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  Again, on Green’s comment, I avoided Tommy’s eyes.

  This time, Green did too.

  He also kept speaking.

  “So she gave you to us. You give a shit. You let that show. You treat us like family. Keeps us motivated. Keeps us devoted. But not a single general in an outfit like this should let a soldier go with an, ‘I understand, Eli.’”

  I knew that too.

  “You want her to put a bullet in your brain?” Tommy asked and Eli looked to him.

  “She couldn’t do it. But you’d do it for her, all she had to do was ask.”

  “You’re right,” Tommy replied.

  “And she’d never ask,” Green returned. “And that’s why we’re all totally fuckin’ devoted. Just like you,” Green said to Tommy and looked to me. “But we’re not dumb, Liv. All a’ us gotta eat.”

  I said nothing.

  “You should put a bullet in my brain,” Green whispered.

  That was a warning.

  I felt Tommy’s eyes come to me.

  But I held Green’s.

  “I’ll never do that,” I whispered back, hoping he’d take my meaning that he shouldn’t burn any bridges. Instead, he should disappear.

  “That means you need to get far away, Liv. This life’s gonna eat you alive.”

  I felt Tommy’s intensity.

  But I had only one answer for Eli.

  “It already has.”

  I watched anger flare in Green’s eyes as his mouth went hard.

  Tommy tied the bloody towel to Green’s thigh before he shifted, shoving a broad shoulder under Green’s arm to heft him up.

  Green grunted.

  I took them in, giving them both a nod before I moved quickly to Dad’s desk and grabbed the receiver from the phone.

  I hit a button and turned to watch Tommy and Eli make their slow way to the door.

  Gill answered on the second ring.

  “Bring the car around, will you, Gill?” I requested. “Tommy and Green are on their way.”

  “You got it, Liv,” Gill replied and disconnected.

  I put the phone back in the cradle and saw the boys had disappeared out the door.

  I took a moment to look around my father’s office, not knowing why because I’d memorized every inch of purple damask-papered wall, every etch in the heavy, dark wood, every swirl in the silk rugs that cost so much entire villages in developing countries could live on it for years.

  I did this thinking Green was gone in more ways than one. If he was stupid, which I hoped he wasn’t, he’d go to Valenzuela or Sloan. He’d offer his services. He’d offer information.

  If that happened, Dad would make the order.

  Georgia would have it carried out.

  Gill would do the deed.

  If he was smart, he’d get out of Denver and find work elsewhere.

  Then Dad would forget him and my sister would offer her sugar pussy to whatever green recruit she’d make promises of living large, drowning in Cristal, fucking on soft beds covered in greenbacks.

  It wouldn’t take long before the fresh one would learn.

  We had very few soldiers left and all of them were uneasy.

  Except Tommy.

  Because of me.

  And Gill.

  Because of Georgia.

  Green was right.

  I should get out. I should get away. I should go to Thailand. Bali. Any end to this earth where he wouldn’t find me.

  I didn’t because I knew that place didn’t exist.

  Vincent Shade had lost nearly everything his father stole, dealt, stabbed, lied, tortured and killed to get.

  But there were two pieces in the chess game he played very poorly, a game that just happened to be our livelihoods, pieces I’d learned without a doubt he’d never lose.

  Not ever.

  His girls.

  Chapter Two

  She’ll Have Company

  Olivia

  My phone was ringing as I drove into my garage.

  After I turned off the car, I grabbed it and looked at the screen.

  I took the call before I shifted out of my white Range Rover Evoque.

  “Hello, Pam,” I greeted my real estate agent, moving to the door that led to the house, clutch under my phone arm, my other hand out to hit the button to close the garage door.

  “Hey there, Olivia,” Pam replied. “Listen, that couple that looked at your house on Monday, they wanna come back tomorrow.”

  I walked to my marble kitchen counter and dropped my clutch to it, responding, “Excellent.”

  “They have to come in the evening. Around five thirty. Can you do something after work so they can see the house?”

  Could I do something after my work of managing drug dealers—who these days had no drugs to deal—and keeping a variety of books for really not legitimate enterprises my father ran very poorly, considering we barely had any money—as well as laundering said money, how little of it there was?

  “Yes,” I answered.

  “Great!” she cried. “I’ll let them know and set it up. This is looking good. We haven’t had a second visit since we put your place on the market.”

  That day was apparently my day for people to tell me things I already knew.

  Because I already knew this, I had no reply.

  “I’ll keep my fingers crossed we’ll have an offer by Friday,” Pam carried on.

  “I will too,” I said. “And if you can have their agent tell you when they’re done, I’d appreciate it if you’d text me when I’m good to come home.”

  “Of course,” she stated.

  “Wonderful. Thank you, Pam. Have a good evening.”

  “You too, Olivia.”

  I took the phone from my ear and disconnected.

  Then I looked around my house.

  From my position standing in the acres of extraordinary ivory, russet and bronze-veined marble countertops and custom-made cream cupboards, I could also see the kitchen seating area (which was not a place to eat…it was a place to sit on couches by a fireplace and converse). I could also see the great room, the formal dining room and vast expanses of wood-that-was-imported-from-Europe floors.

