“Jenay knows him?”
Norm nodded. “She knows him, yes. He used to be her fiancé.”
This shocked the shit out of Charles, and Norm immediately realized it. Jenay had obviously not told him.
“Her fiancé?” Charles asked.
Norm nodded as he took a long drag on his cigarette. “They were really in love. At least that’s what we all thought. But then he took a trip to his home country, to Botswana, to visit his family. And everything just stopped.”
“What do you mean everything stopped?”
“He disappeared. No phone calls. No letters. Jenay tried to contact his folks in Africa. She even contacted the American embassy to see what they could do to find him. But they said he wasn’t on any missing persons list or anything tangible that they could go by. Maybe he just went home. Maybe he doesn’t want to be located. Maybe he had no interest in returning to the U.S., or to her.”
Charles could see the sadness in Norm’s eyes, as if he was reliving that time in his memory. “Whatever the reason he stayed away, the point is, he stayed away. And it broke Jenay’s heart.”
Charles’s own heart dropped. “She loved the guy that much?”
“She loved him very much. They were going to be married, of course she loved him. Jenay didn’t play with people’s emotions.” Then a look of anger crossed his face. “But they sure as hell played with hers.”
Charles could take that many ways. But he knew Norm. He took the way it was intended: not to include Charles. “And she left with the guy?” Charles asked. “The guy that broke her heart?”
Norm nodded again. “He just showed up out of the blue, so yeah, I assume so. I guess she wants answers, and they needed somewhere private to talk other than at her place of employment. She wanted to know what the fuck happened. Wouldn’t you?”
Charles couldn’t begin to answer a question like that. A joker left him dangling, he would have moved the hell on. “They left in his car?”
“I don’t know whose car they left in or anything like that,” Norm said. “I was back in the kitchen by then. Bev told me they left. But Percy won’t hurt her or anything like that. He’s some very respectable guy in the African diplomatic corp. He’s no bum off the street.” Then Norm was blunt. “In terms of her safety, she’s in good hands.”
If that was supposed to alleviate Charles’s fears, it didn’t work. The only hands he wanted his wife in were his. But he thanked Norm anyway and made his way around the backside of the Inn toward the portico. His face looked grim and he put back on his shades in an attempt to conceal just how grim he felt. He was in a mood that even he couldn’t describe. That sense of urgency was still there. Regardless of Jenay’s history with the guy, he didn’t like her going off with anybody he didn’t personally know.
But there was also a sense of fear. Of the unknown. Jenay never mentioned this guy. Never once. She, in fact, gave him the impression that after her devastating divorce from her ex, she wasn’t interested in any deep relationship. Now he just found out that she not only was in a deep relationship, but had accepted a proposal of marriage? Of marriage? Charles was floored.
He got in his car, and was about to call Brent to tell him to put out a BOLO on Jenay, when his phone rang. When he looked at the Caller ID, and saw who was calling him, he answered quickly. “Where are you?” he asked.
“I’m in the executive breakroom,” she said. “Where are you?”
“Out front. At the Inn. Norm thought you had left the premises.”
“I thought you would still be asleep.”
He should have been. But he couldn’t sleep much pass nine. He had been away for three days, and had to hit the road again by the weekend. He had too much to do.
“Can you come up?” she asked him.
For some reason Charles’s heart squeezed with fear. He could hear the emotion in her voice. And he couldn’t even bring himself to ask her why. “Yes,” he said, got out of the car, and headed upstairs.
CHAPTER TEN
The executive breakroom was on the second floor, and was designed mainly as a getaway for senior staff. When Charles entered the room, and saw Jenay and her ex, his heart began hammering. He wasn’t accustomed to feeling this way. He didn’t like feeling this way! He knew his wife. She wouldn’t just leave him, not even for some long, lost love. But he still couldn’t tamp down that awful feeling.
