by K. M. Scott
“Do you want me to continue with this, Kane, or are you cutting your losses right here?” John asked, interrupting my thoughts about what type of person Sebastian Thorne really was.
I wasn’t ready to walk away from him just yet. Standing, I said, “Keep on it for a little while longer. See what you can find out. Send me all the legal info, though. I want to know the details about who his mother is and those kinds of things, okay?”
“Sure. I’ll get it all together and send it over later. Want me to send it to the restaurant, as usual?”
I thought back to what I’d said to Abbi last night about involving her in this whole Sebastian thing, but things had changed. Knowing the way he lived his life could potentially hurt my family made it impossible to have her with me on this.
I’d just have to make her understand why I had to do things this way if she found out.
Calling Stefan should have been on my plan for the rest of the afternoon. I knew he’d want in on anything having to do with Sebastian, regardless of what I found out from John about his extracurricular activities. But as much as Stefan wanted to know our new brother, I felt like I needed to go this alone until I found out how far gone the guy was.
Even more, though, was the truth that Stefan had never had to know. He may not have had the relationship he wanted with our father, but he never doubted that he was Cassian March’s son a day in his life. He had no idea what the world felt like without that security.
Whatever else Sebastian was, he and I were alike in that. And to me, that was enough to make him worth more than just one bad, drunken night and a negative report from John.
After driving by CocoNut’s and not finding him there, I drove to his apartment and saw the car we’d seen in the parking lot. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say to him or even what I was doing there, but hearing he was involved in something that would eventually get him sent to jail awakened some older brother feelings I’d never experienced before.
I knocked on the front door and when he opened it, I couldn’t help see the similarity in how we looked. Except for a few minor differences, he was a younger version of me. As I stood there staring at him, I wondered if that’s what my son would look like years from now.
Pushing all the sentimentality out of my head for the moment, I said, “Can I come in?”
He looked me up and down and smiled. “You know, now that I’m sober, it’s pretty hard to miss.”
“What?”
“We could be twins. Well, if you weren’t like ten years older than me. My brothers and sisters don’t even look as much like me as you do. It’s freaking me out a little, to be honest. I’m sort of wondering if you’re me come from the future to tell me something that’s going to save my life.”
“Not exactly, but how about you let me in and we talk?” I asked as I stepped toward him.
“You sure? You move pretty much the same as I do too.”
It was hard not to like him, even though he had a stupid sense of humor. “Trust me. I’m not from the goddamned future, okay?”
Sebastian stepped aside to let me in and closed the door behind me. “Well, if you are, do me, I mean us, a favor and tell me who wins the next few Super Bowls and World Series because I think we should make some money off this whole thing. Since you’re future me, you’ll benefit too.”
I turned to face him and looked directly into his dark blue eyes. “I’m not from the future. Enough with the jokes. I want to talk to you about something.”
Shrugging, he plopped down into the chair and extended his arm to offer me a seat on the couch. “Well, since you aren’t future me that can only mean one of two things. You’re either my father or we have the same father.”
His father? How old did this kid think I was?
“What do you know about your father, who I’m not, obviously?”
He shrugged again. “Not much. My mother said I looked like him, not that I think she knew him all too well. I got the feeling I was the result of a one night stand, but I don’t know for sure. Doesn’t really matter because here I am anyway. So we share the same baby daddy?”
“Yeah, and if you can never call him that again, that would be great. We’re brothers, along with the guy I was here with the other night and another one you haven’t met yet.”
“So? What does that mean?”
Christ, he reminded me of myself a few years back. If someone had come to me and announced he was my brother, I would have told him to go fuck himself and don’t let the door hit him on his way out. As he sat there looking at me with an expression that told me he was completely unimpressed by the news I’d just told him, I couldn’t help but be thankful he wasn’t more like who I used to be.
“Well, what do you want it to mean?”
Sebastian twisted his face for a moment and said, “I don’t know. No offense, dude, but you’re a stranger to me. I get the feeling you care about me being your brother, but since this is all new to me, I can’t honestly say I feel the same.”
“Fair enough. I’m not here to invite you to Sunday dinner with a whole bunch of people you don’t know. I just wanted to let you know who you come from and that there are three other people like you.”
He took a deep breath and sighed. “Okay. I guess since you obviously know more than I do about our father maybe you can tell me about him. What was he like? Was he the kind of guy who let you sit on his lap and read you stories or more of a badass kind of guy?”
Too bad I didn’t know the answer to his question. Not a good start, for sure.
“Well, I didn’t exactly know him growing up either.”
Sebastian looked unimpressed by my answer. “I guess this guy got around. Four sons and he didn’t know either of us. Did he know the guy from the other night?”
“Yeah. He and the other one were his sons by his wife.”
“So three different mothers of four of us. Nice. Dad was a player. I’m guessing then he looked like us. No wonder he got so much ass.”
Damn, he was cocky.
I’d had enough of talking about our father and his sexual behavior. As much as I wanted Sebastian to feel like he had someone in me he could consider a brother, I was more concerned with trying to convince him to give up the stealing.
