by Honor James
“And I think that I know what’s good for me. No one is influencing me. This is me telling you what I feel should happen. I’ve never allowed anyone to lead me around by the nose so why would I start now?” Sadie asked with a frown. “I want off of the medication because I dislike the fog that I’m always in. Even my painting has been affected by it.” She had painted darker than she typically did and even though it sold like wildfire, she didn’t like it.
“While I’m pleased to see that you’re taking a stand on your own welfare and betterment, this still has to be discussed. There will be side effects to coming off the medications, things that we absolutely must talk about. It’s also not something that you can stop cold turkey, Sadie. We will need to wean you, carefully, with monitoring by your physician. So I will need to contact him, or her as well, so they understand what we are looking for. Due to the number of medications we had to place you on, we need to very diligently balance it all out. Which is why I want you in for another session this week. We will talk about all the effects you may or may not encounter on the journey. Make the appointment, and leave your doctor’s name and number with my secretary. You should also call his or her office to let them know I’ll be calling to discuss this process with them.”
She had to grind her teeth in frustration but she nodded. “I will be in touch.” She was angry, she understood that she would have to be weaned off of the medication but everything that the doctor was saying was leaning toward her not wanting to take her off the meds. “As long as you will ensure that I’m taken off of them we will get along swimmingly,” she told Dr. Weiss as they stood at the door. “Now if you'll excuse me, I have a number of people at my home right now and I’m sure they are starting to get hungry.”
“Have a lovely afternoon, Sadie,” he said. The door to his office shut on her heels, and the lock was thrown. Odder and odder behavior from the man.
When she walked out of the offices, Michael was waiting for her, leaning against the wall closest to the exterior door. “You don’t look like a very happy person right now. Hell, you looked better before you went in. Do I need to go up there and rearrange that doctor’s face for upsetting you?”
“I’m just pissed,” Sadie stated bluntly. “I’m angry because I want off of the medication and he’s refusing to let me off of them, saying that I need to be weaned off. I feel—” She hesitated as she thought of how to put this all and then finally said, “I feel as if there is something more going on, which bothers me like crazy.”
“All right, so I’ll do a little digging into the doctor and see what shakes loose from the trees,” he told her. Pushing off the wall, he waved her through the door ahead of him. “You’ve been on the meds long enough, which, given how everything went down in your life, isn’t really a shocker. Then he is right about weaning you off. Some of those meds have some scary ass warnings attached to them, Sadie. Like heart failure, heart attacks, and other things I had to look up on the Internet, which freaked me the hell out. The fact you’ve been on them as long as you have, if the reports we have are right, makes it doubly bad. But if it’s done right, there won’t be any lasting effects.”
“I know, it just—” She shook her head and laughed. “Ignore me. I’m just still feeling very raw, I guess, and therefore I’m more than a little unhappy because of the way that I was told that I had to be monitored. Just the thought of being monitored brings back thoughts of being in the padded rooms after I was released from the hospital.” And she had tried to kill herself. She looked up at Michael and nodded. “It’s just me and the weirdness I was feeling. Anyway, let’s go and get home, shall we? We should call everyone and let them know we are on our way so that they can order food.”
“I’ll give them a ring when we’re in the car,” he told her. “Don’t worry about it so much, Sadie. There are different methods of monitoring. In the case of being weaned off drugs, it’s mostly weekly blood tests to ensure that there’s no warning signs to other things. Like liver failure, raised blood counts, and other gleefully terrific bits of horror like that. I’m never, ever going into a medical dictionary again, for anything. I don’t care what comes down the pipe, there’s a reason I didn’t become a doctor, and the shit that can go wrong with the human body is only one reason.”
“I know. I will contact my general practitioner and tell him all of my medications and will deal with him on learning which ones I can get off of first.” She had wanted to be off of the meds for a while. It wasn’t just because Keagan and Bryce came back into her life, but because she was ready to find her way out of the darkness.
“Likely the better plan, especially if you’re getting bad vibes from the head shrinker,” he said. Unlocking the SUV, he held the door and gave her a hand up into it. “I’ll do some digging into the guy, and I’ll bring it all to you, only you. What you decide to do with the information, or what you want to share with the guys, will be up to you. Deal?”
“I appreciate that,” Sadie told him and buckled up once she was settled. She didn’t say anything else until Michael was back in the truck. “What I do know,” she said when he got into the truck with her, “is that I needed that nudge that you gave me, thank you for that. I’m happy that you did that so that I could come clean with them.” She had needed it. They had needed it as well.
“I think they needed it, too,” he told her. Checking over his shoulder, he pulled out into traffic. Hitting a button on the steering wheel, he waited for the SUV to ask him for command. “Call Keagan Bradley, cell number,” he said. Looking to her as it rang, he gave a nod. “They both looked a lot happier than I’ve seen them in way too long.”
“Yo.” Keagan’s voice came through the vehicles speakers.
“We’re on the way back to the house. You can place the order any time now. But make sure they don’t deliver it for at least an hour,” Michael said.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I’ve got a tail that I plan on screwing around with for a few minutes until I can get him somewhere I can hopefully get a good look at his mug.”
