Chapter 18 Brooks
brOOKS
Iswear I’ve considered bolting my doors. Cutting off power to the elevator. Keeping us up here forever. My castle in the sky with my beautiful queen. Safe and sound in my arms.
Yesterday was hands down the best day of my life. Full of laughing and sex and food with the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.
But today could be one of the worst.
She’s in my bathroom, getting dressed in one of the pantsuits that Teresa had made for her. She’s putting on makeup, and she looks fucking heartbreaking. We had a slow morning, a nice brunch, a little dip in the pool, but now, it’s go-time.
The plan is in motion.
One of our extra cars is going to bring her to the hotel.
My brothers and I will follow behind.
X has been there since earlier this morning.
Everything is set.
Everything, that is, except for me.
As she’s walking out of the bathroom, suitcase packed for the imaginary trip she’s going to have, I snag her wrist and spin her around, pulling her to me.
“Just say the word, Wren,” I whisper against her lips. “Say it, and I’ll take you away from all this right now.”
Her eyes bounce back and forth between mine, and I see her figuring it out. She’s realizing what I have figured out too.
How much I fucking love her.
She puts a hand to my face then steps up to give me a kiss.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“For what?”
“Loving me, Brooks,” she says. I pull away from her slowly, then I take her face in my hands. I stroke her jaw with my thumbs as I look into her eyes.
“Oh, baby,” I whisper, “I do. So much.”
Her eyes fill with tears, and she holds onto my wrists. She nods.
“I know,” she whispers. “And I hope you know how much I love you. You have so much to offer the world, Brooks Everett. And I hope you’ll let me come with you while you do.”
I pull her into me.
I don’t have a lot of confidence in myself yet. I haven't figure out quite who I am without being the Everett “bad boy.” But knowing that she loves every version of me? That’s the boost I need to keep digging. To keep figuring out who I am.
“I have to go,” she says. “I’ll see you there.”
I nod, kissing her hands.
“Remember, baby, you just need to get him saying something. Then you’re free.”
“Then we’re free,” she says. She gives me one more kiss before she disappears onto the elevator.
An hour later, I’m in a hotel suite with my brothers and X. X has this place set up like a damn airport. Screens, speakers, a keyboard. He’s typing away and testing things out. Julian is helping him, and Keaton is unpacking food and drinks. It looks like we’re going to be here for a month.
But me, I’m frozen, sitting on the bed, watching them fly by me, paralyzed by all the what-ifs. How fast can I get to her? How long will it take before he crosses the line? Will I kill my own father?
I look down at my watch.
First on their agenda was to meet up at the office. A car would be picking up Cato, Wren, and Larry and bring them to the hotel. They had dinner reservations downstairs, and then they were to attend the meeting in the suite.
Dinner should be over any minute, and the waiting is killing me.
It should be soon.
Any minute.
And then, I hear the voices, and I spring up from the bed.
X, Keaton, and Julian are already standing in front of the screens.
Cato enters the suite first, followed by Larry, then Wren.
I swear, seeing her with them makes my heart pause in my chest. On her flanks is a short, overweight, middle-aged man whose toupee is badly placed. And I squint as I look at him.
“Is that…” Keaton starts.
“Holy fuck,” Julian says. “That’s Edwin Merkle.”
“Edwin Merkle?” I ask, my eyes staying trained on the screen.
“He’s the—" Julian starts, but I cut him off.
“He owns Surface Solutions,” I say. “I know who he is.”
Surface Solutions is a national technology company and one of Everett Enterprises’ only true competitors.
Especially on the West Coast, they have a lot of claim to a lot of business.
Like my father, Edwin hasn’t had a squeaky-clean record.
He got accused a few years ago of some bad business deals, not paying some employees, falling through with some contractors.
But like Cato, he seemingly never found a problem he couldn’t solve by throwing money at it.
Until tonight.
For most of my life, all we ever heard was how Edwin was our mortal enemy.
“The biggest threat to our growth,” as my dad used to call him.
But judging by the way my dad is pouring him a drink and laughing at his stupid fucking jokes, it appears he’s taking his own sound advice: if you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em.
“I can’t believe this,” Keaton whispers, watching in awe. Larry sits on a chair, Cato on another, and offers Edwin the couch between them. Wren is out of frame but shows up with two drinks, setting one down in front of Edwin and one in front of Cato like she’s their fucking servant.
“Larry can get his own drink, Wren,” Cato says. “Join us. There is some room next to Edwin.”
The look on her face makes me want to break out of this room and run straight down the fucking hallway. I know she’s terrified. But she sits anyway, forcing a smile.
She’s scared, but she’s doing it anyway.
My brave girl. Just a little longer, baby.
For the next few minutes, they laugh and talk, Edwin telling boring story after boring story about his college baseball days, how he built Surface from the ground up, and how he can still bench press over three hundred pounds.
Wren barely gets a word in edgewise, but she keeps his glass full and laughs at all the right moments. I grit my teeth together as I watch him place a hand on her knee.
“Come on, fuckers,” I say, my stomach churning.
