by Vicky Jones
"What d'you mean?"
"Gentlemen!" Jeffrey Ellis burst in through the slammed door and smiled. Kyle and Bruce swiveled around, panicking that he’d heard every word.
"Jeffrey!" Bruce’s voice quivered with surprise.
"Great news! We've had more donations pour in after Chloe's fundraiser Saturday night! That's great for Daynes, isn't it?" Ellis glowed.
"Really great, sir," Kyle replied through gritted teeth. It was the first he'd heard of Chloe's little side project.
"Right, well, I'll leave you two to it. I'm just gon' have a quick chat with Ron, then I'll be off, gentlemen." Ellis headed back out of the office door.
"Sir–" Kyle quickly called out.
"Yes, Chambers?"
"I was thinking about what you said on the phone on Friday, and you're right–"
"About what?" He turned back to fully face Kyle.
"Shona Jackson? She is making an impression here, regardless of her past. She's really thriving," Kyle continued robotically. Even Bruce looked confused as to what he was going to say next.
"So that's why I think she'll be great to help other companies, spread good vibes about our place and also get some inside information on our competitors. Like you said, she has a way with people, even those high up."
His plan was hovering into view.
"Go on." Ellis was intrigued, glad to hear Kyle being more positive for once.
"I propose that she ventures out as soon as can be arranged. Strike while the iron's hot, as they say! Let's call it a promotion for all her hard work here. I've got some contacts I can call on if you like?"
"Great idea! Where were you thinking of sending her?" Both Ellis and Bruce were intrigued as to what he was going to say next.
"Louisiana," Kyle grinned.
Genius! Bruce thought.
Chapter 71
Shona had been quiet all of that Monday so far, even though Elbie had tried to coax an explanation out of her for most of the afternoon. She hadn't seen Chloe since she'd left early Saturday night and was still trying to get her head around what had happened on her walk home. Thoughts raced through her head. Why has the sickness completely stopped now? What did that mean for my feelings for Chloe?
"I'm gon' jump right in that ocean when I get to the Californian coast, I tell ya, clothes and all!" Shona said, trying to distract herself.
Elbie smiled back at her as he hung up the last of his tools in his workshop.
"Good luck to ya, girl! I'll be taking my granddaughter to school. I can't wait! Just a few more weeks to go! Now things have smoothed over here, it might even be a pleasure," he replied.
"Shona?" A soft voice rang out from the doorway behind them.
Elbie instinctively placed his foot over the thin piece of broken floorboard underneath him as Chloe walked into the tool room.
"Will you meet me, tonight?"
"Where?" she replied, taken aback at Chloe's forwardness.
"The riverbank. You remember?"
"Course I remember. What time?"
"8 o'clock. Sorry, gotta go." And as quickly as she'd arrived, Chloe disappeared down the corridor, looked around to see who was watching her.
"What was that all 'bout?" Elbie asked.
"Beats the hell outta me!" Shona replied, shaking her head.
Her heart thudded against her ribs, the waves of uncertainty crashing around inside her.
The evening was bright and balmy, the fresh water of the Weaver lapping against the bank. Storm was busying herself eating shrubs, safely tethered to a tree as her rider breathed deeply to calm her fluttering heart as she waited. 8 o'clock came and went, with Shona kicking the dusty ground out of sheer frustration, spooking Storm momentarily until she lost interest and continued to snuffle at the bushes.
"What now, girl? Do we wait?" Shona patted the mare's flank.
After another couple of minutes, she jumped up to take a slow trot back to the barn when Storm nickered loudly, startled by the dull roar of a car approaching them. Fighting to get her errant horse under control, Shona saw the familiar red Deluxe speeding down the road parallel to the river.
"Come on." She kicked her heels and rode Storm over to where the car had pulled up in a turnout on the side of the road.
"Shona." Chloe strode towards her, breathing heavily and looking over her shoulder. "I'm so sorry I'm late–"
"Kyle, right?" she guessed intuitively, climbing down from her horse.
"Something like that."
