I could tell he didn’t like what I had to say. I knew that he wanted to argue with me further. Instead, he dialed his phone. “Get everyone into position, Vic. Mitch is going to the hospital.” I couldn’t decipher Vic’s actual words, but they were obviously heated. “We work for him not the other way around,” Mark said, his words equally as sharp. “He knows the risks but chooses to see his father anyway. Make it happen.” Mark was acting against his better judgement because it was what I wanted. He wasn’t thinking like a part of my security team, he was acting like someone who cared about me.
It took longer than I would’ve liked for me to get to the hospital. When I arrived, my father was still in surgery. Estelle took one look at me and started screaming at the top of her lungs. “This is all your fault, you little bastard! It should’ve been you that was shot; it should’ve been you bleeding out in the car! You better hope he lives or I’ll kill you myself!”
Todd Basterson, her brother and chairman of the board for Heston’s, pulled her into a tight hug. “Hush now, sister dear. This isn’t Mitch’s fault. This is the work of some sick madman. The only thing that matters is that Max is holding on. He’s going to pull through.”
“First my Stephan died skiing and now Max could die too.” I knew that Estelle had never recovered from the loss of the younger half-brother I’d never met. Honestly, I’d never seen a true love connection between she and my father, so her outburst actually caught me off guard.
Todd had been kinder to me than most, but never more so than when I took over as CEO. It was then that he put his sister’s feelings aside and focused on what I had to offer to our company. I more than proved myself to him and I suspected it was the reason for the sympathetic look he shot me over his sister’s head.
“None of that has anything to do with Mitch,” he said softly as he rocked her back and forth. “Let’s go get coffee and maybe some fresh air. The last update we had said it could be several more hours.” Estelle didn’t want to leave, but after a few minutes of coaxing, she allowed Todd to lead her from the waiting room.
Shocked and numb from Estelle’s verbal attack, I stood rooted to the same spot until Mark guided me over to an uncomfortable chair. “Hey, don’t you listen to her, Mitch,” he said softly. He was kneeling in front of me and holding both of my hands. “You’re not to blame for any of this, regardless of this sick fuck’s motivation. There’s nothing you could’ve done in your past to warrant death threats against you and an attempt on your father’s life.”
I nodded my head because I wanted to believe him. Fear for my dad took precedence over any other emotion. I would think about Estelle’s hatred of me later, but right then all I wanted was to know that my father was okay. Vic interviewed my dad’s driver to get as much info as he could from the shaken man. Estelle returned after a little while and we all settled into a tense silence as we waited for word.
What seemed like days later, a tired looking surgeon approached us in the waiting room. He introduced himself to us as Dr. Daniels before he said, “It’s been touch and go with him a few times due to a lot of internal bleeding. We’ve been able to get it stopped, but he lost a lot of blood. We had to remove his spleen, but for the most part Max was a very lucky man. His heart, lungs, and major arteries were missed by the bullets or we wouldn’t be talking about his recovery right now.” Dr. Daniels went on to talk about my dad’s prognosis and the length of recovery. “Right now he’s in the ICU. We’ll let you go in for a few minutes to see him once he wakes up from the anesthesia. I’ll send a nurse down when he’s awake.”
A sigh of relief echoed from all of us in the room. My dad had a long way to go to recover, but it looked really good for him. A nurse came to the waiting room about thirty minutes later and called out my name. I turned and looked at her and she offered me a kind smile.
“Mr. Heston would like to see you,” she said to me.
“Him?” Estelle asked angrily. “I’m Max’s wife!”
“Ma’am, Mr. Heston is extremely tired and weak right now. He would like to see his son and I’m simply honoring his wishes.” Mark moved to come with me, but the nurse held up her hand. “Only Mitch,” she said.
“There’s been two threats against Mitch’s life and now an attempt on his father’s as well,” Mark told her. “He goes nowhere without me.” She pursed her lips and wanted to argue but one look into Mark’s eyes told her she’d be wasting her breath. “Fine, but you can’t go into the room with him.”
“Deal.”
My heart hammered in my chest the entire way to my father’s room. I had to stand outside his door for a few extra moments to calm myself down so I’d be able to hear what he had to say over the thundering sound of my own pulse in my ears.
“Father,” I said quietly as I approached him. He looked much smaller than his normal robust self as he lay in the sterile bed hooked up to several loud machines. “I’m here.”
He opened his eyes slowly and looked up at me. His hand shook hard, as if he had palsy, when he reached for me. I wrapped his icy fingers in my warm hand and held on, trying to give him strength. “This… is all my fault,” he said slowly. “I brought this down upon you.”
“Father, there’s no way…”
He cut me off before I could finish what I was going to say. “Listen to me, Mitch, before it’s too late.”
I figured I’d just go along with him to make him feel better. He had just been shot several times for fuck’s sake and the last thing I wanted to do was upset him. But my blood turned cold as I listened to his hospital bed confession.
