Mallory

by Michelle Love

  The drinks arrived, and he took a sip. ‘But there’s more to it, isn’t there? You’re bidding for someone – or feeding them information as the auction goes on.’

  Her chin lifted. ‘How do you know I’m not buying them?’

  He didn’t even bother to reply to that, and she sighed. ‘Look, Mr. Mallory…’

  ‘Grady.’

  ‘Mister Mallory,’ she said firmly, ‘I don’t mean any offense, but how is what I do any business of yours?’

  ‘It isn’t,’ he shot back honestly and she looked taken back. ‘I'm just curious – or nosy, whichever suits you. I gotta say, I’m not used to being outbid.’

  For the first time she smiled, and Grady was struck by how lovely her face was when she grinned. ‘I guess that’s just tough luck, Mr. Mallory. A bit of competition never hurt.’

  ‘Agreed,’ he nodded. ‘So, who is it?’

  She shook her head, still smiling. ‘I am not at liberty to disclose my associate.’

  Grady gave up. ‘At least tell me about you. What’s your name?’

  She hesitated for a second, and then relented. ‘Floriana Morgan.’

  ‘American?’

  She nodded. ‘Half. Half Italian, hence the Floriana. If it helps just called me Flori.’

  Grady stuck out his hand. ‘Well, then, hi Flori, I’m Grady.’

  She gave a sheepish grin as she shook his outstretched one. ‘Hi… sorry about the…,’ she mimicked a stabbing motion and mimicked the Psycho music. ‘Can’t be too careful.’

  ‘That’s perfectly okay. You’re like an artist/ninja, then?’

  She laughed. ‘Just an art student, I’m afraid. My attempts at art itself are somewhat amateur. My focus is on the history of art.’

  ‘Grad student?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, still an undergrad, sophomore. Had to defer my college place for a couple of years.’

  ‘Are you based here?’

  ‘Portland.’

  ‘Maine or…’

  ‘Oregon.’

  ‘Then we’re neighbors, my family is in Seattle,’ Grady signaled for some refills, ‘Only seems right we should be friends. I don’t know if you know anything about what my family does but – ‘

  ‘Of course, I know,’ she said gently, ‘you and your father have done so much for the art world.’

  Grady’s mouth hitched up on one side. ‘So why are you helping the opposition, whoever they are?’

  He softened the question with a smile, but Flori looked uncomfortable. ‘Mr… Grady, I don’t want to… it was never my intention…’

  He put his hand over hers for a brief second. ‘Flori, don’t worry. You’re right, a little competition never hurt. Besides,’ and he leaned back and sighed dramatically, ‘it was getting a little too easy anyhoo.’

  He laughed as she lobbed a peanut at him. ‘But seriously, Flori, if you need any help with anything… like that crappy laptop of yours?’ He grinned when she looked askance at him, and a little scared.

  ‘I’m not stalking you, I promise, I was just at the same restaurant as you the other night when you were beating the crap out of it.’

  ‘Ah,’ she said, ‘Is that why you said hello to me that time?’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘Sorry I ignored you; I was freaked out by the bid on that Rothko.’

  ‘Join the club. Half a billion.’ He shook his head, his mind still blown.

  ‘Is it worth that?’ She looked genuinely interested.

  ‘Rothko’s work has gone for big sums before, the most for about seventy-five million for Royal Red and Blue in 2012, but no painting by any artist has yet to reach that half billion. Some have come close – if you can call a difference of two hundred million close.’ He smiled. ‘I was tempted, very tempted, I tell you. Rothko is my hero.’

  She was looking at him with curiosity. ‘You’re not what I expected, Grady Mallory. Of course, I realize I know very few billionaires, so it’s hard to compare but when I see the exploits of your brother, the actor, and your nephew…’

  Grady half smiled. ‘Don’t believe the crap you read about Skandar, he’s a good kid, and now he’s with Hayley, he’s a different man. Settled, happy. Responsible. Kit, well, Kit is Kit.’

  He had no idea why he was telling this stranger so much, but she was so easy to talk to. ‘What about you, family still alive?’

  Her face lit up. ‘Yep. Working class girl, paid my own way through college, or rather paying. My mom and dad are good people, they’re so happy I’m following my passion.’

