Always You (15 page)

Chiara took John’s hand and placed it on her abdomen. “I never needed a ring. And now I have something so much better.”

“I love you,” he said simply. “I always have.”

“I know,” she smiled. “I planned it that way.”

Laughing, John pulled her even closer. She rested her head on his shoulder and raised her arm, displaying her ring for both of them. It wasn’t just beautiful with its unusual, intricate pattern that looked like burled wood. It was evidence of John’s good taste and his knowledge of Chiara’s. “It’s
mokume gane
,” Chiara said, moving her hand to make the ring look as though its ripples were in motion. “You remembered.”

“Well, you talked about it enough when you discovered it during your last trip to Tokyo,” John remarked. “I remembered the ‘
gane
’, and fortunately the jeweler knew what I was talking about. I forgot all about the ‘
moku
’ part.”

“
Moku
means wood,
me
is eye and
gane
is metal,” Chiara said. “It’s a technique that was used by metalsmiths to decorate samurai swords. It’s where you layer combinations of gold, silver, copper or platinum, and then use heat and pressure to fuse the metals without melting them. You can take the patterned sheet of metal and carve it into whatever design you want, and roll it into whatever thickness you want. Like for this ring, for instance. John, it’s beautiful. I love it.”

“You can give me mine at our wedding,” he said.

“And I’ll be hiding mine until then,” Chiara said. “If Mama sees this on my finger tomorrow, there’ll be a whole lot of questions I really don’t want to have to answer.”

* * *

“Look at all the cars,” Chiara said. John had parked the Eclipse a few houses away, the closest he could get to Abby’s driveway, which was stacked with cars. “It’s not a holiday. Why are there always so many people at my mother’s house?”

“That might not be a bad thing,” John said, unlocking the doors. “The more people around you, the better. It’ll be harder for another one of Grayson’s bruisers to get to you.”

Chiara turned in the passenger seat of her tiny car to face John. “I don’t think he did it. Grayson didn’t send that man after me.”

“Come on, Chiara.” John shook his head and uttered a laugh of disbelief. “Who else could it have been?”

“You saw him at my apartment. He seemed genuinely concerned that I’d been attacked.”

“I made sure that he knew about it, even if he didn’t orchestrate the attack himself. I told Chele Brewster and enough people in information systems to make sure that everyone in that building knew what happened to you.”

“If Grayson sent someone after me, why would he come to the scene of the crime? That’s sick.”

“He had Zhou killed.” John’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “You think he’d bat an eye at having you beat down? If he didn’t arrange it, who did?”

“He was worried, John. He seemed scared. He knows something’s going on, but I don’t think he’s behind what happened to Zhou and me. He’s a thief and a sneak, but I can’t make myself believe that he had me hurt. Maybe he has some idea of who did do it, though. I’ve never seen him look so lost and confused.”

“I think you’re giving him too much credit.”

“That dossier came from him. There’s a research company in Maryland that he wants me to read up on. He’s keeping me domestic, to keep an eye on me probably, but there’s no way he would kill me. I’m as big a part of his scams as the master chip. The masters are useless without me to sell the R-GS systems that go with them.” Her voice took on a brittleness that made her words sound somewhat desperate. “I’m number one, remember? I’m the one who always makes the sale.”

“You’re on vacation, Chi. You don’t have to do anything for that company ever again, and Grayson can’t do a thing about it.”

“But I have to do something about it, John!” The image of his handsome face blurred as tears rose in her eyes. “I know what he’s doing! Grayson sees faceless companies and maybe that makes it easier for him to steal their secrets and profit from them. I meet the people behind the corporate banner. I get to know them. They talk to me about their employees, their families, their lives. Grayson’s isn’t a victimless crime. He’s stealing from people who trusted me to sell them a product that would make their information systems secure, not vulnerable to a predator like Grayson.”

“What can you possibly do to fix what he’s done?”

“I can go to that company in Maryland.” Her throat was tight with tears. “And I can convince them not to buy the R-GS chips. That’s one less company Grayson can steal from.”

“Grayson would know that you mucked it up on purpose.”

“Probably.” Chiara chuckled bitterly. “I’m his pet, and everyone knows it. I’m his perfectly trained, pedigreed sales dog. No one sells better than me. I can sell styling gel to Mr. Clean.”

