The Chauffeur

by A. P. Hallmark

  “They didn’t feed you?” I ask, appalled. My anger and loathing for James are renewed.

  “Joe did when James and Robin weren’t around, but when they were, I didn’t get much.” She lays back on the pillow, closing her eyes.

  “Every time James or Robin hit me, I was so afraid they were going to punch me in the stomach. He threatened it enough.”

  “Um, Jason, would you mind getting that pizza? I have something to tell you while we eat.”

  “Sure, baby. You take a nap, and when I get back, we’ll talk, okay?”

  “Okay. Love you,” she says, sleepily. I swear she’s out before I even leave the room.

  By the time I check to see if she's on special diet restrictions, find my car, get the pizza and return, April is alert and freshly showered.

  “You look so much better, babe,” I say, bending to kiss her.

  “I feel better, and will feel even better when I get some of that pizza inside me,” she says, trying to grab it from me.

  I roll the bed tray over her lap, sit on the other side of it and put the pie between us. I tuck a napkin in her gown and lay it over her chest to catch errant crumbs.

  After choosing the best slice in the box, April takes a healthy bite. It makes me feel better with each piece she devours. The fuckers starved her.

  “April,” I begin, “The doctor says you’re improving quickly, but I want to make sure that we address how you’re handling everything mentally. I was thinking after we get home, and settled, we could look into finding a therapist to help you deal with the trauma.”

  “What about Kathryn? Have you heard from her? She never showed up at the house, so I’m even beginning to wonder if she was involved in this.” She takes a long drink of her soda.

  “Oh, she’s involved all right. And so is her mother. My father has them in custody at Sector, as well.”

  “Jason,” she begins, setting down her pizza. “About Joe?”

  “What about Joe?” I ask coldly.

  “I know he was involved, but without him, I believe things with James and Robin would have been much, much worse. I know he was working with them, but he took care of me. He protected me from James’ anger on several occasions, and I don’t want to turn him in.”

  “I can’t believe what you’re saying. He killed Roger and four other people.”

  “I don’t think he—”

  “He only saved you to cover his ass. If they hadn’t said they were going to cut him out of his share, he would have let them kill you, April. He’s a self-serving bastard.”

  “I don’t believe that,” she snaps. I sit back and listen to her story. It’s like the floodgates open, and she just starts talking.

  “Joe decided he was getting out of this, so he drugged James and Robin, hid me, and left. He told me he discovered the panic room one day and didn’t think James even knew about it. He wanted a head start to get away, but he also wanted me safe from James and Robin. They wouldn’t know where I was and would assume Joe took me for himself. He said he’d contact you, but after waiting what seemed like forever, I got scared. How appropriate, huh? Panicking in the panic room?”

  “Why didn’t he just take you out of there and drop you off somewhere?” I ask, my anger worsening. “I mean, he could have dropped you at a mall or a convenience store … anywhere.”

  “He feared being caught by the cops, and he wanted you to find James and Robin. He didn’t want to risk getting caught with me,” she explains.

  “You know he’s the one that put the knife in your door and ran you down with his car, right?” I ask trying to keep her mind on track. I can sense she has a soft spot for this jerk. I don’t think it’s Stockholm Syndrome, she wasn’t there along enough, but because he showed a small bit of human compassion, she feels indebted to him. I feel like I’m missing something here.

  “Yes. He said it was only to scare me. Kathryn wanted me to be scared enough to leave you. He said he didn’t set out to hurt me, and he felt terrible that I hit my head on that rock.”

  “Yes, I bet he did. Did he also tell you how bad he felt when he made the decision to kill Roger and the other four people on the plane? What about when he dragged you away from your family? Yeah, I feel sorry for the fucker.” When I look up at April, her expression is grieved, and I know it’s because of me, not Joe Smith. I think it’s best to change the subject now.

  “So, you’re being moved tomorrow to be closer to home—are you excited?” I ask, hoping that works.

