Descended (The Red Blindfold Book 4) (18 page)

On the other hand…
Damnit, why did there always have to be another hand?

My father was in
Houston, for the moment. There was no guarantee that he’d stick
around once Marc went back to Europe, which he was doing in the
morning.

I needed another hand
altogether for Jane.

Love of my life, mother
of my unborn child, the biggest and most devastating blown chance of
my life. Because I’d walked away. The first time ever, and I’d
done it with her. I’d been hurt and pissed off that she hadn’t
called me the second the pregnancy test came back positive. She’d
been so willing to banish me, while for a month she’d stood by the
douchebag husband who’d betrayed her.

It didn’t seem fair.
Well, welcome to real life.

It wasn’t fair that
my father showed up in Houston for Marc and ignored me every time I
told him to come home. But here he was in my apartment, showered and
using proper grammar like he’d come to meet royalty.

Thirty seconds later, I
heard him call my name.

I took my sweet time
walking back to the living room. Damned if I’d be summoned by the
asshole who’d turned my childhood into one long, dirt-colored
memory.

I entered the room with
a smirk and a refilled highball glass in my hand. The sooner this
tear-jerker of a meeting was finished, the better.

Marc got up from the
sofa. His face had changed, like he was holding in a secret he’d
sworn not to share. “I’m going to back to my hotel to rest up,”
he said. “Are we still on for dinner later?”

“Absolutely. I’ll
meet you there at 8:30. You coming, too, Dad?”
Dad.
Christ, I’d missed my calling as a Hallmark Channel actor.

“Nope,” he said.
“You boys go out and enjoy yourselves. I’ll just stay here and
keep out of trouble.”

Keep out of trouble?
Christ, either the man had changed or he was the same old liar. I’d
bet on liar every time.

He and Marc walked to
the door, shook hands, and hugged. I stood to the side trying not to
make some bitter remark. When Elijah and I were alone again, he put
his hand on my shoulder. Shocked, I stared straight at him. The man
hadn’t touched me in years, and it was all I could do not to shake
him off.

“My chef will make
you something to eat later,” I said.

“No need,” he said,
dropping his hand as if he could sense my tension. “I’ll just
make myself a sandwich. Listen – I got something to say.”

“Okay. Say it.”

“You and Pierce need
to bury the hatchet, and you gotta cut me some slack for being gone.”

I gave him a sidelong
look. “No, I don’t, on either point. I wasted ten days looking
for you while you wandered all over hell.”

“I had my reasons.”

“You always have your
reasons,” I said. “They haven’t changed in thirty years.”

He flashed me an ironic
smile and reached into his pocket. “Here,” he said, holding out a
wrinkled slip of paper. “This is for you.”

“Whatever it is –”

“Take it.”

I did. When I opened
it, it took me a second to realize it was a check. For fifty-one
thousand dollars.

Frowning, I glared at
him. “What you’d do this time? Smuggle cocaine? Sell a house that
didn’t belong to you?

“Nope.”

“Then where did it
come from?”

“I had some
outstanding debts to collect, savings here and there, accounts
stashed in different spots. A little retirement fund, you might say.
All legit.”

“Legit.”

He raised his palm.
“It’s yours, Son. Use it to expand your business. I couldn’t
help before but I can now.”

“You told Marc about
this?”

“I asked his opinion.
He said go on and give it to you.”

I could only stare at
him with my jaw slack. What the hell? Who was this guy?

Since when did he call
me
Son
? Had meeting
Marc caused a one-eighty in the old man’s brain?

Elijah’s girlfriend
Maggie had said he’d changed – well, maybe one small part of him
actually had. He’d never be the father I wanted, but tonight he was
making a gesture. And a gesture was a lot more than I’d ever
expected.

“You need this
money,” I said, trying to hand it back to him. “I don’t.”

His thick, gray
eyebrows shot up. “You don’t need it for business? Use it to pay
your debts, then.”

Debts? The man clearly
couldn’t fathom my living situation. “I’ve got no debts,” I
said. “Haven’t in years.”

“You sure about
that?” he said with an amused squint. “I told you about Robert
Breed. Nothing’s changed. He’s as pissed off as ever.”

