Alex Drakos 2_His Scandalous Family Read online

“So what are you saying, Reno? Are you calling to tell me I won the bet?”

  There was a bet on the table: Reno once told Alex that if Alex managed to get those yahoos, as Reno called them, to grant him permission to build a casino in their sweet little bedroom town, Reno would consider becoming a member of Alex’s board of directors.

  Even back then Alex knew it was bullshit. A man like Reno Gabrini, a man voted countless times as the most powerful person in Vegas, was not about to get on anybody’s board. Not even Alex’s. But it was Reno’s expertise Alex was after.

  “I’m calling to see if we can talk about it,” was all Reno would commit to. “How’s this weekend? Or are you going to be too busy playing that boring-ass golf?”

  Alex was always booked on weekends: either with work or, as Reno aptly mentioned, playing his beloved golf. And, although Reno knew nothing about her, there was Kari now occupying a considerable amount of his time too. But could he turn down Reno Gabrini? “I can move some things around,” Alex said.

  “Great!” Reno said. “I’ll see you then. Trina wants to talk to you also.”

  Trina Gabrini was Reno’s wife, a gorgeous African-American woman that Alex once found sexually alluring. But she was also a woman he respected as a business powerhouse in her own right, and to whom he made a job offer. An offer Trina was still weighing and had not yet decided to take. Or, as Alex suspected, reject. “Sounds good,” he said. “I’ll see you guys then.”

  And then they ended the call.

  But another knock was upon his door as soon as he hung up the call. “What now?” he yelled.

  “Another must-take calls, sir,” said Priska. “It’s Pete.”

  Pete was the man in charge of Kari’s security detail. “What line?” Alex asked.

  “Five,” said Priska.

  Alex answered quickly. “Pete? Hey.”

  “Good morning, sir.”

  “What is it?”

  “I sent a detail ahead of Miss Grant, to her office, so that they could get in place for their day’s assignment.”

  “Good.” That was what he was supposed to do. “But you’re telling me this why?” Alex asked.

  “You aren’t going to believe who just walked into Miss Grant’s office.”

  “Who?”

  “Mrs. Drakos.”

  Alex’s jaw tightened. “What in the world is she doing there? Miss Grant just left my house. She’s not even there yet.”

  “I know. But her assistant is already there. And she walked right in.”

  Alex could feel his blood boil. Of all the underhanded shit Linda loved to pull. “Make sure your men keep an eye on her ass,” he said. “I’m on my way.”

  “Will do, sir,” said Pete, and Alex, angry as hell, ended the call.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  When Kari pulled up and saw a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce parked in front of Maid for Mom, her storefront office, she wondered who it could be. Or she wondered if they had parked there in error. When she grabbed her briefcase and purse and made her way inside her office, and saw an older white woman sitting in front of her desk, she realized there had been no mistake.

  The woman rose to her feet slowly when Kari walked in. Kari first glanced at Dezzamaine, her office manager. She would let Kari know immediately if this person was friend or foe. Dez, who sat behind her own desk to the side of the small office, lifted her eyebrows and shook her head. Foe if ever there was one, Kari thought.

  And when she walked to her desk, and got an up-close look at the woman, she realized why. She’d seen her before, usually from her photos when she Googled her. She, Kari realized, was Alex’s ex.

  “You must be Kari Grant,” Linda said with a smile. She extended her hand.

  “Yes, I am,” Kari said, shaking her hand.

  The woman was staring at her hard, as if she was unable to square Kari with some image she had in her mind. Then she smiled triumphantly, as if she had decided that her mission was going to be easier than she thought. “I’m Mrs. Drakos,” she said.

  When she said those two words, Dezzamaine was shocked. She looked her oversized eyes at her boss as if she had just heard something crazy.

  But Kari, once she had figured out who it was before her, had expected such a response. It was like all of the Kennedys, even the women after they were married, keeping Kennedy somewhere in their names. Or the Rockefellers. The Drakos name carried that kind of weight too. And this barracuda, Kari had already decided, wasn’t about to give that up.

