The Perfect Storm_A Thrilling Romantic Suspense

by Madyson Grey

  Chapter Ten

  Rafael and Victoria went upstairs to their new master suite to get ready for bed. It was still a little bare. Just as a person walked through the door, there was a sitting room area with a bay window complete with a padded window seat, but they had no furniture for this area yet. Victoria visualized a chaise, or fainting couch, for each of them in there, along with her mother’s writing desk. They weren’t sure what else would be nice for that space, but they figured they would just keep their eyes open and one day they would come across the perfect thing.

  The bedroom area was to the right of the sitting area with the private bath beside of it. The bedroom area merged into the bathroom with a dressing area in between. The walk-in closet was off the dressing area and formed a barrier between the bedroom door/sitting room area and the dressing room/bathroom area. Large windows allowed a lot of natural light into the room, but they were one-way so no one could see in from the outside, and coated to deflect the sun’s heat.

  They undressed and got into the large shower together to wash away the day’s sweat. Rafael took Victoria’s bath puff, put soap on it, and began to gently wash her back and shoulders. Then he turned her around and washed her front torso, her arms, and down her legs. While standing there in the spray, Victoria put her head back to let the water run through her hair. It felt so good to just stand there and allow Rafael to minister to her in this loving, sensual way.

  When he had washed her entire body, he took the shampoo and massaged it into her hair, working his fingers on her scalp in a most relaxing manner. She had never felt so pampered in her whole life. After she rinsed out the shampoo, he worked the conditioner into her hair. While she let it work, she then ministered to Rafael, washing his body in the same gentle, sensuous manner. By the time they were both rinsed and ready to get dry, they were both so aroused that they coupled right there in the shower. A little later in bed they made love again for the first time in their new bed and bedroom. It was a memory that Victoria would cherish.

  After breakfast the next morning, the three of them made plans to go shopping for the furniture items they still needed. Besides a bookcase, Lena wanted to look for some plastic tubs that she could better organize and store some of her things in. Rafael and Victoria still needed a set of end tables, and possibly a coffee table, for the family room. They thought it was kind of a nuisance having a living room and a family room both, and having to furnish them both.

  Rafael had grown up in smaller houses that just had a living room, period. That was where the family did their living. Victoria, on the other hand, well, you know how she had been raised. The family room was for the family, and the living room was for company. But after living on her own in a small apartment, she had gotten over that idea, too. But the house that they chose came with both rooms, so they would deal with it. It would be nice to have an immaculate room to take special guests that they needed to impress, if they ever met anyone like that.

  Victoria and Rafael were not aristocrats like Marian had been, or at least tried to be. Like Marian had tried to turn David into. They were a new generation. A new breed. Wealthy beyond the dreams of most people three times their age. But Victoria had inherited the wealth, and Rafael had married it.

  They had discussed their situation more than once. Rafael had come up the hard way, and in a sense, he had earned his place. He had certainly worked for it. Although he would never have seen the wealth that he had now if he hadn’t married Victoria. For that had been part of the deal with David. Thornton Enterprise was only his until Victoria would rightly inherit it, or they would marry.

  It would sound like a crass arrangement to anyone who didn’t know David Thornton like both Victoria and Rafael knew him. Or to those who couldn’t see that Rafael and Victoria were completely, totally, and truly in love with each other with a love that had no dollar value on it whatsoever. They both knew that if they had been poor as church mice and had met on the street, they would still have fallen in love.

  Victoria had loathed the socialite lifestyle from childhood. That was why she had distanced herself from it just as soon as she could figure out how to. The seven years that she had lived an ordinary life in Seattle had given her a new perspective on life. One in which she gained the values of economy, true friendship, and a zest for life.

  Now, lest they be misunderstood, money was a great thing. It enabled them to pursue their dreams and to enjoy life. But they refused to be snobbish about it, or to live for social standing. They preferred that people not know just how wealthy they were. They hoped to make friends together with whom they could play, socialize with, and trust to be genuine with.

  The fact that they had just bought a nicer-than-average home they hoped would not hinder their desire to live ordinary lives. Of course, traveling to all their holdings on a regular basis didn’t quite fit with the average nine-to-fiver. But it was what it took to maintain their income, and the way their job looked to them. And they had needed a large home like this that had a place for Lena to stay with them. Just an extra bedroom wouldn’t do for her. They wanted her to continue to have her own private quarters. So that requirement had necessitated buying an upscale home. Still, it wasn’t in as prestigious a neighborhood as the Thornton home was. This new neighborhood was definitely upscale, but not to the degree that the former one was.

  A low-key life was just something that they would have to work at day by day. Victoria was firmly determined that she would not become her mother, no matter what happened. One way that she showed that determination was in wearing pretty much nothing but jeans—long, mid-calf, or shorts—most of the time, unless they were going out to a nice restaurant or event. Marian had worn dresses or dressy slacks daily, even just around the house. That was not Victoria’s style. She would not go there under any circumstances.

