Revengeful Deceptions (6 page)

“What's up dad? Was about to head
out to lunch,” he said glancing at Dominique who stood patiently waiting.

“Yeah, I need to talk to you for a
minute son.”

“Well can it wait until after lunch
dad?”

“No it can't son, I’m gonna need
you to come into my office. Dominique?” He said as he made his way towards her,
hand out stretched.

“Yes sir, nice to meet you,” she
said giving him a firm hand shake.

“Dominique I hate to do this to you
but I’m going to have to steal your lunch partner away from you but if you need
any suggestions of where to go, I’m sure Molly will be more than happy to help
you out. Again, I apologize but I have a pressing matter that cannot wait.”

“No need to explain sir I
understand completely.”

“I knew you would, thank you.” And
with that he took his son by the arm and closed the door behind them.

Well that wasn’t awkward,
thought Dominique as she headed towards Molly's desk. Molly was more than happy
to accept Dominique's invitation to lunch as not many employees took the time
to befriend her. Over lunch Dominique couldn’t help but ask Molly what she knew
about Adam and his brother Brandon. Molly was more than happy to divulge as
much information as she could.  Although she told Dominique it was just
office gossip, she explained that Adam was the golden child of Jonathan and Muriel
Caruso, and that Brandon was obviously the black sheep of the family. He was
always getting into trouble but his dad always got him out of it either with
money or clout. When she asked Molly if Adam was married, Molly let out a
giggle.

“What’s so funny?” Dominique asked,
“Is he gay? Is that why you’re laughing? It would certainly explain his
impeccable good looks and sense of style,” Dominique said shaking her head.

“Adam, gay?  No, of course
not.”  Molly could not stop giggling.

“Alright, so he's not gay, is he
married?”

“No, it’s nothing like that she
said giggle down to a smile. I was laughing because this is the kind of stuff
that friends talk about Dominique and since I'm seriously lagging in that
department, it made me happy that’s all,” she said to Dominique.

“Well you have one now Molly,” said
Dominique, glad because she too felt like she made a new friend.

Molly smiled again as she told her
everything she knew about Adam. By the time their lunch hour was over,
Dominique had found out quite a bit about him. Although he was bit of a flirt,
as far as Molly knew he was single. His last serious relationship was over a
year ago and supposedly he ended it when he found out that while he was away
visiting family in Italy, she cheated on him.  Dominique almost didn’t
believe what Molly had told her, it amazed her that someone as good looking and
seemingly kind hearted as Adam could be cheated on but Molly had told her that
his girlfriend had turned out to be a goldigger, so much so that it didn’t
matter how good looking Adam was, she was solely in it for the money.

Dominique felt sorry for Adam, she
knew that it was very rare to find someone who you could really connect with
and when that person doesn’t feel the same, it can be
gut
retching. It seemed that not only was he a kind man, he was the complete polar
opposite of his hideous brother. When Molly and Dominique returned back from
lunch, Dominique couldn’t help but notice that Mr. Caruso's door was closed,
she wondered if Adam was still inside.

“Dad, can I ask why you summoned me
then barely said a word to me this whole time?”

“Son I don’t want you to get
involved with the new girl.”

Adam let out a sarcastic chuckle,
he reminded his father of the many indiscretions that he was currently involved
in.

“Adam, that's none of your business
and besides, whoever I see, is no one that is employed here.  I don’t want
you getting hurt Adam, I can already tell by the way that you look at her son,
that you're interested. I want you to put a stop to it before things get out of
hand son.”

“With all due respect dad, I’m a
grown man and it's really none of your business who I am or am not interested
in, I’m single dad and as long as it doesn’t interfere with my work or hers I
don’t see a problem. Now if there is nothing else, I’ll be going to lunch,
alone now thanks to you,” he said as he opened the door and slammed it behind
him. Jonathan Caruso knew that if he pressed the subject with his son, it would
drive him to defy him, and he already had a son who loved doing that, he did
not need another. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all. If Dominique gets
close to Adam and falls for him, becomes part of the family, she'll have a much
harder time punishing the brother of the man she loves if she ever found out
what he did to her family. “Yes, this could work out for us all,” he murmured
to himself.

