Legal Legacy (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles)

by Kimball Lee

  And then there was Cuatro who felt he had a serious bone to pick with Hadley’s brother. Atticus had told him to get over his ‘infatuation’ with Hadley and then he’d hit him in the fucking eye in the middle of a fucking bar and he was just supposed to let that shit slide? No way, his book would be published within a year and the entire Hale family could kiss his ass. It might be a bit of an embellished tale of two wickedly erotic women who left a man’s heart shredded so that all he could do was search for a razor blade to slit his own wrists, but oh well. Hadley was famous now but just wait until next year, when his book made its debut, she would be infamous. In the meantime he decided to entertain himself with a girl who was completely different from Hadley Hale. Skyler Thomas seemed to have a thing for billionaires and Cuatro might be lacking in some areas, but his was the wealthiest family in Texas. Atticus looked like he was seriously invested in the girl but then again, Atticus was frivolous with women. It would serve him right to lose his girlfriend to the man he had kept Hadley from loving. Atticus Hale needed to be taught a lesson, as the cowboys down in Texas liked to say, “Paybacks are hell, life sucks and old age and bein’ in love ain’t for pussies.”

  Chapter Four

  Hadley was no longer speaking to Holden. The two of them had disappeared into a far wing of Bly’s mansion together as soon as they were back in town. When they had walked into the house and Holden asked what they were going to do for three whole days if he wasn’t allowed to speak, Hadley had simply rolled her eyes so that he picked her up and climbed the wide staircase taking the steps two at a time.

  “It’s really kinda kinky to make love when you won’t talk to me, Hads, I think I like it. I understand that you’re highly pissed over my decision to go through SEAL training and my body has the bite and scratch marks to prove it. You are my very beautiful and erotic hellion…”

  “Shut up,” Hadley said, and her eyes said the rest. They said she loved him and she was frightened for him just as she was for herself. Her career was on an upward trajectory, celebrities weren’t called stars for no reason, she was a bright star blazing across the heavens, rising fast and travelling far. She was in love with Holden but she was sad about it. Her dad wasn’t going to live to old age and her lover probably wouldn’t either. Holden, Atticus and Jack were fools, testosterone junkies… heartbreakers.

  “Be still and you won’t get hurt,” she said, finally breaking her silence. She climbed on top of Holden as he lay across the enormous canopy bed in one of the dozen or so guest bedrooms. She removed a thin leather belt from the short-shorts she wore and told him to sit up as she bound his hands behind his back. She was perched on his lap and they were face to face as she secured the belt and he did his best to distract her.

  He kissed the corners of her scrumptiously full mouth and then her cheeks until she hissed at him to stop. He moved to her neck and then her breasts, biting at her nipples through the thin cotton of her blouse.

  “Inconsiderate self-centered bastard!” she growled as she yanked her t-shirt off and leaned into his kisses, panting and needy. The swift bite of pleasure shot from her nipples straight to her sex and set her on fire just as his touch always did. Her man, her love, her Holden. Oh, how it sent a jagged blade into her heart to know that his fierce love and loyalty to Atticus was pulling him toward such a fearful path. She was furious at both of them, they had no consideration for anyone but themselves, how much was she supposed to take? Her father, her brother, her truest love; all of them deserting her and her mother and Charlie. Not to mention what their actions would do to Sky and Alex and Mia, inflicting ever more scars on their family.

  “Ahhhhhh,” she cried as the first orgasm gripped her and she settled onto his long thick cock, taking him in so deeply that he groaned in pleasure and she cried out at the delicious, heart-pounding pain.

  “Hads, I’m coming back to you, don’t ever doubt it,” Holden said when she lay curled so very close to him in the night. His cock stayed hard all the time when she was near, there was no changing that, his body craved her as much as his heart did. But he ignored it and lifted her face gently, their eyes sparkled as they met in the dark. She’d been crying but the tears had dried and her cheeks were salty when he bent to kiss her. “Don’t cry, baby, please. Hadley, I promise it will all work out. I have plans for us, I want to open a restaurant in New Orleans, in the heart of the city where you and I began our love affair. I’ll build it into an empire and we can live on the Gulf Coast when you’re tired of Los Angeles. We’ll raise our babies in the McCall house, we’ll swim naked in the Gulf and never fall out of love, we’ll find the happily-ever-after that most people only dream of.”

