Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1) (23 page)

Charles
looked at it.
 
He flung his hair out of
his face.
 
“What is it?”

“An
order for a brand new, full access, master key.
 
For your new GM.
 
For me.”

“I’ll
be damn,” Charles said, reading the invoice.
 
“You’re right.”

“You
didn’t order it?”

“No.”

“Beatrice
signed for it.”

“I
see that.”

“So
where is it?
 
She gave you her master
key, and you gave her key to me.
 
Where’s
my key?
 
Where’s the master key she
ordered for me?”

Charles
looked at Jenay.
 
He could look at it
either way.
 
He could look at it as if
they were desperate, and grappling at straws.
 
Or he could look at it as if they were hopeful, and on to
something.
 
“I’ll shower and get
dressed,” he said as he got his naked body out of bed.
 
They were on to something, he felt.

“Is
this where she lives?” Jenay asked, as Charles’s Jaguar pulled into the
driveway of the modest, brown home.

“This
is it,” he said.

Jenay
looked at the very working-class home and should have felt bad.
 
Beatrice Moynihan was no woman of means.
 
She probably needed that job desperately.
 
But if she had a part in doing to Jenay what
Jenay suspected she did, then she had no sympathy.
 
If convicted, Jenay could do twenty years
behind this scheme.
 
She had no sympathy
at all.

They
got out of the car, walked up to the front door, and Charles rang the
bell.
 
Jenay looked at him.
 
He had slept in fits and starts last night,
the way she had, and that tiredness still hung under his eyes and cloaked his
every expression.
 
As if this very busy
man had time for this.
 
Jenay hated that
it was because of his concern for her. She hated that she had been placed in a
position like this.

When
Beatrice opened the door, and saw that it was Charles and Jenay, they could see
panic suddenly appear on her face, as if she was certain they would never be on
to her.
 
Here it was, the very next day,
and they already were.

“What
do you want?” she asked them.
 
Jenay
could hear the nervous quiver in her voice.

Charles
pulled out the invoice and put it in her face.
 
“The third key,” he said.

Beatrice
tried to deny any knowledge.
 
She even
insisted no key was made when she had obviously signed for it.
 
And when it was just as obvious that Charles
nor Jenay was falling for her alibis, she gave in.
 
And proceeded to throw her partner in crime,
Paige Springer, under, over, and around the bus.
 

“This
was all her doing,” Beatrice said.
 
“She
took those jewels! I gave her the key and waited outside.
 
That’s all I did.
 
She took those jewels.”

“But
you turned off the cameras,” Jenay said.

“No I
did not,” Beatrice insisted.
 
“Wrong
again!
 
Edna turned those cameras off.”

Jenay
and Charles looked at each other.
 
Then
Charles looked at Beatrice.
 
“Edna?”

“She’s
the one who let us in through the side entranceway, yes,” Beatrice said.
 
“She and Paige masterminded that heist.
 
All I did was give her my key.”

Jenay
pulled out her cell phone, to call the police, but Charles stopped her.
 
And then he looked at Bea.
 
“You know who I want in this?” he asked her.

Beatrice
knew.
 
She nodded.

“Mention
a word of what we discussed, and it’ll be over for you too.
 
Understand?”

“Yes,
sir,” Beatrice said.

And
Charles escorted Jenay back to the car.
 
Jenay was floored.
 
As soon as he
got in under the wheel, and drove them away, she pounced.
 
“You’re letting her get away with it?”

“No,”
he said.

“Then
why didn’t you let me call the chief?”

Charles
looked at her.
 
“Because I know this
town, Jenay.
 
A powerless woman like
Beatrice Moynihan telling the cops what Paige Springer allegedly did, without
any proof, is like a murderer accusing a priest.
 
Nobody wants to hear it.
 
I know this town. My only concern is getting
you out of this.
 
And Bea’s testimony
alone is not going to do it.”

Jenay
was disappointed.
 
Her heart soared when
Bea confessed.
 
But she had to trust
Charles’s judgment.
 
He knew the people
he were dealing with.
 
He knew this
town.
 
She had to let him handle it.

And
she did.
 
He dropped her off at the Inn,
only telling her that he had to take care of some business, and he was
off.
 
He contacted an acquaintance of
his, a man he called on to handle delicate jobs for him, and explained to him
what he was to purchase, where he was to put that purchase, and what phone call
he was to make after that particular purchase was safely in place.

Paige
Springer was at the country club later that afternoon, playing her usual
doubles game of tennis with three of her closest girlfriends, when Chief Joffee
himself, along with two of his deputies, walked across the lawn in direct
violation of club policy, and headed for Paige.

