Page 98 of Wayward

“You want me to let her in?” Mike asks Dad.

“Let her in. There’s a few things I want to say to her,” Dante says.

Mike doesn’t stop looking at dad, though.

“That’s up to all of you. Sam, Calvin, Zane, do you want to meet her here or in a courtroom first?” my dad growls.

“Haley has a say,” I correct.

“What would the lawyers say?” Haley asks Mike. She moves between him and Sam to take my hand.

“Open the damn door, Rocky.” Susan pounds. “I can hear you in there.”

“That talking to her without council could cause?—”

“I fucking hate lawyers.” Dad interrupts Mike and pulls the door open. “Get in here and sit your ass on that sofa.”

My former stepmother has changed quite a bit. Her platinum blonde hair is now a shiny silver. She’s lost a hundred pounds. She’s always worn business suits, but the one on her now is designer and new compared to the ones from the nineties she wore when she was married to Dad.

“Easton. You’re not dead!” She opens her arms and comes at me. It’s the way she says it. There’s a fake surprise in her voice. My eyes flick over to the security guard behind her. He’s one of ours from the Miami office. And I hope to hell he heard the tone she said it in.

I hold my arm out straight, stopping her from reaching me, and she runs into my hand. “No, sit down.”

“When did you get back? I can’t believe you’re here. What’s all this?” She motions to the furniture moved about. “Media? And you didn’t wake me up? Rocky,” she says in a scolding tone.

“Yeah, that’s not going to work.” Dante loops his arm over Calvin’s shoulders. I’d been busy taking in Susan. I didn’t notice his furrowed brow or clenched fists.

I nod down at Haley. She gives my hand a squeeze and moves over next to Calvin. Good. The last thing I want is for Haley to have to visit Calvin in jail for manslaughter.

There’s a boiling hate taking over me. I bottle it down. I need justice for Haley, for the guys. They’ve all suffered enough over the last year.

“Sit, Susan,” I say.

“I liked it when you called me Mom.” She smiles, sitting on the edge of the sofa.

I hold her gaze. She doesn’t deserve an answer. Doesn’t deserve anything but a cold jail cell. I wiggle my fingers. The feeling of Haley’s touch lingers. I thrust my hand in my pocket, and the damn diamond’s there. I pull it out and put it on the coffee table. If she wanted me dead for the company, then she sure as hell had to have been damn mad about the diamond.Baiting her—it’s foolish of me, but I want her to know all the things she doesn’t have: Rockwell Tire, the Pink Phoenix, and soon anything to do with my family—especially my dad. She never wanted a divorce. Maybe her civility during their split boiled over inside of her. She wanted what she could no longer have. Finding another way to have it, killing me...She’s crazy, that’s for sure. And having the Pink Phoenix out on the table? I’m poking the bear, seeing that Candy’s the one who made Dad buy it. But there’s a tingling telling me Susan will be just as interested.

“What’s that?” She leans forward.

But Zane’s there. “We look with our eyes, not our hands.” He’s sitting on the sofa’s arm.

“You know what that is,” Sam says, his tone gruff.

Susan purses her lips and leans back on the sofa, her arms crossed over her chest like a scolded toddler.

Behind me, Mike had vanished, but he’s back, this time with a laptop in his hand.

“Who’s that?” Susan points at Mike. “Legal?”

“Susan Blanche. This meeting is being taped,” Benson Walsh, a senior member of Rockwell-Harding’s legal team, says from the laptop screen. Benson’s voice boomed from my dad’s home office on conference calls long before video calls or cell phones.

“That’s not necessary, Benson.” She clasps her hands in her lap.

“You know it is,” I say.

“What do you know about the operations of James Zambrano, AKA Ed and Mr. Z?” Benson asks.

“You mean the dad of Emily’s high school ex? He has a nice house in Switzerland. We had a lovely dinner with him, didn’t we, Rocky?” Susan cocks her head. She’s not dumb. I’ve never thought of her as dumb. Calculating? Hell yes. But dumb, no.She’s not going to answer anything. And she’s definitely not going to answer anything without her lawyer present.