“That’s the word from higher up the ranks than me.”
“Cal, did you hear that? Aunt Ellie can come home.”
Cal reached out a hand and pulled her back down beside him. “That is good news. But I’m not sure I can stand to have you even five feet away from me. Sit down here with us again.”
Becky Lee grinned. “Possessive man, aren’t you?”
He hugged both Scotty and Becky Lee close. “I’m the luckiest man in the world right now, I know that much.”
“So, how about you head over to see your father now? We could wrap all this up.” Mr. I’m-in-Charge wouldn’t let it rest.
“Go visit you father? What’s he talking about?” Becky Lee looked up at him.
Cal sighed. “There is one more thing I need to do. I’m going to let these men take you back to Comfort Crossing. I have to deal with something. Something that should have been done long ago. I’m going to stop my father.”
Becky Lee took his hand in hers and held it tightly. “You do what you need to do. We’ll be waiting for you at home.”
~ * ~
Cal hadn’t been back to his childhood home in he didn’t know how many years. They’d flown him to Chicago and gotten him a car. He’d thought that the agents would tape some kind of device on his chest or something, but all they’d done was give him a really nice watch. They said everything would be recorded on that. Then they’d taken his shirt, cut off a button, and sewed a new one on it. Some kind of camera transmitter. He felt like a futurist spy, but he was determined. No one messed with Becky Lee and Scotty and put them in danger like that. No one.
He drove up the long drive and stopped in front of the house. A mix of emotions swirled through him. Playing in the backyard with Gordon when they were boys. Being dressed up in suits and paraded in front of business associates at the many dinner parties his mother threw. Well, the staff threw the parties, but his mother took the credit. The house he’d longed to come home to when he was at boarding school.
Why was that?
He was taken better care of at school and had a handful of friends to keep him company. It was less lonely at boarding school than being at home.
He stepped out of the car, pushing aside his memories. He rang the doorbell, no longer feeling like he had a right to just walk into the house.
“Mr. James. We weren’t expecting you.”
Ah, his father’s right-hand man was still on staff.
“Franklin.” Cal nodded his head. “I need to see my father.”
“I’ll see if he’s available. Wait here.”
Cal stood inside the doorway and looked up at the long, winding stairway leading upstairs. The stairway with the banister that Gordon and he would slide down when their parents were gone. Always hiding their antics from their sister because she would always tell on them. Up those stairs and down a long hallway was his boyhood room, right next to Gordon’s. A deep pain stabbed through him and nearly brought him to his knees.
He squared his shoulders. There was no time for memories. He was on a mission. For Becky Lee and Scotty. For Gordon. For all the people who his father had wronged.
His father stepped out of his office and into the hallway. “Wasn’t expecting you.”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Come back here, then. I only have a few minutes.”
Of course, only a few minutes. Who would want to spend more than that with his very own son?
He walked back to his father’s office, the room he’d never been allowed in as a boy. The room was dark and very masculine, with a massive desk in the center of the room. His father motioned for him to sit down.
Cal stood.
“I’m not sure what we have to talk about. I’m not giving up trying for custody. I will get custody of the boy. I can’t have him turning out like you and Gordon.” His father stood behind the desk.
Cal balled his fist. “You’re not going to get custody of Scotty.”
“But I am.”
“You’re not the kind of man that Gordon would want raising his son.”
“Gordon never knew what was good for himself, so, of course, he had no clue regarding his son. Scotty will be raised to be a Grayson. Work at the company.”
Cal gritted his teeth at the callous way his father talked about Gordon. “You didn’t even come to his funeral.”
“Why would I? He made it clear he wanted nothing to do with me or the company.”
“Because he was your son.”
“Both my sons have been a grave disappointment to me.”
“As you have been to your sons.”
Cal’s father’s eyes flashed in anger, then turned icy cold. “I won’t have you talking to me like that.”