House of Paine - (A Romantic Suspense - Book 1) Read online

  Damien didn’t believe that. Jackson never failed at anything. Damien liked to believe that Jackson hadn’t wanted to take the boys from their mother. He didn’t have many good qualities, but his father truly loved his family.

  Although Jackson did tell them about Crystal, neither he nor his brother Alex knew anything about a step-brother and sister. It was the day before the funeral when his father called him to the house and told him they would be flying out to Jersey that evening.

  “What are we going to Jersey for?”

  “Crystal’s son is dead. Tomorrow is his funeral.”

  Damien cocked an eyebrow and said, “Crystal had a son?”

  “Yes and so you’re prepared there will be a lot of cops there. He was with the N.Y.P.D. a vice cop.”

  “Ten years I’ve been here Dad. Why have you never mentioned that Crystal had a son?”

  He shrugged. “It never came up,” he said.

  “Did you still have contact with him?”

  “I looked over him as well as I could. Obviously it wasn’t easy considering the career path he chose.”

  “Why?”

  Jackson gave him a hard look. He didn’t like being questioned...He knew how far to push his father and he was smart enough to know where to stop as well. Jackson wasn’t annoyed with him enough to worry Damien...yet.

  “They were my stepchildren for five years. You know how I am about family.”

  “They? She has more than one?”

  “Yes, she has a daughter as well. Paige. She should be about twenty-five now. Last I heard she was in medical school at Princeton. She’s an incredibly smart girl.”

  “Can I ask why you’ve never mentioned her...or her brother...what was his name?”

  “Greg. It’s hard for me to talk about them. Crystal and I didn’t part on great terms and the children were disappointed in me as well. They didn’t care to continue a relationship with me. It hurts. Greg was never a fan of mine from the start. He rejected every olive branch I tried to hold out to him. His father was a cop...so I think he had a cop mentality from birth. In my defense however, he hated me before he ever found out what I did for a living. I suppose it was the age. At fourteen, you don’t want anyone trying to replace your father, especially when your father was your whole world. Maybe I tried too hard.”

  “What about the girl. Did she accept you?”

  He nodded and said, “At first. Paige and I had an excellent relationship until her brother discovered the “family business.” He brainwashed her against me and to this day I think it had something to do with Crystal leaving me as well.”

  “Besides the fact you had a twenty-two year old blonde sucking your dick when she walked in?”

  He gave Damien a warning look and said, “Watch your mouth. Go, you don’t have much time before the plane leaves. I’ll expect you at the airport in an hour.”

  So now here he stood, dressed in a black suit in the middle of May. His father was on his right and his brother Alex on his left. They were standing amidst a bunch of people they didn’t know to pay their respects to a man he and Alex had only just heard of. He was bemoaning his luck when he saw her....

  He recognized Crystal right away from the photo he’d seen. She looked a few years older, but otherwise just the same. She was still petite but curvy and she had shoulder length dark hair and amazingly smooth skin for a forty-five year old woman. But Crystal wasn’t what kept his attention. It was the woman that she clung to. He had to assume this was Paige. His father hadn’t mentioned that she was drop-dead gorgeous. But of course he and Crystal had been divorced since Paige was in her early teens. He didn’t know if Jackson had seen her since then or not. She was definitely all grown up now.

  Damien was not surprised that he found her attractive, but he was surprised at how drawn he felt to her. Once his eyes found her it was like they were glued there and would require a great deal of effort to pull them away. He was thankful for his sunglasses. He was able to let his eyes roam her body freely. She had dark hair that fell to her waist in long, loose waves. It fell against the swell of her chest like thick chocolate. He knew it was an inappropriate thought for a funeral, but he wanted to rake his fingers through it while he stared into those really big hazel eyes. Her eyes actually looked more green than brown against her smooth, light olive skin, and they were framed with long, thick lashes. Damien felt like a pervert for lusting after the grieving sister of the man who was being eulogized, but he was powerless to stop. He tried not to stare at her full lips and that sexy little mole that sat just above the top one, but the effort was futile.

