Love After War (16 page)

Dana listened to Edward as she watched Adrian at the counter. She was a little too excited to notice the pensive look on his face.

“Well, Dana, I don't generally represent literary works,” Edward said. “But for you, I'll do it.”

“Thank you, Edward.”

“Now, you know I owe you. Will any of my clients make the book?”

“You know it,” Dana said with a smile. “I'll give you a call when I get back to the city.”

After hanging up, she walked over to Adrian, who'd gotten a hot dog and a lemonade. “Couldn't resist.”

“Let's sit down while you eat. How are you going to handle this?”

“The hot dog?” he asked as they headed for a table.

“Adrian, be serious. You have to fix this with your family. I don't care how you feel about your father, but what about your brothers? They're innocent victims just like you.”

“Yeah, right. They grew up with the money and a father.”

“And were fooled just as you were. Maybe if things were—”

“That man said he stayed for the money. That must mean that it was his wife who held the purse strings. I can't help but think they all got a big laugh about it while my mother and I suffered.”

“You really think that man laughed with his sons? They wouldn't have understood what was going on any more than you would've had your mother laid it out for you.”

Adrian took a big bite of his hot dog as if he was trying to stop himself from responding to her.

Dana grabbed his lemonade and took a sip while he chewed. “Since you're done with the publicity shots for Sony, what are you going to do next?” he asked after swallowing.

“Go back to New York. I'm going to see if this book deal is legit. This is something I've wanted for a long time.”

“Or you could stay here with me.”

Dana gulped. “Adrian, you know we aren't ready for that yet.”

“Why not?”

She stared into his sparkling eyes, wishing they weren't so hypnotic, wishing she could tell him why she wasn't ready to risk her heart to him again. “I don't know.”

“Then you can't say no. Dana, I love you and I know you love me too. We've allowed too much time to pass and I don't want to let any more slip away.”

“Adrian, you hurt me. You hid things from me and made it seem as if you had a problem trusting me.”

“I told you, it wasn't about you. I didn't want you to be caught up in my vendetta.”

“So you wanted me to believe you were a cheating bastard? Where's the logic in that?”

Adrian smirked. “I never said my plan was foolproof.”

“Where's this plan now?”

He shrugged, then finished his hot dog. “Maybe it's time for me to take your advice and deal with this family of mine as an adult.”

“And while you're doing all of this, where will that leave us? I think you need to focus on your family. This has been nice, but, Adrian, we can't get back together.”

He took her hand in his and focused his emerald stare on her. “I know I don't deserve it,” he said. “But I'm asking for a second chance. I love you more than you'll ever know and I have a lot to make up for. But you have to let me do that.”

“I don't know if I can do that,” she replied honestly. “Do you know how hard it was for me when I walked out of your penthouse that night? How many nights I cried because I thought you'd given in to that LA club promoter trap of easy sex with any woman willing to spread her legs? What's really changed?”

“I've never been that guy and I thought—”

“You're still the man who lied to me and is still lying! Why did I have to find out about your family secrets on the news? If you love me, that means you want to share things with me, good or bad.”

He sighed, wishing she understood that in the midst of his war with the Crawfords he wanted her to be his salvation. He wanted her to be the one thing that hadn't been touched by it all. Adrian knew he could explain that to her until he was blue in the face, but he had to admit, if the shoe was on the other foot, he wouldn't be hot for a second chance either.

“How can we fix this? We've been together here and I thought we were working our way back to being us.”

“Define
us
.”

Adrian kissed her hand. “You know what it was like when you were here. Late-night trips to the beach, looking toward our future and making love in the sand.”

She crossed her legs tightly at the memory. Adrian leaned closer. “You make me want to be a better person.”

“I wish I believed that,” she replied. “It's time to go.”

The duality of her words struck him like a fist enclosed in brass knuckles. “All right,” he said. “So, I guess you're going back to New York soon.”

She nodded as they walked to the car. “I'll probably leave in the next two days.”

“I'm coming with you.”

Dana's mouth dropped open. “Why . . . what?”

“If I'm going to win you back, I guess I have to do it on your turf.”

“You're coming to New York?” she asked, trying not to smile.

He nodded and opened the passenger side door for Dana. “You're not going to get away from me again. If that means I have to go to New York to show you that you belong to me, then that's what I'll do.”

“What about your family?”

He shrugged. “I'll get to that.”

“You know that's important.” She slid into the car and strapped her seat belt as he closed the door.