"Does he know you're meeting me? 'Cos that man hates me with a passion. He'll go nuts if he finds out and make my life hell again. Just when, if I'm bein’ honest, it's started to be kinda alright."
Chloe's face dropped, her well-rehearsed explanation falling apart in her head.
"I told him I was meeting one of the girls from the Copperpot."
"Uh huh. That seem right to you, though? I mean, it ain't my business n'all, but don't you think it's strange y'have to lie?"
"I know, I know!" Chloe ran her hands through her hair, then over her face. There was something openly agitating her, but Shona unwittingly carried on with her lecture.
"I don't know if you know what that man's capable of but–"
"I do know," Chloe blurted out, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Sorry," Shona replied, shocked to see her in such a state. Her arms ached to wrap themselves around Chloe, to comfort her friend, but she stuck her hands deep in her pockets to resist the urge. "Chloe, can I ask why you wanted to meet me here tonight?"
Not able to hold on a second longer, tears cascaded down Chloe's cheeks like rushing waterfalls as she crumpled to her knees on the ground. Instinctively, Shona bent down and threw her arms around her.
"I feel so trapped. I don't know what to do."
Her pitiful sobs were heartbreaking for Shona to hear. She cradled her gently, remembering how Chloe had done the same to her the day Cuban died. Resting her full body weight in Shona's strong arms, Chloe gripped on tightly to her checked shirt, her head lying in her lap.
"Shhh, it's OK, I'm here, I'm here…It's OK…” Shona murmured as she tenderly stroked Chloe's soft brown hair.
Doing her best to soothe the ebb and flow of tears, Shona sat on the soft grass with a helpless Chloe lying draped across her. She’d once dreamed of the moment she’d have Chloe wrapped up safely in her arms, but the sadness emitting from her made the scenario bittersweet. She let Chloe cry for as long as she needed, while inhaling the painfully beautiful scent of her freshly-washed hair.
As her sobs turned to snuffles after a few minutes of comfort, Chloe raised her head and looked deep into Shona's eyes. They were like shimmering pools of calm blue ocean, making all confusion and doubt wash away from her.
"You don't know what it's like for me, having to be a certain way, dress a certain way, be with a certain man who has to be wealthy," she blurted out between sniffs.
Silently, Shona stroked her hair. "I know," she replied, though her mind stirred at Chloe's cryptic words.
"The dinners, the parties, the fake people, my family! If only they knew the truth about my feelings!" She buried her head in Shona's lap again and clung to her knee as fresh sobs vibrated through her petite frame.
Shona held her tightly through every tremble.
"Could you not just tell 'em all that you and Kyle have split up?" she asked innocently. Chloe's head shot up, a look of pain and confusion etched on her mascara-streaked face.
"What?"
"You and Kyle? I mean, I know it probably made good business sense you two bein' together, but if he don't make you happy, to hell with what folks think. People split all the time–"
"You don't get it, do you?" Chloe interrupted.
"Get what?"
"It's YOU I'm talking about! The truth about my feelings for you, Shona. I can't keep them inside me a second longer!"
"Hi, Cindy? It's Kyle, how you doin'? Listen, could you ask Chloe if she could pick me up some Lucky Strike’s on her way home?
What's that? Ain't seen her all night, huh? OK, sorry, my mistake. Bye."
Kyle hung up the phone, his pen almost ripping through the notepad as he crossed off the fourth name he'd rung that night. Tearing the page out, he screwed it up into his fist, his face red with fury.
Where the hell are you?
Shona was thunderstruck.
"Wait a minute. What you saying?" she croaked, jumping to her feet, trying to process Chloe’s bombshell.
