Chapter 5 Balthazar
FIVE
balthazar
When the plane touches down in Madison, Wisconsin, the tension that’s been gripping my shoulders since I decided to bolt finally eases.
I’m far away from the life I left in a place where no one would think to look for me.
Not even Vin would think to look for me in the Midwest. They’ll scour the East Coast, then the west, then check big cities.
Or maybe they’ll figure out what’s really going on and leave me alone.
Seven years ago, when I met Vin and his crew, I never thought I’d end up running from the same men who gave me security and comfort after the worst tragedy of my life.
Sure, I knew the risks, but I was nothing more than the “money man,” and until recently, that position kept my nose pretty clean.
How I’ll make it right is beyond me. Besides, Vin is usually a shoot-first-never-ask-questions kind of guy.
Getting out of town was the right move. I’ll figure out my next play once I’m settled in with Deo and his family.
He’s clutching his carry-on bag to his chest, gazing out the window as the plane taxis to the gate. I actually see the change in him. The way his shoulders tense and a crease in his brow appears indicates he’s more nervous than he let on.
“Are you sure bringing me with you is the right call?”
He turns his head in my direction, his expression panicked. “Yes, of course. Why? Are you second-guessing?”
“No.” I pat his thigh. “You just seem really nervous. I didn’t know if it was the pressure of inviting me along.”
Deo shakes his head. “No, not at all. I’m so thankful you’re coming with me.” He chuckles as he drags a hand through his hair. “I am nervous, which is dumb. These people are my family.”
“Then what’s going on?”
“I’m really not good at admitting I was wrong. I’ve been so stubborn over the years, refusing to return and help out because I was building this magical life in the big city, you know?”
I nod, still rubbing his thigh.
“But I have to swallow my pride.”
“I obviously don’t know the history, but why do you have to have such a defeatist attitude about it? Why can’t this be an exciting next phase of your career?”
“What do you mean?”
“Deo.” I take his hand in mine. “Life is full of detours and paths we never expected to take, but that’s the joy of it. You never know where it will lead. Fancy drink, remember?”
A slight smile tugs at his lips as he nods. “You’re right. I’m focusing on the lemons. I don’t have to tell my family everything bad that happened. I can tell them I’ve decided I want to be close to home and I want to use my experience to help. That’s not a lie.”
“There you go. You’ve got this.”
“Thanks for the reminder. I needed it.”
“You bet.”
The Madison airport is blissfully small and uncrowded. It’s an easy walk from our gate to the baggage claim, and while Deo runs off to the restroom, I find the corral with our flight number. After all the flight drama last night, I’ll be truly impressed if our bags made it too.
Deo appears next to me, bumping his arm against mine. “It’s nice out. No snow at all.”
“Lucky.”
A few minutes later, the sign dings and bags begin dropping. I keep an eye out for my black bag in a sea of black bags, but I have a gold luggage tag on mine that stands out.
“What’s your bag look like?” I ask.
“It’s pink.” He grins up at me. “Told you.”
“Whatever makes you happy.”
He chuckles, holding his coat close to him. “It makes me happy. Oh. There it is.”
I look ahead to see a soft pink suitcase with darker pink flowers all over it coming towards us. I step forward to grab it, surprised by the weight of it.
“Thanks,” Deo says, taking it from me. “There’s another one too.”
“Everything you own is in two suitcases?”
He shakes his head. “Oh no. I have a bunch of boxes on the way too. I shipped them.”
“I see.”
“But the furniture I had came with the apartment I was renting.”
“I had a similar setup. I only brought a few weeks of clothes with me, assuming I would find access to laundry services.”
“We have it. The estate is pretty self-sustaining. We have a huge family garden and lots of amenities.”
“Sounds very nice.”
“I think it’s a good place to hide out from the real world for a while.”
“Perfect.”
My bag shows up a few minutes later, followed by a much larger suitcase belonging to Deo. I grab it too, slightly worried about throwing my back out.
“Got a body in here?”
Deo laughs. “It would probably be lighter if I did.”
“How did you get them to the airport?”
He flicks his hair off his shoulders dramatically, a coy smile on his face. “This face card never declines.”
I sputter a laugh. “I don’t suppose it does.”
“Chivalry isn’t dead. At least not for me.”
“You can play the damsel in distress when needed?”
“Like an Academy Award winner.”
“I’m sure that comes in handy.”
“I doubt your face card gets declined either, but you probably use it differently.”
“I do alright.” As we head to the doors, I check the signs for transportation. “Do we want to grab a rental?”
