I search the entire house with the device and find nothing. That doesn’t mean there isn’t something in here. The technology changes all the time. But I have to trust that there isn’t, because right now I need to call my dad.
It’s after five on the East Coast but I’m sure my dad’s still at work. I hope he picks up. If he doesn’t, I’ll just keep calling and texting every minute until he does.
He answers on the fifth ring. “Garret, I was just about to go to a meeting. I’ll have to call you later.”
“Tell them you’ll be late. This is important.”
“The meeting is only an hour. I’ll call you as soon as—”
“Grandfather was here.”
“What did you say?”
“Grandfather was here. Just now. In my house.”
“Did he tell you he was coming?”
“No. He broke in. He was here when I got home.”
“What did he want?”
“To tell me things. Things you have to know, Dad.”
“Like what?”
“I can’t tell you over the phone.”
“Why? What is this about?”
“Grandfather did something. Something bad. Something really bad.”
“Garret, we all have. It’s part of being a member. You know that.”
“Yes, but he did this to his own family. To you. And to me. And he’s about to do a hell of a lot more.”
“You’re overreacting. You misunderstood what he said. Your grandfather would never do anything to harm his family.”
“He had a gun, Dad. He had a gun pointed right at me.”
There’s silence and then, “Where is he?” My dad tries not to show his anger, but when he does, he really does. And right now, his voice is filled with it. “Where did he go?”
“I don’t know. He just left. You need to get out here. I need to talk to you.”
“Just tell me what he said.”
“I need to tell you in person.”
“Dammit, Garret! Just tell me!”
“I can’t tell you this over the phone!”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because it’s…it’s about Mom.” I take a breath. “And Jade.”
He’s quiet, then says, “I’ll leave tonight.”
The phone goes silent. He hung up.
I collapse on the couch, tossing my phone aside.
He’ll fix this. My dad will fix this. He always does.
I say the words over and over again in my head, but I’m not sure I believe them.
My dad is an expert at taking on enemies. He crushes them. Destroys them. Annihilates them.
But this time the enemy is family. His father. My grandfather.
So this time, I don’t know if my dad can fix this.
I need to get out of here. I need air. I need to move. I grab my keys and go out the door to the beach. I walk quickly along the sand, hoping the sound of the waves will calm my thumping heart, which hasn’t slowed down since I heard my grandfather’s voice and saw him in that chair.
How did he even get here? There weren’t any cars around when I got home. Somebody must’ve dropped him off and was waiting to pick him up.
I wonder how long he’s been planning this. It had to be months. He said he changed his plan when the robber didn’t finish the job. That was back in September, which means my grandfather could’ve given me this ultimatum a long time ago but he waited until now. Today. The 10 year anniversary of the plane crash. The day he chose to have my mom killed. The day he took her away from me. Away from my dad.
My grandfather purposely came here today, knowing exactly what day it is. To him, today is probably a celebration. The day he finally got rid of my mom. It’s not enough for him to tell me he killed her. No, he has to do it today, the exact same day that she died. He knows how much I loved her. How much I miss her. How my life hasn’t been the same since she left. Yet he looked almost happy when he told me what he did to her. And now he plans to do the same thing to Jade. He’s fucking psychotic. Pure evil.
He said he wouldn’t hurt Jade until after the New Year. And I think I believe him, which means I have just over a month until his deadline. Of course he made sure it was during the holidays, which is supposed to be the happiest time of the year.
It shows how much he wants me to suffer. I didn’t obey his orders and now he wants me to pay. He wants me to agonize over the decision from now until the clock strikes midnight on the last day of the year. And if I don’t do what he says, a whole new countdown begins. You’ll be left always wondering when and how. It’s like a game to him. An evil, twisted game that he has no intention of losing.
That’s why I believe him when he says he won’t hurt Jade until after his deadline. This is his game and he set the rules. If I’d set the deadline, he wouldn’t honor it. But since he did, he will.
My grandfather likes to control the timing of things, like when my mother would die. The realization of that hits me again.
He did that. My grandfather really did that. He had her killed. And he determined the timing. He watched my mom live her life, thinking she had all this time. He let my dad think the woman he loved was safe.
My grandfather was never nice to my mom, but he tolerated her. He saw her at family dinners and holidays. She knew he didn’t approve of her and she knew he didn’t like her and yet she went out of her way to be nice to him. She even made him a cake every year on his birthday even though he wouldn’t eat it.
And the entire time, all those years, he was planning her death. Waiting until the perfect moment. The moment when my dad, mom, and I were content, just living our lives, thinking nothing could go wrong. He saw how happy we were. And he destroyed it. He destroyed everything.
And now, 10 years later, he tried to kill Jade. He almost did. If my dad hadn’t been visiting us Labor Day weekend, we wouldn’t have put up those security cameras. I would’ve put cameras up eventually, but not that weekend. And if those cameras hadn’t been there, that guy would’ve gone through with the plan. He would’ve broken in the house when I wasn’t there. He would’ve shot Jade. He would’ve killed her. She’d be dead right now.
