After the Storm

by Janet Dailey

  Any thought that she might have looked seductively in her attire was quickly doused.

  "If you don't intend to eat your breakfast, I suggest you get dressed so we can leave."

  "Don't you have to go into the office today?" Lainie asked, surprised by his implication that he would be accompanying her.

  "One of the few benefits of owning your own company is that you can take rare days off by delegating authority to others in charge. You'll probably want to stop at the hospital, so I'll tell Mrs. Dudley we won't be in for lunch."

  "Why are you taking me?" She couldn't stop herself from asking.

  "To be perfectly honest, Lainie-" Rad stopped in front of the doorway "-and this seems to be a morning for honesty, I think you're getting cold feet. Let's just say I'm tagging along to make sure you stick to our bargain."

  "I told you last night I would stay. I'll keep my word." Her chin lifted with pride.

  "Sometimes the light of day changes people's minds. I recall another promise you once made till death do us part."

  "You made the same vow, Rad, along with 'to love and cherish,'" Lainie flared out quickly, her words ending in a choked sob.

  "You were the one to walk out. That decision was entirely your own."

  The door closed sharply behind him.

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  Chapter 6

  LAINIE WANTED TO HURL HERSELF onto the bed and give way to the storm of tears welling up inside her. There seemed to be no way to reach Rad. It was unbelievable that she could have fallen so deeply in love with a man who only regarded her with contempt and amusement.

  "Where is the rainbow, daddy?" the child in her cried out. "Where is the end of the storm?"

  A cold towel had done wonders to brighten her eyes and bring color to her cheeks. A single lipstick was the only makeup in her purse, but the scrubbed look suited her mood. Lainie fluffed the ends of her hair, grateful for the natural body that kept its bounce.

  Satisfied with her appearance, she stepped out of the bedroom wearing the gold knit dress from the evening before. She paused in the living room, half expecting to see Rad there. There was no indecision in her movements; her step revealed the controlled sophistication that had been trained to appear natural. She realized that Rad was probably still in his den and she had no intention of opening doors trying to find him. Nor did she intend to wait like a patient dog until her master came for her. She walked determinedly through the archway to the small foyer that led to the black walnut doors and the elevators. Almost immediately the man who had greeted her the night before appeared.

  "Dickerson, isn't it?" Her tone was authoritative, altogether fitting for the new mistress of the household. "Would you get my coat and tell Mr. MacLeod that I'm ready to leave.

  Minutes later Dickerson returned, carrying her imitation leopard skin coat. "Mr. MacLeod will be here directly."

  Her smile was coolly polite as she accepted Dickerson's assistance in donning her coat. Her mask was firmly in place and she couldn't afford the slightest warmth to put a nick in it. But the man didn't seem to expect it as he silently withdrew down the hallway.

  There was only the smallest wait before Rad joined her. His mocking politeness grated on her already raw nerves as he opened the door for her and allowed her to precede him into the elevator. Lainie refused to allow him to occupy even a corner of her side vision. She didn't even spare him a glance when, once they were outside, he opened the door of his Mercedes Benz for her. Only when he, too, had slid into the car did she break the self-imposed silence.

  "I'd like to see my mother first," she said calmly.

  "Whatever you say," Rad shrugged indifferently.

  "There are a few forms that still need to be filled out," Rad told her after they had arrived at the hospital and were in the lobby. "So I'll be in the administration office for a while."

  Lainie nodded grimly.

  "You should check at the reception desk to get your mother's new room number. I imagine she's been moved by now."

  Rad was right. Her mother was safely installed in a private room on another floor, and the change in her attitude was almost miraculous. Her smile was bright and cheery and there were no more fearful glances over her shoulder when Lainie arrived in her room. Doctor Henderson had already been there on his morning rounds.

  The improvement in her disposition was so noticeable that Lainie didn't even want to contemplate discussing the change in her relationship with Rad. A glossed-over explanation that there were things to be done at home seemed to satisfy her mother. Lainie was able to withdraw from the room before Rad was able to come up. The time for explanations would come later.

