Family Matters (DiCarlo Brides book 4) (The DiCarlo Brides) (20 page)

“Ha, ha.” But she wasn’t amused. “Where do we search next?”

“We keep working on the list and stay more vigilant. We’ll catch him.” Joel’s voice was soft, but his face was determined.

She nodded, a sick feeling rising in her throat. “Yes, but will you catch him before he hurts my little girl?”

That was the thought that ricocheted through her head at odd hours of the day and night. She believed in Joel, he’d kept Sage safe when a stalker was bent on killing her, but Rosemary couldn’t move Cleo in with him and have him watch her 24/7. So what could she do to keep her daughter safe?

Cleo huddled on the balcony overlooking the great room, listening to the news. No one would tell her anything, so the only thing she could do was to listen in. Right now, she kinda wished she hadn’t. She’d been nearly asleep when Sage knocked and Cleo pretended not to notice.

She swallowed, terror and worry forming a greasy ball in her stomach. Rosemary was getting hurt; someone was after her. Was it Cleo’s fault? Her parents had been hurt, then blown up in the bombing. Just thinking about that made her feel bad; she missed her mom and dad more every day. Now someone was coming after Rosemary. Maybe Cleo
was
to blame. Was she bad luck, like a curse on everyone who loved her?

She was scared to stay, but scared to go too. It was the middle of the winter and she didn’t really know anyone here except Rosemary and her sisters—and Cleo didn’t want any of
them
hurt, either.

She saw Joel and Sage stand to leave and she ducked even tighter into the corner. Maybe Rosemary would stay down there to talk to Delphi and Jonquil and she could hear more.

Cleo wasn’t sure what she thought about Delphi—her name was short for Delphinium, which was really long. No wonder she went with the nickname. Cleo thought if she had a name like that, she’d make up one for herself. Then she could be Princess Adelaide or Queen Abby. Delphi was really serious, always working and didn’t smile very much. She had sad eyes but she didn’t talk about it. Cleo didn’t blame her. She wondered if Delphi was as sad about her dad dying as Cleo was about her parents. Rosemary didn’t talk about her dad much, even when Cleo asked about him, and she didn’t know why.

The door shut behind Joel and Sage. Jonquil locked the door and set the alarm. They were always setting the alarm and locking the door and windows. It was like a prison here, but to keep everyone out instead of in. They had to lock the doors back home too, but her parents didn’t freak out about her opening the window like Rosemary did.

“Well, that’s almost worse,” Rosemary said, pushing her braid behind her shoulder. “At least when I thought it was Rulon, I knew who to watch for. Now I’m just stressed about everyone all of the time.”

“We’ll figure it out. We won’t let anyone hurt Cleo. You know that,” Jonquil said.

Rosemary closed her eyes, looking tired even though it was still early for her. “I hope you’re right. I don’t know how to fix this.”

When they didn’t say anything else for a long moment, Cleo decided she better get back to bed before someone noticed her. She sneaked back to the room, being careful to make sure she shut the door quietly behind her.

Guilt pressed on her as she climbed into bed and huddled under the covers. If she hadn’t come, Rosemary wouldn’t be so upset. Maybe if she was really good, Rosemary would feel better. She tucked the blankets over her head and let the tears flow.

“The CISM group will be in Conifer and Oak for the day, and then just in Conifer tomorrow. I’ve already double-checked the menu with Rosemary,” Delphi said, wrapping up her report at the executive meeting. “What about for the anniversary party? When does that arrive?”

Gina, Lana’s office manager, interrupted the meeting. “I’m sorry, but someone is on the phone for Rosemary, and she says it’s urgent. She says she’s from the school.”

Rosemary’s heart rate tripled and she leaped to grab the phone in the middle of the conference table. “Hello, this is Rosemary.”

“I thought that would get your attention.” It was Wanda’s voice on the line.

Anger streaked through Rosemary as she sat back in her chair, relieved that Cleo was obviously fine, and irritated by the ruse. “Mother, you freaked me out. What do you want? I’m in a meeting, and I’m pretty sure Gina told you that.”

“Too busy to talk to your mother? Come on, Rosie, did that father of yours knock all good behavior out of you, coddling your bad attitude?”

Rosemary gritted her teeth. “If you have something to say, say it, because I’m hanging up in thirty seconds.”

Harrison reached out and covered her hand with his. She didn’t think he really believed how awful her mother was, but the whole group was about to get a taste of the way things worked between her and Wanda if she didn’t bite back the hurt and anger that always filled her when she heard her mother’s voice.

“I still need that treatment, Rosemary. I really need five grand so I can start feeling better. You owe it to me.”

“I don’t owe you anything. I need to go. Some of us work for a living.” She hung up, closing her eyes for a few seconds to get the emotions under control. “Is there a way to block her calls so they don’t make it into the building?”

She held up a hand and shook her head. “Never mind, she’ll just change her number or something.” She sucked in a breath, looking at the group again. “Sorry, Delphi, go on.” Her heart still pounded like crazy from the adrenaline that poured into her when she thought something had happened to Cleo. How could her mother scare her like that? Of course, Wanda had never had that kind of reaction when Rosemary had been hurt or in trouble. She would’ve had to care for that to happen.

