Broken Wings (A Romantic Suspense) (3 page)

I don’t even know why I’m here anymore. Make peace with the past? I don’t know if I can. If I came home to try to win Ellie back, I’m off to a spectacular start.

The speeches are done. It’s time to eat. Beef Wellington for four hundred plus people. Not cheap. Then again, Dad was always a
go large or go home
kind of guy.

There are actually a full seven courses. Dinner takes an hour. I watch Ellie the whole time.

We have something in common. Neither of us eats more than a few perfunctory bites. No one seems to care, either. Ellie might as well be a statue for all the attention the people around her give her. She grips a butter knife in her hand until her knuckles go white and tremble, staring at the plate.

What follows dinner? Desert. Everybody gets up. Time to cut the cake.

Finally free to move, I edge through the guests, moving closer and closer to the wedding party. Time for the cake cutting.

Ellie stands frozen by the cake as my father cuts it. He mashes a small piece into his new wife’s mouth, smearing a little on her chin to satisfy the crowd. My fists clench again and I feel tension in my legs, like my veins are going to split open. I want to go over there and ram the cake knife into his throat.

These people all know and they do
nothing
.

The tedium continues through the ceremonial first dance. I watch my father gaze into the eyes of his bride as he sweeps her across the open dance floor, waiting. Once that’s done it’ll be time for the bouquet and garter.

There must be fifty women crowded around. Jessica turns her back and heaves the bouquet over her head. The bridesmaids push and jostle for it.

Ellie doesn’t catch it, so much as it hits her chest and she traps it, instinctively, with her arms. The music doesn’t stop, there’s no record scratch, but I can see the look on her face. Her whole body shakes and she sinks back into the crowd, pushing back as a bawdy song comes on and my father kneels in front of Jessica.

She has nice legs, I’ll give her that. He slips the garter down her calf and off her foot as the groomsmen and other men gather in front of him.

I push my way to the front. He scowls at me, his jaw set, then throws it, aiming away from me.

That’s how I am. I go for the catch when I should hold back. I jump, snatch it out of the air, and twirl it around my finger, staring defiantly at him before I tuck it in my pocket. He makes a move toward me, but Jessica catches his arm, smiles, and pulls him into a dance.

The music is starting. The bar is open. I need a stiff drink but I need Ellie more. My chest aches as I search for her, pushing through the crowd and ignoring an invitation to dance from Jessica’s sister or niece or whoever she is.

There’s a terrace that wraps around the entire ballroom, and that’s where I find Ellie, staring out toward the river, holding the bouquet in her hands. I step up next to her and she looks over at me. Red tracks claw down her cheek where she’s been crying, but her eye is dry now.

The wind picks up and pulls at the bouquet. Its plastic wrapping snaps and flutters.

“What do you want, Jack?”

“You,” I say plainly.

She snorts. “You’re late.”

I turn and lean on the railing next to her.

 
“You know,” I sigh, “after the accident they wouldn’t let me in to see you. Family only, right?”

“What about the next ten years. Would they let you in then?”

“I was in boarding school. Boarding school means you live there. In England. It’s not like I could take a bus, Ellie.”

“Summer?”

“I stayed over the summer.”

“College?”

“Still in England.”

“That’s only six years. What about the other four?”

“Army. OCS and Afghanistan.”

“They give you leave.”

“Yeah, but…”

I don’t have a fucking excuse, do I? Not one she’s going to accept.

“You didn’t try to get in touch with me, either.”

She flinches. “Are you going to throw that at me?”

“I didn’t mean it like that. I was just saying…”

“I did. I sent texts and emails and they bounced back or you never answered.”

“Dad made me change everything.”

“I wrote letters. No answer.”

“I didn’t get anything.”

She looks over at me and stares hard, her jaw clenched.

“What are you doing here? Why now?”

“I heard Dad was getting married and thought it was something of an oversight that I was not invited.”

“You’re here anyway.”

“I didn’t come for him. I came for you.”

She snorts. “That ship sailed a long, long time ago, Jack. As far as I’m concerned you’re just a bitter, ten-year-old memory.”

