“I just miss my little principessa,” her mother admitted, wiping a tear as it slipped down her cheek. ”You are my only daughter.”
“Don’t, Mama, please. I am here now, aren’t I?”
Oh no. The dreaded tears, complete with childhood nicknames and heavy guilt. Mama is a master at this, damn her. I really need to come home more often if only to avoid this guilt trip..
“I miss you too, Mama. And you too, Papa. But I love my new job and Chicago is such a fun city. Let me tell you more about it,” she offered, trying to buy some time.
“I would rather hear about the man.” Her mother was relentless.
Fortunately for Charlotte, they turned onto her street and she used the last few minutes of the ride to ask about the neighbors. Then the sight in the driveway stopped the conversation completely.
“What is he doing here? Did you know about this?” Charlotte’s sharp tone was directed at her mother. “Did you? I have a restraining order. Did you forget?”
“No, Carlotta,” her mother’s exasperated reply came quickly. “I did not forget. But we are here to keep him in line and he promised he would behave. He just wants to talk.”
“And you believed him?” Charlotte was furious, and more than a little frightened. “Call Jake and tell him to come home or I am calling the police instead. Now!”
“That won’t be necessary, Carlotta. Gllberto promised us.”
“Papa. You cannot believe his promises,” Charlotte reached for her cellphone and dialed quickly. “Gil is here, Jake, you have to come home now.”
“I am not calling the police, not this soon,” Charlotte whined into the phone. “Can’t you just come, please?”
Her brother said something while they all waited in silence and then Charlotte responded, “okay, but not one minute longer.” She hung up. “He will be here in 20 minutes,” she told her parents. “I am not setting foot indoors until he gets here and you are not leaving me alone with that man, do you understand?”
“Carlotta, we will freeze out here,” her mother pointed out.
“Too bad,” Charlotte replied stubbornly. “Outside or not at all.” She stepped from the car and repeated the words loudly to Gil, who raised his hands in innocence and agreed to her terms. “We will talk about this later, Mama. This is not the way to get me back home.” She pulled her coat tight around her, moving further from the car, barking, “What the hell do you want?”
“I just want to talk, Namorada. I swear.”
“Stop calling me that. I am not your girlfriend. Gil. I am not your anything.”
“But you could be. You should be.”
Gil looked handsome standing there looking innocent. Listening to his softly lilting accent, looking at his trim fit body, Charlotte felt the pull that had attracted her to him back in high school. He stood tall, dark and exotic. His chocolate eyes were nearly black and mesmerizing. His smile was broad and white against his olive skin, lighting his features as if he were an angel.
He was certainly no angel. Anything but.
Charlotte was reminded of the day she had looked at him with maturing eyes, no longer seeing the little boy she had grown up with but a young man, handsome, confident and full of promise. Charlotte had been attracted to him, flirting uncharacteristically. She neglected her studies when he was around, opting to go for rides in his parents’ car, parking on dark street corners and making out until she was restless with wanting.
That is old history, Charlotte, do not let him worm his way back into your life. Remember who Gil really is. Remember Alex.
Alex. He was everything that Gil would never be. He was her future, if she was lucky. This man in front of her was her past – over and done with. And an ugly past ultimately.
“You need to come home, Carlotta,” he interrupted her thoughts. “Your parents need you at the plant, your brother needs your help in the front office. They miss you. I miss you. It’s time to shed this false persona and get back to being you. You belong in the neighborhood, in this family and with me.”
Over my dead body, which, if I stayed with you, would be my future.
“It was you who chased me away, Gil. You should have thought about that before. We were children when we got together. Children. Things changed for us both. We have gone our separate ways. I have moved on and you should too. You need to let go.”
Charlotte had started the conversation leaning against the door of her parents’ car with Gil at the curb, a good 30 feet away. She had not been paying close enough attention as he moved on cat’s feet closer and closer to where she was standing. He was menacingly close now and, with the car at her back, she had no escape route.
“Not such children, Carlotta. Your mother was eighteen when she got married.”
“In Portugal. In a small town and so that she could come to America with my father. They would have waited otherwise. Don’t come any closer, Gil.”
“But look at them. They are happy. They have built a wonderful life, children, a successful business, friends. We should have that, Car. We deserve that.” Gil pointed at her parents, huddled together for warmth in front of the open door to their house.
“Maybe we do, Gil, but not together,” Charlotte insisted trying to remain calm. They had been over this time and time again. “Don’t come closer,” she barked as he took several steps toward her, closing the gap. “I mean it.”
Standing still again Gil reached his arms toward Charlotte, palms up as if to show her he meant her no harm. He could have reached out and touched her had he chosen to, and her skin crawled with the realization.
“I love you, mi amada. I always have. I want to marry you and take care of you. Not like that pig you live in sin with back in Chicago. What does he offer you? Nothing. He shames you. He shames your family. I offer you marriage and a future here in your community, where you belong.”
