Loving Leo (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 3) (29 page)

Jessica swallowed hard.  “My name isn’t Ashley Williams.  My name is Jessica Borgia.”

Zoey wasn’t listening, her eyes having gone back to the computer screen.  “Why is Val’s…” She trailed away.  “Is that a mug shot?”

“Zoey, listen to me.” Jessica waited for Zoey’s gaze to come back to her.  “The FBI is investigating the murder of your parents.”

Zoey backed away from her, tears coming to her eyes the moment Jessica mentioned her parents.  When her back hit the small wall that divided the foyer from the dining room, the tears nearly plummeted out.

“You’re investigating…” Zoey swallowed.  “Leo?”

Jessica searched her face, and wondered if she should continue.   It hit her that she was going to have to get Zoey on her side.  And the only way to get her on her side was with the truth.

“Zoey.”  Jessica licked her parched lips, and prepared for the explosion.  “I’m investigating the family.”  She swallowed.  “I’m investigating Val.”

“Val?”

“I understand that’s difficult to hear.”  Jessica watched as mascara-tinted tears fell from Zoey’s eyes and ran a race down her face and chest, staining the neckline of her shirt as she looked back to the mug shot on the computer.  “Zoey, please.  If we’re going to close this case, it’s
imperative
that you—”

Zoey’s lips curled down, still staring at the mug shot.  “
Val
?”

“Zoey, take a deep breath.  Why don’t you sit down for a moment?”  Jessica waited for Zoey to tell her to fuck off.  To spew every hateful word she could think up, the way people in shock usually did.  She waited for the anger, the profanity.  She was sure those words were on the edge of Zoey’s tongue.

Instead, a frown crossed Zoey’s face.  Not a frown of sadness or anger.

No.

Zoey was in pain.

“Zoey?” Jessica demanded, as calmly as she could, watching as Zoey suddenly bent over at the waist, covering her protruding belly with the yearbook still clutched under her fingers.  Jessica went to her just as Zoey suddenly cried out, clawing her fingers against the wall next to her, sinking slowly to her knees.  The yearbook fell from her fingers, and she covered her stomach with both hands.

Jessica caught her arm just in time to break the fall to her knees.  A single strip of red liquid raced passed the hem of Zoey’s dress and down the inside of her leg, disappearing as she crumpled into a heap on the floor.  Zoey pushed a trembling hand between her thighs, and when she brought it back up, it was covered in blood.  She met Jessica’s eyes, and the pain in them had been replaced with pure, unadulterated fear.

“Chet!” Jessica screamed, cradling Zoey’s shoulders in her hands as his heavy footsteps grew stronger behind her.  She looked over her shoulder and caught his wide hazel eyes. “Chet, call an ambulance.”

“What the hell is she doing here?” Chet’s gaze fell to the blood on Zoey’s thigh, and with wide eyes, he fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed with shaky fingers.

“I think she’s in labor.”

He shook his head while pressing the phone to his ear.  “But she’s only six months.”

“How do you know that?” Zoey’s voice veered over to panic, dots of sweat multiplying on her forehead by the second.  “What the fuck?”

“I know she’s only six months, you asshole, are you
calling
?”

“It’s ringing.” Chet bent down next to Zoey and Jessica, catching Zoey’s panicked eyes.

“What’s happening?” Zoey wheezed, shaking her head.  “My baby?”

“Try not to talk,” Jessica said, running a slow hand down the side of Zoey’s head, her heart feeling like it was about to rocket out of her throat.

***

“It’s going to take time to get to Angie, but I can take care of Borgia tonight.  She lives in an unmanned building in Hoboken.  We can get in and get out quietly.”  Mitch nodded at Victor.  They’d righted his overturned desk, but most of the desk’s contents were still scattered all over the office floor.   Behind Mitch, Reggie was bent over in a recliner in the corner, hiding his face in his knees.  “Carbon monoxide, I’m thinking,” Mitch said.

Victor’s heated eyes were trained on the recliner in the corner.  He thought on it, letting silence fill the air before whispering his next words.  “Do it.”

Mitch nodded and left the office without a word.

It wasn’t until the door clicked shut that Reggie looked up from his knees.

Victor held his hand out.  “I don’t want to hear your apology,” he said.  “You’re even more pathetic when you’re groveling.”

