20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

ROMAN

I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. It was beautiful and damn busy for lunch time. I gave the hostess my name and told her I was meeting someone. She was staring so hard she barely got out, hello before Grant walked up and tapped her on the shoulder. That’s the only time being stared at like that is truly annoying.

“Roman, right this way.” I followed him into a back room. There were a few tables in the room but no one else was in there. We sat down and a waiter came in from a door which looked like it led into the kitchen. He brought us both water and put some bread on the table. Grant shooed him out after saying thank you.

I looked at him curiously and he smiled. “I own this place. This is a private party room.” He said it so nonchalantly.

“Nice. What’s this information you have for me?” I was curious to know if Alex knew about this restaurant.

“First of all, I want to introduce myself. I’m Andrea DiGiovanni.” He reached out his hand and I tentatively shook it.

“I’m sorry, what? What do you mean? I’m pretty sure we’ve already met, Grant.”

“I’ve been able to keep this name out of the public eye since I moved to the United States fifteen years ago where I trained very hard to lose my Italian accent and roots. I worked for Alessandro Santoro and his family back in Italy. I was their consigliere to put it simply.” My mouth hit the floor. I knew exactly what that meant and I also remember Alessandro telling me at the hospital that he was a connected member of a very prominent Italian family. Oh shit! What the fuck have I gotten myself into?

“Grant, should I call you Grant? What exactly is going on?” I clasped my hands and rested my elbows on the table.

“When I moved here it was because I was getting out of the business, basically going into hiding. Alessandro also got out of the business, and he sent me over here to set up a normal life. I helped him open the winery in California and in North Carolina. I had a…” He hesitated. “...layover in Cincinnati. I did a little research on the place and fell in love with it. I told Alessandro that he and his family would love it here. They weren’t ready to leave Italy yet, but they came to visit, and we decided to get into real estate. I got my license and after a few years I opened my own office, and of course this place. You’re not truly Italian unless you own a restaurant.” He laughed but I wasn’t in the mood.

“Well, I guess all that’s good to hear, but how does Alex play into all this? I feel like you have a very vested interest in her. The Santoro’s seem especially concerned about her as well.” He had a genuine thoughtful smile on his face when I said her name.

“Alex is special. When she came to work for me, she wasn’t the girl you see today. She was sweet and maybe a little naive. It took everything I had not to take care of that husband of hers. I talked to her and tried to give her as much knowledge as I could about relationships and real estate to get her thinking for herself. She finally accepted her marriage was a sham, and her business wasn’t. She got rid of the husband and I kept her busy with real estate while she went through, what she calls, the dark times. She’s something else, isn’t she? She told me she’s moved in with you.”

Now I was the one smiling. “I’m glad you were there for her during that time. I had the pleasure of meeting the asshole over the weekend.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I heard.”

“Roman, Alex asked me about the zoning issue on Alessandro’s property. I told Shay that King Construction took care of it not thinking it would ever come up again. She asked me why I never told her, and I said that I thought you would’ve told her.”

“You’re going to tell me now though, right?”

“I’ll tell you, but I want you to take the credit for it, for now. She’s got enough going on with this court hearing and I don’t think it would be a good idea if she found out who I was or who the Santoro’s are.”

I was on board with that. In fact, I didn’t think it would be a good idea if anyone ever found out who they were .

“Grant, tell me about Texas.” I figured he must be in on that too. He’s the only person that would’ve known about Alex.

He laughed and said, “Oh. You found out already? Well, we obviously know who’s doing this, the Ellingtons, so when we heard about what was going on in Texas we decided to talk to some friends. We relayed some of the shady antics they were pulling up here. It was nipped in the bud pretty quickly and people quietly got arrested and money was recovered. We decided the kickbacks would be put to best use in this relocation project, so we started an account for you and Alex to figure out what the best use for it should be. Do you agree?”

“That depends. Is the money clean?” I sat back, crossing my arms over my chest. I was having trouble being in this small room with him now. It was starting to close in on me.

“Roman, I’m not doing anything illegal. I didn’t even go to Texas. The bad guys were arrested by the good guys. The money was just returned to its rightful owner, which was King Construction. I thought you might be good with putting Alex’s name on the account too, so she could help with Burrow Township. She was planning to use her own money to help them. I know the Texas project doesn’t have anything to do with displaced residents.”

