Page 32 of The Irishman's Christmas Gamble
Chapter Ten
“Ms. Hogan, there’s a gentleman here to see you.” Vincent’s voice came from behind her where she stood at the French doors in her office, feeling the cold seep through the plate glass as she stared at the swirling snow.
“On Christmas Eve?” She turned to catch a look of concern on her security chief’s usually impassive face.
“He didn’t want me to give his name, but it’s Mr. Keller,” Vincent said. “I’ll escort him off the premises if you say the word.”
“I’d like to see you try.” Liam’s voice came from the doorway, his tone pure gutter Finglas. He strode into the room, his long legs encased in charcoal gray trousers, his wide shoulders outlined by an open-necked shirt of the same deep blue as his eyes. A long, snow-dusted overcoat billowed around his legs.
She’d heard that a heart could leap, but she’d never felt it until now.
“We look down on brawling at the Bellwether Club.” She kept her voice cool and controlled, despite the frantic dance of her pulse. “It’s fine, Vincent.”
As he left, her head of security threw Liam a look that would chill a lesser man’s blood, but Liam shrugged it off as he focused on her.
“I’m sorry I left without saying good-bye to Owen,” Frankie said, standing behind her desk.
“What about me?” Liam pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. “Did you think this was enough?” His voice had an edge like a razor blade.
She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away from the blaze of his blue eyes. “It was the best I could do at the time.”
A flash of movement made her glance back at him to find he was circling around the desk. She stepped to the other side of her chair to keep something between them.
He stopped as he saw her withdrawal and ran a hand through the thick auburn waves of his hair in a gesture of frustration. “What made you run?”
“Ghosts.” She shuddered as the memory clawed its way out of the dark corner where she’d shoved it.
“I’m your friend, even if you won’t let me be anything more,” he said. “I can help if you’ll talk to me.”
Despair dulled her voice. “The ghosts are here because of you.”
She hated herself as soon as she saw the stricken look cloud the concern on his face. Her honesty was cruel but necessary.
“We’ll fight them together then,” he said.
She shook her head. “I lied to you about why I didn’t let you know I was leaving Dublin twenty-three years ago. I wasn’t afraid that you’d screw up your chances by leaving the training academy. I was afraid that if I saw you again,Iwouldn’t be able to go to America. You were my one weakness.”
He shoved the chair aside and wrapped his fingers gently around her upper arms, his eyes alight with hope. “It’s not a weakness to love someone.”
She kept her arms crossed, even as the warmth of his touch infused the silk of her blouse.
He gave her the tiniest shake. “Give me your ghosts and I’ll drag them out into the sunlight so they can never frighten you again.” His gaze went a little wild as she stood silent. “Frankie, tell me!”
Maybe she owed him that. So she would let them rise up in her mind for his sake. “My sisters and brothers. We didn’t have enough food because Da drank all his money and my mother was so broken she let him drink up hers too. All of us were always hungry.” Their desperate voices echoed in her mind, begging her for something to eat. “I couldn’tdoanything. I felt powerless.”
Liam’s arms went around her and he pressed her against the solid comfort of his chest. But she couldn’t yield to the temptation. She had to hold herself together as she told him her shameful secrets.
“I tried to get Ma to stand up to him, to keep at least the moneysheearned for the kids, but she just cried. That’s when I knew it was all on me.” Frankie could still remember the feeling that a heavy wet blanket had fallen over her, shrouding her in dark hopelessness. And helplessness. She’d been twelve at the time with no ability to earn the necessary money.
“Jaysus, Frankie, I had no idea it was that bad at your house. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What could you do? You went short of food too.”
“I would have shared everything I had with you.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you. By the time I’d come to know you, I was earning enough so we always had something to eat, even after Da had taken his cut.”
She felt him pull in a breath. “So you quit school and got the job at Balfour’s to buy food. Not because the teachers had nothing more to teach you, like you always told me.”
