by Mary Stone
She wrinkled her nose at him. He’d been so sexy, defending her honor like that. For a man normally so quiet and nonconfrontational, it had kind of turned her on. She was glad Linc was such a force and could hold his own in a fight and take care of her, but she wasn’t sure that was why her father had agreed to meet with them. “Yes, you can be scary when you want to be. I know I wouldn’t mess with you.”
“You’re the only one I’d let mess with me.” He gave her a heart-melting grin.
She smiled back. “But truthfully, Linc? He seemed genuinely terrified, and switching the time and location for our meeting…?” She shook her head. “He’s very worried about something. Someone. Not you.”
He took a huge bite of his pretzel. “The mafia.” He let out a big breath of air. “So, that’s your dad, huh?”
She licked a rock of salt off her finger and winced. “Don’t remind me.”
Not that she needed reminding. For the past few days, he’d been at the center of her mind. She could barely blink without thinking of him.
“You know. I’d barely know you two are related if I saw you on the street. He doesn’t look anything like you.”
Her mouth twisted. “Good.”
Sensing her frustration, Linc put a hand on her knee, and started to run his fingers in slow, calming circles over her skin. It helped a little. Just a little.
Kylie straightened as a rollerblader zoomed by, narrowly missing their toes. “You really think that they could’ve forced him into a marriage with someone else? For what reason?”
Linc shrugged, ripped off a piece of the pretzel, and popped it in his mouth. “Who knows? With them, it’s all about securing power. Business deals that make them stronger. Maybe his marriage was a business deal. We’ll find out when he gets here.”
“If he gets here,” she corrected, checking her phone. “It’s been forty-five minutes already.”
“Well. Give him some time.”
“Yeah. I read something somewhere that city-time runs differently than time everywhere else. If you’re fifteen minutes late in the city, that’s actually early. Thirty minutes late is considered to be on time,” she said.
He let out a short laugh. “That’s warped. You’d fit right in here.”
She shrugged. It was no secret that no matter how hard she tried, she was perpetually late for just about everything.
He stretched out on the bench, looking up and down at the people passing back and forth. “God, I hate the city.”
That was a big way in which she and Linc differed. He wanted quiet. The fewer people, the better. Where she’d always loved hectic and busy, he wanted relaxed and laid-back. Even though they were here on such unpleasant business, she found the movement on the streets energizing.
She elbowed him. “What’s wrong with this? It’s kind of cool. If it weren’t for my dad living here, I might like it. Doesn’t it exhilarate you?”
He rubbed his temple. “It’s giving me a headache.” He leaned forward and studied her closely. “You really like this? All this noise and chaos?”
“Yes. I mean, I don’t notice the noise and chaos. There’s just always something going on. It’s thrilling.”
He leaned back and looked around. From the expression on his face, he wasn’t thrilled. More like annoyed. He jutted his chin in the direction of the path. “Look. There he is.”
Kylie looked past her boyfriend’s broad frame and saw him, the only man in a suit who was striding with purpose toward them, looking around as if he was afraid of being spotted. He looked so conspicuous in his nervousness, Kylie was surprised he didn’t have on a trench coat and dark sunglasses.
“Is it me or does he look like he’s going to poop his pants?”
“I guess the mafia does that to a person,” Linc said as the man approached.
He held out a hand to shake Linc’s, but Linc just stared at it, so he pulled it back and ran it through his hair. God, what an oily weasel, Kylie thought. Did he really think that just by meeting them there, she’d like him? If he did, he had another think coming.
“Look,” William said, looking around carefully, his eyes narrowed. He motioned them up. “Let’s walk.”
They got to their feet and followed him, walking toward the fountain. He held out his hands, balled into fists in front of him, shaking them to make a point. “Kylie, you have to believe that I never wanted to hurt you two.”
