Page 8 of Lost
“I’ll make some phone calls and see what I can do. Then we’ll go from there.”
He could practically see the weight lifting from the boy’s shoulders. If there had been hope in his eyes before, it was nothing compared to what Zack was seeing now. A light had been switched on. Lysander’s eyes sparkled, and a genuine smile lit up his face. Zack couldn’t help smiling back. Another ten points to him.
“Thank you,” Lysander said earnestly. He loosed a deep breath. “Seriously, I can’t thank you enough for this.” He laughed a little, and for the first time Zack thought he might be starting to relax. “A part of me was sure you were gonna be like all the rest and ignore me.” He looked down at his hands. The smile slipped from his face, but before Zack could ask why he was saying, “I’m sorry if I’ve ruined your life. I wouldn’t have dragged you into this if I thought there was any other way, but...”
“I understand.” It felt strange to be saying it, but it was true. Zack knew he would have done exactly the same thing in the kid’s position. “And you haven’t ruined my life.”
Just completely upended it.
Lysander looked doubtful when he looked up.
“This just came as a surprise,” Zack went on. “I wasn’t prepared. I’m still not. But you haven’t ruined anything.”
“You’re a rockstar,” Lysander said. “You make a living out of touring the world. I get that. So I’m ready to go back to Wisconsin and get out of your hair. Nobody ever has to know this happened. I won’t tell anybody. I needed your help with finding Dakota, that’s all.”
Zack stared at the boy. Let him go back to Wisconsin and pretend nothing had ever happened? Fantastic! Two days ago, he would have jumped at the offer. He wouldn’t have to worry about having a child around, and Lysander could rest easy knowing there were people searching for his sister. It was a win-win situation for everybody.
But things were different now that Lysander was sitting in front of him. Gone was the time for blind panic and wishing things were different. He had to play the role of a father now. What would his parents have said if he turned his own son away? His own father would be rolling in his grave.
“I’m not sending you back to Wisconsin.”
Lysander looked surprised, and a little uneasy.
“I need to be there,” he said. “If Dakota gets away, she’ll go back to the house. I need to be there so I can protect her.”
“Lysander.” The name felt foreign on Zack’s tongue — what had Samantha Maverick been thinking when she’d named her son? “I understand why you might feel that way. But even if I wanted to, I can’t send you back. You’re only fifteen. Legally you can’t live on your own, and I can’t be up there while I’m working on music with my band.” And if anybody ever found out he’d abandoned the kid and left him alone…
“I can protect myself.”
Lysander reminded him of a younger version of himself. He looked like he would be able to hold his own in a fight. But what kind of a parent would it make him if he let the kid run off back to Wisconsin to fend for himself? Pat would read him the riot act. Brendan probably would, too.
It wasn’t a risk they could afford to take anyway. Mafioso or not, Lysander believed that this Alfonzo character had taken his sister, and maybe even murdered his mother — which meant he probably wouldn’t hold back on hurting the boy, either.
“The police won’t watch the house forever,” Lysander said when Zack remained silent. “What if she makes it back there and nobody’s around to help her?”
“I can pay somebody to keep an eye on the house. We can get your neighbours involved, too. I’m sure they’ll be able to spot anything suspicious better than the police anyway.”
Lysander looked like he was going to argue the point, but Zack doubled down. He knew he was in the right here.
“I won’t be moved on this. You wanted my help, you’ve got it. But right now my biggest concern has to be you. It’s my job to keepyousafe, and I can’t do that if you’re across the country. So you’re staying.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “And that’s final.”
Lysander looked disappointed. He stuffed his hands back into his pockets and went back to staring at nothing, his gaze everywhere but on Zack. Zack sighed. He hated having to disappoint the kid, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t leave California. He and the guys were beginning work on their seventh studio album, and he couldn’t skip out on them now. Getting the writing for the album done was his job, his livelihood. He couldn’t abandon it because his son wanted to move back to Wisconsin. Not when there were suitable alternatives.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know that’s not what you wanted to hear.”
“It’s fine. Unexpected is all. I didn’t think you’d want me around.”
That hurt. But it also told Zack exactly how damaged their relationship already was. If Lysander had assumed even before meeting him that Zack would willingly have sent him right back home, he evidently didn’t think very highly of him. And why should he? All he knew was the image Zack portrayed to the public — the cocky, better-than-you character invented to make his old classmates jealous. Lysander didn’t know the man behind the mask.
“You know I had no idea you were even alive, right?”
Lysander nodded.
“Mom told me,” he said. “And she didn’t tell you for the same reason that I wasn’t going to. We didn’t want to mess up your life. So you don’t need to say it — I don’t blame you for never being around. And I don’t have any issues with you that need to be dealt with. We’re cool.”
“That’s good to know,” Zack said. “But I know about you now, and I’d like it if we could…get to know each other. Try to make up for lost time, y'know? Can we do that?”
Lysander studied him in silence. There wasn’t a hint of anything on the boy’s face, and Zack didn’t like it. What if he said no? What if he kept that wall up and refused to try? Zack didn’t want to end up as one of those fathers whose son hated him. In that moment, he could think of nothing worse.
