Bobby Sinatra: In All the Wrong Places (The Rags to Romance Series Book 1)

by Mallory Monroe

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  By the time we make it back to my penthouse, Ayden’s fast asleep, and so is Ma. But Pop’s wide awake, with Ma on his lap on my sofa, and Rain’s pacing the floor. When she sees me walk through that door, and that I’m in one piece, she runs to me.

  “Bobby!” she cries, waking Ma up, and throws herself into my arms. I’m as happy to see her again as she is to see me. I called and told her we were on our way back. I told her what happened, and that I was okay. But I guess she had to see me to believe me.

  And then we all settle back down. I’m surprised Uncle Mick’s sticking around, but he does. At least until he gets a phone call.

  He walks away from us as he answers it, but it doesn’t take long for him to come right back.

  “What is it, Mick?” Pop asks him.

  “Barry Clayton,” he says.

  “What about him?” I ask.

  “Barry Clayton died six years ago,” Unc says.

  What? “He’s dead?” Now I’m confused as hell. Everybody is. “Why would Moby lie like that if the man been dead?” Rain asks me.

  “And why would he lie like that when he had to know lying wasn’t going to profit him?” Pop asks too.

  But I have no answers for any of them. I have no idea why he lied. But the lack of information is enough for Uncle Mick to decide it’s time for him to pack it in. To go. He’ll keep his men on the case, he tells me, but he wants me and Rain to search our brains. And to mainly focus on Moby. Don’t rule out the possibility that the buck stopped with him, Unc says. And then he’s gone.

  Ma and Pop follow soon after him. Ma tells us to get ourselves some sleep, and Pop goes and take a peep at Ayden first, to make sure he’s okay. And then they leave too.

  But when they do, it seems as if they took all the energy out of the room. Rain and I are exhausted. We fall back onto my sofa and just stay right there. It’s a terrible feeling when you think you’ve made progress, only to find out you’re back at square one. Who tried to kill Rain or me or both of us, and why did they try it?

  “But anyway,” Rain says as if we were holding some longwinded conversation when we hadn’t said a word, “let’s go to bed. Your mother’s right. We need to get some sleep.”

  I stand up, and help her up, and we begin heading for my bedroom. We already decided that she and Ayden will stay with me until we catch whoever’s behind what happened to us. Rain’s also decided, I think, that she’s not going to pretend Ayden doesn’t know we fuck. She’s going to my bedroom. We’re a couple now, in every sense of the word.

  But that’s when it hits me. Not about the fact that we’re a couple, but about what Jenay said.

  “You mean what she said about us needing to get some sleep?” Rain asks me when I tell her.

  “No,” I say. “About what she said earlier.”

  “What did she say earlier?”

  And here I was thinking it was some jealous female looking to get back at Bobby, was what she said.

  “What about it?” Rain asks after I tell her what Jenay had said. “You think she’s right?”

  I pull out my cell phone, and start searching for that name.

  “Bobby?” she’s asking me. “You think your mother’s right, and it’s all about some scorned woman from your past?”

  “Found it!” I say.

  “Found what?” Rain asks.

  “The name of this woman who called me one morning complaining that I didn’t show up for some date we supposedly had.”

  “Why would you think of her?”

  “Three reasons. First,” I say, “it was strange that she would claim I asked her out because I’d sworn off women at that time. I was trying to run a town. I wasn’t trying to date anybody.”

  “And?”

  “Her name,” I say. I show the name to Rain. “Kim Barry.”

  Rain look at me. “Kim Barry?”

  “But Barry’s all Moby said. I just assumed he meant Barry Clayton.”

  “But he could have meant Kim Barry,” Rain says, and I’m nodding. “Right,” I say.

  And then I’m on the phone to Gerard. I want him to find that bitch.

  “You said three reasons,” Rain says as I’m calling Rod. “What’s the third reason?”

  “Because I’ve never heard of a Kim Barry before that phone call. I don’t know her.”

  “Now that is strange,” she says, and Gerard comes on the line.

  “Get Rasta to run a background for me. And this one is vital.”

  “Cool. Who?”

  “A Kim Barry,” I say.

