Alex Drakos: For My Lover Read online

The GM didn’t seem to see where his actions were problematic. “I don’t understand,” he said.

  “You saw my wife and my son mistreated, and you did nothing about it? You just let it unfold, as you called it?”

  “Oh! Well, eh, no, sir, it wasn’t like that. Not at all!” He smiled. “What I meant to say is that I saw it, that is, when I actually saw it, you had already arrived and resolved the matter satisfactorily.”

  “Like hell I did,” Alex said. “I want that maître d and that manager fired, and I want them fired right now.”

  The GM was astonished. “Fired? But sir!”

  “But sir what?”

  “What I mean to say is, and I mean no disrespect, none whatsoever, sir, but it was just a little misunderstanding, that’s all.”

  “A little misunderstanding?” Alex voice was booming now. “Nobody misunderstands my family. What the fuck is there to understand? Nobody treats my family like trash and think I’m going to let them get away with it. Fire their asses and fire them now. I’m also going to convene a meeting of the board of directors next week, with your employment as our subject. I want you out, too, for seeing that behavior and doing nothing about it. The days of dismissing and mistreating and minimizing Kari Grant and Jordan Grant are over! And your asses in this club will be the examples of just how much I mean that! Do you understand me?”

  And then Alex, still fuming, walked out of the office.

  Even before Alex returned to their table, Kari and Jordan were suddenly treated as if they were no longer outcasts, but royalty. They were waited on hand and foot by nervous staff who’d overheard Alex’s loud interchange with the GM, a man they thought was as big as it got. But after hearing Alex’s threats, they realized just how wrong they were. Nobody in Apple Valley appeared to be bigger than Alex Drakos. They weren’t about to get into his crosshairs.

  Kari and Jordan had heard the interchange between Alex and the GM too. At least Alex’s part of the interchange because he was yelling so loud. Everybody in the dining hall heard it as well. Neither Jordan nor Kari wanted anyone to lose his job, but they also knew the way they were treated was intolerable and could not, nor should not be dismissed. They let Alex handle it.

  “It’s weird, Ma,” Jordan said.

  “What’s weird?” Kari asked him.

  “Having somebody fight our battles for us. It’s always been you standing up for us, but you didn’t have the power. You were pretty useless, to be honest.”

  Kari laughed.

  “But Dad, wow,” Jordan continued. “When it comes to Dad against them, it’s the other people, the bad people in my view, who’s powerless now. They can’t push him around the way they pushed us around.”

  “That’s right,” Kari said. “I thank God for Alex. You should too.”

  “I do!” Jordan pushed his glasses up on his face. “And not just because he’s rich, either.”

  Kari looked at Jordan. Did she raise him right? She felt his answer would tell her. “What other reason is there?” she asked him.

  “I’m grateful for him because he loves us,” Jordan said. “Nobody had ever loved us like he does before. And you always told me love is the most important thing. That’s Bible, you said.”

  Kari smiled. She raised him right. “Yes, it is,” she agreed.

  But when Alex returned to their table it would take far longer, while they were actually eating, before he could let loose. For some reason, that small event had affected him far more than it affected them.

  Jordan wanted to talk about it, but Kari felt it was best they moved on. And after their drinks arrived, and their lunch soon after, they did. “You know what they’re writing in the newspapers about you, right?” Kari asked Alex as they ate lunch.

  Alex was accustomed to being hot fodder for the gossip rags across the country, usually involving some woman he’d never even met. “Not particularly, no,” he said.

  “They’re saying the President is considering appointing you to be the next United States Ambassador to Greece.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Jordan said. “Some of the kids were talking about it at school yesterday. But I figured it was just more lies about Dad.”

  Alex managed to smile. In his world where everybody had an agenda, it was always soothing for him when he was around Jordan and Kari. They were the two people in his world that he truly believed were agenda-free. His kid brother Oz was close behind them, but he was more agenda-neutral than agenda-free. “I appreciate that, Jordan,” Alex said.

  “But is it?” Kari asked. “More lies, I mean?”

