Magic Moment (23 page)

Dick waited until the women were in the kitchen. “Laura got pregnant, what? February, beginning of March,” he pointed out. “We’re in July. She should be bigger.”

Chase arched an eyebrow. His wife had been correct in speculating her father-in-law was counting months.

“Laura’s doctor emphasizes healthy eating and exercise. Laura does both.” Chase pondered Dr. Silver’s opinion regarding the massive sundae his wife had packed away earlier.

“Are you sure the child is yours?”

“That doesn’t even dignify an answer,” Chase replied, growing impatient. “Why are you in Sea Tower?”

The lines around Dick’s lips twitched. “It should have dawned on me sooner. You seeking refuge with your aunt.” His voice tightened. “You always ran to Lonnie when in one of your sulking moods.”

Chase stood firm, ignoring the comment, but grateful that a visit with Lonnie hadn’t crossed Dick’s mind earlier. For instance, when Chase hadn’t been in Sea Tower.

Dick continued. “You haven’t returned my phone calls.”

Chase shrugged. “Maybe I don’t want to talk to you.”

Leaning against the doorjamb, Dick folded his arms across his chest. “Your wife’s orders? Avoid me? Your own father?”

“Laura and I don’t discuss you. Your name reminds her you arranged to have her kidnapped, raped, and murdered,” Chase said, his tone hard.

“Chase, I’m sorry you found out.”

Chase lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, but you’re not sorry you attempted murder?”

“I’m involved in something you can’t possibly understand.”

“I’ll tell you what you were involved in.” In vivid detail, he described the horrific scene he had witnessed on his boat. “Dad, I want to believe it’s all crap. Tell me Ron was lying when he said you gave permission to hurt Laura.”

There was a long silence before Dick exhaled a long breath. “You won’t understand.”

“Ah, Dad,” Chase groaned. “I want to know everything. From the start. What’s the game? Why Laura?”

“She happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Wrong place, wrong time. For that she deserved to die?”

“There was nothing I could do. I had no say.”

“But you felt free to offer my boat.” Chase’s voice dripped with bitterness. A conjecture had nagged him. “That’s why you wanted us to have dinner that night. To keep me from the boat.”

“Chase, you don’t understand.” Dick implored for forgiveness without offering an explanation.

“Then tell me, Dad.” Chase wanted to understand his father’s foray into unimaginable violence.

“It’s not so simple.”

Chase still held onto hope. Yes, his father was selfish, brash, obsessed with status and money, but Chase still had difficulty accepting the man was a killer. Perhaps he was being coerced into this sick scheme.

He took a deep breath. “Dad, come on. Let’s you and me go someplace where we can be alone and talk. Tell me what you’re involved in.” Chase’s request was almost a plea. “I’m a lawyer. We can come up with a way to get you out. We’ll talk to this special agent. It’ll be okay.”

“There’s your mother’s idealism showing,” Dick scoffed.

Chase persisted. “Dad, there’s a baby coming. A boy. How long have you wanted a grandson? We need to put this mess behind us and bring the baby into a happy, safe environment.”

“Grandson?” A gleam entered Dick’s eyes. “I want to be in my grandson’s life.”

Chase put a hand on each hip. “Not if you’re a criminal,” he said, his tone adamant. “You think I’m taking my son to see grandpa in the federal pen every third Sunday?”

Dick hung his head, his shoulders slumping. For a big man, well over six feet, he suddenly looked very small. “Chase, I wish it were that easy.”

Chase despised the uselessness enveloping him. “I want to help.”

Dick straightened. His old confidence, defiance, and insolence returned. “I covered for you. When you forced me to tell my partners you had thrown Ron and Lou off the boat.” His face twisted and his voice hardened. “I covered for you when I said Laura was pregnant and you married her. I insisted you deserved the right to have your child.”

“Dad … ”

“I don’t want your help,” Dick snapped. “I don’t want you caught up. The less you know, the better.”

“I
am
caught up. Whoever the hell these partners are, they tried to kill my wife,” Chase spat, frustration nearly choking him. His father just wasn’t getting it.

“She wasn’t your wife at the time.”

“Small point,” Chase said with a huff. “What are you doing, Dad? Scamming the customers? Jacking prices? You and Oliver Daniels? What the hell are you doing?”

