“What’s this about?” he asked them, but they weren’t answering any of his questions.
Alex grabbed one arm, Oz grabbed the other arm, and with Harold Rivven begging them to release him and tell him what’s going on, they took him to his twenty-second floor window on the side of the desk, Alex opened the window, and then both men grabbed Harold and pushed his upper body out of the window. They held him by the catch of his ankles.
Harold felt he was going to have a heart attack.
“What does Paddy Jupe want?” Alex asked him.
“Paddy Jupe?”
“You’re one sneeze away from becoming roadkill, Pal,” Oz said, “and you still want to play dumb? Let’s drop his ass for that reason alone, brother,” he added.
“No!” Harold cried. “Please. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Just let me up. Just let me live!”
Oz looked at Alex. “That was easy,” he said. And they let Harold back up and back into his office.
He fell against his desk. His legs were still wobbly and his heart was still pounding.
“Tell us what you know,” Alex said.
“He’s helping us.”
“Helping who?” Oz asked.
“Me and some other Florida businessmen. He’s helping us get some of that land you own,” he said to Alex.
“How does he plan to accomplish that?”
“By creating problems for you. He said if he rocks the boat enough, you’ll beg him to stop.”
Oz frowned. “Why in the world would he do that?”
“Mainly because you want that ambassadorship and it won’t happen if you get too much negative publicity,” Harold said to Alex. “But also because you don’t want any bad publicity for your new hotel and casino.”
“So, he’ll just give valuable land to you guys if the heat gets too hot?”
“That’s what Paddy told us, yes,” said Harold.
“And your asses believed him?” Oz asked.
Harold stared at Oz. “Yes, we believed him,” he said.
Oz laughed. “I got some swamp land in Missouri I’ll let you have really cheap.”
“We just want our fair share,” Harold said. “Your brother took it all before we had a chance to even bid on any of it. That’s not fair.”
“So you decide to destroy my brother instead,” Oz said. “But that’s fair?”
“When does he arrive?” Alex asked.
Harold looked at him. “Arrive? What do you mean?”
Alex hurried to him and grabbed him by his collar. “Stop fucking with me. When does Paddy arrive?”
Harold stared into Alex’s eyes. “In a couple of hours,” he said.
Alex released him.
“What are you gonna do?” Harold asked. “Come back after he gets here? I can call you and we all can have a talk.”
Oz grinned. These southern fools, he thought.
But Alex said nothing. He walked around the desk, and sat down.
Two hours later, Harold heard the elevator beep, the doors open, and then, as he had been doing every night since they entered into their great adventure, Paddy Jupe walked into his office. Harold, seemingly alone in the office, nervously stood up when he saw him.
“What’s up, Hare?” Paddy asked him. “That girl we paid to get Drakos’s step-kid to beat up that boy, said that boy’s parents already got a lawyer and are planning a lawsuit. Just that fast. Which is exactly what we wanted.”
It was only then, as Paddy made it all the way up to the front of Harold’s desk, did he see that terrified look on Harold’s face. “What’s the matter with you? That’s good news!”
Harold was so scared, he couldn’t even speak.
“What?”
Harold began moving his eyes sideways, as if to warn Paddy Jupe. And it was only then did Paddy Jupe realize there was any danger. He pulled out his gun. “What have you done?” he asked him.
“Me? Nothing. It wasn’t me!”
But just as the door behind Harold’s desk, the door that led to the bathroom, was opened and Alex and Oz walked out, Paddy shot Harold through the head. He was a witness to Paddy’s crimes, and Paddy didn’t leave witnesses.
But he never expected to see Alex and Oz either. And they had their weapons drawn too.
Paddy grabbed the desk and knocked it toward Alex and Oz as they ran toward Harold. Oz got a shot off, but Paddy took off out of the office.
Alex got a shot off, too, but Paddy was too swift.
It was obvious that Harold died instantly; the hole in his forehead and his eyes wide open proved that. And that was why they hurried past Harold and ran out of that office, too.
