Sam's Promise (Blackwater)

Chapter One

Sam rolled his eyes. “You better be on your way, damn it. You promised Mom.” As he shut off the engine, Sam stared out the driver’s side window at the large, two-story brick house. It’d been the first real home he and his four brothers had ever known. Guilt washed over him as he realized how long it’d been since his last visit. Nearly a month. Nice.

“Christ, relax,” Brodix muttered on the other end of the cell phone. “I’m on my way. Besides, have I ever missed Thanksgiving?”

His brother was right. Shit. “Sorry for snapping. I’m sort of on edge is all.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. “Because of Mom’s phone call?” Brodix finally asked.

Sam started to get out of his SUV, but Brodix’s words stopped him. “She called you too?”

Brodix sighed. “Yeah. Sounds like there might be trouble in paradise, huh?”

“The Blackwater Diner has always done a good business, but Mom sounded worried. If she’s worried, then I’m worried,” Sam said. “I wonder if she called the others.”

“I haven’t talked to them about it, but I imagine she did.” He paused, then added, “She told me the restaurant is our legacy, Sam. That Dad wanted it to stay in the family. She sounded heartbroken, like she’d let him down or something.”

Sam didn’t want to think of their mother as anything other than happy. She’d been his guardian angel since the first day he’d met her. She’d walked into the social worker’s office and smiled at him as if he were someone worthy. Someone other than the nobody he’d been. Someone other than a kid who’d never even known his father and had a drug addict for a mother. And like any belligerent twelve-year-old boy who’d been dragged through the system kicking and screaming, Sam had cursed at her. He’d known what would come, and he’d braced himself, waiting for the slap, or worse. Wanda had only patted him on the back. The kind gesture had sucked all the anger right out of him. It hadn’t taken him long to know she was different from all the rest. She was special.

“I’m going to get some answers after dinner.” Sam stepped out and headed toward the front porch. “Since I’m the one with the most job flexibility around here, I plan to go over to the restaurant tomorrow and check out the books, and I’m not leaving until things are back on track.” One of the perks to being an all-around handyman/carpenter was that he could set his own hours. “Which is part of why I’m calling. Between you and me, you’re the one with the head for business, so maybe you can give me a hand.”

“I can stay for a few days, but my condo is a two-hour drive, and I can’t exactly take an impromptu extended leave from work.”

“Do you have any vacation time coming?”

Brodix went silent, and Sam let a grin slip. While most people had to look at their calendar to see what was on their agenda for the following day, Brodix could figure out within seconds what the next four weeks looked like, right down to the hour, simply by concentrating.

“Yeah,” his brainiac brother finally replied. “Actually I could probably take a few weeks off.”

“Let’s wait and see what’s going on before we make any plans. It might not be necessary.” Even as he said it, Sam knew he was lying to them both. When he’d called his mom to confirm the time for dinner, she’d seemed stressed, and Sam’s gut had been bothering him ever since.

“Whatever it takes, man.”

“Good. Now get your ass here.”

“God, you’re worse than an old woman. I’m less than fifteen minutes out. Chill.”

Sam heard the distinctive sound of a diesel engine from behind. He turned in time to see Vance pulling into the driveway in his black pickup truck. Behind him was a new, shiny, silver BMW. “Vance just arrived. River and Reilly are right behind him.”

He heard Brodix curse. “Great. I’m the last one. Why am I always the last one?”

Sam laughed. “Because you suck more than the rest of us.”

“Thanks for clearing that up, bro.”

“That’s what big brothers are for.” Brodix offered up a few anatomically impossible ideas, then hung up. Sam shoved his cell back into the holster on his belt and watched as his brothers parked and got out. One by one, they made their way toward him. Sam hadn’t seen them since early summer. They’d all been busy. Too damn busy to visit? He grimaced when he thought of what his father would’ve said about that were he still alive. Family, his father had always said, is all that really matters in this world. Sam gave in to the instinct to look each of them over now. He needed to see for himself they were well.

Vance looked good, bigger and meaner than ever, but good all the same. As usual, he wore black work boots, a pair of faded jeans and the brown leather coat their mom had gotten him four or five Christmases ago. Hell, he looked more muscular, if it were at all possible. Owning his own construction company suited him, apparently. Reilly and River were mirror images of each other with their pale green eyes, shaggy black hair and lean six-foot-four build. The only difference between the twins was River’s constant scowl. Sam’s gut clenched. He could count on one hand the amount of times his youngest brother had cracked a smile in the last decade.

“Brodix is on his way,” Sam said by way of greeting.

Vance snorted. “Late, what else is new.”