Heat Vol. 4 (Heat: Master Chefs #4) Read online

  I checked the mirror in the bathroom at the back of the lab, pass my fingers through my hair and touched a dab of lipstick to my lips before rushing out of the lab and down the flight of stairs that led to the shipping department.

  Down at the loading dock, I saw him. Standing just outside the large garage door that awaited the next delivery truck, his face was tilted up to the sun while his hands were plunged deep in his pockets.

  He looked even better than I remembered. Something about him had changed. It could have been the dark sports coat over the beige sweater, or the dark and sexy jeans, but somehow I knew it was more than that.

  There was something in his features, something in his eyes when he turned to face me, I knew he’d grown up on his trip back to New York. While the playfulness and mischief were still in his eyes, there was also a depth that hadn’t been there the last time I’d seen him.

  “You came,” he said as I approached him.

  “Bobby. I’d heard you were staying in New York.”

  We stood three feet apart, awkward and fidgeting as we looked at each other.

  “Can I give you a hug?” he finally said.

  “Of course,” I said, stepping up to him.

  He enveloped me in his arms and held me tight, the warmth of his embrace filling me with boundless love.

  “When you left… I thought…”

  “I’m only back in Paris for a short while.”

  “Oh,” I said, unable to hide my disappointment.

  “I made a promise to you, Lilly, and I never forget a promise.”

  “But we split up. You don’t owe me that promise anymore.”

  “Not in my book.” He gripped my shoulders and looked down at me. “Despite everything that happened, I still care for you, Lilly. I know you're confused by everything that’s come your way lately, but I still wanted to go ahead and deliver on that promise.”

  “What promise is that?”

  “That I would find your father.”

  “Bobby, did you…?”

  “And that I would bring him to you if ever I found him.”

  I gasped. Had he really found my father?

  “Whether it was your father or any other member of your family, I wanted to find someone who could confirm or deny this alleged engagement. I don’t want that Rial guy to forever hold your past against you.”

  Feeling like a hundred eyes were on us, I glanced around. “Look, Bobby, I’d really like to discuss this with you, but for now Rial is…”

  “Rial. You're with him, aren’t you?” His tone was angry while his eyes softened with sadness.

  “I am,” I admitted. There was no getting around it. I was with Rial. “It’s a long story, Bobby, but I’ve known him since I was a little girl. We were…”

  “Bobby!” Errol called out as he entered the shipping. “You're back in Paris. How great it is to see you.”

  “It’s good to see you, too,” Bobby said.

  “Taryn told me you’d be in town, but she didn’t know when you’d arrive.”

  “Red eye. Got in this morning.”

  While they chatted amiably about Bobby’s return to Paris, I was suddenly panicked. Rial was sure to follow closely behind Errol. Any moment now he’d come in and see Bobby, and then what?

  “You should have let me know what flight you’d be on. I would have picked you up at the airport.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I rented a car. A lot simpler for everyone.”

  As I expected, Rial walked in. One of the female employees, obviously enamored with him, escorted him into the shipping area. Rial was all smiles as he spoke to the young woman, but the smile quickly disappeared when he spotted Bobby.

  Time stopped and I held my breath as the two men I loved came face to face. The explosive reaction I’d anticipated never came. Instead, Rial came up beside me and put a possessive arm around my waist.

  “I’m so proud of you, honey,” Rial said. “You deserve every ounce of success you get. This is a real triumph.”

  Bobby came closer and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “I always knew you had it in you. You're a true talent. Just look at you; I leave you for a few months and I return to find you successful in your endeavors, but also more beautiful than ever.” He leaned in to kiss me.

  “Enough with the congratulations,” Rial spat as he pulled me away before Bobby’s lips could touch me.

  “Lilly,” Bobby called out. “Don’t you want to see who I brought with me from New York?”

  “Yes, of course,” I said, even as Rial continued to pull me away.

