Tess's Tale (The Chanel Series Book 3) (6 page)

Sam the Suit was a short man of impressive width. Where Jim’s eyes held crazy, his held ice. He stared up at me impassively as I was introduced, then, without saying one thing to me, he turned back to Jim and said, ‘I want an update. What are you doing about the money?’

I sidled away from them, getting myself beyond hearing distance as fast as possible. I could hazard a guess what Tristan Penn would have preferred I do, but I wasn’t about to start complicating my life any further.

I turned away from them and ran smack bang into Hillary. I hadn’t seen her since before Harry and I were married and she didn’t seem to have missed me.

‘Guess you think you’re pretty clever,’ she said. I was pleased to see her hair was still in big blonde curls. It would have been humiliating if she were also sporting a red bob.

‘I’ve always wondered what the correct response to that question is.’

She sneered, and for a second I thought she might throw the contents of her glass over me. I didn’t know how my silk dress would hold up against bourbon and Coke. Probably not very well.

‘Calm it Hill.’ Mickey stepped up behind her and put a hand on her arm. Riley was with him.

‘Boys.’ I nodded my head.

The sneer on her face turned to a simper and I felt Harry’s arm snake around my waist.

‘So nice of you to offer your sister your best wishes,’ Harry said. I was sure he knew that wasn’t what was going on.

I could see the question in her eyes as she watched the two of us. Why had he chosen me? He could have had her, an identical version of me, and she would have fitted right into his life.

It showed how little she knew Harry.

‘I hope the two of you are very happy.’ If she had been a small, wooden puppet her nose would have been a foot long.

‘Thank you.’ I could be gracious when I needed to.

‘Tess?’ I hadn’t seen her forever, but I would recognise my mother’s voice anywhere. What was she doing here?

‘Mom?’ She hovered next to Lou the Brain and I mentally head-slapped myself. Of course. Lou. He had never taken her anywhere nice before, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that he would bring her here. To my wedding reception. For the wedding I hadn’t invited her to.

Tears rushed to my eyes, fighting each other to get out first. I hadn’t invited my own mother to my wedding. What sort of shitty person did that make me?

After the obligatory and awkward introductions, Harry squeezed my hand and then said, ‘Hey Lou, gotta minute?’

I waited till the two men were heading for the bar before I said anything. ‘I’m sorry. I should have invited you. I should have come to see you. But….’ I cut my eyes to Lou’s retreating back. If I never saw him again it would be too soon.

Mom swivelled to look at him as well as she nodded her head. ‘I knew when you walked out the door I wouldn’t see you again. Not there anyway.’

She had been right. There was no way I would go back to that house while he was there. It held far too many memories. None of them good.

‘I wasn’t a very good mother. I know that.’

‘Shhh. Don’t.’ It was true, but I still didn’t like those words coming out of her mouth.

‘I should have protected you more.’ She let out a laugh. ‘But looks like the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Look at you. Married to the very thing you ran away from.’

I could almost smell the indignation oozing out of me as I straightened my spine. ‘
Harry
is
nothing
like
Lou
.’

She snorted. ‘They’re all alike love. You’ll see.’ She wasn’t trying to be nasty, but it was the worst insult she could have given my husband.

He wasn’t anything like the others. He wasn’t. He was good and kind and… I looked around the room at the other men. Some of them swayed on the dance floor with their wives. Another group burst into laughter at a joke. They all looked normal. None of them had horns. I shivered and looked back at Mom.

‘He’s not. You’ll see.’

‘I hope you’re right love. I really do.’ She hugged me awkwardly and then stepped back, brushing her hands over the front of my dress. ‘Don’t want to crush you.’

‘Here you are.’ Harry took my half-drunk glass from me and handed me a fresh one. ‘It tastes much better when it’s cold.’

I noted that Lou hadn’t brought Mom back a fresh glass. I squashed the smug smile that was threatening to take control of my lips. See. They were
nothing
like each other.

‘You’d better keep mingling.’ Mom nodded her head at me. ‘You’ll never meet all these people as it is.’

She was right, but I didn’t think most of the people there gave a rat’s about whether or not they met me. They’d all come for the free booze.

I lent forwards and kissed her on the cheek then I let Harry steer me away from them.

He led me over to the windows and stared into my face. ‘You okay?’

‘As good as can be expected.’ If I was honest, it wasn’t totally horrible. The food was lovely, the music was jazz and the champagne was French. Plus I had my movie-star-good-looking husband with me. I gazed up into his eyes, reaching a hand up to touch his face.

