The doctor gave a thorough description of exactly what took place to the police officers. Witnesses from nearby confirmed his account of the incident. All of it coincided with the statements given by the others near the scene. Sadly, Sidney Burke’s chauffeur and friend, Ralph Johnson, was gunned down that night.
Sydney, tears in his eyes, knelt over Ralph’s lifeless body, but when he looked up, he said, “I would have been lying here next to him if it weren’t for that young man.”
When it was all settled, Roman was released into the custody of Dr. Burke who offered to take responsibility for him.
A week later Roman lay on his back, his arms around Rainy who was curled next to him, her head resting on his chest. Having her in his arms felt so good. So right.
But then the part of him that always felt like a fraud, a trickster—damaged goods pretending to be whole—reared its ugly head.
Rainy deserved better.
But lord, was she hot. Three times she’d mentioned leaving tonight, but each time he’d started in on another round of lovemaking. He couldn’t get enough of her. An odd tension ran through his arms at the idea of letting her go.
“Stay the night, Rainy.” It was out of his mouth before he realized he’d said it aloud.
“But your father—”
This was his chance to change his mind, but… “He has a good nurse, and I always check on him in the middle of the night. So if you wake and I’m gone, that’s why.”
On her side, Rainy bent her elbow and leaned her head on her hand. “What about Judy, his aide? She’s always in the kitchen in the morning.”
“We don’t have to answer to her. But if we want our privacy, we can use the little kitchen here in my wing.”
“You have another kitchen?”
“A small one. I only have coffee there now, but I can bring over some food from the main kitchen.”
Rainy gave him an affectionate look, her fingers brushing his jaw. “You do like me.”
Roman laughed. “Too much.”
And Roman had the best night’s sleep he’d had in ages. He still set his phone alarm and woke around three a.m. as he usually did to check on Sydney, who was often awake. Ever since his medical residency Roman had learned the skill of waking and being quickly alert at all hours.
His father sensed a change in him. “You’re falling in love,” he said.
“What? No.”
“Don’t be a fool. You’ll never find another woman like Rainy.”
It touched Roman that Sydney liked her, but with a twinge of guilt he realized he never told him who she was. Why did he feel the need to hide it? “I don’t think I’d make a great husband.”
“Yes, you would. Don’t do what I did, Roman. You and I have had a good time, but nothing can replace having a woman who loves you.”
“Dad, would you mind if I talked to you about something or are you too tired?”
“Are you kidding? You so seldom open up about anything, you think I want to pass up an chance to hear you now?”
“But I want to make sure you—”
“I’m fine. What’s going on?”
“You know, that night when those men tried to rob you?”
“The night I would have died if it weren’t for you.”
Roman looked down at his hands. “I don’t know why I never told you this. I think it was some kind of magical superstitious thing for me that I didn’t want to break, but you know that necklace I used to where? I told you a girl gave it to me?”
Sydney nodded. “Yes, I remember. It had an ‘R’ on it.”
“Well, the girl that gave it to me had rescued me from a bunch of bullies who’d surrounded me.” Roman described the incident and what happened. “When she dropped me at the train station she made me promise not to let her down. To have courage and fight for what was good in the world. To not just accept the bad stuff but get off my butt and do something. Her words and her belief in me were still in my head a couple nights later when I saw you.”
Sydney patted his hand. “Why does this make you afraid to love Rainy?”
“Because she was the girl.” Roman had never seen his brilliant and worldly father look baffled, so this was a first.
“How did she find you?” he asked.
“She didn’t. A friend of mine married her sister, and I saw her at the wedding. Rainy doesn’t know I’m the same guy. And I haven’t told her.”
“You have to tell her.”
“I told her about how you ended up adopting me.”
“But not that you were the scarred guy she helped.”
Roman grit his teeth. “I don’t ever want to go back to being Robbie Makalo. I don’t want her to see me that way, to know that Roman Burke is a fraud, a person you made.”