  “Rial,” Bobby went on. “Maybe you’d like to see who I brought also. I think you might be very interested.”

  “I don’t see why I would be interested in meeting any of your acquaintances.”

  “I do. If you have the guts to sit down and talk to this person, maybe you’ll leave Lilly alone once and for all.”

  Rial stopped dead in his tracks and turned a ferocious glare at Bobby.

  Bobby’s eyes were on me, imploring. “He’s out at the front desk. All you have to do is come with me and see him.”

  Errol’s phone beeped and he looked at me after he’d checked his text. “That was from the receptionist. I agree with Bobby, Lilly. I think you should go down and see.”

  “Will somebody please tell me who this damned mystery visitor is already,” Rial said.

  Bobby looked straight at me. “It’s your father, Lilly.”

  Chapter 7

  I was stunned and didn’t know what to say, and by the look on Rial’s face, he was just as stunned as I was, but his clenched jaw told me he was also angry. The bitterness he harbored for my father was just as intense as ever. His fingers twitched as if readying themselves to throttle the man who’d killed his father, who’d left him an orphan, and who’d turned his back on him.

  “Lilly,” Bobby said. “Are you coming?”

  “My father? Here? But…”

  “That’s what I’ve been telling you.”

  Yes, that’s what he’d been telling me, but a part of me denied the possibility. Now the reality of it all hit me with such force, I reached out to the wall to keep my balance, but Rial took a firm grip of me and held me steady.

  “He’s been dead for so long,” I murmured. “I mean, as far as I knew he was dead. The thought of seeing him, now… after all these years… I… What do I say to him? He tore my childhood love away from me. He abandoned me. He left me at that convent and never even bothered coming around to see me, and now… Now what does he expect from me? Love? Gratitude? Forgiveness?”

  “You can ask him all the questions you’ve been asking yourself these past years. Just come see him and finally put all those questions to rest. We’ll all be there with you. If at any moment you want to put an end to the meeting, I’ll take him away.” Bobby took a step through the threshold and looked at me, afraid I might refuse him.

  Of course I couldn’t refuse him. After all these years, the love I’d always had for the man who had raise me as a little girl still remained. I’d always loved him, and learning that he was now still alive… I was confused, and angry, and frustrated, but I still loved him.

  “There are a few questions I want answered, too,” Rial said as he pulled me in the direction Bobby took. “Like why he split us up. Why he made you a prisoner in your own home.”

  Lowering my head, I let Rial guide me behind Bobby, but when we arrived at the lobby, it was empty.

  “The bastard,” Rial spat. “Don’t tell me he just ran out on you again.”

  “No,” Bobby said. “He has to be here somewhere. He desperately wanted to see Lilly.”

  Errol came in behind us.

  “He’s gone,” I muttered. I felt empty and hollow at the thought of nearly seeing him, only to have him disappear again.

  “Don’t worry. My receptionist probably took him to my private lounge,” Errol said as he took the hall to the left.

  Rial looked sidelong at me, his grip on m
y arm tight and secure as he followed Errol. “Let’s get this reunion over with. I want you to hear what he has to say to you. I want you to learn the truth about your father, and most of all, I want you to remember who you really are, Lilly.”

  “Who I really am?”

  The question just hung there in the air. How much more could there be to my forgotten past? We had already discussed so much of it, it was difficult to fathom there could be more.

  At the door to the private lounge Bobby and Errol stepped aside letting Rial and me enter. The large and airy room boasted several leather covered lounge chairs, two elegant velvet upholstered sofas, a large wrought iron coffee table with a glass tabletop and a huge flat screen television hung near the bar.

  To the left was a small kitchenette with sparkling, modern appliances and at the end of the small granite top counter stood a man, his face buried in one of Errol’s cooking magazines.

  “It’s a very comfortable and relaxing setting,” Errol said. “I often come here to relax.”

  His words were lost on me as I stared at the old man who shifted uncomfortably from one leg to the other, and as he slowly lowered the magazine, I held my breath.

