PROLOGUE
Jake Slater was already having a bad night. It would get much worse. Death changes everything. Especially when it hits as sudden as a devastating tornado.
Jake was not altogether shocked when he walked into the empty parking lot outside Stephen F. Austin High School, where he was the head football coach, and found the words Coach Slater Sucks spray-painted in red on the side of his white Jeep Cherokee. Hours earlier, Jake’s football team had lost their fifth game in a row. The fans were irate. This was Texas. Football was king. This year’s team had been projected to make a run at state. But Jake had ruined everything—according to the community—by kicking the star player off the team six weeks ago for punching a teammate in practice. Jake had never heard a crowd boo so loudly at the end of a game, which felt like the lowest point of his twenty-year coaching career.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and read a text message from his wife, Sarah. We’re at my parents’ house. Can you meet us here?
Jake sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was go over to his in-laws’ place tonight. He was already tired and frustrated. Having anything to do with his overbearing father-in-law right now would only exacerbate that. He was supposed to be meeting his wife and eleven-year-old daughter, Piper, at an IHOP restaurant down the street—a family tradition they’d started a couple of years ago after home games. These postgame dinners had unfortunately been miserable of late.
He texted her back. I’m exhausted. Can we just go home?
Sarah replied, Please, Jake. Just for a few minutes.
He growled under his breath. Fine.
Jake climbed into his Jeep and put the key in the ignition. The engine sputtered for several long seconds—as if trying to make up its mind about running tonight—before eventually starting. The old Jeep was on its last legs. Jake had been driving it forever, though Sarah had wanted him to get a new vehicle a long time ago. Something nice like her Lexus SUV. His wife had a lucrative career as a financial partner in her family’s investment firm. It had afforded them some luxuries most other high school coaches didn’t have—like living in a spacious new house in an affluent suburb in West Austin. But Jake didn’t want to stand out in the parking lot among his assistant coaches, who all drove run-down vehicles. Nobody got rich coaching high school football. He’d married into it.
Driving out of downtown proper, where the high school was located along the shores of Lady Bird Lake—a stretch of the Colorado River that weaves beautifully through the city—Jake headed west. A few minutes later, he pulled into the gated driveway of his in-laws’ massive estate. Their place sat along an exclusive private street on a hill overlooking the river, with a spectacular view of downtown. A real estate agent friend had told him years ago that every property on this street was worth more than $20 million. And Jake’s in-laws had one of the biggest homes—which looked more like a Tuscan castle to him. Sitting on four acres, the house was over twelve thousand square feet. Everything about it seemed pretentious and ridiculous. His mother-in-law, Janice, might as well have left price tags on items she'd
purchased from around the globe, the way she so casually talked about the expense of every statue, vase, and piece of artwork.
Jake punched in a code at the security gate, waited for it to open, and then drove up the winding path to the house. He parked next to Sarah’s Lexus in a huge circular courtyard bordered by two four-bay garages on each side.
Jake walked up to the front door of the three-story mansion, with its mix of earth-toned stone and stucco, rustic lines, and beautiful arched openings and doorways. He knocked on the massive glass front door. His daughter answered it. Piper was the spitting image of her beautiful mother. Long brown hair pulled back in a tight ponytail with a few freckles on her cheeks and the brightest green eyes.
While she looked like her mother, Piper had the competitive drive and athletic ability of her father. Jake had played college football at Sam Houston State twenty years ago, where he’d broken several wide-receiver records. Piper competed nationally on a junior acrobatics and tumbling team. It was not uncommon for Piper to do a backflip while they were all just standing around. It drove Jake crazy. Board games between him and his daughter could get intense. He loved that about her. Being a father had given him an indescribable joy. Because of that, Jake had wanted more kids. But Sarah would never commit because of her busy career.
Piper immediately hugged him. “Sorry, Daddy.”
He hugged her back, knowing she was talking about the game. “Thanks, baby.”
“They played a lot better than last week. If not for that late fumble.”
“I know. We’ll get them next week. Where’s Mom?”
“In the lounge with Grandpa.”
Jake stepped fully into the three-story foyer with a sweeping staircase built in all marble that he knew had been imported from Italy. The house had always seemed more like a museum than a home. To him, it was cold and uncomfortable. Which could also describe his relationship
with his father-in-law, Lars Kingston.
Jake followed Piper down a hallway to his left, which eventually spilled out into what the family called the lounge. It reminded Jake of a luxurious hotel lobby, with its multiple fireplaces and sitting areas. The entire Kingston family gathered here for every holiday and birthday celebration.
Sarah walked over to him, a glass of wine in her hand. She was a fit brunette who had run cross-country while attending Columbia back in the day. She still jogged nearly every morning before breakfast. Jake used to join her several days a week but not lately. He’d been leaving the house earlier than usual to put in more hours at the football offices and try to somehow rescue the season. Plus, he had been avoiding a growing tension between them. His body was paying for the lack of exercise—a slight softness around his belly that had not been there the first forty-two years of his life. There was also now a touch of gray in his wavy brown hair. Coaching could age a man quickly, especially when he was riding a serious losing streak.
