There was a time when Tommy would have taken over. Grace was so new to corporate ownership back then that he didn’t feel he had a choice. But after the way she conducted herself during that recession, and came out on top, made him a believer. She could handle it just fine herself. “I’m sure you’re take care of it,” he said.
Grace was shocked. She didn’t expect that response from him. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“You’ve earned it,” he said. But he was still staring at her. She knew why. Wearing sunglasses inside a building was always suspicious, especially when it wasn’t her habit to do so. She could only hope he didn’t go there. The mess she made with Ed was her mess to clean up too. “What brings you here?” she decided to ask him, praying it would refocus his attention.
“Destiny’s here,” Tommy responded.
Grace stood up with sudden panic on her face. “She’s here?” It was the middle of the school day. Tommy would not have pulled her out of school unless it was vital. Or she was ill. “Where is she? What’s wrong?”
“She’s fine,” Tommy quickly responded. “I picked her up before lunchtime so she’s downstairs, in the cafeteria, having her lunch.”
“Having lunch with whom?” Grace knew Tommy wouldn’t allow her to be downstairs alone.
“With Branson Nash, with her nanny, and with about ten more of my people, all also eating lunch at various tables.”
Grace was now certain something was up. “What’s happened?” she asked.
“That is a question,” Tommy said as he began to walk around her desk where she was standing, “that I’ve been dying to ask you.”
Grace looked at him. They were within an inch of each other. She could smell Tommy’s cologne. She could feel his outsized presence even though he was not touching her. “What do you mean?” she asked him.
Tommy reached toward her face, causing her to automatically flinch. But it was that reaction that concerned him even more. “I’m not going to hurt you, Grace,” he felt a need to say.
And as soon as he said it, Grace felt the sting of emotion. “I know, Tommy. You would never hurt me.”
“Never,” Tommy responded. He could feel her presence too, and it was so powerful he wanted to pull her into his arms. He never felt such protectiveness for any woman the way he felt for Grace. She was in his soul. Even during their darkest hours, in the midst of their divorce, he still felt that connection to her. “And don’t you forget that,” he added.
Grace was near tears, but she didn’t allow herself to cry. Because she knew that would only make it worse. That would only allow Tommy to see the kind of train wreck her life really was. Because she knew what he was about to do. She knew whenever he made up his mind regarding her or Destiny, there was no stopping him. And she was right. He did it. He removed her sunglasses.
When Tommy saw the extent of the damage, when he saw that Grace had literally been punched in the face, his entire countenance changed. He frowned when he saw the purple bruise beneath her eye. It was no longer swollen or puffy, but he could tell it had been.
Grace wanted to look away from him. She was embarrassed by the end result of her decision to marry a man like Ed. But Tommy placed her chin in his hand and kept her face turned toward his. There was no blame in his eyes. There was no judgment. To Grace’s everlasting relief, there was only concern and sadness. “Who did this to you?” he asked her.
Grace didn’t respond. She knew she would be signing Ed’s death warrant if she told.
But Tommy already knew. “It was Ed, wasn’t it?”
Grace continued to stare at him.
“I know it was Ed,” Tommy said. “This is his handiwork. A man who would contract hitmen to assassinate me will have no problem doing shit like this.”
Grace’s heart fell through her shoe. She couldn’t believe it. “Hitmen? What are you talking about?”
“That’s why I picked up Destiny. That’s why you stay at my side until I find that joker. He’s bad news, Grace. He wanted control of Destiny’s inheritance. But he couldn’t get it unless he took me out of the picture.”
“He wants to kill you? He hired people to murder you?”
Tommy knew how tough it was for Grace to hear such news. But she had to know. “Yes,” he said.
“Oh, my God!” Her eyes were moving rapidly from side to side, as if she was still trying to understand. “What have I done? A wolf knocked at my door, and I let him in?”
Tommy handed her a handkerchief out of his coat pocket and then placed one of his hands on the small of her back, pulling her closer. “How did it happen?”
