Trust In Me: A Fight for Me Novel

by Jessica Linden

  While she’d been glad for the company and more than willing to drown her sorrows in wine with her friends, she hadn’t yet told them what was bothering her. The truth would have to come out eventually, though.

  Kat drained the last of her glass of wine. Natalie was ready with raised eyebrows and a refill.

  “Spill it,” she said as she topped off Kat’s glass. Well, Kat thought, I guess eventually is now. She might as well.

  She sighed. “So you know how I have a brother.”

  “Yes, the mysterious brother that I’ve never actually met,” Natalie said.

  The way Natalie said it made it sound like Kat was hiding Ryan, which wasn’t true. There just hadn’t been an appropriate time or reason to introduce them. Besides that, Ryan was a recluse these days. So it was especially mind boggling that he was so eager to renew his friendship with Marco. Ryan’s judgment had always been just on the wrong side of questionable. Then again, Kat couldn’t point fingers. She’d made one huge decision in her life that started with an L and ended with an eo.

  “That’s the one,” Kat said, taking a moment to sip her wine. “The man who is responsible for his injury showed up. I’d never met him.”

  Ginny put her hand on Kat’s shoulder and gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry. That must have been hard. How did your brother take it?”

  “Ryan was all chummy with him,” Kat grumbled into her wine. “Sharing a beer and shooting the shit in his kitchen.”

  “Well, that’s good, right?” Ginny asked, her brow furrowed. Ginny was steadfast and loyal, two traits Kat appreciated about her. But she also was a peacekeeper, wanting everyone to get along all the time. Holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” wasn’t going to happen in this situation, though.

  “No, it’s not.” Kat took a deep breath. “That accident almost killed him. And then when it didn’t, he almost killed himself.”

  Silence pervaded the small apartment for a few moments as the other women digested what Kat had divulged.

  “I didn’t realize,” Natalie said. “I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t talk about it,” Kat said. “After all this time, it’s still hard. But even though Ryan wants to let bygones be bygones, I can’t. Not after watching my brother go through all that. I screamed at the guy to get out, but Ryan thinks I’m overreacting.” Kat’s fist involuntarily clenched as she remembered her conversation with Ryan after Marco left.

  “I understand about wanting to protect your sibling,” Ginny said quietly, no doubt thinking of her own sister. Veronica had gone missing right around the time it became public that she’d murdered her ex-husband. The situation had hit Ginny hard, especially since Ginny was the one who had exposed her. It was something Ginny rarely talked about, but Kat knew it weighed on her.

  Couple that with her future father-in-law’s impending trial and Ginny had a lot of messed-up situations she was dealing with. And Kat was about to add to them. She felt bad, but she wasn’t taking the blame for that. No, the blame fell squarely on Marco’s shoulders. Deceptive dirtbag.

  A sexy deceptive dirtbag, but a deceptive dirtbag nonetheless. The fact that her blood still ran hot when she thought about the kisses they’d shared only served to piss her off even more. And it was proof that her judgment where men were concerned was still faulty.

  “It’s Marco,” Kat said bluntly, taking a huge gulp of wine.

  Ginny frowned. “Marco . . . Marco? Like Tony’s brother, Marco?”

  “One and the same.”

  “Shit.” Ginny shook her head. “I remember he used to run with a bad crowd.” She winced, realizing that included Kat’s brother. “Sorry.”

  “No offense taken.” Ryan had definitely been mixed up in some bad stuff. She had to wonder how Marco strayed so far from the swanky north side to get involved.

  Nope. She didn’t want to know. As far as she was concerned, Marco no longer existed. That was the only way she would be able to deal with this right now.

  “And he totaled his car right before he left for boot camp,” Ginny said. “No one ever wanted to talk about it.”

  “I don’t remember hearing anything about it,” Natalie said. “We were only casual acquaintances back then, but gossip like that usually spreads, especially if there’s a scandal involved.”