  He was older than I had expected, or perhaps time had simply been unkind to him. I took a step inside the lounge and took a better look. I knew his face. I’d seen him before; not as a child, but as a woman. I’d known him all my life.

  “You?” I whispered.

  His grin was wan and unsure, and his eyes held a wealth of pain and regret.

  I looked back at Bobby and he nodded. “It’s him,” he said.

  “But,” I said looking back at the older man. “You're the gardener... at the convent… How can you…?”

  “What are you talking about?” Rial said.

  I didn’t know what to make of the old man. “This man. He’s been coming to the convent regularly for years. He tended the gardens.” My heart softened as I remembered the years I’d known him and the many hours I’d spent learning from him. “He taught me so much about vegetables and herbs and…” My voice trailed off as tears streamed down my cheeks.

  The room was tense and silent for a long moment.

  “All this time…” I whispered.

  “I had to find some way of seeing you without arousing suspicion,” the old man finally said.

  “Are you really my…?”

  “Your father? Yes. I really am.”

  I tried to match his old face with the man I so vaguely remembered. He took a step toward me, his smile tentative, but loving. For a moment I remembered that smile, remembered the love that came with it, and remembered the happiness that I’d once felt.

  “I didn’t want you to be completely alone,” he said, his wrinkled old hands shaking as he set the magazine on the counter. “And, of course, I selfishly needed to see you. I wanted to witness your coming of age, and Lilly, what a beautiful woman you’ve become.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Rial said from behind me. “That’s all good and well, old man, but…”

  “Rial,” Errol shouted. “Show some respect. If Anthony Cooke came all this way to see his daughter and to make amends, the least you can do is let him have his say.”

  “Fine,” Rial grunted. “Say what you have to say, old man.”

  “I understand your anger, Rial. I know how things must look to you.”

  “Yeah. It looks like you went nuts and locked up your only daughter until you drove her insane.”

  Eugene nodded and looked at the floor, a soft and sad chuckle rumbling from his chest. “Yes, I was afraid you might still be angry about all that. That’s part of the reason I avoided contacting you all these years.” He looked to me. “That and the fear of reawakening the deep depression that had haunted you for so long.”

  “But why, Dad?” I muttered. My hands flinched and I longed to run to him, to be in his arms, but my legs refused to carry me to him.

  “It’s complicated, but you have to believe I had your best interest at heart.”

  “She doesn’t have to believe anything you say,” Rial said. “You’ve told so many lies, fabricated so many stories. Why don’t you stop the bullshit and just come out and tell her the real reason? You couldn’t stand to see her happy with me, could you? You couldn’t stand the thought of her loving the son of the man you drove to his death. You had to keep us…”

  “It was to protect her,” Eugene shouted, showing his anger and frustration for the first time. “I did it all to protect you, Lilly, and you, too, Rial.”

  “Protect me from what?” I said.

  He pulled in a long and tired breath, and glanced at Errol and Rial.

  “Why don’t you come and sit down,” Errol offered as he gestured toward the sofas.

  We all moved to the sofas and sat looking at one another, everyone except Rial who remained standing stiff and cold.

  “I know it’s futile to ask for your forgiveness, Errol, Rial, but you have to know that I have profound regrets where your father is concerned.”

  “Cry me a river,” Rial said as he glanced up at the ceiling, biting back the tears for the father he’d lost.

  “Rial,” Errol snapped. “I know you're angry and bitter about the whole thing, and so am I, but I want to know the whole story. Don’t you?”

  Clenching his jaw, Rial clasped his hands before him and shot a hard glare at my father.

  Eugene looked at Errol, admiration and pride glistening in his eyes. “It’s been such a very long time since I last saw you, Errol. For years I’ve been hearing about the famed Errol King and couldn’t imagine it was the same Errol who was lost and presumed dead. You’ve made a good life for yourself.”