  *

  “I need this, what else have I asked for?” Hadley said. “Nothing. So this a deal breaker and I don’t want to leave you all in a bind, but it’s more or less a life or death… well, suffice it to say it’s a serious situation. My contract specifically states that in case of extenuating circumstances I can take a leave of absence, but I don’t want to do that. All I need is a bigger trailer on the set and a tutor for my little brother… and maybe someone to watch over him when I’m working.”

  Hadley wasn’t exactly nervous but she did feel like she might throw up as she presented her demands to the director and producers. They shuffled their feet and tapped their fingers and talked among themselves considering her requests. Ian Morrissey, the director who had insisted on having Hadley star in his film, leaned forward with his hands on the table and spoke up.

  “Not a problem, how hold is… Charlie, is it? We’ll see to it that you have whatever you need to make things a little easier for you and your brother. Now Hadley, we’re behind schedule so you’re going to have to work with Reef Townsend tomorrow and for a few days if that’s what it takes. You’re a tremendously talented actor, but it’s important for you to interact with these bikers, members of a motorcycle club, whatever. Authenticity, that’s what’s called for and excuse me if I point out that the gun-running, dope dealing, murder-for-hire lifestyle is not what you’re used to.”

  In the week following their trip to Las Vegas Charlotte’s mood had become an overly bright façade as she and Finn retreated into a world all their own. That combined with the fearful zombie-like look in her eyes had caused Hadley to take Charlie with her during the week when she was on the film set. Alex Bly was kind enough to send his jet to bring them home on Friday afternoons and see to it that they were returned to the town of Arroyo Grande just up the coast from L.A. on Sunday evenings.

  “Charlie,” Bly had asked the first day he flew north with them. They were circling the San Louis Obispo Regional Airport and Bly was concerned over the decision Charlie had made to live away from home for the most part while Finn was ill. “Charlie, you know Vivi, don’t you, she’s Billy Kipling’s daughter? Well, your mother and I talked about it and we thought you might like to have her as a tutor and companion while Hadley is on set.”

  “Oh, that would be great, wouldn’t it Charlie? You always have fun with Vivi, she’s a blast. She’ll play all those mindless video games you love and don’t forget that Atticus taught her how to really kick a soccer ball,” Hadley said and Charlie shrugged his shoulders without interrupting the game he was playing on his IPad.

  “I’ve promised Charlotte that I’ll be here for Charlie and for you, Hadley, while she and your dad are… preoccupied. Vivi is studying to get her teaching certificate online and she only has two more semesters to finish her bachelor’s degree. She’ll be fun and caring and she doesn’t want to see Charlie fall behind in his school work. I had her meet with his teacher at Country Day and gather his books and the lesson plans for his classes.”

  “Thanks, Alex, I know it takes some weight off Mom’s mind. When is Vivi coming? I haven’t seen her since we were all in Pass Christian last summer,” Hadley said and she felt a surge of deep and overwhelming love for Alex Bly. He sat across the aisle from her and it was clear that just saying her parents’ names was difficult
for him. He loved her mother with a startling intensity, and he respected her father enough to be horrified that this terrible turn of events had befallen him.

  That thought and Bly’s kindness and demeanor made Hadley gulp back tears and look away. Everything about him reminded her of Holden and Atticus. He and Atticus had the same head turning good looks, deeply riveting voices and overtly masculine charm. Holden was not quite the physical carbon copy of Bly that Atticus was, but he too was unmistakably Bly’s son. Bly and Holden had identical sea-glass colored eyes and their personalities were very much alike. They were tough on the outside but when their hearts found true love, they were soft as marshmallows on the inside.

  Atticus had inherited Charlotte’s pure sapphire-blue eyes and also her steely resolve. When the two of them made up their minds to accomplish a task they were unstoppable.

