Promised Box Set

by James Kipling

  “Yes, but why am I in the hospital?” Aiden responded.

  The doctor and another nurse entered the now overcrowded room and Zoe ducked out of the way, making for the door. She needed to get out before she started crying or hyperventilating or both. She got into the hallway and leaned back against the wall for a moment to gather her thoughts. The noise from inside the room grew as the doctor and her nurses began speaking their medical jargon at a rapid pace.

  Jack soon joined Zoe in the hall. “I should uh… I should probably go… now,” Zoe said. Even the hallway was beginning to feel claustrophobic. “I need… the office. I need to get back to the office.”

  “Had you decided when the funeral will be?” Jack asked flatly. “For your father, that is. I don’t think Aiden will be out but Gram will want to go.” Zoe looked at Jack in disbelief but relaxed when she saw how much he was struggling to think about anything except the way the brother who had basically raised him stared through him. “God, what’s wrong with him?” he finally caved. “How can he not… I mean, even me… He didn’t…” And Jack broke down.

  Zoe wanted to reach out and pull the scared and breaking teen closer but couldn’t. The despair in his face and heaving shoulder was a mirror to what her own had been days earlier when she cried in Mason’s arms for her father. She’d seen her reflection in the window and didn’t recognize herself. The tightness in her chest was spreading, threatening to make her knees buckle beneath her. If she fell she knew she wouldn’t get back up again.

  So she turned and walked away. It was the only thing she could do to be sure she wasn’t falling apart. She moved to the elevator bank and pressed the button that would take her to the lobby and gift shop where she would find Mason and tell him she had her answer and she couldn’t do it. He would know what to do.

  Chapter 20

  “Lucas!” Barbara started as she opened the door to find her stepson on the stoop. “What are you doing here?”

  “I want to know where he is,” Lucas said firmly, stepping closer and forcing Barbara to take a step back. As she did so, the door came open more and Lucas was able to press his way inside. It had taken a few awkward calls before Lucas was able to locate his stepmother. She was staying at a girlfriend’s house but it didn’t look like the friend was home at the moment.

  “I’ve already talked to the police, the FBI, and probably Homeland Security,” Barbara said defiantly. “I don’t know where the bastard is and I don’t care.”

  She purposely stayed in the foyer, refusing to lead him further into the house. Lucas shifted from foot to foot. “You’re not the only one he lied to, you know. I don’t even know what my real name is.” Maybe he could get her to feel sorry for him and give something up. Barbara did relax a little at what he pointed out. “Didn’t even tell me why you left that night. Just said you were gone.”

  “I didn’t exactly want to leave,” she said quietly. “But I didn’t have much choice. Your father wanted me out so it was either take my things and go on my own or wait until he threw everything that was mine into the yard.” She sighed. She was closer in age to her stepson than she had been to her husband. It had always made their relationship an odd one. She frequently felt more like his baby-sitter than anything genuinely maternal. Still, she had watched as the boy of thirteen grew into the young man standing before her.

  And he was still looking for something from his father. Barbara knew what everyone thought of her and the way she spent her husband’s money. She also knew they thought many of the same things about Lucas for the same reasons. But that was why she felt she understood him – they both knew what it was like to live with David. It wasn’t that they wanted his money or the things it could buy. They wanted his attention. Buying things with the money was only one way of accomplishing that. David wasn’t prone to displays of genuine feeling or affection. But the first step to getting anything of the kind from him was to get him to look at you. Whether it was a new dress or a new car, you needed something to catch his eye. And he didn’t exactly hold back when it came to giving them money either. Sometimes Barbara wondered if he only gave them so much so that he could later complain about having done so. He lamented that they did so little to earn any money of their own, but they rarely had to do more than hint at wanting something and the money would be theirs if they chose to take it.

  Still, she worried for Lucas now that the truth about David was out. He was a dangerous man; more dangerous than she’d ever realized. She now counted herself lucky that he’d let her go so easily. He could just as easily have killed her and her lover when he discovered them. There was a sharp pain in her chest as she wondered whether he might have done if he’d cared for her more.

  “We should count ourselves lucky to be rid of him,” she said callously, following her train of thought rather than paying attention to what Lucas’s reasons for seeking the man might be. He scowled at her and she swallowed hard. She had seen the same Masons of displeasure on her husband’s face more and more frequently towards the end of their marriage. “We’re alive, aren’t we?” she protested. “That’s more than can be said for a number of people he’s come across.”

  “Did you love him?” The question caught her off guard.

  “I did, yes. Or at least I believe I did. I’m not sure anymore if it’s really possible to love someone unless they love you as well and I don’t know that I believe he ever did love me. If he did, why didn’t he tell me the truth?” She sighed again and nudged at the edge of the entryway rug with the toe of her sock. “Or maybe he did love me. But either way he didn’t trust me and I can’t help thinking that’s what ultimately doomed us.”

  “You cheated on him, didn’t you?” Lucas said but the way he said it was remarkably without judgment.

