“I’m only telling you this so you won’t buy into his charm if he comes in.”
She looked up to see Jessica had gone pale. “He came in two weeks ago and wandered through the gallery. He even bought the Roberts glass piece. The green one that looks a little like a Dale Chihuly.”
Uneasiness took up residence in the pit of Mia’s stomach. “How did he act?”
“Very interested. He asked some questions about the gallery and how well we’re doing. I told him we were doing great. Which we are.” Now Jessica seemed even more shaken. “He seemed impressed with the quality of the artwork we carry and promised to pass the word along. He hit on me, but I’m seeing someone and turned him down.”
Mia rested a hand on her arm. “He isn’t violent or anything. But he always has an ulterior motive for everything he does. Keep an eye out for him, and if he comes in again, text me.”
“Okay.” Jessica took another sip of her tea then continued to turn the glass in her hands. “I wish I’d known all this before. I might have been more on guard.”
‘It’s okay. The information you gave him isn’t a secret. We are doing well. Better than I expected at this point.”
“Only because you know what you’re doing.”
“I appreciate you saying that, but I chose my working partners and employees well, too. I know you can handle the gallery if I need to go to California now and then.”
“Of course.” Jessica nodded. Her jaw was set with determination and perhaps a little bit of anger at having been duped by Mason. “I can handle it.”
Mia’s phone signaled a text and she read the message. It was Gage on his way back to the apartment.
‘I’m going to take an hour break. I need to talk Gage about some things.”
Jessica nodded. “I’ll go hold down the fort.” She poured the ice left in her glass into the sink and set the glass on the counter. “I think Michelle is going to be a good fit, so we’ll have a backup if you want to travel. Would you like me to show this picture to Stan and Michelle?”
“Yes. And again, I’m sorry I upset you by telling you all that.”
“I’ll be more on guard next time he comes in. And I’ll text you immediately.”
Mia went to the elevator and unlocked the door.
Jessica pushed the button to descend to the gallery. “Lock this behind me. I always worry that someone might get into your apartment through the gallery.”
“They can’t without my keycard because I have the only one.”
While she waited for Gage to arrive, she prepared lunch for them using leftover chicken from the night before and salad from a bag, adding fresh tomatoes and cucumbers to it to give it some color.
When Gage came in carrying a bag of groceries, she smiled.
“I went by a bakery and got some French bread and croissants.” He set the bags down on the island and started emptying them.
“How about I slice some French bread and toast it in the oven to go with our salads?”
“Sounds good.” He removed the long loaves, releasing the scent of fresh baked goods.
While she was busy slicing and lightly buttering the bread, Gage put away the other items, then came around to put his arms around her waist from behind and rested his cheek against hers. “How did it go this morning?”
“Clarkson was doing his best impression of one of the good ol’ boys at first. Abney told him we were dating or something similar, and Clarkson was going with the idea that we had a spat.”
His body tensed and he straightened. “You’re shitting me.”
She was gratified by his outrage. “No. But by the time he finished reading through some of the files I showed him, he’d gotten past that fallacy. I went to high school with Clarkson’s daughter, and I turned a few screws in that direction. He probably called her as soon as I left.” She slipped the pan of bread under the hot broiler and turned on the oven light, then turned to lean back against the island counter.
“I’d like to think Abney will lose his place on the board, but I doubt he will. Unless they do some research and find out that he’s been pressuring some of their big depositors.”
Gage nodded and leaned back beside her. “If you’re lucky they might even be outraged enough to out him.”
“They should, but he may already have a few of the board members under his thumb,” she said.
“Yeah, he might. Guys like him know how to ferret out secrets. He thought he’d found something he could use to manipulate you.”
She looked up. “What would that be?”
“He thought you’d sell out to him to get back at your brother and mother. He misread you.” She grabbed a potholder and took out the lightly toasted bread, put it into a napkin-lined basket, and turned off the oven.
Gage slid their salads to the other side of the island along with their iced tea.
“I might have done it,” she said.
“No, you wouldn’t.”
She focused on him as he sat down. “Why not?”
“You have too much integrity. You could have sold the stock at a profit and paid off your loan at the bank. Had he been a standup guy, you might have decided to do that. But because he’s a perverted asshole and came at you with threats instead of treating you like the real businesswoman you are, you cut him off at the knees.”
“It would have been a marriage made in hell for him to be the third in Camille and Mason’s triumvirate. Can you imagine what kind of deals the three of them would have made together?” She took a bite of the bread but found it hard to swallow.
“They might have torn each other to shreds instead.”
“If I’d thought of that, I might have been tempted to sell out to him.”
“No you wouldn’t.” He took a bite of his salad and chewed.
“No, I wouldn’t. Because all I could think of was what he’d done to Angelique and her father.” She covered her face with her hands and shuddered. “I hope I never see him again.”
Gage dropped his fork, rose from his stool, and went over to put his arms around her. She clung to him. “You don’t know how hard it is to maintain control when some arrogant, condescending prick is looking at you like you’re just a piece of meat one of his friends has been fucking, and he thinks he doesn’t have to take you seriously.”