Her voice cracks. “Like every other memory.”

“Those days were the best of my life.”

She snorts. “Right. What did you expect, Jack? I’d fall into your arms because you show me a little attention? The ugly girl must be desperate, huh?”

“You’re not ugly. You’re just as beautiful…”

She rounds on me, drops the bouquet, and steps on it as she advances. The stems crunch under her feet. She sweeps back her hair in her hands, like she’s about to make a ponytail, and stares at me, challenging me with her gaze.

“There’s beautiful for you. Take a good long stare.”

I do. I look. I don’t waver or flinch. I look.

“I’m so sorry, Ellie.”

She laughs, thin and raspy. “I’ll bet you are. Satisfied?”

I step closer and stare right into her face.

She starts to quiver a little.

“Does it hurt?” I ask, very softly.

“It… It itches,” she says, blinking as she lets her hair fall from her fingers. “I can’t scratch it, it’s too deep.”

“I’m sorry.”

I reach for her but she steps back.

“Stop it. Stop it, Jack. You’re not going to just sweep me up in your arms. I won’t let you.”

I don’t know what to say except to take a step closer.

Then Frank steps out on the terrace.

“Jack. Your dad wants to talk. Miss Ellie, you okay?”

She turns away from him and cocks her head down to stare at the streets below.

“I’m fine, Frank. Thank you.”

“Come on, Jack. I gotta bring you, one way or the other.”

Ellie looks over for a moment, confusion flickering briefly on her face.

I stand up from the railing and walk back to the door. “I’m coming, I’m coming, you big lummox.”

Frank sighs in relief. “Let’s go. I could give you another minute if you… If you want…” he says, struggling with the words.

“That won’t be necessary,” Ellie snaps.

I step inside with him and the door closes behind me.

We walk around the perimeter of the ballroom then through a door beside the bride and groom’s long table. Behind the stage at the end of the ballroom, the air smells like grease and rope.

My father stands by a set of folded-up tables, sipping champagne from a flute, holding his coat swept open with one hand like a general in an old painting.

“Jack,” he says jovially. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

I take a long, slow breath and force myself steady.

I’m not scared of you anymore, old man.

“Well, see, you’re getting married and I think my invitation got lost in the mail, because I never got it.”

He sets the glass down and turns to face me, his eyes hard. “I never sent it. You weren’t invited. I made myself clear. I had plans for you.”

“Did you, now?”

“I’m told you resigned your commission.”

“That’s right. There was no poetry in it.”

“What?”

I shrug. “Being some general’s gopher for the rest of my life didn’t have all that much appeal.”

“General’s gopher? Boy, I pulled so many strings to get you that position. You’d have made major by the time I was ready for you to retire and take the position I’m preparing for you with the company.”

He sounds almost wistful. “I was thinking you could run for Congress, but twenty-five is too young. You’d never get it out of your system by then. Senator is better. By the time you hit thirty, you’ll get all these silly ideas out of your system. Like this crazy idea that you’re going to fuck your stepsister.”

“Is she my stepsister?” I say, shrugging. “I mean you married
her
stepmom, I’m not sure that means she’s really…”

“Shut
up
.”
He cuts me off, snarling. “You’re just like your mother, always interrupting me in the middle of a thought. You saw where she ended up. In a trailer park in Arizona.”

“It’s not a trailer park, it’s manufactured homes. I called her yesterday. She’s doing fine. She’s a lot happier.”

“Happier,” he snorts. “She would be happier. No drive, no ambition, no understanding of what it means to be a man. If she can suck some accountant’s limp cock and get three meals a day out of it, she’s fine.”

“She has a job. She teaches kindergarten.”

It’s hard to keep my voice even. My hands tense into fists in my pockets.

“We’ve never really discussed Neil’s cock, her being my mom and all, but he seems to get the job done. I have two half sisters I’ve never met.”

My father snorts.

“Besides, you know what they say about guys that talk about their dicks all the time.”

He glares at me. Hard.

“Watch your fucking cracks. You’re valuable to me, or I’d have Frank toss you off the roof for that.”

Frank shifts uncomfortably on his feet.

