“I told her we have a physician on her way here at this very moment,” Marie Temple looked pale and concerned. “What is happening here, Clarence?”
“You’re being arrested, Mrs. Temple. As well as your husband…”
“This is absurd! My attorney will…” He pulled his phone from his pocket, tapping over it quickly.
“Meet us at the station,” Kate interrupted, stopping when her phone rang. She knew immediately it was her boss and stepped to the side, her phone to her ear and listening.
“Jonathon Garrett,” Clarence Temple looked from the hand Emily held to the man in the three piece suit looking every bit as lethal as was his intent in the severe style. “This isn’t that beach boy you showed me photos of…”
“That’s my alter ego, Temple. The laid back, mostly relaxed side of me. Until you brought Emily into this,” Jack informed him flatly. “This was just business.”
Emily dropped his palm and stepped forward. “You’re going to claim…that these guys…were nothing more than…over-zealous employees. In their effort to find your lost daughter for you,” she guessed quietly, very aware of the gleam in the eyes that matched her own.
“I shall see that they are reprimanded, Elizabeth, but they did mean well,” he said with a shark-like smile. “We’ve had investigators out searching for you…”
Emily nodded slowly. “Why? I’m not a fourteen year old runaway….hell, I’m not even pliable on a good day!” Her hands flew into the air. “Just tell me what the hell you want so I can understand why it’s so bloody important that I be brought into the family fold?”
His sigh was heavy and he shook his head, looking sadly at his wife and then at Kate who had rejoined them. “Do you see? This…our daughter is in need of some serious medical attention, Miss Fletcher. Our daughter does not have such emotional outbursts and she was certainly taught far better manners than to…”
“Emotional?” Emily paced forward and thrust a sharp fingernail into his very white sailing pullover. Her voice got louder with each poke she offered to accent each sentence. “One of your goons put a rag over my face and knocked me out! I am somewhere I do not want to be! I was supposed to be meeting with a real estate agent this afternoon! On top of that, I’ve got a headache that stretches to Canada and you think I’m emotional? Oh, believe me, I can get a hell of a lot more than just a little emotional!" She promised through her teeth.
“Emily…” Jack took a cautious step toward her.
“I sincerely apologize that one of my employees scared you, Elizabeth,” he reached out and put his palms gently on her shoulders, letting them fall when she shook them savagely. “Your mother told me you were upset…”
“I…it’s…I seriously need a pillow!” Emily stormed past them, pacing furiously in the large hall. The heels made a semi satisfying noise over the stone flooring.
“Another car just pulled up,” Kate stepped to the side, motioning for Jack to come closer. “Take them to the station. Their attorney will sort it out there.”
“I’ll see you’re fired for this,” Clarence Temple promised.
“By the book, gentlemen, please,” Kate said tonelessly, a voice that was opposite what she felt inside her at the moment.
“I am getting my clothing and leaving,” Emily informed them, striding up the stairs without looking back. She was at the top of the stairs in less than a minute, wheeling the two large suitcases. She laid them on their sides and let them slide to the bottom, a satisfied look on her face when she joined them.
“Emily, I don’t know if you can take those right now…”
“I do not have a problem with my daughter taking her clothing with her, Miss Fletcher. I’ll gladly state here that anything in that bedroom belongs to Elizabeth,” Clarence offered generously.
“How kind of you…” Emily righted the cases and stared at them. She waited while the officers escorted them from the house. “Why are you bothering with them? You know their attorney will have it thrown out based on lack of evidence or intent. Unless you get one of the goons to roll over…” Emily straightened up, blinking and staring from one to the other. “What? I watch TV.”
“That call was from my boss…seems we’ve stepped on a few toes…and another investigation,” Kate said, her own heels tapping out a pattern as she paced. “Seems we stepped on an investigation by the organized crime unit.”
“My parents are involved in organized crime?” Emily felt her headache stretching to Alaska.
“I don’t know,” Kate shook her head. “I’ll get a pain in the ass over this but I don’t care. I want his attorney to have to work for his money. You can take those with you, according to your father, it’s all yours.”
“Yeah…” Emily stared at the cases. “Curious…don’t you think…” she laid one of the cases down and pulled the zipper wide, perched on her heels and peering into the contents. Then she laid out the second one next to it, head tilted and pale eyes narrowed. “That’s why I was leaving,” she said softly, her hands moving over the hinges to the lid and then along the zipper. The sound of Velcro echoed in the empty hall, a large fat envelope pulled free. It was her hand-writing on the front and it was addressed to Michael Hamilton. "You know that name?”
“Uh…” Kate looked at Jack who shrugged. “Yes…the head of the unit investigating your parents,” she took the envelope and peered inside, several small disks and a print out. Kate’s grin grew slowly, her head shaking. “I think you just saved my behind, Emily.”
