BIG DADDY SINATRA 2: IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, Book 2 (25 page)

He
heard female voices as he headed for the kitchen.
 
When he recognized those voices, he was
surprised.
 
But it was true.
 
When he entered his kitchen, he saw his wife,
his secretary, and his assistant all sitting around the table looking at
fabrics and catalogues.

“Good
morning,” Charles said when no-one saw him enter.
 
Jenay and Mary didn’t bother to look up.
 
But Faye McKinley, his young assistant,
nervously did.

“Good
morning,” she responded.
 
He wore a robe
and his hair was ruffled.
 
She’d never
seen a man look so beautiful.

“Finally
awake?” Jenay asked Charles as Mary handed her another swatch of fabric.
 
“Now this is lovely,” she said to Mary.

“Isn’t
it?” Mary responded.
 
“It’s one of my
personal favorites too.”

“Where’s
NeeNee?” Charles asked as he headed for the refrig.

“Tony
took her out jogging with him,” Jenay said.

Charles
smiled as he opened the refrigerator door.
 
“I’ll bet she loves that.”

“She
does.
 
He’s quickly become her favorite
brother.”
 

“He
lives here with her,” Charles said as he pulled out an individual bottle of
milk.
 
“He should be the favorite.”

“I thought
Tony moved into his own place,” Mary said.
 
“At least that’s what I heard.”

“He
did,” Jenay responded to her.
 
“But after
what happened with Tess, he moved back in.
 
He’s Mr. Nanny now.”

“So
what’s this about?” Charles asked as he stood at the center island and drank
his milk.
  
“And why did you two drag
Faye into it?”

“Faye’s
helping me,” Mary said.

“And
Mary’s helping me design the lobby at the B & B remember?” Jenay
responded.
 
“She’s a budding interior
designer.”

“I
know that part,” Charles said.
 
“But why
Sunday morning?
 
It’s the only day you
have off.
 
You need your rest.”

“We’re
almost done.
 
I’ll get my rest.
 
Then you and I are going to church together,
and then after church I’ll get more rest.
 
Or not.
 
But I’m fine.
 
Thank-you for your concern.”

Then
Charles smiled.
 
“I don’t know why you
don’t just hire real designers,” he said.
 
“What does Mary know about fashion?”

“The
same thing you know about business,” Mary responded.
 
“Absolutely nothing.”
 
Charles and Jenay laughed.
 
Faye looked horrified that Mary would take
such liberties with their boss.

“Okay
now,” Charles said, “if she muck it up don’t come crying to me.”

“Will
you be quiet,” Mary urged him.
 
“She’ll
be on to me!”

Jenay
laughed.
 
“She will one day start her own
interior design business.
 
The Inn could
be her biggest customer if she gets this project right.
 
I’m giving her a try.”

“So
tell me, Faye,” Charles said.
 
“You’re in
on it too?”

Faye
looked as if he had just accused her of murder.
 
“I’m just helping out Miss Mary,” Faye quickly pointed out, prompting
Charles to smile.
 
“I’m not in on
anything.”

Jenay
laughed. “Don’t let him worry you, sweetheart,” she said.
 
“He’s just playing with you.”
 

“But
I can’t take it like Miss Mary can.”

They
all laughed, and then the doorbell rang.

“I’ll
get it,” Faye said quickly, as if this was a way for her to regain her
composure.
 
She hurried to answer the
door.

Jenay
looked at Charles.
 
“Why did you scare
her like that, Charlie?
 
You know she has
a crush on you.”

“All
I did was ask her a question.”

“All
you did was accuse her of being disloyal to you,” Mary said.
 
“And yes, I know it was a joke.
 
But for a girl like her, it’ll take her days
to get over such a joke.
 
But it’s not
entirely your fault.
 
These young girls
actually think you’re good looking.”

“They
need glasses,” Jenay said.

“Bifocals,”
Mary echoed.

Charles
laughed.

Brent
entered the living room area with Faye coming in behind him.
 
As soon as Charles saw his son, and that
worried look on his face, he knew something was wrong.
 
“What is it?” he asked him.

“Hey
Miss Mary.”

“Hello
Brenton.”

“Where’s
Tone?” Brent asked.

“He’s
out jogging with Bonita,” Jenay said.
 
“What brings you over here this morning?”

“You
guys going to church today?”

“We’re
going to try and make the eleven-thirty service, yes,” Charles said.
 
“Why you want to know that?”

“I’m
going too.”

Jenay
looked at Brent.
 
She could hear the
anguish in his voice.

Charles
could hear it too.
 
“What happened?” he
asked his son.

Brent
stood still and placed his hands on his hips.
 
Then he let out a harsh exhale.
 
“I just got fired,” he said.

Jenay,
Mary, and Faye were stunned.
 
They all
looked at Charles.
 
Charles was staring
at his son.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“I
hate it,” Denise said when Norm came down from his room upstairs at the Jericho
Inn, and asked how was she enjoying working the front desk on this gorgeous
Sunday afternoon.