  “Yes. It wasn’t something I ever thought I would do. But you know, he accused me of it so many times over the years. Well, perhaps accuse isn’t the right word. He never came out and said it. He only hinted at it. He knew it bothered me that he wasn’t around, that he didn’t pay more attention to me when he was, that something wasn’t right between us. It was clear he didn’t believe that I would never do something like that to him. After a while, I got to believe everything he said.” Barbara blushed and finally moved further into the house, turning so she wouldn’t have to face her stepson. She wasn’t sure why she was telling him so much about her marriage. On one level it felt wildly inappropriate but at the same time, she wanted him to understand. He was the only one who had born close witness to the marriage. Maybe he could tell her whether she’d been right or wrong.

  Lucas wanted Barbara to tell him where his father had gone but was getting the feeling she really didn’t know anything. Or at least, his father hadn’t blatantly told her anything. But his father had always been one for puzzles and riddles. He never did come right out and say what he meant. When he taught a lesson or doled out punishment, it was up to the recipient to figure out what really lay behind it. How many times had his father told him to quit being lazy? And how many times had he really meant it? How many times did Lucas later realize the hammer had come down because something reminded his father of his mother? He knew now some of those times he remained unsure about probably had more to do with Lucas’s actions threatening the safety of the world David had created. Every time he did something stupid and the cops got involved, it put David at risk for being discovered. David wasn’t mad because of anything Lucas actually did; he was mad that his son was a threat to his own safety. It’s why David had never told him the truth.

  Had his mother – his real mother – known that David was actually David?

  Lucas gave his head a little shake as Barbara ushered him to take a seat in her friend’s modest living room. The lies his father told and the betrayal he felt were beside the point – well, tangential. He wanted to find his father for Zoe’s sake. If he could find the man and turn him in to the authorities, Zoe would see how much he cared about her; she would see the lengths he
was willing to go to in order to prove himself to her.

  “So, my dad never mentioned any places he wanted to travel to, did he?”

  Barbara frowned at him and he watched as she put her defenses back up. Whatever he might have inherited from his father, tact wasn’t on the list.

  “There were lots of plans and promises your father made. He was always talking about what he’d do when… when he retired, when he got a raise, when you were married and settled, when he was in better shape. He’d say we should plan a trip to Paris or London one week, bring home the books, get my hopes up and then a business trip would come up and by the time he got back, he have had his fill of traveling. How many times did he promise to take you on a vacation growing up without following through?”

  Lucas clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. She wasn’t wrong. He had promised trips to the best beaches in South America, the best mountains in Canada, trips around the world. Had his father mentioned where he went on the business trips he so frequently took? Lucas had always assumed they were to cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, but had David ever said anything?

  “You never saw anything in his papers that might show where he had money stashed or a place to crash?” Lucas had no idea what question to ask to get the answer he needed. “He didn’t buy you anything for you to wear to a certain place; not just tell you he wanted to take you somewhere but buy you something specific.” Barbara didn’t bother answering; she just gave Lucas a bland stare with her eyebrows slightly raised. It was a stupid question and he knew it. Why had he bothered coming here? “You’re right. It’s useless. Besides, it’ll take more than finding him to get Zoe back,” he muttered, standing and brushing past Barbara. I’ll have to settle for knowing that if I can’t have her, at least that… that… nobody accountant won’t have her either. The thought was little consolation. “I should go.”

  As he’d hoped, Barbara followed him. “All I know is it’ll probably be somewhere with a beach,” she finally said as he pulled the front door open. “He always complained about how the cold bothered his back but I think it has as much to do with everyone being bundled up. He prefers babes in bikinis to parkas.”

  Lucas couldn’t help smiling. His dad did have an eye for beautiful women and if he was going to be on the run, he would make sure that there was some pleasure in it for himself. He’d be somewhere warm, for sure.

  As he drove home he tried to bring Barbara’s insights further. What else would help his father disappear? He was a social guy so he’d hardly be holed up in the middle of nowhere. It would be somewhere with a lot of people, where he could blend into a crowd; where it was possible to know a guy who knows a guy and get favors. So far, he had somewhere south and certainly out of the country.

  He’d head home and take another look through what was left of his father’s things. The feds had most of it but there had to be some clue.

  Chapter 21

  “Dad, I’ve told you, I’m not coming home just now,” Mason was saying quietly into the phone, hoping no one would overhear him and find it rude. “And I’m not having this conversation with you now either. I’m at a funeral. I’ve got to go.” He hung up and shoved the phone deep into his pocket, pressing the speaker against his leg as he pressed the button to turn the volume down.

  Actually, the funeral was over. Only a few attendees had been invited to return to the Dunmore home for a small reception. Zoe had insisted on using a caterer. She wanted Lizzie there for herself, not to work. She and Richard sat off to one side with their niece who was looking around hoping to spot and corner Jack.

  Jack and his grandmother had gone to the funeral and while they’d been invited to the house, they had politely declined. They wanted to get back to the hospital to be with Aiden whose memory problems hadn’t improved much in the last few days. He at least believed that Jack really was his little brother but the miserable expression Jack wore showed how difficult it was to watch Aiden struggle.

