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I’m back at the elevators in less than a minute. Just when the call button signals its arrival, all the lights come on.
The elevator doors open, and I find myself face to face with my grandfather.
One Week Later
HOUSTON, TX
Anything
Regan
“Come in,” my grandfather’s voice carries out into the hallway outside of his bedroom. He sounds irritated and weary.
I glance at my watch and note that it’s five minutes after we were supposed to meet.
That the most anal-retentive timekeeper on the planet kept me waiting does not bode well.
I plaster a confident smile on my face and straighten my spine as I walk into his room. My heart is beating a mile a minute and the speech I’d spent all morning preparing is now just a jumble of words that sounds idiotic as I start to recall them.
He glances up and there is a storm in his eyes that calls to mind the way lightning crackles before thunder shakes the world. I remember how he’d comfort me during the hurricanes and tropical storms that are ubiquitous with life on the Gulf of Mexico. “Don’t worry about the thunder, baby. It’s just noise. It’s the lightning that’ll kill you.”
All of the questions I’ve had during the week of silence between us are answered by that look.
There will be no forgiveness.
“Pops, I am so sorry.”
“I don’t want you to say another word, just sit down.” I do as he says but can’t meet his gaze.
“Your friends won’t be getting the courtesy of a meeting. The least you can do is look at me.”
His voice is a machete that slices through the last strands of my control and a tear rolls down my cheek. I wipe it away hastily and lift my head. I flinch at the complete lack of emotion in his eyes. He’s never looked at me with anything but tenderness, even when he was angry with me. I can’t bear to see the warmth extinguished in those wild blue eyes that used to be my refuge.
“I tried to help you all out of the mess you found yourselves in all of those years ago. I gave you jobs, I protected you from scrutiny and I helped you all move on. This betrayal cuts too deep. The consequences will, too.”
My stomach lurches and I have to swallow the dread clogging my throat before I can speak. “What—what’s going to happen?”
“As we speak, your office is being emptied. Your keycards have been deactivated and if I have any say over it, you will never work for Wilde World again.”
My eyes bulge at his words. “Pops, you can’t mean that.”
“I do. You chose your side, and now you will stay there.”
Panic assails me and I stand, my hands pressed together, I bow my head in supplication. “I had to help them. They’re my friends.”
“And we’re your family. First it was that Rivers boy. Now, this. It’s too much,” he responds.
I gape at him “You know about Stone? How?” I’m reeling and the dread that was in the pit of my stomach flows, concentrated and unchecked until my entire body is weighed down by it.
“I know everything Regan. Those people are our enemies. And you welcomed him into our place of business for months.”
“He’s only a boy,” I exclaim, that crazy instinct to protect Stone flares before my sense of self-preservation can stop me.
He snorts in disgust. “A boy who’s smarter than most men twice his age and a Rivers. That negates anything else he might be.” he grates, his cheeks flush with anger.
Tears stream down my cheeks. I brush them away furiously. If there is one thing he hates more than disloyalty, it’s crying.
My entire body is quaking with fear and my legs are unsteady. I walk over to his side of the bed.
