Man Law

by Adrienne Giordano

  With Matthew, the best approach would be to make it Michael’s idea. He respected his uncle and wouldn’t question his decision. Michael had been the father figure since Danny died and he took no guff from Matt. Maybe she could learn something from the approach, but Michael didn’t have to live with a teenager. He could yell all he wanted and leave. She had to clean up the mess and, sometimes, her sanity depended on choosing her battles.

  “They’re just going to sit around outside?”

  “Yes,” Gina said. “They’ll go with us when we leave the house. I need you to help me with this, Matthew. You are not to go anywhere without Vic or one of the guys with you.”

  Matt offered another sideways glance at Vic. “I don’t get it. Why do I need a babysitter? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Can I say something?” Vic asked.

  “Sure,” Gina said.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong. I got into a bad deal at work. Some guys have been following me and saw me bringing your mom and Lily home the other night. They assumed your mom and I are a couple. They think they can screw with me by using your mom and Lily. We just want to be cautious here.”

  Matthew shuffled his feet and suddenly he wasn’t fifteen and three quarters. Suddenly his sun-kissed brown hair wasn’t two inches longer than it should be. He was her cute little boy wanting to understand something beyond his years.

  “Are you a couple?” Matt asked Gina, his eyes wide and a little wary.

  An explosion of surprise rocked her. She hadn’t anticipated that question.

  She touched Matt’s hand. “We are not a couple. Vic’s our friend.”

  When he squinted, his eyes held a beady meanness and a weight settled in her chest. He didn’t believe her. How disappointing.

  “I know you’re lying,” Matt said.

  “Hey,” Gina snapped.

  Forget disappointment. The reeling anger whirled inside her, pounding, whooshing in her ears. She stood and leaned on the counter for a mom time-out. She had never lied to Matthew. Not when Danny had been trapped in a burning building. Not when he didn’t understand why he couldn’t see his dad’s body, and not the hundreds of times it would have been easier to lie and avoid a meltdown. On the contrary, she thought things through until she wanted to drop from exhaustion. She always found ways to be honest without giving him more than he could emotionally handle. And now he called her a liar?

  “I saw you on the beach after Uncle Mike’s wedding.”

  Oh, no. Had he seen them having sex? She swiveled to Vic, who hadn’t moved an inch. Help me.

  Taking his cue, he said, “What do you think you saw?”

  The only response was an icy glare.

  “What?” Vic said. “Just say it.”

  “I saw you kiss her. Don’t tell me you didn’t, because you’d be a liar too. You’re both liars!”

  Vic, to his credit, remained stone still with his arms folded across his chest, his face relaxed, not a care in the world.

  “First of all,” he said, his voice firm. “Don’t scream at me. If you were a little older, I’d kick your ass all over the back alley.”

  Whoa. Nobody was kicking anybody’s ass around here, but before she could say it, Matthew jumped out of his chair.

  “No,” he yelled.

  Vic grabbed his arm in a move so quick Gina almost missed it. For a big guy he could move.

  Vic handled Matthew’s temper the way Michael did. Straight on, with no pleasantries. When Michael yelled, Matthew reacted with a typical teenage sulk, but with Vic, his face became cherry-red.

  “She was supposed to be taking care of us,” Matthew yelled. “She dumped us on Grandma so she could make out with you.” He spun to Gina. “I hate you.”

  The room closed in. Gina grabbed the edge of the table and concentrated on breathing. Nothing made sense.

  The hate part she could deal with. Kids said that all the time, but the vicious tone gutted her.

  “Oh, please,” Vic said, his voice an octave lower and a whole lot scarier.

  Gina had never heard this voice. “Vic, it’s okay.”

  “No, it’s not.” He turned to Matthew and in that same low voice said, “You don’t know shit about being dumped. When I was eleven years old my heroin-addict mother sent me to live with my aunt because I was too much of a burden. I was interfering with her getting her next fix. She didn’t know who my father was, so she left me.”