  Mason gingerly slid the door to the patio aside and stepped back inside. It didn’t take long to find Zoe. Most of those at the house were members of Dunmore Corp’s Board of Directors and they were clustered around a carefully silent Zoe. Steve’s intentions with regard to the position of president had been very clear but his death could upset those plans. If he’d retired, it would have been easy to transition his choice into the position. There would have been plenty of time for Zoe to train with him and he would have maintained his influential seat on the Board. No one would have dared go against his wishes as founder.

  But his death, while tragic, allowed the doubts of those who possessed them to get louder. Zoe was too inexperienced; she was only a few months out of college after all. She was taking the death too hard and shouldn’t be expected to make such an important transition while she was so clearly grieving.

  Beyond Zoe’s own capabilities, there were those who wanted the position for themselves. Some of them had put almost as many years into the company as Steve had. He had not been the only one to make sacrifices. Deep seeded resentment brewed as the shocking circumstances of the man’s death broke the walls damming emotions that hadn’t been acknowledged, let alone dealt with properly. Though the details of the embezzling and David Warner’s betrayal hadn’t been completely dug up by the media, Mason had briefed the Board of Directors on their month long internal investigation and the real reason behind the earlier audit. Zoe had insisted it be done and meant to bite the bullet and tell them herself but Mason refused to let her. He assured her that if she thought they would hold it against her for not doing so herself, they would find something to complain about if she did; since there was no way to win, she might as well spare herself the emotionally draining task.

  Mason watched as someone reached out and rubbed Zoe’s shoulder. Meant to be a comforting gesture, Zoe’s lack of reaction made her look hollow. She stared through the woman speaking to her, comprehending nothing but nodding her head as was expected. If only Aiden hadn’t been in that accident. Zoe had never done well when it came to massive changes. He had watched a smaller version of what was happening now at the start of each semester. After months of one getting into a rhythm with one class schedule, the change would throw her off completely and she’d walk around in a daze until she settled into the new pattern. To be honest, he had been surprised to see her handle the move back home and into her father’s company so well. But then, there was something different – or rather familiar – about coming home that had likely helped prevent the usual shock to her system.

  Zoe started and Mason followed the direction of her gaze to see that Lucas had entered the room and was making a beeline for Zoe. She fidgeted and tried to get up from her seat but the group of people surrounding her slowed her down. Mason moved to intercept Lucas.

  “Hello there,” he said as he stepped into Lucas’s path and the taller man was forced to awkwardly halt his forward momentum. “I thought it was made pretty clear at the service earlier that this was an invitation only reception.”

  Lucas strained to look around Mason. He remembered this guy from one of the times he’d dropped Zoe off after a date and the wound from the stab of jealousy he’d felt that night ached again. He was pretty sure that this guy was just a friend though. From the way Zoe talked about him, Lucas would have thought she was talking about some gal pal. Maybe he was gay… Then the bleary memory of the day he had shown up and asked Zoe to marry him surfaced. This guy had been there for that humiliation too. Better to pretend he didn’t remember the guy at all.

  “I didn’t make it to the service earlier,” Lucas explained, as though it would make the intrusion acceptable. “Given the circumstances of Steve’s death and my father’s suspected role… I didn’t want the media outlets covering the affair to turn it into a circus. Now, if you would excuse me.” He made a move to get around Mason but Mason sidestepped and kept himself as a barricade for Zoe’s protection.

  “Probably a wise move,” Mason admitted. �
��But come on,” he lowered his voice and leaned towards Lucas conspiratorially. “You and I both know that she doesn’t want to see you right now and that it has nothing to do with the fact your father might have killed her father.”

  For a brief moment, fear flashed across Lucas’s face. Does he know? But there was no way to be sure Mason was referring to Aiden so Lucas took a deep breath and unclenched the fists that hung at his sides. For the first time since he heard about the accident, Lucas wondered just what had happened to the guy. It had sounded serious but that didn’t mean much. He scanned the crowd, searching any sign of the accountant before focusing on Mason once more.

  “I’m just here to pay my respects,” he assured Zoe’s unofficial bodyguard. “I promise I won’t make a scene.”

  “Really?” Zoe’s voice said skeptically from behind Mason. Both men turned. She had somehow extricated herself from the cloud of board members to take them both unawares.

  “Come on, Zoe,” Lucas said in a low voice. “Give me a little credit.”

  “You ran out of credit with me a long time ago,” she told him flatly.

  Mason felt the phone in his pocket vibrate as a new call came in. He was sure it was his father again. He pressed it into his thigh and hoped no one would notice.

  “I came here to say that I’m really sorry about your dad. And I know you probably don’t want to see me right now, but I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay.” There was a sincerity to Lucas’s remarks that helped Mason realize why Zoe had fallen for this guy once upon a time.

  “Of course I’m not okay,” Zoe hissed. “My father’s dead. Your father killed him and you just can’t seem to get it through your head that I don’t want to see you again. Ever. Why can’t you just leave me the hell alone?”