8 Ain’t No Party Like Four A.M. Party
ORIGINAL CONTENT OF D.C. BLU. DO NOT COPY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE WITHOUT THE AUTHOR’S PERMISSION. PLAGIARISM IS CRUEL. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL.
8: Ain’t No Party Like Four A.M. Party
Very soon meant the next day.
Security officers came to Bailey’s apartment early in the morning, like freaking four in the morning before Bailey even woke.
The guards searched Bailey’s person leaving the condo and again going into the Miami business complex owned by Gabe. The situation was a lot more tense than he thought it would be. A group of Walthour’s personal security stayed with him at all times to protect him just in case their father wanted him dead. Though Matt wasn’t going, he also had guards with him.
Wasn’t that a wakeup call? He was glad Tyler didn’t know. His brother would refuse to let Bailey near the guy or anyone.
Security was crawling all over the place, down the corridors and the offices of the tall towering structure standing in the middle of the city. They ushered Bailey through the building where he was searched again as if they hadn’t been with him the whole time. Each scanner pass over him, make him wish he never agreed to this damn meeting. They eventually took him up a long elevator, where he was brought to the top floor — Gabe’s main office. It sat at the end of a long hall with several other offices which were closed. No normal employee was working that day at that hour.
When the doors opened to the grand office, there his father stood at on corner of Gabe’s large desk.
Gold eyes slightly crinkled in the corners from age, his father wore a sharp gray suit and a hint of a smile on his face as if amused. Tall, slightly muscular and graying, he looked like an older Tyler, except Bailey loved Tyler. This man… as much as Bailey missed him, could go to hell.
“Radford.” Bailey greeted the man cordially stopping at the opposite corner of Gabe’s desk, far enough away from his father that he didn’t feel too uncomfortable.
“Delarosa,” His father said the name smirking. Bailey took Cody’s name proudly, because Cody gave it freely and with all the love in her generous heart. He couldn’t have asked for a better friend after their father threw them away. He loved her like a sister.
“Let’s get this over with.” Gabe called both of them to his cushy office seat behind his large wooden desk. He looked like a bored king sitting on his throne. “We all have issues with one another that need to be resolved. I’m open to negotiations.”
Radford snorted. “They have nothing to negotiate with, why is Bailey here?”
“He and his brothers are a resource, just like you. Anything else?”
“Fine, let’s get started so I can do something worthy of my time.” His father clasped his hands behind his back. “I want to know why I’m being replaced. I’ve run my company well with few issues.”
“Except for your mounting enemies,” Gabe said, expression deadpan, voice flat, emotionless. “Each year they seem to grow. And while they have stayed their hand so far, I fear one day they will grow bold. I’m tired of putting out your fires.”
“It’s part of the job.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Travis,” Gabe said without a change in his demeanor. “The only difference between Tyler and you, is that Tyler knows his weakness. You seem to think you have none.”
“Okay, Lloyd, I give up. What is my weakness?”
“Your company.”
His father stayed quiet.
“When your father gave it to you, it was barely worth keeping. Anyone else would have walked away, writing if off as a loss. But you rebuilt it from nothing. And while it was small barely surviving, it suffered set back after set back until you went crawling to my father for money. My father made you prove yourself. You bent over backwards for that company. You did everything and more to earn that money. Even giving half of it him. You’d do anything to keep it. Anything. Or… prove me wrong?”
The humor that Bailey had seen in Radford’s face was gone, replaced with a solemn mask. His hard jaw flexed and he shifted uncomfortably on his feet.
“Nothing more to say?” Gabe asked leaning back slightly in his chair. “Ready to talk?”
“What do I have to do to keep my company?” His father asked.
“Do your damn job. Stop fucking with people. And leave Bailey and his brothers alone.”
“Is that all?” Radford’s voice sound dark, dangerous.
“You make it sound like it will be easy, Travis? However, I know you. You’ll try and fail.”
“I don’t fail.” The man sounded offended.
“I’ll give you one year.”
