Marcus: The M Series, Book Three

by Ryanne Anthony

  I got another chill. They have to be too damn old for that now. No, they weren't because as far away as they are, we can still hear them. Yet another chill flows as the others in the room finally figure out what is happening.

  “Are they... I know they aren't... oh, no... Not in my house,” Joshua shouts.

  “Hell, yeah!” Matthew laughs. “I feel so much better about getting to my sixties!”

  I smack him on the head.

  “Good idea,” Rachel murmurs the snarls. “Thomas, move your ass.”

  Thomas runs out the door with Rachel hot on his tail. They won't make it the mile to their house.

  Monica laughs. “What the hell just happened here? What is wrong with the old people?”

  “Hey,” Lil shouts, scowling.

  “Sorry,” Monica blushes, trying hard to stop her giggles.

  “We better go back to the hospital, Marcus,” Joshua murmurs, still stunned.

  “Um... no... I think I'm going to sit here and wait.”

  “For what?”

  “For my in-laws to finish... fucking!”

  “What are you talking about? They left,” Ethan says.

  “I guarantee they are in their truck,” Lil chuckles. “In the driveway.”

  Every head turns to Lil. She grins.

  “Pent-up emotions from the day. It needs to be released and most times, a willing partner will do the trick. Come on, neither of you participate in angry, tribal sex?”

  “Mother,” Ethan reddens.

  “What? We're all adults in healthy sexual relationships. Caspar and I have on occasion –”

  “LILLIAN ELAINE WALLACE HARVEY REED,” Tom shouts. “I am begging you not to finish that sentence!”

  Lil smirks. “Did you think your generation invented sex to have children or for entertainment, Doctor Harvey? You are aware your father and I had sex to get you and your siblings here, aren’t you?”

  Everyone shudders and looks at the floor.

  “Oh, my God... please go check to see if Rachel and Thomas are... finished,” Joshua whispers to me.

  “If Caspar wasn’t working right now, we’d be releasing some tension as loudly as Katie and Stephen are right now. I’m sure Thomas and Rach aren’t quiet, either.”

  “Kill me now,” Evelyn groans.

  “Me, too,” Ethan mumbles.

  “Hypocrites. None of you care when you disappear, like to a bathroom... especially the one off Marcus and Mariah's foyer. Isn't that right, Monica and Tom?”

  Monica reddens and Matthew laughs so hard he turns purple. “God! I love her,” he gasps. We stare at him until he stops then one by one, smack him somewhere.

  My cell rings. Everyone quiets.

  “Marcus Cannon.”

  “Dr. Cannon, this is Arthur Wall, Dr. Henderson's intern.”

  “Yes, Dr. Wall?”

  “Dr. Henderson asked that I call to inform you that Mrs. Cannon is out of surgery and he would like to discuss the results. Are you in the hospital, sir?”

  “No, I'm not, but I can be there in a few minutes.”

  “Dr. Henderson will see you in the ICU conference room when you arrive.”

  I end the call and stare at the phone. “The surgery is over.”

  “And?”

  “No 'and,' Joshua. He just said Melvin wants to discuss the results… in the conference room.”

  “N-not in her room,” Tom croaks.

  I shake my head.

  “What,” Ethan shouts. “What does it mean to go to the conference room?”

  “It means they have something difficult to tell you,” I mumble as I stand. “And they don’t want to do it in front of the patient, in case they understand and withdraw. Or you become emotional; they don’t want the patient to be affected by it.”

  I slowly walk to the door and out to Joshua’s car where I sit on the passenger's side. I close my eyes and think of Mariah's beautiful face and voice that sings to our children when they're sick or sleepy.

  * * *

  We arrive at the hospital, and exit the elevator on the ICU floor. No one says a word. Nathan and Lisa are already waiting in the room. I sit at the table and stare at the floor, dreading Melvin's face.

  As we wait, Mother, Dad, Rachel and Thomas show up and quietly sit. Mandy gives Mother coffee and she sips it silently.

  A nurse rushes in and beckons Thomas. She whispers something at his ear and he looks at her strangely.

  “Are you sure,” Thomas asks in a high pitched voice.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I can't... I have to speak to my son-in-law. Give us a minute,” Thomas says. She leaves and he closes the doors.