  His gaze lingered on her cleavage. The dress she wore accentuated her perfect form. The flowing black fabric ended just below her knees, exposing her toned and muscular thighs. He caught himself picturing what she would look like sans the dress. She had curves that went on for days and the waves in her hair weren’t the only things he would like to get his hands on. He felt his pants growing tighter in front and he decided he needed to change his train of thought. He tried to picture what it would have been like growing up with his father. That took care of it.

  After the service was over, he watched as Paige came towards them. He felt a strange and unfamiliar tightness in his stomach. Something about this girl was magnetic. Damien loved beautiful women and he’d had plenty of them...but none of them ever affected him this way. She was about halfway to them when a big white guy reached out with his meaty palm and took hold of her arm. Damien actually took a step forward. It was insanity at its finest, he thought. Even women he slept with didn’t elicit that kind of emotion from him.

  “Let’s go,” his father told him.

  Damien wanted to protest. He wanted to tell his father they had to wait and find out what Paige was coming to say. He didn’t say any of that however. What he did was what he always did...he followed his father. It was the life that he and his brother entered into ten years earlier when their mother died and they went to live in New York with their father. It was something Alex had wanted to do for a long time, not Damien. He would have preferred to just stay in California and lead a normal life. But out of respect for his mother who lived in terror of them becoming anything like Jackson Paine, Alex stayed along with Damien. Once she had passed neither of them had a choice and their father, uncles and aunt gave them no choice but to follow the family. When they first got to New York, Jackson had welcomed them with open arms. He showered them both with gifts and his affection. They both wondered what it was about him that their mother feared so much...that realization came later on, and by that time, it was too late.

  Chapter 6

  “Paige, Tommy is here.”

  Paige heard Crystal call to her from the living room. She didn’t want her mother to know what was taking place between her and Tommy. She’d told her mother that she just needed to get away for the summer. Between the long school year and burying her brother who was also her best friend, she was exhausted. Since it was mostly true, Crystal bought it. Paige told her that she’d be staying with a friend she met in medical school in California.

  “Can you ask him to come on back, Mom?”

  A minute later, Tommy appeared in the doorway. Paige was packing. “Hi. Did you get them?”

  Tommy had an envelope in his hand which she assumed was what she wanted. He looked reluctant to give it to her however and he said, “Are you sure that you want to do this?”

  “I don’t want to. I have to.”

  “I’m scared to death for you, Paige. You’re not a cop. Do you understand that the smallest slip and these guys will see it? They’re looking for it. They are the most paranoid sons of bitches you’ll ever meet.”

  “I know this won’t be easy, Tommy. But like I told you before, I have to do this. I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t at least try to get justice for my brother. I’m not a cop, but I’m smart and I grew up pretty much a latch-key kid with Greg while Mom worked. I’m not soft and coddled.”

  “I know y
ou’re smart...it’s the only thing that’s going to help me sleep at night.” He threw the envelope on the bed.

  Paige picked it up and looked inside. There was a driver’s license with her picture on it. It was a New York state license and the name on it said, Paige Gauthier. There was a social security card and a credit card. There was also a resume to which Tommy had added references they used in their undercover endeavors and a contact that she could trust if ever need be. Lastly, there was a dossier on both Jackson Paine and the Kramer’s.

  She looked at Tommy. “These are great. Thank you.”

  He grimaced. “I hope I won’t regret this. There’s some other stuff in there as well. I know that Greg filled you in on your stepfather’s business...but I wanted to make sure that he hadn’t sugar coated it for you. That’s what the dossier is about.”

