Once Upon a Friendship

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  Because she knew everything about taking care of herself.

  “You’re a good boy,” Grace told him as he finished.

  He’d been about to roll his sleeves back down but stopped, deciding to head straight upstairs to the shower.

  “I just want you to know, whatever the papers have to say, I don’t believe them. Except maybe the part about you and our Gabrielle. Do you two really have something going? Because I have to tell you, if anyone deserves a fairy tale romance, it’s her.”

  He handed Grace’s wrench back to her. Washed his hands. And turned to her.

  “Gabi and Marie and I...we’ve been friends for a lot of years and I don’t want us to lose that. You understand?” He spoke gently, but waited for her silent nod before he continued.

  “The things the papers are saying about us...they’re lies. And they’re hurting Gabi. I need you to tell the other residents that Gabi and I...as a couple...it’s not true. They listen to you. And maybe, at least here at home, we can end this craziness and have some peace.”

  Her face fell, her lips completely losing their smile.

  “You’re sure, Mr. Liam? I know she’s a bit too serious, but Gabrielle’s a beautiful girl. Inside and out. And loyal. You’ll never meet anyone more loyal than that one.”

  Liam chose to avail himself of his Fifth Amendment rights—staying silent so as not to incriminate himself—all the while cringing on Gabrielle’s behalf. He could just hear the string of words that would come from her mouth if she were hearing this.

  “You’re sure there’s no way you could fall in love with her?”

  “I’m sure she doesn’t want me to.”

  “You’ve talked to her about it, then?”

  “Yes, ma’am. And she is as emphatic as I am about the whole thing.” He could look her in the eye with that one. “So can you spread the word for me?”

  Seemed like a fair trade for fixing her toilet.

  “Yes. Of course,” Grace said, but Liam had a feeling he’d just ruined her day.

  * * *

  GABRIELLE’S CALLS TO Walter Connelly went unanswered. She left two messages and a third with his secretary. When she’d still had no response by lunchtime, she grabbed the tuna sandwich she’d brought from home and ate it in the car on her way to the swank part of town where the Connelly Investments office building stood—still in business. Regardless of the pending grand jury indictment, the arms of the company not included in the FBI’s investigation were still open and available for business. Because only one series of investments was involved in the investigation, that left the majority of the company’s holdings to run business as normal.

  There’d been a run on accounts since Connelly’s arrest. But he had a lot of interests in companies that didn’t bear his name. Most people would never know those companies held ties to him. Certainly those whose lives were wrapped up in the companies he’d invested in wouldn’t want people to know. They’d go down with him.

  She made it in the front door because she knew Liam’s relationship with the security guard and introduced herself as his lawyer. With a little persuasion, she made it upstairs to the top floor, too. Escorted, of course.

  Coming off the elevator, not sure where she wanted to head, not sure which office was Walter Connelly’s, she glanced both ways.

  And saw a familiar someone, his back to her, going in an office two doors down. An unusually tall someone who would be hard to mistake.

  Elliott Tanner.

  He hadn’t seen her. But she’d seen whose office he’d entered.

  “Right this way, miss.” The security guard pointed in the opposite direction of the office Tanner had entered. And for the moment, she put the man out of her mind.

  In the large scheme of things, he was small.

  Liam had told her enough about the woman who guarded his father’s office to get a word in with her.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Miller, as I told you on the phone, Mr. Connelly is not going to speak with you. And he certainly has no interest in seeing you.”

  “He has to speak with me,” Gabrielle told the older woman sitting so pompously behind her desk. Liam had fondness for the woman—though at the moment Gabrielle couldn’t figure out why—so she smiled and said, “Gloria, I’m sorry to be a problem, but I’m Liam’s attorney of record and Mr. Connelly has filed charges against my client. I could speak with George, of course, but I suspect Mr. Connelly will want to conduct this business directly with me. Tell him that Liam and I spent the weekend in Florida.”

  The man was going to force her to play dirty. Which didn’t help her opinion of the coldhearted adulterer at all.

  Gloria took one look at the security guard standing just off to the right of the doorway and slipped through the door leading to the company president’s office. Did that mean she knew about Missy and Tamara? Or had Gabrielle been convincing enough that she thought she should consult her boss?

  She was back before a full minute had passed.

  “You can go in,” she said.

  The guard moved forward as Gabrielle did.

  “Alone,” Gloria said. “Mr. Connelly said to send her in alone.”

  That was that. Gabrielle knew even before she’d stepped through to the inner sanctum that she’d won.

  * * *

  “WHAT DID HE SAY?” Liam asked her as she called to tell him that the deed was done. She’d be back at her office with five minutes to spare for a bathroom break before her first afternoon appointment arrived—an obese thirty-four-year-old man with a chemical imbalance who needed her help applying for social security disability.

  “He said okay,” she reported, glancing in her side mirror as she switched lanes and sped up. “I walked in, he asked what I wanted and I told him our terms—your agreement to stay away from him as long as he dropped all charges against you. And he said okay. He told me to wait while he had Gloria draw up the paper, which I did. He’s already signed it. I’m to get your signature, deliver the form back to him and it’ll be done.”

