Page 25 of Final Installment
“Not really.”
“Can I do anything to help?”
“You can keep driving and get me to a hotel where I can sleep this off,” she said snippily.
“Okay.”Apparently, our sisterly affection had reached its limit tonight.I drove in silence to the hotel, and she hopped out before I had even put the car into park.While I dealt with the valet, she hurried inside to a private corner of the lobby and took a phone call from her mysterious messenger.
As much as I wanted to hear what was being said, I couldn’t do it without being obvious.I went straight to the reception desk, checked in and received the keycards to the room.I waited for Dafina near the elevators while the porter took our luggage up to the suite I had arranged.All my plans for a long and relaxing soak evaporated when Dafina returned with tears in her eyes and a red nose.
We stepped into an elevator and rode up to our floor without a single word spoken.As I handed the porter a tip for bringing up the bags, Dafina pushed by me into the suite and went straight to the bedroom.She slammed and locked the door.
“Okay.Sure.I’ll sleep on the couch,” I said aloud to no one.“Guess I’ll pee in the bar sink,” I called out a little louder even though there was a half-bath right by the entrance.That didn’t get a word of response from Dafina.Typical.
Tired and worn out, I grabbed my pajamas from my luggage.I used the small bathroom to scrub my face clean and loosely braid my hair so it wouldn’t get tangled while I slept.When I stepped out of the bathroom in my oversized sleep shirt and loose shorts, I was taken aback to see a pillow and the comforter from the bed haphazardly tossed onto the couch.
“Thank you!”I shouted through the still closed bedroom door, but Dafina never answered.I hesitated before nosily pressing my ear to the door to see if I could hear crying or talking, but I heard nothing.For a second, I eyed the glasses at the minibar and imagined holding one up between my ear and the door.
Nope.I’m not stooping that low.
When she was ready to tell me what was wrong, she would.If she never did, that was her business even if it drove me crazy not to know.
I rearranged the comforter and plugged my phone charger into the port on the base of the table lamp.I flopped down on the couch, tucked my legs over to the side and started scrolling through my notifications.My stepdad had asked if everything was okay, so I sent him a quick message letting him know I was fine and safely at my hotel for the night.I skipped the whole part about Dafina painting Luka with puke and any mention of my mother.
But when I messaged Cheyenne, I spilled all the details but invoked best friend privilege to make sure she wouldn’t repeat a word of it.We exchanged a few back-and-forth messages before she had to help her stepmom with the boys.Two of them had colds and were miserable, and her father was all but useless when it came to raising his ever-expanding brood.
I thought about what Mariana had told me about my mother’s troubles and hopped onto Google to see what I could find.My mother’s real estate firm had a stellar reputation online, suspiciously so.I assumed she paid a PR team keeping her online presence squeaky clean and her rating inflated with fake five-star reviews.
After sifting through the PR fluff pieces, I found a few articles about mixed use developments that had fallen through and some kind of AI data center deal she’d failed to secure.Local neighborhood groups had gotten wind of it and mass protested at a city council meeting.
Why didn’t she ask for my help?
That type of deal was my bread and butter.My stepfather’s company had recently branched out into acquiring real estate with good infrastructure and friendly tax and utility rates and building spec data centers based on energy availability.My focus was the logistics part of that package.I arranged energy contracts to supply the centers with X amount of mega (and even giga) watts for a specific period of time at very precisely negotiated rates.
Brett had originally built his global empire on shipping and transport logistics, and there was still a lot of that happening at the company.But, more and more, we were moving toward the energy space and flirting with AI and even crypto mining.We might not like where the future was going, but we had to position ourselves to grow with it.
It wasn’t the most glamorous work, but it was interesting.I had to ignore the ethical concerns, and I wasn’t sure I could do this forever.At some point, I was certain the knowledge of all the water waste and skyrocketing energy rates would get to me.Until then, though, I intended to indulge my dark little capitalist heart and make as much money as possible.
Thoughts of dark hearts had me curious about the Houston underworld.I searched and read through numerous pieces on crime around the city.The usual suspects appeared, but nothing that matched that man Mariana had described.Italian?Maybe a port wine stain?
Who was that mystery man?And what was he doing on my mother’s doorstep?
“What mess have you gotten tangled up in now?”I stared at my mother’s smiling face in a photo accompanying an article about her business.
My mother and Dafina were both keeping secrets, and I feared how dangerous they were to our family.
And what was that remark Dafina made to our mother about our father never finding out?Finding out about what?
That one chilled me to the bone.There was something treacherous about it.Something unsettling and foreboding.
What did Dafina know about our father that I didn’t?
Chapter Seven
FAVORITE UNCLE
Where are you?
Location?