Unsure how to bring it up, I went with what came naturally. “I know what you’re up to and how you’re making money, and it isn’t working at that restaurant.”
His eyes widened for a moment, showing his surprise at my quick change of topic, but without missing a beat he said, “Oh yeah? You going to go all big brother on me and tell me I shouldn’t be doing that?”
There was that cockiness again. Well, he wasn’t the only one who could play that game. “Yeah, I am. If I could find out about it with little effort, then you aren’t as slick as you think you are. You and your friends are going to get your asses thrown in jail if you don’t stop.”
He stood up and walked over to the door. Opening it, he said, “Don’t let it hit you on your way out, big brother.”
“I’m trying to help you here. Trust me. The mistakes you make today aren’t the kind you want following you for the rest of your life, and spending a few years in jail will follow you.”
“You know, that other guy told me a little about you guys that night, and it seems like the pot calling the kettle black when you sit here telling me about being worried I’m going to get in trouble. You guys ran an illegal club when you were my age. That seems a whole lot worse than grabbing some stuff from a few houses. I’m not sure you have the moral high ground here.”
Before I got the chance to try to explain how different the two circumstances were, I heard someone outside yell, “Thorne! I told you last time if you cheated me again I’d be coming for my due. Time to pay up!”
Sebastian slammed the door and locked it. “It’s been great talking to you, dude, but I’d suggest you get the hell out of here. Use the window.”
“What?”
He began to explain something ab
out the guy outside being a former partner in his little heist scheme, but the banging on the door made it hard to get the whole story. Not that it mattered. I had a feeling what I’d been warning Sebastian about a few seconds ago was about to come true right in front of me.
I looked over at the window and knew I should go out that way and leave him to his just desserts. The problem was I had just told him I was his brother, and what kind of brother would I be if I left him there to get his ass kicked?
Even if he deserved it.
“Just open the door. I’m sure we can talk this out, but on the off chance we can’t, don’t talk too much so you don’t piss the guy off.”
He did as I told him to and his former partner marched into his living room demanding the money he was owed. Ignoring everything I told him, Sebastian began rambling on with a boatload of bullshit even I knew was lies. The guy, a skinny blond kid who hadn’t even grown to six foot and had wild eyes, shook his head rapidly, obviously unhappy with every word he was hearing.
“Shut the fuck up, Sebastian! You owe me, and I’m going to get my money now!”
“It’s not like that, Rick. We weren’t cheating you out of anything. It just takes time to cash in the goods. We have to be careful. And the reason we didn’t include you in on the other night was because we thought you were busy with your girlfriend. We didn’t want to cause you any more hassles.”
For a moment, it looked like Rick wanted to believe what was coming out of Sebastian’s mouth, but after the words filtered through his brain, it was clear he wasn’t buying the bullshit line he was being fed.
He pulled a gun from behind his back and pointed it straight at Sebastian’s head. “The money. Now.”
Terrified, Sebastian put his hands up in front of him and backed away toward me. “Whoa, whoa! Rick! Dude, I don’t have it. I can get it for you, but I don’t have it right now. Just give me a couple days.”
His begging had no effect on Rick, who continued to point the gun at his head. “Now. The whole amount or the last thing you steal is a look at me shooting you.”
Sebastian looked over at me and silently asked for help, so I calmly asked, “How much does he owe you, Rick? Maybe I have it so we can settle all this right now.”
He stared at me in confusion like he hadn’t noticed I was in the room until that very moment. “Two grand.”
I knew I didn’t have that kind of money on me, but maybe the five hundred or so I had in my wallet would pacify him enough to make him put the gun away. Hoping it would, I reached into my back pocket to get my money and then in a flash the gun went off.
Chapter Ten
Abbi
No matter how fast I drove, I felt like I wasn’t going to reach the hospital in time. Over and over, the words the man said echoed in my head.
“Mrs. Jackson, there’s been an accident. Your husband is en route to Lakeland General. He’s been shot.”
My heart raced as my brain fixed on the last word the officer had said. Shot. Kane had been shot.
I hadn’t waited for him to tell me anything else. Nothing he could say would make me feel any better, so I hung up and quickly put Liam into the car as I called the one person I knew could help no matter what. I didn’t know what else to do. I had to get to Kane before it was too late.
Tears rolled down my face as I tore up the road. What if I didn’t get to him in time? The last words I’d said to him that morning were so meaningless. Have a good day. It’s what I said to him every morning when he left the house for work. Worthless words I’d gotten so used to mindlessly repeating, like asking someone how they are when you don’t really care.
I didn’t want those to be the last words I ever said to the man who’d given me nearly seven of the happiest years of my life. I needed to tell him how much I loved him. I needed him to know that no matter what, I loved him more every day. That just the thought of him gone from my life made my chest ache from emptiness.
That I didn’t know how I’d go on without him.