“I had big plans for you. Big plans.”

“Not my plans.”

“Don’t you want your life to mean something?”

“I do. I want it to mean something to me.”

He glares at me, and I return his gaze evenly. If he wanted me to cower in front of him, he shouldn’t have forced me into the fucking Army.

“You can’t go back into the service.”

“No, they frown on that.”

“So I have to figure out something to do with you. At least you did well in the Army.”

“I practically got medals for wiping my ass. Somebody was pulling strings for me.”

“Time to plan our next move,” he says, and rolls his shoulders. “There’s been a lot of upheaval in local politics since you left.”

“Yeah? Such as?”

“James Katzenberg is out. He’s in federal prison and he’ll never be a free man again. His son is dead, and the political network he built is in a shambles. He used to run half the state and now he’s gone. There’s a vacuum.”

“Right. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“What I’m talking about is my plans to either dethrone or work with him to get you into the junior senator position. Now I’m going to have to send a man to do a man’s job. I’ll be running myself.”

I try not to laugh. He must be crazy. The media is going to love this.

“Is that why the marriage? Make you look like a family man? I don’t think it’s going to fly, Dad. The fourth Ex-Mrs. Marshall isn’t going to make you look any more stable.”

He scowls. “I told you to watch yourself.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“Here’s the bottom line. I’m going to open up a position for you at the company early. In fact, you’re going to take over Jessica’s old job.”

“What, secretary?”

“Vice president of acquisitions. Don’t worry, you won’t have to do more than pretend to work at first, I don’t want you fucking everything up. Your underlings will take care of things for you until you can ease yourself into the work.”

“They must be used to it. I can’t imagine that your fuck toy was—”

This time I flinch, because I think he’s actually going to hit me.

“You arrogant little shit. Still think you know everything. Jessica is an invaluable member of the team. She still will be, after we return from our honeymoon.”

“Right, whatever.”

His glare intensifies. “I’m going to make you a success whether you want it or not, because family fucking means something to me.”

I want to laugh. If it meant that much to him, he wouldn’t have started fucking a cleaning lady while he was still married to my mom. Don’t even get me started on what he did to my first stepmother.

He has an agenda for me, that’s for sure. The rest is lies.

“There’s one simple rule and you’re
not
going to break it. Stay away from Elaine. Not that it should be much of a problem. She hates you.”

My blood fucking boils. I can feel it trying to bubble out from the top of my skull. How dare he. How
dare
he. After what he did to rip her away from me, he says that to my face.

“Find someone else. Young man like you has plenty of options. You can even go for pros if all you want is a quick lay, just keep it quiet and get some top-shelf pussy, no curb crawlers. Nothing that will show up when the press starts tearing into your past when you start campaigning for office. I think we are going to go for a congressional seat.”

I stay silent, weighing my options.

It’s work. This man is responsible for everything. For me, for Ellie, for what our life could have been and became instead.

When it hits me I almost want to laugh. He thinks he’s persuading me. He thinks he’s offering me a cushy deal. He thinks I’m like him.

I’m
nothing
like him.

“You start Monday. I’ll put you up in one of my hotels. I want you where I can see you. Don’t argue, I’ve already had Frank send some guys to pick up your shit and move it to a better place. A Sheraton? Really?”

“I like the Sheraton.”

He glowers at me.

“You’re leaving the reception now. Frank will drive you. That stupid car is going up for sale, no idiotic hot rodding. Time to grow up, Jack. I’ll make you a man whether you want it or not.”

I nod gravely and turn to leave.

I’m going to destroy you utterly, you brutal old fuck, and I’m going to get my girl back.

Ellie

The door closes and I am left alone on the terrace, staring out over the city. It’s full dark now and the world is alive with light. Headlamps flow through the streets like blood through arteries and distant windows glitter, like the stars from the black, empty sky came down to Earth to gather together and ease their loneliness.

The void calls to me. I lean over the railing and look down. It’s a thirty-story drop to the street below, where I can only see the light things cast, not the shape of cars and people walking except for a few long shadows thrown by the big lights over the garage entrance.