“But you showed Clarkson you’re smarter than that, Mia. Too smart to let Abney anywhere near you.”
But she had. “When I touched him, all I got was death. Cold, dark death. It terrified me. I thought maybe he’d killed Angelique before going after her father.”
“I’m here with you, and I’m not going to let him anywhere near you.”
But Gage wouldn’t be here much longer. And after that she’d have to deal with Abney on her own.
She allowed herself to cling to him a few more minutes. “I’m okay. I just got so angry at Clarkson’s attitude.” And then she’d dumped on Jessica and upset her, too. “Mason was here two weeks ago scoping out the gallery. Jessica waited on him.”
“He might have just been curious.”
“I wish I could believe that. Why is all this happening, Gage?”
He studied her face for a long moment. “Because your dad is dying, and I think your brother is snooping around to find out if you know.”
Her father was dying? The thought seemed to tumble around in her head without really sinking in. “How do you know?”
“Because the two guys he’s had following me showed up at the garage where Decker works, and I’d finally had enough and confronted them, only to find out they’re working for your father.
“He arranged the meeting so he could talk to me on the phone, to tell me he wants to see you. He said he doesn’t have much time left.” Gage paused a moment. “The guys working for him confirmed that he’s in very bad shape.”
She eased back into her seat. It had been years since she saw her father, although he called out of the blue sometimes just to check on her. But their conversations were more like
acquaintances rather than father and daughter. “Why does he want to see me?”
“He wants to talk to you about his will, and I think he wants to say goodbye. I thought about it all the way back to the apartment, and I’m pretty sure he feels you’re the only one who’ll let him do that.”
Her throat felt tight. Why didn’t he contact her before now? Why didn’t he come to see her while she was in college, when Camille couldn’t run interference? He’d had plenty of opportunities. But she had too, and hadn’t taken them.
“I have his address and his phone number. Do you want to call him?”
The last number she had for him was in England. “He’s here in Louisiana?”
“Yeah. I think it might be a recent thing.”
“I need to think about it.” She had to find her emotional balance before she talked to him. Was that even possible?
“Okay. When you’re ready, all you have to do is ask.”
She nodded. She had never felt less like eating. But she barely touched the breakfast Gage cooked for her that morning, and she had a long afternoon ahead of her.
She shoved the salad away. She always dealt with things head-on, and she needed to deal with this the same way. “I need the number.”
Gage took out his phone, keyed in the password and hit “notes,” and read the number to her.”
She got her phone out of her bag and keyed it into her contacts and hit the call button. It rang twice before a weak, thready voice said,” Mia?”
She searched for something to say and managed, “Hello.”
“It’s been a long time.”
“Yes. Almost two years.” He’d called when she first started her business and told her how proud he was of her. Why didn’t she follow through then? She got up from her seat to pace.
“How have you been?”
“I’m okay.” She turned away so Gage wouldn’t see the quick tears that filled her eyes and spilled over.
“Gage says you’re sick.”
“Yes, cancer. The doctors say I don’t have much time left, and I need to see you, Mia. Will you come?”
“When would you like me to?” She wished this wasn’t so awkward.
“This afternoon. Come at two.”
That gave her an hour to prepare herself emotionally.
“I’ll see you then.”
She ended the call and sat back down next to Gage. He didn’t say anything, and she was grateful. She tried to eat a bite or two of the salad, but stopped because she was on the verge of nausea.
“I need to go down and talk to Jess. I have six new pieces coming in and they have to be processed.”
“Why don’t you call her and tell her what you need her to do and then just relax until it’s time to go to your father’s?”
Gage’s calm soothed her. She took out her phone and made the call.
“When I went to see Mama, she mentioned your father. She said that he was the one who gave you the money to go to college, not your grandmother.”
“How would Mama know?”
“I got the feeling that maybe your grandmother said something.”
“Why wouldn’t he want me to know?”
“I don’t know, Mia. You might want to ask him.”
“He’s been out of the country for a long time. Wonder why he moved back to Louisiana?”
“Maybe he thought it was time to be with family before he dies.”
“I don’t know how to feel about this. He could have called me directly instead of getting those men to accost you.”
“I think he tried to talk to Mason and didn’t get a very good reception.”
She could imagine that. “I was seven when the divorce went through, but he moved out two or three years before that. Mason was old enough to have a relationship with him, but I never really had one. He just called every once in a while. He lived in France for a long time, then England, and he remarried when I was thirteen, but his wife was killed in an accident about the time I graduated from high school. I remember Camille saying something about it.”
“Sounds like he’s had a rough time of it.”
It did. “I never called him, but he called me every couple of years to see how I was doing. I once asked him why he didn’t want to see me or want me to visit him. He said the courts forbade me from leaving the country to go see him. I think Camille was afraid of losing the child support payments.” Or wanted to hurt him in every way she could.
Gage stood and tugged her in close to cuddle her. “You’ll just have to make up for lost time now, and make good use of the time you have left.”