“I made? Because I mended your skin and smoothed your scars? That’s only the surface of a person. And you’re proving that right now, since those emotional wounds inside you have never rally healed.” Sydney fixed his gaze on Roman. “Listen to me, son. All you changed was your name. Everything you achieved and made of yourself with your own heart and soul and mind is you—the real you. What name you use is irrelevant. In fact, in a few years you will have lived as Roman Burke longer than you did as Robbie Makalo. But you can be proud of both”
Chapter 8
Roman returned from his usual hours at the Burke Center for Dermatology and Plastic Surgery. He refused to let the sight of Logan’s Porsche parked out front of Sydney’s house put him in a foul mood. He just hoped the asshole didn’t say anything to make Sydney upset.
He parked and ran up the steps to the tiled foyer, where he saw Logan. Oh, great, Roman thought. If there was one thing he was not in the mood for it was an obnoxious wisecrack from his adoptive father’s illustrious nephew.
When Roman made a move to climb the stairs, Logan stepped in his path and said, “Make sure he drinks his iced tea. He looks dehydrated.” Then he strode past him to the door, his obnoxious swagger making Roman’s fists curl.
Roman rushed up the stairs, perplexed at Logan’s last comment. Was there a part of him that actually cared about Sydney? Or was that another lame attempt to one-up him, since Roman was a doctor?
As he reached Sydney’s room, he heard him berating Penny, his nurse. Aside from being the most intelligent person Roman had ever met, Sydney had always been so kind and patient, but lately his moods shifted radically. Roman guessed it was partly the pain he was in, partly the meds, and a good part of it anger at being helpless for the first time in his life.
Roman stepped into the room and rushed to help Penny position Sydney, who was trying to sit up in his bed.
“If you’d just wait until I get the bed up to the right level first,” Penny scolded, pressing the button that raised the head of the bed.
“It’s okay, Penny. I’ve got him,” Roman said, holding his father’s torso so he wouldn’t fall out of the bed with all his fidgeting. “How are you doing, Dad?”
“Where have you been, Roman?” Sydney asked, his tone sharp.
“I was seeing patients. You know I need to go in to our medical practice for a couple hours most weekdays.”
Sydney nodded. “Just checking.”
Or did he forget? The brilliant man whose mind was once able to keep track of a hundred minute details was now sometimes forgetting the day of the week or the time of day.
Just as Roman thought this, Sydney added, “I know what you’re thinking. That this guy has lost it. But I haven’t. Maybe I’m not as efficient as I once was, but I’m still on the ball up here.” He tapped the side of his head.
Roman chuckled. “Hey, even if you lost half your marbles, you’d still have twice as many as most people.”
“Only twice as many, huh?”
Roman loved that his father was feeling well enough to banter with him. “Maybe a few more. You were kind of dozing off when I left this morning so you might not have paid attention.”
Sydney seemed to think about that for a minu
te, then turned to Penny, his expression shifting again. “Where were you?” he barked at his nurse in a challenging tone. “Why did you leave my room for so long?”
Penny’s spine went stiff. “Logan said he wanted some private time with you.”
“You take orders from me, not my nephew,” Sydney said.
Penny backed up a step. “But I often take a long lunch break when Roman sits with you, so I figured it was okay if your nephew was here.”
“Logan’s not a doctor,” Sydney said.
“But I was right downstairs in the kitchen if you needed me. And Dr. Weinstock said you were in no danger of—”
“Did Logan tell you not to come upstairs until he called for you?” Sydney cut in, his eyes fixed on the nurse in a scrutinizing way that made Roman wonder what was going on.
“Well, yes. He said when you woke up he wanted to speak in private with you. And I respect your family boundaries.” She looked up at Roman as if for reassurance. When he nodded his understanding, she gave him a girlish smile and added, “As a thank you to me for taking such good care of Dr. Burke, Logan brought me a take-out lunch from Charlene’s. He knows it’s my favorite place.” Although Penny was in her fifties, she obviously was not immune to Logan’s charm and good looks.
