“Gavin was talking to my father.” I let the words hang in the air between us, not sure how to continue. She stared up at me, hurt and confused. “I promise you, Claire, I will fix all of this.”
She nodded her head and tried to wipe away her tears. She winced when her tube-covered hand met her injured eye. “Why didn’t you warn me about Gavin? You were always at the library. You must have known something.” She sniffled, and what remained of the fractured thing beating in my chest broke further.
I breathed out a heavy sigh. “When I involved myself in my father’s business, Gavin was a nobody. I warned you when we went to dinner. The library has a sordid history, but I didn’t think I needed to be any more specific than that. I would never expect them to contact one another directly.”
“Why would your father know who I am? Why would he care?” Her strength faded fast.
I had a lot of ideas, but she was hurt, and this was not the right time for this conversation. “I don’t know, baby, but I will find out.”
“Mason, I don’t want to lose my job. I love my job.” Fat tears blubbered down her cheeks, and I was sure the drugs in her system affected her enough that the details of our exchange would be hazy. We would talk again when she would remember. If she wanted to keep her job, that was fine. There wasn’t a place on earth we could run to and avoid this anyway. This problem needed to be solved head-on. The library was small potatoes and there wasn’t a single part of this city left untouched by my father’s influence.
“You don’t have to.” I assured her, running my fingers through her curly brown hair, twisting one of the curls around my finger possessively. “We’re going to get you all better and figure everything out. Let me handle Gavin and my father.”
“You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t be involved with them.” Her good eye drifted closed and I ran my hand across her undamaged cheek, savoring the feel of her being alive and talking to me.
“Everything will be okay, I promise. I will take care of everything.” I crooned the words like she was a small child. Not being able to hold her while she cried made me want to pull Charles out of the river and kill him again but slow this time. I couldn’t tell her yet, but my involvement was cemented. If my father had his sights set on her, I would need to get my hands dirtier than she could imagine before all of this ended.
I let her cry herself out and held her hand until she fell asleep. Leaving her side felt as if it might kill me, but with the information she gave me, I had no other choice. I stalked out of the hospital like an animal on the hunt. The cold air crashed against me, chilling my skin, but stoking the fire within me.
It was nearly midnight, and my first stop was Gavin Wolfe’s office downtown. It wasn’t far from the hospital, and I used the walk there to wrangle the rage burning inside me. I needed control, not a wild ball of fury. Gavin and the rest of the board of directors for the library, along with many of the city’s movers and shakers, had offices in the same high-rise.
I could find his home address easily enough without the theatrics of breaking in, but I wanted to send a message. The rotating door moved beneath my hand. How fortunate,this building remained unlocked twenty-four seven. I found Gavin’s name on the directory hanging on the wall. Riding the elevator up to the fifteenth floor, I achieved the control I searched for.
I approached his office, taking one deep breath before I kicked the thing off the hinges. The little man on the other side yelped in fear, before hardening his face and putting on a show of bravery. How convenient. I didn’t expect to find him there so late. “Mason, what are you doing here?” He tried to keep his voice steady, but it broke like a pubescent boy.
“I’m here because you made the piss poor choice of working for my father, and you’re letting yourlapse in judgment affect my girl.” I stopped directly in front of him, staring down at the pitiful bastard.
“No, I’m not—” he opened his mouth to continue bullshitting me, but I pulled out my gun, and he quickly shut up.
“Let me clarify things for you, Gavin. You will keep going exactly as you have been, but when daddy dearest calls, the information you give him will be exactly what I tell you to say. You will protect the librarian with your fucking life. If you don’t, if you double-cross me, I’m going to make what happened to Charles Gains look like an island retreat. Do you understand me?”
He laughed at me with a disparaging expression. “We all know you’ve gone soft, baby Sharp. No way am I backing a losing horse.”
I took the few steps separating us, picked up my gun and smashed the metal into his face. His head flew to the side, blood poured from his mouth, down his chin, staining the suit a man such as him could only afford with the dirty money lining his pockets. He made a miserable whimpering sound as he cupped his cheek.
I slapped his hand away, squeezing his jaw, painfully forcing it open. I shoved my gun in so hard I’m sure I cracked some of his teeth. “Remember, Gavin, I was my father’s heir apparent. Anything he can do to you, I will do better, with youthful exuberance. Do you understand?”
He nodded his head, his eye already blackening. Spit and blood dripped from his chin. I ripped the gun out of his mouth, pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket, and wiped off the barrel before dropping the used cloth back on him.
“Why bother? Why not kill me now?” he spat through the blood.
“Oh, Gavin! Why would I kill you? We’re friends! I’ve got big plans for you.” I left him bloodied and slobbering, unconcerned with cops or cameras. He wouldn’t call them. I rode the elevator to the bottom floor and stepped out into the cool night to return to my girl. I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed one of the two guys whose loyalty I was certain of. “Watch that prick, start a tap on his phone, hack his systems. I want to know if he takes a shit.”
“Yes, Mr. Sharp.”
“Thanks, and James?”
“Yes, Mr. Sharp?”
“Welcome back.”
The End