Thrilled To Death

by Jennifer Apodaca

  He was mad about that. Vance and Gabe worked together sometimes, but they didn’t like each other. “He called me. He wanted information about magicians and spoilers.”

  “Right. He needed an ex–soccer mom’s expertise.” God he was edgy tonight. And I was getting tired of defending myself. I turned back to the cake and cut a few more slices, slapped them on some plates, and picked them up. “At least he needed me.” I turned and went outside.

  7

  After dessert, Joel had impressed everyone with his cups and balls trick. At Grandpa’s urging, TJ had shown everyone his amazing ability to count cards. Bo dealt out half the deck, and TJ told him exactly how many aces and nines were in the remaining half. TJ may not have passion for magic, but he had his own talents.

  Finally, Bo and Fletch both left. Grandpa and I walked them out, then came back into the kitchen, where Gabe was helping the boys finished up the dishes. Cal was eating more cake. His cut lip didn’t appear to slow him down a bit.

  “I’ll finish up,” I told TJ and Joel. “You can go watch TV or whatever.”

  “I have homework,” TJ said.

  I looked at Joel.

  “Man . . .” He stomped off after his brother into their bedroom to do their homework.

  “Great kids, Sam,” Cal said as he tossed his empty paper plate in the trash.

  I started to thank him, but a cell phone made all four of us stop and look around.

  “It’s mine,” Cal said, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He looked at the display window, frowned, and answered, “Hello.”

  “Gabe, would you mind taking this trash out?” I pulled the plastic bag out and tied it with a twisty. “Gabe?” I looked up.

  He was watching Cal.

  “Are you sure? Did you look out the window?” Cal said, his face drawn into a hard scowl.

  Grandpa said, “I’ll get the trash, Sam. Then I’m going to bed.” He took the bag from my hand and headed out back.

  Cal said, “Hang up and call the police.” He closed his phone and looked at us. “I have to take off. Thanks for dinner, Sam.” He turned and headed for the front door at a fast pace.

  “Fuck,” Gabe snarled and went after him.

  I stood there with the box of trash bags in my hand for a couple seconds, then I tossed the box on the counter and ran after them.

  Gabe left the front door open. I couldn’t see them in the dark, but I could hear them.

  “There’s a restraining order on you! You can’t go to Melanie’s if he’s there! Don’t be stupid!”

  “Get out of my way, Gabe,” Cal answered in a deadly soft voice.

  I ran down the porch steps.

  Gabe dropped his voice. “You’re throwing your life away for her.”

  I went up to where Gabe and Cal stood at the front left headlight of Cal’s red truck. Gabe must have gotten in front of Cal to block him. They glared at each other, and neither one looked reasonable. “Gabe, Cal, what’s going on?” I touched Gabe’s arm.

  “I’m just leaving,” Cal said. He stormed around us, yanked open his truck door, and got in. The truck engine roared to life, then he backed up and took off.

  Gabe headed for his truck.

  I had had it. “Gabe!”

  “I’ll call you.” He kept going.

  I chased after him and grabbed his arm. “Stop it and tell me what is going on.”

  He halted and looked down. “Cal is on forced leave of absence from the fire department while being investigated for attacking another fireman. He could be terminated, and he won’t let me help him save his job.”

  I took that in. I’d only met Cal today, but he didn’t strike me as a hothead. If he’d been a hothead, he’d have gotten up off the floor after I smacked him with the picture frame and come after me. I gently squeezed the rock that passed for Gabe’s forearm and asked, “So what happened?”

  “Cal was on a 911 call. When he arrived he found a woman he used to know, Melanie. She had been badly beaten up by her husband.” He took a breath and added, “Melanie is an ex-girlfriend of Cal’s. She had wanted to get married, he hesitated and she left him. She married Dirk. Cal always regretted losing her, even though she’s the one that broke his heart. She’s the one that—”

  “Gabe?”

  He was furious. I could see it in the bulge of his jaw even in the dark. He blamed Melanie for hurting his brother.

