Page 24 of Clayton (Bourbon & Blood #2)

Fourteen

CLAYTON

T here isn’t much to pack at the condo. The furniture is all secondhand from either our basement or from Mama’s.

It’s all so old and broken down it’s not worth renting a truck to move it.

I’ve dumped most of my clothes in suitcases.

Annalee will probably find fault with how they’re packed, and she probably should.

But I don’t care. I just want to be home.

I want to officially be back in my own home and have this shithole in my rearview mirror.

The knock at the door is a surprise. I wasn’t expecting anyone. To see John standing there, I know something is up. “What’s he done?” I ask immediately.

“He wants to make a deal,” John replies evenly. “And my expert opinion is that you ought to go along with it. ”

“Did you miss the part where he tried to murder my wife?” I ask. I know he’s not going to prison for it. I know that somehow he will get out of it, but it pisses me off.

“He’s never going to trial, Clayton. We both know that.

The DA is married to the daughter of Samuel’s golfing partner, who also happens to be the judge who would preside over this case.

” I can tell John is pissed. He only ever gets all lawyerly and chatty when he’s mad as hell.

“That’s assuming we could get a grand jury to even indict him in a county where everyone is terrified, in debt, or otherwise beholden to your damn father in some way. ”

“So that’s it?” I demand. “We’re not even going to try? This would ruin him forever, John. Completely!”

John shoves his hand into his hair. “At what cost? You, your wife, your kid…you still have to live in this town. Is it better to ruin him and have everyone at your kid’s school know about it or to let him go quietly and preserve some dignity?”

It’s true and I know it, but I don’t like it. Still, Annalee and Emma Grace have to come first. “ What does he want?”

“To talk to you,” John replies. “They took him from the hospital to the jail this morning, but he won’t be there for long. They’ve already called the judge to get bail set for him.”

“It’s Saturday morning!”

“Like it or not, people owe your daddy, Clayton, and they will move heaven and earth for him.”

I throw the rest of the clothes in the last suitcase and carry it out to the car. John’s waiting for me there. I’m not stupid enough to talk to Samuel alone. That would bite me in the ass for sure.

The drive to the jail is short. I’m not saying anything and neither is he. I’m pissed off all over again. The idea of setting eyes on him reignited the fury from the day before.

“Do not lose it in here! For someone who spent his whole life being the calm one, you’ve lost your damn mind!” John cautions.

It’s true. I was the calm one, but the last year has changed all that. We head into the jail and go through the ridiculous process of getting screened to visit the prisoner. After it’s done, we’re shown to a small room with a table and a few chairs that are clearly held over from the ?70’s.

Samuel’s face is busted all to hell. His nose is broken, both eyes black and his lip is split. It’s more satisfying than I thought it would be to see him that way.

“You wanted to talk. Talk.” I’m not going to spend my whole damn day listening to his demands when I have no desire to meet any of them.

“I want the million dollars you promised…in writing, in a binding contract. If you’ll do that, when they let me out of here, I’m gone,” he offers.

“That deal is off the table,” I insist. “You lost your bargaining power when you tried to kill my wife.”

“I could always try again,” Samuel says softly. “You work an awful lot, Clayton. You leave that poor woman alone too much.”

I want to murder him, to ram my fucking fist into his face so hard that he’ll never get up again. “If you ever go near her again?—”

“Let’s not be hasty,” John butts in. “Don’t say anything in here that you might regret later. ”

“I won’t regret it.”

“As your lawyer,” he insists, “I can promise you that you will. When do you want the money?”

“As soon as the trust comes through,” Samuel says. “And whatever is in the account right now is all mine.”

There’s nothing in that account. The last of his expenses came through and wiped it out. “You’re sure we can’t get this to stick?” I ask.

John shakes his head. “A million dollars is a small price to pay if it means being rid of him forever.”

I know he’s right. The good ol’ boy system is still alive and well in Kentucky.

It doesn’t matter how open and shut the evidence in a case is, if it’s never permitted to go to trial.

If it came down to it, those crooked bastards would just keep issuing continuances until the son of a bitch kicks the bucket.

“I agree to the terms, but I have a few of my own. If…” I am staring him dead in the eye as I say it.

“You ever step foot back in the state or attempt contact with any member of our family, the contract is void. Not only is it void, but I will take you to ci vil court for all that you’ve done.

