Chapter 35
“Why are we meeting here and not in the office?” Luc asked as his town car pulled up beside mine.
“Because Stella is in there planning the party of the century, and when she is done, I am taking her to lunch,” I answered, leaning on my car, enjoying the warm sun on my skin.
I rarely got time to enjoy the outdoors during the week. The only time I got any sun was when I was on the field with my team, running drills or playing polo matches.
“Okay, but why am I here? What did you need to talk about in person? I don’t know if you realize, but I am a busy man.”
I chuckled at his arrogance. Like father, like son.
He was a busy man, and I had raised him well.
When I was ready—and not a moment before—he would take my seat at the table and be a formidable boss. But my god could he be self-righteous, and I knew the conversation we were about to have was only going to make it worse.
“Because I wanted to talk to you somewhere I knew for a fact wasn’t bugged.”
“You think your office is bugged?”
“A man in my position has many enemies who would love to sneak something into my office, and since your mother-in-law managed to sneak in without me there, who knows who else could do it.” I shrugged.
“What does Mary Quinn want now?” His head went back like he was already frustrated and done with the shrew. I could relate.
“Nothing of importance.” I waved it off. “But she isn’t why we are here. I wanted to talk to you about the measures that need to be taken to keep everyone safe as we completely sever the company’s ties with the O’Murphys.”
“I thought I already had.” He clenched his fists by his side, as his jaw ticked.
My son was a brilliant businessman, but he needed to work on his poker face.
“Some things have recently come to light, and I am inclined to agree with you that it may be best to sever ties with the Irish mob entirely. But doing that does put us at considerable risk. Your mother-in-law also made some thinly-veiled threats against Stella.”
“Would she follow through with them?”
“She followed through with the threats against Harrison’s wife,” I pointed out.
“True, but that’s because she didn’t think Edwina was good enough for Harrison. She was trying to force his hand.”
“I may have insulted Mary Quinn to her face. I may have implied that she could learn from Stella’s intelligence, humility, and grace.”
“Oh, yeah, she’s absolutely capable of going after Stella.” Luc rubbed his hands over his face as he figured out what I had already known.
His mother-in-law was a problem we could no longer ignore.
She had already used my connections to do her bidding once, and cutting off the O’Murphys may make them more inclined to work for her.
“Exactly. The one thing we should never do is underestimate that woman’s need for petty revenge.”
Luc nodded in agreement. “When are you severing the ties?”
“Immediately. I caught one of the men Ronan had working for us bad-mouthing Stella and making accusations, and I didn’t take it well. I fired him on the spot, and I may have told him to tell Ronan to go fuck himself. That he would no longer be using our distilleries, our charitable foundation, or anything else to launder money or whatever else he was using our empty warehouses for.”
“Whatever else… you don’t even know what they have been doing on our property?”
“My property. It isn’t yours yet. And no, I preferred having plausible deniability.”
Luc gave me a look that made me think he saw through my bullshit, but unlike my son, I had a good poker face. I was not about to admit that it had all gotten out of hand.
“All because some douchebag insulted Stella?” Luc crossed his arms over his chest while leaning back on the car door. “That was unusually rash of you. How long?”
“How long what?”
“How long until you announce the engagement?”
I looked at him for a few moments, debating what to tell him or what he could already know.
“Hamilton called. He is worried Stella is a bad influence on you and taking advantage of your generosity. He may have had a few choice words about your child bride.”
“She is not a child.” I couldn’t believe he would call my son.
“Probably a wise idea, but you didn’t answer my question.”
“After the event she is throwing, we’ll make it all official quickly. It will be a small, intimate ceremony for family only.”
“I thought you always said weddings were to show the world the prize you had won and opportunities to network.”
“Some are. That’s not what this marriage is about. It’s me and her, that’s it. If she wants the big wedding, that’s fine, but I don’t care as long as she is mine.”
Luc gave me a wide grin. “I know exactly how you feel.”
“You’re not going to give me shit about her age?” I had been expecting a fight, or some judgment at least.
“No, I think she is good for you.”
I chose to ignore his mockery and focus on more important topics. “Have you talked to your brother lately?”
“No, not since…” He stopped for a moment and thought. “I can’t remember the last time I spoke to Thomas, maybe when we bailed him out of that thing in Rome a few years ago.”
Thomas had the ignoble distinction of being one of the few priests ever arrested by the freaking Vatican guard.
Even then, it wasn’t him who’d reached out for help.
My son would never forgive me for the decision I forced on him ten years ago. A decision that saved his life and avoided a scandal for the family. A decision that until now, I’d refused to regret.
Secrets and regret were such quietly destructive forces on a family. I understood that now.
At the time, the Vatican had arranged for a “donation” in exchange for quieting up the whole mess.I’d paid the fines and the bribes and got him back in the Pope’s good graces.
Yet another scandal avoided.
Not that Thomas would show any gratitude.
Part of me had long ago given up hope of reconnecting with my younger son, but Stella made me want to try.
“What do you think the chances are of him coming back into the fold? Perhaps if he sees how much the family has changed? All our charitable work.”
“She is throwing a party. That is hardly new,” Luc pointed out.
“The party is still a few weeks out, and I hear she has already raised a few million for the Lincoln Center. I know she chose the center for Charlotte, and I suspect she is considering something for Amelia’s school next. Amelia will have the funds to open a second location with free tuition in the next two years.”
“If Amelia wanted to do that, I would pay for it myself, but I see your point. As we speak, Amelia’s more advanced students are creating some pieces to auction at the event. Are you worried Thomas will hijack her causes and make her choose something you don’t support?”
“I don’t care what she raises money for. I really don’t. She could put a Democrat in the white house for all I care.”
“Since when have you bothered with politics? You always said red or blue doesn’t matter. They both respond to green.” Luc tried to hide his amusement, but he failed.
“True, but you get my point,” I said, pressing my lips together, annoyed.
“I do, so what does this have to do with Thomas?”
“We were talking a while ago about what our future might hold and how she wants to work?—”
“Hence the charitable foundation?”
“It’s not like she doesn’t have the experience throwing parties or the education,” I bit out, not liking what Luc was insinuating.
He held his hands up. “I’m just making sure I am following along.”
“When the topic of children came up, she mentioned that I already had three grown children. She didn’t even know about your brother. She and Charlotte have been friends for years, and she had no idea he existed.”
“I’m not sure Amelia does either, to be honest.” Luc nodded.
“That’s exactly my point. I want that to change. I think it’s time he returned to the family.” I took a deep breath. “I put an alert on his passport so I would always know where he was, and if he went somewhere dangerous, I could have people watch him.”
“Bet he loved that.”
“He doesn’t know, but I know he flew into JFK this morning.”
“What are we going to do?” Luc asked.
“We?”
Just as Luc opened his mouth, a loud explosion came from the distillery.
We both turned to look just in time to see several more explosions go off, starting at the front entrance and going all the way to the tasting room.
The ground shook hard enough to make Luc and I both grab onto the cars, whose alarms were now wailing as people screamed.
Before I could blink, the roof over the tasting room collapsed.
Stella was still in there.