Colleen wanted to wrap her hands around Jasper’s neck and squeeze. If they wouldn’t pass right through him, that’s exactly what she’d do. He’d just ruined Ava and Griffin’s moment. Her great-grandson was so close to realizing he was still in love with Ava that Colleen had about done a jig. Though she highly doubted the straight-laced Jasper even knew how to dance, the smug smile he tried to hide made it clear he was doing some celebrating of his own. He’d accomplished exactly what he’d set out to—Griffin looked guilty and Ava stricken.
Colleen was torn between following after her great-grandson to listen in on his conversation with his ex-wife and following Ava when she begged off pizza duty to finish up the guest rooms. With Ava unable to hear her, it wouldn’t be much use offering the girl comfort. At least with Griffin, if the conversation went in a direction Colleen didn’t like, there was a possibility she could interrupt it. “Come on, Simon, I might need your help messing…” Her gaze narrowed on Ava, who tracked Griffin across the lobby, then hightailed it up the grand staircase when he disappeared from view.
The girl was up to something.
“Change of plans. You go with Griffin. Pull the phone jack out of the wall if it sounds like Lexi’s trying to convince him to leave. It’ll buy us some time at least.” Simon blinked up at her, which she’d come to interpret as Have you lost your bloody mind? in cat-speak. “What? You got Kitty to the ballroom in time for her to intervene with Jasper earlier. Just bite through the phone cord if you have to. Off you go now,” she said, and hurried up the grand staircase.
“What are you up to, Ava my girl?” Colleen wondered aloud as she caught up to her on the third floor. She hadn’t stopped for a service cart, so it wasn’t as if she planned to clean rooms. As Ava’s footsteps rang out on the spiral staircase to the tower, Colleen realized what she was about and chuckled. “Well now, I have to say I’m impressed. I didn’t think you had it in you. A well-planned seduction is just the ticket to get things back on track with Griffin.”
Ava glanced over her shoulder as she slid her passkey into the door.
Worried that Jasper might have followed them, Colleen also looked over her shoulder. There was no sign of the man she now thought of as her nemesis.
She followed Ava into the room. “I used to be a dab hand at seducing my Patrick. It’s too bad I can’t remember where I put the candles,” she said when Ava closed the door and pulled a lighter from her breast pocket.
Ava headed for the fireplace and the wrought-iron candelabra with the rows of candles.
“I suppose that’ll work. Though you should close the draperies to set the mood. More romantic, you know.” Colleen’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head when, instead of lighting the candles, Ava moved them aside and stuck her head in the fireplace. “For the love of all that is holy, please tell me you’re not trying to set my book on fire.”
That’s exactly what the girl intended to do. As Ava held the flickering flame to the small space between the two bricks, Colleen blew with all her might. She did it two more times before Ava stopped to hold the lighter upside down, shaking it. “Don’t do it, child. You have no idea what you’re about. There’s information in the book that can’t be lost. It’ll cause more heartache than you know.”
Colleen yelled, “Stop!” at the top of her lungs to little effect. She’d used up most of her energy blowing out the flame. Ava, of course, was oblivious and tried again. This wasn’t going to be as easy as with Griffin. If possible, Ava was more stubborn than he was. Colleen prayed the girl ran out of lighter fluid before she ran out of air.
Thankfully, fifteen minutes later, that’s exactly what happened. Ava released a defeated sigh and leaned against the fireplace, rubbing the tip of her scorched thumb. “Why did you do it, Colleen? Why did you record everyone’s secrets?”
Colleen heard the censure in Ava’s voice and sat beside her. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. You have but one secret, and look what it’s done to you. Try carrying around as many as I have. I needed to get them out of my head, and some things needed to be recorded. I’d planned to pass my book on to a member of the Widows Club. Someone I could trust to keep the secrets that needed to be kept and make right on the others. A man died because of me, and I’d vowed never again to meddle in anyone’s affairs.”
She glanced at Ava. Her expression hadn’t changed. She was still angry with her. Colleen imagined she wasn’t the only one. But that wasn’t something she could concern herself with now. She had to ensure the book didn’t fall into the wrong hands, at the same time protecting it from those who would destroy it.
Griffin returned to the ballroom and grabbed the last piece of pizza from the box.
“Everything okay with Lex?” Liam asked.
“Yeah…No, I don’t think so,” Griffin admitted because he was worried. “Something’s up with her but she won’t talk about it over the phone. She said it can wait until I get back to Virginia.”
“Is that why she called? To find out when you’re going home?”
“No, she said someone left her a message to call that number. She thought it was me.”
