Mabe's Burden (18 page)

She thought of what Meg faced with her
cancer. She was not going to let her sister go through it alone.
She didn’t care if she had to hog tie her to the bed while she was
going through chemo, Meg and Emma were staying right here in their
home where they belonged. If Mara wanted to come back home—although
she couldn’t fathom her sister wanted to trade fancy city life for
a sleepy little town like Monticello—she’d add on a room if she
needed.

Settling into one of the Adirondack
chairs, she punched the speed dial number for the family
lawyer.

His secretary answered, putting her
right through.

“
Hello, darlin’.”

“
Hey, Gavin. Tell me the
news about Da’s life insurance. I need to know if we’re going to
get a check or not.”

The man was silent for a few seconds
too long.

Oh boy, not a good
sign.

“
I called the life insurance
company,” he stated, grimly. “They told me the policy had lapsed
two months ago.”

“
Shit!” She smacked her fist
on the arm of the wooden chair. “I told him to pay the premium. I
should have just done it myself. He promised me.”

“
I know. I know. But Shane
was never very good at keeping promises.”

“
Tell me about it,” she
snapped, booting a lonely acorn off the porch with her
foot.

“
Mabe,” Gavin
said.

“
I’m not going to sell the
pub to Aaron. I’ll come up with another solution.”

“
You need to come up with it
fast. Toreni is threatening to send his goons after you. You don’t
know these men, honey. They’ll hurt you.”

“
How ridiculous,” she
scoffed. “This is 2013 not 1920. I swear you make him sound like he
just walked off the set of
Boardwalk
Empire
. I want you to set up a meet with
him for me. I’ll bring a deposit which should shut him up until I
can get the rest. I didn’t borrow the money, for God’s sake, Da
did. Surely he can’t hold us responsible.”

“
He just wants his money,
darlin’. Your da borrowed it over a year ago. Toreni’s been waiting
all this time. I’m not sure I understand how, but your da managed
to avoid him all this time. How, I’ll never understand, but our
Shane was a slippery bastard.”

“
He’ll get his money. The
fifty thousand I plan to give him today should hold him until I can
convince Chris down at the bank to give me a loan against
Shenanigans.”

“
Just sell the damn pub to
Shaw. He wants the bar, and he’ll pay good money for it. His offer
is more than fair. You’d get out of debt. It’s a good
solution.”

She leaned back in the chair, sighing.
“I am so tired of having this discussion. You, above all people,
should know how I feel about Shenanigans. It’s all I’ve got, Gavin.
Meg’s got Emma. Mara’s a big successful chef in New York.
Shenanigans is mine. I can’t give it up.”

“
Mabe, I’m tellin’ you. This
man doesn’t mess around. He’s dangerous. He’s not the same as the
other lad’s your da got money from. This one was big. I tried to
stop him in Vegas, but the gamblin’ bug bit him hard. He just knew
he was goin’ to win. He told me, ‘I’m gonna win big for my girl,
Gavie, my boy.’ You know how convincing he could be. Could charm
the skin off a snake, our Shane.” The more upset he sounded, the
thicker his accent became.

The grief in her father’s closest
friend’s voice touched her. She wiped a tear from her eye. She’d
loved her da in spite of all his faults. “I know, Gavin. Aaron’s a
nice man, and I appreciate what you tried to do, but there must be
another way.” She squared her shoulders, blew out a breath. “I want
to meet with Toreni, Gavin. Set it up in a public place. Hell, have
him come to the pub at noon, I don’t care. But I have to at least
try to make the man see reason.”

“
There’s no reasonin’ with
the devil.”

“
We’ll see, won’t we? Set it
up.”

Chapter
Fifteen

Aaron jumped out of the shower to the
sound of his ringing phone.

He hit the button and shouted a
breathless, “Hello?”

“
I can’t even count on you
to do one simple thing, can I?”

“
Gavin? What the hell are
you talking about?” He rubbed his head with a towel.

“
You were supposed to
convince that hardheaded girl to sell.”