Paddy was running down the twenty-two flights of stairs, and Alex and Oz were on his tail. He shot at them repeatedly as he ran, and they took cover, and then shot at him repeatedly too. But the angles were too narrow and uneven for either side to connect.
But although Paddy was running as fast as he could down those stairs, Alex and Oz were running faster. Especially Oz, who was poised to overtake him by the time they were on the fifteenth floor.
And it happened. Oz jumped down several stairs and jumped onto Paddy’s back. Paddy’s gun dislodged and skidded down the stairs that led to the fourteenth floor, and Oz grabbed him up in time for Alex to run down and take over.
Alex slammed Paddy against the window on the landing, and held him by the catch of his collar. “If I kick your ass, will that be bad for business too?” Alex asked him.
“You stole my company!” Paddy cried. “You destroyed my life! And I was going to destroy you! I was going to make you pay for what you did to me! I was going to make you pay!”
“Now the only asshole paying is going to be you,” Alex said.
“That’s what you think,” Paddy said. “But you’re the loser. You’re the bastard.”
“Sticks and stones,” Oz said. “Blah, blah, blah.”
But Paddy was a thug from way back. He didn’t play fair. He pulled out another gun he had on his person. He pulled it out with his left hand in his left pocket. And he was about to place it to Alex’s head and fire, but Alex saw it before he could get it all the way up.
Alex ducked as the gun fired, surprising Oz, and then Alex grabbed Paddy’s left hand and the struggle ensued.
Oz went to help secure that weapon, but Alex had it well in hand. And before Oz could do anything, Alex had knocked that gun out of Paddy’s hand and his rage took over.
“You targeted my wife,” Alex said. “Why did you target her?”
“Why do you think? I’m gonna kill that bitch! I won’t rest until you suffer like I suffered, and that bitch dies!”
Alex picked Paddy up and with all the force of strength he had, he threw Paddy out of that fifteenth floor window like he was throwing out trash. The glass shattered with the impact of Paddy’s body ramming into it, and Paddy, screaming, went flying out of that window and into the black night.
Oz hurried to the window and looked over. Paddy Jupe took a long time to fall, but when he fell, he splattered.
Oz couldn’t feel sorry for a man who tried to kill them. He couldn’t feel sorry for a man who vowed to kill Kari. He got what he deserved.
Alex was breathing heavily. He hated losing control like that, and he had lost total control. But he thought about what Paddy was up to, and how he would use Alex’s wife and son to get what he wanted. No matter the cost to either of them. And how he vowed to kill Kari.
Alex wasn’t going to let that stand.
He could barely regulate his breathing, let alone his rage.
Later that night, after Oz had driven Alex to the airfield on the outskirts of Apple Valley so that he could hop his plane and finally get on his way to New York, and Alex was on his plane and on his way, Alex gave Kari a call.
She wasn’t asleep, and he wasn’t surprise. “I didn’t play the hero,” he said.
He could only imagine Kari smiling. “Good,” she said. “And Oz is okay too?”
�
��He had to make a stop.” That stop was to the safe house where Oscar Milner was holed up. Although he was still recovering from his surgical castration, it was time to let him go free. But Oz had to remind him of what was going to happen if he so much as mentioned the Drakos name.
“He’ll be on his way back to the hotel shortly,” he added. Oz lived in a luxurious suite just below the penthouse. “But he’s good. He’s okay.”
There was a pause. Then Kari said: “And Paddy Jupe?”
“Dead,” Alex said bluntly. He didn’t pause at all. “The threat is over.”
He could hear Kari sigh relief. “Did he say why he did it?”
“To destroy me because, in his view, I destroyed him.”
“It’s always about revenge in the end, isn’t it?” Kari said.
“Always,” said Alex, and then he exhaled. “But I don’t want you worrying about that. Get some sleep, and I’ll call you in the morning.”