I took a deep breath. “That’s actually a great idea. But you do have to see my concern in all this now though, right?” I grabbed the glass of water and gulped it down to get some oxygen flowing through my body again. I thought I was going to have to ask him to open a door but clearly no one needs to hear this conversation.

“Of course I do. I promise you everything’s fine. I’m not going to get involved with Burrow Township though, because I don’t want anything to happen to Alex. She’s like the daughter I never had, and I would do anything to protect her.”

The way he said anything put me on edge .

“She really makes you work for that one too, doesn’t she?” He winked at me then started laughing.

I laughed with him only because I was almost scared not to. I don’t know if I feel relieved or terrified at the thought of Grant watching over Alex.

“Thankfully Alex wasn’t in the picture when we dealt with the zoning issue for the Santoro’s, so no one connected her to it.” he informed me, which helped relieve some of my stress.

“Good to hear.” I wish I had a real drink now. “How did you fix the Burrow Township issue?” I didn’t know if he’d tell me, or if I should even be asking.

“Didn’t have to. When the rep’s brother got in trouble for what he did to Alex, he decided to pull out of the deal and focus on getting his brother out of that mess.”

Great, that’s all we need is Grant “taking out” the bad guy. Mr. Santoro said he thought someone needed to deal with these kinds of predators.

“I don’t know if I should tell you this or not, but Tanner’s out. Alex was advised to stay with me until the court case was over. She was really freaked out.”

“Yes, I know. Even though I saw her this morning she didn’t say anything to me. She doesn’t like people to worry about her. I’ve got people keeping an eye on him, don’t worry. Don’t freak out by what I’m going to tell you, but he was in your parking garage recently. He didn’t do anything, but he was there, and we’ll be running interference if he tries anything suspicious.”

What? I got up and stood behind the chair. I needed to get some air.

“Grant, who’s watching him? ”

“Don’t worry about it. You need to calm down. You’ll never see them and they’re there to protect you.”

Don’t worry about it? All I fucking do is worry. I felt the sweat beading up on my forehead.

“My weird eerie feeling was right, then? But who was making me feel eerie, Tanner or your goons?”

He laughed.

This isn’t fucking funny to me at all.

“They aren’t goons. I hire ex-military. We don’t do enough for the military vets here in the US.” I felt better about that and absolutely agreed. I calmly took a seat and wiped my face with my hands.

“Well, Grant, this was a lot of scary information you’ve given me. I’m just a normal guy who thought I lived in a nice, safe bubble. I’d like to thank you and Alex for turning my life completely upside down.” I snatched the linen napkin off the table and wiped my hands and held onto it with a vice-like grip.

“My guess is Alex has changed your life for the better. She’s truly a gift and anyone who gets to be in her life is blessed. She’s going to do great things so let’s keep our girl safe.”

I agreed with him there as well, but why in the hell is he so vested in her?

***

ALEX

I called Darius on the way to make sure he was ready for his first day. He sounded so excited. I was taking him to King Construction to fill out his paperwork. We got to the house, and I went to the back door as usual. Darius answered in a grey suit that may have been just a bit to big but he paired it with a white button down shirt and a blue tie. He was also wearing some very clean white Nikes. He greeted me and stepped out of the way for Shay and I to enter. I said hi to Ella and she gave me a big hug and a thank you for giving her grandson an opportunity. I introduced Ella to Shay before leaving for the office.

Back in the car, I said, “Darius, I know you already met Shay at the office, but I wanted to let you know that she will be working closely with me on this project.” I glanced back through the rear-view mirror. He was nodding and taking notes.

“So, you’ve spoken to Amelia, correct?”

He continued nodding. “Yes, she’s nice. She told me to come to the office and she’d have the paperwork for me to fill out.” I smiled.

He had such an eager and excited look on his face, mixed with nervousness.

“Perfect, we’re going to take care of that first. Then we’ll head over and look at this neighborhood and a couple of houses there.”

I pulled into the parking garage right next to Roman’s car setting off straight to his office in the private elevator. I told Darius on the way up that I would introduce him to Roman and Harrison if they were around.

He looked a little nervous, so I assured him, “There’s nothing to worry about. These two men are the nicest and smartest people you will meet in this business.”

“This is just the first real job I’ve had, and I’ve never had to dress this nice. I don’t want to mess it up.”

