Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) (73 page)

“With whom?” Roy Billings asked.

“With me,” Vic said. “Sir.” Best to be overly respectful until he knew what to expect.

The sheriff chuckled. “Mister, you’re a glutton for punishment, aren’t you? That woman’s not in a relationship with anybody. She’s not capable of having a relationship. She’s dead on the inside. I don’t know what happened to her over there in Bosnia, but the Laura I knew is gone.”

Vic had to fight the rage that rose inside him. He could feel it boiling. “Actually, sir, something horrible happened to your daughter in Bosnia. She’s worked very hard to come back from it, but she’s done it, and done quite well. And as far as being capable of a relationship, she’s more than. I plan to propose to her on Memorial Day at our family gathering, and I came here to ask if you and her mother would like to be there.”

Sheriff Billings picked at the edge of his desk with his thumbnail and didn’t look at Vic. “So you came here to ask my permission, huh?”

Hah! Not a chance!
, Vic wanted to shout, then decided to do the tough guy routine. He pulled on his Dom face and stared Billings down. “No, actually, sir, you misunderstand – I don’t need your permission. Laura is forty-two years old and if she wants to marry me, it’s none of your business. I was just trying to extend a courtesy to you and your wife. Your participation is of no real concern to me, but I thought it might be nice for Laura.”

The sheriff’s face turned bright red. Yeah, that had pissed him off, and Vic was delighted. “Oh, is that right?”

“Yes, that’s absolutely right. Apparently no one in your family had the patience to even find out what had gone on with Laura, just wrote her off like she was nothing. It took someone who really loved her to get inside her heart and help her heal.”

Roy Billings drew himself up. “Now you see here, mister! You come into my office, insult me, try to tell me what I should’ve done with my daughter without knowing me? Who do you think you are?”

Vic smiled his coolest smile at Laura’s father. “I don’t think – I know. I’m Vittorio Vincenzo Cabrizzi, president of Walters Construction Lexington, part of the largest construction firm in five states. I have lunch with the mayor of Lexington at least once every two weeks, and play a golf foursome a couple of times a year with the governor. I speak three languages well, and two more in at least a conversational form. My father was the minister of finance in Italy, where my people are all from, and I was educated in the finest schools in the country to the extent that I graduated from secondary school at the age of twelve. So, sir,” Vic said, sitting up very straight, “THAT’S who I am. I intend to marry your daughter, the smartest, sweetest, most beautiful person I’ve ever met. I just tried to extend more courtesy to you than you did to her at a time in her life when she needed you most, but if your attitude is as you’ve just indicated, I rescind that courtesy and thank you for your time.” Vic stood and turned to leave; he’d had just about all he could take.

“Wait!” At the sound of defeat, Vic stopped in the doorway and turned back to Sheriff Billings. “I’m sorry. It’s just that, well, everything was so odd about Laura when she came back that we just didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry if I insulted you, Mr. Cabrizzi . . .”

“Vic. Please, it’s Vic. And I want you to know that I’m taking a big risk even being here. If she finds out that I was here, she’s going to be pissed at me, royally pissed. So I’d like for you to make me glad I did this, if you can.” Vic didn’t sit back down; he stood behind the chair, his hands on the back, as straight and tall as he could. He knew full well how formidable he looked when he was pumped, and he could already feel the adrenaline coursing through every muscle.

Sheriff Billings looked genuinely apologetic. “It’s just that she wouldn’t talk to us about what happened, and yet she was so distant and cold. We didn’t know what to do.” Now he looked a little distressed, and Vic felt his pain. He knew full well how abrasive Laura could be; she’d used every gritty technique she had to try to get rid of him.

“Did you bother to ask her?” Vic questioned.

“Actually, yes, we did. But she wouldn’t tell us anything,” the sheriff said, his face sad. Vic started to feel sorry for him – just a little, not a lot.

“You need to go to her, tell her that you love her. She said her mother told her she was just too weirded out?”

