TYLER (Blake Security Book 2) (11 page)

Another guy sat down at the bar, and when Paulo went to wait on him, Leif texted: “I’m meeting him outside at midnight.”

I looked at time, it was eleven forty five. I texted back: “Should I wait in my car?”

“Yep, you sober?”

I had a flash back to Brandon. Since that day I hadn’t had more than two beers before driving. I texted back: “As a judge.”

I threw a ten down on the bar and got up and went outside. I made my way to my car, and while I sat there and waited, I thought back to my conversation with Ariana earlier. I hated to see her cry. Once the anger wore off, my heart hurt for her. I tried to imagine how bad things must have been for her after I left. She’d lost her brother and between him and I, her two best friends. Then she found out she was pregnant and had to tell her parents it was with my baby. Who did she even have to talk to about that? She was right, I left her to deal with a mess. I never thought of myself as a coward, but running away had been the closest I’d ever come to being one. I pictured my son’s face in my head, and I felt another kind of emotion. It was something I’d never felt before. I’m a father. I’m the father of a kid who was almost a grown man. I felt a pain in my heart over all of the years I’d missed out on, and I resolved to do whatever it took to at least make some of that up to him.

My phone beeped, and I looked down at it. It was another text from Leif: “Going to his place. I told him I didn’t have a car.”

“Right behind you.”

About ten minutes, later the two men emerged. They were both smiling, and I watched as Paulo led Leif to a gray ford pick-up with a six-inch lift on it. They got into it, and I waited until they’d merged into traffic to follow them. I followed them through the French Quarter. He took Canal Street up to the freeway, and once he was on the freeway, they headed out of town toward Franklin Street and the swamps. It got a little harder to follow him without being spotted out there. This late there wasn’t that much traffic, so I had to stay far behind them. After a series of turns on dirt and gravel roads surrounded by swampland on either side, he turned into a long driveway. I drove by quickly and parked at the end of the road. I waited several long minutes before turning around and parking at the edge of the driveway they’d turned into. I got out of my car and walked up toward the trailer at the end of the drive with my gun in my hand. I was raised in Louisiana, but the swamps at night were not a place I’d ever gone. I had the gun out more in case of gators than humans.

When I got to the trailer, I saw that it was set up on risers to keep from flooding. Six cement steps led up to the front porch. Instead of taking the steps, I rolled underneath the wooden railing and up against the trailer. I could hear voices inside, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I lay there trying to breathe quietly and just waited. Probably a half an hour or so passed, when all of a sudden I heard a scuffle and men shouting. I got up and went to the door. The wooden door was unlocked, so I pulled it open. The screen door was locked, but I could see Leif and Paulo through the screen. They were on the floor and Paulo was punching Leif in the face repeatedly. I didn’t take the time to wonder why Leif didn’t seem to be fighting back. I just kicked in the screen, pointed my gun at Paulo and said, “Put your hands up and step away from him.” Paulo looked like he was going to hit Leif again. Leif looked unconscious. “Do it and I spray your brains all over that couch.” He put his hands up and slowly got to his feet. “Now step away from him and lay down on the floor on your stomach.”

“Are you going to rape me?”

“What? No. Get on the ground!”

I realized he looked terrified. I thought it was the gun, but his words made me wonder if it was something else. He took a few steps but instead of laying down he ran for the door. He was already doing a broad jump off the porch before I caught up with him. I threw my big body at him, and we landed with a thud in the mud. I was on top of him and he started screaming and saying, “Don’t rape me! Kill me, but don’t rape me!”

I wished that I had handcuffs. I held the gun to his head with one hand and his hands behind his back with the other. “What did you do to Leif?”

“Who?”

“The guy in there on the floor. What did you give him?”

“Just a little Mickey. He was going to rape me.”

“Are you crazy? You brought him home with you.”

“If I hadn’t brought him here willingly, he would have taken me by force. I could see it in his eyes. He wanted me.”

“Did you bring Elliot here, too?”

“Who?”

“Come on, you know who I’m talking about. Elliot worked with you Paulo. He had a crush on you.”

“He was disgusting.” I didn’t like the way he said “was.”

“Where is he Paulo?”

“Probably burning in hell,” he said.

“Get up!” I pushed up off of him, and as he stumbled to his feet, I said, “If you run again, I’m going to shoot you. Now walk toward the house.” He did as he was told, and when we got to the porch, I had him sit down in a lawn chair. I didn’t take the gun off of him as I used my foot to kick open a tool chest sitting on the porch. There was a rubber tie down on top of the tools. I reached in to get that and saw the duct tape. I picked that up and handed it to him and said, “Wrap your ankles together.”

“Please don’t rape me…”

“Shut up and do it!” He took the silver tape and wrapped his ankles together once. “Again,” I told him. He pulled it around one more time, and I said, “Now tear it off and start your wrists. He did that, and I let him struggle with his wrists for several seconds before putting the gun down and taking the tape from his hands. He had felt the full weight of me on the ground, so I assumed that was what prompted his decision not to fight me now. I wrapped up his hands and then I wrapped a few pieces around his upper body and the chair. He opened his mouth and I said, “Unless you plan to tell me where Elliot is, I’d keep that mouth shut.” He shut it, and I left him there and went in to check on Leif. I said a silent prayer that he wasn’t dead. That would be just my luck.

