Page 23 of Everlasting

“How’s Mom doing?”

“She’s going well. Still sneaking into my letters though.”

I laughed. “I knew you would know she was doing it.”

“I caught her the last time I was home,” he admitted. “She had me worried that day. I was actually glad she read that one while I was there.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what the letter was about, but my dad saw the question in my eyes and answered me anyway.

“It was written shortly after Toby’s death.” I could see the moisture gather in his eyes at his admission. “My frame of mind wasn’t the best at the time so I’m sure it was an extremely difficult letter for your mom to read.”

“I can imagine,” I offered. “She tried to get me to read one of those letters once.”

“Did you?”

“No. I think I may have hurt her feelings a little bit because I told her I still believed both you and Deck were coming home, so I didn’t need to read the words of a dead man.”

He looked at me funny then. “I’m not dead,” he deadpanned.

“Nope, but I’m guessing you meant those letters to be read after you are no longer around, right?”

“You always were too smart for your own good. That’s true, but I think, in a weird way it’s been giving your mom a little comfort when I’m away, so I indulge her by leaving them where she found them.” He shook his head and adjusted Archer as he took a seat in the reclining chair. “She worried me because when I basically told her the same thing, then she asked me, ‘What if I’m the first to go?’.

“I guess I can see her point there,” I admitted. “Honestly, I really don’t want to think about either one of y’all leaving us though, so let’s change the subject. Did you discover anything new while you were gone?”

Dad sighed heavily. “I don’t know what to say when you ask me questions.”

“The truth would be a great thing. Can’t go wrong there.”

“We were hearing whispers of him being locked down in some hospital. Couldn’t get a good read on why or where though. We’re still working on it.”

“Maybe if he’s in a hospital we’ll be able to get to him then, or he’ll be able to escape.”

“That’s what we’re hoping, but we need to be ready to move in, just in case. Once he’s released, there’s no telling where they’ll take him, if he doesn’t manage an escape while he’s there.”

“Why would they take him to get better just to keep him even longer? None of this makes sense.”

“He’s a pawn, baby girl. That’s all.”

“I don’t know. I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to this. If he was a pawn, why haven’t they used him?”

“He’s a pawn to use against more than just us at this point, sweetheart.”

“What? Why?”

“In the beginning, that’s exactly what was happening. The group didn’t want to dissolve their business relationship with Aces High. They were going to use him as leverage to get us to contract up for another decade.”

“That’s ridiculous. Once he was handed over, what would keep you to that deal?”

“The same thing that kept us to the last one, honor. Our word. It means nothing to everyone else if we can’t keep it and honor the commitments we make.”

“Okay, but then what? They didn’t keep their side of the bargain then.”

“Exactly, but not because they didn’t want to. It was because they couldn’t. That bitch, the one that sent you the pictures?” He questioned and I nodded. Obviously, I knew he was referring to. “She is a part of all of this. From what we’ve been able to gather, her father was the leader of The Trinity Group.”

“Was?”

“Yeah, was. That was the other part of the problem. There was a coup. The snake had his head chopped off and in its place, several grew back in the form of the siblings that are trying to take over. The man had four children. One is illegitimate and supposedly has no claim on his father’s throne, so to speak. The rest, well, two are complete fucking mental cases, the woman being one of them. The other is down to Earth and apparently wanted his older, bastard of a brother to be a part of the family empire. It caused a rift between the younger three with the youngest two of them – the crazy ones – against the older two then.”

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