A Promised Fate (34 page)

“Ari, fancy seeing you here,” the hard baritone of
Cameron Gallo’s southern accent made my nerves crawl. The sound of
his voice scattered up my spine and burrowed into my brain like a
seedy cock roach. He patted my shoulder and gave it a hard
squeeze.

My eyes remained on Ava in the distance and I slid my
phone back into my pocket.

“Leave us alone, Gallo. I have nothing to do with
you.”

“You're right, Ari. You have nothing to do with me.
Angels fan?”

“No. You?”

“I’m from Texas, Ari.” His accent said it all; he was
undoubtedly a Rangers fan. A quick look back in his direction
showed me his old, faded Texas Rangers cap, complete with a small,
ratty tear to the front of the bill. The hat was uncharacteristic
of his rich and polished style and stuck out like a sore thumb in
contrast to his tailor made slacks and loafers. “Are you a fellow
Rangers fan then?”

“No, I certainly am not.” I stepped up to the stand
and ordered, “Two hotdogs with relish and extra mustard, three
bottles of water.”

“May I ask what interest you have in this game?”

“What interest do you have in Julia?”

“I have no interest in Julia.”

“Where is she?”

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen her since you and I
last spoke. As I said before, my interest is in Ava. Only Ava.”

“Leave. Her. Alone.”

“I am on your side, Ari.”

“I don’t need you on my side.”

“Wrong again.”

I grabbed the hotdogs in one hand, the waters in the
other and turned to walk away.

“I would like to meet Ava, she ran off at the
baio
show before I had my opportunity.”

My muscles tightened and hairs pricked at the nape of
my neck. “Stay away from her.”

Cameron’s gaze followed mine and his eyes narrowed at
the sight of my wife and child.

“Max,” he said and smiled when he spotted him. “I
have a daughter his age and she is always looking for new friends.
We're seated in the dugout suite. I’ll fetch Lola and we'll come
over to say hello.”

He walked away in the direction of the Rangers dugout
without ordering anything at the concession stand.

“Hey, Baby.” I nudged her shoulder with my wrist and
handed over her hotdog. “Careful, it’s hot.”

“Thanks! Long line? You were gone forever. I was
about to come look for you.”

“Mmm hmm. Having fun? We don’t have to stay for the
whole game. I’m happy to head home whenever you are. We can get
ahead of the traffic and just play on the beach by the house
tonight…”

“Ari,” she patted my empty seat beside her. “It’s a
good game. Max won’t be ready to go for a long time.”

I slid down into the chair and passed Max his
hotdog.

“There are forty thousand people here. We're safe. We
don’t need to worry about that stuff right now. Let’s try to
have…fun.” She bumped her shoulder with mine. “Relax. We're
winning!”

“I know. And I
am
relaxed. And who are we
cheering for?”

“The Rangers.”

“I’m from L.A. Why aren’t we cheering for the
Angels?”

“You’re not really from L.A. and I like the Rangers…I
have a thing for southern accents.”

“You do not.”

“Ok, you got me, I don’t.” She took a massive bite
from her hotdog. “But I like the team just the same. You know – the
Rangers were my dad’s favorite team.” She talked past a mouthful of
food.

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

“Your dad told me. He gave me a picture he had of my
dad wearing a Ranger’s cap. Makes me want to root for them just for
my Dad’s sake.”

“Go Rangers.” I winked.

“Ari.” Cameron squeezed my shoulder again, alerting
me of his quick arrival. “Having fun?”

“We were.”

“This is my daughter, Lola.” Cameron smiled brightly
down on a little, messy-haired girl who hid behind his knee. She
made him seem less polished. She made him more human.

“Hi.” Lola looked past me with wide, blue eyes
staring at Max. He froze in his embarrassment caused by the little
girl and smashed his reddened face into my arm.

“Smart, pretty girls make him nervous,” I told
Lola.

“I am very sure he’ll grow out of that.” Cameron
stared at Ava who hadn’t yet bothered to look away from the game.
“Hello, Ava. I am Cameron.” He purred. The way he stared at her
made me want to kill him.

Ava looked up in his direction and squinted her eyes
in the bright sun. She had another bite of hotdog in her mouth and
licked at the small drop of mustard on the corner of her lip. “Hi.”
She swallowed, smiled politely and then put her attention right
back on the game.

I grinned triumphantly at my girl.

“It’s nice to meet you.” He pulled her back into the
conversation.

“It’s nice to meet you, too…?”

“Cameron Gallo.” He said and his eyes narrowed,
causing the skin to pull in the corners.

“Do you work for Ari?”

A hint of humor twinkled in his eye. Cameron is a
well-known man. From what little I have read about him, he owned
everything. He knew everyone and more importantly, everyone knew
him. My own sister had a weird and marginally inappropriate crush
on the man nearly twice her age. Every woman in the stadium would
jump at the chance to speak with him. Ava had unintentionally but
significantly wounded his pride and I couldn’t help but love her
even more for that.

“Not exactly, no. I am involved in many things, but
the fashion industry isn’t one of them. I …”

She was blissfully unaware of Cameron as he talked
and did not grant him the least bit of attention. Ava wasn’t
deliberately being rude, she was just pre-consumed. She jumped from
her seat when a loud crack from a baseball bat echoed through the
stadium. The ball flew into the bleachers and the batter sped
through the bases for a home run.

She cheered and Max jumped alongside her.

“We have a box reserved. You are welcome to join us.
There is plenty of space. Much better food…I am friends with the
team’s manager. Your son can meet the players after the game. Maybe
run the bases if he would like.” He turned back to me.

“Thanks, Cameron that sounds nice but we're all set
here. In fact, we were just talking about leaving. Lola, it was a
pleasure meeting you.”

She smiled past me at Max and the very tops of his
cheeks blushed just as Ava’s sometime do.

“Bye, bye.” The little girl said to Max.

He stared back at her, unblinking and mesmerized by
her pretty, doll face. “Bye,” he said back to Lola Gallo and Ava
and I both gasped at the unexpected sound of his voice.

“
Cameron Gallo…”

Ava’s laptop was a slow and frustrating piece of
machinery. Her MacBook hummed in a sort of threatening way as the
search engine slowly turned out news stories, tabloid pieces and
Wiki pages. Combing through the slush pile of information over the
past few weeks, I learned that his father’s business failed when
Cameron was an infant. Gallo Sr. killed himself, leaving young
Cameron with a mother who was less than capable of caring for
him.

A stranger took pity on Gallo as a young kid and
mentored him, helping him get a better start in life. When the
mentor died, he left a large fortune to Gallo, a fortune that
helped the young man to live but not to live with seriousness. He
started school at Harvard but soon dropped out, more interested in
being a philanderer and seeing his name in print. One affair after
another with a page-long list of beautiful women made the tabloids
… until he married a doe-eyed Texan, Dove Bethel.

“Useless garbage…” I mumbled and continued my search.
A peal of Max’s giggles rang from the sun porch and was followed by
a happy meow from Fluff.

Images of Cameron and Dove together littered the
search page, the two of them polished and smiling together at
charity galas and ribbon-cutting ceremonies. There were a few, too,
of Dove in a string bikini lounging on the deck of a yacht while
Cameron chipped golf balls into the Adriatic Sea. They looked happy
together.

The computer pages contined to roll along. School
long forgotten, Cameron seemed secure at 29… his net worth had
climbed to $21.5 billion, he had been considered America’s foremost
and youngest billionaire for quite some time, he owns the largest
privately held equity company, The Gallo Firm...and so on. But none
of what I was reading mattered to me. I needed to know what he
wanted with Ava. I needed to know
who
he was. Gallo is
Greek. It means cock, like a rooster – a Gallo is someone who is
vain, egotistical, arrogant and haughty. A fitting name.

“Max,” Ava warned as she passed by the den, “don’t
squeeze Fluff too hard, you can hurt him. Ari, watch him.”

“I am…” my eyes stayed on the screen.

“The guy's a philanthropist,” I muttered mostly to
myself. “He donates millions of dollars a year – listen to this
list! Global Fund for Women...Witness for Peace…Global Hunger
Project… Farm Sanctuary… Cancer Care and Research…Center for
Survivors of Violence and Kidnapping…National Center for
Post-Traumatic Stress… Huh… he gives to
House to Home
…wow, a
lot, too…”

“What, Ari?!” Ava hollered over the babble of my
mother and Gianna’s conversation as it floated in from the
kitchen.

