Next to Me (27 page)

“Please.” He squeezes his eyes shut as the security guy presses his gun against the side of my father’s head.

The Ambassador breathes a heavy and annoyed sigh. “I should have known better than to trust you. She doesn’t have the Nickel. He’s obviously lying. Kill him.”

“Wait!” Landon shouts.

Chapter 16

Landon steps forward and holds his hand out as the gun pressed to my father’s head is cocked.

“What if we do have the coin? What is it worth to you?” Landon says quickly.

“Finally, someone who understands.” The Ambassador nods his head and the guy uncocks the gun and removes it from my father’s temple where it has left an indentation. “Stand him up.”

“What are you doing?” I whisper to Landon.

Landon takes me by the neck and presses his forehead to mine. “I’m not going to let your father die. I don’t care what you think you’re feeling for him right now. You mourned his death once. I can’t let you do that again.”

He’s right. I can’t lose my dad again. I can hate him later, but at least he’ll still be alive.

“Ok,” I tell him.

“I have the V Nickel.” Landon lifts his hands as if in surrender. “I’m going to reach in my left pocket and get it.” I watch him move his hand slowly to his pocket as I hear the cocking of the gun again. I don’t look to see who it’s pointed at this time, but I would assume it’s at Landon as a protective measure.

Landon pulls a small, black velvet pouch from his pocket and holds it out. Silent security guy takes it from him and hands it to the Ambassador. His eyes widen as he opens the pouch and turns the coin out into his hand.

Even in the lower light I can see how shiny it is. Is that the real one or the fake? Was the real one this shiny, or is this the fake one and it’s too shiny? For as many times as I turned that coin over and over in my hand, somehow I can’t remember anything about it now. I compared both coins when we got them from Jace and remember thinking how remarkable it was. There’s no way anyone could tell them apart with the naked eye.

“After all these years...I’ve finally beaten him,” Ambassador McKay says eerily.

“You beat
who
?” Apparently I’ve lost my mind and have no hesitancy in asking this mad man about his cryptic statement.

“Henry Dellinger, of course,” he says obviously.

“What did Dellinger do to you?” I ask.
Who hasn’t Dellinger screwed over?

“Henry and I used to be great friends. We went to law school together, got married within months of each other, had the same political dreams. Almost 12 years ago he and I ran against each other and three others men for the two Senate seats in Connecticut. I assumed we would team up…run campaigns that would support each other as the best candidates. Well, you know what they say when you assume. Henry ran a dirty campaign against all of us, but it seemed especially filthy when it came to me. Maybe it’s because I thought we had been such good friends that it stung as much as it did.

“Well, every time it seemed that I was getting ahead, he fired something more damaging than the thing before. I ended up spending most of my campaign explaining the horrible accusations and lies he was constantly hurling.” Ambassador McKay turns the coin over in his fingers like a parlor trick. “A few years into his first term it came to my attention that Henry was a collector of very rare artifacts. I also came to understand that he had an expert on retrieval working for him. I made him a better offer and so we’ve spent the last eight years working together. If Henry wanted it, I had to make sure he didn’t get it. Of course, we let him have a few so he didn’t catch on. Bobby Matthews has been the best employee I’ve ever had. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered the fifth V Nickel was Henry’s golden ticket. Now that I have it, Henry never will.”

“This was all a set up,” I say in disbelief to my father. Even with all the lies and deception I would have never imagined my father would put me in a life or death situation. Dad just looks at me blankly.

“As I’ve already said, I have guests. Mr. Matthews, you can expect your regular payment plus the bonus I agreed to include.” The Ambassador walks toward the secret passage door, followed by his two henchmen. One of the security men has already passed through the door when Landon calls out to them.

“That’s it?” Landon challenges.

“Landon…the Ambassador is leaving quietly. I suggest we do the same thing,” I say with some chastisement.

“What would you like me to do, Mr. Scott,” Ambassador McKay says as he turns around. “You’re not going to tell anyone about this. I am, after all, a Unite States Ambassador. No one will believe you. And, I have two security guards who caught you snooping in part of the residential area of the estate. But, if you like, I can have you shot in the knee if you feel that would make our exchange here more gratifying.” He nods to the only security guy left. He pulls his gun from the holster under his jacket, cocks it, and shoots at Landon.

“Holy fuck!” Landon yells. I scream and rush to Landon’s side. He puts his hand to the side of his head and pulls it away, showing me the blood. I examine the wound immediately and see that the bullet grazed his ear. It’ll be sore for a while, but, really, he’s fine.

“You should know he missed on purpose. Challenge me again and he’ll prove his expert marksmanship to you. Good evening.” With that, Ambassador Ronald McKay and his security henchmen leave Landon, my father, and me standing in this barren room.

“I thought I hated you before…” I begin.

“Which one did you give him?” Dad asks.

“What?” I reply.

“Don’t play dumb, Ronnie...and don’t tell me not to call you that. I knew

you wouldn’t leave the coin back in Chicago. When I didn’t find it in your room I figured you had it on you. I followed you today, hoping to find a good opportunity to get it from you before we got here. But when I saw you walk into Jace’s place I knew exactly what you were doing.”

“You…know Jace?” I say, stumbling through my words.

“When you deal in antiquities you
have
to know Jace. So…which coin did you give McKay? The real one or the copy you had made today?” My father reaches into his tuxedo jacket and pulls out his own gun. “I really don’t want to use this, but I will if I have to.”

“You son of bitch. Do you have any idea the damage you’ve done to this woman? First, not only do you make her think you’re dead, but you make her spend her days thinking she left you to die. Then you set her up with Dellinger. You told him the Ambassador had the Nickel and you made him believe that only your set of skills was going to get you in to get it. Of course he’d search for Jenna. You made it clear she was the only one who could do what you did.” Landon takes a step forward and my father cocks his gun.