  “Cal’s a damned idiot.” Gabe shifted his weight and looked in the direction that Cal had driven off. “That night after he got off work, he went to the hospital to see Melanie. She told him where Dirk hung out. Instead of passing the info on to the police who were looking for him, Cal tracked Dirk down, then broke his jaw and cracked a rib. Now he could be arrested for assault and lose his job.”

  “And how does that relate to his job?”

  “Dirk claims that Cal went into the bar and attacked him without provocation, that he has anger management issues and that he’s been stalking Melanie and Dirk. Cal was put on leave while the department conducts an investigation. In the meantime, he won’t let me investigate and build a defense for him to save his job. His whole fucking career.”

  I studied Gabe in the faint light from the house. I saw that he was angry and upset, but I said gently, “Maybe his job isn’t as important as Melanie. Maybe he needs your understanding and support.”

  Gabe shifted his weight, then stared down at me. “So I should just let my brother lose his job and possibly go to jail? That’s your idea of family support?” He turned, stalked to the truck, and yanked open the door. “You don’t have brothers and sisters, Sam. In my family, we stand up to each other when one of us is screwing up.” He got in the truck and roared off.

  That felt like a slap that cut right through to my inadequacies. My biological father cut out long before I was born, my mother went through men like most women go through purses, and my own marriage was a failure. But all this time, I thought Gabe believed in me anyway.

  My alarm went off and yanked me out of my three hours of sleep. I slammed the off button and blamed Gabe Pulizzi. That got my blood going enough to drag myself through a shower and dress in a black skirt and sleeveless turquoise sweater. I added my strappy turquoise shoes and followed the scent of coffee to the kitchen.

  I went directly to the coffeepot and poured out a steaming cup. Then I turned, expecting to see Grandpa.

  Gabe sat at the table watching me while petting Ali.

  I glared at my dog. “Some guard dog you are.”

  She ignored me and let Gabe scratch her ears.

  “Where’s Grandpa?” He was always up before the boys and me. I went to the table and sat down.

  “Barney had some work to do in his bedroom.”

  I rolled my eyes. “He always takes your side.”

  Gabe grinned.

  Damn. He wore a green tank top that left his arms and most of his shoulders bare. I could smell the scent of his soap. “So I assume Cal is not in jail?”

  He shook his head. “A friend of Cal’s called him and told him that Melanie was fine. He turned around and went back to my house.”

  I narrowed my eyes at Gabe. Sure it was early and my brain was only half-awake, but I was pretty sure that hadn’t been a coincidence. “How did his friend get that information?”

  “A cop friend of mine passed it on. Melanie called the police, and they went out to check her house and see if Dirk violated the restraining order. He had left by then.”

  “Ah. You were a busy ex-cop last night, I see.” Gabe had lots of friends in the Los Angeles Police Department. I could easily see how he got the information, then engineered getting it passed on to a friend of Cal’s—probably all from his cell phone. I moved on. “So Melanie has a restraining order against her husband, Dirk?”

  Gabe nodded.

  “And Dirk has a restraining order against Cal?” It was like a soap opera.

  Another nod.

  “Any chance Dirk will not press charges against Cal?”r />
  Gabe’s eyes darkened to nearly black-colored determination. “Possibly, if he has the right motivation.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “Gabe, what are you up to?”

  “Solving problems. Cal’s running off to Melanie’s was a problem and I solved it.”

  I remembered what he’d said to me last night about not understanding family. “Fine, do it your way. Why are you here?”

  “To give you the information we didn’t get to last night.”

  Wasn’t that nice of him? “Great.” I got up and went to Grandpa’s desk right behind where Gabe sat. I got out a yellow tablet, then turned.

  Gabe reached for me, catching me around my waist and pulling me down on his lap. “Nice outfit. I like the shoes.”

  I blinked in surprise. “Uh, thanks.”

  “Sam, I know you’re mad. I had to leave. He’s my brother.”

  “I know.” God knows I put my two sons before Gabe. And he knew it. I wasn’t upset about that. But we had bigger problems than the fact that I wasn’t living up to Gabe’s standards in understanding families. “I’m worried about Grandpa, and I need to find out what I can about Shane. I would like to help Nikki by figuring out whose show Shane is spoiling.” I stood up.

