by Jen Talty
“No,” Patty said. “How dare you? You should have told Reese the truth. You should have let his mother—”
“Once Keith refused to see her, and their baby,” Nana interrupted, “she begged us to make sure Reese never knew. When she and Allen first got together, we didn’t know he did drugs, or that Eleanor was doing them. We paid for rehab many times, for both of them. He got straight a few times because of Reese, and he was always good to that boy. He married her, and if he could have stayed off drugs, he’d have been a good father. I know that with everything I am.”
“What about my birth certificate? It clearly states that Allen is my father.”
“We thought that best.”
“Of course you did.” Reese slammed his fist on the table, and then stormed out of the room.
Patty followed Reese upstairs to the master bedroom. He’d slammed that door shut as well. She didn’t bother knocking. He had every right to be mad as hell. Probably a whole lot of hurt and confusion. She knew exactly how that felt.
But they weren’t the ones putting each other in such pain and anguish. It would be so easy for him to push all that down, stuffing it so deep in his soul that he’d never be able to connect to a single person again. She wasn’t going to let him do that. Not now. Not ever.
“Hey.”
He stood in front of the picture window, overlooking the lake, his hands on his hips, his back to her.
“You can’t change what they did,” she said.
“I know.” His voice was steady, but his tone bitter. “I think, deep down, I’ve always known Nana knew who my father was, but I was too scared to find out, so I never tired that hard. Then Jessica, and the baby she aborted. I thought I’d be able to stop the madness. All I did was make it a legacy.”
“Not true.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, clasping her hands up by his chest, where she could feel his heart beating. She rested her head on his shoulder. “And even if it were true, you still have the power to change it with our baby.”
He let out a long sigh. “I don’t want to screw this kid up.”
“You won’t.”
“I wish I believed that,” Reese said. “I have to wonder why my mother would tell me…make me question who my father was...on her death bed. What was the point?”
“People do weird things when they’re dying.”
“I guess that’s one answer I’ll never know.” He raised her hands then kissed them. “I’m a little shocked you haven’t run to Harmon Hill as fast as possible to get away from the shit-storm that is my family.”
“The thought has crossed my mind. But as you’ve been saying to me, I’m in this for the long haul.”
“I’ve got to deal with this Holland thing.”
Patty knew that to be the absolute truth, and it was more than just business. Now, it was personal. “I think I really need to rest. It’s been a fucked-up couple of days.”
“That’s being polite,” he said. “I brought in the mail.” He tossed a few things on the bed.
She kicked off her shoes then puffed up some pillows before settling in. “Great,” she said. “Anything from Conrad? He said he sent over the severance deal, which means a check, and I have bills to pay.”
Reese plopped down on the bed next to her and stared at the ceiling. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Not telling you about being married. I should have done that long before the baby ever came around.”
“I hate to admit it, but I understand why you didn’t tell me, but that was then, this is now. We know what secrets do to people.” Most of the mail was junk, but an envelope from her former employer was at the bottom, much thicker than she expected for a last paycheck. She fiddled with the edges. “Just promise me that you will be honest with me going forward.”
“I can do that,” he said. “Jesus. Holland has known all along I’m his son, and he’s been doing this shit to me. To us. He spouts shit about his family, and wanting a place for them, yet technically, I’m family.”
“Sperm doesn’t make one a father, or family.” She opened the envelope then pulled out a folder. On top was a note from Conrad that read, I’m sorry to do this to you, but please help me. Patty flipped open the file then started reading. It took a few minutes for the information to register.
“None of this makes any sense. Maybe that’s why I didn’t push too hard when it came to my biological father. I think I was afraid he didn’t want me. I guess it just seems like Holland is going to a lot of trouble when it comes to the hotel and—”
“Reese?”
“Do you think he just wants to make me go away, or bring me into the fold?”
“Reese.” She continued to scan the papers, ignoring his rant until one piece of paper stood out.
“You think this is all crazy, don’t you?”
“Reese!”
“What?”
“I think I just found your smoking gun.”
15
Reese white-knuckled it to the station. He wished he had a parole car, so he could use the sirens to go flying around everyone. Now, he just looked like an asshole driver, but he didn’t care. Jared had already left for the day, but said he’d head back to help with this situation. Frank and Stacey had been holding down the fort, and a couple of the regional guys were on patrol.
The truck tires squealed as he turned into the parking lot. He wasted no time gathering everything Conrad had sent over and racing into the station house. “Big room,” he said, but everyone was already there ahead of him.
“So what, exactly, does Holland have on Conrad?” Stacey had rearranged the information on the boards in line with the few things Reese had told her over the phone.
“A couple of things.” Reese spread out the paperwork on the conference table. “A couple of dicey pictures of him with women other than his wife.”
“Everyone knows that about him,” Frank said. “He thinks he’s discreet, but he’s not. And I don’t think his wife cares.”
“That’s what Patty said.” Reese figured that had been Holland’s first attempt at blackmailing Conrad, and it didn’t work. “But look at this.” He pinned a letter up on the corkboard indicating that not only had Conrad never finished his law degree, but he never even took the bar.