“I stitched this,” she said, looking over the edge of the suitcase. “It had to be why I was leaving and why they wanted me back so badly. Something was going on involving the company…” Emily drew the zipper closed slowly on both cases. “They didn’t care if it was making money or not…” Her head shook, her voice quiet. “But they had to keep the company and I was in the way of that.”
“How?” Kate dropped down beside her.
“I…”
“Because she was giving me control of her shares,” Jack answered, watching both of them. He went to the cases and righted them, wheeling them into the sunlight outside. He leaned on the fender of the sports car, arms crossed over his chest. “Emily brought me an envelope with a proxy and the shares to the company so the take-over I was planning would go through. She did it for the employees, I’d guess…it threw them into a panic when they couldn’t get her to sign them over. I think they hatched some kind of crazy plan to marry her off to Demming, in the hopes he would find them and keep things at the status quo.”
“What were they doing?” Emily moved to his side, laying her head on his shoulder. “I seriously have a headache…I don’t know what they knocked me out with but it did not make my brain happy…”
“I’ll be in touch…” Kate held up the envelope. “Thanks, Emily…oh, put me in for one of the Lara Croft costumes, would you?”
“No worries, Kate…if I think of anything, I’ll text you,” Emily let Jack lead her to the passenger side with a long sigh. Her head was back, listening to him fit the cases into the trunk. “You have a cute face…”
Chapter Eighteen
Jack had spent the last hours thinking he’d never want to laugh again, but suddenly he burst out laughing, carrying her palm to his lips and starting the car. “It fits the corporate image a bit better than the beach boy look.”
“I like that you…although this one shows promise…got a corporate office?” She asked, one eye open. “I can see Anna Thornton-Wilton paying you a visit…”
“Emily…we’re stopping at St. Michael’s,” Jack informed her, accepting the long sigh that told him she was in pain. No protest…yeah, something wasn’t right.
She lifted the bottle of water sitting between them, draining most of it.
“The business thing…that’s what was in the envelope? My proxy,” she said after a lengthy pause. She eyed the hospital with a groan.
“Yes…you had signed it all over to me for voting at the meeting next week,” Jack
answered. “When did you meet Kate?”
Emily shrugged. “Through Chloe…she brought in the Inara costume she wore last year and we were making duplicates from it.”
“If you keep dragging your feet, I’m throwing you over my shoulder,” Jack warned as they walked through the halls to the emergency room and Ian’s office. “Nice shoes…”
“My toes like them,” she answered with a forced grin.
“Why’d you bring her here? She’s ruined my reputation,” Ian looked up from the counter where he stood, signing off on something and handing it back to the woman at the computer.
“I could sign a paper saying I was under the influence of drugs,” Emily told him with a cheeky wince.
“What’s wrong?” Ian took a step forward.
“Emily was kidnapped this morning…they used something on a cloth to knock her out,” Jack said quietly.
“This way,” Ian led them into a small cubicle, pulling the curtain around. “On the table, Emily. Headache?”
“Killer…I woke up in the middle of the bed…my head was spinning and this ache…” Emily inhaled slowly, blinking while he peeped into her eyes.
“Take anything?”
“Tylenol…it helped for a bit.”
Ian moved to a cabinet, dropped some tablets into his palm and handed them to her. “Drink a ton of water…you’re dehydrated…” He opened another door and cracked a blue packet, slipping it into a cotton sleeve and held it to her temple. “This’ll help…other than that, just time…what happened?”
“Relatives with delusions,” Emily answered, sighing and thinking of nothing but the cold pack against her head.
“Lie down and lift up your shirt,” Ian pulled a pair of snips from the drawer, a pair of tweezers in the other hand.
Emily lay back on the table after she pulled the tee shirt free, holding the ice pack to her forehead. They were talking, she’s knows she heard them through the fog. But too much of her didn’t care at the moment. The cold pack felt good and she was tired.
“He’s changed faces,” she murmured, pale lashes lifting drowsily.
“Emily…”
“I want to go home, Jack…just home…please…”
“Ian’s still working. The stitches are almost all gone,” Jack ran one palm over her head.
“If I were Alice…this would all be a dream and I could easily find my way along the right path,” she said to no one in-particular. “Or if this were Oz, I’d have to find a few friends to help me…and click my shoes…”
Jack looked over at Ian who shrugged. “She’s not running a fever,” Ian told him, setting aside the snips and tweezers and smoothing her shirt down.
“But should I be Alice, then you are the Hatter,” she said, swinging her feet over the edge and peering at Jack. “You really do have a very cute face…” She held the ice over her eyes.
“Yeah…let’s go home, Emily,” Jack lifted her to the floor. “Thanks, Ian.”
“Do you have any relatives?” Emily asked as he drove them home.