‘Dad gave me this.’ He held an envelope out to me. I flicked it over and stared at the back. It was from Cindy.

‘What’s it say?’

‘She’s coming to town next week. With Billy.’

‘I get to meet him?’

‘If you’d like to.’ His eyes showed his uncertainty.

‘Of course I’d like.’ I smiled up at him. ‘I want him to be a part of our lives.’

‘It will only be a small part.’ He pulled a face. ‘I don’t get to see him as much as I’d like.’

I felt a pang for Billy. I hadn’t known my Dad. It was no way for a kid to grow up.

‘We’ll have to visit them as soon as we can.’

He smiled and pulled me towards him, but before he could give me the kiss I wanted, a microphone screeched. I put my hands over my ears and winced. Someone tapped on it a few times and then Jolly Jim said, ‘Where are they? Where’s the happy couple.’

I pulled a face at Harry but he took my hand and led me towards his father. Jim was standing on a small stage next to a five-tiered cake. A table full of gifts sat behind him. I wasn’t sure where we were going to put that many things.

‘There they are. Come on. Up you get.’ He held his hand out to me, helping me climb the small step onto the stage. The conversation in the room died down until it was totally quiet. Every eye was on the stage. ‘I’m not a big one for speeches,’ Jim said.

A couple of men laughed and one yelled out, ‘Whatta ya talkin’ about? We can’t shut ya up.’

He smiled and shushed them with one hand. It was eerie how his smile never made it to his eyes. ‘So I’m just going to say congratulations to the newlyweds.’ He turned to look at Harry and me. ‘I always wanted a daughter. And I couldn’t have asked for a more talented or beautiful one.’ He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a key ring, holding it up so that everybody could see the key dangling there. ‘Everyone knows that the first years of marriage are the hardest. I want to take as much of that pressure off you as I can.’

The key swung hypnotically from side-to-side. What was it for? A car? A safety deposit box?

‘So here.’ He thrust the key at me. ‘I hope you’ll be very happy in your new home.’

He laughed at the stunned look on my face and said, ‘You didn’t really think I’d buy you a punch set for your wedding present?’

‘It was a lovely punch set.’ I could feel the noose tightening around my neck. Things had been so wonderful. We had been free of this life. Free of these people. But bit-by-bit Jim was reeling us in. Bit-by-bit he was taking control of our lives. Before, the only thing I had to worry about was hitting the correct notes, now I had FBI agents palming me business cards and giving me knowing looks.

I had an urge to sprint for the elevator.

Harry must have seen the wild look in my eyes. He took the key from my hand. ‘A house? You’re giving us a house?’

‘It’s more of a three-story terrace than a house. But you’ve got your own courtyard.’

There were words I should have been saying. I took a deep breath and moved my lips so that the appropriate reply fell out. ‘You’re far too generous.’

‘Nonsense. It’s the least I could do for my only son. Of course one day
this
will all be his.’ He held his arms out and I looked around. Did he mean the bar?

And then it hit me. The Pink Flamingo. One day the Pink Flamingo would be Harry’s. And I guessed mine as well.

Now I couldn’t breathe. Now I couldn’t draw in air. I could feel the world closing in around me as an insect took up residence in my ear, its high-pitched shriek blocking out all other noise.

‘Tess. Tess.’ Harry shook my shoulder and the insect stopped its whine. He peered down into my face. ‘You okay?’

I clamped my lips together and nodded my head. My stomach had decided it wanted to go round three, and this was not the place for that to happen.

‘I think perhaps she needs to go to the ladies.’ It was Liss, climbing onto the stage to take my hand.

I was not surprised it had been her and not my mother coming to my rescue. ‘I’m fine.’ My voice rasped out of my throat.

Jim had climbed down from the stage and was talking to Sam the Suit. Harry held my other hand as I stepped down and the two of them led me to where Thor had taken up residence, his huge frame dwarfing anyone who came near.

‘Mom’s here,’ I said to Liss.

‘I saw her.’ Her eyes tightened and for a moment I wondered what had gone down between the two of them. They hadn’t spoken in years but Mom had known that Liss would take me in when she sent me to her.

I opened my mouth to ask, but the microphone let out another almighty shriek.

‘That was unpleasant,’ a man said when it had finished. His Italian accent made everybody else in the room that had one, sound like a phony.
His
made you think of plunging your hands into a barrel full of olives, drinking vino in the sun, and eating pizza while overlooking the Mediterranean. This man was the real, Italian deal.

Which meant, he could only be one man.

‘Just wanted to wish the bride and groom good luck.’