  “Marcus.”

  I look up at his face. He looks flushed and confused.

  “What is it,” I ask.

  “I'm afraid...” Thomas shakes his head and sighs.

  “What, Pops,” Tom asks.

  “The FBI wants to talk to Marcus.”

  “No fucking way,” Matthew shouts. “Why?”

  “Let's find out,” Ethan says. “No one says a word. Including you, Marcus, unless I say it's okay, and then you give short, clipped answers. Do not elaborate.”

  Ethan opens the doors and beckons to someone. A man and a woman in business attire walk in. Matthew sits next to me on one side and Ethan sits on the other.

  “Who is Dr. Marcus Alexander,” the man asks.

  “I am.”

  “You're Mariah Cannon's husband?”

  “Marcus Alexander Cannon. I’m known as Dr. Alexander here to avoid confusion with my father, the other Dr. Cannon.”

  They sit across from me. The man leans forward with his badge and shows it to me.

  “Dr. Cannon, I'm Special Agent Rhodes, this is Special Agent Fleming, FBI. We’d like to ask you a couple of questions. We have a suspect in custody in connection with your wife's alleged kidnapping. He is claiming you set the entire thing up.”

  Lil shrieks, grabs her cell then runs from the room. I lean forward in my chair and put my head down. This cannot be happening.

  “Are you serious, Rhodes,” Matthew snarls.

  “I am, Supervisory Agent Cannon, sir. Why are you here?”

  “Dr. Alexander is my brother, Agent Rhodes. Does Section Chief Collins know you're here questioning Dr. Alexander?”

  “Guzman claims Dr. Cannon called Ms. Elliott to let her know he had to leave that night and it would be a perfect time to put their reconciliation plan in play. He says Dr. Cannon wanted his wife dead. Is that true, Dr. Cannon?”

  “No,” I croak out.

  Rhodes: “Were you involved with Ms. Elliott?”

  “No.”

  Rhodes: “Never?”

  Ethan: “Don't answer that.”

  Rhodes: “And you are?”

  “Ethan Harvey; Dr. Cannon's counsel.”

  Fleming: “Why do you need a lawyer, Dr. Cannon?”

  “Don't answer that.”

  Rhodes flips through his note pad. “According to Ms. Elliott's parents, you were once engaged to their daughter and you dumped her for your current wife, and now you’re regretting that decision. They tell us you were begging Ms. Elliott to come back to you. Any truth to this?”

  “For the record, it’s Dr. Elliott. And Marcus, don't answer that.”

  “Were you considering leaving your wife, Dr. Cannon?”

  I look at Ethan. He nods.

  “No.”

  “Were you having an affair?”

  Ethan nods.

  “No.”

  Agent Fleming pipes in. “When was the last time you spoke to Dr. Elliott?”

  Ethan nods.

  “July 13th, 2011.”

  “Very specific, Dr. Cannon. How do you know that date?”

  “My client has an eidetic memory,” Ethan answers. “Photographic, you might say.”

  Fleming: “Is that right? Then he should be able to tell us whether he's met Mr. Guzman before.”

  Ethan nods.

  “No.”r />
  “Mr. Guzman is claiming you did.” She pulls out a note pad. “He says he met you on June 23rd with Dr. Elliott and a Mr. Flores to go over the plan for Mrs. Cannon's kidnapping.”

  Yeah, right. If I’d met that fucker, I’d have been in jail already for taking his life.

  Ethan blows out a deep breath. “You want to know where Dr. Cannon was on June 23rd? Go to the maternity floor, room 315. The woman in there can tell you exactly where he was, that entire day and what he did, along with everyone else in this room, including Agent Cannon. Ask Section Chief Collins, as well.”

  “Okay, we will. But before I ask her or them, why doesn't Dr. Cannon fill us in?”

  Ethan crosses his arms and nods. “Answer.”

  “At home, helping my very pregnant wife prepare our home for one of her best friend's baby shower, all day.”

  Agent Fleming frowns. “On June 23rd?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you never left?”

  “No; I wasn’t even on call. My wife needed me, so I traded a shift with John Brewer.”