  “Jason, I don’t care where I am as long as I’m with you,” she says with love and sincerity.

  I climb into bed with her and pull her close to me.

  “I missed you so much,” I whisper, taking her hand with the engagement ring, raising it to my lips. “I knew we would find you, but I worried for you.”

  She looks directly into my eyes, runs her fingers through my hair, and pulls my lips to hers. “I knew you would find me, too. I felt it … here,” she says, laying my hand over her heart.

  “Oh,” I begin. “As I told you earlier when Special Agent Arnett was here, I called your parents.” She sits up in bed, causing her to become dizzy, so she lies back down.

  “What did they say? I bet my dad is frantic. Is my mom all right?”

  “I didn’t speak to your mother, but I do know they’ll arrive in Chicago tomorrow. I wasn’t sure if you told them about us, but I assumed you’d want to tell them yourself, so I just told them I was your employer.”

  “Yes, we’ll tell them when they get here. They’re going to be mad at me for not doing so before now especially since I’ll be skipping over the boyfriend-girlfriend thing altogether and hitting them with an engagement and pregnancy.”

  “May I kiss you?” I ask, running my thumb across her bottom lip.

  “I wish you would.” I oblige and enjoy how warm her mouth is. As soon as the heat from kissing her cools, I lower my brow to hers.

  “I missed you,” I say before folding her into my arms. “I want you so much.”

  “Me too.” Shivers run down my arms and legs when she buries her fingers in my hair.

  “Uh um.” The nurse clears her throat at the door while looking at the floor. “I need to check our patient.” She puts the stethoscope in her ears to listen to April’s heart.

  She looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “Just as I thought … rapid heartbeat. No doubt her temperature will be raised as well.”

  “I’ll just go get a cup of coffee or something,” I say, thumbing the door and grinning at my girl. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Jason.” I turn to find April’s doctor head toward me.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “I’ve been going over April’s chart: she has no broken bones, no concussion, no internal injuries and the baby is safe. Rather than transporting her to Chicago by Care Flight, providing she’s given proper care and rest, I will release her,” he says, looking at me questioningly.

  “I can assure you she’ll get all the rest she can if it’s the last thing I do, and I’ll hire a nurse for however long you deem necessary,” I say, my eyes wide with excitement. I’d promise this man the moon if he let me walk out of here with April.

  “All right then. I’ll have her monitored throughout the night and take another round of tests in the morning. If she’s doing as well as she is today, then she can go home tomorrow,” he says flipping through her chart. I smile at him, and my mind begins to spin a thousand miles an hour.

  After my conversation with the doctor, I start notifying people. First, I call my mother to let her know I’m bringing April home tomorrow and remind her about our houseguests. I then call Mr. Sanders to let him know that April will be released tomorrow.

  When I return, April is fast asleep.

  “Hey, baby,” I say next to her ear, “I’m going home, all right?”

  “Um-hm,” she returns, her eyes still closed.

  “I’ll be here when you open your eyes tomorrow.” I bend to kiss her parted li
ps, then kiss her injured nose. “I love you.”

  “Love you,” she mumbles. “Thank you.”

  I reluctantly turn to leave, and after the twenty-minute drive to the house, the first thing I do is call my father.

  “How’s April?” he asks right away.

  “She’s good. So good they’re releasing her tomorrow.

  “That means the baby’s all right then?”

  “Yes. I got to hear the heartbeat, Dad.”

  “That’s wonderful. I’m glad,” he says. “We’re excited to meet our first grandchild. Your mother is over the moon happy.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean. Oh, hey, April told me that there are a couple of Rottweilers at James’s house. Could you use them at Sector? She also thinks Kate’s dog, Sherry, might be there.”

  “That’s a great idea. I’ll send a couple of the men there tonight to get them,” he replies more excited than I expected.

  Just as I’m about to discuss my plans for tomorrow with my father, my phone pings with an incoming message.

  Unknown: Is she all right?

