Many Shades of Gray (25 page)

Janice clenched her teeth and flung her arms around her trembling body. Tommy was not going to get to her. She’d given him too much power once in her life. She was not going to do it again.

Disgusted, she turned on her computer and attempted to write. She found herself writing about Tommy, things she didn’t know she still felt. When she heard a soft knock on the door, she deleted it.

“Ms. Lace, Mr. Kohl wanted me to tell you that he’s going to work for another couple of hours returning phone calls. He wanted to know if you would be able to take a break then. He’d like to take you out for lunch.”

Janice smiled. “Why didn’t he just buzz me?” she said, pointing to the intercom.

“He didn’t want to disturb you.”

“Tell him I’ll be able to take a break in two hours and I’d love to go to lunch.”

As the door closed, Janice looked at the schedule in her hand. She had hoped that she and Tommy could be friends; they’d both agreed that they’d like that, but their past kept coming back. He couldn’t forgive her and she couldn’t forgive him.

One day they would have to bring everything out into the open.
Maybe a fight to the death, Janice thought. She laughed, then sobered immediately. Death was what had caused the hole in her heart. Because of the abortion she’d stopped trusting. It was her reason for hating Tommy and his reason for hating her.

* * *

Simon was doing his best to keep his temper. He’d been going back and forth with Harold for two hours. One week, that was all the time he’d asked for to try and have a normal life. Yet in that one week utter chaos had erupted and Harold had barely contained things. To say Simon was livid was an understatement.

“Harold, are you telling me that an official investigation by the group has been launched into my past?”

“Well, it’s not government initiated.”

“Do you think this is funny?” Simon snarled. “I thought you said this would never happen on your watch.”

“I said no information would be found. I didn’t say people wouldn’t come looking. Hell, what with everything that’s going on you knew they would.”

Harold was a bit annoyed himself. “You should have left it alone. You never had to involve the man. You threw money at him thinking he wouldn’t know what you were doing. Well, he did. He was insulted and rightly so. I don’t blame him.”

Harold griped the phone tightly, wishing for a moment it was the throat of his surrogate son.

“Simon, it was you who made the man into an enemy. Now you’re looking for someone to blame. Don’t blame me. I warned you to tell Janice. I even tried to get you not to go digging into her past, but did you listen? Hell no! You’re as stubborn and arrogant as your father. Fire me if that will make you feel better, I don’t care.”

The heated anger from Harold stopped Simon. Harold rarely lost his temper and generally not with him. The comparison to his father meant that Harold was fed up.

“I’m sorry,” Simon said and sighed. “You have no idea what a good time we had. It was what I’ve always known it could be. It was perfect.”

“Then tell her.”

“I will,” Simon said tiredly. “I’m waiting for the right moment.”

“There is no right moment,” Harold admonished him. “You just have to tell her before Tommy Strong does and turns her against you.”

Simon continued talking as though he hadn’t heard Harold. “We finally set a date. We’re getting married in six weeks; she’s going to be my wife. Her family’s coming for a visit in just a week. I want them to have a chance to know me, know that I’m not my grandfather or my great-grandfather. I want them to meet me before they judge me. Then I’ll tell the whole damn world.”

“You only need to tell the woman you’re going to marry.” Harold spoke softer now. He’d never liked being harsh to Simon. Simon felt more like a son to him than an employer. In fact, Harold had been stand in for Simon’s real father when he had been too busy or just plain didn’t give a damn.

He’d been there when Simon had accidentally found out about his family history and he’d been the one to console the boy and assure him that things long dead had nothing to do with him, that it was what he made of his life that was important. And he’d done everything in his power over the years to bury the truth so deeply that it would take someone more determined to hurt Simon than Harold was to protect him to find it.

Harold hadn’t thought such a person existed, but he now believed Tommy Strong to be a strong contender. If only Simon had listened to him and not to his cronies who’d all had a shot or two more than they’d needed of brandy. They’d goaded Simon, telling him he wasn’t much of a businessman if he’d marry a woman without knowing everything there was to know about her. They’d pestered him until it had gotten under his skin and he had to know.

Some of it Harold understood. Janice didn’t mind telling anyone who had ears to hear that she didn’t believe in love. Hell, he’d heard her on more than one occasion say that she would never have given Simon the time of day if he weren’t rich. Of course Simon was right to doubt her; he’d be a fool not to.

But Harold had seen the way the woman’s eyes would light up when she’d see Simon, the way she’d touch her fingers to his face, the gentle way she’d smile at him when his back was turned.

Several times Harold’s gaze had caught hers when he’d found her looking at Simon. Each time she’d turned away, but not before a guilty look crossed her face, then annoyance, as though she didn’t want to love Simon. Harold knew that she did, despite their fights. If he had thought for a moment that one word of what the woman said publicly about love or Simon were true, he would have wasted no time in warning Simon.

For the future happiness of his surrogate son, he would have risked Simon’s wrath and his dismissal. But he knew deep within his being that Janice Lace was the right woman for his Simon. He didn’t doubt that she’d been deeply hurt by Tommy Strong. That, he assumed, was the reason she was afraid of loving Simon.

“Harold, where are you, old man?” Simon asked playfully.

“What?”

“You were daydreaming,” Simon said. “I’ve been talking to you and you haven’t heard a word I said.”

“You’re right, I’ve been thinking, doing a little wool gathering. I’m sorry I compared you to your father.”

Simon swallowed and waited for the but, the one telling him that he’d been acting like a jackass.

“Your father wasn’t a bad man, maybe just a bad father. He didn’t like the family legacy any more than you and he chose to hide it too. Only he did most of his hiding by living the good life, booze, women, cars and planes.”