“Right now, there's nothing more important to me than you,” he replied as he got behind the wheel. She turned her head and looked out the window. Though this was the Adrian she remembered and loved, his dark side still scared her. What would this trip to New York prove? How would he react to seeing all of the Crawford riches? Hell, Dana lived right up the street from a new boutique Crawford hotel. Would seeing that make him hop back on the revenge train?

They rode in an uncomfortable silence, and when they arrived at the hotel, Adrian turned to Dana as he put the car in park. “Let me know when you're flying out.”

“I will,” she replied, then leaned over and kissed his cheek.

Adrian cupped her face and captured her lips in a hot kiss that he hoped conveyed how deeply he needed her. Slipping his tongue between her lips, he heard her moan slightly. She tasted sweet like honey and it took everything in him not to rip her clothes off and make love to her in the car. When her hand dropped to his lap, Adrian nearly went weak. He pulled back from her, his eyes focused on her swollen lips.

“I'll come back later and help you pack.”

“How about you come back later and help me out of my clothes?” she replied saucily.

“You don't have to ask me twice,” he said with a wink.

Dana exited the car and waved good-bye to Adrian while her heart rate slowed to a normal beat. She had to be honest with herself and decide if she was willing to risk her heart and soul with Adrian again. Did she love him? Yes. Did she believe he loved her? Some days more than others. But if he was willing to come to New York, to be a part of her world, then she should look at this as an opportunity to start over. Yes, that's what she needed to do.

Adrian drove to the Crawford Towers construction site. Part of him expected the place to crumble and for his family to be laughed out of Los Angeles. However, the work continued. The protesters lingered, but the numbers had dwindled since the story about Richmond and the hooker broke. It wasn't as if Los Angeles was the center of family values. After all, the scandal would probably put more people in the hotel when the doors opened. What would going to war with the Crawfords change?

“What in the hell are you doing here?” Richmond boomed when he spotted Adrian on the sidewalk. “Thinking about burning this place down? Or are you trying to come up with some more lies to spread about my father?”

“So, this is how it's going to be every time I run into one of my brothers?” Sarcasm dripped from his words like honey.

Richmond glared at him. “I'm not your damned brother. My father was devoted to my mother and for you to spread these lies because your—”

Adrian grabbed Richmond by the lapels, causing a few of the workers to stop and look at the scene. “If your next words were going to be about my mother, you'd better consider how much you want your teeth.”

Richmond snatched away. “But you can badmouth my family in the press and I'm supposed to keep silent about it?”

Adrian was about to unleash a torrent of profanity when he saw Solomon and Elliot walking toward them. “This is a family reunion for real now,” he muttered.

Richmond turned toward his father and Solomon. “Is this a setup or something?” he shouted. “I hope you two are here to get this loser out of our lives.”

Elliot held his hand up and shook his head. Solomon stood in a stoic silence. “This is a serendipitous event, having you all here.”

Adrian gritted his teeth and shot daggers at his father. Solomon locked eyes with him and seemed to have a moment of recognition. Studying his brother, Adrian realized how much he and Solomon looked alike and how they shared similar mannerisms. Richmond really seemed to be the odd man out.

“Is what he's been telling the media true?” Richmond demanded.

“Let's go somewhere private and talk,” Elliot said calmly.

Richmond tossed his thumb at Adrian. “What does it matter if we talk in private? He's probably going to run straight to the media when we're done.”

Adrian rolled his eyes and groaned. “I don't want to sit in a room and hear you spew more lies.” He focused his cold stare on Elliot. “After all, you denied being my father.”

“And I was wrong.” He looked back at Solomon. “He made me see that. I owe all of you the truth. I can't change the past, but I would like for the three of us to have a future.”

Elliot's two sons exchanged confused glances. “This bullshit he said on TV was true?” Richmond asked incredulously.

“Let's take this inside.” Elliot nodded toward the finished restaurant at the bottom of the towers and they followed him inside. The restaurant was almost completely furnished, hardwood tables arranged in a U shape facing the bar. Two seventy-five-inch flat-screen TVs were attached to the wall, looking as if it would be a great place for hotel guests to catch sporting events or presidential debates. The club owner in Adrian was impressed, realizing that the U-shape arrangement also opened up a small dance floor.

The men sat down. Elliot crossed his legs as he moved his chair back from the table a bit. Three pairs of eyes stared at Elliot, silently asking him a million questions while waiting for him to say one word.

