Alex Drakos 2_His Scandalous Family Read online

  Linda couldn’t believe it. Her bodyguard, the man paid to protect her, just closed the door back, and stepped away from the car.

  Linda sat back on the backseat, rubbing her pained hand. Alex was leaned back, looking relaxed, although she knew that bastard wasn’t.

  Alex, in fact, wasn’t even looking at her. He was staring forward, with his legs crossed. “You play games,” he said to her. “You are vindictive. You are dangerous. And I know you will try this shit again, but at a deadlier level. But unlike you, I don’t play games,” he said to her.

  He waited, as if he was expecting a response, and then he looked at her.

  “I know you don’t,” she quickly said, realizing her error. “I know you don’t play games.”

  He stared at her. How he ever allowed this woman to trap him in a marriage, he would never know. But he had to make sure she understood where he was truly coming from. He wasn’t going to be in Apple Valley most of the time, or even in the country half of the time. He had to make himself clear. Linda was capable of anything, if she felt she could get away with it.

  He leaned forward, and then leaned toward her. “Stay away from this State,” he said to her. “Stay away from this town. And you had better stay away from my lady.”

  Linda shook her head. “Your lady,” she said. Despite the predicament she was in, the gall of it still angered her. “You just met that woman a couple months ago, if that long, and already you’re claiming her as your lady? It took you years to claim me. Years! You only married me because your horny ass slipped up and got me pregnant. And even after me, you never claimed any of those other hundreds of females. But she’s your lady already? That plain Jane, spook, black, nigger maid?”

  Alex grabbed her chin with clenched teeth, turned her face toward his, and with a knife she didn’t know he had in his hand, and with a chilling look in his eyes, he sliced the side of her face.

  Linda felt the cut, but couldn’t believe it. She grabbed the side of her face and then looked at her hand. It was only after she saw the blood was she able to scream out. And she screamed. She couldn’t believe he actually cut her. He actually cut her beautiful face! She screamed and she screamed. She kicked her feet, trying to get away from him, but he held her by that bloody hand and wouldn’t let her go. Her bodyguard even looked terrified, as he could tell something was going on in that car, even if he could barely hear her cries. But he heard something. But that was Alex Drakos. He wasn’t about to get in the middle of that.

  “Bastard!” Linda was screaming at Alex as the blood flowed and she kept trying to get away. “You bastard!”

  “I warned you,” Alex said. “Now I’m warning you again.” He looked her dead in her terrified eyes. His look was so terrifying that she stopped all movement to listen to him.

  “You stay away from my lady,” Alex said, “or I’ll give you something to scream about.”

  Their eyes locked onto each other. Then Alex reached up his hand to touch her sliced face. She moved her face back in terror. He smiled. Linda couldn’t believe it. That sadistic bastard actually smiled. And then he grabbed a handkerchief out of his pocket, wiped her blood off of his hand, and got out of her Rolls.

  He got in his own car, backed up, and sped away.

  It was only after he was completely out of sight did her bodyguard get onto the backseat. Linda was still holding her bleeding face, and crying.

  “He cut me,” she said. “Your coward ass let him cut me! You let him cut me! Now what are you going to do about it, Jake?”

  What did she expect him to do? “Go get some Neosporin?” he asked.

  She took off her high heel and angrily threw it at him. He ducked. “Drive you piece of shit!” she yelled. “Drive!”

  And the bodyguard hurried onto the front seat, and drove.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Kari folded another pair of panties and placed them into her suitcase. Jordan, lying across her bed, smiled. “Dang, Ma!” he said. “It’s only for the weekend. How many pair of drawers do you have to take?”

  Kari could feel her face blush. She knew how often Alex liked to have it, and she knew she had to be prepared to change underwear a lot. But she certainly didn’t want her fourteen-year-old son to know that! “Don’t you worry about what I’m packing,” she said. “Don’t you have homework to do, anyway?”