  Matthew’s mouth dropped open. He’d never heard about Vic’s childhood and, to Gina’s knowledge, never bothered to ask.

  “I didn’t see her for three years,” Vic continued. “You don’t get to bitch about being dumped until you’ve been dumped.”

  He stopped, bit down on his bottom lip, shot out of his chair and leaned against the refrigerator.

  She’d never noticed before, but Vic had a definite routine to corral his emotions. The breathing, the tensing muscles, the time-out. She’d learned more about him in ten seconds than she’d learned in ten years.

  His unusual outburst left Gina unable to move. The men in her life were giving her a whole new set of circumstances to deal with. Vic needed to talk, hopefully to her, about what his mother had done to him. The anger and disappointment, she knew, could suffocate a person.

  “Don’t you ever let me hear you accuse your mother of not taking care of you. She busts her ass to keep you kids happy and she doesn’t deserve this crap.”

  “Screw you,” Matt said, his voice cracking and losing the desired effect.

  Her smart-ass teenager was hurting. He just didn’t want to admit it. Oddly, Matthew and Vic were more alike then they’d ever know.

  “That’s enough,” she finally said, but Matt was already heading to the door.

  He stood with his back to them for a second, maybe to say something, but then wiped his eyes. Crying. Gina fought the urge to go to him. It would only anger him more to be treated like a child. At least they were getting somewhere. She preferred crying to hostility.

  “Can I go now?”

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Then go. Come back when you settle down and are ready to apologize.”

  And won’t that be fun?

  Chapter Seven

  Man Law: Never admit you screwed up.

  “I screwed up,” Vic said, scratching his head with both hands.

  Crap. He was supposed to be helping her and he went off on her kid. He never imagined himself parent material. This episode sealed the lid on his fatherhood potential.

  “I don’t think you did,” Gina said. “I hate to see him upset, but it felt good to have someone take my side for a change. You have no idea the effort I put into being honest with him, and for him to accuse me of lying? I just don’t get it.”

  She sighed and stared at the empty kitchen doorway.

  “He saw us on the beach.”

  Vic nodded. “I saw him in the window that night. I figured you did too. He couldn’t have seen us—” he waved his hand, “—you know. We were too far down the beach.”

  She walked to him. “He’s never seen me kissing any man but Danny. That’s what this was about. It’s not you.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not me I give a shit about. He needs to start treating you better.”

  Gina’s face went slack and she stepped back as if he’d sucker punched her. At this point, he’d lost count of his fuckups. Someone get a scorecard.

  “Now you’re going to start? Why not? Let’s make this jump-on-Gina day.”

  “I may be out of line here—”

  “You think?”

  “You wanted my help.”

  That closed her mouth. She pounded her palms on her forehead. “You’re right. I brought it on myself.”

  She was already mad—why not take it all the way? She needed to straighten this kid out before he became a miserable bastard. Vic, as CEO of Miserable Bastards Incorporated, knew about miserable bastards.

  “All I’m s
aying is you’re good to him. He was dealt a shitty hand, but at least he knew his father loved him. And you? Jesus, what you do for him is amazing.”

  A curl flopped in front of her eye and he moved to push it away, but opted to put his hands in his pockets where they’d be safe. Touching her always translated to a major screwup. Or, depending on how he looked at it, a major screw. Gina analyzed his face.

  Never a good sign when a woman did that.

  “I’m sorry your mother left you. I can’t imagine what that feels like.”

  And there it is, folks. The pity. He could defuse this quick. He’d had years of practice.

  “It feels like what it is. She didn’t love me enough to stick around. At least she put me somewhere I’d have a good life. I’m grateful for it.”

  And that was why, all these years later, he let her live in a condo he owned in Louisiana. He paid the mortgage and the utilities and had groceries delivered once a week. He wouldn’t give her money, because she’d only buy drugs, but she had a roof over her head and food in her belly. He would give her exactly what she’d given him.

