I just want to show my feelings for you.
There's nothing that I'd rather do;
Than spend every moment with you.
I guess you should know,
I love you so.
You are my lady.
You're everything I need, and more.
You are my lady.
You're all I'm living for.
There's no way that I can resist,
your precious kiss.
Girl, you've got me
so hypnotized.
Just say that you'll stay with me.
Cause our love was meant to be.
I promise to love you more each day.
You are my lady.
You're everything I need, and more.
You are my lady.
You're all I'm living for.
You are my lady!”
Tears of joy were in Kari’s eyes as Alex sang that song to her, and Jordan was in tears too. And when Alex finished his song, the audience didn’t just applaud, they jumped to their feet in raucous applause.
“He made a statement right there!” Faye was saying vigorously as she and her husband and Lucinda, and everybody else in the audience were applauding and whooping and hollering. “He branded her again right there!” Faye yelled.
And Kari knew it too because, as soon as the audience first began applauding, she and Jordan didn’t hesitate either. They both ran to Alex and threw themselves into his arms. There was no doubt who they chose. No doubt at all!
Alex, thrilled that his uncomfortably risky move paid off, grabbed both Kari and Jordan as if he was grabbing precious jewels, and bear-hugged both of them. They laughed, as all three of them nearly stumbled backwards, and the audience laughed too.
DayVon was standing and applauding and smiling, too, as if he was enjoying it as well. Because he knew how to stay in character. But he also knew the writing was on the wall. He should have known it when he found out that his men had failed to take Alex out the way they were ordered to do. He especially should have known it when Jordan and Kari both seemed to jump on Alex’s side, and looked at DayVon as if he was the enemy, when he and Alex got into it. Now there was no doubt. This man, Alex Drakos, wasn’t going to give up Kari nor Jordan without a fight. This walk in the park had to become a sprint.
The first chance he got, he decided then and there, would be the chance he took.
While Alex and Kari and Jordan showed their affection for each other, and the audience showed their affection for the entire family, DayVon excused himself to the men’s room. Only he didn’t use the toilet. He made some phone calls.
And later that night, as the party was still in full bloom, DayVon’s chance to make his move came, when Alex got a call of his own: from Oz.
Everyone had settled down to tables to eat Jordan’s birthday feast, and Alex’s table held the usual crew: himself, Kari, Jordan, Jordan’s best friend Matty Lincoln, Benny and Faye Church, and Lucinda Mayes. DayVon, in deference to Jordan, was at the table too.
When Alex pulled out his phone, looked at his Caller ID, and saw that it was Oz, he excused himself from the table. It was easy to do, as everybody were laughing and eating and enjoying the night.
“What’s up?” Alex asked his kid brother when he moved away from the crowd.
“We got her,” Oz said.
Alex frowned. “Got who?” he asked.
“The Governor’s wife. You told me you wanted an audience with her. Didn’t you tell me that?”
“Yes, yes, I told you. Where is she?”
“I’ve got my eyes on her right now. You’ve got to come now.”
“Now? I’m at Jordan’s party. Where is she?”
“She’s here.”
“Here, in Apple Valley? Or here, in Florida?”
“Here, Alex. Downstairs. She’s at The Drakos. She checked in five minutes ago under an assumed name.”
Alex was stunned. “Why would she check into my hotel?”
“To talk to us. I called and asked if she would, and she said she’d be honored to. It was as if she was waiting for that call.”
Alex was surprised. He didn’t know what to make of that. “It could be a trap, Odysseus.”
“After what she told me over the phone,” Oz said, “I doubt that very seriously.”
“What did she tell you?” Alex asked.
“That her husband’s lawsuit is bullshit,” he said, “and she’s got the receipts. Oh, she’s angry at that motherfucker, and she wants the world to know. But for a price, I think.”
“Which suite?” Alex asked.
“She’s in 111. You need to come now.”
Alex looked at Kari and Jordan. They were in good hands with Benny and Faye and Lucinda, and everybody else in the hotel’s massive ballroom. And he knew he had to hear what she had to say. He needed to make sure it wasn’t the Governor’s men who attempted to take him and Kari out last week. “I’m on my way,” he said to his brother, and left through a side door.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Donna Berringer sat primly on the sofa of the suite, with Oz seated beside her, when Alex walked in. If there was ever the image of a governor’s wife, she seemed to personify it to him. But why would she be so willing to talk to him, Alex wondered. He kept his guard up.
“And here is the man of the hour,” Oz said as Alex made his way toward the sofa. “Mrs. Berringer, this is my brother, Alex Drakos.”
“How are you?” Alex said as he and Donna shook hands. “I think we’ve met before.”
“A few times before,” Donna said, “at various VIP receptions around the state.”
“Right,” Alex said as he sat down in the chair that flanked the sofa. He wanted a birds eye view of the woman. “Thank you for coming all this way to speak with me.”
“I came from Tallahassee, our capital, remember? That’s only an hour away, the way I drive.”
Oz laughed. “I can relate to that!” he said. And then he caught himself. She didn’t know, because Alex’s men sanitized the area and moved the body miles away, that his fast driving might have contributed to her daughter’s death.