  Grady was impressed. ‘That’s great.’ He hesitated then shrugged. ‘I have to ask… how did you get hooked up with your associate? I’m only asking because actually it seems like a great idea of his or hers – you get the experience of seeing first-hand how the art market works, he or she gets to keep his anonymity. Hmm.’

  Floriana nodded. ‘He contacted me – yes, it’s a he – through my art lecturer, asked if I wanted my education paid for, no questions asked. All I had to do was go to the auctions he wanted me to and help him bid most, win the sale.’

  And you’ve no idea why he chose you apart from your obvious passion for it?’

  ‘Honestly, I heard ‘paid college tuition’ and ‘unlimited travel expenses’ and that sealed the deal for me. It was bugging my dad that he couldn't pay for me, that I had to work twenty hour days to pay for it. So I said yes.’

  Grady chewed over this information then smiled at her. ‘You know, it’s been really good to talk about art with you, I don’t get to do that enough.’

  ‘Ditto. Thanks for not being an asshole about the auctions.’

  Grady held up his hands. ‘Hey look, like you said, healthy competition. Flori, would you like to meet again, just for drinks and chat? I’m in NOLA for another week or so.’

  Flori grinned shyly. ‘Wow. Hanging out with a Mallory. I’ll get airs and graces.’

  Grady laughed. ‘Money doesn’t make me classy, Flori, it’s just money. Here’s my card, give me a call. Where are you staying?’

  She told him and gave him her cell phone number. ‘Thanks for the drinks.’

  ‘You’re welcome. Can I walk you back to your hotel?’

  ‘Actually, I want to sketch in the Quarter for a while, but rain check?

  ‘You’re on.’

  Quilla was dying to get rid of Jakob so she could get the gossip from Asia about New Orleans. She was due to come over any minute, but Jakob was taking forever to change for a business dinner.

  ‘You sure you don’t want to come? The place is supposed to have amazing food.’

  She smiled and kissed him. ‘Asia’s already on her way, and we have an evening of girl talk and Chinese food planned.’

  Finally, after kissing her thoroughly and wondering out loud if they had time for sex before he left, she got him out of the door. She had just grabbed some wine from the cooler when her phone rang. She was smiling when she answered it.

  ‘Hello, Quilla.’

  Gregor. Again the sweating palms, the way her stomach dropped when she heard his voice. He hadn’t called for a couple of weeks, and there was a part of her that wanted to pretend he’d simply got tired of terrorizing her. Now, though, she rubbed a hand over eyes and pressed the ‘record’ button on the surveillance the FBI had installed. Every word that was said was sent to them, processed, and scoured for any clue. He never stayed on long enough for a trace, but the FBI had said to her ‘Try and stay on as long as you can, get every bit of information from him. Anything could be the key. As long as you can stand it.’

  Easy for the FBI man to say, it wasn’t his own brutal, horrific, bloody murder he was listening to being described in minute detail. Gregor would describe in sickening detail what he intended to do to her, and while Quilla had steeled herself for the worst, it always got to her. The nightmares were unimaginable, and on more than one occasion, she’d woken up screaming and having to be calmed down by a deeply concerned Jakob.

  She was tire
d of it, tired of Gregor’s shit. ‘Hello Gregor, calling to give me an update on when and how you’re planning to kill me? How original. I tell you what, why don’t you go fuck yourself?’

  She hung up the phone and cursed loudly. She grabbed a pillow from the couch and screamed into it. However much she pretended she was fine, she wasn’t. She was close to breaking.

  She heard a knock at the door and went to open it smoothing out her expression. She smiled when she saw Asia but Asia, having spent a great deal of time with the other woman of late, wasn’t fooled for a second.

  ‘He called, didn’t he?’ She walked in and hugged Quilla fiercely. ‘That son-of-a-bitch.’

  Quilla relaxed into Asia’s hug. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ she muttered, ‘Come, let’s have a drink.’

  Asia dumped her purse onto the couch and studied Quilla. ‘Enough is enough, Quils, this is abuse. The Feds can’t expect you to listen to his filth until you break.’

  A sob escaped Quilla then, and Asia went to her. ‘Oh, sweetheart.’

  ‘I’m okay, really,’ Quilla said, brushing away her tears, ‘I’m just so angry all of the time Please, Asia, please, please distract me, tell me about New Orleans.’

