Chapter 12

She floated into the shop. She had called her mother to tell her that she would be late and asked her to open up for her.

Now an hour after opening, she was pushing the door open, a smile on her face. She had barely slept. Gary had been true to his word and had kept her up.

But she felt wonderful. She was in love with him! And he was in love with her. Ignoring the voice that was telling her to be cautious, she was determined to go along with the emotions coursing through her body. They were going out for dinner later.

She had Thanksgiving things to deal with and was determined to get everything done so that she could be with him.

“Look who is finally here,” Sharon eyed her daughter quizzically as she approached the counter.

“Was it very busy?”

“Just the morning rush. Latte?”

“Please. I am just going to put away my things. I’ll be right back.”

Sharon prepared the latte and a cup of steaming hot chocolate for herself. She had them ready and had placed some cookies on a plate by the time her daughter came back.

“I want to hear all about it. You are glowing.” She patted the space on the sofa next to her.

“Is it that obvious?” Sadie asked with a laugh as she sat down. “Oh mom! I am in love with him.”

“I could have told you that.” Picking up her cup, she sipped the beverage. “And he’s in love with you.”

“He wants to marry me.”

“So soon? Honey, you only just met each other.”

Picking up a cookie, she nibbled delicately. “You were the one who told me to do away with caution.”

“I did. But go out with each other. Go on dates. Talk, do all of that before making a commitment that is going to last forever. This might be sex talking.”

“Mom!”

“You know I have always been upfront with you.” Putting her cup down, she faced her daughter. “I am happy for you, truly I am. And I like that young man of yours.

I am sorry he could not make it to dinner last Sunday and I understand that with his dad being ill, things came up. But you are my only child, and as old as you are, you are still my baby, and I have to look out for you. I want to officially meet him, Sadie.”

“He will be coming to dinner on Sunday,” she said quietly. “He wants me to come and live with him, because he was afraid, I would say no to marriage this quickly.” She shrugged slender shoulders.

“I don’t understand what is happening. Mom, I feel like I am in the eye of the storm. Like waves are crashing around me. When I am with him, I am consumed by so many emotions, I cannot keep up. It’s not just sex, which I have to admit is a huge part of it.

But there is something about him that makes me think that I have known him all my life. I am not shy or withdrawn around him. There is not a time when I can honestly say that he makes me feel uncomfortable. He is unlike anyone I have ever met. He makes me laugh, he is witty and intense.

When he looks at me, I melt, and it feels as if I am the only woman in the world.” She took a breath. “I just know that being without him is not an option. And that scares the living daylights out of me. I am not used to feeling this way about a guy and it frightens me, especially since we just met.”

Taking her daughter’s cup and putting it down, Sharon took both her hands and squeezed gently. “It sounds to me that you have found something extremely rare, and I am not the one to stand between you and true love. I am in full support of you, and I am very happy you have found the one.”

*****

He stormed into his uncle’s office without knocking, waving the assistant back to her desk. “I don’t care if he’s in a goddamned meeting, this cannot wait.”

He was on a conference call and looked up in surprise when the doors were pushed open, and his nephew strode in.

“Gentlemen, I am afraid I am going to have to pick up this discussion at a later date. Thank you for understanding.” Graham hung up and stared at the younger man, noticing the barely contained fury.

“Drink? You look like you need it.”

“No. I need to ask you something and I would like you to think really hard before answering.”

“All right. But as I have not had my coffee yet, I am going to pour myself a cup.” Pushing away from his desk, he walked over to the elaborate table where the refreshment was already laid out. Taking the coffee with him to his desk, he sat and waited for Gary to continue.

“I met someone,” he began.

“I figured that out. When am I going to meet her?”

“Never.” He gave a mirthless laugh.

“I see. And why is that?”

“Because when she finds out who I really am, she is going to run in the opposite direction.”

“You are being overly dramatic.”

Gary lifted a brow. “Have you ever known me to be?”

“No.”

“Her name is Sadie Ellicott. Does the name ring any bells?”

Graham frowned in concentration. “Should it?”

“The apartment building on Fulton Street, you know where there are condominiums built now for the working-class elite. Smart executives and their families. The one where Business Weekly dubbed it as one of the most enterprising ventures ever to be done in that area. That one.”

“What about it?”

“They were living there. Sadie and her parents. And when they, along with the rest of the occupants, refused to leave, they were threatened. When that did not work, they were smoked out. Literally.” He saw when understanding dawned on his uncle’s face.

“What are you saying?” He asked hoarsely.

“She told me her dad died and last night, she explained what happened. Apparently, it was a topic that she was not comfortable opening up about.

But she did, with me. She said he was murdered, only there was no proof. The building was supposed to be empty, but he went home early because he was feeling unwell. He died from smoke inhalation because he was asthmatic.

The authorities, the fire department, the police, they all agreed that it was a tragic accident and Moretti along with their partners, got what they wanted.

The building was cleared out and low and behold, it was torn down to make way for a more modern structure.” He had spent the time doing his research as soon as she left and what he learnt had made him ill.

“My God!” The coffee he had swallowed was churning inside his gut. Putting the cup down, Graham stared at his nephew. “They – we – Jesus Christ! They killed him?”