“What
does he want?” one of Paige’s friends asked as all of the ladies gathered near
the net, where Paige was standing.
 

Paige’s
heart began to pound, but she continued to smile and appear nonchalant.
 
“Beats me,” she said.

But
Joffee wasn’t ambiguous in his reasoning for being there at all.
 
He didn’t come there to ask her
questions.
 
He came there to arrest her.

“Good
afternoon ladies.
 
Miss Springer.”

“Yes,
Joffee, what is it?
 
You know better than
to walk across our lawn like that.”

Joffee
was going to enjoy this.
 
“I’m here to place
you under arrest, ma’am,” he said, “for the jewelry heist at the Jericho Inn
Bed and Breakfast yesterday.”

Paige’s
girlfriends couldn’t believe it.
 
Paige,
too, feigned shock.
 
“Are you out of your
mind?
 
I didn’t steal any jewels!
 
Why would I steal jewels?”

“I
don’t know, ma’am, but you stole them.
 
We received a tip that we couldn’t ignore.”

“But
it was in the newspaper this morning,” Paige declared.
 
“Those jewels were found in that black girl’s
closet, in her suitcase!
 
How could you
put the blame on me?”

“Some
of the jewels were found in the VIP suite at the Jericho Inn, yes ma’am.
 
But the majority of those jewels were found
at your home, in your closet, in your suitcase.”

Paige’s
heart dropped.
 
What was he talking
about?
 
She didn’t put any of those
jewels in her home!
 
She wouldn’t
dare!
 
Her friends looked at her.
 
“What are you talking about?” she asked him.
 
“None of those jewels were at my home!”

“Yes
ma’am, they were.
 
Based on the tip, we
had probable cause.
 
The judge signed the
search warrant.
 
We have concluded, based
on the sheer volume of jewels that were actually found at your home, that you
not only set up Miss Franklin, but you used her as bait for your real purpose.”

“My
real purpose?” Paige asked angrily, and genuinely confused.
 
“And what, exactly, was my real purpose?”

“Why
to steal those jewels, ma’am,” Joffee said.
 
“And to make sure Miss Franklin, your boyfriend’s new love interest, was
blamed for what you did.”
 
Then he looked
at his deputy.
 
“Cuff her and frisk her
and haul her ass downtown,” he said, and began to leave.

Paige
was floored as the deputies did as they were told.
 
She was cuffed and frisked and taken
away.
 
Her girlfriends, who had been so
happy playing doubles with her, were all laughing at her now, and texting and
calling their other friends.
 
They hadn’t
had this much excitement in years!

“I’m
telling you the truth!” one of them blared on her cell phone.
 
“They put her in handcuffs and took her
away.
 
Handcuffs!
 
‘Haul her ass downtown,’ was how Joffee put it.
 
It was a blast to see!”

 
And by the time the day was done, the charges
were dropped against Jenay.
 
But Edna,
Beatrice, and Paige Springer were all arrested.
 
All three sat in their separate interrogation rooms at JPD and started
pointing the finger at one another, and completely away from themselves.
 
Paige said Bea was the mastermind, and
pointed the finger at her.
 
Bea said
Paige was the mastermind, and pointed the finger at her.
 
Edna said both Paige and Bea masterminded the
entire scheme, and pointed all of her fingers at them.
 

But
it didn’t matter to Charles.
 
Just as
long as none of those fingers were pointing at Jenay.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Three Weeks Later

The
doorbell rang and Jenay, in a sudden panic, pulled Charles back.
 

“What?”
he asked.
 
“What is it?”

“How
do I look?” she asked for the third time.
 
“Do I look okay?”

Charles
smiled.
 
They were in the living room of
his gorgeous home, and his sons had finally arrived.
 
She had met them all, except Robert, but
never in any formal way.
 
This was
formal.
 
It was high time, Charles felt,
that his sons knew the full extent of his relationship with Jenay.
 
And not some local, rumored version either,
but the truth.
 

He
looked down, once again, at Jenay’s blue-and-white Versace pantsuit, a pantsuit
he had purchased her himself.
 
“You look
fabulous as always,” he said to her, and kissed her on the lips.
 
“I don’t know why you’re so worried.”

“I’m
formally meeting your sons, Charles.
 
All
of them!
 
If you had to formally meet my
sons, wouldn’t you be nervous too?”

“I’d
be mortified.
 
Especially since you don’t
have any sons.”

