12

Tennyson

The scent of margaritas hit Ten in the face when he and Ronan walked into Casa Blanco. Ten had never been much of a drinker before he and Ronan met, but with everything going on in the Sebastian Stark case and now with Corny Craig, he could go for a stiff one. He wouldn't, not with Ronan with him. Ten would just have to find another way to relax.

"Over there." Ronan pointed to a table in the back.

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. " Both families? 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, money was 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 for everything 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."

Destiny opened her mouth, looking as if she had a lot to say to Fitzgibbon, but she closed her mouth when Corny shook his head. Fitzgibbon raised a quizzical brow at her, as if he were daring her to say what was on her mind. When she didn't take the bait, Fitzgibbon continued.

"Then we get to you, Martha." Fitzgibbon paused, as if he were waiting for her to insist her name was Destiny. She offered him a smirk but wisely kept her mouth shut. "It's going to be another hundred thousand for you to have this child, not to mention the prenatal care you'll need, Lamaze classes, baby clothes, an apartment to live in before your little bundle of joy arrives. She'll need a crib and a car seat, along with a stroller and other necessities, which brings us up to around the million-dollar mark, all told."

The startling figure wiped the smirk off Destiny's face. "We don't have anything close to that and no family to help us out." Tears dripped from her green eyes.

Tennyson knew in that moment, Destiny's attitude was fear-based. The woman sitting in front of him was scared to death of her future, as well as what would happen to her baby if she couldn't afford the basics to bring her home from the hospital."

"I know you don't have that kind of money," Fitzgibbon said gently. "But my husband and I do."

Destiny's eyes widened with something that looked like hope.

"My husband was a trust fund baby, who inherited about a billion dollars when his father died. He uses that money for all sorts of philanthropic endeavors here in Massachusetts. He's willing to help the two of you out, but you need to know we're not just handing you all that cash. We'll make arrangements to pay the money back to GoFundMe. I'll work with the DA to see that the charges are dropped. We'll pay the treatment and hospital bills, along with your rent and money for food and other expenses."

"What do we need to do in exchange for this help?" Corny wore a look as if to say the offer was too good to be true. If Ten had been sitting in his shoes, he would have wondered the same thing.

"You need to be law-abiding citizens. Both of you." Fitzgibbon pointed back and forth between Corny and Destiny. "Follow doctors' orders. Lastly, you need to make peace with your sons. They're going to have a lot of hard questions that you need to answer."

"Is this a guarantee one of them will give me a kidney?" Corny asked.

Fitzgibbon shook his head. "I don't know."

"What if they say no?" Destiny asked. "What will Corny do then?"

"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it. For the next few days, you're both going to be busy with your new apartment and with doctor appointments. We'll speak with your sons and will set up a time for you to meet." Fitzgibbon grabbed his phone and opened up a blank contact page before handing it to Corny, who entered his information and then passed it to Destiny, who did the same. "If you need anything, contact me. I mean it. If we find out that you're breaking the rules we've set out, you're done. No second chances."

"The other thing you need to figure out is the kind of relationship you want with Carson and Cole," Ten began. "There's a lot of bad feelings with your sons over how absent you were, but more especially how you treated Bertha. I have to tell you, she's one of my favorite people. Ronan's too. She's always been there for us and helps out with our cold cases."

"You're talking about Corny's dead wife, right?" Destiny asked, looking confused.

"Bertha was an incredibly talented psychic," Corny said. "I know I've talked shit about her abilities, but she was the real deal. I loved her but never showed it. I just always assumed she knew and that she'd let me get away with anything. I was wrong. I let her die alone and left my sons virtual orphans."

"They've worked damn hard over the years to save West Side Magick and bring it back to the prominence it had when Bertha was at the helm. Carson and Cole are also married, with three kids apiece. You have six grandchildren that you've never met, Corny."

"Do you have pictures of them?" Corny asked, his voice hoarse with obvious emotion.

"I do, but I can't share them without Carson and Cole's permission. It's something you can ask them when you meet. All parents love to show off pics of their kids." Ten paused, impressed by Corny's attitude. "One more thing. It might be for the best if Destiny isn't at that first meeting. Get yourself on better footing with your sons, and then bring your new wife around the next time. Do you understand what I'm saying, Destiny?"

Corny's wife nodded.

"If you're both serious about getting the help and medical attention you both need, follow the rules," Ronan said. "I've worked with Captain Fitzgibbon for nearly eight years, and he's not playing. If you screw this up, there will not be a second chance to set things right."

"Also know that we're going to speak with Carson and Cole in the morning about this meeting and what we're prepared to do." Fitzgibbon took a sip from his drink as the waitress approached with their food.

"I'm really sorry that I called you a psycho, Tennyson," Destiny said after the waitress left. "And a witch. And an asshole."

"You're forgiven. I know you're scared for your baby's health and future."

"Is she healthy? Can you see that?" Destiny asked, nibbling her bottom lip nervously.

It crossed Ten's mind to lie to the woman just to keep her in line, but that wasn't fair to the baby. Any stress Destiny felt would be passed on to the child. "Everything is healthy at the moment."

"What does that mean, at the moment? Are you saying that won't continue?" Panic filled Destiny's eyes.

Ten held up his hand. "The future is fluid, Destiny. Based on the path you're on now, everything is fine, and your daughter is perfectly healthy, but if you go back to your old habits, smoking, drinking, taking edibles, your daughter's health will change as well. Do you understand?"

Destiny nodded.

"I've got some great parenting books I can lend you, if you're interested. We also have a gadget that lets you listen to her heartbeat."

"You'd do that for us?" Destiny asked, barely holding back tears.

"I would. I'm not saying this to be mean in any way, but Corny missed out on one hell of a family. Carson and Cole are two of the best friends I've ever had in my life. Same goes for Bertha. We're all very close because we enjoy each other's company, and we want all of us to succeed. I can't make any guarantees that the two of them will want you in their family at the moment. It's up to the two of you to prove you're worthy of them letting you in. Got it?"

Both Corny and Destiny nodded.

Their response was good enough for Tennyson. Come what may in the future, the couple was off to a better start now than they had been earlier. Ten would do what he could to let Carson and Cole know that Corny was reaching out with an olive branch and a new attitude. But whatever happened next was going to be up to Carson and Cole.