by Jackson Kane
The mechanical rainfall had long since shorted out my amp and ruined all my equipment. The guitar wasn't electric, so I ripped out the chord and continued to play. The hollow laminated spruce and mahogany body filled with water, making the guitar heavy and giving the music a tinny sound. The course strings made my water-wrinkled fingers bleed.
I still couldn't find it in myself to stop.
“The king of fools should've moved heaven itself to get her back,” I sang to no one.
In a movie, Molly would've walked in, heard my song and seen me soaked and pitiful. We'd have met halfway in a sweeping hug, then I would've kissed her under the fake rain.
Half a dozen separate sirens rapidly closed in from every direction.
Looking out over the deserted hall I truly felt empty inside, had there actually been a fire I didn't know that I'd even have tried to leave.
I played until blood ran down my arms and one of my strings snapped, then I played some more. My tears mingled invisibly with the falling water.
Finally a thick, gloved hand of a fireman landed gently on my shoulder. “C'mon, son. It's all over. It's time to go.”
Chapter 14
Richard
“Leave the bottle,” I said, checking my watch.
The waiter nodded. He finished topping my glass off, then set the expensive bottle of something French down on the table.
My date for the evening, Madison Grace, was the Governor’s daughter. I sipped my glass more quickly than was probably wise. The night—and this date—was far from over. I felt a sense of exhaustion at the thought of finishing it.
Madison had been in the bathroom for what felt like an hour.
The appetizers came, got cold and were taken away. Any moment the entrees would be here. I asked the waiter if they had anything Asian inspired, but he respectfully gave me his regrets and said there wasn’t.
What I wouldn’t give for some average Chinese food on my couch with Gloria right now. I sighed, feeling a pang of regret.
The wine helped with that, I thought, draining the rest of the glass.
The time for distractions was over.
The Family Room fiasco showed me a lot of things. Above all it showed me what kind of fool I was.
I was so wrapped up in petty revenge I let my pride get the best of me. I could’ve brought the fire marshal there well before the show, but I wanted to humiliate Lucas instead.
Because of that, people got hurt.
Gloria got hurt…
She was standing near the doors when the crowd burst through. She’d already been kicked and stepped on several times before I was able to pull her out of the flood of people. She shouldn’t have been there.
I never should’ve let any of that happen.
The harsh spike of her scream rattled through my head more often than not. All I could think about was what would’ve happened had I not reached her in time.
It scared the hell out of me.
I set my empty glass roughly down on the table and snapped off its stem. My hand was shaking when I let the now-useless wine glass fall to the floor.
The tables were fairly private—as they should’ve been considering the cost of this place—but that didn’t stop some heads from craning over to see the source of the sound and my cursing.
Within seconds someone came over with a replacement, apologizing profusely for the defective glass. There was nothing wrong with the wine glass. Both of my knuckles had turned white from my balled up fists.
I was lucky it didn’t shatter in my hands.
I rubbed a hand over my face, reminding myself that Gloria was fine. I had rushed her to the nearest hospital. She only had two sprained ribs and a concussion thankfully.
Sitting in the waiting room, I realized I was going about everything backwards. I shouldn’t be trying to hurt my brother; I should be trying to beat him.
There was only one way to do that.
I left Gloria a letter the following day, ending whatever it was that we had. If what we had was anything at all. Maybe in a different time or life things could’ve worked out between us. There was no changing the facts.
She didn’t want kids right now, and right now was when I needed one.
It was a bitterly hard pill to swallow, but it was necessary. I was going to win this challenge, not because I needed the inheritance, but because Lucas didn’t deserve it. He lost that privilege when he burned the opportunity I gave him.
The King legacy was too important and needed to be preserved.
Lucas was too selfish to understand that.
That’s why I refused to play this game with him any longer. There needed to be a winner and a loser as quickly as possible, because next time we fought someone like Gloria could get hurt.
I couldn’t live with myself if I let that happen.
I spent every evening since with a new woman. So far none had been an appropriate fit. The dates always ended shortly after dinner. Gloria was still too fresh in my mind to take any of them home with me.
I looked into the glass of dark red wine. It was the same color as Gloria’s lipstick…
I smiled thinking back to the night she gave me the private tour of both her coffee shop and her milky, smooth body.
And she said she was a terrible tour guide…
I had seen Gloria half a dozen more times after she’d picked me up from the police station. Each date was exhilarating and wonderfully different. We shouldn’t have been able to mesh together as well as we did. She was quirky, rude, impulsive and opinionated; she was my opposite in many ways.
Gloria was beautiful in a way I’d never seen before. In eastern philosophies, she’d have been the yin to my yang. Here, however, she was only an unforgettable memory that I would carry with me for the rest of my life.
In my darker moments I would hate that she couldn’t be both.
“I am so sorry, darling.” Madison materialized. Her immaculate, long golden hair was done into an exquisite up-do. She wore a floor-length maroon ball gown and wore enough diamond jewelry to fund a small nation. I stood up and got her chair for her. “Time simply slipped away from me. Where were we?”
