Bound: The Pentagon Group, Book 3 (6 page)

“Brady had it all planned out. He was going to encounter you one day by chance and reconnect with you in the name of old friends reminiscing, and he was going to court you into an affair. It would be easy for him, using the memory of your time together while your mother lay ill and needing his mother’s expert care, especially when your marriage to Benny was failing.” She spun the tale.

“Then what Brady? What event made you change your mind? Did your moral compass somehow realign and you decided to go after me instead? Was it easier to get in the pants of the CEO of Parisi than a lowly director of finance to get the business you desperately wanted?” She formulated. I really wanted to know the answer, but anything I said or asked could make her angrier.

“It was a strategy, Aida. Something you wouldn’t know about seeing as the extent of your experience was a job given to you by your ‘papi’,” he retorted. I bit my lip and lowered my eyes to shield me from the wrath I anticipated. Instead I heard an immense, guttural laugh. I shivered.

“What about Liberty Inn? Did you have something to do with my getting the job because you wanted the property?” I blurted out my question. He looked at me quizzically. The look in his face made me think he had nothing to do with it.

“Oh, he can’t get credit for that,” Aida said with a veiled giggle. We both looked at her. “I did it. A little computer magic Eric helped me with. He made it happen. I don’t even know how, but it was perfect, wasn’t it?” She said. “Tell her, Eric.”

He refused to answer, but when she turned to look at him, he relented. “It was simple. Liberty placed an ad for assistance. You created an alert on your account for a job search engine. I sent you the ad as an alert. And on their end I made sure they received no other job applications but yours. Quite simple, actually,” he smiled, thinking himself clever.

It was Aida who caused everything to fall in line just to get revenge on Brady. The realization was like a slap in the face. I felt sick.

“He wanted the property. He wanted you. I thought let’s see how we can get both of these things to happen. Eric had the means to make it so,” she revealed her hand.

All the while I blamed Brady, but it was Aida, who orchestrated everything for revenge. I felt so foolish and angry with her for interfering in our lives, but I had to suppress it. It was important for me and Brady to figure out a way to get out of this mess.

*****

The silence while processing all of the information helped me realize I’d been too quick to judge Brady and the rest of the Pentagon men without knowing the complete picture. I had no idea of Aida’s wickedness.

“When did you start planning all of this, Aida?” I asked softly, needing to know.

“When I discovered he was fixated on you and you were ousted from Parisi, I hired Eric to find out more about Brady. He tapped into his electronic communication systems, both business and personal, and retrieved all the pieces of information I needed to conclude he used me, wanted you and my business, and eventually Liberty for Pentagram. I’d known for some time.”

“But you sat on the information for a year and a half?” I asked. She was bidding her time. She’d been pretending to be dead for almost a year. “Why did you wait so long to execute your plan? I mean sooner than the kidnapping you’d attempted several weeks ago.” I asked.

“Haven’t you heard the little refrain about revenge being served cold? I very well couldn’t complete this so quickly when planning requires a lot of time. It hurts more when executed,” she emphasized ‘executed.’

“When did you start working on Parisi?” I asked Brady. He seemed to think through the timeline.

“A little over three years ago. I approached her with our interest in purchasing Parisi. She was interested, but her father wasn’t. We started seeing each other much later. I gave her tips on how to make it feasible to sell.”

“And then the money started disappearing soon after she met you, which started all the problems for me. This was all about me like she admitted on the plane,” I said.

He looked at me quizzically.

“You dumped her after you got the signed memorandum of understanding to purchase Parisi, right?”

He nodded. “I started pulling back, working other angles of getting other businesses for Pentagram. Liberty was the most difficult to acquire, but I didn’t know you’d end up working there. It was a miracle. It makes sense she would manipulate your employment with Liberty,” he concluded. I nodded.

“Did you ever tell her to accuse me of embezzlement?”

“Never. She asked for advice on how to get her father to agree on the sale. I gave her hypotheticals of what I’ve seen in business for large, closed corporations like Parisi. I never told her to accuse anyone in particular. She made the decision on her own.”

I reached out to touch his clasped hands. My fingers splayed over his thick, soft fingers. My forearm caressed the soft, blonde hairs of his arm. He was warm. I smiled at him, remembering his hands were so much smaller and thinner when we were younger. He’d clasp my hand whenever we’d crossed the street while walking toward the park or home from school. Even when I told him I was too old for him to hold my hand, he still would. I would never have connected his manly hands with the young boy who took care of me so many years ago.

“How touching. Do you two want some time alone?” Aida asked.

I went to pull away, but he held my hand tight for a beat before letting go. I couldn’t tell if it was consolation, apology, or assurance.

“So this whole thing was really orchestrated by you, Aida. You did all of this because you disliked me so much, and you want to get back at him for not loving you and having a crush on me? Do you realize how insane this all sounds?” I asked

“Love makes us crazy sometimes. It can unlock the very horrors we hope it would suppress,” she calmly replied. “And I loved Ben, my parents, and even him,” she motioned to Brady. “But they never loved me back,” she stopped, clapping her hands together and standing. I shook my head in disbelief.

“This is how it’s going to go, we’re going into the master bedroom,” she reported. I was confused. “Escort them to the bedroom,” she directed Eric and Tony. Tony pulled out a gun from his holster, which I hadn’t noted before. He directed it toward Brady who finally looked scared. The dynamic had changed. The power had completely shifted to Aida, and I felt faint.

*****

Brady pulled me up from the couch as soon as he noticed I was out of sorts. I willed myself not to pass out. Weakness was not the characteristic I wanted to display in my last moments on Earth. When I looked into Brady’s green dominant, hazel eyes, I smiled, seeing Shay for the first time in a long time. I saw the care and affection in his eyes. I’d seen it before: watching his mother care for mine when Mami would retch after cancer treatments. He always looked concerned. It was obvious his empathy wouldn’t allow him to be a caregiver. He was too emotional for such a task. Those moments prompted him to take me and Tommy for a walk.

