by Annie Jocoby
Iris squeezed my hand. “What’s done is done. Anyhow, it probably doesn’t really matter that you’ve done despicable things in your past. I think that Dalilah probably would have turned out just the same. And you know that she’s going to do what she’s going to do, no matter how much we lecture her against it. So, we might as well get in touch with Liam Gallagher, and ask if he’ll take Dalilah and Luke in. If we don’t, they’ll end up running away to London without any visible means of support, and then god knows what will happen.”
I shook my head. “That’s kind of ridiculous, too, if you ask me. I mean, I could buy her a gorgeous flat over there, in a safe neighborhood. But you know that she wouldn’t take it. She has never accepted my attempts to support her. Yet, she doesn’t mind staying with a total stranger. She makes no sense to me, sometimes.”
“Ah, but she’s twenty. I don’t think that you’re supposed to make a lot of sense at that age, do you?”
“Touché. I just hope and pray that this whole thing doesn’t blow up in everybody’s face.”
Iris sighed. “Even if it does, hopefully it will all turn out. I mean, look at all that blew up in our face when we first got together. And look at us now. It can work out.”
I shook my head. “Yes, but we got lucky. You know we did. I should’ve died when Andrew shot me. One millimeter to the left or right, and I would have. I would have bled out before the ambulance got there. You should have died when Rochelle attacked you. And who the hell knows what would have happened had Nick not dragged you back from the West coast when you left me. I was so close to getting back to using, you can’t even imagine. My will was dying a little bit every day. Everything worked out in the end, but it shouldn’t have. It really shouldn’t have.”
“I know,” Iris said. “I know. We made our share of mistakes. Especially me. Now it’s our daughter’s turn. I hate to be fatalistic about it all, and please don’t think that I’m taking this all lightly, because I’m not. But we really can’t stop what she’s going to do, so we just have to hope and pray that it will all turn out all right. And calling Liam and having him take in Dalilah and Luke will certainly be a step in the right direction.”
“I know. Which is why I’m going to do just that. But not before I talk to my mother to make sure that Liam is an okay guy. I wish that we could go with her to check it all out, and make sure that she’s not going from the frying pan into the fire. But I guess if my mother gives the go-ahead, that should be good enough.”
That was really all I could do. Give Dalilah and safe place to land, and hope and pray that it all would work out.
Chapter 4
Dalilah
The past few days had been a whirlwind. Luke and I pretty much packed up our clothes, and he got the rest of his money out of the bank. Then we hightailed it out of New York City on my dad’s private plane. I wasn’t going to let my dad support me, still, but I wasn’t totally stupid. Nor was I above borrowing his private plane for the journey across the pond.
From what I understood, Liam was willing to take us in. Even though he didn’t know either of us from Adam. My father assured me that Liam was going to put out the welcome mat for Luke and me, and I was grateful for that. Just because we were kinda sorta family. Distant family, but family nonetheless.
We landed at Heathrow some seven hours after we departed. Both of us were jet-lagged and stressed. And I had been puking the entire way there, too. It was bad enough that I was pregnant, and feeling nauseated non-stop. The traveling didn’t help matters at all.
I stepped out on the tarmac, and there was Liam, standing there with a sign that said “Dalilah” on it. He was a Gallagher, as far as looks go. The dark hair and the light eyes of my father and grandmother, and he was as tall as my dad, too. He was really a strikingly handsome guy, with his thick wavy hair and dimples, and it was also evident that, underneath the business suit he wore, he had a lean and muscular frame.
I squeezed Luke’s hand, and he looked at me, concerned.
“Don’t worry,” I whispered. “He might be hot, but not as hot as you.”
Luke shook his head. I could see worry on his face, and the worry was heightened as Liam looked at me appreciatively. Too appreciatively. He might be a cousin, but he was a distant cousin, so I suppose that his appreciative looks weren’t too creepy.
“Hello, there, Dalilah Gallagher,” he said, his handsome face lighting up. “Right happy to meet somebody from my dad’s side of the family.”
Luke went over the shake his hand, and Liam gripped Luke’s hand heartily. “Hello, mate. You must be the lucky bloke who stole this beautiful lass’ heart. I’m Liam.”
“Luke,” he said. “I’m so sorry, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what Dalilah said about how you’re related to her. That’s all so confusing for me.”
“Not a problem, mate. Her grandmother is the sister to my grandfather. I guess that makes us cousins several times removed or something of the sort. But she’s a Gallagher, so that’s right good enough for me. Family is family, isn’t it?”
At that, he picked up my suitcases, and started to wheel another of my suitcases behind him. We walked through the airport parking lot to Liam’s vehicle, which was a Mercedes SUV. Luke raised his eyebrows, although I don’t know why he was surprised. I had warned him about Liam’s wealth when we were on the plane on the way over here.
I knew that Luke was intimidated, and I hoped that he wouldn’t be. I squeezed his hand, and both of us rode in the backseat of Liam’s SUV, much to his dismay.
“Oh, come on, mates, I don’t smell bad, do I? You’re making me feel like a bloody chauffeur.”