  It was Thursday night. “I did it already.” Then he smiled. “This time tomorrow night you’ll be on your way to New York to spend the weekend with Mr. Drakos, and I’ll be with Uncle Benny and Auntie Faye.”

  “And you’d better be on your best behavior, too, boy,” Kari said. “They better not give me any kind of a bad report.”

  “They won’t.”

  “They better not.”

  “Where’s Mr. Drakos anyway? Why is he always out of town?”

  “What do you mean out of town?” Kari asked. “He lives in New York.”

  “That’s where he is now?”

  “Why?”

  “I was just wondering.”

  “He’s handling some business, that’s all I know. He doesn’t go into those kind of details with me, and I don’t ask him to.”

  “Why not?” Jordan asked. “You’re scarred?” Jordan smiled as he purposefully mispronounced the word scared.

  Kari smiled too. “No,” she said, “but he’s entitled to live his life.”

  “Are you living yours by going to New York just because he asked?” Jordan asked.

  “I want to go, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “What are you guys going to do all weekend?”

  “Okay, enough questions,” Kari said. She had a great idea about one thing she and Alex were going to do all weekend. “Go find something to do,” she said.

  Jordan smiled as he got off of her bed. Then he looked at Kari. “I heard his ex-wife came to town,” he said. “Is that true, Ma?”

  Kari wasn’t going to lie to him. “Yes,” she said.

  “Is she moving here or something?”

  Kari shook her head. “I doubt it.” Then she exhaled. “Don’t worry about her, Jordan. Alex can handle her.”

  “What about you? You can handle her?”

  “Child please,” Kari said as she continued to pack. “Can Lebron James handle a basketball?”

  Jordan laughed, and felt better as he left her room.

  The EMT loaded the gurney onto the back of the ambulance, and got back out. Vito Visconni, paralyzed from the neck down, laid on that gurney waiting to be transported. It was his first day out of the hospital, and he was being transferred to a nursing home for rehab. Why they felt a need to rehab a man the doctors already said would never walk again was insane to Vito. But at least it got him out of that hospital.

  But when a man, fully dressed and wearing gloves, got into the back of the ambulance with him, and the EMT was nowhere to be found, Vito became concerned. When the man looked up, and Vito saw that it was that fucker Alex Drakos, Kari’s new man, he nearly jumped from that gurney.

  “Wait a minute,” he said. “Wait a fucking minute! What are you doing here?”

  Alex closed the door of the ambulance and took a seat beside the gurney.

  “No, wait!” Vito yelled. “What are you doing here? You aren’t supposed to be in here!”

  Alex hit the roof of the ambulance, and the driver began driving away from the hospital.

  Vito cut the hysterics. He knew the game. He’d been a wise guy most of his life. Alex had obviously paid off those hungry EMTs and had his man behind the wheel. All of that crying foul didn’t mean shit now. “What do you want?” he asked him.

  Alex leaned back, crossed his legs, and just stared at Vito.

  Vito frowned. “What are you looking at? I know I look good.” Then he paused, and stared at Alex. He knew how to get a rise out of him. “How’s Kari?” he asked.

  Alex remained silent.

  “Cat got your fucking tongue? I asked you a question.”

  Still no response. />
  “I don’t know what she sees in you with your fancy clothes and women. What you want with Kari and that bigmouth boy of hers? She ain’t your speed and we both know it! She ain’t glamourous. She ain’t even all that good looking. Why some dude like you want her?”

  Still no rise out of Alex.

  Pain gripped Vito’s chest. Tears appeared in his eyes. He laid his head, the only part of his body functional, back down. “I miss her,” he said. “If she would have just come back to me when I got out of prison, none of this would have happened. Why she had to act like that? Everything would have been so different if only she would have . . .”

  He shook his head as if he wanted to shake off the emotions. “You know why I wanted Kari back? Hun? You wanna know why?” Although Alex didn’t answer, Vito proceeded as if he had. “I wanted Kari back, not because I was all in love with her and was all attracted to her. I wanted Kari back because she was my lucky charm. I had my best run of luck when I was with her. Hands down. As soon as she left me, I get picked up by the Feds!”