Jenay
hit him upside his head.
 
He laughed as
he headed for the front door.
 
“You’ll be
fine,” he said as he went.
 
“Quit
worrying!”

But
that was easy for him to say.
 
Since
Charles had no parents alive, and his relationship with his sister was badly
fractured, formally meeting his sons was akin to taking her home to meet his
mother.
 
Those boys, bar none, were the
most important people in Charles’s life.

She
stood at the sofa and waited.
 
She heard
Charles greeting each of his sons, and she waited for their handsome faces to
round the foyer and enter the living room.
 
Her only hope was that it wasn’t the youngest boy she had to greet
first.
 
Their first encounter wasn’t exactly
a pleasant one for her.
 
Or for him, she
thought slyly, given what Charles did to him.

Thankfully,
the first face she saw wasn’t Donald’s, but the very pleasant Tony.
 
“Miss Jenay!” he said cheerfully as he
came.
 
“You look great without the
shackles!”

Jenay
laughed.
 
“I agree!” she said, and
extended her hand.
 
“How are you, Tony?”

“I’m
fab, can’t you tell?
 
But I’m a hugger,”
he said, ignoring her hand and hugging her instead.

“Don’t
believe it,” Robert said as he rounded the foyer and entered too.
 
“He’s more like a feeler.
 
Watch that one.”

Jenay
smiled as she and Tony released.
 
“You
must be Robert,” she said.
 
She’d never
met him, that was the only reason she knew who he had to be.
 
“Very pleased to meet you.”

“You
too,” Robert said as he and Jenay shook hands.
 
Then he looked at his father, who was coming into the room with
Brent.
 
He nodded his head.
 
“Very nice, Dad.
 
A step up for a change.”

Charles
playfully ruffled Robert’s blonde hair, causing him to smile, and then they all
settled down in the living room.
 
Charles
sat Jenay beside him, and held her hand.
 
Robert immediately took the seat beside his father.
 
All of his boys, when they were younger, used
to wrestle each other to be the one standing or sitting beside their
father.
 
Now Brent and Tony didn’t
care.
 
They each sat in the flanking
chairs.
 

Jenay
was pleased, as Charles held her hand.
 
Because just like that, she felt completely comfortable with his
sons.
 
Although she noticed one glaring
omission. “Where’s Donald?” she asked.

“Chasing
his wife around Jericho,” Tony said.
 
“He
gives his regards.”

Jenay
knew better than that, but she didn’t pursue it.

“The
reason I called you guys together,” Charles said as he squeezed Jenay’s hand,
“is to let you know the full extent of my relationship with my lady.
 
Jenay Franklin.”

All
three young men were now staring at her.

“Jenay
and I first met at Donald’s reception.”

“Get
out of here!” Tony said cheerfully.

“You
sly fox you!” Robert added with equal cheer.

Brent,
too, was surprised.
 
“You were at the
reception?”
 
Although it seemed unlikely,
given who Susan was, he asked anyway.
 
“Are you a friend of Susan’s?
 
Or
her parents?”

“No,
no, I don’t know her.
 
I was on duty that
day.”

“On
duty?”
 
Robert asked.
 
“You mean like one of the waitresses?”

“She
was interning,” Charles interjected.

“
Interning
?” Tony and Robert said this in
unison.
 
Now Jenay didn’t feel so
great.
 
Were they going to judge her
because she got a late start in life?

“She
was studying hotel management and doing her internship at that hotel,” Charles
said.
 
“That’s right.”

“So
what are you,” Robert asked, “our age then, or what?”

“She’s
thirty-two,” Charles said easily.
 
“She
was married, got divorced, and decided to go back to school.”

“Oh!”
the sons said with varying degrees of relief.

“I’m
glad you clarified that, Dad,” Tony added, “because, you look very beautiful
and young, Miss Jenay, please don’t misunderstand me.
 
But you don’t look our age.
 
You don’t look
that
young.”

Jenay
laughed.
 
She appreciated his
honesty.
 

“We’ve
been dating officially for the past six weeks now.
 
We’re still getting to know each other, as
you can imagine, but we like what we see so far.”
 
The sons laughed, which relaxed Jenay even
more.
 
“We want to take it further, much
further, and I want you guys to understand that.”

“So
what are you saying, Pop?” Robert asked.
 
“You’re going to marry her?”

“No,
that’s not what I’m saying,” Charles quickly responded.
 
Jenay was equally relieved too.
 
It was one thing to date and get to
know.
 
Marriage was taking it to another
level.
 