“Nope. We have lots of vehicles on the estate we can use. We’ll just grab an Uber.”
“Okay.”
Deo pulls his phone out and taps on the screen—ordering a ride, I assume.
“Is it a long drive from here?”
Deo nods. “About forty minutes.” He glances up. “Car is three minutes away.”
“Great.” I pull my collar up around my neck. “What’s the temp?”
Deo taps on his phone again. “A balmy twenty-one.”
“Damn. You weren’t joking about the cold.”
“Nope. The high yesterday was only eighteen.”
“A good opportunity to find ways to warm up, then.”
Deo grins, stepping forward until our chests bump together. He lifts his chin, and I admire his stunning features. There are worse ways to run away from life.
“You are a gorgeous one.”
He smiles, smoothing the lapel of my wool coat. “We look pretty good together, I think.”
“I agree.”
A car pulls up next to the curb and my immediate reaction is to tense, until I remind myself where I am and that Gio would never drive anything that isn’t expensive and European.
“That’s ours,” Deo says, already walking that way with his luggage.
I follow him, assisting the driver as we load it all into the back of the SUV.
“Robin’s Grove, huh?” the driver says as we all take our seats inside the vehicle. “I don’t get out that way much.”
“Why would you?” Deo asks, grinning. As the driver navigates pulling into traffic, Deo scoots a little closer to me. “This okay?”
“Yes.” I drape my arm around his shoulders. “Are you an openly affectionate person?”
He nods. “Disgustingly so. I could never live somewhere that wasn’t liberal enough to handle it. The city was cool because literally no one paid attention to anyone but themselves.”
“True.”
“Madison is great. Robin’s Grove is small, quaint, but I’ve never had issues when I’m in town.”
“That’s good.”
“What about you?”
“I’m fine with whatever. I want you to feel comfortable with me and treat me like anyone else you’ve dated.”
Deo nods, grazing his bottom lip with his teeth as he gazes out the window.
The city around us could not be more different from the one we just left.
It’s less crowded, less busy, less chaotic.
The driver navigates the traffic easily, making it to the freeway and heading to our destination with ease.
“You grew up here?”
Deo nods. “Yep, but I knew when I was young that I would leave. This city was too small for me. I thought a bigger, more urban environment would be my jam.” He’s quiet for a second. “And it was for a long time, but there’s so much that goes along with it, isn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“Like the cost of things. Rent is a beast. Traffic. People everywhere. All the time. I didn’t live in the best neighborhood, so I had to deal with sirens a lot, police around, helicopters sometimes. Still, I kind of loved it for a long time.”
“What changed?”
He shakes his head, turning his pretty eyes to me. “It got too hard, I guess. Lonely. It’s hard to find people who want real connections because there’s so much vying for your attention there.”
“Very true.”
“Were you raised there?”
I nod. “Nearby. Moved to the city over twenty years ago.”
“Did you like it?”
“I didn’t know anything different. Growing up, my dad was a truck driver, so he was gone a lot.” A flood of bad memories rush in. It’s no wonder I ended up following in his footsteps in some ways. “He got in with some bad guys. They were always hanging around the house.”
“What kind of bad guys?”
“Just bad.” I exhale in a huff. “My mom always said don’t be like them. Be a good man. At the end of the day, your goodness is all that matters.”
“And you’ve been successful. She’d be proud.”
I scoff at that. She’d be devastated.
The driver exits the highway and heads towards the big sign announcing Robin’s Grove. Deo briefly tenses, then blows out a breath and shakes out his shoulders. He whispers something I can’t make out.
“What was that?”
Deo swallows, forcing a smile to his lips. “Reminding myself of the fancy drink side of this. I haven’t seen my family in more than two years. It’ll be good to see them.”
“I’m sure they’ll be happy too.”
We turn down a long road lined with trees that probably look amazing in the fall when their leaves are changing, but they’ve gone dormant for winter.
We pass a massive stone sign announcing the winery and vineyard, but it’s seen better days.
The wording is so faded from the weather that it’s hard to make out, and some of the stones are crumbling away.
“You have visitors here?”
Deo shrugs. “I’m not sure anymore. We used to, but things have been rough for a while.”
“Which building?” the driver asks.
“That one to the right.” Deo points ahead to an old wooden structure that looks out of place at a vineyard. I guess I was thinking more Tuscany than farmhouse.
We exit the car, thanking our driver after we get our bags, then Deo stands still, gripping the handle of his suitcase.
“Are you okay?”
He looks over his shoulder at me, nodding. “Let’s do this.”