  Errol nodded.

  “And Rial… I wish I could have done more for you, but… I was in no shape to handle what had happened to your father, to Lilly and to you. After your father passed away I tried to make a success of the company we’d started, but it continued to falter, continued to fail and I continued to pour money into it. Stupid. I was stupid and stubborn, so sure I could turn the company around, but I only fell deeper and deeper into debt. When the banks no longer wanted to finance my failing venture, I turned to loan sharks… anyone who would loan me the money I needed.”

  “Dad, you didn’t,” I said in disbelief.

  “Your father was my best friend; a good man and a good friend, and I miss him dearly… to this day. I was greedy, I was foolish and I paid a heavy price for it.”

  “Yeah. So did we,” Rial said.

  “What happened?” Errol said.

  Eugene shook his head and stood, his trembling hands coming together behind his back as he walked around the coffee table then paced before us. “The sales never materialized, the money never came in and I finally had to admit defeat. But, of course, the creditors, legitimate and otherwise, wanted their money back, plus astronomical interest. Oh, the banks and financial institutions were able to recoup most of the money I owed them when I abandoned the chateau and the contents were sold to auction, but the loan sharks… No, the mafia didn’t take my failure to repay them very well.” Grief stricken, he looked to us, his gaze stopping on me.

  “They threatened to hurt my dear Lilly, and I couldn’t let that happen. I had to hide you away, you understand? I had to.”

  “So it wasn’t just to keep me away from Rial?”

  “I had to keep you away from Rial, but not for the reasons you think. The mafia had a few guys following him around. One day, they followed him to your school. Fortunately, they weren’t able to snatch you that day, but I couldn’t risk another attempt, so I kept you at home. You understand that I had to, don’t you?”

  His eyes implored my understanding. I nodded, though my understanding of the situation was limited. A part of me couldn’t help but believe there could have been another way.

  “While you were in the convent, safe, secure, well taken care of, I went into hiding then slowly began appearing at the convent to check up on you. As the years passed and the danger s
eemed to have lifted, I spent more and more time there… with you. I cherish those moments, Lilly, teaching you what I could about gardening and the importance of herbs and freshness, and I’m happy to see it paid off.” He chuckled softly. “You're more of a success than I ever dreamed I’d be. Look at you… and you're still so young, with so much ahead of you.”

  “If you went into hiding, and you’ve been sneaking around keeping an eye on Lilly,” Rial said, breaking the tender moment, “how did Bobby find you in the States?”

  “Yes, Dad. What were you doing in New York?”

  He pressed a wan smile. “A new venture. A few years ago I met with someone from a mining company and we started to work together. I’ve been going back to New York to meet with him every once in a while… you know, to see how we’re doing. I had to start over, Lilly. I had to do something to make a life for myself… for you.”

  “Okay,” Rial said. “So you didn’t heartlessly abandon Lilly, but what about me?” There was something sad and lost in the question. “I was like a son to you those years my father and I spent at the chateau, yet you never checked up on me after you kicked me out. You just left me to fend for myself.”

  “I considered contacting you many times over the years, but I knew how angry you were, and I knew you wouldn’t take kindly to seeing me again. I did my best to help you when I could, like making the acquisition of the chateau possible for you. You have no idea how pleased I was when you purchased it. But beyond that, I had to risk your anger and hatred of me in order to protect you.”

  He looked from Rial to me. “You see, the mafia doesn’t care who gets in their way. When they want their money, they take any means possible, and the means they’d found was through you. They watched you, hoping they could find me, find Lilly…through you.”

  “And the engagement,” Bobby said. “Is that real?”

  “Absolutely.”

  I glanced at Rial and smiled, his own relieved smile reflected back at me, but when I caught sight of Bobby, my heart did a somersault. He was clearly disappointed by my father’s answer and by my reaction to it. I wanted to reach out and wipe the sadness from his eyes, to kiss the pain away.