My body betrayed the innocent gesture. The tingles I usually felt for Matt were now creeping up my body. My flesh prickled as Brady held me so intimately. I couldn’t fight the truth anymore. Brady would be the last man who would hold me as I lay dying.

He whispered, “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.” Once said, he triggered a memory long buried. I remembered I was about eleven-years-old, and it was the last week of school before summer break. I was about five-feet-three-inches tall, and my body was already developed. No matter how much I tried to hide my bust with oversized t-shirts, it was impossible to hide my womanly figure. Ballet enhanced the muscularity in my body, and I couldn’t help but stand tall and move gracefully.

I was supposed to wait for Tommy to pick me up and walk me home from school. He failed to pick me up by the last bell. I waited a long while for him; long after all the kids and their parents had walked away. I told the teacher I was going to walk home. As I approached my block, a car slowed down and I heard a whistle, which caused me to turn and see a gray haired man with a scruffy beard. He looked damp in his white tank top. He called me over, and I quickened my pace. I hadn’t noticed Shay walking toward me. He was about seventeen, and when I noticed him, he was sprinting towards me as the man exited his car.

The man called me once again as he approached close. Shay was a good foot taller than the short stubby man, and the next instant, he had the man pinned to a parked car. He threatened the man. I don’t remember the exact words, but I remember the simultaneous feelings of safety, fear for Shay, and slight fear for the old man. The man didn’t fight back. He recoiled and scampered away when Shay let him go. My body shook in fear of what had transpired. He told me the very same words he’d just uttered, “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

Shay made sure I was okay before he admonished me for walking away from school grounds. He claimed his mother had called the school to have them hold me until he arrived because Tommy was detained in afterschool detention. A stern warning to remain at the school until he picked me up at the end of the day ended the entire discussion. He didn’t tell his mother or mine. I was sure he felt it was the last thing my family needed to worry about. I couldn’t imagine Brady could protect me from an armed man and two other people hell-bent on hurting us.

“This isn’t the scuzzy guy on the street, Brady,” I retorted. He looked at me.

“You remember?” I nodded. “I hoped you hadn’t,” he replied. “I’m going to make sure nothing happens to you.”

When we arrived at the door, my heart beat wildly. We entered and I was immediately awestruck by the immensity of the room. I had thought I freshened up in the master bedroom suite because of the size, but this one couldn’t compare. The other room was dwarfed by the enormity of the space and the opulent finishes and furniture. The round bed was also in the middle of the room, facing the horizon of the setting sun. A round sunlight on the ceiling was surrounded by beautiful lighting for night time. The room was decadent and over the top, but something I could see was designed with a love for life and nature. I never thought I could fall for such lavish living, but this space was a divine combination of austere and comfy. There were silver picture frames on the white baby grand piano. I could see a few were Brady’s family: his mother and two brothers and their families. I saw a school picture of myself; one of my late brother; and a beautiful picture of me and my mother during the last few days of Maggie’s care.

I pulled away from Brady and walked over to the picture, choking down a sob. My mother looked good, as beautiful as I remembered; maybe more so. She was doing so much better when Maggie was promoted to a different role. Shay was going away to college across the country. My mom usually refused to have her pictures taken, but in this instance, she let them. And I was there to pose with her. I’d forgotten how wide my smile could be. My brother used to call me “The Joker” because my grin was always from ear to ear. I lost my grin the day I learned her cancer returned aggressively, ravaging a new spot within her frail body. Behind the picture of the two of us, there was a picture of the three of us; mom, me, and Shay. He stood in the middle beside my mother and I stood on his other side. He had gripped me close, just like he did when Aida made her appearance.

I hadn’t remembered us posing for this picture. The image sparked another memory of him. I remembered how his body felt so warm. His smell was fragrant, oozing masculinity. I remember the tingles flowed upwards to my jaw and I felt flush as he held me tight. I had crushes on boys, but in that instance, I remember feeling ‘something’. It was brotherly love, sadness for his leaving, but there was a tinge of lust. I was twelve-years-old, dealing with the confusion of being a little girl who was emerging into womanhood. I’d had my period for less than a year and there were weird urges striking at odd times, and that pose was an indication of my desire for him. I had suppressed my attraction to Shay because my mother told me he was another brother. She also reminded me a Caucasian man would most likely marry a beautiful Caucasian girl. My mother didn’t pull any punches in putting me in my place as a poor, Latina girl, who lived in the inner city of Boston with a storied history of racial segregation.

Shay told my mother he would always take care of me. I shook the thought away, refusing to believe the flashes I was having. For a moment, it was as if Shay had shot back to the forefront of my mind. All the innocuous memories were more significant and pronounced. My twelve-year-old self was hopeful he would take care of me. I had fantasized he would be my boyfriend, and eventually marry me. I could see him in my life for the rest of my life. But within several months of him and Maggie being gone, I had moved on like most pre-teens do. Life threw me many challenges, and I’d filed his memory away in the inner recesses of my mind, only to have it jarred wide open by the revelation of his affection for me and Aida’s desire for revenge.

I turned to him and smiled weakly. The sheepish smile he returned caused him to bow his head, looking at his expensive leather loafers.

“You see the altar enshrined with your family’s photos. And you doubt he did all this for you?” Aida asked.

“He was a family friend. I was too young to want or expect more. We were just friends,” I emphasized. To finalize, I added, “That’s it, Aida.” However, I could see she was not swayed.

“You may have been his friend, but he’s had other plans.”