Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Juliet
The November menu for the supper club was giving me more trouble than I'd expected.
The problem was the fish course. I'd been happy with the cured salmon for weeks, had written it into the plan and defended it against Eileen's skepticism.
Now I was sitting at the kitchen table at ten in the morning, looking at it written on the page and feeling totally uninspired.
Cured salmon with crème fra?che and dill. It was fine. It was perfectly fine. That was the problem. There was nothing exciting about it.
I crossed it out and wrote crab bisque underneath.
"You've changed it again," Eileen said without looking up from the sink.
"How do you know?"
"You've been huffing over it for ten minutes, and I heard you scribbling."
"The salmon was too safe."
"The salmon was good."
"Good isn't enough for a two-hundred-dollar-a-head supper club."
Eileen turned around and dried her hands on the tea towel. She came to the table and looked at what I'd written. She stood there for a moment, lips pursed.
"I suppose bisque is easier to execute for a large group," she conceded. "One big pot, rather than lots of fussy plates."
"Yes." I picked up my pen. "It's better."
She went back to the sink. I looked at the notebook. Chestnut soup, crab bisque, braised short rib, cheese, apple tarte tatin. Damn. Now I had to do something about the soup. Two rich dishes to start the meal would fill people up too soon.
I turned to look out of the window, hoping to find inspiration in the clear morning sky. I'd always thought of myself as a summer person, but I found I liked the almost silvery light of a cooler November sky. From this vantage point, I could see all the way down to the lower vines.
Ramon was walking the eastern block alone, checking on the state of the vines. Nate had planned to be out there with him, but instead he was locked in his study working through a stack of contracts his assistant had sent from his offices in L.A.
I returned to the menu, unsure what to do about the chestnut soup.
It had been one of the dishes I was excited about.
Perhaps I should keep it and lose the crab bisque.
There were plenty of other fish dishes I could use.
As I agonized over it, Eileen received a notification on her phone. She looked up, surprised.
"Seems we have a visitor."
Without elaborating, she set down the frying pan she'd been trying to scrub clean and left the room. I heard her go to the foot of the stairs and call up to Nate. A moment later, his footsteps thundered down the stairs.
When Eileen returned to the kitchen, she shot me a strange look.
"Who's the visitor?" I asked.
"Your mother."
I blinked in surprise. She'd known I was here for weeks. Why had she suddenly decided to turn up unannounced? It went against everything she'd drummed into me about good manners.
"Did she ask to speak to Nate?"
Eileen nodded. Huh. That was nice. We hadn't seen each other or spoken on the phone for a long time, yet the person she'd driven all the way out here to see was Nate.
Whatever she'd come to say, I wanted to hear it. I was done being managed and shielded from things. I pushed back from my chair and stood.
"I'm going to see what she wants," I announced.
"You do that," Eileen said.
I found my mother and Nate in the sitting room we never used, the one reserved for formal occasions.
Nate was in the armchair nearest the window.
My mother was on the sofa across from him, her coat folded on the cushion beside her, her hands in her lap.
She was sitting very straight, the way she always did, but there was something different about her this morning. An air of weariness clung to her.
When I came in, Nate stood, a chivalrous gesture I knew my mother would appreciate. I certainly did. My mother's eyes followed me as I crossed the room.
"Why are you here, Mother?"
She worried her bottom lip with her teeth, an uncharacteristic show of uncertainty.
"I'm not coming home with you, if that's what you're thinking."
"It's not."
"Then why?"
Her eyes flicked to Nate as he resumed his seat.
"Kane has been putting pressure on your mother." He turned his attention to her. "Caroline, I think you should tell Juliet what you just shared with me."
His tone brooked no argument, but my mother tried anyway.
"No, I…"
"Now, Caroline."
She drew in a shuddering breath. "Garrett has been blackmailing me."
"For how long?"
"Two years."
I nodded. That made sense. She'd been pushing me toward him for a long time.
"At first, he just wanted my support," Caroline continued, "For me to put a word in for him when he was trying to close a deal, that sort of thing."
"And then?" Nate prompted when she stalled.
"And then he wanted me to persuade you to accept him. He wanted to marry you."
I gritted my teeth, angry that my own mother had been willing to push me toward the type of man who would stoop to blackmail to get what he wanted.
"What does he have on you?"
"I, uh… I've been seeing someone."
"An affair?" Nate scoffed. "You were willing to trade your daughter to keep an affair secret."
My mother shook her head. "It's not the affair that's the problem."
"It's who it's with?" I guessed.
She bowed her head and let out a sigh. It was the first time I'd seen her vulnerable.
"It's, uh…" Her voice trailed off. I couldn't help noticing her hands were shaking. It didn't escape Nate's notice either.
"You can confide in us, Caroline," Nate assured her. "It won't go any further."
"The person I've been seeing"— She paused to take a breath—"The woman is Diana de Luca."
Nate gasped in shock. I scowled, irritated by his reaction. "What does it matter if my mother is seeing a woman?"
"It doesn't." Nate sent me a scolding glance as if I should have known he wouldn't care about that. "It's who the woman is."
I was lost. The name meant nothing to me. I waited for someone to fill me in.
"Diana de Luca is the wife of the very dangerous, notoriously possessive head of the mafia in L.A."
My eyes widened. That was the last thing I expected. "How did you meet this woman?"
"At a fundraiser," my mother replied. "Your father refused to accompany me, and her husband was away on business. We talked over dinner, and one thing led to another."
I shook my head in disbelief. "And Garrett found out about this?"
"He has photographs of us together."
Something about this didn't make sense to me. "You said he'd been blackmailing you for two years, but he's been pursuing me for at least three, with your encouragement I might add."
My mother breathed in deeply. "Yes, I'm not proud of it, but at first, I championed Garrett because I thought he was the sort of man you should be with."
"Unbelievable." I got up and crossed to the window. "So what happens now?"
"Garrett knows Nate has someone looking into him. He says if you expose him, he'll send the photos to Damon de Luca."
"So you want us to drop our investigation?" Nate asked. "Because that's not happening. We've uncovered several serious accusations against him that he needs to answer for."
"Yes." My mother clasped her hands on her lap. "I suspected there would be."
"We can't let his crimes go unanswered." The thought that Garrett might get away with all the terrible things he'd done to women didn't sit well with me.
"And I don't want you to." My mother got up and came to join me at the window. "Garrett Kane is a stain on society, and you need to bring him down."
I swallowed hard. "But what will happen to you?"
"I've spoken to Diana. She's confident Damon won't hurt her or me. He won't want his men finding out about us. Apparently it will diminish his status if they think he can't satisfy his wife." She rolled her eyes. "Some mafia bullshit about manliness."
I almost laughed, stunned at hearing my mother swear for the first time. This whole thing had caught me off guard, and I had no idea what to do with it.
"So we can press ahead with our plans for Kane?" Nate checked.
My mother turned to him, her mouth set in a tight, determined line. "Yes. Make sure he suffers."
"We will," Nate assured her. "And we'll do everything we can to bury whatever evidence he has of your affair."
"Thank you." She leaned in to kiss my cheek. "You look happy, Juliet. Don't let anything get in the way of that."
She turned to Nate. "Take care of my daughter." She crossed the room and patted his cheek with something close to affection. "I'll see myself out."
When she left, Nate held his arms out, and I walked into them. He hugged me tight.
"Everything will be all right," he assured me. "I won't let anything happen to your mom."
Though we'd had our differences, I didn't want to see her hurt. Thankfully when Nate said he would protect her, I believed him. He'd protected me. He'd do the same for her.