  Chapter 28

  ~Jason~

  “You ready to go home, baby?”

  “You have no idea!” April replies with a huge smile. “Going home has a sweet ring to it.”

  “You, saying you’ll marry me has the sweetest ring to me.”

  “Still the same lovable Jason.”

  I wonder if she’d think I was lovable if she knew what I have planned for James. In some respects, it’s a good thing I’m not standing in front of him right now. It may have spared his life—by my hands anyway.

  Helping April out of the wheelchair, I guide her to the car. After I tuck her into me, I place a kiss on the crown of her head and inhale deeply. Unfortunately, her natural scent’s been tainted by the sanitizing odor of hospital. Fortunately, I had the foresight to have Emily fill my en suite with all of April’s personal things, so she’ll feel more at home. Then I’ll have my room filled with her unique scent.

  “We’ll be home around two o’clock, and your parents are scheduled to arrive around five. That will give you time to relax and take a nap. Then you can freshen up before they get here. I had Emily move your things into my room last week. I hope that’s all right. I need you near me, and Mother wants to be near her grand—”

  “Wait, you already told her? Without me?”

  “Well, actually… it was Emily that told us.” I look at the sadness that comes over her face while she looks down at the tiles as we talk.

  “Please, don’t be angry with her. Not only was she making herself sick with worry over not telling me, now she’s sick with worry that she did, breaking your confidence. She thinks it’s the end of your friendship.”

  “I wondered if she would.”

  “When Emily told us, it was news that came at a time we were a desperate to find you. But when you told me, April,” I explain, feeling the softness of her cheek, “when you told me, it was received with love and happiness.”

  “Outside of you telling me you loved me, hearing those words from you were the sweetest I’ve ever heard. We’ve created life, April. I don’t know about you, but I’m in awe of that fact. We’re going to have a little person ruling our lives, can you believe it? It doesn’t matter who was the first to tell me; it only matters to me that you were alive to tell me. So, please, don’t be angry with Emily and Rita. They feared for the safety of both, you and our child.”

  “I know … and I understand. I’m not angry with them, Jason. I know why she had to.”

  Once we resume our way toward the car, April was back to her jovial mood. I can tell she’s excited to get out of here.

  ~.~

  “Welcome Home!” My family shouts as we enter the living room. April is almost buried under a pile of Rowes.

  “Okay, everyone, let’s give her some room, shall we? I have an announcement to make.” I step back and wait impatiently while my family ignores me.

  “I’m so glad you’re home, honey. We’ve all been so worried about you,” my mother says, hugging her.

  “I second that. My son was beside himself with worry day and night with trying to find you, April.” Dad takes her by the shoulders then kisses her forehead. “Welcome home, sweetheart.” I grin at her deep blush.

  “Okay, what is it, brother?” Kyle asks walking toward the bar.

  “As you all know, April and I are expecting a baby,” I say, holding April’s left hand to hide her ring. “Well, we want you to be the first to know that I’ve asked this beautiful woman to marry me, and she said yes.” April jumps when everyone hollers for joy.

  “Welcome to the family, dear,” my mother says, taking April into her arms again. “I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect daughter-in-law.”

  April and I hug each member of my family as they make the second round of congratulations before we all settle down to address the elephant in the room … the abduction.

  “April, Grace found your journal and reviewed it,” Dad begins, “so we have a more informed idea of what you had to endure. We’re aware that James and Robin mistreated you. While it’s important for you to heal physically as well as mentally, time is of the essence if we want to solve this case. Did you hear or observe anything that you believe would be helpful to our investigation at all?” April furrows her brow in concentration as she tries to think of everything that happened over the past few days.

  “All I know is that James and Robin turned on Kate and her mother. I suspect James was planning to turn on Joe, too. Um, there’s something you need to know about Joe. He isn’t who he claims to be.” I suppress the urge to roll my eyes. I suspected at the onset that he was a fraud.

  “What do you mean?” I ask trying hard to sound sincere.