“You leave him out of this,” Charlotte spit. “This is about you and me, Gil, no one else. You do not love me. You love a childhood dream. You do not want to take care of me. You want me to take care of you, to find you a place at New World, a place near the top where you can push people around.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is true,” Charlotte insisted, her voice rising sharply as her patience wore thin. “You could have gone to college, Gil. You had the grades and the financial wherewithal. Your parents begged you to go. I helped you with applications. You could have made something of yourself.”
Charlotte was gesturing rapidly, passionate in her speech. The man had thrown everything away. “Instead you stayed in the old neighborhood, hanging out with the old crowd and going no where, getting in trouble, bullying and hurting people. Why would I want a loser like you, Gil? Give me one good reason.”
“One reason, Querida? Alright, Carlotta Rocha, let me give you one reason,” Gil stood taller, his demeanor more like the threatening Gil she had learned to fear and avoid. “I know you, Car. I know you lied your way into your new job. I know that those people in Chicago think you come from the Boston Roche fortune. I know all about you, Car, and I am not keeping your secrets if there is nothing in it for me.”
Gil stepped closer as he spit the alarming words, grabbing Charlotte’s shoulders and squeezing tight. She would have bruises there within the hour.
“I told them all the truth a long time ago, Gil. No one cares. Let go of me.” Gil knew her well but she kept a blank face and prayed he would not see through her bravado.
“You’re lying, Carlotta. You always were a bad liar. But I am not lying. First, I will expose you and cost you your big shot job and your millionaire with his swanky life.” He squeezed harder, lowering his face to within inches of hers so that her father, across the yard, would not hear anything. “Then I will ruin your family, Carlotta. I am not bluffing. You know I can. I can destroy the business they are building, maybe cost someone their entire future. Are you willing to risk that?”
Charlotte stood still and cold, tears streaming down her fa
ce at the reality of Gil’s threat. He knew too much.
“Then you will come crawling back to me with nothing but your fancy degrees. No friends, no family, no job. A lesser man would walk away, but I love you, Car, and I will take you back. And I won’t hurt you again, Carlotta. Just come home and marry me. I will never raise a hand to you again. I told you I was sorry. Hitting you was a big mistake, but a mistake I won’t repeat. I swear, Car. Just come home to me. Come home to help your family.”
Gil released his hold on her arms, as if only then realizing he was gripping her painfully. Then he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her gently but thoroughly. “I will keep your secrets, Querida, but you must give up Chicago and come back here. Come home to me, Carlotta. Make this right.”
Tires squealed behind Charlotte breaking her trance and causing Gil to jump back from her. Charlotte wiped the back of her hand across her lips to remove any trace of the snake that had slithered into her life again. Jake leaped from his car the moment it stopped and ran to stand between Gil and his prey.
“Get out, Gil. Go now, before I call the police.”
“I’m going,” Gil told Jake, hands up in surrender. “Remember what I said, Carlotta. I mean every word of it. Come home before year end or else.”
“Saia!” Jake hollered as he wrapped his arm around his pale and shaking sister protectively. “Get out now!”
Gil walked past the house to his parked car and climbed in without another word as Jake turned to walk Charlotte into the house. “I am only doing this because I love you,” he called to Charlotte from his open window as he drove away, the sound of the souped up engine loud in the stillness.
She recalled the triumph in his voice long after he was miles away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Alex took Tyler up on his offer of assistance, even though he wasn’t sure what he could do to help. It was just nice to have a friendly face around when the shit hit the fan, and even nicer to introduce a friend to his father. He had wanted to bring the boys to meet him for years. Now he wanted Zack to have a chance to meet Charlotte too. He knew he was running out of time.
Charlotte. He wondered how she was doing with her family and reached to call before he remembered the time difference. It would have to wait until tomorrow. He could not believe how much he missed her. She had become critical to his happiness and the sooner he resolved everything with the business and his family, the sooner he would be able to stop these incessant trips West and tell her the truth. He just hoped that she would forgive him for lying, and that her family would accept him as he was.
“Earth to Alex,” Tyler teased him now. “Oh man, you’ve got it bad, my friend.” Tyler had simply asked what Charlotte was up to while they were in L.A. In response, Alex’s face had softened and his eyes had glazed.
“Yep. Guilty as charged,” Alex admitted.
“Why didn’t you invite her out here with you? You have talked or texted with her enough.”
“I would talk to her more but she’s in Boston with her family. Well, in Newport actually. They own a house on the beach, of course.”
“At this time of year?” Tyler’s surprise matched the shocked face Alex had made when he had heard the news.