“I know,” John said gently. “When we were in the sixth grade, Sybille Hasse threw away an old pencil case and you sold it back to her for a dollar.”

“Grayson knows how good I am. He values my salesmanship, and he’s relied on it for five years to get his R-GS chips into position. He wouldn’t risk getting me killed, not until he finds someone who does the job better than I do.”

“And then what happens? He lets you walk away, free and clear, never knowing for sure if you knew anything about his missing master?”

She nervously chewed the edge of her right thumbnail. “I don’t know anymore. All I know…” She sat forward to avoid looking into his eyes. “All I know is that I don’t want you involved in this anymore.”

John exited the car and went to Chiara’s side of it. He opened her door and squatted before her. “I’m involved and you know it. Zhou got both of us into this mess, not you. I won’t abandon you to handle this alone.”

Chiara nodded through a fall of tears. It had always been the two of them. John had always been there to defend her, to support her. He’d paid for his love for her, with no less than his flesh.

She laid a hand on John’s cheek. “I’ve been to the other side of the world, and I’ve always come back for one reason. For one person.”

Smiling devilishly, John said, “Who?”

“You,” she whispered, smiling through her tears. “Always, always you.”

* * *

A dozen voices greeted Chiara at once when she entered the house. John closed the door behind them and held back as Chiara’s family swallowed her up in hugs and loud, cheerful greetings, and bustled her from the foyer and into the living room. Abby, who had opened the door for them before they’d even had a chance to ring the doorbell, was first in line. She alternated between hugging Chiara and pulling away to look at her youngest daughter’s bruised face. Tears welled in her eyes, and John would have bet money that they were tears of mingled happiness and sadness.

“Welcome home, Aunt Chiara,” Danielle said, squeezing between Chiara and Abby. Abigail, adjusting her new glasses, popped up too, along with Ella, whose blue-black braids swung merrily about her head.

“Why aren’t you guys in school?” Chiara asked. “You get Mondays off now?”

“It’s a staff development day,” Danielle said. “We got out at noon.”

“Welcome home, Chi,” Clara said. Her eyes moved over her face. “When Mama told me that you’d been hurt, I didn’t think…” Her words caught in her throat and she abruptly caught Chiara up in a hug. She rubbed her hands over Chiara’s back the way she always had when they were younger, and Chiara needed comforting after a spill on her bike.

“I’m okay.” Chiara wriggled out of Clara’s grasp only to be caught up in Kyla’s, who held Niema at the same time.

“I’m so sorry for fighting with you at Christmas,” Kyla said earnestly, her chin pressed into Chiara’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry you were hurt. You’re home now, kiddo. You’re safe.”

Chiara hugged Kyla back, remembering the incident two years ago when Kyla had been the victim of a home invasion. She’d known her attacker, her ex-manager, who had forced himself into her apartment. He’d hit her and might have done worse if Cady hadn’t been there with Kyla’s baseball bat.

“Where are the boys?” Chiara asked her sister Ciel, who stood patiently in line to greet her.

“Christopher is delivering an end table he made for one of the St. Louis Cardinals, Zweli’s picking up one of Mama’s friends, and Lee’s in New York City meeting with one of his investment clients,” Ciel said.

“I didn’t mean the married boys,” Chiara clarified.

“Troy and C.J. are around here somewhere, and Clarence is looking for his lizard.” Her expression serious, Ciel used her right hand to brush a lock of hair from the right side of Chiara’s face. “He lost it here on Christmas.”

“That little monster has been running free in my house for two weeks,” Abby scowled.

“Clarence?” Chiara said, pulling her hair back in place to conceal as much of her bruising as she could.

“The lizard, smartie,” Ciel grinned. “If you haven’t contacted an attorney in Chicago, I can recommend someone.”

“An attorney? For what?”

“For your negligence suit against The Sovereign, to start with,” Ciel said. “When you sign a lease, you’re entitled to a reasonable expectation of security and safety, especially when you’re living in a building that charges fifteen hundred a month for rent on a one-bedroom apartment.”

“I’m not suing anyone, Ciel.”

“It’s like
Wild Kingdom
in here!” Abby shouted when Clarence zoomed by, hunched over, chasing something with sharp claws that skittered across the bare sections of the hardwood floor.

“John, catch him, he’s running right for you!” Clarence laughed. “Hi, Aunt Chiara!” he called as he disappeared into the dining room.

