Harlequin Historical September 2021--Box Set 1 of 2

by Christine Merrill

  The sounds of music and people laughing and talking filtered out to the hall, where Lorenzo now stood with Evelyn. “Thanks for letting me show up on your doorstep with no real reason,” he said. “I hope to do it again soon.”

  Lorenzo held his breath for Evelyn’s response. Being shot down was not something he wanted to happen in front of people, so he’d decided to try and set up their next date before going inside the club. His heart raced as he realized just how much he wanted to see her again, alone, so he could really enjoy her smile and their light-hearted banter.

  He had ensured that the women he’d been involved with in the past didn’t hang around long, so no attachments could be formed, but with Evelyn he wanted a connection to her. He needed it.

  “I’d like that,” she said with a bright smile.

  Lorenzo leaned down to kiss her gently on the mouth. He played with her plump bottom lip, nibbling it before pulling back from her.

  “I need to go to my winery next week—want to come with me?” Lorenzo said.

  “Sounds good.”

  Lorenzo was taken aback at how agreeable Evelyn was being. She’d turned him down so much and even run away from him. He’d been expecting her to decline his invitation...

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Evelyn

  Evelyn clutched a cup of coffee in one hand and the newspaper in her other. She sat in what had quickly become her favorite chair by the window. She often melted into this high-back green velvet chair after a long night of singing.

  She and Lorenzo had managed to get along well all week, and Evelyn felt rested after having had the previous night off. She’d even ventured out to see a bit of the city. Now she sat in her apartment, waiting to go to Lorenzo’s distillery and winery.

  The fundraiser was to be the next evening, and she was the star of the show. They’d spent the last few days getting things ordered for the big party. They hadn’t been alone, and Evelyn was very confused about the disappointment that had settled in her stomach.

  She’d opted for a three-quarter-length green dress that clung to her curves. Her pearls hung down low and she fiddled with them as she got up from the chair and paced her apartment, waiting for Lorenzo. This would be the first time it would be just the two of them since the night they’d made love.

  Since the night her grand had come to the club, she had tried to insist that Evelyn try spending time with other young men before settling on one, but Evelyn didn’t have the time or the desire to spend time with anyone other than Lorenzo.

  Evelyn had hired back her grand’s nurse, and things had been doing remarkably well. Evelyn had even started singing from a place other than pain and anger. She envisioned her night of passion with Lorenzo while she was on stage, and that had produced a seductive, sultry sound for her new songs that she absolutely loved.

  The crowd danced and writhed along with her, and Lorenzo had spent every evening staring at her for nearly the entire set. The only time he wasn’t watching her was when he met with Jeb, Dred and Tommy on occasion.

  The knock at the door shattered the silence of her morning.

  “Hold on. I’ll be right there.”

  She grabbed her gloves and slipped them on. She took her coat from the closet and put her purse on her shoulder. Opening the door, she gasped.

  “Hello, gorgeous.” Lorenzo stood there with a bouquet of pink roses. “Pink roses symbolize grace, happiness and gentleness. You are the epitome of all that.” He handed her the bouquet.

  “Thank you, Lorenzo. There you go again. sounding like a salesman.”

  They both laughed.

  Evelyn put down her purse and her coat so she could go get a vase and water. She placed the flowers on the table next to her favorite chair. Lorenzo still stood by the door.

  “Do you want to come in for a cup of coffee?”

  Evelyn’s heart raced. She wanted to be alone with him again. Images of their night together had consumed her over the last week.

  “I do want to, but we should really head out if we’re going to get back in time to set up for tomorrow night.”

  Lorenzo wore a three-piece light gray suit with a striped tie. The way his chest bulged under the rich fabric sent heat to Evelyn’s most intimate place. She wanted him to take her on top of her counter right then.

  “Of course,” Evelyn said, grabbing her coat and purse again.