  All three men, Bly, Atticus and Holden, were infuriatingly determined and loyal and normally those were traits to be admired. But Hadley didn’t admire her brother for going off on some soul searching crusade and she sure as hell wasn’t happy with the man she loved for taking that perilous journey with him.

  “She’s waiting for us at the airport,” Bly said, turning Hadley’s thoughts back to Vivi Kipling. “She’s been in San Francisco so she’ll be meeting us in San Louis Obispo. I’d like to send Billy with you, Hadley, while you’re filming. Holden is concerned about this biker gang, the ‘Four Horsemen’ that you’ll be involved with. I have to agree, they don’t have a reputation for… malicious conduct that some of the gangs have, but to be on the safe side….”

  “I doubt that the film’s producers would knowingly put me in danger, Alex. And as for Holden, he needs to be more concerned with his own safety, I would think,” Hadley said, putting an end to any further talk of her needing a bodyguard and trying in vain to conceal her anger toward Holden.

  “Alright then,” Bly said quietly, rubbing his chin and then pinching the tense spot between his eyes.

  Charlie was wearing the new Beats Solos headphones that Bly had given him so he was totally immersed in his game. Hadley moved to the seat next to Bly and said, “Alex, you can’t protect all of us even though it’s clear that you want to so badly. It’s perfectly clear that my mother means everything to you and you’ve waited for her for a very long time, so it’s sort of surprising that my dad’s condition is hurting you so much. But, then again I’m not surprised, because you’re such a good man, one of the best, and I guess I hadn’t given any thought to how much you must have suffered over the years. My mom is not always logical, you understand that she’ll need to play the martyr after he’s gone, right?”

  “Yes. Your mother has made my life both heaven and hell and I’ve found it more fulfilling to love her from a distance than to love any other woman. I never stopped believing that she would make life complete eventually, but I have a feeling that she’ll grieve so long and so hard for your father that it will change her. Whatever she’s felt for me will be lost and it’s doubtful that she’ll ever be mine.” Bly said simply and Hadley knew that in her lifetime she had been an observer to the truly mythical and enduring love of one woman and the two men who had no wish to escape her.

  Now that Hadley had a better understanding for being a woman and being in love she had a deep appreciation for the obstacles Charlotte had been faced with over the years. She no longer saw her mother solely through a daughter’s eyes. She was not quite nineteen and yet she understood that love was both a healing balm and a sword with many edges. It healed and invigorated and made life a paradise beyond the rational or logical, and it cut and wounded and left scars that were either shallow or too deep to be endured.

  “I love Holden, you know. I’ll marry him someday when he’s done with risking his life with Atticus,” Hadley said and Bly nodded his head. “Ten years from now or five or whenever, he and I will have the most beautiful baby and it will be part of you and my mom and dad. Isn’t that an amazing thought? I know it will happen, I can feel our life together waiting like a new seed inside of me.”

  “Yes it is, your dad said the same thing at the beach last summer. He said Charlotte and I would live to see that miracle happen,” Bly loved this young girl, loved that she was devoted to his son; that she was Charlotte’s daughter. She was extraordinary looking, with Finn’s large grey-eyes, full lips and mink colored hair as well as his tough yet fun loving spirit. To top it off she had a genuine sweetness combined with Charlotte’s mannerisms and tall slim body. She was in love with Holden, he had no doubt, but she was still young with so many possibilities ahead of her. The future, even a day as close as tomorrow, was an unknown entity. Charlotte could place herself beyond his reach entirely and fame could change Hadley into an altogether different person.

  *

  “As soon as I’m finished with you, I’m going home to San Diego. After that… I don’t know, it seems like I’m losing my way, or mind, or both,” Hadley said and Reef’s eyes narrowed as he watched her.

  “When you’re finished with me? I don’t like the sound of that, princess.”

  “That came out wrong, not finished, but when we’ve covered the technical aspect of motorcycle clubs and the hierarchy of biker chicks and ol’ ladys and mamas or what have you. Reef, you’ve been so helpful and your dad is like the scariest person I’ve ever met and I don’t know how you live that lifestyle. You’re a nomad, a curiosity, an unknown entity for a girl like me, you know, tough and tattooed and… way too hot to handle.”

