Chapter 10.

 

Ed’s first impulse was to kill his brothers, but two large bodies would be hard to hide. He was having a lot of trouble with almost everything they had said, not the least of which were the insults to Jon. That he could and would fix, but first he had to sort out just how cruel and stupid his siblings really were, and the extent of the action he was going to have to take. There had been a lot of underlying nastiness in that short conversation, and maybe he had been the stupid one, all these years?

Monday morning, in Kevin’s office, he leaned on the wall and listened as his brothers tried to justify themselves.

He was usually the tactful one, the peacekeeper, but not today. “What the fuck are you playing at?”

Kevin shrugged.

“When you said that you thought I’d gotten over this nonsense, what exactly did you mean?”

Kevin looked uncomfortable, which was not an attractive alternative to his usual smug countenance.

“Well, this whole ‘gay’ thing, obviously. I mean, it was just a phase, a rebellion, right? But everyone has to grow up sometime.”

Ed stared at him in disbelief. “Seriously? You thought that my being gay was something that I’d outgrow?” So much for the acceptance. He obviously hadn’t spent enough time around his brothers. He’d thought it was because they ran the business and trusted him to run the Foundation, and they simply had different life styles and moved in different social circles. They were more than ten years older than him, after all. All this time they were just trying to keep him out of their way until he ‘grew up’ and quit being gay? How was it possible for them to be that stupid?

“Have you seen the pictures, the ones they’re having a field day with on social media?” Kevin asked. He held up his iPhone, holding the expensive toy out as though it was covered in some disgusting slime, and there was a beautiful picture of Ed and Jon at the award ceremony, staring into each other’s eyes. It was pure love, no question about it. He would have to find the photographer and get a copy of that, framed. Then he realized that the love shining through was exactly the problem.

“I embarrassed you with your nasty little right-wing crowd? Seriously?”

Both brothers started talking at once, and he held up his hands to stop them.

“No. You know, I can’t deal with this right now. Maybe never.” He looked at Kevin and then at Philip, and tried to see in either of them any trace of the kind parents who had loved each other and their children, and had died too young.

“This is what we are going to do. You are going to surrender any and all of the keys to my apartment, and you are never going to go through that door again, unless you are invited, which is looking very unlikely right now. Is that clear?”

They didn’t agree, but they didn’t argue either.

“And if you ever intrude on my privacy again, in any way, which includes getting information about me or my movements from the doorman or anyone else, or electronically, regarding me or anyone I know, I will sue you. Do you understand that? That’s your language, isn’t it, lawyer talk? And, just so you know, I am putting the apartment on the market, and where I move to is none of your damn business.”

Philip and Kevin made eye contact, and something Ed didn’t understand passed between them.

“Look, Edward, you need to sit down. There are some things you don’t know.”

“I can stand up while you tell me.”

“Well, our parents didn’t want you to know, but there were attempts to kidnap you when you were younger. So looking out for you is second nature to us now.”

Ed thought about this for a minute. “How much younger? If our parents were alive, I was still in school...?”

“Well, yes ...”

“So that was, what, sixteen or more years ago?”

“Well, yes, but …”

“And I am a grown man now? If a gay one?”

He enjoyed seeing Philip flinch, he realized. He hadn’t known he had that mean streak in him.

“So really, is there any more danger to me than to either of you? And I don’t remember asking the doorman to track your movements, although I suspect your second wife did.”

Philip flushed, an unbecoming blotchy shade of pink. “Leave that bitch out of it.”

Ed smiled nicely at him. “Oh, right. She was the one who was the gold-digger.”

He looked at his siblings, and thought about Jon. It wasn’t a hard choice to make.

“There is an option in our partnership agreement that allows a buy-out in the case of irreconcilable differences. I am going to exercise that option. If you do not wish to do that, or cannot, then the company will be dissolved, as per the partnership agreement. I will be talking to my lawyer later this week, and you’ll be hearing from him.”

Now both brothers looked really alarmed. “But Edward, you don’t want to lose your precious Foundation, do you?”

“The Foundation and the funds held in it are quite separate from the business, did you think I’m too stupid to know that? And I am Director of the Foundation by virtue of our parent’s will, so nothing you can do will change that.”

As long as I’m alive, he thought. But there was a flicker in Kevin’s eyes that made him wonder if that had occurred to the brothers as well.

They were both still talking to him, or at him, when he walked out of their office. Their receptionist gave him a thumbs-up without interrupting her work or even looking at him. He returned it, grateful for some moral support. He’d never stood up to the gang of two before, never had reason to. Had they thought he couldn’t?

When he got back to his own office he picked up the phone to call Jon, but then hesitated. He needed more than just words, he needed to clean up this whole mess and prove to Jon that he was worthy. Just because he was related to these losers didn’t mean he was a loser too. Or at least he hoped not. He didn’t want to be spending a lot of time sitting in Jon’s doorway begging forgiveness. There were better things to do.