“Yeah. Sorry about that, but my wife, she was just kind of freaked out by how different Laura was when she came back.” He stared at the top of his desk and shook his head. “Do you know what happened to her?” Roy asked.

Vic looked him in the eye. “I’m going to tell you, but you need to ask her and let her tell you herself. Are you sure you want to know?”

“Yes. We’d love to have her back in our lives, but not the shell of a person she was, all nasty and hurtful,” Roy said.

That one comment pissed Vic off, and he took a seat again and leaned forward toward Roy’s desk. “She was nasty and hurtful because she was gang raped by six men serving with her in Bosnia.”

Roy’s face went pale. “We didn’t know that she’d . . .”

“And after that, the sergeant who’d orchestrated the rape tried to kill her by compromising her body armor and detonating the IED she was working to disarm. He came back to finish the job a few weeks ago, and we’ve been doing battle with him or a member of his family ever since, trying to stay alive. But I think we’ve finally won.” Vic sat back to let it all sink in.

Roy Billings looked like someone had hit him upside the head with a concrete block. “Oh my god, I had no idea. She wanted to get into explosives to come back here and work with our bomb squad. If I’d had any idea . . .”

Now Vic decided to pour it on. “But you didn’t. You didn’t take the time or make the effort to find out. It was
me
: I went the extra mile, I put myself out there.” Vic stopped and leaned in closer, and he could feel an even greater measure of anger rising in his chest. “I took a bullet to the shoulder and two nearly-fatal stab wounds to the gut to try to save her life when the bastard came after her to shut her up. So if you want to know who I think I am? Well, buddy, I’m the man who tried to save your daughter’s life when you’d written her off. THAT’S the man I am.” Vic was so mad that he was shaking all over. He’d had time to think about it, and how dare this man ask him who he thought he was! “And frankly, I don’t give a goddamn that you’re the sheriff of this little shit-hole county. I came here in a show of good faith, so you’d better start kissing some ass or I’m going right back to Lexington and forget you exist. If you don’t care that Laura Butler is your daughter, she sure as hell doesn’t seem to care that she has a mother and father. And I’ve got enough love to give her and a big enough family to make her forget and not care that you exist. Got that?”

Roy Billings seemed to shrink at the barrage of truthfulness that Vic threw his way. “I, um, I’m, I’m sorry. You just took me by surprise, that’s all. I’d, my wife and I, we’d love to see and talk to Laura. Do you think she’d like to see us?”

“I have no idea. I think she’s going to be mad as hell at me when she finds out I came here, but I had to try. My family is the most loving, accepting group you could ever imagine. My sister-in-law was totally rejected by her family and she’s leading a happy, carefree life with our bunch to love her, so I’m sure Laura can live without you. Question is, can you live without her?” Vic waited.

“I’d like to see her. I’m sure her mother would too. I know her brother would.” Sheriff Billings looked like he might cry at any minute, and Vic felt he’d done a pretty good job. If Billings felt one tenth of the pain Laura had felt at their rejection, he was satisfied.

“I’d like to invite the two of you to be at my brother’s when I propose to Laura. Come if you’d like; if you don’t want to come, that’s fine. She’ll have a very full, happy life without you. But I think she’d like to have you there, whether she knows it or not.”

“Send me the details and we’ll be there. And listen, Mr. Cabrizzi, I really . . .”

“I told you. Vic.”

“Vic, I really appreciate you coming here.” Billings stood and extended a hand.

Vic took it and shook it heartily.
That
was what he was trying to accomplish, shame them into doing the right thing. It looked like he’d done just that. “I look forward to you being there if you choose to, and thanks for your time.” He turned and strode out of the office without looking back once.

Geez, Laura’s gonna kill me for sure,
he thought.
But if it helps get her and her folks together, it’ll be worth it.

