by Kady Hunt
“Sebastian said that?” I say. The guilt is really starting to pile up now. “And you know what I did? I told him he was a freak! I told him I hated him that’s what made him do this! He was fragile and I knew there was something more going on because I’ve never seen him this way.”
“What way?”
“You know, piss drunk and sobbing.”
“You mean like you and Holden are when you guys drink too much?” Mia says and I give her a look.
“Fuck this,” Holden says and gets up. “No one gets away after messing with our friend this way. Liam Delaney should get what coming to him. Soon.”
“Holden’s right,” Daniel says, surprisingly because it is unlike Daniel to support violence of any kind. “We have to show him he can’t mess with Sebastian anymore.”
“Sebastian was worried about some contract,” I say, remembering. “It seemed like he was really fucked up about it. He basically said that contract was the reason Liam was treating him like a slave. He said there was no way to get out of it, not unless Liam wants it.”
“I think Liam is going to want a lot of things he hasn’t wanted to do in a long time,” Holden says. “When we’re done with him.”
“Okay,” I say. “Mia you take care of Sebastian in case he wakes up and Jamie’s not really in a shape to fight battles right now. We’re going to go pay Mr. Delaney a visit. One that he won’t easily forget.”
‘The Special’
TEAGUE
We’ve done such a good job of trashing Liam’s office even I’m impressed. It’s been a while since I’ve let loose with a baseball bat and just swung around at stuff that wasn’t mine. Back in school and high school, this was our thing. When someone used to mess with us, we used to give them what we called ‘The Special:’ A few broken bones but mostly destruction to the place in order to intimidate the other party. So, while we’re doing the devastation, Holden comes across some documents that he holds up to us. “Found it!” he says, and starts going through it. “Fuck. What kind of idiot signs a contract with such clauses without even discussing it with his friends?”
“Sebastian, apparently!” I say, annoyed.
The door opens and Liam comes in.
He doesn’t run.
You got to give him points for that. Not a lot of people can control their fear after seeing the three of us wreaking havoc in his beautiful office.
“Hi Liam!” Holden says, and comes over to Liam, leads him over to the desk and forces him to sit on that chair. “You know what I’d like the number of the person who did this place, the designer? I need a new office!”
Liam does speak.
Daniel swings the bat and a bunch of crystal items fall to the floor with a loud crash. I’m closer to the door so I lock it. “Sebastian tried to kill himself today,” I say and watch the emotions change on that fucker’s face.
“What?” Liam says.
“He’s in the hospital,” Holden says. “And well you know you put him there, right?”
“I want to see him,” Liam says. “Please. I’ll do whatever you want, just let me see him.”
“No freaking way,” I say, walking over to the desk and tapping the contract Holden is holding. “Free him from the contract, Liam.”
“I can’t.”
I lodge my fist into his face and he gets a cut right over the bridge of his nose. He’s bleeding and a total mess. “Free him from the contract,” I repeat.
“Will you let me see him then?”
“Shut up,” Holden says. “Quit acting like you give a shit and sign this,” Holden says, taking a pen and clicking it open, and placing the contract he’s drawn up through his lawyer urgently. “Sign it. This cancels the preexisting contract between you and Sebastian. Don’t make us go medieval on your ass.”
Liam takes the pen and signs the document while Daniel crashes his bat into something else. It’s obvious he’s having a little too much fun playing that part again. When Liam is done signing Holden carefully places the contract inside his jacket. Daniel glances at Liam, and they both look at each other. “Listen to me,” Daniel says. “And listen to me good. There’s no Sebastian as far as you’re concerned. He’s off limits. Do you hear me?”
“Daniel’s right,” I say. “There’s three of us and one of you. And you’re not the only one who has power in this small town. Getting someone to go missing or making sure they’re lying peacefully under the river is not going to be a tough job when we have the right incentive. I suggest you don’t give us that incentive. Understood?” There’s no answer from Liam, so Daniel pokes at him with the bat. “Understood?”
“Yes,” Liam finally relents.
“If you so much as come near him, I’m going to shove this thing so far down your throat you won’t know where your mouth begins and your ass ends. Capiche?”
Done Deal
TEAGUE
“We were good in there,” I say, hoping to make Daniel and Holden give up their differences but I know it’s not going to happen so fast. Still, it was worth a shot.
We get in Holden’s limo and I notice that he has a new driver now. “Holden,” I say. “I know you and Daniel have some unresolved issues but come on, man. Don’t you think it’s about time you got over it?”
Daniel says nothing just looks out the window.
Holden says nothing just looks out the window.
Great job, Teague. You probably just made it worse.
Love Never Ends
TEAGUE
The sound of the buzzer wakes me up from my sleep. I haven’t really been able to sleep properly since Mia’s incident. And then, with the whole Sebastian nightmare, sleep has been as far from me as I am from Mia at the moment.
