by Lannah Smith
“I’d rather die.” My chest was so tight it was getting so hard to breathe and talk at the same time. “I’d rather die than stay here. I’d rather die than stay in the same house as you!”
He looked like I just struck him. But I didn’t care. Because he should have been used to this by now.
Christopher suddenly leaned forward, so close I could see the other colors in his brown eyes. Gold flakes and three thin green rings. So close he was barely a couple of inches away. One of his hands was on my pillow and the other one hit the bed low, by my waist.
I pulled in breath sharply and froze.
“I’m sorry but I can’t let you die,” he said, his voice back to soft. “And I won’t take you home to your father.”
I couldn’t say anything. I was still frozen.
“I searched endlessly for you for eight years. Now that you’re back in my life again, I’m never letting go.”
He didn’t give me time to respond.
Pushing himself off me, he turned and walked out of the door.
Chapter 10
Christopher sipped his drink, his eyes never leaving the sea.
He was pissed and needed to calm.
He took another sip of his drink again.
He needed to calm the fuck down.
Throwing the rest of the burgundy liquid down his throat, he placed it down on the railing.
Why? Why did she hate him so much?
“Are you alright, sir?”
He turned.
Alec was standing at the door, a phone lifted in his hand. Christopher took a deep breath. And pulled himself together this time.
Then on the exhale, he said, “Yes, I am. What do you want?”
“Leon Gage wants to talk to you.” Alec lifted the phone higher. “Do you want to take it?”
He didn’t. But he didn’t want Leon asking even more questions. He had luckily evaded his friends’ interrogation when he had to leave directly after the concerto to attend a meeting in Chicago. They had begun to pry and he didn’t want them prying. And he certainly didn’t want Leon’s help. Nor Rohan’s. Nor John’s.
Alec was still waiting for his decision whether he’d take the call. Knowing he couldn’t evade them forever, he lifted his hand and Alec gave him the phone before leaving him alone again.
“Leon,” he greeted, leaning his back on the railing. He grabbed a bottle from the table next to him and poured himself two fingers of whiskey. “It hasn’t even been a week. Do you already miss me?”
“Where are you?” came Leon’s no-nonsense tone. “Are you still in Chicago?”
“No.” He picked up the glass and took a small sip. “I’m in New Orleans, visiting some friends. Why? Did something happen?”
Leon didn’t speak. And he frowned.
“Sophia’s okay, right?” he asked slow.
“She’s fine,” Leon exhaled. “We haven’t returned to Boston yet. She’s missed Terry and Emmy so much that we’ve moved back to the old house for the time being.”
“At your old place?”
“Yeah.”
Christopher frowned. He hoped it was just temporary.
Leon was hedging. It was clear that this wasn’t what he had called to talk about. And Christopher got impatient.
“Okay, buddy,” he muttered in a pissed tone. “Spill it out. What’s wrong?”
“We found April.”
His body jolted.
shit.
“But then we lost track of her.”
His hand around the phone tightened. “What do you mean you lost track of her?”
“She had supposedly returned home four nights ago. But then she went missing again.”
“How did you know?”
Christopher could tell Leon was up and moving when he said, “We have a man in the house.”
The door opened and Alec walked in again, documents under his arm. Christopher waved him over impatiently.
“He found out,” he told him quietly. “He says he has a man in the house. Is he ours?”
Alec nodded to confirm. “Yes, he is.
Good.
He nodded back at Alec.
Christopher knew that Leon would find out sooner or later so he prepared a man in advance to inform him about April’s return. A man that was both under Leon’s and Christopher’s payrolls but the difference was, Christopher was paying him a higher price and had his loyalty first.
Then Christopher returned to his conversation with Leon. “Do you know where she is?”
“No,” Leon exhaled. “My men’s looking.”
“I told you, Leon.” Christopher turned to look at the sea. “I told you not to do this.”
Leon was quiet for a few moments.
Then he said, “You already know, don’t you?”
“I just got the call yesterday from my men too,” Christopher kept on lying. “And if I’m not mistaken, you also know about her condition too.”
There line went quiet again.
“Yeah.” Leon’s voice became a deep rumble of anger. “I do.”
“Keep yourself out of this, Leon,” Christopher said quietly. “You know her father. If he gets wind that you’re in his business...”
“He won’t.”
“Think about Sophia.”