“Hate
is such a strong word,” Norm said.

“I
don’t enjoy it,” she responded.
 
“How’s
that?”

“I
don’t know what’s not to enjoy.
 
Jenay
has already laid down the law.
 
Either
you shape up, or ship out, and you know she’s not playing, girl.”

“But
it’s so not fair, Norm!
 
I’m supposed to
be her assistant, not some lowly desk clerk.
 
I shouldn’t have to fill in until they hire somebody.”

“You
are so full of it,” Norm said.
 
“You were
fine being a lowly waitress when you first got to town.
 
Now that you’ve met Brent Sinatra, and have a
thing going with him, you’re suddenly too good to even stand behind this
desk.
 
You’re only twenty-two years old,
and I understand you’re young, but you have an awful lot of growing up to
do.
 
You’re a long way from where even a
twenty-two year old should be.”

But
she dismissed Norm, as she always did, as an old fogie who didn’t know squat.
 
And she was about to tell him exactly that,
when the lobby doors slid open, and a tall, handsome white man walked in.

Denise’s
heart began to hammer.
 
She had been
texting him.
 
She had been phoning
him.
 
She had been begging him to at
least talk to her, but she received nothing from him.
 
Not a peep.
 
Now he was in the flesh, walking toward the front desk, staring at her
unblinkingly with his beautiful blue eyes.

“Mark?”
she asked, still too stunned to believe it.

Norm
was stunned too, when he realized who it was.
 
Mark, however, smiled.
 
“You miss
me, baby?” he asked.

Denise
didn’t wait to answer.
 
She ran from
behind the counter like the childish girl she was, and threw herself into his
arms. Norm couldn’t believe it.
 
The same
man who cheated on her and cheated on her and then dumped her like a nasty
habit, was being treated by her as if he was returning home from war.
 
She was kissing him and gushing over him and
allowing him to feel her ass even in this public place.
 
Norm was no prude by any stretch of the
imagination, but even he found it all disgusting.

 
When they finally stopped all of the kissing
and feeling, she allowed him to talk.
 
“I
want you back, Denise.”

Norm
realized Denise was crying.
 
“You do?”
she asked, as if it would be her honor to go back to that cheater.

“I
do,” Mark said.
 
And then he shocked even
Norm.
 
“I want to marry you,” he added.

Denise
was so thrown that she threw herself in his arms again.
 
“Oh, Mark!” she screamed.
 
“Marriage?”

“Yes,”
he said.
 
“Marriage.”

But
what about Brent, Norm wondered.
 
He
thought she wanted to someday marry gorgeous Brent!
 
He certainly looked better than this Mark,
and he treated her a damn sight better.

But
Denise wasn’t thinking about Brent.
 
He
was nice and fine and great in bed, but Mark was the love of her life.
 
She wasn’t about to give him up for Brent or
anybody else.
 
She closed her eyes and
held onto her man.
 
This was a dream come
true for her.
 
This was what she had
wanted when she first met him.
 
He
cheated on her, and broke her heart, but all was forgiven right now.

“I
missed you so much,” Mark was saying as he held her.
 
“I realized that no other woman could fulfill
me the way you do, Denise.”
 
Denise held
him tighter, and closed her eyes tighter.
 
She didn’t want to wake up and realize it was only a dream.
 

But
Mark kept her hope alive.
 
“I want you to
come back to Boston with me, and start planning our wedding.
 
I want you, and only you to be my wife, and
the mother of my children.
 
I want you,
Denise.”

But
Denise’s eyes flew open as soon as he mentioned that he wanted her to be the
mother of his children.
 
His
children, not somebody else’s
child!
 
And her heart sank.
 
She was already pregnant.
 
She took numerous tests, and every one
confirmed that she was pregnant.
 
But not
with Mark’s child.
 
She was pregnant with
Brent’s child!
 
And she knew Mark.
 
He could cheat all day long, but as soon as
he found out she was carrying another man’s baby, he’d dump her again.
 
He’d leave her and never return.
 
And there was no guarantee Brent, who was a
playboy himself, would want her either.
 

She
had to act.
 
She had to act now.
 
She had to exchange her fate, but she had to
do it right now.
 
She’d been with Brent
for over four months, sleeping with him almost every night.
 
Based on her calculations she was already
three weeks pregnant.
 
She knew she had
no time to waste.

She
grabbed Mark by the hand and began to hurry toward the elevators.

“But
what about the desk, Denise?” Norm asked.
 
“You can’t leave the front desk unmanned!”

“Then
man it,” Denise responded, got on the elevator with Mark, and jumped into his
arms.

He
was fucking her before the elevator doors opened again.
 
Her panties were hanging off of one feet, and
her feet were wrapped around his body.
 
His dick was in her pussy, and he was banging her hard as they stepped
off the elevator and made their way into her hotel suite.
 

By
the time the door closed, he dropped her to the floor and began banging her the
way a man interested only in his own satisfaction banged a woman.
 
But Denise didn’t care.
 
She just needed him to bang.