  “Kim?” Gerard asks. “What’s up with Kim?”

  The phone’s on Speaker so Rain and I look at each other. “You know her?” I ask my right-hand guy.

  “Very funny, Bobby.”

  “What?”

  “Your ass knows her too.”

  Rain look at me, but I’m figuring Gerard’s nuts. “I know her? I don’t know any Kim Barry!”

  “But you know Kim Copeland, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “She’s Kim Barry now. She married that psycho, remember? The guy who poured gasoline on her and nearly killed her? It was something like seven, eight years ago.”

  “Oh, yeah. I remember that story. That was Kim?”

  “Yep. You dumped her so she took up with crazy man. He ended up committing suicide. She had a lot of surgeries, from what I heard, but she still had to live with what he’d done.”

  “But isn’t she in Boston? I lived in Boston when I first met her.”

  “She left town after you dumped her. But after her husband tried to kill her, she ended up here in Jericho. She was staying with some other man in town, I heard, but I never saw her to know if any of that’s true. But why you need a background on her?”

  Now I’m flustered. I look at Rain. Pop always told me my past with these women was going to catch up with me someday. Now it appears a woman with a mighty powerful motive has caught up with me. And aim to take me, and the woman I love dearly, away from here.

  “Tell Rasta to get an address on her,” I say, “and call me back.”

  “Will do,” Gerard says, without asking me more questions, and I end the call.

  “Why would she blame you,” Rain asks me, “for what her husband did to her?”

  “Because if I wouldn’t have dumped her, she would have never met him and he would have never done to her what he did to her. Yada yada yada.”

  “But she can’t believe that. Because if that’s true, everybody will be able to blame everybody else for every bad thing that happens to them. She can’t blame anybody but the man who harmed her.”

  “That’s what you say. That’s what I say. That’s apparently not what she says.”

  “And why would she,” Rain starts saying, but the doorbell rings.

  I look at her. “Have you heard from Brent yet?” I start heading for the door.

  “No,” Rain says. “I haven’t heard a word. You think that’s him?”

  I don’t know, so I don’t say.

  When I look through the peephole and see that it’s my senior aide Kathy, and my executive assistant Jolien, both senior members of my staff the lobby manager would have allowed to come on up, I open the door.

  “Sir, are you alright?” Kathy’s talking as soon as I open the door. “We just heard the news.”

  “I’m okay. We’re okay. But I thought you guys were still in Augusta.” They were summoned to the state capitol to brief the governor on Laura’s allegations and retraction. He has the power, in Maine, to remove me from office for what’s called gross misconduct, until the voters can cast a new ballot to determine my fate. And they’re back already?

  “We just got back. When Neil told us what happened, we came right over.”

  “Okay, what’s the verdict?” I ask them. “Is he going to remove me from office?”

  “Absolutely not,” Jolien says in her precise English. “He realized it was a load of bunk, so he did
n’t detain us and told us to tell you he wishes you Godspeed.”

  I smile. “Good. That’s what I wanted to hear. Come on in!” And they come in.

  Both ladies look shocked when they see Rain standing by my sofa. “You’ve both met Rain Hopson, I believe,” I say to them.

  Kathy looks really turned off. Jolien smiles and extends her hand. “Yes, we have met. Hi.”

  “How are you?” Rain says as the two ladies shake hands.

  “Hey,” Kathy says flatly, and then turn to me. She’s a talented young lady with territorial issues. She thinks, in other words, that I’m her man. I told her about it more than a few times, and that if she keeps that shit up even her talent won’t keep her around. But she’ll still slip sometimes.

  “What happened, sir,” she’s asking me. “Neil said there was some sort of shootout?”

  “It wasn’t a shootout,” I say, as I make my way to the sofa. “It was a shooting. But we’re okay.”

  “Why would somebody want to shoot you?” Kathy asks. “I mean, I know why Laura might, but why would anybody else?”

  “Because he’s an asshole,” Jolien says, shocking the shit out of me, and everybody look at her. And that’s when she pulls out a gun.

  A gun? Jolien?

  “What are you doing?” I ask her. I immediately get in front of Rain.