“Well, I think that you’ll fit in perfectly.” He smiled and turned his head to look out the window.

“Miss Alex?”

I know it’s a respect thing, but I felt like that’s what little kids call their teacher, not their colleagues .

“Alex will be fine, Darius.” I wanted him to feel like an equal with me. He had a lot to learn but I never wanted him to feel dumb or less than.

“Alex, I’m sorry for the way I treated you the first time I met you.” I had a feeling we’d be discussing this at some point.

“Let’s just move forward from there. What was happening to your neighborhood was probably an instigator of that behavior. We know each other now, so it’s a moot point.” I probably would’ve lashed out at a stranger on my grandma's porch too if they had randomly been there.

“I know, but everything you’ve done for me and my family, I just want you to know that I’m sorry and I’ll try to do better when I meet new people.” Wow, that was such a mature outlook. I’m impressed.

“Darius, you’re going to go far in life with an attitude like that. You have no idea how long it takes people to figure that out.”

He smiled and I said, “I look forward to working with you.”

We got out on the fifteenth floor, and to Amelia’s desk. She was all smiles, but she was on the phone, so we waited. She came around and gave both Shay and I a hug, and she shook Darius’s hand. “Nice to meet you Mr. Jackson.”

“You, too.” He stood eye to eye with her as he shook her hand.

“Amelia, where should we have Darius fill out his paperwork?” He was still staring at her.

“How about in the conference room? We don’t have any meetings in there today.”

“Are Roman and Harrison here?”

She grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.

“Yes, they’re both here. Roman looks like he saw a ghost or something so Harrison is in there with him, right now,” she whispered.

“Is he okay? Did something happen? He hasn’t reached out to me or anything.” I flipped my phone over to see if I’d missed a message from him. There was nothing.

“Not that I know of. He just got back from lunch.”

He was worried about something this morning. I wonder if that’s what this is.

“Well, I guess I’ll talk to him first before we have this meeting. I’ll get Darius started on his paperwork and have Shay help him if he needs it.” I took Darius and Shay into the conference room.

“Miss, I mean, Alex?” Darius’ eyes were following Amelia all the way back to her desk.

“Yes?” I rolled my lips trying not to giggle.

“Does everyone here look like her?” Oh, he’s either intimidated or in love.

“No, thankfully. We’d never get any work done around here, would we?”

He laughed nervously and shook his head.

“I was just thinking I may not be dressed up enough for work. Do all the men dress that way, too?”

“They do but you fit right in, I promise.”

I tapped on Roman’s door and Harrison opened it with a smile. “Well, speak of the devil.”

Am I the topic of conversation that’s freaking Roman out?

“Oh yeah, and what were you speaking of about said devil?” I put my hands on my hips and pursed my lips.

“My lips are sealed.” Harrison made a zipper move over his mouth.

“Harrison, I have a new member of your team in the conference room. Would you mind going in there and introducing yourself to him. He’s a little nervous and super excited.” It was the quickest way to get Harrison out of here for a minute .

“Sure. Is it Darius? I heard we were hiring the first member of the new division of training. That’s cool, I’m proud of you for doing that.” I didn’t know this was a big deal.

“Harrison, I think that’s the first time you’ve ever said anything to me that wasn’t laced with condescension.” I crossed my arms and smiled.

“What can I say, you bring out the best in me.” He tapped me on the shoulder before heading down the hall.

I closed the door behind him. Roman was sitting in his chair facing the windows.

“Hey, Roman, honey. All good?”

He turned around with a great big fake smile on his face.

“Could you say that again?”

“Say what again?”

“Honey.” I walked over and sat on his lap.

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

He shook his head and groaned, “Nothing’s wrong. I have really good news for you.” Then why are you so growly .

“Like you getting the zoning fixed for the Santoros?” A weird look crossed his face, Amelia was right. It was like he saw a ghost or something.

“Yeah, that. I just petitioned for it, and it happened. I was shocked that it was that simple.” That didn’t feel like the whole truth, but I didn’t want to get into it with him. He didn’t look comfortable talking about it.

“Okay, I didn’t mean to interrupt. What's the good news or was that it?”

“No, there's more. Do you remember me telling you if I got any of the kickback money returned to us, I would use it to help the Burrow Township people?” He was leaning his head on my shoulder with his arms wrapped around my waist. His hands were clasped together.

