Page 19
19
SEAN
“You need to figure out this shit with your wife because it is eating away at her, and sooner or later, she’s going to become a shell of a human and you’re going to hate yourself for ruining her.”
I glance up from the paperwork in front of me, staring at Rebecca, trying to process everything she just said. “What?”
“I just spent the afternoon with Ellie and it’s clear that she’s dying inside.” Rebecca slings her beige canvas tote higher up on her shoulder, her eyes narrowing. “She misses the life she used to have before she was stuck with you.”
“Nobody is keeping her from that life.” I shove back from the desk, some of the pens scattered on the desk mat falling to the ground when the chair leg slams into the desk. “Why are you in our business?”
“I’ve known her for years, Sean. You seem to forget that. I know what she was like before the marriage, and I can see what she’s like now. She’s not the same person she used to be.”
Rebecca is voicing out loud everything I’ve been thinking and I hate it.
I hoped that the differences in Ellie were only ones I’ve been noticing. Something to do with me and the way she treats me.
The last thing I wanted was for this marriage to ruin her life.
I sigh and round the desk, swiping the keys from the corner. “Look, I know things are rough between me and her right now. I know that I need to work on them, but I don’t have time to do that right now.”
“You need to make the time.”
“What the hell did she say to you out there to make you come charging in here like this?”
Rebecca scoffs. “I’m not going to tell you every detail about my private conversation with your wife. I shouldn’t even be telling you this much, but I’m doing it because you’re my brother and I care about you. I want you to be happy.”
“I’m happy enough. I have a house of my own and several businesses all over the world.” I perch on the edge of my desk, crossing one leg over the other. “The marriage is fine. We’re friendly.”
“Don’t you think that a marriage between two people needs more than just friendly ?” She says the word like it’s poison, and maybe it is.
Friendliness with Ellie seems to be teetering on a thin line of liking each other and hating each other, but the relationship doesn’t want to shift one way or another.
I can feel the tension there, like both of us are holding our breath and waiting for the other to make a decision on what we’re going to be.
Rebecca sighs and crosses her arms like she’s disappointed in me. “Sometimes you really are clueless. I think you need to take a step back, Sean. Figure out how to make this marriage good for both of you; otherwise, you’re just going to keep resenting each other.”
“You don’t know what our marriage needs.”
“I sat with Ellie for hours. I talked to her about everything under the sun and I know that she misses her life. She wants to be a nurse and live like a normal person.”
“That’s never going to happen. This is her life. It’s always been her life and it’s always going to be her life.”
“And you don’t think there’s something wrong with that?” Rebecca says it like the answer should be obvious.
And it is.
I know that things are bad for Ellie right now, and I want to make them better, but I don’t know how. We’re two very different people and I don’t know what she needs.
Hell, I don’t know what I need most days.
My shoulders slump as I look at my sister. “I’m trying. I am.”
“The pair of you are more alike than you think you are. She’s like you in a way. All she wants is to be her own person.”
I press my lips together, jaw clenching. “Look, I’ll talk to her. I’ll try to figure this out and make her happy, but right now, I need to talk to you about Dad before I take you home.”
The color drains from her face, her weight shifting from her left to her right. “What about Dad?”
“Is he acting weird? Taking meetings with people you don’t know?”
“I haven’t seen him taking any meetings.” She holds her arms tighter to her chest. “Is there something I should be watching for?”
“Maybe.” I glance out the window, watching Ellie hold a book higher as she reclines in the sun. “I was taking care of some business with a man out at the cottage yesterday?—”
“Oh, the cottage where you spend most of your time avoiding your wife?” Rebecca gives me an impish smile before gesturing at me to continue.
“Yeah, that cottage.” I roll my eyes, but the guilt is already starting to eat at me. After hearing the way Ellie screams in the night, I have to get away in the mornings. There’s too much anger at myself to stay close to her once she’s awake.
That anger gets taken out on the bastards my men catch working for Noah.
“Dad hasn’t had any meetings that I’ve noticed, but I’ve been busy with work. He has plenty of time in the day when I’m out to get up to things.”
“And that’s what I’m worried about. When I was at the cottage, I had a man who was found lurking around one of the warehouses. He doesn’t work for Noah. Wouldn’t tell me who he worked for, though.”
“What does that have to do with Dad?” Rebecca asks, her voice wavering slightly as she glances at Ellie before looking back at me. “Do you think he’s going to be a threat to her?”
“I don’t think so.” I push off the desk and head for the door. “The man said that his boss had meetings with Dad, but he also said that he hadn’t heard Ellie’s name mentioned at all.”
Rebecca nods and turns for the door. “Dad is going to be gone most of the day. I can look through his office when I get home and see if I can find out anything for you.”
“I’ll come in.” I follow her through the house and out to the car. “If he’s planning something, then I need to know what. He hasn’t had a meeting with me in nearly a week.”
She tosses her bag into the back seat of my car. “He’s not going to be happy if he finds out that you’ve been going through his things.”
“He’s not going to be happy with me no matter what I do. That’s been the story of my life.” I slide into the driver’s seat and start the engine as she gets into the car. “I don’t care if he doesn’t like it. We’ve got bigger problems on our hands right now.”