“He was upset about my refusal to support you endorsing him. I didn’t want to hear it, so I went in the bathroom. He broke the door down and punched me.”
Tommy was livid. “In the bathroom?”
Grace nodded. “I felt so trapped. But I fought my way out of there, God knows I did.”
“I hope you beat his ass.”
“I did,” Grace said, nodding her head.
Tommy rubbed her back. The idea that Ed would put her in that position angered him. “I take it he didn’t try to harm Destiny?”
“No way! I declare he wouldn’t be alive if he would have touched our child.”
He isn’t going to be alive after touching you, Tommy wanted to say, but wasn’t certain if Grace could handle it. “Is he also behind that hostile takeover, Grace?” he asked her.
Grace was astounded that Tommy would put Ed in that mix. “He’s not behind it,” she said as she wiped her nose. “But that’s about the only negative thing he isn’t behind!”
But Tommy was still staring at Grace. One of his hands was still on the small of her back, and his hand had moved from her chin to the side of her face. He was now standing so close to her that their bodies were touching. She could feel the outline of his penis pressing against her belly button. She could feel every inch of him.
“Is this the first time?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said quickly. But Tommy still looked doubtful. “I promise you it’s the first time he ever hit me.” Tommy still looked doubtful. “It was the first time he hit me,” she clarified, “but it wasn’t the first time he threatened to hit me. He threatened many times.”
Tommy was searching her big, bright eyes. He could only imagine the pain that jerk had put her through. “You’ve filed for divorce,” he said to her.
Grace looked at him. She wasn’t as wide eyed anymore. How, she wondered, could he possibly know that? The court didn’t even have the papers yet! Ed hadn’t even been served yet! “Yes,” she said. “And I know what you’re thinking. I should have never married him. And you’re right. I put Destiny in a bad situation and I hate that as much as you do. He was trying to have you killed? Oh my God! How could I allow this man to be in our daughter’s life? I know you won’t let anybody stand in the way of Destiny’s happiness. I know that.”
But a frown appeared on Tommy’s face. “Nor yours, Grace,” he said. “Do you know that too? I’ll never let anybody stand in the way of your happiness either. That’s why I agreed to the divorce in the first place. It was what you wanted and I gave in. For your happiness. That’s why you should have come to me the first time that asshole threatened you.”
Grace was still reeling from news of the assassination plot, and now from the kind words he had just spoken. She was also reeling from the way his body kept pushing closer against her. But she had to keep it together. “I knew I could handle him,” she said. “And I did handle him after he hit me. I beat his ass, Tommy. That’s the kind of woman you like, right? The kind that would kick ass when she was kicked?”
But Tommy’s reaction was one of alarm rather than pride. “Is that what you think, Grace?” he asked her. “You think I would want my woman wrestling with some man? You think I would want my woman kicking ass?” Tommy grabbed her by both of her arms and turned her toward him. “I don’t want that,” he said. “I don’t want any such thing! Yes, if you’r
e attacked I want you to defend yourself. You’d better defend yourself. But don’t you understand? I don’t want you getting attacked. I don’t want you in a position where you have to defend yourself. That’s my job.”
Tears were reappearing in Grace’s eyes, and a slight puffiness around her bruised eye was beginning to manifest. His heart broke. The idea that she had to endure what she endured. The idea that she had been living in a loveless marriage and enduring all of that shit alone, angered him and frustrated him and made him feel guilty as sin. Grace and Destiny were his family. The only family of his own he’d ever managed to pull together. They were separated, which didn’t bode well for his abilities, but they were still a unit. They were still together. But only to find out now that even in separation they were falling apart, tore at Tommy’ heartstrings. He pulled her into his arms.
Grace closed her eyes tightly when Tommy held her. She fought back tears, she fought the pain, she fought the agony of knowing that she was the one who broke up their family, and brought Ed into their lives. Guilt couldn’t describe how Grace felt. She was burdened with it.