Finally, Elliot spoke. “I've wronged all of you. I've hurt your mothers and allowed money to change me.”

“Meaning?” Solomon asked.

Elliot looked at his son. “Meaning that I didn't grow up in the lap of luxury like your mother. It's probably what brought us together. When we met in college, Cynthia was trying to be rebellious. Your grandparents sent her to Howard to find a suitable husband. But the freedom she experienced allowed her to make her own decisions. I'm not proud of this, but I allowed myself to become a kept man.”

Adrian cringed, then glanced at the disappointed looks on his brothers' faces. Elliot continued. “I wanted to create Crawford Hotels, just one luxury hotel in New York. I needed money and your mother dangled it in my face. All she wanted was heirs, a suitable husband who would get your grandparents off her back and no divorce.

“I was young, wanted to take the easy way out, and I agreed. Cynthia molded me into what she thought a husband should be. Had me join the right organizations, helped me cover up my impoverished Maryland roots, and your grandparents bankrolled the first Crawford Hotel. Right after construction started, your mother got pregnant. But she suffered a miscarriage. When she got pregnant with you, Richmond, the hotel was opening. Seeing the pain and hurt Cynthia carried after the miscarriage, I put my foot down and told her that she was going to rest and be pampered for nine months. We started hiring staff at the hotel, even though we were so far in the red, the books looked as if they'd been attacked.” Elliot chuckled at the memory, but no one else shared in his laughter.

“Anyway,” he said, looking at Adrian, “Pamela Bryant walked in for an interview and when she opened her mouth, I heard that Southern accent. She was stunning.” Elliot's sons twisted uncomfortably in their seats. Elliot cleared his throat. “And she was smart. Too smart to just be the front desk clerk. When I hired her, I knew that she'd be a great addition to the company. A month later, we were sitting in my office laying the groundwork for Crawford Hotels Inc. She was such a huge part of this company. She had so many great ideas. If it wasn't for Pamela, I—we—would've never moved into Manhattan, Coney Island, or rebuilt the Harlem hotel after that fire in 1972. At first, it was strictly professional. I wanted to be the family man your mother expected me to be. But she constantly reminded me that I'd be nothing but a poor country boy without her. But when I was with Pamela, she made me feel like a man. Made me feel like she needed me and valued what I had to say.”

Adrian slammed his hand on the table. “You needed your fucking ego stroked because you married a woman for money and she wouldn't let you forget it?” Richmond shot Adrian an angry glance and Solomon smirked.

“He has a point,” Solomon murmured.

Elliot, for the first time since he sat down, seemed to get a bit emotional. “This wasn't about my ego. I wanted to love my wife as much as I ended up loving Pamela. When I was with Pam, it was as if I'd entered another world. She was kind, gentle, and—”

“Then why didn't you just divorce my mother?!” Richmond blurted out. “Here's what you don't know—Mom cried many nights over you. I heard her and it tore me up because I didn't understand why my mother was sad all the time.”

Elliot looked at his son, feeling as if he'd been sucker punched. “I . . . I didn't know.”

“That seems to be your standard line when it comes to the women you've screwed over,” Adrian retorted.

Solomon watched in silence, but his face expressed his anger and disappointment.

“I'm not perfect, but you all have to understand, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. No matter what decision I made, someone was going to be hurt.”

“So to hell with doing the right thing, huh?” Solomon said quietly. “You just shipped one family to Los Angeles and stayed in New York pretending to be father of the year?”

Elliot nervously tugged at his pant leg and looked away from his sons. Moments passed as a stifling silence enveloped them. Adrian broke the silence. “You didn't answer the question,
Dad.
”

“I never had any intentions to ship Pamela anywhere. Obviously, I wasn't honest with Pamela or Cynthia. I couldn't get a divorce and Cynthia wanted another child. Then she heard rumblings about what was going on with me and Pam. At the same time, Pam found out she was pregnant and so did Cynthia.”

Richmond gasped and looked from Adrian to Solomon. “What kind of ghetto—”

Elliot held up his hand. “Cynthia, I learned later, confronted Pamela. She told her that I was never going to leave her and if she was smart, she'd leave New York.”

“My mother wasn't the kind of woman to run away because someone told her to,” Adrian exclaimed. “Don't keep the details secret. What role did you play in all of this?”

Elliot nervously cleared his throat. “Cynthia fired Pamela on the spot. She also told her that I'd have nothing to do with the child.”