  They walked to the elevator and rode down in silence. Evelyn stared in front of her. When she did risk a look in Lorenzo’s direction, he was staring at her with heat in his gray-green eyes.

  Jerry stood by Lorenzo’s Rolls-Royce with the door open. Evelyn got in first, and Lorenzo climbed in after her. October in Kansas City was cold, and Lorenzo seemed to notice Evelyn shiver. He slid close to her and wrapped his arms around her.

  The car was already running, so it was warm, but Evelyn wouldn’t turn down a chance to be close to Lorenzo. He slid her gloves down, placing kisses on her scars before pulling the gloves back up. They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment. Then the car pulled away from the club and headed to the road that would take them the twenty miles outside of the city.

  Lorenzo had told Evelyn how close to West Eden his distillery and winery was. She’d been amazed at the coincidence. She’d never traveled past the road to West Eden, but she was finally going to get to see what was just beyond her town.

  “It’s been a busy week,” Lorenzo said.

  “Yes, it has.”

  “Are you looking forward to the fundraiser?”

  “I am. I think it’s amazing what you’ve done.”

  “I couldn’t have made it happen without you. Thanks again. You have an eye for detail that is simply remarkable.”

  Evelyn smiled, not sure what to say. She turned her gaze out the window. Sometimes it felt like she and Lorenzo were in an alternative universe. Like when they were together anything was possible. She hated going back to reality, where everything was meant to keep them apart. Perhaps they would find a place where they could be together...

  “What’s on your mind?” he asked.

  “Everything...and nothing,” she said, smiling shyly.

  “I’ve wanted to be alone with you every moment of this week,” he said.

  “You have?”

  “Yes, but I’m trying to give you space. I don’t want you to feel pressured into anything that you aren’t ready for.”

  Evelyn considered this. Was she ready for a relationship with a man who was known to be lethal? She’d already realized that no matter what Lorenzo’s past might have been, the man he was now was good. Everyone had a past.

  “I’m going to kiss you,” Lorenzo said.

  Evelyn nodded.

  Lorenzo’s mouth was warm against hers. She lost herself in his savory scent and the taste of his sweet breath. They kissed for a long moment. Evelyn wasn’t even sure where they were.

  “We’re here, boss.” Jerry shut the car off and got out.

  Evelyn looked around, startled. She hadn’t even noticed that they’d pulled up outside of a huge brick building in the middle of an open field. There was a fence that surrounded the perimeter.

  Jerry opened the door and Lorenzo exited first, holding his hand out to help Evelyn.

  “This is amazing...”

  Evelyn took in the beauty of the distillery and winery. She hadn’t expected it to have huge gardens with flowers of all kinds and trees. She saw rows and rows of grapevines in the distance.

  “This is magnificent!”

  “It’s one of my favorite places to come when I need a break from the hustle and bustle of the city. Come with me. Let me show you around. I wish it were warmer—we’d have wine and dinner in the vineyard—but I have a surprise inside that might make up for us not being able to.”

  Lorenzo took her hand and led her up the massive step
s to the front door.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Lorenzo

  Lorenzo wanted everything to be perfect. He’d asked Evelyn to have a seat and then he’d gone to get everything ready. This was his chance, even if just for a moment, to be the kind of man Evelyn deserved. He would spoil her with delicatessens, some of the freshest seafood money could buy and the best wine from his winery. He couldn’t wait to get their first course out to her.

  He’d just finished plating the Waldorf salad when a car door shutting outside drew his attention. Then Dred slipped into the back through the kitchen, where Lorenzo was getting the tray ready to carry out to Evelyn.

  “What are you doing here?” Lorenzo tried to assess Dred’s mood. It wasn’t like her to pop up when he was entertaining someone.

  “I’m sorry, but I wanted you to know that everything is set up for our ambush on the KKK. That detective must have run right back to them and told them what you said. I’ve also come to let you know the Ricci family had something in the works for tonight, but Jeb, your father and I took care of it. You and Evelyn are safe, so have fun, okay?”