“Keep that thing out of my kitchen!” Abby hollered. “I don’t want any salmonella near my pies!” Sweetening her voice, Abby turned back to Chiara. “I made your favorite, cherry, and banana crème for John, and—”

“Mama, you didn’t have to go to any trouble,” Chiara insisted. “I’m a little tired from the drive, and I have a headache. I’m not in the mood for a party.”

“This isn’t a party, honey,” Abby said. “It’s just the family.” She turned toward the foyer, and cupped her hand over her mouth to bellow toward the basement. “Troy! C.J! Come on up and say hello to your aunty!”

The sound of heavy footsteps came thundering from the stairwell that opened into the kitchen, along with the voices of Chiara’s half-grown nephews. Troy entered the room first and gave Chiara a hug and peck on the cheek. C.J., who at sixteen was the same size as his big brother, was making his way to Chiara when he was bumped aside by a pair of gigantic breasts.

“I’m so glad you’re here, Aunt Chiara!” squealed a voice issuing from behind the breasts, whose arms grabbed Chiara in a bear hold. Chiara stared wide-eyed at Clara, who sat across the room on the arm of the flowered sofa. The breasts freed Chiara when John entered the archway between the living room and foyer.

“You must be John Mahoney,” the breasts said, opening their arms to him.

“Yeah, this is Mahofro,” Cady said smoothly, inserting herself between John and the breasts. “But you can call him Mr. Mahoney.”

The toothy smile behind the breasts shrank. “I feel like I know everybody else so well,” she said, turning back to Chiara. “I can’t wait to get to know you better, too.”

Cady swooped upon the breasts and clamped an arm around their owner’s shoulders, guiding them to sit on the loveseat with Chiara. “This is Tiff McCousy, Troy’s little friend,” Cady said to Chiara. “And I just know you two are going to be best friends!” she teased, pitching her voice higher and speaking too fast. “You can have sleepovers and do each other’s hair, and paint your nails, and call boys and practice kissing on your hands.”

Chiara squirmed out of Cady’s embrace. “Sounds like real fun,” she said, hanging out her tongue.

Kyla, trying not to laugh, almost jiggled Niema out of her arms as she tried to nurse her in the comfy armchair opposite the loveseat.

Tiff crossed her arms petulantly and stood up. With a silent, cross look at Cady, she started from the room, halting beside Troy. “Your aunt is so mean to me, Troy,” she said before giving him a pointed look and leaving in a huff.

“Get the hell outta here,” Cady said under her breath. “Fraud.”

Troy scratched the back of his head and took a few steps toward Cady. “You don’t have to be so mean to her, Aunt Cady.”

“See what a snitch she is?” Cady said to the room in general. And to Troy, she added, “You’d better step off before you get cussed out, kid.”

“Why don’t you go check on Tits—er,
Tiff
,” John advised. “Sorry, man. Just a slip of the tongue.”

“It’s Aunt Cady’s bad influence is what it is,” Troy said as he left to find Tiffani.

“He really likes her,” Clara said, shaking her head.

“I like her, too.” C.J. grinned lasciviously, his raisin eyes glittering as a blush rose to deepen his terra cotta complexion.

“You can go back downstairs, too,” Clara admonished. “Grandma put in a pool table, a dart board and a television specifically so you children would have something better to do than eavesdrop on adults.” She waited for C.J. to lope off before she said, “That means you, too, DNN!”

“How did she know I was here?” Danielle whined from the other side of the archway, where she’d been pressing herself to the wall.

In a much lower voice, Clara said, “Cady, it really hurts Troy’s feelings that you don’t like Tiffani.”

“None of us like her,” Cady said stubbornly, throwing one leg over the other and making a fuss of smoothing her wool skirt over her knees.

“Yes, but you’re the only one who openly shows it,” Clara pointed out.

“Niema shows it,” Cady argued. “She cries every time Tits tries to hold her.”

“Niema is a baby,” Clara said. “You’re an adult, supposedly. We hold you to a certain standard of maturity.”

“How am I immature?” Cady asked, flattening her hand on her chest.

“Tits,” Clara said.

“Mahofro,” Chiara chimed in.

“Those are just affectionate nicknames,” Cady protested.

“They’re disrespectful,” Ciel put in from her position near the fireplace.