“I couldn’t in front of her. Why did you have to bring her, Gabriel?”
“Dot, I told you I was bringing her. You didn’t object.”
“What would have been the point? You were on your way when you told me that.”
“What is it you want to say? Why can’t you tell me now?”
“I need to speak with you in person. It’s really important, Gabriel.”
He glanced at his watch. He still had a couple hours before he had to get ready for his date with Leiliana. “Okay. I can meet you now. Do you want me to come back to JJ Inc.?”
“No. I’ve already left. I can’t meet you now in any case. I’ve got a prior engagement. How about later this evening. I can stop by your place, perhaps?”
“I’m likely to return home pretty late. Let’s make it early tomorrow morning.”
She paused. “That may not be possible. Let me get back to you.”
~*~*~*~
Leiliana was fascinated by the Irish river dancing Broadway show. Seeing those talented men and women dancing their way across the stage on fleet feet was mesmerizing. It seemed to her to be a combination of ballet and tap dancing. As a former ballet dancer, she was fascinated. She had a real appreciation of how many painstaking hours of practice and discipline it would have taken to make those moves look so effortless.
“I want to learn to dance like that,” she whispered in Gabriel’s ear.
“I’m sure you could,” he whispered back. “I’ve seen the way your body moves when you walk. You have a natural rhythm.”
She felt a warm glow at his compliment and entwined her fingers with his.
A few seconds later, Gabriel’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He didn’t answer, and it soon went silent. A few seconds later, it began vibrating again.
Gabriel shifted her hand slightly, removed the phone from his pocket and checked the screen. Leiliana expected him to silence it, but instead, he whispered to her that he would be right back and got up and went out. She watched him as he ascended the theatre steps and saw him answer the call just before he disappeared through the doors.
She turned back to view the performance. Once again, riveted by the skilled dancers. She hoped Gabriel would be back soon. It was loads more fun watching with him by her side.
Several minutes later, she began to get restless. Where was he? She looked behind her to see if he was returning and, to her relief, saw him coming down the aisle.
When he got settled beside her, she whispered, “Is everything all right?”
He nodded and gave her a brief smile. “Aye,” he said. Then he turned back to view the screen.
Gabriel seemed to be pre-occupied from that moment on. Leiliana wondered who had called and what they had said to put him in such a pensive mood. She didn’t ask because she didn’t want him to think she was being nosy. She decided, instead, to focus on other matters.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing your place tonight,” she said as they got into the taxi.
Gabriel turned to her. “About that. It may not be the best idea for us to do that now. Listen, something came up that I have to deal with. Let’s call it a night.”
She was quite taken aback. “What do you mean? What came up?”
He hesitated. “I can’t discuss it now. I promise I’ll fill you in later.”
Leiliana didn’t like Gabriel’s secretive manner. Whatever happened to him not wanting her out of his sight? All of a sudden, he was behaving as though he couldn’t get away from him fast enough.
When they pulled up at his building, he seemed to suddenly remember that she was still there. He turned to watch her, and she saw familiar affection sparkle in his eyes for a moment.
“You look really lovely tonight. Did I tell you that?”
She found a smile. “Yes, you did.” She had worn a dress in the color that Gabriel seemed to favor, red. It was a cute little number with skinny straps, a surplice bodice, and a figure-hugging skirt that ended in a ruffled tulip hem. She’d thought she had made quite an impression, but it seemed as though there was something else commanding his attention at the moment.
He leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“Get home safely. I’ll call you tomorrow.” She nodded numbly and watched him as he got out of the vehicle.
As the driver began to pull away from the curb, Leiliana told him to wait. She watched Gabriel as he took the steps to his loft two at a time. Then she glanced at her watch. It was barely 9:15 p.m. She sat mulling over her next move. She didn’t feel like returning home quite yet. There was a friend of hers, Anita Bell, having a gallery opening reception not too far from there at that very moment. She had met Anita, the gallery owner, through her charity work with her family’s Changing Lives Foundation. The two had become friends, and Anita always invited Leiliana to participate in any charity events she was hosting like the one tonight. It sought to raise money to help inner-city kids through the sale of donated artwork from some of New York’s most prominent artists.
It had begun an hour and a half ago. Maybe she could catch the tail end of it now rather than spend the night alone speculating about Gabriel and his strange behavior.
She decided to call her friend.
The phone rang a few minutes, and then Anita answered.
“Hello?”
“Anita, this is Leiliana. Is the party still going on?”
“Hi, Leia. Absolutely. Why? Were you thinking of coming over?”
“Yes, the show is finished, and I’m free for the rest of the evening. I was thinking I could pop by.”
“That would be great. I’ll look out for you.”
Leiliana sat forward and gave the driver directions to the gallery. As she sat back and glanced out the window, she saw a woman alighting a vehicle. She was about to glance away when something about the woman caught her attention.
She stared. Was that Dot Judd? Leiliana sat forward and watched the woman some more as her car began to move.
“Hang on just a minute,” she said urgently to the driver.
The car braked suddenly. Leiliana lurched forward in her seat as she stared.
