Cole (The Leaves) (3 page)

I closed my eyes slowly and asked a question I needed to know the answer to. “Are you going to kill me, Joe?” I didn’t whimper and I didn’t beg, but I had to know.

“Annie, I want my cousin and I want my family to let me have her. If you can give the company back to my uncle, I believe that will be all the convincing he will need. But…” it was then he laid his hand over my damaged one and took one of my fingertips between his thumb and finger and squeezed hard. I cried out, a shriek of pain, “If your Cole cannot convince his papa to do this, I’m afraid that leaves me no choice.” He smiled.

My fate was in the hands of professional asshole extraordinaire, Richard Carlyle. This meant I had a snowballs chance in hell of surviving.

When the tears and pain became more distant, I went back to Cole. I pictured the sketches he’d drawn of me and tried to keep my focus on that. I had more questions than answers and seeming as how I had nothing to lose, I decided to engage Joe in conversation again.

“How did you know I was with Cole? Was it the auction?”

Joe’s family, the Drago’s, had hosted an annual fundraiser which I donated a painting for….ironically on behalf of Trinity Hotel, a company my fiancé owned and his father had bought. Richard Carlyle was known to be an aggressive business man, and I didn’t doubt he had pissed off Joe and his family in the process.

“You’re a Drago. I always tried to find out your name, but you never had a wallet, nothing.”

“I’m far from stupid, Annie.” I thought it best not to comment on that.

“So after you saw me in the bar…”

“I had been looking at boutique hotels to add to Trinity. My plan was to secure these small struggling hotels, and make them beautiful like the vineyard is now. I also had been following Cole Carlyle and it seemed he had the same idea. He went into that bar, I followed. Then your relationship developed and I knew it was fate. He handed me the key to return the company to my family and get Serena back… you.”

Cole would be devastated if he thought he was to blame for this.

“I must prepare to make another call to your Cole, Annie. You stay quiet, as we agreed… yes?”

I nodded and listened for my fate.

Cole

It took less than an hour for my living room to fill with Gus, Aimes, and my mother. The four of us stood there, waiting for my father to arrive with someone who would make sure everything was done quickly and efficiently.

“I need to call the police.” I was officially losing my mind.

Gus was almost as calm as my mother, “Let’s see what your old man has to say. If we call the cops, Cole…” He shook his head slightly.

He didn’t want to say what deep down, I already knew. Just then, my father walked in the door followed by three men. One was my friend, Olaf. The second was my father’s lawyer, Daniel Scribner. The last was someone I didn’t know, but, for lack of a better description, looked like an extra from, “The Godfather.”

“Richard.” My mother gave him the voice. The one that told him everything without saying anything. They may not get along, but my parents were experts with
the look
and
the voice
. She whispered something in his ear and moved back to Aimes. “Come with me dear. Let’s get some fresh air and let the men get to work, shall we?”

Gus gave Aimes’ hand a squeeze and she reluctantly followed my mother to the deck outside.

“Where can we have privacy, son?” my father commanded. I ignored the
son
bit. It irritated the hell out of me when he called me that. A fact he was well aware of.

I led them all to the garage and leaned against the door of my car, flanked at each side by Olaf and Gus, facing my father, Mr. Scribner and Thug. I relayed everything that was said between Anika’s captor and me. When I finished, my father asked me, “Did you look in the box?”

“It’s there.” I point to the hood of my car.

“Have you looked inside, son?” His manner was almost gentle, which caught me off guard.

“I waited. I didn’t want to do it alone.” Maybe this was a pussy thing to admit to, especially to someone as macho as my fucking father, but it was the truth.

“We can do it and spare you, Cole. You can go and join your mother and that other woman, her friend, everyone will understand-”

“No. I did this to her. I caused this. I need to know.” I had time to connect the dots enough to know that Giuseppe Drago, Jr was, in fact, Papa Joe; a man that had done terrible things to my Anika. I also knew my father had taken the Drago’s hotels and now Anika was paying the high price of his greed.

