Criminal Pleasures (8 page)

Chapter Six

It was the following Tuesday when Brendan looked over his appointments for the day and saw a name that made his gut drop.
Gina DiPietro
. Marc’s little curly-haired cousin. He’d forgotten all about her.

“Oh, crap.” He picked up the phone and buzzed Willa.

“Hi, Brendan.”

“When did you make this appointment with Gina DiPietro? I didn’t see it until now.”

“Oh, she called today. We had a cancelation so I just slotted her in. Is that all right? She said you gave her your card.”

“Yeah, I did. Can we cancel her?”

“Ah, her appointment is in twenty minutes. Kind of rude. But if you want me to I’ll call her.”

Brendan slammed his fist down on the desk. “Damn. Okay, never mind. Just bring her in when she gets here.”

“Okie dokie.”

Brendan hung up and scowled. He’d told Marc he wouldn’t take Gina’s case. He’d promised.

“You do not want any professional entanglements with the DiPietro family.”

Just when he’d begun to forget about Marc. Well, that wasn’t true. But he’d gone from thinking about him all day long to only thinking about him about once an hour.

But did he really have to turn Gina away, based on Marc’s request? Marc had ditched his ass, after all. Lured him in again, only to shut him down. And all Brendan got out of it was a pizza and a kiss.
A fucking incredible, super-hot kiss
.

“Damn.” He looked down at his cell phone.
Don’t do it
. But he had to at least tell Marc that Gina was on her way in, didn’t he? As stupid as it was, he didn’t want Marc to think he’d gone against his word out of spite. It was a legitimate excuse to call him, right? Right. Sure.

He scrolled through his phone and found the number Marc had called him from the night he came over. He paused a moment, then hit the button.

It rang, then a recording came on, saying the number was not in service. Brendan hung up and stared at his phone. “What the fuck?” 

Ten minutes later, his office door opened and Willa stepped in with the petite, curly-topped woman he’d met with Marc last week. “Brendan, Gina DiPietro is here.”

He stood and rounded the desk. “Hi, Gina, nice to see you again. Thanks, Willa.”

“Hello again,” she said, beaming at him. “Thank you for fitting me in.”

“Come on over and have a seat.”

Willa left and closed the door, and Gina took the chair on the other side of his desk. “So what can I do for you, Gina?”

Her smile wilted. “I have three children. A few months ago, their father—we’re divorced, you see. He stopped paying child support. He says he got fired from his job and has no money.” Her pretty face folded in a vicious scowl, and she pointed a long, manicured fingernail at him. “But that son of a bitch is lying! He works for his father. He didn’t get fired, he just had his father take him off the payroll. He’s paying him off the books, I know he is! And he’s collecting unemployment on top of it!”

Brendan nodded. “I see.”

            “He thinks I have all this money because Poppy owns the restaurant, but it’s not easy supporting three kids on my salary. I need help.”

“Gina, if he’s collecting unemployment, we can garnish his unemployment check. They’ll take the child support right out and send it to you, he’ll get what’s left.”

Her eyes widened. “You can do that?”

He smiled. “Absolutely. I’ll need to get some paperwork from you, but it should be a simple matter. The courts put child support before any other expenses he might have. If he’s collecting, then he has to pay.”

“Oh, thank you, Brendan.” She visibly relaxed, her shoulders dropping. “How much will this cost me?”

He remembered Marc’s words again. But perhaps doing a favor for the DiPietro family was not as dire a sin as
professional entanglements
. “Don’t worry about it. I won’t charge you.”

“What? No, Brendan. I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“It’s all right. It really is a simple thing. It will be my pleasure to nail your ex, he sounds like a bastard, if you’ll pardon my language.”

This got him a huge grin. “He is a bastard. And worse. Thank you so much. Hey, at least come down to the restaurant tonight. I’ll buy you drinks. Marcello and I are working the bar together.”

Brendan’s gut flipped. “Oh, that’s all right. It’s not necessary.”

She stood and her stern face returned, as did the long fingernail pointing at him. “It is necessary. It’s the least I can do. Now you better come down tonight, I’m serious.”

