Ultimate Alphas: Bad Boys and Good Lovers (The Naughty List Romance Bundles)

by Synthia St. Claire

  I walked between Abby and Miss Pauline, trying to focus for the moment on navigating the soft field in shoes I’d never worn before instead of the lingering image of my mother’s face from when the man from the funeral home closed the casket only a few minutes before.

  “Sho’ be hot today. Can’t believe we gettin’ weather like this here less than a month fo’ Christmas,” Miss Pauline said and fanned herself with a program from the ceremony.

  “Momma would have loved it,” Abby offered, looking up at the sky. “Remember how she used to fuss with us about the house bein’ too cold, Kat?”

  I nodded and felt a smile coming on at the recollection. “I’ll never forget. She got me good one time for playing with the air conditioning controls. I think Daddy had to buy her that Buick to get her to go along with having it installed. Momma was always fine with nothing more than a breeze rolling in, just like it is today.”

  “There’s Daddy,” Abby said, pointing at our father, who waited like a statue beside the casket. “I never seen him like this before, Kat. You gonna stay around for Christmas before going back to school?”

  “Uh-huh,” I answered. “More than that. I’ve been thinking about it since Momma got put in the hospital. I’m transferring my credits to Wilmington so I can finish in the spring. I’ll be staying at the house while I go to school. I think it’s for the best.”

  We drew quiet when we reached the rows of chairs and each of us took a seat in the front to wait while the others in attendance found their own places. Daddy sat next to me on the end once everyone had assembled and put his hands together between his knees.

  I might have thought he was ready for any other Sunday at church, dressed in the dark gray slacks he always wore to service with the same old jacket that had a bit of wear on the buttons. Soon they’d need to be replaced. His hair was combed neatly back and his paisley tie, a birthday gift from mother that he often wore, hung down his shirt, almost resting in his lap. As the pastor read through Psalm twenty-three, the expression on my father’s face was one of a man that was utterly lost and trying with all his inner strength not to cry.

  The words seemed to spill out and hover in the air, waiting for me to latch onto them. Some music was played, one of Momma’s favorite gospel songs, and just like that, the ceremony was over. Guests and distant relatives began to depart before I’d fully realized that the last prayer had been called out and the final words of comfort had been spoken. I walked by the casket, which was surrounded by bright yellow daises, mother’s favorite, and I swept a finger across the cold, gleaming surface.

  “She’s gone, baby,” Daddy said, and sucked in a jittering gulp of air. I hugged him then, unable to stand there and watch him stare at the casket or suffer holding in his pain any longer. The moment my arms wrapped around him, his entire body began to shake and he gave in. I joined in, feeling helpless to do much else.

  I’d never seen my father cry before. It was disquieting to see the man I’d always thought was a rock, ready to handle any obstacle that got thrown at him, just break down like that. She was his world. His little woman. Now who was there to give him a hard time when he asked for it or for him to lovingly tease? I knew he’d make it, but the path to happiness for my father was a long ways from here.

  Most of the guests had already gotten in their cars and driven away by the time we came out from under the shelter. Daddy had composed himself yet again, but I knew he was still just as broken inside as me. We both took a look back at where her grave would be and the other tombstones of departed members of our family which surround it. At least, I hoped, if there was a life beyond this one, she would be in good company.

  “Kat,” a familiar voice called out and I lifted my head. Standing there, dressed in a pair of dusty blue jeans, was Hale. Once he saw that he’d gotten my attention, he walked over.

  “S-sorry to hear about Mrs. Atwater. Your…y-your wife,” Hale said clumsily to my father. He never was good in delicate situations.

  “Appreciate you comin’ out son,” Daddy replied.

  Hale rubbed the back of his neck and looked at me with an uncertain expression. “Kat…can I, uh, talk to you for a second?”

