by Nora Roberts
“Seth.” Anna waited until he looked at her. “Did you go to Europe to get away from her? To get her away from us?”
The look he sent her was so fierce, so full of love it made Dru’s throat hurt. “I wanted to go. I needed to find out what I could do with my work, on my own. That was just another door you opened up for me. But in the back of my mind . . . Well, it weighed in, that’s all.”
“Okay.” Ethan turned his mug in slow circles. “You did what you thought you had to do then. What about now?”
“About four months ago, she showed up on my doorstep in Rome. She had some guy with her she was stringing along. She’d heard about me—read stuff—and figured the pot was a whole lot richer now. She said she’d go to the press, to the galleries, and give them the whole story. Her story,” he amended. “The way she’d twisted it around. Dragging Ray’s name through the dirt again. I paid her off, and I came home. I wanted to come home. But it turns out I brought her back with me.”
“You never brought her anywhere,” Phillip corrected. “Get that through your thick head.”
“Okay, she came back. Only this time the money didn’t send her off again. She’s been staying around, somewhere. She came into Dru’s shop.”
“Did she threaten you?” Temper fired into Cam’s face again. “Did she try to hurt you?”
“No.” Dru shook her head. “She knows Seth and I are involved. So she’s added me to the mix, using me as another weapon to hurt him. I don’t know her, but from everything I’ve heard, everything I’m hearing, she wants that as much as she wants money. To hurt him. To hurt all of you. I don’t agree with what Seth did, but I understand why he did it.”
Her gaze traveled around the table, from face to face. “I shouldn’t be sitting here at this table while you talk about this. This is family business, and as personal as it gets. But no one questioned my being here.”
“You’re Seth’s,” Phillip said simply.
“You can’t know how special you are. All of you. This . . . unit. Whether Seth’s trying to protect that unit was right or wrong, smart or stupid doesn’t much matter at this point. The point is he loved you all too much to do otherwise—and she knew it. Now it has to stop.”
“There’s a woman with brains,” Cam said. “Did you pay her tonight, kid?”
“No, she set new terms. She’ll go to the press, tell her story. Blah blah.” He shrugged, and realized a great deal of the weight on his shoulders had already lifted. “But she’s got a new spin, pulling Dru into it. Senator’s granddaughter in sex scandal. It’s bull, but if she does it, it’s going to pull everybody in. Reporters hounding her at the flower shop, hounding all of you, turning her family upside down. All of us, too.”
“Screw her,” Aubrey said, very clearly.
“Another girl with brains.” Cam winked at Aubrey. “How much she want this time?”
“A million.”
Cam choked on the coffee he’d just sipped. “A million—a million fucking dollars?”
“She won’t get a penny.” Face grim, Anna patted Cam on the back. “Not a penny this time, or ever again. Is that right, Seth?”
“I knew when I sat with her in that dive she had me meet her in, that I had to cut it off. She’ll have to do whatever she’s going to do.”
“We won’t be sitting on our hands,” Phillip promised. “When are you supposed to meet her again?”
“Tomorrow night, with a ten-thousand-dollar down payment.”
“Where?”
“This redneck bar in Saint Michael’s.”
“Phil’s thinking.” Cam grinned a wide, wide grin. “I love when that happens.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking.”
“Why don’t I start some breakfast.” Grace got to her feet. “And you can tell us all what you’re thinking.”
DRU listened to the ideas, the arguments and, incredibly from her point of view, the laughter and casual insults as a plan took shape.
Bacon sizzled, eggs were scrambled and coffee was brewed. She wondered if the lack of sleep had made her dull-witted, or if it was just impossible for an outsider to keep up with the dynamics.
When she started to get up, to help set the table, Anna laid a hand on her shoulder, rubbed. “Just sit, honey. You look exhausted.”
“I’m all right. It’s just I don’t think I really understand. I suppose Gloria hasn’t committed an actual crime, but it just seems as if you should talk to the police or a lawyer instead of trying to deal with it all yourselves.”
