Finally Home (Home Series) (37 page)

"Kevin," she warned.

"OK, I'll back off, I'm sorry...but he isn't treating you right."

Overwhelmed, Lainey stood, dropping her napkin in her chair, not caring that all eyes had shifted to her.  She met Gina Adtkisson's gaze and gave her a small nod.

"Excuse me," she said, then turned and walked away, ignoring Kevin who was calling her name.  She saw Mike move to intercept her as she headed toward the restrooms and shook her head, "Not now, Commander," she said, holding her hand up to him.  Of course she knew better than to think he would actually give her what she wanted and wasn't surprised when he captured her arm and pulled her into the shadows.

"What did he say to you?" he asked, voice low and soft.

"Nothing.  Please, just..."

"Lainey," he warned but she shook her head.

"Please, Mike, just let me go into the restroom and collect my thoughts."

"
Cara mia,
" he breathed, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. 

"Let me go, Mike," she said, keeping her eyes averted so he wouldn't see she was on the verge of tears.  He mumbled something low in Italian, kissed the side of her head once more then released her.  Once inside the restroom, she took a deep, cleansing breath then sat on the settee that was in the restroom and covered her face with her hands.  Why was this so hard on her? she wondered.  She knew what to expect, knew that he had to work.  Why was she letting this bother her?  The answer, of course, was that it bothered her so much because she wanted him so much.  She wanted Mike
and no matter how petty or silly it was, she wanted him at her side so that all here could see them together.

After several deep breaths and a few moments of just being still and quiet, Lainey got up and walked out the door.  She was looking around for Mike and not watching where she was goi
ng, until an arm reached out to steady her and she found herself looking up into the cool blue gaze of Nick Casiano.

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Wow, this must be my lucky day," Lainey mumbled, but offered a smile to him.  "Hello, Nick."

"Miss Riley," he said, inclining his head to her, "I was hoping to run into you at some point tonight.  Gia said that Mike didn't escort you."

"He's working."

Nick shook his head.  "My brother forever misses the big picture on some things."

She tried to walk past him.  "I really don't want to listen to you put him down, Nick, excuse me."

He grabbed her upper arm, not hard, but just to stop her.

"Look, I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to upset you."  He glanced toward the dance floor when a waltz began to play.  "Will you come dance with me?  I'd like to talk to you
."

"I don't think that would be a good idea," she hedged.

"I'm married and very much in love with my wife.  I'm not a threat to Mike and I mean no ill will toward you.  I just...I'd like your help."

The plea in his tone was what caught her attention.  Nodding, she shifted her arm so that she was holding his arm as he led her to the dance floor.  She looked up at him briefly, but the pang she felt at looking into the face that was so similar to Mike's had her shifting her gaze away; it hurt too much to see Mike's face but not be dancing with him.
She caught sight of Riley and Colt but she couldn't see Mike.

"Lainey," he said, drawing her attention.

She reluctantly raised her gaze to meet his but couldn't stop the wince seeing him caused.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I know you must think all kinds of bad things about me...Carolina and I -"

She shook her head. "I know that she and Mike hadn't been dating for very long, and I know he didn't love her.  It may not have ever even been a big deal to him had all of you supported his decision to join the Navy, which he'd made before Carolina fell for you; he just hadn't announced it to all of you yet.  I don't know what your family dynamic is.
  I know that Mike never really felt comfortable within his own family; that's why he and Riley hit it off so well...Riley and his family filled a need Mike had.  They supported him.  All of you belittled him because he didn't want to become an attorney."

"I didn't.  I told him I understood."

"It must have fallen short after the sting of losing his girlfriend to his twin," she said dryly.

He inclined his head.  "
Touché."

"Look, I'm not saying he isn't without fault in all of this.  He's extremely stubborn. He probably just threw those walls up around himself and shut down and shut all of you out rather than deal with it."

"He did. After the blow up with our dad."

"What was that all about, really?"

She watched the muscle in his jaw tick the same way Mike's did when he was irritated.

"Dad grew up in the old country.  His family is very traditional.  Even though we are twins, Mike is acknowledged as the first-born son, the Proverbial Heir, so to speak.  Dad wanted him to join the firm.  He demanded that Mike join.  Mike flat out refused.  He wasn't dumb, he'd already joined th
e Navy before he told all of us so that there was nothing Dad could do about it.  We all assumed Mike would go in as a JAG lawyer, and I think that was Mike's intention, until the SEAL thing popped up.  He did come home and discuss that with Mom and Dad before he signed up for BUDS training.  It was bad.  Made the argument about him joining the Navy in the first place look like nothing."

Lainey nodded.  "Your parents were terrified then.  Before, they felt secure because he was going in as an officer and would be a Naval lawyer.  Joining the SEALs, however, would put their son in harm's way."

"My mother cried for days.  They were proud, don't get me wrong.  But they were scared, too...and with good reason.  Look what happened to him."

Lainey closed her eyes a moment, took a deep breath, then met his gaze again. 

"Yes, look what happened to him.  He successfully led his team through eight years of missions without losing a single man until that final mission. When that one man was lost, Mike made sure that his wife had a body to bury and that his other hurt man was extracted and got the help he needed.  He suffered through horrors that no one should have to endure out of love for his men.  He fully expected to die that day, for his men...and then came home to a family that was barely civil to him.  Forgive me if I don't have a lot of sympathy for your side of things."

Nick didn't speak for a few beats as they danced.  She scanned for Mike but still didn't see him; seeing Riley and Colt still but not Mike, which had her worried.