  Alex exhaled. “Not entirely.”

  Jordan, shocked, looked at Kari. But Kari was staring at Alex.

  “I’ve heard something to that effect,” Alex said.

  Jordan still couldn’t believe it. “You mean it’s true?”

  “I’m being considered along with six other candidates for the post,” Alex said. “My chances are probably slim to none.”

  “That’s what some of those mean kids were saying,” Jordan said. “They said you have mafia ties back in Greece, and no president is going to want that on his conscience. I told them they didn’t know what they were talking about, and left it at that. I thought it was just another pack of lies.”

  “How do you know you’re on the list?” Kari asked Alex. She was amazed that he hadn’t so much as mentioned it to her.

  “One of the aides in the White House phoned me a few days ago.”

  “A few days ago? Alex! Why didn’t you say anything?” Kari was a little hurt by his refusal to tell her everything going on in his life. She knew he had a lot going on in his life, given the size of his billion-dollar corporation, but some things, like the White House calling with a possible appointment, should have at least garnered a mention.

  “Even the aide told me my chances weren’t great,” Alex said. “That’s why I didn’t mention it.”

  “But it’s true?” Jordan asked.

  Alex nodded. “Yes, it’s true.”

  “But you don’t want it, right?” Jordan asked.

  Alex looked at his stepson. He looked downright frightful. But he would never lie to him. “Yes,” Alex said. “If offered, I definitely want it.”

  Jordan looked at his mother, but Kari was still staring at Alex. This was shocking to her too. “You want it?” she asked Alex. “I’ve never known you to really want anything.”

  “Except us,” Jordan said.

  Alex smiled.

  “Why would you want a job like that?” Kari asked Alex.

  “Greece is my homeland. It’s the place of my birth. As you know, there’s an economic meltdown of historic proportions going on over there right now. They don’t need some ambitious politician who will cow tow to that corrupt government and do whatever they want. They need a strong man, somebody who’s everything a boy scout is not. Somebody who will force that government to clean up its act. For the sake of the country. For the sake of the good people of Greece.”

  “And you believe you’re that man?” Kari asked him.

  “I don’t know if I am or I’m not,” Alex said. “But I’m no boy scout. For the sake of my homeland, I will be willing to try to be that man.”

  Kari admired Alex’s sense of duty and responsibility. From the first day she met him, he’d always been that way. But he was a strong man, too, a man who was willing to break all rules, if not laws, to do what he had to do. She wasn’t denying that rougher part of him either.

  “But to answer your comment,” he continued, “I wouldn’t characterize it as wanting it. I don’t want it in that way. But as long as I feel I can be useful, then it’s not off the table.”

  Kari nodded. But Jordan was still unsure. “But that’ll mean what?” he asked. “We’ll have to move to Greece?”

  “Most of our time will be spent in Greece, yes, as long as I’m ambassador,” Alex said. “But part of our time will be back here in the States as well.”

  “But who’ll run your corporation?” Jordan as
ked.

  “My brother is more than capable,” said Alex.

  “But . . .” Jordan seemed stumped. And, to Kari, he seemed a little shocked too.

  “But what, Jordan?” she asked him.

  “What about my friends?” Jordan asked. “What about Matty? He’s lost without me!”

  Alex and Kari both smiled. But they understood his angst. “Nothing’s been decided yet,” Alex said. “And I promise to tell you and your mother before I make any moves. Alright?”

  “You mean I’m going to have a say in what your final decision is?” Jordan asked.

  Alex stared at him. He was not the kind of man who allowed anybody in his decision-making process. This was new to him too. “Yes,” he said.

  “And if I say no, we won’t go?” Jordan asked.

  “Pump your brakes, boy,” Kari answered for Alex. “You will have a say, and I’m sure I will too, but the ultimate decision has to be Alex’s.”

  Jordan smiled. “Just testing him, Ma,” he said, and they all laughed.

  But Kari was still wondering. “Still no word on Maggio, hun?” she asked him.