  He shook his head again. “Kari’s got something that none of them bitches I was fooling around with ever had. She’s a woman a man can rely on. I could trust her and depend on her. I knew she wasn’t gonna be cheating on me or lying to me or stealing my dough. That’s why I wanted her back.” More tears appeared in his eyes. “She was my lucky charm, man. I knew if I didn’t have her with me, I wasn’t gonna make it. Now look at me. I was right.”

  Alex understood exactly what he meant about Kari. She was his lucky charm too, and so much more. But Alex was greatly unimpressed with Vito’s sob story. “Why did you hire those men to kill me?” he asked him.

  Vito was so shocked to hear him finally speak that he, at first, just looked at him.

  But when Vito clammed up, Alex grabbed Vito by his neck and squeezed hard. “This motherfucking head is all you’ve got. Answer me or you won’t even have this big-ass head anymore.”

  “Okay, okay,” Vito said, giving in quickly.

  Alex stared at him. “You used to want death. When you were first hospitalized, you used to beg to die. Now? Not so much.”

  Vito got his second wind. “The only thing I want dead now is the bastard who paralyzed me,” he said defiantly. “Since you’re that bastard, why wouldn’t I want your raggedy ass dead? What do you think?”

  “You want to know what I think?”

  “Yeah, motherfucker. Yeah. What do you think?”

  “I think,” Alex said, as he moved closer to Vito and placed him in a headlock, “is that you should have quit while you was a head.”

  And then he twisted Vito’s neck until he broke it.

  And Vito was dead.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Faye and Benny Church were in the front seat, with Benny behind the wheel, while Kari and Jordan sat in the back. It was Friday evening, Kari had agreed to meet Alex in New York, and they were driving her to the airport. But it was all so surreal to her two closest friends.

  “A private plane,” Faye said. She was a gorgeous black real estate broker married to a gorgeous black attorney, but Alex, and his billions, was from another planet to them. “You are about to board a private plane that was sent here by Alex Drakos himself for the expressed purpose of picking you up.”

  Jordan grinned. “That’s how Mr. Drakos rolls,” he said.

  Benny looked at Jordan through the rearview and laughed.

  “But that’s something else, girl,” Faye said. “You went from how are you going to pay your bills, to a private plane!”

  “I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to pay my bills,” Kari pointed out with a grin. “And this is Alex’s plane. Not mine.”

  “She doesn’t have to struggle,” Jordan said. “Mr. Drakos gave her a credit card to use any way she wanted. But Mom won’t use it.”

  Kari frowned. “What I look like using that man’s card, Jordan? If things go south with Alex and me, I’ll owe him all that money back.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “Yes, I will.”

  “According to Judge Judy show,” Jordan said, “if it was a gift, he can’t change it to a loan if y’all break up.”

  Benny laughed. “The kid is right!”

  “According to my conscience,” Kari countered her son, “if things go wrong between Alex and me, I’ll owe him that money back. And I wouldn’t be able to afford to pay it back.”

  “Then why did you accept the card if you weren’t going to use it?” Jordan asked.

  “I’ll tell you why,” Faye said, “because I know your mama. She took that card just in case she had to use it. Because ba-by, she’ll use that sucker in a heartbeat if it’ll keep the doors of Maid for Mom open! She’ll pay every dime back, but she’s no fool. She’ll use it if she has to. I know your mama.”

  “But your mother is right to be cautious, Jordan,” Benny said. “You don’t want her beholden to any man. You want her to be independent, like your aunt Faye. If I left your aunt tomorrow, she’ll be just fine.”

  “Darn right I will,” Faye said with a smile.

  “That’s why I’ll never leave her,” Benny said. “She’ll be too fine and these men will line up to take my place!”

  “Darn right they will,” said Faye.

  “See,” said Benny, as he looked at a smiling Jordan through the rearview.

  They arrived at the airstrip where the big private jet was waiting, with the crew chief standing at the foot of the stairs to escort Kari onboard. It was a gorgeous aircraft and all of them were impressed. Including Kari and Jordan, who had flown on it before.