Dick ignored the inquiries, facing his son head-on. “My partners want Laura. I maintained we could count on you. Promised you would keep her from those agents, but that’s only stalling. I was very convincing. Said she’s so taken with you, she can be led like the proverbial lamb to slaughter. Once the baby’s born, you need to face the inevitable.”

The inevitable?
At the inkling of more harm to his wife, Chase’s consideration for his father disintegrated. “I don’t know whether you’re sick … or just plain nuts.”

Dick’s eyes held his son’s glare. “I can protect her until the baby’s born. Afterward, all bets are off. Don’t get too attached to Laura.”

Dick’s words punched Chase in the gut.
“Don’t get attached?”
It took all his willpower to control his rage. “She’s my wife, damn it!”

“You got your mother’s bleeding heart.” His expression warped into a sneer. “You married Laura and got her pregnant because you knew I would protect my grandchild. You’re a fool, and we both may end up being sorry.”

Chase wasn’t sure if anger or fear rushed through him. “You know what I’m sorry for,” he said, his manner deliberate. “I’m sorry that when I found Laura bound, beaten, terrorized, I didn’t take her to the police. Have them haul your ass in.”

“The choice was between my life, your life, or Laura’s. Her well-being didn’t even enter into the equation.” He looked Chase squarely in the eye. “But now she carries my grandchild.”

“You have your cell phone?” Chase asked. This conversation disgusted him.

“Yes. Why?”

“Call yourself a cab and leave. Or I will call the police and, unlike Aunt Lonnie, I don’t mind causing a scene. Or care how much I tell them.”

“Chase, when you were a little boy, nothing held your interest for long.” Dick frowned as if apathetic to these memories. “You got all excited over some new toy or game for perhaps ten minutes and then moved on. You were constantly searching for a new amusement.”

Chase listened.

“You wanted to be a lawyer,” Dick said. “I advised you to go corporate. Make money since you enjoyed spending it so much. No, you wanted to help the little people, the disadvantaged. That lasted perhaps fifteen minutes, and you asked me for something at the warehouse. But nothing to interfere with your drinking, gambling, and whoring. You have no idea what it’s like to have a real job.”

“Does your homily have a point?”

Dick continued. “You have this wife with a baby coming, a good time playing husband and father. Eventually, they’ll bore you, too. You’ll ask me for help in disassociating yourself, and to find you a new diversion. And I will, because you’re my son. I only pray when the time comes, we’re alive and not in jail.”

Chase was untouched by his father’s monologue. “I guess I do have my mother’s idealism. I believed we could solve the fix you’re in, and be a family. Do you want to call that cab?” he asked. “Or should I?”

Dick brushed by his son and walked out the front door. Chase moved to the living room’s picture window. His father stood on the porch and talked into his cell phone. Where Chase had been concerned, Dick never encouraged any trait or behavior that wasn’t his own. He had discouraged any quality, ambition, or temperament he hadn’t wanted in a son, especially when it came to Chase’s moral being.

Chase had spent his life floundering, searching and hoping for direction and a reason. The drinking, gambling, and whoring were diversions that temporarily took away the emptiness, and at times, his worthlessness.

He continued staring out the window. After ten minutes, the cab arrived and Chase looked on as the yellow sedan took his father away.

Terror cruised through him, smelling the scent like a rabbit running from a fox. Chase was frightened. For his wife and baby. For himself. Even for his father.

“Chase.”

He turned to see Laura standing in the doorway, hugging herself. Her hands brushing up and down her arms in an effort to warm herself, not from cold, but from fear. She took a step toward him, and he ran to her, enveloping her in his arms in two quick steps.

“It’s okay, honey.”

“How did he find us, Chase?” she asked, a slight quiver in her voice. “What does he want?”

She pressed closer to him, so close that he actually felt her heart’s rapid beating.

“It took him a while, but he remembered how when I was a kid and angry at him, I ran to Aunt Lonnie.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Chase, I’m frightened. I hate feeling frightened.”

Added to his own fears, Chase hated feeling helpless. So he lied. Just like he had lied to the men on the boat. Again, this tale was a … good … lie, one for her benefit … or perhaps this time for his.

“Don’t be, honey,” he said. “Dad wanted to tell me that you were safe.”

