Fortune, page 13
“I don’t want to harm her, darling. But I need to see your father. So take me to him and make sure I get in to see him, and your girlfriend lives.”
“Don’t listen to her, Ryan,” Ruby said. “Don’t unleash her on your brothers and sister. They’ve been through enough. We can handle this right here and right now.”
Worry for Ruby rushed through me. She was good. A trained cop. But my mother was a psychopath.
“Give me the gun, Mother.”
“I can’t, my sweet son. I’m sorry.”
“If you love me the way you say you do, please give me that gun.”
“I do love you, Ryan. More than you’ll ever know.”
“Then take the gun off Ruby. This has nothing to do with her.”
“Wrong,” Wendy said. “This involves all of you as well as your father. And I can assure you this. Someone is going to die tonight. It’s up to you, Ryan, who.”
I gasp as I jerk forward and open my eyes.
“Stop, Daddy. Please.”
“Breathe, baby.”
I inhale, exhale. Three times. I won’t have another panic attack. I know this. In my soul, I know this. But this story… It’s incredible. My father, my mother…in so much danger.
“I’ll tell you the rest later,” Dad says.
“No. We’ve started this, and I’ve got to finish it. I’ve got to know the secrets to the family’s past. If I don’t, I won’t have a future.”
“Ava…”
“Please, Daddy. Just continue.” I grip the arms of the recliner once more.
Up to me? Perspiration dripped from my face, but I held myself rigid. “The only person who might die tonight is you, Mother. You will not hurt Ruby. Now hand that gun to me.” I extended one hand to her.
“I might very well be the one to die tonight. And after I have the closure I seek, I will not hesitate to accept my fate. But to get to that point, I need to see your father. You will take me to the main house and get me in to see him. Now go get dressed and bring her some pants.”
“Hell no. I’m not leaving her.”
“Have it your way.” She gestured to Ruby. “We’ll come along with you.”
Once Ruby and I were dressed, Wendy held the gun on me while I phoned my brothers and my sister, asking them to meet me at the main house where Talon and Jade lived. I can’t even remember the excuse I used, but I was desperate, and they all agreed to meet.
“I’m sorry,” I said to my father and my siblings once we’d gotten into the main house. “I had no choice.”
My esteemed mother was holding on to Ruby, the gun pressed into her side. Ruby was a trouper. She’d mouthed to me that she could overtake Wendy while we were walking to the main house, but I’d begged her with my eyes not to. She must have understood. I would not take a chance with Ruby’s life.
I couldn’t lose her. Not when happiness was finally within reach.
Ruby hadn’t flinched once, and though I knew she was nervous, no one could tell by her demeanor. This was far from the first time she’d been held at gunpoint…although perhaps the first time by someone as psychotic as my biological mother.
“We understand,” my father said, turning to Wendy. “How did you get out of lockup?”
“Come now, Brad,” she said. “You know me better than that. You know I could have gotten out at any time.”
My father nodded, clearing his throat. “Yes. I know.”
“Look,” I said. “I got you here. Now state your business. My family has been through enough these past several weeks. Let’s just get this over with.”
“I am part of your family too, Ryan,” she said. “Or have you forgotten?”
How I wished I could forget. But I didn’t voice the words. I couldn’t risk setting her off, not when she still had Ruby at gunpoint.
“Your business is with me,” my father said. “Let Ruby go.”
“My business is with all of you,” she said. “I came to finally get what’s coming to me.”
“You said you wanted closure,” I reminded her.
“Yes,” she said. “By the time I’m done here, we will all have closure.”
My brothers and sister had been uncharacteristically silent throughout this. They stood together on one side of the large office, Jade holding tight onto Talon’s hand. Thankfully, Melanie had gone to a doctor’s appointment and wasn’t available.
Joe’s eyes betrayed his thoughts. He was getting ready to strike.
I shook my head slightly at him, hoping I was conveying my message for him to stand down. I couldn’t risk Ruby being hurt. But I knew my big brother. Once he set his mind to something—
“Take that gun off my daughter, Wendy.”
Marjorie gasped as we all turned our gazes to the doorway. Theodore Mathias—your grandfather—stood there, gun in his hand, pointed at Wendy’s head.
I gasp again. “My grandfather? The one Mom never talks about?”
Dad clears his throat. “Yes.”
“He was there? But—”
“Let me finish, Ava, if you want me to. Then you may ask your mother about her father.”
I nod, closing my eyes once more.
Wendy didn’t turn around to face him. “I figured you’d show up, Theo. You’re the one person who’s better at covering his tracks than even I am.”
“I learned from the best. Now get that gun off my daughter, or I’ll splatter your brains all over this room.”
“You don’t have the balls,” Wendy said.
Was she kidding? This was the man who’d spent the better part of his lifetime stealing and torturing people—
I clench all over. “Stealing and torturing people?” I gasp out.
No wonder my mother never talks about her father. Just what the hell am I descended from?
“Yes,” Dad says, and his voice is eerily calm. “Theodore Mathias is one of the men who abused and tortured Uncle Talon. Perhaps we—”
I steel myself. I’ve gone too far to back out now. “No, Daddy. Finish. I promise I won’t interrupt again.”