“I know, weird huh?” Alex agreed. “Those New Englanders. They do things differently I guess. I thought we appreciated cold winters but I hear they are hearty souls. ”
“I guess,” Tyler agreed as they headed back to the hotel after a long day of meetings. “Let’s stop in the bar. I could really use a drink.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Nothing personal, Alex, but your family is pretty awful. Not your dad. He’s very cool,” Tyler corrected, “but that greedy cousin, Jeffrey, is revolting.”
“You noticed,” Alex responded drily as they found a quiet table and ordered drinks. “He has worked hard, don’t get me wrong, but not like I have. Nor has he worked as closely with my dad. He hasn’t bothered to understand Zack’s vision for Maverix. Now, he wants controlling interest. That can only be to stop me from moving forward in the direction my father laid out. He wants to prevent him from fulfilling his dream for the business.”
“Not his. Yours,” Tyler corrected.
“You’re right, of course. It’s my dream he wants to destroy. And all because of some stupid, petty jealousy.”
When Tyler had volunteered to come to L.A. with Alex as both legal counsel and friend, Alex had no idea how much it would help. First, Tyler was a sharp legal mind, able to assist the Maverix lawyers think outside the box. Second, he could translate all that lawyer-speak so that Alex understood the nuances of the lawyers’ actions in ways he had not previously. Third, and best of all, he was supportive, an unconditional friend on his side when he really needed one.
The two men sat huddled over drinks discussing the case for about an hour, nursing their drinks, nibbling on a bowl of nuts that the server replenished twice before leaving menus and suggesting they might want food. It was late for dinner, but the two men ordered sandwiches and with a legal pad in front of Tyler, they strategized yet again. Tyler believed that Jeffrey had no case, but admitted his lawyers were trying to create a stranglehold of legal mumbo-jumbo until Alex caved in and bought him off.
The crux of the threat was simple according to Tyler. It seems anything but simple to Alex.
“Just listen, Alex, and try to put your emotion aside for sec,” Tyler began. “Your Aunt Joan when she died recently… By the way, I am very sorry for your loss. Were you close?”
“No, but I know she and my dad were, She was the whole reason he was able to start Maverix. She put up money and he put up sweat equity. She never interfered, though. He made all the decisions.”
“Well now Jeffrey has Joan’s 45 percent of Maverix and is your partner in the business. Quite simply he wants controlling interest, or maybe all of it. That is not clear yet. I can’t tell if the scumbag wants to actually run the show or if this is just a knee-jerk reaction to all those years of mounting jealousy and anger.”
“Jeffrey has never been able to move past the fact of my existence,” Alex acknowledged. “It didn’t help that he was always treated as the golden boy. Someone should have told him the lay of the land a lot sooner. I will concede we were unfair to him. After growing up never seeing me, not even aware that he had a first cousin, it must have been a shock to Jeffrey to find out at age fifteen that he had a cousin and that he had to share everything with him.”
“You were what, seventeen, not much older? And look at everything you had already been through with this damn family.“
“Jeffrey was already laying out the life that he would lead as the head of Maverix, Inc. when he was just a teen. He could taste all that money and power. Suddenly he was forced to share ownership of the highly successful company and the power and money that went along with it. Until that moment, he had always believed that one day it would all be his. His uncle Zack had no children to the best of his knowledge. It had seemed obvious to him that he would inherit it all and run it all.”
“Well, he’s predictable about some things,” Tyler observed. “The Maserati and the models were a bit of a giveaway, although you did the model dating thing too. And you have that fancy Mercedes. Hmmm, maybe you and Jeffrey do have a lot in common besides genetics.”
“Bite me,” Alex retorted with a laugh. “I am nothing like that money-grubber.”
“No, but you are so easy to bait,” Tyler laughed. Alex was sensitive now so the simplest effort to tease went a long way. “You need to find your balance again, AJ.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I am just so furious that my dad did all this hard work and it may be for nothing.”
“Not nothing. Jeffrey does have a good grasp of the business and I don’t see him running it into the ground, after all. He did prepare to inherit, and even you said he earned that VP position.”
“You’re right, Ty, as usual. But he doesn’t want to share, he wants it all. Can’t you feel it? He did
great in marketing and even better running things on assignment in Australia, but he cannot see past his greed long enough to understand that there is plenty to go around.”
“True. It would be great if he could embrace you as his older cousin instead of challenging you every step of the way.”
“That’s Jeffrey though. He doesn’t want to share the attention or the company. He wanted the top spot for years and all the dreams he had envisioned to go with it. He intends to get it or ruin us both trying.
“I am determined that Jeffrey will not bring this lawsuit forward. Not if I can stop it. First, it’s obvious that Zack intended his shares to go to me, and Zack had made it clear he wanted me in control now that he no longer feels as confident of himself. Zack completed all the necessary and legal documents to assure this occurred.”
“Right.” Tyler was nodding his head in agreement as Alex continued, devouring his sandwich.
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