze flew from the road to the rearview mirror and back again. Had April been covering this up all this time, because she didn’t want Parker to face the consequences?
“When Mom ran downstairs, he said I was a murderer, but it wasn’t like that at all.”
Parker’s voice was breaking, and so was my heart. “Please don’t tell anyone,” he pleaded.
“I promise I won’t. But I’m here for you, Parker. What do you mean, it wasn’t like that?”
“Dad wanted to show me his gun. He handed it to me, pointing at him. He said it had no bullets. He told me to try it out.”
Simon had staged the whole thing, and April had never known about his deception. He’d wanted it to appear like murder, so he could escape the suicide clause and collect the money right away. When April had covered up the murder, she’d unknowingly delayed him. He hadn’t counted on her doing so, but she’d obviously wanted to protect her son. Simon had now been waiting two long years for the money; had never intended to pay Dex off; and was willing to risk April’s and Parker’s lives.
Son of a bitch!
I’d dealt with a lot of scum in my life, but this one was a new low. I swore that if I got a chance, I would skin him alive then feed him to those lions at the zoo. Any man faking his death and making his son think he was a murderer wasn’t a man at all. I vowed that before the night was over, Simon would get exactly what he deserved.
“Parker, it wasn’t your fault. Do you hear me?”
In the rear-view mirror, I could see Parker’s tears spill. He wiped off his cheeks and took in a long sniffle.
“You did nothing wrong. Simon… your father… he shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why did he?”
“I wish I had the answer to that, son. I really do. But there are people in this world who don’t realize what they have until they lose it. Sometimes they just don’t realize it for any reason. It’s like they’re blind and can’t see the good in front of them. You’re that good, Parker. And your father was simply blind, which made his decisions weak and wrong.”
The heaviness of his sigh didn’t escape me. There was enough emotion in that car to fill a football stadium.
“You’re a good father,” he said.
Hearing his praise did something in my chest. That boy would have a place in my heart forever. “I hope so.”
“Charlie loves you very much. And you’re a lot of fun, and I like spending time with you.”
“Thanks.”
“I’d much rather you were my father.”
Maybe one day I can be. The thought made my heart ping with so much love for Parker, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to contain it all. “Whatever happens, Parker, I want you to know that I will always be there for you.”
Our gazes connected in the mirror, and I saw him nod.
No pressure, Sean. Just a little boy’s and his mother’s lives in your hands.
Chapter 24
April
I must have fainted. That, or the last few seconds I remembered from the kitchen were part of a nightmare, because right now I was lying on my couch in the living room, in the same spot I remembered having wine. I slowly opened my eyes and cocked my head to the side.
“Jesus Christ!”
At the sight of Simon sitting in the chair next to the coffee table, my body went into shock, and I hurried to sit up. My spine felt like it had turned into an iron rod. While I could see Simon a few feet away from me, he didn’t look like the man I remembered. His hair was longer, and the week-old growth on his face was definitely different than his former always-clean-shaven jaw. And that look in his eyes – filled with danger, anger and deceit – made him look untrustworthy. A foul smell flowed from him.
“April, it’s me.”
I wiped my eyes for the third time before gripping the couch cushion. He was wearing black jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, stained on its bottom. The man who used to wear custom-made suits had changed to the sort of thug you’d likely run into in a dark alley.
“You’re dead.” My voice was barely a whisper.
“No, honey. I’m not.”
“Don’t you ‘honey’ me.” I shook my finger at him like a diva, then looked at the funny gesture and tucked my hand away under my thigh.
This wasn’t possible. I saw him die. The memory of the red pool of blood underneath his body would forever be imprinted in my mind. That, and my son holding the gun that Simon was shot with. I saw the wound. I felt the pulse of his heart stop underneath my own fingers. I saw him take his last breath of life and the light fade from his eyes. I grieved him. I buried him in a casket. I cried over his grave so many times. But it seemed that I had grieved for a different man.
“I know this is a shock, but I’m all right.”
“Really? Because the last time we were together, you had no pulse.” I moved away on the couch. Somewhere in my brain a spark of light was beginning to filter through the past week’s events, trying to convince me that ghosts and zombies didn’t exist. There must be a reason for him being here and not six feet under. And why did I have that funny feeling in my stomach that I’d much rather he was buried?
