Loving a Bad Boy (22 page)

“
It’s good to see you.”
Julio stopped and looked his father straight in the eyes. “It’s
been too long. I’ve missed you.”

Gerald’s palm fell on his shoulder. “I
missed you too. Sorry it took me so long to get here.”

Julio nodded. They both knew and understood
why things had been rocky between them. No need to bludgeon the
subject. Julio pointed to the refrigerator. “Can I get you
something to drink?” He opened the door and waited.

“
No, I’m good. Tex gave me
a beer while I waited and that’s enough for now.”

Julio nodded and pulled out a can of beer,
popped the lid and took a swallow. “You hungry?” He’d eaten earlier
with Roberto and Maria but would find something for his old
man.

“
Nope. Took care of that
at a meeting I had earlier.”

Julio’s brow rose. “You gonna work here? In
Miami?” He could see the sparks fly when Francisco discovered that
bit of news.

“
No. Baby-sitting wanna be
rock stars is not my idea of corporate security. Can you imagine
what Constance would say? The girl is stick thin, wears a ton of
make-up, has a number of tattoos and piercings and doesn’t like
clothes.”

“
Clothes? What’d she wear
for the interview?”

His dad stared at him.

Julio snorted. “You’re right, mom would not
be amused. You did the right thing passing on that job.”

His dad laughed. “Constance would shoot
me.”

“
And then shoot the girl,”
Julio added. He looked at Gerald again and laughed. “For real, she
met with you naked? That’s messed up.”

“
It was a short meeting.”
Gerald walked out the kitchen and sat on the sofa. Julio followed
with a huge grin on his face.

Gerald pointed at him. “You’re enjoying this
too much. It wasn’t that funny.”

“
No. But thinking about
mom’s reaction is hilarious.” Julio sat in the chair in front of
the sofa.

Gerald’s face and neck grew pink. “I don’t
suppose we could keep this between us.”

Julio placed his leg over his knee. “If you
haven’t already told mom, you will when you see her. What’d she
say?”

Gerald frowned for a moment. “I haven’t told
her yet. I plan to tell her as soon as I can find a way to explain
how I knew the girl was naked and why I stayed for the sales
pitch.”

Julio laughed at Gerald’s predicament.

Gerald stared at him and then burst out
laughing. “She’s going to be pissed.”

“
Nah, mom’s going to think
it was funny.” Julio lied.

“
Yeah right. Anyway I
wanted to run something by you.”

Julio nodded.

“
Your mom and I are
planning to buy a small place in Colorado. The place in Michigan is
too big for the two of us.”

“
So you’re downsizing.” It
sounded reasonable. The thirty-three hundred square feet home he
grew up in was too big for just the two of them.

Gerald nodded. “We want to travel, visit
some places we’ve been reading about.”

“
So you’re leaving me,”
said in a deadpan voice.

“
Whaaat? No. What’re you
saying?” Gerald asked with a look of disbelief.

Julio stared at him a moment longer,
enjoying the consternation on his face, before laughing. “I’m just
bullshitting you. You and mom do what you need to do. Just let me
buy the house, that’s all I ask.”

Gerald slumped back in the seat, mouth
agape. “She said…damn that woman.” He shook his head. “I’m glad I
only bet her a hundred dollars and dinner with her relatives.”

Sensing a good story, Julio leaned forward.
“What happened?”

“
My wife, your tricky
mother, bet me that you’d want the house. I couldn’t imagine why,
so like a fool I argued with her. Remember when you stole that
mustang? The cops came to the house, took you away.”

“
Yeah, it was a red Mach
II with black stripes. A real beaut.”

“
You were fifteen. They
took you from that house. You and I argued for weeks over that. I
think I grounded you for a month.”

“
Two months. It was my
first juvie offense. I was home the next day.”

Gerald looked at him askance. “What about
when those boys chased you home?”

“
There were only two boys
and they had paint ball guns, which really hurt. Besides they only
did it that one time.” Julio had caught each one separately,
blindfolded them and beat them with a large branch. When he was
done he left them naked at the football games.

Gerald rubbed his chin. “What about the girl
who broke your bedroom window?”

Julio shrugged. “I told her to get out of my
bed. She took offense.”

“
That’s not what you told
us.”

“
I know. But that’s what
happened.”

“
So the arrests, spending
time in Juvenile hall, the fights between me and you that took
place in the house, those aren’t bad memories for you? Honestly,
since you hardly ever came around I thought it was because of all
the stuff that happened there.”

Julio thought about it for a moment. Perhaps
he just wasn’t ready to let it all go, he wasn’t sure but he didn’t
want anybody else in the house. Not right now. “Well, they are my
memories, good, bad or indifferent. I grew up there, in more ways
than one. All I know is I want to hang onto it a little
longer.”

Gerald nodded. “Okay, we won’t sell it—”

“
I want it in my
name.”

They stared at each other for a moment.
“Okay, we had an appraisal done recently, we’ll sell it to you at
that price.” Gerald paused, a confused look on his face. “Now, that
house is too big for two people, what do you plan to do with
it?”

Julio knew this was as close as his
stepfather would come to asking him about his Cartel duties and
sought to answer him honestly. “I’ll move in. Live there for a
while. It’s a nice gated community, I can have some privacy.
Probably beef up security.” He shrugged. “I have to live
somewhere.”

“
Your
townhouse?”

Julio owned a large townhouse in the same
subdivision as Smoke. “I don’t know yet. Rent or sale it.” He
shrugged it off.

Gerald spread his arms across the back of
the sofa while watching him. “Everything okay?”