“How come he hasn’t
done anything yet?”

“He’s patient.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m
not paying off some asshole who lost fair and square to me six years
ago.”

“Was it fair and
square?” my father asked, sounding like the most upstanding guy in
the world. “Would you do it again today?”

I almost said yes. Yes,
I
would
take every
last dime off a guy with a sick daughter, and I’d enjoy it.

Except that I wouldn’t.

I’d changed.
Evidently, Elijah and I both had. I wasn’t about to count on him,
but there was no doubt that the dirty check in my hand meant
something. As much as I hated myself for it.

“How much did he lose
to me?” I asked.

“I heard twenty grand
over a week. He had a gambling problem back then but he’s clean.
Doesn’t mean he isn’t bullshit about losing everything he had.”

I
did
remember the guy now. Not a bad pool player, but compulsive gamblers
never had much mental fortitude. He’d been sloppy and desperate,
and I’d been thrilled to relieve him of his last dollar even after
he’d showed me his daughter’s picture and told me his sob story.
Which was probably true, damnit.

Why did I have to have
a conscience? Or maybe it wasn’t my conscience, just the urge to
stop my past from driving around in a shitty pickup looking for me.

“You know what?” I
said. “Don’t unpack yet.”

“Why not?” Elijah
asked. “I thought you wanted me to stay.”

“You’re going to take that check
and make one last trip. And this time, you’re going do it for me.”

David never saw me
coming.

My friend Miles at the
Chimayo police department had called in a few favors for me. He
texted me the information, and I flew out on the red-eye on Sunday
night.

Jane might have frozen
me out of her life, but there was one more thing I could do for her.
Make sure her scum of an ex knew she had somebody on her side.

It didn’t matter what
he’d done – there was no guarantee he’d go to jail. I’d seen
Elijah get probation more times than I could count.

It only took an hour of
waiting in my rental car before the bastard got home. I gave him the
Scott treatment, backed him up against the wall outside his apartment
and towered over his squirrely little body with one hand around his
neck and the other squeezing a nice bruise into his shoulder. I’d
always regretted those fights at the Dead End, but all that
experience knocking guys around was coming in pretty handy.

David wasn’t as smart
as I’d thought. He actually thought he had a chance against
somebody five inches taller and probably forty pounds heavier. He
struggled like a worm on a hook, and when he realized he was
outmatched, he started spewing shit about Jane.

“You think she’s a
prize?” he grunted. “You know nothing about her.”

I laughed. “I know
how to take care of her,” I said, my teeth an inch from his nose.
“I know how to make her cum. You’re just the loser out on bail
for trying to hurt her.” I pounded him against the wall for
emphasis.

He winced as his head
bounced off the concrete. “She can’t have kids, d’you know
that? She’s totally barren, half a woman.”

Now he just sounded
nuts. “Wrong again, asshole.”

“Wrong?” he
sputtered. “She had a miscarriage after five months. My baby is
dead because of her. She worked too hard. She didn’t listen to me.
She saw four doctors and they all said she’ll never –”

I gave him a hard slam
that made him bite his tongue. He whimpered as blood welled at the
corner of his mouth. Hopefully he wouldn’t talk again for a year.

But in a way, I owed
the loser for telling me. No wonder things had gotten so crazy with
Jane. I hadn’t just walked away from her in a short-lived and
regrettable fit of anger, I’d walked away from a fucking miracle.

Never again. I didn’t
care if she hated me and wanted to see me dead. She was mine.

Ivy was late. As in
very late. As in officially a no-show.

She’s
about to start
, I texted.
You
alive?

No response. I lay on
the table with conducting jelly all over my stomach, watching the
doctor’s face. Ivy should have been there to hold my hand and tell
me everything would be all right, but instead I had to comfort
myself.

I hadn’t told my
mother I was pregnant because I didn’t know how yet. She’d dealt
with so much lately that an out-of-wedlock pregnancy seemed like a
surprise too far. I’d tell her when I passed the twelve-week mark.
If I was lucky enough to get there.

The
baby will be okay. You won’t miscarry again. You’ll have a
family, even if it’s just a family of two.