  “Do you talk to your mother?”

  He shrugged. “We don’t have a lot to say.”

  How could she understand? Gina and Mikey had a good mother. One who always made Vic feel like one of the family by inviting him for meals and visiting him when he was sick. Or kicking his ass when it needed kicking. A mother like Gina was to her son.

  “Do you want me to talk to Matt? Apologize?” Vic asked.

  “Maybe later. He needs to apologize to you too. He’ll cool off and—in about thirty minutes—he’ll come back. He always does. When he cries, he knows he’s wrong. He just can’t admit it right away.”

  Vic looked at his watch. Three o’clock already. He’d been out of the office most of the afternoon. “I gotta get back. I’m waiting on Lynx’s call, and he won’t call my cell. He’s a pain in my ass.”

  Gina laughed. “Somehow, I think we’re all a pain in the ass.”

  Smiling at that was easy. His whole life seemed to be a pain in the ass recently. “Not everyone.”

  When she began rocking on her toes, he knew he had to leave. The same crazy tension was back, upsetting the molecules around him, and he was starting to sweat. If he didn’t get the hell out of there, they’d be all over each other. At least he’d learned something after the last three episodes of frantic humping.

  “Gotta go.” He kissed her on both cheeks. “You’re doing great with this mess. I’m in awe. Thank you for not splintering me for going off on him.”

  She laughed. “We’re only on day one. It could still happen.”

  When Vic left, all the energy in the sunny yellow kitchen went with him. He had this magical way of creating excitement, good or bad, anywhere he went.

  Talking to Matt was first up. She’d put her life on hold for her children, and she’d do it again, but she wanted a little respect.

  “Mama?” Lily called from the living room.

  “In here, baby.”

  Lily stepped into the doorway, all brown curls and cute little nose, and something warm bloomed in Gina’s stomach.

  “I think Matt is crying again,” she said. “Why does he do that?”

  Gina snorted. “I’m going up to talk to him. How about you pick a board game for us to play? Maybe Monopoly Junior?”

  “Okay. I’m banker.”

  All was right in Lily’s sheltered world. Unless you grew up with Vic’s mother, life could be simple at seven.

  Then there was Matthew.

  Rolling the stiffness from her shoulders, Gina drew a deep breath and closed her eyes. It would get worse before it got better, but she could handle it. Respect would once again reside in her home. Even if it killed her.

  “Hey,” Matt said from the doorway, and the sudden sound of his voice made her yelp.

  “You scared me.” She laughed at herself, but the sight of her dejected son with his red, swollen eyes bit into her. She hated this for him. “I was just coming up.”

  Matthew dropped his chin to his chest, shuffled his feet. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  The backbone she’d grown just a few minutes earlier started to give way. No. Respect would reign supreme. She folded her arms.

  “I know you’re sorry and I know you didn’t mean what you said.”

  “I didn’t. I swear.”

  “It doesn’t make it right.”

  “I know.”

  “You’ve been crabby to me for months now, Matthew, and I’m done. You can change your behavior or your butt will be parked in the house every day.”

  “Mom, I said I was sorry.”

  “To make sure you understand me, I want to see some changes. That means coming home on time, putting a smile on your face in the morning and not smart-mouthing me. You’ll also apologize to Vic.”

  Matt’s eyes got big and wild. “What? Why? He was crappy to me too.”

  “Watch your mouth. You gave as good as you got.”

  With Matt shaking his head in stunned silence, Gina felt an awkward sliver of hope. Control could be a beautiful thing. She and Matt weren’t going to be friends after this, but she would live with it. She had to be his mother, not his friend.

  He turned to go.

  “I’m not done yet.”

  He halted, inched back to her with a long face.

  “Matthew, I love you more than you can ever know, and I’m trying to be respectful of your feelings by telling you what’s going on. I understand your frustration with Vic, but he wants to help. He’s concerned for us and that’s all you should be focusing on.”

