Once Upon a Friendship

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  “—you found something.” Gabi’s quiet words reached him. It was as if she could read his thoughts. And he was beginning to realize that it had always been that way.

  He told them about the Schlotsky account. The changed figures. His absolute certainty that nothing had happened while he’d been in the room.

  “If push comes to shove, he’s going to use that incident to prove that I’ve been crooked from the very beginning. He’ll say that’s why he never gave me any real responsibility. He brought me up to the top floor so he could keep his eye on me, but didn’t ever give me an opportunity to do any damage. And yet I somehow managed to do it behind his back. I’ve been his safety net all along.”

  “So why would he cut you loose?” Marie asked.

  Liam watched Gabi, who wasn’t saying a word. Her expression gave him no clue as to her thoughts. He needed to know them. To know she’d be watching out for him, with him, letting him watch out for her for the rest of their lives.

  In spite of the spouses they’d have someday.

  “Because somehow he knew the FBI was looking at him. Just like he knew we’d signed the papers on this place two seconds after it was done. He’s going to claim that he stumbled on evidence that led him to believe that I was into something bad. That he’d hoped that he could put an end to my criminal activities by getting rid of me. Firing me wasn’t enough. Getting me away from the company wasn’t enough. He had to completely disown me—cut me out of his will, which is a legal document that I’m sure he’ll supply in court—to prevent me from cashing in on his reputation, trading on people’s respect for him for my own nefarious gain. He’ll say that he planned to cover my tracks and make up the damages before I was caught. Because I am, after all, his only son. He’ll plead guilty to obstruction of justice.”

  It fit. He didn’t want it to. Lord knew, he’d spent the better part of an hour pacing his own apartment—from one end to the other—trying to find the holes, any single tiny little pinprick hole, in his theory.

  “What about Missy’s offshore account? If your father is the one behind all of this, why not erase evidence of that account first?”

  “Maybe he thought he had. Or he knew he only had a few minutes and went for the legally incriminating accounts first. Since he didn’t appear put out by the fact that we went to Florida. His affair isn’t illegal. I was a big part of the reason he was keeping them secret—you heard Missy say so. Obviously he doesn’t care anymore if their existence is exposed.”

  “I’m not disagreeing with you, just playing devil’s advocate here, but if he doesn’t care if Missy and Tamara are exposed, why was he refusing to speak to me until I mentioned Florida?”

  Liam’s case grew stronger in his mind with every question Gabrielle posed. As did his sense of loss. “Because, while he doesn’t intend to keep them secret, he doesn’t want them hurt. He didn’t think we’d bring Missy and Tamara into this or turn their existence into a big circus. He knows me. He knows I’d never hurt my little sister. Or use her, either.”

  “So why not call my bluff?”

  Liam stared across at her. He had that answer, too. “Because he doesn’t know you,” he told her. His father had made no secret of his low opinion of Gabrielle.

  In truth, Walter Connelly was the person who wasn’t worthy of his son. Not that that was going to help him now. Or ever again...

  Liam rubbed a hand down his face. “I don’t know, maybe he just slipped up with Missy’s account. They say that every criminal eventually makes a mistake. No one’s perfect. Maybe that account was his. More likely, his first priority was keeping himself out of jail. Not protecting them. And the FBI got there before he could do both.”

  The look of fear on Gabi’s face—there and gone in an instant—told him that he was making sense. His father was going to let him pay for his sins.

  “He’ll get a slap on the wrist, and I’ll go to prison....” No one knew better than Liam how smart and capable and successful his father was.

  And not just at investing other people’s money.

  How conniving he could be.

  “You are not going to prison,” Marie said.

  Gabi remained silent. He wanted to lose himself in her kiss.

  Even as he felt more nails sealing his coffin.

  * * *

  “I THINK YOU should fight the restraining order.” Marie stood up to get them some more tea. She’d already put Gabrielle’s cabbage rolls in the refrigerator. None of them were the least bit hungry.

  Gabrielle shook her head, wishing she knew what to do. Growing up in a rough neighborhood, she’d learned very early to watch for any danger in her path. How to keep herself safe.

  And she was standing on a precipice that was giving way beneath her.

  Liam needed her help. Her intensely personal need to help him was scaring her.

  Marie had confidence in her. And yet she was worried about the effect Liam was having on Gabi. All three of them knew their friendship could be on the line.

  And she had no idea what to do.

  Funny, though. Now that the press was trying to frame Liam and Gabrielle in an illicit affair, Marie didn’t seem to be as worried about it actually happening.

  “My hearing is next Friday,” Liam said, looking more tired than she could ever remember seeing him as he glanced at the document on the table and then over at her.

  She’d been trying to figure out what was so elementally different about him that evening. And then it struck her.

  Liam Connelly no longer believed he was invincible.

  “I don’t think we should make an appearance.” She hated to have to tell him that.

  “You think I’ll lose.”