  But as soon as the car doors opened, and Kari, Jordan, and Benny and Faye got out, two cars drove up that they didn’t realize had been behind them, and security guards got out.

  “Who are they?” Faye asked.

  “Mr. Drakos’s men,” Jordan said proudly. “They protect us when he’s not around. We just never are supposed to see them. And we don’t.”

  Benny and Faye looked at Kari. They couldn’t believe how much Alex was pulling out all the stops for her.

  But while Faye and Jordan found it enchanting, Benny found it concerning. Alex was known the world over as the playboy billionaire. That was his nickname! He knew how to wine and dine women with the best of them, and only did it because he could. They, in Benny’s mind, could be reading too much into Alex’s generosity.

  But when he looked over at Kari, whom he viewed as his kid sister, Kari smiled. “Don’t worry, Benny,” she said. “I know all of this is more Alex being Alex rather than Alex being into Karena.”

  Benny smiled. Kari was a well-grounded woman. What in the world was he worrying about?

  CHAPTER TEN

  Drakos Capital was a massive conglomerate within its own massive building in downtown Manhattan. Alex’s office was on the top floor, and he sat behind his desk, on his computer, reviewing the specs of one of his newer endeavors: Franchise Hub. But Alex also knew that if Kari were to see this office, he knew exactly what she would say. “This office is bigger than my entire house!” she’d declare. It would be an exaggeration, but Alex smiled just thinking about her and her genuineness.

  “Knock knock.” Matt Scribner, Alex’s chief financial officer, walked in. “Got a minute?”

  “What’s up?” Alex continued to review his specs and didn’t bother to look up.

  “Tired, if you can call that up.”

  Alex smiled.

  Matt sat down in front of Alex’s desk. “I just completed my pre-build financial assessment on the Apple Valley project.”

  Alex looked up for that. “And?” he asked.

  “All systems are go. The financials for every builder looks good. There were no red flags. No projected cost overruns. At least not yet.”

  Alex grinned. “Give it time.”

  “Agreed,” Matt said. “But for right now, we’re great. That casino and hotel is going to set that region of this country on fire.”

  “That’s t
he goal.”

  Then Matt remembered something. “Have you been able to rope Reno Gabrini in yet?” he asked.

  “Not yet. I meet with him this weekend.”

  “If we get his expertise, there’s no way we can lose. He runs the PaLargio like a well-oiled machine. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’ll be great if we can get him on board to help us.”

  But Alex had something more pressing on his mind. He leaned back. “I want to build a house in Apple Valley,” he said.

  Matt was surprised. “A house? For who?”

  Alex looked at him. “For me.”

  “For you? You mean until the project is complete? But even still, you’ve never been that involved with the nuts and bolts of a project before. You’ve never been involved with the nuts and bolts at all! What gives?”

  “I want to build a permanent residence in Apple Valley.”

  Now Matt was floored. What in the world? Everything he knew about Apple Valley was that it was a nothing town on the Florida Panhandle that the Drakos casino was going to turn into the it place to be in the south. But the idea that Alex Drakos, Mister Metropolitan, would live there? Ridiculous, Matt thought. “Why?” he asked his boss.

  Alex answered to no one, and especially not his CFO. “Have the architects draw up blueprints. Tell them my only requirement is that it is family friendly. Basketball court. Tennis court. Game room. Pool.”

  “Golf course?” Matt asked.

  Alex smiled. Everybody knew about his obsession with playing golf, although he hadn’t bothered in weeks. “That too, yes,” he said.

  But then his wandering eyes wandered over by the clock on the wall. And he was shocked. “Is that time right?” he asked. He quickly looked at his wristwatch for confirmation while Matt turned toward the clock to see what time he meant.

  When Alex confirmed that the time was indeed right, and before Matt could say a word, Alex was on his feet and grabbing his suit coat off of the back of his chair. “I’ve got to run,” he said.