Chapter 3
Three
“ W as she with him?”
Clayton Darcy met his father’s gaze across the empty hospital waiting room and wondered, not for the first time, how cold the bastard really was. “Does it matter?”
Samuel Darcy narrowed his eyes at him. “Yes. I’ve told her—warned her—a dozen times about associating with the likes of him. All of the Hayes family is nothing but trouble, the lot of them!”
Clayton didn’t bother to argue. He’d learned long ago that it did not a damn bit of good. “No. From what the sheriff told me, as best as it can be pieced together until Mia wakes up; she was driving on Fall Lick Road, rounded a bend, lost control of the vehicle and wound up in the creek. With the rain, it was deep enough to pull the car completely under. If he hadn’t been there, we’d be at the morgue and not here.”
“And a Hayes just happened to be right behind her?” Samuel summed up. His dubious tone clearly indicated how unlikely he found the tale.
“He does live on that road,” Clayton pointed out. “Less than two miles from your house.”
Samuel grimaced. “I’m well aware of that! I tolerated his grandmother because it was the decent thing to do, but if I’d known she was going to leave that house to him I might not have been so generous! I think he stayed here out of spite.”
Probably, Clayton thought. Not for the first time, he enjoyed the notion. Bennett Hayes had made himself a thorn in Samuel Darcy’s side and Clayton was ever so quietly cheering him on.
The conversation, if it could be called that, went no further. The doctor appeared, wearing scrubs and a white coat, a mask hanging around his neck.
“Mr. Darcy?”
“Yes,” Samuel said. “How is my daughter?”
“Very lucky,” the doctor stated. “She escaped a pretty catastrophic accident and her worst injury was a broken wrist. I’d say that borders on miraculous. We’ve set the bone and casted it. She’s got a couple of stitches and she’s still pretty out of it from the sedative we gave her. We’ll be keeping her overnight but most likely she’ll go home in the morning.”
“Will she be scarred?” Samuel demanded. “We’ll need a plastic surgeon consulted immediately, if that’s likely.”
The doctor blinked at him for a moment, and when he spoke again, his tone was perceptibly cooler. “The stitches are along the line of her eyebrow. Any scarring will be minimal, if not nonexistent. A few minor cuts and some very ugly bruises, but there’s nothing she shouldn’t make a full and unmarred recovery from.”
Clayton rose. “Thank you, Doctor. When can we see her?”
The doctor spared another hard look for Samuel. “Assuming she wants to see you? Once they’ve transported her from recovery to her room, you’ll be able to visit with her.”
Samuel sighed when he left. “At least she won’t need surgery. Thank God.”
Quentin snorted in disgust. “How about, ‘thank God, she’s all right’ or ‘thank God that bastard came along and fished her out of the creek before she drowned’? I don’t like him any better than you do, but if he hadn’t been there, she would have died and you’re worried about her fucking looks?”
Samuel gifted his younger son with a cool look. “I am relieved that she will recover, of course. But that doesn’t change the fact that Mia is the face of the distillery in many ways. She is in charge of our PR and marketing. How well do you think that would go if she were no longer beautiful? I suppose Erica could take over for her if it becomes necessary.”
Clayton’s temper flared. No one got under his skin quite like Samuel did. “Erica will not take over anything. In case you’ve forgotten, our agreement makes you little more than a figurehead at Fire Creek and your own recklessness has made you a financial liability. You don’t make those kinds of decisions!”
“I am still your father, boy! You won’t speak to me like that!” Samuel shouted. His voice was loud enough that several people in the hallway looked up in shock. Deciding on a different tactic, he turned the cajoling manipulation that was typically his first choice. “Just think what it would do to Mia if she had to see a scarred face in the mirror every day! Would you really want that for her?”
Disgusted with him, Clayton stated, “Mia will always be beautiful because it has nothing to do with her looks. Now that you know she’s okay, you should go. Quentin and I will stay with her.”
“She’s my daughter!” Samuel’s reply was emphatic, but there wasn’t a great deal of emotion behind it. With him, it was always a show.
“Really?” Clayton shot back. “Because from here it sounded more like you were talking about a corporate asset. You don’t give a damn about any of us, and while Quentin and I are okay with that, she’s still got a heart for you to break. So just go, old man.”