Jenay was seated on the sofa with her legs crossed, looking, Charles felt, almost traumatized, while the guy, with a heavy African accent, was seated in one of the chairs talking his head off. He seemed as if he was on top of the world, and was in the catbird seat. Jenay just seemed to be taking it all in.
“Hey,” Charles said, as he made his way toward them.
Percy immediately stood up. Charles was not a short man, but Percy had two-three inches on him. And all accounts were right: he was very nice-looking.
“You must be Charles,” he said jovially as he extended his hand.
Charles, however, was not the kind of man who could go along with something he wasn’t certain about. He, instead, looked at Jenay. “You okay?” he asked her.
Jenay wasn’t the kind to go-along-to-get-along either. She shook her head. “No,” she said.
Charles immediately sat beside her, and this time he took her hand. Percy looked at his own still-extended hand, smiled, and sat back down.
“What’s wrong?” Charles asked Jenay.
“I need to introduce you to somebody. His name is Percy Diallo. Percy, this is Charles.”
Already Charles didn’t like the introduction. He would have preferred she added the fact that he was her husband. But she didn’t. Probably because she wasn’t herself at all. Whatever. He let it go.
“It is nice to meet you, Charles,” Percy said with a smile.
“Hello,” was the most Charles could commit to. Then he looked again at Jenay. “What is this about, honey?” he asked her.
Jenay didn’t know any way to say it, but to just say it. She never mentioned him to Charles because she never thought she would have to. “Percy and I were once engaged to be married,” she said bluntly.
Percy looked at Charles for some reaction. But he got none. Jenay was surprised, too, but she kept talking. “He went home, to his native Botswana, for what I thought was a visit, and I never saw him again. Until now.”
“So he stiffed you?” Charles asked, and looked at Percy.
Jenay went on to explain about the accident, and the fact that Percy was told he would never walk again, and the letter she received stating that he had died.
“And now, out of the blue, he just shows up again?” Charles asked.
Percy smiled. “In so many words, that is correct.”
Charles ignored Percy. “I don’t get it,” he said to Jenay. “What am I missing? He broke your heart, and lied to you, and now he expects what? What is he doing here?”
“I was concerned about her when I returned to the States,” Percy said. “And so I decided to look her up.”
Charles finally turned his attention in full to Percy. “Why?” he asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Why?” Charles asked again. “Why would you need to look up my wife?”
Percy had not expected such bluntness, although, given Charles’s background, he knew he should have expected it. “I wanted to let her know how much I still care for her well-being.”
Jenay frowned. “Bull shit,” she said, and both Charles and Percy looked at her. “Don’t even try that, Perce.”
“What I mean to say,” Percy attempted a correction, “is yes, I did hold out hope that we could rekindle something. A friendship if nothing else. I would like you back in my life. As a friend.”
Charles was about to jump on that statement too, but Jenay beat him to the punch again. “That’s not going to happen,” she said. “That’s why I wanted you to meet my husband. So that I could make it clear to you that you can get any such thoughts out of your head.”
&n
bsp; Percy smiled, but Charles could see the kink in his armor. “You fail to understand me. I am not attempting to take you away from your husband. I am attempting to befriend you for now. If, in the future, we can rekindle what we had, then that is for us to decide at that time.”
Charles couldn’t believe it. “Get a load of this guy,” he said. “You don’t want to steal my wife up front. Not yet. But later, in an alley somewhere, then it’s on. That’s what you’re saying.”
Percy closed his eyes, as if he was being drastically misunderstood. He reopened them. But the smile and merriment were gone. Anger was there now. “I wanted to make sure Jenay was okay. Okay? That is the long and short of it. I would not have come at all, to be honest, if my investigation would have told me that she was well cared for.”
Charles frowned. “She is well cared for!”
“Now that is the bullshit,” Percy said.
Charles jumped to his feet. Percy rose too. And Jenay rose, in between them. “That’s enough,” she said to both men. Then she looked at Percy. “I’m fine,” she said. “I loved you once, yes, I did. But I love Charles now. And I’ve never loved anybody the way I love him. I’ve never loved like this before.”