He had some work ahead of him, and it was going to start with a call to a real estate agent he knew, who he had coincidentally seen down at the Community Garden. If there were going to be some hefty sales commissions floating around, they could at least go to a Garden supporter.

He also arranged for a gift basket to be sent to Myrtle and Vine, followed by flowers for Jon, then some catnip toys, then a bottle of a nice California wine that he hoped he and Jon could enjoy together. And a good selection of silk ties to replace the ones that had been ruined. He hoped that these ones would be ruined in the same way and in the not so distant future.

And he tracked down Connie, and had a private conversation with her. She wasn’t happy, but understood the need for discretion at that point.

She glared at him anyway.

“You hurt him ...”

“I did, and I’m an idiot, but I’m going to fix it, I swear. How about to start with, we set up this meeting ...”

After having done all he could do, he waited, and brooded. He was dreaming about Jon all the time now, and how good they had been together before he had messed things up. How had he not seen who his older brothers really were before? It was probably because he had been so isolated, and hadn’t been involved with anyone in so long. They’d been able to bury their heads in the sand, and he had done the same. Everything had been just fine, because he hadn’t bothered to see the truth. And why hadn’t he said something then in his apartment, when Jon was looking at him and he’d had the chance to make it right?

And there was something else tugging at the edge of his mind. Why had the brothers tried to make Jon think that he was just one in a series of one-night stands? Why was it necessary to drive a wedge between Ed and the first man he’d been serious about in ten years? The first man he’d been serious about since he’d grown up and become a man, in fact. Had he unknowingly stirred up some major trouble here?

One clue to the extent of the trouble came with the agent’s appraisal on his apartment.

“Real estate values have been going up quite nicely, Mr. Renfield, and I think you’ll get a very good return on this.”

Her suggested listing price was a little bit less than what he had paid for it, when he had bought it from the Renfield Group, but he didn’t think it was necessary to mention that to her. He debated putting a clause in the contract that would only allow it to be sold to a motorcycle gang, but that didn’t seem fair. He was sure there were some perfectly nice motorcycle gangs.

He arranged for the tastefully decorated apartment to be put on the market, and for an offer to be put in on the condo next to Jon’s. Removing the wall between the two condos would have to wait, sadly. Maybe start with a cat door? In the meantime, he took out a short-term lease on a modest apartment where he could store the few possessions he wanted to keep.

He sent Kevin’s receptionist a nice gift basket for her kindness and to make up for her having to work for those assholes, and got a gift of sorts back from her, in the snail mail with no return address on the envelope. It was a rough draft of an election poster, touting Kevin’s alleged finer qualities, including his belief in family values. The envelope included a note that warned that his e-mail and phones were probably compromised. ‘Be careful. C.’

He made a note to offer Careen a job at the Foundation once the dust settled, and wondered just how much of an embarrassment a gay brother could be? He debated, for a moment, being as embarrassing as he could be, but he didn’t want to hurt Jon any more than he had. And nightclubs were just not his thing – he had developed a sudden passion for gardening. 

He looked at the note from Careen for a minute, picked up his phone, put it down, did that a couple of times, and finally made his way downtown to visit an old family friend he hadn’t seen in a few years. Gord and his father had shared a common interest in small planes, beginning in the long-ago days before his dad could afford one of his own and they had both rented planes at a local airpark. Gord had kept him from going crazy after his parents had died in that crash.

Finding the need to be polite and call ahead, and not sure if he was being paranoid or not, Ed called from a florist’s front desk instead of his cell phone.

“Sorry, my battery’s dead!” he lied to the desk clerk, passing her a fifty, which quite obviously made her day.

He made a date for lunch – he’d bring the food. They used to do this more often, but it was another thing that he’d gradually given up on over the years, despite the fact that Gord was one of the few people that he genuinely liked.

He picked up salads and wraps, and finally found Gord’s office, which had more windows than the one he remembered.

“Moving up in the world, Captain?”

The stocky gray-haired man grinned and shook his head. “Next move is to a trailer out at the airpark – retiring in a couple of years, I hope. Just a few old cases I want to see cleaned up first. It’s good to see you again, son – it’s been a while.”

They ate in a companionable silence with their feet on the old and still-battered desk, and exchanged pleasantries until Gord finally fell silent and stared across at him.

“Alright, what’s up?”

Ed slipped the poster out of the envelope and slid it across the desk, avoiding the mayo smeared on the surface.

“Wow. So he’s making a run for it, is he? Well, no crime in that, if people are stupid enough to vote for him.”

“It’s not public yet, they’re still debating it, I think. His receptionist sent it to me, along with this.”

Gord stared at the note, then at Ed.  He sipped the last of his coffee, made a face, and waited.

“How much of a liability can a gay brother be?” Ed asked, laughing, hoping Gord would laugh as well. He didn’t.