  “Have a seat,” Kari said as she would have said to any visitor, and walked behind her desk.

  When Linda sat down, she sat down too. “How can I help you?” she asked.

  “I understand you’re the town’s maid,” Linda said as she picked lint off of her suit jacket.

  Dez, out of Linda’s view, rolled her eyes and shook her head. She knew what that heifer was up to.

  But Kari tried to keep it professional. “I run a maid service here in town, yes,” she said. “How may I help you?”

  “My husband, Alex.” Then Linda looked up at Kari. “I’m sure you know him, yes?”

  “I know your ex-husband, yes,” said Kari.

  Linda smiled. “A mere technicality, I assure you.”

  “How can I help you, Mrs. Drakos?” Kari asked. She wasn’t about to play this woman’s game.

  Kari exhaled. “I want to hire you, or your service as you put it, to clean a house I intend to purchase for our daughter.”

  Kari knew Alex’s daughter had not that long ago gone to prison for embezzling from his charitable foundation. She had no idea the girl was out already. Or was she?

  “How much do you charge?” Linda asked.

  “I think I’m going to have to take a pass on this job,” Kari said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m going to have to decline your offer,” Kari said.

  Kari was surprised. “The way you’re struggling to keep your doors open, and you want to turn me down? You can’t be serious!”

  Kari stood up. This was going nowhere. “Have a nice day, Mrs. Drakos,” she said.

  “I can’t believe this. You, of all people, are dismissing me?”

  “Yes, I am,” said Kari. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

  “You, a whore of a hood rat, are dismissing me?”

  “Girrrl,” Dez said, shaking her head, ready to get up out of her seat.

  But Kari needed no assistance. And she wasn’t about to let this woman cause her to lose her cool. “Have a nice day, Mrs. Drakos.”

  “Don’t let this sophistication and class fool you,” Linda said.

  Where did that come from, Kari wondered. “What?” Kari asked her.

  “Alex like his women with street in them, and although I’m sure I was never on your lowest of low level, I was there before. I can go back there if I have to.”

  Kari frowned. That did it! “Bitch, get out of my office!” she said. “Talking about street. Your ass wouldn’t have lasted a day on the real street, and you know it! And cut the bullshit, okay? We both know why your ass is here and it has nothing to do with cleaning a house for baby girl. But it has everything to do with Alex. And, specifically, the fact that you don’t have Alex anymore.”

  Dez smiled. That was the Kari she knew!

  But Linda fired back. “You don’t have him either!” she said to Kari. “You think you do, but you don’t. Why, even the thought of it is preposterous! An uncultured, undignified, un-everything whore like you? You are not Drakos material. No way. No how.”

  “Get out of my office, and get out now, before I have to kick you out. And please let me kick you out. Please let me show you just what street looks like in the form of one of my stilettoes up your ass. Let me give your thirsty butt a taste of real street.”

  But then Dez caught a glimpse of movement in the corner of her eye, and then she smiled. “Have mercy,” she said happily. “The cavalry has arrived!”

  Both women looked at Dez, a
nd then looked out of the plate-glassed window. Alex had just sped up and parked the car he was driving, a Ferrari, in front of the store, and was getting out quickly. Kari was always amazed by the different cars he drove. It was as is he brought a fleet along with him for his time in Florida.

  She was also amazed by how fast he was moving, and by how good he looked. His expensive suspenders were now covered up, beneath a blue suit coat that fit his muscular body like a body cast. If he gained a pound, it would be too small. If he lost a pound, it would be too big. He was really a gorgeous man. Which, Kari suspected, was the main reason why even his ex-wife was still trying to hold onto him.

  Kari could see Linda attempting to spruce up her hair as Alex walked into the office. Although he was cool as a cucumber, Kari could tell, in his eyes, that he was pissed.

  Linda actually smiled when he walked in. “Alexio! Hello!”

  “What are you doing here?” Alex asked as he walked toward Kari’s desk. He didn’t look at Dez at all, which was fine by Dez. The man had business to take care of. Trash to take out. She understood.

