Harkham's Corner (Harkham's Series Book 3) (21 page)

What was in this baby’s head now, even as he dreamed?

Adam sighed, turned away and slung his arm over his eyes.

Everything ached—his heart, his head, his eyes. Even his tongue felt oddly achy.

Nothing was right anymore.

“Daddy, you look like a green bean,” Meg said, approaching him.

He groaned. “I feel like a green bean.”

“You’re all lumpy looking, and your skin’s kind of yellowy-green.” Meg poked above his wrist.

The more she talked about him looking vegetablish, the more awful he felt. Did she know something he didn’t? Did she know he was going to be nauseous?

What if his daughter wound up being the genius?

What then?

“Mommy said to leave you alone, but you like me, and I don’t believe her.” Meg smiled and swished back and forth, her jammies clinging to her legs.

“You don’t believe what?”

“That you’re sick. You just look kinda sick like when you eat green beans, but you’re not really sick. You just missed-ded me.” Her grin grew bigger.

“Get a yellow or green marker,” he told her.

“Okay.” She bounced away and came back with a yellow one.

“Perfect.” He grabbed her hand and colored the back of it. “Now we match.”

“I’m not gonna be the green lady from Star Trek,” Mari said, joining them. “So don’t even think about it.” She chuckled at her silly joke.

He chuckled in response. If he felt better, he’d throw some innuendos her way. That’s how he knew he truly was feeling off—no energy for flirting with her and having their favorite kind of naughty fun.

She felt Adam’s forehead a moment later.

“I’m fine. I just look like I ate green beans, and nobody likes those. Bleck!” He made a face, sticking out his tongue like he ate one, and it was disgusting.

Meg laughed. “I hate them. Why is there a bean in something green? Why would anyone do that?”

“I don’t know. It’s a bad idea.” Adam made the face again, only this time he made a vomiting noise, too.

Meg laughed much louder and covered her mouth.

Zach gave them all a look like they were insane.

“Too much soda,” Mari said, pointing at the empty cans on the table.

“Hey, how else am I gonna tempt my brother so he’ll lose the challenge? I’m in need of a hundred bucks right about now.” Zach placed his hands behind his head, elbows out and leaned back, propping his heels up on the coffee table.

“Where’s Jill?” Mari glanced around the room.

“In Meg’s bed. She was tired.”

Adam chuckled to himself. Jill was exactly like her dad. She was always ready to fall asleep at a second’s notice, snored and slept through everything.

Unlike Meg, who was a light sleeper, took a while to unwind and relax and could rarely sleep anywhere other than her own bed.

“I’m staying the night. I had a few beers,” Zach confessed. “So I lost the bet. I’ll pay ya tomorrow.”

“
What
did you just say? You were watching our kids!” Adam sat up, and his head spun.

He immediately lay back down.

“I was responsible—Dad came over. He watched them for a while. He barely left ten minutes ago because all the kids were going to bed.” Zach wore an expression of ease. “It’s cool. Dad was happy to help, and I got to chat with him a little bit.”

“Okay, well, I’m gonna go put Meg to bed,” Mari said, ushering the little girl out of the room toward the hallway.

Adam took a second to study Zach. “All right—you’re hiding something. You did
not
have beers. What did Dad say? I can tell you only said that because you wanted to stay and talk to me.”

Zach sighed. “I did too drink. I’m buzzing right now.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Adam rolled his eyes.

“Tell me what you wanna know.” Zach slung his legs up on the La-Z-Boy-type chair, tucking them to the side.

He looked like a big dude in a clown car with his knees all sticking out at awkward angles.

“I want to know everything.”

“You might not like it,” Zach said, his voice going quiet.

Was he afraid of Mari hearing him?

“What’s going on?” Adam pushed a throw pillow under his head to prop himself up a little more so he could see him a little better.

“More drama with your biological ball-sack of a dad. He’s harassing our real dad, telling him to talk to you about signing on with an agent. He says it’s Dad’s duty to make sure you’re taken care of, and if Dad won’t help, then Thomas’s threatening to take legal action again for your own best interests.”

Adam groaned and made this awful growling sound. “What the fuck is his problem?”

“Wow . . . Really? Grown up words like
fuck
? Good for you.” Zach chuckled.

“Shut up. You know I’ve got a foul mouth. Always have.”

Zach snorted. “Yeah, right. You’re a regular potty mouth. It offends me anytime I’m around you.”

“I am. You should see how Mari shushes me around the kids. I’m always talking dirty to her.”

Zach grimaced. “Ewww . . . Some things don’t need to be shared between bros.”

“You tell me all sorts of inappropriate things. I never ask to know them. You just throw them at me like your dirty socks you used to launch across the room. It’s gross.” Adam could almost smell those old socks, and it made him sick to his stomach.

“What else did you find out, Zach? Please tell me—I’m dying to know,” Zach mimicked Adam, talking in a higher pitched tone.

“Fine. You’re dying to tell me, so guess what? I don’t care to know.” Adam closed his eyes, stretched out and yawned. His stomach didn’t really like that.

“This is all serious. I’m not messin’ around here . . . He said Amelia’s really freaking him out.” Zach gave him a very sober look.

“About what?” Adam’s ears were ringing a little bit.

“About you and your brain scans. She said that either those are new scars or you’ve been through more trauma recently and simply can’t remember it.”

“Well, she’s probably wrong on both counts.”

Zach went silent. “Maybe . . .”

“Ugh! C’mon! Stop worrying. I’m fine.” Adam’s stomach lurched, and he went flying off the couch, running for the bathroom.