  Sensing that the conversation was intended to be a private one, Daddy said, “I’m goin’ to say bye to the Robertsons ‘fore they leave. I’ll meet you at the car with your sister in a few, and then we’re leavin’ to Miss Pauline’s for dinner.”

  Once Daddy walked away, Hale said quietly, “I know you don’t want me here, Kat, ok? What I did…it was wrong, and stupid. I’m really, really sorry ‘bout the way I hurt you. I’ve made a lot of dumb decisions in my life. Being with you was never one of them.”

  I felt momentarily tongue-tied. It was the best apology I’d ever heard come out of his mouth. “Thank you, Hale. It means a lot to hear you say that.”

  “I-I heard about you and Shane, and ya’ll breaking up.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. Surely he wasn’t trying to drag me back to him at my mother’s funeral! “For God’s sake, Hale. Now is not the time-”

  He held out his hands to stop me. “Wait. I ain’t trying to win you back. I already know I done lost you.”

  “Well, what is it? Get tired of hanging all over Cindy Reid?” I asked, growing impatient as I watched Abby walk with my father towards the car.

  “I’m done with her. I quit drinking too, Kat. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time thinkin’ about what happened between me and you. I saw what your father had to go through with your Momma being sick while I was working out on your farm. And then…well, it all just sort of hit me.”

  “What?”

  “I can’t live my life like that no more, Kat. I can’t go around treatin’ everyone like I have and lyin’ every step of the way. That man you’ve been seein’…Shane? The old man, Patterson, set him up. The whole thing with him and Cindy was staged. I even got proof of it. Here.”

  Hale hastily dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Already on the screen were a series of text messages between him and Cindy.

  “Scroll down to the bottom,” he mumbled. “Nevermind that, uh, other stuff.”

  My eyes widened as I read her last messages to Hale. Right there, in Cindy’s own words, was more than enough evidence to prove Shane was innocent and that the entire thing was a set-up from the very start! She’d told her father about Shane coming to try and get her to testify and Patterson had told her what to do. The security cameras around the gate took care of the rest.

  “How? S-she sent you all this? Cindy Reid?” I asked, completely puzzled.

  Hale gave me a proud grin. “Uh-huh. It was easy, Kat. I just acted like I wanted to get back together with her and said I wanted to know what really happened, cause I’d seen it on the news. Guess she thought I wouldn’t say nothing to you about it.”

  “This is crazy. Shane wasn’t lying after all. I’m such an idiot.”

  “Spilled her guts all over the place. Even I was impressed,” Hale said, gloating just a bit more than he had to.

  “Thank you,” I said, and hugged Hale so tight that he nearly had to peel me off.

  “Damn, girl. You’re welcome. This mean you and me…we’re cool now?”

  “We’re cool.”

  “Good,” he said and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Cause I took your father up on that offer to work as full-time mechanic. Last thing I wanted was for you to hate seein’ me around the farm forever.”

  “You’re forgiven, Hale. I’m ready to leave all that other stuff in the past if you can, too.”

  He nodded agreeably and gave a little bow. “It’s a deal.”

  I tried handed him his phone, but Hale just shook his head and said, “Naw, you go on and take it. That attorney fella of yours probably knows how to use it better’n me. Besides, I reckon he’s gonna want to see what you got right there with his own two eyes or he won’t believe it.”

  Nineteen

  My calls to Shane weren’t going through. No matter how
many times I tried, the line would go dead after several rings. The only thing I could do was to drive to his hotel and deliver the news, and Hale’s phone with the evidence, in person.

  I explained to Daddy what was happening and why I couldn’t make it to dinner at Miss Pauline’s house. He completely understood, and even smiled for the first time in days. He told me that he always knew Shane was a good man, even if he was a lawyer.

  I pounded on Shane’s door at the hotel but there was no answer. When a passing cleaning woman came by I asked her to open it for me so I could check on him to make sure everything was ok. She swiped her card, turned the handle, and I found an empty, vacant room.

