Chapter 8 #2
Bending to pick up Blizzard, he draped the cat over his shoulder and rounded the sofa to offer his hand. “It’s a pleasure, Elizabeth.”
Clutching her phone in her left hand, she accepted his handshake but surprised him by pulling him closer and trading la bise with him as well.
She was dressed in gray tailored slacks and a sleeveless silk blouse the color of café au lait.
While her hair was worn like Ireland’s, falling in a glossy curtain to her hips, the inky strands were highlighted by streaks of silver.
Her face was bare, her aqua eyes rimmed with red, and her cheeks hollowed and gaunt.
Still, she looked so remarkably like her daughter that it felt as if a hand squeezed around Ronan’s heart.
“I don’t know whether I’m relieved to see you or not.” She moved around the coffee table to take a seat in one of the white slipcovered armchairs. “I came here because I thought it would make me feel closer to Ireland. But I find the place so tidy it feels as if I’ve walked into a stranger’s home.”
Ronan acted as naturally as possible, but his gaze roamed the apartment.
Was Ireland’s mother alone? Would either of her brothers or the senior Vidal step out from another room and demand answers?
It struck him then that his actions, while well-intentioned, could be construed as sinister or unhinged, not to mention illegal.
“I suppose you’re the reason?” she pressed, her gaze dulled by pain. She gripped her phone tightly in her lap.
“I try to make myself useful,” he answered carefully. Since it seemed they were alone, he asked, “Can I offer you something to drink? Water? Coffee? Something stronger?”
She studied him with an incisive gaze. “No, thank you.”
“Did Blizzard convince you to feed him?”
“Of course.” Elizabeth gave the faintest of smiles. “I completely forgot about that beast until I walked in. I felt such guilt until I took a good look at the place and realized someone’s been looking after it and him.”
“You have enough to worry about,” he said softly. “Including looking after yourself.”
“I have Daniel to help with that, thank god.”
Joining her in the living room, Ronan took the armchair on the opposite side of the table from her. His laptop sat open in front of the couch, the screen dark. “Have you heard anything?”
Her jaw tightened. “Nothing I want to hear.”
His eyes closed briefly, pained by the anger and worry that were threaded like barbed wire around her words.
“It seems like a lifetime ago,” she began, “but it was only Monday that Ireland told me she was spending her first overnight with someone new. And she was considering bringing him to the masquerade. Since you were her plus-one Friday night, I’m assuming she was talking about you.”
“I’m the fortunate fellow, yes.”
Her gaze narrowed slightly. “She also acted as if she’d never heard the name McCaffrey or had any knowledge of your designs on Vidal Records. Can you explain that?”
Blizzard curled into a coil on his lap, still purring loudly. Petting the cat with both hands, he answered, “Yes. At first, we gave each other some variant of our real names.”
“So, Ireland had no idea who you were. But you, Ronan... You knew who she was.” Settling back into the seat, Elizabeth crossed her long legs. “Is the company a line to my daughter or is my daughter your line to the company?”
Her candor was almost enough to make him smile; it was so reminiscent of Ireland.
“Vidal was always the goal.” He ran his hands along the cat’s long body. “And I’ve had it in a chokehold for some time. Meeting Ireland the way I did was unexpected, unplanned, and in relation to Vidal Records, unnecessary. But certainly not unwelcome.”
“Aren’t you clever. Extraordinarily handsome, too. I see the appeal. But be honest…you thought you were getting my shares,” she argued. “You needed them for the majority.”
Ronan saw so much of Ireland in her mother.
The direct gaze. The assurance. The dubious appraisal.
They were women who didn’t hesitate to wield their power.
He also understood that focusing on him and his agenda served as a distraction from the terrible waiting and worrying that now dominated every idle second of their lives.
“The company is massively indebted to me and can’t pay,” he said evenly. “I didn’t need a single share to assume control of it. I bought out the other shareholders to eliminate any possibility of a bail-in.”
Her brow arched. “There are easier and less expensive ways to get into the recording business, and Gideon doesn’t need to use brute force to intimidate someone, so all signs point to you being here for personal reasons.”
“That’s true,” he agreed.
“So you take over an ailing business with dismal prospects at great expense to yourself. What are you getting out of it?”
“Keeping the label afloat wasn’t initially the plan.”
