Chapter 28 Lucas
Lucas
The next morning, I felt like I’d been shoved through a meat grinder.
My stomach started to bruise, and my face was swollen like a balloon.
I’d iced my face for most of the night, downed four Advil, and tried to sleep but couldn’t.
I’d stayed in my room at my mom’s house, afraid that Shane’s goons might show up there to send another message.
But all had been quiet. It also helped that my mom had gotten a security system installed like she’d told me she would. That put me a little more at ease.
I walked into Kurtis’s hospital room behind my mom, ready to scream and shout at my father. She’d ordered me to stay calm. “Yelling gets you nowhere,” she’d said.
But I couldn’t promise her anything. The pain gripping my body was enough to make me want to do something drastic to my convict of a father.
My worst fears were coming true, except my mom hadn’t been physically harmed.
She was an emotional wreck, though. She might not admit that, but I knew her tells.
Kurtis was hooked up to wires and machines, looking like death. Shane’s men had done a worse number on him than they had on me. His eyes were barely open. He had stitches from his ear to his jaw. One glance at his hands told me that he’d fought back.
“Priscilla,” he said in a hoarse voice, his swollen lips barely moving.
My mom shook her head as she stood beside his bed, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “When are you going to learn?”
“Never,” I mumbled, standing at the foot of the bed with my jaw clenched.
Kurtis opened his eyes as wide as he could and regarded me. “Oh no.”
“Oh yeah. Compliments of Shane Blackwood.” I pointed to my face, anger radiating in my every word.
“I’m sorry.” His voice cracked with regret. “Very sorry.”
“Start talking.” I gripped the footboard.
“Water?” He glanced at my mom, his voice barely a whisper.
She grabbed the cup with a straw in it and held it to his lips.
After she set the cup down, she pursed her lips. “You see what they did to your son? Do you want that to happen to me?”
He shook his head weakly, wincing at the movement. “Things got out of control. I owe Shane Blackwood three grand.”
“All this for three grand?” I asked myself more than him. “Surely, his rich daddy has money.”
“Does his father have anything to do with this?” she leaned toward him as though she wanted to strangle him.
“No.” He took a shaky breath. “Mr. Blackwood pretty much cut Shane off.”
I had my answer. “Continue.”
“Shane and I were cellmates in prison,” he said.
“While inside, I borrowed money from him for the commissary. A couple of hundred here and there when my account was empty.” He licked his lips.
“By the time we got out, I owed him three grand. But I’d only made that much in prison wages, and I needed that money to get back on my feet. ”
“So you started gambling,” my mom interjected.
“I was hoping to make enough to pay him and still have money left over. I couldn’t ask you for it.”
I shoved a hand roughly through my hair. “Doesn’t your parole have rules about you not being allowed near a casino?”
“It doesn’t.” He squinted at me. “Embezzling money from my former employer has nothing to do with a casino. But I’m not supposed to leave the state. Do you want to hear the rest or not?” Anger mixed with the hoarseness in his voice.
I’d figured he’d violated his parole by crossing the state line. Still, the fact that he admitted his error might be a step in the right direction for him.
My gaze was drilling a hole through his head. “So you owe him three grand?”
“I thought I did until Shane said debts come with interest, so he upped it to four grand,” Kurtis said. “I gave him a thousand and asked for a little more time. After he and his men beat me up, he gave me a week. I guess he went after you so I would know he meant business.”
The heart monitor beeped loudly.
A nurse came running in. “It’s time for you folks to leave.” She adjusted his pillow. “Are you feeling any pain, Mr. Allen?”
“I’m his wife,” Mom said. “And I’m not going anywhere.”
My phone vibrated in the pocket of my jeans, the sound alerting me to a text. “I’ll be right back.” We were far from finished with our discussion.
I stepped out into the hall while the nurse did whatever she had to do. I grinned at Mazzie’s name on screen.
Mazzie
How’s your dad?
Awake and in pain, but good.
Mazzie
Do you have time to talk later this afternoon?
Me: Where and when?
Mazzie
Can you meet me at my mom’s house at four? I’ll be boxing up all our stuff.
How are you feeling?
Mazzie
Still not myself. Just… too much on my mind. Chat later.