She wanted to burrow into him as closely as she could get. She’d gone years with no one to hold her when she needed it, and now Gage was here…She’d been standing alone for so long.
“You can cry, Mia. You don’t always need to be strong.”
“I always thought that one day he would come back to see me, but not like this.”
Gage’s arms tightened around her.
Despite her efforts to hold the tears back, a sob broke free, and then another, as years of wasted chances ran through her mind and then her heart. She finally let the storm break.
With every sob, Gage felt more guilt gnawing at his insides. He did the same thing to her. He should have called. He should have fought harder. He should never have stayed away.
He couldn’t change what he did in the past. But he damn sure wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.
CHAPTER 19
‡
The house was in the Garden district, an area often touted for its diverse styles of architecture and the many mansions tourists liked to ogle. Gage pulled up the driveway and stopped in front of the wrought iron gate.
Behind the fence stood a two-story Victorian painted pale blue with enough dentil molding and lacy trim to decorate the whole block. A porch wrapped around the house, and a balcony projected over the porch from one of the upstairs bedrooms. The damn thing even had a turret like a medieval castle on the opposite side of the structure, so maybe there were two bedrooms at the front of the house.
“That’s a helluva house,” he commented.
“It is. I wasn’t aware he still owned property in New Orleans. Maybe he rented it since…since he only needs it for a limited time.”
Mia had been quiet since her meltdown. He managed to get her to eat some toast and drink some hot tea, but she pasted her composure on over the hurt and focused inside herself.
Gage rolled down the car window and pushed the gate buzzer. After a short pause, the gate swung open, and he drove up to park in front of the house. Mia had already gotten out of the car by the time he went around to open her door, so he rested a hand against the small of her back as they approached the front door.
It opened before they got to it, and Tony Richards stood in the opening.
“Hey, Tony.” What else could a guy say to a hired thug?
“Hey, Gage. Come on in.” Tony took a step back, clearing the way for them to enter the house. An odd, checkered area rug covered the hardwood floor of the entrance foyer which opened onto a wide hallway extending through the house to the back. On the left was a front parlor, its large windows with sheer curtains letting sunlight in to brighten the hallway. On the right was a stairway that climbed up and spiraled to the right.
Tony turned his attention to Mia and extended his hand. “Tony Richards.” He took her hand as though it were made of spun glass. “Your dad hired me and Dwight, my half-brother, as security. Your Dad’s a good guy.”
“Thanks.” Mia’s voice sounded a little breathy with nerves.
“I’ll take you up.”
Mia followed Tony to the stairs.
But Gage paused to scan the hallway and the stairwell, thinking about the fire she mentioned. “Hey, Tony. Mr. Blanchard said someone tried to set the house on fire.”
Tony glanced over his wide shoulder. “Yeah.”
“You said you filed a police report.”
“Yeah.”
“How bad was the fire?” Maybe the fire here was the one Mia saw in her vision. But neither of them had ever been here.
“The back porch was damaged. Dwayne and I think the fire might have been set to draw the others away so someone could get out of the house. There was a broken window in the office where they forced it open, walked out over the porch roof and dropped down into the flowerbed. Since then Dwayne and I don’t leave Mr. Blanchard unless he asks us to do something.” Tony continued up the stairs.
“How long has my father been in Louisiana?” Mia asked.
“A couple of weeks.”
And someone already tried to burn him out? There was something very fucked-up about this whole situation. And where the hell had Mia’s father gotten his money? He doubted even she knew.
This was going to open a can of worms for Mia and make her life more complicated. Why the hell hadn’t her father thought of that?
Gage half wished he hadn’t told her Marc Blanchard was back in town.
It was too late now, and the damage was already done. She deserved to see her father, although in Gage’s opinion, the guy had never earned the title.
Tony paused outside a door at the top of the stairs. “He’s on meds for pain, so he may be a little groggy. His lawyer is in there with him now.” He knocked on the door, opened it, and said, “She’s here.” He stood back so Mia could enter the room.
Mia grasped Gage’s hand and stepped through the door.
*
The bedroom was more feminine and fussier than her own. She’d never been into ruffles or lace, and the curtains on the windows had both. Two men sat in chairs near the French doors leading out onto a balcony, one in a suit as expensive and well-tailored as Mason’s always were.
She spared him little attention, because all her attention was focused on the man sitting opposite him. When they rounded the chair and she could finally see his face, her heart took one more hit. It had been so long since she’d seen her father, she barely recognized the man. Her memories were of a tall man with dark, wavy hair who always smelled of expensive cologne. His hands had seemed so big and strong around hers.
Wearing a robe over his pajamas, her father looked so frail and thin, she worried that the strain of sitting up might put too much stress on him. His hair was thin and more gray than dark, his cheeks were so hollowed, his cheekbones appeared even more pronounced, and his pale green eyes, a color close to her own, were sunk deep into his skull.
Hot SEAL, Midnight Magic (SEALs In Paradise) Page 17