Conversation snapped off. For a few seconds there was no sound but the gurgle of the coffeepot and the snap of frying meat.
“Well now,” Ethan said in his thoughtful way, “that would be one option. Except you have to figure the cops would just tell Seth how he was a moron to give her money in the first place. Seems we’ve already covered that part here.”
“She blackmailed him.”
“In a manner of speaking,” Ethan agreed. “They’re not going to arrest her for it, are they?”
“No, but—”
“And I guess a lawyer might write a whole bunch of papers and letters and what-all about it. Maybe we could sue her or something. You can sue anybody for any damn thing, it seems to me. Maybe it goes to court. Then it gets ugly and it drags out.”
“It isn’t enough to stop the extortion,” Dru insisted. “She should pay for what she’s done. You work in the system,” she said to Anna.
“I do. And I believe in it. I also know its flaws. As much as I want this woman to pay for every moment of pain and worry and unhappiness she’s brought Seth, I know she won’t. We can only deal with now.”
“We deal with our own.” Cam spoke in a tone of flat finality. “Family stands up. That’s all there is.”
Dru leaned toward him. “And you’re thinking I won’t stand up.”
Cam leaned right back. “Dru, you’re as pretty as they come, but you’re not sitting at this table for decoration. You’ll stand up. Quinn men don’t fall for a woman unless she’s got a spine.”
She kept her eyes on his. “Is that a compliment?”
He grinned at her. “That was two compliments.”
She eased back, nodded. “All right. So you handle it your way. The Quinn way,” she added. “But I think it might be helpful to find out if, considering her lifestyle and habits, she has any outstanding warrants. A call to my grandfather ought to get us that information before tomorrow night. It wouldn’t hurt for her to realize we play hard, too.”
“I like her,” Cam said to Seth.
“Me too.” But Seth took Dru’s hand. “I don’t want to drag your family into this.”
“Not wanting to drag yours into it or me into it is why we’re sitting here at four in the morning.” She took the platter of eggs Aubrey passed, scooped some onto her plate. “Your bright idea was to get drunk and dump me. How’d that work out for you?”
He took the platter, tried a smile. “Better than expected.”
“No thanks to you. I wouldn’t advise you going down that path again. Pass the salt.”
While his family looked on, he reached over, took her face in his hands and kissed her. Hard and long. “Dru,” he said. “I love you.”
“Good. I love you, too.” She took his wrist, squeezed lightly. “Now pass the salt.”
HE didn’t think he would sleep, but he dropped off like a stone for four hours. When he woke in his old room, disoriented and soft-brained, his first clear thought was that she wasn’t beside him.
He stumbled out of the room and downstairs to find Cam alone in the kitchen. “Where’s Dru?”
“She went into work, about an hour ago. Borrowed your car.”
“She went in? Jesus.” Seth rubbed his hands over his face, tried to get his brain to engage after too much whiskey, too much coffee, too little sleep. “Why didn’t she just close for the day? She couldn’t have gotten very much sleep.”
“She looked like she handled it a lot better than you did, pal.”<
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“Yeah, well, she didn’t down half a bottle of Jameson first.”
“You play, you pay.”
“Yeah.” He opened a cupboard to search for the kitchen aspirin. “Tell me.”
Cam poured a glass of water, handed it to Seth. “Down those, then let’s take a walk.”
“I need to clean up, get into town. Maybe I can give Dru a hand in the shop. Something.”
“She’ll hold for a few minutes.” Cam opened the kitchen door. “Let’s take it outside.”
“If you’re planning on kicking my ass, it won’t take much this morning.”
“Thought about it. But I think it’s been kicked enough for now.”
“Look, I know I fucked up—”
“Just shut up.” Cam gave Seth a shove out the door. “I’ve got some things to say.”
