“Listen, I know you care. I wouldn’t tell you this if I didn’t consider you one of us, but don’t get involved this time. I have a feeling this is going to get really ugly before it gets better. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Rena laughed even though she found little humor in the situation. “You’re the second Andrade to say that to me today. Nick said almost those exact words a few minutes ago. You should have seen his face when he said it. Something really upset him today. I wish I knew what it was.”
“Don’t do it, Rena.”
“What?”
“Don’t try to help Nick. He’s right. You’ll only get hurt.”
“I wish the four of you could always be as happy as you looked right after you came back from the island wedding.”
With a sigh, Luke said, “I have to go. Rena, promise me you’ll let them sort this out themselves. I have some time late this afternoon. I’ll come by to smooth over whatever blowup they have this morning. Stay out of it.”
“I will.”
“You’re not a good liar, Rena.”
Rena hung up the phone and squared her shoulders. Maybe not, but if Nick and Gio wanted me to stay out of this, they would have had their spat away from the office.
Rena placed her hand on the door to Gio’s office and took a deep breath.
I will not stand back and do nothing while they tear each other apart.
Sorry, Patrice. Whatever you’re up to is not going to work. Not this time.
Not on my watch.
Chapter Two
“I went to see Mother this morning,” Nick said slowly, watching his brother’s reaction. Of his three brothers, Gio was the most difficult to talk to about anything. Luke could always be relied on to provide a sympathetic ear. Max gave his unfettered opinion, when he cared enough to have one. Talking to Gio was more like trying to cross a field of land mines while blindfolded. It was impossible to guess which word would set Gio off, but an explosion was inevitable.
Gio took his self-appointed role as head of the family seriously—too seriously. It had been the root of many disagreements between them over the years, even if recently they’d called a truce.
A truce that had ended abruptly that morning when Nick had caught his mother crying and had asked her what was wrong. Her answer had infuriated him.
“How is she?” Gio asked smoothly, as if he were inquiring about the weather.
“Weak. The doctor has her on a monitor while they try a new medication.”
“I hope he finds what she needs.” Gio’s comment held just enough sarcasm to renew Nick’s earlier anger.
“It would be nice if you pretended to care.”
Gio walked over to his desk, sat on the edge of it, and crossed his arms in front of him. “I do, but I’m not convinced she’s as ill as she says she is.”
“I met with her doctor yesterday. His story matched hers. Is he lying? Am I? What the hell is your problem?”
Gio rubbed his chin with one hand. “She has no history of heart disease and the timing was . . . convenient.”
“Don’t you mean inconvenient for you? Afraid if it’s true it’ll cut down on the time you can spend with your fiancée?”
Gio stood up and dropped his hands to his side. “Leave Julia out of this.”
Shaking his head in disgust, Nick said, “I’d like to, but from what I hear she’s part of the problem. You may not care what she says to Mother, but I do.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I don’t believe you, but that doesn’t matter. I came here because you and Julia are upsetting Mother and it’s affecting her health. You need to go see her and apologize.”
Between gritted teeth, Gio said, “I have nothing to apologize for.”
Nick crossed the room and stood nose to nose with his brother. “I could give you a list that goes back years, but right now I’m referring to how you told her she’s driving all of us away and will die alone.”
Gio’s face went white with anger. “I said that because she . . .” He groaned. “Taken out of context it sounds bad, but . . .”
“Gio, you said it to an elderly woman who just had a heart attack. There is no context in which that doesn’t make you look like a fucking asshole.”
Gio rubbed one of his temples. “You don’t know the whole story. I didn’t tell you what she said to Julia.”
“I don’t give a shit what she said. I don’t care about your little security girlfriend. I care that finally getting laid has you so turned around you can’t see how you’re hurting our mother.”
“The only reason you’re still standing is because I know what it’s like to be fed lies by her. I feel for you, but if you value your life you won’t mention Julia again. Mother doesn’t need your protection, trust me.”
“So you won’t go see her?”
“Not until I’m ready.”
Nick shook his head in disgust. “I knew you were a heartless bastard when you threatened to have father’s mistress thrown out of her home if she ever contacted us. As long as you get what you want, it doesn’t matter who you hurt, does it? Mother wanted to confront her, but you wouldn’t let her have that closure, would you? It all has to be on your terms, doesn’t it?”
“How long have you known about Leora?”
“I always suspected Father had someone on the side. No one in the oil business needs to spend that much time in Venice. It was why I offered to go with you to collect his body. I wasn’t surprised by what you found there. But I was disappointed you didn’t think the rest of us deserved the truth.”
“You were young . . .”
“I’m two years younger than you are, Gio. Not a child. You didn’t keep us in the dark to protect us—you took advantage of the situation. While Mother grieved, you took over the company. She was so distraught she didn’t realize you had no intention of ever giving her back control.”
“Is that what she’s telling you? You’re forgetting I made you a full partner from the beginning. You chose not be involved. You could’ve joined me at any time. I’ve kept a goddamned office staffed for you for almost a decade.”