  “How have you been?” Linda asked.

  “I have been fine,” Alex said, although the last time he saw her she was spitting in his face at their son’s funeral. “What do you want?”

  “I’m here to hire a maid. That thing over there,” she said, motioning toward Kari, “is a maid. A maid, Alex. You’re embarrassing yourself with a maid!” She calmed back down. Dez was surprised he wasn’t defending Kari. “Your daughter will need a place to live when she gets out.”

  Alex frowned. “When she gets out? Her ass just got in there!”

  “The lawyers fervently believe she will win her appeal.”

  “Her appeal?” Alex asked. “By arguing that her dead brother was the mastermind? The brother who couldn’t piss without asking her permission first?”

  “The judge erred,” Linda said firmly. “He would not allow that evidence to be introduced during her trial.”

  “Evidence? You mean he wouldn’t allow those lies to be introduced at her trial.”

  Linda stared at him. “You want her to rot in prison, don’t you?”

  “I want her to pay for her crimes.”

  “What crimes? She stole a little money from her own father. What’s the big damn deal, Alexio!”

  “She stole twenty-eight million dollars from a charity, regardless of who was bankrolling it! And she has to pay.”

  “Do you want a relationship with her, or don’t you?”

  Alex frowned. “What the fuck is that your business?” he yelled.

  Even Dez was surprised by that outburst. Alex was usually too cool, in her view.

  But he wasn’t right now.

  “She’s my daughter, too,” said Linda.

  “But what are you worrying about my relationship with her? That has nothing to do with you. And why are you here, anyway? And please don’t say it’s about Cate. We both know you wouldn’t cross the street, let alone come all this way to Florida, for Cate.”

  Linda was staring at him again. Kari could see the hurt, the pain, the shame, and the anger in her eyes. “You’re a cold, hateful man,” she said to Alex. Then she looked at Kari. “And you want to hitch your wagon to this? I know you’re desperate for money, but you’re going to rue the day you ever made that decision. And children? Make sure you never have children with this monster. He’ll suck the blood out of them, just like he did mine.” And then she left the office, got into her car, and drove away.

  Silence ensued after she left, as Alex continued to stare at her retreating car. But Kari went into the stock room in the back of her two-room office.

  When Alex turned and saw that she had gone, he began to head toward the back room, too. But then he stopped, and glanced at Dez. “Good morning, Dezzamaine,” he said. “I apologize for the oversight.”

  “Good morning, sir,” Dez said. “And no problem at all.”

  Then Alex left.

  “But you still could have stood up for Kari,” Dez whispered under her breath. “Nobody else ever does.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  In the stock room, Kari was standing at a table sorting through a big box filled with cleaning supplies. Alex walked in and sat on the edge of the desk she stood in front of, with his long legs stretched out and his big arms folded. He was now right beside her so close he could smell her sweet perfume. He could see the pain in her big, beautiful eyes.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked her softly.

  Kari didn’t say anything.

  “Kari?” Alex asked. “What’s wrong?”

  Kari looked into his eyes. They looked so sympathetic that she suddenly felt as if she wanted to cry. But she didn’t. She refused to be that weak. “I’ve learned something about myself,” she said. “I’ve learned that I have an aversion to drama. And your wife? Dramaville.”

  “My ex-wife,” Alex corrected her. “And don’t worry, honey. She won’t be an issue at all.”

  “Even when your daughter gets out? She talked as if your daughter was going to come and live here, in Apple Valley, when you aren’t going to even be living here.”

  Alex didn’t know why Kari had assumed such a thing. Not that he had any definite answers himself. He was still weighing the options.

  “My daughter won’t be a problem, either.”

  But he could tell Kari wasn’t feeling it. He could tell she wasn’t at all sure if he was worth the drama, however it might come. Before Kari his life was work, golf, and sleeping around. Now his life felt as if it had more meaning. As if it had more grounding. A tinge of desperation began to overtake him at the thought of losing this new lease on life. “Come to New York with me,” he said impulsively. “I’ll send the plane for you tomorrow night. We can spend the weekend together.”