God, I miss her even when I’m half-asleep!
The buzzer rings again.
“Hold on to your horses! I’m coming!” I yell, knowing that they can’t hear me but when I answer the door at last, it’s the last person I expected to come at this late hour.
“Mia?”
Mia barges in without so much as a single comment and throws herself onto me, throwing all her weight on me and I lift her up and we start kissing and fuck, it’s fucking beautiful and crazy and out of this world.
“Mia,” I say, breaking off. “What’re you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing you idiot?”
“I’m…not…sure…”
“Trying to have makeup sex,” she says and does that giggle thing that makes me go crazy for her every single time. “I’ve heard it can be hot.”
I lift her up and carry her to the bedroom, place her right in the middle of our bed and start taking off her clothes. The jeans come off first and when she’s only in her lace underwear I look at her face. “I missed you,” I say. “And I’m sorry. I mean, I know Liam might have been responsible for a lot of it, that guy is a jackass if there ever was one—but it was still partly my fault.”
“It was just a kiss,” she says. “It didn’t mean anything. Did it?”
“It meant nothing,” I say. “I was just high and she started saying things, she was actually the one who initiated it.”
“Yeah well,” Mia says. “You’re never talking to any woman named Ashley ever again.”
“What?”
“Did you not hear me the first time, Teague?”
“No, I...I heard it. No woman named Ashley. Got it.”
“Are you done being slow?” Mia says. “Cause I really want to get this makeup sex thing going.”
I grin.
Happy, for the first time in a long time.
The Art of Murder
HOLDEN
I’m getting a little anxious waiting.
I keep looking at my watch but time must have stopped because the hands of the clock are frozen. The restaurant isn’t even that full of people and I still feel like I’m being watched. It’s not paranoia, like my father says, someone somewhere is always following me around and there’s not much I can do except act like every
thing is fine and be cautious of what I do in public. “Instead of hiding, you need to do the opposite,” says my father. “You need to be even more visible and make everything public knowledge so no one can hold anything over you.” We were in his office last night and I spent the whole night planning and talking things out and even though I was smashed most of the time I was still strangely alert. I remember everything my father said, everything he wanted me to do and most of all I remember everything he showed me last night, all the proof that I needed.
“Holden,” Jamie says and I look up from the table and smile.
“Jamie,” I say, getting up and pulling her chair for her. “Thanks for coming.”
She sits on the chair and I sit next to her. “Should we order something?” I ask, gesturing to the menu but she refuses.
“I already ate,” she says.
“You had dinner?”
“Daniel took me out for dinner,” she says. “We went to this Italian place that just opened up.”
“Right,” I say, clenching my hand into a fist at the mention of that name. I’m glad she can’t see it, or feel the anger that I’m feeling inside. I’m glad she can only see what I choose to show her, like the smile on my face and the morose expression. “Jamie, you look beautiful.”
She doesn’t respond.
Harlow drops the heavy file on the coffee table and it falls open right in front of me. “What is this?”
Zaff gestures for Harlow to leave. “This is what you asked for,” Zaff says. “Are you sure you’re ready to find the answers, Holden? You can always back down, believe what you want to believe.”
“Don’t you want to know why I wasn’t talking to you all this time?” I ask Jamie. She looks at me for the first time since she’s come here. “I knew why,” she says. “Because you think that news #HT leaked is true. Because you’ll believe anyone but your best friend and your girlfriend—no wait—fiancée.” She removes my grandmother’s ring from her finger, hands it to me. “Is this what you came here for?”
My already clenched hands have turned into bleeding wounds, that’s how badly my nails have been digging in. “Jamie,” I say. “I came here to apologize. Please take that ring back.”
“Apologize?” Jamie snaps. “You think you’ll apologize for the way you behaved all this time and I’ll just let it go as always? I’m sorry Holden. But this time, I’m truly done with you. So please, take this ring back.”
More clenching. “No,” I say, a little forcefully this time. “I’m not taking this ring back, Jamie. And we’re not breaking up.”
“Holden, stop.”
“Jamie,” I say. “That’s my baby inside you, and I have every right to be a father to him.”
“And you will be,” Jamie says. “I’m not going to stop you from seeing your child, Holden. If you want to see him, then you can.”
“Him?”
“It’s a boy.”
Tears come to my eyes without control. “Jamie,” I say. “I never stopped loving you. Not for a second. I was just confused. Trying to process everything, that’s all. That’s why I never really broke up with you.”
“You didn’t reply to a single text, Holden! Not mine, not Daniels!”
“I wasn’t talking to anyone. I was even out of touch with my own mother.”
“Fine,” Jamie says. “I get that you needed time to process, but didn’t you even once think of the baby? Didn’t you once worry about how I was doing? How the baby was doing?”