  “Oh, there should have been a scandal, but he bought his way out of it,” Kat said with disgust. “Bought his way out of jail, too. He should have been locked up for what he did, but no charges were even brought against him.”

  While her mother hadn’t taken interest in helping Ryan recover, she’d certainly taken to playing the suffering parent and spouting out about how those rich bastards had wronged her family. Eventually, she’d stopped. Who knew? Maybe her silence had been bought, too.

  “That doesn’t sound like Marco,” Ginny said. “He went down a bad path for a while, but I don’t think he would have done that.”

  That was classic Ginny—always believing the best in people. That was how she’d been taken advantage of by her sister for so many years before she’d finally wised up, but not before she’d nearly lost everything. Kat would know—she’d shot a man right here in her apartment who’d been after Ginny.

  Kat kept learning that it was best to expect the worst from people. That way she was never disappointed when they delivered.

  She hadn’t done that with Marco.

  “I’m not surprised it happened, though.” Natalie tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Their father is the type who would offer bribes.”

  Kat ripped open the package of Oreos and grabbed a handful. “So I guess I’ll have to resign at Adamo now.”

  Ginny and Natalie exchanged a look.

  “Why?” Ginny asked.

  “I loathe Marco. He’s my sworn enemy.” That might have been the wine talking, but she did hate him. That much was true. “And as much as I like Tony, I don’t know if I can work for Marco’s family’s company. It’s just too weird.”

  “Um, you can and you will.” Ginny poked Kat on the shoulder and Kat’s eyes widened at the gesture. “You’re Tony’s friend, right?”

  Kat nodded. “Of course.”

  “Then how could you abandon him right now? He needs someone he can trust working for him and that person is you.”

  Ginny’s logic made total sense, which was why Tony had reached out to Kat in the first place. The scandal surrounding his father’s trial had put unwanted attention on the company and a reporter had even posed as a potential job candidate, hoping to get access to the inner workings of Adamo and write an exposé. From what Kat understood, Santi Adamo’s criminal activity had only infiltrated part of the company and Tony had already rooted out the guilty parties involved.

  So Kat felt bad about leaving Tony in the lurch, especially after he’d taken a chance on hiring her, but she had a direct conflict of interest.

  “Will he even want me to keep working for him when he realizes how I feel about his brother?”

  Angry, heartbroken, sad, disappointed. All of those things and more. Her feelings for Marco were complicated. She was having a hard time reconciling the monster who’d destroyed her brother’s life with the kind man who’d helped her with her car. The sexy man who kissed her like she deserved to be worshiped. The same man who lit the fire in her that had been dormant for so long.

  And her confused feelings only fueled her hatred.

  Ginny shrugged. “I don’t think that will matter. It was a shitty thing that happened with Marco and your brother. It’s understandable that you’d feel some resentment.”

  “It’s more than resentment. It’s flat-out hatred.”

  “Ginny’s right,” Natalie spoke up. “Tony is in a bad place right now. With all the media attention surrounding his father’s case, he’s going to have trouble finding another quality employee. If you quit, you’ll put him in a bind. And besides, isn’t this job ten times better than your bartending job?”

  “Yes,” Kat grumbled. She’d actually really been enjo
ying her time at Adamo so far. At times, she definitely felt overwhelmed and like she didn’t know what she was doing, but Ingrid had taken her under her wing, easing her stress. The hours were better, the pay was better, the benefits were better . . . everything was better.

  If only Tony didn’t have a jerk-off of a brother. Tony was a fair man, but blood ran thicker than water. If it came down to it, he’d surely side with Marco.

  “So I think you should stick it out,” Natalie said. “If it bothers you, talk to Tony about it and see what he says.”

  That was the sensible thing to do. And anyway, Kat shouldn’t make any decisions tonight, not when she’d already had a bottle of wine and fully intended to polish off another. Since Natalie had bought it, it was quality stuff, not the boxed crap Kat normally had. Though Natalie was down-to-earth in many ways—all the ways that mattered—she was used to the finer things in life.