  “No. I think that you’ll feed whatever fire is burning here. It’s wrong, Liam, what he’s doing to you. But until we figure out how to beat him, until we can find proof that will stand up in court, until I can figure out how he’s hoping to prove that you had anything at all to do with the Ponzi scheme, we need to not fan the flames. Let him think he’s winning.”

  He nodded.

  “What about Elliott?” Marie asked. “Should we let him in on what’s going on?”

  “No.” Liam didn’t hesitate. “He’s working for the enemy, whether he knows it or not. He could be our ace, though. If we need something leaked to my father.”

  Gabrielle agreed with him.

  And Marie stood with them.

  One way or another, the three of them were going to get through this.

  Together.

  * * *

  GABRIELLE WAS THE one who found the link between the Ponzi scheme and Liam. During his stint as a Connelly liaison—a complimentary term for delivery boy—he’d sent documents to every single investor who’d been scammed in the Grayson deal.

  If he’d fudged numbers on one account—as Walter could prove with the Donaldson deal from years ago—then it wasn’t a far reach to the conclusion that he’d repeated his pattern—his mode of operation. No actual documents with fudged numbers had turned up. But they could in time.

  Or perhaps the forgery was to be found, this time, in the description of the land. Grayson development instead of swamp.

  Before she told Liam what she’d found, Gabrielle made an appointment to meet with Kyle Donaldson away from Connelly Investments.

  The fact that the man asked to meet her in a travel plaza off the highway between Denver and Boulder told Gabrielle that he had something to hide.

  Or something to confide.

  Either way, for safety’s sake she told Marie where she was going that next Monday when she left work early to beat Elliott Tanner’s mandated arrival and headed down the highway away from Denver. But she didn’t tell anyone else. Marie didn’t like what she was doing, but agreed to keep her secret.

  S
he was halfway to her destination when she noticed the car that she’d seen shortly after leaving her office still on the road with her. And then noticed it again when she got off the highway for gas she didn’t need. The nondescript black vehicle pulled into a fast food place across the street.

  Changing her mind about the gas, she pulled away from the pump and sped by the black car on her return to the freeway. She already had Donaldson on the phone, changing their meeting plans to the following morning, when she recognized the driver of the car that was now immediately behind her.

  Elliott Tanner.

  * * *

  THE NEXT MORNING, Gabrielle left for work earlier than normal to meet with a regular client an hour ahead of their original schedule. Her second Tuesday morning client had been moved up as well, so Kyle Donaldson could take the third slot.

  Once Gabrielle was at work, she’d seemed to be left alone. She wasn’t a threat to Elliott Tanner or anyone else who wanted to know what she was up to. She was dedicated to her job and while she was there, the expectation was that she’d be working. Doing her job well.

  Liam was right about one thing—reputation mattered. It was how people judged you. And sometimes, you could use it to help them misjudge you.

  * * *

  DONALDSON SEEMED LIKE a nice enough guy when he came into her office. Held out his hand. Gripped hers firmly. And took the seat that she waved him toward.

  Gabrielle didn’t care if the guy was likable or not.

  She cared about what information he could give her.

  Liam hadn’t been out of his apartment since the night he’d been served with the restraining order. He’d finished his article. Was working on a second.

  And had made travel arrangements for another trip to Florida. He was going to see Tamara, to make certain that she had a chance to get to know him, in case their time together was going to be short. But he’d promised not to leave town until Gabrielle had come up with a defense for him in the event that his father tried to hang him out to dry. He knew the inner workings of his father’s company. And his mind. Gabrielle needed his help.

  She wished she’d found the answers already. She wanted him out of the state. Away from the evil that seemed to be lurking just beyond their doors.

  Liam was a good man. He didn’t deserve what his father was doing to him.

  Filled with a desperation she couldn’t entirely contain, she faced Kyle Donaldson as though her life depended on the knowledge he could give her.

  While she had the entire file of paperwork on the account that Liam had finalized in Donaldson’s absence all those years ago, she didn’t ask him about it.

  “When you knew you were going to lose your home in foreclosure, even before that, when the housing market collapsed and you knew the home you’d purchased wasn’t going to hold its value, why didn’t you go to Walter Connelly and ask him for help?” she asked instead. “I understand the company had a one-time buyback program for its top executives.”

  She’d done her homework. And couldn’t afford to be played for a fool. Donaldson’s response would tell her something about him. And perhaps about Walter, too.

  Liam was counting on her to get this right. And she had to succeed. More than with any other client. She was in love with the man. There was no getting around the fact anymore.

  Just as she knew, with every fiber of her being, that she’d never be in a romantic relationship with him. He’d hurt her. And live with the guilt for the rest of his life.

  Besides, she’d made a very clear personal decision over the past few days. She’d rather live with unrequited love than see her love for Liam turn to hate. As it would if she gave in to her feelings for him and it didn’t work out.

  She’d rather live with unrequited love than hurt Marie and lose the family the three of them had formed.

