I smirked at the memory. I wanted that man to be so much more than a buddy, and I was getting the impression Jagger wanted it too. I needed to get my ass back to Vegas.
There was a loud knock on the door of my shitty apartment, so I got up and pulled on some sweats, having slept naked because underwear and pajama pants confined my dick and made me restless.
I ambled toward the front door, opening it to find Thomas with a bag in his hand. “Peace offering.”
Of course he’d try to make up with me. Guilt was an overpowering emotion for Thomas. No doubt, he’d already made up with Lindsey.
“Come inside and forgive the mess. I’m giving up the apartment and moving to Las Vegas. I didn’t come back here only to give you shit. I also came to get my shit, but I wanted to make sure you’re okay, Tommy.”
“Wow! I guess I didn’t consider you’d move to Vegas. Did you find Danny Bolls? How’s Boyd?”
The last question was what my brother really wanted to know more than anything. It was easy to see Thomas still loved Boyd, even though all signs pointed to Boyd’s involvement in the blackmail threat. Was it because of Lindsey and her desire for a baby?
“Boyd is fine…maybe more than a little heartbroken, but you didn’t hear it from me. What the fuck was going on with you and Lindsey last night, Thomas?”
I wanted my brother to thrive and climb to the top of the mountain, but he was in a lane where there were no lights or road signs to guide him. I believed he was still following our father’s example, and I just didn’t see how he could win and be happy. He had to pick one or the other. “Thomas, talk to me.”
“I’m a fool, Bailey. In the back of my mind, I believed I could have Lindsey and Boyd. I thought after that night we spent together, the three of us could make a life together. Why was I so stupid?”
He wanted me to reassure him. With the shit he’d told me about Lindsey, I had the idea of something happening behind the scenes my brother hadn’t considered.
Chuckling, I went to the kitchen cabinet to get plates for the donuts and mugs for the coffee that I hadn’t packed yet. I also grabbed a bottle of cognac before I returned to the living room. I placed the mugs on my shitty coffee table, poured a shot of cognac in each mug, and picked up the paper cups he’d brought.
“It’s early for me, Bailey.” It was Thomas’s way of protesting, which made me smile.
“Not for what I’m planning to tell you.” I dumped the coffee into the mugs and sat in my shitty recliner that I planned to donate. I’d bought it at a secondhand furniture store, and it had served me for the time I’d been in Carson City. It was time to let it go. Besides, it wouldn’t fit into the rental.
Thomas sat forward on the shitty side chair. “What? What do you know?”
“Know? Nothing concrete. Tell me about the million bucks Mom sent you.”
My brother’s face tensed as he studied me. He had no idea that I knew what Mom had done for him.
“What? You don’t think I know about the money, Tommy? You put together a million bucks in a matter of minutes before you rushed out of the mansion after that blackmail text. Do you always have that much money lying around? I suspect not. When I asked Beatrice, she confessed that she was trying to build your war chest before you started your reelection campaign.”
Thomas’s face flamed a bright pink. “Fuck you, Bailey.”
I took a swig of my spiked coffee drink and studied Thomas. “Why did you let Mom send you that money? Aren’t you supposed to have small donors?”
“I can loan money to my campaign, but I didn’t ask Mom for the money, Bailey. You have to believe me. I’d never ask Mom for anything.” The tremble in his voice made me suspicious.
“Who did ask Mom for the money?” I didn’t have to guess. I had a feeling.
Thomas stood from the shitty chair to pace. “You don’t understand, Bailey. There’s a lot of pressure on Lindsey as First Lady of the state. She needs to pick a cause, and it’s never anything that can be accomplished in four years, but neither can my agenda. We both need this second term so we can have accomplishments to take into our future and use those accomplishments to run for higher offices.”
I shook my head. “Wow. The General really fucked with you, didn’t he?”
“What do you mean?” My brother’s expression was trying to cover up the hurt he felt because of our father. It broke my heart.
“You want that picture perfect… You want to be a familial dynasty, don’t you? You want everyone to believe we’re one of those political families who are so fucking proper that generations to come will admire us and believe we led a storybook life. What is wrong with you, Thomas? You know that’s not true at all.”
He spun on me. “I fucking want the General to be proud of me, Bailey. He’s gone, and while he was alive, he was always proud of you because you went into the military and became larger than life because of the letters you wrote to Mom, you fucker. I never had that! I wasn’t as important as you.”
Seeing the tears on my brother’s cheeks brought me to a halt. I’d had no idea my brother didn’t know how much our father had admired him.
“You’re crazy, Tommy. Father was proud of your accomplishments. He knew you’d do great things, and hell, look how much you’ve done for Nevada. The only thing I had going for me was that I could follow orders and shoot straight. I was a good soldier.
“You were the future Father wanted for our family. He knew you would carry on the family tradition of political excellence. I was a grunt in the Army, Thomas. I think we can agree that we’ve both lived up to whatever the fuck the General thought was important.