“Seriously? Why the fuck are you being tailed?” Keagan asked.
“Who’s being tailed?” someone asked further away from Keagan’s phone.
“Shut up, Timmons.”
Michael rolled his eyes and shook his head. “It’s like dealing with children,” he muttered under his breath. “I don’t know why I’m being tailed, but I have a feeling the shrink may have ratted us out to someone. Put Timmons on the phone,” he ordered.
“Yeah, boss?” another voice came in clear.
“I need you to do some digging on Sadie’s shrink.” He shot her a look and cocked a brow, obviously expecting her to give some details to the man.
Sadie rolled her eyes and said, “Ralph Weiss. He’s fifty-three years old the last time that I knew, his practice is in the Evermont Pines area just outside of town.” She tapped a finger to the door and added, “He’s not married, never been married as far as I know,” she said quietly and then looked to Michael and added, “He’s been my shrink since I was in the facility after I tried to, well, yeah.”
“Copy that,” Timmons said. “What all do you want, boss?”
“I want the full workup on him. I want to know everything from the moment he came into the world until this afternoon. Dig in deep, and if you have to, use the servers to get every last piece of dirt.”
“Ten-four, here’s Bradley again,” he said.
There was a muffled exchange before a huff of air came over the line. “Have we decided what we want for dinner? Pizza, Chinese, Thai, what? Cause those stale-ass melba toast crackers I was snacking on earlier just are not cutting it. I need food. Talk to me, folks.”
“Doesn’t matter to me,” Michael said. “Sadie, any preferences?”
“I love all food. You know that I’ve never been very picky when it comes to food.” She closed her eyes and thought about it for a moment. “I think pizza, though. That way we will have lots of food and it will
stay with us longer than Thai or Chinese would.” She also would need to order groceries or go shopping as well. “Make a list of what’s needed for groceries as well so I can get food for when you are there next.” Not that she wanted him to leave, dammit.
“Who says I’m leaving?” he asked her. “This couch is damn comfy, and I’m all set up like a king with my little peasants doing my bidding. You throw that at me, dude, and I’ll sic her on you,” he said. Obviously he was talking to someone else in the room with him. “As to the current food situation, we have pretty much devoured everything in the place that didn’t have mold, didn’t have its own set of legs, or wasn’t making a break for the door in some manner. You might want to stop at a store before coming home. Sorry, Sadie.”
That had her grinning and she looked to Michael. “How about a grocery store stop? We have this nice large SUV and I have my credit card. So we should stop.” She looked out the windshield and then added, “You guys should delay the food a little longer then. Give us half hour at the grocery store?”
“Can do,” he said to her. “Make sure you pick up coffee, too. I know you don’t like the stuff, but babe, we’re guys and real men don’t do that girly tea you drink. Oh! And cookies, you have got to get cookies. Please?” he asked.
Michael was muttering under his breath. “Order food and have it delivered in two hours. But if even one of you calls with any requests at the store, I swear to God.” He let out a low growl. “See you in two hours,” he said and hung up.
She laughed and looked to Michael. “Is it bad that I still remember what their favorite foods and drinks are? Which cookies that Keagan prefers and which chips that Bryce can’t live without?” She knew that those were weird things, but they were true. She could recall every small little thing about the men that she was in love with. “Two hours should be more than enough time, and with all of them at the house we will be able to marshal them all into carrying groceries in and helping me put them away.” That’s why she hated to shop, nothing about the shopping part but everything about taking the groceries in and putting them away.
“Given they’ve likely gone through absolutely every square inch of your kitchen to find food, they’ll know where it all goes anyway. The two hours aren’t only for shopping, though, need to deal with our tail first,” he told her. “Do me a favor and keep a casual eye on the dark-blue four door back there, chrome grill. Don’t turn around and look at it. Just let me know if there’s anything you notice.”
Sadie looked into the side mirror and nodded. “If I happen to see it I will tell you.” She had learned a lot when she was a kid about tails and what to look for. “So how did you happen to see him and I didn’t?” Then again she had been so caught up in her meeting with the shrink that it wasn’t even funny.
“Because I’m trained to look for the unusual and out of place. That and the fact I’m paranoid,” he said. “Plus, I had a feeling your dad wasn’t about to let his control over you go as easily as you were hoping. He’s got a good thing going, and you could potentially derail it all.”
That was something she didn’t understand. “Wait, what?” she asked with a frown and turned to look at Michael. “What do you mean he had a good thing going? It’s not like he’s living off of my money. He’s retired from the military with a large pension and had money of his own from my mother’s passing.” She was a bit lost, really lost. Her dad wouldn’t do that, would he? Then again, she hadn’t thought he would keep her from the men she loved either, the men she needed after the loss of her children as well.
“You were committed, Sadie. Who do you think is the executor of your estate, and gets everything should you have an unfortunate accident? As executor, due to your recorded and documented mental issues, he has access to everything. He has signing power, and he authorizes every single transaction you make. Sorry to tell you, Sadie, but your dad has you by the proverbial balls.”
