“Damn it, Dad, I do understand. And I’m grateful, but you know what? I just found out something about you that kind of makes my stomach turn.”
“As much as finding out your son and namesake has left your world to deal drugs?”
“Yeah. What I did was illegal and disgusting. What you did…? It’s worse.”
“And what might this imaginary thing be?”
“Treasure Island.”
No response.
Not that I expect one.
Finally, he clears his throat. “A book. By Robert Louis Stevenson.”
“A private island,” I counter. “Owned by Derek Wolfe.”
Silence on the other end of the line once more.
“You went there, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?”
Silence for the third time.
“Look, you have lost the right to judge me,” I say, clenching my teeth. “What I did was wrong on so many levels. I broke the law. I harmed people.”
“You did more than that, Trey. You ordered some people killed.”
“People the world is better off without.”
“Some would say that about you.”
His words are not lost on me. Sure, I got off alcohol. I went through therapy, I’m changing my life for the better. None of that erases what I did in the past.
Which is why I’m going back to LA.
I clear my throat. “I never visited Treasure Island,” I say in a robotic tone. “I never hunted women, tortured women, raped women.”
“Some of your girlfriends might say differently.”
Anger erupts in me. That snake-like rage that I work so hard to control. “I admit my mistakes, Dad. I let my rage get to me more than once with regard to women. But I never raped them. I never hunted them.”
“So then there are degrees of evil? Is that what you’re saying?”
What exactly am I saying? Are there degrees? Emily and a few others probably think I’m the devil himself. A testament to my name.
But Katelyn… The men who harmed her… The men like my father…
All of those women would probably say yes, there are degrees.
“Degrees aren’t the point, Dad. The point is that you went to that island.”
“Who says I went to that island?”
“A reliable source.”
“More reliable than your own father?”
“You really want to go there, Dad? I’ll take responsibility for my own actions. I’m not going to blame you or anyone else for the decisions I made. But take a good look in the mirror sometime. If your namesake had been happy, would he have made the decisions he made?”
“So I’m responsible for your happiness now?”
“You’re not responsible for anything but your own actions, just as I am. But take a look in the mirror,” I say again. “And tell me if you like what you see. Tell me if there isn’t a part of you that is responsible for what happened to your children.”
“Your brother and your sister are fine.”
I stop myself from letting out a guffaw. My brother and sister are far from fine. Not that I’ve talked to them anytime recently, but I do know they hold no love for our father.
“Maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t. They’re responsible for their own lives just as I’m responsible for mine. And just as you’re responsible for yours. Tell me, Dad, how did you escape going to prison?”
Silence.
“It’s a rhetorical question, after all. I know the answer. You pay people off.”
“You didn’t have a problem with me paying people off when it got you out of town.”
“Maybe I did have a problem with it. I’m coming back. I’m coming back to LA.”
“You’re not. If you come back here, you and I both know what will happen. You will not do that to your mother.”
I close my eyes. I don’t want to harm my mother. But the fact that he’s throwing her in my face really pisses me off. After what he’s done to her over the years.
I give myself a few seconds to cool off. I must stay focused.
Finally, “I’ve got red on my ledger, Dad.”
“Your ledger is nothing but red,” he says. “You come back here, and you’ll be killed within minutes.”
“No, I won’t be,” I say. “Because you are going to help me.”
“You think I have that kind of power?”
“I think,” I say, “you don’t want the entire world to know that you were on that island abusing women.”
“You can’t prove that.”
“As a matter fact, I can.”
Pollack may not be good for much, but he’s at least good for that. Plus… Katelyn’s going to be working for the Wolfes, and they must have information on all the men who visited that island.
“And I’m supposed to believe you because…”
“Because I know some of the men who were on that island, who played canary to stay out of prison.
Silence again, and this time for longer.
Good. I have his attention now.
“What the fuck do you want, Trey?”
“Your protection.” I inhale, exhale slowly. “I’m coming home.”
He sighs. “What do you need?”
“I’ve got my IDs. I was planning on taking a bus, but I got waylaid by someone who knew my street name. Apparently the bus isn’t any more anonymous than an airplane or renting a car. I decided to fly. I’ll take my chance using my fake IDs. I will be in LA by tomorrow.”