“Oh, god, that was sooooooo good,” Laura moaned and stretched, then looked up. The stars looked like a January snowstorm, there were so many of them, and the moon was bright and full. She smiled when she felt Vic’s fingers on her belly underneath the blanket, just tracing little patterns that felt like tiny mice running around on her skin. “This mattress isn’t too bad.”

“Yeah, blowing it up with that electric pump that plugs into the truck outlet was easy enough, but I don’t know how long it will take to let the air out,” Vic said, poking at it with his finger. He’d bought the camping air mattress that would fit the bed of the truck best, and then thrown a quilt over it before driving out and parking several acres back on Tony and Nikki’s property, inside a circle of oak trees. “You know, of all the things I’ve done with women over the years, I’ve never made love to anybody in the bed of a truck out in the open like this. I love it. Look at those stars!”

“I know. Amazing, huh? Wouldn’t a wedding under these stars be beautiful?” She wasn’t looking at him, just staring upward.

“Laura?”

“Yeah?”

“Listen, about that . . . I’m planning something for Memorial Day. You need to think about your, um . . . response.” He didn’t look at her, just kept staring at the sky.

Her head whipped toward him. “Are you serious?”

“Yep. And honey?” he said.

“Yeah?”

“We’ll do this like everybody else does but, as far as I’m concerned, I’m already married to you. I won’t be any more married to you by saying some words in front of a bunch of people. I don’t want to wake up a single day without you beside me.”

She kissed his chest. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m married to you, and I don’t need a ring or a preacher to tell me I’m yours and you’re mine. Beside you is where I belong. Just try getting rid of me, buster!” she cried out and dug her fingers into his ribcage.

Vic howled with laughter. “Quit! Woman, I swear . . .” He pulled her face up to his and kissed her. “I’m not getting rid of you, not now, not ever. But I do think we need to get some mosquito coils or something. Damn little suckers are eating me alive!”

“So, how did your day go?”

“About that . . .” Vic said. “I need to talk to you about something. And you’ll be pissed at me.”

“Soooo . . . that’s why you fucked me first, because you knew that if you didn’t you probably wouldn’t be getting any tonight?”

“Something like that.”

“So let’s hear it.”

Vic sighed. No one could accuse her of beating around the bush. “Well, I went to see your dad today and . . .”

Laura sat bolt upright and looked at him like she’d like to gut him. “You did WHAT?”

“I went to see your dad. We had a little, um, chat.” He grinned. “I think they’re going to come to our Memorial Day cookout. I hope that’s okay.”

He was pretty sure Laura’s fuse was about to blow. “No, that’s not okay. I don’t want them around me. Do you understand?” she growled.

“I do understand, but I think you need to at least try. Laura, when we have kids, they’ll need grandparents, and my parents are . . .”

“Yours are Tony and Nikki. I feel very comfortable with that. They’ll treat any child we might have like one of their grandchildren, and that’ll be great. Why would I want to be around people who treated me like shit?”

“Baby, they just don’t get it. Give them a chance, okay?” he said, pulling her against him. “They love you. They’re just ignorant, that’s all.”

She huffed again, then settled down. “There’s something else I wanted to talk to
you
about.”

“What’s that, baby?”

“It’s your money.” They hadn’t talked about it, not a word, since they’d left Steve’s office. “I don’t want any of it. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m with you because of your money.”

Vic snorted. “I don’t give a shit what
anybody
thinks. All I care about is you and me and having a happy life together. And that money will most certainly help the cause.”

“But . . .”

“No buts. What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine. End of discussion. Just how it is. Now, are you too mad at me to give me another go-round? Or do I have to take care of this myself?” he asked, grinning and pointing at his cock, which was standing up and waving at Laura.

“Oh, damn, Cabrizzi, I think I’m addicted to that thing.”

“There are worse things to be addicted to.” Even in the dark, she could see those white teeth in that brilliant smile.

She climbed on top of him, then sat up. “Want me to grind on you, mister?”