Page 32 of Just for the Holidays
“What is going on, Manolo?” he asked, not even attempting to tamp down the anger that was already bubbling up. “I thought you were going to the Hamptons.”
“I had to come and fix this.” He said it like barging into Gael’s uninvited was a big fucking imposition. “I knew you wouldn’t do it, not again.”
“Fix what? What the hell are you talking about, Manolo?”
His uncle let out a long-suffering sigh, because apparently explaining how he’d run off Perla from the apartment was a big chore.
“I told her the truth. ThatThe Liberator and His Loveis not a good move for your career. That your mother’s illness has and will continue to cost a fortune and you have your whole family depending on you.” He gave him that wise fatherly look that always made Gael’s blood boil. “We’ve been here before. I know you care for the girl, but they’re not like us. Remember what her mother tried to do.”
There it was, the reminder that Carmelina Sambrano had tried to blackmail Manolo to keep Gael away from Perla, and he’d turned it down. One of the many things his uncle used as currency to remind Gael what a saint he was. He’d always thought his uncle pushed him out of love, out of wanting what was best for him, but now he saw that this was all manipulation. “Gael, deep down you know I’m right, son.”
“Don’t call me son!” he yelled, stepping up to his uncle so that he was only inches away from his face. He didn’t even try to check his fury. If Manolo was man enough to come into his house and do this, then he could deal with the consequences. “The only person in this world that has a right to call me that is Veronica Montez.”
Manolo’s eyes widened as if finally realizing that he had not played his cards right.
For a moment Gael thought of a time-lapse video he’d seen of a lake icing over. That was how his anger felt now, like it was filling him from head to toe.
“How did I not see what you’ve been doing?” Gael asked, shaking with rage. “This has never been about me and my happiness. It’s about you keeping the golden calf as fat as possible.”
“How could you say that? After all I’ve done—”
“Enough!” Gael roared, cutting Manolo’s falsehoods off. He was so close to doing something he’d regret. He was fighting to get himself under control when his phone rang. He almost let it go to voice mail, but decided against it in case it was Perla. When he fished it out of his pocket he saw it was his sister and answered anyway, hoping Gabi would distract him from punching his uncle in the face.
“Is Perla with you?”
“No. She’s gone, thanks to Manolo,” he growled as his uncle stood up. His sister sounded frantic, her voice so loud Manolo heard her, and when the man made a move to come closer, Gael held up a hand. If his uncle got too close he wouldn’t be responsible for what he did. He’d been raised to respect his elders, but his mother had also taught him that people needed to earn that respect. In the last few minutes, he’d lost every ounce he’d ever had for Manolo.
“Dammit, Gael, are you listening to me?” Gabi’s loud voice brought Gael back to the moment, and what she said sank in. “Can you say that again?” he asked, feeling like his mind might shatter from the blind rage he was feeling.
“Bro, I did a little digging around and it looks like this project Tio has been trying to talk you into is with Baxter Jones.”
Baxter Jones, the Hollywood mogul currently under investigation for dozens of allegations of sexual assault. Gael would rather lose his career than work with that man. “What are you talking about? I saw the name of the production company. It’s not him.”
His sister exhaled and when she spoke, her voice was wooden. “That’s the thing. Apparently, he’s set up this one as a front so people don’t connect it to him, but it’s his money. And, G, my friend said Manolo took a kickback from them in exchange for a guarantee that you would join the project. That’s why he’s been so pressed about you taking the Sambrano project instead. He took a bribe from them.”
“I’ll call you back.”
“Wait! We’re on our way to you.”
“You’re what! Gabriela, for fuck’s sake.”
“Mami had a bad feeling when Tio said he couldn’t come out today, and you know how she gets. She wouldn’t stop fussing until I agreed to drive her over to make sure everything was okay. We’ll stay at my place.”
“Fine. I have to go. I need to take care of this.” Fury boiled over in Gael until he shook with it. He slammed the phone on the breakfast counter so hard he was sure he’d shattered the screen.
“You,” he garbled out as he stalked toward his uncle, “associated my name with a sexual predator. You chased away the woman I love for money?” Gael looked at his uncle, and it was like he was seeing him for the first time. He was older now in his fifties, but he still was a big man, imposing. Manolo was used to getting his way, of cajoling and pushing boundaries until he obtained the results he wanted. And over the years Gael had let his uncle sway him just to keep the peace, but this time he had gone too far. “This was never about my career, was it?” he demanded as he fought for control. “You just wanted money. It’s not enough that you’ve made millions off me, but now you’re taking kickbacks and whoring me out to work for a literal monster. Do you know what working with Baxter would do to my career, Manolo?” Gael knew he was screaming; he probably looked terrifying, but control was beyond him. The betrayal and the panic of having lost Perla again was driving a rage in him that he’d never felt before.
“I did it for you,” Manolo pleaded, his eyes wide with fear. But Gael knew he wasn’t what scared his uncle. What scared Manolo was knowing he was about to lose access to his money. Still, he tried.
“You were never going to stay with that girl. You know how we are. The Montez men are no good to women. Per—”
“Don’t,” Gael barked, blood roaring in his ears. “Don’t you dare even say her name,” he said as he jabbed a finger in the direction of his uncle. “And do not pretend for a second this has anything to do with me or Perla. You did this all for yourself, just like my father used his tired excuses to justify his own selfishness. You have been dangling the help you gave my mother over my head for too long, and you know what?” Gael bared his teeth as he got so close to his uncle he could see the man’s jaw trembling. “I think I’ve more than paid back what we owed you. I’m going to go look for Perla now, and when I come back you better not be here.”
Manolo stumbled as he tried and failed to act like everything was fine. “Sure, I’ll just let you sort things out and we can talk in a couple of days.”
Gael was already grabbing his keys from the hallway table when he answered his uncle. “No, you don’t understand, Manolo. I can’t have someone who I don’t trust managing my career. You’re fired.”
With that, Gael stepped out of his apartment and got in the elevator, sick with the fear that he may have lost her for good this time. He’d suspected it from the first moment he saw her getting out of that SUV, he’d been almost sure when he’d danced with her in his mother’s living room, but now he was certain. He’d never stopped loving Perla; his heart had been frozen these past six years. Life, success, fame washing over him while he walked around numb. Because he didn’t have the one person in his life who made him stop and look around. The person who made him want to live for himself. And just when he’d gotten her back, she had slipped from his fingers again.
