The Gambler Page 3

  Calling the number, he held his breath, hoping the lady in question would answer and not her asshole son, or the father he had yet to draw a bead on. He didn't know much about Paulie Petridis, but he knew if the other man allowed his fuck of a son to mistreat someone as precious as his little Jenna, he was fucked too.

  Sonia Petridis answered on the second ring.

  "Andros here, I need some info on Jenna's likes and dislikes, but first I'm going to give her the phone because she wants to talk to her momma. You put anyone else on, I'm hanging up and the consequences will not be pretty, and hey, do no upset her."

  He'd whispered all of that so that the room's other occupant couldn't hear. Passing the phone off, he got a better idea and hit speaker. At first she still held the phone to her ear, but soon quickly realized something was different and pulled it away.

  "Momma, Jerry."

  Jerry, who in the fuck was this Jerry asshole? Calm down Andros; her eyes had flown to him just like that, as soon as the anger rose at her mention of another man's name on her lips.

  "Mr. Andros are you there, she wants Tom and Jerry, she watches them in the mornings. Jenna baby you're good?" The woman sounded disbelieving as though she'd thought her daughter was being tortured.

  Tom and Jerry, he couldn't believe he'd almost lost his shit over a cartoon character damn.

  The two women chatted forever before Andros decided it was time his little Jenna had breakfast. Taking the phone, he took it off of speaker and grilled her about her daughter's likes and dislikes.

  "But when are you bringing her home? This is crazy, nobody would tell me anything, I don't understand, why did you take my daughter?"

  “Because you weren't doing a very good job of taking care of her."

  "What, that's not true I love my daughter, why would you believe such a thing?"

  "I have no doubt that you do, she's obviously had care and that's the only reason you're not on my shit list, let's keep it that way shall we? Did you know your bastard son hits her?"

  "Alec, no he hasn't in..." She cut herself off when she realized what her words revealed.

  "But he said you took her to square a debt."

  "What kind of debt?"

  "A gambling debt, a game that you cheated on along with everything else."

  "I wouldn't sit down with that piece of shit at a dog fight. Your son lied to you, he fucking hit her in a room full of people, because she wanted to go to the fucking slot machines. He told you I took her to square a bet. I'm a fucking animal now? Lady you love your son?"

  "Of course I do, I love both my children."

  "Next time you see your boy you take a picture, remember what he used to look like." He hung up the phone and prayed for patience. Little Jenna had already moved on. Now she was rearranging the shit on his dresser. He took the time to watch her. He'd found that if he gave his charges enough attention, there was always meaning in everything they did. Sure enough she was making an asymmetrical design out of the odds and ends he usually threw there.

  It was when she came to a picture of Alice that he held his breath and waited. She picked it up slowly and stared for the longest moment, before running her fingers over the glass encased face and kissing it, before placing it front and center. When she picked up her head with that same look of sorrow he'd worn himself for so long, he couldn't help going to her and folding her in his arms carefully, so as not to spook her. She just melted into him like she'd been doing it for a lifetime.

  It didn't take gramps long to get to upstate New York from his place in Connecticut, and then it seemed like everybody showed up at the same time.

  Eileen was there with bags of stuff for Jenna, and his guards were there, as well as gramps' men. He hadn't thought of what to do with little Jenna while they were having their sit down, shit.

  He decided to take her to the kitchen with Sue, his cook and housekeeper, who came in early in the mornings. He knew he could trust the other woman with her, plus Willy will be around so he had no worries.

  "Stay here with Sue for a little bit okay little Jenna, I'm just down the hall in the study if you need me."

  She just nodded her head, as she was too busy watching her cartoon on the handheld tablet he'd just given her. From her reaction he was guessing she'd never held one, he had to figure out how to get her all the episodes of that shit streaming on there, because he was pretty sure he was never seeing it again.

  Back in the study, gramps was seated in a huddle with his advisors. The men all cleared their throats and sat back when he walked in and took his seat behind his desk. It felt strange not having her in his line of vision. He decided he'd have to see about some sort of monitor or something.

  Andros didn't have to dig too far into his psyche to figure out why he was even now stressing about not having her next to him. The last time he'd held something that precious, it had been taken from him. He'd steeled his heart against such a thing ever happening again. He didn't do emotions; he knew what needed to be done and did it. But he'd be damned if he was ever going to let himself be gutted like that ever again. And then that soft sweet voice had called him Angel and decimated all of his boundaries, demolished every safeguard.

  "Boy, are you listening to me?" He tuned back into his grandfather's harassed voice.

  "No but I am now." The old man shook his head with a wry, if somewhat indulgent look on his face. His deceased son could not have meant more than this young man had come to mean to him. He'd poured all the love he'd had for his only son into his son's son, when his boy had been struck down only two years after getting married and having a kid. A drunk driver had been going the wrong way on the freeway of all places, and had slammed into Anthony head on, killing him instantly.

  Of course the other driver had gotten away with a few scrapes and bruises, but other than that he was fine, for the next three months anyway. It had been the old man's longest three months, waiting for enough time to pass. In the end the decision hadn't been too hard.