  Like now, both she and Natalie were wearing yoga pants. However, Kat’s were a clearance-rack find from Walmart while Natalie’s were designer. Kat didn’t even want to know how much they cost. Probably as much as her rent.

  “What about you, Ginny?” Kat asked. “Marco is going to be your brother-in-law. Does it bother you that I feel so strongly about him?”

  Ginny put her hands up, palms out. “I’m neutral.”

  Again, it was a Ginny thing to say.

  It may be petty, but it bothered Kat that her friend was going to spend Christmas and holidays and every other darned thing with her enemy. Marco would soon be her family and Kat would only ever be her friend.

  Hell, Natalie, too. Knox and Tony were thick as thieves and though she and Knox weren’t married, they might as well be.

  It seemed wrong that one man’s reckless act years ago was still wreaking so much havoc in her life. Life wasn’t fair, but damn, this was really freaking shitty.

  Kat grabbed another bottle of wine and wrestled the cork with a corkscrew. She may not have all the answers, but she had the only answer she needed tonight.

  And that answer was wine.

  Chapter 9

  Kat put a hand over her eyes while grasping for the cord that closed the blinds. Her head felt like a locomotive was trying to bust out of her skull and her stomach felt like there were a fleet of bumper cars inside ramming into each other.

  She knew better. She’d spent most of her adult life as a bartender, so she knew all too well the effects of overindulging. But instead of listening to the reasonable part of her brain that told her to stop, she’d continued to drown her sorrows in wine long after Natalie and Ginny had left.

  She silently cursed Marco. She hadn’t been hungover in at least five years and this was all his fault. If he hadn’t deceived her, she wouldn’t have drank so much wine and . . .

  Okay, even in her sorry state, she knew she had no one to blame for her current condition but herself.

  She stumbled into the kitchen, her stomach lurching at the sight of the empty Oreo package. Had she eaten all of those? She picked up the wrapper to dispose of it and gagged at the sugary sweet smell. There was her answer.

  Saltine crackers. Those and water were about the only things she’d be able to keep down, and even that would be a struggle. But she knew she’d be hurting even worse later this afternoon if she didn’t get something in her stomach now.

  Nibbling on the edge of a cracker, she took the sleeve of saltines back to bed. She normally wasn’t one to give into a pity party, but what the hell. She didn’t have anything else to do today, so she’d spend the day in bed sleeping off her hangover and forgetting Marco Adamo existed.

  Except she never would.

  For years, she’d directed her rage over her brother’s disability at an unknown face named Mark. Every time Ryan had fallen while trying to use crutches, she silently cursed Mark. Every time she’d let herself into Ryan’s apartment to find him strung out on pain meds, she’d imagine punching Mark. Every time she looked at her brother and the broken man he’d become, she wanted to make Mark suffer as much as her brother.

  But the joke was on her.

  For the first time in years, she’d been looking forward to a date with a man. Was it just twenty-four hours ago she’d woken up thinking about seeing Marco again and kissing him?

  Maybe more than kissing him.

  He wasn’t the man she’d thought he was and that made her even angrier that he’d somehow managed to slip past her defenses. Never again. She was just glad she’d learned her lesson before things got too far. Because oh, god, what if she’d gone on their date and ended up sleeping with him?

  She closed her eyes and visions filled her mind.

  The thoughts were deliciously wicked and made her disgusted with herself.

  Her phone chimed and she grabbed it off her nightstand, grateful for the distraction. When she saw it was a text from Ryan, she hit ignore. She wasn’t ready to talk to him yet. Somehow, she felt he’d betrayed her by making excuses for Marco. Her brother always had been easygoing. Too easygoing for his own good.

  She flipped over, burying her face in her pillow. Though she felt like death, she wasn’t actually tired. That came from years of training her body to make do with less sleep.

  She tossed and turned in bed for another twenty minutes before giving up and deciding to get in the shower. The steam made her light-headed, forcing her to hold onto the shower wall to keep herself upright.

  Damn. She really was a mess. She would need all day to recover.