  Although her heels clicked loudly in the hospital corridor, Lainie was unconscious of her surroundings. In her mind she was caught in a maze and no matter which way she turned she couldn't get out. She never even noticed the man and woman standing at the nurses' office door when she walked past. The voice that called out for her to stop was from another world and she kept on walking. Then she was seized roughly by the shoulders and spun around.

  "Lainie! Oh, my God, where have you been!" Lee Walters's blue eyes raced over her face and the upper portion of her body as if making sure she was unharmed. "I've been worried sick about you!"

  Lainie stared at his hair, incredibly tousled as if he had been running his fingers through it. There was no mistaking the concerned expression on his face that was now becoming tinged with relief. He glanced around him, suddenly becoming conscious of the public display he was making, and quickly led her to the secluded waiting area. It was then that Lainie noticed that Ann was there, too.

  "What are you doing here? What's happened?" Lainie queried, noting the concerned expression that was also on Ann's face.

  "Trying to find you," snapped Ann.

  "I've been out of my mind with worry," said Lee. The shaky edges of his voice confirmed that.

  "I don't understand," Lainie said, looking from one to the other in confusion. "Why were you looking for me?"

  "I called you last night, to make sure you'd arrived home safely," Lee started to explain, "but nobody answered your phone." The awful realization began to dawn on Lainie. "I wasn't concerned at first because I thought you'd stayed at the hospital a while longer, but I kept calling and there was still no answer. I checked with the hospital, thinking you'd possibly decided to stay all night with your mother, and they told me you'd left earlier."

  "And of course he couldn't get hold of us because we have an unlisted number," Ann put in.

  "I thought perhaps you'd gone over to her house to spend the night rather than stay in your house alone," Lee explained.

  "So he was camped at our doorstep at eight o'clock this morning." There was a nervous laugh as Ann tried to make light of the situation. "That's when he really became concerned and me, too, as far as that goes. But darling Adam was still there. He made a few phone calls to make sure you hadn't been involved in some accident, then we came here to the hospital."

  "I'm so terribly sorry I've put you through all this," Lainie apologized sincerely.

  "As long as you're all right—" Ann smiled at her warmly " it doesn't matter. How did you manage to get your mother a private room? We were so shocked when we got here and found she'd been moved."

  "Where were you last night?" Lee persisted in the previous line of questioning.

  Lainie glanced from one to the other with a slightly panicked expression on her face. Explanations were being demanded and she wasn't ready to make them yet. Lee was still holding her arm possessively. Lainie moved uncomfortably out of his grasp. Lee's piercing blue eyes quickly picked up the flush in her cheeks.

  "Where were you, Lainie?" He repeated, but more grimly this time.

  "When … when … I got home last night-" the mounting heat in her face made speaking difficult "-I … I called Rad."

  The expressions on both their faces told of their astonishment, except that Lee's was tinged with outrage. He moved convuls
ively toward her, then stopped. Lainie faltered, trying to find a way to break the news to both of them. She doubted if either one of them would understand, any more than she did.

  "I thought he would help me. I couldn't think of anyone else to turn to."

  "MacLeod!" Lee snorted derisively. "How could you bring yourself to go to him?"

  "Rad had offered to help me once before," Lainie told him, her head tilted back defensively. "At the time I was too proud to accept it, but now I needed it."

  "Judging by the fact that your mother now has a private room," Ann inserted, the only one gaining composure, "I guess we can assume he agreed to help you."

  "Yes, he did," Lainie answered. Now was the time to tell them both that she had gone back to him, but the words wouldn't come out.

  "If you called him on the phone and talked to him, then why weren't you there when I called?" Lee persisted.

  "I called him, yes, but I had to go over to his apartment to talk to him about it."

  "You did what?" Lee seized her again roughly by the shoulders.

  "Lee!" Ann placed a restraining hand on his arm. He immediately released Lainie, running a hand through his tousled hair.

  "Well, you could have waited until the morning," he growled. His agitation carried him a few steps away from Lainie. "You didn't have to go over in the middle of the night."

  "It wasn't the middle of the night," Lainie inserted quickly. "It was early evening."

  "Then where were you the rest of the night? How long did you stay, for heaven's sake?" His possessive attitude was beginning to rankle Lainie.

  "That is none of your business!" she retorted sharply.

  The solitary sound of two hands clapping shattered the tension in the room. All eyes turned in its direction. Rad was standing in the doorway, his amused gaze taking in their startled glances.

  "I was wondering how you were going to dodge that question, Lainie," he laughed, moving forward to join them.

  "What are you doing here, MacLeod?" Lee almost shouted.

  Rad raised his eyebrow at Lee's loss of control, but ignored the question. "You might be interested to know, Walters, that it was after nine o'clock this morning before Lainie left my apartment."

  Lee's face was mottled with ill-concealed rage as he turned his accusing glance on Lainie. "Is that true?"

  Lainie was only able to nod her head that it was.

  Lee paced back and forth across the room like a caged lion, and Lainie was stunned by his display of emotion from a man who always seemed so implacable. His hand continually massaged the back of his neck as he fought to control his temper.

  "If you'd only told me how desperate you were-if I'd only known that you-" His hands lifted toward her in a hopeless gesture. "My God, Lainie, I wanted to marry you."

  "Since she's never been divorced from me, that would have been a small miracle," Rad inserted, drawing a dark look from Lee.

  "I guess there's no need to ask if that's true. His piercing blue eyes were cold crystals of ice as they turned on Lainie. "And I always thought you were so virtuous! You really were serious that night at the concert when you said you'd sell yourself in the streets!"

  "If you want to leave this room standing up, you'd better apologize to my wife." Rad snapped savagely. Lainie wasn't the only one to glance in surprise at the man bristling by her side.

  "I will apologize, but not because of any threat from you, MacLeod." There was a softening in Lee's eyes as he turned toward Lainie. "Those words were spoken by a man who just lost the only woman he ever wanted. I wanted to hurt back. Your loyalty and concern for your mother didn't deserve that kind of attack."

  "I understand," Lainie murmured, recognizing the pain that Lee was going through.

  "I hope you do. Because if you ever need me-" his gaze carried a hostile challenge to Rad "-I'll be there, Lainie."

  Lee turned sharply on his heel and left the waiting room. A sideways glance at Rad as he stared after the retreating figure revealed the fury that stiff seethed inside him. Ann stepped forward hesitantly, her rounded blue eyes taking in the strained look on Lainie's face and the grim one on Rad's Lainie wanted to smile, but she was afraid it would crack her control.

  "Listen, I'd better go." Ann's voice was uncertain and apologetic. "Call me in a few days."

  "I will," Lainie promised.

  Then she and Rad were left alone. Rad reached inside his suitcoat pocket and withdrew a pack of cigarettes, shaking one out and offering it to her, and she accepted with trembling hands. When she bent her head to the flame, she felt his burning gaze on her and she felt all the more uncomfortable. She turned, running her fingers through her hair and pushing it back from her face in a nervous gesture.

  "How's your mother?" Rad asked as she continued to refuse to meet his eyes.

  "She's fine."

  "How did she react when you told her we were back together again?"

  "I didn't tell her."

  "And just when do you intend to spread the glad tidings to her?" Rad asked sarcastically.

  "Soon." Lainie sighed. She cast him a sideways glance.

  "Are you ready to leave?" he snapped, snubbing his cigarette out in the ashtray.

  WHEN THEY ARRIVED at her home nearly three-quarters of an hour later, Lainie was glad to escape the constricting confines of the white Mercedes Benz. The deafening silence between them had been intolerable, but not any more so than the prickling awareness in her senses of his closeness. She had wished he would stop the car, gather her into his arms, and hold her tightly against his lean hard body. But his fingers had remained gripping the wheel and his attention was on the traffic. For all the notice that he paid her, the seat beside him could have been empty.