He headed for the dock, as Seth had expected. The sun was strong and hot. It was barely nine in the morning, and already the air had a mean, threatening weight that promised to gain more muscle before it was done.
“You pissed me off,” Cam began. “I’m mostly over it. But I want something made clear—and I’m speaking for Ethan and Phil. Get that?”
“Yeah, I get it.”
“We didn’t give up a goddamn thing for you. Shut up, Seth,” he snapped out when Seth opened his mouth. “Just shut the hell up and listen.” He let out a breath. “Ha. Looks like I’m still pissed off after all. Grace has some points, and I’m not going to argue about them. But none of us gave up jack.”
“You wanted to race—”
“And I raced,” Cam snapped out. “I told you to shut up. Now shut the fuck up until I’m done. You were ten years old, and we did what we were supposed to do. Nobody wants a fucking obligation from you, nobody wants payment from you, and it’s a goddamn insult for you to think otherwise.”
“It’s not like that.”
Cam stepped closer. “Do you want me to tie your tongue in a knot or are you going to shut up?”
Because he felt ten again, Seth shrugged.
“Things changed for you the way they were supposed to change. Things changed for us, too. Ever stop to think that if I hadn’t been stuck with some smart-assed, skinny, pain-in-the-ass kid I might not have met Anna? I might have had to live my whole life without her—and without Kevin and Jake. Phil and Sybill, same deal. They found each other because you were in the middle. I figure Ethan and Grace might be getting around to dating just about now, almost twenty years after the fact, if you being part of things hadn’t nudged them along.”
He waited a beat. “So, how much do we owe you for our wives and children? For pulling us back home, for giving us a reason to start the business?”
“I’m sorry.”
Pure frustration had Cam dragging at his own hair. “I don’t want you to be sorry, for sweet Christ’s sake! I want you to wake up.”
“I’m awake. I don’t feel much like George Bailey, but I’m awake. It’s a Wonderful Life,” Seth added. “Grandma—Stella told me I ought to think about it.”
“Yeah. She loved old movies. I should’ve figured if anybody could put a chip in that rock head of yours, it would be Mom.”
“I guess I didn’t listen to her either. I think she’s pissed off at me, too. I should’ve told you right along.”
“You didn’t, and that’s done. So we start with now. We’ll deal with her tonight.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” Seth turned with a slow smile. “I never thought I’d say it, but I’m looking forward to meeting her tonight. It’s been a long time coming. So . . . you want to kick my ass, or slap me around?”
“Get a grip on yourself. Just wanted to clear the air.” Cam slung a friendly arm around Seth’s shoulder. Then shoved him into the water. “I don’t know why,” Cam said when Seth surfaced, “but doing that always makes me feel better.”
“Glad I could help,” Seth sputtered and let himself sink.
“YOU’RE staying here. That’s the end of it.”
“And when did we come to the point where you dictate where I go and what I do? Play it back for me, I must have missed it the first time around.”
“I’m not going to argue about this.”
“Oh yes,” Dru said, almost sweetly, “you are.”
“She’s not getting near you again. That’s number one. The place I’m meeting her is a dive, and you don’t belong there. That’s two.”
“Oh, I see. Now you decide where I belong. That’s a tune I’ve been hearing all my life. I don’t care for it.”
“Dru.” Seth paused, then paced to the back door of the family kitchen, back again. “This is hard enough without me going in there worrying about some asshole hassling you. The place is one step up from a pit.”
“I don’t know why you think I can’t handle assholes. I’ve been handling you, haven’t I?”
“That’s real funny, and I’ll bust into hilarity over it later. I want this done and over. I want it behind me. Behind us. Please.” He changed tack, laid his hand gently on her shoulder. “Stay here and let me do what I have to do.”
It was turmoil in his eyes now rather than temper. And she responded to it. “Well, since you ask so nicely.”
His shoulders relaxed as he laid his forehead on hers. “Okay, good. Maybe you should stretch out for a little while. You didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Don’t push it, Seth.”
