Young Lies (Young Series Book 1) (34 page)

“You’re right,” I agree. “If I’d been on it, I wouldn’t have walked away.”

Realization dawns in his eyes and it pushes him back into his chair. “You got off the plane,” he states quietly. I nod. “How’d you know?”

I shrug. “Terry and I did the pre-flight checks. I saw something he didn’t. He got on the plane, went into the cockpit, I disappeared.”

Leo is shaking his head. “Matt, if I’d known...”

“I know,” I say before he can finish his sentence. “You weren’t meant to know. And I know you know what I mean by that.” Leo looks away frowning. “It was necessary.”

“Yeah,” Leo says gruffly. Our eyes meet and an understanding passes between us, and this won’t be discussed any further right now. A time and place for a more in-depth visitation will present itself, but we’ve only got minutes before my family returns. He tells me about the days following my “death.” How he was detained in Moscow for two days before the American embassy sprang him free. He was questioned about his reasons for being in the country, what he might know about the plane crash, and what, if any, connection he might have to the terrorist cell that’s been after us. The moment he landed at home, he was taken to Claire’s.

There’s something else I need to know about, though. I know what I need to know about the Russians and they’re much less of a concern now than they were only weeks ago. “What’s Frank Marone got to do with this?” I ask in a low voice.

His eyes snap up to mine in surprise.

I shake my head. “Don’t look at me like that. I’ve learned more in the last few weeks than you can even imagine. Tell me about Frank.”

He knows he’s in trouble. “You know Sam was working for him?”

Freezing, I glare at him. “What?” I growl.

Leo blinks at me. “You didn’t know,” he whispers. “Fuck.”

“What do you mean she was working for him? Start talking, Leo, or your head is going through the fucking wall.”

He rubs his hands over his face. “She wanted a part time job and I knew Frank was looking for an office assistant. So I sent her to the travel agency. Matt, I thought it’d be okay.”

I knew Frank had been keeping tabs on Samantha, though I don’t know why; what I didn’t realize was that Samantha was put right in his line of sight.

“I thought she was all right.”

“Why would you think that?” I demand irritably. “After all the shit he pulled, why would you send Samantha to work for that bastard? If she wanted a part time job, you should have gotten her to Bonnie or God forbid, Young Technologies. Of all the people in the world, you pick the one I wouldn’t trust with my dry cleaning let alone the mother of my child.”

“I know,” Leo acquiesced. “No excuses. All I can say is I thought if anyone could handle him, it would be her. The second she came to me about what she found, I knew I was wrong.”

My brow furrows. “What did she find?” I ask cautiously. God only knows what Frank Marone might have hanging around his office...

“Files in his office,” Leo tells me promptly. “Full of photos and information on her and Tyler. From what she described, he’s been gathering this shit for years. Obviously I haven’t had a chance to do any sort of investigation; this only went down yesterday. If I’d been more on the ball, I would have caught it. I’m sorry.”

Unfortunately, it’s not news to me that Frank Marone has been stalking Samantha and Tyler for years—it’s the reason I was so determined to get home—but the fact that Sam is now aware of the stalking is unacceptable in my book. I’ve worked very hard over the years to keep her as oblivious to the downsides of my job as possible and I’ve failed that. “If you knew Frank had all this information, why did you leave the house last night? You should have been there to protect them, Leo. You swore to me you would be.”

Leo rubs his hands roughly across his face. “I didn’t realize it’d gotten this far, Matt,” he tells me. “When I left, I told Ray and Drew to keep an eye on things, increase the rounds, Alvin was supposed to be watching the lake. I needed to get out for a little while. I waited until I was sure Sam and Tyler would be in bed before taking off.”

“Where’d you go?”

“Couple miles down the river. I was, um, meeting someone.”

Something in his tone is off. “Who?”

He shifts uncomfortably. “A woman. I was there all night if you want to ask her,” he says.

My eyebrows shoot up as his meaning sets in. “Right,” I say briskly, really not wanting details any further than that.