  She smiled. Something she never did.

  Lorenzo hugged her. “Thank you.”

  He loved how she was always looking out for him, and it seemed that she approved of his pursuit of Evelyn, which meant a lot to him. She was his closest family at the moment, since he was still keeping his distance from the De Lucas, with the exception of the ambush.

  She shoved him away. “Now get out there. You shouldn’t keep a lady waiting, I hear. Or something like that.”

  They both laughed and Dred slipped out as Lorenzo grabbed the tray with the salad and the first glasses of wine and carried it out to Evelyn.

  “Lorenzo, I hope you didn’t go to any trouble.” Evelyn’s eyes lit up when she saw the first course.

  “There isn’t any amount of trouble I wouldn’t go to for you.”

  Lorenzo sat. When he looked at Evelyn, one eyebrow was arched.

  “Okay, I know. I sound like a salesman again.” They both laughed. “I’ll try to keep those comments at a minimum, but I make no promises.”

  They ate in silence for a moment, just enjoying each other’s company.

  “This wine is delectable. How’d you make it?” Evelyn closed her eyes, seeming to savor the notes of the wine.

  “We pick grapes right before they’re ripe and press them with citrus, and then we interrupt the fermenting process to allow just a touch of sweetness.”

  “Wow, it’s amazing... Really.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. Her eyes were so golden and her rose-colored lips begged to be kissed.

  “How’d you get into all of this?”

  “When word started circulating that alcohol was going to be outlawed, I managed to buy the winery at a knockdown price. My business was doing well, and I didn’t want the place to just sit. It was too beautiful. Then I started learning about how to make other kinds of liquor, which led to me getting involved with the distillery and some speakeasies. I fell in love with music all over again. My family had a few bars when I was younger, and I saw how it brought so many different kinds of people together. I wanted to do that too. It just made sense to open Blues Moon.”

  “Wow, it seems like you’ve always known what you wanted to do.”

  “Not always. There was a time when I questioned everything I was and everything I knew.”

  “Really? Why? You seem so sure of everything now.”

  “You should know that the only person I’ve ever been in a serious relationship with was murdered.” He looked at Evelyn. “Because of me.”

  “Oh, my... Lorenzo, I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s something that I still struggle with to this day. Although it was almost ten years ago now. I care so much for you, Evelyn. I never thought I’d feel this way about anyone else. I told myself I didn’t deserve to feel this way ever again.”

  “Ten years ago? You couldn’t have been but a teenager when it happened. It couldn’t have been your fault, Lorenzo.”

  “It was. If she hadn’t been with me they wouldn’t have killed her. The Ricci family did it, as retaliation for what I did.”

  Evelyn waited. It must be obvious to her that he struggled to share this with her.

  “My father wanted me to kill one of the Ricci family’s future Dons. He was a kid the same age as me. I went to his house and I was going to do it. My father had told me that the Riccis kidnapped one of my cousins when she was just thirteen years old and tortured her before they killed her. It was just another tragedy in the ongoing war between our families, but when I saw the kid come out of the house I didn’t want to kill him. I couldn’t. So I shot him to make it seem like I was trying to kill him. I didn’t want my father to think I was a coward, and that I didn’t take my future as a boss seriously, but I was only seventeen years old. I shot him in the leg.”

  Tears clouded Lorenzo’s eyes. “I’ve never killed anyone. I didn’t think I could until I saw Simmens hurting you. I lost it, and I would have killed him if you hadn’t stopped me. That scared me...that I could get that angry, just like my father.”

  “Oh, Lorenzo.”

  Evelyn pulled him into an embrace. He breathed heavily against her neck. She held him and ran her hands up and down his back.

  “You were just protecting me. And when you shot that kid you were just trying to do what you thought was right. We’ve all done things in the name of what we believed was right at the time. You can’t hold the decisions of your past against who you are today. Eventually you’re going to have to allow yourself some happiness.”

