Cash (Sexy Bastard #2) by Eve Jagger

they always have, my parents show up to destroy it.
    “I’ll be back later,”
I tell them, ignoring the concern on their face. “Don’t
worry.”
     
    * * *
     
    Peidmont is close to the bar, and it
doesn’t take me long to get there. I hate hospitals, and even
with all the money my family has it still isn’t enough to mask
the smell of disinfectant and death. Mentally, I start to prepare
myself for the one thing I’ve wanted and now can’t face:
my father’s demise.
    He deserves it. As head of the
investment company that screwed thousands of people out of their life
savings, his karmic payback should be a good one. I was in college
when it all went down: the collapse of my whole life, everything I
took for granted my whole childhood: the fancy house, the cars, the
vacations. One minute he was respected, a stock market genius, they
said. The next, the company went under. Risky investments, bad loans,
whatever you want to call it, one minute the money was there, the
next, it disappeared into thin air.
    Not our money: theirs. We were
protected, of course. Limited liability, legal loopholes, a million
different ways for my family’s lawyers to say fuck you.
Hard-working people lost everything, their pensions, their savings,
even their homes, while my parents sailed through it all, unharmed.
We kept the big house, and the cars, and the vacation home by the
lake. He never paid a dime in compensation either. Sure, they tried
to press charges, but the court case collapsed on the second day of
the trial.
    He walked, scot free. And I vowed I
would never live another day off the dirty money from all those
people’s despair. I cut them off, took out loans to finish
college, and turned my back on the shame of my family’s greed.
You would figure maybe that would make my father wake up to what he’d
done, but you’d be wrong. He started a new company, raked in
the money again, and a few years later, it was like nothing ever
happened. I get those checks from the family trust every month, and I
send them on, to the people who lost everything to him.
    It’s not enough to pay my
family’s debt to them, but it’s all I can do.
    The waiting room’s empty, except
for the fancy and uncomfortable chairs that wait for visitors.
    “Emmett Gardner, please?” I
ask the no-nonsense nurse at the front desk.
    “2167.”
    I nod in appreciation and head in the
direction she’s pointed. Outside room 2167, I stop and take a
deep breath. This is it. Get in, make sure he’s not dead, and
get out. I shove open the door and freeze. The room is large and
spacious, my mother sitting by the bed.
    There’s dear old Dad, sitting up,
reading the paper, eating—and complaining—about the lunch
they’ve served him.
    No tubes.
    Barely an IV.
    What the hell?
    My panic fades – replaced with
anger. If it weren’t for the paper-thin hospital gown he’s
wearing, he could be lounging by the pool at the country club. Mom
sits next to him, perfect in her sweater set and pearls. She spots me
as I try to back out of the room without a word, and she rises,
coming after me.
    I turn away but she grabs me and pulls
me in for a bone thin hug. Whatever diet she’s mainlining this
month isn’t doing her any favors.
    “Do not make a scene, Cassius.
You will not embarrass us here,” she whispers.
    “You told me he was dying .
He’s fine. I don’t need to be
here.”
    “No, I told you he had a heart
attack, and he did. I didn’t know what to do, Cassius.”
    “Mom —”
    “You think it’s just about
you and him? My family is split apart. I worry about you night and
day, and then your father just drops. I didn’t know if he’d
make it. I needed you. Is it so wrong that I needed my son? To know
that the two most important men in my life are safe?”
    “Do not play this crap with me.
You could have picked up the phone anytime. I didn’t stop you.
This is just your way to force my hand.”
    “The doctors say it could happen
again. Do you want to