“An empty gesture. I tried to work with you when Father first passed. You shut me down every chance you got. Do you know what it was like to speak at a meeting only to have you correct everything I said?”
“You had no idea what you were talking about. I had worked my way up in the company so I knew what needed to be done. You came in with no experience. I couldn’t let you—”
“Fuck it up? Or learn enough to be your competition? You don’t fool me, Gio. You wanted full control and you got it.”
The door of the office opened and Rena strode directly up to the men. “I can hear the two of you in my office. Is everything okay?”
“This is none of your concern, Rena,” Gio said without looking away from Nick.
Planting herself directly between them, Rena put her hands on her hips and said, “Yes, it is. I love both of you and that makes it my concern.”
Nick put a hand on Rena’s shoulder. “We’re fine, Rena.”
Gio put his hand on Rena’s other shoulder and snarled at Nick. “Get your hand off my secretary.”
Nick said, “She may work for you, but you don’t own her.”
“True, but I won’t let you use her as another way to piss me off. Rena, stay the hell away from him. Understand me?”
“If Rena and I ever get together it will have nothing to do with you.”
“Nick, don’t do something I’ll have to kill you for.”
“Stop it. Both of you.” Rena looked back and forth between the two of them and shrugged their hands off. “First of all, I don’t belong to anyone, and no one could ever tell me who I could or couldn’t see. Second of all, there is no risk of anything happening with Nick because he’s practically my brother. Now, what is really going on here?”
Nick met Gio’s eyes over Rena’s head. “Nothing new.”
Gio glare
d back at him. “I’m not doing this. I’m not getting sucked back into the lies.”
“I hoped I could talk you into doing the right thing, Gio, but if you can’t be kind to your mother when she’s fighting for her life then stay the hell away from her. She doesn’t need your version of love.”
“I told her what she needed to hear.”
“Don’t do it again, Gio. Your reign over this family is over. It ends now.”
Gio barked a humorless laugh. “Are you threatening me?”
Rena said, “I’m sure that’s not what Nick meant.”
With a steely voice, Nick said, “Don’t test me on this, Gio. You won’t win.”
Gio ran his hand through his hair. “Nick, you’re letting Mother get in your head. This is what she does. She twists things around to suit her agenda. You can’t believe anything she says.”
“But I can trust you? You’re honest with me? Tell me, how long were you going to wait to tell the rest of us we have a half sister?”
His question hung heavy in the room. Gio waved a hand in frustration. “I planned to tell you when we returned from the wedding, but . . .”
“Really? It’s hard to believe anything you say.”
“I didn’t know about her until I went to see Father’s mistress in Venice.”
Rena asked, “You have a half sister? Does Luke know?”
Gio’s jaw tightened and his face went red with anger. “No. When we returned from Stephan’s wedding, we received the call that Mother had had a heart attack and I decided to wait.” He clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides. “I didn’t want to upset her.”
Nick shook his head in disgust. “I can’t stomach another moment of this. Stay away from me, Gio. Stay away from all of us or I will take from you the only thing you’ve ever cared about—Cogent.”
***
“Nick . . .” Rena said, but Nick was already walking out the office door. As she rushed to follow him, she heard Gio mumbling behind her.
“What the fuck would he do? He doesn’t even know where his office is.”
Rena sprinted down the hallway after Nick. Years of high school track paid off as she beat him to the elevator door. “Don’t go . . .”
He looked down at her, and the pain in his eyes chased the rest of what she was going to say clear out of her head. Normally he hid behind sarcasm and empty flirtation, but in that moment she saw the man behind the playboy façade, and the sadness in him ripped at her heart. “Stay away from me, Rena. I’m not in a good place.”
She took his hand in hers. “That’s when you need friends the most. Come back and try talking to Gio again. You’re brothers. You can figure this out.”
“I wish it were that simple, Rena, but your loyalty to him is misplaced.”
“I don’t believe that for minute.”
“Then you are a poor judge of character.” Nick tried to pull his hand away from hers, but Rena held on tighter. She had to make him see that walking away wasn’t the answer. When it came to why they didn’t get along, neither brother was entirely blameless.
Nick was right: Gio was brutally honest and most comfortable when he was fully in control of a situation. He didn’t delegate well and didn’t have the patience to wait while others worked out a problem he had already solved. She didn’t doubt Nick’s version of what it was like to speak at a meeting run by Gio. But she also knew Gio would do anything for his brothers, and that Nick’s criticism had hurt him, even if he didn’t show it.
Gio was right: Nick hadn’t been ready to run the company. Yes, he’d graduated with a business degree from a good university, but he hadn’t spent enough time at Cogent to make informed decisions.
Gio should have let Nick make mistakes—and learn from them.
Nick should have worked with Gio instead of turning the situation into a rivalry. Nick could be successful at whatever he chose to do, but maybe he’d have to come out from Gio’s shadow to do it. Just as Luke and Max had.