“Don’t,” my father instructs. He has this look in his eye that, even when I knew he was working for Dellinger all those years ago, I never saw. “I won’t hesitate to shoot you, Landon.”

“Were you ever the man Mom thought you were?” I ask him. “Or was your entire life together a lie?”

Dad sighs and his eyes now look sad. I fight to feel anything for him because, in essence, the man standing in front of me is not my father. This man…is a stranger.

“I meant it when I said I tried. I don’t know if you’ll ever know how I tried to create a way out, but…for now…you need to know that I love you, Veronica. And I loved your mother more than words could ever describe. One day you’ll understand that being married means you make compromises. There are some things you exchange for other because you want the healthiest relationship possible. Sometimes, though…sometimes, even though you try really hard to make those exchanges, you discover that you weren’t made that way. That, as hard as you try, you can’t change. Good, bad, or ugly, you’re born to be who you are. You don’t like it, but sometimes who you are hurts people, so you hide yourself away and pretend to be someone you’re not. I hid so much, especially when your mother was sick, but my life with your mother was never a lie. I was who she needed me to be when she needed that guy.

“I know that your life is better without me. You’re right to pretend I’m dead, because, inside…I am. So, I’m just going to take the Nickel and disappear. I have a buyer for it that will pay me ten times what McKay did or what Dellinger would. It’ll set me up so I can completely drop off the face of the earth.”

“You know if you take the Nickel and disappear Dellinger is going to make me work for him. He’ll force my hand. He’s already forced me to be here by threatening the people I love most in this world. He knows I have all your skills and he’s going to send me after every other item for his collection while he searches for you and that damn coin. But…you don’t care.” Tears are stinging my eyes and I feel a dark sadness fill me in the pits of my soul. It’s the same feeling I had when I would cry myself to sleep at night thinking that my father was dead. Mourning. That’s what it is. I’m mourning the death of my father all over again.

“Just…just give me the Nickel, Landon. I really don’t want to hurt you, but I’ll do it if I have to.” My father has literally shaken his head to rid himself of the emotions welling up inside him. He knows what he’s doing is breaking me, but he still stands there pointing his gun at Landon. “Maybe you need a little incentive,” he says as he turns the gun to me.

“Stop…ok…ok,” Landon says. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the small, black velvet pouch carrying the real 1913 V Nickel.

“He’s not going to hurt me, Landon. Don’t give it to him,” I say.

“I can’t take that chance,” he says. Before I can stop him, he’s tossing the pouch to my father who catches it in his free hand. “McKay’s coin is fake.”

“I’m sorry it had to end this way, Veronica. Despite what you may be

feeling right now, I do love you.” My father stares at me for a moment. “Even though it was only for a short while, I did love looking into your mother’s eyes.”

Stunned, I watch my father pass through the secret passage doorway and out of my life forever. I’m silent. I have nothing to say. I have no idea how to tell Dellinger that I don’t have the coin, and it won’t make a difference for me to tell him the truth about my father scamming me for it. The best I can hope for is convincing Dellinger to hold off on calling me into his indebted service until Demi’s baby is born.

I let Landon hold my hand as we walk back through the house and to the front of the estate where there seem to be two dozen drivers waiting to take their passengers on a return ride to wherever they came from. We situate ourselves in the back seat and I even allow myself to rest my head on Landon’s shoulder.

“We need to talk, Jenna,” he begins.

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

That is all I have to say. Now that this is over, and the beginning of my end is drawing closer, I won’t be able to emotionally handle being with Landon for much longer. I can’t drag things out after we get back to Chicago and am certain of what I must do. It will involve lies and deceit, and most of all, the breaking of Landon’s hopelessly devoted heart.

Landon tries several more times to talk with me about what happened tonight, but I shut him down every time. There’s nothing to talk about. There’s no need to rehash or decompress or strategize.

I lie in bed next to him, unable to fall asleep, wondering if he’s asleep or

if he’s given in to my silence. My future has been decided. Without the last V Nickel to bargain with, Dellinger is sure to send me on the same mission he did my father. He’ll hunt and track down whoever my father sells the coin to and I’ll spend the next undetermined number of years trying to steal back what I once held in my hand. Along the way, Dellinger will use me to add to his collection things that were at one time just out of his grasp.

The only way for me to avoid this certain future is to disappear. To get as far away from Mercy and Spring, and Demi and Jack and their sweet baby as I can, and to somehow get away from the one person who was able to find me. To say goodbye and not return until Henry Dellinger is dead.

Insomnia has convinced me of my only logical step at this point. I get dressed and pack my things as silently as possible. Landon is definitely asleep because he would never let me pack up and leave like this. The front desk supplies me with a sheet of hotel stationary and an envelope when I reach them 30 minutes later. I begin writing a letter to Landon, sure it’s the only way to get out everything I need to say. If I tried to talk with him, he’d only interrupt and convince me that I had other options when the reality is that I don’t.

Dear Landon,

By the time you read this it’ll be morning and I will have been gone for hours. I’m most likely wandering the Paris airport waiting to get on the next flight home.

The first thing you need to know is that I am hopelessly in love with you, and that is why we can’t be together. With the last V Nickel out of my hands, Dellinger will track down the person my father is selling it to, and use me to get it back. I can’t live that way, so I have to disappear. If I stay, he’ll continue to threaten everyone I love, adding you to those already on that list. I love you too much to put you in that kind of danger.

So…please…do not come back to Chicago. And don’t come looking for me. Spend your time and energy looking for your mom. You need her more than you need me.

I’m sorry for leaving this way. If I knew of any other way to keep Dellinger at bay and keep you and everyone else safe, I would do it. It has to be this way.