Both men stopped for a moment, thinking of Simon’s parents dying in a plane crash, a small plane piloted by his father.

“Do you think they were ever happy?” Simon asked.

“Yes, your father was happy the day he married your mother and he was happy the day you were born.”

“What happened to them? I wish I could have seen them happy together.”

“The family legacy. Your mother found out and it tore them apart.”

“She hated him because of it?”

“No, but he thought she did. She hated that he hadn’t trusted her enough to be honest with her. He did what he always did. He ran to other women and she tried to compete. I think for a time she still loved him but…well, maybe it’s just wishful thinking.”

“Harold, is that story true or are you trying to manipulate me into telling Janice?”

“Both,” Harold answered and chuckled. “I wish you luck, son.” Then he hung up the phone, more determined than ever that Tommy Strong would not find information to hurt Simon.

* * *

“Tommy, we can’t keep investigating the man when there is no evidence that he’s done anything. We’ve searched his family history; we can’t find anything. He’s clean.”

“I don’t think so.” Tommy answered. “There has to be something. I can feel it in my gut. The man tries too hard; he’s trying to make up for something.”

“Look, we can’t keep going on your gut. Six more months of this and we’re out. You’re not using the organization to go after someone that you have a grudge against. If we don’t find anything in that time and you still want him investigated, you’re going to have to go it alone. We’re not using the manpower or the money to do it if there’s nothing there.”

“How much were you paid?”

“Excuse me.”

“How much were you paid?” Tommy asked angrily. “Did Simon Kohl pay you off?”

“Go to hell, Tommy.”

The phone slammed in his ear and Tommy saw Neal watching him. He knew what the man was thinking, that he was losing it. He’d been losing it ever since the day Mary Jo Adams had sashayed back into his life.

Gray skies and fat drops of rain heralded the arrival of Janice’s family. She groaned, wishing there was some way she could get past the visit. She looked toward Simon, who grinned at her.

“It’s going to be okay. I promise.”

“You don’t know my mother. She’s been picking a fight with me for years.”

“Sound like anyone you know? Listen, I’m going to go and help with the luggage.”

“Why? The chauffeur will bring it in.”

“I’m trying to score points with your mom,” Simon answered, rushing out into the rain.

For some reason his action gave her mixed emotions. For all his money Simon was very much a gentleman; her mother would love him. It hit her then how much she really wanted her family to approve of him.

True, she’d vowed that she didn’t care what they thought, but she didn’t want them to hurt his feelings.

It wasn’t the color of Simon’s skin that would bother her mother. She could care less about that. Besides, their family was its own little United Nations. No, the one thing she hadn’t told Simon was that her father was a deacon of the church and her mother would be condemning them both to hell from the moment she stepped through the front door until the moment she left. Well, he’d asked for it, she thought.

“Nice place.”

Janice’s stomach twisted in knots at the sound of her mother’s voice. Nice place indeed. It was a mansion.

“Mary Jo, there you are.” Her mother stood back observing her from head to toe. “I suppose you didn’t come out to the car because you didn’t want to wet your hair.”

Janice ignored the remark and went to kiss her mother. “Hi, Mom.”

“Is that the best you can do? I swear, I hugged that chauffeur tighter than that.”

Janice laughed at her mother. Maybe Simon was right. Maybe she’d actually gotten the tendency to argue from her mother.

“You’re not wasting any time are you, Mom?”

“Have I ever?”

“Not that I can remember,” Janice said, hugging her tighter. Then she saw her father coming in in front of Simon. Smiling, she went to her father and kissed his cheeks, feeling a tightening in her chest. She didn’t realize how much she’d actually missed them. In fact she’d thought she hadn’t.

“Where’s everyone else?” Janice asked, looking for at least one sibling.

“I thought it best just your father and I visit the first time out.”

Janice held her mother’s gaze for a moment, then nodded. “I guess you’ve both met Simon,” she said, and glanced at Simon.

“Yes, we have,” her mother answered for both her and her father. “He’s a real gentleman and doesn’t mind a little rain.”

Simon started laughing and soon they were all laughing, including Janice.

And for the first time in years she enjoyed them. That was until dinner was over and as she’d known would happen, her mother started. For real.

“I’m happy to see you finally in love and getting married,” she said, looking at Janice.

Janice didn’t answer. She glanced at Simon and smiled.

“You are in love, aren’t you?” her mother insisted.

“I’m getting married, Mom. Doesn’t that answer your question?”

“No, it doesn’t answer my question. I had assumed that if you were finally getting married you had to be in love. I’ve been wanting that for you.”

God, why couldn’t her mother stop? And why couldn’t she just say yes? If she admitted to her mother that she loved Simon, her mother would stop.

“Do you love Simon?” her mother asked again, not letting up.

“Why are you being so nosy?”

“Mary Jo,” her father cautioned. “Don’t talk to your mother like that.”

Janice rolled her eyes. She should have known. They were back where they always began, back in her childhood. Did they conveniently forget that she was almost thirty years old? She would be the day she married. That was one of the reasons Simon had chosen that date for them to get married. He was going to be her birthday gift. She’d laughed when he said it.

“What’s the big deal?” her father said, frowning. “Your mother asked a simple question. If you’re not marrying this man for love, maybe you should not be marrying him. Now answer the question.”

Did every man in the world think they were put on earth to control her? She stood, looked her father in the eye and lied. “Simon and I don’t believe in love.” She hoped that would shock both of them enough to make them mind their own business. “That’s not why we’re getting married. We’re adults, we’re not looking for the mush.” She shrugged her shoulders. She barely glanced at Simon, not wanting to see the pain that would be on his face. “Goodnight,” she said. Not waiting for anyone to answer her, Janice ran up the stairs.