Ten couldn’t help looking at the food on the tables they passed. The fajitas had looked good until he saw someone with enchiladas. Then the chimichangas grabbed his attention. Maybe Ronan would get those, and they could share. He supposed the way he was going to relax tonight was with good food, which Ten absolutely deserved if his conversation with Corny didn’t make him choke first.
“Tennyson, Ronan, how nice of you to join us.” Corny stood, welcoming them to the table. “What the fuck is he doing here?” Corny barked out when he spotted Fitzgibbon.
“You’re going to want to hear what he has to say.” Ten took a seat across the table. Ronan sat beside him. Fitzgibbon dragged another table next to theirs, sitting on the same side as Ten.
Ten grabbed a menu and busied himself with trying to narrow down what he wanted to eat. When the waitress came by, Ten ordered the enchiladas, with Ronan and Fitz getting tacos. Beef for Ronan and chicken for Fitz. Corny and Destiny ordered fajitas, along with another margarita for himself.
“What did you want to speak with me about?” Ten asked after the waitress delivered his raspberry iced tea.
Corny took a long sip from the fishbowl his drink had come in before making eye contact with Tennyson. “I don’t want to die.” There was emotion in his voice Ten hadn’t expected. “I’m newly married, with a baby girl on the way. I want to be there for my family for the long haul.”
As Ten listened to Corny’s impassioned speech, he knew the man was telling the truth. He also knew this was the most honest he’d ever been in his life, but time would tell if the trend continued. “Bothfamilies? Or just the new one?”
“This family, for a start.” Corny set a hand on Destiny’s baby bump. “My sons don’t want anything to do with me.”
There were a lot of ways Ten could respond to that question. At the top of the list was, “Do you blame them?” He swallowed that response, for now. “As things sit at the moment, you’re right when it comes to Carson and Cole.”
“I’ve been a fuckup my entire life. My father taught me how to be a pickpocket when I was seven years old. We’d practice at county fairs all over the South. He taught me how to hot-wire cars and steal prescription pads from doctors. We wrote bad checks, stole money from fundraising buckets. You name it, he taught me not just how to do it but do it well enough not to get caught. At least at first.” Corny shrugged.
Ten couldn’t help thinking about the things he’d taught Everly over the years, like how to ride a bike and how to make chocolate chip cookies. How to be a good friend with manners. Not once had it crossed his mind to teach Everly how to steal, although, with her gifts, all he’d have to do was ask her for lottery numbers, and they’d be rich. “You were arrested in Salem.” It wasn’t a question. Ten already knew the answer.
Corny nodded. “Bertha had a booth at the Salem Halloween Bazaar. She was doing readings for ten bucks apiece. Cash only. I stole her earnings, and she stole my heart.”
Ten almost burst out laughing at the corny line until he realized Corny was telling the truth. Destiny snarled at the mere mention of Bertha’s name. Ten would let that dog lie for the moment. This woman couldn’t hold a candle to Bertha, and she knew it. “What happened?”
“Bertha knew exactly what I was up to. I managed to distract her and grabbed the cash. She tackled me to the ground, but I managed to get away. Cops picked me up later, spending her money at Lobster Charlie’s. I’d eaten three lobsters and a plate of shrimp before I was arrested.”
“Obviously, not much has changed.” Before Corny could hit Ten with a comeback, he added, “I’ve seen your hotel bill. Carson asked that you not rack up a bill for filet mignon and lobster, and you’ve done just that.”
“We had chicken for lunch, psycho asshole,” Destiny muttered.
“Your baby can hear everything you say, as well as the tone you say it in. You might want to reconsider the way you speak in front of your daughter.” Enchiladas or not, Ten was ready to get the hell out of the restaurant and go home.
“What the hell would you know about kids?” Destiny asked, not sounding quite as angry as she had moments ago.
“I have a son and daughter of my own.”
“How is that possible, with the two of you being…” Corny made the universal sign for blowjob with his tongue against his left cheek.
“We used a surrogate,” Ronan said dryly. “We’ve got two happy, healthy kids, which means more to us than anything.”
“How nice for you,” Destiny sneered.
“Hey!” Fitzgibbon said loud enough that the entire restaurant turned toward their table. Fitz was unbothered by the attention. “You’ve got the best people I know trying to help your sorry asses here. Like Ten said, you’re going to want to hear what I have to say, but if this attitude keeps up. I walk, and so does my money.”
Corny’s left eyebrow arched high. Obviously,moneywas the word he’d keyed on. “Explain,” he ordered, but upon seeing Fitzgibbon move to stand up, Corny added, “Please.”
Settling back in his seat, Fitzgibbon took a sip of his ginger ale, buying himself a little time to get his obvious temper back under control. “I did some research on you through official channels. You’ve got the fraud and grand larceny charges in Colorado. I spoke with the district attorney in charge of the case, and she is willing to drop the charges if you return the money you stole.”
“Money’s gone.” Corny held his hands out in front of him in an “oh, well” gesture. “We used it to buy the Caddy and to make our way across the country to Salem. We stayed in five-star hotels and ate in the best restaurants.”
“It never crossed your mind to save some of the cash for your child or the operation you need?” Ronan asked.
“Not until I collapsed in Ohio. The doc gave me a stern talking-to. Told me I would have died if Destiny hadn’t been there to call an ambulance for me. I had a lot of time alone in that hospital room to think about my life and how I wanted the rest of it to go. I let the doc put in the dialysis port.” Corny looked down at the device. “I had a couple of treatments and paid cash foreverything when I was released. It’s the most responsible thing I’ve done in my life. The doctor gave me my life back.”
Ten knew Corny was telling the truth. He nodded to Fitzgibbon, who looked ready to continue.
“I spoke with the billing department at the hospital, and they were able to email me a copy of that bill, so I know you’re telling the truth. I also spoke with Dr. Caruthers, the man who treated you, and speaking in hypotheticals, he let me in on the kind of treatment a man in your position needed. He also calculated how much it would cost for that alone and with the transplant and rehab thrown in. It’s sizeable, about the cost of the money you fraudulently obtained from the caring people in Boulder. Coincidence is funny, huh?” Fitzgibbon wasn’t laughing. “So, if you’re keeping score, we’re up to half a million dollars.”
