Page 9 of No Quarter

“Sorry doesn’t cut it, Marvin. Get your things and get the hell out of here.”

Charlie moved back into the room to see his family and didn’t for one second look back to see if his brother was still there.

“But we’re brothers!” Marvin shouted.

“I don’t have a brother,” Charlie replied loudly through gritted teeth. “Not anymore.”

CHAPTER TWO

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there more,” Valerie said on her cellphone, sitting in a bright, peaceful lobby with peach and white walls.

“It’s okay, Val,” Charlie replied on the other end of the line. “We’ve both had stuff to deal with, and on that day, you saved us. You were there when I needed you, and I won’t forget that.”

“Looks like the local PD cleaned up after the attack at your house, though,” Valerie said, hopefully. “With most of the attackers in jail or wounded, I think you can rest easy.”

“Maybe,” Charlie replied. “We still don’t know why they were there or what they wanted with my brother. All I know is he brought it on himself and us.”

“Are you really done with Marvin?” Valerie asked.

“He’s gone,” Charlie said. “And I have no cellphone number or way to contact him, even if I wanted to. And right now, I don’t want to hear from him again.”

“Family is important, Charlie,” Valerie said softly, looking at Tom standing in the doorway of the reception area. He was talking to a nurse about Valerie’s sister, Suzie.

“I know it is,” Charlie said. “But sometimes you have to cut a person loose if they’re a lost cause.”

“No one’s a lost cause, Charlie,” Valerie said as Tom and a woman from reception approached. “I’m really sorry, I gotta go. We’ll catch up soon, okay?”

“Sure thing, Val,” said Charlie. “Tell Tom I was asking for him.”

“I will. The same to Angela and the kids.”

The call ended.

Tom took Valerie by the hand, reassuringly, and the receptionist led them through a door into a cheerful hallway lined with doors and soothing paintings.

For the first time in years, Valerie felt a glimmer of hope in her soul as the receptionist led her and Tom down the hallway.

Working with her friend and colleague Will Cooper, she’d been able to get her sister Suzie moved to a smaller private psychiatric hospital.

The new hospital was smaller, more intimate. And that intimacy had been able to give her sister more hands-on therapies.

Suzie was responding to treatment in a way that Valerie could have only dreamed of months before.

As Valerie entered the main building of Shady Rest holding hands with her fiancé, Tom, she remained struck by the contrast.

Suzie’s previous hospital had been cold and sterile, but Shady Rest was warm and glowing.

Welcoming pastoral colors adorned the walls, soothing music played over the lobby speakers, and those working there didn’t wear white orderly uniforms. They were dressed casually.

It was a striking difference, but her friend Will had suggested the change might stir something in Suzie.

And it had.

Tom took a deep breath as the lady at the reception desk took them down a carpeted hallway toward where Suzie was staying.

“It’s okay,” Valerie said, soothingly.

“I’m just a bit nervous,” Tom explained.

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