Fuck.
My job is to keep Jade safe. To protect her. And I didn’t. I didn’t do my job. The thing that saved her were those security cameras. Not me.
I saw that guy lurking around our house. I should’ve known he wasn’t just some random burglar. I should’ve chased him down that day I saw him. And when Jade saw him get shot a few weeks ago, I should’ve put it together. I should’ve known that was the work of someone from the organization. They cleaned it up without leaving a trace of evidence. The average drug dealer couldn’t do that.
My grandfather hired someone to kill that robber because the guy didn’t finish the job and because he knew things he shouldn’t. The grad student who got shot was just an innocent victim. A guy who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I bet the fake cop is dead now, too. If he knew why he was hired and who hired him, he’d definitely be killed.
But how was I supposed to know my grandfather was behind all this? The fake robbery? The fake cop? How was I supposed to put the pieces together when I didn’t know what the pieces were and how they connected?
Even my dad didn’t know what was really going on. He had people investigating it. He asked the other members if there were plans to get me back and they told him no, probably because my grandfather threatened them if they told my dad the truth. Then my dad asked my grandfather about it and my grandfather dismissed his concerns. He told my dad he was being paranoid and my dad believed him. He kept telling me not to worry.
So how could I possibly know what my grandfather was up to?
It doesn’t matter. I still blame myself. I’ll always blame myself because I didn’t do my job. I didn’t protect Jade.
I don’t know what I would’ve done if she’d been killed. I couldn’t live with the fact that I hadn’t done anything to stop it. I’d spend the rest of my
life reliving the past, telling myself what I should’ve done differently. It would’ve destroyed me to know I’d done nothing to save her.
I reach down and pick up a rock in the sand. I run my fingers over it, focusing on the contours and the texture, trying to calm myself, but it doesn’t work. I throw the rock in the ocean and scream as loud as I can, “I fucking hate you! You hear me, Grandfather? I fucking hate you!”
I drop to the ground and just sit there, letting my eyes follow the pattern of the waves. It lulls me into a place where my mind is numb, and I remain there until my phone rings, startling me. It’s my dad.
“Garret, I’ll be there first thing in the morning. I just talked to my pilot. He’s getting the plane ready but I need to take care of some things before I leave, which means I probably won’t arrive there until the middle of the night.”
“Just come over when you get here. I don’t care how late it is.”
“But Jade will be home.”
“Yeah? So?”
“She can’t know about this.”
“You don’t even know what this is about.”
“No, but if it involves your grandfather I’m guessing it also involves the organization. Is that true?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I’m not sure.”
Although the organization knows about my grandfather’s plan to reinstate my membership, I’m not really sure if they have anything to do with his plan to kill Jade. It sounded like that was all him. Like they weren’t involved.
“Then we need to keep her out of this, Garret. I know you don’t like lying to her, but telling her their secrets only puts her in danger. Just wait until we talk and then we’ll decide what to tell Jade.”
I hesitate because I have no freaking clue how I can possibly keep this from her. She’ll be able to sense something’s wrong and then she’ll ask me about it.
“Okay,” I finally say. “I won’t tell her anything.”
“I’ll see you in the morning. What time does Jade head to campus?”
“Around nine. I have class at 10 but I can skip it.”
“I’ll be there at nine. See you soon.”
I get up and walk back to the house and wait for Jade to get home.
Fuck. How the hell am I going to hide this from her?
25
JADE
Only one more day of classes and then we leave for Thanksgiving break. I can’t wait to go back to Des Moines and see Frank and Ryan and have Thanksgiving in Frank’s new house.
I wouldn’t tell Frank this, but I never liked going out to eat on Thanksgiving. I always wanted to have a meal at home with the turkey cooking in the oven all day. But none of us knew how to cook so we always went out to eat. And then last year I had my first real Thanksgiving dinner at Garret’s house and I loved it. I couldn’t wait to have it again and now I will, thanks to Chloe. It’s really nice of her to offer to make everyone dinner. Ryan better marry that girl and he better not keep waiting or she’s going to find someone else.
My phone rings and I answer it as I’m leaving class. It’s Frank. “Hey, I was just thinking about you. I can’t wait to see you guys and check out your new house.”
“We’ve got your room all ready. And Ryan stocked up on potato chips.”
I laugh. “I might be too full from Chloe’s dinner to eat them.”
“You can have them with the leftover turkey sandwiches we’ll be making. Ryan got a 22-pound turkey. We’ll be eating that thing for weeks.”
“I’m so excited about this dinner. It’s like a real Thanksgiving. I mean, not that the other ones weren’t but—”
“I know what you mean, honey. Eating at the casino every year didn’t really seem like Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to having everyone here at the house and a having home-cooked meal.”
“Tell Chloe if she wants any help, I’m happy to do whatever she needs.”