“Weird. I wonder who called her.”
“I have a fairly good idea who.” He lifted his chin to where Jasper stood in the lobby, talking to the cat. “Jeeves. Anytime I’m around Ava, he goes into watchdog mode.” Griffin didn’t like it, but he understood why. In Jasper’s mind, Ava had hurt one of his own.
“You’re probably right. He’s Sophie’s number one fan now, but it wasn’t always the case. He tried to warn me away from her too.” Liam glanced over his shoulder and frowned. “Is he lecturing Simon?”
“Looks like. Simon bit through the phone jack trying to pull it out of the wall in the study.”
“Huh. Simon’s usually smart enough to stay off Jasper’s radar. You must have done something to tick him off.”
“I didn’t do anything. And the cat’s not as smart as you think. Last night he managed to get stuck in the fireplace and wouldn’t shut—” Both Griffin and Liam startled when Jasper appeared between them. Liam widened his eyes while grinning at the older man. Griffin knew what his brother was getting at and held back a laugh. The way he seemed to appear out of nowhere, Jasper reminded them of the butler in Mr. Deeds.
“I couldn’t help but overhear, Master Griffin. Did you say Simon got stuck in the fireplace in Madame’s room?”
“Yeah, and he wouldn’t shut up.”
The old man’s eyes narrowed on the cat before returning to Griffin. “I see. Well that explains why you complained about not getting any sleep last night.”
The cat had nothing to do with his lack of sleep. He wasn’t about to admit that to Jasper though. If Griffin believed in ghosts, he’d lay odds GG’s room was haunted. He spent half the night being woken up by a voice whispering in his ear that Ava needed him. Since he didn’t believe in ghosts, the only explanation he could come up with was that it was his subconscious. As much as he wished it weren’t true, he could no longer deny that he was concerned about Ava…or that it was beginning to feel like something more.
He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her, of the girl he remembered. And being around her wasn’t helping. There had been small signs that, if he dug a little deeper, pushed a little harder, he’d find the woman he’d once loved beyond reason.
He mentally shook the thought from his head and responded to Jasper. “My lack of sleeping had nothing to do with Simon. Guess you missed the part where I told Liam and my dad that I froze my ass off last night, Jeeves. Come to think of it, that’s probably why Simon was sitting in there meowing his head off. He was cold too. Every time I lit a match, the wind would blow it out. So you better add repairing the cracks in the chimney to your mile-long to-do list.”
“I’ll take care of that straightaway, Master Griffin,” Jasper said, looking like a man on a mission as he left the ballroom.
“Come on, it’s not a mile long,” said his brother, who was firmly on the Save Greystone Team.
Griffin raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, admittedly, we still have some work to do. Speaking of which, we’re getting the evil eye from the guys.” Liam nodded at his buddies from the firehouse. “We better get back to it.”
“You get right on that. I’m finishing my slice,” Griffin said, taking a bite of the pizza. He wiped his mouth, looked around, and then followed Liam. “You seen Ava around?” he asked his brother casually. Jasper referring to Lexi as his wife had upset Ava, and Griffin wanted to know why.
“You seen Ava around?” Liam mimicked, chuckling as he climbed onto the scaffolding. “I know you too well, big brother. Cut the act. At least with me.”
“What are you talking about? I just asked you a simple question,” Griffin muttered before polishing off the rest of the slice. He should have kept his mouth closed.
“When are you going to admit you never got over her, not really?” Liam asked when Griffin joined him on the scaffolding.
He opened his mouth and then closed it. Liam knew him too well. And his baby bro might have a point. Because really, how do you get past something like that? One minute you’re happily married and head over heels in love, and the next, you’re being served divorce papers. Sure, there’d been small signs that something had been eating at Ava, but never in a million years did he expect her to end their marriage. She’d cut him out of her life completely, turned his upside down with no real explanation. The only way he’d been able to move on was to box up his memories and his feelings for her and nail it shut. They were still there though. For better or worse, they always would be.
So yeah, it wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have with his brother. He picked up a wooden tile. “You’re as bad as Lex. Hand me that hammer, will—”
“Where is she? Where is my daughter?”
Griffin turned at the raised, gravelly voice and was surprised to see Ava’s father, Gino DiRossi, wheeling his chair into the ballroom. The old man wore a navy knit hat and padded plaid jacket. His pal Jimmy followed behind. The two men used to work on the boat together. The way Jimmy was twisting his hat in his hands, he’d obviously brought Gino and was second-guessing the decision. Griffin understood why when Ava’s old man wheeled farther into the room. Gino was drunk and…beside himself with fury. “Ava!” the old man bellowed at the top of his lungs.
