Harmony (21 page)

He withdrew and she could breathe with ease again. He walked towards the door then paused and cast her another one of his half-smiles. He really was pleased with himself.

“
Are you sure Milo was the one to keep Willie hidden?”

“
Positive. I’ll bring Milo here myself and make him answer for it.”

“
I still think maybe I should go with you to get Willie…”

“
No.” Romano said firmly. “Things are a bit tense on the streets now. I need to know you’re safe. You stay here where you belong.”

Harmony frowned but nodded her obedience. He winked. “Good girl. I’ve already told Mabel to fix us a lunch. You pick it up and meet me out near the barn.”

“
Okay, Vinnie.”

She watched him go. Harmony’s spirits lifted. The blow to her heart thanks to Mabel’s cruel words still stung. But she had hope. That’s what she found with Vinnie Romano. Hope. Wrong or right, she’d made her peace with it. Milo’s betrayal hurt deeply, but if he had kept Willie safe through all of this she’d find a way to forgive. Her gaze returned to the open doors and the landscape outside. This place reminded her of new beginnings. Maybe after things settled down she’d go West. She heard the frontier was full of Negroes trying to start new lives. A new start would do her and Willie some good. Her stomach fluttered at the thought of leaving Vinnie. He’d never leave New York, not for her. Even if he did, they could never have a real future, though the idea of it did make her smile.
Harmony, stop, the man isn’t yours. Not really.

“
Can I have a word Boss?” Leftie asked. He stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting. A tight, firm look of disapproval hardened his features. Romano nodded that they’d speak freely in the room off to the right. When he followed Leftie in, he removed his pocket watch and checked the time. He’d have three maybe four hours with her before he’d leave with Antonio to bring in her brother. It would be enough time.

“
I trust you. I always have, even when I didn’t agree with you.”

“
What’s this about?”

“
Things are moving fast. You got a good two hundred men rolling out on Mickey Collins tonight. When it’s done things are going to change. It’s a big move.”

“
And?” Romano lowered to his chair. He didn’t see the point of rehashing his plans. He’d learned the ways of leading with a firm hand from his father. Though he’d never be that bastard, he wouldn’t explain his decisions to anyone. Leftie was fishing for something and Romano didn’t like it.

“
So that makes you a leader, and men who lead need to be careful of their image. Careful to remind others of the balance of things, always focused.”

“
You saying I’m not?”

“
I’m saying the Negro woman has been a distraction, almost as bad as Annie was. And we both know how badly that ended. Antonio tells me that you found her brother, and you plan to pick him up personally? Tonight of all nights? What’s she really doing here Boss?”

The question caught Romano by surprise. He knew Leftie would be concerned about the ramifications of the war he declared on Mickey Collins. There would be some fallout. If he started taking over Mickey’s territory it would rouse the suspicions of the Gambinos, The Five Points Gang. How Harmony fit into his plans should be of no concern to anyone but him. Though the comparison of Harmony’s need to save her brother and Annie’s heartbreak after he destroyed hers, was not lost on him.

“
I mean no disrespect, but it’s our business. These men are gong to risk their lives for you, and the lives of their families. You have to consider what your position means. It can’t be serious between you two? Right?”

“
Harmony Jones is here, she’ll be here tomorrow, and she’ll stay here for as long as I like.” He ground the words out between his teeth. “That’s all you need to know. That’s all the men need to know.”

Leftie paced away. Romano glared, watching him struggle to choose the correct words. It didn’t matter. He’d already crossed the line. “All I’m saying is tonight we need you with us. And tomorrow when the gun smoke clears, we need the same. To be with us.”

“
Harmony is off limits. To all of you! You understand?”

“
Perfectly.” Leftie said.

Eight

The Lion’s heart…

Determined, Harmony entered the kitchen with her head high. Mabel had caught her off guard the first time, but this time she was ready for the meddlesome woman. The smell of baked bread, roasted meat and melted cheese made her mouth water. Mabel stood at the stove stirring something in a pot. She didn’t bother to turn around. Harmony let her gaze take a complete sweep of the kitchen. Mabel must have spent many a day cooking in this place because it had a homey lived in feel to it.

The walls were lemon yellow and the kitchen cabinets and countertops ivory white. There was a knit dishcloth that matched the tablecloths hanging from the door of the stove. Her gaze fell upon the icy pitcher of lemonade with large round slices of lemons on the table and she started to approach.

“
The lunch he wanted for you both is on the counter, I placed a blanket at the bottom of the basket also.” Mabel spoke.

Clearing her throat Harmony went to a cabinet and located a cup. She returned to the pitcher feeling completely parched. “I, ah, I want to talk to you,” she said as she poured.

“
You said your peace girl.”

“
I need to apologize.”

The old woman stopped stirring and cast her gaze over her shoulder. Harmony forced a polite smile to her face. She drank down the lemonade in three deep gulps. “I’m not apologizing for who I am, or for the choices I’ve made since my Grams died. I’m apologizing because I shouldn’t have yelled at you. It was disrespectful.”

Mabel dried her hands on her apron and walked toward her. Her skin glistened with beads of perspiration. She had slender hands to be such a stout woman, and a heavy bosom that was proportional to her wide hips. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have spoken to you the way I did. Thing is, when I saw you with Vinnie…when I saw you two, it just made me sad.”

“
Don’t be. Vinnie and I are friends. I know that’s hard for you to believe but we are.”

