Chapter 8 #2
Alice looks at each of us in turn, but it’s the one person she ignores that speaks first. “Our mom couldn’t have loved any of us more,” Reid says, his words choking him.
“But the man you abandoned was broken in a way that even her love couldn’t heal completely.
Dad never got over the guilt of what he saw as his greatest failure.
Not because you left him, but because you cut your sons out of your life so damn clinically. ”
It's not often I hear anger in Reid’s voice, but it comes as no surprise. He’s grown up absorbing much of the rage that we older brothers carry.
“I watched you all grow up,” Alice says to the rest of us. “And I did pay for your education. You wouldn’t be able to do half the things you get up to now without that support.”
“Support? Was that before or after you told us never to call you Mom?” I ask. When she snaps her head in my direction, I answer for her. “You remember that, don’t you? I would have been fourteen at the time.”
“You know that wasn’t an easy decision for me to make,” she says. “But I did it to protect all of us.”
After abandoning her three sons, Alice had waited until her rich-as-fuck second husband had died before resuming contact.
She’d invited us to join her for her summer break that first year, and we’d gone out of curiosity more than anything else.
We travelled to Europe so Alice didn’t have to explain us away to her friends, but twelve-year-old Barrett had resented our intrusion.
I can remember how he’d grimace every time I called Alice, Mom, so I’d said it just to annoy him.
It hadn’t taken long for our strained relationship with Alice to reach breaking point.
“You told us to stop calling you Mom because Barrett didn’t like it. He always did hate to share,” I remind her. “You certainly spoiled that kid rotten.”
Hunter shifts in his seat after checking for Maddie again. “Do we have to beat it out of you, Alice? What the fuck do you want?”
Alice straightens, bringing a fluttering hand to her throat. Is the ice queen actually nervous? “If I did anything to hurt you, I’m sorry.”
Our audible gasps can be heard above the singer on stage.
“If?” I repeat with incredulity. I could say more, but she’s truly not worth my breath.
I clutch my phone in my clammy hand. I’ve wasted too much time here.
If I leave now, I can go straight over to Lily’s apartment.
I’d rather lurk on a corner in the freezing cold than listen to any more of Alice’s lame excuses.
“All I want,” Alice continues, “is to leave this world with my family intact. I’m willing to admit that Barrett can be a handful, but he had to take on a lot of responsibility at a very young age.
I did what I could after Charles died, but when Barrett reached twenty-one, he had to take on the burden of running the entire company.
He wasn’t ready. He still isn’t. I try to intervene where I can, but he misses his father’s guidance.
He’s only twenty-six and has so much more to learn. He needs his brothers.”
I turn over my phone and start checking the cameras at Lily’s apartment. I’m done with Alice.
“Do you want to explain what exactly you mean by that,” Ash says. The tension in his voice makes me pause what I’m doing. “You said when you leave this world?”
I hear Alice swallow. “I’m dying.”
An invisible fist clutches at my heart, but it has to be a reflex rather than any real emotion.
I’d been a teenager the last time I was fool enough to care about her.
I won’t make that mistake again. I start rewinding the footage of the corridor outside Lily’s apartment, hoping not to see any activity.
“My tumor is inoperable and I’m receiving palliative care,” Alice says. “I’d like to use what time I have left to help us all find closure. I’ll die happy if I can reunite all four brothers.”
“One, two, three, four,” I say, pointing to each of the Griffin brothers around the table, including Reid. “Looks like we’re all here.”
“And we’re not looking to expand,” Ash adds.
“But if you combined forces, you’d be untouchable. Barrett has enough sway with the higher echelons of society, and you have your contacts in the criminal world. Criminals who are now gunning for my son,” Alice hisses, giving away the true cause of her desperation.
She knows Barrett is out of his depth. That’s why she’s here.
There’s a long and protracted silence that even Alice doesn’t know how to fill. And yet she doesn’t leave. Is she expecting sympathy?
“We’re sorry to hear of your diagnosis, Alice,” Reid says, making a brave attempt to break the impasse. “But your son isn’t someone any of us will ever be able to trust.”
“Thank you, Reid,” Alice says, her voice dripping with disdain. “But this has nothing to do with you.”
“He’s our brother,” Ash interjects. “And as such, he has an equal say in how we govern the Griffin empire. The empire we built from nothing. The one that’s going to grow while your son runs his inheritance into the ground. It’s just a shame you won’t be around–”
“Fuck!” Hunter says, launching to his feet.