  Agent Rhodes' cell goes off. He looks at the ID, and grimaces as he answers. “Rhodes.”

  A man screams at him through the phone. He winces. “No, sir ... No, sir ... Yes, sir ... No, we didn't know that ... I see ... Right away, sir.”

  He ends the call and folds his note pad. “Dr. Cannon, FBI Director Reed asks that Agent Fleming and I extend our apologies for disrupting you at this difficult time. Please be assured no one from the Bureau will take this line of questioning with you again during our investigation.” He stands. “Fleming?”

  Agent Fleming scowls and leaves the room. Rhodes apologizes again and follows.

  I turn to Lil. “Caspar is with the FBI, too?”

  “Don't answer that,” Ethan says.

  I look at Matthew. He looks around the room and whistles.

  “This damn day is just full of surprises. Is there anything else I don't know?”

  The door bursts open and Melvin looks around the room. His eyes are lit up and he's breathless.

  “Marcus! Come with me! Come, Nathan! All the doctors!”

  Nathan and I follow behind him. He leads us to a room where Mariah is lying in a bed. Her head is bandaged and she's covered from her neck to her ankles. We gown and mask then enter the room.

  “Watch this,” Melvin says, excitedly. He knuckles her chest; she responds. We gasp. Next he moves to her feet and he scrapes the bottom of her left foot with a pen and she recoils.

  “Why send us to the conference room, Melvin? What's the bad news?”

  “Even though she's responding to pain, she wasn’t when I asked Dr. Wall to call you. She's still not ready to waken. Her latest CT shows minimal reduction in the swelling. Good news is that it's not increasing. Bad news is that it's not decreasing as fast as I would like. However,” he grins. “…do you notice something missing?”

  I look at my wife for several moments then notice it: silence. “The vent's gone...”

  “That's right!” Melvin grins wider. “She's been off for forty-seven minutes. She's breathing entirely on her own.”

  Everyone cheers and hugs one another as I stare at my remarkable wife. She is one hell of a fighter.

  “Her blood pressure is still low, but it's getting better. As you know, we wait for the brain to heal itself but I'm optimistic on the time, seeing that she's already responding to stimuli. She's scheduled for another CT at seven a.m. Go home and get some rest, Marcus. Come back in the morning. I'll stay with her and if anything changes, I will call you right away.”

  I glance at my watch. I'm surprised to see it's two in the afternoon. I suddenly feel very tired and ravenous. I haven’t eaten since Saturday; it’s now Tuesday afternoon.

  “I'm going to see our children. You should get some rest, too, Melvin.”

  He nods. “I'm going to the on-call room in a few minutes. Dr. Wall is taking the first shift with Mariah. He’ll awaken me if something develops.”

  I thank him again. Tom says he's staying with Dr. Wall and urges me to go. Ethan elects to go back to Alissa and says he'll take over for Tom at nine tonight, when Alissa's visiting hours are over, and will stay the night. I tell them I’ll return at eight in the morning, after I have breakfast with my kids. I go back to the conference room to tell our waiting family, who, after Melvin explains the significance of Mariah's reactions, shout for joy.

  After getting back to Joshua's, and showering and putting on real clothes for the first time in two days, I spend some time with my children, who miss their mother horribly.

  I tell them their mother is ill but assure them she is getting better. They become sad, but perk up some when Uncle Josh tells them they can stay with his boys until their Mommy feels better. This goes over very well with Lila, who loves Joshua and Mandy's 'real' doll, eight-month-old Tyler.

  The twins are not that easily distracted… until Uncle Josh brings out the water slide and Sidra passes out popsicles. I sit at a garden table and prop my head up on my fist, watching all the boys play on the slide and attempting to ignore the armed security guards Matthew still had stationed at Joshua’s.

  “Marcus, go in the guest room and get some sleep. I'll charge your phone and come get you if it rings,” Mandy murmurs when I start to nod off.

  I shiver. “Not that green room,” I mumble, standing.

  She laughs and follows me inside. “No, Matthew is braving it in there. Try the blue room at the top of the stairs.”

  I smile and give her my phone as Joshua enters. “Okay. Thanks Mandy.”

  “Off for a nap, Cramp,” Joshua asks after he kisses his wife.

