Get You Good (14 page)

S
ydney read over the weekend schedule a third time without ever really seeing any of it. She finally put it down on her desk and sat back, rubbing her palms over her face.

It was Thursday night. Almost a week had passed since the news of Sheree's disappearance. But they were no closer to answers than they had been the morning the shocking news came to them. When they had told Jackie what happened, she had nearly had a heart attack. She had started feeling chest pains, and they had given her an aspirin and almost taken her to the hospital. After she had recovered, she'd called Thomas to find out exactly how much money had gone missing and then made a beeline to Dean's side, where she had been ever since.

Sydney wished she could have dropped everything as easily to deal with this latest catastrophe. However, when you weren't your own boss, you didn't have that freedom. Instead of being by her brother's side, she had to be at the shop.

The details of the transition had been finalized. Sydney and her staff had two weeks until Decadent as they knew it would close forever. There would be one week to get all their stuff out, and then that would be it. There would be job opportunities for the existing staff, but they would have to apply to the new management and they would be on the same level as anyone on the street looking for a job. As far as Sydney was concerned, it was like firing them.

She personally would rather eat dirt than work for Something Sweet. But that was about as much as she knew when it came to what she would do next. With no savings, no job prospects, and nothing but misery wherever she turned, she had not been very motivated to think about what would happen when Decadent expired. She figured she still had time to work out the details. Until then, however, Sydney had to make her way in every morning and put on a smiling face as if her world wasn't crashing down around her.

Her cell phone rang and she picked it up. She sighed when she saw the name on the screen. Hayden had been calling her for days, but every time she let it go to voice mail. She didn't want to talk to him. Not now. Not after his sister had ruined her brother's life. She knew that once he got back from out of town she would have to face him. But she would worry about that then.

A knock on the door distracted Sydney, pulling her from her thoughts.

“Boss?” Mario stuck his head around the slightly ajar door.

“Hey, Mario,” Sydney said, sitting forward. “Come in.”

Mario came in briskly and stopped in front of Sydney's desk, a serious expression on his face.

“You wanted to know those of us who were interested in working here after the change, so you could put in a good word for us with Something Sweet.”

Sydney nodded. “Are you interested?”

“That's the thing,” Mario said, tilting his head to the side. “I came to tell you that I'm with you, Syd. No way am I working for those cats. My loyalty is to your old man.”

Sydney smiled slightly. “That's kind of you to say, Mario, but it's a tough economy. We all need every opportunity we can get. If there's a chance for you here after all this, you should take it. It won't make you any less loyal to Decadent.”

“I feel you, Syd, but I can't do that. Your pops was like a dad to me. If he had never given me that job here when I was a kid, I woulda never made it to college. That degree, all my experience, I owe it to him. And I can't turn my back on him now.”

He shook his head. “I'll work somewhere, but it won't be here. I just wanted to let you know.”

Sydney didn't know why, but she felt her eyes moisten. She blinked the wetness away before it could embarrass her.

“Thank you, Mario,” she said, her voice taking on an unusual softness. “It means a lot to hear you say that.”

He nodded. “No problem.”

He grinned. “Besides, your sister would probably kill me if I even considered working for them. And seeing that she's finally feelin' a brother, I'm tryin' not to mess that up, you know what I'm saying?”

Sydney smiled knowingly. “Yes, I know what you mean. She would definitely kill you.”

Mario grinned and headed for the door. “Keep your head up, Syd. Everything's gonna work according to God's plan.”

Sydney raised an eyebrow. “You're a Christian?”

Mario popped his collar. “No doubt.”

She shook her head. “All these years and I didn't even know that about you.”

“Yeah,” he said. “That was your dad, too. And you know what, I've never regretted that decision. Not one day in my life.”

Sydney nodded and considered him thoughtfully, seeing him in a whole new light.

She suddenly sat up. “Wait, if you're a Christian, how come you're dating my sister?”

He gave a little smile. “I have faith in her. Like I told you, Syd, she just needs a little direction. She's gotten a little sidetracked during life. But she'll find her way back.”

Sydney didn't know whether to admire or pity Mario. He had more faith in her sister than most.

“Anyway, I gotta go clean up before the end of the shift,” he said, heading through the door. “Remember what I said, Syd. It's gonna work out. And if you ever decide to open another Decadent, know that you got me.”

Sydney watched him leave but felt his words still hang after him. Everything's gonna work according to God's plan. She had heard that text before. But it took a few clicks in Google to give her the exact reference in Romans 8:28.

She read it over and over until she was pretty sure she had it memorized. It sounded like the kind of thing to keep someone hopeful. All things work together for good. How? How could losing Decadent and her savings work for good? She couldn't see it. But maybe that was only the case for people like JJ and Jackie. People who had that perfect relationship with God. People who were so good that they were liable to ascend at any moment.

She was far from that point. Sure, she showed up at church, but her time with God outside of that was relegated to two-line prayers over her food if she remembered. She didn't talk about him every day or weave the topic of him into regular conversation like her mother or Hayden. She did love God. Or used to anyway. But her ideas on loving God were tangled up with memories of going to one church with Leroy on some weekends and a different one with Jackie on others; it was confused with childhood memories of family worship at Jackie's, where Josephine took center stage; it was lost in the whispers of church people who told their children not to talk to
those
kids, not to date those girls—the ones whose mother had all those husbands. She had had a hard time conceptualizing God's love through all of that. And she suddenly realized that at some point she had stopped trying.