“
Look, you know her better
than I do. I’m telling you I tried. I can’t force her to sell,
Gavin. She’s made up her mind. I’ll just have to see if I can help
some other way.”

“
The hard-headed woman wants
a meet with Toreni. She told me to set it up in the pub so there’d
be witnesses.”

“
He’ll never agree to it,”
he shot back.

“
How do you
know?”

“
Uh… most men of his caliber
won’t deal directly with their marks. He’ll send someone else.
Probably someone even nastier than he is.”

Boyo, they don’t come much
nastier.”

“
Um…so I’ve
heard.”

“
Is there something on your
mind?”

He paced the room, looking for his
jeans. He’d hoped to hell it wouldn’t come to this, but he saw no
choice. He’d wanted to come to town, buy a nice local pub, save
another family from disaster, then be on his way. But from the
moment he’d set foot in Shenanigans and saw Mabe O’Banyon, he’d
lost all sense of reason. He might not have quite lost his heart,
but he was slipping fast.

“
I’ve got one more ace up my
sleeve. Go ahead. Set up the meet. I’ll make sure I’m there along
with you. We’ll keep them safe.”

“
These girls are like my
own. We’ve got to make this right for them. I feel responsible. I
should’ve stopped him, but I was too weak.” Raw emotion choked the
man’s voice. “I should never have let this happen. If something
harms them or Shenanigans, I’ll be the one with blood on my
hands.”

He rolled his eyes. “Have you been
drinking?”

“
No.”

“
Oh, try not to be so
dramatic. We’ll figure something out. You called me for help, and
that’s what I’m going to try to do. I’ll call you
later.”

The man on the other end of the phone
sniffed loudly. “I’m countin’ on you, boy.”

“
I know. Bye.”

He pulled on his jeans, shoved his arms
through a striped button down shirt. Time for Plan B. He thought he
could resolve this transaction with a simple real estate deal, but
Mabe was a stubborn fool. A part of him understood though. He knew
what it meant to want something of your own so badly, how it felt
to stand for something right. He grabbed his car keys, heading
downstairs. He waved at Hope who cleaned the dining room table with
a cloth and a tart, lemony-scented furniture polish.

In his car, he pressed the button for
the Bluetooth. “Dial Rocko.”

An electronic voice announced, “Dialing
Rocko.”

On the second ring, a voice answered.
“Aaron. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“
I need to see
you.”

“
I wondered when I’d hear
from you. So, the little bitch refuses to sell to you, does she? I
have to admire her tenacity. She’s not the sap her father
was.”

“
Where are you? I’m on my
way.”

“
What, no
please?”

“
Uncle Rocko, you’ve got it
wrong this time, like normal. We need to talk before you do
something completely stupid.”

“
I
never
do anything stupid, boy.” His
voice reverberated throughout the car’s cabin. “You’d best remember
it.”

“
Yeah? That’s debatable.
Where are you?”

“
You can’t fix this
one.”

“
Where are you?” he repeated
through clenched teeth.

“
The Hilton in Downtown
Tallahassee.”

“
I’ll be there in thirty
minutes.”

He disconnected the call. All his adult
life he’d tried to clean up the messes his uncle created. People
were inordinately stupid, getting themselves in over their heads.
Rocko Toreni was always there with the checkbook. What these people
didn’t realize was how they’d signed a contract with the devil. He
was far from proud of his lineage. His mother had tried to break
from the family when she’d married real estate mogul Alvin Shaw,
but eventually the blight of her legacy encroached on her life. His
father had died trying to protect her from her own brother. He
swore, from the time he was a teenager, he’d track down every last
person his uncle had cheated and somehow make it right.

This case was just not proving so easy.
Most of the time the mark was so grateful to be bailed out of their
wrongdoing he settled up easy enough, but Mabe was no easy mark.
Hell, she wasn’t even the mark at all. Her father had been. Rocko
needed to just let this one go, but he wouldn’t. The greedy,
power-hungry son of a bitch would want every dime. When he didn’t
get it, he shuddered to think what he’d do.