And I vow to keep that promise, no matter what I hear.
According to what Theo had told Ruby, she’d been the reason for his downfall. He should have been thrilled to do her in.
“You have something in place, don’t you, Mother?” I said. “A fail-safe. Something that will take my father and Mathias down if you die.”
She smiled. “I always knew you were brilliant, darling.”
Of course. That was why my father and the others hadn’t blown her head off years ago.
I regarded my siblings. Talon’s face had gone pale. Blankly pale. He’d come face-to-face with the last of the men who’d tortured him all those years ago, and paralysis seemed to grip him. Jade snuggled into him, rubbing his shoulder, soothing him.
But no one was here to soothe Joe. His eyes were on fire, his jaw tensed.
Somehow, I had to stop him. A gun was still trained on the woman I loved, and I didn’t trust the woman wielding it any more than I trusted the man threatening her.
“Mother,” I said as calmly as I could. “If you love me as you say you do, please let Ruby go.”
“My audience is with all of you,” she said. “I will not.”
“You will,” Mathias said.
But before he could strike, Wendy moved with snakelike stealth.
I jumped at a gunshot.
A bullet from the gun previously pointed at Ruby had shot into Theo’s stomach. He fell backward in the doorway, blood gushing from his abdomen. The metallic and raw stench permeated the air.
Did the woman have eyes in the back of her head? He could have easily shot her first.
It dawned on me then. My mother hadn’t been lying when she said she might be the one to die today.
She was ready to go, which made her even more dangerous.
I had to figure out what her angle was. She might be planning to take all of us with her.
Ruby fell to her father’s side and checked his pulse. He muttered some words to her that I couldn’t make out, and then he grabbed her other hand.
“It’s weak,” she said. “I don’t think he’s going to make it.”
Then Joe struck. He swiftly walked forward and raised his foot.
“Joe!” I said.
He lowered his foot, staring at me.
“Let him,” Ruby said, dropping her father’s hand. “His pulse is barely there. He’s as good as dead already.”
But Joe backed off as Talon seemed to reanimate. He stepped forward as well. “You bastard!” he yelled. “You fucking bastard.” He knelt down and pulled up Theo’s left sleeve, showing the tattoo of the phoenix. “Fucking evil bastard.” He curled his hand into a fist, ready to punch.
Joe got a grip then. He pulled Talon up. “He’s gone, Tal. It’s over.”
Talon stood, nodding. “You’re right. This isn’t who I am anymore. Good riddance.”
I kept one eye on my mother. She still had a gun in her hand, though she wasn’t pointing it toward anyone at the moment.
Ruby sat, staring into nothingness. I kneeled in front of her. “Baby, are you okay?”
She nodded, gave a sniffle, but no tears came. “He saved my life.”
“Maybe. I’m not sure Wendy was going to hurt you.”
“I’m calling 9-1-1,” my father said.
That jarred Wendy back into action. She pointed the gun right at him. “You’re doing no such thing. Besides, he’s already dead. I never miss.”
He put the phone down. “All right. We’ll do this your way, Wendy. What do you want?”
She closed her eyes for a second, still holding the gun, and then opened them. “I was always jealous. Even when I was a tiny child, before I even met you, Brad. Did you know that one of the symbols in alchemy for copper is what we know as the female symbol?”
“Wendy,” my father said, “what are you—”
“Did you ever figure it out? The symbol on our rings?”
“The symbol was nonsense,” Brad said. “Now put that gun down, and we’ll talk about this.”
“Even then I knew I was different. My parents didn’t understand me. The future lawmakers never understood me. Only you, Brad. You knew exactly what I wanted and needed. Sometimes I dream about how you used to tie me—”
“Damn it, Wendy!”
“Our son was conceived in love.” She glanced to me. “You do know that, don’t you? I was bound for your father’s pleasure when he planted the seed that became you.”
“Wendy!”
She turned back toward my father’s voice, laughing. “Oh, you knew me, Brad. You destroyed me, and I let you. I coveted you. We were soul mates. But you never figured out the symbol.”
“It’s the symbol for evil,” I said. “The devil.” I pointed to Mathias’s now motionless body, blood seeping all over the hardwood floor. “He figured it out. So did Larry Wade. And so did we.”
“Of course you would, my brilliant son.” She smiled—a sickeningly sweet smile, right out of a slasher flick. “I contorted it a little, but at its center was the symbol for female…and the symbol for evil. But it’s also the symbol for copper. Do you know why that makes sense?”
No one spoke. I looked around. Jade was holding on to Talon. Joe’s eyes moved back and forth. He was planning something. If I could take my mother down, get that gun away from—
“Copper is a soft metal, you know. Soft, like a female. Not hard like iron. Like a male.”
I gathered my courage. My father might be shot in the process, but—
“And copper turns green. Green, the color of envy and jealousy.” She smiled again. “I never was good at sharing. I always envied others who had what I wanted. So I took things. I made people do things to suit my purposes. But it was never enough. Never enough, Brad, because I never really had you. I could have forced you to be with me long ago. We both know that. But I didn’t. I wanted you to come to me, to admit the truth about our connection. That we were always meant to be together.” Her fingers tensed around the firearm. “I’m done waiting. Now I will finally have what is mine. You and I are going to be together, Brad. The two of us and our son. One way or the other.”
