Better Off Dead : A Lucy Hart, Deathdealer Novel (Book One)

by Alice Bello

  ~*~

  Smoke rolled out from the tires as Lucy skidded the car to a halt in front of the La Companion Refectory: yet another, very exclusive, very large dining venue. She remembered Gabe saying that they had rented out the entire place. Suddenly Lucy wondered how many people were going to be there.

  A valet jogged out to the car and opened the door for her. He offered his hand to assist her, but she smiled and said, “No thanks.” She swung her legs free of the car and smoothed the hem of her dress as she stood. The valet was young, a bit older than Lucy, and he made a little breathy whistle as he took in the sight of her.

  Excellent, Lucy thought. I’ve still got it. Then she thought, Pig…

  A doorman ushered her through the front doors, and standing there in a freshly pressed black linen suit stood Frank Luvici. Not only was the suit tailored and wrinkle free, but his shoes shone and his hair was neatly slicked back. “Nice driving. I can smell the burnt rubber from here.”

  Lucy smiled. Only a few weeks ago Luvici had made her ill. But since then he’d grown on her like some sort of likable mold. She gave him a wide eyed once over.

  “Who knew you could clean up?” She winked at him. “Who’d you borrow the suit from?”

  Luvici gave her a lopsided grin then offered her his arm. “Funny.” He led her past what could only be described as three human Rottweilers. They were all in matching tuxedoes, and they had the same body types—muscular to the point they had no necks.

  The muscle in the middle moved to open another set of doors.

  “Everybody’s been waiting for you,” Luvici said. “The family’s been practically drooling with anticipation.”

  “I heard.” Lucy smiled at the way both Gabe and Luvici had described the family’s anticipation. Lucy looked up at Luvici. “So what are you doing here, looking all dapper?”

  “Dapper, really?”

  Lucy nodded. “You look fantastic.”

  “Well, I couldn’t miss you meeting the family. It’s just one of those things, like train wrecks and reality television.”

  Lucy rolled her eyes at him. “Very funny.”

  “And I kind of have to be here. You can’t get out of a family event.” He nodded toward the doors as they opened to an immense ballroom. “Especially not ours.”

  “Oh,” Lucy said, her eyes widening for real this time. But her attention was torn away from Luvici a moment later.

  The ballroom was decorated with wild flowers, roses, orchids, and lilies. Candlelight made the room sparkle and glow. Huge crystal chandeliers hung from the vaulted gold inlayed ceiling, and the walls echoed the same theme, gold encrusted walls and long, elegant inset mirrors. Carved vines and flowers and angels shimmered from the gold.

  The parquet floor was deep mahogany and polished to a dazzling sheen. But no sooner did Lucy take in the grandeur of the place than she realized that the three hundred or so elegantly dressed partygoers were all suddenly staring right at her.

  She gulped.

  “The natives look hungry.” Luvici dove right on into the crowd of Gabe’s family, pulling her along, introducing her to a couple dozen aunts and uncles, nephews, nieces, great aunts, great uncles (one an older, more distinguished version of Luvici: his father.) Lucy felt as if she were being twirled around in an ever quickening dance. Before she knew it everything turned into a blur. She didn’t even notice when Luvici was replaced by Dante.

  Dante looked, if possible, even more regal and handsome than before. She’d seen him a few times when she’d gone to see Gabe at Enoch Industries, and they’d talked often on the phone. He’d filled in some of the gaps in Gabe’s history.

  But even with Gabe and Dante hand feeding her facts and crucial events from Gabe’s past, she still felt there was something huge missing. Something that just made the picture they had painted not quite mesh. If Gabe’s life had been a jigsaw puzzle Lucy knew she would never be able to finish it.

  Too many pieces missing.

  Fun…

  Abruptly Lucy found herself standing before Gabe and the most elegant, beautiful middle-aged couple she had ever seen. The man was a larger, broad shouldered version on Gabe, with long graying hair swept back from his face in thick waves, just long enough to touch his collar. The woman had long golden blonde hair pilled in exquisite curls on the top of her head. Her dress was vintage Dior, silver silk, and hugged her rather lithe body to perfection. She was stunning.

  The parents, Lucy thought with a mental gasp. If Dante had looked like royalty, these two were certainly the King and Queen. Lucy felt underdressed, outclassed and yearning to have a few months more time to prepare herself… or reinvent herself.