  “He’s gone,” I said aloud, staring at the closet where his clothes had hung. For a moment, I almost let despair settle in. Then I realized…it might not be too late. I raced downstairs and found the desk clerk.

  “Shane Logan,” I said, nearly out of breath, “Suite Forty Six. He’s checked out?”

  “Yes ma’am. You just missed him. He checked out about an hour ago.”

  “Did he leave a note or anything? It might be addressed to Katherine Atwater.”

  The man looked at the mailing cubbies behind and responded in the negative. “There’s nothing here ma’am, I’m sorry.”

  “Do you know where he went?” I asked, my voice growing desperate.

  The clerk thumbed his chin and thought for a moment. “As a matter of fact, he did ask for us to call around a taxi to take him to the airport,” the man said, and in a flash, I was out the door.

  The Buick acted like it wasn’t going to start, but a few verbal threats and well-placed punches against the dashboard seemed to get it rolling again. I wove through traffic in the big automobile, sailing from lane to lane and hoping against all odds that I could get to the airport and somehow find Shane there before he managed to depart. The fear brought on by the bus accident that seemed to sit right under the surface when I usually drove was gone.

  “Answer your phone, Shane. Where are you?” I begged, trying again to call while also trying not to run off the road or kill someone.

  Please don’t be on the plane already. Please. I have to get this to you. I have to apologize for being such a bitch, Shane. I was wrong. I was wrong…please. Don’t leave me yet.

  Not far from the airport entrance I was situated behind several other cars that were creeping along at a snail’s pace. “Come on, move!” I yelled at the car in front of me and gave the driver a blast from the horn. I don’t know if it helped or not, but the car switched lanes and I tore into the airport parkway screaming the tires on the old Buick like I was piloting a race car.

  I pulled right in front of the main gate, tossed the car in park, and burst through the doors past the men asking if I wanted valet service. “Sure, go ahead and park it while I run around the airport like a lunatic looking for the man I love,” I thought. Everyone standing in the vicinity of the doors when they slammed open looked directly at me and stared before going back to their own business. Perhaps I looked like a woman on the verge of a psychotic break. I kind of felt like it.

  “Sorry,” I muttered and headed for the escalator.

  At the top, I ran into a line of people who were going through a security checkpoint. At the very front I saw a man wearing a suit who looked very familiar. “Shane!” I called out, but he must not have heard me and kept on going. I have to get through! Hurry up!

  The agent at the security checkpoint stopped me before I waltzed through.

  “Boarding pass, ma’am?” he said and held out his hand.

  “I don’t have one. I’m looking for someone. I have to stop him before his flight takes off.”

  “I’m sorry. No entry beyond this point without a boarding pass,” he answered sternly.

  “But he’s right there.” I pointed to the man I’d seen in the line, who was still walking away. “Sir, please let me go. It won’t take five minutes and I promise to come right back.”

  The guard sighed at gestured towards a large sign that boldly stated that boarding passes were required for entry. “No pass…no pass,” he said and shook his head.

  I briefly imagined myself pushing past the guard and running down the terminal, but then I took another look at the guy. He would have caught me before I made it more than a few yards and then I would be stuck in some kind of airport prison.

  “Are you sure you can’t make an exception, just this once?” I plead.

  Instead of answering, the guard simply pointed back the way I’d come and greeted the next person in line.

  “I’ve lost him,” I thought, and turned away. I didn’t have enough money for a boarding pass to go anywhere, not even if it were just for a trip from one end of the runway to the other. At the bottom of the escalator I sauntered over to a bench and sat in it with my head buried in my hands. The glimmer of hope in my heart fluttered and then went out.

  I sat there for what seemed like forever, wallowing in my own misery. I’d screwed up. Shane was right, I was hard-headed and I’d made up my mind about him and Cindy before I even went to talk to him. It was just…seeing her planting her greasy hooks in the first man I could say I truly loved…it tore me apart.