He barely made it in time before losing all his dinner in the toilet.

“Shit. You shoulda stayed at the hospital,” Zach said behind him.

“I’m. Fine.” Adam gripped the toilet seat and said those words through gritted teeth.

He flushed the contents down, cleaned up and turned around to face his brother, only he wasn’t there.
Mari
was.

“You need to get to bed, honey. You’re not feeling well.”

“Damn hospital food made me sick to my stomach,” he explained.

She smiled in a humoring way, put an arm around him and led him back to the bedroom.

Zach was out on the couch, munching on chips and watching TV.

Adam’s legs dragged, and he almost tripped a few times.

“Mari . . .”

“We’re almost there,” she told him.

“Stop.” He leaned away from her and up against the wall.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Her eyes were roaming over him as if checking for injuries or some sign he was going to pass out—or worse—have another episode.

“My dad’s causing trouble with my music again. Zach told me. Giving my music to my brother wasn’t enough. I need to give it to someone unrelated to me.” He tried to catch his breath. That was difficult since his head was kind of swimming.

She swallowed and remained silent.

“I think I know who . . .” He searched her eyes for some form of disagreement but found none.

“Okay. If you know someone trustworthy enough, then go for it.” She stroked his back and his shoulder closest to her.

“I don’t know if they’re trustworthy, and right now, I don’t care.” He pushed off the wall, stumbled to the bed and crashed onto it.

* * *

“Are we done? I’m meeting her in five minutes?” Adam asked his brother over the phone.

“I agree with you—I just want to make sure you’re completely certain this is what you want to do. I mean, you barely know her, man,” Zach said.

“I checked on her background. I trust her.” Adam stood outside her office door and leaned against the wall. “Consider my contract with you canceled. You didn’t really want it anyway.”

“I know, and you’re right. This is probably best for all of us involved.” Zach sounded relieved.

“It is. We were at the tail end of our window to break our agreement, so I had to act now,” Adam said.

“Well, good luck. I hope this is everything you want.” Zach sighed.

“It will be. I know it will. Bye.”

Zach told him to be careful and then ended the call.

Adam knocked and heard a faint, “Come in.”

He opened the door and stepped inside her office.

The lady with the black hair that owned the club he’d performed at sat stock still.

“You know why I’m here, right?” he asked her.

She nodded. He set the contract in front of her and grinned.

“We’re going to be partners of a sort. I’m giving you my music. You’ll sign this, and it’ll all be for the best.” He made a soft whistling noise, feeling very satisfied.

“Say again? You want me to
what
?” She blinked hard.

“I want to make a deal with you, and it involves my music.”

She stared at the paperwork on her desk. “Why on earth would you choose to do this?” She set her palm on top of it, and it appeared as if her eyes were glassy.

“Because you’re not related to me. You have good taste in music, and I like your club.” He stood proud in front of her.

“You think I’m going to give you half ownership of my club if you give me your music?” She blew out with a whistling noise.

“Well, yeah. Don’t say it like that. It’s a good idea. I’ll keep creating music, giving it to you to play at the club. We can market it together, and you make the money off the music. I make some money off half ownership of the club. It works.” He smiled.

“That’s assuming your music makes money.” She tapped her fingers on the contract she had yet to sign. “And do you even know my name?”

“Of course I do. It’s Suzie Naylor. And you’re fine bringing me a large coke with no ice in it. I liked that.”

The woman smiled. “At least you know that part.”

“I tripled your business that night I performed. You told me that,” he reminded her.

She shook her head. “I understand that. You already proved to me your music is growing in popularity, so forgive me if I was being a little flippant a moment ago, but I still don’t have a clue as to why you want to give me rights to your music. No artist just gives their stuff away like that when they have the potential to hit it big and make stacks of money.”

He pointed at the contract. “I have people who are trying to make claims to it, and as long as you have it, they can’t. Plus, it’s already making me miserable. My music is supposed to make me lighter—happier. It shouldn’t be a source of contention. I just want to create it—not scrape it off the payment after others run over it.”

She nodded instead at this point. “Okay, yeah, I can understand that, but I . . .”

Her trailing off and eventual silence told him more than he needed to know. “I don’t blame you for not trusting me. Most musicians aren’t very trustworthy, are they?”

“Most of them are junkies.”

“I can get you a urine test right now to prove I’m clean. I’ve never done drugs.” He swallowed. “Well, with the exception of when I was like two years old. But that was my dad’s doing, and he’s the one trying to get his hands on my music now. He doesn’t deserve it, even if he saved my life.” He said it all in a whirling rush.

Her brows joined together to make one bushy, chaotic mess.

He didn’t like that. Brows should make sense. That was their job since they framed the eyes, and eyes said a lot.

This just said she needed a fine-toothed comb or something. And maybe some tweezers.

“You know, I should probably tell you that the night you performed, after you left, there was a lady here looking for you.” She paused, glancing at the door. “Two of them actually.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them to fucking piss off, and that it wasn’t my job to tell them anything about you.” She fingered the edge of the paper with her eyes still on the door.

“Did they leave right after that?” His stomach felt a little tilted for a moment. Like it was telling him to lie down in case this was a bad thing.

“One of them did.” She cocked her head and looked up at him through her lashes like she was skeptical about this whole deal. “The other sat at the bar. She acted like she thought you might return.” She exhaled with a rough, choppy sound. “Young. Pretty. I carded her soon after. Turns out she was nineteen, so I kicked her ass out. She had a fake ID on her that got her past the security at the front doors, but I could tell she was nervous about something and lying through her big tits and straight-up through her perfect white teeth.”