  After her shower, she lay back down on her bed, wrapped in her towel. She was out of damn ibuprofen, Tylenol, aspirin, everything, and her head was protesting. She might have to knock on her neighbors’ doors and ask to borrow some. Except that would require actually introducing herself to them, something she’d never bothered to do. She especially didn’t want to do it now when she looked like hell. Ever since she’d had to shoot that guy in her apartment, they all avoided eye contact and gave her the side-eye.

  No, she just might have to venture down to the corner store instead.

  The ringing of her phone felt like ice picks were piercing her brain. She fumbled for the device, searching for the ignore button. Instead, she accidentally accepted the call.

  Damn.

  Before putting it up to her ear, she glanced at the number and exhaled with relief upon seeing it was the nursing home and not Marco or Ryan. Still, she hoped they didn’t need assistance with Gram. Normally she wouldn’t mind, but today she wasn’t up for it.

  “Ms. Delagrange, this is Nurse Hewlitt.”

  The nurse’s somber tone had Kat sitting up straight, clutching the towel at her chest.

  “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry to have to call you like this.” The nurse’s voice broke, setting Kat’s nerves on edge. Nurse Hewlitt was Gram’s favorite and the feeling was reciprocated. “Your grandmother passed away this morning.”

  * * *

  Not even a month into her job, Kat was forced to take a personal day. She’d much rather have been at work than making arrangements for Gram’s funeral. The task should have fallen to Gram’s son—Kat’s biological father—but he’d been MIA for months. Whether he was hiding from the police or from men much more corrupt than he, Kat had no idea. Frankly, she didn’t care. She was actually glad to have him out of the way. Meeting her asshole father while she mourned the death of the only parental figure who’d truly cared about her was not something she wanted.

  She hated the way the funeral director looked at her across his mahogany desk—the same material used for the rows and rows of coffins in the showroom. His expression was sympathetic, but it was practiced, a guise he wore as part of his job. He didn’t actually care about the deceased.

  Luckily for Kat, Gram had made arrangements years ago. Kat hadn’t known that, but she was grateful. All that was left for her to do was sign on the dotted line.

  Thank God. In her numb state, she couldn’t handle much else.

  She thanked the funeral director one last time
as he showed her out. The funeral was set for tomorrow and despite the cold, it would be a graveside service. Gram must have anticipated dying in warmer weather, but Kat wasn’t about to ignore the woman’s wishes. She and the other mourners would simply have to bundle up.

  Her next stop was the nursing home to take care of a task she dreaded—cleaning out Gram’s room. The staff told her she could wait a few days or even until next week, but she wanted to get it over with. Waiting wouldn’t make it any easier and besides that, she’d just have to take another day off work.

  It pained her to see the other residents going about their business, shuffling along to water aerobics or bingo. She supposed they were used to dealing with death, used to dealing with their friends and neighbors dying. For them, death was part of life.

  Kat had experienced death once—her mother. She’d gotten lung cancer from the two packs a day she’d smoked. It had been brutal and quick. Kat hadn’t even cried. It was hard to cry over the death of a woman who’d taught her she wouldn’t amount to anything. A woman who stayed married to a man who abused her children. A woman who’d not had an ounce of maternal instinct.

  Probably the greatest favor she’d ever done Kat was confess that her father wasn’t actually the man she’d grown up with.

  How would her life have been different if she’d had Gram, who was such a positive force in her life, when she’d been younger? Her maternal grandparents had died when she was just a child, but she was never close with them anyway.

  Kat stood outside Gram’s room and took several deep breaths before pushing open the door for what would be the last time. She half-expected to find Gram sitting in her chair, looking out over the garden. The empty chair struck her deep—right in the hole in her heart.

  Though Alzheimer’s had already stolen most of Gram from her, the full loss was hitting Kat harder than she’d expected. She’d thought she’d been somewhat prepared.

  The staff had thoughtfully left her a stack of boxes and packing tape sitting on the bed. Other than that and Gram’s absence, the room was the same as it always was.