  Even Kathy’s shocked. “Jollie?” she asks her. “What’s wrong with you? Put that thing down!”

  “Shut the fuck up and get over there!” she says to Kathy, and Kat hurries over by me and Rain.

  Then Jolien looks at me. “I’ve been working for you for three long years,” she says. “And you never even looked at me.”

  I’m staring at her now. “What do you mean?”

  “You were my life. That’s why I did it. That’s why I went through all those plastic surgeries to completely change my appearance, just so I can be attractive enough to work for you.”

  “I never went by that,” I say to her. “And what are you talking about anyway?”

  “As if you don’t know!”

  “What?” I’m puzzled as a motherfuck. But then I realize what she’s talking about. I realize what she’s saying! And I frown. “But you can’t be her,” I say. “You’re Kim?”

  When I say it, Rain looks from around me. She’s shocked too. Jolien is a beautiful woman. There’s no evidence she’d ever been set on fire, or anything traumatic like that.

  “But that can’t be,” I find myself saying as I’m staring at her.

  “It is,” Jolien says. “If you loved me, if you ever loved me, you would have seen that it is. That’s why I went to work for you. That’s why I continued to work for you all these years. I just knew you would eventually see me somewhere in here. But you never did. Gerard never did either. But I always thought the man who claimed to love me would have seen me eventually.”

  “You hired the shooter at that dealership?” I ask her.

  “I hired Moby. Remember that’s how I first met you. Through Moby. He’s the one who introduced me to this great looking guy who worked for him. You took me to bed the first day we met. I went back to Moby when he got out of prison. I tried to give you another chance. That’s why I called you that morning. And your stupid butt didn’t even recognize my voice or anything about me. I’ve been your executive assistant for three years, and you still didn’t recognize my voice. Calling me Rachel!”

  “And because I fucked up your name, you decide I need to die?” I know there’s more to it than that, but I need to keep her talking while I figure out how I’m going to get that gun out of her hand.

  “I was through with you,” she says. “That’s why I paid Moby and Moby paid Dance to take you out. When that didn’t work, he paid Laura to try to ruin you. When that didn’t work either, I took over. I paid the man who shot up your girlfriend’s brand-new Lexus at that car dealership today. I paid him myself. I wanted him to do it while I was out of town. I wanted to come back in town and find out you were dead. I never dreamed it was going to be a car lot, but it didn’t matter. It still didn’t work. That’s why I was thrilled when Kathy’s crush on you caused her to want to hurry on over as soon as we got back in town. As soon as we found out there was a shooting, alright, but that you weren’t killed. Now,” she says, aiming her gun, “this shit has to work.”

  She lifts her gun. And she’s ready to fire it. And I know I have to act and I have to do it now!

  I grab Rain and I try to grab as much of Kathy as I can, and I dive, with both ladies, over the sofa.

  We all fall over the sofa, knocking it over too, as the bullet flies, but it grazes Kathy’s leg and she screams out. I get on top of Rain, and hold Kathy down as best I can, but my entire focus is Rain. I’ve got to make sure she’s okay. And I’m also praying Ayden keeps his ass in that bedroom!

  But my plan is a simple one. Lay low until she’s out of ammo. And it’s working so far. She’s shooting and shooting and I’m counting the shots. Four so far, and now she’s on number five. She’s shooting as she’s coming toward the sofa, determined to take her best shot. She’s shooting as if she’ll never run out of bullets. But I know guns, and I know that gun she’s holding. It will run out. And when she fires shot number eight, and then nine, I know she’s out. She suddenly knows it, too, because all she’s hearing now are the sound of clicks when she fires.

  I get up.

  “Bobby, no!” Rain cries, reaching for me. But I know what I’m doing. Jolien knows it, too, and she starts backing up. And tries to make a run for it. But there’s no getting away with it this time.

  I jump over my downed sofa and run after her. I catch her at the door, just as she’s opening it, and slam it back shut, it’s automatic lock locking it in place. I snatch that gun from her hand, and then I knock the shit out of her, knocking her to the ground.

