Black Rose - NRoberts - G2 Black Rose

“You haven’t had any dinner,” David reminded her. “Why don’t I bring you something?”

“Not now. I’ll get something later.”

David stayed on his feet, watching her walk out. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered when she was out of earshot. “Smarmy, sleazy, last-season Ferrogamo-wearing son of a bitch.”

“Why don’t you and I go pay him a visit?” Harper stayed in his chair. His voice was still soft, as it had been, but now it had an edge to it, a predatory edge.

“That’s a damn good idea.” Hayley sprang up, fists clenched at her sides. “Let’s all go pay him a call. Right now.”

“Stand down, Xena.” David patted her shoulder. “While there’s little more I can think of that would be more entertaining than breaking a few of his caps, it’s not the answer.”

“I hear four when you add two and two,” Harper said. “I say it’s the right answer.”

“David’s right,” Stella pointed out. “It would upset and embarrass Roz, more than she’s already upset and embarrassed.”

“Then we won’t tell her.” Hayley threw out her arms. “We can’t just sit here.”

“I’m not,” Harper said. “You are.”

“Just a damn minute—”

“Hold on.” Like a referee, David stepped between them. “Think, Harper, past your temper. We go take a few very deserved hits at Clerk, his bruises’ll heal soon enough. And he’ll have the satisfaction of knowing he got to her, that he upset her. That’s the last thing she wants, and you and I know that. The most important weapon she has against him is indifference. She won’t have that when she has to bail you out on assault charges.”

“I’ll tell you what else.” Stella continued to sit, her hands gripped tight in her lap. “The more we make of it, the more upset she’ll be. The best thing we can do for her is to take a page from her book. Treat it coolly, like business. And to remember, if it’s hard for us to do that, how much harder it is for her.”

“I hate it,” Hayley raged. “I hate that you’re right, and I wish you’d been right after we’d beat the hell out of him. It shows character, Harper, that you want to stand up for her. And it shows character, I guess, to know it’s not the way.”

MAYBE NOT,BUT Harper couldn’t quite erase the picture of Bryce in a bloody pulp at his feet. It probably didn’t hurt that he didn’t know exactly where to find the man. Oh, he could find out, a few calls would do the trick. But those calls might trickle back to the source before he got there.

And in the end, he knew David was right.

But he couldn’t just sit at home and stew. There was another matter he could deal with, and he didn’t give a damn whether or not his mother liked it.

He was still spoiling for a fight when he knocked on Mitch’s apartment door.

He half hoped he’d find Mitch with another woman. Then he could punch him in the mouth and defuse the sparking end of his temper.

But when Mitch answered, he appeared to be alone. Unless you counted the noise that Harper recognized as a televised basketball game.

“Hey. How’s it going? Come on in.”

“I want to talk to you.”

“Sure. Wait.” Mitch’s attention had already swung back to the huge television screen that dominated one wall. “Less than a minute to halftime. We’re down two. Damn it. Goddamn it, loose ball.”

Despite himself, Harper found himself standing there, caught up in the action, calling out when number eight recovered the ball and, pivoting with a kind of magical grace, sent it sailing through the air.

“Three! That’s three.” Mitch punched Harper companionably in the arm. “And there’s the buzzer. Want a drink?”

“Could use a beer.”

“Don’t have any, sorry. Coke?”

“Fine, thanks.” He slipped his hands into his pockets as Mitch wandered off. Alone, he scanned the room, brow knitting over some coins dangling from red ribbons. “Hell of a TV,” he said when Mitch came back with a can.

“Next to my son, my pride and joy. Have a seat.”

“I’ll get right to it. Where’s this thing you’ve got going with my mother heading?”

Mitch sat, studied Harper as he lifted his own can. “I can’t tell you, as a lot of it depends on her, and where she wants it to head. Obviously, since I’m not blind, deaf, or dead, I find her very attractive. I admire what she’s done with her life, and enjoy her company.”

“If any of that attraction has to do with her money or her position, you’re going to want to step away, right now.”

With apparent calm, Mitch picked up the remote, hit the mute button, then set it down again. “That’s a very ugly thing to say.”

“She had a very ugly time not that long ago.”

“Which is why I’m not kicking you out of my home. Such as it is.” He reached down below the insult and got a tenuous hold on patience. “Your mother doesn’t need money or position to be attractive. She’s one of the most beautiful and fascinating women I’ve ever known. I feel something for her, and I believe she feels something for me. I’m hoping we’ll be able to explore those feelings.”

“Your first marriage cracked up.”

“It did. I cracked it.” He turned the Coke can in his hand. “There’s no beer in the fridge because I don’t drink anymore, and haven’t for fourteen years. I’m an alcoholic, and I destroyed my first marriage. All of which I’ve told your mother, in more detail than I’m willing to tell you. Because I thought she deserved to know before we took those initial steps into what I’m hoping is a relationship.”

“I apologize for embarrassing you.”

“You haven’t. Pissed me off some.”