“What do you think, Jamie?” I say. “You have no idea how much I have suffered because of the way I treated you. But it just became a vicious cycle that I couldn’t get out of!”
“So why are you here, now?”
“Because it happened,” I say. “The cycle broke.”
“Any particular reason why?”
“I found out that report #HT shared was a fake.”
She looks up at me. “How did you find out?”
“I have my sources,” I say.
“So, you don’t doubt us anymore?”
“Jamie,” I say. “Forgive me.”
“She’s going to say yes,” Zaff says. “You just have to be consistent. You can’t give up.”
I take the ring in my hand. “This is my grandmother’s ring,” I say. “She and my mother they never quite got along so of course Mom wanted a new ring for her wedding. Even though I was adopted my grandparents and my father loved me like their own. For a long time, I didn’t even know I had a different biological father. And I used to love seeing that ring on grandma and every time she caught me watching she’d say the same thing: ‘Holden. The day you find the woman you love—you truly, truly, love—you will give this to her. It will make me happy in heaven.’ And then, she would add, ‘and it would piss off your mother, too.’”
Jamie laughs. “Your grandma really said that or did you just make that up?”
“None of it is made up,” I say, getting up. “Jamie, I would never hurt my grandma, alive or not. I could never give this ring to anyone, unless I was truly in love with her and that love is the only reason I gave you that ring. Because I knew you were the one I was going to marry, that I was going to love you for the rest of my life.”
I take her hand and put the ring back on her finger. “Don’t ever take it off, Jamie.”
“I don’t know what to say, Holden.”
“Say yes,” I say. “So you can have the honor of being my wife, wearing my grandma’s ring and pissing my Mom off, all at the same time.”
She laughs. “You drive a hard bargain.”
I kiss her.
She kisses me back, like she’s been waiting.
She starts to cry and I pull her up and take her in a hug.
“She’s going to say yes,” Zaff says. “She’s going to get convinced easy because this is what they’ve been planning for. If she says no now, it all goes to waste. But #HT did you a favor in trying to do wrong.”
The actual DNA report is open in front me, proof that every word coming out of Jamie and Daniel’s mouth was a lie.
“The report clearly states Daniel is the biological father,” Zaff explains. “Daniel was the one who ordered it in the first place.”
“They lied to me,” I’m so drunk I shouldn’t be feeling anything but the pain is enormous. “They’ve been plotting against me all this time!”
Zaff puts his arms around me and I let him. “It’s okay to have a weak moment, son. You’re safe with me here. But out there, the world wants to see you fail. Suffer. Friends will pretend to care about you, fiancées will lie to your face, but you know what will never change? The fact that we’re blood.”
“I want revenge, Dad. I want them both to suffer like I did.”
“My son will have everything he desires. Do you have a plan or do you want me to think of something?”
“I have a plan. I just need your help with it.”
“Anything you want, Holden.”
“How’s the baby doing?” I ask.
“It’s doing great,” she beams. “I go to the hospital regularly for checkups they say there’s nothing to worry about.”
“I’m sorry you had to go alone all these times,” I say. “But you won’t have to anymore.”
“I’m sure the baby will be happy his father’s back in his life,” Jamie says. “I missed you, Holden.”
“I missed you too. I don’t know why I get so stubborn sometimes. It’s not right I know and I’m not trying to justify my behavior or anything but sometimes when I’m angry I stop seeing things clearly.”
“Do you see them clearly now?”
“Yes.”
And that’s not a lie.
She breaks off and looks up at me. “Do you want to come back to my place?”
“Yes, I’d like nothing more. But there’s something I have to do first.”
The End
HOLDEN
The sunglasses protect me from the rays of the sun but not from the sight of this rotten piece of he
ll.
Stupid, trash, neighborhood.
I’d kill myself if I ever ended up living here.
Day time in this place is worse than nighttime because everything bloody stinks. The stink of their hard labor jobs and fucked up childhoods and their conniving, devious brains always working overdrive. Their desperate lives reek of excrement and their homes smell of despair.
After a long time of waiting someone finally opens the door.
It’s Daniel.
“What do you want, Holden?”
My hands start clenching again.
“They lied to me.”
“The world wants to see you fail. Suffer. Friends will pretend to care about you, fiancées will lie to your face, but you know what will never change? The fact that we’re blood.”
“I want revenge, Dad. I want them both to suffer like I did.”
He looks so damn smug standing there, knowing what he’s done and knowing that there’s nothing I can do about it.
But he has no idea what he’s in for.
I take off my sunglasses. “Truce?”
He takes a few moments of course; he’s not going to just give in. Eventually, he steps to one side and leaves the door open for me. “Come in.”
We both are at the same eye level when I climb the three front steps.
“Thank you,” I say, and step inside.
Behind me, I feel him closing the door.