by Nora Roberts
sitting at this table for decoration. You'll stand up. Quinn men don't fall for a woman unless she's got a spine."
She kept her eyes on his. "Is that a compliment?"
He grinned at her. "That was two compliments."
She eased back, nodded. "All right. So you handle it your way. The Quinn way," she added. "But I think it might be helpful to find out if, considering her lifestyle and habits, she has any outstanding warrants. A call to my grandfather ought to get us that information before tomorrow night. It wouldn't hurt for her to realize we play hard, too."
"I like her," Cam said to Seth.
"Me too." But Seth took Dru's hand. "I don't want to drag your family into this."
"Not wanting to drag yours into it or me into it is why we're sitting here at four in the morning." She took the platter of eggs Aubrey passed, scooped some onto her plate. "Your bright idea was to get drunk and dump me. How'd that work out for you?"
He took the platter, tried a smile. "Better than expected."
"No thanks to you. I wouldn't advise you going down that path again. Pass the salt."
While his family looked on, he reached over, took her face in his hands and kissed her. Hard and long. "Dru," he said. "I love you."
"Good. I love you, too." She took his wrist, squeezed lightly. "Now pass the salt."
HE DIDN'T THINK he would sleep, but he dropped off like a stone for four hours. When he woke in his old room, disoriented and soft-brained, his first clear thought was that she wasn't beside him.
He stumbled out of the room and downstairs to find Cam alone in the kitchen. "Where's Dru?"
"She went into work, about an hour ago. Borrowed your car."
"She went in? Jesus." Seth rubbed his hands over his face, tried to get his brain to engage after too much whiskey, too much coffee, too little sleep. "Why didn't she just close for the day? She couldn't have gotten very much sleep."
"She looked like she handled it a lot better than you did, pal."
"Yeah, well, she didn't down half a bottle of Jameson first."
"You play, you pay."
"Yeah." He opened a cupboard to search for the kitchen aspirin. "Tell me."
Cam poured a glass of water, handed it to Seth. "Down those, then let's take a walk."
"I need to clean up, get into town. Maybe I can give Dru a hand in the shop. Something."
"She'll hold for a few minutes." Cam opened the kitchen door. "Let's take it outside."
"If you're planning on kicking my ass, it won't take much this morning."
"Thought about it. But I think it's been kicked enough for now."
"Look, I know I fucked up—"
"Just shut up." Cam gave Seth a shove out the door. "I've got some things to say."
He headed for the dock, as Seth had expected. The sun was strong and hot. It was barely nine in the morning, and already the air had a mean, threatening weight that promised to gain more muscle before it was done.
"You pissed me off," Cam began. "I'm mostly over it. But I want something made clear—and I'm speaking for Ethan and Phil. Get that?"
"Yeah, I get it."
"We didn't give up a goddamn thing for you. Shut up, Seth." he snapped out when Seth opened his mouth. "Just shut the hell up and listen." He let out a breath. "Ha. Looks like I'm still pissed off after all. Grace has some points, and I'm not going to argue about them. But none of us gave up jack."
"You wanted to race—"
"And I raced," Cam snapped out. "I told you to shut up. Now shut the fuck up until I'm done. You were ten years old, and we did what we were supposed to do. Nobody wants a fucking obligation from you, nobody wants payment from you, and it's a goddamn insult for you to think otherwise."
"It's not like that."
Cam stepped closer. "Do you want me to tie your tongue in a knot or are you going to shut up?"
Because he felt ten again, Seth shrugged.
"Things changed for you the way they were supposed to change. Things changed for us, too. Ever stop to think that if I hadn't been stuck with some smart-assed, skinny, pain-in-the-ass kid I might not have met Anna? I might have had to live my whole life without her—and without Kevin and Jake. Phil and Sybill, same deal. They found each other because you were in the middle. I figure Ethan and Grace might be getting around to dating just about now, almost twenty years after the fact, if you being part of things hadn't nudged them along."
He waited a beat. "So, how much do we owe you for our wives and children? For pulling us back home, for giving us a reason to start the business?"
