13. Pax
Chapter 13
Pax
I ’m waiting outside my dad’s office when he returns from work, clutching a copy of two different patient rosters in my hand. His face shows how thrilled he is to see me.
“How long?” I ask as he gets closer. The first list has a patient named Georgeanne Delbosque, age forty-six, on it. Nanna George was my nanny until my mother fired her for fucking my father. It’s unlikely she was a patient at Rockridge. Her hefty severance check and the moving truck transported her and her belongings far away from here. Her name doesn’t appear on the second list, which is the most recent patient roster filed in The Tomb’s archives.
He sneers at me, and I see red. I grab the lapels of his jacket, shoving him against the door, repeating my question. “ How. Long? ”
“Three months.”
Three months? Thea’s been missing from Rockridge for three months? That means she wasn’t in his custody for long. All this time I’ve been miserable. Doing what he ordered. He breaks my hold, his fist slams into my face. I barely feel the punch. My brain is still processing the news that Thea’s not at Rockridge.
“Don’t go getting all brave on me now.” He snarls as I drag my hand across my split lip. “That slip of paper you hold changes nothing. Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to leave a paper-trail that could link her disappearance back to me? And just in case you’re stupid enough to think the Laurent bitch is my only play to get what I want, she’s not, and never was.”
“It changes everything! I only agreed to go along with this because you said-”
“I said if you didn’t, your friends would deal with unfriendly circumstances.”
He walks into his office and over to the bar cart, pouring himself a drink before taking a seat behind his desk. “That they will die and all evidence will point to you as the one who orchestrated their demise.” He says, before taking a drink.
“You’ll spend your life behind bars. I’ll still need another heir, which we both know I’ve already taken steps towards making happen, and your grandfather will be deposed. Not to mention, there will be no more heirs left in the other legacy Trium lines, which paves the way for me to create my own.”
It all comes back to the same thing. He wants to be the most powerful person on the board. I should have known there was more to his plans. Thea’s just one disposable piece of his puzzle. If killing Holden and Finn and framing me is his ace in the hole, then why is it so important for me to marry Eloise? He’s staring at me. Letting his words sink in. The why doesn’t matter. Not when the reality of it all is that my friend’s lives are in my hands.
He chuckles. “I told you emotional attachments make you vulnerable. You should have listened.” His smile slips. “My rules remain the same. You’ll marry Eloise and keep your goddamn mouth shut about what you think you know. Now get the fuck out of my office, you worthless use of sperm.”
“Shouldn’t you take it easy?” Eloise sniffs as I take another drink.
“Shouldn’t you shut the fuck up?” I retort.
All she does is nag, nag, fucking nag , and we’re not even married yet. To make matters worse, I can’t even get a blow job or pussy for my trouble. Not that I’d want her mouth on me. Fighting with Eloise doesn’t bring me the same thrill that it does with Thea.
Thea. My mind strays back to the patient rosters. I got lucky. They hadn’t been locked away yet, and I made a copy without anyone in the archives noticing. I don’t know whether to believe the data or my father’s words. Did he simply remove the name he stashed Thea under to cover his tracks, or is she one of the missing?
Missing. That’s a joke. The FBI’s involvement makes more sense after overhearing a couple of fourth year prospects talking. The FBI spokesperson gave a press conference and suggested the patients are dead and the hospital is defrauding the health insurance companies. However, the bureau is treating the case as a human trafficking investigation.
Thea’s circumstances just keep getting shittier and shittier. The lesser of the two evils is my father holding her captive, trying to knock her up. That way, there’s a chance I’ll see her again. She’d be the mother of my half-sibling, but she’d be alive.
My stomach burns and I drink some more to coat it. At this rate, the pain might be an ulcer or abscess from how much I drink on an empty stomach. But who cares? My friends certainly don’t, and neither do I.
I swallow the rest of my drink, noting the burning feeling extends through my chest, and there’s a twinge in my right upper abdomen and my back. Liver and kidney damage. Here I come. I grimace at the empty glass I’m holding. This watered down shit isn’t getting me fucked up fast enough. I need something harder. Or another race. I should’ve thought of that option before I started drinking. I’m likely to crash if I tried to operate any kind of vehicle right now.
There’s always fighting. A few more drinks and it’ll almost be a fair fight, I muse, pushing my way through the crowd, bumping into people, and grumbling, “Get the fuck out of my way.”
There’s an unopened bottle of Hennessy on the makeshift bar. I grab it and crack it open, tilting it to my lips as I find another wall to blend in with. A cute blonde with a pixie cut comes to stand beside me. “Hi.”
I grunt in reply. She drinks, not trying to talk my ear off, but her arm brushes against mine every few minutes. Maybe that’s what I need. To fuck and break this hold Thea has on me.
She’s gone. Whatever future I envisioned for us is ruined, and I’m stuck with Eloise. I can’t see past how much I hate her to ever be attracted to her. But what am I gonna do? Be a monk? Someone has to be my first piece of ass after Thea. Why not the pixie cut standing beside me?
Looking down at her, I notice how small she is. Breakable. Am I even gonna get to nut before she’s crying that it’s too much? Thea could take a good pounding. She craved it. Liked to fuck as hard as she fought.
I take another drink. You gotta break a few eggs before you make an omelette, right? And that’s what I need to do. Make an omelette out of my life.
“Pick a friend.”
“Huh?” She blinks up at me, confusion marring her tiny little face.
I spell it out for her as clearly as I can. “It’s your lucky night. I’m gonna fuck you and a friend. You’ve got five minutes to pick one.”