“She was right,” Adrian snorted.

“That was Pamela's choice,” Elliot replied defensively, and Adrian clenched his fists. He was so tempted to lean across the table and sock him in the face. “When Pamela left the company, she left her forwarding address, and after Cynthia and I had a big fight about her firing Pam, I came to California.”

Richmond nodded. “It makes sense now. No wonder Mom never wanted us to build out here.”

“She forbade it,” Elliot said. “But it didn't matter because Pamela didn't want me to come back anyway. I'd messed up my relationship with her when I told her that if she got rid of the baby, she could come back to New York and things could go back to the way they were.”

Adrian leaped from his seat. “You heartless son of a bitch!”

Solomon stood and touched his brother's shoulder. “I'm not going to tell you to calm down,” he said. “But just think about this—at least your mother was smart enough not to listen to the bastard. Dad, I can't believe you hid this from us all of these years and still tried to hide your lies. I'm done with you and this company. I quit.”

“Solomon!” Elliot said.

“No,” he barked, rubbing his face. “All of those years you judged me for being a ‘womanizer' and told me how I was ruining the family reputation. Shit, I was playing the game you created. At least I was smart enough not to make babies and hide them.”

Adrian was torn between giving his brother a high five and punching him in the stomach. Instead, he decided it was time for him to leave. “I've had enough too.”

Richmond stood as well, glaring at his father. “So have I.”

“So, I tell y'all the truth that you wanted and now you're turning your back on me?”

Adrian glanced at him. “Why did you come to Los Angeles after all these years? Did you think you were going to come back here and right nearly forty years' worth of wrongs? Thought my mama would still be here and give you a second chance to hurt her? Or did you think I'd be so happy to meet you—you know, the son you never wanted—that we'd be best friends?”

Solomon nodded. “I'd like to know the answer to that as well.”

Elliot rose to his feet, anger distorting his face. “You know what, the three of you are an ungrateful lot of bastards. Did any of you lack for anything? You grew up in the lap of luxury. I slept on a dirt floor. Am I sorry I let your bitch of a mother keep me in line with her money? No. I'm not. The only thing I regret is not being able to be with the woman I loved. So, walk out. I don't need any of you!”

The older man stormed out of the restaurant as his sons watched. When Solomon saw that Richmond was about to go after him, he grabbed his brother's arm. “Let him go.”

“He's still our father,” Richmond said as he snatched his arm away. “And you know Dad isn't well.”

“Karma,” Solomon said with a shrug. Adrian silently agreed. Once he and Solomon were alone, they looked at each other for a few moments.

“You knew all along, huh?” he asked Adrian.

“My mother told me on her deathbed. And honestly, I was going to do everything in my power to make you all suffer while you were here.”

Solomon pursed his lips. “You're a Crawford all right,” he said with a sardonic laugh. “What stopped you?”

Dana flashed through his mind. Her smile. Her taste. Her touch. “A woman who means more to me than revenge.”

“Must be a hell of a woman because I don't think I would've stopped. Listen,” Solomon said. “I don't expect us to be best friends overnight—hell, Richmond and I grew up together and I can barely stand him—but I'd like to get to know you.”

“Hell, we're practically twins,” Adrian retorted.

Solomon released a loud guffaw. “What do they call us? Irish twins.”

“Something like that.”

Solomon reached into his pocket and handed Adrian his business card. “If you're ever in New York, look me up and bring that phenomenal woman with you.”

Adrian took the card and nodded. “I just might do that.”

Solomon nodded, then left the restaurant. Adrian jogged to catch up with him. “Hey,” he called after his brother.

“What's up?”

“What did Richmond mean when he said D—Elliot—isn't well?”

Solomon shrugged. “Dad has been battling a cough for a while, but when I asked him about it, he said he was fine. I don't know and right now I don't give a damn about that man.”

“How can you say that? I'm supposed to feel like that. At least you grew up with him.”

Solomon shook his head. “Knowing what else was going on, I have to wonder if he was so hard on me because he couldn't be a part of your life. Dad and I weren't close and if you ask me, you were probably lucky that he wasn't a part of your life.”

Adrian was taken aback. He'd envisioned Solomon and Richmond growing up with a doting mother and father. He thought that Elliot did all the things he assumed fathers did, attending basketball games, helping with science fair projects, and giving Bill Cosby–like advice.

“It was like that for real?”