When Tommy realized she wasn’t just holding him now, but was clinging to him, he held her tighter. But unlike Grace, he wasn’t thinking about the past. He wasn’t blaming her for what went wrong with their relationship because he, in his own eyes, was even more at fault. Grace was a plant that had to be watered and cared for. But he just planted it and expected it to grow. She eventually grew, thanks to her own initiative. After the divorce she truly blossomed. But his inattention, his need to conquer the world and expect his family to be just fine, nearly choked the life out of her. Now she was blaming herself for hooking up with Ed. He couldn’t allow that.
When he felt her emotions were easing, he pulled back from her. He looked directly in her big, beautiful eyes. His friends said Grace was weak. His friends said Grace was dull. His friends said Grace didn’t live up to the standard of international beauty that his other women easily lived up to. But Tommy knew those friends, well-meaning though they might be, were wrong. In Tommy’s eyes Grace didn’t live up to the standard, she surpassed it.
“It’s been a rough few days for both of us, Grace,” he said. “I just left contentious meetings in Vienna, and you just had to file for divorce from Ed. Not to mention all the conniving he’s been up to. It’s been rough. But the one thing we cannot do, and will not do, is look back and blame. We have a child to raise, companies to run, and lives to live. And don’t you worry about Ed. I’ll take care of that bastard.”
Grace knew exactly what he meant. She’d never seen Tommy so determined. Nor as concerned for her.
“In the meantime,” he said, “you and Destiny will stay with me until my people track him down.”
Now Grace was concerned. “You don’t think he would harm Destiny, do you?”
Tommy’s expression moved to a graver look. “I pray not,” he said. “But it’s not a chance we can take.”
Grace nodded immediately. She understood that.
“I’m going to go downstairs and have lunch with Destiny,” he said. “You finish your work up here. And then,” he said, rubbing her arms before letting her go, “we’re going home.”
Grace nodded her approval and Tommy left.
She felt a chill as soon as he walked away from her. But she felt enormous warmth too. She wasn’t going to get her hopes up. She didn’t feel she could ever deserve a second chance with a man like him. Besides, she knew Liz was a shrewd woman. She was going to try to get Tommy back. And with her attributes, she might succeed. But Grace wasn’t thinking about that right now. She couldn’t afford to think that way. Tommy wanted her and Destiny with him. That was all she was going to think about right now. That was all that mattered right now.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was the strangest feeling in the world for Grace when she walked into that home again. Tommy gave it to her, so that Destiny wouldn’t be uprooted from her home when she married Ed, but Ed couldn’t stay there. Too much of Tommy was in the air, he said. So they moved to the suburbs. But Grace remembered the home as that welcoming place she lived in with Tommy and their baby. It had been the only true home she’d ever had in all of her adulthood. But that was before the divorce. Today was her first day back in years.
Tommy was carrying Destiny when the threesome walked through the door, and the uniqueness of Grace’s presence in his home wasn’t lost on him either. He sat Destiny down, but he kept his eyes on Grace. It was sad to him that she felt like a stranger in her own home. And it was still her home. When they first married, he put her name on the deed. After the divorce, her name remained on the deed. But she was as awkward as a fish out of water.
“Mommy’s in here,” Destiny said, realizing the oddity too.
Grace smiled and took her daughter’s hand. Destiny was a baby when she and Tommy divorced. “It’s been a long time since Mommy has been in this house. You’re right,” she said to her daughter.
“I’m in this house all the time,” Destiny said.
Grace smiled. “That’s right.”
“And daddy’s in this house all the time.”
“Right.”
“But not with you. Daddy’s in this house with other ladies.”
Other ladies? More than one? Grace wanted to ask if she meant Miss Liz only, but she didn’t dare. Tommy was a single man with a massive sexual appetite. He always had a massive one. Liz could have been the only woman who was satisfying that appetite, or she could have been one of several. That was not her place to know, and she wasn’t about to make it her daughter’s place to keep her informed. Tommy took exceptional care of Destiny. That was all Grace needed to know. But she and Tommy did exchange a glance.