  Asia smiled. ‘New Orleans was great. Grady sends his love.’

  Quilla, her tears drying, handed Asia a glass of wine and searched her face. ‘Asia Flynn….did you sleep with that man?’

  Asia tried not to grin. ‘No idea what you’re talking about.’

  Quilla gasped. 'Oh my God, you did! Hallelujah, hang on; I have to call Ran… ’

  She pretended to go for her phone and Asia, laughing, swatted her away. Quilla nodded at the couch, her low mood lifting. ‘Food’s on its way, Flynn, so get on that couch and tell me everything.’

  Skandar Mallory put his arm around his girlfriend and kissed her temple, as her older sister, Nan, read through the newspaper article. Joel, Skandar’s father, and Nan’s boyfriend, sat stone-faced beside her. The third one in three days. The paparazzi were obviously doing some sort of series on them, with all of their family secrets laid bare by Zinnia, their absent and errant mother.

  ‘To be fair,’ Nan said, her voice cracking with her anger, ‘All of this is bullshit. Practically every word.’ She looked at her sister then Joel. ‘Someone must have given her a lot of money because this is some classic Zinnia fantasy right here.’

  ‘Well, Nan, we did ‘abandon her as soon as we found ourselves a couple of billionaires,' after all,’ Hayley spat out. ‘God, I hate her.’

  Nan’s shoulders slumped. ‘What you have to understand,’ she spoke to Joel and Skandar now, her voice low and upset, ‘is that this is a woman who does not have the capacity for love. Or empathy. Our dad was such a good guy, but he totally enabled her, to our detriment. She would rant and scream at us for nothing, and he’d always excuse it as just one of her moods. But it was worse, it was prolonged, sustained abuse. She had serious mental health problems that she would not take responsibility for. We think it was Narcissistic Personality Disorder.’

  ‘Everything revolved around her, everything. When she wasn't downright aggressive, she played the martyr card; she did so much for us, and we never did anything for her. In fact, all we did was cause trouble again and again – you know, things like after wanting to participate in school activities, and getting straight A’s. Terrible things like actual parental support and occasionally getting sick and it being really inconvenient for her.’ Hayley was spitting out the words; such was her anger. ‘If we didn’t have video proof of our births (and how much pain we caused her of course and how grateful we should be), I’d take a DNA test and prove that bitch had nothing to do with us.’ She choked up on the final words and Skandar and Joel shared a look of concern.

  Nan put a hand on her sister’s arm. ‘Calm down, sweets; it’s not like this is actually harming us, just more of her bull crap. And look what paper it’s in.’ She waved the tabloid in the air. ‘The thing I want to know is, who put her up to it. She’s a bitch, yes, but unless there were some serious financial incentives, she wouldn’t bother. She likes to pretend we don’t exist.’

  Joel sighed and sat back. ‘I don’t think we have to look far to see who is behind this.’

  ‘Gregor?’ Skandar cursed. ‘I don’t get what he gets out of it. This is some petty shit.’

  ‘Yup.’

  For a while there was silence, all lost in their own thoughts, then Joel got up. ‘Look, I say we ignore anything he does that isn’t a direct threat to personal safety. By reacting to every made up story, we’re giving him the oxygen of attention, of publicity. The more elegant thing to do to say nothing. If you get direct questions from the press, roll your eyes and walk away.’ He grinned at Hayley. ‘However tempting it might be to cuss them out.’

  Hayley smiled back and high-fived him. ‘I’ll try. You’re right, though, as long as he doesn’t threaten any of us physically or the business, what harm can these stories actually do?’

  ‘Tell that to Quilla,’ Nan said softly.

  ‘That,’ Skandar said, sounding twenty years older than he was, ‘is a different situation entirely. That’s not revenge; that’s obsession.’

  Floriana Morgan thanked the bellboy and took the huge package, frowning, staggering under its weight a little. She wasn’t expecting anything; her mom had sent her a care package two days ago. She sat on the bed and pulled open the envelope that had come with it.