It was indeed Dot Judd. There was no mistaking that mane of dark hair or that walk anywhere.
Leiliana leaned back in shock. After a while, she berated herself for overreacting. The skyscraper, no doubt, held many apartments. Dot Judd could be on her way to visit anybody.
“Ma’am, would you like me to proceed now?” the voice of the driver broke through her thoughts.
Leiliana blinked several times, trying to clear her mind.
“Umm…yes. Please take me to the address I gave you.”
As they pulled onto the main street, Leiliana turned her head to watch as Dot alighted the steps and then disappeared through the doors.
Leiliana once more told herself that Dot could be visiting anybody. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that Dot was visiting Gabriel. All the way to the art gallery, she couldn’t shake the feeling.
~*~*~*~
“Come on in.”
Gabriel closed the door behind Dot and then led the way into his loft.
“Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to one of the sofas in the living room.
He stood against the wall, trying to keep physical distance between them. “So, what is it you wanted to tell me?”
Gabriel didn’t want to seem as though he was rushing Dot, but he was. He simply wanted her to share her mysterious news and leave. He felt very uncomfortable about this clandestine meeting. He didn’t like keeping things from Leiliana. But Dot had left him no choice.
When he had taken that call at the theatre, she had told him that she needed to meet him that night. “We need to meet tonight, Gabriel. It can’t wait until tomorrow. There’s something that you need to know before you finalize that merger with Lamport Holdings. Do not bring Leiliana Lamport with you.”
“Where?”
“I’m at dinner right now. I’ll come over to your place immediately afterward.”<
br />
That was why he had to bring his evening with Leiliana to an end. He could tell she was disappointed, but he couldn’t very well have her there when Dot showed up. That would have been a disaster. As soon as Dot left, though, he had every intention of calling Leiliana and confessing everything. He hoped she wouldn’t be too mad at him.
“I’ve always loved this apartment, Gabriel,” Dot drawled, gazing around. “It has such a marvelous view.”
“Thanks. So…the news…”
She laughed coquettishly and patted the seat beside her. “Come sit.”
He chose instead to sit in the two-seater opposite her. “You said there was something of critical importance you needed to tell me.”
She watched him through shrewd eyes. “Can you get me a glass of water.”
He was about to heave a sigh, then he checked himself. He was being awfully rude to this woman to whom he had once been engaged. His grandmother would admonish him for his lack of manners. “Of course. Please forgive me. Is that all you want? Can I get you anything else? Juice, tea?”
She shook her head. “Water is fine.”
“Sparkling or still?”
“Sparkling.”
When he returned with the drink, he found her staring out the window once again.
“Here you go,” he said, placing the glass on the coffee table.
She turned to watch him.
“This could have been our place.”
He took his seat slowly, thinking about the best response. “If things had gone differently, I guess it could have been. So, what was it you wanted to tell me so badly, Dot?”
“Are you telling me you feel nothing at all for me, Gabriel?” she said, appraising him with her bright blue eyes.
He spoke slowly. “Is that why you’re here? Is this the urgent news you wanted to share?”
She smiled at him and, for a moment, looked a bit like the Cheshire cat.
“Do you know that Patrick and I have been seeing each other?”
Gabriel tilted his head to one side. “Patrick who?”
She laughed. “Your brother, Patrick Walsh.”
“No, I wasn’t aware. When did this happen?”
“We got to know each other when he was overseeing the acquisition of JJ Inc. We’ve been out on several dates since then.”
Gabriel thought that this news wasn’t far-fetched. Just as Dmitri Lebedev had not been able to take his eyes off Dot when Gabriel had introduced them, Patrick had been similarly awestruck. He remembered Patrick’s comments on the night of the Innovation Awards about her looks. Perhaps he should have seen this coming.
“Is it serious?” he asked
She shrugged. “I’m still trying to decide. He’s good looking, fun to be with. But he isn’t you.”
“Was he the one you were dining with tonight?”
“As a matter of fact, he was. We weren’t dining alone, though. We were with a couple of friends. It was a group dinner.”
“Does he know you’re here with me now?”
Her expression turned serious. “Of course not.”
Suddenly something occurred to Gabriel. “Was he the one who told you about the merger between JJ Inc. and Lamport Holdings?”
Dot nodded.
“Well, in as much as I would have preferred him to have kept that private, I suppose it’s not a major deal that he shared it with you. I wish he would have discussed it with me first, but I understand the temptation of a man to confide in a woman he’s romantically involved with.”
He couldn’t help thinking of himself as he said this and how he had revealed so much to Leiliana during their first two dates. So much that he had ended up regretting it when her interest in JJ Inc. had been revealed. Bearing that in mind, he couldn’t be too hard on Patrick.
“That tidbit of information is not nearly the reason I called you Gabriel.”
“Oh?”
“I discovered something far more shocking. So shocking, in fact, that I spent days after trying to figure out how I was going to get your attention. You have successfully ignored my calls in the past. The letter from my lawyer objecting to the merger seemed like the best way.”
Chapter 20
I t took every ounce of Gabriel’s self-control to keep from screaming at Dot to just spit it out. Her need to be dramatic was sometimes just over the top.