  After having the man followed to see if he'd learned the error of his ways, or at the very least shown some remorse for the life he'd taken, and finding that there was none, it had been easy to set him up for a one vehicle accident. Things had gone off without a hitch, since his blood alcohol level had been almost twice the limit, but that was then and this was now. In the intervening years, he'd seen his young daughter in law meet and fall in love with someone else, someone he'd had vetted inside and out to make sure he was good enough for them.

  The doc was good people, a little too much of a tree hugger, but other than that he was cool. Patakis had almost had a coronary though when they'd changed the kid's name, he was the last of the line after all. After him there will be no more.

  He'd learned to live with it, and over the years he'd built a strong binding relationship with the only blood he had left. Now here they were and his grandson was once again trying to send him to an early grave. So head strong, stubborn, and worst of all, entirely too much like him. He pretty much knew how this little show was going to play out, but thought for the sake of argument, he'd at least try.

  "So we've decided that it's a given that the Bonatas are going to come after you. They have no choice, they have to save face; but we might me able to salvage something if we return the girl now. It's only been one night and we can play it off. I'm already collecting the names of the men who were there to do damage control, to keep the young lady's name from being sullied of course." Patakis was nothing if not hopeful, miracles do happen everyday after all.

  Andros just looked at his grandfather, letting the older man have his say out of the great respect he had for him, but they both knew what the outcome would be.

  "Stefan, you know we have to deal with this right now, we can't let this thing sit for too long. Now your grandfather already told us your stand and I understand jumping into a situation like that. We can even use that to our advantage, seeing as how we have witnesses that saw that asshole strike the girl down. But if you tur
n this into something else, there's no way to salvage this mess."

  Old man Seals sat back in his seat when it looked like the young hothead wasn't even going to dignify him with an answer. His old friend had told him that the chances of his grandson backing down were nil to none, but he thought they could at least try. The Bonata clan was a bloodthirsty bunch who should be avoided at all cause, but the kid didn't seem too worried. In fact, he seemed rather relaxed for someone who'd just pulled the tiger's tale.

  "So what do you say son sounds like a plan?"

  Andros took his time answering, while he rolled the Mont Blanc over and under the fingers of his left hand. The truth is, he had hardly heard half of what was said. His mind being consumed with what he needed to buy his little Jenna, to make her more comfortable in her new home. He saw no problem with his decision to keep her, whether anyone else knew it or not, she belonged to him now and he took care of his own. No one was ever going to get the chance to slap her down again; every time he thought of it his blood boiled.

  "Where's that fuck Petridis now?" He regretted that he hadn't been in a position to take the other man out the night before, but there was always next time. All he could think of was the fact that if the fuck didn't have a problem abusing her in a roomful of people, that had to mean he'd done it before. For that he would pay and pay dearly. So no, no fucking way was she getting out of his sight ever again.

  "He's holed up somewhere, but we have another problem, did you know that your assistant is his wife's half sister?"

  Andros took the news the way he did everything else, in silence. No he hadn't known, because he was never interested enough in his assistant to find out that shit. He'd vetted her for other things, and ascertaining that she was no threat to him had given her the job. He couldn't say that he'd noticed any striking resemblance between her and the banshee from the night before, but then again, he hadn't been looking.

  "Garrett make sure she's not around Jenna, I'll deal with her when I'm done here."

  The other man left the room to do his boss's bidding, while the rest of the men in the room waited with bated breath for Andros's decision.

  "She stays."

  "Stefan, be reasonable."

  "She fucking stays, tell them I will kill every motherfucker who tries."

  The old man hung his head in defeat. He knew his grandson better than anyone, the boy wasn't going to budge, and short of threatening him, which the old man had no intentions on doing to his favorite grandson, who had so much of him in him, there was nothing left.

  "So be it; boys, looks like we're going to war with the Bonatas. Fuck the fucks anyway, its time someone stood up to their murdering asses. What do you say boyo, you think you can win in this dog fight?"

  "Don't I always?"

  "Angel, no fight."

  She came into the room where the men were gathered. Andros smiled and opened his arms to her; she ran to him with her innocent smile spread across her face.

  "What have you been up to little Jenna huh?"

  She had flour on her nose and her hair was a mess, but to him, she was the most beautiful thing in his world.

  "Cook." She held out the cookie she'd been hiding behind her back, trembling with excitement in anticipation of his approval.

  He took a bite of the chewy goodness, his eyes holding hers.

  "Umm hmm good baby." He licked his lips and pecked her on hers so she knew he meant it. He'd learned in the short time since he'd taken her that actions computed better with his Jenna than words. She liked to be touched, her hands held, a brush of his fingers through her hair.

  She got settled more comfortably on his lap while he turned to the room again. Some of them had looks of surprise on their faces, but his gramps had a softening around the eyes, he understood, he got it. With a silent nod shared with his grandson, he set his mind to the task at hand.