Now, in her sixth month, Laura’s baby kicked and stretched, a lively, spirited little fellow. With an ear pressed to his wife’s belly, Chase continued having his one-way conversations with his son. Often, he insisted he heard the baby sneeze, hiccup, or snore. He fretted if he thought Laura wasn’t getting enough rest. He was always ready to accompany her on her daily walks. One day, while the couple browsed in a bookstore, she found him skimming a book on what parents should look for in a good preschool. Although they hadn’t discussed their feelings for each other, his actions proved to Laura his love and commitment to their child.

It was a Friday evening in mid-September. Lonnie had traveled to Baltimore to attend a friend’s daughter’s wedding. She was due back Sunday afternoon. After a quick seafood casserole, Laura sat at the table, sipping decaf tea, while Chase loaded the dishwasher.

“When we first arrived in Sea Tower, we looked at some house brochures,” he said. “Since then, we haven’t talked about where you want to live after the baby comes. Aunt Lonnie loves the idea of us staying with her. She’s dropped enough hints.” He placed her empty mug in the dishwasher.

“She’s excited about the baby,” Laura said with a huge grin. “Little ones have that effect.” Her heart leaped.
He had said us? As in Laura, Baby Donovan, and Chase?

He took Laura’s hand, eased her up from the straight-back chair, and led her into the living room.

“I love my aunt, but trust me, you don’t want her hovering.” He helped Laura get comfortable on the sofa, tucking a small throw pillow behind her back. “How’s that?”

“Fine, thanks.” She loved the way he cared for her. “I don’t want to keep imposing on Aunt Lonnie. I like Sea Tower. I can sell my condo in Philly and set up house here. Quiet, peaceful, Sea Tower is the perfect place for a child.”

He sat on the ottoman, facing her. “You don’t need to sell your condo.”

“I can’t afford a house and the condo’s upkeep.”

“Rent out the condo. I’ll lease a house in Sea Tower. You’ll live in it. If you like it, I’ll buy it.”

“Chase.” She wasn’t comfortable with him buying her a house. “I can’t have you buying me a house.”

“The house is for my son, and you go with him. You two are a package deal,” he said with a grin.

His sly, impish smile, especially the twinkle in his blue eyes, curled her toes.

“Where will you live?” Recently, Laura had had her fantasies. The three of them living together in Sea Tower as a family was her favorite.

“In my son’s house. If he approves. I’ll bring the idea up to him after he’s born.”

Her fantasy come true.
“Ask him now.” She enjoyed Chase’s one-way conversations with his son, topics ranging from sports to politics to the weather. His warm breath would tickle her belly, and his comical expressions amused her.

Chase paused. “Remember when you were in the hospital, the first conversation I had with him?”

“Umm-hum.”

“He forgave me for my disgusting words at your condo. When I said that I didn’t care about you.” Gently, Chase caressed her left hand, twirling her gold wedding band between his thumb and index finger. “This is one smart kid we’re having. He knew I didn’t mean any of what I said. He told me I was in love with his mother.”

Tears stung Laura’s eyes, and she dissolved at the tenderness etched in his features. “Chase … ”

He gripped her hand, as if afraid she might leave. “I love you, Laura. I love you so damn much. Sometimes I feel like you’re aware, and other times I decide it’s only me pretending you love me.”

Her free hand reached up, running her fingers through his brown, wavy hair. “Oh, Chase,” she whispered. She had hoped so long for this moment, often resolving the utterance would never happen. When she did imagine the scene, it was dramatic and soap-opera-like.

But the reality moment was short, simple and sweet — like the ceremony making her his wife.

“Our first night together, when I said I was thinking,” he said softly. “I was thinking I was falling in love with you.” He paused before a mischievous smile widened on his handsome face. “Do you think a gorgeous, introverted, smart, unassuming bookkeeper could love a former spoiled, overindulged, self-absorbed playboy?”

“You’re a bit confused there, pal. In case you didn’t notice, I’m not exactly introverted.” She kissed him quickly. “And you are not
self-absorbed.” She kissed him again. “I love you, Chase Donovan.”

He smiled at her. “This is from the bottom of my heart. You, me, our son, us together, it doesn’t get any better.” He kissed her lips before resting his forehead against hers. “We’ll make this work, Laura. Please say you want us to be a family.”

His mouth covered hers, all warm and moist, devouring her with an overpowering passion. Her arms slid around his neck and she kissed him back. She clung to him as if he were a life preserver pulling her upstream.