TYLER

              My body was sore the next morning when I got out of bed, but shockingly, I had slept through the night without any nightmares for the first time in years. I limped into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My face was scraped down the side from where I’d hit the ground, but that was my only battle scar. I took a shower before I went to bed to get the mud off of me, but I took another one then to loosen up my muscles. After I dried off and pulled on a pair of shorts, I called Blake.

              “Hey buddy, how are you feeling this morning?” he asked me.

              “Like I got hit by a truck, but probably better than Leif. How is he?”

              “He’ll be okay. They found chloral hydrate in his system, so they’re giving him an IV with stuff to counteract that. His nose is probably broken, but thanks to you, that’s about it. He’s still in the ER. He’ll probably be there most of the day, and then they’ll cut him loose.”

              “I’m sorry.”

              “What are you sorry for? Leif is going to be okay, and Paulo is down at the parish jail.”

              “I didn’t go in soon enough.”

              “Listen to me, if you hadn’t been there, Leif would probably be dead like Elliot.”

              “We know he’s dead for sure?” My heart ached for that kid who only wanted to have some fun with someone he was attracted to.

              “The police found his clothes in Paulo’s trailer. They still had bloodstains on them. They haven’t found a body, but with all that swamp…” I felt nauseated. Blake didn’t even have to say it. With all that swamp, they probably won’t find a body unless the gator that ate him is autopsied for some reason.

              “Has he said anything to them?”

              “I’m not sure, but what the detective did tell me was that when Paulo was in college he was raped by his roommate.” That explained him begging me not to rape him. By killing Elliot and trying to kill Leif, he probably thought he was getting even. Damn. “You did a great job, Tyler—and if you want to keep working with us, we’d love to have you.”

              “I have some family stuff to deal with,” I told him. Now that I knew about Conner I couldn’t imagine leaving again. I wanted to get to know my son. “But in a couple of weeks I might take you up on that. Here’s the deal though, my dad left me a business worth a ton of money and a ton of money in the bank. If I take this job, I’d like to come on as a partner. I’d also like to invest in some equipment, whatever we need.”

              Blake laughed. “Everybody wants to be the boss.”

              “Hey once you give the orders, it’s a little hard to follow them.”

              He laughed. “Okay, but what we need is a plane…”

I knew he was kidding, but I wasn’t when I said, “Okay, I got that. I’ll call you in a few days.”

              After I hung up with Blake, I grabbed my keys and started out the door to head for the Douglas house. When I pulled open the door, I came face to face with Ariana. “Hey.”

              “Hey.” I looked around behind her. My son wasn’t with her. “What are you doing here?”

              “I wanted to talk to you.”

              “I’m not changing my mind, Ariana. I made a lot of mistakes, but I’m not walking away from my son.”

              She nodded and asked, “Can I come in?”

              I stepped back and let her in the door. She waited for me to close it, and then she followed me into the study. We both sat down, and she said, “I told Conner.”

              She looked miserable. “Did he not take it well?”

              She shrugged. “He’s just really mad at me. He’s never been so angry with me before. He told me he grew up without a father and it was my fault. He said that we could have looked for you, and he’s right. I could have. It wasn’t like I didn’t have the money myself eventually.”

              I had an almost overwhelming desire to pull her into my arms. I fought it and said, “Ariana, there are things about that day that you don’t know. That day before Brandon and I got into the accident, my mother died.” I took in a shaky breath, and when I let it out, I said, “She died because I gave her too much morphine.” I heard her let out a little shocked sound and I went on. “She asked my dad to do it, and he couldn’t. She told me how much pain she was in and she begged me to do it, and I did. I killed my mother and then my father kicked me out of the house and said he never wanted to see me again.”

              “Jesus Tyler.”

              “I’m so sorry about Brandon. I was drinking because I was depressed…honestly, I hated myself, and at that moment I didn’t care what happened to me. Brandon took my keys, and I insisted on still going for a drive. I thought it would clear my head. I didn’t even consider that he was too drunk to drive. So Ariana, I’m sorry. I’m sorry about Brandon and that you had to raise Conner by yourself, and if it helps, I ask God to forgive me for what I did to my mother every day. I don’t know how to make that right. My father hated me for it. I was sure you would hate me too, so I was a coward—and I left.”

              “Your dad didn’t hate you. He talked about you all the time. He told Conner about you and how you stood by your mother when he couldn’t. He always told Conner not to grow up and be like him, but to grow up and be like his dad, the hero.” I felt a lump in my throat. I honestly believed that he hated me.

              “What about you, Ariana?”

              “What about me?”

              “Do you hate me?”

              “I was there, Tyler, remember? I saw how much your mom was suffering. I saw how the pain had completely consumed her. What you did was not murder. It was easing her pain. She was going to die anyways. You just kept her from spending a few more days or weeks in excruciating pain. I know that has to be a hard thing to live with, and I wish she hadn’t asked you to do that, but I believe your mother did not want it to screw up your life. Where have you been anyways?”