They said their goodnights, and Alex ended the call.
But even though he should have felt good that the threat had been neutralized, he didn’t feel good at all.
Not at all.
He even called Oz, and told him to make sure security remained tight around Kari and Jordan.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A day later and Kari decided, before heading for drinks with the girls, to make a quick stop at Maids for Mom, her tiny storefront business in downtown Apple Valley. She parked her Rolls at the curb in front of the office, stepped out with her keys and her phone, and made her way across the sidewalk. She knew Alex told her to stay out of Dezzamaine’s business, and she planned to: she wasn’t going to even ask about that fool Hector. But Dez ran Kari’s real business, the only one she’d ever owned, and she was going to check on that.
But, if she’d be honest, she knew she was mainly checking on her friend Dez.
It was Tuesday afternoon and Kari wasn’t sure if Dez had already gone to lunch herself, but as soon as she pulled open the office door and saw Dez behind the desk, working feverishly the way she always had, she smiled. Not because she was working hard, but because she looked like her old self again. It had been over a week since the attack. Those bruises from that beatdown Hector had put on her were either completely healed, or well-masked by her heavy makeup.
She smiled when she saw Kari, which was a relief to Kari. She wasn’t sure, after what happened last week, how Dez was going to react. “Well hello there, Boss,” Dez said. “What brings you downtown? The Drakos not keeping you business enough?”
“I wish,” Kari said as she made her way to the desk. “I’m having lunch with Lou and Faye. You’re looking good,” she added, as she stood in front of the desk.
“I feel good,” Dez said. “And guess what?”
“What?”
“Every single maid showed up for work today.”
Kari was surprised. “Everybody?”
“Everybody, girl. It’s the first time since you left and put me in charge has everybody shown up for work and I didn’t have to double up the workload,” Dez said. “I think, at first, some of the ladies thought they were going to hop on over to The Drakos, get jobs over there, and bump Maids for Mom. That was their plan, I think, until you made it clear that they had to compete for those jobs just like everybody else. They got a little more serious about holding on to this job then.”
“Good,” Kari said and sat down in the chair in front of the desk. “But how’s the quality of their work? Have we had many complaints?”
“No. Not at all. Except the usual suspects. Mr. Denning over at The Raspberry Inn and Miss Clover over at her place. They always got something to complain about. But everybody else? They’re happy. They say the ladies are doing excellent work.”
“And so are you, Dez,” Kari said. “I want you to know how much I appreciate you too. You’ve kept my business going with no drop off at all after I left to go and work for Alex, and I appreciate that.”
“After you went to work for Alex?” Dez said with a smile. “You know good-and-well you don’t work for Mr. Drakos. You work with Mr. Drakos.”
Kari laughed. “That’s what you think,” she said. “I am his Director of Housekeeping with the largest group of maids in West Florida and he expects me to be on point and on the job every day I’m supposed to be on that job. Alex doesn’t play when it comes to his business, I’m telling you. That man is all about the business, you hear me? I might be married to him, and he might love me and all that, but he still expects me to do what I’m supposed to do. I don’t work with Mr. Drakos. No ma’am. I work for Mr. Drakos, okay?”
Dez laughed. “I hear you, Miss G. I wish I had a man like --,” she started saying, and then caught herself.
But Kari heard what she started to say. She started to say that she wished she had a man like Alex too. “You okay?” she asked her.
“I’m good.”
“But how are you really, Dez? You were in a bad state when I saw you Saturday.”
“I’m good. For real.”
When Kari continued to stare at her as if she wasn’t wholly convinced, Dez smiled. “For real, Miss G,” she said. “Hector apologized, and since he was beat up almost as bad as I was, the district attorney’s office said they weren’t pressing charges.”
“They didn’t press charges?” Kari was surprised to hear that.
“No, they didn’t. You beat him up pretty bad, Miss G.”
“Where’s he now?” Kari asked.
“He needed some time away, he said. So he left. But when he’s ready to come back, I’m going to take him back. I miss him already.”