“You might want to stay out of his way,” Liam murmured before climbing off the scaffolding.
His baby bro was right again. Ava had been the light of her father’s life. It’d been just the two of them for so long that Gino hadn’t been overjoyed to discover there was another man in his daughter’s life. Especially when that man turned out to be a Gallagher. He’d been even less happy when Ava got pregnant at eighteen and they got married. Griffin would have married her even if she hadn’t been pregnant. Gino had softened a bit when they lost the baby six months later. Griffin believed it was because the old man finally realized how much Griffin loved his daughter.
Sophie rushed into the ballroom. Either she heard Gino or someone had alerted her to the situation. “Uncle Gino,” she said as she reached his side. Gino squinted at her, and she added, “It’s me, Sophie. Tina and Giovanni’s daughter. Why don’t we go to my office, and I’ll—”
Stabbing a finger at her, Gino snarled, “I know who you are. You’re just like the rest of the Gallaghers. Trying to steal my daughter away from me. I’ll not have it, you hear. I’ll not have it!”
Liam, who had quickly crossed the room to his wife’s side, drew her away from Gino. “Calm down, Mr. DiRossi. No one’s trying to take Ava from you. Sophie will go get her now.” Liam turned to his wife. “Soph.” She glanced at her uncle, nodded, and then hurried off.
Everyone in the ballroom pretended to be working, but no one was talking, no one was hammering. They were waiting to see what would happen next. Griffin’s gut twisted at the thought of how Ava would feel if there was a scene. He didn’t want to draw Gino’s attention to him—he was pretty sure it would make matters worse—but he wanted his brother to take the old man somewhere private. “Liam,” he called out, lifting his chin at the entrance.
His brother nodded. “Why don’t we get a drink at the bar while we wait for Ava, Mr. DiRossi?”
Gino’s lip curled, his bloodshot eyes narrowed at Griffin. “You didn’t think I saw you? Didn’t know that you were in town causing trouble for my girl again?” He started to wheel the chair toward him.
Jimmy grabbed the push handles, turning the chair toward the entrance. “You don’t want to do this, Gino. Come on. Let’s go have a—”
Gino shoved Jimmy’s hands away and spun the chair around. The old man had obviously retained his upper-body strength. He’d been a strong man back in the day, short and barrel-chested with powerful hands the size of baseball mitts.
“I’m not here to cause trouble for anyone, Mr. DiRossi. I’m just helping out my family. I’ll be gone in a couple days. Why don’t you go with Jimmy and Liam—”
“I don’t believe a word out of your mouth, Gallagher. You ruined Ava’s life once. I won’t let you ruin it again.”
Griffin clenched his jaw to keep from laying into the old man. If anyone had ruined Ava’s life, it was Gino. Every phone call home before his mother and sister died, his mother would find some way to mention Ava. His mother had almost been as heartbroken as Griffin when their marriage ended. She’d loved Ava like a daughter and was worried about her. She never admitted it to him, but her knowledge of Ava’s life was too intimate to have come from town gossip. He’d always suspected they remained close after the divorce. His fingers tightened around the hammer he picked up, and he turned away before he said something he’d regret.
“I’m talking to you. Don’t turn your back on me!” Gino shouted.
“Papa, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?” Ava rushed to her father’s side, her face flushed with what Griffin imagined was embarrassment. He prayed Gino would let it go now that she was here.
A dark look came over the old man’s face, and Griffin slowly lowered the hammer. There was something in Gino’s eyes that Griffin recognized from a time when he’d drowned himself in the bottle—an uncontrollable rage.
“She told me, she told me what’s going on, and I won’t have it, do you hear? Do you hear me, Ava Marie DiRossi? I won’t have it!” His meaty fingers closed around Ava’s bruised forearm.
At her pained cry, Griffin moved, the anger pulsing through him and taking on a life of its own.
Gino shook her arm, oblivious to her anguish. “You’re leaving with me—”
Whatever he meant to say was lost in a muffled groan when Griffin grabbed his upper arm with one hand, releasing Gino’s grip on Ava with the other. Once he got her arm free, Griffin gently pushed up the sleeve of her sweater. “Look, look what you’ve done to her, old man.”
People gasped, and Ava tried to pull her arm away, pleading, “No, Griffin, no. Please…please don’t do this.”
He released her arm, but he couldn’t, wouldn’t let it go. Everything made sense to him now. The reason why she wouldn’t tell anyone about her arm, the reason for the dark circles under her eyes, and her too-slim, fragile frame.