But Percy appeared unconvinced. “Why are you doing this?” he asked her.
Jenay was puzzled. “Doing what?”
“Are you afraid of him? Is that it? You needn’t be, Jenay. I am not a man without connections. You don’t have to be afraid of him.”
Charles couldn’t believe it. “What the fuck? You come to our town with this nonsense? Why would my wife be afraid of me?”
“Percy, what are you talking about?” Jenay asked him.
“I didn’t just look into your background,” Percy said. “Once I realized you had married this person, I looked into his. And what I found left me speechless, and part of the reason why I made the decision to come and . . . rescue you.”
Charles couldn’t believe it. “Rescue her? From what? Me? Get the fuck out of my face!”
But Jenay stopped his aggression. “No, Charles. Let him speak. I want this settled once and for all. That’s why I asked you to come. To make sure he understood that this was not going anywhere, despite our past, and he can go on about his business. Let him say what he has to say.”
“Your husband does not want me to speak the truth,” Percy said. “That is what all of the aggression is--”
But Jenay cut him off. “Perce, you truly don’t know who you’re dealing with here. Charles Sinatra is not the one, okay? Now get on with it. Say what you have to say.”
Percy had to let out a hard exhale. And then he continued. “I not only checked up on you, Jenay,” he said, “but I checked up on this husband of yours as well. And what I discovered, oh my goodness. It--”
“It made you want to faint, we know,” Charles said. “Get on with it.”
“I don’t know how much you know, Jenay,” Percy continued, “but his brother is one of the most vicious, ruthless mob bosses in America. They even have a nickname for him. The Tick, they call him. I am not sure why exactly, but he is said to be a devastatingly terrible person. But it doesn’t stop there. His sister, Amelia, is shady too. What type of shady she is, isn’t quite clear, but it is probably as bad as the other one. The brother. And it doesn’t end there. He has three, and yes, I said three nephews who are major mobsters too. The Gabrinis they call them, and they are nasty pieces of work.”
Had it been anybody else giving her this report on her family, she would have laughed in his face. He didn’t know any of the people he named. He had no idea about their heart or anything else about them. Just their baggage. But that was Percy. “What does anything you mentioned have to do with my husband? He’s no mobster. Why are you equating anybody else to him?”
“The apple does not fall far from the tree,” Percy said. “That is all I am saying.”
“Man, get your ass out of my hotel!” Charles declared. “I can’t believe I’m listening to this shit to begin with!”
“I’m looking out for you, Jenay,” Percy said. “That is all I am trying to do.”
“You’re looking out for me the same way you looked out for me when you lied and said you were dead?”
“It was because of my love for you,” Percy made clear. “I did not want you to have to take care of me.”
“You didn’t want me to see you down, Perce,” Jenay said. “That’s all that was about. It was about you and your pride, not your love for me.” Tears appeared in Jenay’s eyes. But Charles knew his wife. They weren’t tears of regret about what might have been. They were tears of anger. “You put me through hell worrying about you, and then mourning your death, when it wasn’t true. And you expect me to come back from that? You expect me to just accept you back and shake your hand and pretend you didn’t fuck me up? Are you serious? You’d better be glad I don’t fuck you up right now.”
“I know that’s right,” Charles added.
“Get out of Jericho, Percy,” Jenay said. “Go back to DC and your cushy job in the embassy and leave me the hell alone. Because if you don’t, I’ll sic my husband on you. And if you think Mick the Tick and the Gabrinis are bad, wait until you get a load of Big Daddy.”
Percy wasn’t certain who she meant by Big Daddy, but assumed it was that creature standing next to her. But it wasn’t like he cared. He was just trying to help her little ignorant ass. He wanted that ass again, that was a major part of it too. But still. “You can call me if you ever need me,” he said to Jenay. “Good day.”
