House of Paine - A Full Length Bad Boy Novel (30 page)

“Where are all the people?” Paige asked. It was Friday afternoon. Why wasn’t anyone in the office?

“I called ahead,” Roxi said. “The owner is a friend. They sent the staff home early.”

“Nice,” Paige said, slightly sarcastically again. This world was so foreign to her. “I’d like for him to be awake before we move him again.”

“I have to go,” Alex said suddenly.

They all turned to look at him. “Where are you going?” Damien asked him.

“I need to shower. I have blood all over me. My father is expecting me at the house at seven.”

Roxi stepped up to her cousin. He towered over her and probably outweighed her by a hundred and fifty pounds of solid muscle. “You need to tell me what happened before you go.”

“He got mouthy with my father and then he pulled a gun. In Jackson’s defense, Kevin threatened him first.”

“Bullshit!” Damien said, “He wouldn’t be that stupid.”

Alex turned to his brother and with a scowl he said, “He was protecting you…and you,” he said to Paige. “Kramer is making a lot of noise. Jackson is trying to stop a war from starting. The only way for him to do that is to hand you and the evidence you have over to Kramer. You’re both playing with fire…and like Kevin; you’re going to get burned.”

“Why did Jackson leave him alive?”

“He expected me to clean up…the way I always do.”

“Why didn’t you?” Damien asked him.

Alex looked at his brother again. His blue eyes were blood shot and his shirt was covered in blood and sweat. Paige hated to defend Alex in any way…but she could see just by looking at him that he had given everything he had to saving Kevin’s life. None of them had thanked him. On the contrary, he’d been treated pretty poorly. Paige was well aware he was an asshole…but sometimes she could be too forgiving. Damien and Roxi didn’t seem to be afflicted.

“Because…he’s my uncle and your father,” Alex said. “I have to go now or you’ll be pulling a bullet out of me next.” He laughed then and said, “Not that any of you would.”

“Alex…”

“What?”

“Thank you,” Damien said.

Alex’s permanent scowl returned to his face as he told his brother, “Don’t mistake this to mean that I’m going to help you ruin my father,” He picked up his blood soaked jacket, fished his car keys out of his pocket and left.

*****

A while later, Jake ran out and got dinner for everyone and as they sat and ate Roxi said, “So judging from his parting comments, Alex obviously didn’t agree to help you?”

“No,” Damien told her, “But he didn’t really say no either which is a good sign…”

“And let’s not forget the fact that he saved your father’s life,” Paige told them.

Neither Damien nor Roxi agreed with her, but Damien said, “You saved his life. Thank you.”

“Yes Paige, thank you,” Roxi said. “I won’t forget you did this for us.”

“You’re welcome. I just hope you both realize that I meant what I said earlier. He needs antibiotics, he needs an x-ray to make sure he’s not bleeding internally and he probably needs a blood transfusion. He’s been out a long time. That tells me that he probably lost more blood than I’d originally thought he had. If his blood volume stays low for too long it can cause him to have a heart attack amongst other problems.”

“If we take him to the hospital Paige, they’re going to ask a lot of questions that we won’t be able to answer,” Roxi said.

“Especially now that you’ve patched him up,” Damien told her.

“I understand that,” she said. “But you’re risking his life by not getting him the treatment he needs…” Kevin moaned loudly. They all turned their attention towards him. Roxi got up and went over to him. Taking his hand in hers she said,

“Dad…it’s me, Roxanne. Can you hear me?” He moaned again. “Do you think he’s in pain?” Roxi asked Paige.

“Maybe, I gave him some pain medicine through his IV when I first started it…but it might be wearing off.” Paige got up and found the kit Jules brought to her earlier. He’d brought her a big vial of Dilauded and several syringes. She washed her hands and drew the Dilauded into one of the syringes and put it directly into his IV. He groaned again and his eyelids fluttered open.

“Dad, can you hear me?”