The room held a stunned silence as Giuseppe Greco lifted his glass in a salute. His smile was chilling as he surveyed the room with cold, calculating eyes.

What wrong turn had I taken in my life that had led me to this point, where the head of the Sicilian Mafia’s Death Squad was toasting me at my wedding reception?

I looked over at Harry.

Oh yeah. I married the son of a Mob boss. Stupid me.

For the first time ever, I doubted my decision. If I’d been shown this moment in a crystal ball, had known this was where I was heading, would I have still gone on that first date? The awful truth was that I didn’t know if I would have.

But I had and here I was, so there was only one thing to do. I felt something harden inside me. My knees stopped shaking and a cold resolve flowed over me. If we were going to die, we were going to die. There was nothing to be done about the end. But I was going to fight every inch of the way to prevent that from happening.

As his eyes lasered back to Harry and me, I raised my glass and nodded my head at him. I felt Harry hold my free hand as he raised his glass as well.

We would stand together, we would fight together and if need be, we would die together.

It turned out I had made the right choice after all.

‘That was quite the party,’ Liss said when I staggered into the kitchen the next morning. She held me out a mug of coffee and I clutched at it like a drowning man would a life jacket.

‘We aim to please,’ I said, slumping into one of the chairs.

She peered at me. ‘You look awful.’

‘I feel awful.’

‘Your first hangover,’ she said as if she were congratulating me on my first real bra.

‘Turns out I’m a cheap drunk.’ I hadn’t had anything else to drink after Giuseppe had made his big appearance, but I’d been throwing up for the last half hour.

Harry strode into the kitchen, his freshly washed hair still wet. ‘Want to come and check out our new digs?’ he said to Liss, holding up the key.

I pulled a face and then slurped some more coffee. I didn’t want to move out of the club, but I was guessing Liss and Thor would enjoy having the place to themselves again. Plus, we needed somewhere to put the truckload of presents.

‘It’s going to take me all afternoon to open those gifts,’ I said.

Liss laughed. ‘By the sound of your voice anybody would think you were going to be tortured all afternoon.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘I know. We’ll buy some ‘thank you’ cards on the way and then we can write them as we go.’

Thank you cards? I put my head in my hands. It was going to take all night as well.

‘Aren’t you even a little excited?’ Harry asked. ‘I mean it’s our own home.’

It was possible I was getting close to offending him. Liss was right. I was being a cow. His father had given us a house. I should at least pretend to be excited.

‘Oh no,’ I said. ‘I’m excited. Did he tell you where it was?’

‘Not too far from here. Walking distance in fact. He said he knew how close you and Liss were. Didn’t want to tear you away from each other.’

He had? He did? An unwelcome inkling that perhaps this wasn’t all about Jim wormed its way into my head. I tried to shove it out, but to my great chagrin it stuck. I was much more comfortable with my view of Jolly Jim being a selfish, cold-hearted, manipulator.

Liss was watching me over the rim of her coffee mug. I shook my head and sighed. I
was
being a cow. But could I help it if I didn’t want to become immersed in a life where the money came from crime?

After breakfast I showered and put on jeans and a tank top. I wasn’t sure what state the new house would be in. Did it need work? Did it have furniture? As I thought about those things I felt a stirring of what had been missing since I first found out about it. Excitement. Suddenly I couldn’t wait to get there.

‘Dad said it’s got three bedrooms,’ Harry said as we drove there.

‘So Billy can have his own room.’

He flashed me a smile before turning his eyes back to the road.

‘That’s what I was thinking. Perhaps now Cindy will let him come and stay with us.’

I was looking forward to meeting Billy, but I was nervous as well. What if he didn’t like me? What if he resented me? I knew they were all perfectly normal fears but it didn’t make me feel any better.

‘He’ll love you.’ Harry reached over and squeezed my hand. ‘How could he not?’ He indicated and turned left into a side street, pulling over about a hundred feet later. ‘Number ten.’

I peered at the street numbers. We were sitting in front of number six, a tall, brick structure that was joined to the building next to it by a common wall. Harry crawled the car forwards until we were sitting outside number ten. Our new home.

There were six homes in total in the complex, identical except for the colour of the front door. Ours was bright red. I climbed out of the car and looked up at the building. Three stories high, with bay windows on the second. I found myself hoping that was our bedroom. It would be nice to sit in those windows and watch the world go by.

‘You ready?’ Harry said.

I nodded and we climbed the stairs to the front door. Harry placed the key in the lock, turned it, and then we were walking into our new home.

