“I’m sure I can explain it if you will just—” The dean stopped talking when something buzzed, and he reached over to push a button on his phone. “Yes, Gina?”
“Your next appointment is here, Dean Philips.”
10
Stormy Glenn
“Good, good.” The dean smiled even broader, which Danny didn’t think was possible. He looked like his face was about to split in two.
“Please, send him in.”
Danny started to get a cold foreboding feeling when the dean jumped up and walked toward the door, smoothing his tie down.
Danny’s fingers nearly strangled the straps of his backpack as he stood and turned to face whoever was coming into the dean’s office.
He had a pretty good idea, and if he was right, he was leaving.
Danny’s heart thudded faster as the door slowly opened. He took one look at the man walking in and swung his backpack up onto his shoulder. He headed for the door, avoiding the inquisitive gaze of the other man, and held out his hand to the dean.
“Thank you for meeting with me, Dean Philips, but I have to get back to class.”
“Oh, but—” the dean stammered, glancing back and forth between Danny and the man standing by his desk. His eyebrows scrunched together as if he was totally bewildered.
“Daniel,” the other man said sternly, “you will stay.”
“Wow.” Daniel turned to face the man. “You remembered my name. Did they get snow blowers in hell?”
“Daniel!” the man admonished, his eyebrows drawing down in a deep frown that Daniel had seen more times than he could count. It used to scare the shit out of him. Now, it just made him angry.
“Father,” Danny replied.
“We need to talk, Daniel.”
“I think that everything that needs to be said between us has been said.” Danny started for the door. “Good day, Father.”
“Your brother is ill.”
Danny paused at the door and slowly turned to face his father. The man had been known to lie to get what he wanted. Danny didn’t know if he could trust the words coming out of his father’s mouth.
“How ill?” he probed.
“He’s in the hospital on a ventilator.”
Blood Contract
11
“What’s wrong with him?” Danny hated his father. He didn’t hate his brother, even if they were no longer speaking. Samuel hadn’t said a word to him since the day Danny had moved out of their parents’
house. But he was still Daniel’s twin brother.
“He’s in a coma.”
“A coma?” Danny whispered. “What do the doctors say?”
Danny knew his father had paid for the very best doctors in the country. Samuel was his golden boy, his heir. And unlike Danny, Samuel was straight. Lowell Erickson put everything into his oldest son, all of his attention and any emotional feelings he might have. He certainly didn’t share them with his gay son.
“The doctors don’t know what is wrong with him.” Lowell frowned again, giving Danny a clue that there was something more.
His father had tell signs. Frowning was one of them. “That’s why I’m here.”
Danny was confused. “Why are you here?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. “I know you didn’t come all of this way to tell me Samuel was in the hospital. A phone call from your assistant would have done that.”
“I need a sample of your blood, Daniel.”
Danny thought his eyes might have bugged right out of his head as he stared at his father. “My blood?”
“The doctors believe there is something wrong with Samuel’s blood. As Samuel’s twin, they want a sample of your blood to test to see if you have a similar anomaly or if it’s just Samuel.”
There was something about that explanation that didn’t sit right with Danny, but damned if he could figure it out. His gut was screaming for him to run and never look back. But it was Samuel they were talking about. Whether Danny liked it or not, he’d stay and listen.
“What about mother or you?” he asked. He wasn’t Samuel’s only blood relative.
12
Stormy Glenn
“We’ve already been tested. Neither of us is a good match for Samuel.”
That drew Danny’s attention. His father had said they were looking for an anomaly, not a match. “Match for what?”
“If your blood is the same as Samuel’s, you can give him a transfusion that could essentially save his life.”
“Just how sick is he?”
Lowell folded his arms behind his back and gave Daniel a stern stare. “I’ll pay for your entire four years here at the university in whatever field you wish to study if you agree to give me a sample of your blood and stop asking stupid questions.”