Chapter 19
I’m not stupid
Marco
“Where are you? We’re going to take off without you.”
There was something so comforting about the way Brooklyn handled things. She had a gentle touch and a soft voice. Nope, none of that was true. In fact, it was literally the polar opposite with her.
The squawk that came from her end of the line made me wish I hadn’t picked up immediately. That would teach me to never pick up on the first ring when the caller ID glowed her name on my screen.
Passing my bags to the driver, I answered in a clipped tone, “Airport.”
“Nice try. No, you’re not.”
“Will there be anything else, sir?” the driver asked, and I shook my head, signaling as I walked around to the back seat of the car.
Brooklyn’s breathing amped up, and a crackling sound had me taking the phone away from my ear. “Who was that? Marco, I have no pull when it comes to your family, and I don’t necessarily see them waiting for you.”
That was because she was astute. I could count on maybe one or two of them, if I thought really hard on it, who would make an effort to get them to wait for me.
However, only some of my family was heading home.
Others decided to stay a while longer. Apparently, the smell of desperate gambling and cheating really drew a person in. Not this person, but people.
“It’s irrelevant who that was. I’m leaving the Boca Raton Airport, getting in the car as we speak.” During our initial meeting, I had found it slightly cute that she had been curious about my agenda. Slightly being the keyword there, though. Now, not so much.
“Sure, Anna.”
I waited as she was clearly in the middle of some side conversation with my aunt.
Clearing her throat, she brought her attention back to me, her voice coming in clearer as she spoke to the phone again. “What’s in Boca Raton?”
Sighing, I wondered if the driver decided to take a social call after putting my bags away.
I found it incredibly difficult to believe my few bags took him that long to place in the trunk before shutting it.
“Beaches, country clubs, golf courses, and butterfly gardens, depending on where exactly you venture to.” The driver finally got in the car and started it.
“You know, I truly hope this is a side of you only I’m privy to.” The sarcasm was evident in her tone.
The corners of my lips tilted upward in sadistic delight at her reaction. “Business,” I finally answered the way she had wanted me to from the beginning. “I’ll see you back at home.” I lifted it off my ear but stopped when she responded with something other than all right or bye.
“It’s a little late for you to explain yourself now.”
“I’m not explaining anything.”
Pause.
Sighing, I pushed a hand through my hair and leaned back, letting my head hit the headrest. She wasn’t going to make this easy. I would’ve taken her with me, but this trip was strictly business. “Keep this between us, but I need to talk to Aunt Babe.”
“Which one is she again?” she asked, confusion lacing her words. Images of a crinkle appearing on her forehead as she struggled to remember my complicated family tree came to my mind.
“She was married to Matteo,” I clarified, looking at the rearview mirror to make sure he was keeping his eyes on the road and not being entertained by my conversation.
Not that it mattered since everyone on the Deluca payroll had non-disclosure agreements.
Literally everyone. It was a requirement to work for us.
“Got it. Go on.”
“She’ll know something that can help me take down Santo. I’m certain of it.”
“What makes you so sure?” Her pitch heightened, and I was beginning to recall why I hadn’t told her any of this to begin with.
I turned my pinky ring. “Because, before she married my uncle Matteo, she had a torrid affair with my father.”
“I thought Capri once told me that your father had an affair with Elio’s wife.”
I shook my head, my eyes going to the darkened window at my side. “My father’s no altar boy. He’s been with both women.”
“What about your mother?”
“What about her?” I crinkled my nose. “Aunt Babe isn’t anything like my mother,” I said, thinking back to all the stories I’d heard growing up and the way I remembered her, which was often at odds with one another.
“The relationship she had with my father wasn’t even remotely similar to the relationship he has with my mother.
Aunt Babe’s relationship with him was dark at times.
It was built on an obsession, and not just with each other, but with power, greed, and connections.
They were both terribly thickheaded and did things to get a rise out of the other.
In the end, she vowed to destroy him, and her way of doing that had been by cozying up to my uncle.
Unbeknownst to her, he had always harbored unrequited feelings for her. ”
Whistling, she took a beat before asking, “Why haven’t you spoken to her yet?”
It wasn’t that simple. “It’s something I have to do in person.”
“That explains Boca,” she said, sounding resigned.
Scrubbing a hand down my face, I settled on my jaw, scratching it. “That explains Boca,” I echoed. Exhaling, I reached a hand in my pocket and pulled out the pocket watch my aunt Babe had given me for my confirmation. I snapped the cover open and looked at the time.
“You better call me,” she warned, and I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t want to hear the next part of that sentence.
“Call me when you land.” I killed the call and flipped the watch over in my hand, letting my thumb trace the inscription.
In time you will rise.
I never knew what those words meant or why she had put them on the back, but I was hoping they meant something to her. At least, enough that she felt inclined to help me in this moment.
The fifteen-minute drive west to the large country club community where she lived was an easy one and the driver pulled up outside her estate house with ease after passing the security guard. Apparently, anyone with the name Deluca was on the list and automatically allowed entrance.
It’d been more than a few years since I’d seen her or any of my six cousins.
They weren’t all Matteo’s. After him, Babe went on to marry a couple more times and had different children with different men, some she hadn’t married.
Regardless, it went without saying that I hoped I made the right decision in coming.