Alex had already realized it, and was staring at the woman rather than laughing at some joke of Oz’s. “I’m sorry about your loss,” he said to her.
“Thank you,” she said to him.
“As am I,” said Oz.
Donna didn’t respond to Oz’s condolence. “How can I help you, Mr. Drakos?” she asked Alex.
“How can I help you?” asked Alex.
Donna smiled. “I heard you were a crafty one. Okay, I’ll get to the point. My husband is suing you and your brother for wrongful death of our daughter.”
“That’s right.”
“He’s suing the two of you for a hundred million dollars.”
“That’s right.”
“For one million dollars, which is the money I’ll need to get away from him and restart my life, I will expose him for the fraud he is and that will be the end of his lawsuit, because he’ll have no standing.”
“No standing?” Oz asked. “Why wouldn’t her father have standing?”
“Because he’s not her father,” she said and Oz, shocked, looked at Alex.
“He’s not your daughter’s father?” Alex asked.
Donna shook her head. “He’s not. We found out years ago, when he was just starting his political career. We kept it secret because we didn’t want to ruin his chances of success. But Pat is not his daughter, and I have the DNA test to prove it.”
Oz frowned. “Then why is that bastard running around on every talk show that would have him and threatening to sue us if it can be proven he has no standing and he knows he doesn’t? For money?”
“No,” said Donna. “It’s fear. It’s because he has to do that asshole’s bidding.”
Alex and Oz were confused. “Run that by us again, if you please,” Oz said.
“Whatever they want, he’ll have to do, or they will not only expose his activities, they�
��ll kill his fat ass,” said the governor’s wife. “That’s why my daughter died in the first place.” Tears were in Donna’s eyes. Oz handed her his handkerchief. She pulled her own handkerchief out of her purse.
But Alex was still digesting what she’d just said. “What activities?” he asked her. “And what asshole are you referring to?”
Donna looked at Alex as if he should have already worked that out. “Your son’s biological father,” she said as if it should have been obvious. “Dajalla Clarke. Or, I guess he goes by DayVon nowadays.”
But Alex was floored. Oz was too. Alex leaned forward. Oz moved to the edge of his seat. “DayVon?” Oz asked.
“Your husband is tied up with DayVon Clarke?” asked Alex.
Donna nodded. “Tied up and tangled up and unable to ever break free, yes.”
“How?” Alex asked.
“They’re a bunch of drug runners on that island,” Donna said. “That’s all they do. And Dajalla Clarke is the mastermind. Not his mother. He’s the boss. He transport drugs into the United States and my wonderful husband supplies the plane for the transport.”
“How does he do it?” Oz asked.
“My husband has a vacation home on that island. Whenever they need a major export, he will take the governor’s plane and fly to his vacation home. They load his plane with drugs and he’ll fly back to the States. Who’s going to stop him? It’s the official plane of Florida!”
“How long has this been going on?” Alex asked.
“Ever since Howard became governor. For years before that, though, when he was merely a state senator, he started helping them. They pay him thousands of dollars per trip, and he get their drugs Stateside. They helped to get him elected governor, with all of their illegal money coming in, because he promised to step up his plane trips. And boy has he!”
Then Donna frowned. “DayVon set up Oz and, I later learned, my daughter too. She was supposed to let Oz pick her up in that bar he always frequents, go to Oz’s apartment with him, and then cry rape after she got there. That was supposed to be the plan. At least that’s what she thought. Her so-called father promised to pay her a pretty penny for doing it, and when they sued you and your hotel, then she’d really make out. But that was never the plan. That was the plan they told her.”
“What was the real plan?” Oz asked.
“They drugged you,” Donna said. “They wanted you to die violently in a car crash and they didn’t care that you would take my daughter with you. They didn’t care about her at all.”
“She might not have been your husband’s biological daughter,” Alex said, “but surely he cared for her.”
“He hated her and she hated him. It’s always been that way, even before he found out she wasn’t his. He wanted her dead for his own reasons. He figured he’d still get to sue the Drakos brothers, but he wouldn’t have to split the proceeds with my daughter. That’s the kind of vile man we’re talking about.”
“And DayVon Clarke?” Alex asked.
“Vile too,” said Donna. “He just wants to reclaim his son so he can get a stranglehold onto your money. He just want a stake in a billionaire’s fortune. He doesn’t give a damn about your wife and son.”
Oz looked at Alex. Both of them were blown away by what Donna was telling them.
“What’s in it for you?” Oz asked.
“I told you what,” said Donna. “You give me a million dollars, which is a fraction of what you would have been paying had that lawsuit went forward, and I will expose my husband for the fraud he is. I’ll produce the DNA results. I’ll tell about his connections to DayVon Clarke and all of that drug running they do together. And finally I’ll be able to grieve my daughter’s death. Besides,” she said to Alex, “you know you covered up that car wreck I’m sure your brother had, given that they had drugged in hopes that he would crash his car. You owe me at least that much,” she said.
And Alex and Oz could not disagree with her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Kari was on the dance floor dancing playfully with Jordan. Both mother and son were happy that the party was a rousing success.