“I’m sorry, Liam,” I said. “It’s been a long, strange trip, and we’re both disoriented. I hope you don’t mind if we ride in the back together.”
Liam shook his head. “Crikey. Oh, well, I guess if you both have that bug up your arse, I can’t do much about it, can I?”
In spite of myself, I suppressed a giggle. I wasn’t going to tell Luke, but I was digging Liam’s accent and Britishisms.
Liam hummed a tune while we drove along through heavy traffic. “I suppose you two are pretty exhausted, aren’t you?” he asked, looking in the rear-view mirror at the two of us huddled together in the back seat. The movement of the car was making me feel like I wanted to hurl. Which was really an expected thing, considering all of the stress that was going on, combined with my hormones going wild.
“Exhausted isn’t the word,” I said. “We’re both jet-lagged, and I, for one, am feeling like I’ve been hit by a semi.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” he said. “I’m looking to sign a new band, so I’m going to a club tonight. If you two feel up to it, you’re welcome to come, of course. But something tells me that you both are going to be staying at home.”
“You’re going to a club to see about a band?” I said. Liam was the CEO of his massively successful record label, Gallagher Records, so I was surprised that he was still doing things like scouting his own talent for the label.
“Of course,” he said. “I have to stay hungry, don’t I? Besides, even hard-working CEOs have to have a little fun once in awhile, don’t we?”
“Sure, of course,” I said. “Maybe Luke and I will feel up to coming with you.” Suddenly, that sounded like just the thing that I needed. It just might take my mind off of what was going on.
Luke and I had decided that we had to go ahead and live our lives the way that we were in the States, which meant that neither of us took an assumed name. After talking it through, we realized that was the only thing that we could do, as both us were going to concentrate on getting back into the art scene in London. So, there couldn’t be any kind of shielding of our identities. We also decided that we had to live our normal lives. That would mean going to clubs with Liam when the situation called for it.
I actually hadn’t heard from Nottingham since I left the night that he beat me. This surprised me, yet didn’t surprise me at the same time. It
was as if that night broke the fever that he had that made him obsessed with me in the first place. Nevertheless, I still knew, in my heart and gut, that if he found out about the baby, he would become obsessed about the child. It would be his perfect method of revenge, getting his hands on the kid.
Beyond that, Luke and I had no good answers. Usually, I could think my way out of a situation like this one, but the extreme stress and the hormones coursing through my body was making my thinking extremely foggy. At the back of my mind, I knew that there was a solution. I knew that there was. I just had to take my mind off of my stress and confusion, and I hoped that getting settled into Liam’s home would give me the presence of mind to figure it out.
“What kind of band are you looking at?” Luke asked Liam.
“It’s a band that has a really retro sound. I can’t really explain it, except that the sound is something out of the early 1980s. I have a good sense that retro is going to be making a comeback. Everything old is new again, right?”
“Punk or New Wave?” Luke asked.
“Fusion of both, with a little bit of Ska mixed in. I have a feeling that, with the right promotion, this band has the potential to make it big.”
Luke looked at me. “Dalilah, what do you think? Are you feeling up to going to the club tonight?”
“I am, Luke. It might do both of us a lot of good.”
“Okay, then,” he said. “Liam, we’d like to join you tonight.”
Liam smiled at both of us, and nodded his head. “Right. Well, I guess you two don’t have a stick up your arse after all.”
Luke squeezed my hand, and we soon arrived at Liam’s home, which was in the Surrey suburb. It was an enormous Tudor-style home, with a brick façade, a circular drive with an enormous three-tiered fountain in the middle of the drive, and a perfectly manicured lawn. It was the type of home that I was used to, growing up. Luke, on the other hand, was sitting next to me, looking more intimidated than ever.
Chapter 5
Luke
Everything was happening so fast, I had very little time to get my bearings. But, I would have to say, that because Liam was intimidating to me for a variety of reasons, I was starting to regret my decision to come here. Thinking back, I thought that, maybe, just maybe, we should have stood our ground in New York City and let the chips fall where they may. It was a big risk, of course, but so was what we were doing. It was never in my constitution to run from things. I liked to meet problems head-on.
But Dalilah was in charge. She was the one facing the impossible situation, despite the fact that I probably was the father of the baby. So, she was the one who had to decide on our course of action.
Now, here we were, in London. I had never even traveled overseas, so I felt more than a little disoriented by it all. Even though I was used to a large city, being a New Yorker for many years, I still felt just a little bit out of sorts as we drove through the city to get to Liam’s home in the London suburb of Surrey.
Liam himself was a little bit intimidating. Not his demeanor. He was friendly enough. But the fact that he was wealthy and handsome, and he didn’t look at Dalilah like a cousin should. And the fact that they were only distant relatives, not close kin, made this whole situation seem even more threatening. I trusted Dalilah, of course, but, at the same time, I knew competition when I saw it, and Liam was definitely that.
So, when Dalilah and I arrived at Liam’s mansion in Surrey, I was feeling wary, along with my general feelings of being out of sorts and stressed. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to going to the club that night, either. I just wanted to relax at home, and try to get settled in. But Dalilah seemed to want to go, so we were going to end up going.
