42. Salinger
42
SALINGER
M y younger brothers file into my destroyed office.
“What the hell happened? It looks like the Hulk crash-landed in here.” Hawthorne rights the overturned chair.
“Shit, dude.” Faulkner tests out the phone, trying to get it to work again.
“I’m fucked.” I sit down heavily on the couch.
My brothers are sympathetic.
“I heard about the port contract, big bro.”
“Better luck next time.”
“I don’t care about the port contract,” I admit. “Mandy…” What? Broke up with me? Dumped me? Hates me? “Left.”
“Left? Where is she?” Hawthorne sounds alarmed.
“You said that guy’s still after her, right?” McCarthy’s voice is urgent .
“Yeah.” I gaze out the window into the storm. “I never should have let Mandy go. She’s upset—she’s going to do something stupid or dangerous.”
“She could already be in danger,” Faulkner adds.
My head drops in my hands. “I need her back. I can’t survive if anything happens to her.”
“Holy shit, dude, you slept with her.” Whitman’s mouth drops open.
“Slept with her?” Crawford steps into the room. “Look at his face. He’s in love with her.”
“Who the fuck invited him?” McCarthy demands.
“Here to gloat?” I spit at Crawford.
“What the hell did you do?” Crawford’s eyes go immediately to the tie on the floor then to the lipstick on my collar. “You motherfucker.”
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“Let me guess, a half-naked woman just threw herself at you.”
“It was my intern, and she—”
“Your intern!” Crawford crows. “Of course it was. I wouldn’t expect anything less from the likes of you.”
“Fuck you,” I roar, throwing myself at him.
He blocks the first punch but takes the next one to the ribs, then he takes a swing at me. I pivot, and it glances off my jaw.
“You’re just like Dad.” He laughs, blood running down his face—a face eerily similar to my own, similar to our father’s.
“Fuck you. No, I’m not.”
“You find some innocent woman, claim you’ll be her knight in shining armor, and make her fall head over heels for you, then you abuse her and dump her. ”
I charge at Crawford, tackling him. Flipping me over, he throws us both into the glass wall. Having finally taken enough abuse, it shatters, spraying us with sparkling shards of glazing.
“Stop it!” Hawthorne grabs me in a headlock while Fitz and McCarthy each grab one of Crawford’s arms, hauling him back.
“Hawthorne, let me go.” I shake my head, glass flying out of my hair.
“Get the fuck out, Crawford,” McCarthy says.
My brothers line up with me. Crawford surveys the odds, six against one.
“Fuck him,” Fitz tells me. “We need to find Mandy.”
“You?” Crawford snickers. “The dipshit brigade?”
Faulkner throws himself at Crawford, but Fitz hauls him back.
Outside, it’s big and dark. Mandy could be anywhere.
Hawthorne hands me a notepad and pen. “Make a list of all the places she could be.”
“Even if we find her, she’s not going to want to come with me. I ruined it.” I have this horrible feeling, a sixth sense honed by living in my father’s house of horrors, that something bad is about to happen.
“He’s right. We’re not going to find the stalker,” Fitz says nervously.
I’m still staring out the window.
I am not going to be able to save Mandy, just like I couldn’t save my sisters or my mother or the rest of my brothers.
“Crawford, please?” I ask him quietly. “She’s in danger.”
The office is still .
“I’m begging you, Crawford. I love her. I want to marry her.” I laugh sadly. “Though I’m pretty sure she hates me. She’s in trouble. Just help me find this guy who’s after her. I really…” I take a shuddering breath. “I really need your help.”
Crawford regards me.
Hawthorne frowns. “Even Crawford’s not going to be able to find this guy in the next hour.”
“You are all fucking idiots, as per usual.” Crawford smirks and pulls out a tablet. “I already have a tracker on him.”
“Hell yeah!” Faulkner whoops.
I can’t help it. I spontaneously hug my half brother. “How?”
Crawford ruffles my hair. “We’re brothers. I was never going to leave you high and dry, Salinger. We’re family. We take care of each other, always.” He holds up the tablet. “And now, may I present Mandy’s stalker? Don’t worry—I’ve been tailing him, keeping an eye on her for you and making sure she stays safe.”
“I could fucking kiss you.”
“Please don’t.”
I grab Crawford and give him a noisy kiss on his forehead anyway.
“Great, now I need a tetanus shot.” But he is smiling at me.
My other brothers pile on Crawford, patting him on the back.
“Fucking legend.”
“The GOAT right here.”
Crawford shakes them off. “He’s Jaxon Pendleton of the renowned Pendleton family. ”
“Trust-fund kid, right?” McCarthy inspects the photo.
Whitman nods. “Grandfather started a big pharmaceutical company. All his descendants suck from the teat of the trust fund.”
Jaxon’s twerpy face stares back at me from the screen. “Fuck. That’s the guy after Mandy?”
Crawford flips through several photos of Jaxon watching Mandy.
I snarl. “I’m going to crush him. Where is he?”
“By the magic of GPS…” Crawford flips to another screen then goes still. “Ah shit.” His gray eyes meet mine. “Jaxon is headed to Mandy’s parents’ house.”