  Rain and Kathy get up, too, with Kathy screaming in pain because she’s been grazed. Rain tries to help her stop the trickle of blood she does have, but she pushes her hand away. Ayden’s crying for his mother.

  “I’m alright, Ayden,” Rain yells back. “We’re both okay! Call 911 and stay in the room. Stay in the room!”

  I’m certain many people have already called 911 with all of that gunfire, but I’m glad Ayden’s alright.

  I look at Rain. “You’re okay?” I ask her.

  She hurries to me, nodding her head. She’s in a state of shock I can tell. “How did you know?” she’s asking me. “How could you know?”

  “I counted her shots,” I tell her. “She could have had less bullets in that particular revolver, but she couldn’t have had more than nine bullets. After bullet number nine, I knew she was through.”

  “Thank God she didn’t know that, too,” Rain says, and I couldn’t agree with her more.

  Then she looks at Jolien. “What’s wrong with these women?” she’s asking. “If it’s over, move the hell on. We’ve all been used before. She can’t make somebody love her.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” Jolien yells at Rain. “How would you know anything about it? Wait until he tosses you aside. Talk to me about moving on then!”

  Loud bangs are heard on my front door, causing Rain to jump. But I’m sure it’s my building security.

  But as I turn to look out of the peephole, to make sure that’s who it is before I open that door, I hear Rain yell Bobby, watch out, and then I feel her push me aside just as a knife is thrown through my door, exactly beneath my peephole. Exactly where I was standing before the push.

  When I look, I see that Jolien had thrown the knife, and Rain saw her throwing it and pushed me aside just in time. Rain, I realize, just saved my life.

  Security break the door down getting into my condo. I grab Rain, to make sure she’s out of their way, and I put my shoe on Jolien’s throat, to make sure she stays where she is.

  “Is she the problem?” one of the guards ask me.

  “If trying to kill us is a problem, then, yes, she’s definitely a problem.”
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  The guard hurry to handcuff Jolien.

  The other guard’s asking what happened. He’s anxiously asking if we’re alright, and if anybody needs an ambulance. Kathy yells that she needs one, but when he asks me again if me and Rain are alright, my response is more nuanced. Because despite what just went down, I tell him we’re fine. We aren’t, not after a crazy-ass day like today, but we will be.

  I know Me, Rain, and Ayden will be just fine.

  If it’s the last thing I do on the face of this earth, I’m going to see to that.

  EPILOGUE

  I’m at the back of the cathedral trying my best to keep it together. So many people are here I can’t believe the turnout. Every member of Bobby’s family, from his parents to his siblings to his uncles and cousins on down. Sinatras and Gabrinis and Reeses are in such huge supply that I can’t keep up with all the names. But they’ve all been so kind to me and to my son.

  Bobby’s all the way at the end of the long aisle. He’s standing there with Gerard Bakker, his best man, and all of his brothers. They’re his groomsmen. But guess what? Ayden’s standing there too. He’s a groomsman too! And his silly butt can’t stop laughing. He and Tony are joking around, and he can’t stop laughing. I don’t think I’ve ever recalled my child being any happier.

  But I can’t dwell on his happiness or I’ll start crying and there goes my makeup. Makeup Jenay had experts prepare for me.

  Jenay Sinatra is my matron of honor, which I’m honored to say, and Ashley and Carly and Uncle Mick’s daughter Gloria Sinatra, along with a few other girls I’ve met since I moved to Jericho, are my bridesmaids. A lot of the little Sinatras and Gabrinis are flower boys and flower girls, and they wait for the cue of the music to lead the way.

  Big Daddy Charles Sinatra, the man who treated me and my son like family almost right away, is giving me away.

  I invited my mother. Maybe it wasn’t for a pure reason. Maybe I just wanted to rub it in, but I did invite her. And she’s here, too, sitting up in this fine church with all these rich white folks like she’s one of them. Like she’s the proud mama who knew I’d make something of myself one of these days. I let her smile and do all her big talking because I know, deep down, that she’s shocked it’s me. I wasn’t worth a damn, she said. And she told my boy that too. She ain’t shit, she said to Ayden when he tried to defend me. But Ayden got her back.