The problem with Gio and Nick was they were more alike than either would acknowledge.
Both too proud.
Too angry.
Too unable to see past the faults in each other.
“I have very good instincts when it comes to people. That’s why I know you didn’t mean what you said about taking Cogent.”
“You think I couldn’t do it?”
“No, I know you’d never intentionally hurt your brother. Just like I know you’d never hurt me.”
The expression on Nick’s face softened. He raised a hand and tucked a lock of hair gently behind Rena’s ear. “Take off your rose-colored glasses, Rena. You think everyone has some good in them, but we don’t. Not Gio. Not me.”
“That’s not true, Nick. You came here today because you care about your mother. That’s admirable . . .” Even if misguided.
“Stay out of this, Rena. There is no Hallmark card for a family as fucked up as mine is.”
Classic Nick. Hurt and lashing out. That got others to back off, but Rena knew him too well. “You can’t leave things the way you did. Go back in there and—”
“No. We were both clear enough.”
Rena pulled Nick closer, holding both of his arms as she tried to reach past his anger. “No, you weren’t. You didn’t tell him you love him. You didn’t give him time to explain his side of the story. If you did—”
Nick pulled back from Rena abruptly, his eyes burning with anger Rena couldn’t understand. “Stay away from me.”
There has to be something I can say that will make him see this isn’t irreparable. “Luke said he’d come by later today.”
“You called him?”
Rena nodded.
“Of course you did. You talk to him more than I do. I’m surprised you’ve never dated.”
“Me and Luke? No. I don’t think of him that way.”
“Are you sure? The two of you seem to find reasons to slip away to be alone whenever we’re all together.”
“He’s funny. And we’re usually talking about—” She stopped before she finished the sentence. She’d almost said, “You.” But Nick would take that the wrong way.
She took Nick’s hand again and said, “I know you don’t like to discuss your family with anyone, but maybe this time you should. I could help you—if you let me.”
Nick shook his head. “No.”
Rena held on tight, advanced and persisted. “Why not?”
“Because I . . .” He pulled her into his arms and ravaged her mouth with his. It wasn’t how she’d imagined he’d kiss. It was bold and hungry. It may have been meant as a warning or as punishment, but it was too full of passion to be either. He held her face between his hands and plundered. At first she was too surprised to kiss him back, but his touch sparked a heat that rose within her.
This was the kiss she’d always imagined they could share. It had a sizzle, a wildness that swept through both of them, making time and location irrelevant. All that mattered was his mouth, his touch, this fire.
His hands moved down over her, molding her to him with a roughness that only heightened the heat between them. She arched herself against him and felt his erection pulsing against her stomach. His lips left hers and claimed her neck, one hot kiss after another, until all Rena could hear was her own heavy breathing.
And she panicked.
She shoved him back from her and said, “What the hell are you doing, Nick?”
His expression was dark and angry even though his eyes raged with need. He glanced over her shoulder and Rena’s confusion grew. She demanded, “Is he there? Don’t use me to get back at Gio. I deserve better than that.”
He frowned at her accusation but didn’t deny it. Without saying a word, he turned and walked away.
One of the secretaries from marketing paused when she saw Rena standing in the hallway and asked, “Rena? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“What are you doing?”
“What?”
“You lo
ok like you’re waiting for someone.”
“No,” Rena said with a shake of her head. “Just thinking.”
Holy shit, what was that?
Chapter Three
“And that’s when the alien abduction turned ugly and they brought out the probes.”
Nick put down his seltzer and pulled his attention away from the crowd below to frown at the red-haired woman next to him in the club’s VIP balcony. He’d come there to forget—forget the argument with his brother, and the kiss he’d planted on Rena.
It didn’t matter that his brother had deserved everything he’d said to him.
He wasn’t proud of how he’d handled the situation.
And Rena.
Fuck, what was I thinking?
He could blame it on the heat of the moment, or on her for cornering him, but he knew the truth: He’d done what he’d wanted to do for a long time and, damn, it had been good. So good he was having a hard time convincing himself repeating it was still a bad idea.
She wanted him as much as he wanted her—that much was obvious from the kiss. So, what was stopping them? Gio? Kane?
Fuck them.
“What did you say?” he asked the irritated beauty, who was waiting for him to answer her.
She flipped her hair over one shoulder and huffed. The action revealed a long bare expanse of neck that yesterday would have been a temptation. She was dressed in a pricier version of the skintight, attention-getting bits of material worn by the masses below. If he cared enough to ask her, he’d bet she could tell him who made it. But he didn’t—care, that is. He couldn’t remember how he’d met her, but they’d hung out in the past. Even fucked a few times. But she meant nothing to him. He hadn’t asked her to join him that night. She’d followed him when she saw him walking up the stairs. How much she was or wasn’t entertained wasn’t of much importance to him.
And she knew it. “Have you been listening to me at all?”
Nick had done many things in his life he wasn’t proud of, but he wasn’t a liar, and he had no patience for those who were. “No.”
“What’s your problem tonight?”