  Lorenzo pulled away. “Being in my life is a risk. It’s dangerous for anyone to get close to me. I’ve distanced myself from the mob, but once you’re known in this world there really isn’t a way out. I knew that back then, and I still let her fall for me.”

  “You’re easy to fall for,” Evelyn said.

  “I’ve never told anyone what really happened that day. I’ve never admitted that I didn’t want to kill him. I think my father knew, though, because I’m an excellent shot. I have been since I was ten years old. If I’d wanted to kill that kid I could have—easily. But my father has never asked me outright about what went wrong and why the kid wasn’t dead. It wasn’t long after that when my grandfather and father took care of the Ricci bosses. The war went cold, but now the younger Riccis are preparing to retaliate after all these years. And even though I’ve stepped away from my family, that doesn’t matter. The Mafia never forgets.”

  Lorenzo drank the rest of his wine and poured some more from the bottle that he’d placed in a cooling bucket next to their table. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his seat.

  “Her name was Holly. We were just kids, but we thought we were in love. We’d known each other since we were ten years old. Our fathers were close friends. Her family wasn’t involved in the mob, though. They were good people—religious-like, you know?”

  Lorenzo blew out a breath.

  “We were going to get married that summer. I would be turning eighteen and she had just turned eighteen. We couldn’t wait. Our families didn’t exactly approve, but they didn’t object either. We’d been in each other’s lives for so long it just made sense, I guess. Now that I look back, I’m not sure that we were in love as much as we were best friends... One night, after a particularly ugly clash with the Ricci family, Holly and I were walking downtown. We had nowhere to go. We were just walking around and talking. It was warm that fall night, and we wanted to enjoy it before the weather turned, like it does in Kansas City. Anyway, I heard some men walking up behind us, and before I could turn to see what was going on out of nowhere, Dred jumped from a fire escape above where we were standing. She swiped with her leg and one of the men—the man pointing his gun at me—fell backward. Jeb appeared, but the other man shot Holly befor
e Jeb could knock him out. She was shot in the chest. The guy who shot her was so young...like us. Jeb was going to finish him off, but the kid managed to wrestle free and took off running. There were too many people on the street for Jeb to get a clean shot.”

  Lorenzo took another breath, trying to keep the memories at bay.

  “I kneeled down next to Holly. She looked up at me with pleading eyes. She couldn’t speak because she was bleeding internally. She died right there in my arms.”

  Lorenzo exhaled when he was done. Had he said too much? He didn’t want Evelyn to live with his burdens. But once he’d started, he just hadn’t been able to stop. He’d never confided in anyone like this before. Now he was having second thoughts.

  “My God. Why were they trying to kill you?”

  “For what my father and uncles did...for what my father made me do. That’s how it goes, you know? One family kills a member of the other family, and then there’s retaliation. It is a never-ending fight.”

  “And that’s why you didn’t want to let things go too far with me?” Evelyn said, as if to herself rather than to Lorenzo.

  “Yeah.” Lorenzo stood to go get the main course. “I’ll be right back.”

  He picked up their plates. He felt a sense of relief. At least now Evelyn would know why she should stay away from him. He wanted to be with her so bad his throat closed at the thought of never being with her again, but it was for her safety, and nothing else mattered.

  When he returned, he found her in the small office at the front of the winery, looking out of the window.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked.

  Evelyn turned to look at him. Her eyes were damp and she swiped at a tear that fell down her cheek. She nodded and walked toward the table. Lorenzo met her halfway and engulfed her in his arms.

  “I won’t let anything hurt you. You don’t have to worry.”

  She pulled away and looked at him. “I’m not worried about that. I’m worried for you. How will you ever be safe if you stay in this city? In this business? You can’t choose your family, Lorenzo. Sometimes you have to live the life you’ve been given, and that means doing what you have to do to survive.”