  Gabe let me go, watching with his dark eyes. “Shane is a street thug. Like Vance told you, he has a record for assault. It was a little harder for me to find out about it because Shane was a juvenile at the time. I had to go to a few more sources until I talked to a friend of my mom’s who is a retired parole officer. She remembers Shane. Two arrests, no jail time. But she said he had a mean streak.”

  I sat down in my chair. Gabe had done some extensive work on this for me. “Oh.” I started making a few notes.

  “Shane has never been married, no apparent kids. He does a few major spoiler shows a year now and is commanding huge audiences and TV spots. He’s been interviewed on most of the TV magazine shows but gives little away about his personal life. He has an excellent security team to protect his shows and his property, but I can’t find any evidence of personal security.”

  I was fascinated. Gabe had done a thorough background. “Like a bodyguard?”

  He got up and refilled his coffee cup. “Right. So what we have here is a man who thinks he can take care of himself.”

  I shook my head as Gabe came back and sat down. “It’s his two dogs. He loves those dogs, and they are scary. They are all the security he needs.” I sipped some coffee and added, “They ran off the hit man.”

  Gabe nodded. “Good point. And according to my police source, it’s like Vance told you, the hit man doesn’t look like a pro. A pro would have done research and learned about the dogs.”

  “So what do you think happened?”

  Gabe sighed. “I think a dumb-ass magician hired some two-bit thug off the street. That guy read a book, or an article off the Internet, and thought he could make a quick ten grand.” He made a face. “For some reason, it’s always ten thousand. It’s like they hear that number on a TV show and assume that’s the going rate for a kill.”

  I stared at Gabe. He was tired—I could see it in the slight hunch to his wide shoulders and the fatigue around his eyes. But he was also street smart. It was the kind of street knowledge that experience bred into a person at a young age. It’s not something that could be learned later in life. “What is the going rate for a hit like that?”

  He glanced at me with a small smile. “There’s not exactly a union wage, Sam.”

  I couldn’t help it; I laughed. “But where does that leave us?”

  “I already talked to Barney. I told him that if he suspects anyone, we can try to get a look at their financials to see if there are some big, unexplained withdrawals from their checking or savings accounts, or an advance on their credit cards, that kind of thing. But the smarter thing to do is to give Vance the info and let him do it.”

  I liked that idea. I didn’t want Grandpa involved in this. “Did Grandpa listen?”

  “Barney always listens. Then he does what he wants to anyway.”

  “True.” So I was back to worrying about him. And Nikki. “Did you find anything about Shane’s show this Saturday?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “All right. Well, thanks. What are you going to do today?”

  He leaned forward. “I’d like to spend the day helping you. But I have to run down some other stuff I’m working on. And I need to get to the office. Cal is already there with Blaine and the other men Blaine has helping. The wall is down, and we’re doing clean up and patching the adjacent walls for painting tomorrow. The electrician will be in soon. I might need to run to LA—” His face tightened, and he took a drink of coffee.

  “For Cal?” Was I ever going to learn? He wanted me to stay out of it.

  Gabe thumped his mug down on the glass-topped table. “He doesn’t seem to care if he loses his job.”

  I watched Gabe. “Maybe he doesn’t care.”

  He shook his head. “Sam, all Cal ever wanted to be was a fireman. He worked his ass off, and he’s moved up the ranks. He loves his job.”

  Their dad had been a fireman and he’d been killed when Gabe and his siblings were young. I wasn’t exactly clear on the details of it, but something like that left a mark on kids, the kind of mark that might make Cal want to be a fireman just like the dad that he lost. And Gabe—he became a cop. I knew it had to do with the hero streak that ran deep inside of Gabe—a hero streak that I suspected woke up the day his father was murdered. Back to the subject, I said softly, “Maybe you should tell Melanie that about Cal.” If she cared for Cal, she wouldn’t want Cal to throw his career away.

  “Cal doesn’t want me talking to her. She wouldn’t take my calls anyway.”