Reggie watched his father, and then laughed, standing.  “How many people are going to have to die, Dad?  How many people are you going to have to ‘shut up’ before you win this election?  By the time you’re done, New York City will no longer have an overpopulation problem, and Jersey will be all but obliterated.”

Victor leaned back in his chair, and this time, it was his turn to laugh.

“How many people have to die?” Reggie’s voice rose, shaking as it did.  “You get Angie, you get Knox, you get the Romanovskys.  Who’s next?  Huh?  You going to take Zoey out, too, even though she doesn’t have a fucking thing to do with this?”

“Watch the way you’re speaking to me.” Victor stood, pressing his fingers into the wood of his desk.  “And get the hell out of my sight.”

Reggie clenched his fists.  “Who’s next, Dad?”  His eyes filled.  “It’s not enough that I will have Novsky by Monday morning.  It’s not enough that you got Knox, it will not be enough to get Angie.  It will never be enough, will it?  Am I next?  Huh?”

Victor’s face cleared.

“Do I know too much?” Reggie breathed.  “You’re out of control.”

“Get out of my
sight.
”  Victor circled the desk and zeroed in on Reggie, coming almost nose to nose.

Reggie looked up at his father and held his gaze.

“How dare you?” Victor whispered.  “You’re such a disappointment.”

“You’re a killer.”

“The only killer here is you.  Just ask your mother.”

Reggie shoved Victor with all his might before he could even think to stop himself.  He watched him go flying into the desk, his weight nearly sending it off its feet for the second time.  With wide eyes, Reggie braced himself when Victor released a heart-churning growl and lunged back across the room, getting Reggie around the neck in a fierce grip.

Victor reared back, giving his weight to his fisted hand as he swung with all his might, catching Reggie in the cheek.

A crack echoed through the long hallway as Reggie tumbled out of the office.  The sound reverberated in Reggie’s ears even as he went flying backward, hitting the hallway wall with a force that weakened his knees, almost sending him crumbling to the floor.  Cradling his screaming cheek in one hand, his brown eyes rose, met his father’s, and stayed there.  His chest rose and fell at a furious pace, and he dug his nails into the wall behind him.

Wetness filled his eyes, but didn’t spill over.  Not right away.  Not until the rage in his heart entered his veins, coursed under every inch of his skin, and manifested in his eyes.

A growl from the deepest pit of his gut escaped.  He pushed himself off the wall and charged, jamming his head into Victor’s abdomen.  The force sent them flying into the window on the other side of the hallway, and the weight of their bodies shattered the glass.  They screamed as they went soaring through it, glass shards raining down around them as they landed in the wet grass outside.

They wrestled around the grass, grunting and panting as the rain assaulted them, drenched their clothes, and camouflaged the tears on Reggie’s cheeks.

He got Victor on his back and straddled his waist before clenching his fists and sending blow after blow to any place he could hit.  Victor’s jaw, his neck, his eyes, and his skull all took a beating. Reggie didn’t stop, not even as blood began to splatter and fly, staining his hands and even his eyes and teeth as they splattered across them like red paint.

“I fucking hate you,” he screamed.  “I hate you, you son of a bitch.”

Reggie’s anger weakened him, and Victor took advantage, kicking out and turning their bodies.  He reared back to swing, but Reggie threw his knee in the air and caught Victor in the groin, shoving at his shoulders until he was back on top.

Victor smiled, blood staining his teeth as he looked up at Reggie, primed to strike, once more.  He tried to speak through the pain and failed several times before finally croaking, “Go ahead and kill me.  Just like you killed your mother.”

Reggie’s fist shook in the air, and the tears in his eyes were no longer hidden by the rain pounding down on them.  They came faster and stronger than anything Mother Nature could conjure up.  His lips turned down, and his face nearly collapsed.

“I wish I had died with her.”  Reggie’s words barely registered past his swollen jaw, his shuddering heart, or the pain eating him alive.  “I would rather be dead with her than alive with you.”

“It should have been you,” Victor hissed.  “A goddamn disappointment, even before you were born.”

Reggie’s fisted hand collapsed, and with a scream, he took Victor’s neck in a death grip, clenching his teeth when he felt the air leave his father’s lungs.

Victor wheezed, trying to speak.

“She might have died having me,” Reggie said.  “But you’re going to die under me.”

Victor took hold of Reggie’s wrists, his dark brown skin going red as the life was slowly stolen from him.