“You think Frank was involved?”

“I don’t have any real proof at this point, but if he’s not involved in some capacity, I’ll sign my company, assets, and bank accounts to my nieces and nephews.”

Leo nods broodingly and we sit in silence for a few minutes until another knock on the door breaks the silence. This time it’s a doctor and I’m on my feet before he can even close the door. There’s a smile on his face, so I choose to take that to mean he has good news. He pauses for a moment, glancing at Leo who quickly gets to his feet.

“I’ll go see where Claire went,” he tells me, patting me on the shoulder. “Good to see you, Matt.”

I smile tightly, unable to summon anything more genuine at the moment. Once the doctor and I are alone, he launches right into his update. “Samantha is stable,” he begins. “The internal bleeding we were concerned about has been brought under control and stopped. And much to our relief, what we believed was a fractured skull is merely a crack.” He holds up a hand to stop my protest—that doesn’t seem like good news to me. “I know it doesn’t sound like much, Mr. Young, but when we’re discussing fragments of bone lodged into the brain as opposed to something that isn’t broken at all, it means the world. Our concern was that we might have to operate to remove the fragment and in her condition, that’s something we would rather avoid.”

I nod in understanding, running my hands through my hair. “But she’ll be okay?” I ask, trying to keep my voice even.

The doctor smiles. “Once her body has a chance to adjust and recover, yes, she will make a full recovery.”

“Thank God,” I breathe, sitting down again as my legs give out. “And Tyler?”

His smile widens. “Tyler has woken up, which is the real reason I’m here. He’s just fine, though a little nervous and afraid. We were hoping you could calm him down.”

I match his smile. “Yes, of course,” I agree, reaching down to grab the backpack Marcus brought me and stand again to follow the doctor out the door and down the hall. I enter a tiny pediatric suite where the wallpaper is covered with balloons and teddy bears and the television is programmed with cartoons. There are toys and books on the shelves across from the bed, which is the only thing to remind a visitor that they are indeed still inside a hospital. I find Tyler immediately curled up in the middle of the bed, his little shoulders shaking.

The doctor excuses himself quietly, telling me to let the nurses’ station know if I need anything and I cross towards the bed, letting the backpack slip to the floor as I reach out to rub my son’s shoulder. He jumps and stiffens, finally turning around to look at me and my heart swells at the expression on his face that suggests he’s more than thrilled to see me. “Hi,” he whispers.

“Hi,” I whisper back, sitting on the edge of his bed as he rolls onto his back. “How are you feeling?”

He shrugs. “Tired.”

I nod understandingly. “Well, you should get some sleep, then.”

“Are you mad at me?”

The question comes so out of nowhere and so nervously from his mouth that it takes me a moment to actually realize what he’s said. “Why would I be mad at you, Tyler?” I ask, genuinely clueless.

He sighs shakily, his lip trembling. “I lost my watch,” he says in a wavering voice and I suspect that at any moment he might start crying.

“You didn’t lose it,” I tell him gently, reaching into my pocket and removing the watch that has been restored to its previous working order. “See? It’s fine.”

Tyler beams at me and thrusts out his wrist, indicating that he wants me to put the watch back on.
I do just that “Thanks,” he says happily.

I wink at him. “I’ve got something else for you too,” I tell him, reaching down to the backpack and opening it, removing the stuffed penguin I found lying on the floor near his bedroom.

“Pablo!” he exclaims, his eyes lighting up in a way that makes me chuckle.

“Pablo?” I ask, handing him the toy and watching him hug it to his chest.

He nods. “Pablo,” he repeats. “Want to watch cartoons with me?”

“I’d love to,” I tell him sincerely. “Slide over.” He shifts enough so I can lie down on the bed beside him and put my arm around him. I’m grinning like an idiot when he curls into my side, the hand with the watch wrapped protectively around his penguin. We watch television quietly save the occasional laugh. I’m getting a glimpse into what life would be like with my son. He’s perfectly happy with simple things in life, something I know I can give him with little to no effort. The trust he has for me even though he’s only known me a short time is amazing. Samantha told me Tyler knows what I am to him and more than anything, I want to fulfill that role for him. My number one priority from here on out is to make the most of this time, to build on it, and to never let them out of my sight again.