  Chapter 5

  "Gentlemen, I believe our business is at an end." He didn't even look up as he made that statement, his eyes only for the young girl who sat on his lap, legs swinging, as she took little nibbles of her cookie, before offering him some of the same. The scraping back of chairs signaled the men's departure, all except for his two shadows who were busy hiding grins at the sight of the big tough guy nibbling on a cookie.

  "Angel, guess what."

  "What little Jenna?" He smiled at her exuberance before he even knew what she was about to say. Her sweet innocence resonated inside of him in a way that nothing else had in a very long time, and he couldn't resist kissing the skin of her neck.

  She giggled and scrunched up her shoulders.

  "Tickles."

  "Sorry, what were you going to tell me? You two need something to do?" He turned to glare at the two fucks across the room. He hadn't missed the secret smiles on the men's faces and well understood where they were coming from. Even when he visited his special place, as friendly as he usually was with the children and men and women who lived there, he was never this relaxed and carefree. He'd learned not to open himself up like that ever again; but he had no shield against this one, there was no way to keep her out of his heart; in fact he was afraid it might already be too late to even try.

  She went on eating her cookie and he figured she'd already moved on in her head from whatever it was she had wanted to say, so he didn't push. She seemed to be having a calming effect on him, something he hadn’t felt in ages. Not since he was a young boy with another innocent trailing behind him and hanging onto his every word, as he tried to teach her everything he’d learned that day.

  Life sure knew how to throw you curve balls. He had no idea yesterday when he left his house, that his life would be changed so drastically in a matter of hours. And how was it that he felt so right with her there in his arms when he hadn’t let anyone that close in forever?

  It wasn’t that he hadn’t had encounters; he’d had plenty. He just never let himself get involved. It took her less than a night to worm her way into his heart. Something he would’ve sworn until today was an impossibility. He wasn’t overly worried about the Bonatas and their retaliation. As long as he kept her safe he could take care of the rest. The fact that old man Bonata was rumored to be her godfather didn’t mean shit to him either. If the people in her life had cared so much about her, she wouldn’t have been subjected to what had happened to her last night in that room.

  One way or another, he was going to make the bastard pay, him and anyone else he found had ever mistreated her. The mother seemed to be off the hook, because Jenna didn’t give off any vibes when they’d been on the phone. But everyone else was pretty much fucked.

  He’d got lost in thought as he watched her take tiny nibbles of the cookie, forgetting for a moment that the others were in the room? There was so much that needed doing; he would have to make a lot of changes in the house. His place was more of a showplace than a home. With her here, he’d have to see about smoothing out the rough edges.

  Fuck if he knew where to begin. Maybe he’d just take her to the store and let her pick out whatever she liked. Her mom had given him a list of must haves that he meant to pick up sometime today, but he wanted to make things as comfortable for her as possible.

  "Where's Minnelli?"

  "We sequestered her in the small library on the first floor, told her you wanted her to find your original copy of Sun Tzu." Jameson was still grinning as he said it.

  "Good, when I'm done here I need to ask her a few questions. Did we know that her sister is married to the...the one who..." He rolled his eyes at himself. He didn't want to say Alec's name for fear that it would set her off, and he didn't want to call him an asshole in front of her because for certain, if she was anything like Alice had been, she'd latch onto the new word and use it at every opportunity.

  Which come to think of it had had its moments when he was younger. He smiled at the bittersweet memory of his little sister and her antics. Drawing Jenna closer to him, he smelled his shampoo that he'd used to wash her hair earlier, somehow
her own scent was in there as well, making for a heady combination.

  "She's sisters with the sister in law from last night."

  "Nope didn't know, I mean the name's not popular, but the other has had a different last name for so long it would've been hard to find out, unless you were looking specifically."

  "That might be true Jameson but I'm not sure I'm comfortable having her around." Here he inclined his head in Jenna's direction. She held up the last piece of cookie to his mouth and he opened and accepted it, pretending to nip her fingers in the process, which only made her giggle harder than before.

  "Angel guess what."

  "What baby?"

  "I'm a pretty idi...idi..." She closed her eyes in concentration before they flew open in glee.

  "I'm a pretty idiot." She clapped her hands in joy at her achievement, while Andros turned furious eyes on the two men in the room, who both shook their heads and held their hands out in surrender. He felt his blood heat up as he tried to figure out who the fuck he was gonna have to kill. He hadn't believed for a second that it had been either of his men. He knew Willy would never say that to her, neither would Sue and Simon didn't know those words as far as he knew; and she hadn't been alone with any of gramps’ men, so that left only one culprit.

  While his little Jenna played with the collar of his sweater he was thinking of the best way to teach the bitch who'd called her that, a lesson.

  It broke his heart just a little that someone had said that shit to her, that she thought it was a good thing. But all he could do was try to replace the words in her head without bringing too much attention to what he was doing.

  "You know what my little Jenna, I think you're pretty amazing."

  "Say it again Angel." She placed her fingers against his lips as he repeated the words slower this time, and though some might say she didn't have any knowledge of what the words meant, the softening of her voice as she repeated them back to him in a near whisper, coupled with the sheen in her eyes said different.