Page 118 of Revere: A Legacy Novel

“Hey, Zeke.”

His friend took a seat on the other side of him. “How’s your dad?”

“Better this morning. Awake. Lucid. Eating. All that good stuff. As long as his tests come back relatively good, he’ll be out before the day is over. Tomorrow, it’ll be like it didn’t even happen.”

Again.

Cross could no longer overlook his father’s health. He was selfish to do so.

“Dad said something about a seizure.”

“Four,” Cross said, “back to back.”

“Shit.”

Cross sighed. “He was lucid for a bit before it started.”

“Oh?”

“Apologized to me for lying about my paternity. I want to just … tell him it’s okay, that I get it, though I don’t agree with it. At the very least, I forgive him for lying to me all these years about Affonso being my father when it was really him.”

“So do that, Cross.”

“I don’t want to do it still feeling bitter, though. I know he wants to explain things that happened back then between him and Ma, but I’m not ready to hear that. You know?”

Zeke leaned back in the chair. “Yeah, I get that. Not everything is black and white.”

“I’ve always lived in shades of gray.”

“So this time was quite bad, then?”

Cross nodded, and let his fingers sift through Catherine’s hair. “His doctor said it’ll probably continue to get worse at this point. We’re really just playing with fire now. He needs surgery—the lesion and aneurism need corrected. He’s getting to a point where the damage might be irreversible.”

“I’m sorry, Cross.”

“Don’t be.” He let out a long, slow exhale. “I know what I need to do for him.”

“Even if you’re not ready to take that step?”

“Even then,” Cross echoed. “I just have to finish up business elsewhere. This gun run for Andino, and a trip to Chicago to let them know I’m done.”

“When’s the run for Andino?”

“Few days.”

“Do you have it all figured out?”

“Yeah, it’s going to be a couple weeks. There’s some drills happening down in the Gulf for the Mexican Navy. Just … usual nonsense to avoid. I’ll spend a bit of it in Cancun waiting before I can take the guns out to the drop on a yacht.”

“So, that’s it?”

“Hmm?”

“One last gun run,” Zeke clarified.

Cross smiled, but it faltered. “Yeah, one last gun run.”

“You want a coffee, or something?”