“One thing for certain,” Grace said, looking away from Tommy and at his elegant home. “It hasn’t changed a bit.”
“I didn’t want to change what you did to the place,” Tommy said. “It was exactly right just the way it was.”
Grace and Tommy exchanged another glance as one of Tommy’s men came in carrying Grace’s two suitcases and sat them in the foyer. Sally, Destiny’s primary nanny, came in too.
“Will there be anything further, sir?” the man asked.
“No, thank you, that’ll be all,” Tommy responded, and the man walked back out and closed the door.
Grace looked at Destiny. “Since I haven’t been here in such a long time, are you going to show me around?”
But Destiny seemed to have a different idea in mind. “Yes ma’am,” she said, “I’ll show you around. But I wanted to play before dinner. Daddy pulled me out and I didn’t get a chance to go on the playground in school today. May I go on the playground before dinner?”
Tommy’s backyard, though not the full carnival he set up for Destiny’s birthday, was nonetheless filled with merriment too. “If it’s okay with your father,” Grace said, “it’s okay with me.”
“Daddy, please,” Destiny said, her beautiful eyes looking up at her father in doleful and innocent manipulation.
Tommy looked at Sally. “Thirty minutes and then bring her back in,” he ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Sally said, and took Destiny’s hand to walk her toward the back. But Destiny began running, with the nanny struggling to keep up, as they made their way through the living room and toward the back patio door.
Tommy laughed and shook his head. “Our daughter is full of life, Grace. Full of life.”
“Yes, she is,” Grace said, smiling too. Then her smile slowly turned into a look that was far more concerning.
Tommy saw it. “What is it, Grace?” he asked her. “Are you worried about Ed?”
Grace frowned. “No,” she said as if the idea offended her. “Why would I worry about a man who wants to use me and my daughter for his own ill-gotten gain, who punched me like he didn’t give a damn about me ever, and who wants to kill the father of my daughter? I already feel like the fool of fools for marrying that bastard. I already feel like I’m the one who b
rought all of this misery on our family to begin with.”
Tommy quickly placed his hand around her narrow waist. “Don’t blame yourself,” he said to her. “I told you this is not your fault. Ed presented a great image. Even I couldn’t find dirt on him.”
Grace looked at Tommy. “But you knew he was slimy all along. Didn’t you?”
“I had my suspicions. Yes. But at Destiny’s party, I don’t know. I saw a desperation in him that I didn’t see before. It concerned me. You and Destiny were living with the joker. It concerned me mightily. I all but told my men they would be fired if they didn’t dig up the dirt on Ed. Because I knew he had some dirt. It was just deeply buried.”
Grace wanted to lean against Tommy. His presence always made her feel so warm and protected. But just because he and Liz were on the outs, she wasn’t going to just worm her way back in. She moved from his grasp altogether.
“I’d better get changed and get started with dinner,” she said.
“I have an entire staff to take care of dinner, Grace,” Tommy said. He was disappointed that she was no longer in his grasp, but he understood why she moved away. “You don’t have to cook anything.”
“I know I don’t have to,” she said, “but I want to. I make it my business to cook Destiny a healthy, well-balanced meal every school night. I let her cheat a little on the weekends. She get to have pizza and hot dogs and all of that good stuff on the weekends. But never on a school night. So please don’t call in your kitchen staff. I’ll feel even more out of place if I can’t cook for her.”
Tommy wanted to tell Grace how much he appreciated the time and attention she gave to their daughter, and the tremendous care she gave to her, but he already felt he was overdoing it. He already felt he was too happy to have her back in his home again. And he couldn’t understand why. Why was he so happy? He was barely out of the pot with Liz. There was no way he should want to jump right back in with Grace. That would be crazy. But he was happy to have her with him. He couldn’t deny the fact that having Grace and Destiny under his roof again, under his care and protection, made him a very happy man. But verbalizing such feelings were out of the question. “Let me show you to your room,” he said instead, as he grabbed her luggage and began to walk across the foyer, and up the stairs.
Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor Page 8