Ride to Restoration (Ride Series Book 2) Read online

  Let me think, “Move … out of the country. At least, if you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. And it may not be for that long now that Mr. Generosity here has flooded the country with sparkling baubles over the last few weeks. Frank, can you take an extended vacation say for 90 days, somewhere far away?”

  “I’m sure I can. The boys here can handle everything while I’m gone. I’ve kinda wanted to explore Europe and Scandinavia. I guess I could get one of those train passes and ‘Ride, Boley, Ride.’ What, don’t look at me like that? James Caan said that in a John Wayne movie once.”

  “Sounds like fun in a Clint Eastwood kind of way,” I laughed. “Stay in touch with Vic by email please. Who knows, if everything comes crashing down on me, I may be joining you. Now to get you home. I’ve instructed Vic to charter a private jet to take you back to Oregon, no questions asked. You’ll clear customs here in Calgary and be home by dark. Does that work for all of you?”

  “D, you didn’t have to go to all that trouble for us,” countered Ron, “but I’m not complaining, mind you. I’ve never flown on a private jet before.”

  “Me either,” proclaimed Terry. “Thank you, sir. I’m just thankful we could be here for you, like you were there for Frank and like he was there for us. What goes around comes around, if you get my meaning.”

  “I do sir, I do. It’s—”

  Here we go again. “It’s called paying it forward,” I interjected. “D has been preaching that to me almost everyday since we met.” Playfully patting D's head, “This poor generous soul tries to live it every friggin’ day.”

  Chapter 3

  Josie scurried out of the kitchen with freshly squeezed orange juice, garnished with a mint leaf, followed by blueberry waffles topped with homemade whipped cream and boysenberry syrup, eggs cooked to order, a rasp of bacon, moose sausage, and Tennessee country ham, that she had flown in just for me. “This your idea of light?”

  “Honey, I owe you more,” replied Josie. Wiping her calloused hands on the well-worn apron, “This being your last day here and all, I wanted this breakfast to be special.”

  Vic spoke up between bites, “You’ve truly outdone yourself, Ms. Josie.”

  I concurred with a nod, my mouth full of waffle, my silvery bearded chin dripping purple syrup. Forcing down my last bite, “all of your meals are as special as this beautiful B&B you call home. Now leave us be, Josie. I’ve got some things to discuss with the ‘Calvary’ and the barrister before we scatter in all directions.”

  Wrapping up our conversation, I asked Frank and Vic to meet me in the kitchen, while I ran upstairs to retrieve a package from my daypack. Digging to the bottom of the bag, I realized the numerous small boxes I had brought with me on this ride were almost gone.

  Sauntering into the kitchen, I found the group engaged in lively conversation. It was most likely about me, because the sound of the swinging door stopped their conversation cold. Walking up behind Josie, I grabbed her in a bear hug, lifting her a foot off the ground. Teasing her, I kissed the back of her neck, breathing a whiff of floral shampoo.

  “Put me down this instant, D,” Josie huffed. “Or not. On second thought, I could get used to this. Spin me around and pick me up again, please? I’d just love to plant one on those kissable lips of yours.”

  Ha, you absolutely are a horny little fellow, D. Victoria you are so close. “Why don’t you both go get a room? Frank and I will wait right here till you’re done.”

  “Jealous are we, Vic?” I mused.

  “Damn right I am. Josie, teach me your secret how to score with this man.”

  “Honey, when the time is right, you’ll know. Let this man come to you. Quit trying to throw yourself at Jon David! He will come to you when he’s good and ready, or dejected and desperate.”

  Quickly changing the explosive, sexually suggestive subject, I pulled out the small nondescript package from my pocket. The excited look on Frank and Vic’s faces confirmed they knew what was about to transpire, both being former recipients of the shiny baubles, wrapped securely, within each ring sized box. “Miss Josie, Frank, there’s roughly 350 carats of diamonds in this package, worth approximately two and a half million dollars. Because of your kindness and generosity, we’d like you to have them. But, there are conditions,” I continued, looking to Vic for approval since I had failed to tell her about my intentions beforehand.