"I'm sorry."
Pure frustration had Cam dragging at his own hair. "I don't want you to be sorry, for sweet Christ's sake! I want you to wake up."
"I'm awake. I don't feel much like George Bailey, but I'm awake. It's a Wonderful Life," Seth added. "Grandma—Stella told me I ought to think about it."
"Yeah. She loved old movies. I should've figured if anybody could put a chip in that rock head of yours, it would be Mom."
"I guess I didn't listen to her either. I think she's pissed off at me, too. I should've told you right along."
"You didn't, and that's done. So we start with now. We'll deal with her tonight."
"I'm looking forward to it." Seth turned with a slow smile. "I never thought I'd say it, but I'm looking forward to meeting her tonight. It's been a long time coming. So… you want to kick my ass, or slap me around?"
"Get a grip on yourself. Just wanted to clear the air." Cam slung a friendly arm around Seth's shoulder. Then shoved him into the water. "I don't know why," Cam said when Seth surfaced, "but doing that always makes me feel better."
"Glad I could help," Seth sputtered and let himself sink.
"YOU'RE STAYING HERE. That's the end of it."
"And when did we come to the point where you dictate where I go and what I do? Play it back for me, I must have missed it the first time around."
"I'm not going to argue about this."
"Oh yes," Dru said, almost sweetly, "you are."
"She's not getting near you again. That's number one. The place I'm meeting her is a dive, and you don't belong there. That's two."
"Oh, I see. Now you decide where I belong. That's a tune I've been hearing all my life. I don't care for it."
"Dru." Seth paused, then paced to the back door of the family kitchen, back again. "This is hard enough without me going in there worrying about some asshole hassling you. The place is one step up from a pit."
"I don't know why you think I can't handle assholes. I've been handling you, haven't I?"
"That's real funny, and I'll bust into hilarity over it later. I want this done and over. I want it behind me. Behind us. Please." He changed tacks, laid his hand gently on her shoulder. "Stay here and let me do what I have to do."
It was turmoil in his eyes now rather than temper. And she responded to it. "Well, since you ask so nicely."
His shoulders relaxed as he laid his forehead on hers. "Okay, good. Maybe you should stretch out for a little while. You didn't get much sleep last night."
"Don't push it, Seth."
"Right. I should go."
"You know who you are." She turned her head to brush her lips over his. "And so do I. She doesn't. She never could."
SHE LET HIM GO, and stood on the front porch with the other Quinn women as the two cars drove away.
Anna lowered the hand she'd lifted in a wave. "There go our strong, brave men, off to battle. And we womenfolk stay behind, tucked up safe."
"Put on the aprons," Aubrey mumbled. "Make potato salad for tomorrow's picnic."
Dru glanced around, saw the same look in her companions' eyes she knew was in her own. "I don't think so."
"So." Sybill rolled her shoulders, glanced at her watch. "How much lead time do we give them?"
"Fifteen minutes ought to be about right," Anna decided.
Grace nodded. "We'll take my van."
SETH SAT at the bar, brooding into his untouched beer. He fi
gured the dread in the pit of his stomach was natural. She'd always put it there. The venue, he supposed, was the perfect place for this showdown with her, with his early childhood, with his own ghosts and demons.
He intended to walk out of it when he was finished, and leave all of that misery behind, just another smear on the dirty air.
He needed to feel clean again, complete again. He wondered if Ray would have understood this nasty tug-of-war between fury and grief.
He liked to think so. Just as he liked to think some part of Ray was sitting beside him in the bar.
But when she walked in, there was only the two of them. The drinkers, the pool players, the bartender, even that nebulous connection with the man who'd been his grandfather faded away.
It was just Seth, and his mother.
She relaxed onto a stool, crossed her legs and sent the bartender a wink.
"You look a little rough around the edges," she said to Seth. "Tough night?"
"You look the same. You know, I've been sitting here thinking. You had a pretty good deal growing up."