“Yes.”

“Well, down in Texas we got all the money back from the bad deals and I put it in an account in the name of the King/Kennedy Project. I want you to use it to relocate the residents. I don’t know exactly what you’re going to do yet, but whatever it is, I want you to use that money to do it.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Roman, how much money is it?”

“$520,000.” I stared at him in total shock. He wasn’t even reacting. This news is amazing. Why isn’t he more excited?

“Are you serious?” He nodded his head and handed me a piece of paper with all the information for the account on it.

I pushed away from him and said, “This just happened today?” He nodded but he was silent like he was totally hiding something about this from me.

“Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“No babe, everything’s fine. I was just really surprised how everything has suddenly started coming together.” He faked another smile.

Yeah, sure. Me too.

“It seems kind of magical honestly, but I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.” Another saying my mom loved using. “Anyway, Darius is here, and I sent Harrison in to introduce himself. He’s a little nervous to meet the owners of the company. I’m sure Harrison will be able to make him feel more comfortable but if you walk in there looking like this you may do the opposite,” I warned him gently. There was clearly something going on he wasn’t telling me.

“That bad, huh?” I nodded .

“Ok, give me a minute so I can return an email or two and I’ll be right in,” he muttered. I gave him a sweet kiss and he hugged me tightly. I went back out to join them in the conference room.

***

ROMAN

I was having trouble getting out of my car after all that information. How the hell was I supposed to keep that from Alex? She could hear my thoughts better than I could.

I mindlessly made my way up to the 15th floor and stepped out and stood in a daze right in front of Amelia’s desk. Amelia snapped me out of it when I heard her say, “Roman, Roman! Earth to Roman.”

“Yeah, sorry, hi.” I quickly glanced her way and swallowed the lump in my throat.

“Is everything ok?” I nodded then hurried straight to my office. Amelia came in without saying a word and dropped off some messages and my schedule for the day. I knew Alex would be here in a little bit to bring Darius to fill out paperwork, so I somehow needed to get myself together before that happened. I sat in the chair ruminating over what I heard at lunch absentmindedly running my hands through my hair.

I still had the trip to Texas tomorrow, but now that I knew what had happened down there, I didn’t see a need to go. I’ll send Amelia in my place and she and Harrison can stay down there for a few days and get a break from me and all this craziness. I think I’m going to have Alex work with me for a few days until I feel less overprotective. I don’t know how to feel normal around Grant now, though. Oh lord, tomorrow we have dinner with the Santoros— that’s going to be even more nerve wracking. I leaned back in my chair, dragging my hands through my hair and down my face.

On my way to the conference room I stopped by Amelia’s desk and said, “I’m not going to Texas tomorrow with Harrison. I’d like for you to go with him. How many days did you make the hotel reservation for?”

“Just two. Why does your hair look like that?” She looked at me with squinted eyes.

“Make it for three or four and just take a couple of days off.” I smoothed my hair down not really caring what it looked like but I still had to meet Darius. “I’m going to have Alex work with me here so it’ll be fine.” I said that more to myself than for her.

“Does Alex know this?”

“Not yet, but I’m sure she’ll be fine with it.”

She laughed as she said, “Ok, whatever you say.” I wasn’t in the mood for Amelia’s attitude.

“Amelia, I don’t want to get into anything right now, ok, so are you cool with going to Texas with Harrison tomorrow?”

“Sure, if you can handle all the phone calls here. Do you want me to have them forwarded and bring my laptop?”

“Sure, you can do that. I know I won’t answer that phone.”

“Ok, well they’re waiting for you in the conference room.”

I walked to the door and leaned on the door jamb. Everyone was laughing and carefree. I wish I could join them.

***

ALE X

As I watched from the entryway to the conference room, I witnessed Harrison making Darius feel right at home. He was smiling, excited and laughing– engaging in all kinds of communication with him. I hoped Roman’s mood didn’t change that. I wanted Darius to feel like he fit in here. Shay was great with him too.

“Darius, don’t listen to a word this guy tells you.” I put my hands on Darius’s shoulders and winked at Harrison.

“Harrison is a cool dude. I’m looking forward to learning about the money side of the business.”

I shook my head slowly at Harrison.

“Thanks Harrison, but let’s start with the basics.” I mean it’s the kids first day.