She almost laughed. “Doesn’t matter if you didn’t want to. You did. Badly. Not so much me, because I never knew you. But I can only imagine how my mother must’ve felt as a new mother, having her husband just disappear like that, without a word. That was an awful thing to do.”
He nodded and looked at his shiny leather shoes. “Yes. I understand. But I had to.”
“But why?”
“Did your mother tell you I took that job in Manhattan for the two of you? I wanted to give you the best life I possibly could, and all the things I wanted for you, I couldn’t give you as a garbage man.”
“Yes, she told me that. So…what? Did you get involved with the wrong people?”
He looked around again. “Yeah. You could say that.”
“If you loved my mother so much, why didn’t you get out of it?”
“Because once you’re in with these people,” Linc said, “there’s only one way out.”
Every movie Kylie’d ever watched about the mafia flashed before her eyes, and she felt a little sick to her stomach.
“I wanted to,” William said, “but I was stuck. My boss, Jackie DeRoss took me in and gave me that life I was thirsting for. He taught me what he knew about the business, until I was indebted to him. He told me that he’d make me one of the most powerful people in the city, if he could trust me. I vowed he could, that I would do anything to protect the family. Then one night, his daughter saw me, and decided she wanted me. And it was made clear to me that what Christina wanted, she got. I had to go along with it, or they’d kill me.”
“They told you to leave your wife and kid,” Kylie mumbled, more to herself than to him.
He shook his head. “No. They didn’t know I was married. They didn’t care. You don’t understand who these people are. If they want something, they get it. And they wanted me. If I told them I was married, they wouldn’t have waited for a divorce. They’d have probably found a way to remedy that situation pretty fast.”
Kylie’s blood ran cold. “You mean, they would’ve killed us.”
“Right. So, I did the only thing I could think to do. I put distance between us, and when I was afraid that wasn’t going to be enough and Rhonda would come looking for me, I bought her that house and mailed her a check, hoping she’d get the hell out of town before it was too late.”
“She did. But she always wondered about what happened to you. She never looked for a divorce because she always held out hope you’d come back to her. She loved you so much,” Kylie said. “And you just threw her away.”
He nodded. “I did it to keep her safe. To keep you both safe. These people aren’t ones to show mercy. Christina’s father is the kingpin. He’s been in jail for murder since 2007, but the rest of the family is very powerful and have been carrying out his wishes just as if he was on the streets right now. It’s not safe here.”
Kylie ventured a look at Linc. She might have liked the city, but she suddenly felt cold, despite the beauty of the fall leaves all around them. She wanted to go home.
“You know that your second marriage isn’t legal. Right? Your marriage to Christina DeRoss isn’t even real.”
He nodded. “I think they may have found that out. It’s only a matter of time before they act on that information. But Christina’s not as cautious as they are. If she finds out, she’ll kill us all.”
Kylie pressed her hands to her stomach. “Then you’re not safe, either.”
“Yeah, but I made this bed. If I get hurt, so be it. It’s my own fault. But if something happens to you or your mother, I’ll never forgive myself.”
He clasped his hands in front of himself and started to wring them. She’d never known those hands when he was young, but they looked old now, weak. “Tell me. Does Rhonda know you’re here?”
Kylie shook her head. “She knew I was tracking you down, but she wanted nothing to do with what I found out. She’s moved on. It took her a long time, but she realizes she’s better off without you.”
His frown deepened. “I’m sorry, Kylie. But you really do need to go before they find out who you are. If they do, they’ll kill you, and your mother.”
Kylie gnawed on her lip as Linc said, “That’s why we’re here. We think someone’s already trying to, and we need to get to the bottom of it. Until we do, Kylie’s not safe anywhere.”
William stiffened and stopped walking. His eyes narrowed in confusion. “What?”
“Someone took a shot at me last night, outside my apartment in Asheville,” Kylie explained. “And someone tried to run down Mom yesterday afternoon.”
He pulled nervously on the lapels of his suit jacket, then fumbled with his words, alarmed. “Did you see who did these things?”