"You know what I'm saying. It's like, I wanna scream but I feel so damn trapped all the time. Yet what I feel for you makes me feel so right, so complete. It always has. From the first moment I saw you. But you were always so quick to get away from me, though, every time I wanted to speak to you. But then, when I met you properly, my heart just knew. I tried to fight my feelings, but—"
Chloe tailed off as Shona paced the dirt in turmoil. She’d fantasized about the moment she would hear these words. But right that second, all she could focus on was the terror of people finding out. Chloe's feelings for her were all she’d ever wanted to be real, since the day she first saw her on the balcony. It should have been the perfect thing to hear, but right now her confession hit her like a freight train. Dreaming of this moment was one thing, but it actually coming true felt like a thunderbolt to Shona. The grim reality was that in this town, or any town for that matter, it could never work for them to be together. She’d already been run out of one town for who she was, and beaten half to death because of it.
And what about when Kyle found out?
He'd already arranged for Cuban to be killed, nice and clean, she was sure of that. She didn't stand a chance once he knew. With her heart twisting in her chest, she crouched down on her haunches to face Chloe, who was still half-lying on the ground.
"That kinda feeling is dangerous in these parts, you know that," she half-whispered. "Not to mention that Chambers is the nastiest piece of work I ever met. Do you know how many days and nights I’ve begged God for you to say those words to me—?"
Tears of frustration welled up in her eyes as Chloe stared at her, hanging off her every word, hoping her next words were the ones she longed to hear.
"—but when I saw you with Kyle at the Copperpot that night, and you hugging him back? It actually made sense for you to be with him. What kinda life could we have together? It's just pipe dreams, Chloe. I’ve been runnin' all my life to stay alive. If folks around here knew about about us, we wouldn't survive the week. I'm goin' to California soon and for once in my shitty life I wan' leave a town behind that ain't gon' chase after my blood. I'm terrified, Chloe! I don't wan' have to look over my shoulder anymore. I can't do it!"
Hardly believing the words that were pouring through her trembling lips and unable to look Chloe in the eye any longer, Shona stood up and stepped a few paces away, staring at the horizon as the sun started to sink below it. Biting back the tears, she uttered the words to Chloe that she never thought would cross her lips.
"I can't do this right now. I don't know what the hell I'm feeling! It's all mixed up!" She held her hand to her fluttering stomach as she walked away. "I need to think."
Chloe climbed up off the ground and dusted herself off. "I told you before that I knew what happened in Mississippi…but I didn’t tell you everything I found out when I was away. I know now why you're scared!"
"What are you talking about?" Shona stopped dead in her tracks.
"I found Dorothy. I know about Louisiana now too."
Shona’s mouth dropped open. Her secret was out.
"I asked Dorothy about what happened to you," Chloe continued. "I know why you had to leave Mississippi. I know about you being set up that night with that hooker and everybody finding out. I know about your father, your mother and how she died. I know about the treatment they gave you in that basement–"
"STOP! PLEASE!" Shona yelled through the tears at Chloe, who staggered back, almost knocked off her feet as Shona accidentally shoulder barged past her. "You know NOTHING about me!" Her eyes blazed at a bemused Chloe, who didn't see her confession ending like this.
"I know that Shona Jackson ain't your real name!"
Her words struck Shona like a bullet. She froze on the spot, turned and stared at Chloe in complete horror.
"Your father rang Kyle last Friday and he wasted no time in coming in to tell me the truth. Thought it would change my opinion of you, that I'd hate you for lyin' to me. But you know what? He was wrong. I understand why you did that! You were scared. I don't give a rat's ass what your name is; you'll always be Shona Jackson to me…the Shona Jackson I have fallen in lo—"
Shona blindly staggered over to Storm, her head crushed, her world spinning. Without even a look back, she kicked her heels into the horse and galloped off into the distance, her eyes streaming with hot, salty tears.
Chloe stared after her and screamed into the air until she felt her lungs burn. Embarrassment, confusion, and the rawest pain she'd ever felt in her life coursed through her veins like acid.
Parking in Kyle's driveway, Chloe felt emotionally drained. Halfway home, she’d remembered the paperwork she'd accidentally left at his house and reluctantly turned left instead of right at the crossroads, huffing with annoyance that she would need it for the usual Tuesday morning investors’ meeting. Seeing that there was no car in the driveway and no lights were on, she smiled, relieved that he wasn't home yet. She picked up the spare key from under the mat and slipped inside the front door.