  But that wasn’t happening. You didn’t get do-overs in real life. So she took a deep breath and offered her hand to Mr. and Mrs. Enoch.

  “So,” Mr. Enoch said, smiling broadly. “This is the young lady who has captured my son’s heart.” He bowed and kissed Lucy’s hand. When he straightened back up he said, “I am Jonas Enoch, and this is my wife, Vivian.”

  Vivian Enoch smiled as she took Lucy’s hand and gently shook it. A beautiful warm smile was in place, but her eyes were cold and searching… questioning. She obviously didn’t believe her son had eyes for Lucy. That or she simply didn’t think Lucy was good enough for him.

  Either way, the coldness in Vivian Enoch’s eyes made the annoyed heat ignite in Lucy’s head. Where only a moment ago Lucy had felt she was over her head, and drowning in the varied richness and elegance of the Enoch family, now Vivian Enoch’s chilly gaze filled Lucy with that good old feeling of Who does this bitch think she is?

  Nice, Lucy thought as Mrs. Enoch released her hand and gave her a flat, cold glare. She hasn’t said a word and I’m calling her a bitch…

  “Lacey,” she said intentionally, rubbing the fingers of the hand Lucy had just shaken like something sticky had rubbed off. “I’ve been dying to meet you.” She gave Gabe a rather chilly smile too. “Gabriel has absolutely refused to bring you to the house. I can’t for the life of me understand why.” Her gaze returned to Lucy. “You’re just… stunning.”

  Oblivious to his wife’s obvious dislike for Lucy, Jonas Enoch held out his arm to Lucy, asking, “May this old man have the first dance?” He was addressing both Lucy and Gabriel.

  “Of course,” Gabriel said. He looked at Lucy as he always did. Friendly, yet distant, as if he expected her to pick her nose, or break out in hillbilly song.

  At least now I know where he gets it from, Lucy shuddered. That cool way of making you feel like you’re below him, and he’s slumming it just talking to you. Good old Mom.

  “I’d love to,” Lucy said, smiling at Jonas with genuine warmth. She didn’t spare a second glance for Vivian. She would have to ask him someday why he’d married a woman like her. But for the moment she let herself take in the thrill of being the object of everyone’s attention as Jonas Enoch lead her out onto the dance floor.

  There was a small orchestra by the dance floor, and their music just seemed to flow through the room like water in a stream, as if it had been playing the entire time: a waltz. Lucy had heard it in a movie once. Mozart or Chopin or someone dead long before the advent of electricity, or the hair dryer, or anything else Lucy found instrumental to everyday life. But the music was beautiful, and Jonas Enoch was an amazingly graceful dancer, twirling her around the floor, yet never pushing so fast that she could not keep up.

  She suddenly realized that Jonas Enoch’s hands were hot, just like Gabriel’s and Dante’s were.

  Jonas caught Lucy’s eyes in his gaze and smiled. “So what are your intentions for my son, young lady?”

  Direct. Maybe he wasn’t as affable as she’d thought.

  “What do you mean?” Lucy said, stalling for time, trying to get the more calculating and clever part of her brain to take over.

  “What I mean is no one has even heard of you before
a couple of weeks ago. Where has he been hiding you, and what has he been doing with you?”

  Okay, now we’re talking. Lucy hit Jonas Enoch with her million dollar smile. This guy is sharp, and no amount of guile and complement is going to placate or fool him. So Lucy decided to go for the honest approach… kind of.

  “Well, we haven’t really known each other much longer than that.” Lucy smiled up at Jonas as if to say, that’s that, and Jonas gave her the expression of being unimpressed she was looking for. “Well,” she continued, “Gabe really wants to go further… if you get the drift, and I told him flat out that I wasn’t about to sleep with him until there was a huge rock on my finger and a big old honking checking account at my disposal.”

  For a moment Jonas Enoch looked as if he were going to turn red as a fire hydrant, and then his handsome expression relaxed and he chuckled. “You’re good… you really had me going there.”

  Lucy beamed her best smile up at Jonas then felt something warm slide up inside her chest, something that made her heart start to thump in her chest. And suddenly she just started talking. Not really to Jonas, not really to anybody, maybe just to herself.

  “There’s just something about him… Gabe, you know?”