              For the next hour, I talked and she listened. I told her about the army, where I fought and with whom, but no specific, gory details. I told her about the house in South Dakota and how I’d found a sort of peace there. I didn’t tell her about the PTSD. It wasn’t something I was comfortable talking about, but I did tell her about running into Blake and taking a job with his firm. That was where she interrupted me, “You took a job?” I nodded, and she said, “Does that mean you intend to stay here?”

              “I intend to get to know my son,” I told her.

She nodded then and said, “He’s not going to make it easy. I don’t know where he gets that temper.” She smiled, and once again that old familiar warmth filled my veins.

              “I don’t care about easy. I’m used to hard. I wish things were different, but they’re not. I know I can’t make up for seventeen years, but I can make sure he doesn’t want for anything the rest of his life.”

              She smiled again and said, “He’s a good kid, but trust me when I say your father and mine have never let him want for anything. The only thing he ever wanted was a father and because of mistakes we both made, he didn’t have that. In our defense, we were kids and we didn’t know any better, but that’s not his fault and now that I’ve gotten past the hard part of admitting to him that I lied, I feel relieved. I’m glad that you want to get to know him. I’m a better person for knowing him. I don’t know what I would have done without him to live for all of these years.”

              “I’m sorry, Ariana.”

              She moved closer to me and put her soft hand on my face. My body convulsed at her touch. “No more apologies,” she said. “The past is the past and now we have to just keep moving forward.”

I leaned my head into her hand and closed my eyes. When I opened them I said, “I missed you.”

              “I missed you, too.”

              “I never stopped loving you.”

              She was quiet for a really long time before I felt her let go of my face and stand up. She looked down at me and said, “I never stopped loving you either. You can come out and see him when you’re ready.” I sat there and watched her go. I knew it was too soon to hope that anything could ever happen again between us, but knowing she didn’t hate me would have been enough. Knowing she still loved me was enough to repair almost all of the cracks in my soul.

********

              It took me a couple more hours to work up my nerve to go and see my son. When I got there, Ariana wasn’t around, but Max told me Conner was out back in the shed where he kept his dirt bikes. I made my way around the house feeling sick to my stomach. When I reached the shed, I saw him standing over one of the bikes working on something. He didn’t see me so I took a minute just to look at him. He had my dark hair and Ariana’s big hazel eyes. He was almost six feet tall, taller than I was at that age. I grew a lot that year I left home, and I didn’t doubt that someday I’d be looking up at my son. When he finally looked up and saw me, I saw the anger flash in his eyes. We stared at each other for a long time before I finally found my voice and said, “Hi Conner.”

              “Hey.”

              “What are you working on there?” I was making stupid small talk again. I didn’t know where to start.

              “You don’t have to do that. I know why you’re here. I don’t know why it took you seventeen years.”

              “Conner, I didn’t know about you.”

              “Would it have mattered?”

              I stepped closer and stopped when I saw him flinch. “Yes, it would have. I left when I was just about your age. I was a kid, and my mother had just died, and I thought my father didn’t like me, and I was lost. I’m not making excuses; I’m just telling you like it was.”

              “You left Mom.”

              “Yeah, and not a single day went by in seventeen years that I didn’t regret it. I love your mother, Conner. I’ve never loved anyone else.”

              “She’s been alone all of this time. I never understood it. She’s so pretty. I didn’t understand why she turned everyone down that asked her out. I guess she was waiting for you.”

              I wasn’t sure if that was said to make me feel good or not, but it did. It made me feel better than anything had in a very long time. I wasn’t happy that she was alone, but I was happy that she loved me as much as I loved her. “Maybe” was what I said to Conner. “But right now what’s important to me is how you feel.”

              He shrugged. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel. Mom lied to me. You stayed away for my entire life. Grandpa is dead…” I saw the hurt in his eyes when he mentioned my dad. I took another cautious step and sat down on a metal bench near his bike.

              “You and your grandpa were close?”

              He nodded. “Yeah. Grandpa Max is great, but Grandpa Bobby and I had a lot more in common.”

              “Like what?”

              “He taught me how to fish. He coached my peewee football team. He taught me how to take an engine apart and put it back together. We did everything together…and he talked about you, a lot.”

              “He did?”

              “Yeah. He told me it was his fault that you went away. He lied to me to though. He went along with Mom’s story that you died. Where were you anyways?”

              “I was in the army. I was Special Ops, and I spent most of my time overseas. I got hurt a couple of years ago and I’ve been living in South Dakota since.”

              “You have a lot of tattoos.”

              I smiled. “Yeah, too many. I got them to cover my scars.”

              “What are the scars from?” He sat down a foot or two from me and I started talking. I told him about his Uncle Brandon and how he was to this day the best friend I’d ever had. I told him how my heart broke the day that he and my mother both died. I told him about his grandmother and how much she was like his mother. And I did my best to answer whatever questions he had. When I left that day, it was with a handshake and not a hug, but I had hope and that was enough for the time being.