A dark silhouette stood in the living room, the outline of a glass of whiskey in hand clearly visible in the light that shone through a crack in the drapes.
"Which friend did you see tonight?" The voice was deep and gravelly, the whiskey obviously not the first that had been downed that night.
"Um…Cindy," Chloe replied, quickly scanning the coffee table for the paperwork she'd come for. "I didn’t see your car in the driveway. You get a cab home?"
"Cindy, huh? You sure?" He ignored her question and stepped closer, the whites of his eyes glistening.
"Yeah, you know, she works at the Copperpot?" She reached down to the coffee table to search through the piles of paper, but quick as a flash Kyle grabbed her arms, digging his fingernails into her wrists as he threw her up against the wall.
"What the hell are you doin'?" Chloe gasped in shock.
"Cindy, huh? Well, we both know that's a fucking lie. I called your friends tonight, all of 'em! None of 'em know a single fucking thing about your lil' play date tonight, so where the fuck were you?"
"Kyle, you're hurting me, please–" she cried out, her skin pinching against his rough grip.
"You seein' somebody else? After everything I've done for you, for us! You’ve been leadin' me on for months and I've waited for you like a good lil' boy, then you go out there acting like a whore and makin’ me look like a damn fool? You know how much I want you, and you’re goin’ out and givin’ it to every other man out there but keep denyin' me MY right?"
He dragged her back to the couch and pinned her down underneath his heavy, sweating body. His groans began to get louder in her ear as she clawed at him with all her might.
"NO, Kyle, STOP! PLEASE!"
When it was all over, Chloe lay motionless on her side with her knees hugged into her chest. The pain she felt inside her was almost too much to bear.
Chapter 72
"So? How'd it go last night?" Elbie asked a distant-looking Shona.
It was early Tuesday morning in the tool room and she had barely said two words to the old man who was itching to know what happened at the river bank.
"Chloe told me everything. She has feelings for me too, Elbie," Shona replied, her voice eerily quiet for someone who should have been bouncing off the walls with this revelation.
"Well? That's great! Ain't it?"
"I don't know anymore," she said sadly, her face pale.
Elbie dropped his wrench and stared at her, his wise eyes flashing disbelief.
"Are you kiddin' me? Y'been b
orin' the pants off me for weeks now 'bout how much you like that girl and now she says it back to ya, you don't know how y'feel?"
Shona looked startled at the old man's outburst.
"Elbie, when they gave me all that treatment to make me sick when I saw those pictures, they knew how it'd affect me. I started to get used to it. It was predictable, like in a weird way it was keeping me safe from gettin' hurt again. But now, the sickness has gone away! Now, when I’m around her, my heart just feels still, like it ain’t even beatin’ no more. What the hell does that mean, huh? That mean I don't feel nothin' special for Chloe anymore? That we're just friends now that I don't feel the sickness. Am I cured now my heart don’t race no more when I’m near her?"
Her searching eyes implored Elbie to explain her raging confusion, but his face broke out into the most joyful smile she'd ever seen.
"Child, I hate to be the one to break this to ya, but you’re in trouble, girl! I had that exact same feelin’ for my wife. When we first met, I couldn’t even speak to her without getting tongue-tied, I thought my heart would explode right outta my chest! But after I realised she was the one, well, I just felt so damn calm around her. She was where I felt most at home. Shona, your heart only races when you’re not sure of someone, when you’re anxious around them, wary of ‘em even." He chuckled as a light seemed to switch on in Shona’s mind.
"Elbie, that’s it, isn’t it? Those doctors tried to force me not to feel lust, but they couldn’t ever find a treatment to stop me falling in…love!"
He smiled as the truth finally dawned on her. "Nope, what you’re feelin’ now? There ain't no cure for that! Your heart ain’t racin’ no more ’cos to you Chloe feels like home."
Shona stared at the old man, her eyes wide with a mixture of elation and terror.
Chapter 73