Vengeance: A Kindred Sons Mafia Romance (2 page)

Sarah (Bella)

The drive had been long, and every so often I’d catch Toni glancing at me as she drove. She had thought I’d gone mad and begged me to dye my hair back as soon as possible. I felt less guilty about spending the last of my rent money on getting it done professionally. I could tell, as a hairdresser herself she wanted to get up close to it but knew better. Then again, she’d never expected to get that close… I just didn’t let people that close anymore.

Personally, I liked the length and colour more than I imagined. The girl with the silver-blonde hair stood out, but she definitely didn’t look like me anymore. Toni would notice if I wore the brown contact lenses, so I’m going to have to get used to them fast… I start work in two days and I need to be ok with repeatedly poking myself in the eye.

I didn’t sleep well on Sunday night since I just couldn’t settle. The noises were different in the flat I now lived in, and the walls were definitely thinner than in my old place – I could hear my neighbours’ televisions from both sides and the woman who lived above me seemed to like walking around in stilettos… at least that was my thoughts at 3 am this morning when I heard her move around upstairs. I pulled the duvet over my head to try and dampen the noise and closed my eyes. I couldn’t expect a two bedroom flat in my price range to be anything spectacular. With thoughts of Ryan’s parole hearing at the end of next month, I tried to get back to sleep.

I rose early on Monday morning, hoping a shower would refresh me as the night certainly hadn’t. I dressed quickly and was ready for work an hour earlier than I needed to be, so I took a moment to practice before facing what was to be my new life.

“Hi, I’m Bah-Bella… Hi, I’m Bella; I’m the new administrator…” I streaked a smile across my face and tried again. “Hi, how are you? Yes, I’m Bella.” After downing a large gulp from my mug of tea and tried again. “Pleased to meet you, I’m Bella, the new administrator.” Yes, that sounded more confident – like I’d been calling myself Bella for my entire life.

I locked my door and made my way towards the town centre. I had my backstory memorised and was feeling more confident. I left Londonderry when I was 15, I looked very different to the teenager I had been and I wasn’t known as Sarah anymore. Sure, someone might pick up on the surname, but that was unlikely… I had hoped. The CV I’d sent which got me this job didn’t link me to Londonderry in any way. I felt queasy thinking about the white lies I had told to get this chance.

I
did
have the qualifications I said I had. Sawyer & Co didn’t even query why my certificates all said Sarah Isabella, thank god. I
had
the experience too, but I couldn’t let my past employers be references as
he
could trace me. It turned out that renting a couple of postal boxes for a few weeks and some creative computer work had paid off for me. I had taken a big risk in creating the references for this post and if I got found out then Sawyer & Co would sack me immediately. But quickly putting that thought to the one side I walked along the riverside, genuinely exploring it with new eyes – it had changed so much since in the last decade. Then again, so had I.

By the time I made it into my new office, I wasn’t sure I could be this Bella woman I had created. I stood in the foyer for a moment, looking around and considering whether I could get enough money in some other way so I could keep myself going to be here for Ryan.

“Excuse me, can I help you? You seem a bit lost?” The friendly voice came from beside me and I swung around quickly in surprise. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to make you jump.” The petite brunette came to about my shoulder, she was dressed in a trouser suit, holding a pink travel mug and carrying a messenger bag that looked crammed full of papers.

“I… uh…” Was the clever response my head gave me.

“Are you the new administrator?” She said with new understanding.

“Yeah. I’m beh-Bella.” I stammered. I shouldn’t have come here, I can’t do this.

“Well Bella, you’re very welcome here. I’m Louise. I’m one of the junior accountants.”

She wasn’t much younger than me, but the bags around her eyes and the way she fiddled with the handle of her travel mug definitely told a story of someone under stress at least that was what I saw.

“Ah, there you are!” I heard a man’s voice as his shoes squeaked over from me. I didn’t miss the flash of something across Louise’s face before she composed herself again.

“Hi Denver, I was just on my way up to get prepped for the morning meeting. This is Bella, she’s the new administrator.” Turning back to me, she smiled earnestly, “If you go to the reception, they’ll point you in the right direction. I’ll see you around the office.” Louise made her exit quickly, with her messenger bag making her look clumsy as it flopped about every time she took a right step.