Tyler rests his head on my chest and I know he’s moments from drifting off to sleep. Just as he fades, a question comes to his mind. “Where’s my mommy?”

I wince, hoping he doesn’t see it. “She’s asleep,” I tell him honestly.

“Is she hurt?”

Swallowing hard, I know I can’t lie to him. “She is,” I croak. “But she’ll be okay soon. The doctors are helping her.” Thankfully, this seems to placate him for the moment and I relax until he asks one more thing.

“My mom says you’re my daddy,” he informs me, his voice thick with sleep. “Are you?”

I smile slightly, looking down at the top of his head. “Yes, I am,” I tell him quietly, tilting my head so I can see his face. “Is that alright?”

I’m pretty sure he’s smiling. “Yeah,” he whispers. “It’s alright.”

As my son falls asleep, I’m trying hard to rein in my emotions, especially knowing he approves of me as his dad. For the first time in five years, I’m starting to think my life is actually falling into place and I manage to fall asleep easily.

-------------o-------------

Muffled giggling wakes me up in the morning and I blink my eyes open groggily, ready to curse whoever is interrupting the first good night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks. My irritation fades, though, when I find my son at a small table beside the bed with my sister. They seem to be eating breakfast and playing a board game of some sort.

“Hope you brought enough for me,” I say croakily, sitting up and throwing my legs over the edge of the bed.

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Claire says brightly. “And yes, I brought you breakfast. And coffee. Even the living dead need to eat, right?”

I glare at her, my eyes darting pointedly at Tyler, but he seems completely oblivious to the exchange and instead of feeling threatened, my sister is merely smirking at me. I have the feeling I’ll be hearing zombie jokes from her for the foreseeable future. Getting out of bed, I shuffle across the room, ruffling Tyler’s hair along the way and earning a toothy grin from him as I pull out a chair to sit down. Claire reaches down to the floor and retrieves a few styrofoam containers and placing them in front of me along with a very large cup of coffee. “Been here long?” I ask, opening the first container, my mouth watering at the sight of bacon, scrambled eggs, and home fries. In another is cinnamon raisin toast. And in the third, more bacon. God, I love my sister...

“Fifteen minutes maybe,” she tells me. “You looked so peaceful sleeping that I didn’t want to wake you.”

“And yet,” I say without any conviction. “Thanks for this, by the way.”

“Don’t mention it.” Claire leans back in her chair, sipping her coffee and watching me closely.

Sighing, I drop my bacon back into the container and look at her. “What?” I ask quietly. Tyler has since left the table and gone back to his bed to watch cartoons.

She shrugs. “I tried to get an update on Sam, but of course no one will speak to me since I’m technically not her family,” she informs me. “Which, personally, I think is bullshit.”

For some reason, I get the impression she blames me for the fact that she and Samantha are no longer considered family. And I suppose it is my fault. “After I eat, I’ll start smashing some heads together,” I promise her. “Where’s everyone else? Mom, Dad, Leo... the evil stepsisters...”

Claire huffs a laugh at our old nickname for our older sisters. I love them dearly, but they can truly be the biggest bitches I’ve ever met in my life. And the way they treated Claire when she was younger and developed a preference to playing in the mud as opposed to any sort of girly venture left a bad taste in my mouth as well as Claire’s. “Mom and Dad popped back in after you came to check on Ty. Leo has gone to get an update on whatever else is going on. And our dear sisters have yet to make an appearance.” A dark look passes Claire’s eyes and my brow furrows at her.

“What?” I demand quietly.

Claire hesitates, glancing at Tyler briefly before shaking her head. “I’ll tell you later,” she whispers. “It’s something you’re not going to handle very well and it’s probably best Tyler wasn’t present for your reaction.”