Samuel pointed one finger at Clayton. “You’re not in charge of the distillery just yet. Nothing is set in stone, boy! Mia will always side with me and without her that leaves you all at a paltry forty percent share.”
Quentin rose then, getting up in his father’s face. “Then take the damn distillery and stop holding it over our heads. You can’t run the thing without us, anyway! You haven’t put in an honest-to-god day’s work in more than a decade and wouldn’t know what to do even if we did step down. You’ve been too busy running around with two-bit whores half your age—hell, some of ’em are half my age!”
Samuel turned then to walk away, but as he reached the door to the small waiting area, he turned back to them. “You don’t like me, you don’t like the way I run things, you don’t have to be around to witness it! I’ll buy you out anytime.”
“With what?” Clayton demanded. “We’re keeping you afloat, in case you’ve forgotten! You’ve wasted the money you married Mama for!”
“Watch what you say to me, son,” Samuel admonished. “And watch what you say about your mother!”
“All of a sudden you’re the devoted husband? How long has it been since you even saw her?” Clayton demanded. “You’ve left Mia to rot in that house, wasting her life and her youth taking care of the woman you broke!”
Samuel lunged at him then, grasping Clayton’s shirt collar. They were face to face, the older man breathing hard and Clayton with his fists clenched.
Quentin stepped between them. “Do not do this here. I’m not any happier with him than you are, Clay, but this kind of scene would be the last thing Mia…or Mama, would want!”
“Talk to me that way again, boy,” Samuel warned. “Old as I am, I can still teach you a lesson.”
“Any day.” In spite of Clayton’s deceptively calm facial expression, there was an edge to his voice that let no doubt he would relish the opportunity. “Any time.”
Samuel shoved him away and turned toward the door.
Standing there, watching him walk away, Quentin turned to Clayton. “Did that really just happen? You, Mr. Always Cool, started a fucking screaming match with the old man in public?”
Clayton nodded. “Yep. I wish I’d hit him.”
“You’d kill him. And while I don’t have much use for him,” Quentin added, “None of us want that. But since you put it all out there in the open, his financial woes and all, what the hell do we do now?”
“We go to work on Monday like always. Now let’s go see our baby sister and figure out what the hell happened, then I’ll head over to the house. Someone needs to stay with Mama tonight because it sure as hell won’t be the philandering asshole she’s married to.”
“What the hell were you thinking?”
The voice on the phone was low and angry. The defensive response was automatic. “We needed her out of the way. Now she is.”
“Out of the way does not equate attempted murder! Do I have to do everything my own damn self? Invite her out for a drink, be nice! Make friends! My lord, how did I raise someone so dumb? There were ways to get her out of that house that didn’t involve trying to kill her.”
The speaker’s shrill voice prompted a wince. Nervously picking at her manicured nails, she snapped back, “Well, it’s done now. And we might not get another opportunity, so you better find it and find it fast.”
“On the contrary, even though you pulled an idiotic stunt, you did manage to do one thing right. There is no bigger distraction for Mia Darcy than Bennett Hayes. If her focus is on him, you could let off a stick of dynamite beside her and she wouldn’t even notice!”
Her jaw dropped. “So, you’re pissed at me for the accident even though it created just the kind of distraction you needed? That makes perfect fucking sense!”
Her mother’s words, when she replied, were so clearly being uttered between clenched teeth that picturing her disapproving expression was easy. “Listen to me. No more going off script. No more winging it. When I give you an order, you will follow it. Right now, your job is to make Bennett Hayes believe that girl is in danger. As long as he does, he’ll never leave her alone. That boy has a white knight complex if ever I’ve seen one. And as for Mia—well, who can resist a handsome man who wants to play the hero? Especially one that’s forbidden. If people get hurt, then the police get involved. Neither one of us can afford that. Understood?”
The mention of police brought home just how disastrously wrong things could have gone. She was not cut out for prison. “Yes. I understand. Scare her. But don’t hurt her. Send her running into his waiting arms. Right?”
“That about does it, and if you fuck this up, even though you are my only remaining child, I will hang you out to dry. You hear me?”
She smiled bitterly. Having never been her mother’s favored child, she knew all too well how fleeting the woman’s affections could be. “I never expected anything less from you, Mother.”