He Married His Saboteur Then Exposed Him novel · Chapter 3 of 16
Chapter 3: The Transfer
Lucas moves into Kevin's house in the hills. Mateo's surgery is paid and Mateo comes through it. Kevin takes Lucas's phone at dinner and reads it in front of a housekeeper.
The confirmation came at 11:52 on Thursday morning.
Lucas read it standing in the hospital corridor with Mateo's chart in his other hand.
Three hundred and forty thousand dollars. Paid in full. Reference number. Balance zero.
He sat down on the bench and put his face in his hands for a minute.
Then he went in and told Mateo it was covered.
Mateo was propped up watching a cooking show with the sound off.
"Covered how."
"Insurance came through."
"Lucas."
"It came through."
Mateo looked at him for a while.
"Okay," he said finally. "Okay."
The surgery took six hours on Friday.
Lucas sat in the waiting room from seven in the morning until one.
There was a man across from him doing a crossword. A woman two rows over kept calling somebody.
At one forty the surgeon came out in blue scrubs and said it went well.
Both valves. Clean. He'd be in recovery by three.
Lucas went out to the parking structure and sat in his truck and cried for about ninety seconds.
Then he wiped his face and drove home and packed.
Sunday morning a black car pulled up outside his building in Silver Lake.
The driver got out and opened the back door and waited.
Lucas came down with two duffel bags and a box of books.
That was everything. He'd sold the truck on Saturday for four thousand.
The driver put the bags in the trunk and didn't comment on the box.
They drove for forty minutes.
Out of Silver Lake, up through the hills, past the reservoir, up a road that kept turning.
The houses got further apart and the gates got taller.
The car stopped at a gate that opened before they reached it.
The driveway was long and paved and lined with olive trees.
The house was glass and dark wood and sat on the side of the canyon like it had grown there.
Through the far windows Lucas could see all the way to the ocean.
The driver set the bags inside the door and left.
Lucas stood in the entry with his box of books.
The floors were pale wood. The ceilings were two stories in the front room.
There was a piano nobody played and a wall of records and a kitchen the size of his apartment.
A woman came out of the kitchen in a gray cardigan.
She was maybe sixty. She had a dish towel over her shoulder.
"You must be Lucas."
"Yeah."
"I'm the housekeeper. I do Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays."
She didn't offer a name and Lucas didn't ask for one.
"Your room's up the stairs, second door on the right."
"Second door."
"The first one's his."
She went back into the kitchen.
Lucas carried his bags up.
The second door on the right was bigger than his whole apartment had been.
Bed, desk, window facing the canyon, a closet with nothing in it.
He put his clothes in the closet and his books on the desk.
Then he stood at the window and looked at the ocean for a while.
The first door on the right was closed.
Kevin came home at seven.
Lucas heard the car, then the door, then footsteps on the stairs.
Kevin stopped in the doorway of the second room and looked in.
"Unpacked."
"Yeah."
"Good."
He went into his own room and shut the door.
Dinner was at eight.
The housekeeper had made chicken and rice and left it on the counter and gone home.
They ate at a table by the window with the canyon going dark outside.
Kevin ate like he was finishing a task.
Lucas ate because he hadn't eaten since breakfast.
"You can use the kitchen," Kevin said. "Anything in it."
"Okay."
"The gym's downstairs. There's a pool."
"Okay."
"Don't go in the study."
Lucas looked up.
"The door at the end of the hall. It stays locked."
"Why."
"It's mine."
Lucas put his fork down.
"I'm not going to steal your silverware, Kevin."
"I didn't say you were."
"You said don't go in the study."
"I said don't go in the study."
Kevin set his fork down too and wiped his mouth and folded the napkin.
Then he held out his hand across the table.
"Phone."
Lucas looked at the hand.
"What."
"Give me your phone."
"Why."
"Because I asked."
"That's not a reason."
"It's the only one you're getting."
The housekeeper came back in through the side door with her keys in her hand.
She'd forgotten her bag. She stopped when she saw them.
Kevin didn't look at her. His hand stayed out.
Lucas took his phone out of his pocket.
He'd had it for three years. There was a crack across the corner from when Mateo dropped it.
He put it in Kevin's palm.
Kevin turned it over once.
Then he stood up, walked into the kitchen, and held it over the sink.
The housekeeper said, "Mr. Maverick."
Kevin opened his fingers.
The phone hit the stainless steel and slid and stopped against the drain.
Water was running. He'd turned the tap on before he dropped it.
"You won't need that," he said.
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