“How is that even possible?” Stacey asked.
“I’ve learned a lot of the impossible can be possible, these days,” Reese said.
“That’s very interesting.” Jared took down the letter and read it again. “What else?”
Reese handed over a bunch of other paperwork regarding Conrad and school. “Graduating class list, and he’s not on it. Forged law license.”
“Who did all this for him?” Jared asked.
“That, we don’t know,” Reese admitted, “but I suspect someone associated with Holland. A few years ago, Holland approached Conrad to go over some accounting on a construction site. Said he needed an outside firm.” Once again, Reese was pinning things up, and Jared was taking them down, then passing them to Frank and Stacey. Reese gave up and handed everything over to Jared. “Conrad found nothing wrong. Holland pushed him to find something wrong. Hence, Terry was fired for stealing money from the company.”
“Okay,” Jared said. “But can we backtrack a little more? Do we know why Terry had some high-priced attorney to get him out of his troubles?”
“A little fuzzy on that, but in the note to Patty from Conrad, he explains that Terry was some kind of muscle for Holland. Holland got pissed that Terry got caught more than once, and wanted to get rid of him.”
“Makes perfect sense,” Stacey said. “But doesn’t explain Holland’s infatuation with the Heritage or put any blame on him for Patty’s rats, tires, or the trees coming down on Doug’s truck.”
“That’s where it gets really weird.” Reese straddled a chair and took in one very long, calming breath. “Open the file. Conrad had been doing some of his own digging into Holland, trying to find a way out from under hi
m, and it turns out he was able to connect Holland back to my grandfather.”
“Now, that is interesting,” Stacey said as she tried unsuccessfully to yank the files from Jared. “What’s the connection?”
“Holland was the developer for my grandfather’s office building, but Holland didn’t finish it.”
Jared passed the file on. “That’s all it says. But something tells me there is more.”
“A lot more,” Reese said. “Conrad hit a dead-end because, like my grandfather, Holland is very smart, and they both made sure their little under-the-table deal was under lock and key. The only other person who really knew the details was my Nana.”
“She filled you in?” Jared asked.
“The short version is, Holland was messing around with my mother, she was underage, and my grandfather paid him off to go away. Holland went away.”
“Holland is your—”
“Frank,” Reese said. “Don’t say it, okay?”
The room went silent for a long moment as everyone digested that piece of information, along with everything else.
“Where’s the smoking gun?”
“Conrad put a signed statement and a confession for his part in framing Terry in the paperwork he sent to Patty. He also kept track of everything illegal or near-illegal that Holland was asking him to do regarding the purchase of the casino site and the Heritage Inn. I sent a copy to the Feds. Just waiting for a warrant. Feds said they’d let one of us go with them.”
“What’s the charge?” Frank asked.
“A shitload of things,” Reese said.
“Okay, but what I don’t get is, why go after you if you’re kin?” Jared said. “I think he’d want you to be in the fold. Part of the empire?”
“One would think,” Reese said. “But my PI friend says Holland wanted to wash his hands of the whole thing, because his wife and family think I’m just a bastard who doesn’t deserve their respect or their money, and they see my purchase of the Heritage Inn as a slap in the face. I’m a bastard who is in the way of what he wants.”
“Why didn’t Conrad just come to us?” Stacey asked.
“Holland said he’d kill his family and make it look like Conrad did it,” Reese said. “I believe Holland could have easily done that, considering everything that has happened to Patty.”
“That is one nasty motherfucker.” Frank tossed a few pieces of paper on the table.
The pun wasn’t lost on Reese, though he doubted it was intentional. “We can nail his ass for a lot of things, but we’ll never get him for the trailer or the rats.”
“Can you live with that?” Jared asked.
“I have to live with the knowledge that he was—is…fuck. Yeah. I can live it, with it as long as that asshole is in jail.”
“You must think I’m a horrible person,” Nana said.
“Not horrible,” Patty said. “Misguided, perhaps.” She didn’t like being so abrupt with Reese’s Nana, but the lies were going to end now. No way would she bring a child into this world, in this situation, if honesty wasn’t going to be the path to happiness. “Is there anything else Reese doesn’t know?”
“I’ve told you both everything.”
“Had all this been out from the get-go, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, because Reese wouldn’t have been so closed-off.”
“That’s where you are wrong,” Nana said. “You didn’t know him before Jessica. That woman tore his heart out, and he never recovered. He never allowed himself to, until you.”
“You don’t think, if he’d known the truth of his heritage, that he would have been able to handle himself differently when it came to Jessica? I was not only unplanned, but I was unwanted.” Patty held up her hand to shush Nana. “My mother didn’t want me at all. She let my father, who did want me, talk her into a loveless marriage. It lasted years, but it screwed me up. Reese reacted so negatively to the abortion because Jessica never gave him the choice, and he wondered, after his mother died, if his mother had ever given his real father a choice. The genetics don’t matter. It just matters to Reese that there was no discussion. In either situation…” Patty paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. “If Reese had know about Holland, well…”
Patty let the words hang. It was a cruel statement, and she shouldn’t have gone that far with a woman she barely knew. She was about to apologize when she found herself staring down the wrong end of a gun.