“I won’t let you hurt anyone else.”

“Go ahead,” Victor rasped, his words were barely discernible.  “Finish it.  You worthless…”

Worthless.

The moment the words hit Reggie’s ear, something shifted in the deepest depths of him.  His brown eyes widened, but the tears dried.  Even as the rain grew stronger, blowing his jacket in the breeze, his face calmed.

When he released Victor’s neck, his father choked in a breath and kicked his legs against the grass, shimmying his body away.

Reggie let him go, standing on shaky legs.

“Worthless,” Reggie whispered.

Clutching his throat in one hand, Victor moved to his side on the grass, cradling himself on one arm.  “That’s right, you’re worthless.  Worthless piece of shit.”

Reggie backed away, hearing that word over and over in his head.

Worthless.

Worthless piece of shit.

Without another word, he turned away from his father, loosening his tie as he stumbled toward the shattered window they’d flown through moments earlier.

He could hear his father’s voice, still hoarse from their altercation, screaming after him, reminding him that he would never amount to anything.  That he would be better off dead. 

That it should have been him.

Reggie heard it all, but as he stumbled through the cracked window and into the house, he didn’t look back.

Jessica paced the hospital room with her finger pressed to her mouth, shaking her head. She was grateful most of the nurses in that hospital remembered her from her days working for the NYPD, so she and Zoey had been shown to a room right away, even though they were still waiting to see a doctor.

She shook her head when her phone call went straight to everyone’s voicemail. Leo wasn’t answering her calls for obvious reasons, and she assumed he’d gotten to his brothers, because none of them were answering either.  Even after blocking her number, she still couldn’t get anyone to pick up the phone.

“None of her brothers are answering, and I don’t know her parent’s number.  I can’t get a hold of
anyone
.”  She stopped pacing and came up next to the hospital bed, meeting eyes with the young blonde nurse who was taking Zoey’s vitals.

“Maybe we’ll have better luck if she calls from your phone?” the nurse asked Zoey.

“Her phone’s dead,” Jessica answered.

“After I’m done, I’ll lend you my charger,” the nurse said.

Zoey clutched Jessica’s hand while blubbering to the nurse, “My baby?”

“She’s going to be okay right?” Jessica asked, eyes widening when the nurse looked up at her but didn’t answer.  “The baby?”

The nurse stood tall, wrapping her stethoscope around her neck and meeting Zoey’s eyes.  “The doctor is the only one who can answer that.  We may have to induce labor, but we can’t be sure until he sees her.”

“Oh my God.” Zoey’s face collapsed.

“It’s okay, Zoey.”  Jessica placed a hand on her shoulder, even though she could hardly believe her own words.  She met the nurse’s eyes.  “She’s only six months.”

“The baby is still breathing, and has a strong heartbeat. Hopefully, we won’t
have to induce, but it is a possibility.  The doctor has the final say.”

“Well where the fuck is the god damn fucking doctor?  She’s been lying in this room for twenty minutes!”

“We’re moving as quickly as we can.”  The nurse miraculously managed to stay calm even as Jessica came apart.  She pressed a hand to Zoey’s arm.  “Stay here, and I’ll get an ETA on the doctor.”

“Could ya?” Jessica almost screamed when the nurse turned and left the room.

Jessica needed a fight, confrontation of any kind, and the nurse wasn’t willing to play.  Frustrated, she met Zoey’s frantic eyes and squeezed her shoulder, trying to keep her mind off the thoughts eating her alive.

“It’s okay, Zoey,” she whispered, squeezing Zoey’s shoulder, which shook under the weight of her tears.  “Everything’s going to be okay.”

Her thoughts screamed that this was all her fault.  She was the reason Zoey was lying in that bed right now.  Her obsession with closing this case had thrown the only innocent person in this whole mess into a pit of danger.  A pit that might spell the loss of not just her future, but her baby’s, as well.

She tried to call the brothers again, cursing at the top of her lungs when she was sent to four different voicemails.

“Why the fuck aren’t they answering?” she spat.

***

From inside the dark Novsky offices, three cell phones sat on a desk in the middle of the room, ringing off the hook.  Around the buzzing phones were watches, pens, lighters and various other knickknacks.

Val, Roman and Gary stood on Novsky’s balcony.  The moon was high in the sky, and they’d been the only ones left in the office for hours.