My phone rang, and I answered it, barely able to speak through my sobs. Alexandria’s sweet voice said, “Abbi, I’ll be at the hospital in just a few minutes. I’ll take care of Liam and get Annalea from school so I can take them back to my house. I called Stefan and Cassian, and they’re on their way too. Honey, I want you to stay positive, okay? Kane is strong and he’s not going to give up on you and those two babies.”
As tears blurred my eyes, I turned right into the hospital parking lot. “What if he’s not strong enough, Alexandria? I don’t know what I’m going to do if he…”
I couldn’t finish that sentence.
“He is. Of all my sons, he’s the strongest. He’s had to be.”
The memory of all Kane had gone through growing up and how much he’d suffered made me even sadder. After all that, to be taken now that he’d found real happiness as a father was unfair. I couldn’t bear to think of it.
“I’m here now,” I said as I jammed the car into park and jumped out to get Liam from his car seat.
“I’ll be there in a few minutes, honey. Don’t give up on him yet, Abbi. Don’t.”
The emergency room doctor’s words hit my ears but got lost in the haze of sorrow that had taken over my brain. I held Liam tightly to me, desperate for some piece of Kane to stay with me as the man in front of me said things about gunshot wounds and surgery to remove the bullet from his chest.
Gently, he touched my shoulder and gave me a sad smile. “As soon as he’s out of surgery, we’ll let you know, Mrs. Jackson.”
I took a step back and felt the plastic seat of a waiting room chair hit the back of my knees. Sitting down, I tried to understand how any of this had happened. Where had Kane been at one o’clock in the afternoon? I had just gotten a text from him a few hours earlier telling me he’d be busy all day but he couldn’t wait to see me when he got home. What had he been busy doing that got him shot?
Liam cooed in my arms and tugged at the bottom of my hair, so I looked down and pressed a smile onto my face. He had no idea of the nightmare we’d been thrust into.
“What’s Mommy’s little guy want? Grandma’s coming any minute, honey, and you’re going to take a little ride with her back to her house with Annalea. I promise Mommy will come just as soon as she can.”
I stared into my son’s dark blue eyes so similar to his father’s and struggled to hold back the tears. The spitting image of Kane, he seemed to sense I needed him to be an angel and simply smiled up at me, nearly breaking my heart. What if Kane never had the chance to see his son grow up? What if he never saw that precious smile again?
Alexandria arrived and sat down, wrapping her arms around me. The fear of losing Kane was written all over her face. “Oh, honey. Did you talk to the doctors? What did they say?”
Holding back the tears as best as I could, I told her what the doctor had told me. “We won’t know anything until he’s out of surgery. He was shot in the chest, Alexandria. What if it got his heart?”
Just saying those words made my tears come, and they began rolling down my cheeks. Burying my face in Liam’s shoulder, I sobbed, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“No more talking like that, Abbi. I told you. Kane is strong. A single bullet isn’t going to take him from you and those beautiful babies.”
Liam’s tiny fingers gripped my neck, holding me to him, and I remembered the first time he clutched Kane’s hand as a newborn. He’d joked about him having a tough grip, and I’d reminded him that he was only three weeks old. Kane had fallen in love with him the moment the nurse placed him in his arms minutes after he was born. Unlike with Annalea, he was full term and healthy as a horse, crying like he had the lungs of a grown man as he lay in his father’s arms for the first time. I’d never forget how happy Kane had been at that moment.
I wanted the chance to see him that happy again.
And now he lay on an operating table with a bullet in his chest, fighting for his life, but why? What had happened?
I lifted my head and saw Alexandria’s eyes full of sadness. “Why would anyone do this? Why wasn’t he at work?”
She shook her head like she didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know, honey. I’m hoping maybe Cassian will be able to tell us something when he gets here.”
“Did he know why Kane wasn’t at the restaurant?”
“No. He was as shocked as I was when he heard what happened.”
I sat there as Liam played with my hair and thought about how sure Kane had been that this kind of thing was behind us once he left Club X. “We’re boring married people with kids now, angel. All that is in the past,” he’d say when I worried about him leaving CK late at night.
How could I know the danger wouldn’t be in the dark as he walked to his car but in broad daylight on a sunny fall afternoon?
Cassian walked down the hallway toward us with the saddest look I’d ever seen. He stopped in front of me, and Alexandria stood to hug her oldest son. “Cassian, I’m so glad you got here. Do you know anything about what happened?”
Frowning, he shook his head. “No, Mom. He told me he had some errands to run after we talked first thing this morning. I think he mentioned going to see someone at the produce company we use because we’ve been having problems with the deliveries for the past few weeks. Do they know where this happened?”
I looked up at him and answered for her. “The police told me when I got here that it happened in Dade City and that they had some guy in custody. They said something about a witness too, but I don’t think I was paying close enough attention.”
Cassian leaned down and kissed me softly on the top of the head. “Let me go find someone and see what’s going on. We need to find out what happened. What about Kane? Is he in surgery?”
Nodding, I pulled Liam closer as I answered, “He’s still in surgery. They said they’d come find me when he got out.”
“Well, then let me find out what’s going on with the police.”