“A few…scattered about the planet,” Jack answered carefully. He had tilted the seat back, the ice pack over her eyes.
“You clean up real nice…I feel terribly under-dressed. Why?” Emily lifted one corner of the ice pack, staring at the clean shaven profile. She never realized his jaw was so strong before, his neck long.
“Image. Projection…” Jack searched for the right words.
“You’re after his company?”
“About eighteen months ago, Tri-Seas began faltering. Mostly management problems, then problems keeping schedules,” Jack began slowly. “I started buying up stock. Adding the contracts and routes that Tri-Seas has to Northstar Shipping would be a very smart expansion. I could wait for it to completely fail, but it would be better for both of us if it were a merger.”
“And now you can make that happen.”
“Now I can make that happen.”
“When they have the board meeting, can I be there?”
“Of course,” Jack looked over as he parked behind the building. “For now, I’m going to get you some food and water and you’re going to stretch out and watch TV…”
“Now I know it’s really you,” she mumbled testily, stepping into the sunshine and stretching. The sun was setting on the mountains as Jack carried the large cases into the apartment. “Dictator…”
Jack hauled the cases into the bedroom, leaving them against the wall before changing clothes and going to find her some food. He left the bathroom to find her stretched out on the bed, ice pack over her eyes and an empty protein drink on the nightstand. He dimmed the room and let her sleep.
It was after midnight when Emily left the bed, the ice pack dropped into the trash as she left the bathroom, bare feet carrying her to the open patio doors in the living area. It was a warm night, clouds building in the distance over the mountains, a late August storm on its way. She laid back on the recliner on the patio. The headache was gone, she could think without it hurting.
Jack leaned against the open door, sleep shorts riding low on his hips.
“I bet it wasn’t in your plans to get mixed up with me and crazy relatives on your vacation,” Emily said quietly.
“I generally have a much quieter month off,” he agreed, moving to face her. “I don’t regret us, Emily. As for your relatives…not really something we can choose, is it? Headache gone?”
“Back to normal…” She assured him, standing up and moving into the arms he opened. “You know what I want?” Emily lifted her arms and circled his neck. “I want you to hug me…like you did earlier…like you don’t expect my guts to fall out on the floor.”
Jack could only laugh and hold her as tight as he could, his face buried in her neck. “I wanted to tear that place apart, Emily,” he whispered hoarsely, his palm stroking over her head.
She leaned back in his arms, one finger drawn along the smooth line of his jaw. “I am the kind of girl who would have appreciated the violence….but I don’t like that it caused you pain,” she trailed soft kisses along his throat. “It’s very warm out here…”
“I think I might know where it’s a little cooler…of course, it’s going to involved being naked…”
“Hmm…” Emily kissed him, nipping his lip and teasing his tongue with hers. “I bet you know just how to help a girl shed these pesky clothes…”
“I think I need practice,” Jack returned, sweeping her into his arms and carrying her into the bedroom. He lowered her to the floor, his hands on the opening to her shorts at the same time she pulled her shirt over her head and dropped it to the floor. It was a long time before dawn.
Emily thought about the family she was building around her the next morning when Grace almost flew into her arms with a hug. Questions and concerns and answers flying back and forth between the two girls. He was convinced they had warp drive listening to how fast things flowed between them.
Jack just winked and wandered to his shop where he set up his laptop and fielded questions from Chet.
He leaned back in the large chair, his feet on the upside down milk crate.
“We have everything ready to go for the meeting?” He asked into the ear piece he wore, listening to his second in command outline the steps. “Well, get it all ready. I have a feeling the board meeting will be brought forward after the bad press yesterday. Keep me up to date. I’ll be doing a lot of work from here unless there’s a reason to come into the office…no, we’ll shut down the other location, shift employees and adjust schedules.”
He was helping set some gold when his phone went off, a glance telling him it was Kate Fletcher. “Garrett,” he said after tapping the phone.
“Jack…it’s Kate Fletcher,” Kate paced her office. “Her parents were released, just like we thought they would be…”
“The envelope?”
Her sigh was heavy. “They’re still investigating if they can use it or not. Emily can’t remember where it came from or why she was bring
ing it to Hamilton. The good news is with the information, they can get assets frozen and trace what they were after, the money laundering. It’ll just take time. I have warrants out for Demming, but no one can find him at the moment. I just wanted you to know…”
“Thanks, Kate…I’ll watch her,” Jack said tensely, ending the call with a soft curse.
Thank you for reading Emily Temple. I hope you laughed and maybe cried a little and were entertained a lot. This story continues in Alice Branch, an accountant who used to work for Alex Demming. Please follow along on the journey for the Reclamation of Tacoma through the WindSwept Narrows Resort and Casino. Enjoy!
WindSwept Narrows: #3 Emily Temple Page 16