52. Cody
Cody
“ G od, it’s been years since we’ve done this,” I mutter, kicking my heels onto the railing as we sit on Bast’s veranda and stare at the vast yonder, beers in hand. Already half-empty.
Bast sighs. “Too damn long.”
“Here’s to never letting women come between us,” I propose, holding up my beer to clink.
He taps it. “Think Tee’ll try?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t, huh? Speaking out of my ass, am I?”
“You always talk out of your ass. It has a mouth and everything.”
He flips me the bird but he’s smirking. “You’re keeping this one close to the vest.”
“Still completely in the dark, Bast.” In the distance, the sound of a vehicle rolling up has me twisting back to look at the driveway. “You expecting Colt?”
He shrugs. “Told Theo we were gonna drink some beers.”
When his older brother appears from out of nowhere to slap Colt on the shoulder and they both amble our way, I arch a brow at the pair of them. “We’re not moving.”
“We’re not ten anymore,” Theo says dryly.
“Yeah, if we were, you’d have given us black eyes, then stolen our stools and our beers,” Bast grumbles into the mouth of the beer bottle.
I hold out my fist for his to bump.
Colt drags something out from behind his back. He passes one to Theo and retains the other. His grin is shit-eating as the pair of them unfold their own camping chairs and plunk their asses onto them.
“Hand out the beers, Bast,” Theo orders.
With an eyeroll, he tugs them from the box. “You better have brought your own.”
“Cool it. They’re in the refrigerator.”
The pair of them pop the caps and sink back into the chairs with a sigh.
And it’s… nice?
Weird because Theo and Colt hung out separately to Bast and I when we were growing up, but still nice .
We barely talk. We just drink and sit and don’t work and, fuck, it’s adult and nice .
As night drops, the bugs make themselves known, and I pass bug spray among ourselves while Theo goes into the house to grab more beers.
And we stay out here and we sit and chill and it’s nice .
Until something weird happens.
A white sheet pops down in front of us.
Twisted, with knots and everything.
“Ah, fuck,” Theo snaps, immediately on his feet as he runs into the house.
“What the hell?” I jerk upright so I can peer at the veranda roof. “Jesus, Elena. What are you doing?”
“Clay, oh, god, you have to help me!”
There’s a whoosh, but that’s all the chance I have to prepare myself. Somehow, I manage to grasp a hold of Elena as she plummets to the ground, just before she makes a literal dead drop.
Bast, cursing under his breath, tries to help me, and Colt races to take some of her weight too when I’m left half-dangling over the rail thanks to that little thing called momentum.
Once we’ve hauled her over the railing, I stiffen when Elena sobs against my chest. “I told you not to come here. John suspects something’s going on.”
Bast and I share a pained look, but that’s nothing to Theo’s expression when she shrieks at the sight of him.
“John! I swear nothing’s going on.” She presses herself in front of me. “Put the gun down.”
“I’m not armed,” Theo soothes.
Colt murmurs, “Elena, you need?—”
She screeches and pushes me backward with more strength than I might have expected. “YOU! I never want to see you again, Clyde Korhonen. You get away from me.”
Horror flashes on Colt’s face before he raises his hands. “I won’t, Elena. I’m sorry?—”
“Sorry,” she sneers. “Like you were sorry for hurting Helen Cartwright?”
Confused but desperate to understand, I ask, “Helen Cartwright, Elena?”
“She worked for the council, Clay. Until he got his hands on her. The same hands he tried to put on me last week. Said he’d tell John that we were sleeping together if I didn’t…” She sniffs. “Like I’d let him touch me. You know all this! I told you afterward.”
“You did?” I query. “Everything?”
“Of course. Who else would I tell when your brother’s the bastard who tried to rape me?”
The tension in the air mushrooms, surging higher, higher?—
“Did I tell you how I punished him?” I ask her softly.
“You froze his bank accounts.”
Colt pinches the bridge of his nose.
“I told you not to. I said he’d come after you.” She weeps the words as her hands touch my face. “I’ve missed you so much, Clay. Why did you have to leave me?”
My teeth grit as she goes to kiss me, but I press my lips to her temple and haul her into a hug.
When she breaks down, I just hold her, gifting her with something that’s only possible because of her failing sanity—the embrace of a man she loved who’s long been dead.
When she sags in my hold, Theo, jaw tight, swoops her into his arms and carries her upstairs.
Bast grunts. “She hasn’t tried to escape since the nurses came.”
“You think she maybe heard us talking?” Colt asks softly.
“Could be. Dad and Clay used to sit out here when I was young. She seemed…”
Exhausted, I mutter, “She thinks we’re them.”
“She thinks I’m Harrison Ford some days. Don’t put much stock in it.”
“How can’t I?”
“Don’t, Cody,” Bast rumbles. “What if…”
Colt runs a hand through his hair. “Best let sleeping dogs lie.”
Considering she gave John a motive as well as Clyde?
I guess I can understand why.
But…
“Do you think your dad?—”
“He knew nothing about the affair,” Theo intones from the shadows of the veranda. “He was as stunned as we were when this shit came out in the wash. Sounds like your asshole of a father had millions of reasons to get rid of Clay though.”
“I wish we had proof,” Colt rasps. “Most days I can’t decide if I want him to get shivved in jail or to spend the rest of his life behind bars.”
“He’s a nightmare,” Theo agrees, rubbing tired eyes.
Colt presses a hand to his shoulder. “You should have told me how much she’d deteriorated.”
“What’s to say, Colt?” His jaw works. “She gets worse every day.”