Kevin croaked out a “Yes,” and then he tried to sit up.

“No! Dad stay there. You have to keep lying down,” Roxi told him. “You’re going to tear your stitches open.”

“Where---?”

“You’re in a safe place Dad. Jake’s here and Damien and Paige. Paige patched you up. She saved your life.” Paige looked at Roxi and Roxi rolled her eyes. “You and Jake could start your own Girl’s and Boy Scouts of America chapter. What Paige would like me to tell you Dad is that Alex originally saved your life.”

“Alex? How? What happened?”

Damien stepped up next to the table. Kevin’s eyes found his son’s and focused on them. “We’ll talk about all of that later,” Damien told him. “You need to rest.”

“Damien—“

“Later,” Damien told him. “We’re going to get you home so you can rest. We’ll talk about everything in the morning.” Kevin grunted again and then drifted back to sleep.

“Can we move him soon?” Roxi asked.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Paige said. “I’m not sure sitting up in a helicopter is going to be good for him.”

“We can take him to my penthouse,” Jake said.

Roxi looked at him with worry in her eyes and said, “It’s one thing being here, Jake. No one can really prove you were here when this happened. But having him at your house…”

“Where are you going to take him? Jackson thinks he’s dead, right? He can’t go to his house. The only way we can send him home on Derek’s copter is sitting up, or lying across the seat with no harness on which I don’t think the pilot would approve of. We’ll have to walk him in though, make it look like he’s drunk until we get him through the lobby.”

Roxi nodded. “Thank you.” She looked at Paige and before she asked Paige said,

“I don’t mind staying with him. I’m getting stir crazy doing nothing every day. But, my mother…”

“I’ll make sure she’s taken care of,” Roxi said. “I’m not really the domestic type, but I have a housekeeper that comes in a few times a week. I can have her come in.

“Okay then,” Paige said with a smile. “A mother for a father, I guess.”

“Really Paige,” Roxi said seriously. “Thank you.” Paige gave her a smile and a nod. She was like Jake, just by virtue of her being here she could be throwing away her entire future…but how could she not help him?

“Damien, you can go with Paige and I’ll stay with Roxi. I don’t have anything going on in the city this weekend,” Jake told him.

“Thanks,” Damien had that worried, intense look on his face that Paige was coming to know so well. She waited until Roxi and Jake started cleaning up before asking him,

“What’s wrong?”

“I was just thinking about this big family meeting my…Jackson called tonight. I wonder how he’s planning to explain Kevin’s absence to them.”

“Do you think this will have any bearing on Alex’s decision to help us or not?”

“I think that Jackson is having the worst few months of his criminal career. Now would be a perfect time for Alex to overthrow the king. I’m just not sure if my brother has it in him. He never disagrees with my father.”

“He did today. He didn’t kill Kevin.”

Damien nodded. “Yeah…I guess it’s kind of nice to know he has some small bit of conscience.”

“To me it’s nice to know that family means that much to him…at least I don’t have to worry that he’ll hurt you.”

Damien slipped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest. He kissed the top of her head and just held her there. Neither of them spoke and they were both rapidly becoming content in each other’s silences.

Three days passed before Damien got a call from his brother. “Meet me back at the pier,” Alex told him.

“I’m in New York.”

“Where?” Damien wasn’t about to tell Alex that. It wasn’t so much his brother he was worried about…but he wouldn’t put it past Jackson to tap Alex’s phone just in case he did call Damien.

“Huh uh, just tell me where to meet you and I’ll be there.”

Alex snorted. Damien knew it pissed him off that he was asking for help from him, but still didn’t fully trust him. “There was a time when I was the only person you trusted.”

“There was a time when you didn’t remind me so much of Jackson,” Damien said.

“Meet me at Battery Park by The Sphere at noon.”

“Will you be alone?” He heard Alex sigh and then he hung up without answering. Damien told Roxi and Paige he trusted his brother to help him…he was going to have to go with his gut instinct on that one. He just wanted this all to end.

