“Is that any way to great your long-lost father?” Corny asked, a hand fluttering to his heart. “What happened to hugs and invitations to family dinners?”
Tennyson turned his attention back to the old man. Scanning him quickly, Ten was revolted by half of what he was able to see. The other half was going to be the true problem. “He’s sick.”
Corny’s eyes widened. “Who the fuck is this asshole? Are you with the police too, boy?”
“You surprise me, Corny,” Tennyson said with a snarky smile. “There’s no way in hell you came in here blind. You know who I am. Who Ronan, Jude, and Fitz are and what they do for a living. Unless I miss my guess, and Ineverdo, you two have been researching the shop and all of us since that mishap with the GoFundMe scam in Boulder, yes?”
Corny’s eyes widened, but he remained silent.
“I know all about thesickchild.” Ten made air quotes over the wordsick. “You raised nearly a quarter million dollars for the little mite before you fucked up and were seen around town driving a brand new Caddy.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Carson muttered under his breath. “You took advantage of a sick kid?”
Corny raised an eyebrow as if to say he was keeping his mouth shut.
“He stole a picture from St. Jude’s website. Doctored it up a bit, giving the boy dark hair instead of blond, and made him look much sicker, then slapped it up on GoFundMe. You would have gotten away with it too, if only you’d traded your banger in for the Cadillac on your wayoutof town instead of two days before.” Ten felt sick to his stomach reading Corny. His thoughts consisted of ways to take advantage of his sons and enlist their help with his medical condition. “You know, it’s funny.”
“What’s funny, you psycho creep?” Destiny asked.
Ten ignored Destiny, keeping his full attention on Corny. “You scamming the kind people of Colorado for money for a sick kid when you’re the one who’s actually sick.”
“That’s the second time you’ve said that, Ten,” Carson said. “I’ve been trying to read my father since he walked in the door, and I’m not getting anything like that.”
“Same here,” Cole said.
“Do you want to tell your sons, or should I?” Ten asked. David Grimm might have had his faults, but he’d never tried to use Ten for anything, even after he’d gained popularity for his work on the Michael Frye case.
“You’re a real douche canoe.” Corny scowled at Tennyson.
“Tell them.” Ten crossed his arms over his chest, unwilling to back down.
“I need a kidney.” He shot Ten an angry glare. “You happy now?”
Shaking his head, Ten wasn’t happy in the slightest. His heart was breaking for Cole and Carson, who were having this man, his offensive attitude, and Destiny forced on them with no notice.
“Why are you sick?” Cole asked.
“It’s my old friends’ fault. Jack Daniels, Captain Morgan, Johnnie Walker, and Jim Beam.” Corny shrugged. “Doc said my best chance for a match was with a blood relative, and since the two of you are all I’ve got, here I am. So, which one of you wants to help your old man?”
Carson turned to Ten, who simply nodded. He knew his friend was asking if Corny was telling the truth.
The room was dead silent.
“Seriously?” Destiny shouted. “Neither one of you fuckers are going to lift a finger to help your dying father? Fuck you all!”
“Where are you staying?” Carson asked, looking as if he’d aged twenty years in the span of this conversation.
“In the Caddy,” Corny said.
Pulling out his phone, Carson left the room. The longer he was gone, the more awkward the silence in the room got.
“Where were you diagnosed, Mr. Craig?” Fitzgibbon asked.
“All over the damn place. When I went to rehab in Texas, the first time. Rehab in Albuquerque. Back to Texas. I collapsed ata bar in Toledo and was rushed to the emergency room. After running me through the mill with every test under the sun, the docs said I needed dialysis and a new kidney.” Corny pulled down the front of his shirt to reveal a dialysis port. “The docs all warned me to stop drinking, and I never listened to a word they said.”
As Corny explained his medical history, Carson came back through the door. “I got you a room at the Hawthorne Hotel. I’ve told them to take all the booze out of the minibar, and they’ve agreed not to serve you in the hotel bar. You can order food from room service. It had better not be all lobster and filet mignon.”
Ten wasn’t often surprised by people, but Carson putting his father up in the lap of luxury and offering to feed him shocked Ten. Not that Carson wouldn’t want to help someone in need, but that someone in question had caused him no end of heartbreak over his lifetime.