  “But I thought you were coming back tonight?” Kari hated that her voice sounded so needy, but she was disappointed and wasn’t trying to hide it. “You aren’t coming back tonight?”

  “There’s been a change of plans,” Alex said, hating to tell her at a time like this. “I’ve got to handle some business in another state, and then attend meetings in New York. And then this weekend I’m going to Vegas to meet with a couple I know. But that’s why I want you to come with me. I want you to meet them too.”

  Kari looked at him. “But . . . I can’t just pack up and leave like this, Alex,” she said. “This jet-setting, last minute planning isn’t my lifestyle!” she added.

  “It can be,” said Alex. “Tomorrow is Friday. You already told me Jordan was spending the weekend with Benny and Faye. Why not, Kari?”

  Kari stared at him.

  “We’ll spend Friday night at my house, and then Saturday we’ll fly to Vegas for a little business and, I hope, a lot of fun. I’ll have you back in Apple Valley by Sunday night- just in time to tuck Jordan in for the night.”

  “I’m going to tell him you said that, too,” Kari said.

  Alex laughed. Kari smiled. Then his look turned serious, and more desperate than he would have liked to expose. “Will you come?”

  Kari felt as if she was being put on the spot. But she was learning that life with a man like Alex was never going to be a nine-to-five, with every plan carefully laid out. She fought her entire life for that kind of normalcy. Was Alex worth upsetting her routine, and her life? Was this man worth the drama and the risk?

  She looked into his eyes. Heck, he didn’t even speak up for her when his ex-wife was ragging on her! But then even that thought upset her. When since she needed some man to speak up for her? She could defend herself. That was why she knew she had to be careful. This decision could not be about what Alex could do for her. It had to be about if she wanted to take that commodity called time, perhaps her most precious gift, and give it to him.

  The jury was still out. It was still too soon. But Kari Grant was daring if she was anything.

  “I’ll come,” she said.

  And Alex exhaled, smiled, and then pulled her in
to his arms.

  They both were relieved, and they both were uncertain.

  For Kari, it was all about the heart. She didn’t want to get hers broken.

  For Alex, it was all about the head. Why would he pull this innocent person into his world, and his drama, and his far-from-normal life? Why didn’t he leave town today, stop coming back until the casino and hotel were up and running, and let well enough alone? She’d get over him in seconds, he believed.

  But that wasn’t the problem.

  It was him getting over her.

  He didn’t think he could.

  That was the problem.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Linda Drakos sat in the backseat of her Rolls while her chauffeur was inside a local convenience store. She, too, was about to get out because she had forgotten to tell him to grab a box of Skittles. But just as she was about to open the door, a car pulled up beside her so close that she couldn’t open the door. When she looked up, ready to cuss his ass out, she relaxed. And rolled her eyes. She knew his cool-acting ass was coming for her.

  Alex got out of his Ferrari, walked around to the back-passenger door of the Rolls Royce, and got in the backseat beside his ex-wife.

  “Why am I not surprised?” she asked. “You play Mister Cool around that black bitch, but Mister Angry around me.”

  Alex placed his hand in Linda’s hand, which shocked her. But then he twisted her hand so violently that she let out a shriek and dropped to her knees on the floor of her Rolls.

  “Call her out her name again,” Alex said, “and I’ll twist this motherfucker off!”

  Linda looked at him. She knew him. She knew when he wasn’t playing. “I won’t again,” she said. “I swear I won’t, Alexio, I swear! Now stop. Please!”

  Alex finally released her hand, and she breathe again. Just as she did, her chauffeur came out of the store. When he saw that she was no longer in the car, but he saw that somebody was, he quickly went to the back door and flung it open.

  When he saw who was on the backseat, even as he saw his employer on her knees on the floor, his heart dropped. “Mr. Drakos, sir, excuse me, sir,” he said, and closed the door back.