Chapter 6
SIX
MINA
Lock’s office was an entire suite on the third floor. I slid on my sunglasses as I got out of the car. The first week of April and we’d hit seventy degrees. I could finally smell spring in the air after one of the more dreary, cold winters on record.
Lock’s cell phone rang. He took my hand as I stepped up to the curb. As we approached the glass doors, Lock slipped his phone back in his pocket, frowning.
“Can you head up without me? I’ve got a small fire to put out with one of the vendors. I need to head over to the theatre. Fifteen minutes. Tops.”
Meeting Eli without Lock could make it seem like I thought I was in charge. Eli would bristle at that. I saw the hurt looks he gave Lock when he felt usurped. “Sure,” I found myself saying. Lock leaned in for a kiss.
“The event planner the caterer sent over is Anne Bowling. Her car’s already here. Hopefully, Eli hasn’t made any decisions without us.”
“I think we can trust him,” I said. Lock waved as he trotted back to the car. It was quicker for him to drive around to the opposite end of the building.
I walked into the lobby with its three-story ceiling and ornate chandelier.
The room’s central feature was an art wall containing pieces from his family’s collection.
Most prominent was Lock’s favorite. One of only three pieces known from the artist’s earliest works before he settled into his more well-known impressionist style.
It had been a rare find, thought lost for over a century.
Lock found it by chance in a private collection and paid a small fortune for it.
I walked up to it and ran my fingers over the acrylic label beneath.
Alain Duvayre
(1841-1899)
Frères Célestes (1869)
Oil on Canvas
It depicted two fish chained together, swirling in a sea of stars.
Pisces. Lock and Bennett. The celestial brothers.
Lock’s tattoo was based on it. For me, it held such sadness, but it was a striking piece.
Though he’d envisioned this place, my father-in-law didn’t live to see final construction.
He died of a heart attack seventeen years ago, when Lock was twenty-one and a senior in college.
Lock never had the chance to strike out on his own.
He’d been forced to take over the family business immediately.
I hit the elevator button. I saw my reflection in the gold metal double doors.
I had what my father had always called Resting Mina Face.
But only I knew why today. I couldn’t get Roy’s phone call out of my mind.
What did he have to tell me on Monday? Why had he mentioned Lock?
Forcing a smile, I took a cleansing breath before stepping onto the third floor.
Being a Sunday, the reception area was empty. Lock, Eli, the event planner, and I were the only ones here. My heels sank into the plush blue carpeting as I made my way down the hall to Lock’s corner office.
The floor was quiet. I turned the knob and walked in. I expected to see Eli and Ms. Bowling in the waiting area. Lock’s office door was wide open, but the room was empty. I heard something crash to the floor in the office beside me. One of Lock’s assistants used it, but he was gone for the weekend.
The door wasn’t locked and I walked in. I saw Eli’s bare buttocks, his pants hanging loose around his waist and a pair of female legs wrapped around him.
“Oh!” I shouted with pure shock.
Eli hurriedly pulled up his pants. I turned abruptly and raced to Lock’s office on the other side of the floor.
I went to the tall windows and looked out at the lake. My heartbeat filled my head.
“Mina!” Eli’s abrupt tone made me jump. I wanted to rewind the last thirty seconds and pretend it had never happened.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as if I’d done something wrong.
I squared my shoulders and turned to face him. Eli’s face was flushed. He tried to smooth his dark hair back. His deep-set eyes flashed with anger.
“We’re supposed to go over the catering menu,” I said. “Lock’s about ten minutes behind me.”
He had the decency to look embarrassed. And here I was, worrying about his feelings coming up here alone.
“That wasn’t what you think,” he said.
I tilted my head to the side. “What, are you going to tell me you were just taking her temperature? You tripped and both your pants fell off? Look, how you live your personal life is your business. But here? In Lock’s office?”
“Please don’t tell him.” Eli looked scared. He could be his own worst enemy sometimes. I knew he resented feeling like Lock always had to bail him out. But here he was, self-sabotaging.
I threw my hands up. “Who is that?” I asked. “Is that the event planner?”
I peered around Eli. He was almost as tall as Lock. I saw a woman with blonde hair standing in the waiting area, adjusting her skirt. All color drained from her face.
“Mrs. Manning, I—”
“You don’t have to say a word, Anne,” Eli said. He quickly walked around me and shut the door on her.
“Eli, I don’t even know where to start. Do you realize the liability you just exposed us to? What if she claims you harassed her? She’s not an employee, but it’s still a problem.”
“Mina, please. I’d never do anything to hurt Lock. What are you even doing here?”
“I told you, we’re supposed to be meeting with her!” I pointed to the closed door.
“I wasn’t expecting you,” he said.
“Obviously.”
“Lock didn’t tell me he was planning on crashing my meeting.”
“I’m pretty sure he did,” I said. “But it doesn’t make any difference.”
“Well, I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell him what you saw.”
He was taking advantage of Lock’s kindness.
Abusing his position here at the foundation.
Not to mention betraying his wife. I always suspected Eli cheated.
I just hadn’t expected to get a front-row seat to it.
It made me feel sorry for Piper, despite the fact that we weren’t exactly close.
Though all these things were true, I saw true panic in his eyes.
In spite of my anger, I also felt sorry for Eli.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It won’t happen again. Not here.”
“This is an important year,” I said, trying to pivot to the matter at hand. Where was Lock? “Ten years is an important achievement.”
Eli looked puzzled. “Ten years? That’s not the significance.”
He walked toward the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf Lock had built into the opposite wall.