  “Yeah,” I mumble again as I walk to the stairs.

  “I'm off too, Mandy. I need a couple of hours. Will you be all right?”

  “Just fine, babe. You better go and make sure Marcus doesn't pass out on the stairs.”

  After that, all I remember is taking off my shoes in the blue room.

  May 11, 2018

  I searched the fridge. I wasn’t hungry but I sure as fuck didn't want to have this conversation. Think...

  “Where is everybody?” I managed to get out.

  Mariah sighed. “I gave Sidra the night off because Mom has the kids.”

  “When are they coming back?”

  “They'll be here before you come home tomorrow. You're changing the subject, Cannon. You're not listening to me.”

  Shit. 'Cannon.' Not Good. Ever.

  “I heard you, baby.”

  Mariah became quiet and I turned to her. She had her arms crossed while glaring at me.

  “Do this for me. Do you really want more kids after this?”

  “If you feel that strongly, why don't you have a tubal ligation?”

  “Don't you think my body has been through enough,” she screeched, sweeping a hand over her growing belly.

  “Baby, do you realize what you're asking? I'll be giving up the ability to make babies. Forever.”

  “Listen to me! I don't want any more children!” Her eyes narrowed. “Are you planning on leaving me, Cannon? You have an eye on some young chick to make five more babies with, already?”

  Instant rage boiled in my blood. I slammed the fridge door then glared at my beautiful wife.

  “That is NOT funny, Hollander,” I shouted. “You will not even think that ever again, let alone say it! Understand?”

  Mariah startled when she heard my tone and her maiden name. She knew she went too far with that statement and I was ready for a fight. On cue, she left the room, stormed up the back stairs and a minute later our bedroom door slammed.

  I texted Rockford/ooVoo to all the men so we can chat in video messaging.

  “Make it quick, Cramp. I'm a little busy here,” a bare-chested Matthew says as a woman giggled in the background.

  “This is personal, Toad. Can you leave the room or something? And put a fucking shirt on!”

  “Fine! I'll be right back, sweets. Don't move from that spot. I like
that position you're in.”

  The woman giggled again as Matthew grabbed a shirt and stood. We were given a full frontal view of him, to the groans and protests of everyone logged on.

  “Matthew,” Tom shouts. “Damn it!”

  “Come on, man,” Ethan laughs.

  “I'm about to have my dinner, jackass,” Nathan yells.

  “I'm fucking blind now! I really did not need to see your junk,” Rob snapped.

  Matthew laughs. “Jealous much?” He picked up his tablet and went into another room. “All right, what is it, Cramp?”

  “Wait... Russell hasn't joined on yet.”

  “Damn it, she's getting cold in there, fucker!”

  “Pay your gas bill and she won’t,” I retorted.

  Russell finally joined the chat. “Hey, what's up, guys,” he says, grinning and adjusting his shirt. “What did I miss?”

  “Matthew, full frontal,” Ethan snorted.

  “I saw that enough when we were dorm mates. Fucker and his ‘air-drying’ while primping.”

  All of us managed a chuckle.

  “Mm-hmm… Let’s get this done, guys,” Russell murmurs while grinning and looking away from the camera. “My wife is waiting for me. Damn, girl… whoo… I’ll be right back. Talk, Cannon. Now.”

  That’s not my sister! That’s not my sister! He was so dead!

  “Damn it, am I the only one not fucking right now?”

  Nathan, Tom, Joshua, Matthew, Russell, and Ethan all look away from the cameras at the same time.

  “You all are a bunch of horn dogs.”

  “I'm not. I'm still at work.” Rob says, laughing. I can see him going over paper work on his office desk. “Babies don't come on a nine to five schedule, as you all know.”

  Russell chuckled, walking to another room. “Our kids are at Rachel's and you and Cookie aren't taking advantage of that? Like we all are?”

  “Dead, Stretch,” Matthew murmurs. “Still my sister.”

  “Mariah and I had a fight,” I confessed, trying to forget that Russell… touches… my sister.

  “A fight? On kid-free night,” Joshua laughed.

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, why?”

  I took a deep breath. “She asked me to...” I pinched my brow.

  They stared at me. “What?” Rob says, frustrated.