There was a long pause on the other end of the line. I assumed it was because Rory was taking the phone to her brother but when she said, “He’s… he’s…” I heard her voice crack a bit and then there was a male voice saying something to her that I couldn’t make out. My eyes automatically swung to Con.
“He’s okay,” Con reassured me. “But whatever happened in your house—”
I nodded because the last thing I wanted to do was think about what had happened to my young nephew before I’d run into that room.
“Con?” A man’s voice came on the phone.
“Yeah,” Con said as he gently took the phone from me. “How’s Christopher?”
“Hanging in there,” King said. “Rory’s been taking good care of him.”
His comment had me realizing that not only was Rory likely still in the room but that the man, King, was probably keeping his distance from Christopher.
Which meant Christopher wasn’t doing well at all.
“Can I see them?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure who I was asking—the man on the other end of the phone, Con, or the doctor who was standing quietly off to the side entering something into a computer.
“King, can you bring them down here?” Con asked.
I held my breath as I waited for the response. Despite being the only person who’d ever really taken care of first Christopher, then Rory, the sad fact was that I had absolutely no control of the present situation. They were my kids but if I made a scene about that, the cops would surely be called in. Hell, maybe they already had been. Maybe they were even now waiting outside the room to haul my ass off to jail just as soon as I was physically healthy enough.
“On our way,” King said, then the call disconnected.
“Dr. Stern, can you give us a minute?” I heard Con ask as I let my eyes slide shut. Exhaustion covered me like the heaviest of blankets, but I knew I needed to keep my senses. I needed to be working on a plan to get myself and Christopher and Rory out of there.
“Micah—”
God, I hated the sound of my name on his lips. It sounded like a caress or something.
“You can go now,” I interjected. I forced myself to look at the man with all the hate I could muster. I had the pleasure of watching his expression falter.
“Micah, I just want to hel—”
“Help?” I finished for him. “Like you helped Brady?” I asked snidely. “No, wait, you sent a check. That’s right. That’s how you helped. Lots and lots of checks that kept getting bigger and bigger. That made up for my brother not being able to walk ever again. And who cares when he stroked out and lost the ability to talk… you sent a check.”
I should have been satisfied that every word was like a physical blow, but I found no pleasure in spewing the hate I’d kept buried deep inside me for so long. I actually felt a shimmer of guilt go through me as I shook my head and fell silent.
“Micah…”
My frustrated laugh felt rusty. “Just go, Con or Zeus or whatever the hell your name is. Just go. I need your help like I need a hole in the head.”
“I’ll be outside,” Con murmured.
I could hear the quiet determination in his voice and knew what it meant. It meant I would need to go in for the kill if I had any hope of getting the man out of my life for good. I waited until he was near the door before I said, “Con.”
He paused and slowly turned to look at me as I continued. “Go ahead and let yourself believe you were the hero tonight but the only reason I was in that room, the only reason Christopher has to live with the torment of nearly being raped, is because of you.”
Con paled and shook his head in confusion.
“You couldn’t have spared one more check, huh?” I asked. “Brady dies and the guilt payments end. Well, what do you suppose happens when junkies don’t get the money they’ve come to depend on to keep them in enough drugs to knock out an elephant every month?”
I had the pleasure of watching Con’s expression darken and his hands fist even as he pulled in a sharp breath.
“They sell anything of value they have… anything.”
I fully expected him to say something… to argue with me, but to my surprise, he merely turned his back on me and walked away.
Just like he had so many years ago.
Thankfully, this time it didn’t hurt in the least.
Not at all.
Not even a little bit.
Liar.
Chapter Six
Con
So the kid knew how to throw more than just the physical kind of punch.
I felt like I’d taken a hard right to my kidney as I stumbled out of the room, Micah’s words playing on a loop in my head.