Chapter Eight

After Brandon had collected his
advance from payroll, he was easily able to skip out of his new job and head
over to Mickey's bar and grille. The lunch time crowd had emptied, leaving only
the usual customers behind, included in that was Nick Kilarmo.

Nick Kilarmo still ran with the
DiNunzio crew, and even though he was forty pounds heavier and smoked like a
chimney, he still was the most sought after hit man used by DiNunzio. That’s
where his allegiance has always been. So it was no surprise to Brandon to find
his friend sitting at the bar. Nick turned to face his friend before he had a
chance to surprise him.

He could not help but frown at
Brandon who seemed far too relaxed. Two years or not, when you murder a child,
it definitely does something to you. And Brandon showed no signs of it ever
having any effect on him;
the kids got no heart,
thought Nick. Not like
him, oh sure he hurt people for a living, even killed some, but they had done
something to deserve it. That poor guy and his son didn't do a goddamn thing
and they still ended up dead. Nick was punished by nightmares every night while
Brandon got a round trip ticket to Italy.

“I thought I heard you were back in
town,” grumbled Nick.

“Hey buddy, well it’s nice to see
you too!” Brandon said sarcastically. “What crawled up your butt and died?”

Nick had to look at him again, he
had to make sure that it was Brandon and ask himself if the kid was as stupid
as he remembered.

“Do you really have to ask
Brandon?” Nick said who was now, more than annoyed at his nonchalant attitude.

Brandon shrugged his shoulder; he
really didn’t know why his friend had not put out the warm welcome mat like he
deserved.

 
“Let’s step outside and I’ll refresh your
memory.”  Nick shoved Brandon towards the back door. As they stepped into
the small alleyway, both lit a cigarette.

“Now,” said Nick, “Do I really have
to inform you as to why I did not put out the welcome mat upon your return
buddy or are you just pretending to be a dumb fuck?”

“Alright, alright, I understand
Nick but it's been almost two years buddy and the police ain’t working the case
no more. Besides, I couldn’t tell you then but I can tell you now, my old man
took care of everything, he got rid of the Escalade man, he took care of it
all. He's even been keeping tabs on the wife. That’s why he made us get the
driver’s license info pal; it was so he could cover our asses.”

 
“How the hell does he know that she won't find
out exactly who we are and what we did and fucking come after us Brandon? Huh?
You killed her husband and son and I was the fucking accomplice! Answer me
that, you stupid fuck!”

“Nick, Nick, calm down! You’re
gonna make yourself crazy and besides, if she knew who we was she would have
gone to the police already man, chill.

I told you my old man's got his own
investigator, and the guy gets paid to follow her everywhere she goes, there
isn’t one thing that she does that my old man don’t know about so calm the fuck
down, everything is under control buddy. Why do you think I came back? Because
my old man said it was safe. Don’t you see?  So you’re worrying for
nothing Okay buddy. It's all in the past and the old man's got her in check, so
CALM down.”

 
“And why is it your old man don’t tell us who
she is so we know who to look out for Brandon? Don’t you think that would be
the smart thing to do Brandon? So we know who is coming after us?”

“Nick man, my old man says
it’s
better that we don’t know who she is see? That way we
ain't so involved anymore, it's all on him he told me. Nick man you gotta
listen to me, my old man ain't gonna let nothing happen to us, his entire
career is on the line and he ain't gonna do nothing to jeopardize that Nick,
nothing. So calm down, everything is gonna be Okay buddy you'll see.”

Nick wasn’t sure if things were
going to be okay, ever since the accident he's tried to keep tabs through the
internet but working for DiNunzio was a 24 hour job, one that couldn’t be put
on hold to surf the web. Once when he was able, he found news footage of the
accident showing pictures of Stephen along with his wife and son.