“Dad was great,” Jordan said as they danced.
“Which Dad?” Kari asked. “Both?”
“Dad dad,” Jordan said. “My dad.”
Kari was surprised to hear him say that. “What about DayVon?” she asked him.
“I think DayVon singing a song like that to you,” Jordan said, “and right in front of Dad the way he did it, was a little inappropriate.”
Kari laughed. “A little? Ya’ think?”
“But I understood what he was saying. He wants you back.”
Kari didn’t respond to that.
“I’m excited to get to know DayVon better,” Jordan said, “but . . .”
Kari looked at him. “But what?”
“But I think I want Dad to be my official dad.”
Kari’s heart soared. But she needed it to be his decision alone. “Why, J?” she asked him.
“Because I don’t think there’s a man alive who will treat you better than Dad does. He’ll take care of you, Ma. I won’t have to worry about you.”
Kari smiled. “You’ve always worried about me. You’re a great son, just like Alex said. But what about DayVon?” she asked. “You don’t think he could take care of me, hun?”
“He can take care of you financially,” Jordan said, “but . . . But I think he may love himself more than he’ll ever love us.”
Kari smiled. “That’s not the DayVon that I remember,” she said. And then her look turned serious, and sad. “But people do change,” she added, as if she had already realized that about DayVon.
Jordan agreed with her. “Yes, they do change,” he said. It was that confrontation DayVon had with Alex that made him realize it too.
“And you know what else?” Kari said to him.
“What, Ma?”
“I think we love Daddy more than we could ever love anybody else.”
Jordan was happy to hear his mother say so. He was afraid she might fall in love with his handsome biological father all over again, and leave Alex. “We love Daddy more than we can ever love DayVon?” he asked her.
“Including DayVon, yes,” said Kari.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Jordan admitted, and they both laughed.
Then Jordan looked beyond his mother. “He’s coming now,” he said.
Kari looked, too, and saw DayVon entering the ballroom, looking around, and then spotting mother and son. He then hurried their way.
“There you guys are,” he said as he approached them.
“What’s up?” Kari asked.
“Your husband is waiting for us,” DayVon said.
“Waiting for what?” Kari asked.
“Apparently to take us to the gift he has for Jordan.”
Jordan smiled grandly. “For real?” Neither one of his parents had given him a gift yet. Kari thought the party was their gift to him. She realized at that moment that Jordan wasn’t thinking that.
“I just saw him,” DayVon said. “He apparently wants me along so he can outdo me.”
“I doubt if that’s true,” Kari said.
“But come on, Ma,” Jordan said, grabbing her hand and hurrying her along. “We don’t want to keep Dad waiting!”
DayVon laughed, and so did Kari as they made their way toward the exit.
But DayVon’s smile lasted as long as it took for Kari and Jordan to look away from him. Because he was about to slap those smiles off of their smug faces too, he thought, when they realized just what kind of gift they were really about to receive.
CHAPTER FORTY
Because Kari didn’t know what Alex was going to get Jordan for his birthday, it didn’t seem out of the ordinary at all when DayVon said Alex wanted to see them. Kari and Jordan thought nothing of following DayVon out of the ballroom to go and see what Alex wanted with the three of them. Even Security thought nothing of it on that festive night, as the three of t
hem made their way toward the private back exit that led out of the hotel.
When they stepped outside, and the limousine pulled up, and Mikey, a young man she knew was one of Alex’s new drivers, got out and opened the back door for them, Kari assumed Alex would be inside ready to take them to a surprise location as Jordan’s birthday gift.
But when Jordan and then Kari moved to get into the limo, and when Kari saw that Alex was not inside, she almost turned around to ask DayVon where was Alex. But she saw Jordan’s suddenly terrified face. He had just sat down in the limo and was apparently able to see DayVon further back. And he silently mouthed the word gun to Kari.
When she realized what Jordan was warning her about, she realized her mistake in trusting DayVon in the first place. He blindsided her with his smile and charm. And she thought nothing of allowing herself and her son to go wherever he was leading them. Now they apparently were in danger, and Jordan, wisely, was warning her without giving away the game.
But her heart was hammering, and her eyes grew larger, because she knew she had to think fast on her feet. If she turned around in fear, it could all be over for both of them. But if she played along, as if she didn’t know what he might have been up to, then they still might stand a chance. She didn’t understand how Mikey was involved in it, but she got into the limousine anyway. She had to. Jordan was already inside.
But as she got in, she knew their only hope was Alex. He had to know what was happening to them! She casually reached into the pocket of her jacket as she got into the limousine, swiped her cell phone, and blindly pressed the middle button. Alex’s face was her middle button.
When DayVon got in, and sat across from Kari and Jordan, the gun Jordan had warned her about was in plain view. DayVon had it trained on mother and son.
“Drive,” he ordered Mikey, and Mikey, smiling because the plan was coming to fruition, took off.
Alex and Oz had left Donna Berringer and was walking across the lobby toward the ballroom, ready to confront DayVon, when Alex’s cell phone rang.
Alex Drakos: Branding Her Again Page 17