Rebecca sighs and leans back against the seat, pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes. “You know, if the two of you would just learn to get along with each other, things might not be so bad between the two of you.”
“We haven’t gotten along for over thirty years. Why start now?”
She laughs and pulls her hands from her face. “Alright, well, let’s get back to the house and you can look through his things. Maybe talk to him if he comes home while you’re there.”
“It’s going to be more than a conversation, and you know it.”
“Just promise me that the two of you won’t kill each other.”
Grinning, I hit the highway, wind flowing through the car, the trees nothing but a blur of different shades of green as we drive by. “I won’t make that promise.”
“Dad is getting older. Maybe these meetings he’s been taking have something to do with his age.”
“Evil doesn’t age.” I turn onto the exit that leads to Dad’s house. “I know that he’s up to something, and if that does involve Ellie in one way or another, I’m going to find out and I’m going to put an end to it.”
Rebecca drums her fingers on the console between us. “I think this is all one big misunderstanding. Maybe he’s just starting to go the way that Grampy did.”
“Dementia?” I shrug. “It could be possible, but I think there’s more to the story than that. He’s up to something.”
I pull up to the white colonial house, park the car, and get out.
Rebecca leads the way into the house, and when she goes to change, I head down the long hallway to the office at the south end of the house.
The room is as dark and disturbing as I remember it, trophies from some of Dad’s kills hanging on the wall.
I glance around for the reflective lens of a camera. I’m sure he’s got some hidden in here, but I don’t have time to look for them. Not if I want to see what he’s hiding from me.
As I yank open the bottom drawer of his desk, a dozen pens go rolling, some papers shifting to the side.
It takes a couple minutes to root through them, but there’s nothing there but some receipts for cocaine shipments and another from an arms deal that was done last month.
The rest of the drawers are most of the same, mindless ramblings scribbled on paper. I sort through them still, looking for anything that might be a clue to what he’s up to.
Dad speaking to another man—one I don’t know about—is a problem, whether Rebecca wants to see it or not. It means that he’s up to something he doesn’t want me to know about.
Maybe it could be finding a new heir to the family to punish me for not having a child with Ellie yet. It would be petty, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’s done something like that.
Once I’m done rummaging through the mahogany desk, I stand in front of the matching filing cabinet.
The top drawer opens easily, already unlocked. I pull open the false bottom in it. It’s one of the places Dad likes to hide things, and if there’s any information on the meeting, it’s going to be there.
There’s nothing but some old receipts from one of the stores he used to buy Mom necklaces at. I pause for a moment, remembering a time when life was a little easier.
He wasn’t the same man after she died, and I can’t blame him for that.
Even if I don’t know exactly how I feel about Ellie, I don’t think I would be the same man if I lost her either.
“Looking for something?” Dad asks, his voice booming through the room as he appears in the doorway. “Because if you are, I think I should know what, don’t you think?”
I slam the drawer shut and turn to face him. “Yeah, actually. I was looking for something, but it seems like you’ve gotten better hiding spots since I was a teen.”
“And what the hell do you think you’re looking for?” Dad stuffs his hands in his pockets, but I would be an idiot to think that he isn’t reaching for a weapon.
“You know, if you’re going to meet with people other than me and Aiden, you should do a better job of covering your tracks.”
“I’m sure I don’t know you’re talking about.”
When he smirks, it’s clear he’s toying with me.
This is his favorite game. Fucking with my head and seeing what he can make me believe. Dangling the carrot of power in front of my face, only to pull it away when I finally try to get it from him.
He’s nothing but a bastard who thrives on controlling others.
And as much as I hate to admit it, I can see parts of myself in him.
As I tear open another drawer, digging through it, he closes in on me. His hand wraps around my bicep, hauling me back with surprising strength for a man his age.
“You don’t get to walk into my house and start looking through my things like I’m some kind of criminal.”
“You do see the irony in that, don’t you?” I shake off his hand, stepping away from him. “Who the hell have you been meeting with?”
“None of your business. I’m still the head of the Andino family, and it’s time that you take a step back and realize that.”
“It’s time that you start telling me if you’re striking out with your own intentions instead of upholding the deal with the Lyndes. If this all goes to shit, I’m the one who’s going to pay for it and you know it.”
He scoffs, eyes narrowing. “You think just because you married that little whore you now get to call the shots around here?”
“What did you just say about my wife?” I ask, getting in his face.
Normally, I would back down. Dad is still my father and my boss.
In this moment, though, he’s the man standing here, insulting my wife, and that’s not an offense I’m going to take lightly.
Not after everything else that’s happened to her.
I stand taller, looking down at him. “You’re going to keep your mouth shut when it comes to Ellie, and if you have your own interests, you better put them to bed right now.”
“You would be a fool not to have your own interests.” Dad smirks, pulling his hands from his pockets. “I would suggest you take a step back.”
“And I would suggest you start telling me the truth.”
“I have my own interests. I have meetings with people who could be more beneficial to the family, and if I decide to change direction, you will be expected to support that decision.”
“I won’t.”
He sighs, though the look in his eyes is predatory. “Then you are a failure of an heir and a husband. You’re putting your wife in more danger.”
“From you?”
The corner of his mouth twitches. “Maybe.”