“Everyone’s phone is inside?” Val asked, waiting for confirmation from both his brothers.  “Someone bugged my apartment—my money is on the Kings—and God knows what else they’ve gotten to.  They’re watching us, and we can’t risk being overheard.  Phones, watches, pens, everything needs to be inside.”  Val watched his brothers nod, confirming they were clean while looking at him with expectant eyes, each tinged with a plethora of different emotions.

Roman’s blue eyes looked older than Val ever remembered them.  Older, even, then they had been just a month ago.  They were saturated with what seemed to be perpetual anger, worry, and deep love, all at once.  He was clutching something in his pocket.  Val didn’t dare ask what it was.

Blessedly, Gary’s back was turned to Val as he leaned on the balcony railing and looked out into the Manhattan skyline.

Val was thankful.  He couldn’t stomach seeing the consequences of his actions splashed across another one of his brother’s faces.  He couldn’t stomach the guilt.

Gary spoke from where he was leaning, catching the attention of Roman and Val.  “Am I the only one deeply bothered by the neon rainbow they keep putting at the top of the Empire State Building?”

His voice drew Val and Roman in, and soon, they were all leaning on the railing, taking in the tip of the Empire State Building.  It had been lit up in various shades of bright green for whatever holiday or festival was in town that week.

“What the hell is happening to our city?  Where’s the dirt? The grit? Sometimes I feel like I don’t even recognize it anymore,” Gary said.

“It’s not the same animal it was ten years ago,” Val said, happy to sink into this meaningless conversation.  He knew it would be the last he had with his brothers.  “But, then again, what is?”

Gary and Roman looked at him, questioning him with their eyes.

Val didn’t return their gazes.  He continued to take in the skyline.  “I’m selling Novsky to Reggie King first thing Monday morning.”

From the corner of his eye, Val saw Roman’s head fall and Gary push away from the balcony.  Val turned to Gary and found him shaking his head like he was trying to get a bug out of his hair.

Roman kept his head down, eyes jammed closed.

“Wait.  Stop.”  Gary held his hands up, and then faltered, meeting Val’s eyes.   “
Huh
?”

Val spoke calmly.  “I’m selling Novsky to Reggie King, and then I’m leaving the country for a little while.”

Gary cringed.  “Leaving the countr…” He couldn’t finish.

Roman stayed at the balcony rail, eyes still closed, digging his fingers through his hair.

Val breathed in.  “Reggie is threatening to tell Zoey everything if I don’t sell.”

“He’s full of shit, Val.” Gary beamed, spreading his arms out at his side.  “He would never put his father’s neck on the line by telling Zoey the truth.  He’s just trying to scare you.  He would never tell her.”

“It doesn’t matter.  Whether or not I believe he’d actually do it, it’s not a gamble I’m willing to take.  So I’m going to give him what he’s asking for to ensure he stays the hell away from her.”

“The board will never approve it.”

“They’ve been itching to merge with the Kings for years.  They’ll approve it.”

“Jesus,” Gary wheezed, running his hands through his hair.  “Why does Reggie want our company so badly that he’s willing to blow the lid off this whole thing?  Is he insane?”

“Reggie doesn’t give a shit about our company, but there’s nothing he won’t do for Victor King’s approval.
   King
wants Novsky, because he knows its power.  Our power.  He gets what he wants through threats and intimidation, and he knows he can’t intimidate us if we have more than him.  He’s running for the highest office in the country, and he’ll do anything to stop any threat.  We’re lucky he hasn’t had us all killed, and I wouldn’t put that past him even now.  So I’m going to give the piece of shit what he wants so he’ll stay away from us for good.”

“Val, we can fight this,” Gary said.

“No.  It puts Zo in danger, Ma in danger.  Leo.  Pop.  All of us.”

“So we just back down, no questions asked?”

Val sighed.  “Gar, it’s been a good run.  We came from nothing, and now we all have millions in our portfolios. Properties across the globe.  Liquid that will sustain our families for decades.  Ma and Pop have a beautiful home that they can live comfortably in.  They never have to work another day in their lives.  Our family is taken care of, so I’m okay with losing Novsky.”

“I don’t believe that for a
second
.  Novsky is your blood, sweat and tears.  It’s our family’s greatest legacy.  You love Novsky more than you love yourself.”

“But I will never love it more than Zoey,” Val countered.  “I will never love it more than you.  My brothers.  My family.”