Just then, Larry stands.
“Alright,” he says. “I’m going to head to my room. Cato, will you be staying?”
Cato has a weird expression on his face. He and Larry seem to be communicating with their eyes. And as I watch my father and know what he’s about to do, I realize that I never really knew how dark he was. I always felt hints of it, but I suddenly feel shame at how much I was oblivious to.
“Ahh, already?” Edwin says, his speech starting to slur a little. “I thought we were going to have some fun, eh?”
“Of course, Edwin,” Cato says, standing up.
He walks over to the minibar, which is right in front of the camera X set up.
Having him this close makes me sick. He makes another drink, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and pouring it into a glass.
But when he sets the bottle back down, he puts it directly in front of the camera.
“What the fuck?” I ask.
X is hitting a button, then another, trying to zoom out to be able to see around the bottle. But now it’s no use.
“What do we do, X? What now?” I ask.
He sighs, rubbing a hand behind his head.
“Now, we listen,” he says, turning up the speaker and handing us headphones. “All we have now is sound. No visual. Everyone, listen for cues, signs of distress.”
Signs of distress?
This whole fucking situation is a sign of distress.
I want to panic. Scream. Kick. Punch a wall. But instead, I sit my ass down and listen intently, trying desperately to hear everything that’s going on.
“What kind of fun were you looking for, Ed?” I hear Cato’s booming voice ask. There’s a pause then a symphony of booming laughs. What the fuck are they laughing at? “Ah, yes. Wren here is an excellent employee. She’s been a great new addition to our company.”
“I’d love to put my face between those additions, ya know what I mean?” Edwin says, and I feel my blood boiling in my veins.
“Easy, B. We’re almost there,” Julian says, gripping my shoulder.
I hear her fake a laugh, and I swallow.
“She’s very eager to do a good job for me, aren’t you, Wren?” Cato asks, and my fists are clenched at my sides.
“Of course, Mr. Everett,” she says.
“So, what do you say, Edwin? If I share my most valuable employee with you, maybe we make a deal?” Cato asks.
Fuck. We’re so close.
“Hmm,” Edwin says. “I think we can make some things happen together.”
“Excellent,” I hear Cato say. Then there’s another pause.
“So, what do ya say, Wren?” he asks. I hear her giggle again.
“What do I say about what, sir?” she says, keeping her voice lighthearted, like she’s a little airheaded and doesn’t know what’s going on. Fuck, she’s good.
“How about we leave and let you and Edwin get to know each other a little bit?” Cato says, and I can hear some shuffling going on.
“Is that enough? Can we go?” I ask. But Julian shakes his head.
“Not yet, B. Almost there.”
Come on, baby. Come on.
“What exactly are you asking me, Mr. Everett?” she asks, her voice still with that ditsy undertone to it.
I hear a glass being set down on a table.
“You have some lovely assets, Wren. It’s time to let Edwin here have some fun. It’s for the better of the business, you know?”
I hear her laugh nervously.
“Oh, my,” she says. “I don’t think…”
“Oh no, you don’t,” Larry says, and I hear a tiny scream escape her mouth.
“You will stay here until he gets what he needs from you,” Cato says. “You signed a contract.”
“That’s it!” Julian says, and before anyone can stop me, I’m bursting through the door, X right on my tail. The four of us are down the hall in a matter of seconds, X with the battering ram in his hands. We each grab it, heave backward, and in three hits, we have the door off its hinges.
“What the fuck?” Cato exclaims as we burst in. When we get inside, Edwin is hovering over top of her on the couch. I knock him to the ground with one swift punch, and I yank her up, holding her to my chest. She’s shaking, and all I want to do is get her the fuck out of here.
My brothers are standing chest to chest with my father, and I move her behind me as we stand closer to them.
“Your time is up, Pops,” I say. Then I pick her up and carry her out of the room. As we are leaving, a team of special agents bursts through the stairwell door toward us.
“Freeze!” they yell. “FBI!”
FBI?
A few of them surround us, keeping us put, while the rest enter Cato’s suite.
I see one shake X’s hand.
“I called in some backup,” he says to Julian. “I didn’t want to tell you guys until it was all said and done, but now, this is all on record too.”
I watch as two agents flip Edwin over onto his stomach and handcuff him. Then they do the same to Larry.
Then they turn to my father.
“Oh, go fuck yourselves,” he says, that smug look that he wears permanently still on his face. He goes to take a swig of his whiskey, but Keaton smacks the glass out of his hand. Cato’s eyes widen.
“You’re going to regret that, son,” he says. Julian snorts.
“The only thing we regret is not figuring out who you were sooner, Dad,” Julian says. “Take a good look. Because this is the day you lost your sons.”
Then, my brothers turn around and walk out of the room into the hallway with us as a group of the agents swarm him. Julian walks over to us and takes Wren in his arms, Keaton rubbing her shoulder.
“You did so good, Wren,” Julian says. “You saved so many people today.”
I look down at her, still shaking in my arms.
“Come on, baby,” I say. “Let’s get you home.”