“It’s confusing. I know. But I had no choice.”
Had no choice? In what? Dying?
“Are you telling me you did this on purpose?”
“I had to.”
Why in the world would you have to fake death?
“You let our son shoot you and blame himself for it?” I said the words slowly.
Murder. Suicide. Insurance. Fifty million...
Oh, my God! He did! He had it all planned out!
As the truth sank in, the anger I’d held onto for the past two years finally erupted. My face burned as if I’d just been possessed by the devil.
I snatched the pillow off the couch and threw it at him, wishing it were a brick.
“You son of a bitch! Do you know what Parker has gone through? How much therapy and explaining I had to do so that he could forget?” It took all my willpower not to raise my voice and wake up our son—actually my son, because the man in front of me didn’t remind me of his father at all. The last thing I wanted was for Parker to see his “deceased” father in our living room. And how exactly had he managed to get into my locked house? A swarm of chills invaded my body.
“He didn’t shoot me, April. I made it look like he did.”
What? That funky feeling in my stomach swirled. Disgust mixed with fear was forming a vortex inside me, one that was spinning my insides and twisting my gut.
“You called him a murderer. I heard you. Why would you do that to him? To us?”
“It’s… complicated. I had to disappear.”
“By dying?”
“It was the only way.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I think I’m going to throw up.” I lowered my head for a moment and then looked back up at him. “The paramedics took you to the hospital.”
“They were in on it.”
“You had no pulse.”
“Medication.”
“Why, why, why, why?”
Why would he want to blame his son? I could feel the answer at the forefront of my mind, but it was still invisible to me.
“I owed money. A lot of money.”
Let me guess. About ten million?
Thankfully I did not say that out loud.
“And this is your way of dealing with financial problems? And now you decide to just show up? You put me and Parker through hell, and you come to my house just like that?” I snapped my fingers, stood up, and started pacing back and forth. This didn’t make sense. Why would he choose to come back now? Why not a month or six ago?
And then I remembered what Sean had told me about the insurance policy: If Simon was murdered, the fifty million dollar payout would have been immediate. But I changed his plan when I made the crime scene look like a suicide. Who the fuck was this man? Did he know that we had the money? I did my best to disguise the fear that was slowly beginning to crawl up my spine. If Simon was willing to fake his death and leave his wife and child with a bull’s-eye on their backs, then who knew what else he was capable of.
“How did you get in?”
“I picked the lock on the back door.”
“Great! Now I’ll never feel safe.”
“I didn’t want to scare you.”
I let out a sarcastic laugh. He didn’t want to scare me? Did he not realize that for the past two years I’d thought he was dead? Did the fact that his past dealings with God-knows-who and the money he owed had placed me in danger escape him? I wanted him out. I needed him to leave us alone and let me process this.
“You need to leave.”
“I can’t do that, April.”
“Well, you’d better, because I can’t cope with this right now. This isn’t your house anymore.” I pointed my finger at the door.
He stood up, and the new buff size of him scared and overwhelmed me. Yet it also looked somewhat familiar. For the second time I tucked my hand away from him. His threatening stance and furrowed brows did nothing to ease the building tension.
“I mean it, Simon. Leave.”
“I won’t until I get what I came here for.”
“And what exactly is that?” While I already knew the answer to that question, I wanted to hear it from him. I wanted him to admit that he didn’t care about me or about Parker. That his return had nothing to do with us. All he wanted was the money I didn’t want or have—yet. At this point I’d rather give it to the homeless than see him spend a dime of it. In fact, I already had a few foster homes in mind I’d donate to. And even though I didn’t want it, I would do everything in my power to keep it away from him. Yeah, just to spite him. But he did this. He dug this hole, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to help him to get out of it. Not this time. He didn’t care what would have happened to us if Sean hadn’t stepped in and paid off his debtors. Why should I care for him now?
“Where’s my money, April?”
He rolled up his sleeves, and that’s when I saw the dragon tattoo on his arm — the same one the man who’d killed Chelsea had. Oh, my God! He killed Chelsea. Was it all about the money to him?