The images of Stephen's wife were
blurry and her head was partially obscured by a smiling Teddy sitting upon his
father’s shoulders. He wanted to make sure there had been no surprise witnesses
and so far, there weren't, thank god.

He kept on checking the internet
for two years, and for two years he found less and less about the accident,
until finally the police announced that it was cold. It hadn’t stopped the
nightmares though, seeing that little boy’s body lying so still would haunt him
for the rest of his life, of that he was sure.

There was also another thing he was
sure of,  Brandon's father had far too much to lose were he or his son
ever found out and for Nick that meant he had the upper hand. He was pretty
sure that Jonathan Caruso would pay just about anything to keep his secret
safe. But for now he would need to appease Jonathan’s son.

 
“Yeah, you better be right buddy, you better
be right,” said Nick as he straightened out his friend’s jacket and put on his
most believable smile. It was the same smile he used to convince his victims
that he was going to let them live, right before he killed them.

“Come on back inside buddy, and
welcome home. Let me buy you a drink and maybe a little something to take the
edge off huh?” He said to Brandon as he handed him a small vial.

It was the end of her work day when
Adam once again stood in her office door.
My, he is sexy,
Dominique
grinned to herself. It wasn’t just his eyes, it seemed to be everything. It was
his thick, dark, wavy hair which she imagined caused him to be late some
mornings. It was the way he leaned against the door jab, the way his slacks
seemed to outline the wonderful thickness of his thighs, his well-defined jaw
line and how he arched his eyebrows whenever anyone seemed to question him.

God maybe Pam is right; maybe I
do need some hot sex. I wouldn’t last two seconds with this guy but it would be
worth the try
, she thought to herself.
What in god's name am I doing?
She scolded herself,
here I am thinking naughty thoughts about the man whose
brother I absolutely loathe, it's gotta be my hormones making me think such
thoughts,
she told herself.
Not having sex in almost two years will do
that to you,
she sighed in frustration.

 
“Dominique I am so sorry about lunch,” Adam
said, sounding very apologetic to her as she cleared her desk. 

“Adam, it’s really alright, I
understand completely.”

“Well I’d like to offer you a rain
check if that’s alright with you.”

“Of course Adam, anytime.”

Dominique was quite surprised at
how bold she was being she knew her hormones had taken over and were forcing
her to make such suggestive statements.

“Well in that case, I’d love to
cash in my rain check and take you out to dinner tonight.”

Even her hormones weren’t ready for
that, but they soon recovered and answered for her.

“I'd like that Adam,” she said
giving him a smile. “But I’d like to go home and change first.”

“That's no problem Dominique, how
about you give me your address, go home, get freshened up and I’ll pick you up
let's say around seven?”

“Sounds good,” she said quickly
jotting down her address and handing it to him with nervous hands.

Adam took the piece of paper and
while taking a hold of both her hands, replied, “I look forward to it
Dominique. May I walk you to your car?”

“Oh I already told Molly that I’d
walk with her, I'm sorry.”

“It's no problem, I’d be happy to
walk you both if you don’t mind.”

Smiling, “No I don’t think we'd
mind at all,” said Dominique while she watched her new friend Molly walk
towards them.

Adam was the perfect gentleman and
walked Dominique and Molly to their cars. Although the walk was short, Molly
did tell Dominique that the parking garage could be a dangerous place and it
would be a good idea to always walk with someone, especially if security was
not around. Adam had agreed stating that there had been a couple of attacks in
the area and there was always safety in numbers he told the two women. Once
they made sure that Molly was safely in her car and had driven away, Adam
opened the car door for Dominique and waited until she was safely inside with
the engine running before he walked to his own car and drove home.

Adam made reservations at Mistral's
for seven thirty, he hoped that Dominique liked French cuisine, because
Mistral's was definitely the best place for it and he wanted to impress her.
Although he had a feeling that Dominique did not care where he took her for
dinner just as long as he impressed her with sparkling conversation, and that
was something he loved to do and it was so rare that anyone wanted to listen,
especially one as beautiful as Dominique.
 
She was so different than the woman he's dated in the past.