“Take what?” I screamed.
He flinched and words stumbled out of his mouth. “Ever hear of selling your soul to the devil?”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“That’s what I did when I asked Seamus to give Tommy a job. I had no idea my political aspirations were so significant to my brother. It turns out, they were even more important to him than they were to me.”
I was losing him. He wasn’t making sense. I needed to pull him back. In a softer voice I said, “Michael, finish your story, please. What happened after you got Seamus to give Tommy a job?”
His facial features tightened. “Things got worse instead of better. I asked Elizabeth to stop seeing Tommy and she ignored me. She was around less and less, and I couldn’t get her to stay at home. She wasn’t even spending time with Clementine. Then one day I got a call from the nanny that Elizabeth had come home and made her leave. That wasn’t like Elizabeth. She didn’t like to be alone with Clementine. I frantically called Seamus to find out if Tommy was still working for him. Once he reassured me that he was, I rushed home and found her packing. When she saw me, all she did was ask for the money I owed her.”
“The forty thousand?” I asked, trying to understand what my sister could possibly be thinking. Why she’d want to uproot her child for a life on the road. She should have known better.
Michael scrubbed his face. “Yeah, and I went crazy. Called her some names and told her to go to hell. That’s when she told me to go fuck myself. That she didn’t need my money. That soon she and Tommy would have enough to never have to worry about money again. I laughed at her. That’s when she told me she had five million dollars’ worth of drugs in her car. While she packed, I took the drugs and put them in the panic room where she wouldn’t be able to get to them. I had to. There was no way I was letting her leave the house with Clementine. When she started loading the car, and figured out what I’d done, she freaked out on me, went nuts, and then drove off alone. She had done it all the time; I thought she’d be back in a few hours once she cooled down.”
I stood there, wordless. She was so much like my father. I hated that.
“But she didn’t return and I started to get worried. I thought she took off for good, and that’s when I called you.”
I felt sick. “That’s when Seamus had taken her?”
He nodded. “I didn’t know it at the time, but yes. It turned out Seamus had picked up Elizabeth right after she left the house that day. My call had alerted him. It was my fault.”
I had no sympathy for him, although he looked truly regretful. “So when you called me, you didn’t know where she was?”
He shook his head.
“When did Seamus tell you he’d taken her?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “About a month ago.”
“You knew where she was a month ago and yet you kept letting me think she was out there alone? Why would you do that?”
“How could I tell you any of this? Tell you what I’d done. I begged Seamus to let her go. He said he would when she was ready. He wanted her to repent for her sins and prove she would no longer be an adulteress.”
My mind was a whirl. “What about Patrick’s threats? You had the drugs; why didn’t you just give them back when he made the demand?”
“I couldn’t. By then Seamus had already sent a team in to package the drugs and have them delivered to his warehouse. When I received the threat from Patrick, Seamus told me he’d get me what I needed by the deadline.”
“But he only sent half the drugs to the boutique?”
“I know. He said he was worried that the DEA was watching and he wanted to make certain the delivery arrived safe. We know how that ended up.”
I shuddered. Thankful he didn’t really know.
“Things went from bad to worse after that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Elizabeth somehow escaped from Seamus and she started calling me. Threatening me. She wanted the drugs back. She even broke into the house, trying to get into the panic room.”
“The note,” I said. It slipped from my mouth, giving away the fact that I’d broken into the panic room.
He nodded, seemingly surprised. “Yes, she left you a note in the Mercedes, but I found it first. And then you found it—in my panic room.”
“Is that why your brother kidnapped me? Because I broke into your room?”
A shake of the head.
“Then why?”
Michael averted his eyes.
“Why?”
He sighed, resigned. “After his son delivered flowers to you, and saw you with Logan, Seamus was worried you were going to walk away from me. Believe me, I had no idea he’d taken you. I even went to the police.”
My breath, coming faster, blew the first word away. “But who I choose to love isn’t Seamus’s concern and I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“I know that,” Michael whispered. “But now he’s resorted to threats against Clementine to keep us together.”
“We were never together.”
“In his mind, we should be.”
“Tell him to find you someone else.”
“I’ve tried. Presented my secretary, the nanny, a few others, too. He had me run them through a few of his loyalty and faithfulness tests; none of them could pass. Since they wouldn’t say yes to my first order, the second test could never even be administered.”
The website. It made sense. Pick one. Show loyalty and obedience. I felt a little sick. “I must have failed too, then.”
He nodded. “He wasn’t testing you; to him you were the perfect match for me. He just needed to instill his family values in you.”
I threw my hands up. “Fuck him. Why does he care so much about who you end up with?”
Resolve seemed to overtake him and he spoke like he wasn’t talking to anyone. “I already told you, Seamus’s political aspirations for me were bigger than even my own. Mayor. Senator. White House. He saw his ability to rule more than Boston through me. To show my father he could be so much more than my father had thought he could be. However, if I was going to climb the political machine, he knew I needed a woman by my side and he thought, no he thinks, you are the perfect woman to fill that role. I’ve already told you this. You’re the key. Say yes and Clementine will remain safe.”
I stood open mouthed. Was Michael playing me? “I’m not going to say yes, Michael. But you have to be able to stop him from doing anything to Clementine. She isn’t a part of this. You have to talk him out of it.”
He was shaking his head.
“Talk to him!” I screamed.
“I have.”
“Then go to the police.”
“I can’t.”
“Why can’t you?”
He shook his head violently as if he wasn’t going to tell me.
“Michael!” I was hysterical now. “Why can’t you? She’s your daughter, it’s your job to protect her!” I screamed even louder.
As he spoke, his shoulders began to shake. “I know. I know. But my choices have been stripped away from me, Elle. You don’t understand.”
Everything I saw was red. “No, Michael, your choice is to keep her safe, no matter what you have to do. Go to the police. Tell them everything.”
Kill him, I thought.
“I can’t.”
“Then I will.”
He shook his head. “You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“He’ll know I told you and then he will go after Clementine.”
“He almost killed me.”
“Elle, he’s obsessed with having connections. He thinks that’s how he is going to grow his empire. Nothing is going to stop him.”
“You have to turn him in,” I begged.
His laugh was dry. “Like I said, you don’t understand.”
My fists balled at my sides. “Then tell me.”
His eyes closed again and minutes passed before he spoke. “That Saturday morning that your car was at the mechanic’s and I went there, that was when I found the note Elizabeth had left for you folded on the visor in the Mercedes. That night I didn’t go out of town like I told you, but I went to the address on the slip of paper.”