In twenty minutes, Aaron roared into
the parking garage of the Hilton. For safe measure, he reached into
the glove box, grabbed his .38. He stuffed it into his jacket
pocket, throwing his coat over his arm. Strolling into the lobby,
he spotted the same big man he’d seen in the car outside
Shenanigans standing by the elevator. He strode confidently up to
him. “Take me to him.”

Without a word, the big man rose. They
faced the bank of elevators. Stepping into the car, the bodyguard
inserted his key card, pressing the top button for the penthouse
suite. They rode together in silence. The elevator pinged their
arrival, and the doors slid silently open. He entered a lavishly
decorated suite of rooms. His uncle was seated on a white leather
sofa, a highball glass in one hand, a cigar in the
other.

“
Aaron, my boy. So good to
see you.” Rocko motioned for the big man to pat him
down.

He tossed his jacket onto the chair by
the door and raised his arms, hoping the goon would just check him
and not his coat. Rocko didn’t always hire the brightest muscle. He
let out a silent breath of relief when the man didn’t check the
coat. He left it where it was in order not to raise suspicion. He
walked to the window looking out over the city.

“
Want a drink?”

“
It’s ten o’clock in the
morning, Rocko. No, I don’t want a drink.”

Aaron observed the man’s
nonchalant shrug. He wore black silk pajama pants, a white terry
hotel robe, with a thick gold chain around his neck. His black hair
was slicked back from a recent shower, and his cruel eyes focused
on his nephew, who couldn’t help but think he’d strolled onto a
scene from
The Godfather.

He sat in the chair opposite his uncle.
“Let this one go, Rocko. The man who owed you the money is dead.
Those women have just reunited to mourn the death of their father,
son of a bitch that he was, and they don’t deserve to have to pay
you a king’s ransom for his mistakes.”

“
You reap what you
sow.”

“
They didn’t ask for this,
and you know it. Mabe did everything she could to stop her father
from gambling. She didn’t even know he’d borrowed the money. She
finds out a few days before she puts him in the ground, and you’re
putting the squeeze on her before the man’s even cold in the grave.
Christ, Rocko, do you have a heart in there at all?”

He knew the answer, but it still
boggled his mind how cruel his uncle, Mafia Boss, Rocko Toreni
could be.

“
Look kid, I didn’t get to
where I am today because I’m a pussy. People borrow money, they got
to pay. They die? Not my problem. I still want my money. It’s
business, my boy. Something your father never
understood.”

At the mention of his father’s name,
Aaron’s blood heated. He refused to be goaded, yet no one could get
a rise out of him faster than Rocko.

“
Leave him out of this.
Listen, if you won’t back off, then let me write you a check for
what they owe. I’ll pay their debt right now.”

Toreni’s brows shot up. “Well, isn’t
this interesting?” His gaze held Aaron’s as he studied him. “Oh… I
get it. You’re sweet on that little redheaded piece of ass. How
charming.”

Aaron flinched at Rocko’s description
of Mabe. His uncle was truly a pig, but he didn’t rise to the bait
either. “You don’t need the money. It’s all a game to you any way.
Let this one go.”

“
How many bleeding hearts
are you going to rescue to try to save your father’s reputation?
He’s dead. No one cares about him anymore. There’s your mother
breaking her back with all this charity work, then you trying to
rescue the idiots who owe me money, it’s starting to get on my
nerves. You can’t stop this. I’m too big. The family’s too big. You
should be embracing the family business instead of fighting
it.”

“
I am embracing the family
business. My father’s. He was a good man, Rocko. You cut him down
for nothing. Just because he wouldn’t join your little band of
thugs who extort money from innocent people, you cut him down. I
swore on his grave I’d do everything within my power to clean up
every mess you made even if it killed me. I do agree. Some of those
idiots deserve you. But this family doesn’t. Shane O’Banyon did,
but he’s dead. Let it go.”