Our footsteps echoed on the wooden floor of the corridor. Stairs went off to the left and the hall opened out into a large living area. The back wall of the house was glass panels with French doors opening onto a wooden deck. A kitchen, shiny with new appliances and stone bench tops, overlooked the room.

It was beautiful, expensive and new, and not my style at all. I liked the cosiness of my room at Liss and Thor’s. I liked old furniture, mismatched rugs and overstuffed cushions. I liked bright colours and lots of it, and the shiny, white kitchen left me cold.

‘What do you think?’ Harry was watching me with a look bordering on concern.

His father had given us a house. I didn’t get to be fussy.

‘Once we get some furniture into it, it’ll be great.’ Some old, comfy, second-hand furniture.

‘Let’s check out the bedrooms.’ Harry grabbed my hand and dragged me back down the hall to the stairs.

The next floor was covered in thick, plush carpet. As hoped, the bay windows belonged to the main bedroom. A large walk-in wardrobe and ensuite opened off it. Another bathroom and Billy’s bedroom were also on that floor.

The next flight of stairs opened onto a large, lofty room. The ceiling followed the roof of the house, arching up to a peak.

‘Spare bedroom,’ I said. Billy could have this space when he got older.

‘Hello.’ Liss’s voice echoed from downstairs. She and Thor had gone to get the thank you cards.

‘Up here.’ I trotted back down the stairs and into the living room.

She was standing near the French doors looking out into the courtyard. ‘It’s going to be lovely out there when the shade is on the deck.’

‘A furniture truck just pulled up out the front,’ Thor said as he came down the hall. He was loaded down with grocery bags.

‘Might not be for us,’ Harry said.

I rushed to the front door. Thor was right. A large truck was parked behind Harry’s car. A man was undoing the back door while two others stood on the sidewalk. ‘Bill’s Removals’ was written on the back of their shirts.

‘Maybe it’s the presents,’ Harry said.

I was praying he was right, but I had a really bad feeling about it.

The first thing out of the truck was a white, leather lounge. It was followed by a huge dining room table made of dark, chunky wood. The matching chairs were covered in white leather.

The bed, a monstrosity of wood and padded headboard – yep, also white leather – came after that. I watched in dismay as each piece was carried into my house.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like wood. I liked it a lot. In graceful, smooth, sweeping forms. Everything in the house was heavy and clunky and looked like it had been chosen by a man. Which it had. Jolly Jim

‘The phone’s ringing,’ Liss said, breaking me from my contemplation of the sideboard.

We had a phone?

‘I’ll get it.’ Harry trotted into the kitchen and picked the receiver up off a phone hanging from the wall.

Well, look at that. We had a phone. And a phone number apparently. It was weird that we weren’t the first people to know it.

‘They’re here now,’ Harry said. ‘Uhuh… well we would have liked to pick our own furniture… no of course there’s nothing wrong with it… and yes it saves us a lot of time… okay… I’ll tell her… see you then.’

He hung up the receiver and pulled a face at me. I couldn’t say he hadn’t tried.

‘He’s invited us over for dinner tomorrow night.’

The club was closed on Mondays. There was nothing to use as an excuse to get out of it.

Turned out the presents were in the truck as well. They came in last, covering the dining room table in a huge pile.

‘Right.’ Liss pulled out one of the seats and pushed some of the presents to make room for her pile of thank you cards.

Thor was busy in the kitchen. He’d turned on the fridge and had arranged the groceries in it. He took out a couple of beers and handed one to Harry.

The two of them settled onto the outdoor setting. I watched them with envy before pulling out a seat next to Liss.

‘That one.’ She pointed at the largest of the wrapped boxes.

‘Okay.’ If it was a horse’s head, I was going to be pissed.

An hour later I had more wine glasses than I could poke a stick at, towels and sheets coming out of my ears, four toasters, three sets of cutlery, two water jugs, a silver serving platter, and a partridge in a pear tree.

‘I need a break.’ Liss put the latest card into an envelope and wrote the recipient’s name on the front. We were going to have to get the addresses from Jim. ‘Come on.’ She opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of white wine. ‘Chardonnay?’

‘Just a little.’ My stomach still hadn’t recovered from last night. I didn’t want another hangover tomorrow.

We took our glasses out onto the deck and joined Thor and Harry. They were discussing the latest plans for renovating the club’s toilets.

I had to admit that the outdoor setting chairs were comfortable. I relaxed back into them and admired my new garden, but all too soon the presents called again.

‘Come on.’ I clambered to my feet. ‘The sooner we get them done the sooner you can help me make the bed.’

‘We’ll do that.’ Thor stood up and followed us back inside. ‘Which sheets?’

