NOTE:
I’m so sorry this is late. Hopefully now that winter is (finally) over, I’ll be back on track. Fingers crossed.
I hope you enjoy episode two! You’ll get the first chapter, if you’re a free subscriber. Click the link to join for $7 if you’d like to read the whole thing (plus episode one.)
Thank you so very, very much for your support. And patience.
Love,
Shaunta
P.S. Paid subscribers will need to click the link at the bottom to read the rest of this on Substack. It’s too long for an email. —S.G.
The Undergrounders: Episode 2
Chapter One
When he got outside, Rob breathed in the hot, dry air. It was a sharp contrast to the refrigerated casino. In two years, he’d somehow managed to forget what desert air felt like. Or how much he missed it.
He tried to shake off the meeting with his father’s attorneys. He wasn’t ready to think too hard yet about the possibility that he’d been put in this position on purpose.
“Thanks for being there with me,” he said to Frank as they walked back toward the villas.
“I need to get home. My Trudy. . .” Frank stumbled and fell into Rob.
“Frank?” Alarm shot through Rob. Trudy was Frank’s wife. And she died nearly fifteen years ago. “Are you okay?”
Frank shook himself. “Yeah, sure. Mattie’s probably wondering what happened to us.”
Rob nodded slowly and tipped his head to really look at Frank. Was he having a stroke? Or–
“I’m okay, Robin.” The older man pulled his arm away.
“Seriously, though.” They started walking again. “What’s going on with you?”
“I’m fine.”
Needing to get home to his dead wife did not seem fine. Not even a little bit. “Yeah. I don’t think so.”
“Just a little confused sometimes.”
Rob stopped at the bottom of the villa’s walkway.. “Mattie’s worried.”
“Mattie worries too much.”
“That doesn’t sound like her.”
“She’s worried about you, too, you know.”
“Me?” Rob shook his head.
Frank waved that away. “I think you should take Philip’s money.”
The dull ache of pain in the center of his forehead sharpened. “Did you know about this?”
Frank shook his head. “Of course not.”
“Then why would you say that?” Frank was the only parent Rob had left. Why would he want him to just hand his legacy over to Philip Mack?
“Your father put everything into this place.” Frank looked back at the casino. “He gave up everything. It—I think it took too much from him. It doesn’t have to be that way for you, Robin.”
“Did you know he was--” My father did not kill himself. It was too ridiculous to even consider, no matter what Philip said. “Was he depressed?”
“No. No, he seemed happy.” Frank turned back to Rob. “Especially lately.”
“Because of that woman?” That woman made anything possible. Because she meant that his father was hiding an entire life from him. “Did you know about her?”
“It happened fast, Robin.”
“Not that fast. She looked pretty pregnant to me.”
“It did happen fast.” Shifting shoulders and refusing to look Rob in the eye said more than words. “He wanted to tell you himself. In person.”
Rob waited until Frank finally looked at him. “You didn’t notice anything was wrong?”
His face fell and the confusion and pure, unadulterated grief that Rob had seen the night before came back. “You shouldn’t be here. This isn’t what Jack wanted.”
“What isn’t, Frank? I belong here. The Nott is my home.”
“I know it is, son.” He straightened himself and put a hand on Rob’s shoulder.
“I don’t understand any of this,” Rob said.
A faint, nostalgic smile crossed Frank’s face and started toward the villa again. “Why don’t we drive out to Locksley later? You should see it, at least. Trudy loved spending time there.”
Rob had no memory of the house his grandfather built. The house his parents lived in together. Even trying to remember it was like pressing a bruise that he wanted to pretend wasn’t there.
“I can’t think about this right now.” Rob reached for the door knob. “Let’s just get you inside, okay?”
“I’m capable of getting myself inside, you little shit.”
Rob laughed. The sound took him by surprise. He followed Frank into the living room and then stopped dead.
Guy Perdue had Mattie pressed against the wall between the living room and the kitchen. She had her face turned, but with one of his hands next to each of her shoulders, she was caged in.
Rob caught Mattie’s words as they came in. “--don’t want to do this.”
“What’s going on?” Frank asked.
What’s going on? Mattie lifted her wide brown eyes to Rob and for a moment, he thought he saw fear in them. Then she blinked and it was gone. She pushed at Guy with both hands and when he stepped back, she slid out from under his arm.
Guy ran a thumb along his bottom lip and lifted an eyebrow. “We were just making plans for tonight.”
“Is that right?” Rob asked.
Mattie made a noise at the back of her throat. “There are no plans, Guy.”
“Actually, you do have plans.” Rob took some joy in the way Guy’s jaw tightened. “With me.”
Mattie grinned and Rob was struck, suddenly, by how much he’d missed her. “What plans?”
“I made reservations,” Guy said.
Mattie didn’t acknowledge him, so Rob didn’t bother to, either. “It was your dad’s idea.”
“You two should go get some lunch,” Frank said. “I just need a lie down. We’ll head out to Locksley in a little while.”
Mattie looked up at Rob. “Locksley? I haven’t even thought of Locksley in years.”
Guy pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket and ran his thumb over the screen. Asshole. Why was he still here? Rob wanted to make him leave, but kept ignoring him for now.
“Do you remember it?” Rob asked Mattie instead.
“Yes, of course.” Her gaze shifted toward the ceiling, as if she might find some memory of Locksley there. “I remember the staircase.”
A fragment of memory shook loose and Rob inhaled. “We used to bump down it in sleeping bags.”
“Right. And I remember your mother’s roses.”
“I want to see it,” Rob said. “Will you come with me?”
Mattie looked at her father. Frank had moved to the sofa and sat in his spot on one side of it. The same spot he’d been sitting in for more than a decade.
Before she could answer, Guy said, “You can’t go to Locksley.”
Rob swung around to him. “Are you still here?”
“Locksley doesn’t belong to you anymore.”
That raw nerve ached deep. Rob inhaled and forced his hands to release their instinctive fists. “Shut the fuck up, Perdue.”
Mattie looked at Rob. “What is he talking about?”
“Jack left Locklsey to Philip.” Guy shoved his hands in his pockets, then pulled them out again. “And, anyway—I made reservations and—“
Rob opened the front door again. “You never were very good at knowing when you weren’t wanted, Guy.”
For a minute Rob thought Guy was going to throw a punch. He tensed for it; actually, wanted it. The idea of striking back, of swinging and connecting, of feeling something other than crushing grief and confusion was exhilarating.
But Guy just left without saying another word.
For a moment, the three of them stood there, looking at the closed door.
“Reservations,” Mattie said under her breath. “Jesus.”
“He’s got it bad for you.” That was meant to be teasing but came out harder.
Mattie flushed, but she didn’t say anything.
Frank broke the awkwardness. “I’ll take you to Locksley this afternoon.”
Rob’s head pounded. He had to get out of here. “We can go while you rest.”
“Can you find it?”
“We can if you give us the address. Or Vin can take us.”
Frank reached for a pen and paper on the table beside the sofa. Rob picked them up and handed them to him. After he wrote the address, Frank pulled his keys out of his pocket and put them and the paper in Mattie’s hand.
“Let me help you to bed,” Mattie said.
“The good news is, I’m not a toddler.”
“Are you sure?”
Frank shook his head and waved them off. “Go. I’m fine.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Then See What Happens to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.