Radford nodded, opened his mouth to agree when a sound that Bailey never heard before pierced his ears.
A moment of silence filled the room.
It took Bailey a while to figure out what had happened as the silence was slowly replaced with panic.
Walthour was up out of his chair, “Get down,” he ordered.
Still in a daze, shocked, Bailey’s guards grabbed him, throwing him down and covering him.
That’s when Bailey recalled seeing something explode… It was… Bailey felt his insides move. There had been no other sounds after that one — no other noise other than movement above him.
“Find out who the fuck that was?” Gabe shouted as the guards finally got off Bailey.
Bailey got up onto his knees and looked over at his father’s lifeless body.
No…No…
Then he spewed his guts.
\/^\/^\/
The windows in that office were double plated reinforced bulletproof glass made especially for Walthour’s personal space. Yet one shot got through and killed their father. And only one shot was taken. The aim was so dead on that everyone in that office and everyone who investigated it knew that bullet was meant for his father, no one else.
Bailey sat stunned outside that office a long time, remembering the events over and over. He was standing and then the sound an instant before his father’s head popped.
He couldn’t believe it. His father was dead. Gone. And the first suspect was Tyler. He closed his eyes in agony. Had Tyler arranged it? Hired a hitman?
“No.” Cody had assured Bailey when he got back to his condo that evening. “No one knew Gabe or Radford were here in Miami that’s why he had the meeting here. And why he held it so quickly so nobody could set up something like that.”
“Did they figure out who did it?” Bailey asked as he played with Matt’s hair who napped on the couch beside him. His little brother had been waiting anxiously all day for Bailey’s return. When Bailey told him what happened, Matt looked Bailey over to make sure he was okay, not once mentioning their father. Then he lay on the couch afterwards, exhausted. The kid must had stayed up all night and day playing music or composing it.
“That’s the scary part. No evidence. They have an idea where the shot could’ve come from. But nothing’s there. Nothing. It’s as if the bullet came from nowhere. Plus, Radford had so many enemies its hard to say who wanted him dead and who has an assassin that good. Michel says the list of sharp shooters that talented is short. But that list doesn’t include assassins because assassins don’t officially exist.”
“They’ll suspect Tyler hired someone.” Bailey feared his brother was actually involved.
“They’re going to interrogate him. So-“
“He can lie. You know he can.” Bailey looked into her beautiful face. “I need to know.” Because it was hurting him to know his father was dead. Yeah, the bastard didn’t deserve his sorrow, but that didn’t stop Bailey from feeling it. “I need to know.”
“Will he lie to you, Bailey?”
“Not directly. He’ll talk around it, dodge, or… Either way, I’ll see it. I’ll know. So would Matt. Have they told him yet?”
“I don’t think so. But Bailey, won’t knowing hurt the relationship between you two? Isn’t it best not to know.”
Instead of answering her questions he said, “Call your father. Arrange for me to talk to him. I need to see his initial reaction. Please.”
Cody blew out a breath and did.
While she talked to him, Bailey did what he dread to do since that afternoon. He called his mother.
“Hello?” His mother sounded sleepy. “Do you know what time it is… Is everything okay?” She became more alert.
He looked at the time to see it was after midnight. “Dad’s dead.”
Her mother sucked in a breath. “What? How? Oh no, did Tyler-“
“We’re still investigating. It just happened.”
“I hope he didn’t. Radford’s people will try to kill him if he did. Oh… This… Your father was a piece of work, but I never wished this on him…Please don’t let them punish Tyler if… Oh Bailey…” They talked a long time before Bailey hung up.
“There is a car coming to pick you up and take you to Tyler.” Cody told him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder as she sat with him. “I’ll stay with Matt.”
Bailey nodded.
“Are you sure about this?” She asked.
“Even if he did it, I’ll love Tyler. But I need to know.” And yes, it would hurt like hell if Tyler was guilty.
ORIGINAL CONTENT OF D.C. BLU. DO NOT COPY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE WITHOUT THE AUTHOR’S PERMISSION. PLAGIARISM IS CRUEL. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL.