All Through the Night (15 page)

So Tony was thinking about other possibilities, too.

Again.

She could be certain it would come up again: the partnership, monetary and personal, the thing that rumbled through and underpinned her whole working life at the Mackey agency.

“That won’t come up tonight,” Regan said firmly, as if saying it would make it so.

“It doesn’t have to. It’s in the air all the time. The way Tony looks at you. The things he says. The way he treats you. Why don’t you just say yes?”

“I don’t know what the question is.”

“Sure you do. That’s what those shoes are about. You’re sending him a signal as clearly as if you’d issued an invitation.”

Was she? She’d made such a point about being businesslike all these years. Only on off hours or when they were entertaining clients did she
dress
. Only in her dreams did she wear sexy, strappy Mascolo stilettos. And not much else.

She kept her buttoned-down business life separate from her unbuttoned home life, and her fantasies were nobody’s business, not even Angie’s. And never Tony’s. Not ever. Not even in gratitude for how much she owed him. And his father. For taking in the notorious Regan Torrance and making her respectable.

Hell, this was a celebration, the dawn of a new chapter in the history of the firm. Angie was making too much of it. One impulsive pair of five-inch heels. It
wasn’t
unlike her. Angie didn’t have a clue what was unlike her. In fact, Mascolo shoes were
exactly
like her—the
her
that she bound up in pinstriped suits and silk blouses. The
her
of the slender body covered over by long jackets and knee-length skirts, and skin-toned panty hose—or black, if she were wearing black—and sensible shoes. Low key makeup and pulled back hair.

That
her
—the caged lioness. The one who reined in her impulses and controlled her libido, and only let it hang out in private and on rare occasions late at night.

She’d learned her lesson all those years ago, married to the possessive Bobby Torrance who wasn’t nearly as sexually mature at age twenty-four as she was at twenty. Gorgeous Bobby Torrance, in jeans and leather, big-time bad boy, born to wealth and privilege, who always got what he wanted.

And he’d wanted
her
—with her smoky blue eyes and tumble of midnight-black hair, her long, long legs and voluptuous body, and high-voltage sexuality that burned everyone in its orbit.

Bobby was going to teach her everything.

But she discovered too soon that Bobby was not nearly as experienced as she thought. Not nearly as knowledgeable. Not nearly enough.

Greedy Regan
. Old man Torrance, deceased now, willing to buy her off to get her out of Bobby’s life. Whatever she wanted—Money? Cars? Clothes? All of that and more? A new life for her parents, still living in poverty on the wrong side of town?

Oh, he had been ruthless, the old man, and she’d gotten no end of enjoyment out of defying him.

How could she have known then that Bobby wasn’t perfect, that his jealousy was like a piston, pumping him, pushing him, driving him, and ultimately driving her away, and that their life together would nearly destroy them both?

Not the time to think about Bobby. He was long gone, off to conquer the world, and he had done it too; and the only thing she’d asked for in the divorce settlement was enough money to go to school.

“That’s not what this is about,” Regan added emphati-cally, shaking off the memories. This wasn’t the time to
dwell

But if Angie thought it was about Tony’s long-suppressed desire, then likely so would Tony, and it meant that she would have to put the Mascolos in the back of her closet with the rest of her fantasies, and once again rein herself in, and come more
appropriately
dressed to Mary’s party.

Her
party, damn it.

“I think you should go for it,” Angie said. “Put the guy out of his misery. He’s been in love with you ever since you walked in the front door seven years ago. You put him through hell during
that
year, and you’ve kept him dangling since, and he deserves to be rewarded.”

“What are you, his PR person or something?”

“No,” Angie said. “Just someone who wants to see you happy.”

“I’m happy. Couldn’t be happier.” Maybe a little happier? Maybe some love in her life? No. Not love. Love hurt too much. Love sapped you and drained you and left you in pain.

Only she had never found the right partner.

Bobby could have been the right partner.

No. No. She hated that she was still thinking that way. She had to wipe that thought from her mind
—
this instant
.

“Oh, yeah, you’re dancing for joy.”

“Tonight I will be,” Regan said firmly. “Tonight is the first night of the rest of my life. Big move up, big money. Big chance to make a name for myself. There’s nothing to
not
be happy about. So why are you so negged out?”

Angie shrugged. She hadn’t really tried to push Tony’s cause, but every once in a while, she just couldn’t help pointing out the obvious. Not that Regan didn’t know it. Regan ignored it, and sloughed it off. As usual.

That was it as far as Regan was concerned. For today. So Angie regrouped and found a reason. “Three hundred bucks for a pair of shoes is why. You know me, I still come from New England thrift in spite of all our money. My ac-countant would have a fit if he had to pay a charge like that.”

“As opposed to the charges you run up at Nordstrom? Come on, Angie.”

“You’re having a brainstorm. This is
not
like you.”

“Sure it is,” Regan murmured. Angie didn’t know everything about her life, after all, nor did she know everything about Angie’s. And she didn’t even know if she was all that curious either. “It’s like enough, in any event. Maybe I’ll surprise you.”

Maybe I’ll surprise myself.

Oh, God
—
I don’t want to surprise myself. I just want to enjoy this. That’s all I want to do, and I don’t want to think about how it looks to Tony or to Angie or any prospective clients
.

I just want to deal with how it looks to me.

Some things you couldn’t plan. Sometimes fate just stepped in and handed you the means and motive to go after what you wanted. And sometimes fate just tripped you up.