  Paige pulled it out and read it. It read, “Jackson Paine...extremely intelligent, manipulative, aggressive...” Those were all things Paige already knew. She would also have to add charming to the list, considering how he had both her mother and her charmed all of those years ago. It also listed his stats: he’s currently single and 49 years old. He has two brothers, Kevin 48 and Brad 45, and one sister, Sylvie 39 who are all employed in the “family” business in one capacity or another.

  What she didn’t know was that the “family business” was something he was born into. When he was a teen he began working for his father who was “the boss” at that time. His father passed away when Jackson was 29 years old and that was when he took over the helm. He’s been involved in organized crime for over thirty years and there was no one in New York in their business that would dare cross him...and live to tell about it. Paige looked at Tommy.

  “Thanks for this, Tommy. All of it.”

  Tommy surprised her by grabbing her into a hug. “Please be safe.”

  “I will, I promise.”

  After Tommy left, she sat down and started reading more of the dossier. Under “notable” characteristics at the bottom was typed: “One thing most notable about Jackson Paine is that although he is a career criminal, he is known to always keep his word.” Tommy or someone had written in pen next to that: “He doesn’t give a shit what the consequences are, if he said it was going to happen, it does.” It listed him as the owner and CEO of Trans-Paine Inc. His father founded the company five decades earlier. Paige knew that much because of her time with him as his step-daughter. It was what her mother claims she thought he did for a living the entire five years they were married...no matter how much her own son told her otherwise.

  Trans-Paine is into a lot of different things according to Tommy’s paperwork. They have a trucking business that is the bulk of the company. Jackson’s father established it originally and it now employs several hundred people. According to Tommy’s notes in the side bar, the cops and the FBI know it’s a cover, but Jackson is too smart to get caught. He is an astute businessman and to date he has never been held up on any charges. At any given time he was being watched by at least three different government agencies including Interpol. The trucking company is connected to a shipping port and ships containers to and from other countries all over the world. Again, he’s never been caught importing or exporting drugs or other illegal items...but yet the police “know” that’s what goes on. Paige was beginning to feel her brother’s pain. He’d been obsessed with bringing Jackson down since he was a kid and he often bemoaned the fact to his sister that this guy seemed to be “untouchable.”

  Then there were the Kramer’s.

  After the funeral, Paige had done some of her own research. A lot of what Tommy gave her, she already knew. Lucas Kramer is the ringleader of that group. Lucas is fifty-two years old and has been married to the same woman for thirty years. Paige had a vague memory of meeting him and his wife Louise at her mother and Jackson’s wedding thirteen years earlier. Kramer was one of those guys who cleaned up well...like Jackson. He looked at home in a three-thousand dollar suit and articulated himself in such a way that he could easily pass for a college professor or a suave politician rather than a ruthless killer who would do anything to get ahead.

  Paige learned that he owned Kramer Construction, Inc. which is his cover business. He also owns a nightclub. He is the oldest of five sons and he has one thirty year old son named Caine and a twenty-six year old daughter named Kelsey. Caine and Kelsey both work for their father. The Kramer’s dossier read like something right out of a crime novel. These people were ruthless...and so good at what they did, it was impossible to build a case against them. The police and the FBI believe them to be the second major source of drugs in the city...after her step-father of course. But although Jackson is mentioned in connection with a handful of murders, the Kramer’s have been implicated in dozens. Caine Kramer was mentioned again and again as a “person of interest” since he was a teenager. Somehow for over decades he’d managed to elude being charged with a specific crime.

  Caine is the one that Paige meant to get close to. He’s the one that Tommy believes killed her brother. If he’s responsible, she intends to find out...and make him pay. There was more information on the paper...history, physical descriptions. Paige folded it back up for now.

  She had a plane to catch.

  Paige spent her time on the plane reading through the dossiers once more and going over her cover in her head.

  She was Paige Gauthier.