After
church, while Jenay made her way to Mary’s house to review more fabric choices
for the lobby redesign, and Brent went his own separate way, Charles made his
way to Chief Joffee’s office to find out why he would let his feud with him
spill over and contaminate his son.
 
But
he didn’t arrive empty handed.
 
He went
by his bank first, the largest bank in town.
 
The bank Charles himself owned.

But
when Charles arrived at the police station, and was allowed into the chief’s
office, Joffee was unrepentant.
 
He stood
behind his desk and declared Brent to be a lousy cop who deserved to be
terminated.

“A
lousy cop?” Charles asked with incredulity in his voice.
 
“Are you kidding me?
 
Brent is the best cop you have in this
department!
 
He’s the one who crack the
big cases.
 
He’s the one who work his ass
off day and night to make sure this place runs efficiently.
 
Brent virtually runs this place because your
ass is too drunk half the time.
 
That’s
why you had no choice but to promote him to sergeant.
 
So don’t you dare accuse my son of
dereliction of duty.
 
Every human being
in this town knows better than that.”

“But
I’m the only human being in this town with the power to fire a police
officer.
 
I didn’t hire him, the mayor
forced that decision on me, but I can fire him.
 
Not even the mayor can take that authority away from me.
 
I can fire any cop I choose to fire.
 
Which I have done.”

“Why
did you do it?” Charles asked.
 
“And
don’t give me that bullshit about him being a bad cop.
 
Why did you fire my son?
 
Because you dislike me?”

“I
did it because I can,” Joffee said as if he was some petulant child.
 
“Now he can go back and be the rich kid he is
and stop playing cops and robbers with us.
 
The rest of us aren’t cops because we want to be.
 
We’re cops because we have to be if we want a
decent salary to feed our families.
 
It
turns my stomach when I see a rich kid like Brent invading our space, taking
the job some poor kid could have had.
 
And I’ve had enough of it.
 
When
that other boy of yours, that Donald, was released because of your power and
pull in this town, that was the last straw.
 
But I waited.
 
I gave Brent a
chance to prove me wrong.
 
But I’m not
wrong.
 
I wanted him off of my force.
 
So I fired him.”

“Reverse
it,” Charles ordered.

Joffee
laughed.
 
“In your dreams, Sinatra!”

Charles
tossed a thick file on top of Joffee’s desk.
 
“Reverse it,” he said.

Joffee
looked at the file.
 
“What the hell is
that?”

“Your
account with my bank.”

“You
have no right to access my account like that!” Joffee yelled.

“I
can when it’s been flagged,” Charles responded.
 
“And it was flagged months ago.
 
I
was sidetracked when somebody tried to harm my wife and child, but I’m no
longer distracted.
 
Now I can act on this
information the same way you could fire my son: because I can.”

It
was obvious that Joffee wasn’t as gun ho as he had been.
 
“What information?” he asked.

“Every
time a rich kid blueblood or one of their family members gets into legal
trouble around here, you suddenly get a nice deposit into your account.
 
And then suddenly, my investigator
discovered, the blueblood goes free and no charges are filed.
 
And it’s a pattern that dates back
years.
 
A blueblood maimed a poor child
while driving drunk.
 
He was
arrested.
 
Money was deposited in your
account, and suddenly you had the wrong guy.
 
It wasn’t him after all.
 
It’s
been a familiar pattern of yours for years.
 
And you have the nerve to tell me that my son’s presence on your force
turns your stomach?
 
A rich kid maiming a
poor kid does nothing for you, if the price is right.
 
But a rich kid, my kid, trying to work and
help the poor, now that’s a problem.
 
Because there’s nothing in it for you.
 
Because you know it’ll be a cold day in hell before I pay you a dime!”

Joffee
was in a state of disbelief.
 
He was
staring at the file.
 
He looked back up
at Charles.
 
He knew he was dealing with
a man who kept his word.
 
He knew he was
dealing with a man who could utterly destroy him.
 
“Okay,” he said.
 
“Perhaps I was a little hasty.
 
So this is what I’m going to do.
 
I’m going to reinstate your son, and you, in
turn, are going to un-flag my account and forget it even exists.”

“I
have a better solution,” Charles said.
 
“You’re going to reinstate my son, and tell me who paid you to fire
him.”

“I
told you why I fired him.”

“You
told me bullshit,” Charles said.
 
“I want
the real story. Why did you all of a sudden feel a need to fire him?
 
Why did you receive another one of your big
deposits just before you fired him?
 
I
want to know who gave you that money.
 
And I want to know now.”

Joffee
was nervous now.
 
It went from past
allegations to a new one, a direct connection. He knew he had to cut a
deal.
  
“What’s in for me?” he asked him.

“You’ll
live and not die,” Charles said.

“And
I won’t be implicated in any of this?”

“You’ll
live and not die,” Charles said again.
 
“Who paid you to fire my son?”

Joffee
looked as if the weight of the world was suddenly on his shoulders.
 
And then he sat down.
 
“Will,” he said.