Julio nodded. He knew better than to discuss
business or his personal life with Gerald, it was a pipeline to his
mom. “Everything’s good. No complaints. I haven’t had a chance to
catch any sports lately, you?”

Gerald smiled and nodded. “Okay, I’ll let
up. But you have to tell your mom I did try to get you to open up.
Release any tension you might have.”

“
I promise, as long as
everything’s good between us.” Julio’s hand swung in both of their
directions.

Gerald’s smile broadened. “Man I’m just glad
to see you. Everything’s good on my end. Just promise you’ll call
me if you ever need to talk.”

Julio tugged on his ear while looking at
Gerald. “I don’t know about that. But I promise to talk to you
about things I’m comfortable talking about. How ‘bout that?”

Gerald nodded. “My wife is concerned. Ever
since she discovered you don’t own any clubs or restaurants, she’s
been easier to live with. She claims you’re too smart for her to be
worried.”

“
I’m not going to ask how
all that comes together. Mom processes her information in a weird
way.”

“
Yeah, but she’s usually
right.” Gerald paused. “She wants grandkids.”

“
I want Checkers to win
the Derby,” Julio said straight faced.

Gerald threw back his head and laughed. The
carefree, booming sound filled the room. Julio smiled, enjoying
their camaraderie. “Well played, son. Well played. You know that
old horse won’t trot around the block let alone run a race. Just
remember that when Constance brings up the grandkids. You’re her
only hope. She wanted more kids.”

“
Don’t start with the
guilt stories. Mom took it easy on me last time and didn’t bring
them up. Just tell her you pulled out all the stops and I wasn’t
down for it.” He sobered. “My lifestyle doesn’t support a serious
relationship or kids. Mom hated her life growing up, she can’t
seriously want me to do that to a kid.”

“
I think your mom factors
herself into the equation. Her mom could’ve made a big difference
in the quality of her life, but didn’t. You can bet the farm that
no one would look at her grandkid funny. We’d be honored to help in
any way. And on that note, I am dropping this
discussion.”

His conversation with Mrs. O attempted to
resurrect itself, Julio slammed it down. He tried to smile but
couldn’t manage it. “Thanks. I had a long day and that’s not a
conversation I wanna have.” He paused. “Seriously, have you been
keeping up with sports?” Football and baseball were games the two
of them had watched together growing up. It’d been fun. For the
next few hours, they reminisced over games, players, scores and
legends.

Chapter 14

Pam sat in the corner of Mr. Fitzpatrick’s
bedroom. The sound of the equipment needed to blunt the pain faded
in the background as she hit another dead end in her search. With
one hand she closed her computer and then her eyes. A picture of
her mom rose like a phantom behind her lids. Frozen in time, Lenora
Burrows was beautiful.

Her fist slammed the arm of the chair. “This
has to stop. I’m spending time and money chasing a ghost.” She
inhaled deeply. “I gotta let this go.” Staring at the wall, her
memories of her time with her parents ran in a constant loop. “Why
the hell do I care what happened?” she whispered. “They sent me
away. Never came back.” The pain of their abandonment had been
blunted over the years. She’d gone through the cycle of blaming
herself. Then blaming them. The one thing she’d never been able to
do was forget them. That was her biggest stumbling block.

“
Okay, so what to do about
it?” She stood and checked the equipment. Mr. Fitzpatrick was
almost catatonic on meds. His colon cancer was in its final stages,
it was only a matter of days before all his organs failed
completely. Still, she wanted to make sure he was as comfortable as
possible.

When she finished her tasks, she flipped
open the laptop again and typed in “Cat Island.” The idea of
calling Mike to get his opinion flittered around the edges of her
mind. In the end, she decided to make the decision alone. With a
spark of energy, based on her determination to get an answer for
the sixteen year old question, “what happened to Lenora Burrows,”
she forged forward.

“
I’m going on vacation,”
she announced to no one in particular. That’s the story she
intended to tell the agency and her aunt. Pam hadn’t taken a
vacation in four years. Before now, she hadn’t really given it much
thought. Now she was anxious to complete her last attempt to put
the disappearance of her mama to rest. No matter what happened,
when she returned from the Island she’d be done with her
search.

A weight lifted from her chest with her
decision.

The first thing she did was email a notice
to the agency she worked for. Fortunately, she had five days off
when she finished this week, which would allow them plenty of time
to get someone to handle her patients for the next month.

Month
? Her palm covered her mouth in giddy excitement as the idea
of taking an entire thirty days floated around her mind. When it
settled, she was more than sure it was the best course of action
for her. She didn’t have to spend all that time on Cat Island, she
could go to Nassau, Jamaica or better yet, Puerto Rico. “Yeah,” she
said smiling at the thought of all those gorgeous men walking the
beaches.

Sitting straight, she rolled her shoulders,
cracked her knuckles, and inhaled. “Time to face the tiger.”
Hesitant at first, she researched flights that would take her to
Nassau, and then onto Cat Island. As her confidence grew, she
booked the first flight to Nassau, bypassing the much slower travel
of a cruise.

“
Okay,” she murmured as
she wiped a few beads of sweat from her brow. “Now a flight to Cat
Island.” Clammy hands paused above the key board. She grabbed them
tight to stop the trembling. For some reason, it had always been
this way when she thought of returning to the Island.

“
Not today.” She gritted
her teeth, typed in her credit card information, and bought the
ticket. The confirmation number legitimized her purchase. Her
heartbeat accelerated as she stared at the numbers. Each breath
hurt as reality hit.
I’m going
home
. Light-headed, she touched her
forehead with two fingers, and pressed hard.