  “Who’s Maggio?” Jordan asked.

  “None of your business,” Kari and Alex both said at the same time.

  Jordan laughed. “I heard that,” he said with a grin.

  “No,” Alex said to Kari. “He’s apparently no longer in Chicago either.”

  Kari nodded. Or he may be hiding out and bidding his time, she thought, but she wasn’t about to tell Alex that. If he knew what Maggio knew about her, he’d lose all respect for her she was certain of it. And for Kari, who never had anybody love her the way Alex did, that would break her heart.

  They ate in silence.

  And soon, that anger still within Alex reappeared on his face. Although Jordan was still thinking about what it would mean to leave his life in Florida if Alex got that appointment, Kari saw the anger in Alex’s eyes.

  “It’s still bothering you,” she said to him. “Isn’t it?”

  Alex played around with his food, and then dropped his fork altogether. He was still wound up about it.

  “It wasn’t that big a deal to us,” Kari said, “because we’re used to the treatment. Why is it such a big deal to you?”

  “Because I don’t like that shit. That’s why,” Alex said and frowned. “Who do these fuckers think they are that they can disrespect you and Jordan so easily? They know wives come into this dining hall all the time without their member husbands. Girlfriends too.”

  “We saw it with our own two eyes while we waited in the foyer,” Jordan said.

  “That’s why we can’t let those bastards win,” Alex said to both Kari and Jordan. “And I don’t want to ever hear any shit about they were just following orders. They have brains. They should have integrity. They know right from wrong. You can’t let them win. Not now. Not ever. You hear me?”

  Jordan nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “If we let them win,” Alex continued, “the next time they see an interracial couple, or a black couple, or a Hispanic couple, or any person of color that walks through those doors, they’ll pull that same shit again. You have to make it consequential. You have to!”

  “And we know that to be the truth, Alex,” Kari said. “It’s just that we’ve had to take it all our lives. Having power behind our fight is new to us.”

  Alex exhaled a weary exhale. And he nodded. “I understand that,” he said. “I do. But you have me behind you now. You’re with me now. And every one of these racist assholes in this sorry-ass town is going to respect you. I’ll call their bullshit out until my dying day if I have to. They aren’t going to pass disrespect of you off as some sort of joke or as a little misunderstanding or none of that bullshit anymore. I’m going to see to that personally.”

  Kari and Jordan had seen him that animated before, and a lot worse, but it was still a sight to behold. He realized it too. He also realized he needed to calm his ass down. “How’s the food?” he asked them.

  At first, they stumbled over their words trying to respond to him, and then they just laughed. Going from fight, fight, fight the bastards, to how’s the food, was a big leap.

  Alex knew it too. And he laughed at his own unhinging.

  As they made it outside and were waiting for their cars, Kari received a phone call from Dezzamaine Mills, the employee she left in charge of her cleaning business when Alex asked her to manage the mammoth housekeeping department at the newly opened Drakos hotel. Dez apologized for not having the weekly expense statements in on time, which wasn’t like her. “My old man and I got into it this morning,” she said, “and I haven’t had a chance to get it done.”

  “Got into it how?” Kari asked her.

  That was when she heard the sniffling.

  “Dez, what’s wrong?”

  “It was bad, Miss G.” She still called Kari by her maiden name of Grant. Although she was still trying to remember not to. “It was really bad. But anyway, I’ll get those statements to you before the weekend is over.”

  “Okay,” Kari said, and Dez ended the call.

  Alex looked at Kari. “She alright?” he asked.

  Kari wasn’t sure. “I don’t know,” she said. Then she looked at him. “Are you going back to the hotel?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “I think I’ll go and make sure Dez is okay. Can you take Jordan back with you?”

  “Of course I can,” Alex said as the valets arrived with Kari’s Rolls and Alex’s Mercedes-Maybach. And he did what he wanted to do when he first saw her sitting in the club’s foyer, but was distracted by nonsense: he leaned over and kissed her.