Harrison squeezed her hand, drawing her back into the room. She looked around her. “Sorry, I got distracted.”

“We understand,” Lana said. “Delphi asked about the food for this weekend.” Concern showed on her face as she studied Rosemary.

“Right.” She managed to refrain from apologizing again and plowed ahead about preparations. She still felt muddled, but the report came out reasonably well organized anyway. The meeting finished and the other department heads left, but the family members stayed seated by silent agreement while the others filed out.

“Your mom again?” Harrison asked.

“Yeah.” Rosemary smoothed back her braid. “She has this thing—she refuses to work and Dad’s not around to shovel money into her bottomless pit of a bank account anymore, so she thinks I should start paying up.”

“Is she mad you won’t support her?” Joel asked.

“Yeah, she gets uptight when her credit card at Bloomies isn’t getting a lot of use.” Resentment shot through her and she clenched her teeth to hold it in.

“Is she upset enough she might want you out of the way?” Joel asked carefully. “Your inheritance isn’t exactly a big secret—or at least the fact that you inherited big isn’t a secret.”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t know how much there is, or that if I die, all my money goes to some stupid program for under-privileged cheerleaders, among other stupid groups. I hated those girls in school,” she mumbled the end of this under her breath.

“Hey, I was a cheerleader,” Jonquil protested.

Rosemary tipped her head to the side, studying Jonquil. “Yeah, why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“You hate all cheerleaders?” Jonquil asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Rosemary sat back and eyed her sister—she was Rosemary’s favorite by far. “Well, I liked you fine until I knew about your deep, dark past. How come
that
didn’t come up in our family scandals last summer? Seriously, if someone wanted people to hate us, they totally should have gone after Jonquil’s secret past. Me getting kicked out of two schools doesn’t even compete.”

Jonquil stuck out her tongue at Rosemary, who tossed back a squinty fake smile.

“All right, children,” Cami said, sounding a little harassed. “Back to the issue at hand. Wanda—could she be our bad guy or do we just hate her on principle because she’s selfish and cruel?”

“Oh, hey, hate her on principle. I doubt she’s the person who’s after me. She probably thinks she can get paid faster if I’m alive. She’d be wrong, but it’s probably what she believes.” There were days when she was tempted to pay up to get her mother to go away, but she knew it would never end.

Harrison lifted a finger and she turned to watch him—as did almost everyone else. He was still holding her hand, but didn’t seem to notice anymore. “Cleo says your mom always upsets you when she calls. What does she say? The day in your office I walked in on a call; it sounded nasty.”

Rosemary repeated what she could remember of the most recent call, and the call before. “She said she’d make me pay. But I really think that’s literally, because that’s what she understands. She doesn’t have the follow-through to attempt murder.”

“Regardless, I’ll check her out,” Joel said. “If she’s getting desperate, we don’t want to overlook her.”

“She can’t ski. She doesn’t even like the snow,” Rosemary said. “No way she did that. Besides, the guy who helped me out claimed it was a man who pushed me.”

“She could have paid someone to hurt you,” Cami suggested.

“Hey, I’d do it for free,” Delphi quipped.

Rosemary ignored the last part and pushed on. “She’s mean and narcissistic, but I don’t think she’d have anyone killed. Not even me.”

“And still, I’m going to check.” Joel scribbled something on his tablet computer.

“Fine. I hope it is her, because then I can see her in jail, which would make my year.” Rosemary had enough of the discussion and stood, being her mother’s meal ticket was bad enough without believing she would actually try to have her killed. It was more than Rosemary could handle calmly at the moment. “I have food to deal with. And last I checked, you all have things to do too.”

“Hey, I haven’t excused you,” Lana protested.

“The main meeting is over. Are you going to write up the head of housekeeping and engineering because they took off already?” Rosemary asked as she circled the table. When Lana didn’t respond, she nodded. “That’s what I thought.” She stalked out of the room, needing a few minutes to calm down before facing her staff.

Harrison couldn’t get Rosemary’s earlier distress out of his head. She’d held it in, but he could see it in her eyes, in the way she held her shoulders and the pinched expression on her face. The phone call had bothered her more than she would admit. When lunchtime arrived, he went straight to the restaurant. He greeted Marla, the hostess, and continued on through without an explanation. The staff was starting to get used to him just barreling into the kitchen to lock horns with Rosemary, so no one even blinked.

The kitchen was chaos as usual—the kind of organized chaos that defied understanding to an outsider like himself. The restaurant was busy and the convention running down the hall meant the kitchen was putting out a steady supply of food and snacks throughout the day.

“Have you eaten yet?” he asked Rosemary.

“Yes.” She mixed a pan of rice pilaf, not looking up at him.

“Is that true?” he asked the girl standing next to her.

She looked at Rosemary from the corner of her eye. “Uh, yes, of course.”