  “I’m a nomad, what the fuck is that supposed to mean? Wait, you think I’m hot?” Reef asked and he seemed so surprised that Hadley turned her face away and pressed her fingers to her lips to keep from laughing.

  “Come on,” she said, “really? Is that a serious question? All those half-naked girls with neon hair and the ‘desperately clinging to their youth’ older women were all over you back there at your dad’s lodge, office, strip club, whatever.” She wondered if he was really in the dark as to his looks and more than that, his raw animal magnetism. Reef didn’t have Holden’s flawlessly symmetrical features and all-American bloodline but he had an abundance of rough-and-ready sexuality. Hadley wondered if Alex Bly had noticed the spark in her eye when she looked at Reef. Bly had met them at the airport to pick up Charlie and Vivi for the weekend and Hadley had given him a long and rambling explanation as to why she was staying on set.

  They were driving toward the lush rolling hills northeast of Arroyo Grande, away from the airport and the motorcycle club and the film set. Reef had left his Harley behind and his dad had winked and tossed him the keys to a new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.

  “It’s only because I’m Tommy Rex Townsend’s son, those chicks, even the old ones, that’s their way of showing respect to the club’s president. My dad likes his badass reputation but he’s not that bad. Has he ever killed men? Maybe. But if he has they were men who deserved to die. What do you know about bikers, anything? Or are you like everybody else? All you can see is a group of men in shabby leather with beards and trashy looking women. Men who like to smoke pot, deal drugs, raise hell and kill whoever gets in their way. That’s the way it is for some clubs, my dad was a big man in the Hell’s Angels but he didn’t like selling drugs to school kids and guns to teenagers or being told who was gonna die next. So he left and took three other members with him, they had to stay low and out of sight for a couple of years, try and outlast the death warrants that were hanging over their heads. They lived on a piece of farmland my mom inherited from her grandfather and they helped her start a pretty good organic farm.”

  “And your parents fell in love but they didn’t live the dream obviously, since your dad is an outlaw biker who formed the ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’. And I don’t know what to say about your mom that won’t piss you off. She was kind of overly affectionate with you, but, hey, if that’s the way you like it…”

  “Stella is my dad’s wife, my dad’s ‘Old lady’ to be precise, and you’re right, she isn
’t the motherly type. She hits on me and my brothers all the time, she has since we were twelve or thirteen. My mom is a pacifist but she gave Stella that knife scar down the side of her face for fucking around with my brother, Cade when he was teenager.”

  “Cade Townsend… Kincade Townsend, is that right? The mastermind behind Alice-Anne’s Farm Markets?”

  “Yep, that’s him alright, he’s a big fucking deal, thanks to my mother. Just so you understand, my mother is the mastermind behind it all.”

  “So your mother is Alice-Anne Kincade? Whoa! Forgive me for saying so, but if your dad chose that freaky Stella over a woman who’s a pioneer of organic farming, a philanthropist and global humanitarian, he’s been smoking something stronger than pot. Does that mean this farm you’re taking me to, is the renowned Alice-Anne’s Farm? The legendary ‘no cameras, no press, no celebrities’ sanctuary where the good the bad and the socially challenged are given an entirely new start in life. Your mother singlehandedly started the whole organic farming movement to entice schools, restaurants and families to buy locally grown whole foods. There are thousands of articles and websites devoted to Alice-Anne’s Farm, but I don’t think anyone has ever seen a picture of her. So, is she okay with you bringing me into her super secretive territory this weekend?”

  “She cuts me a lot of slack ‘cuz I’m her favorite,” he said giving Hadley a sly smile. “My brothers are twins, identical except that Cade is an asshole and Traeger isn’t, which makes me the baby of the family. Alice-Anne eases up on a few of the rules where I’m concerned. You’re right, the farm’s purpose, other than to provide jobs and all natural agricultural products, is to offer a safe and secure haven for those who need to escape their pasts. Okay, here we are, come on, I think you’re gonna be a big hit with my mother. A word of caution… Alice-Anne is a good ol’ girl from Ft. Worth, and she will tell it like it is, but she’ll add “bless your heart” to soften the blow.”