One shelf contained framed photos of prior galas.
Lock had pictures of himself with three past governors, two presidents, and a couple of A-list actors.
But he also kept more personal, poignant photos here.
One of the few I’d ever seen of him with his brother sat in a silver frame.
I walked over to it. Lock was just twelve when it was taken.
His brother Bennett was only six. They sat on a dock together, dangling their bare feet in the water.
Well, Lock’s feet anyway. Bennett’s legs were too short to reach.
The younger boy looked up at his brother with such awe.
Lock had been trying to teach Bennett how to bait a hook.
“It’s twenty-five years, Mina.”
“Twenty-five years,” I repeated.
Eli picked up the photo of Lock and Bennett. “Twenty-five years since he died. To the day. That’s the date this year’s funder falls on.”
I felt like he’d just pierced a knife through my heart. How had I not realized? I was right to call Eli out on his behavior today, but here he was, still looking out for Lock. I didn’t like myself for having a quick flash of jealousy. One more detail in Lock’s past I didn’t have.
Eli had been Lock’s freshman roommate. Thrown into a two-person dorm together by a computer program.
Eli had grown up in a small suburb of Flint.
Piper started dating Eli in their sophomore year and the three of them had maintained their friendship for twenty years now.
It was the longest continuous relationship Lock had.
“Has he ever told you what happened?” Eli asked.
“Of course he has,” I said.
“He had nightmares all through college. He went into that water ten times. Almost drowned himself trying to get Bennett out of that car. He was strapped in. Lock couldn’t open the door. His father made him come to the morgue and see him like that. Bloated. Dead.”
His words cut through me. No, Lock had never shared that particular detail about the night his brother died.
But he’d told me enough. How Lock the Elder went after an eight-year-old Bennett.
He’d been trying to cut into an apple and dropped a paring knife on the kitchen floor.
It landed blade down, the point sticking into the oak floors they’d just paid to refinish.
Lock’s father started to chase his brother. It was Bennett’s screams that drew Lock’s attention from the other end of the house.
Bennett ran to Lock. His eye was already swelling shut from where his father had struck him.
Lock took him to the garage, put him in one of his father’s cars, and drove.
Just fourteen, Lock had never driven a car before.
He hadn’t known how to turn on the headlights.
He lost control and pitched the car over a bridge.
He was able to get out, but couldn’t save Bennett.
“He doesn’t like to talk about it,” I said.
Eli put the photograph back. There were others beside it. Eli picked one up. I’d seen this one before. It was a photo of Lock with three teenage boys. They formed the first group to receive assistance from what would later become Bennett’s Place.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of things he doesn’t like to tell you.”
Was he goading me? Or was I just letting his comment feed into my own insecurities? Lock was my world. He told me I was his. But the reality was, he had lived an entire, tragedy-filled life before I met him. Eli had been his best friend as Lock learned to overcome his past.
“We trust each other,” he said. “I’m the closest thing Lock has to a brother now. And we protect each other. You understand?”
He closed the space between us. Eli reached for me and took my hands.
“He needs both of us,” Eli continued. “We’re on the same side. Lock’s side. Please don’t think less of me. I’ve never claimed to be perfect. Lock knows my shortcomings but cares about me anyway. We’re true friends to each other.”
“Eli, I get that. I know how much Lock loves you. But this doesn’t reflect well on him, does it?”
Eli’s eyes darkened.
“This exposes him to scandal and liability, Eli. You’re right. I’m on Lock’s side. Always. But that means I’ll protect him from you if I have to.”
He glared at me, but didn’t argue the point. I took it as a win for now.
“Do you think there’d be a Bennett’s Place without me?”
I bit my tongue. He was taking credit for the charity Lock built now?
“Did you know that when he started this whole thing, all he did was bring home strays? Literal strays. He brought the first group of kids to his house. He let them stay there for months. I told him that it was going to end badly. But Lock’s a sucker.
He’s always been rich. He doesn’t know how the world works. ”
He flashed the photograph at me. “I call these his lost boys. He’s probably never told you about them. He’s ashamed.”
He pointed to a skinny boy sitting next to Lock.
“This one was Preston. He destroyed Lock’s bedroom.
Smashed all the windows. Spray-painted the walls.
Ripped up every suit in Lock’s closet. There were boys who stole from him, and those who OD’d on the grounds.
I’m the one who cleaned up for Lock. Made sure the press never got a hold of any of it and that Lock’s name was never attached if it did.
It could have been a lot worse. I was willing to take the fall if it ever came out.
These kids? They’re probably all dead now. ”
He put the photo back on the shelf. “I will always protect Lock from his own bad decisions. Even if that means I have to lay on my own sword. We’re like brothers. He knows who I am. But I know who he is too.”
“Eli?” Lock stood in the doorway. Anne Bowling tried to fade into the wall behind him.
Eli plastered a smile on his face. “You’re late,” he said. “I was just giving Mina some historical context for Bennett’s Place. She wasn’t around for the last big gala.”
“Great,” Lock said. He could clearly sense the tension between us. He ushered an equally nervous Anne Bowling back into the room. She held a portfolio in front of her.
“Shall we get started?” Lock said. He showed Anne to a large coffee table in the corner. She spread out her portfolio and pulled out copies of menu choices.
Lock sat beside me on the couch. He took my hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing my knuckles.
From across the table, Eli smiled, but his eyes held a question for me. Would I tell Lock what I walked in on? And if I did? Would he really take Eli’s side? A shiver of guilt went through me. For two years, I’d never kept anything from Lock. Now, in the span of a week, I held on to two secrets.