No one stopped me as I stood in front of this small box. I was terrified what it would be, but I had to do it. My hands were shaking when I reached down and took it in my palm. It didn’t feel like there was anything inside and I hoped that it was just some kind of psychological mind fuck. Just a game. I held it in my left hand and took a deep breath, closing my eyes. When I opened them, I removed the lid. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

The men all gathered around me to see ten bloody fingernails lying amongst an engagement ring. Olaf leaned into me, took the box from my shaking hand, and gave it to my father. He pulled me away so he could talk to me. “They’ll grow back, Cole. She’ll have her life. This is probably the worst that will happen. Your father’s an asshole, but he’ll deal with this quickly and get her back safe.”

I leaned over, my head between my knees trying not to puke.

“It’s him.” I heard the thug say to my father.

“Are you sure, Giovanni?” he asked to confirm.

“From everything he said about Serena, of course, it’s him.”

“Him who?” I asked. I was certain of his identity, but I hated the feeling of not being in control of anything.

No one spoke. “Father, so help me God, I am going to make you bleed if you don’t tell me what the fuck is going on right the fuck now!”

“We need to talk to the girl. I’m sorry, Gus was it? We need to know what she knows.” My father took over as usual and ignored me.

Everyone began to walk back into the house. “Wait a fuckin’ minute! I want to know when the transfer is happening. I want to know what the fuck this has to do with Anika and me.”

“We’re just putting the pieces together, son. We do not have time to explain things now. Come on.”

The slider opened, my mother and Aimes appeared. My father was going to take charge and I knew from here on out, he was running the show. I hated to admit that I was grateful. My mother went into the kitchen and began to make a pot of coffee. It was going to be a long night, but being a good host was the last thing on my fucking mind right now.

“Amelia, is it?” My father asked.

“Yes.” She said between gasps.

“Listen. I have a reputation for being an asshole and forgive me, but we don’t have time for your tears right now. Now then, tell me everything you know about this man, Joe. The one from Anika’s childhood? I need to know when the last time she saw him was.”

“The last time was a couple of months ago. He attacked her after work.”

“And before that?”

“Before that… when we were fifteen? I remember because her mom beat the crap out of her. I had to hide her from my parents for a week.”

I wanted to beat the shit out of something.

“Had you ever seen this man, this Joe?”

“No. I tried to get her to report it, but her mom was a school teacher. No one believed her when she was younger. She tried to report it to her principal once. Then when she got older, she tried to find out his name, find out more about him, so she could report him. He never carried any ID on him, so she couldn’t even go through his wallet. All she knew was he was around for about seven or eight years, then he was gone.”

“I am so sorry.” The thug said to my father.

“Who are you?” I asked in a fuck you sort of way.

“In a minute, son.” My father said.

“No! Not another fucking minute. You’re going to tell me what the fuck is going on right now!!”

My mother swept up to me and yelled, “Calm down, Cole! Go get a drink, drink it and calm down!” The shock sent me to the liquor cabinet more than anything else. My mother never raised her voice to me.

I lined up a few shot glasses in the kitchen and as I poured the last one, my phone rang. The entire room looked at me, silently. Until my father spoke.

“Cole, put it on speaker. No one say a goddamn word, understood? Cole, you tell him the transfer will take place at nine a.m. east coast time at the absolute latest. Trish, pen and paper. Now! Answer the call, Cole.”

“Hello?” I said.

“Ah, Mr. Carlyle. Have you made arrangements?”

“Six a.m. It’ll be done. The transfer is going through our New York office, but they’re getting everything ready now. Let me talk to her. I’ve done what you asked. Let me talk to her.”

“I know you’re not alone, so I’ll make this quick. You get another ten seconds with your beloved. If this is not complete, I’ll send her finger to go with the ring. Do you understand?”

“Yes. It will be done. Let me talk to her. Please.” I squeezed my eyes closed.

“Annie, your
fidanzante
would like to speak with you.”

“Cole?”

“Are you okay? It won’t be long my beautiful girl. I’ll never let you out of my sight again.”

“I love you. He took my ring.” She cried. Her voice was ripping me apart.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” I tried to soothe her, but my voice and resolve were breaking.