See you then. I added a heart emoji.
I waited for her to respond in kind but nothing came. Something was up with her, and my thoughts immediately went to the dark side. It was going to be a long day.
“The rehab facility upstate has an opening,” Mom was telling Kurtis when I returned sans the nurse. “I’ll take care of the rehab and your debt. After that, you’re on your own. I can’t keep helping you anymore.”
“What?” I couldn’t shake my rage if I tried.
“Lucas Allen, listen to me.” My mom’s features darkened. “This is between your father and me. You have no say in what I do. You have football, school, and Mazzie.”
I shoved a hand through my hair. “We should at least call the cops.”
Horror crossed Kurtis’s battered features. “Do not do that. It will only make things worse.”
I studied both of them like they’d drunk the crazy juice. “You know something, I do have a say. In fact, I have a lot to get off my chest.”
Mom was sitting in a chair near Kurtis’s bed, her hazel eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to speak, but I held up my hand as I turned my attention to my father.
“Ever since I saw you carted off in handcuffs, I’ve hated you.
You ruined Mom, me, our livelihood. I took care of the woman you married while I watched her go through hell.
For that, forgiveness doesn’t come easy.
Then you get out of prison, and one of the first things you do is gamble after you lied about being a changed man. You’re weak, Kurtis.”
I regarded my mom. “If you keep helping him, he isn’t going to learn his lesson. Hell, wasn’t prison supposed to reform him?”
My gaze darted back to Kurtis. “I refuse to let what you’ve done define me.
One day, I will be a better father than you.
I will treat my kid and my wife with the respect and love they deserve.
As far as your debt, if my mother wants to pay it for you, I can’t stop her.
But I will be the one delivering the money.
Not you. Not my mother. And if you want back in my life, then you will go to rehab, you will not step foot in a casino again, and you will pay every cent of the three grand back to Mom. Are we understood?”
Kurtis stared at me through bloodshot eyes for a long moment as silence stretched between us, broken only by the steady beep of his heart monitor and the distant sounds of voices outside the room.
For a moment, I saw something flicker across his face.
Maybe shame. Maybe defiance. I couldn’t tell which.
Part of me wanted him to fight back, to give me a reason to walk out of there and never see him again.
The other part, the one I’d been trying to kill for years, desperately wanted him to agree with me.
To finally be the father I’d needed when I was barely a teenager, listening to my mom cry herself to sleep every night.
Awe crossed my mom’s face as she, too, waited for Kurtis’s answer.
“I would like nothing more than to be part of your life,” he said, tears leaking out of the sides of his eyes. “I promise that I can do all those things.”
The more I watched him, the harder it was to keep the hate I had for him. “I’m glad to hear you say that. But actions speak louder than words.”
His chin wobbled as if he was about to sob. “I am so sorry to both of you.”
My mom rose and gripped his hand. “Then show us you can change. I want to see you get better.”
Kurtis cried. “You turned out to be a good man, Lucas.”
Pity replaced anger. At least anger felt clean, simple, and like something I could channel into action, into walking away. But the remorse oozing off him made me keep my feet rooted at the bottom of the bed.
“You said Shane gave you a week. Give me his number, and I’ll take care of paying him.”
“Lucas,” my mom warned.
“Mother, this is not up for discussion. I know how to handle this.”
Her face hardened. “You’ve already been hurt once.”
“My phone is with my belongings,” Kurtis said. “The nurse put them on the table.” He flicked his head to his left.
I went over and fished his phone from the bag with his clothes in it.
“Passcode is 1420,” he said.
I found Shane’s number and took a picture of it with my phone. “Thanks. I need to go.”
The heart monitor’s beeping picked up as Kurtis shifted uncomfortably in his bed. “Be careful.”
“I know what Shane is capable of.” I was a walking advertisement for what his goons could do.
My mom followed me out into the hallway, her heels clicking hard against the polished floor. “I can get the money out of the bank on Monday. But you’re not going by yourself.”
I bent over and kissed her. “You’re not coming with me, but I’m not going alone.”
Ryker wouldn’t allow me to do something that dangerous by myself. But I had a different plan that would seal the deal for good. One that would make sure Shane Blackwood thinks twice before ever coming near my family again.