That night, Dalilah and I ended up at a noisy London club. I was feeling much more comfortable by then, as I had a few hits of pot before coming. I had to admit, I missed getting high, and it was something that was always relaxing for me. Dalilah, of course, didn’t partake in the festivities.
For Liam’s part, he was all business that night at the club. More than one beautiful woman came up and tried to hit on him, but he waved them all away. We waited for the band, called The Pixxillators, to get on the stage, and they soon did appear. All of the guys in the band looked like old-fashioned eighties musicians. The lead singer was dressed in white, with a t-shirt that had holes in it, and he was extremely skinny. His hair was spiked in all directions, and he played a guitar. There was also a keyboard player with a fedora, dread locks and heavy makeup. The bassist had black hair with white tips, and black fingernails. The drummer wore a stocking cap, and was shirtless.
The sound was just as Liam had described it. They were a little bit punk, a bit New Wave, and several songs had strong reggae and Ska influences. Liam sat, silently, watching the band. Dalilah appeared to be having a good time, and, in spite of myself, I started to relax just a little bit. I couldn’t help but think that this outing was going to help Dalilah and me, because it seemed to relax both of us. Us relaxing was important, because I hoped that we would be able to think just a little bit more clear about our situation if our stress-induced fog lifted.
After the band played for about 45 minutes, they took a break, and Liam turned to Dalilah and me. “So, what do you think?”
“They sound great,” I said. “A fresh sound, really. If that kind of music is making a comeback, you should probably think about signing them.”
Dalilah nodded her head in agreement.
“Well, I’m going to try to sign them, there’s no doubt about that.” He looked around the crowd, which was enjoying hearing the band. He saw somebody from across the room, and looked troubled. “Crikey. I hope he doesn’t come over here.”
“Who?”
“There’s this arsehole who I had to sack recently for embezzling from the company.” He shook his head. “He’s been stalking me ever since. Every time I go to a club to check out a new band, he’s usually there. And he usually tries to come up and beg for his position back.”
Dalilah had a look on her face that was not discernible. She seemed like she was lost in thought.
“What is it, Dalilah?” I asked. I knew, by then, when Dalilah was having a brainstorm, and the look on her face said that her wheels were turning.
“Blackmail him,” she said. “That’s it! That’s it, Luke! That’s it!”
“What?” I had no idea what tripped her trigger, but she was clearly thinking hard about something.
“You and I have to find something on Nottingham. We have to find something, and use it to blackmail him. It has to be something good, too.”
“Okay,” I said. “How do you propose that we do this?”
She was tugging on my shirt sleeve. “Liam was just talking about embezzlement. White collar crime.” She turned to Liam. “Why isn’t that guy in prison if he was embezzling from the company?”
“The case is still pending. He lawyered up, as you Americans like to say. He has one of the best barristers in the country defending him.”
“But he probably will end up in prison?” Dalilah said. “Right?”
“With any luck, he will,” Liam said.
“Luke,” Dalilah said to me. “Nottingham is incredibly corrupt. Do you agree with that?”
“Of course,” I said.
“What are the chances that he might be involved with something that is illegal? Like, maybe, insider trading or something like that?”
“With that guy, I wouldn’t be surprised about anything.” I had no idea what she was thinking, though. It still seemed to be a bit of a long shot that Nottingham was involved in something illegal, and an even more long shot that Dalilah would be able to prove it.
Dalilah, though, was looking more excited. “I don’t know if you know this, Luke, but I speak five languages fluently. French, Spanish, German, Italian and, of course, English. I also don’t think that Nottingham knows this.”
“Okay,” I said. “And…”
“Well, I remember something now. When I was
married to him, I overheard a conversation that he was having in German with a guy who was working at a pharmaceutical company in Bonn. He was talking really quietly, but you know that I’m a nosy bitch, so I did catch snippets of what he was saying.”
I took a sip of my drink and waited for her to continue.
“There seemed to be a stock tip that he was receiving from the guy. I heard him say something about the FDA, but it was very difficult to hear everything he said, because he was almost whispering. But I did note that, within a day or so after talking with this guy, Nottingham did some trading of some of his pharmaceutical stocks. What if that guy on the other end of the line was telling Nottingham about a drug that wasn’t going to be approved, and Nottingham dumped the stocks of the company? He could go to prison for that.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know, Dalilah. It’s a long shot for sure. Plus, a guy like Nottingham could probably beat those charges, anyhow. How often do these rich guys go to prison?”
“More often than you think. If they could put Martha Stewart away, they could put anyone away. Think about that.”
“Okay, then, what’s the plan? How do you prove it?”
“Oh, god, it would be so easy. I could crack Nottingham’s password within a couple of hours at the most. I could get into his system and look into the trading that he’s done, and look for something suspicious. Some kind of heavy trading that would coincide with an FDA announcement of a certain drug, and nail him to the wall. Or, rather, use it as leverage for him to divorce me without laying any claims to the child.”
I still felt skeptical. “It sounds like the best plan we got so far, but that’s not saying much. I mean, you’re asking the man to give up claims to his legal child. Do you really think that he’s going to roll over because of an inconsequential threat?”