“Nice of him to do that for you and well deserved,” Roman said, trying to calm the tension in the room.
When Penny started to say something more, Sydney gave Roman an annoyed look and once again interrupted his nurse. “Penny, you can go home for the day.”
“What? But Toni won’t be in until four.” She glanced at Roman, no doubt expecting him to step in, but he knew Sydney must have a reason for telling her to go home and he badly wanted to know what that was.
“It’s okay,” Roman said. “I can handle his needs until Toni comes in. And I’ll report your hours to the service as a full day.”
Looking miffed, Penny just shrugged and left the room.
“Walk her out,” Sydney whispered, his serious command making Roman wonder what the heck happened.
He went back downstairs and found Penny getting into her coat, looking worried, no doubt expecting Sydney would complain to the nursing service and ask to have her replaced. Roman felt bad, but he couldn’t reassure her until he knew what put Sydney in a huff. So he made friendly chatter and closed the door behind her.
Taking the stairs two at a time, he raced down the second-floor hallway to the master bedroom, an elegant corner suite furnished in beige and browns, with a fireplace in the spacious sitting area and French doors that opened to a balcony patio overlooking the landscaped gardens. Of course the room now had a nurse’s station, an oxygen tank next to the bed, and other medical paraphernalia.
“Call David Seizman,” Sydney said as soon as Roman walked back into the room.
“Now?” David was Sydney’s lawyer.
“Yes! Right now!”
Seeing how agitated Sydney was, Roman pulled his phone from his pocket and began scrolling for David’s number.
“Do you remember last time Logan came here?” Sydney asked. “About two weeks ago. He was telling you about a great restaurant that had opened up in East Hampton and I said that enjoying a meal was a thing of the past for me, that between this rotten disease and the drugs, my taste buds had gone off kilter.”
“Sure, I remember, but why are you talking about—”
“Logan knows you make me iced tea with lemon every day and leave it on my nightstand before you go to our office to see patients. And he knows that I often doze off before I get around to drinking all of it. I’ve been joking about the constant naps my body seems to require lately.” He pointed to the glass of iced tea. “Dip your fingertip in that and taste it. Just a tiny taste, mind you.”
Roman picked up the glass. The tea looked kind of watery now, but then it had been sitting there for a few hours. He dunked his fingertip in the tea and licked it. “Tastes kind of bitter. Maybe I let it steep too long or—”
“Logan just tried to give me an early send-off.”
“What?” Could he possibly mean…? “Are you saying he tried to kill you?”
Sydney sank back against his pillows with a heavy sigh. “I fell asleep after you left. When I awoke, I saw Logan hovering over my nightstand. His behavior seemed odd, so I kept my eyelids closed to a slit and turned my head to see what was up while pretending to still be sleeping. He was emptying capsules—several—into my glass of iced tea. I’m guessing that bitter taste is my time-release morphine caps. Go count them.”
Shocked beyond words, Roman went to the dresser and emptied the pill bottle of morphine caps onto the surface. “You haven’t taken any of these, have you?”
“No. I told Weinstock I was fine on the oxycodone, but he insisted I might need those soon.”
Hearing that hurt Roman’s heart. The fact that Sydney would get continuously worse was something he tried not to think about. “It’s missing almost half of the full script.” Enough for an overdose, especially with each time-release cap dumped all at once into his system. “I’m calling the police.”
“No.” Sydney held up a hand. “He’s still my brother’s son and I don’t want him arrested. My family has a prominent and respected history on Long Island and I refuse to let him ruin it with a scandal. Or to ruin my remaining days with an ugly fight. And you know Logan. He wouldn’t give in without a fight.”
Fury surged through Roman. “No way will I allow him in this house. Ever again.”
“Calm down, Roman. We can’t do that. Call David.”
“I can’t believe you’re taking this so lightly.”