Hearing it aloud, affirmed how true it was. Feeling the weakness in his knees, he groped for the chair behind him and plopped onto the soft padding.

The distant sound of the intercom buzzing did not make an impression on him, and he watched dazedly as his uncle reached for the extension and murmured something to his assistant. Gary did not hear the words, he couldn’t because of the awful buzzing sound in his ears.

“Gary!”

Shaking his head, he concentrated on his uncle. “What?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Get as much as I can out of the relationship before I have to tell her the truth.” He propped his elbows on his knees and bent his head, shoving his fingers through the already disheveled mess he had made of his blue-black hair.

What should have been a cause of celebration was like an albatross around his bloody neck and an iron vice around his heart. “I am in love with her.” He lifted his head to look at his uncle.

“I think I fell the first time I stepped into that coffee shop of hers and I never stopped falling. Last night I asked her to marry me and if that was not something she could see herself doing at such short notice, I asked that she moved in with me.” He laughed harshly. “She told me she loved me too. It’s what I wanted to hear.”

“Oh Christ!” Graham whispered. He could plainly see the stark despair on his nephew’s face, and it catapulted him back to the past. He had been in love for the first time in his life, only to discover that she was pledged to his brother. A man who never had the capacity to love. “You have to tell her. Don’t let her find out from someone else.”

Gary nodded. “I am going to enjoy her, enjoy what we have for a few more days before I have to wreck her world. I need that. Her mom invited me to dinner on Sunday and I am going. I promised her that I would introduce you to her and …” His voice tailed off as he bent his head to stare at the lush gold carpet.

“I would be honored to meet her.” His uncle’s quiet tone had him looking up. “Perhaps, she will see that we are not all monsters. And when the time comes for you to tell her, she will remember that we are somewhat different, that we had nothing to do with what happened to her dad.”

The hope that flared inside Gary’s chest died instantly. “She won’t think that. She loved her dad and what happened to him has scarred her.” He rose unsteadily. “Thanks for listening.”

“Gary.”

“Yes?” He turned at the door.

“I am sorry as hell.”

He nodded.

“Your dad has been asking after you. He is due out today.”

“Can you see to it? I cannot face him right now.”

Graham watched him leave and felt the familiar anger festering inside him. He had no doubt, his brothers had a hand in the man’s death. He knew their strategies and recalled them discussing that same apartment building and how furious they had been when the occupants refused to leave.

“Oh Christ!” He whispered, leaning back in the chair. His coffee was cold, but he had no appetite for the excellent brew. Sitting up, he reached for the phone and placed a call.

*****

After driving around for half an hour, he made his way to the construction area and parked a few feet away from where the sound of the building tearing down, bit by bit, could be heard. His phone had been ringing over since he left the corporate office, and he had ignored it.

His old man was calling, no doubt to find out if Gary would pick him up from the hospital, but he could not face him, not just yet. Switching the engine off, he stared blindly out the windshield. His phone rang again, and he was about to ignore it, when he turned it over and felt a jolt when he identified the number.

Forcing the hopelessness away, he picked up the phone. “You miss me.”

“You are absolutely right. I miss you. What are you doing?”

“I just drove up to the job site. You might hear the sounds of heavy machinery doing their thing.”

“And what will you be doing at the site? I would love to see a selfie with you holding a hammer.”

He laughed softly, feeling some of the incredible tension ebbing away. She did that to him.

“A hammer?”

“Hmm. Without your shirt of course.”

“You do know it’s very cold, right?”

“Oh yeah. Maybe take one inside the building.”

“I am not doing that.”

“I thought you loved me.”

He burst out laughing. “You catch on fast. Using my love to get what you want.”

“I am a quick learner. Gary, I do miss you.”

His heart turned right over and for a minute, he pretended that everything was as if should be, that he was really Gary Russo without the taint of his awful past and the burden of his family’s name. That he was free to court her and then suggest a December wedding.

“I miss you too,” he told her gruffly.

“Just had to get that out of the way. See you later.”

“I love you,” he told her huskily.

“I love you, too.”

Hanging up the phone, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He was so mired down in despair that it took him a second to realize that someone was knocking on his window.

His first reaction was an irrational fear which was replaced by a slow boiling anger.

Pressing the knob to roll the window down, he glowered at his long-time nemesis. The years had not been kind to Maurice. His bulk had been replaced by fat and his face had lines running from the light blue eyes to the thin lips. “What the hell are you doing here?”

A hateful smile touched the man’s lips as he managed to spring back in time as Gary shoved the door open.

“I cannot believe we haven’t seen each other since your arrival back in town.” His smirk widened. “But then you have been very busy.” He tutted. “Tearing down buildings, offering a home to an orphan and the big one – getting involved with that beauty from the coffee shop.”

Gary was thirty-one years old and never considered himself a coward or had been afraid of anything. He had been brought up to be tough and was trained in the art of several self-defense, including how to street fight. But this was the first time he ever felt helpless.

“You have been following me?”