“Hey,” she said. “How’re you holding up?”
“Tough night,” he replied.
“Yeah. They’ve all been tough lately.”
She said it without much warmth behind it. He could tell being a coach’s wife was taking its toll on her. When they’d married thirteen years ago, she’d liked that he was just a normal guy with a salt-of-the-earth type of job working with kids. Sarah came from major wealth, and until that point had dated only guys who were born and bred in her pampered lifestyle. At the time, she’d wanted something different. They’d fallen for each other in that opposites-attract kind of way. But the pressure of mounting losses was also wearing on Sarah. She’d been getting yelled at herself during games while sitting in the stands. High school football could bring out the best and worst in people. They were currently living through the worst of it, but Jake knew it would pass. Growing up in a coaching family had taught him that.
Jake’s father-in-law stood over by a fancy bar wrapped in colorful Italian tile. He had a glass undoubtedly filled with expensive Scotch in his
hand. Wearing a black sweater and gray slacks, Lars was a physically imposing man at around six five with broad shoulders and a thick gray beard. Head of Kingston Financial, Lars liked to use his physical stature to intimidate others. But it had never worked on Jake, who at six two was only slightly shorter and still had his own set of muscular shoulders.
“Something to drink, Jake?” Lars asked him.
“Sure. I’ll have what you’re having.”
Lars kind of scoffed. “This is from a ten-thousand-dollar bottle of Scotch. How about a beer instead?”
Jake barely hid rolling his eyes. From the first moment Sarah had brought him around, Lars had treated him as lower class—unworthy of drinking his expensive Scotch. Jake came from a poor family. Both his late father and grandfather had been high school football coaches like he was. There had never been any extra money around. Lars had clearly wanted his only daughter to marry someone from another wealthy family—just like her three older brothers had. Lars probably spent more money on new business suits each year than Jake made at coaching. Early on, Jake was convinced he could eventually win Lars over with his old-fashioned Southern charm. But that dream was dashed one fateful night when Jake unwittingly walked into the Kingston home and found Lars engaged in a sexual tryst with someone who was not his wife. Jake immediately bolted and never said a word to anyone. But he knew that Lars had seen him. From that point forward, Jake became a serious threat. And powerful men do not like to feel threatened. Lars clearly hated him for it.
“Actually, I don’t need a drink,” Jake said. “I just want to go home.”
“I need a few minutes first,” Lars insisted.
When Sarah invited Piper to join her in the kitchen to get a snack, Jake knew something was up. Sarah had been hinting at wanting a change for weeks. And now she’d pulled her damn father into it.
“What do you want?” he asked his father-in-law.
“To offer you a job o
pportunity.”
“I don’t need a job. I’m fine where I am.”
“I can pay you five times what you’re making right now.”
“To do what?”
“I’m creating a new position within my company. Kind of like a mentor role for all first-year financial analysts. Life advice, counseling, guidance, that sort of thing.”
“You want to pay me a half million dollars to babysit your new hires?”
He shrugged. “Something like that.”
After thirteen years around his father-in-law, Jake was no longer surprised by the man’s audacity. Money was the center of his entire world. Of course he thought Jake could simply be bought. “That’s ridiculous.”
Lars immediately frowned. “Don’t be a fool, Jake. Sarah is not happy.”
“That’s between us. Not you.”
“Apparently not, since she asked me to do this.”
“So you just made up this position to get me out of coaching?”
“My daughter and granddaughter deserve better.”
“Than being part of a coaching family? Or me?”
“Both,” Lars said without hesitation, eyes narrow, sipping his Scotch.
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
Jake felt a surge of anger push to the surface. He resisted the urge to let a few curse words fly and instead left the lounge in a hurry to go find Sarah and Piper. They were in the kitchen eating out of a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
“I’m out of here,” he snapped at Sarah, not hiding his irritation with her.
“Jake, wait,” Sarah responded.
“I’ll go with you, Daddy,” Piper said, hopping up off her kitchen stool.
Piper hustled up to Jake’s side in the hallway, reached out, and took his hand. While Sarah had become more distant during his current losing streak, Jak
e’s daughter had drawn even closer to him, as if she knew her father needed the extra love and comfort right now. They had a special relationship. He hated that she’d been watching her mom and dad fight more than usual lately. A chasm was growing between her parents, and Jake wasn’t sure how to resolve it. He’d never anticipated it reaching this point. They’d felt so united for most of their marriage. Life was good for them despite the hostility from his father-in-law. But the man was relentless. He was like the devil in Sarah’s ear, constantly telling his daughter she could do better. This was a tug-of-war Jake felt like they’d easily won for more than thirteen years because Sarah was pulling along with him. Together, they were strong. But Sarah had not been pulling as hard lately. Which left Jake feeling betrayed.
“Jake, please, let’s talk about this,” Sarah said, chasing after him.
“Not tonight. Later.”
“You always say that but never want to talk about it later.”
“Sarah, I’m tired. I don’t want to say things I’ll regret.”
Jake walked out the front door with Piper. Sarah was right behind them.
“I’m tired, too, Jake ,” Sarah said. ...
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