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“Seems like you already heard from my second issue.” I growled. “O’Brian is a power abusing piece of shit. He had her working under him, doing all of his work, for three years. You see for yourself how talented she is. I don’t say this next part lightly. Somehow, he managed to get worse. He gave Miriam Dark cocaine last night. Tried to pimp her out to get what he wanted, too.”
“Motherfucker!” Bingham slammed something in the background and I heard him shouting at his assistant. “Get that fucking rat, O’Brian back here right now!”
“He earned those punches from Layla. I’m only sad she won’t get to see her handiwork.”
“The hell she won’t. He set up a video call and I took screenshots of the prick. I didn’t know why at the time, but now I do. When you get to Layla and things settle down, you let her know I’ll have the picture blown up and framed in gold for her.” He sighed. “Have her take whatever time she needs, Mack. Her job’s always safe here. Unless you idiots don’t resign with me. Then, I’m canning everyone.”
“You know we’re not going anywhere. We just have to make threats every so often so you don’t go soft on us.” I looked up and saw Xavier and Jones coming out of the bus, bags in hand. “Thank you for understanding.”
“Go on. Take care of your lady and then come back and make me a few millions more.” Before he even hung up the call, he was already shouting orders at his assistant. “Fly that tool back economy! Put him in with the cargo if you can!”
39
Layla
Iwassoangryat Jagger. He’d known about his diagnosis for so long. He’d taken the opinion of one doctor who said there was nothing to be done and just let it go. He hadn’t bothered to get a second opinion or push them to try a treatment, no matter what. He just accepted that he was going to die. Knowing that Grandma and I would fight him, he kept it a secret. I wanted to strangle him and hold him at the same time.
Staring down at my big brother in his hospital bed, I wanted to look away. He looked smaller than I remembered him, almost frail. Even without the injuries from the wreck, I would’ve known he was sick. I should’ve seen it. Maybe I hadn’t wanted to in the times I’d seen him on video calls, just like I didn’t want to in the hospital. I didn’t want to see him looking so weak and helpless. I wouldn’t look away, though. I couldn’t. Not even for a second. I wouldn’t waste a moment.
Losing our parents had happened in an instant. We hadn’t had time to grab onto certain memories and tuck them safely away. They were just gone and so were the parts of them we hadn’t gotten a chance to entomb in our minds. It was brutal to think of watching Jagger get worse, but I would have time to tuck every part of him away inside myself so I wouldn’t forget a single thing.
He’d been awake for a little while earlier that morning, but he was banged up from the wreck and the pain meds he was on were keeping him knocked out for the most part. Each time his eyes fluttered open, even for just a second, my heart reacted like a gun had gone off.
When they stayed open that time, I felt nervous and unsure of myself. I had so much I wanted to say but I didn’t know where to start. I also didn’t want to push him or stress him out. I felt tongue-tied.
Of course, Jagger was still Jagger. “Stop fucking watching me like you’re Norman Bates and I’m your mummified mother, weirdo.”
I rolled my eyes and moved my chair closer. “You do kind of look like someone’s mummified mother, now that you mention it.”
He groaned. “Don’t make me laugh.”
I grabbed his hand and held on tight. “What do you need?”
“For you to stop squeezing my hand.” He gave me a weak smile. “I’m fine, Layla. I’m sure I’ll be dancing by this time tomorrow.”
“You know I’m going to kick your ass as soon as you’re out of here, right?” I wiped away a stray tear and forced a smile. “You scared the shit out of me. I was in the middle of beating up Matthew when I got the call.”
He looked at his pain pump and grunted. “This thing must be better than I thought because I thought you said you were beating up Matthew.”
I brushed his hair off his forehead and frowned. “Do you think we both have big foreheads? Or just you?”
He laughed and his face immediately pinched in pain. I grabbed his pain button and jabbed at it until he grabbed it back. “Jesus, Lala, you’re going to have me high as fuck.”
“It’s there for you to use. Stop trying to be stronger than broken bones, idiot.”
His speech was already starting to slur. “Wait, dammit. You beat up…”
I smiled at him and brushed his hair back over his big forehead. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was just him. He had our dad’s forehead. If anything happened to him, that would be one more part of Dad gone from the world.
Nick walked into the room and passed me a large cup of coffee. It matched the one he’d gotten himself. “I heard you talking to him so I waited outside. He sounded pretty awake.”
“Until I drugged him.” I tapped the pain button that was still clasped in Jagger’s hand. “He was hurting and I didn’t like it.”
“Let the man control his pain pump, Layla. He’s probably bored senseless from being asleep for so long.”
I traced my finger over his nose. “He didn’t get a family nose. This nose matches no one in the family, on either side. That’s weird, right? I used to tell him he was part alien. Before I understood what I was saying, I’d tell everyone that an alien had come down and put a baby in Mom.”
“I’m sure you were a fun sister.” He sank into a plastic chair and groaned. “You have my wife smitten. She’s flying out to help around the house with anything you or Gran need.”