“You were telling me about your father, I believe.”
“Oh yes! We were discussing his reelection fundraiser campaign.” Madison’s face lit up.
Joy.
The waiter arrived just in time with our entrees to divert the conversation once more. I couldn’t wait for the dinner to be over. Madison hadn’t been particularly awful or anything, just ordinary.
Madison, like every other girl I’d seen this week, had been more of the same. They all came from money; they ran various video or traditional blogs about fashion or modeling and tended to discuss the important or successful work their parents did.
Had Gloria ruined these women for me by virtue of being different and exciting?
Madison had been the most tolerable thus far though. She’d at least been through college, a psychology major at that. And although she didn’t outright say it, it appeared she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and go into a career in politics.
Politics was generally a little too slimy for me, but it was a nice divergence to the hollow, empty conversations I’d had with other women this week.
I didn’t think it was going to work out with Madison either, but we’d probably take the scenic route, instead of the highway, when I dropped her off after dinner.
“I would, if you don’t mind of course, like to dispense with the pleasantries and discuss the parameters necessary for my impregnation.” Madison cut a small piece of her duck.
“Beg your pardon?” I coughed, nearly spitting out my bite of filet mignon.
She casually chewed and swallowed, then touched the cloth napkin to the corner of her mouth and cleaned a mess that wasn’t there.
“My menstrual cycle is exactly twenty eight days, with my day of ovulation arriving in the middle of each month.”
“I don’t mean to sound rude,
Madison.” I forced down my bite of steak and chased it with a long gulp of wine. “Why are we talking about this?”
“Your father’s will, silly.” She smiled like a talk show host, cocking her head slightly. Not one strand of her perfect hair so much as flitted out place. “I assume because we’re meeting at all, my genetic make-up is acceptable.”
“Hold on.” I leaned forward in a harsh whisper. I only told Gloria about this and I doubted she was the gossiping type. “How did you know about my father’s will?”
“I keep my ears open for whispers. News travels fast.” Madison seemed to alternate between data analyst and valley girl with astonishing ease. She shrugged. “Some news travels faster than others.”
“I don’t know what you might’ve heard—” I started, feeling a little on the defensive. The arrangement between my father, Lucas and I wasn’t something I wanted getting around.
“Oh posh.” Madison waved a hand dismissively. She winked at me and gave me a knowing smile. “I’m the daughter of a politician. Your secret’s safe with me.”
Madison was perfect; uncomfortably so.
She had this curated feel to her, like everything she wore, did, said, and even the way she moved was all decided on by a committee. Madison was perfect by design. She was a child’s plastic doll that had just been removed from its packaging.
Was this what it was like to be a politician?
She was the exact opposite of Gloria’s rough-around-the-edges, brutally honest, take-no-prisoners attitude.
“May we get started?” She asked.
“By all means,” I said, curious as to what get started meant. I leaned back in my chair and watched in awe as she pulled out a thick folder from her purse. The folder and the paper inside of it was half the traditional size, so that it could fit in her purse.
That definitely wasn’t in there before, I thought. Did she have that packet stashed somewhere here?
Was that why she was gone for so long?
“Here we are,” she said with the tone and focus of a woman who enjoyed doing her own taxes. She slid the document across the table for me to review. I riffled through it as she talked. “I have it all laid out here. Blue-tabbed pages in the front are social events so we can gradually introduce ourselves to the public as a couple. The wedding preparation and ceremony are pages seventeen through thirty—”
“What’s this in the back? The red section.” I’d read novels shorter than this manuscript. It was also written mostly in legal-ese, which was both off-putting and impressive. My attorneys would be reviewing this to make sure I kept both my kidneys.
“That is how we met.” She smiled again as if remembering the day fondly. “It was warm summer evening in Vienna. You were on a break between collage semesters and I’d flown in to visit my father. We met through a mutual friend at an intimate cocktail party.”
“We met at the country club party a few weeks ago.” I said flatly, my eyes narrowing at her blatant lie.
“That timeline—” Madison said the word as if the truth was just one of many reasonable options to choose from. “—wouldn’t be socially acceptable if you plan on beating your brother to that which is rightly yours.”
“Rightly mine?” My lips pressed together forming a thin line across my face. How much did she know about my family?
“Well, of course.” Her face brightened. “You’ve followed in your father’s footsteps and expanded his already impressive empire. Lucas on the other hand—” Her eyebrows raised and her lips fell disapprovingly. “Lucas played guitar in a band that is no longer relevant.”
Madison’s change in expression was so subtle that unless you were looking for it, you’d miss it. So she did have emotions under there somewhere…
I was just glad she didn’t know about my mother’s affair or about Lucas actually being my half brother. I didn’t like my brother, but there was something in the way she talked about him that bothered me.
It was a weird juvenile emotion. It was alright if I beat Lucas up and humiliated him, but I didn’t like it when others did it in my presence.
“What’s in this for you, Madison? It’s obviously not the money you’re after.”