Kylie shook her head. “Whoever it was, it seems too odd to be a coincidence. Is it possible someone could’ve followed me home after I left your office?”
“Oh, dear,” he said, covering his face with his hands and breathing hard. “It’s more than possible. Oh, hell. I didn’t expect that they would attempt to take care of this so quickly.”
He walked to a bench and sat down, murmuring to himself as Kylie silently raised her eyebrows at Linc. He gave her a grave look in return.
“If that’s the case, if they really followed you down there,” he said softly. “Then you might want to check on your mother. She could be in very serious danger.”
24
Kylie pushed on the cab driver’s headrest and let out a string of curses she’d been keeping in, ever since she left her father. “Can’t this piece of shit go any faster?” she muttered, ignoring the cab driver’s eye daggers shooting at her through the rearview mirror.
Linc tightened a hand around her upper arm. “Relax.”
They were in a wall-to-wall evening rush-hour traffic jam heading into Jersey, trying to get to Newark International Airport. Forgotten was the idea of a nice night of dinner in the city, with a stay at a fine hotel in the heart of Manhattan. Now, she just wanted to get back to Asheville and check on her mother.
Also, people? She hated people. She hated the city. Right now, she was totally on board with Linc about that. Why were all these people trying to leave the city at the same time?
Linc spoke in soothing, low tones. “Hey. Look. We can only get home as fast as the plane will take us. And our flight’s not until seven.”
She knew that. Still, she bit on the inside of her cheek, impatient. She felt like she had to do something. “I don’t know. Maybe we can get a sooner flight, if we just get there. Has Jacob called you back yet?”
She already knew the answer to that too. No. Linc had called to give him the heads-up of their meeting with William Hatfield, and Jacob had told him that someone was already on the case, outside her mother’s house, watching. He said he’d check in and make sure everything was okay. But that was only five minutes ago, and Linc’s phone had been sitting on his lap since then. It hadn’t rung or buzzed or flashed with activity since.
“No,” he said, checking the screen to appease her. “Don’t worry. He will.”
She had no doubt Jacob would take care of things down there, because that was just who he was, but nothing was going fast enough for her. She picked up her phone and dialed her mother’s cell again. No answer. She let out a big breath of air, and stray tendrils of hair puffed out over her forehead. “I bet she forgot her phone again, wherever she is.”
“Maybe she’s with that guy. The doctor boyfriend,” Linc pointed out. “Do you have his number?”
She was already scrolling through her call history before he’d finished the question. Clicking the call button, after a moment, her heart sank. “Voicemail.”
Maybe they were in bed together. Even though a part of her still cringed at the idea, the bigger part of her hoped it was true. Hoped that her mother was busy with the good doctor and would be the rest of the night.
She was still a little weirded out at the thought of her mother dating, but it was a lot cheerier than the grisly game of what-if she’d been playing in her head. What if she’d been kidnapped? What if the gunman shot her in her living room. What if…?
“I just wish she’d answer. I called her cell and her landline. Damn!” She brought her hand down hard on her knee, and the resulting slap was unintentionally painful. She rubbed it.
“It’ll be okay,” Linc said to her.
She nodded and looked out the window, at the New York City skyline, mostly blocked from view by a maze of highway ramps, smog, and giant trucks, all fighting for purchase as the highway narrowed from six lanes to two. What absolute madness. She didn’t hate the city like Linc did, but right now, she just wanted to get the hell away.
“Thanks for coming here for me,” she said quietly, leaning against his arm, which he’d draped around her. “I know you hate the city, but it’s a lot nicer with you here.”
“No problem.” He sat up and looked behind him in the stopped traffic. His body was tenser than usual. Was he looking to see if someone was following them?
“Do you really think that there’s someone after me?” she asked him after a minute.
“I don’t know, but I’m not letting you out of my sight. You got that? Until we know what we’re up against, you go where I go. Got it?”