  “I did go to the company.” Donaldson brought her firmly back to the conversation at hand. She hadn’t expected that response. “I applied for the buyback. I was told there were no funds left in the program.”

  Interesting. She made a note. So had whoever had been running the Ponzi scheme been short of cash before? And had this person been siphoning off from other viable Connelly accounts?

  “I was also told that if I took the matter any further, I could expect my walking papers.” He then proceeded to tell her about the Schlotsky deal. Gabrielle sat and listened to the entire story as though she’d never heard it before. Donaldson told it exactly as Liam had. “While I hadn’t fudged those figures—I’d kept my own copy of the paperwork, even though that was against company policy, so I couldn’t provide them or I’d be fired—I had been preoccupied and failing to keep my mind on my work. I’d completely forgotten the appointment with the Schlotsky brothers.”

  “So what does this have to do with the buyback request being turned down and you being warned not to take the matter any further?”

  She only asked the question for confirmation of what she’d already surmised.

  The tall, suited man with short gray hair shrugged, wearing an expression similar to the one Gabrielle had seen on Liam’s face the other night at the table. An expression she didn’t want to see on Liam’s face ever again. It broke her heart.

  Donaldson looked beaten.

  As had Liam.

  “I’d been forgiven for my lapse in the Schlotsky deal, but the paperwork was there, ready to support my dismissal, if I wanted to push things.”

  The man had spent the past several years living under a gauntlet.

  “I just have one more question.”

  He nodded.

  “Who made this threat?”

  “Walter Connelly.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  LIAM’S FIRST ARTICLE was due to hit the internet and—thanks to a small paying subsidiary sale— magazine stands simultaneously on the first of March. Which meant waiting another couple of weeks before he’d find out—possibly—his father’s reaction to what he’d done. Some nights, late, he’d sit at his window, looking out over Denver, imagining that Walter would read the article and understand that Liam would always have his back. Understand that Liam had tried his best to please him while doing the healthy thing and carving out a life for himself. Understand that even now Liam was trying to help him.

  Most times, he was resigned to the inevitable. He was a man without a father.

  Gabrielle had called to tell him about her meeting with Donaldson earlier in the week. Walter Connelly had been blackmailing the man into silence for years. This was not a man who harbored sentimental feelings.

  This was a man who was holding his own son captive. If the grand jury came back with an indictment on Walter, he was going to drop the bomb on Liam. Liam guessed he owed it to the old man that Walter hadn’t already pointed his finger at him. But then he’d be admitting to his own guilt in obstructing justice, which could sway a grand jury not to go in his favor.

  Better to hedge his bets. To see if he could walk away scot-free before settling for a lesser charge and hanging his son.

  Gabi had called to tell him about Donaldson. And other than during his occasional trips downstairs for coffee, he hadn’t seen either one of the girls. He and Gabi had talked about needing the family they’d formed.

  About not jeopardizing that.

  And yet the idea of her eventually marrying and having another man’s children was bothering him more than the trouble with his father.

  Liam had begun work on the second article. Had taken some walks, with Tanner tailing behind him, a couple of evenings. The man’s presence was almost a comfort to him now—whether he was really watching out for him or spying for Walter. To Liam, in those moments, he was a sign that Walter still cared in some fashion.

  As the week wore on, his crazy awareness of Gabrielle did not wear off. To the contrary, he foun
d himself waking up with her on his mind. Or wanting to kiss her when he heard her voice on the phone. But he knew that the reaction was probably inevitable at the moment. Proximity. And the fact that she and Marie and the residents were pretty much his whole world right now.

  He was free to go out. To do whatever he wanted to do. But that freedom wasn’t worth the possible backlash of another swarm of press descending upon him to judge and twist his actions.

  Not while he was possibly facing a trial that could lead to a very long jail sentence.

  In his healthier moments, he was forgiving himself for some of his preoccupation with Gabrielle.

  For the time being, she was his hope.

  He was thinking about her at noon on Friday, imagining her in the plain office building several miles away, eating her lunch. Wondering if she’d packed a sandwich or last night’s leftovers.

  And started to hurt because he had no idea what last night’s leftovers entailed. He hadn’t been invited to dinner in days.

  Liam sprang from his chair. He had to get a life. Move forward. At the computer, he pulled up flight timetables. He had to move his trip to Florida up. To one that left the next day.

  Even if he had to fly right back on Monday to be there to help Gabi answer questions or read reports, then so be it. He had to get out of here.

  But before he could click the save button and authorize payment for the last-minute changes, there was a knock on his door. As though mocking his right to do what he needed to do.

  Looking behind him, he was tempted to ignore the summons long enough to finish his purchase. To sit at the desk and type in payment information while whoever wanted his attention either waited or went away.

  Grace’s fallen expression came to mind. Marie’s compassionate one. The straight face of the cop who’d handed him the restraining order.

  Gabrielle. Needing him. Wanting him. Just stopping to say hello...

  With a word Liam didn’t mutter often, he pushed out of his chair with a bit more force than necessary and went to the door.