Maurice Gotti shrugged his meaty shoulders, a look of hatred covering his rough-hewn features. “You have been back – what? Almost three weeks and already making waves.” He gestured towards the property.

“That right there belongs to my family. We were cheated out of it. And what’s even worse, your old man and uncle pulled out of several lucrative deals we had together. Now, you are trying to clean up your act by building a community center.” His lips curled spitefully.

“You, with your male model appearance think you can waltz back here and just portray this good boy image, just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “Pretend that you are better than my family.” His eyes glowed fiercely. “It doesn’t work that way, pretty boy.”

Mentally shaking off the fear and awful foreboding, he started stalking the man. He had known Maurice Gotti since he was a child and knew for a fact that the man was a bully of the worse kind and often preyed on people’s weaknesses. Gary could not show him any fear or weakness.

“You don’t scare me,” he said coldly, his lips scarcely moving. “I bested you when we were kids, and it is no different now. I am better than you, always have been and that’s what’s killing you, isn’t it?” He flicked scornful eyes over him, lips curling in disgust. “You are washed up and a sorry excuse of a man.

Stay the hell away from me and if you ever, ever go near this building or even breathe in the same vicinity as that coffee shop, I am going to rip off your pathetic balls and shoved them so far down your throat, you are going to need surgery to remove them. Is that clear to you, you pathetic son of a bitch?”

For a few seconds, the man stood there glaring at him, hatred pumping from every pore.

Stepping back, he made his way to his vehicle parked on the soft shoulder a few feet away.

“You have not heard the last of me!” He warned as he yanked the door open. “You should have stayed the hell away, Moretti. It would have been better for you.” Sliding in, he slammed the car door. Spinning the vehicle around, he drove off.

Walking to his vehicle, Gary leaned against the car, his body trembling. The man knew about Sadie. Gary could deal with anything else, a threat to his physical self, but he could not afford to have her hurt because of him. He was going to have to let her go.

Bowing his head, on the top of the vehicle and felt the tension clenching his stomach into knots.

*****

“Easy.” Graham tucked a hand beneath his brother’s thin arm as he stumbled slightly.

“I am not a damn invalid,” he grumbled.

“You are still weak, and the doctors said to make certain you go straight to bed.”

“Where is he?”

Pushing the doors open, he waited until they were inside the hallway before responding.

“He’s at the site.”

“He did not respect his old man enough to pick me up from the hospital?” They made their way across the hallway and into the room that had been redesigned for him. The nurse was already there, ready to do her job as soon as Graham left.

“He is angry.”

“What now?” Grant lowered herself slowly on the edge of the bed.

“I told you I suspected he was seeing someone.”

“So?”

Graham grabbed a chair and sat. “She is a blast from the past, or rather, her dad is.” He told his brother what Gary had told him and watched as his face turned pale.

“Are you all right?” He asked in alarm as his brother pressed a fist against his chest where his heart was. “I wasn’t sure I should tell you…”

“No!” He gasped, taking a deep breath. “I remember the building.” He closed his eyes wearily. “George was determined to acquire that building. It was situated in a prime area, in the middle of the bustling town.’ Lowering his hand, he stared at it listlessly. “He said he did not cause the fire…”

“But you did not believe him.”

“No.” Grant shook his head and stared at his brother. “You have to believe that I would never sanction anything like that. The building was supposed to be empty…” His voice tailed off. “He’s never going to forgive me.”

“It’s not about you, damn it. Your son is caught up in a situation not of his own making. He is in love with this girl and to hear that his family caused her daddy’s death is a blow he is not able to deal with. He is going to have to tell her, and I would not want to be him when he does.”

Grant shook his head slowly. “He did nothing wrong.” He whispered. “No matter how much we tried to mold him into our image, George and I, he would stick to his guns.” He glanced at his brother. “Just like you did.”

“And now he is the one who will reap the consequences,” Graham remarked grimly. Rising, he walked over to the pull the heavy drapery way from the window to let a little light into the shadowed room and acknowledged to himself that the weak sunshine filtering in did nothing to flatter the large room.

It certainly did nothing to take away the scent of hopelessness and illness that permeated the room.

“When will he tell her?”

“He wants more time with her before he has to break the news. He asked her to marry him, but that was before he heard who her father was.” He walked back over to sit down. “He is hurting, Grant and there is nothing I can do to help.”

Grant suddenly felt very old. He had been looking forward to coming home, sleeping in his own bed, and thinking of ways to make it up to his son. But this was going to make things impossible. He had met a girl and that was what he had always wanted for his son. A chance to be happy, the way he never allowed himself to be.

“Will he take my call?”

“No. Leave him be. He has to work things out in his own time.”

“Is he planning on going away again?”

Graham lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “I have no idea. But I think that’s what he will do.” Graham rubbed the back of his neck wearily. “I thought that when he came back, this would have been a second chance for him, a chance for him to find his niche.

When he started the project, he was so damned excited. And he was happy.” He shook his head. “And now…”

“Now, because of what George and I did, it’s going to screw with his life.” Grant felt the vice tightening around his heart and wondered if he was having a heart attack. It would be poetic justice and everything he deserved. Clutching his chest, he gestured to his brother.

Call the nurse!”