They weren’t there by a
longshot.
 
“What I’m saying---”

“What
he’s saying,” Tony interrupted, “is that he’s fallen and he may not get
up.”
 
They all laughed.
 
“He’s in love, you doofus!
 
He’s saying he’s in love with this beautiful
lady.
 
But Dad, being Dad, is never going
to admit such an unmanly thing, so he says phrases like
they want to take it further
, and
he likes what he sees so far
, and all of those technical,
noncommittal kind of terms.
 
But it’s
love.
 
Pure and simple.”

Jenay
loved Tony.
 
He had a way of cutting
through the bullshit that was downright refreshing.
 
But she waited for Charles’s response.
 
She waited to see if he would knock down such
a notion, the notion that he actually
loved
her.
 

“As I
was saying,” Charles said, “I want you guys to appreciate that Jenay is very
important to me, and she’s to be treated as someone very important to me.”
 
He didn’t knock down the notion, but he
didn’t exactly embrace it either.

“She’s
to be treated with the complete respect,” Charles went on.
 
“Treat her the way you treat me.
 
Mistreat her, you’ve mistreated me, and you
will answer for it.
 
Do I make myself
clear?”

“Yes,
sir,” Brent said.

“Crystal
clear,” Robert said.

“It’s
love,” Tony said, smiling and nodding his head.

Charles
looked at Jenay.
 
“He has issues,” he
said, and Jenay laughed.
 

But
she also took mental note of Charles’s responses.
 
He was taking this relationship very
slowly.
 
No declarations of love and
commitment were going to be coming from him anytime soon.
 
He wasn’t even discussing it at this
point.
 
Which was fine by her.
 
She wanted to take it slow too.
 
But as soon as she was contented with the
pace, it all went sideways on her.

“So
what are you actually saying, Dad?” Robert wanted to know.
 
“You’re not marrying her, and love’s got
nothing to do with it.
 
So what are you
saying then?
 
You guys are going to shack
up?
 
You guys are going to move in
together?
 
Is that what you’re implying?”

“I
don’t like your terminology,” Charles said, “but yes.
 
That would appear to be the most logical next
step for us.”

Jenay
just sat there.
 
She couldn’t believe
what she just heard.
 
Neither could Brent
and Tony.
 
They looked at her.
 
But she was looking at their father.
 
“What would appear to be the next step for us?”
she asked him.

Charles
didn’t skip a beat.
 
“You and I
cohabitating,” he said without reservation.

“Cohabitating?
 
You and I
living
together
?”

“Yes.
 
It’ll be a major move for me.”

“Major,”
Robert agreed.

“And
a major blunder for her,” Brent said.

“Major,”
Tony agreed.

Jenay
was speechless.
 
She was amazed Charles
would go there, and do it in front of his sons without so much as mentioning it
to her first.
 
Was this that Big Daddy
side of him?
 
Was this that ruthless side
of him she’d only gotten glimpses of?
 
She was good enough to shack up with, but would never be good enough to
marry?
 
Was that what he was saying?
 
Was that where this so-called relationship
was going?
 
Nowhere special?

She
got up and began heading, swiftly, for the front door.

“Where
are you going?” Charles asked her, surprised by her sudden move.

But
Jenay kept walking.

“Jenay?”
Charles yelled.
 
“Where are you going?”

She
didn’t turn around.

“What
the fuck,” Charles said lowly and angrily as he got up and did something he had
never done in his life before: he chased after a woman.

“What’s
her problem?” Robert wanted to know.

“Dad,”
Brent responded.
  
“What else?”

Just
as Jenay rounded the foyer and opened the front door, Charles was upon her and
slammed it back shut.
 
He turned her
toward him.
 
“What’s the matter with
you?” he asked angrily.
 
“What’s wrong?”

It
was only then, after turning her around, did he realize the anguish, and the
pain, in her big, gray eyes.
 
And it cut
him short.
 
“What’s wrong?” he asked
again, but this time more tenderly, and without the edge.

Tears
were beginning to form puddles in her eyes.
 
“I thought we were trying to build something together,” she said.

“We
are!
 
You know we are.”

“I
thought you said we were going to give this relationship, our relationship, a
true chance to take off.”

“And
that’s exactly what we’re doing.
  
What
have I done to contradict that?”

“You
want your boys to respect me.
 
You want
this entire town to respect me.
 
Then you
cheapen me by suggesting I move in with you?”

Charles
was dumbstruck.
 
“Cheapen you?” he asked,
amazed that she would think such a thing.