  “Jon David, I mean D, you owe me nothing,” confessed Josie. The sincerity in her voice, as well as her eyes, conveyed her conviction.

  “Mr. D, you’ve given me more than enough already,” added Frank.

  It was Vic’s turn to interject. “Here it comes guys, D’s got some new way for each of you to pay it forward. He dreams way out and I mean way outside the box. Now don’t look hurt Jon David, I’m just stating a fact. Continue.”

  “Thank you for your unwavering confidence in me, even if it is skewed,” I countered with a smirk. “Josie, you mentioned you’d like to build private balconies off your main suites to accommodate a hot tub. This will more than cover it and you’ll still have quite a bit left over. It’s the left over I want you to use to make a difference. Every month I’d like you to run a contest, offering four struggling couples a chance to get away for the weekend. Let their children nominate them with their own handwritten letters and go from there. You have an innate way of making everyone you meet feel special. I can only imagine the joy you could bring to struggling couples living paycheck to paycheck. If they could spend a weekend here with you, it might make their lives a little more bearable. Everyone, regardless of circumstance, deserves the opportunity to reconnect, even if it’s only for a weekend.”

  “Oh my, D. In all my years, who would have thought to let the children nominate their parents? I’d love to do this for you, for us, for them. Count me in!”

  “Frank, here’s what I’d like to propose to you. Take half of yours and buy Terry and Ron a place to live. No matter what happens in their future, they’ll always have a place to call home. I know what it’s like to be homeless and alone. I wish that on no one.”

  “Second, this is me thinking outside your box. Since you’re going to Europe, where there’s just as much need there as here, I want to pay your way and then some. I’d like you to travel below the radar, if you will, living modestly, but giving generously along the way. By doing so, you’ll meet real people with real needs. Changing one life at a time, will change them the way I changed you, for the better.”

  I took a deep breath before continuing. “This is your chance to pay it forward across Europe. Get a couple of prepaid cards that won’t reveal your name and use them to lift up caring people you meet along your journey. Keep a journal, take some pictures, come home in a few months and write a book about the differences you made in the lives of others. Most importantly, document the difference they made in you. Can you do that, sir?”

  “Can do, Mr. D. Paying it forward, like you say and having a good time along the way.”

  Judging by her fidgeting, Vic could not contain herself.

  I whispered, “D, you are amazing! How do you dream this off the wall stuff up? You should be running a hands-on charity somewhere. I mean, it’s one thing to give a few dollars to United Way or the Red Cross, but it’s completely off the charts when you single-handedly address peoples’ needs by overcoming their obstacles immediately.”

  “Which would have helped you more, Vic, me saying I’ll try to find you a job in a law firm somewhere or giving you the confidence and the resources necessary to start your own practice? Had I done the former, you wouldn’t be here right now, would you? That’s what empowerment does when one has the resources to back it up.”

  “He’s right, Ms. Vic,” interjected Frank. Had D not picked me up, trying to get home, I wouldn’t be here either. Ms. Josie, this man believed in me so much that he flew me and my dog home from Tennessee and staked me with enough of these diamonds to start over. Yes sir-ee, I’m living proof that his kind of generosity works.
”

  “Me, too.”

  “Me, three,” added Josie. “I can tell you this boy stayed here almost twenty years ago when I was first getting started. He came for the Stampede and stayed on long after it was over, helping me get this place in shape for my guests and never asked for a dime.”

  “Josie, don’t forget, you did house and feed me. Guys, it’s not only money that empowers people, but the confidence behind it that says, I believe in you. I’ve been fortunate to be in each of your lives when you were at a crossroads. You'll have to agree, timing is everything.”

  Chapter 4

  Tampa Bay

  In the dark of night, our Gulfstream V touched down at Peter O. Knight Airport in Tampa, Florida, enveloping us in sweltering humidity; a far cry, from the crisp fall air we left behind in Calgary, just a few short hours before. Multiple, nondescript black SUVs sat just off the tarmac, engines idling, ready to whisk me, my cousin Gio, his girlfriend, my Ex, and his bodyguard, away. More important than the passengers, however, were the encrypted ledgers I carried, which provided in incriminating detail the Families money laundering practices, including a detailed list of their numerous off shore and Swiss bank accounts.