  I stared down into my coffee and said, “Maybe she’d talk to me.”

  Gabe shoved his chair back and lunged to his feet. “Are you out of your mind? You aren’t going anywhere near her. Do not get involved in this, Sam.”

  I looked up at him and struggled not to let the hurt show on my face. “Whatever you want. I have my own work to do. I’ll see you later at the office.” I stood up.

  Gabe closed the distance between us. “I don’t want you going near Melanie, because it’s possible that her husband will show up. Then you’d be in danger. A man who knocks around a woman he supposedly loves isn’t going to think twice about going through you to get to her.”

  That was a little better than banishing me from his family problems because he thought I didn’t understand. “Okay.”

  He leaned down and kissed me. “Sam, we need to get away. Just the two of us. We’ve never done that.”

  He looked like he needed it. “Gabe, the boys . . . I can’t leave them.” I was not going to be the kind of mom who ran off for weekends with my boyfriends. When the boys were grown, that would be different. But they had already lost their dad, and I meant to be there for them.

  He didn’t miss a beat, just pressed his forehead against mine and said, “Okay, just the four of us.” He took a breath then added, “But you’re sleeping with me.”

  “But—”

  He kissed me and I shut up.

  We heard Grandpa coming down the hallway and broke apart. I realized Gabe was right. We were dealing with all the details of life, but we hadn’t had any time together to relax.

  “I’ve got to go.” He looked down at me. “There’s not much you can do at the office today. Just stop by and see how it’s looking when you get time.”

  “I’m going to go through my phone tree and see if I can find someone who might have a clue about Shane’s upcoming show.”

  Gabe shrugged. “Can’t hurt. Just be careful.” He kissed me, then turned and left.

  I sat back down at the table, and Grandpa joined me with a steaming cup of coffee for himself. We had about fifteen minutes before the boys exploded out of their rooms. “Was Gabe here when you got up?” I asked Grandpa as he sat down.

  He shook his h
ead. “Showed up just when I was making coffee.” He winked at me. “Guess he was too late to sneak into your room before I saw him.”

  I tried not to blush. He was my grandfather! I figured since Grandpa’s bedroom faced the front of the house, he’d probably heard our discussion last night. I changed the subject. “Grandpa, why didn’t you just tell me about Shane?”

  He reached out and took hold of my hand. “I knew Shane would use you or the boys to get to me. That’s the reason I didn’t tell you about him, Sam. And my pride. Shane was a huge mistake that I regret.” He sighed, his gaze shifting from mine to look out the sliding glass door. “Your grandmother said I was trying to mentor young people because I thought I failed your mom. She was probably right. Beth was usually right.”

  I was stunned. “Grandpa, you didn’t fail Mom.”

  He looked back to me. “I did, Sammy. She left Elsinore and wanted nothing to do with us. When she came back, she was different, bitter, and she refused to talk about your father. She was four months pregnant. I was furious. I can’t explain the fury of knowing my daughter was hurting and I couldn’t fix it. She wouldn’t let me fix it.”

  “Like Gabe won’t let me help him fix his problems,” I said, thinking that I could talk to Melanie and see where she stood on the mess. But then I shook that off. “But Mom doesn’t think you failed her.”

  He looked at me sadly. “Your mom thinks I should have given up magic and gotten a real job. A nine-to-five job where I wore a suit and had a title.”

  “But you’re a magician!” I knew my mother. Grandpa was right in a way, but I could never understand it. I had the coolest grandpa ever while growing up. It made up for not having a dad.

  “It wasn’t easy for your mom. We struggled more when she was little, Sam. And your grandma, she was the best assistant ever, but she gave it up to raise your mom. Katy knows that and somehow felt that it was unfair, that I got my cake and ate it too while her mom sacrificed.”

  I had seen pictures of my grandma on stage, but it didn’t really seem like the cookie-making woman I remember. Grandma was the woman who introduced me to romance novels. We could talk for hours about books, characters, authors . . . but it had never once occurred to me that she had regrets. “Did Grandma regret giving up magic?”