  Jordan, so used to their kissing that it was no longer an event to him, looked at the valets staring at his parents as they kissed. They were smiling, like they liked it, and Jordan smiled too. With young people like him and those valets, there was still hope for America’s race relations. Provided, Jordan also thought, the old folks and their racist ways didn’t blow it all up before the young could take it over.

  But as Kari got in her car, and Alex and Jordan got in Alex’s car, fate’s ironic twist allowed all three of them to see the maître d and that manager being escorted off of the premises. They were the unwanted ones now. They were the outcasts now. And Jordan was smiling. They got what they deserved, he felt.

  Alex’s anger returned as he sat behind the wheel of his car and watched them. He felt their firing was the least that should have happened, and he wondered why it took so long to get them off of the premises. Disrespecting his wife and stepson and getting away with it? Wasn’t happening. Not anymore. Not on his watch.

  But as Kari sat behind the wheel of her car and watched them, too, she saw the hate in those men’s eyes when they looked over and saw her. Especially the manager’s. He was blaming her and Jordan, not his own actions, for their fate.

  Which, she knew, as she drove away, was yet another reason why Alex might someday have his way. He made no secret of the fact that he wasn’t sure about living in Apple Valley. There were too many narrowminded people there for his metropolitan tastes. He was considering pulling them up and plopping them down on his turf, in New York, with regular visits to the hotel and casino whenever they could get away.

  Although Kari did not want to live in urban America again, and she enjoyed heading the housekeeping department at The Drakos, she knew, if Alex said they had to go, she was not going to fight him on it. Because days like this made her wonder just what she’d be fighting for. Days like this made her know that living in “beautiful” Apple Valley might not be as beautiful as it once upon a time seemed.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The SUV stopped behind the beat-up old Ford and Hector Estrada got out, walked around to the back driver side door, and got in.

  Paddy Jupe kept his eyes forward. “She’s on her way to your house now,” he said.

  “Good. I’m ready.”

  “Once she gets there, give her a few minutes inside, and then go in an
d beat her ass.”

  Hector grinned. “I already beat my old lady’s ass. Just like you said. I picked a fight. I know how to push her buttons. And when she gave me a little lip, I busted hers. I tore her ass up like you told me to do.”

  Paddy shook his head. Fools and idiots he had to deal with. “Forget about what you did to her,” he said to Hector. “Focus on what you’re going to do to Kari Drakos.”

  “You told me to beat my old lady’s ass. You said to get Mrs. Drakos’s attention. I was letting you know I did what you said. If she’s on her way over, Dez must have called her. That’s all I was saying. I did what you wanted me to do.”

  “Not for free,” Paddy said. “You did what you’re getting paid to do. What you want a hero cookie? I need you to beat Mrs. Drakos’s ass. That’s the payoff.”

  Hector’s smile left. “Beat Mrs. Drakos? You want me, Hector Estrada, to lay my hands on Alex Drakos’s wife?”

  “Exactly!”

  Hector stared at Paddy.

  Paddy handed him a thick envelope. “I think that will compensate you for your efforts,” he said.

  Hector looked inside the envelope and smiled. Then he nodded his head. “Oh, yeah. This will compensate me nicely.”

  “After you do it, you’ll need to get lost. Until the heat dies down. You got a place to go?”

  “I got a girl in Jersey nobody knows about. I’ll go there.”

  Paddy nodded. “Good choice. Go there. Lay low for a while. If you don’t fuck up, and keep your ass out of sight, I’ll pay you that same amount after it’s all said and done. Now get to it.”

  Hector smiled, and was about to get out.

  “Oh, and Hector,” Paddy said.

  Hector looked at him.

  “If you find yourself in police custody, I’ll use my connections in law enforcement to get the charges dropped. But if you so much as mention my name, however, or our arrangement, then you’re dead.”

  “Look, I don’t even know your name.” It was the truth. Paddy never mentioned his name, just that he had a job he wanted Hector to do, and Hector, a hustler from way back, was willing to do it. “And besides that,” Hector added, “I’m no snitch.”