“So, you’re Mildred’s new start?” Denver spoke smoothly as he walked me to reception and in front of the visitor book. “I’m about to go up to her office anyway, if you sign in here, then I’ll show you where to go.” His smile seemed friendly, and as we made our way to the stairs I caught the scent of his cologne. Musky and rich. We chatted briefly as we made our way to Mildred’s office, my story held up and he didn’t immediately out me as a fraud, which I felt was a good omen for the rest of my day.

Mildred was exactly as her picture from LinkedIn, and having stalked her a little on social media and having spoken with her exactly four times: in my interview; to be conditionally offered the post, and a phone call to confirm my references had been received and that she would be happy for me to start as soon as possible; and the phone call she had made late last week to tell me to come directly to her office this morning.

“Bella, it’s great to see you again.” She looked up from her computer and judging by the mound of paper already on her desk and the three stained and empty mugs in front of her, I decided that my new boss was someone who came into work early. “I’m so glad to see you. Let me get you settled in, and then I have a mountain of work for you! But first things first, have you had the tour yet?”

I expected to be answering phones and sending emails, but instead, I spent the first week working alongside Mildred collating files and putting together information for her. The learning curve was steep and I found the work quite intense to start with, but as I had nothing else to distract me, I enjoyed having something I could sink my teeth into. I arrived to work early and spent all my time with Mildred - apart from my lunch breaks, where I often met Louise in the office kitchen, I didn’t really speak to anyone else apart from Denver every now and then.

Mildred was in the small meeting room, on a conference call with a client when I was clearing up in Mildred’s office on Friday afternoon. Denver popped his head into the office, “Hey Bella,” he said smoothly, his voice sounded like honey in my ears. “Have you any plans for your first Friday night after work?”

I didn’t and by the time I was leaving the office, I’d agreed to go with him to a local bar where we’d have dinner. Louise mentioned she worked with him but didn’t go any further than that. I got the impression she didn’t really like him but wasn’t about to say why. He’d been nothing but polite to me, so I imagined that whatever their differences it was none of my business. After Louise and Mildred, he was the only other person in town that knew “Bella” so it would be nice. He was easy on the eyes, and whilst I certainly wasn’t after any sort of relationship, it was good for my ego to spend time with a cute guy.

As it turned out, he’d moved here only a few years ago, so in keeping with my story, I let him tell me a bit about Londonderry and show me some of the local sights; some tips he’d learned along the way. I let him take me to Flanagan’s where we ate, drank and chatted for a couple of hours. It was when he wanted to walk me home and I declined that things faltered a little.

“I’ve had a really great time, Denver and thank you for dinner – honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to buy mine!”

“Nonsense!” His hungry eyes roamed over me, “Bella, you’re a very beautiful woman – you should never have to pay for dinners and you should never be eating alone. I’m parked close by so I can drive us back to your place.” He moved closer to me, draping his jacket over my shoulders; his hands lingering over my shoulders just a little too long.

Immediately my stomach did a little flip-flop. “Ah, um, Denver, I really am exhausted. This first week has been very busy. Thanks for the offer but I’m really not far from here. I can walk it if I take the shortcut between Sackville Avenue and Abberfield.”

There was an edge to his voice, “I see.” After a pause and I had stopped on the footpath, he spoke in his usual tone. “I just don’t like to think of you heading back to your apartment to spend the weekend alone. How about I take you sightseeing tomorrow – get the extended version, maybe a little lunch?”

Feeling colder with his jacket around me than without it, I handed his it back to him. “Look, Denver, I’m sorry if you thought this was something more than what it is. I’m sure you’re a really great guy, but I’m not looking for anything right now… I hope you understand.”

He smiled lightly and draped the blazer over his arm, “Hey, of course not. I
am
married, you know! God, I’m not trying to come on to you, just being friendly, Bella.” There was a professional tone in his voice now; I’d managed to hurt his ego. Why did men always think that we would fall at their feet just because they bought us food? Even if he was single, I was so not into being someone’s mistress. “It’s not like anything could happen anyway. I mean, with Mildred being on holiday soon, I’m going to be line managing you. It would be entirely inappropriate, Bella.”

“Oh, I didn’t realise…” Shit.