I rang her doorbell and waited. With a three-car garage, it didn’t mean anything that there was no car in the driveway.
After a few minutes, I decided to go around back to the tropical oasis that was her backyard.
Sure enough, under the tiki hut next to her private pool sat Babe, drinking some fruity, colorful thing and reading a book.
Aunt Babe was always elegant. She had striking blue eyes that looked like blocks of ice, and for as long as I’d known her, she had snow white hair with streaks of silver illuminating it. It was once shoulder-length, but now it appeared to frame her face. She defined ageless elegance.
“Aunt Babe,” I called, alerting her to my presence as I lifted the lever on the gate to enter.
She turned to face me and slipped her sunglasses off her face after setting her book down on the table, her jewelry banging around on her wrist as she did so. “Is that my favorite Deluca?” She stood up and walked to meet me, her arms outstretched as she got closer.
“Let’s hope you mean that,” I muttered as she embraced me.
“You look like you’re living the good life.
” I studied her closely as she backed up from our hug.
Indeed, she was the same woman I remembered.
Dressed in those fancy pants that cut off at the calf and a silky blouse, she looked like she had found her way of bringing her flair for fashion to the Florida lifestyle.
On her lips she was wearing that same confident smirk she always had.
Babe had what I could only refer to as an unapologetic zest for life.
“Of course I am. This is South Florida, and I’m a very rich woman.
The two are entirely distinct, unrelated reasons, but they are both true.
Now, what brings you by? This isn’t exactly on your way home. ”
Laughing, I took the chair next to her. “Actually, it is. I was in Las Vegas and decided I wanted to see you.”
“Wanted? Or needed? What do you need, Marco?”
It was the fact that she assumed I needed something that had me grinning. “Always so intuitive.”
“I’m not stupid. Now, out with it, so you can get back to that fiancée of yours,” she said, hitching an eyebrow in the air as she waited for me. “Have to say I was surprised to hear of the engagement the way I did.”
Brooklyn. She knew about Brooklyn. Of course, she did.
Everyone did as far as I was aware. My father basically saw to it when he had run it in the announcements.
Figuring she would see through whatever I offered her on the topic of my engagement, I decided to ignore it and get right down to the reason for my visit.
“I need your help taking down my father.”
A sharp gasp sent her head snapping back as she stared at me. The way her eyes pinned me in place, it almost felt like she was trying to find something that wasn’t there. “How can I help you?”
“You know him better than anyone.”
“Your mother—”
“Doesn’t get involved in the business. But you, you, Aunt Babe, always were involved with anything and everything my father did.”
“The casket company was his dream.”
“Yes, like that. You know all his secrets and the way his mind works.”
“I don’t think I do. I never expected he’d sell the company only to come back and build a ridiculous empire. Going public like he did.” She rolled her eyes.
“You own stock?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
She laughed and slipped her sunglasses back over her eyes. “Of course I do, but that’s not the point.”
“No, it’s not, but it is all the more reason you need to help me.”
“Sweet boy, you know I’d do anything for you. But this?”
I didn’t see where the disconnect was. “Yes.”
“You’re tired of being your father’s pawn.” It should have been positioned as a question, but it came out as more of a statement. One that made me want to grind my molars as she fixed the straw in her drink before wrapping her lips around it.
The very notion that even a woman who lived a thousand miles away knew the way my father treated me pissed me off, but now wasn’t the time to let my anger get the best of me.
I tightened my grip on the armrest of the chair, feeling anything but relaxed, a feeling I would think would be synonymous with this setting.
“You’re the only person I trust. You’re the only person with the power, the knowledge, to help me. ”
She stood up and walked to the sliding glass doors that led into her home. “It’s getting hot out here,” she said, expecting me to follow.
Inside, we walked through the sunroom to her open layout, eat-in kitchen where she pulled out a chair from the white quartz island and sat down, setting her drink in front of her. “You’ll stay with me while you’re in town.”
“I was actually going to try to fly out tonight. They already filed the flight plan.”
“Change it. I’ll order dinner from the most divine new Italian restaurant we have.”
“I suppose I can extend my trip, but we’re still going to continue to talk about this, right?” Modifying my plans didn’t change the fact that I hadn’t flown out just to catch up with an aunt I liked.
She pursed her lips. “You know, you’ve always been my favorite nephew. I see something in you that your brothers don’t possess.”
“You mean resentment for the way my father has always regarded me?”
Narrowing her gaze, it looked like there was a lot on her mind, but she settled for less, simply saying, “Your father is an idiot.”
“Didn’t you love him?”
“At one time. But then he screwed me over.” She shrugged, as though that was all there was to it. I didn’t believe that for a second, but I wasn’t going to get into it.
“So, work with me.”
She shook her head and leaned forward. “I’m sorry. I left all that behind when I left New York. My hands are tied, Marco. You can and will have to find a way to do this on your own.”
Standing, I reached into the pocket of my pants and retrieved the pocket watch once more. I flipped it over and showed it to her, hoping it made her feel inclined to say something. Anything.
“Like the sun,” she said instead, a knowing smile tugging at the corners of her red-stained lips. “It’s always been in you. I knew this day would come.”
It hit me like a speeding truck. “In time you will rise.” I had the inscription memorized.
“I don’t bet on losers, Marco. You were always my favorite for a reason.”