“I don’t have it.”
My pathetic attempt to disguise the growing fear in my voice would win a gold medal in pathetics (if there was such an event).
“You took it out of my storage.”
“You mean Chelsea’s storage? How long have you been screwing her? How is she, by the way?”
Maybe taunting him wasn’t the best idea. But he couldn’t have known that we were there when Chelsea was shot.
“Does that man you’re sleeping with have it? You gave fifty million dollars to him?”
How long had Simon been stalking us?
“Unlike you, I trust him. And whom I sleep with is no longer your business. It’s time for you to leave. Or do I have to call the cops for you to do so?”
I reached for my phone, but he grabbed my wrist and squeezed it until I felt the burn of his grip.
“Let. Me. Go.” I bared my teeth in a growl.
“Not until I get the money. I didn’t spend the last two years in hiding to lose it all now.”
“It was always about the money with you, wasn’t it? Did you have to kill Chelsea to get it? I guess your plan didn’t pan out the way you wanted it to.”
He froze. Shit. Maybe I should have kept my mouth closed. I guessed he wasn’t aware of just how much I knew. Maybe it was stupid of me to reveal that information, but in the heat of the moment, my brain wasn’t exactly living up to its potential.
“If anything happens to me, Sean will make sure you go back to the grave you were supposed to be in.”
“Not if he’s dead.”
My stomach twisted. Could a person really have changed from a normal man and somewhat of a good father to a despicable asshole? Obviously, yes. Could all the years Simon claimed to love me, our marriage vows, and all the good times we’d spent have disappeared? Had I always been worthless to him? Could he really dismiss me like a pile of crap you’d avoid on a sidewalk? Yup, check to all of the above.
“Mom?” I heard from upstairs, and my eyes flew open.
“I’m coming, honey,” I called up. “If there’s only an ounce of empathy you have for your son, you will let me go see him.”
His gaze flew up the staircase and then lowered to me.
“Leave your cell phone here. You have two minutes. If you don’t come back down, I will take both you and Parker with me.”
I quickly looked at my watch, saying, “I’ll be right back.”
I ran up the stairs into P
arker’s room counting each second in my mind. Parker was sitting up in his bed with a puzzled look on his face.
“What’s going on? I heard...”
“...honey, it’s time to practice what Sean taught you before he left with mommy last week. Hide in the closet. Take your phone and call Sean and tell him there’s a man here demanding his fifty million dollars. Then call the police.”
I wasn’t about to tell Parker who the man was, but if he repeated my words to Sean, I was sure he’d understand. After shutting the closet door and quickly stuffing a pillow under the sheets on Parker’s bed, I made my way down.
“He went back to sleep. You should leave. I don’t have the money, and so really there’s no point in hashing this out.”
“If I’m leaving, then you’re coming with me.”
“I can’t leave Parker.”
“Want me to get him?”
“No. Please. Let him be. He doesn’t need to be afraid any more than he already was when his father died.”
A second-long regret flashed in his eyes before he grasped my arm and pulled me to the kitchen and out the back door. I then felt pain as his fist connected with the side of my head, and I passed out.
The fucking bastard hit me.
Chapter 25
Sean
By the time we arrived at April’s workplace, the skies had cleared. I rolled down the window. The air was still thick with moisture, faint steam lifting off the heated asphalt. I stashed the gun in the glove compartment and turned around to face Parker. “I need you to lie down here. In ten minutes, you’ll call Uncle Dave and tell him what happened and where you are. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes. Will you be okay?”
“There’s nothing to worry about.”
I had about three minutes left to see April, and I had yet to form a plan to save her.
“Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe he’ll listen to me.” Parker’s eyes opened wider. I wished I believed that he could be the hero in all this, and that seeing his son would shake his father up, but I doubted it. Parker’s safety was more important than rekindling any paternal feelings I doubted ever existed. My heart ached for Parker. Charlie might not have known her mother, but at least she’d felt her love through the stories I told her. What could April say to this boy? Lie about how good his father was to him? From what I gathered, the asshole had barely spent time with his son.