She glanced at the clock: 10:45. It was time to get ready for closing. Forcing her mind to stay focused, she went over the schedule one more time before approving it and e-mailing it to all the staff. It would be one of the last schedules she ever sent them.

Powering down her computer, she packed up her things and prepared to make the final round through the shop floor before closing. She was almost through the door when the phone rang. She glanced back at it but kept going. Whatever it was, it could wait.

When she was almost at the end of the hallway, she felt her cell phone vibrate at her hip. Without pausing, she pulled it out and answered it.

“Hello—”

“Sydney, it's Dean!” The panic in JJ's voice sliced through Sydney like a knife.

“What? What's wrong?”

“There was an accident.” JJ began sobbing and Sydney's heart beat faster. Her mind had suddenly flashed back to the last time her sister had called her crying. It had been a year and a half ago when Leroy died.

“When? Where? What happened?” Sydney was already on her way back to her office to grab her car keys.

“Dean . . . he was drinking . . . there was an SUV . . . oh God . . . Syd, he's not conscious.”

After that it was pretty much impossible to get anything out of JJ. But somehow she managed to get the name of the hospital. With quick instructions to Wendy to lock up, Sydney dashed through the door and was in the car before she even got JJ off the phone.

By the time she pulled out onto the main road, she'd called Lissandra and relayed the news. The traffic seemed heavier than ever as she made her way over to Toronto Western Hospital on the west end of the city. She tried to temper the millions of thoughts in her head, but they were completely out of control. She didn't want to think about what her brother's fate might be. Whatever it was, he was too young. This shouldn't be happening to him.

She squeezed her car into the first available space, ignoring the parking information sign a few feet away. When she finally got into the lobby, Zelia's boyfriend, Luke, was pacing the waiting area.

“Where are they?” she asked, skipping the formalities.

“Fell Pavilion, first floor,” he said. “I'll take you. . . .”

“No, you stay here,” Sydney said, already running toward the hallway. “Lissandra's coming and she'll tear this place up if she doesn't know where to go.”

Sydney felt like she ran through the confusing hallways of the hospital forever, but she finally found the waiting room where her sisters were. Zelia immediately fell on Sydney in tears.

“Where is he?” Sydney asked, her eyes moving from Zelia's sobbing form to JJ, who was walking back and forth nearby, barely holding it together.

“He's in surgery,” JJ said, her eyes already swollen. “Several of his ribs were crushed and one punctured his lung. Plus they say he has head injuries.”

JJ's face crumpled as tears began to pour out of her eyes, and she rocked back and forth to calm herself down. Sydney turned away from her sisters as much as she could, with the weight of Zelia pulling her down. She couldn't afford to break down now. One of them had to keep it together. She suspected that no one had managed to call their mother.

“What happened?” Sydney asked after a moment, when JJ seemed to recover a little.

“We don't know for sure,” JJ said. “Zelia said he took off a little after eight this evening. We don't know where he was, who he was with; all we know is that Zelia got a call about half an hour ago. They found his driver's license on him, and she was listed on his file at the hospital as one of his contacts.”

“They didn't call Mom, did they,” Sydney asked, even as feelings of panic began to stir in her.

“No,” JJ said, shaking her head.

“Thank God,” Sydney breathed. “I don't know how she would have taken it on top of everything else that's already happened.”

“I know.” JJ said. She sniffled. “Syd, they say he was wasted. His blood alcohol was almost three times the legal limit.”

“He was drinking?”

JJ nodded. “It's been happening almost every night since Sheree took off.”

Sydney shook her head. She hated that woman for what she had done to her brother.

She sank into the chair and pulled out her cell phone and dialled. After several rings, her sister Josephine answered.

“Hey, Sydney. How's it going?”

Sydney winced. Only Josephine could be this perky at 11:15 at night.

“Not so good.”

Josephine's tone changed. “What's going on?”

Sydney took a deep breath. “I'm going to tell you something and I need you to stay calm because I need you to get Mom.”

There was a pause on the other end. “OK. Go ahead.” Josephine said finally.

“Dean was in a car accident. He's here at Toronto Western, and he's having emergency surgery,” Sydney said.

Josephine gasped. “Oh God. Is it serious?”

“Yeah,” Sydney said. “But I don't have the details.”

“So you want me to tell Mom.”

“Yes,” Sydney said. “But don't tell her everything. Just tell her there was an accident and bring her here. We'll explain everything when she gets here. All she needs to know for now is that Dean is alive. Can you do that?”

There was a pause and for a moment Sydney wondered if this was too much for her nineteen-year-old sister.

“You know what, I'm sorry,” Sydney began. “I shouldn't have asked you to do this. Forget it. I'll be over to get her. . . .”

“No, it's OK,” Josephine said. “I'll bring her.”

Her voice sounded surer than Sydney felt and Sydney remembered why she had asked her: because on most days Josephine was more mature than most of Sydney's other siblings. Sydney hoped today would be one of those days.

Sydney let out a deep breath. “Call me when you get here and I'll tell you where we are.”

“See you in a few.”

Sydney leaned back in the chair and rested her head against the wall, closing her eyes. The gentle sobs of Zelia in her lap and the sniffles of JJ blended with the beep of machinery, intercom messages, and other hospital sounds. Sydney remembered the last time she was here. It was when her dad had his stroke. It had been his second one, and somehow she had known that it would be his last. Before her thoughts could descend into any further gloom, JJ's voice broke the silence.

“Sydney?”

“Yeah?” Sydney answered without moving.

She heard JJ take a ragged breath. “What if—”

“Don't,” Sydney said, cutting her sister off before she could release the negative thought into the open. “Just don't.”