Again.
“How long does it take to arrest an asshole?” Reese paced in the station house.
“Relax,” Jared said. “That file will put Holland behind bars for years. We got the tree guys to roll over on him. We’ve got Conrad’s information. Stop worrying.”
“I won’t feel better until he’s locked up,” Reese said.
“I have to ask,” Jared said. “Doesn’t it wig you out, just a little, that this man is your biological father?”
“Not really,” Reese said. “Actions make you a father, and after a closer look at the facts, I realize that man knew all along that I existed. He saw me at Conrad’s office. He knew when I pulled the trigger on Terry that I was his kid. He knew when I put in an offer on the Heritage Inn that I was his long-lost son, and he couldn’t have that. To him, I’m a bastard, and my family was just a revenue source. A way to build his empire. He chose to take the money, build his company, make millions, and then he chose to fuck with his own flesh and blood. I just don’t get the why he wouldn’t try to connect with me. I’m a State Trooper. He could have tried to put me on his payroll.”
“Would you have gone for that?” Jared asked.
“Of course not.” Reese glanced at his watch. Stacey must be enjoying herself, since she was the trooper that got to go along for the arrest. Frank and Reese were too personal with the case, and Jared wasn’t even on duty. Reese wasn’t worried about how green Stacey was, because he trusted her with his life, but so far, nothing. Until Stacey barreled through the doors.
“He’s gone,” she said. “The taskforce was in place. Had all the proper warrants. Everything was perfect, except it took too long.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Reese said. “We’ve had tails on him for days.”
“He had a dummy car,” Stacey said. “When we arrived at his hotel, his SUV was in the lot. We ran the plates. It was his. We stormed the room. Nothing. Just gone.”
“Conrad?” Frank asked.
“Oh, we got him, and he and his family are in a safe house. FBI and State’s Attorney already copped a deal with him. He won’t see any jail time, but the poor bastard won’t be able to practice law.”
Reese called Patty, but got voicemail. Same with Nana. “Fuck.”
“What is it?” Stacey asked. “I don’t like your tone.”
“Can’t get a hold of Patty or Nana.”
“I drove by. Cars in the driveway. It all looked good. I’ll call my dad and Doug. They’ll go over and check on them.”
“I’ll go,” Reese said as he started to gather his belongings.
“Holland had to have known he showed his hand and we connected the dots with you being his son.”
“He did,” said a familiar voice from behind Reese. He so didn’t want to turn around, because he knew exactly who that voice belonged to. “Hello, Reese,” Jessica said.
“Who are you?” Stacey asked.
“I think that’s his wife,” Frank said sarcastically.
“I heard you were looking for me,” Jessica said.
Reese opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He cleared his throat. “Your timing is interesting.”
“Not really.” She waltzed across the room, her long, red hair flowing as if she were a model in the middle of a shoot. She wore cowboy boots, skinny jeans, a tight shirt showing off her cleavage, and a lined jean jacket. A far cry from the country club girl he thought he’d met.
She got so close he had to take a step back. He felt every single eye in the station on him. Or her. Or both. H
e was grateful for that because, had it been anywhere else, his response to her might have been deadly.
“What? No hug and kiss for your long-lost wife?”
“Unless that envelope in your hands is divorce papers, you and I don’t have much to say.”
“That would make you happy, now, wouldn’t it?” She handed him the envelope, but not before leaning in close and whispering in his ear. “I guess you didn’t know, I work for Holland. Holland is not only going to destroy you, but he’s going to get his revenge, and all your money, and finally, I will get a piece of the pie. Your meddling grandmother and that nasty little girlfriend are alive, but not for long, so I suggest you do as instructed without letting anyone in this room know.”
He took the envelope, glancing Stacey’s way. He had only seconds to catch her gaze and pray they had that secret language.
“Perhaps we can take this outside, where it’s a bit more private?” Jessica whispered.
Reese glanced inside the envelope, and it was all he could do to keep from vomiting. “Sure thing.” He wrapped his hand around Jessica’s bicep and squeezed as hard as he could. He knew he bruised her, and to her credit, she pretended he wasn’t hurting her until they got outside.
“Get your fucking hands off me.” She managed to escape his grip. “They are going to die unless I get you there, right quick. So, I suggest you just get in the car and shut the fuck up.” She pulled back her coat, showing a weapon. “And trust me when I say I don’t care if they live or die. I’m only in this for the money. The money I deserve, after marrying you and then being abandoned.”
“Abandoned? That’s funny.”
“You drive,” she said, ignoring his jab.
He got in the front seat of her car then took off out of the parking lot. As he followed her directions, with a gun pointed at his side, he continued to glance in the rearview mirror, but saw no sign of Stacey. Or Frank. Or Jared.
But he hoped they were somewhere behind him.
“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault,” Nana said.