  When Lainie extracted the key to the front door from her purse, Rad took it from her, inserted it in the lock, opened the door and replaced the key in his own pocket. He preceded her into the house, shrugging off his dark overcoat and tossing it over the stairwell railing. Rad knew she would follow him into the house and close the door behind them. He was the puppeteer and she was the puppet. Lainie studied the wide shoulders, wondering why and how she had fallen in love with this cold and complicated man.

  "Will you be long?" Rad turned toward her suddenly.

  "No, not long," she answered, moving quickly away from his gaze and toward the stairs.

  "I have some calls to make. I'll be in the den."

  The first thing that Lainie did upon reaching her room was to change from the gold dress to a pantsuit of rusty orange. From a drawer she took an autumn-hued scarf and folded it into a wide band to secure the hair away from her face, tying it at the back of her neck and letting the long tails of silk mingle with her own hair. The tips of her lashes she touched with mascara and brushed a peach pink blush onto her cheeks. Then she removed her suitcases from the cupboard and began the task of packing her clothes. She wouldn't allow her mind to dwell on anything other than the mechanics of her work, precisely folding each garment and laying it neatly in the opened cases.

  Rad appeared in the doorway, briefly lounging against its frame before walking on into the room. Lainie paused, glancing up into his stonily carved features as if thinking she could find a reason for his presence, but the only thing she could see was a hint of impatience. Rad walked restlessly around the room, stopping occasionally to lift back a curtain and gaze out the window, or to flick his cigarette ash into an ashtray. His tension transmitted itself to Lainie.

  "You don't have to worry about packing everything." Rad stopped in front of her dressing table, examining the articles on top of it. "I've opened charge accounts at various stores in town in your name. You'll want to update your wardrobe."

  "That wasn't necessary," Lainie murmured.

  "I'll be the judge of that." There was a leashed violence about him that sent a tremor quaking through her. "I'm sure you have some idiotic notion that I'm going to lock you in my bedroom like a prized jewel, but I assure you there will be several functions that you will h
ave to attend-social functions where you'll be expected to dress in the style that would befit my wife.

  "I'll do my best to see that I don't embarrass you." The implied criticism brought out Lainie's bitterness and resentment.

  "Then I suggest you start wearing this again." With all the silence of a stalking panther, Rad was at her side, taking her left hand and roughly shoving her wedding ring on her third finger. Lainie's eyes flew to the open jewelry box on her dresser, where he had been standing. Her gaze was caught and held by his, a captive the same as her hand.

  "I'm surprised you haven't sold it before now."

  "I meant to send it back to you," she said.

  "I'm glad you didn't." His lips twisted cynically.

  "It saves me from having to buy you another one."

  "Can't we stop baiting each other this way?" With an effort Lainie broke free from his gaze and his hold, shutting the filled suitcase in front of her and locking it securely.

  "Is that everything?" His cutting words snipped off her previous question.

  "Just about. I have-"

  "I'll send someone around to get the rest," Rad cut her off sharply. "I booked a table for one o'clock lunch. It's time we were leaving."

  The restaurant where they lunched was a relatively new one that Lainie had never been to before. Yet it resembled other such establishments that catered to the executive class. Its, decor was tastefully elegant, using wood paneling for a more masculine appeal. There were liberal touches of live foliage, either potted trees and ferns or climbing vines, as well as secluded tables cordoned off with deeply carved posts.

  Rad had ordered for her, and only after the waiter had left did he ascertain whether his choice was to her taste. It was a rhetorical question, since Rad had always been well informed about her likes and dislikes. The food when it arrived was excellent, although the non-existent conversation at the table did little to stimulate her appetite. Lainie was glad when Rad signaled the waiter to bring their coffee, knowing it meant an end to this unpleasant meal. She accepted the cigarette he offered readily, realizing she couldn't bear another ten minutes of silence without occupying her hands with something.