Taking Flight (A Devereux Novel) (2 page)

“It wasn’t an accident.” Evan’s eyes were too
intense for Derek to meet comfortably. “I know it, Derek. I know you think I’m
crazy, but it has to be the truth. I feel it in my gut, in my soul.”

Derek sighed. Evan had
floated the theory to them before, but none of his brothers wanted to entertain
the notion. It was a lot easier and cleaner to believe everything had happened
the way they’d been told.

“What’s changed from before,
then? You were about ready to give it up last time we’d talked,” Derek said.

His brother turned away from
him, pacing to the window of Derek’s living room. A striking yard led to the
sight of the distant Californian coast.

“That’s why I’m here. There
have been… accidents. Little things here or there, but if any of them had gone
differently then I might have been seriously hurt, or killed.”

Unease filled Derek. Aside
from the one conspiracy theory about their father, Evan wasn’t prone to jumping
at shadows. “What kind of accidents, Evan?”

The slightly taller, older version
of himself turned back to face him. The only real difference between them was
in the way they dressed; Evan’s comfortable jeans and sweater to Derek’s
refined and crisply pressed suit. “Nothing major,” he said. “It might be
nothing, but I’m worried I’ve attracted the interest of parties who aren’t too
keen on the way we’ve introduced ourselves to the country. We might have made a
mistake doing things the way we did. Maybe Father had it right all
along—it’s better to hide in the shadows where no one knows your name.”

Derek bristled. “Don’t even
say that,” he snapped. “Father had no idea what he was doing, what he was
depriving us of! Not until the end, anyway. It was right there in his note. Oh,
right—you don’t believe he wrote that, do you?”

The muscle in Evan’s cheek
jumped. “You’ve let your lifestyle get to your head, Derek. You don’t have to
pretend to be immortal in front of me, you know.”

The two stood at odds for a
few more seconds, and then Derek let his shoulders slump as Evan’s words sank
in. “I know. I’m sorry, Evan. We shouldn’t fight over things when we need to
stay strong.
Devferlife
, right?”

Evan grinned, an expression
that lent him an air of boyish charm. “
Devferlife
!
Those were the days, weren’t they?”

“God, Father would have
killed us if he knew what a mess we got into when we were younger.” They shared
a conspiratorial grin as though they still hid secrets from a watchful parental
figure.

“Oh, he had a clue, at least
earlier on, before Mother… you know.” Just as quickly as their conversation
perked up, it grew dark once more. “After that, I’m not sure how much he
attention he paid us.”

Derek grimaced, never
comfortable with that topic of conversation. “More to you than the rest of us.
You were the oldest, his
favorite
. Heir to the empire
he spent so much time building that he forgot to be a father.”

“Derek…” Evan reached out to
lay his hand on his brother’s arm. “I’m sorry. I can’t change the past, and I
wouldn’t know how to change it even if I could. He loved us all, but he forgot
how to show it.”

Derek brushed off his
brother’s arm. “I’m over it. That’s history now. Father’s gone, reunited with
Mother, and we’re free to do whatever we want. If I choose to be the complete
opposite of him, well, that’s my prerogative, isn’t it?”

“I just want you to be
careful, Derek. I’m serious. You go chasing all these thrills, racing your cars
and your planes, and doing anything you can to pump yourself full of
adrenaline, but all it will take is one little slip and then you’re toast.”
Evan’s voice wavered. “If someone is coming after us, they are incredibly
subtle—so much so that I thought I was crazy for a long time. You
wouldn’t believe how many close calls I had. There’s a certain point where you
stop believing in coincidence.”

Derek laughed. “You sound a
little crazy to me, Evan. Give up flying and driving? And what? You would
rather I sit here in my ivory tower, locking myself away from living life
because I’m scared of some nebulous accident happening?”

Evan didn’t laugh. He shook
his head slowly. “You can joke around all you want, but all it would take is
someone messing with your plane or car, and with the way you push things, you
would do the rest yourself. And there would be no way I’d be able to prove it
wasn’t an accident.”

They stared at each other.
The ghost of his experiences shadowed Evan’s eyes, but Derek couldn’t bring
himself to reassure his brother.

“Fine. But at least promise
me you’ll be careful, okay? Don’t push yourself too hard. I know you think
you’re perfect and could never make a mistake, but that’s the attitude that
will get you into trouble.” Evan stretched. “I need to get going. I have a
meeting on the east coast in the morning, so I’ll catch a snooze on the jet.
Again.”

“I don’t know why you bother
trying to get into the company,” Derek said. “It’s set up to run on its own.
You know that. Father did all the hard work, and it’s for us to enjoy now. You
saw how he ran himself into the ground, and for what? Don’t follow in his
footsteps.”

Evan nodded, ceding the
point. “One of us should try to at least understand what’s going on in that
place. Being ignorant may be blissful, but it can also be the path to ruin.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “You
were always overly dramatic. Must have been all those books Father made you
read while we were younger. On second thought, I’m glad you were his
favorite
. I got to stay outside and play with whatever I
wanted while you had to impress him with your vocabulary and dissertations.”