Shit. Well, maybe he could go down, just for a little while. It would give him a chance to explain to Marc that he didn’t mean to go behind his back seeing Gina. That it just happened upon him. But seeing Marc, after his dramatic exit last week? Could he do that? He wasn’t sure. He’d be a nervous wreck. And seeing Marc would only ignite his desire again, he was sure of it.

But maybe it will ignite
his,
too
. He smiled at Gina. “All right. I’ll come down to Bibeta’s for a while tonight.”

“Good! I won’t feel right about not paying you if you don’t at least let me buy you drinks. I’ll see you at the bar later. And you’re not paying for nothing! That’s an order.”

He smiled at her, raising his hands. “I won’t argue, I promise.”

She laughed. “Sorry. I gave you my scary Mom voice.”

He chuckled and gave Gina some paperwork to take with her, and she kissed him on both cheeks before leaving.

Brendan tried calling Marc again, but again, he got the no service message.
What is the deal with this guy?
Nothing about him added up. Maybe Marc was just crazy. Like legitimately crazy, a personality disorder of some kind. Delusional. The more he thought about it, Brendan couldn’t believe this hadn’t occurred to him already. It made sense. For crying out loud, the guy had thunder and lightning
inside
his apartment. Charming as it may be.

“You think I am crazy?”
Marc had asked him this question that night at his apartment. At the time he’d taken it as simple small talk, but now he wondered if there wasn’t something to it. Maybe it was a warning of sorts.

He claimed to be engaged, but Brendan hadn’t seen any evidence of a girlfriend, and Marc had seemed ready to jump into Brendan’s bed at a moment’s notice. His free time didn’t appear to be tied up with a significant other. Did this mysterious fiancée even exist?

It was almost comforting to think maybe Marc was just bat-shit. It made it easier to accept his walking out on Brendan the other night.
It’s not me! It’s him! He’s just nuts!

But if this was true, then he shouldn’t feel compelled to go down to the restaurant and see him. And the excuse of needing to explain about Gina and her child support problems sounded lame even to him. But he
was
going down to the restaurant tonight. He knew this the moment Gina told him
Marcello
would be bartending with her.

He was going. He just didn’t know why.

I can’t help myself
.

He wanted to see him. He only hoped Marc felt the same about him.

Chapter Seven

Brendan spotted Marc behind the bar as soon as he walked into Bibeta’s Garden. Marc had his back to him, fussing with some glasses, but there was no mistaking that ass, or the sculpted slope of his shoulders. Gina was behind the bar at the other end, setting drinks on a tray for a pretty dark-haired waitress. Brendan recognized the waitress from the first night he was there.
Carmen
. She’d also said Marcello was her cousin. He wondered how many were in the DiPietro family. But his thoughts were interrupted when Marc turned around and spotted him.

Marc went completely still. He stood there like a statue, a rag in his hand, just staring. Then abruptly he moved off and leaned over to speak with a customer. Marc turned around and poured a glass of white wine as Brendan approached the bar. Brendan waited until he’d set it down in front of the customer, then he decided to bite the bullet and speak first.

“Marc.”

Marc stepped over to him, doing a little tilt with his head, like he was simply waiting for Brendan’s drink order.

“I just wanted to let you know, Gina came in today. I wasn’t expecting her. I helped her out, it was a simple thing. I know you told me not to, so I didn’t want you to think I was going behind your back. I tried to call but I guess your phone is shut off?”

Marc gave a quick nod, but his expression remained placid, unreadable. “Do you want a drink?”

“He’s not paying for nothing!” Gina called out.

Marc glanced at Gina as she approached, then he moved off to help another customer. Brendan’s heart sank.
He won’t even talk to me
.

Then Gina was there, all smiles. She was dressed identical to Marc, in black pants and tee shirt, except her short curly hair was partially hidden under a red kerchief. “What can I get you, honey? Anything you want.”

I’ll have the other bartender, please. On a skewer.

“Thanks, Gina. I’ll have a beer.”

She frowned, hands on her hips. “That’s it? Come on, it’s on me. You want a martini? I make a great martini.”

He chuckled. “Martini it is.”

She patted his hand and went off to make his drink. Carmen, the waitress, came up to the bar with another drink order, and she did a double take at Brendan. Her long black locks flowed out from under a red kerchief identical to Gina’s. “Hey, back again, huh?”

He smiled. “How you doing?”

“Not bad, thanks.”