  “But I don’t want you going out with him.”

  So not focusing. It had to be a testosterone issue because the men in her life tended to concentrate on exactly what she didn’t want them to. If she had the energy, she would have laughed.

  “I will always be here for you, but there are parts of my life that are private. My relationship with Vic is not your concern. All you need to know is if I date someone, it’ll be someone who wants to spend time with all of us.” She stopped, took a breath. “Honey, just because your dad isn’t here anymore doesn’t mean I don’t still love him. He was an amazing man and I ache for him every day. No one will ever replace him. Ever.”

  Tears slid down Matt’s cheeks. He swiped at them and put his hands in his pockets again.

  God, this stunk.

  “Whatever,” he said.

  Ugh. “Fine, but you’re still going to apologize to Vic.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  Gina stifled a grunt. She’d like to list all the things she didn’t want to do. It would take days. Life stunk that way. “Well, too bad. You’re mad at him for something that isn’t his fault. You liked Vic before you saw us on the beach and you know it. Now he’s the enemy because we kissed each other? I don’t think so.”

  Matt’s glare should have incinerated her. “I don’t have to like him just because you say so.”

  Gina sighed. Arguing with a teenager was fruitless. She leaned against the counter and prayed for patience.

  “I’m thirty-five years old, Matthew.”

  “So?”

  “I know you don’t want me to date. But what happens when you kids are all grown and out of the house?”

  More shuffling of the feet and a shrug.

  “Look at me.”

  He brought his gaze to hers and his dark blue eyes softened, becoming recognizable again.

  “I will be alone,” she said. “Probably living in this house, and I can promise you it’s not what your father wanted. Your dad knew how dangerous his job was. He wanted us, expected us, to keep living our lives. I don’t know if I’ll ever meet someone I want to marry, but I want some companionship. If there is someone I’d like to spend time with—”

  “I know it’s Vic. I know it.”

  “Now you’re acting like a brat. Is that what you want?”

  “Can I go now?”

  She shrugged. “Su
re. Go to your room and think about it. You’ll realize I’m right, but whether you do or not, you will apologize to Vic.”

  He left the kitchen. “Don’t try to sneak out your window either. Monk and Roy will catch you and I’ll lock you in this house for a month. Bet on it.”

  His only response was to bang his way upstairs and slam his door.

  What else was new? Her head weighed forty pounds, but at least she wasn’t a pushover. She couldn’t be happy, but she could be satisfied.

  “I’m ready,” Lily yelled from the dining room table.

  “I’ll be right there,” Gina said to the only happy child in the house. Ooh, she’d better tell Monk and Roy to watch Matt’s window for an ornery teenager trying to escape.

  Jake came in the front door. “Mom, I’m home!”

  Now there were two happy children in the house, a crabby teenager and one satisfied mom.

  Maybe life could begin again.

  Chapter Eight

  Man Law: Always know where your enemy is.

  “What have we got on this guy?”

  Vic marched into the executive conference room at Taylor Security. Three operatives and one support staffer convened at the table. Tiny sat near the window, Duck and Billy across from him. Duck had just come back from a stint in Iraq and hadn’t shaved the thick beard he’d sported over there. Billy had been sitting on ice waiting for his next job. All three of these men were top-notch operators. He trusted these guys and wanted their help.

  “Sirhan hasn’t come into the states. Not under his real name anyway,” Janet Fink, the only woman in the room said. Janet, a blonde in her early thirties with round cheeks and a big smile, had done a tour with the CIA and was, in Vic’s opinion, one of the best damned support people he had ever seen. She could do amazing things with a computer.

  “My State Department contact just called,” he said. “Sirhan went underground.”

  He glanced at his notes. “There’s been no chatter regarding Sirhan. Some of his underlings were on the move, but nowhere near Chicago.”