“He won’t,” Leon said firmly. “I swear to you he won’t.”
“Leon,” he sighed. “If this is about your history with April, then stop.”
He knew without seeing that Leon had flinched. But Christopher had no choice but to use this card just to get him off his back.
Christopher heard Leon suck in breath before he said, “It’s not about us having a history. It’s about you having a history with her that you didn’t tell us about. That you didn’t tell me about.”
“Don’t you dare feel guilty about that,” Christopher growled. “It’s not on you. It’s on me. I didn’t tell you about her.”
“But Skull—.”
“I could have told you but I didn’t,” he reminded him, not giving him the chance to reply. “But I let it happen. Don’t blame yourself. And don’t be hard on yourself because you feel guilty over the past. Let it stay in the past. Please.”
Leon had done nothing wrong but he had made himself out to be the bad guy. Christopher had never accused him of it but Leon felt what he did and what he felt was so much guilt. Guilt and remorse. Now, even after all these years when he should have been over it, way over it, he still couldn’t believe he had done it to Christopher. His friend.
“You should have told me she was yours.”
Christopher smiled at his drink. “She was never mine. She made sure of that.”
“But you’re making her yours, right?”
“Oh yes,” he whispered with a promise. “She’s going to be mine.”
This time, for sure, he was going to make him hers.
“Her father might be hiding her someplace else,” Christopher told Leon, changing the topic. “I won’t stop looking. Even if I have to beat her whereabouts out of her asshole father. Even if I have to kill him.”
“Jesus,” Leon whispered. “You’re serious.”
“fucking serious.”
“Skull, what are you not telling us?”
A lot of things actually.
“I’m pissed, Leon,” he answered and his tone was livid. “Edward Locke better not show his fucking face because I’ll fucking rip it off. After what he did to April...” He couldn’t continue. The sight of April’s damaged face still ravaged his head.
“I know you’re mad. And you know that whatever happens, I’ll have your back, right?”
That was the problem. He didn’t want any of them having his back.
“I know,” he mumbled, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “I know, Leon.”
There was a brief pause between them, each absorbed in their own dark thoughts.
Then Leon suddenly said, “Did you hear about Rohan and Emmy?”
“Yeah,” he chuckled. “Rohan called me about it. We didn’t talk much since I was busy but damn. I can’t believe they’re getting married.”
“Emmy’s already having a dress made.”
“That’s ridiculous. It hasn’t even been a week since Rohan proposed.”
“I know.” Leon laughed low. “Sophia can’t stop talking about it. She’s happy for Rohan.”
“But I bet John isn’t.”
“Of course, he isn’t. He’s probably hounding Terry as we speak for her to accept his proposal.”
If he did, Terry would probably make him sleep on the couch, Christopher thought in amusement.
Then that amusement died when Leon said, “We’re going to find her, Skull. Don’t worry. Now that she’s flitted under radar, it will not take long until we will find her.”
It would sound suspicious as fuck if Christopher asked him not to do it. So he didn’t.
“Right,” he mumbled.
“And I’m still waiting for your explanations, Skull.”
“I know. But not now. When we see each other again,” he rushed on to say when Leon began to protest. “We’ll meet up. You know I’m going to visit to see the baby, right?”
“I know. But I’m not pleased. You’re not... you’re not you, Skull.”
“What lies have been Rohan telling you?” he joked, trying to make the mood light.
“He’s seen men with gun leaving your house.”
“Are you sure they weren’t just excited to see me?”
But Leon wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “You’re not fooling anyone, Skull.”
Too late. He already did.
“We’ll talk later, alright?” he promised to appease his friend.
“Fine,” Leon clipped. He paused for a moment then said, “Sophia says hi.”
He grinned again. “Tell her hi. And that your daughter’s pony is on the way.”
“What? Don’t you fucking dare—!”
But Christopher had already disconnected the call.
Turning to Alec, who was sitting on a chair and reading texts from his phone, he said, “He won’t stop.”
Alec looked at him. “Then you’d have to keep lying to him.”
That was what he was afraid of.
“Have the new recruits hide their fucking guns better next time when they go to my house,” he went on to say, entering the study and sitting on his chair. “Or I’ll fucking shoot them myself.”
“Will do, boss.” Alec followed him inside then gestured to the table. “Now if you will please look at those documents I put there... thank you.”