“I’d have done something?—”
“Your family’s already doing more than most.”
“You’d have had help sooner if you’d just told me! And I’m a fucking terrible friend because I should have acted sooner .”
Theo punches his shoulder. “She has enough nurses to ease her situation and Grandma’s—Dad wouldn’t have accepted your charity, not until things became as bad as they are now, so don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“Am I hearing someone take my name in vain?”
All four of us stand to attention.
Blanche is one of those terrifying types of women—a cheek pincher. Wicked fast with insults. And terrible at cooking, aside from cookies that come from a roll.
“No, ma’am,” Colt’s quick to blurt.
Blanche hums in disbelief. “Saw Elena was out of bed. Took me this damn long to get down the back stairs.”
“Grandma,” Bast chides. “We had it covered.”
“The first night in months that you take some R&R, Sebastian, and you think I’d let you deal with this on your own?” She sniffs. “Theodore’s just as bad. Both of you deserved to let your hair down tonight, but of course, Elena’s mind works in mysterious ways.” Her gaze flicks onto me. “Heard you’re listening to her, too.”
My spine straightens. “How did you hear that?”
“Town, of course. You’re asking questions, Cody.” She tsks. “The past is best left buried.”
I glance at Bast, who swallows.
Does that mean…
“You think Dad had something to do with Clay’s death?” Theo demands, his voice hoarse.
“I’m saying I don’t know for sure.”
“Why don’t we just ask him?” Theo snaps. “Seems like that’d resolve things pretty damn quick.”
“Because if he confesses, he’ll rot in prison while Elena rots in this one. He loves her. And though she spends most of her days breaking his heart, there are still glimpses where she’s the woman he married, and I don’t want her to be without him. Not when...” Blanche’s wrinkled face creases with despair for a millisecond before she’s back to being tougher than nails. “You’re years too late to be asking these kinds of questions, son.”
“It’s never too late to find justice for the people who need it most. Clyde deserves to spend what’s left of his life in prison, Blanche.
“All I need is the right linchpin.”
She hobbles over to me so she can pat my cheek. “So, you’re willing to spend the rest of your life on the pipe dream of hoping he’ll molder away in a prison cell? Where’s the logic there? Haven’t you learned yet, my dear boy, that the unlawful dead don’t stay buried forever?”
With those words of wisdom imparted, she turns to Bast. “Help me up the stairs, darling?”
“Of course, Grandma.”
“Good night, boys.”
“Night, ma’am.”
“Blanche.”
“I’ll see you in a little while, Grandma.”
As Bast and Blanche drift away, Theo clears his throat. “What are you going to do, Cody?”
Unchecked rage filters through me.
Because it’s clear that everybody’s suspicious of John now, but they expect me to just stay silent.
The need for vengeance. The desire for him to suffer like Mum suffered, like Colt suffered, like Marcy did, like Elena has, like Clay, like Helen goddamn Cartwright, whoever she is, and all the other fucking people he’s hurt along the way?—
I’m hauled into a hug.
“She’s right, Cody,” Colt mutters. “His time will come. We don’t have to do anything to just let the die roll to a stop.”
“Karma’s a bitch,” Theo concurs, releasing a bitter chuckle. “Kinda like the sound of that. Especially after how many times you two came over with something or other busted because of him.”
There’s a warning there. As well as a reminder.
“I should help Bast with Grandma,” he continues. “See you guys tomorrow, huh?”
He doesn’t wait for an answer. Just leaves us on the veranda.
I lean back against the railing, hearing his booted feet fade into the distance.
“Think it’s the first time the Frobisher boys have ever united over anything.” Colt’s words are heavier than a ton of bricks. “Typical that it’d be their sick mother and... well.”
Yeah. Well .
“Do you believe John killed Clay?”
“I don’t know,” Colt says eventually. “Maybe we’ll never know. And maybe that’s okay.”
“Why are you being so calm about this?” I demand. “You knew Clay better than anyone! We should be pushing for the truth for his sake!”
“Tearing apart a family that’s already being shredded into pieces thanks to Alzheimer’s… does that seem like something our honorable uncle would want?”
“Was he honorable, Colt? He was fucking a married woman. Sure, he taught us how to open goddamn doors for our dates and to mind our Ps and Qs, but there’s more to honor than chivalry.”
Colt releases a heavy breath. “I want to argue.”
“Don’t. You know I’m right.”
“I think Blanche is right too, though. The unlawful dead don’t stay buried, Cody. Look at the situation Clyde’s in now. Because of something that happened in the past. A man commits as many sins as he has, they’re bound to rear their ugly heads at some point. And that point is now.” He grasps a hold of my shoulder. “John… if he did it or not, Elena needs him. Maybe when she’s… What’s a couple more years, Cody?”
I grit my teeth as that argument, more than any other, resonates. “Why has everyone turned a blind eye to how he treated us, Colt?”
His jaw works, and at long last, his calm expression shifts. “Because he had power over them. Even Clay by the sounds of it. That’s why I’ll go out of my way to help women like Mum. To help their kids. Because their husbands might not be billionaires, but they’re their Clydes, and I’ll always be the big, bad wolf who isn’t afraid to squash their Clydes into the dirt.”
I mirror his hold on my shoulder by grabbing onto his. “ We will do that, Colt. Together.”
He dips his chin, but his smile tells me he appreciates my vow. “Come on, bro. Let’s get out of here. I think I need another beer but at home. Don’t you?”
“That sounds like one of your better ideas,” I agree gruffly.
And for the moment, I let it go.
But not forever.