“A family you will never see again, because you’re talking about leaving the country.  How’s that for love?” Gary spat.

“Do you think I want this, Gar? Do you think I’m not sick to my stomach?  I’m
sick,
but I have no other choice.” Val breathed deep, realizing he was arguing with the one brother who was always blinded by emotion, even when logic was slapping him in the face.  He held his hands out, shaking them as he spoke.  “All I ever wanted to do was protect her.  Even if it meant never having her.”

For the first time, Roman looked at Val, craning his neck from the balcony as his blue eyes met his.

Val trembled.  “I failed her.  I failed her as a man, because I couldn’t.  I couldn’t
not
have her.  Now this thing is going to spiral, and it’s going to keep spiraling until it’s picked up everything and everyone we love. I’ll always have to live with that.  I’ll have to live with knowing I could have stopped it all, if only I knew how to stop loving her.”  Val met Gary’s eyes.   “I won’t make the same mistake twice.  I have a chance to stop this, and I’m not going to let that chance go by.  If I’m gone, King knows what happened with the Blacks will never go anywhere.  It’s my face on that mug shot, and this thing can’t spiral any further if my face isn’t here.”

Gary ran his hands through his hair, breathing erratically.  “There must be some other way, Val.”

“There isn’t.”

“Something else we can do.”

“If there were something else to be done, don’t you think I would have done it?”  Val’s voice began to shake for the first time.  “I’m the reason this has gotten so out of control.  This is my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.”  Tears hit Gary’s eyes.  “Stop saying that.”

“Everything was fine before I…” He faltered.  “My weakness is the reason we’re in this mess.  If I hadn’t given in to her, this would all still be under wraps.  Novsky would be untouchable, and so would our family.  Now Reggie is threatening to destroy her.  To destroy all of us.  He has the leverage to do it.  The only way to stop it from happening is to sign the papers and go.  Zo’s already left me.”  The tears tumbled from Val’s eyes as he took in Gary’s stunned face.  “She took off the ring, and she left me, because she can’t stand the way this is destroying me.  She can’t stand the secrets.  I can’t stand them either, so it’s… better.  It’s better that we don’t get married.  It’s better that she stays away from me.  She’s safer that way.”

Gary was overcome.  “Let’s just tell her.”

Roman’s head fell again.

Gary’s breathing picked up.  “Let’s just tell Zoey everything.”

Val cringed, and didn’t even dignify that with a response.

“She knows how much we love her.  That we would die for her.  If we just told her everything, she would understand.”

“She wouldn’t.”

“Val, I know her better than you,” Gary said.  “You’ve only
really
known her for a little while, but I’ve been the one closest to her for ten years.  I know her heart, and she would forgive us.”

Val’s eyes caught fire.   “She wouldn’t.”

Gary turned away.

“She would be destroyed.”  Val spoke to Gary’s back, watching his hair move with the night breeze.  “She hasn’t given birth, yet.  The stress could make her miscarry, and that would be just another thing we’d have to carry on our shoulders for the rest of our lives.  I can’t shoulder another pound, Gar.”

Gary turned back to him, tears in his eyes.  “Neither can I.”

“Roman can’t sleep because he’s worried sick about Angie.  Her life is on the line, too.  We’re all maxed out.  Completely.  How would telling Zoey help matters at all?  It would make everything ten times worse.  I should have protected her, but instead I gave into my emotions, my weakness, my dick.”
 
He frowned again.  “It’s enough, Gar.  It’s just enough.”

“It
is
enough.”

Val licked his lips and looked away.

“I can’t take it anymore, Val.”  Gary’s voice shook.

“She can’t ever know.  That is the only thing that will keep her protected.”

“Not if the truth comes out completely.  For everyone.”

Val looked to Gary.  “No.”

Gary threw an arm out, his face changing.  “Stop speaking to me like that.  Stop saying the word no to me with no regard for what I think, how I feel, what I want.  Stop dismissing me, Val. What I have to say matters too, sometimes.  If you really loved Zoey—”

“If I really loved Zoey?” Val screamed, unable to hear another word.  “If I really loved Zoey?”

Gary jolted and reared back.  He and his brother had been through several knock down, drag-out fights, but he’d never heard Val scream quite so loudly.  Had never felt the anger rolling off him and straight into his psyche quite so succinctly.