And as quickly as he came into her life, he left it.
It was only after he left did the emotions of the past overtake Jenay again. And she fell against Charles.
Charles, understanding better now, pulled her into his arms. Percy Diallo was a flash in the pan. A blast from the past. A man who remembered how good it felt to swim with Jenay, and came by to dip his toe in again, and test those waters. At least that was what he would have them believe.
But in this world, Charles was not the believing type. He had to see it to believe it. And he was going to keep his eyes, and his investigators, on Percy.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jenay worked the following day with the assuredness of a person who wasn’t thinking twice about the decision she made. There was a time before she met Charles, when seeing Percy again, despite the devastating lie he forced her to believe, would have been a dream come true. All might have been forgiven and she might have actually believed that his lie was an act of unselfish love.
But she wasn’t that girl anymore. Too many heartaches and heartbreaks changed her. Now she saw Percy’s act for what it was: a selfish disregard for her feelings, and a grave disrespect for her ability to make her own decisions. He should have allowed her to decide if she wanted to be with a person who would have medical issues. He should have never taken that right away from her. But he did.
She even forgot about Percy as she worked. Those upcoming conventions next week dominated her thoughts. And getting home. To Charles. And to their child.
“Ready?” Donald asked as he stood outside of her office door.
She looked at him as she locked her office door. “You need a ride home again?”
“Yeah, Ma, I told you. My car is still in the shop.”
“Why doesn’t any of those girls you fool with have cars?”
“I’m not fooling with anybody right now.”
“Yeah, right,” Jenay said, and Donald smiled.
And after another long day at work, they began heading out. They said their goodbyes to their nightshift workers, and made their way toward the lobby.
Becky Hamlisch stopped talking to another clerk to make sure she gave the boss a personal good bye. “Have a good evening, Mrs. Sinatra,” she said with a smile as Jenay and Donald waved and walked by the front desk.
“You’re pulling a double shift?” Jenay asked.
“Yes, ma’am. I’m always glad to help out when somebody else drops the ball.”
Jenay found her commentary odd. Somebody was out sick and she called it dropping the ball? Jenay thanked her anyway, and she and Donald headed out. Jenay smiled and shook her head.
“I know, right,” Donald said, smiling too. “She wants to get ahead, but she doesn’t know how to go about it the correct way. I already told her you can see right through that fake stuff she’s always pulling. But she doesn’t believe me.”
The other clerk smiled and elbowed Becky as Jenay and Donald headed for the exit. “You are such a butt kisser,” she said.
“Damn right,” Becky responded, tossing her blonde hair out of her thin face. “And I’m going to keep kissing every butt I can until I get me a senior position here. I know what I’m doing!” she added, and she and the clerk laughed.
Jenay and Donald heard their laughter, but didn’t care what it was about. They just wanted to get away before yet another one of their employees ran to them with yet another problem that needed solving. It seemed as if, ever since they realized the staff had booked three conventions during the same week, that their days were loaded with issues.
But when they walked out of the lobby’s side exit, and headed for the parking space just outside the door, where Jenay kept her Mercedes, they nearly stopped in their tracks. Because standing there, with his arms folded, and with his muscular body leaned against his Jag, was Charles. Looking sexy as hell, she also noticed, even though he was wearing shades in the evening.
She smiled, and walked over to him. “What are you doing here?”
He had been neglecting her. Nobody had to tell him. He already knew it. But Percy’s sudden appearance crystallized it for him. And he was trying to make amends. “Thought I’d take you to dinner,” he said.
“Oh, really now?” Jenay couldn’t remember the last time they went out to dinner. But the last thing she wanted to do tonight was eat at her workplace. “Where?” she asked. “Here at the Inn?”
“Hell no,” Charles responded, and placed his arms around her waist. “I reserved a table at Campion’s.”
Big Daddy Sinatra: Charles In Charge (Big Daddy Sinatra Series Book 6) Page 6