“Status, darling.” She said softly, her lips snapping back into their inoffensive smile. “I plan on running for Senate eventually. I’ve done my research on you, Richard. Unlike your vagabond brother, you kept your public image clean and professional and your promiscuous nature very discrete. I can appreciate that.”
Madison waived the waiter over, ordered a glass of dark juice, then continued. “You’re widely regarded as a leader and man to be respected. You’ll make for a perfect political spouse.”
“You’re making quite the assumption, Madison.” I took a sip of wine. She had a lot of sound points, but everything was so mechanical.
It was odd that I suddenly disliked stark pragmatism.
That’s because it’s boring, said a small voice in my head that sounded a lot like Gloria.
“Why exactly should I pick you?” I asked, reeling my drifting mind back in and focusing on Madison. I had an entire town to choose from.
Why should I pick her?
“I’m your only real choice.” Madison looked genuinely confused I didn’t see what was so obvious to her. She leaned in closer to spell it out for me.
Madison began rattling off the women I’d seen so far this week. “Paige and Veronica are secretly addicted to various drugs; Kelsey is infertile due to a car accident; Brittany…plays on the other team, but was put up to your date by her father, and that leaves only Hailey. She’s your best bet, but her family’s poor reputation is sure to affect the King brand negatively.”
I said nothing. I knew some of that was true just from the interactions I had with them.
“Were you spying on me?”
“Lord no!” Madison’s chuckle bordered on genuine. “Who has the time for that sort of thing? I just have a lot of vigilant friends. Those same friends learned something about your brother as well. Would you like to know?”
I rolled my hand forward, indicating her to continue. I hated spectacle and subterfuge, they reminded me too much of work.
“Your brother, Lucas has been busy as well.” Madison dangled the information like a fisherman casting a line. “The night of your party, while you were out gallivanting with the coffeehouse barista, Lucas disappeared out in the woods with the love of his life. It’s only a matter of time until he gets her pregnant accidentally or otherwise.
“Pardon my boldness, Richard. Frankly speaking you’re running out of time.” Madison tried and mostly succeeded at suppressing her proud smile. “You do want to win, don’t you?”
She could see in my eyes that I wanted to win. There wasn’t sadistic satisfaction in her features, she was just a woman who could recognize and capture opportunity when it came along.
Madison was a shark that swam with dolphins.
“I’ll need the evening to review your proposal.” This felt like a hostile takeover. I didn’t like being manipulated.
“Of course.” She spoke with practiced indifference of a news anchor fluidly changing topics from a deadly house fire to a puff piece on this year’s poodle hairstyles. “Dessert?”
In the back of my head, my analytical side forced me to look at the facts. Madison really was the best option. I was letting my pride get in the way of progress.
You’re not doing this for love, I scolded myself.
I left Gloria to win.
If I hesitated now, then I left her for nothing.
“My father’s hosting a dinner next weekend; I’d like you to join me.” I paid for our meal and held her chair for her.
“Lovely,” she said, bowing her head slightly. It was a submissive gesture to bolster my confidence in having made the right decision.
“Shall I take you home?”
“No need, I have a car waiting here. Sex isn’t necessary for thirteen days. I’ve already sent you a calendar update through you
r phone.
I raised an eyebrow, then checked my email. There it was—her fertility cycle; all of it. She’d also gone so far as planning out the optimal times and positions for intercourse.
Madison was a psychology major; I’d have to remember that.
Chapter 15
Lucas
There was a knock at my door.
“Leave it!” I shouted at housekeeping from the bathroom, as I turned off the shower. Twice a day they dropped off food for me at my father’s request.
It’d been a long time since I needed someone to take care of me, but I could tell it made him happy to do it so I didn’t complain.
I was going to find a place outside of town, Dad wouldn’t hear it. He booked me an indefinite suite at the hotel he owned a few minutes drive from the main drag. It was the tallest building around and I was staying on the top floor.
I had a great view of most of the valley, but spent most of my time watching the Matt Baker Elementary school for signs of Molly or motorcycles. She often stayed late and I was always ready to rush over there at the first sign of trouble. Part of me was disappointed that trouble never came.
Selfish, I know, but it’d at least be a chance to see her again…
The knocking sounded again.
They were insistent today.
I brushed my hair back and wrapped the towel around my waist. I was still dripping wet when I decided to answer it. Maybe there was a problem with billing or a maintenance call or something.
I swung the door open and was about point out the Do Not Disturb sign hanging on the door, but all the steam went out of my aggravation when I saw who it was.
“Hi,” Molly said, adjusting her glasses. She wore a red button-down blouse, slacks and sneakers. Her auburn hair was pinned up, but had the telltale flyaways of a long day out of the house. She must have come right over after work.
“Molly,” I exclaimed, jerking backward so suddenly that my towel unfastened around my waist. “Shit.” I caught it, then shouldered open the closing door to keep it from slamming in her face. “Hi. Come in.”
After everything that happened, she was the last person I expected to see.