  “Well, I discovered by way of a sandwich he made me, that his name isn’t Joe Smith, but rather Matt White,” she explains, fretting with her engagement ring.

  “What do you mean by way of a sandwich?” my father asks. We’re all curious now.

  “Well, Joe, I mean Matt, made a sandwich for me that had a special sauce on it that I had tasted before. A recipe he told me that is known only to his family. But, Max White, my landlord, would occasionally make me sandwiches with the same special sauce. He had told me before I moved out that he was planning to rent the apartment to his nephew, Matt. That’s how I figured out who Joe really was.”

  “Is this why you didn’t tell Arnette about him?”

  “Yes.”

  Kyle takes notes, preparing to run a full background check on Matt as soon as we finish up here.

  “Matt wasn’t involved in the sabotaging of the plane. He told me that Robin had been having a relationship with the plant manager.”

  “What the fuck?” I shout, jumping to my feet.

  “Good god, this just gets more and more ridiculous,” Mom says, folding her arms over her chest.

  “I think it may have started with the missing file from your drawer. I suspect that Robin learned that Mr. Scott was your plant manager, and she set out to pursue him. Apparently, sex gets you a lot around here because she got everything she wanted in this fiasco by fucking—” April clamps both her hands over her mouth and everyone laughs, especially my parents.

  “It’s all right, April,” my father says. “That’s exactly what she did. After failing to snare Jason, she slept her way into James’ trust to set up the kidnapping. I think that Robin and James devised a plan to oust Kathryn and Helen at the onset. Robin knew what was going on because Kathryn brought her in to ruin Jason.”

  “And the sick part is that both Kathryn and Robin were sleeping with James,” April explains, physically shuddering.

  “Matt told me that Mr. Scott, out of his misplaced devotion for Robin, sabotaged the engine just after the test flights were finished. Scott wouldn’t be a suspect because, along with his impeccable background, he had no link to Kathryn. However, Joe Smith did. Matt believes it was Kate’s plan all along to place all the blame on
him, leaving Mr. Scott free to roam the plant, making all the adjustments needed to ruin the Rowes.”

  “I guess we should have included Scott when the polygraphs were given at the plant,” I say, voicing my thoughts.

  “Grace … Carl, I need to ask a huge favor of you,” April begins. “I know how you feel about everything that has happened, but I’m asking that you be lenient with Matt. He protected me. He made sure I had food that James and Robin had no intention of giving me. He drugged them, tied them up, and hid me in the panic room to protect me until you arrived.”

  “Apparently,” I explain, “the reason Matt went along with this charade is that a few years back he got in trouble with a local bookie who is calling in the debt. The bookie has threatened his uncle’s life if Matt doesn’t pay up. April says that he only intended to scare her enough to make her leave me and in no way wanted her hurt when he aimed his car at her. He thought this was a fast and easy way to get enough money.”

  “Once Matt learned I was a friend and former tenant of Max’s, he knew who I was. Trust me, I think he’s more afraid of Max than he is of you.”

  “Do you know where he is now?” my dad asks. She shakes her head in response.

  “He texted me yesterday asking if April was all right. I didn’t respond, though, because he blocked me out when he sent the first text,” I reply. “There’s nothing we can do about any of this right now anyway,” I turn to April, “Baby, why don’t you go on upstairs and rest a little bit before your parents get here? They’re due to land at five o’clock and should be here at six.”

  “April, I thought your parents would be more comfortable staying in your apartment. It will give them some privacy. Are you all right with that?” my mother asks, escorting April upstairs.

  “Yes. I think you’re right,” she replies, putting her arm around Mom.

  “Dinner’s at seven, I’ve invited Emily and Adam, too,” Mom calls over her shoulder while she and my future wife head up the stairs to my room. “

  “We’ve moved all your things into Jason’s room. I don’t think Jason will ever allow you out of his sight again,” Mom says loud enough for me to hear. She’s got that fucking right!