“Hey Carmen,” an older, balding man at the end of the bar said. “Quit flirting with the customers.”

“Shut up,” she said. “I know him, I’ve served him before.”

The man leaned forward and looked down the bar at Brendan. He had a hawk nose and a rounded belly. Next to him sat a very young, very attractive blonde woman. “Don’t mind my daughter, Carmen,” the man said to Brendan. “She never forgets a handsome face.”

“I never forget a handsome
tip
, Poppy.” Carmen smiled at Brendan, then went back to the dining room with her tray of drinks.

So that’s Poppy
. Brendan wondered who the blonde woman beside him was. She looked young enough to be his daughter. Or perhaps even his granddaughter. But she didn’t have the coloring to be a DiPietro. Her skin was creamy white, eyes blue, with pale yellow hair tumbling in waves to her shoulders. She could have been a film star for how stunningly beautiful she was.

Gina set Brendan’s martini down before him, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for today,” she whispered. “Remember, it’s our secret, okay?”

“I won’t say a word.” He smiled, and Gina scurried off to the other side of the bar.

“Hey, handsome,” Poppy called out.

Brendan glanced at the old man. Marc stopped what he was doing at the bar and looked over at Poppy, then at Brendan, something like panic flashing through his eyes. “Are you speaking to me?” Brendan asked.

Poppy nodded and did a ‘come here’ gesture with his fingers. Brendan glanced warily at Marc, who turned away, busying himself behind the bar again. Then he picked up his martini, and made his way down to the old man.

“What’s your name?” 

Brendan stuck his hand out. “Brendan. Nice to meet you.”

“Brendan, this is Danielle.” He gestured to the pretty woman beside him.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hello.”

“So I was just saying to Danielle, that handsome guy down there seems to know all my kids, must be a good customer, eh?”

Brendan smiled. “What can I say? I love the food here.”

“
Grazie. Grazie
. I’m Vincent, but everyone calls me Poppy. Bibeta’s is my place.”

Marc whizzed by with a drink, his eyes sliding to Brendan for a moment before moving on.

Poppy pointed a crooked finger toward Gina. “My other daughter over there, she’s divorced.”

“Poppy!” Gina yelled out. “Shut it.”

“Ah.” He waved her off. “And my other daughter, Carmen, she don’t wanna get married. Thinks she’s the Queen of Sheba. Wants too many men to worship her, eh?”

Danielle giggled and playfully slapped the old man’s shoulder. “Poppy! That’s not nice.”

He wrapped an arm around Danielle’s shoulder. “This one here, she’s gonna give me lots of pretty grand babies, uh? She’s gonna marry my grandnephew, our Marcello, there. He’s the good looking one behind the bar.”

Brendan took a huge gulp of his martini. “Congratulations.” 

“Thank you,” Danielle said. “What do you do, Brendan?”

“I’m an attorney.”

“Carmen!” Poppy shouted over his shoulder. “We got lawyer over here. He wants to marry you!”

Danielle burst into giggles, and Brendan chuckled awkwardly.

“I’m just teasing you,” Poppy said, patting Brendan’s arm. “She wouldn’t marry you. She thinks she’s too good for marriage.”

“Lay off Carmen, Poppy,” Danielle said. “She’ll find someone when she’s ready.”

Brendan stared at Marc’s beautiful fiancée, and took another sip of his martini.
I have got to get the fuck out of here.

Carmen approached and tapped Poppy on the shoulder, then whispered in his ear. He nodded and grunted his acknowledgement, then climbed off his stool. “It was nice to meet you, Brendan. Have a nice evening. Gina! Get this handsome man another drink, on the house.”

Brendan was about to protest, but Poppy was already moving off. He greeted an old woman in the dining room with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, then put his arm around her, and led her around the bar, and through a door into what Brendan assumed was the kitchen.

“Is that Poppy’s wife?” Brendan asked Danielle.

“Oh, no. Poppy’s wife is deceased.” She stood. “I have to go, nice to meet you, Brendan.”

“Yeah, you too.”

He stole glances at Danielle as she moved down the bar, and leaned in to speak with Marc. She whispered in his ear, then they kissed. Brendan looked down. But his eyes slid back involuntarily as Danielle walked out of the restaurant. He looked back at Marc, who was staring directly at him. Marc waved him over.