  It looked fabulous, as it would. I was responsible for every inch of fabric, every stick of furniture, down to the ribbed silver or mirrored Kleenex box holders.

  It was like my office. Classic elegance, except more refined.

  I did not hesitate to congratulate myself on wringing a miracle, because even with its extreme beauty, it was also welcoming and comfortable.

  I loved it.

  But it had to go.

  It had to go because, along with all I’d mentioned, there were also four bedrooms, a casual family room, a game room, a study, a “mom’s room” (that looked like a place set up to make crafts or wrap packages, as everyone knew it was mom’s job to be craftsy and wrap presents), a laundry room that was as big as a bedroom, a larder that was as big as most full baths and a master suite that the Queen of England would feel comfortable in.

  This didn’t count the mini-me-mansion guest house with its own sitting room, small kitchen, bedroom and bath at the back of the property.

  All of this (save the guest house, of course) was in a u-shape flanking an in-ground, heated swimming pool with a massive mosaic-tiled deck. This situated on a huge lot situated in Governor’s Park, in other words, smack in the middle of the city proper of Denver.

  It cost millions of dollars.

  It was too much for me.

  When viewing it, as gorgeous as it was, I’d wanted nothing to do with it.

  But when I moved out of my father’s home, he would not hear of me living in one of the lovely high-rises that straddled the south side of the city that offered two- to three-bedroom condominiums.

  A Shade lived like a Shade.

  Not a real Shade, those being degenerate criminals, two of whom hid this behind Christian Louboutin shoes and Givenchy blouses.

  But the Shades we showed t
he world. Those of us left who had not escaped my grandfather’s need to perpetuate a massive, grisly, scheming, brutal Fuck You! to those many who thought (rightly) they were better than him as well as to those who didn’t care either way.

  Namely my father, because even if Georgia lived in a fabulous penthouse apartment, she thought her place was too much too.

  Therefore, since my father wanted me to have that house, I had no choice but to have it.

  Now, it wasn’t only too big for me—a single woman rambling around what could be described as nothing other than a mini-five-thousand-square-foot-mansion—we couldn’t afford it.

  Dad’s rambling manse would never go. He’d die in there in a shootout rivaling the Alamo before he’d let anyone take it from him.

  And Georgia was turning a semi-blind eye to the money situation, aware of it but certain she could do something to turn it around while breaking her neck to do just that.

  But I kept the books. I knew.

  So my house was on the market and neither of them was stupid enough to say a word, because even if neither of them would admit it out loud, both of them knew why.

  I walked the warm-colored wood floors of my hall, past the informal family room, the study, these separated by a powder room, both to my left. To my right was a series of arched windows and French doors that led to the deck and pool.

  I arrived at the end of the hall where my bedroom suite was. This included a comfortable sitting room, his- and hers-walk-in closets and a colossal bathroom that had a dressing area at the back with a built-in dressing table that any fabulously wealthy housewife would give her eyeteeth for.

  Alas, none of them were in the market for a house. I knew this since mine had been available for four months with only one second viewing that hadn’t even happened yet.

  I sat on the side of my bed and was toeing off my pumps when my phone in my hand rang again.

  I looked at the screen and wished I didn’t have to take the call.

  But she’d called yesterday and I hadn’t called her back. I knew the headache I’d catch when I stopped avoiding her was not worth the peace of mind avoiding her afforded me.

  So I took the call.

  “Hello, Mom,” I greeted, leaning back into a hand in the bed.

  “I called you yesterday, Olivia.”

  More of someone telling me something I already knew.

  “I’m sorry. Something came up and took my attention,” I lied.

  She let my lie go and decreed, “We’re having dinner. I’ve had my assistant make a booking for us at Beatrice and Woodsley next Wednesday evening.”

  Why my mother needed an assistant, I had no idea. She didn’t work. She’d never worked.

  But why she called her assistant “my assistant” I did know. Because they were slaves to her.

  Since slavery was abolished in the United States some time ago and most people didn’t like to be worked like one, they told my mother how they felt about it. Therefore she had on average six “assistants” each year. In other words, they weren’t around long enough so she didn’t bother with their names.

  I wanted to go to Beatrice and Woodsley. It was a fabulous restaurant.

  I did not want to spend two hours with my mother frowning at every morsel I put in my mouth (even though she’d dragged me out to dinner in the first place), nonverbally (and sometimes verbally) sharing she thought I needed to watch what I ate even if I was smack in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height.

  I also did not want her (contradictorily) to encourage me to drink my weight in vodka, something she would do while she pushed her food around on her plate.

  Nor did I want to listen to her telling me what a reprobate my father was, even though I personally arranged the monthly kickback my father gave to Mom’s second husband, the president of a local shipping company. I did this at my father’s command in order for my stepfather to offer his services should Georgia’s machinations bear fruit and we needed something illegal shipped in or out of Denver and we couldn’t use our own legitimate shipping company as that would be stupider than my father’s usual stupid.