The criminal court judge and the DA might be in your pocket, but I’ve got friends of my own that you can’t touch. ”

Samuel grins, the expression grotesque on his swollen and bruised lips. “You’ll never admit it, but you’re just like me, Clayton.”

It’s not entirely true, but there are enough similarities that I’m not going to argue the point. It’d be an exercise in futility anyway.

“Get the papers drawn up, John. I’ll sign them and then I don’t ever want to set eyes on this fucker again.”

I walk out of the small room and it feels like I can breathe again.

I’ve always hated him, even when I was a kid.

I can remember seeing Mama cry, again and again…

over the infidelity, over his cruelty. Emotional abuse wasn’t something I could conceptualize then, but as an adult, I know that’s what he did to her. It’s what he did to all of us.

John walks out just a minute behind me. “You know that’s all bullshit, right?”

“What?”

“You’re not like him, Clayton,” John says.

“You might bend the rules, you might even break them…but you didn’t do it because you felt they just didn’t apply to you.

You did it because that was the only way to bring him down.

The problem we have right now is that not a damn one of us recognized just how bat-shit crazy he really is. ”

“Let’s hope it’s not genetic.” The joke falls flat. But having just agreed to give him a million dollars of the money that is supposed to be used to take care of Mama, neither one of us is in the mood for humor.

“You need to get Quentin and Mia to agree to this,” he says. “I don’t think they’ll balk when they know why. But still, based on the guardianship agreement he signed yesterday, it has to be all three of you or it’s a no go.”

“I’ll see Mia tonight…I’ll talk to Quentin tomorrow. It’ll be taken care of by Monday.”

John nods. “In the meantime, don’t leave Annalee alone. I wouldn’t put it past him to try something again.”

After that, I drop John back at the condo where his car is parked and head home. Annalee is waiting with Emma Grace to go to her dance recital. I promised her I wouldn’t miss it for the world and I meant every word.

“You don’t look happy,” Annalee says.

Total honesty is a bitch. I glance in the rearview mirror. Emma Grace has her little pink iPod out and her earphones in. “We’re going to have to pay Samuel to leave town, otherwise, he just hangs around like a bad smell, and we’ll never be rid of him.”

“Out of Patricia’s trust?” she asks.

“Yes. That’s pretty much all we have unless Quentin comes through with an investor. He might…it could be a big turning point for all of us financially.”

She nods, and then she simply lays her hand over top of mine. I turn my palm up and twine my fingers through hers.

“I trust you. You’ll do what’s best for all of us…you always do, even if I don’t approve of your methods.”

“No more secrets. No more lies…in the meantime, I’m stuck to you like glue.”

She grins. “I like the sound of that.”

It feels like it used to, for just a moment, at least. “We’re really okay, aren’t we? ”

“We’re getting there,” she says. “It’s not a straight line back to the top, Clayton. There’s going to be fits and starts. There will be days when I’m still mad, days when I question everything you say and everything you don’t.”

“I love you…and if that means tolerating abuse from you on occasi?—”

She pulls her hand from mine and glares at me. “Abuse? Really?”

I snatch her hand back. “I’ll do penance later,” I promise.

“We’re supposed to have dinner at your mama’s with Mia and Bennett tomorrow. Quentin’s coming…and Mia told me she’s bringing someone you’ll want to meet.”

“Who?” I ask.

“Your half brother,” Annalee says softly.

I knew. Not his name or his location or his age, but I knew he existed. “When did she meet him?”

“This morning…he’s from Ireland. Your dad definitely got around. And apparently he and Loralei Crawford are a thing.”

“He came all the way to Kentucky and hooked up with his half sister’s best friend?” I ask. It sounds fishy.

“Don’t borrow trouble,” she warns. “You don’t know anything about him yet…and stranger things have happened. You met me dancing around a burning couch and told me on our first date you were going to marry me.”

“What’s so strange about that?” I ask.

“I didn’t run away screaming.”

I glance back at Emma Grace who is singing blissfully out of tune in the back seat. “You can try that later. I promise to catch you.”

“I love you,” she says. “Even when I was mad as hell at you, I loved you. And I don’t ever want to be without you again.”

“You won’t. That’s another promise I’m going to keep.”