“Oh, shit,” Sadie whispered as the enormity of the situation hit her full force. “I need to change that.” Right away. “I—” Christ she hadn’t even thought about that, at all. “Okay. I will ensure that this is all changed. I will ensure that he’s removed from everything of my estate.” She would have to ask Bryce and Keagan if they would stand in his place and watch over her estate should she lose her mind again and have another break.
“Good luck with that,” he said. “I really hate to be the downer here, but you’ll have to get him to sign over everything. And if he’s not willing to let it all go, all he has to do is truck your shrink before a judge. Want to guess how that’s going to fly? No, we need to be smart about this, back him into a corner where he can only get out the way we want, under the conditions we set.”
“Shit,” Sadie muttered and hit her head to the back of the seat. “Okay, we will figure this out. Have to figure this out. I need to ensure that this man is out of the picture, my father, that is.” Good lord, she couldn’t believe she was talking about cutting her father out of her life, but then again she hadn’t realized the lengths he had gone through to keep her from the men she loved. Which led her to the thought that if not for him, her children would be alive and she would still be with Bryce and Keagan. No, she couldn’t think about that, she couldn’t let her mind wander there because it hurt too much.
“We’ll figure it out, but we may need to mention this to more than just Harker and Bradley. Timmons has been doing all the digging on everyone, so I know he won’t say a word. The man is a vault when it comes to information. And we’re going to need his skills to get something on your old man to make sure he’s out of the picture permanently. Without Bradley or Harker putting a bullet in his head.”
“Good point.” She sighed and rubbed a hand to her heart and then snorted. “I bet that they want to. Honestly, I now want to as well.” Because if not for him, she would have her babies and have the men she loved. She would have them all and her family would be complete. “All right, I will give Timmons the information so that he can begin to dig up information on my dad as well.”
“All you need to do is give him the thumbs up, and he’ll do the rest. You can even stay mum on it all until he’s got everything. Shouldn’t be more than a couple of days, tops. Are you going to be okay with this, though, Sadie? I mean, it is your father, and while you’re on the outs now for good reasons, damn good reasons, you didn’t always feel this way. I just don’t want this hurting you any more than it already has.”
She nodded and said, “This outs is for good.” She admitted, “Because of him, I lost everything that I loved. I lost the men that I loved, and I lost two children that never got to see the light of day. I’m sure. I want to know just how deeply his deception goes.”
“All right, but I will ask you again once everything’s been put together. Between now and then, make sure you’re really sure. I’m not questioning you, but really think on it for me, will ya?”
“I will. Thank you, Michael. I appreciate that,” Sadie said quietly. “Hey, I think that your friend is back,” she said as she looked through the side mirror and frowned. “I could be wrong, but I don’t think that I am. What do you think?”
“He’s definitely back, has been for three blocks now,” he said. “And that’s what I’m looking for right there. In the glove box is a camera, grab it. It’s literally a point and shoot, no fancy buttons or nothing complicated. I’m going to turn down this street and swing back around. As I do so, I want you to snap pictures. Just hold down the button as we go past him. See if we can’t get a look at him, and make sure you aim for the back of the car as we pass for the plate.”
“Sounds good.” Sadie took the camera out and shifted in the seat. “So you are thinking that we will get their plate number or at least an image of them?” If they were lucky they would, at least. She was ever so hopeful. “I’m ready,” she told Michael calmly.
“I’m going to signal for the turn coming up. Then at the first corner, I’ll pull a tight U-turn and come back at him. Aim out the front
to get him head on, and then keep snapping as we go past. Making sure to turn in your seat as he goes past us to get the tail end.” He put the turn signal on and slowed for the turn. He eased around the corner and then sped up. For a block, he kept up his speed, and then they whipped around, right as the blue car came around the corner now pointed at them.
She did just as he told her, hopefully capturing images of the men that were in the vehicle and a shot of the plate. “Shit,” she muttered. “He doesn’t have a plate.” She saw that as the vehicle moved past them at a high rate of speed. “Son of a bitch.” Surely there couldn’t be that many vehicles like that one in the vicinity, right? “You do know that now that Bryce and Keagan know that there is someone following me they won’t leave, right?” And she didn’t want to let them go either.
“You actually thought they’d be leaving?” He shot her a look as he turned back onto the main drag, and shook his head. “Darling, are you really that delusional?”
That had her laughing. “Well I wasn’t sure. I’m glad, though. I think I would have to fight them tooth and nail to keep them,” she admitted bluntly. “Now that I have them back in my life I don’t think I will ever let them go.”
“I somehow doubt you’ll have to kick them out for them to even show up for work. They are settling in for the long haul, Sadie. So don’t worry about it. I would talk to them, though, make sure you’re all on the same page about everything. Keeps everyone from making assumptions.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Sadie wanted to keep both men and wanted to ensure that they wanted to remain with her. “But that’s a conversation for me to have with Bryce and Keagan, alone.”