Bobby Torrance couldn’t decide which scenario was in play the day he heard that the Heights
Herald
was on the auction block, and that Regan had jumped feet first into the big leagues. It just shot a man’s plans all to hell, these unexpected events, didn’t give him time to react and strategize. Gave him five minutes to make choices that would immediately upend and impact his life.

But because of those two events, he’d dropped everything, taken the first plane out of Chicago, and was standing on the doorstep of the family residence in the Heights, girding himself to defend his actions about decisions that were both visceral and no-damned-body-else’s business but his own.

Nevertheless, he was here, and he thrust open the door with all the authority of the head of the house just as he heard Angie’s excited shriek behind him.

She barreled into him and wrapped her arms around him from behind. “You—you—oh, my God, what are you doing here?”

Bobby tossed his two carry-ons into the vestibule and pulled her around to envelop her in a bear hug. “Business. Where’ve you been?” He put his arm around her shoulders and guided her into the house.

“Manhattan. Shopping. What else does a Torrance heiress do?”

“Work. Contribute her talents and insights to the bottom line.”

“Yeah, you really need my crack forehand on your team.”

“Maybe I do,” Bobby said.

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning you wouldn’t have to move to Chicago. Ah, here’s Mother.” He relinquished Angie to take his mother’s hands. “The fatted son is back, Mother, so tell the chef to cook the prodigal calf in my honor.”

“And that means just what, Bobby?”

No fulsome welcomes here. His mother was suspicious of everything, bitter as poison since his father died and Bobby had taken over Torrance Media. And it wasn’t that he’d run the company to the ground: rather, he’d made more of it than his father ever had, and reversed losses and increased profits, and his mother couldn’t, for some reason, forgive him for that.

“I’m home for the moment.” Less was more where his mother was concerned.

“How many moments?”

“As long as it takes to do business, Mother.”

His mother pulled her hands from his and turned away. “I know
what
business, Bobby. I know just what you’re up to, and all those years you spent away from here—you never fooled me.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, Mother.” But he was damned certain he did. She knew.
She knew
.

“Don’t do it, Bobby. Just don’t do it. We went through enough with it. Time won’t have made it better. She is what she is. Breeding shows. You can put her in pinstripe suits, and you can give her a corporate gold card, and all the money in the world, and at the end of the day, she’s still a slut. And she’ll make your life miserable, just like before.”

And you’ll make my life miserable, Mother
—
just like before
.

“Appreciate the advice, Mother, but I’m just here on business.” Not a lie. He supposed Regan could be called business—
unfinished
business. He knew how to do spin. “I can just as soon stay at a hotel if my presence here bothers you.”

“You pay the bills,” his mother said, waving her hand listlessly. “You’ll do what you want.” She drifted off toward the library, looking fragile, ethereal, miserable.

“Bobby!”

He shook himself. There was no rescuing his mother. And at that, he’d never exerted the effort to try. He turned to Angie. “What?”

“Regan?”

He shook his head. He could deny that she was his first order of business, at least—or rather, he could, and would, lie to Angie until he had some sense of how things were. “Nope. The Heights
Herald
.”

Her eyes widened. “That low-rent rag? You’re kidding.”

“Not kidding. Got the lawyers making an offer right now. You’re not thinking, Ang. We’re talking about a small, weekly shopper newspaper that covers some local events, which already has a subscription list and a viable advertising base, nipping at the border of Manhattan. You don’t think there’s some value to the company there?”

“I’m not sure, what’re you thinking?”

“Oh, features editor? Office manager? What do you think you’d like to do?”

“Oh, Mother’s gonna die, Bobby. She didn’t want you within a thousand miles of New York until Regan was safely out of the way; she never forgave her for staying in town after the divorce. She hates her with all her heart.”

“Okay,” Bobby said. “And you’re her friend, and I’d bet the store you haven’t told mother a thing about that. That’s a bigger betrayal than anything I could ever do, Ang. But that’s your business. The buy is a go, and I expect to find a nice niche with distribution into Manhattan and to make big inroads into other turf. So get used to it, and think about how you’re going to help me.”

“I have been helping you,” Angie said stiffly.

There was no doubt about it: guilt worked. And he had labored under it for seven years, and the burden of knowing that his mother wanted him as close as the next room, and as far away as he could get. China wouldn’t have been too far, had there been a reason for him to have gone there.

And Angie had been the buffer, the rock, her mother’s companion, shielding her against everything unpleasant.

But old grudges died hard.

“You’re right,” he acknowledged, “you’re here with Mother when you should be having a life of your own. I owe you for that. But the fact is, I’m here to get this thing up and running and pointed south. So Mother is just going to have to deal with it.”

“And it has nothing to do with Regan?”

“It’s business and the rest is none of your business.”

“That’s what I thought. Mother’s right, isn’t she?”

“You know I haven’t seen her in years,” Bobby said softly.

“Right.” But she didn’t know anything, actually. She felt as if she didn’t know
him
, and that was the worst thing of all. “What does that have to do with anything?” she asked.

“Probably nothing,” Bobby said. “The topic is off the table, Ang. And I have to unpack.”

And that was that. Regan had come between them again. All these years, she’d kept them niched in separate places. It’d been easy, too, because Bobby lived in the middle of the country, and flying trips home left him no time to do any-thing but hold meetings and make sure Mother was comfortable.