  “Just like that? You didn’t have to threaten him?”

  “I asked Gloria to let him know we’d spent the weekend in Florida.”

  When he didn’t respond, she wished she could see his expression. “He and I never mentioned Tamara or Missy, Liam. But I’m sure he knows now that you know about them.”

  And still, Walter Connelly didn’t have a word to say to his son.

  While Gabi had dreamed the night before that she’d married him and given him a real family.

  * * *

  LIAM WAS AT home Thursday afternoon, two days after Gabi had met his father, putting the finishing touches on the first article in what was now going to be a series on financier Walter Connelly as told by his only son.

  Gabi had delivered his signed copy of the agreement between father and son the same day Walter had had it drawn up. Though he’d stayed in the car, Liam had ridden over with her—with Tanner somewhere behind them. Liam hadn’t been out of the apartment building since.

  He’d gone down for coffee each of the past couple of mornings. Visited with Marie. Her concern for him was nice. And he wanted to make certain that Tanner was good for his word and was seeing that Gabi made it to work safely, that security was still watching the place and that no one was bothering Marie or her business.

  When he looked outside his window just before dusk on Thursday evening, he didn’t see a single reporter left downstairs. He’d been checking a couple of times a day.

  He didn’t kid himself. They were in the wings, waiting to squeeze out the next drops of juice. But for now, all was quiet. Liam appreciated the silence.

  Tanner had checked in each day to ascertain that his services wouldn’t be needed. Liam had no idea what the man did after that.

  There’d been no word from h
is father.

  He hadn’t seen Gabi since the elevator had stopped at her floor after their errand late Tuesday afternoon. Hadn’t spoken with her in more than twenty-four hours. That hadn’t stopped him from reliving their kiss.

  Over and over again.

  And each time, he’d turned back to the computer screen and started writing about his father.

  When he hadn’t been writing, or going through personal files for pertinent dates and reminders of time with his father, he’d been going through Connelly files, pulling out anything and everything having to do with George.

  Something was bothering him about his father’s attorney. He just couldn’t find anything to give meat to his hunches. Or to give to Gabi to give to Gwen Menard.

  Standing at the window, feeling like a prisoner, he remembered an episode of an old sitcom he’d seen with the girls a time or two. Frasier had been one of their favorites. He’d found it boring at best.

  But there’d been a time when Martin, the ex-cop father of a couple of uppity psychiatrists, had been obsessing over a case he’d failed to solve while on the force. As Liam remembered it, everyone thought Martin was nuts. But he wouldn’t give up. Gradually others started to help him look for clues in the files he had spread all over the table, more to humor him than anything else.

  His sons moved the files around on the table. And that’s how Martin finally found the clue he’d been missing. By looking at everything in a new light.

  Seeing something that wasn’t in the mix before. Not a new item, just a new perspective.

  Liam returned to his Connelly files. There was a pile for items that had to do solely with George. Another pile for those in which only George and his father had been involved. And another that involved George and anyone else on the top floor.

  He rearranged. Keeping his father in one pile, George in another. But started to split up the files involving other top-floor executives. Separating out ones that both George and his father had been involved in.

  His name came up pretty much never.

  Until he came to an account he’d forgotten about—the Schlotsky family. A deal he’d handled years before, because he’d been the only executive on the top floor when the brother investors had shown up to close a deal with Donaldson. Only top-floor executives had the ability to close deals. And the Schlotsky brothers were an important one. It had been when Donaldson was out a lot, dealing with his house and trying to figure out a way to prevent the inevitable foreclosure that was going leave him and his family homeless. The other man had apparently completely spaced on the appointment. While Liam had never actually closed a deal before, he’d witnessed more than a hundred of them. So he’d done what he had to do for the good of the company. He’d found the file. Presented the papers that needed to be signed. And had signed his name as an official company representative.

  A week or so later, it had turned out that some numbers had been changed on the form—presumably by one of the investor signers—and Liam hadn’t caught the mistake. Liam knew darn well nothing had been changed. He’d stood over the two men, watching like a hawk as they’d signed. And delivered the papers straight to George, who’d later caught the mistake.

  His assumption—and he’d told George, who’d said he’d check into it—had been that Donaldson had made the mistake in drawing up the papers. He’d never heard what Donaldson had to say about the incident. George had contacted Liam a day or two later to tell him that the problem had been fixed and that they never had to speak of it again. The investors had re-signed papers with the correct figures. He’d told Liam that he was not going to tell Walter about the gaffe.

  And to Liam’s knowledge, he never had. Walter, who would have ripped into him for making such a novice mistake, had never mentioned the deal to Liam.

  So why was he looking at his father’s signature as the witnessing representative on the voucher that admitted that this was the second set of forms and that the first had been destroyed? A voucher that had been signed by both investors and their attorney, as well?

  He called Gabrielle immediately.

  * * *

  MARIE HAD INVITED both Liam and Tanner to share dinner with them.