Ed told him about what had happened with Jon and his brothers, and how he’d been too much of a coward to say anything. And what, once he’d had time to get really angry, he’d done since then with the real estate transactions.

“Jon’s the one for me, Gord, and I acted like an idiot and lost him.”

Gord just shook his head. “Maybe just as well, for now. At least your Jon isn’t in any danger, if they think he’s out of it.”

Of all the responses Ed had expected, that wasn’t it. “Huh?”

Gord turned to look at the picture of the little red and white Cessna mounted on the wall. It had been the pride and joy of the late Paul Renfield, coming only after his family.

“She was a little beauty, wasn’t she? Paul wouldn’t let anyone but himself work on her. Always checked every bolt himself.”

Ed nodded, then froze. He stayed silent, trying to make sense of this.

“I always wondered how he could have a mechanical failure, him and Marie whale-watching on a clear sunny day. You were supposed to be with them, weren’t you?”

Ed felt like throwing up. “No, no, no, no ...”

He remembered how empty and alone he’d been after his parents had died, and how cold and dismissive his brothers had been. They had wanted him to be a man, and show a brave face. He had wished that he was dead as well. Had they wished him dead too? Was the money that important to them?

“I was so lost – if it hadn’t been for you I think I would have killed myself,” he admitted. “You’re still the first person I go to, my substitute dad, even if this time it’s maybe silly ...”

Gord shook his head, and smiled. “You were a good kid, and you’ve grown into a good man. The only one of you three that did. Your dad saw that coming, I think, even if Marie didn’t. That’s why he set the Foundation up the way he did, to take care of you, and give you something to take care of. None of us thought they’d die that soon, of course. I was one of the executors of the will, do you remember that? I wonder if those two do. Maybe they’re getting greedy, even more so, and they think they can kill two birds with one stone.”

Ed flinched, and Gord looked slightly apologetic.

“Look, I’ve been seeing the ugly side of things for too long, and I can see a dozen different ways that this can play out. Including nothing ever coming of it. But I always had my suspicions, and with this new twist, there’s more at stake. If you’ve given them notice that you’re selling your apartment and breaking up the company, you’re an even bigger threat to them, especially if they’ve been bilking you. Of course, maybe I just have a suspicious mind, after all these years on the force. But just in case, I want to give you a bit of protection, okay?”

“Protection? Like?” His head was hurting. Gord was going to give him condoms?

Gord pulled up a screen on his laptop, and flipped through pages on it. He counted on his fingers, then smiled.

“Interesting mix of technology,” Ed commented.

Gord smiled again, then leaned out the door and yelled something. A minute later a slender Latino man stuck his head in the door. His whole face lit up when he saw Ed.

Gord grinned. “Can you handle working protection for this guy for a couple of weeks? Stay with him maybe three or four evenings a week? And see if he’s being followed or watched?”

“Sweetie! Can I ever!” He slid onto Ed’s lap and wrapped his arms around his neck, rubbing against him like a cat.

“Mani! Behave yourself, you’re scaring him.”

The human cat named Mani sighed. “Sorry. My wife is ten months pregnant right now, and screams when I touch her. Apparently it’s my fault she’s pregnant. I’m suffering from sensory deprivation, you know?”

Ed shook his head weakly. He didn’t. Well, he thought, maybe he did.

“Yeh, well, I know about not being able to touch. I never knew if I was sorry or glad that I never told my parents I was gay, never came out ... I didn’t want to hurt them, but ...” He patted Mani absently, as though he really was a cat. “And then they died.”

Gord looked astounded. “Your folks knew, knew from the time you were about six years old, I think. Probably at the same time you did. Didn’t matter to them, Ed, why would it have? Any more than if you had decided that you wanted to be a cowboy or an astronaut. Both of which, incidentally, you did, briefly. They loved you for who you were.”

There was a silence while all of them contemplated the nature of love, and Ed wiped a tear from his eye, then Gord pulled himself together.

“Mani will be your new public boyfriend, give you a bit of protection until we get this sorted out. He looks sweet, but he’s mean. And it’ll protect Jon as well, take the pressure off him, in case those idiots get any ideas. You should be fine at work, just stay out of dark allies, okay?”

Mani’s face lit up again. “Jon? Our Jon? I knew I recognized you. You’re the guy from that Foundation that helped out the Garden, aren’t you? My wife likes you better than me right now. We were down there last Saturday. An incredibly beautiful woman, accompanied by several small children in constant motion?”

He laughed at the blank look on Ed’s face. “You can buy me dinner tonight and tell me all about it, and I’ll show you pictures of my family. Discreetly. And we can work out a schedule, and establish some security protocols for you to follow. Where’s trendy that you would go?”

And rub his brothers’ smug faces in his ‘sweetness’?

“That new seafood place? The Stingray? I’ll make a reservation and meet you there around eight?”

Gord smiled. “I love it when a plan comes together. Now, this is what I’ll need from you, Ed ...”