“I’m not sorry about that. She’s my mother, and you weren’t there to see what she went through. What she’s still dealing with.”

“How do you mean, still?”

“She found out tonight he opened a credit card in her name—can’t prove it, not yet anyway, but it was him. Charged on it, so she’s got the hassle of closing it down, dealing with the legal end—and having to tell the rest of us about it.”

Mitch set the drink aside, pushed out of the chair to pace a circle around the room. And it was the temper pumping off him that calmed Harper.

“I thought about hunting him down, beating the crap out of him.”

“I’ll hold your coat, then you can hold mine.”

Another knot in Harper’s belly loosened. It was exactly the sentiment he could respect. “David talked me out of it. David and Stella, actually. Mama would hate it. It’s one of those things she’d find . . . unseemly—then there’d be the gossip that rolled out of it. So I came here to take a few punches at you instead. Work off some of the mad.”

“Mission accomplished?”

“Seems like it.”

“That’s something.” Mitch scooped both hands through his hair. “Is she okay? How’s she handling it?”

“Like she handles everything. Straightforward, takes the steps. She deals. But she’s churned up. More worried that he’ll take the same sort of shot at me, or my brothers. Embarrassed, too,” he added. “It’s the kind of thing that embarrasses her.”

Mitch’s expression went grim. “He’d know that, wouldn’t he? That’ll be the perk, even more than whatever he charged on the bogus account.”

“Yeah, you got that right. I want you to know, if you hurt her, any way, shape, or form, I’ll make you pay for it. Seems fair to tell you up-front.”

“Okay.” Mitch came back to the chair, sat. “Let me lay this out so we understand each other. I’m forty-eight. I make a good living. Nothing spectacular, but I do fine. I like my work, I’m good at my work, and lucky for me it pays the bills and gives me enough to be comfortable.”

As an afterthought, Mitch shoved the open bag of chips on the table in Harper’s direction. “My ex-wife and her husband are good people, and between us—without much help from me for the first six years, we raised a hell of a young man. I’m proud of that. I’ve had two serious relationships since my divorce, and a few that weren’t so serious. I care about your mother, I respect what she’s accomplished, and I have no intention of causing her any sort of harm or unhappiness. If I do, I have a feeling she’ll pay me back for it before you can get off the mark.”

He paused, took a drink. “Is there anything else you want to know?”

“Just one thing right now.” Harper picked up the bag, dug in. “Can I hang out and watch the rest of the game?”

ELEVEN

WITH HER HANDSon her hips, Roz studied her newly arranged In the Garden potting soil preparation area. It had taken two full days, eking out time between other chores and working with the precise-minded Stella to set it up.

In Roz’s estimation it would have taken her half that time alone, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as practical a work space. There were tubs of soil she’d already mixed herself, the worktables, the bag storage, the scale, scoops, bag sealer, stools.

Everything was arranged in assembly-line efficiency.

The outlay had been relatively little, which had pleased Stella, who had a head for profit as well as precision. With the simple design of the bags, some clever marketing, and what she knew to be an excellent product, Roz felt confident they’d do very well. Very well indeed.

Her mood was very bright when she turned to greet Harper as he came through the door of the work shed.

“What do you think of our new enterprise?” She held out her arms. With a laugh, she picked up a five-pound bag she’d already filled and sealed and tossed it over to him.

“Good look,” he said, turning the bag over. “No frills. It says this is serious dirt. Looks like something you’d see in a high-end garden boutique.”

“Exactly, and we’ll keep the price down initially, to get it moving. I’m having the bags overfilled by a couple ounces to give me a safety zone. I thought we’d put Ruby on the job, for a start anyway. Maybe see if Steve wants to take some part-time work. It won’t be that labor intensive, or take that much time.”

“It’s smart business, Mama.” He laid the bag down. “You’ve got a knack for it.”

“I like to think so. We still mad at each other?”

“No, but we might be after I finish telling you I went into Memphis to see Mitch Carnegie.”

Her face went blank; her voice turned cool. “Why would you do that, Harper?”

“One, I was pissed off. Two, David and Stella talked me out of hunting up Clerk and beating his face in. Third, I wanted to hear for myself what Mitch had to say about what’s going on between you.”

“I understand one perfectly. I appreciate two, on several levels. But I fail to comprehend why you would assume to interrogate a man I’m seeing. It’s unpardonably rude and interfering. I don’t run around snooping on the women you choose to see.”

“It wasn’t snooping, and I’ve never chosen to see a woman who stole from me or set out to interfere with my life or smear my reputation.”

“You’re young yet.” Ice dripped from the words. “Do you think I’m the only woman foolish enough to get tangled up with an asshole?”

“No, I don’t. But I don’t much care about other women. You’re my only mother.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to—”

“I love you.”

“Don’t use that weapon on me.”

“I can’t help it. It’s all I’ve got.”

She pressed her fingers to the center of her forehead, rubbed hard. “It would help if you added a little trust and respect to that love, Harper.”