“Isn’t that sweet.” Joe said. “That’s enough now. You know I had her first. My little Annie. I need to finish what I started in the alley. I want her going to your bed knowing my cock was inside your newest acquisition, Mr. Carlyle. ”

Click.

I’m not sure what took me over then, maybe the devil, maybe all the years of pent up anger and hostility I’d had stored away against my father, but as soon as I stepped away from the phone, I started wailing on him. Gus and Olaf each had an arm, my body bucking to get back to him and beat the living shit out of him. “You did this!!” I spat. “You fucking did this!”

Two things happened next that I will never forget.

First, my mom came out of nowhere and stood in front of my father and slapped him across the face. “You better fucking fix this Richard, or so help me God, I will ruin you. That poor girl is the best thing to ever happen to this family. If your greed causes any harm to come to her or our son, any
more
harm, I’ll kill you myself and I don’t care how many people in this room just heard me threaten you. I’ll gladly go to the chair.”

Then the second thing I’ll never forget, happened. “Patricia?” He spoke in a voice I only recalled hearing as a kid. A softness I didn’t even know still existed in the man. “I know you’ll never forgive me for what I did. I know I pushed you and Cole away, but I will fix this and when I do, I want you to forgive me. It’s been thirty years, Patricia. My father tried to force me to give you up. I loved you. I didn’t care that you were poor, that we’d be poor, none of that mattered. I wanted you and I wanted our child.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then dear old dad stopped speaking to you, wrote you out of the will and you turned around and did the
exact
same thing to your son. You resented us both and in the end you inherited anyway. Fuck you and your sob story.”

Holy fuck.

“I love you Patricia. I will make this right.”

“I promised ‘til death do us part’, Richard. Fix it and maybe I can stick to that part of our vows. If not, well, you made your bed. And you stopped talking to me. For five years you didn’t speak to me at all. I never stopped loving you. I supported you; I’ve stood by you watching you try to be what your dead father wanted you to be. I’ve waited for thirty years for you to say the words and not once, even when you called to tell me about Cole, not once did you say them. And while we’re at it, maybe you can tell me what happened that day, too?”

Jesus. I couldn’t think anymore. Every synapse in my brain seemed to be firing at the same time. I shrugged off Olaf and Gus and walked back to the kitchen. I handed shots first to Olaf, then Gus, followed by Daniel and Thug and lastly, I handed one to my father as he approached and held my glass to toast him. “Here’s to getting my girl back.” He clinked my glass and threw the shot back.

Olaf pulled me outside so everyone could take a deep breath. “Cole, my friend… what can I do? Anything.”

“Please go and find out exactly what the fucking story is. If I go back inside, I think I’m going to lose it completely.”

“Hang tight, I’ll try to be quick.”

I’d since been nursing a beer. I didn’t want to get drunk, knowing the phone might ring again, hoping it would, I needed to keep my wits about me. I needed to keep it together for Anika. I knew my mom was next to me, just from her perfume. It’d never changed. My whole life, she’d been a Chanel woman. Apparently, it was the first gift my father had given her. That should’ve clued me in to the fact she still loved him. But, I had to know for sure. “You love him.” Not a question, a statement.

“Always,” She replied.

“How could you love him?” There was no hiding the disgust in my voice.

“He was my first everything, Cole.”

“Even now? After everything that’s happened?”

“I only ever wanted him to turn around and tell me the things he said when we were first together. We struggled in the beginning, but we were so happy. Then as time went on, the guilt just swallowed him up. Five long years he’d been kicked out of his family. In the end, a loophole made him the inheritor after his brother died. Your father was the only relative. I think your grandfather did it on purpose. He loved your father, but his pride prevented him from telling him that.”

“I had no idea Mom.” I said, shaking my head. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you’ve had such a hard life.”

“Cole, my life has been a cakewalk compared to your dear girl. Your father will get her home safe. That’s a promise I can keep. I know he will. He has more than just the loss of some silly hotels at stake; he has his wife, his son and his future daughter-in-law to think about. Dear, where’s the box?”

“What box?” I knew what she was talking about, but I didn’t want her to know.