  Tanner had had another engagement, escorting an out of town client, and Liam had declined. But Gabi had said she’d come up. And when he heard a knock at his door shortly thereafter, he pulled it open without checking to see who was there.

  “Mr. Liam Connelly?” the jeans-clad woman asked. How had she gotten past security? Was everyone else okay? The thoughts flew through his brain.

  “Yes,” he said, wishing he’d put Elliott Tanner’s number on speed dial.

  “I’m Officer Warren from the Denver police,” she said, pulling her badge out of her jacket pocket. “I’m here to serve you with this order.” She held out an envelope.

  An off-duty cop doubling as a process server?

  He didn’t have to take the envelope. He wouldn’t be served with whatever it was until he took it...

  Liam took the envelope. The cop was gone before he’d finished opening it.

  Reading the officially stamped document with his door still open, he didn’t care that the cop had left. He had no business with her.

  His business was with his father.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “THIS IS A matter of public record.” Liam paced between the stove and the dining table in the girls’ large eat-in kitchen. Pointing at the restraining order he’d thrown on the table, courtesy of Walter Connelly.

  Gabi, leaning against the counter, watched him. Marie was making tea while dinner warmed in the oven.

  If ever there’d been a time when he needed to be alone with Gabi, right then was it. This crazy thing he had for her. It wasn’t getting better. It was getting worse.

  “What’s he trying to do here?” he asked, taking his frustration out on the matter at hand. “He’s making us a laughingstock. Just think what the media will do with this. I just don’t get it. Why would he do this? I already agreed to stay away from him.”

  He turned. And Gabi moved enough to avoid his running into her.

  When what she wanted to do was hold him in her arms until his hurt went away. Liam would be just fine without his father in his life. Better, probably.

  But he still, on some level, wanted him there. And at the moment, that was what mattered to her.

  When Marie had told her he was at the door, she’d quickly changed from the work clothes she’d still had on into a pair of her oldest and baggiest sweats and an oversize gray sweatshirt.

  Clothes that would hopefully put them back on normal footing.

  She’d been supposed to meet him upstairs.

  “Maybe he heard about the story you’re doing,” Marie suggested, looking cute in her new jeans and black sweater. Maybe Liam would notice how good she looked.

  No, that wasn’t any better. For any of them.

  She didn’t need Liam with another woman. That would hurt too much. She just needed to quit caring for him in that way.

  She’d done fine for more than a decade. “The order prevents him from derogatory or inflammatory comments, doesn’t it?” Marie’s question was directed over her shoulder at Gabrielle.

  “I’m not making derogatory or inflammatory comments about him. He can’t stop me from reporting what I know any more than he can stop any other member of the press. And I can’t believe, even with his far-reaching fingers, that he’d know about this series. Only June, me and a couple of people she works with even know I’m doing it.”

  “Elliott Tanner knows,” Gabrielle pointed out.

  “Elliott wouldn’t do anything to hurt us,” Marie said. “He’s a good guy.” The kettle’s whistle sounded over her words.

  “He’s working for my father.” Pulling out an antique dining chair from the
table Marie and Gabi had purchased together at an auction one summer, Liam plopped down.

  Marie put tea bags in the kettle. “You don’t know that for sure.”

  Sitting down opposite him—keeping enough distance that they couldn’t possibly bump into each other—Gabrielle said, “I think we do. I didn’t say anything on Tuesday because it wasn’t pertinent in the moment since we’d already pretty much figured out that Tanner showed up at your father’s behest, but when I was at Connelly to meet with your father, I saw Elliott Tanner go into an office on the top floor.”

  “Did he see you?” Liam asked. “He didn’t say anything to me about it.”

  “There’s no way he saw me,” she assured him, pulling close the cup of tea Marie placed in front of her.

  Joining them, sitting at the head of the table between the two of them, Marie asked, “Are you sure it was him?”

  “I’m sure. The man he was with called him by name.”

  “Did you see who it was?”

  “I saw him, but I’d have no way of knowing who he was, except that I saw the name on the door and Tanner called him by name, too. It was Williams.”

  Jeb Williams. His father’s bodyguard.

  The three of them looked at each other. “I think I know what’s going on,” Liam said.

  * * *

  HIS LIFE WAS never going to be the same.

  “What’s going on?” Marie placed her hand atop his. He felt her warmth. Her beauty—inside and out. But nothing beyond that. At all. Not even a little bit.

  Gabi, on the other hand...

  “I think my father’s framing me,” he said. “He’s setting me up to take his fall.” He’d never have thought so. Would have given his life on the knowledge that his father would never, ever do anything to seriously hurt him. But he’d have been just as certain that Walter would never be unfaithful to Liam’s mother. That he’d never keep Liam’s sibling’s existence a secret. That he’d never out-and-out disown him. That he’d never gamble again...

  “What!” Marie’s horror was evident in her big brown eyes. Her blond hair, falling from its ponytail, could have been sexy. But it wasn’t. At least not to him. “What makes you think such a thing? Oh, Liam, I know he’s being cold right now, but—”