"Shit." She snagged the gin and tonic the bartender put in front of her. "Lot you know about it."
"Big house, plenty of money, good education."
"Fuck that." She drank deep. "Bunch of jerks and assholes."
"You hated them."
"My mother's a cold fish, stepfather's pussy-whipped. And there's Sybill, the perfect daughter. I couldn't wait to get the hell out and live."
"I don't know about your parents. They don't have anything to do with me either. But Sybill never hurt you. She took you in, took both of us in when you landed on her doorstep, broke and with nowhere else to go."
"So she could lord it over me. Goddamn superior bitch."
"Is that why you stole from her when we were in New York? Cleaned her out and took off after she'd given you a place to stay?"
"I take what I need. That's how you get ahead in life. Had to support you, didn't I?"
"Let's not bullshit. You never gave a damn about me. The only reason you didn't take off without me, dump me on Sybill, was because you knew she cared about me. So you took me away, you stole her things because you hated her. You stole so you could buy drugs."
"Oh yeah, she'd've loved it if I'd left you behind. She could've gone around feeling righteous, telling everybody how worthless I was. Fuck her. Whatever I took out of her place, I was entitled to. Gotta look out for number one in this life. Never could teach you that."
"You taught me plenty." When Gloria rattled the ice in her glass, he signaled the bartender for another drink. "Ray didn't even know about you, but you hated him. When he found out, when he tried to help you, you only hated him more."
"He owed me. Bastard doesn't keep his dick zipped, knocks up some idiot coed, he oughta pay."
"And he paid you. He didn't know Barbara was pregnant with you, he never knew you existed. But when you told him, he paid you. And it wasn't enough. You tried to ruin him with lies. Then you used his decency against him and sold me to him like I was a puppy you were tired of."
"Fucking A I was tired of you. Kept you around for ten years, cramping my style. Old man Quinn owed me for giving him a grandson. And it all worked out pretty well for you, didn't it?"
"I guess I owe you for that one." He lifted his beer in a toast, sipped. "But it worked out pretty well for you, at least when he was alive. You just kept hitting him up for more money, using me as the bait."
"Hey, he could've tossed you back anytime. You were nothing to him, just like I was nothing."
"Yeah, some people are just stupid, weak, natural marks, believing a promise made to a ten-year-old boy needs to be kept. The same type who think that same kid deserves a shot at a decent life, a home, a family. He'd have given you the same, if you'd wanted it."
"You think I wanted to be stuck in some backwater bumfuck town, paying homage to an old man who picks up strays?" She gulped her gin. "That's your scene, not mine. And you got it, so what're you bitching about? And if you want to keep it, you'll pay. Just like you've always paid. You got the down payment?"
"How much you figure you've gotten from me over the years, Gloria? Between what you bled out of Ray, what you've been bleeding out of me? Must be a couple hundred thousand, at least. Of course, you never got anything out of my brothers. You tried—the usual lies, threats, intimidation—but they didn't bleed so easy. You do better with old men and kids."
She smirked. "They'd've paid if I'd wanted them to pay. I had better things to do. Bigger fish to fry. You wanna fry your own fish now, keep that fancy art career you've got going from getting screwed up, wanna keep sticking it to the senator's granddaughter, you pay for it."
"So you said. Let me get the terms clear. I pay you, one million dollars starting with the ten-thousand-dollar down payment tonight—"
"In cash."
"Right, in cash, or you'll go to the press, to Dru's family, and spin another web of lies about how you were used and abused by the Quinns, starting with Ray. You'll smear them and me and Dru along with it. The poor, desperate woman, girl really, struggling to raise a child on her own, begging for help only to be forced to give up the child."
"Has a nice ring. Lifetime Movie of the Week."
"No mention in there of the tricks you turned while that child was in the next room—or the men you let touch him. No mention of the drugs, the booze, the beatings."
"Bring out the violins." She leaned in, very close. "You were a pain in the ass. You're lucky I kept you around as long as I did." And lowered her voice. "You're lucky I didn't sell you to one of my johns. Some would've paid top dollar."