“But now the plan’s changed?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His answer was simple, even though the reason was complicated. “Ireland.”
Elizabeth’s smile was sharp. “So where were you tonight?”
The question took him aback. “I had dinner with my sister. At the Vidal offices, actually. We have artists recording in both studios now.”
Thoughtful, she absorbed that for a long moment.
“I was married to Chris for over twenty years. I can’t tell you how often we fought about him not losing his temper.
Sometimes you need to get mad. Unfortunately, Chris has a long fuse.
But the moment he saw you in my son’s office, he was positively livid. ”
Ronan’s shoulder lifted in a nonchalant shrug. “Losing control of a family business due to your own ineptitude isn’t something anyone would be happy about, but his anger is misdirected. He’s solely responsible for the consequences of his actions.”
“You take over a man’s business and make yourself at home with his daughter, and it’s his fault he’s mad about it?”
“Losing Vidal should sting—a lot. That’s the point.
But my interest in Ireland has nothing to do with Chris.
And to be clear, Ireland will run Vidal, and I’ll find a pied-à-terre.
I expect it’ll take a bit of time for everyone to learn to stay out of her way, so I’ll make sure of it in the meantime. ”
“What I’m hearing is an intention to drive a wedge between Ireland and her family.”
“You’re all managing to do that without any help from me,” he said frankly.
“Since she and I met, Ireland has sabotaged a business deal I was this close to wrapping up. She’s kicked me out of my hotel room, split my lip with a nasty right hook, and sold me to the highest bidder.
She’s distanced herself from me, then reconsidered that choice multiple times.
She’s a force in her own right, but you all insist on keeping her on the sidelines. ”
Elizabeth tried to suppress a smile and failed. “I assumed Gideon did that to your lip. But I’m not at all surprised it was Ireland. She would’ve been terribly disappointed to realize you aren’t the man she’s been looking for after all.”
“I’ve hardly had the time to prove that one way or another.”
“Oh, you give the appearance of being what she needs,” she allowed.
“And that is?”
“A man who can hold his own against Gideon.”
“Ireland could manage him herself if she put her mind to it.”
“And you intend to encourage that? All any of us wants for her are people in her life—friends, partners, lovers—who are trustworthy. But she makes bad choices in her romantic relationships. Maybe she got that flaw from me. I’m just grateful she’s smarter than I was at her age and hasn’t already been married twice. ”
“She likes to keep things casual, so that’s a factor.”
Elizabeth’s brow furrowed. “It should really be no surprise that I’m wondering what you’re getting out of this…arrangement you have—or want—with Ireland.”
Ronan faced her thinly veiled suspicion directly. “Time with her. I enjoy her company very much. Even when we’re at odds, she delights me.”
“If that’s true, you’d better start asking yourself some hard questions. Gideon and Chris were already hovering and overstepping before. After this…” Her breathing stuttered before she finished her thought. “They’ll want an even higher level of trust in Ireland’s personal circle.”
“She’s safe with me.”
“Why don’t you and I just get to the root of the problem, hmm?” she suggested.
Genuinely curious, he asked, “Why would you want to? Everyone else is so certain I’m wrong, they couldn’t care less what the truth is.”
Her ankle flexed up and down, but she was otherwise still and watchful.
“My ex-husband is one of those people with an incredible repertoire of stories. Chris just has this fantastic ability to be in the right place at the right time to have memorable encounters with interesting, notable people. It’s astonishing how often I found myself saying, ‘This could only happen to you, Chris.’”
Ronan’s brow arched in silent inquiry.
She went on. “He was a visiting student at Tulane one summer, but he never talks about it. I can’t stress how truly unlike him that is.
For a college student to have an entire summer in a place like New Orleans that he won’t talk about is unusual, but for Chris, it’s downright suspicious.
You know something about that time in his life, don’t you?
It’s the only way I can connect you two. ”
“You should ask him about it sometime,” Ronan said lazily. “If he’s honest, you’ll see just how incredible his storytelling can be.”
Elizabeth noted how Ronan McCaffrey Boudreaux’s Southern drawl deepened, belying the sharp, ruthless glint that appeared in his remarkable gray eyes whenever Chris was mentioned.
His charm and relaxed posture disguised and disarmed.
As he continued gently stroking the shameless cat, he appeared perfectly at ease.
But she sensed his subtle change in mood.