  Lena had decided to go shopping on her own. Rafael offered Lena five hundred dollars towards buying what she needed, but she had initially refused. He insisted that she take at least three hundred to replace the money that Mateo had stolen out of her purse. Reluctantly, she did take that, because she knew that their homeowner’s insurance would replace it, whenever it paid off. She also knew he felt responsible because it had been his own brother who robbed her.

  Rafael and Victoria got into the Chrysler and headed out to look for the things they still wanted. However, their first stop had to be at the law office of one Robert Kyte. He welcomed the couple into his office and offered them a seat. He had Marian’s last will and testament lying on his desk all ready to discuss with them.

  Cutting through all the therefores and wherefores, the bottom line was that the bulk of Marian’s assets were bequeathed to Victoria, with the exception of a few thousand going to her pet charity, and wonder of all wonders, five hundred thousand to her brother, Mackensey Smith. Apparently guilt got the best of her at some point and she tried to atone for her cheating him years prior.

  Victoria’s share amounted to a little over five million dollars, which, Mr. Kyte said, could be transferred from her mother’s bank account to hers with his telephoned instructions to the bank. Victoria provided him with the account number that she wished the money to be placed in and asked if that was all there was to it. He said it was, so they thanked him and left.

  “That’s amazing,” Victoria said after they were back in the car.

  “That she would give her brother any money? Sure is,” Rafael said.

  “Well, that too, but what I was thinking of is that we just spent five mil on our new house, and now I get five mil of Mother’s money,” Victoria said. “I think her little scheme to get revenge on you for stealing Daddy’s business has just backfired. Instead, her money is going to pay for a new house for you and me to live in. I guess you could say that it’s my revenge for all she put me through my whole life.”

  “That is really ironic, isn’t it?” Rafael said. “She’d be turning over in her grave right now if she knew what was going on.”

  “No doub
t!”

  By early afternoon they all had found and purchased their needs, had them delivered, and met back at their new home. Rafael and Victoria left again to go over to the old place to get the motorhome. They had walked all through the house, garage, and grounds to make certain that nothing had been unintentionally left behind. When Victoria looked in the doorway of David’s office and saw his desk sitting there, empty and all alone, she broke down and cried.

  “I don’t think I can leave Daddy’s desk behind after all,” she said through her tears.

  “We can take it home if you want it,” Rafael told her. “Actually, I would like to have it in my new home office, if you don’t mind.”

  “Let’s do that,” Victoria said. “It needs to be refinished, because of this water stain on it, and I think there are a few spots of blood on it, too. So if we can have it refinished, and with it sitting in a new place, I will be OK with it.”

  “OK,” Rafael said.

  Inwardly, he was very glad, because he had wanted the desk for his new home office. Not only was it a really nice desk, he felt an affinity for it, too, because it had been David’s, and David had meant so much to him.

  “I hadn’t really thought about you wanting it. You should have said something about it,” Victoria said earnestly. “I’m sorry I didn’t think about that.”

  “No worries,” he said, holding her close. “I didn’t want to pressure you into taking it if you really didn’t want to.”

  “You’re a good man,” she said, snuggling up against him.

  “How are we gonna get it out of here by ourselves?” she wanted to know.

  “Well, good question,” he said. “Even if we take out all of the drawers, it’s still probably really heavy. And we don’t have a pickup to haul it in, so I’ll have to call somebody. I’ll look up one of those handyman outfits that will maybe come do it. No need for a big moving truck to move one item.”

  “Want to do it right now?”

  “Might as well.”

  Rafael used an app on his smartphone to look up handyman services in that area, found one that looked reputable, and called. Yes, they had a truck that could come out that afternoon. In fact, the truck was just returning from a job and was only a few blocks away, so it would be there within a few minutes.

  Sure enough, less than ten minutes later, the gate buzzer sounded and they let the truck in. Two big burly men got out of the pickup and introduced themselves to Rafael, who had gone out to meet them and show them the best place to park. They came inside, and in no time at all, had the desk in the back of the truck and wrapped carefully in a couple of moving pads and strapped down so it wouldn’t slide around.

  Victoria locked up the house and set the alarm, and then they led the way over to the new house. The men carried the desk inside and set it down in Rafael’s office right where he directed them to put it. When Victoria looked in and saw it sitting there, none of the nightmarish images that she had seen in the old house were there. Instead, it was just a nice desk for Rafael.

  The sunlight streamed in through the large window and shone on the desk, highlighting the beautiful wood grain. Victoria imagined that she could see her daddy sitting behind the desk smiling at her as he had a thousand times before. Life was good again.

  As soon as it was set and the men had been paid and thanked, Rafael got in the car and went to a nearby store to get some wood refinishing products to see if he could remove the stains himself. When he got back, he set to work trying to rub out the water mark and the blood stains. After an hour of work, the desktop was stain-free. But now it would have to be refinished. He decided that tomorrow he would take out the pull-out writing board and take it to a paint store to see if they could match a wood stain to it that he could use to redo the desktop.

