Page 8 of Needing More
The long lines of his broad shoulders against the couch tensed. Sapphire watched as his eyes flicked from the now changed image of what looked to be the Golden Gate bridge on the TV's screensaver to the floor.
The polite thing to do would be to take back the question. It was obviously something difficult to speak about. She should tell him he didn’t have to tell her and she was just being nosy. She couldn’t though. The need to know more about this man was overwhelming. She felt like a treasure hunter finally hitting their shovel against the buried chest. She was too close to back down now. The chance of sitting with him like this in his house was too rare and would probably never happen again.
Turning his head until his cheek rested against the couch cushion, Vic gave her a lazy smile that matched his slouched position on the couch. With his long jean-clad legs stretched out in front of him, she could easily imagine him sitting like this on a winter's night with the fire blazing in the fireplace.
"My dad wasn't always a piece of shit," he began. "And I wasn't always a fuck-up in his eyes. We used to live just outside of San Antonio: me, my sisters, my mom, and my dad. He worked as a mechanic for the city transit system and my mom worked in a daycare. Everything was fine. A little strapped for cash with three kids and rising rent, but for the most part fine. Until he got injured on the job."
Sapphire could hear the sigh of regret in his voice and hated herself for pushing him to tell her.
"A bus slipped off a jack and practically crushed my dad, breaking his hip and leg in several places. Everyone said he was lucky to have made it out alive," Vic said with a bitter snort. "Out of a job and recovering, he relied on my mom's very meager paycheck to float all the bills." Vic shook his head. "The fights between them were inevitable. To try and relieve the tension, I found a job after school much to my mother's dismay. She feared I would be tempted to quit and shouldn't have to be working in the first place. Resentment grew between them. My mother was angry that our life and finances were spiraling and my dad was just angry at everything and everyone. Then one day my dad's lawsuit against the city was settled and he got a huge check. My mother cried in relief because now everything could go back to normal."
Sapphire knew by his tone and how he sat there staring at the changing scenes on the TV that the worst was yet to come. "I take it that it didn’t."
Vic chuckled softly, turning to look at her again. "You got it in one, angel. No, it did not. At some point during his recovery, my dad got it in his head that it was city life that really caused all this. Growing up on a farm near the border in California, my dad was convinced that moving to the city was where his life went wrong. So, what did he do with the settlement money? Without any say from my mom or anyone else, he bought a farm sight unseen in a place called Holter, Texas. Now keep in mind my dad has actually never run a farm. He grew up working on a farm as a laborer with his family. That's a huge difference from running a farm. To make a long story short, my mom and sisters lasted five months before packing their things and leaving to go stay with my uncle in San Antonio."
Sapphire pictured the women taking their bags and suitcases and stomping down the creaking porch stairs to their waiting car in the drive. Did they even look back through the trail of dust as they drove away?
"Why didn’t you go with them?"
Vic tilted his head back on the cushion and let out a sigh as he closed his eyes. "Because I knew my dad would see it as the ultimate betrayal and I wasn't sure what he would do."
Or what he would do to himself, she mentally added. It was left unsaid but she knew that's what he meant.
"By that time, I was in my last year of high school and a lot like you," he said turning his head to her with a smile. "I had to enroll in the local high school and endure the never-ending stares and curiosity from my fellow students."
Sapphire made a derisive sound under her breath. "Yeah well, I hardly think your experience was anything like the witch-hunt I had to go through. I bet you were just as attractive back then as you are now, so I know it was a cakewalk for you."
Sapphire could see him now. Walking through the school with his dark good looks as the girls and female staff pined away like swooning idiots. Yeah, some of the guys might have been resentful of his new presence, but knowing how guys were, they probably just tried to befriend him. Yeah, that was not at all what she experienced.
With a lift of one black brow, Vic gave her a charming smile that showed his perfect white teeth.
Lord God, he was breathtaking. That fact only made her scowl. Waving her hand as if to shoo away the flirtatious smile, she signaled for him to continue. "Go on," she urged.
Vic gave her a hurt look. "Anyways, from that point, things just escalated. I couldn't seem to go a day without my dad fighting with me about something. He always needed help with this shithole place. If the crops weren't dying from pests or disease then something else was breaking and draining what little cash he had left from the settlement. Before long he was dead broke again and I couldn't stand the sight of him. I started hanging out all night just to get away. Worked odd jobs and bought an old bike off a guy."
Restless or maybe agitated from the memories, Vic stood up and began to pace. "After that, it didn't take long for me to get involved with the LeBlancs." Vic eyed her as if judging her reaction to the information, maybe not sure what Hayden and Joel already told her. Giving him an encouraging smile, she silently prompted him to continue.
"By then they were running this town," he mumbled, his tone thick with weary emotion. "They would ride down the streets and people would immediately run back into their houses. They commanded respect from people and got back fear. I wanted some of that. I wanted power in my life again. So, I left my dad, realizing he was too angry and too miserable to ever do any of his family a favor and put a bullet through his head, and I joined up." Vic stopped his slow pacing in front of the fireplace mantel and stared at the lone little clock sitting on top. "It took damn near a year of being their bitch boy: running errands, cleaning bikes, running the bar, doing shit jobs. But I eventually worked my way up until I was someone in the crew." He turned to look at her. "We all did. I don't think it would have been possible without those two. The shit we did was…was shit I’ll regret every day of my life. But having them, my brothers, made it bearable."
Sapphire let out the breath she had been holding. She had been afraid he was going to go into detail about some of the stuff and she wasn't sure she was ready to hear it, or if she would ever be ready. "But you survived it and got out, so why come back here?"
The determined light that had sparked in his eyes at the mention of his brothers seemed to extinguish at the reminder of being pulled back to this place. Vic let out a deep sigh. "Because someone checking up on my dad found the farm in disarray, notices of foreclosure stuck to the door, and my dad wasting away in his room. Stage three stomach cancer: unbearable pain, short expectancy to live, and bedridden—especially when one denies themselves treatment."
Sapphire covered her mouth at the shock of his words.
"So, I bought this place. I told myself I would do this one last thing for this bastard. I would become his very resentful nursemaid until his death and try to revive this shithole farm in his name. Despite him not deserving any of it."
Though she already pretty much guessed the fate Vic assigned himself, the words spoken outright still shocked her. "That's…I mean I want to say that's very nice of you but," she paused, searching his tired face. "I hate to see you throw years of your life away on a man who treats you so badly."
Vic threw her a sharp look over his shoulder as he walked over to the window. "You've been talking to those two, haven't you? You sound just like them."
Turning in her seat on the couch, she watched him move the curtains and peek out into the night. "No, of course not. We never talk about you."
Turning around, Vic held a hand to his chest as if in pain. "Now I'm hurt."
"No, not like that," she laughed. "I mean they bring you up all the time, but not your personal stuff. I mean, honestly, I just don't understand. My mom would be so very much on her own if she ever became ill. I wouldn't give that woman a second thought."
"From what I've heard about her, you shouldn't," he informed her dryly. "But in all honesty, it's easy to say that now, but something happens when that moment comes and you're asked to make that choice. Guilt settles in." He shrugged. "But I hear you, and trust me, I know. Soon, he’ll be gone, or at least that is what his doctor says, and I’ll sell this place—hopefully for a profit now that I’ve turned it into a somewhat profitable lavender farm, and they can tear down this place for all I care," he said holding his arms up to indicate the house around him.