They shared another
brotherly grin, the jabs common ground to them after a lifetime of being the
oldest two brothers in the family.

“Oh,” Evan said, “
Gary
mentioned he wants to come down and visit you in a
couple weeks. Take care of him, will you? I know you two are close, but keep in
mind what I’ve said. I’ll stop in to see him and Stephen anyway, but they are
younger and particularly vulnerable to feeling immortal. Even more than you,
you buffoon.”

“Roomie? I brought pizza home—oh!” Becky
stopped short at the sight of Sara sitting at the kitchen table, laptop opened
and notes spread around her. “What are you working on there?”

Sara grinned at the surprise
in her roommate’s voice. Becky usually came home to find her curled up in
bed—barely moving, apathetic, and unwilling to talk. If Becky
was
lucky, she’d get thanks for whatever food she’d brought
home.

“Oh, you know, just doing
work.”

“Work? Really? That’s
fantastic, I haven’t seen you do any work since… well…” Becky stumbled,
unwilling to bring up the issue they’d mostly avoided talking about for the
past two years. “What spurred this on?”

Sara took a deep breath and
blew it out forcefully. “It’s time I dug into a story.
Something
to pull me ahead into the future instead of dwelling in the past.
Lying
there and thinking about how my life will never be great again hasn’t helped,
so I’ll try this for a while.”

Becky smiled. “Oh, thank
God, Sara. You sound great! I’ve been hoping to hear you say that for a couple
years now, I’m so happy!” She tossed the pizza box onto the counter and ran
around the table with her arms out. Sara stood to meet her and they embraced.
“I’ll do anything you need to help you make your grand entry back into the
world!”

“Was I really that awful?”
Sara winced. “I’m sorry—I must have been a shitty friend for so long. I
don’t understand how you stuck with me through everything.”

“Well…” Becky cast her eyes
down to the ground. “To be honest, I love this apartment, and it’s not like I
could just kick you out after what happened.”

Sara’s stomach turned.
My best friend only stuck with me through
everything because she likes my apartment?
Then she saw the sly grin on
Becky’s face.

“You bitch!” She slapped her
friend’s arm. “I’m trying to apologize here, and you make me feel even shittier
about it?”

Becky laughed. “Well, that’s
what friends are for, right?”

They chatted as they tore
into the pizza. It was glorious, from one of the pizza meccas in
Chicago—pizza the way it should be made, and people from other cities
could go screw themselves if they thought otherwise.

“So really though, what are
all these notes about?” Becky craned her neck to catch sight of what was on
Sara’s screen. She shrieked. “Derek Devereux?
The biggest
dreamboat in L.A.?
What are you looking at him for? Please tell me this
story you’re working on is all about how you go seduce him and have his
babies.”

Her friend’s enthusiasm was
infectious. “Don’t be
gross
, Beck!” It
was
tough to deny how
good
looking
he was. “He’s the target of my next investigation.”

“Seriously?” Becky’s voice
betrayed her incredulity. “I thought you hated celeb talk and everything to do
with it. This is the reason you’ve come out of your self-imposed cocoon of
self-pity?”

“Ouch. I guess I deserve that.
But this story is more than just celebrity gossip, Beck. There are real
mysteries to that family. I didn’t believe what Ron told me at the office, but
I looked into it when I got home, and so many things either don’t add up or
just plain can’t be found. I never thought someone could hide their history so
thoroughly, let alone an entire family.”

“Mysteries, huh? Well, if
anyone was born to solve a mystery, it was you, Sara. Does this mean you’re
going to L.A.?” Becky’s eyes lit up with her inevitable follow-up question
burning to get out. “Can I go with you? Please? Pretty please? This could be
the opportunity I need for my fashion career to take off! I mean, Chicago’s
nice, but L.A. would be way better for me right now.”

How could she say no to
those eager eyes? Luckily, it fell right into her plan. “Yes.” Becky jumped out
of her chair to celebrate, but Sara raised her finger to head her off before
she got too out of hand. “On one condition!”

Becky waited with her head
cocked. “One condition? I can do that. One condition is easy. What is it?”

“I can’t…” Sara’s throat
closed up as she tried to finish her sentence. Hot tears flooded her eyes. It
was still hard to even think about, let alone say. “I can’t fly.” The words
were a struggle, but she spit them out. “We’ll have to drive it.”

Becky’s expression shifted
to gentle concern, her forehead creased as she came to sit next to Sara and
wrap an arm around her. “Hey, Sara, it’s all right. I understand.
It’s still too soon
,
I get it
. We
don’t have to fly. I know it’s difficult.”

“No, it’s not just too
soon.” Sara said. “I won’t be able to fly ever again. Michael…” She couldn’t
continue, but thankfully Becky didn’t expect more. She just wrapped her arms
around her roommate and let her cry it out.