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When Jonah gave Dane the opportunity to work for him and to send him to college to study business and hospitality management, he’d taken up the offer. Reluctant at first, he’d vowed one day to make a difference and create tons of lucrative jobs so single moms didn’t have to suffer or struggle like his mom did just to barely survive.
His mother lied to him about his real father and told him that his father died before he was born. Dane should have been a Belmont by name too, but he’d been born on the wrong side of the sheets. His mother was a cleaning lady at one of the Belmont hotels. One of the three jobs she worked to support his older brother—and then Dane. His mother was seduced by her boss, the mighty Jonah Elias Belmont, III. The next thing she knew, she was secretly carrying his child. Jonah was going through a divorce at the time.
So why did Dane even give a damn about Jonah?
Because when he looked Jonah in the eyes when he found out the truth and asked him point-blank why the hell he left his mother with a child to raise on her own, the words he spoke ended his refusal to forgive—or even speak to the man. “I’m so sorry, Dane. I didn’t know you existed. If I did, I would have raised you the way I raise all my kids. You’re a part of me and you deserve the best.”
I didn’t know you existed. Like a haunting echo, the words lingered in Dane’s mind.
Dane could forgive that, but only that. Not the fact that his father was a rich womanizer who took advantage of his help, but the fact that he was genuinely sorry he didn’t know about the pregnancy.
Was his mother fearful of confronting Jonah because of his hard reputation in the business?
Dane’s curiosity was piqued. He wondered about his other “legitimate” siblings. Despite his old man’s shortcomings, there was something about him that made it difficult for Dane to turn his back.
“You okay, Dane?” Chase, his half-brother, walked into his office. “Stella said something about a family emergency. What’s going on?”
“I’m about to find out, bro.”
“I see a missed call from Dad,” Chase said, scrolling down the screen of his smartphone.
“He’s probably trying to round us all up soon. Aunt Maya called, hysterical. She said she overheard him talking about making some drastic changes at the hotel. This time looks different. Did you know Dad was still seeing the oncologist?”
Chase shook his head. “You know I’ve been away for while, Dane. I’m pretty much out of the family loop—or the family gossip vine.”
“Yeah, of course,” Dane said. “This time he’s talking about bucket lists. And he’s actually using the brass bucket from the museum to put his wishes in.”
“You mean his last wishes?”
“That’s what I’m going to find out. I’m assuming, according to what Aunt Maya said, he’s putting his list in there.”
“Tell me about it. Do Cole and Leo know?”
“They’re at the other site. I just sent them a text.”
“Good.”
Of all the half-brothers on his father’s side he’d come to know over the last few years, Dane felt closer to Chase, the black sheep of the family, the outsider. Each of his brothers on his father’s side had different mothers through the various marriages. They were all born in wedlock, except Dane.
Jonah kept having kids as long as he was in a relationship.
Dane paused at the door.
“Settle down and have kids before it gets too late, son. What are you and your brothers waiting for?” Like a haunting whisper, his father’s words swept into his mind. If Dane waited until he was in his fifties or sixties, he might not get enough time to spend with his children or the woman of his dreams…
* * *
Private detective, JoJo Knight, weaved through traffic to make his way over to the Belmont Palace.
“I thought you were no longer detecting,” his business partner, Travis, said. “You gave that up to focus on the business, remember? You’ve got us running the PI agency but you’re supposed to be focusing on the Security Systems branch. You have a major product launch coming up, JoJo. You can’t mess around with that. Millions of customers have already pre-ordered your latest tracking gadget. Man, that thing is taking off and hitting the Web big time.”
“I know…” JoJo was grateful to have his side business take off. After working on so many gigs for the Romeros and other high profile clients, involving scandalous tapes, kidnapping as well as extortion attempts among other things, he’d developed an affordable security tracking device that could be hidden on persons, or kids by parents who feared for their safety. He already had a team handling the customer service division and product development. But JoJo wasn’t really hands-on with that stuff. He much preferred doing hands-on work, solving problems for his clients.
“Well, you know what they say, you can take the detective out of a job…” JoJo started.
“But you can’t take the detective out of a man,” Travis finished for him.
“Exactly. Besides, it’s not really work,” JoJo said in his defense. “It’s just a personal favor to Mr. Belmont—a brief special project on the side.”
“Special project?”
“Yeah. He’s looking for some lost heirs. He says he might not have long to go and he needs to know if there are more kids out there he doesn’t know about. He thinks there might be one or two. I think this case should be interesting. Kind of like a missing persons thing, only the persons don’t know they’re missing.”
“Ha! The guy sounds like he’s been busy in his love life. Imagine when or if you do find more heirs for him. Being a Belmont. Holy, that’s like finding out you’re royalty. Please, let me know what you find out.”
“I will.”
“Hey, wasn’t he married a few times?”
“Yeah. He told me he also had a few affairs between marriages. He has a gut feeling his mistresses might have conceived. He just wants to be sure, that’s all. He wants to make sure if he does have kids out there, they get a share of what he has.”
“That’s noble of him. And you’re real nice to do this, JoJo.”
“You know Mr. Belmont is a close friend of Toni Romero, right? They go way back.”
“Right. Seems like the rich and powerful stick together or at least flock together.”
“Yeah, seems like it. Well, the Romeros mean a lot to me. Toni asked if I could speak to Mr. Jonah Belmont, III. So I said yeah. The Romeros are good people. They were always there for me during the rough times. I’ll do anything for them.”
“I see.”
“And anyone who’s a friend of theirs is a friend of mine.”
“I hear you. Well, let me know how things go and if you need a couple men on the job with you.”
“I’ll let you know. I think I can get some prelim stuff done on my own. I’m on my way there now. He’s supposed to be meeting up with a few of his…uh…legitimate kids.”
“Right. Gotcha!” Travis laughed.
* * *
When Dane and Chase arrived at the Belmont Palace, as the massive seventy-five-room mansion had been dubbed by the media, Ted, the butler, greeted them and led the two into the grand study.
The luxury home was often talked about because of its unique stately-designed rooms, secret passages and verdant gardens, befitting of modern royalty. Most of Dane’s brothers and he owned penthouse condos in the city, closer to work.
As Dane entered through the double French glass doors into the study, he saw Jonah cozily sitting by the crackling fireplace in his blue velvet robe with the brass antique bucket on his lap. Aunt Maya wasn’t kidding, was she? Had his old man really lost it?
Even before he knew the ruthless tycoon was his real daddy, Dane admired the man’s tenacity in the business arena. He was always a sharpshooter and went against conventional thinking to break through in his business pursuits. He really never gave a damn about how the media painted him. “As long as they’re talking about me, I’m somebody—and somebody important,” he’d famously said in a TV interview. But now, looking at his old man, still defiant yet…vulnerable, was hard for Dane.
“So glad you could make it, Dane,” Jonah said, his tone brusque and commanding. Then he turned to see all his sons in the room. “I see you all got my message. Good!” Jonah leaned back in his hand-tooled chair by the fireplace, his jaw set.
“Dad, you left an urgent message about something to do with drastic changes at the hotels and in your will. What’s going on?” Chase asked, standing up by the bookshelf with his hands in his pockets.
“As you all might know, I’ve been seeing a specialist for that ol’ pancreas of mine.”
“Yes, we know, Dad,” Cole said, his voice low and sorrowful. Cole was dressed in his business attire, much like the rest of his brothers. They’d all left what they were doing in their individual jobs working within the Belmont Hotel & Resorts empire.
“Well,” Jonah continued, “it looks as if I don’t have much time.”
“What?” Chase’s voice rang with alarm.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dane could feel his heart muscles contract.