  Helping Giovanni deplane, his crutches clanging toward the waiting car, I saw Joseph hurriedly closing the distance between us. Here comes the talk!

  “Did you mean what you said earlier, Candice?” asked Joseph, grasping my hand in the process, looking me squarely in the eyes. “If you meant it, I mean really meant it, I’d like you to come home with me tonight. I’ve missed you. Your being with D, I’m sure banging his brains out all this time, pushed me to the brink. And I know you don’t want me on the brink. I can’t think of a better way to prove your sincerity than to make love to me … like you used to.”

  What is it with men and their penile thinking? That having sex will make everything all better, regardless of how tumultuous the state of the relationship might be, I asked myself before answering, “I meant what I said in Calgary, Joseph. Much has happened while we’ve been apart. I’ve changed; you’ve changed. It’s important for me to take it slow this time around. Be the man I fell in love with. You may be ready to jump in the sack with me, but I’m nowhere near ready to jump in it with you. I’m sure you’ve had your share of sluts — I mean girls who’ve satisfied your daily urges. Go hook up with one of them if you need to get off so bad right now!” There he goes, hanging his head again.

  “Damn you, Joseph, you still don’t get it. I see that hurt puppy dog look in your eyes. I want to be courted. I want to be wooed. I want you to feel special again. Go buy a motorcycle. I’ll ride with you,” I caught myself saying aloud, dreaming fondly of the memories I made with D, not him, not ever. “I want you to convince me by your actions, that, unlike before, you want me for me, not just as an avenue to get closer to my family. Besides, you’ve got to prove to me that you will keep your end of the deal and leave D and Victoria alone. They deserve to be happy, without continually looking over their shoulders for you or anyone else. We’re splitting the ten million already. Surely you don’t need to worry about collecting that ridiculous bounty that Standford put out on D? Or do you?”

  “I guess that all depends on you, sweetheart,” a rather familiar indignation of times past rising in his voice. “If you really created this whole ruse to retrieve the ledgers for us, I guess not. Only time will tell if we’re on the same page, or if you’re blowing smoke up my ass. Let me tell you straight up, baby girl, your family be damned. If you screw with me, you’ll not like the results. But hey,” he laughed, “if you keep your end of the bargain, I’ll gladly keep mine.”

  Threats ... He’s threatening me in the same breath, through the same lips that wants to make love to me tonight? It’s not happening! “Go away, Joseph, it’s late. I’m going to ride with Gio and Mile to Mom’s. We’ll continue this conversation tomorrow.”

  Climbing into the sullen, black Suburban with Gio and Mile, I replayed over and over, the absurd promises I made to Joseph in Calgary to keep him from harming D and Victoria. What was I thinking? Leaving D with Victoria was like leaving an injured lamb in a cage with a ravenous lion. What else could I do? D called, Victoria dropped everything and came with reinforcements. That’s loyalty, love or lust. Or possibly some combination of the three. D has a way with women and men too, that’s for sure, me included.

  “Candice, you OK?” asked Gio, while Mile expressed the same question to me through her eyes. “D, he good guy, you see. He save me, he fix leg. You wait, he come for you.”

  “I’m no good for him. Look at all the trouble I’ve brought him and the two of you for that matter,” I stated factually, while the tears I’d bravely held back for so long, unleashed.

  Mile handed me a tissue from her pocket, while Go continued undaunted, “You wait. I tell your Momma, he, how you say, special. He care for you. I know it. You know it. We fix it.”

  “He did, before I sold him out and got on the plane with Joseph.” I couldn’t tell him what I had to do to protect him. If I did, he would have never let me get on the plane. Bodies would have been scattered everywhere. I did what he taught me to do, put others needs before my own. What a difference a few months makes. When he met me, I was a selfish spoiled bitch. Now I have a hole in the pit of my stomach. Doing the right thing was supposed to make me feel better. It doesn’t!

  “You reach him, you tell him why you leave. He understand.”