She pressed her lips together. Ordinarily, she hated it when he tried to tell her what to do, but this time, she had to agree it was warranted. And it made her feel safer, even though she doubted Linc would be much of a match for a professional hit man. “Okay.”
“Good. Maybe your mother should come up to my house. To stay for a couple of days. It’ll be safer there.”
Kylie snorted. “Um. It’d be easier to move the mountain to my mother than get my mother to move to the mountain. She’s more stubborn than I am. She won’t budge.”
He rubbed his chin. “Yeah? If you told her what was happening and tried to convince—”
He stopped when Kylie gave him a doubtful shake of the head. “Even then. She won’t go. Trust me.”
“Damn you Hatfield women. Well, at least Jacob’ll have someone stay at her house twenty-four-seven.”
That news didn’t make Kylie feel much better. She’d been under twenty-four-seven police surveillance once, when a serial killer was on her tail, and the killer had still managed to knock her out and drag her out of the apartment. And that was while there were a lot of college students around. In her mother’s quiet neighborhood? It’d be simple.
Before she could respond, Linc’s phone buzzed. He lifted it. “Hey, Jacob.”
She listened, trying to hear what Jacob was saying on the other end, but could only make out a few words here and there. Linc simply said, “uh-huh,” a few times, then said, “Okay, thanks for the update. I’ll call you when we land.”
“So?” Kylie nearly jumped down his throat, even before he could press the “end call” button.
“He’s gotten in touch with her. She’s at home. The officer there says she’s all right. Everything looks normal.”
Kylie’s brow furrowed. “Wait. If she’s home, why didn’t she answer her phone? She had to have heard the landline.”
“Yeah, um. It appears,” he gave her a look like he wasn’t sure how she’d take this information, “she’s in her living room with a gentleman. They’re talking and laughing, and it seems like they’re having a good time.”
Kylie stared at him, trying to take this information in. A man? In her mother’s house? “You mean that doctor? Doctor Jerry?”
Linc shrugged. “Probably. That’s good, right? I know I’m relieved she’s okay.”
Kylie nodded slowly, tryin
g to imagine her mother entertaining a male guest. A male guest who was interested in her mother. She imagined them sitting on the flowered sofa in the living room, surrounded by all her mother’s knickknacks and photographs of Kylie.
She tried to envision her mother offering him tea and her famous key lime pie, like she did to Linc, but for some reason, it didn’t compute. It was such a foreign thought, she couldn’t even picture it. “Yes,” she said absently.
An hour later, they arrived at the airport, and even after all that time, Kylie hadn’t been able to shake the weird thoughts and feelings she was having regarding her mother. She should’ve been happy that she was safe, but instead, she kept thinking of her mom, being wooed by this strange man.
A strange man who came out of nowhere?
Was he involved in all this?
Kylie shook her head. The PI business was making her paranoid.
What if they kept dating? She couldn’t marry him. She was already married. But what if they started living together? How would it feel to come to the home she grew up in to see this strange man living there? Or what if she moved in with him and sold the house she grew up in? What if other people lived in her house?
A stab of pain hit her square in the chest.
“Are you okay?” Linc asked her as she slid out of the cab.
She realized she was clenching her teeth and willed herself to stop. Her mother was laughing. Happy. That was all that mattered, right?
A second later, though, she found herself clenching her teeth again. She needed to get a grip, she told herself. Her mother finding a boyfriend wasn’t the end of the world.
It only felt like it.
“You’re very kind. I probably could’ve made it on my own,” Rhonda said as she patted Dr. Jerry on the hand. They sat across the dining table from one another, enjoying a nice meal. “But it wouldn’t have been very pretty.”
He laughed. “Anything I can do to help.”
The truth was, that was a lie. She wouldn’t have even bothered to make the trip on her own, since she was bruised and feeling rather achy all over when she woke up. The Vicodin had also made her woozy, so she’d planned a day of taking it easy on the couch.