“Right. I should go.”
“You know who you are.” She turned her head to brush her lips over his. “And so do I. She doesn’t. She never could.”
SHE let him go, and stood on the front porch with the other Quinn women as the two cars drove away.
Anna lowered the hand she’d lifted in a wave. “There go our strong, brave men, off to battle. And we womenfolk stay behind, tucked up safe.”
“Put on the aprons,” Aubrey mumbled. “Make potato salad for tomorrow’s picnic.”
Dru glanced around, saw the same look in her companions’ eyes she knew was in her own. “I don’t think so.”
“So.” Sybill rolled her shoulders, glanced at her watch. “How much lead time do we give them?”
“Fifteen minutes ought to be about right,” Anna decided.
Grace nodded. “We’ll take my van.”
SETH sat at the bar, brooding into his untouched beer. He figured the dread in the pit of his stomach was natural. She’d always put it there. The venue, he supposed, was the perfect place for this showdown with her, with his early childhood, with his own ghosts and demons.
He intended to walk out of it when he was finished, and leave all of that misery behind, just another smear on the dirty air.
He needed to feel clean again, complete again. He wondered if Ray would have understood this nasty tug-of-war between fury and grief.
He liked to think so. Just as he liked to think some part of Ray was sitting beside him in the bar.
But when she walked in, there was only the two of them. The drinkers, the pool players, the bartender, even that nebulous connection with the man who’d been his grandfather faded away.
It was just Seth, and his mother.
She relaxed onto a stool, crossed her legs and sent the bartender a wink.
“You look a little rough around the edges,” she said to Seth. “Tough night?”
“You look the same. You know, I’ve been sitting here thinking. You had a pretty good deal growing up.”
“Shit.” She snagged the gin and tonic the bartender put in front of her. “Lot you know about it.”
“Big house, plenty of money, good education.”
“Fuck that.” She drank deep. “Bunch of jerks and assholes.”
“You hated them.”
“My mother’s a cold fish, stepfather’s pussy-whipped. And there’s Sybill, the perfect daughter. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out and live.”
“I don’t know about your parents. They don’t have anything to do with me either. But Sybill never hurt you. She t
ook you in, took both of us in when you landed on her doorstep, broke and with nowhere else to go.”
“So she could lord it over me. Goddamn superior bitch.”
“Is that why you stole from her when we were in New York? Cleaned her out and took off after she’d given you a place to stay?”
“I take what I need. That’s how you get ahead in life. Had to support you, didn’t I?”
“Let’s not bullshit. You never gave a damn about me. The only reason you didn’t take off without me, dump me on Sybill, was because you knew she cared about me. So you took me away, you stole her things because you hated her. You stole so you could buy drugs.”
“Oh yeah, she’d’ve loved it if I’d left you behind. She could’ve gone around feeling righteous, telling everybody how worthless I was. Fuck her. Whatever I took out of her place, I was entitled to. Gotta look out for number one in this life. Never could teach you that.”
“You taught me plenty.” When Gloria rattled the ice in her glass, he signaled the bartender for another drink. “Ray didn’t even know about you, but you hated him. When he found out, when he tried to help you, you only hated him more.”
“He owed me. Bastard doesn’t keep his dick zipped, knocks up some idiot coed, he oughta pay.”
“And he paid you. He didn’t know Barbara was pregnant with you, he never knew you existed. But when you told him, he paid you. And it wasn’t enough. You tried to ruin him with lies. Then you used his decency against him and sold me to him like I was a puppy you were tired of.”
“Fucking A I was tired of you. Kept you around for ten years, cramping my style. Old man Quinn owed me for giving him a grandson. And it all worked out pretty well for you, didn’t it?”
“I guess I owe you for that one.” He lifted his beer in a toast, sipped. “But it worked out pretty well for you, at least when he was alive. You just kept hitting him up for more money, using me as the bait.”