Sophie and Liam drew Ava away. “Griff, come on—”
Griffin ignored his brother and held the old man’s gaze, closing his hands over Gino’s on the armrests. “You did that to her, old man. Her own father, a man who’s supposed to protect her. It’s not enough that you’re working her to the bone; you’re abusing her too.” There were gasps, a cry from Ava, a flush working its way up Gino’s thick neck to his face. Consumed with fury, Griffin barely registered any of it. “I don’t care if you’re in a chair, you lay one finger on her again, and I’ll—”
“All right, that’s enough.” His brother pulled him away.
His anger still out of control, Griffin whirled on Liam. A firm, heavy hand landed on his shoulder. “Calm down, son. Think of Ava,” his father said quietly.
He hadn’t seen his father come in. Griffin drew in a deep breath and nodded. His father and brother let him go. Gino sat slumped in his chair, his face pale. Griffin couldn’t work up any sympathy for the old man, not after what he’d seen. He didn’t regret what he’d said or done, but as he calmed down, he realized he hadn’t protected Ava from embarrassment; he’d made it worse. His grandmother, Sophie, and Dana were with her, talking in low, comforting voices.
An older woman in a winter white coat walked toward them, a stricken look on her face. “I’m so sorry, lovey,” she said when she reached Ava. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have mentioned that Sophie wants you to manage the restaurant.”
Jimmy held Griffin’s gaze as he reached for the push handles. “I didn’t know,” he said, and then wheeled Gino away. Griffin’s father followed them from the ballroom.
“Neither did I,” his brother said, looking to where Ava stood a few yards away. “None of us did. We would have stepped in if we had.” Liam glanced at him. “You went too far, Griff.”
“Yeah? What would you have done if it was Sophie?”
Ava’s arm ached, and her heart hurt for her father. Her eyes filled as she watched Jimmy wheel him away. She wished Dorothy hadn’t told him about Sophie’s offer. But she understood why she did. Just as she understood why Griffin had done and said what he did. Though she wished with all her heart that he hadn’t. He’d humiliated her father…and her. Soon everyone in town would know.
“If you don’t mind, Sophie, I need to leave early. I need to go home.”
Her cousin gently rubbed Ava’s shoulder. “Maybe it would be best if you stayed with me and Liam for a while. Just until—”
“I know what it looks like, but it was an accident. My father—” Out of the corner of her eye, Ava saw Griffin walking toward her. She didn’t want to talk to him. Not here, not now. “I need to get my things. Dorothy, would you mind driving me home?”
“Of course not, lovey. I’ll wait for you here.”
She heard Dorothy reassuring Kitty, Sophie, and Dana that she would stay with Ava tonight. She cringed at what they must think of her, of her father. She wanted to turn and tell them to stop talking about them. Her father wasn’t a monster, and she wasn’t a victim. She didn’t want their sympathy, their pity. Instead she hurried from the ballroom, pretending that she didn’t hear Griffin calling her name. She quickly gathered up her belongings from the staff break room.
The way her day had started, she should have known it was bound to get worse. The thought reminded her of her futile attempt to light Colleen’s memoirs on fire. She glanced toward the ballroom, heard what she thought was Griffin’s voice, and decided that she had to try again before she left. She couldn’t bear the thought of him finding the book, especially after today. His temper was one of the reasons she hadn’t told him about Damien. She was afraid Griffin would kill his childhood best friend and spend the rest of his life in prison. What she’d just witnessed in the ballroom seemed to justify her long-ago fears.
As the elevator rattled its way to the tower, Ava placed her bag on the floor and leaned against the rail. She took off her shoes and put on her boots, shrugging into her coat. At least she’d be ready to leave as soon as she’d taken care of the book. As close as it was to the supper hour, she hoped the ballroom would have cleared out when she returned. She knew Griffin well enough to know he wouldn’t leave until he’d spoken to her. Somehow she’d figure out a way to get Dorothy’s attention without alerting him to her presence.
The elevator jerked to a stop on the fourth floor. She peeked around the door as it slid open. No one was around. She drew her passkey from her pocket, as well as several of Julia’s book club flyers from her bag, and then opened the door. Setting her bag on the bed, she rolled the flyers tight. At least this time she’d come prepared.
Ava rounded the bed and started toward the fireplace. She froze midstep. The candelabra had been moved, and there was a large footprint outlined in soot. Her pulse quickened, and her muscles unlocked. She ran to the fireplace, going down on her knees. Taking her lighter from her pocket, she put her head inside. There was no longer a gap between the two bricks. They sat perfectly flush inside the chimney.
The book was gone.