"You would have, sooner or later."
She shrugged. "Had to get something out of you, didn't I?"
"You've been tapping me for money since I was fourteen. I've paid you to protect my family, myself. Mostly I've paid you because the peace of mind was worth a hell of a lot more than the money. I've let you blackmail me."
"I want what's due me." She snatched the third drink. "I'm making you a deal here. One lump-sum payment and you keep your nice, boring life. Screw with me, and you'll lose it all."
"A million dollars or you'll do whatever you can to hurt my family, ruin my career and destroy my relationship with Dru."
"In a nutshell. Pay up."
He nudged his beer aside, met her eyes. "Not now, not ever again."
She grabbed his shirt in her fist, yanked his face close to hers. "You don't want to fuck with me."
"Oh yeah, I do. I have." He reached in his pocket, pulled out a mini recorder. "Everything we've said is on here. Might be a problem in court, if I decide to go to the cops."
When she grabbed for it, he cuffed her wrist with his hand. "Speaking of cops, they'll be interested to know you jumped bail down in Fort Worth. Solicitation and possession. You go public and some hard-ass skip tracer is going to be really happy to scoop you up and haul you back to Texas."
"You son of a bitch."
"Truer words," he said mildly. "But you go right ahead and try to sell your version of things. I figure anybody who wants to write a story about all this will be really interested in this informal interview."
"I want my money." She shrieked it, tossed what was left in her glass in his face.
The quartet playing pool looked over. The biggest of them tapped his cue against his palm as he sized Seth up.
She leaped off the stool, and fury had her practically in tears. "He stole my money."
The four men started forward. Seth rose from the stool.
And his brothers walked in, ranged themselves beside him.
"That seems to even things up." Cam tucked his thumbs in his front pockets and gave Gloria a fierce grimace. "Been a while."
"You bastards. You're all fucking bastards. I want what's mine."
"We've got nothing of yours." Ethan spoke quietly. "We never did."
"I take anything from her?" Seth asked the bartender.
"Nope." He continued to wipe the
bar. "You want trouble, take it outside."
Phillip scanned the faces of the four men. "You want trouble?"
The big man tapped his cue twice more. "Bob says he didn't take nothing, he didn't take nothing. None of my never mind."
"How about you, Gloria? You want trouble?" Philip asked her.
Before she could speak, the door opened. The women came in.
"Goddamn it," Cam muttered under his breath. "Should've figured it."
Dru walked directly to Seth, slid her hand into his. "Hello again, Gloria. It's funny, my mother doesn't remember you at all. She isn't the least bit interested in you. But my grandfather is." She took a piece of paper out of her pocket. "This is the number to his office on the Hill. He'll be happy to speak to you if you'd like to call him."
Gloria slapped the paper from Dru's fingers, then retreated quickly when Seth stepped forward.
"I'll make you sorry for this." She shoved through them, pausing briefly to snarl at Sybill.
"You shouldn't have come back, Gloria," Sybill told her. "You should've cut your losses."
"Bitch. I'll make you sorry. I'll make you all sorry." With one last bitter glance, she shoved through the door.
"You were supposed to stay home," Seth told her.
"No, I wasn't." Dru touched his cheek.
* * *
Chapter Nineteen
Contents - Prev
THE HOUSE AND THE YARD were crowded with people. Crabs were steaming, and a half dozen picnic tables were loaded with food.
The Quinns' annual Fourth of July celebration was well under way.
Seth pulled a beer from the keg, grabbed some shade, and took a break from the conversations to sketch.
His world, he thought. Friends, family, slow Shore voices and squealing kids. The smells of spiced crabs, of beer, of talcum powder and grass. Of the water.
A couple of kids were out in a Sunfish with a bright yellow sail. Ethan's dog was splashing in the shallows with Aubrey—old times.
He heard Anna's laugh and the cheerful clink of horseshoes.
Independence Day, he thought. He would remember this one for the rest of his life.
"We've been doing this here since before you were born," Stella said from beside him.
