Page 72 of Forever Finds Us
He looked me dead in the eye and said, “My way. Money talks, Roxanne. I’m not proud of it, but I contacted Billie Cade last night and had her do a little diggin’ on the rehab center’s director, Julie Buckley. She’s a single mom, and she’s in the middle of a nasty custody case with her ex-husband. She’s up to her ears in debt.”
“I’m gonna pretend you didn’t just say that to me.”
“Fine.” He straightened and settled back against his seat. “I’m not askin’ for your approval. I just want your support.” But he lifted my hand and pressed his lips to my knuckles, rolling his head to look at me. “And your love. Can you forgive me my methods?”
“Ask me tomorrow. But you know money doesn’t guarantee this woman will betray her clients’ privacy and break the law?”
“I have to try, Roxanne. I can’t keep livin’ with this secret. It’s tearin’ me apart inside.”
“I know.” I kissed the back of his hand, too, rubbing my lips over his skin, and laced my fingers around his. “So, say we do find your brother. What then?”
He sighed a long, pained release of breath and faced forward. “I don’t know.”
A woman who didn’t look much older than a high-school graduate walked out of the airplane’s cockpit, patting her red hair neatly into its ponytail, and she smiled widely as she approached us. She laid her hand over the seatback in front of me and leaned forward. “We’ll be taking off in a few minutes. Please let me know if I can get you anything.”
“Whiskey,” Brand and I replied at the same time, and I added, “the cheaper, the better.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Brand
“Mr. Lee, you know I can’t give you the information you’re asking for,” Mrs. Buckley said, leaning back in her chair behind her desk in her office. Three framed, black-and-white photographs of redwood trees adorned the wall behind her. She shook her head. “I’m offended you thought you could buy it from me.”
Roxanne tensed in the chair next to mine. She hadn’t liked my plan to try to bribe Dixon’s whereabouts from the rehab director.
“Your brother was here. You already know that since you checked him in yourself and paid for his treatment, but the second he entered our system and you walked out the door, his information became mine to protect and keep.
“I don’t know the answer to the question you’re asking. Your brother is not here anymore, and I don’t know where he went after treatment. I don’t know if he’s sober, and even if I did know, I wouldn’t tell you.”
She stood and smoothed her hands down her jeans and an oversized pumpkin-orange sweater. She seemed younger than I remembered, but her dark hair had already begun to gray at her temples.
“I’m sorry you came all this way. I thought I made myself clear over the phone, but it’s your dime. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a job to do, other brothers to help, other sons, daughters, sisters, mothers, and fathers. Money doesn’t make yours more important.”
I stood, too, intending to beg harder just as a knock sounded on her office door.
“Come in, Ernesto,” she said, and a short man with unhealthy, pockmarked skin entered the room.
The man looked nervous. He bit the inside of his cheek as he looked at me, Roxanne, and then the director. “Carina said you needed me?”
“Yes. This is Dixon Lee’s brother. He was just leaving. Would you mind escorting him and his friend to the exit?”
Ernesto’s face lit up at the mention of Dixon’s name, but then his eyes flicked back and forth between Mrs. Buckley and me. “Uh, sure?”
“Thank you.” She glanced at Roxanne and me one last time. “Good day, Mr. Lee, Ms. Fitts, and good luck.”
When she was gone, Ernesto swung his hand toward the door. He seemed proud but confused to have been asked to escort us. The rehab ran out of a large house in the center of town. We couldn’t really get lost.
He didn’t say anything as he led us to the front door, but when we got there, he turned. “You hear about Dixon’s baby mama?”
“Uh, yes,” I said. “He told me.”
“She was pretty fucked up.” His eyes roamed up and down Roxanne’s body. “Lady, you’re tall.”
Roxanne laughed, and I wanted to kiss her for reminding me there was good in the world. The dated house was depressing, the lightless beige color of the walls leaching hope from my chest, and the awkwardness of the entire situation festered beneath my skin. As well-maintained as the old house was, I couldn’t imagine living here. I hated that Dixon had to. I wanted to be outside in the fresh air and sunshine, and I was sure it was how Dixon had felt too.
I was ashamed that I’d tried to use money to get what I wanted. This wasn’t business. But I was even more irritated that it hadn’t worked.
“Thanks, Ernesto,” Roxanne said. “Do you usually escort people out?”