He went into the guestroom that Kevin was staying in. Paige had just given him his pain medication and changed his bandages. Damien liked watching her do what she does. She’s so conscientious about everything and he found that actually watching people save lives instead of end them, was a refreshing change. But then again, he liked to watch her do just about anything. She saw Damien and told Kevin, “I’m going to start some lunch for you. I’ll be back.”

As she passed Damien he reached out and pulled her into him. He held her there for several seconds before placing a kiss on her forehead and letting her go. There weren’t many women in her position that would do all she’d done for Kevin. He wasn’t good with words…he never had been. He wished there was some way to show her how much he appreciated her. As soon as this mess is all over…if it ever is, he plans on taking her out for a nice dinner and a movie or something. He chuckled at that. He couldn’t remember the last time that he’d taken a woman out on a “date.” If any woman deserved it, it was Paige.

“How are you feeling?” Damien asked Kevin. They hadn’t talked about “things” yet. Paige kept him well-medicated for pain and Damien wanted him to be coherent when they talked.

“Like I got shot in the gut,” Kevin said. He chuckled then…and winced.

“Do you remember what happened?”

Kevin nodded. “My own brother shot me.”

“Yeah…unfortunately. Did you know that Alex refused to play “clean-up” crew? He waited for Jackson to leave and then he called Roxi and he took you to the agency where Paige patched you up…”

“That’s hard for me to imagine. I never thought that I was Alex’s favorite uncle.”

Damien grinned. “You’re really not…but I already had Brad…”

Kevin tried to laugh, but it came out in a groan. “Don’t be funny, it hurts.”

“I’m avoiding being serious, Dad.”

“I was wondering if you read the letter. I didn’t think you seemed mad enough at me.”

“I read it. Before I got a chance to kick your ass over it, you went and got shot.” Kevin laughed again.

“God damn it, you’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

“Slowly yes,” Damien said with another smile. “But seriously…I was pretty pissed at you at first. I was even pissed at my mother. But, I know Jackson and I know you had good reason for keeping the secret. Obviously, you being his brother was not enough to keep him from shooting you this time. I being his “son” was not enough to keep him from sticking a knife in my side either. He’s loyal to his family as long as he thinks they’re all “behaving” the way he wants them to.”

“I wanted to tell you, Damien…so many times. At first it was your mother I feared for. Jackson was hard on her when he first found out she was pregnant. She’d been gone to her mother’s for so long that he knew you couldn’t be his. She didn’t want to tell him you were mine. She thought it would be better if he thought you belonged to some random stranger.

He drove her to an abortion clinic when he first found out. She refused to go in. She told him he could kill her there in the parking lot…she wasn’t going to kill her baby. When he took her back to New York he locked her in a room with him for about eight hours and held a gun to her head until she finally told him that you were mine. I was in California on legitimate business for the company and I didn’t even know that she was pregnant. I stepped out of my car in front of your father’s house that day to a baseball bat across the face. While I was writhing on the ground I looked up and saw my brother’s face. He was smiling at me. He told me that if I ever so much as breathed a word to anyone that you were mine, he would kill me. I was young and stupid at the time. I can’t even remember what I said that day through my broken teeth…but whatever it was pissed him off. I woke up three days later in the hospital. They found me in an alley. Jackson came to see me in the hospital and brought me flowers. He told me the next time, Maryann would be the one found in the alley.”

“The more I find out about him, the more I want to kill him myself,” Damien told him.

“Please don’t,” Kevin said. “Now that you know I’m your father, I’d like you to stick around for a while. We’ll figure this out.”

“Yeah, we’ll figure it out,” Damien told him. He didn’t tell him that he had a meeting with Alex. He didn’t tell him that he wasn’t joking about killing Jackson…if he ever got the chance; Jackson Paine was as good as dead.