  Tommy had kept it close to reality because he said the more lies you created, the more chance there was to forget one of them and blow it. She was twenty-five years old and a native of New York. Her father was dead, a former longshoreman and her mother took off for parts unknown when she was just a kid. She’d never been married, but she had a string of bad relationships with controlling men in her history. She lives alone...and is basically a loner. She started out working as a bartender in a club and over the past four years she has worked her way through the club scene to a management position. She is interested in leaving her current job and working for the Kramer’s strictly because their club is larger and more popular and there would be more of a possibility for her to advance. Paige’s former “employers” if they were contacted, would say that she is “focused and driven” and one of the best manager’s they’d ever had. It was perfect. Tommy came through for her like a champ.

  There was an opening for a night club manager at the Kramer’s nightclub and Paige intended to fill that position and spend her summer vacation getting close to these people. She wouldn’t be able to rest unless the people or person’s responsible for her brother’s death paid for it...and dearly. She didn’t just aim to have them arrested...she aimed to destroy them. This family and possibly her step-father as well, would be brought to their knees.

  Chapter 7

  A few hours after getting off of the airplane at JFK, Paige was leaving her hotel room dressed to the nines in a white skirt and blazer with a green silk blouse peeking out underneath. She planned on staying at Greg’s apartment while she was in New York...but she knew that going in there would be an emotional endeavor for her and she didn’t want to be overcome with emotion when she met the Kramer’s. She took a cab to the Kramer’s nightclub in Manhattan and with her head high and her shoulders back, she walked in on her five inch white Manola Blahniks, resume in hand. It was early evening, so the place was quiet yet with only a few patrons at the bar. From her online research she knew that as soon as the nightlife picked up, the place would be packed.

  This was no seedy night club. It was definitely a place that you’d never suspect was owned by one of the most powerful crime families in the city. It was simply called ‘500 Club’ because it was located on the 500 block of 57th Street. From the street was a private entrance. The bouncer at the door that looked like a completely bald white gorilla in a t-shirt looked at her resume and told her to go on inside and talk to the bartender. The door he opened for her behind him led into a softly lighted area where luxurious VIP booths upholstered in deep red velvet lined the wa
lls. Beyond that was another section, this one had bench style seating with private booths that surrounded the dance floor, but high backs that faced in that direction to allow for intimate seating. To the far left of the club is a large DJ booth and beyond that a large mahogany bar that ran the length of the wall. The glass case that held the decorative and colorful bottles of liquor was lit up with twinkling white lights and a mirror ran the length of it. On either side of the bar was an octagon shaped table with a ring around them like the ones that fighter’s use. Paige knew they must be for the go-go dancers from the research she did online.

  Paige made her way up to the bar and smiled at the young bartender behind it.

  “Hi, I’m here to drop off a resume.”

  The bartender let his eyes take her in...but quickly and not in a creepy way.

  “Have a seat. I’ll call Kelsey,” he told her.

  “Thank you.”

  Paige took a seat on one of the over-sized barstools and looked around while she waited. She saw a copy of the liquor license from the state of New York prominently displayed behind the bar. It was in Louise Kramer’s name. Above that were two framed certificates, one was for “Operator of the Year” in 2009 and the other was “Property of the Year.” in 2013. Along the far back wall on the opposite side of the club from where the dancefloor was, a wrought iron banister flanked carpeted stairs that led in a spiral pattern up to the second floor. Paige could see a small landing at the top and that was where Kelsey Kramer appeared a few seconds later. When Paige read the description of her in the dossier, she couldn’t help but picture her as pretty. She had been wrong. This woman was not pretty, she was drop-dead gorgeous. Kelsey had thick, dark brown hair that hung to her waist and small, delicate features that were offset by her full lips and the fact that her blue eyes were huge. She was wearing a plum colored pleated skirt that was long enough to look classy and respectable, but short enough to show off a pair of shapely, muscular legs that ended in a pair of plum colored designer shoes with a six inch heel. Her blouse was the same color as her skirt and silk. It was sleeveless and as she came down the stairs towards her Paige could see that she had a colorful tribal tattoo on her upper arm.