“I’m not. Not at all. But you’d make a lousy poker player, my son. Better not to show our hand,” Sydney said, his eyebrows knit in thought. “Instead I’m going to give him a surprise down the road.”
“There won’t be any ‘down the road’ if we don’t find a way to protect you. We should have a security cam installed in here.”
“I already—” Sydney frowned and shook his head, then said, “That’s only useful after the fact.”
“Then I’m hiring a bonded bodyguard. In fact, I know someone you would like and he needs work. A friend, Dad not a stranger. Ciara’s brother.”
“All right, but we tell people it’s because I fell a couple times. Let Logan think the tea was spilled down the sink and we never found out what he did.”
“I’m getting rid of it right now.”
“Don’t touch that,” Sydney said, as Roman reached for the glass. “I’m sending it to Jerry’s lab for an independent report. It’s our proof.”
“Proof?” Roman snorted. “Not really. Logan probably never touched the glass, so it’s still only your word about what you witnessed. And guess whose fingerprints would be on the glass since I’m the one who made the tea and set it on the nightstand?”
Sydney nodded. “Very clever. So if it came out that my death was from an overdose, they would point the finger at you.”
Roman let out a cynical grunt. “He’s been trying to get rid of me since we met.”
“I had hoped he would be the son I never had, but he kept disappointing me. And he blamed you for outshining him on every count. But I never thought he’d go this far.” Sydney gazed at Roman with the smile of a loving father. “You were studious, hardworking, loyal, loving, considerate, grateful—so many things he would never bother even trying to be. And yet my will still divides my estate fifty-fifty between the two of you. That’s going to change.”
Roman thought about the warning Logan had tossed at him so many times. “Maybe you should just give it all to charity. I have a well-paying profession, thanks to you.”
“Exactly,” Sydney shook his head. “What you just said. That’s the difference between you and my nephew. Now call David.”
Chapter 9
Rainy couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so happy. It was a summer Sunday in July and the day was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky. Her Aunt Sheila was in her glory whene
ver a few of the Rocklyn clan gathered at the vineyard. They weren’t all there today, but Rainy’s dad, Michael Rocklyn, and her Uncle Matt were there playing cards under a shady tree. Her cousin Grant, the quiet one, sat off to the side, whittling a wooden toy for his nephew, the son of Matt Jr. and Nicole.
Kendra, who would normally be doing cartwheels or ragging on one of her brothers, was tending to her two-month-old baby boy with her husband, Orlando. Shannon and Jeff were missing today, but Roman was here with her.
A few weeks ago Rainy had brought him over to the vineyard carriage house where her father lived. She wanted them to meet. Yeah, things were getting serious. At least it seemed that way from Rainy’s perspective. She and her dad had always been close, especially after the tragedy of losing her mother and the troubles with her sister. So his opinion mattered to her.
Twice before in the past Rainy had introduced her father to “her intended” and her dad had been polite, but she could tell he wasn’t thrilled with her choices. And he had been proven right when everything later went up in smoke both times and Rainy ended up with a smashed heart and a failing grade on her love life report card.
But when she’d seen how well Roman got along with her father—her dad had even given her a wink and a nod at one point—Rainy knew this thing between her and Roman had legs.
No, they hadn’t made any kind of commitment. Neither had mentioned the L word. But they talked and texted daily and spent several nights a week together. And each time they were together they unearthed more and more of those personal secrets and private wounds that only a loved one knows. Things that built the kind of trust and intimacy she’d never had before with any man. The kind she would want with the man she chose to marry.
And some part of her knew it couldn’t be anyone but Roman. Did that mean she was in love with him?
She pushed the thought aside for now, but her heart knew the truth.
Tucker came running into the pool area where they all sat, shouting and waving his arms in his crazy-ass boisterous way. “Ladies and gentlemen! May I present the star of our show…Christopher ‘Kip’ Rocklyn!”
Rainy Day Lovers (The Rocklyns Book 3) Page 7