“I’m
sure
you didn’t. I’ll see you on Monday, Bella, have a nice weekend.” With that, a black BMW in front of us beeped and he stepped in alone; leaving me standing on the street, dumbfounded. What just happened?

By the time I had walked home I had decided that I would speak with Denver on Monday morning. having replayed the brief conversation through my head I decided I didn’t like that he’d implied I didn’t know he was going to be my manager for a while. In fact, I was furious what was between the lines of what he said – did he think I was going to dinner with him because he’d be my manager? What exactly did he think I would do?

It took until Saturday afternoon before I was actually able to relax for the weekend.

Bella

As it turned out, Denver was at a meeting across town on Monday morning so I couldn’t get to speak to him before work. The client and deadline that Mildred was working on last week had been met and from today she had me doing the more typical administration work that she needed. Before lunch, she asked me to gather some files from some other accountants and offices within the building, and then put together a mountain of invoices that I was to see left into the post room. By the time I gathered about thirty of them, I took my first trip to the post room.

I had walked in and within two seconds, I realised I shouldn’t have been there. Even the air felt wrong. Louise was in there with a guy. And he certainly didn’t look like he worked in Sawyer’s. Ice blue eyes met mine the instant I walked in, his gaze penetrating me and making me feel like I wanted to run out of the room, the building, and the town just to be sure. Louise immediately took two steps back from him, creating space between them where there hadn’t been before. There was such a stark contrast between her blouse and pencil skirt outfit to his tracksuit and trainers.

“Oh, uh, hi Bella.” Louise stammered.

“Hey. I’m just leaving these invoices down to be posted out?” The urge I had to want to explain myself was crazy. They
definitely
shouldn’t have been there.

“Jason’s on his lunch break, I’m sure he’ll look after them when he gets back.” I
knew
she shouldn’t have been here. “I can take them for you. Here,” she rushed over to me taking the big bundle out of my hands and placing them into the post out-tray. “They’ll get stamped and posted from here.”

His gaze slide over me the whole time, I knew: because not only did I feel it, but when I plucked the courage to peek at him again, his eyes were still on me and stayed there even when he was caught.

“You must be new.” It wasn’t a question; it was a statement of fact. His voice commanded authority without booming. It was obvious when he spoke that he was used to everyone listening.

“Yes, that’s right. I’m Bella. I’m the new administrator.” I said, as confidently as I could muster. I even did a little internal hi-five, proud of myself for keeping the eye contact going.

He slowly strode towards me, holding his hand out. “Bella.” It was the name I was getting used to everyone calling me, but the way he said it made me feel that he knew it wasn’t right. “Well Bella, I’m Jake.” Instinctively I offered my hand to shake. He took it into both of his making me feel like I was so tiny in comparison to him; enveloping mine and wrapping it in heat. I guess Louise has a little secret of her own here. This guy had just been caught in the post room with his girlfriend – who was keeping him firmly under wraps – yet I was the one who felt like I had done something wrong.
You have done something wrong
my inner critic reminded me.

“It’s been great to meet you. I hope they’re looking after you here.” As he released my hand I felt like I was being released from a trance. “Louise? I’ll speak to you soon?”

“Um? Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. Speak soon, Jake.” Louise looked more flustered than I did. With that, he left by the exit door that led to the car park and not the one I had just come in from.

“Wow,” I said as the door shut behind him. “You’re a dark horse – sneaking your boyfriend in here!” I laughed, giddy that the tension had dissipated. “Thought you said you weren’t dating?” I teased.

“I’m not.” She said firmly. “He’s just a client who doesn’t really do the whole office thing.”

“Oh yeah?” I didn’t buy that for a minute. “You two looked pretty guilty when I came in. Don’t worry, I won’t say to anyone, though.”

“Thanks. He doesn’t like the whole office thing.” Her shoulders relaxed a little. “But he really is a client – nothing else.”

“Alright then.” I handed her the brown envelope she’d dropped with a cheesy smile. “I just I didn’t realise guys built like brick outhouses needed accountancy services.”

“Of course!” she laughed like she finally understood something, “You wouldn’t have heard of the Armstrong family. They’re a pretty big deal around here. Jake runs Armstrong’s Gym, he’s the owner.”

And with that, I knew it was only a matter of time before the truth would come out.