  Sniffling and snorting was so undignified, but hey, we’re family here, “How will I find him, Gio? He’s still on his bike trip riding who knows where and for how long, before he makes his way home. That is, even if he goes home. His identity has been compromised. There’s a bounty on his head. For all I know, he may just keep on riding.”

  “He and you talk about his dog, you call May-jore. He will not leave dog. You look there.”

  Cousin Gio thinks like a man, not some silly broken hearted girl. I appreciate that! “Good idea, Giovanni. There can’t be that many kennels where he lives. I’ll send my girlfriend Marcy to visit all of them until she finds him. We find Major, we’ll find D or at least I’ll be able to get a message to him. He needs to know the truth about what happened yesterday and why. He has to know I did what I did for him, for Victoria. For once in my life,” I sighed, “I didn’t do it for me.”

  Chapter 5

  “Call if you need me. Leave a message on this phone or email Victoria and I’ll get in touch. Vic, give Frank and Josie your email address along with my current cell number. I’m going to say goodbye to Terry and Ron. Oh, and Frank, don’t tell them their homes came from me. It’s best they come from you. The ideal way to create loyal, lifetime employees is to treat them the way you’d like to be treated. By this magnanimous gesture, they'll always have your back just like you’ve so graciously had mine.”

  Walking into the breakfast room, “Terry, Ron, I can’t thank you enough. Putting yourself in Harm’s Way for a guy you’ve never met is truly admirable.”

  “No problem, Mr. D,” mumbled Terry, looking at the ground uncomfortably, shuffling his feet from side to side.

  “We haven’t had a chance to do much good for anybody lately. That is until Frank found us and put us to work. It’s a great feeling when you can give back, rather than take,” Ron confessed. “Frank says you’re good people. That was enough for us.”

  “Take care of him. Will ya?”

  “Vic,” I shouted into the kitchen, “pack up, it’s time for us to get on the road.”

  “Josie, can you ship Candi’s things for me? I’ll figure out where to send them once I get home.”

  “Frank, ya’ll need to pack up. By the time you return the rental, your ride home will be ready to rock and roll.”

  “Quit hollering, D. You know better than to shout between rooms,” scolded Josie, stomping through the swinging door, shaking her forefinger in my direction. “We heard you. Why are you and Victoria in such an all fired hurry to leave? Why can’t you stay here an
extra day? I want you to sketch out the balconies and hot tubs before you leave.”

  “I’ll talk to Vic. If she...”

  “I already have,” exclaimed Josie, stomping her feet. “You’re staying. I’ll be right back with a sketch pad and paper. You were pretty good at sketching out the glass walls in this breakfast room. I can’t wait for you to put your vision on paper.”

  “Josie, it’s your vision. You share it, I’ll sketch it.”

  Vic, having waited for the noise to subside, appeared in the doorway.

  Making another pronounced entrance, I burst into the breakfast room, after overhearing Josie say we were staying, “ I can’t contribute to the architectural portion of this conversation, but I can write, so I’d like to work on the couples promotion. Ms. Josie, I bet if you’ll keep a record of their responses, especially the best ones, I could publish them into a book at some point.”

  “Oh, that would be wonderful, Victoria. We could also make a framed copy for the winners as a memento to take home.”

  It was my turn to interject. “That’s an excellent idea, but we better have some perimeters. The innocence of a child sees only the good things that make their parents special. It’s only much later through our very own difficulties, trying to be husband and wife, that they see us as we truly are, very human and exceptionally flawed. Guess you better cut the age off at twelve.” I looked to Vic for approval.

  “Agreed, D. Is that OK with you, Ms. Josie?”

  “That works, Victoria. I’m so glad you stayed. Good minds think alike.”

  I grinned. “Yes they do,” I whispered under my breath, “except when it comes to getting D into my pants.”

  “Ants, honey we don’t have ants here, I assure you,” confessed a rather confused Josie from across the table.

  “Never mind,” I countered, biting my lip to keep from laughing, “I heard what she said. It has nothing to do with ants. Vic needs to get a life.” Stumbling deeper into the abyss, “It’s really not worth repeating.”