Panic shredded through me. She truly was crazy. Not that I’d ever doubted that revelation. But then—
The memory…
“Never. I’ll never believe that. You’ll pay for this, Brad. I swear to God you’ll pay.”
What she’d said after that emerged into my mind. I could hear her say the words in the voice I now knew as I pressed my ear to my bedroom door.
“You and I are going to be together, Brad. The two of us and our son. One way or the other.”
My father was no longer enough for her. She wanted us both.
I suppressed a shudder as my skin chilled around me like a cloak of ice.
She turned to me slightly, still holding the gun at my father. “It’s your choice, my beautiful son. Either we’re all together in this life…or the next. What will it be?”
“I’m not sure”—my voice cracked—“what you mean.” In reality, I had an inkling of exactly what she meant. My heart thundered, and a wave of sickness traveled through me.
“Darling, you’re not a simpleton. You’re the son of two geniuses. You know very well what I mean. You choose. Do you and I and your father stay together here, without the rest of these people, or do the three of us go together into the next life?”
My blood pulsed in my head like a freight train. Was she truly asking me to choose whether my siblings or I lived?
No.
I’d just found happiness with Ruby.
But Talon was healing. Joe and Melanie were having a baby. Marjorie was young, so young, only twenty-five years old.
My father was dying anyway, and Wendy’s life wasn’t worth anything to anyone.
But my life…
Damn it, I wanted my life! I wanted a life with Ruby, with our children, with my brothers and sister. My true siblings, even if I’d been borne to this lunatic.
“Wendy,” my father interjected. “I will go with you into the next life. Our son deserves a life here. Don’t put him through this.”
“Why not? It’s time to find out where his loyalty lies.”
“You’re asking him to choose between his own life and his siblings. It’s not fair.”
“What if the three of us go off somewhere together?” I said, the words coming out rapid and jumbled. “You don’t have to kill my brothers and my sister. We can keep them away from us. You guys will leave us alone, right?”
“O-Of course,” Marjorie stammered. “Won’t we?”
My two brothers and Jade said nothing. Even Joe was speechless, his face pale and his eyes…something different about his eyes, something I’d never seen before. Fear. He was scared.
“No,” Wendy said. “My mind is made up. I deserve closure, and this is how I aim to get it. I’ve waited long enough to have my family together, and I won’t have anyone fucking it up for me.”
I knew the answer in my heart before I voiced it. Talon, Joe, and I had recently had a conversation about the horror Talon had lived through. He’d told us that he’d have gone through it willingly if it meant saving us from the same fate. Joe and I had both agreed. We would do the same.
And I would do that now.
“I choose my siblings.” My voice was strangely monotonous, but it didn’t crack. “They will stay. We will go.”
“No!” Ruby and Marjorie shouted together.
Ruby stood, leaving her father’s lifeless body and running to my arms.
“Easy,” I said, holding her tightly. “I love all of you.”
Joe finally came out of his stupor. “We’re not going to let this happen, Ry.”
I eyed my mother, who still had the gun trained on our father. “It’s okay. I’ll be okay. May I please say something to each of them first?”
“Of course, dear.”
“Joe.” I looked to my big brother, trying to draw in his strength.
“Hey, you wait. This isn’t going down like this,” Joe said. “I’ll fix it. Somehow.”
Always the big brother. But he couldn’t fix this. “We don’t have a choice. You’re having a baby. You need to live. You’re the bravest and strongest of all of us, and you’re going to be a hell of a father, Joe. Tell your child about me. Please.”
I shifted my gaze to Talon, wise beyond his years, mostly from losing his innocence at such a tender age. “And Tal, you’ll always be my hero. Be happy. Please. Every minute.”
“How can I be happy if I lose my little brother?”
“Because you have your wife. You have Joe and Marj. You’ll have children someday.”
“Ryan, please!” Ruby shouted.
“Baby. Try to understand.”
She gulped back sobs, still holding on to me as I turned to my sister, who represented youth and joy. “Marj, you’re so young, so full of life and energy. Find your life and live it. For me.”
My baby sister said nothing, just bit on her lip, sobbing.
I turned to the woman I loved. She nodded slightly at me, and an understanding passed between us.
“I love you, baby,” I said. “You’ve shown me things I didn’t think were possible. I’ll always love you.”
My mother pointed her gun at my heart.
I pushed Ruby away as hard as I could, and she fell to the floor, sliding against her father’s body.
I closed my eyes and absorbed every fear I’d known in my short life. What would it feel like to die?
“No.” My father’s voice. “You will not kill our son. Not before you kill me.”
“Fine.”
I opened my eyes. She pointed the gun back at my father. I breathed a sigh of relief without meaning to.
“You may have your last request, Brad. You know I could never deny you anything.”
She fired the gun, and my father slumped over his desk. Screams echoed, as if they were being yelled from the top of Pikes Peak.