We all jump up out of instinct, Alice a little slower, but she joins us in staring across the room in disbelief.
I’m forced to shove my phone into my pocket even though I’ve just caught sight of Lily leaving her apartment in a little black dress that would bring me to my knees.
Maddie’s reappeared, but she’s not heading back to us.
She’s striding straight towards Barrett, who’s leaning against a wall on the opposite side of the room.
How the fuck did he get here? Why hadn’t I picked it up?
As annoying as Maddie is, my sister-in-law is one of only two women in this world that I’d do jail time for. I join my brothers as we race over to her.
Maddie’s backed Barrett into a corner and she’s jabbing a finger against his chest when we draw close enough to see the beads of sweat on his forehead. I allow myself to relax. It’s clear who’s in control, and it isn’t the one with a stiletto heel digging into his foot.
“Do you really want to make a scene in front of all these nice people, Maddison?” he’s telling her. It sounds more like a plea than a threat.
“Her name’s Maddie,” Hunter growls as we surround them.
Barrett whimpers as Maddie increases the pressure on his foot, and there’s a silent agreement between all four Griffin brothers to let Hunter’s wife have her moment.
It’s quite a spectacle to behold as Maddie tells Barrett in no uncertain terms that he has no claim on her, then goes on to describe what she’ll do to him if he ever comes near her again.
It doesn’t take long before Barrett is crying for his mom.
And naturally, Alice comes running, arriving with reinforcements in the form of Rory Moncrief.
“Now, isn’t this a lovely family reunion.” Rory says. “Would you like me to arrange a private room for you all?”
“I’d say the talking’s done,” Reid tells him. “And if Maddie can stab a man in the foot while in a crowded room, can you imagine what she’d do to him in private?”
“I’m imagining it now,” Maddie says with a wicked glint in her eye.
“Barrett,” Alice says. “We should go.”
When Maddie pulls her heel from Barrett’s shoe, he limps away with Mommy. It appears that Alice has completely forgotten about the sons she claimed to care about, but then she has had years of practice of putting us out of her mind.
“Calder wants a word with you,” Rory tells me as Hunter is dragged onto the dance floor by his wife. They’ll want to put on a show for Barrett’s benefit, and I expect the sight will be nauseating. I go in search of Rory’s brother so I can plan my escape and track down Lily.
I find Calder in the foyer, slipping a woolen coat over his tux. For a man who claims to be a descendant of a Scottish Highland clan, he’s a pussy when it comes to the cold.
“Are you going back to the club?” I ask.
“Do you want to come with me?”
I cock my head. I don’t like the smile he’s trying to hide. “Do I need to?”
“That really depends. Do you want to see Goldie, or are you trying to avoid her?”
My jaw ticks. “You let her back into your club?” I ask. Wearing that dress? I already know I’m going to download every piece of footage I can find of Lily in that outfit. And I might just kill any man I see looking at her the wrong way.
“I have eyes on her,” Calder says.
That doesn’t make me feel any better.
My friend must sense my growing agitation, and he takes his sweet time contemplating his reply. I just know he’s about to piss me off. “Don’t worry, she’s been warned not to fraternize with anyone we don’t approve of.”
“We?”
The fucker smirks. “If you decide you don’t want her, I don’t mind picking up your castoffs when they look like that.”
I clench my fist. “But you might not look so appealing without your teeth,” I warn. “Keep your hands off her.”
Calder laughs. “Fine. But if you’re coming, let’s get out of here.”
“Hey!” Reid shouts from behind us. “Where do you think you two are going?”
“The club,” says Calder. “Are you in?”
“No, he’s not,” I say quickly. To Reid, I add, “Someone needs to stay with Ash, and Hunter’s too riled up to give anyone else attention except Maddie.”
I’m expecting a fight, but Reid simply shrugs. “Fair enough. I wanted to talk to him anyway. He’s planning a trip to Las Vegas and I want to go with him. It’s about time I got closer to the sharp end of the business.”
That sharp end involves the kind of people Barrett has been upsetting lately.
Ash is going to meet Killian. John McConkey’s son might be putting a lot of his energy into building the legitimate side of the family business these days, but he isn’t one of the good guys.
And because of our past exploits together, neither are Ash, Hunter and I.
Reid comes from a different mold. That’s how it is. And that’s how it must stay.
“You’re not going to Vegas,” I say.