  Thought you could use these, compliments of the Ran Mallory Art Foundation. It’s always thrilling to me when someone else loves art as much as I do so think of this as both a thank you and a ‘way to go' Enjoy. Grady Mallory. (p.s. absolutely no strings attached)

  Flori was touched beyond words, and as she began to pull open the package, she had to stop and catch her breath. Inside, the highest-end Apple laptop money could buy, a graphics tablet, and an iPad Pro. She couldn’t quite believe it. With trembling hands, she pulled each item from its packaging, turning them over in her hands. She flicked the laptop on and waited for it to boot up.

  Could she accept this? Were there really no strings attached to it? She shook her head, blindsided. Grady Mallory was clearly a very generous man – as well as being drop dead gorgeous. The screen flicked up, and an image opened. Flori started to laugh. A picture of Grady posing like the Fonz. Underneath, he’d added ‘Coffee at the Spitfire at 4 pm today? If no, text me.’ He’d left her his cell phone number.

  Flori felt a small thrill pass through her. She wasn’t sure exactly why Grady Mallory had taken such an interest in her – at first she thought it was just to get information from her but talking to him that first time had changed her mind. He genuinely loved art.

  She would meet him for coffee later, to thank him if nothing else. As a friend, she told herself, just as a friend.

  Grady smiled as he heard Asia’s voice on the other end of the phone. ‘Hey, beautiful.’

  ‘Hey, yourself, how goes it in the Big Easy?’

  ‘Pretty cool – missing my buddy,’ he said with a grin. Asia chuckled.

  ‘Gray, you don’t know how much I’d rather be there but work calls. Have you managed to get any pieces yet?’

  He told her about the auctions and Floriana Morgan. ‘Good kid, loves art.’

  Asia laughed softly. ‘You’re just like your dad, you know, never can resist a good cause. Listen, I do have something I need to talk to you about.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Kit. Now, I know I don’t owe him anything, at all, but as a courtesy, I need to tell him about whatever this – you and me – is. I don’t have a definition yet… and I’m not asking you for one, it’s just with you being siblings, it complicates things.’

  Grady chewed this over. ‘I know…look, for what it’s worth, I’d like to see how things go, on a more formal footing when I get back to Seattle. What do you say?’

  ‘I’d like that.’

  ‘And maybe I’ll just tell Kit I’d like to ask you out, test the water
.’

  Asia sighed. ‘I guess so, and I need to talk to Sebastian. God, why is this so complicated?’

  Grady laughed but didn’t reply. Asia was silent then, in a low voice.

  ‘I should have never married him, Gray. I hurt everyone, especially you and I can’t stand that. I hate that I caused you more pain.’

  ‘That’s in the past,’ he said, but his voice broke, and he cleared his throat to cover it. ‘Just don’t do it again.’

  ‘I promise.’

  After they’d said goodbye, Grady called Kit before he could chicken out. Kit sounded happier than he’d ever heard him. There was a lot of raucous laughter in the background.

  What’s going on there?’ Grady said with a chuckle.

  ‘I’m being ganged up on, that’s what’s happening….Tiger, no, arghhhhhh!’ There was scuffling, and more laughter then Kit came back on the phone, breathless. ‘Sorry about that, I was just defeated by the great knight Tiger of Tiggerdom. He might need to work on that name.’

  ‘Who are you and where is my brother?’ Grady said dryly, and Kit sniggered.

  ‘All me, bro. Just a better version. What’s up?’

  Grady took a deep breath. ‘Look, I’m just going to come out and say this…I’d like to date Asia.’

  There was a silence on the other end of the phone.

  ‘Kit?’

  Kit cleared his throat, and there was noticeably less warmth in his voice when he spoke. ‘You two been talking?’

  ‘Well, yeah. We’ve always been friends; you know that.’

  ‘Yeah. Well. Gray,’ Kit sighed, ‘it’s not my place anymore to give my blessing for you two to date. You’re both free and single. And it’s not like the most surprising news I’ve had.’

  Grady frowned. ‘But I don’t want it to affect our relationship.’

  ‘Gray, you do what you have to do, look, I have to go. Speak soon.’ And he hung up.

  ‘Damn it, damn it, damn it.’ He might have known Kit would be reticent but now he was with Bo Kennedy and happier than he’d ever been, Grady had counted on his blessing. Was he naive, thinking Kit would be happy for them? That he didn’t still love Asia despite everything?