“I think she’s already recruited Ryan to be her helper in the kitchen. But yes, I’ll let her know you offered. Anyway, I called because I wanted to tell you I saw Garret last night on one of those Hollywood shows. I was flipping channels and saw his picture. I didn’t catch the whole story but they were saying how he’s living in California now.”
Shit. Brook was supposed to stop those stories from going out.
Frank continues. “Why were they talking about Garret? Is this about that reality show? Are they getting him involved again?”
“No. Someone found out he was living here and the story just kind of spread. We’re hoping it’ll just go away.”
“I don’t want photographers following you around like last year. It’s not safe.”
“There aren’t any photographers. Nobody’s following me.”
“Good. Well, I just wanted to ask you about that. I’ll let you go. We’ll see you soon.”
“Okay, bye.”
As I put my phone away I feel someone tap my shoulder. I turn to see Sara there.
“Hey. You didn’t come in today.”
“Yeah, I’m trying to avoid the coffee shop until that Justin guy goes away. Did he show up there again?”
“No. He hasn’t been back. Why are you avoiding him?”
“Because I don’t know who he is and it’s kind of freaking me out that some strange guy is looking for me.”
“But he went to school with Garret. And he seemed to know you.”
“Did he say how he knew me?”
“No. We didn’t talk long. Where’s your car? I’m parked on the side street.”
“I am, too. Are you heading home?”
“Yeah, I’m done with work. I have to get Caleb at day care. Come on.” She motions me to follow her. “Walk with me. I can’t be late to day care or they’ll charge me for another hour.”
I take a few steps to catch up with her. “So are you ready to meet the family?”
She rolls her eyes and smiles. “It’s not like that, Jade. He’s not taking me there to meet his family. We’re just going for Thanksgiving dinner.”
“He wouldn’t take you there unless he wanted you to meet them. He really likes you, Sara. Stop acting like he doesn’t.”
“I just don’t want to get my hopes up. I already like him more than I should, which means it’s going to suck when he dumps me.”
“Why do you think he’s going to dump you?”
“Because he doesn’t want an instant family.”
“Did he tell you that?”
“No. But I’m sure he’s thinking it. No guy his age wants that.”
“Sara, if he felt that way he wouldn’t be dating you. And he always tells you to bring Caleb when you guys go out.”
“Because he knows I can’t afford a sitter.”
“Yeah, but he also knows Garret and I would watch Caleb for free, so that’s not the reason. He likes Caleb. And he likes you. A lot.”
She smiles. “Okay, maybe he does. But I’m still not getting my hopes up.” She looks over at the street as a limo goes by. “What’s a limo doing here?”
“I don’t know.”
The limo is going really slow and almost stops as it approaches us, but then drives off. The windows were so dark, I couldn’t see inside.
We turn and go up the side street toward our cars.
Sara gets her keys out. “The only time I see limos here is during prom season, and even then, it’s rare.”
“Maybe a celebrity’s passing through town. I bet it’s one of the parents of someone who goes to Camsburg. A lot of them have celebrity parents.”
“Yeah, it’s probably some famous actress visiting her kid. Wouldn’t that be weird to be related to someone who’s in the movies or on TV all the time?”
“Yeah, it would.”
Sara doesn’t know Garret was on a reality show. Well, he wasn’t really on it, but she doesn’t know about his involvement with the show. She doesn’t have cable and she never watches TV.
“Hey, there it is again.” Sara points back to the street we were just on. The limo
is driving by, the other direction this time. “They must be lost.” We’re at her car now and she stops to give me a hug. “Have a great Thanksgiving.”
“You, too. Tell Alex I said hi and give Caleb a hug for me.”
“I will. Call me when you get back.” She gets in her car and drives off as I walk farther up the hill to my car.
I open the door, but before I get in I look back at the street. I’m getting a strange feeling about that limo. People in the organization often drive around in limos. And that limo slowed way down when it approached Sara and me. Why would it slow down?
Dammit. Why am I even thinking about this? I told myself I was not going to think about the organization, because if I do, it’ll ruin my Thanksgiving. That whole thing with Brook trying to fix Garret’s image got me thinking about last spring and what the organization did to us. I’ve been trying to get it out of my head but then I’m reminded of it again when I think about Sean and Harper.
I don’t want to think about any of that this week. I just want to enjoy the holiday. I want to set aside all the bad things that are going on and focus only on the good. Because I have so many good things in my life right now. My classes are going great. My counseling sessions are going well. Garret and I are closer than ever. And in a few days, I’m going to have an awesome Thanksgiving.
As I drive home, I think about what a difference a year makes. Last Thanksgiving, when I was at Garret’s house, I told him it would never work between us. I loved him so much, even back then, and it scared me. I knew it would hurt really bad when things ended between us, so I just wanted to get it over with. I wanted to end things before I loved Garret even more. Because I was sure our relationship would end. I was convinced people would always be trying to tear us apart. And they tried, but they didn’t succeed.
That’s another reason why I need stop worrying so much and just be happy. And thankful. Thankful that Garret and I are finally together and married and no one can tear us apart.
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