“For now,” Kari said. “But when you get in his face again, or give him too much lip again, what then, Dez? If you let him come back, you’ll be giving him permission to beat the crap out of you every time you do those things. You’ve made abusing you okay with you.”
“Can we just . . . ” Dez was getting emotional, and Kari could see it. “Can we not talk about that?” she asked. “Me and Hector are okay, and I just don’t want to be looking back like that. I’m moving on. And I know I look weak in your eyes and whatever, and I’m sorry I do. But I love Hector. I know a side of him you’ve never seen. You can bash him all you want, but I’m not leaving him. He needs me and I need him. That’s the bottom line.”
Kari exhaled. “Okay, Boss,” she said and rose to her feet.
Dez smiled. “I didn’t mean it like that!”
“I know you didn’t,” Kari said. “And I sure hope you know what you’re doing with that guy, I really do. But don’t expect me to run to your rescue the next time,” she added, and they both laughed.
Kari turned serious again. “Just be careful, Dez. Sometimes people change, but a lot of times they don’t. Always remember that.”
Dez nodded, but it was obvious to Kari she wasn’t trying to hear that. So Kari thanked her again for the good work she was doing, and walked on out. She did her bit. If Dez refused to listen, or even to think through what she was doing, there was nothing Kari could do about it.
On that, Alex was so right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“What’s your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem.”
“Spoken like a woman with too many to mention.”
Kari rolled her eyes at Lucinda and Faye laughed. Then Lucinda and Kari laughed too.
They were at Wenna’s, a small restaurant near the mall, having lunch and attempting to catch up since the last time they saw each other. It used to be two or three times a week. In the case of Kari and Lucinda, since Lucinda owned the diner next to Kari’s old office, sometimes daily. But ever since her marriage to Alex, and ever since The Drakos’s grand opening, Kari barely had time for a phone chat. And even now, she seemed distracted.
“For real, though,” Kari said, “I don’t have a problem. I’m good.”
“Then why do you look as if you would rather be anywhere but here?” Lucinda asked.
“She’s not lyi
ng, Kare,” said Faye.
“I’m okay.”
“How’s married life?” Faye asked her. “Maybe that’s what Lou’s trying to say.”
“It’s great.”
“Really?” Faye asked with doubt in her voice.
Kari looked at her. “Yes, it’s great. You don’t believe me?”
“I’ve been married far longer than you have,” Faye said. “Maybe that’s the difference.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Kari said. Faye and her husband Benny had their share of issues, but Kari had thought they were on the mend.
“Benny told me about Jordan,” Faye said. “I can’t even imagine that good kid fighting. And he started the fight? I couldn’t believe it.”
“Neither could I,” said Lucinda. “When Benny told me I thought he was joking.”
“He wasn’t,” Kari said.
“But why would Jordan do something like that?” Faye asked her.
“To impress some it girl,” Kari said. “I wanted to pop him upside his head,” she added, and they laughed.
“What did you do to him?” Lucinda asked.
“Alex grounded him. For a full month.”
“A full month?” Lucinda asked. “That’s wholly unrealistic. Jordan will be free within a week. Oz will see to that.”
“Wanna bet?” Faye asked. “Jordan is going to serve every single minute of those thirty days. Are you kidding me? Alex don’t play like that.”
“You have a point there, Faye-Faye. You may be right,” Lucinda said.
“She is right,” Kari said, and then laughed.
But then that faraway look reappeared on Kari’s face. But before they could call her out on it again, she decided she might as well put herself (and them) out of her misery. “I’m going to have to take a raincheck on lunch, guys,” she said.
“Ah, Kari, why?” Faye asked. “We rarely to get to see you as it is.”
“I know, but I’m just not with it today.”
“Because of what happened with Jordan? Benny said Alex’s lawyers are in talks with that boy’s lawyers already.”
Alex Drakos: For My Lover Page 15