“Well, what if his basics are in the investment side?” Harrison would make a good recruiter.

“What is he investing in? Don’t you think he should have a basic knowledge of the investment first?”

Harrison laughed. “Good point, but I still think he can learn both at the same time. He’s a smart kid. I mean young man.”

Darius had a look of pride on his face that I was just overjoyed by. I hope we can keep him this interested as long as he works with us.

“Well, just don’t let too much of you rub off on him, we want him showing up to work on time.” I winked. We all started laughing as someone cleared their throat at the door. I turned around to see a faint smile on Roman’s face as he leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed.

Harrison grumbled, “Uh oh. Party’s over folks. Dad’s here.” I shoved him when I saw the look on Darius’s face. Now he looked nervous again. I shook my head at Roman and he laughed. He loosened up his stance, walked over, said hi to Shay and patted her on the shoulder as he walked around the table and reached his hand out to Darius.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Darius. Alex speaks very highly of you.” It was a little robotic for my taste, but it seemed to do the trick. The nervous look left Darius’ face when he glanced at me and quickly stood up. He held his hand out to shake Roman’s. Now that was more of what I wanted to see.

Darius seemed comfortable and eager to get out there and learn. I was eager to get out of here too, because the tension I could feel from Roman was intense. I wondered what all that was about. I knew he was heading to Texas tomorrow. Is something else happening there that he isn’t telling me?

I guess I’ll get that information when I get home. Home, to Roman’s house, now mine also, that was something exciting to focus on, not to mention weird.

I walked to Amelia’s desk to say bye.

“Hey, can you see Roman before you leave? He’s got something to talk to you about,” Amelia mentioned.

“Sure.” I walked into his office with a smile on my face.

“Hey babe, we were just heading out. Amelia said you wanted to see me.” He smiled and looked a lot better. He embraced me tightly and took a deep breath.

“Yes, I wanted to do that, first of all, and I wanted to tell you I’m not going to Texas tomorrow. I’m sending Amelia with Harrison for a few days. They can handle all of that. I also wanted to ask you if you can work remotely for the next few days, with me, here at the office while they’re away?”

I shot him a baffled look. “I can work remotely, yes, but I may need to leave the office to go look at properties. Can I have Shay here with me?” Why in the world is he being so possessive?

He said, “Yes, you can set up in the conference room, if that would work.”

“Yeah, that’ll be fine. I’ll bring Darius in too and have him do some studying. Is there anything you’d like me to start teaching him to get prepared for the training program?”

He held me close and said, “Let’s talk about this more tomorrow in the office. What time are you done with work today?”

“Probably around four.”

“Do you have any training or anything tonight?”

I shook my head. “Sunday, Monday and Friday are my days off from exercise classes.”

“Oh, I almost forgot to mention. The Santoro’s invited us to have dinner with them tomorrow night. They wanted us to come early to go over renovation ideas. They want me to do the work on their winery. I told them I didn’t know if you had a class or not, and suggested you might be able to make it for dinner.”

I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to make the renovation meeting. “I have a class from 4-5:30, but I can make it for dinner. Are we going to meet at their new house?” He nodded then kissed me with a little more force than just a “see you later.” He seemed a little protective of me at the moment. I’m sure something happened that he’s not telling me, or else now that we live together I’m getting a look at the real Roman. Is he really an overprotective control freak? Oh Lord, I hope that’s not the case, I will lose my mind.

Shay and Darius were waiting by the elevator, and I hurried over.

We rolled slowly through the neighborhood. I wondered if this was really it, or if I got the directions wrong. It was a run-down neighborhood with a lot of abandoned houses. Grant and Matt had given me the info for a couple homes to look at that were on the market. I’m going to have to find out who owns the abandoned ones .

We had $520,000 to work with, and I still had no idea what the plan was yet. This neighborhood looked worse than the one the Burrow Township residents were leaving. I was trying to figure out what the point of this was, especially when Darius looked at me like I was crazy.

“Is this the neighborhood y'all want us to move too?” I was deep in thought when I barely heard him say that. All of a sudden, I had what seemed like a miracle idea.

I blurted out excitedly, “Yes, this is exactly where I want you all to move.” Both he and Shay gave me the biggest “YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME” expression. I started laughing and hugged them both out there on the side of the road in front of the ugliest piece of shit house you’ve ever seen.