Damn it.
Christopher gave Alec a short glare before focusing on the documents in front of him. Leafing through them, he frowned.
He couldn’t even a fucking day off.
“They still couldn’t close this deal?” he asked irritably. “I thought there was already a verbal agreement?”
There was a great deal of disgust in Alec’s tone when he replied, “We have the papers drawn up and as far as we are concerned, the deal is done. The congressman is just being a pain in the fucking ass. He wants some support for his campaign for reelection.”
“He’s a fool. And a selfish fuck. The mall would have given the community new jobs and better lives. fuck knows that poor town needs some help.”
“There’s another property available in Long Island. But it doesn’t overlook the sea.”
He shook his head at Alec and pointed at the document in his hand. “I want that land. We’ve already offered more than fair and if he’s still going to be a moron then do everything you can to acquire it. And I mean everything. He’s up for reelection. Find out who’s running against him.”
Alec nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“We’ll hold a meeting the soonest time for this,” he pointed at the following page. “When I can.”
“When you can?” Alec deadpanned.
“I didn’t hire idiots,” he grumbled. “If they can’t do their jobs properly why haven’t you fired them?”
“Are you even doing your job properly? Sir?”
Pointedly ignoring that question, he looked over the details on the page for the negotiation of the land that he was selling. He would need to talk to his attorneys for this. Making a mental note to have his secretary back home set a Skype conference for this, he reached for his drink and took a sip.
“What are you going to do about her?” Alec asked after a while. “Are you really staying here with her?”
Christopher looked at him.
Then he said, “Yes, I am.”
Alec closed his eyes and muttered a low curse.
“Are you worried I’d slack off my job even more?” Christopher asked, lifting a brow.
“fuck, no. I’m worried I’d lose my job once you get your head blown up. Sir.”
Saying that, his right-hand stomped out of the room, slamming the door closed. Christopher chuckled darkly, shaking his head.
Because Alec wasn’t fooling him too.
Chapter 11
Christopher could still remember it.
The day his parents died. The day he lost his sister before she was even born.
The day his whole family was gone.
Letting out a long sigh, Christopher pushed the documents away from him and leaned back in his chair.
Those memories still haunt him, brutalizing his brain, every day, so many fucking times a day, he couldn’t count. Even after all this time.
And he never got used to it. Psychiatrists and his grandparents told him he would but he didn’t. Witnessing the death of his parents was impossible to get used to. So he learned to bury it which was the only way to eventually let it go. And use the pain and the burn to focus on becoming who he was today.
Christopher had been five years old then but it was the only memory that he could remember with so much clarity in all of his childhood years. Everything else was forgotten. Only that day.
He did remember that he stopped talking after that.
Completely.
He couldn’t recall why exactly he stopped talking. He just did. And because of that, he wasn’t able to go to school. His grandparents couldn’t persuade him to go. Even child psychiatrists were useless. Trapped in an endless nightmare that was of him watching his parents die, of reliving every moment as soon as he closed his eyes to sleep, he thought that no one could ever help him.
Except she did.
April Locke did.
The sound of the door opening drew Christopher out of his memories. Thinking it was Alec come to check up on him, he straightened up on his chair, grabbed a document and looked at the door. It wasn’t Alec. A dark-skinned, middle-aged woman was peering into the room when his gaze hit her. Seeing him, she smiled and stepped in.
“Did she eat?” he asked her.
Martha Darling sighed and took the chair in front of him but she did it rather gingerly, perching on the edge of the seat, as if she felt she shouldn't be there. He didn’t assure her. Past experience had told him she would always be like this to him.
“She didn’t,” Martha answered in an empathetic tone. “And she’s not talking to me anymore. She’s just staring into the ceiling with no expression on her face. I’m afraid she’s in shock.”
Christopher tossed the documents back on his desk with a sharp flick of his wrist that was eloquent of his blackening mood. To try and keep his calm, he poured her a drink from another bottle of whiskey on his table.
“Thank you, darling,” she said, taking the drink he offered.
Leaning forward, Christopher put his elbows on the desk and formed a steeple with his hands.
“What can I do?” he asked almost desperately.
She gave him another of her smiles. “Give her some time, I suppose. She’ll come out of it eventually. She’s a strong woman.”
fuck time.
He’
d given her time and time again to come to him. But she never did.