“So, you are saying that the objection about the merger was just a decoy?” he asked.
“No, my objection is real. Just not for the reasons you think.”
Gabriel waited for Dot to continue, his eyes fixed on her.
“One night, Patrick shared something else with me. He told me he was concerned about what this merger with Lamport Holdings might bring to light about Walsh Enterprises when the due diligence process gets underway.”
The hairs on the back of Gabriel’s neck snapped to attention.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your indebtedness to A.L. Finance.”
“Why should that be an issue? Patrick told me they are brokers. They basically match lenders with borrowers. He told me that their services are used by a few of his acquaintances.”
Dot slowly shook her head. “You are so trusting of your little brother, Gabriel.”
“Dot, if you’ve got something to say, will you please just say it!”
“The people who access A.L. Finance are not upstanding, Gabriel. They are people no one else will lend money to because either their credit is terrible or they are too heavily indebted.”
Gabriel held up his hands. “Regrettably, that is also the state of things with Walsh Enterprises. We have a high debt servicing ratio. That doesn’t mean we aren’t upstanding people.”
Dot gave him an exasperated look. “Do you have any idea who owns A.L. Finance, Gabriel?”
“Patrick was never really able to get any information on—”
“Patrick knows the owners personally, Gabriel.”
Gabriel felt his adrenaline begin to race. If Patrick knew why hadn’t he told him? He’d been asking for months.
“Who are they?”
“Alexei Lebedev and his son Dmitri.”
Gabriel felt his blood run cold.
“Dmitri and his father?”
Dot nodded.
“Why would Patrick keep something like that from me?”
“He told me he went to Dmitri as a last resort after all your other options had failed. He didn’t tell you who owned A.L. Finance because he knows how you feel about Dmitri.”
“Why Dmitri? Why the Lebedevs? Of all the people in the world. Why them?”
“I wonder if you know how close my ex-husband and your brother really are?” Dot said, watching Gabriel with her head tilted to a side.
Gabriel stared at her. This was like one of those babushka dolls. Every time you opened one doll, another of decreasing size was inside. Only this was the opposite. The more Dot spoke, the more damning the information revealed.
“Dmitri was Patrick’s drug dealer when he was in high school. I believe you were away at college in Ireland at the time.”
“What are you talking about? Dmitri Lebedev is many things, but a drug peddler isn’t one. I have never even seen him smoke a joint.”
“Do you know why I divorced Dmitri, Gabriel?”
Gabriel felt like pulling out his hair. Why wouldn’t Dot just say what she had to instead of drawing out everything? It was like being stabbed to death with a dull knife.
“I don’t know, Dot. Why don’t you tell me?”
“It was because I found out that Dmitri is a high ranking member of the Russian Mafia. His father, Alexei, is the Mob boss.” She sat forward. “Even I have principles. When I found out the terrible crimes that they commit, human trafficking, drug trafficking, murder,” she shook her head, “It made what your father did look like child’s play. Is it so hard to believe that such a man, from such a family, would peddle drugs?”
The news that Alexei Lebedev was a mafia boss did no
t come as a surprise to Gabriel. During the time Barry Walsh and Company was being investigated, the FBI had questioned Gabriel extensively about Alexei Lebedev. He had told them all he had known, which was not much. Alexei Lebedev had been a client of Gabriel’s father for years. In fact, that was how Gabriel and Dmitri had become friends.
Rick Baranski of the FBI told Gabriel that many of Alexei Lebedev’s businesses were, in fact, used to launder money from organized crime. He shocked Gabriel when he revealed that the FBI suspected that Alexei was the current "big boss" of Russian organized crime in America.
Baranski told him, “We have reason to believe that Barry Walsh worked with the gang known as Shulaya clan to knowingly launder their money. More than $1.4 billion of dirty Russian money has been laundered through a series of financial transactions your father had with Lebedev in oil, coal, and other commodities in Bulgaria and Estonia. Hundreds of millions have been moved through accounts registered to Cash-End, one of the world’s largest coal traders and one of Barry Walsh and Company’s largest corporate clients. Much of that money went into accounts with ties to Lebedev, who had no formal ties to Cash-End. Yet, he moved colossal sums between several shadow bank accounts in dealings that appeared to be connected with the company. The laundered money was part of the gang's proceeds from drug trafficking, prostitution and protection rackets, extortion, illegal gambling, identity theft, and fraud on casino slot machines using electronic hacking devices.”
The Feds had believed that if they got Barry, then they would be able to persuade him to testify against Lebedev. “Your father knows a lot about this man’s dealings and can testify to his crimes in exchange for a reduced life sentence,” Rick Baranski had said.
At that time, if indicted, Barry would have faced 300 years in prison. Gabriel couldn’t imagine what reduced life sentence from 300 years would be attractive enough to get Barry to testify against a crime boss. Even if the term was reduced by 90 percent, his father would still spend 30 years in jail. This had been relayed to Barry through his lawyers. Gabriel suspected that his father had reached the same conclusion he had because Barry continued to insist that he was not guilty and refused to return to the States.
Falling For You Page 22