Any moment now, the
doctor would say something that would change my life. I was desperate
for good news. My pending divorce and Lily being charged couldn’t
exactly be counted.

The room was dark and
soothing. Shutting my eyes, I tried to breathe. I’d been through so
much heartache in the last two months, I couldn’t possibly deserve
any more.

The door opened, but I
kept my eyes shut. One breath after the other, in and out. The doctor
murmured something I couldn’t quite hear and continued the exam.
Another minute and I might actually fall asleep.

I felt a feather-light
touch on my cheek. “Ivy?” I said, and opened my eyes. My entire
life came to a stop.

I had to be dreaming.
Drex was not standing beside me. He couldn’t be.

“Hey,” he said.
“How’s our baby?”

At the sound of his
voice, my heart tripped and fluttered. Now I knew he was real. Every
worry vanished in an instant, and the world felt safe for the first
time I could remember.

“What are you doing
here?” I asked, my voice breaking.

“What do you think?”
he said. “It’s your first doctor’s appointment. I wouldn’t
miss it for anything.”

“But how did you –”
I stopped, already knowing the answer. “Ivy put you up to this,
didn’t she?” No wonder she hadn’t shown up. What a devious
little best friend.

“No,” Drex said. “I
got her number from – it’s a long story. Let’s just say when I
want something, I make it happen. I thought it was important to be
here.”

Just as soon as my
hopes soared to the sky, they plummeted to earth. “So you’re here
to be supportive.”

“Not just for that,
but yes. I am.”

The doctor’s pager
beeped. “Excuse me a minute,” she said, standing up. “I need to
make a quick call to the hospital.”

“Sure,” I said. I’d
never heard a pager with better timing.

She left and closed the
door behind her. The tension in the room was so heavy I could hardly
breathe.

Sitting down on the
edge of the table, Drex looked at me. “You’d better get used to
this, Jane,” he said.

Just that word,
Jane,
melted me completely. “What, ultrasounds?”

His eyes were soft and
amused. “No, this. Me, right here, all the time.”

“You don’t have to
be at every appointment –”

“I mean here, with
you.” Taking my hand, he gripped it tightly. I was lying in a
doctor’s office smeared with cold, sticky jelly while the heart of
our child beat inside me. It was the most perfect, romantic moment of
my life. Now that I had my memory back, I knew that for sure.

Everything we’d gone
through, everything we’d done to drive each other away – none of
it had kept us apart.

“We were meant to be
together,” he said. “I always knew that.”

I was not going to cry
in an imaging room. Wait a minute – yes, I was, and it was going to
feel great.

“I’m so glad you’re
here,” I said, tears trickling over my temples. “I was such a
jerk.”

He shook his head. He’d
never looked so sexy, or so commanding. “I was,” he said, wiping
away a tear with his thumb.

“Um, I was worse.”

He leaned over to kiss
my forehead. “You were pregnant, that’s all. Blame in on hormone
swings.”

“Was it hormone
swings, or Brooke?”

I felt him smile
against my skin. “Who’s Brooke?” He was still grinning when he
raised his head.

“No more memory jokes
or I’ll call for a nurse,” I said, trying to sound stern.

“To throw me out?”
He laughed. “She wouldn’t do it. I’m way too good-looking for
that.”

“Not up here, you’re
not. In Boston we like them pasty and weak.”

Pursing his lips, he
nodded slowly. “Give me time to get settled and I’ll work on
that.”

At his words, a little
flame ignited inside me. I couldn’t have heard him right. “What
do you mean, get settled?”

“You know my business
is growing,” he said, with a matter-of-fact shrug. “We’re
expanding all over the country, and that includes this area.”

“This area. As in…”

His eyes held mine “As
in, we’re doing this together, Blue Eyes. We’re going to have a
baby and you’re going to be mine.”

My tears stopped cold.
Breath caught in my throat, I stared at him. “Excuse me, but is
that a proposal?”

“It is, and it’s a
very spontaneous one,” he said, slipping a hand around my cheek.
“And now you’re going to say yes.” His voice was quiet, but
very serious.