Page 106 of Mad Rivals
“I won’t be passing it off. I want you to know that I will be here every step of the way.”
“Okay,” she says, but the way she says it tells me she’s pretty damn skeptical about that…which she has every right to be considering she knows what the next half a year will bring.
I head inside, brief John on how it went, and open the files Grace sent over to start editing our original plans. As predicted after my conversation with Spencer, she liked my sustainability ideas and Kennedy’s luxury resort ideas, and she’s looking to sort of combine the two into one perfect project.
It hits me once again how much easier this would be if I could just work on it with Kennedy instead of against her…but the longer my phone call goes unreturned, the less likely that seems to be.
CHAPTER 45: Madden Bradley
We’re a Family
“I need your help.”
They’re four words my father has never spoken to me before. Maybe he’s never spoken them to anybody before. I can’t imagine him saying it to my mother, or to a business partner, or to a sibling or a client.
“We’re a family, and family comes together when one member needs help.” It’s wild to me how when my coach spoke those exact same words earlier—we’re a family—they meant something to me. And now my father is speaking them, and I’m not sure they mean anything at all.
“What?” I mutter.
“I need you to come home to Chicago. I need you in the office here for a few days to make it look like we’re working on a big project together.”
“Why would I need to be there for that?” I ask. “I can work from here.”
“I may be facing an investigation, and if it comes to that, I’ll need you to potentially gather bail and liquidate the shell companies.”
“I don’t want anything to do with the illegal activities,” Isay firmly.
“You should’ve thought of that when you started sniffing around.” His voice is firm and to the point, and it pulses a shudder of fear through my spine as I think about how Kennedy was with me when I was sniffing around. She knows, too, and for the first time, I wonder what sort of danger that puts her in. “You have a legacy to protect, and if I’m hauled off because I was trying to provide for my family, it’s you who will need to step into my place.”
“I have a season starting in a few weeks,” I say, and I hear the fatigue in my own voice over all this. “I can’t just drop everything and come to Chicago.”
“You can, and you will.”
“What are they investigating you for?” I ask.
He sighs. “It’s complicated.”
“No shit,” I mutter. What the fuckisn’tcomplicated these days? “If you want me there, I need to know what’s going on.”
“I gave someone on the zoning commission a little nudge to push one of my permits to the top of the list, and his boss found out.”
“What do you mean by a little nudge?” I ask. “Is this wrapped up in your gambling operations?”
“I can’t talk about this over the phone.” His firm words tell me that yes, that is exactly the issue here. “Just another reason why I’d like you in town.”
Right. Because I’m sure he’s planning to spill all the details to me once we’re together. I clench my jaw. He’s not giving me much choice here. “I can’t.”
“Look, I’ve dealt with this guy before, and I know what works with him. Okay? He’s a big Bears fan. I just need you here to smooth things over with him for me.”
I think back to other times he’s used me for tickets to games or merchandise or whatever it is that he wants at any given time from me or any of my siblings.
He’s been doing this our whole lives…but I was too naïve or too trusting to realize that he was just using us for his benefit.
“Think of the legacy, Madden,” he says quietly, as ifthatwill be the thing that kicks my ass into gear.
“The legacy! The fucking legacy! I’m so goddamn tired of hearing about the legacy!” I yell into the phone. I hang up on him and slam the stupid phone down on the counter, cracking the screen.
What choice do I really have here? Let my father go to prison for bribing a government worker? Let his underground casinos be discovered? Let him serve his time no matter what it does to tarnish the Bradley name?
