Rise - Part Two (Rise #2)(8)

The pauses he took were brief which could only have meant that her questions were short and to the point. He explained that something had happened before assuring her that Dane, his fiancé, Bridget, and their baby were all fine. He wanted her to get on the next flight. He was compassionate, patient and most of all, calm.

"Not that day." He rests his smartphone on the sofa next to him. "I couldn't. I knew that if it was really him that he'd intentionally stayed away all these years. It meant that he couldn't have loved me or my brother if he just left like that."

"Not that day," I repeat back in more of a statement than a question. "You saw him again after that?"

The question is heavily rhetorical in one sense, and completely genuine in another. Obviously, they moved beyond stolen glances on an airplane if his father was in this apartment last night.

"He was on another flight I piloted last week." He skims his hand over the screen of his phone. "I spoke to him that day."

"What did you say?" I blurt out without thinking.

He turns slowly to look at me. "I followed him when he left the plane after we landed."

I lean forward as I feel my breath stall.

"I tapped him on the shoulder." He blows a puff of air out between his lips. "When he turned around I called him a selfish son-of-a-bitch and I walked away."





Chapter 7


––––––––

It's completely irrational for me to feel a rush of pain at the knowledge that Landon knew his father was alive yet he kept that to himself. We haven't known one another long. He'd shared details about his father's death at a time when he knew there was a strong possibility that the man was still alive. How can I fault him for that? I haven't shared every small detail of my past life with Ansel with him. I can't expect more from him, can I?

"After I spoke to him," he stops to correct himself. "After I told him he was a son-of-a-bitch, he pushed a piece of paper into my hand."

My gaze falls to his hands. "What did the paper say?"

"It was a number...a phone number," he stammers. "I went straight to the police station after that."

Again, I've never traveled the path that his life has so I can't judge his actions. I doubt that I'd head to a police station after finding out someone I loved is still alive, but maybe I'm just not capable of understanding all the emotional facets of what he's dealt with.

The question that is poised at the end of my tongue is 'why' but I'm not going there. "What did the police say?"

That feels more comfortable and much less confrontational. We're moving through the events of his father's reappearance at a snail's pace but it's Landon's choice. If I push him, I sense that whatever details he is willingly sharing will be replaced with clipped answers that are void of anything but what I've already witnessed myself.

"They called in a detective who was familiar with my father." He taps his foot on the floor, causing his knee to jerk up and down quickly. "He had been building a case against my father when he died...I mean, when we thought he had died."

Since he touched briefly on the fact that his father wasn't a saint before, I'm not surprised by his words. I knew the man wasn't perfect but based on what he's saying now, those shortcomings fell on the wrong side of the law. "What did he do?"

"The detective?" He furrows his brow as he reaches for my wineglass to take a drink. "He wanted all the details about what my father looked like now, where he'd boarded the flights and if I knew what name he was traveling under."

I don't have the heart to tell him that he misinterpreted my question. I simply nod.

"He took the piece of paper from me and asked if I'd help them apprehend my dad. I made the initial call to him. After that he called me back to set up a time to come here to see me and they came to pick him up."

I glance down at my watch not because I care what time it is, but because I know that my time with him is likely going to end as soon as his mother boards a flight in Boston. She's going to be his priority and once she learns that her husband is still alive, she's going to need Landon to be there for her.

"Am I keeping you from something?"

I cringe when I realize he caught me peering at the time. "No, not at all. You'll have to go when your mom's plane lands, won't you?"

He rests one of his arms over the back of the sofa. "I'm not leaving here until you understand what happened. I want to answer every question you have, Tess."

I scan his face hoping to see genuine concern there. I sigh when I do. "What did your father do, Landon? What could he have possibly done that made him fake his own death?"

His eyes fall to his lap. "The list is so long. He's done horrible things to so many people."

"What things?" I push. "You told me before that he did things that are inexcusable."

He takes a deep breath before he starts to speak. "Some of the people he worked with back then said he faked legal documents and pocketed money from his clients, he stole their homes right out from under them and there's something else."

"What?" I look at his profile. "What else did he do?"