  The next day, Rafael did just that. Victoria was very impressed that he had been able to get out the stains himself, and she praised him for his ability. They were able to buy some wood stain that the store attendant assured them should match the rest of the desk. They could only hope for the best. Fortunately, the man was right, and the desktop came out looking like brand new. All it lacked now was a good wax job and it would be beautiful again.

  They worked around the house finishing up putting things away. Rafael got the entertainment center set in the right place and got the TV and DVD player all hooked up. Victoria unpacked a box that had some ornamental figurines, knick-knacks, and the Ming Dynasty vase that her dad had found in a little shop in Thailand when the two of them had taken that trip. She was glad that Mateo hadn’t taken it. He probably didn’t know what it was. She set in in the formal living room on an end table with a hand-crocheted doily under it that her grandma Thornton had made when she was young.

  Over the following several days the house came together and they were beginning to feel like it was really home to them. Even Lena was adapting nicely and declared that they had spoiled her by giving her rooms right off the swimming pool. They had needed to call a professional pool service man to come out and drain, clean, and refill the pool. It had been neglected for several months, and so was dirty and needed attention. Now it was sparkling clean again and begging for people to come enjoy it’s soothing waters.

  By the end of the week, they felt like they had accomplished the move and had time to actually relax long enough to get in the pool and enjoy themselves for a while. Saturday the three of them went back to the old house armed with cleaning supplies and gave the house a good once-over so it would be presentable to list and show. Faced with the choice of mowing the lawn or vacuuming the house, Rafael chose to vacuum, which freed Victoria up to mow. The choice suited them both, and an hour later, both jobs were done and the house was ready to be shown to prospective buyers.

  Sunday Rafael sat down at the computer in his home office and uploaded all the photos that he had taken of the old house and prepared to place an online ad for the house. After he had done that, he called Victoria into the office to make plans for the following workweek. He had taken enough time away from work and now they needed to knuckle down and take care of business.

  They outlined an itinerary that would allow them to visit each of their property holdings within the LA area that week, including the three shopping malls. They made a checklist of all the things that they would look for in each building and mall, and a list of questions to ask the building superintendent or manager at each place.

  They also pulled the folder for each building from the file cabinet. Each folder had a list of all the tenants for that specific building. They would take that list and compare it to the actual tenants, and update the list if necessary. By the time they finished, they felt like they were fairly well organized and ready to go out and meet their tenants. There was also plenty of blank paper on which to make notes.

  Rafael had ordered new business cards for both of them. He had made up three different cards: one that had the company name and address with both of their names listed just as owners. Then they each had individual cards with just one name on them for the times what it was appropriate to use them. He made sure that they each had an adequate supply to take with them. Victoria put hers in her purse, and Rafael put his in a slim, monogramed, silver card case that David had presented to him when he made him his personal assistant several years ago.

  When they felt that they were all ready to tackle their week, they went to the kitchen in search of some lunch. Lena was already in the kitchen whipping up some tacos for lunch. Rafael sniffed the air appreciatively.

  “You must be a mind reader,” he teased. “You knew what I wanted for lunch without me having to tell you. Remind me to keep you around.”

  “Aw, pshaw, you big lunk,” Lena said with a laugh. “Go sit down and get out of my way.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said with a snappy salute.

  Lena snapped a dish towel at him, missing deliberately. This was definitely going to be a new life. A new life in a new home. And she was only forty-four years old.


  After lunch, Rafael and Victoria took the Ferrari out for a drive around their new town and neighborhood. They wanted to get the feel of this new-to-them area. They found stores and their banks not far away. They also discovered that there were two nice parks and lakes close by. Rafael thought they might buy a boat to go out on the lake now and then, or to even pull behind the motorhome to go to larger lakes elsewhere.

  While they were cruising around, Rafael’s phone rang. It was Doug Bush, the realtor who had sold them their house.

  “Are you getting all settled into your new home?” he inquired.

  “Yes, thank you, we are,” Rafael replied.

  “I found out about that parcel of vacant land beside of you,” he said. “It is available if you would like to buy it.”

  “Yes, I am still interested,” Rafael said, perking up. “What’s the asking price?”

  “There are one hundred and thirty acres for sale adjacent to your property. There is one house that sits out all by itself just to the south of your place. You know the one?”

  “Yes,” Rafael answered.

  “It could be available, also, if you’re interested,” Mr. Bush said.

  “I could be,” Rafael stated. “What’s the deal on it?”

  “If you purchased that house, you could also get the seventy-five acres that lie on the other side of it. That would give you two hundred and five acres and two houses. The total for all of it is twenty-five million. The house is a three bedroom, three bath that sits on its own half-acre lot.”

  “Let me think about this for a bit and talk to my wife, and I’ll get back to you before long,” Rafael said.