  A kickback my mother was highly likely aware of because my stepfather might run a large, successful shipping company but she had his testicles in a vice and he barely took a breath without her permission.

  No, I did not want any of this.

  “I’ll be certain I’m free,” I told her.

  “Excellent,” she replied crisply.

  I knew it would be a wasted effort, but I did my next anyway because I was me.

  “Would you like me to see if Georgia’s free?”

  This was a wasted effort because Mom and Georgia had not spoken in three years. This began after Georgia lost her temper at Bistro Vendôme and let her mouth loose when Mom had a variety of things to say about Dad, much of this centering on the swelling and cut at my upper lip.

  Swelling and a cut my mother knew who delivered on me.

  My sister was her father’s daughter.

  But she was my sister.

  She might have always been and continued to be the golden child (when I was never anything close, though it must be said, I never actually wanted to be), but we’d been through a lot together. She was loyal to our father and she was loyal to me. She loved us both. This to the point I honestly didn’t know if Dad and I were both drowning, which one of us she’d save.

  Anyone who knew us would say Georgia wouldn’t hesitate. She’d dive in and drag Vincent Shade to safety.

  But I knew there was a fifty percent chance she’d grab hold of me.

  And this was why she lost it with Mom, not because she was loyal to Dad and Mom was saying ugly things about him.

  Because when Mom got fed up with Father making her life a misery, she took off.

  And she left her girls behind.

  But she fought tooth and nail for alimony.

  Georgia knew I bore the brunt of Mom’s leaving. She knew I continued to bear the brunt of our father’s disposition.

  She knew Mom knew it too and did nothing about it, not then, not ever.

  So now they didn’t talk. I suggested opportunities to both of them to heal the breach, but three years had passed and I suspected thirty more would before Georgia would show at Mom’s grave and spit on it.

  “No. I. Would. Not,” Mom answered my question.

  Obviously, she felt the same way.

  I sighed.

  “Would you like me to have my driver come to get you?” Mom asked frostily.

  Her driver was also her “driver” seeing as he or she too would likely be replaced in a few months (or weeks).

  “I can get there myself, Mom. Thanks,” I replied.

  “Good. Then see you at seven o’clock Wednesday at the restaurant. Good-bye, Olivia.”

  There was no, “In the meantime, how are you?” Or, “What’s my girl doing for fun these days?” Or, “Are you, by chance, seeing someone?” Or, “My darling girl, I’m worried about you. You’re thirty-one years old and you haven’t had a steady boyfriend since your father tortured that handsome blonde man and did what he did to you when you were twenty-five. I’m aware you can be alone, but I don’t want my daughter to be lonely.”

  No, none of that.

  Mom just disconnected.

  I felt no loss that my mother didn’t care even a little bit about me, taking me to dinner because it was her duty, something she’d tell her friends about, woe-is-me’ing about my weight, my hairstyle, my manicure or whatever she found fault in.

  I was just grateful the call was over.

  I was in the kitchen looking into the refrigerator and considering calling Bistro Vendôme to see if they had a table for one open when my phone rang again.

  I moved to the counter to look at it.

  The screen said Georgie Calling.

  Normally, I did not avoid my sister’s calls.

  That day, however, my father had shot Green. Green had then been transported to Dr. Baldwin who took
care of his wound for ten thousand dollars in cash. After that, Green had either disappeared or begun to make overtures to Marcus Sloan or Benito Valenzuela.

  None of this would please my sister Georgie.

  “Hey,” I greeted quietly.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” she replied.

  I leaned into a hand on the counter. “I walked in, Dad shot him. There was nothing I could do.”

  Even with my life as it was from the minute I could cogitate, it still was not lost on me how completely insane it was that anyone would utter those two sentences, including me.

  “Your boys get an order from Dad, they tell you. They don’t just show up at Dad’s office and tell him shit he already knows, pissing him off enough to grab his fucking gun and take a shot at one of his own men.”

  “They have that instruction, Georgie, but I talked to Tommy after he got back from dealing with Green and Dr. Baldwin. Tommy told me that Gill picked up Green. He took his phone. Dad still has it. And I’ve no doubt he did that because he wants money coming in and he knows I’ve given that instruction to my boys. So he’s not getting straight answers because they come to their meets with me in tow and we feed him information everyone knows is bogus so he won’t lose his mind and, say, shoot one of his own men.”

  “Fuck,” she hissed.

  I said nothing. I wasn’t the kind of woman who rubbed it in when I was right.

  “Green is gonna bail,” she declared.

  I said nothing to that either because this time, she was right (except about the “gonna” part) and I wasn’t about to confirm that just in case she was in a seriously bad mood and decided to do something about it. If Green intended to disappear, I wanted him to have as big a head start as he could get.

  “He sniffs around Sloan or Benito, Liv…” She made the statement and trailed off so she didn’t have to make her threat verbal.

  “You need to have a word with Gill,” I advised. “He can’t do that again. He has to work with us to keep Dad from tying our hands.”

  “I’ll talk with him,” Georgia muttered.

  She would. She’d do this before and/or after she fucked him.