"I know we have a lot to make up for.  Mike shut us out.  He shut
me
out, and that hurt.  He's closer to Riley than he is to me, his own twin."

"His own twin married his girlfriend. How close do you expect him to be to you?" she replied.

Nick sighed as the song ended and Lainey stepped back from him.

"I can see we still have a long way to go to bridge that gap.  I just want a relationship with my brother again.  I miss him."

"Mike has a long way to go with his own healing before he can even think of working on his relationship with all of you.  I'm sorry, Nick, but that's just the way it has to be.  He has a lot of other demons to conquer first.  Excuse me," she said, turning away from him and heading back to her table. 

Mike saw his brother stop Lainey and lead her to the dance floor.  He stepped back into the shadows, seeing that Lainey was searching for him as Nick led her in the waltz.  He wasn't sure how he felt, seeing the woman that had captured his heart in the arms of his twin.  He knew that there was nothing to worry about; it was just a bit surreal to see them together.

"Hey, Boss, need you in the foyer," Colt said, drawing his attention.

"Coming.  Riley, you got her."

"Yeah," Riley replied.

Mike gave them one final look then headed out to find Colt, who was in the foyer with three of the Adtkisson security guards.  A teenager stood in between them, an almost terrified look on his face when Mike walked up.

"What's going on?"

"
Are you Casiano?" the kid asked.

"I am," Mike confirmed.

"I was told to give this to you," he said, handing Mike an envelope.

"Who gave this to you?"

"Some guy at the mall.  Came up to me and said he'd pay me one hundred dollars to deliver this to you here.  Gave me the money but said he'd know if I didn't give it to you.  He was kinda scary looking so I thought I'd better do what he wanted...and a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks."

Mike took the print out of Conroy's picture from his jacket pocket.

"This the guy?"

"Yeah, that's him."

Mike asked the kid a few more questions, but he really didn't know much more.  He stepped away and opened the envelope. 

Casiano - stop hiding her from me.

A grim smile settled over Mike's lips.  Frustration was setting in since they'd been keeping Lainey hidden.  It would only be a matter of time before Conroy came out of hiding to try to get a glimpse of her.  Hopefully they would be able to wrap this up soon.  He tucked the card into his pocket and went back into the ballroom, seeing Lainey back at her table with Kacee.

Kacee met Lainey
at the table after she'd walked away from Nick, handing her a glass of champagne.

"If you need somet
hing stronger, just let me know," Kacee told her.

"This will do for now," she said, taking the glass and downing the champagne as if it were water. 

"What did Nick want?"

"For me to help him rebuild his relationship with Mike," she said, seeing Mike step back into the room.  "
His family really doesn't understand him at all.  I only spoke to his father briefly when we went to dinner over there, but...Mike is nothing like him."

Kacee nodded.  "Lorenzo Casiano is very old-school.  He has family members who are very much involved in
La Cosa Nostra
.  Lorenzo is not, which is why he chose to move here to Jeannette's hometown, but he still has ties to his family.  Mike's Uncle Giovanni?  Makes John Gotti look like an amateur.  None of them understood when Mike decided to join the Navy."

"
Nick told me that with Mike being the first born twin, he was regarded as his father's heir, things were made even worse."

"And Nick had some resentment issues regarding that as well.  I mean, they are twins.  More emphasis should not have been placed on Mike just because he was born first, but that's the way the old-school families are."

Connor came and claimed Kacee, taking her out to the dance floor.  Lainey sat quietly at her table, watching her friend, catching glimpses of her parents as they danced.  She felt a bit like the girl who went alone to her high school prom, waiting for someone to ask her to dance.  A waiter came and offered her another glass of champagne.  As she took it from the tray, she saw Mike out of the corner of her eye and couldn't help the pang of longing that shot through her.  She wanted to be in his arms on the dance floor, to feel his hand on the bare skin of her back. 

Kacee's twin, Keith came and asked her to dance
, making her smile as he led her to the dance floor.

"You look too pretty to be sitting there watching all the action," he said when they began to dance.  She'd always loved Keith; he reminded her a lot of her cousin, Trevor, thicker and more heavily muscled than the rest of his brothers, always smiling.

"Thanks," she said.

"Kacee said things have started up between you and Mike?"

"Some," she admitted, "He's been distracted with getting the security ready for tonight."

"What's he doing to find the guy who's been stalking you?"

"Nothing yet.  His priority has been keeping me out-of-sight while we prepared for this, but I think he and Riley are figuring out how they can flush him out after tonight."

"That's good, I-"

He stopped when Kevin came up.

"Go dance with your wife," Kevin told him
, "She was looking for you."

"Yeah, yeah.  Thanks for the dance, Lainey," Keith said, walking away. 

She glanced nervously toward Mike as Kevin took Keith's place, seeing that icy gaze was locked on her.

"Relax, kid, I don't bite," Kevin said.

She cut her eyes to him.  "You aren't helping and you know it."

He feigned an innocent look.  "What?  I'm just dancing with my friend," he said, his hand lightly stroking her back as they danced.

"Knock it off, Kevin," she snapped.

"Mike Casiano has always had a stick up his ass, ever since we were kids.  Do you really want to be with someone like him?"

"It's none of your concern."

His hand on her back kept drifting lower, causing her blood pressure to spike and her eyes to continually shift to Mike to gauge his reaction and hopefully convey to him that she wasn't meaning to encourage Kevin.