“
You sure about that honey? I heard him in there just a minute ago yelling at his men about respecting his choice in you. Vinnie Romano is a complicated man. Been with him for many years, seen what losing Annie did to him. He hadn’t brought another woman home, and never here, until you.”

“
Oh that doesn’t mean anything,” Harmony said with a soft chuckle.

Mabel narrowed her eyes and dropped her hands on her hips. “Open your eyes. He’s not like the rest of them, and that makes him even more dangerous because he won’t play by the rules. It ain’t never dawned on you why he ain’t bothered by your differences?” Mabel shook her head with a look of disgust. “Besides, a colored girl ain’t safe in a house full of these kinds of men! But I see you prancing around here like it’s the most natural thing.”

“
I did no such thing. I didn’t plan to come here, he forced me.”

“
He forced you to hold his hand out in them fields? Force you to kiss him the way I seen it?”

Harmony chewed on her bottom lip and averted her gaze. Mabel released a patient sigh. “The man barely smiled around her, and he stopped smiling altogether when she run off. You been around him for what, days, a week or so, and I hear the man laughing?”

“
You think I’m trouble because I made him laugh?” Harmony wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes.

“
I think you trouble because the more you make him feel anything for you the harder it will be for him when this game of yours ends. And a heartbroken Vinnie Romano ain’t a man none of us want to see again.”

“
It’s no game Mabel, I’m a hundred percent. And the truth is I do care for him. More than I should I suppose when I think on our short history. I can’t explain it, but you know him, like you said he’s different. That don’t make me dense, I know the score. When this is over we will go back to our lives.”

Mabel looked her over. Harmony stood ramrod straight and matched her stare. The silence between them lengthened and for a second she considered the conversation over. When she turned to collect the basket Mabel spoke up again. Her voice absent of judgment was soft and almost pleading.

“
He has a lion’s heart.” Mabel warned. “Showed it to you didn’t he? Down in that cottage he don’t let nobody go in. You think that soft side of him the true side of him? Maybe it is, maybe it ain’t. Don’t change what he is and what you two will never be. Thing is Vinnie don’t think in those terms.”

“
This conversation is over. I’m done discussing it with you. What I have to say I’ll say to him.”

“
You’ll never be her!” Mabel shouted blocking her pass.

“
I suppose not,” Harmony said, a bit stunned by the tears in Mabel’s eyes. “Thing is I don’t want to be her, and to be honest I don’t think Vinnie wants it either. Since I’m sure I’m nothing like her.”

Mabel managed a smile. “You look like your mother. She used to give Eloise the blues, a stubborn little girl, a stubborn woman. But you different, I sees it. Stronger, I see that too. I never saw it in my daughter. She broke when he needed her to be strong. She took the easy road, when I taught her to be a fighter. She give up, you won’t will you?”

“
I’m sorry what are we talking about?”

“
Annie. She my child.” Mabel said.

The revelation flashed hot in Harmony’s mind.
Annie is her child?
Romano’s lost love was a colored woman? He’d done this before? She blinked at Mabel confused. The woman paled as well, with a lowered gaze Mabel took in a deep breath before she spoke. “Annie is my daughter, and she gone now because of Teek’s death. It drove her and Vinnie apart. Now he done gone and replaced her, with you. Not before she run off and replaced him with a man that could never love her the way he would.”

“
He never said…”

Mabel shook her head. “He different Harmony, more than you know. I’m sorry for what I said earlier. Who am I to judge you? I just, I was surprised when he brought you here. I thought my Annie was special but if he could replace her…”

“
She probably is special to him. He and I, well we met under different circumstances I’m sure.”

“
No. I see the way he looks at you. He romancin’ you. Don’t deny it.”

Harmony had no intention of denying it. He was indeed gentle, passionate, and even caring toward her after one day in his arms. But she doubted his feelings for her could reach beyond a love affair he had with another woman so fast.

“
What happened between him and your daughter?”

Mabel waved her hand and dismissed the question. “Here’s what you need to know. Vinnie making plans and they include you and this place. Already done asked me to go into town and get some dresses and shoes for you.”

“
I never asked for that.”

“
Wants me to open the house up and fill it with the things you like. Even told one of his men to bring up his phonograph and records. That mean he plans to stay here for awhile.”

The idea that his feelings for her had grown rocked her to the soles of her feet. He addressed her like she was his woman. Things with men like him moved fast. Hell, Grams wasn’t cold in the grave and she was tending to Lewis’s desires and needs. But she thought she was special to him. And the feelings blooming between them were new to them both since they were so different. Now she hears she is his replacement? For Annie?

“
I’ll be careful,” Harmony mumbled trying to mask her disappointment.

“
Good. Now get going. He’s waiting on you.”

“
I have a question, is there a phone here?”

Mabel blinked. A guarded suspicion clouded her eyes and her lips pressed into a tight thin line.

“
I won’t get you in trouble but I’ll need to use it when I come back. One phone call. Please?”

“
There’s one in his office, got a direct line into town. Come find me when you get back. I’ll let you in there to use it.”

“
Thank you.” She plucked the basket from the table and hurried out of the kitchen through the back door. Harmony sucked down fresh noon air, and cleared her head. She straightened her back and fought back the angry disappointment stirring in her gut like a winter storm, cooling her feelings for him. At the very least he owed her an explanation. Bringing her here, trying to set up house, had all of it been to replace another woman in his life?