“Nothing, Babe.”

Scrolling the curser through pages and pages of
articles relating to his love life, business affairs and
humanitarian work, I found a piece of interest that was dated
nearly two years prior.

“He funded an extremist group in Greece? What the
fuck!”

“Ari!” Ava hissed and I could imagine my mother and
Gianna both sending me nasty, disapproving looks.

“Sorry, Babe. Mom. G.”

I clicked the link.

“I thought you said you would help!”

“I will. Just a second….”

My eyes scanned the report, quickly reading parts of
the article to myself. “Business Mogul, Cameron Gallo was
questioned today concerning a money trail linking him to a highly
secretive Greek extremist group known as the Ziloti. Little is
known about the Greek secret society but it has been suggested that
they hold strong ties associated with the terrorist family of Kakos
brothers. Gallo denies any affiliation with or funding of any
extremist or terrorist groups and… ”

Ava’s laptop closed in my face. “Are you listening to
me?”

“Of course…”

“What’d I just say?” Ava flashed a white-toothed,
plump, pink-lipped smile at me. The dining room light shined down
on her and gave her a soft, angelic glow. “Hmmm? I’m waiting, Ari…
What did I just say, Mr. I’m Listening?” Her fingers impatiently
tapped the top of her closed laptap. The curve of her mouth lifted
in a tease causing her freckle to dance.

“Umm…” That tiny little freckle has the ability of
making me forget my own name. She is a goddess designed to take a
man to his knees. “You’re gorgeous, Ava.”

“That’s what I thought. Now, you promised you would
help us so come on and get up. If you get working, we 'll be done
in an hour.”

“Okay, I am all yours, what do you need me to do?” It
was the weekend before
House to Home’s
charity gala and to
cut back on spending the center’s funds and taking more money away
from the cause, Ava decided she would do as much as possible
herself, recruiting the family to pitch in with a list of side
jobs.

“Rory is loading all the door prizes into my car …
you can help him with that or you can help Gianna, Lauren and Aggie
with the centerpieces.”

“Or?”

“Or…you can help me with the place cards.”

“Do I get to hang with you if I do the place
cards?”

“Yep.”

“Then I’ll do that.”

“Great! Here is the list of guests; every name has a
number associated with it. For example,” she plucked a place card
from a small stack of finished cards, “Robert Phillips - 8.1, so
Doctor Phillips will be seated at table eight, seat one. As a guest
arrives, he will find his namecard with the table number printed on
the back. All you need to do is make sure all the names are
numbered. Here is a diagram of how the seating should look.” Ava
set a poster board on the table that replicated the round tables
with numbers and names.

“Sure, I can handle that.” I took the list from Ava’s
hand and read some of the names of donators who had purchased
tickets for the evening. She sat the big stack of unfinished place
cards beside me on the table with a get to work look on her
face.

“Hey Baby, do you remember Cameron Gallo? We met him
a couple of weeks ago at the Rangers game.” Quickly, I scanned the
sheet but he wasn’t listed as a guest. “He donates quite a bit each
year to the charity.”

“Gallo?”

“Mmm hmm…”

Her nose scrunched. “Oh yeah, he’s that guy your
sister crushes on.”

“Yeah, him.”

“I vaguely remember meeting him, why do you ask? Is
he a friend of yours?”

“No. No way. He donates a lot of money to
House to
Home
, are you sure he’s never called you for anything? He’s
never come to the center for a meeting?”

“No, Ari. Gallo must be one of your dad’s donators.
Andy would handle anything that would have to do with him. I work
with my own people and he does the same, it’s just easier that
way.”

“Right… sure.”

She pushed away from the table and stood, grabbing
the laptop and putting it under her arm. “I’ll put this back in the
study.”

“K… Oh, wait a minute, Ave!”

“What?” She turned back around to face me.

“This place card is wrong. You have Fauna Korie
printed but she doesn’t work for me anymore, this needs to be
reprinted, it should be for Lirik Nino.”

“No.” Ava pointed down at the sheet of names. “Lirik
is on here, too. See? Lirik is included with your work table that
you purchased and Fauna is included with this group.” She pointed
to table number four on the diagram.