‘Urrrr, those ones.’ I pointed randomly at a set.

‘Fancy,’ Thor said as he picked them up. ‘Egyptian cotton.’

I shook my head and laughed. For such a big man he sure was domesticated.

‘Which one?’ I stared at the pile of presents. We had opened about half.

‘That little one.’ Liss pointed at a small rectangular box about three inches square. ‘It looks like jewellery.’

‘That’s a bit weird though isn’t it?’ I picked it up. ‘I mean who gives jewellery as a wedding present?’

‘The Mafia.’ Liss laughed. ‘Who’s it from?’

‘Don’t know.’ I turned the box over. ‘The card must have fallen off.’

‘Bugger,’ Liss said. ‘That makes it difficult. Hopefully we’ll find a lone card. Leave it till the end.’

I shook the box and felt something move from side-to-side. ‘Maybe the card’s in the box.’ I pulled the ends of the bow and slid the ribbon off the box. Then I lifted the lid off.

‘What is it? Is it jewellery?’ Liss held her hand out.

‘Kind of,’ I said.

‘Either it’s jewellery or it isn’t.’

‘Well there’s a ring.’ I couldn’t take my eyes off the contents of the box.

‘Ooooh. Does it have a diamond in it?’

‘Looks more like a ruby.’ I mean who would do something like that?

‘Try it on.’

‘That’s the problem,’ I said, handing her the box. ‘It’s still attached to the previous owner’s finger.’

***

‘It’s Ron’s.’ Harry hung up the receiver.

‘It was his ring?’ I was pretty proud of myself. I’d opened a box that contained a finger and I hadn’t even thrown up. I had, however, let Liss top up my glass of wine. All of a sudden a hangover didn’t sound so bad.

‘There’s that,’ Harry said. ‘And they found the rest of his body at the warehouse.’

‘He was killed there?’

‘They think someone dumped his body.’

He said the word ‘someone’ quite casually but we were all thinking the same thing. Giuseppe Greco.

‘Ron was at the party last night but his mother said he never made it home.’

So after Giuseppe had left the party he had waited and kidnapped Ron. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.

‘But… how did the present make it in with the rest of them?’

There was silence as they all looked at me.

‘He must have taken it back,’ Thor said. ‘Later that night.’

‘Dear Lord.’ Liss picked up the bottle of wine and emptied the rest of the contents into our glasses.

The question I was too scared to ask was why had Giuseppe sent the present to us?

‘There’s more,’ Harry said. ‘I wouldn’t tell you but you’ll find out anyway.’ He tapped his fingers on the table. ‘He was tortured.’

‘You think?’ I pointed at the finger.

‘Do you think they learnt anything?’ Thor lent forward and rested his elbows on the table.

Harry shrugged. ‘Ron was pretty low in the operation. He was really just a kid. Besides,
nobody
seems to know anything.’

‘Well two million dollars doesn’t just disappear,’ Liss said. ‘Somebody knows something.’

‘You mean somebody who’s two million dollars richer knows something,’ Thor said.

Two million dollars. It was a whopping sum of money. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how big a pile that made.

‘It has to be someone with access to the office,’ I said. ‘Who has that kind of access?’

‘Anyone,’ Harry said. ‘It’s not like Dad has a closed-door policy.’

‘Why don’t they give Giuseppe another two mill?’ Thor picked up his beer, realised it was empty and sat the bottle back on the table.

‘Stupid pride.’ Harry stood up and walked to the fridge. He returned with two more beers, one of which he handed to Thor. ‘Well that, and it takes time to launder that sort of money.’

I couldn’t help but think that for someone who wanted nothing to do with the family business, he sure knew a lot about it.

‘But they knew what was going to happen. That’s just stupid.’ I was pissed about the finger. I’m sure though, not as pissed as Ron.

‘Would you want to hand over more money when the last lot had walked out the door?’

‘If I knew some crazy psycho was going to turn up I would.’

‘What if that got stolen as well?’

I harrumphed and took a sip of my wine. He had a point. A good point. Sal the Suit didn’t look like the kind of man that suffered fools.

‘They could have all sent it individually.’ Liss had a triumphant look on her face.

‘It’s hard to send that much money undetected out of country. With multiple streams going, the likelihood of it being detected increases. That’s why we have always done it that way.’

I raised my eyebrows and looked at him. ‘
We?
’

He laughed. ‘You know what I mean.’

Before I could reply, the front door bell rang.

‘That’ll be Mickey and Riley. They’ve come for… Ron.’ Harry picked up the box, put the lid back on it and took it to the front door.