  Jonas nodded and took a breath to say something, but Lucy just kept talking.

  “It’s like, most of the time he drives me crazy. He’s so freaking bossy and anal, and he’s just such a jerk sometimes… but then sometimes when we’re alone, and he’s talking, telling some stupid, pointless story about college, or boating, or whatever… I just can’t take my eyes off him.”

  “Love is strange sometimes.” Jonas looked a little confused. Obviously he hadn’t expected his future daughter in law to bad mouth her betrothed at the engagement party. “Truth be told, I spent most of my youth hating my wife.”

  Lucy looked up at him with shocked eyes. Was he really saying this?

  “Vivian was my best friend’s little sister. A real snob, even though we were both from wealthy families, both going back…” He coughed, and then smiled at Lucy as if he were just remembering she was there. “Let’s just say, she had no place looking down her pretty little nose at me… but that didn’t stop her. And then one night, at the party for her brother’s graduation, we just started talking… mostly about her brother…” The look on his face was as if he were remembering the most wonderful night ever. “And then right before I left she pulled me aside, onto a balcony overlooking the King… er, I mean a garden, and right there and then she kissed me.”

  “Oh…” Lucy whispered. She felt like she was melting inside. “That’s so romantic.”

  “Yes, it was very romantic. And then she slapped me and wouldn’t talk to me for three weeks.”

  “How did you get her back?” She felt her breath coming more and more rapidly. She just had to know.

  “Well, she waited for a hunter’s moon, and when our two families were in the forest, she lured me onto a mountain and, well…” Jonas’ face blushed beautifully. “She jumped me.”

  Lucy laughed as her own face flushed hot just thinking about it. Cold as ice Vivian jumping big old Jonas’ bones.

  “That’s our little secret,” he said tensely. “If Vivian ever even suspected I told you—”

  “She’d jump your ass, but not in a good way?”

  “Exactly.”

  Suddenly a large, gorgeous young man deftly lifted Lucy’s hand from Jonas’ and spun her around and out of her dance partner’s arms.

  “Micah!” Jonas said, chuckling again. Jonas had a great laugh. “Be careful with your brother’s fiancée.”

  Lucy’s eyes snapped wide open with surprise. Looking up at the tall, handsome man who was spinning her around the dance floor with blurry speed, she could see a little resemblance to Gabe…something about the eyes and the set of the mouth, but truthfully he was a taller, broader version of his father.

  Where did these huge beautiful men come from? Lucy was used to maybe six foot tall quarterbacks, the occasional six three basketball player. But Jonas and Micah were enormous.

  “I’ve been dying to meet Gabe’s brother.” Lucy started to feel a little dizzy as Micah twirled them a path through the crush of dancers.

  Suddenly Micah spun her around and deposited Lucy, dizzy and breathing heavily, onto a marble bench on a veranda. The view of the city was beautiful. She looked up at Micah and saw the most mischievous smile.

  Crap! Lucy was flashing back to Jonas’ story: the balcony, the kiss. What the hell was going on? Was she going to have to defend herself from a big meaty Viking of a future brother-in-law? She would’ve worn something more athletic if she’d known.

  Micah plopped down on the bench beside her, throwing one of his muscular, tuxedo clad arms over her shoulder. He smelled like a forest… no, a wild garden? And she could see, even though his suit was very expensive and stylish, he was wearing it completely rumpled, as if he’d been partying in it for days. Even his longish dark blond hair was tucked haphazardly behind his ears.

  “I’m surprised he mentioned me. We don’t see eye to eye on most things. He’s more business minded, and I’m the…” he stopped, staring out into the night, searching for the right word.

  “The screw up of the family?” Just taking a shot in the dark here.

  “The warrior type, I was going to say.”

  Warrior? “So you’re into hostile takeovers?”

  Micah snorted. “War is always hostile.”

  “You’re in the armed forces?” Lucy asked with more disbelief than she’d intended. Micah just didn’t strike her as the soldier type.

  “Not exactly, but you’ll find out soon enough.” A song sprang from the open door to the ballroom. It was fast and very vibrant, and a chorus of applause erupted from the room of dancers and party guests. Micah winked. “Time to get you back inside. The natives are just dying to get a piece of you.”

  Micah jumped up and pulled Lucy along to the doors. This can’t be good.