  I was so overcome that I barely registered it when someone sat down on the bench next to me. Couldn’t the world just leave me alone for one damn minute?

  “Planes make you nervous?”

  “Go away,” I muttered, and retreated back into my own thoughts.

  The person sitting next to me continued anyway, “Don’t blame you. I got stuck in the bathroom on one of these things before. It was terrifying.”

  Stuck in the – what?!

  I raised my head and turned to look through the long strands of hair that had fallen over my face and there they were; those soulful, amber eyes that had captured me from the very beginning.

  “Shane!” I exclaimed and lunged into him. He smiled and tried not to let me knock him over while I sought out his lips and gave him a longing, relieved kiss.

  When we finally parted, he stumbled back and said, “Ah – hi, there! Wow. I’m glad to see you, too.”

  “I was wrong, Shane, about…everything! You tried to tell me but I wouldn’t listen! Hale gave me all the evidence! And then – then I thought I’d lost you for good! There was a man, a-and the security guard wouldn’t let me go past the gate, and the man, h-he looked just like you-”

  Shane put his hands on mine. “Whoa, slow down Kat. I’m here.”

  “What took you so long?” I leaned into him and hugged him tight, never wanting to let go.

  “Second thoughts. I tried to get to your mother’s funeral, but by the time I arrived, you’d already left. Then I tried calling, but my battery was dead. Luckily, the woman I met at the festival was still there and told me where you’d gone.”

  “Miss Pauline?”

  “Yes, that’s the one,” Shane confirmed and then went on, “So I went back to the hotel looking for you. The clerk told me that a young woman had come in asking for me and that she might be here. I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.”

  “You’re not staying to finish the case?” I asked.

  “Can’t. The head of the OGC heard all about the incident with Cindy. He pulled me off the case so fast it would make your head spin. I’m supposed to be in D.C. by tomorrow to formally get chewed out…and probably fired. The case against Patterson will most likely wind up being a mistrial. The defense is probably making a motion for one today.”

  I reached into my purse and pulled out Hale’s phone. “You don’t have to leave, and there doesn’t have to be a mistrial. Check this out, Shane.”

  As he browsed through the messages in the phone, Shane’s eyes lit up. A pleased smile spread on his face until he was positively beaming with delight. When he finished reading it all, he turned to me and said, “This is gold. I knew it was a con, but there was no way to prove it. This even has proof that her father paid off Miller – she says it right here! I don�
�t even need Cindy to testify, this is even better than getting her on the stand! How in the heck did Hale get all this dirt?”

  “He’s very agile when it comes to convincing women he’s trying to win them back.”

  “So I hear,” Shane replied and promptly stood up.

  “Where are you going?”

  He tightened his grip on his suitcase and turned towards the exit. “I’ve got to get to the courthouse before proceedings are over today. Hale’s going to need to come to testify as a witness to the messages and their validity, so I need you to call him and tell him to meet us at the courthouse. I’m sending this information over to the rest of my team. If we can get this before the judge before a mistrial is declared, we might still have a chance.”

  Only a short while later, Shane and I were walking up the steps of the courthouse past a flock of reporters. As Shane deflected their questions, Hale’s primer-gray pickup truck screeched to a halt on the street and he came bounding out.

  “Is that him?” Shane asked, squinting in the late afternoon sun at the person running towards us.

  “Yeah.”

  “Isn’t he your…farm mechanic? The guy I saw before our first date?”

  “Uh-huh,” I answered reluctantly.

  Shane raised his brow and looked back at me with a smirk. “I guess I wasn’t the only one with a secret after all.”

  Before I had a chance to respond, Hale arrived.

  “Hey Kat…and, uh, Shane, right?” Hale stuck out his hand and Shane shook it firmly. Seeing the two of them meet like that felt almost surreal. Thankfully, Shane didn’t seem upset at all that I’d kept Hale’s job at the farm something of a secret from him.