“I’m sorry. Come in.” She gestured with a sweep of her hand and assisted with the luggage. “I take it that you’re going to be staying a while?”
“Just for a few weeks. I knew I couldn’t depend on you to find time for me in your busy schedule to conquer the world. So I took matters into my own hands and here I am. And you can just forget about trying to get rid of me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Carissa said with a genuine smile, then escorted her aunt to the guest room.
“I absolutely love what you’ve done with this place. Let me guess, you went with Lars for the decor, am I right?”
“You always say to go with the best.”
Her aunt’s eyes widened. “I must write this historical moment down. Carissa Jeanette Cartel heeds my advice. Will the world’s wonders never cease?”
“Very funny.”
She pinched Carissa’s cheeks again, eliciting yet another frown. “I was so surprised when Liz told me you weren’t at work. I actually harbored hopes of you stashing some gorgeous hunk in here and having your way with him, but then I realized how unlikely that scenario was—so I rushed right over to see if perhaps the kidnappers left a ransom note.”
“You know I do occasionally take time off.”
Her aunt’s delicate brows arched.
“What?”
“Don’t forget who you’re talking to. Something must be dreadfully wrong for you to still be in your robe this late in the morning with large duffel bags under your eyes. Have you been crying?”
“Does nothing ever get by you?” Carissa asked, shaking her head.
“Rarely.” She sat on the king-size bed and patted the vacant spot beside her. “Now, sit right here and tell me what’s bothering you, sweetheart.”
Carissa loved her feisty yet nosy aunt and, being honest with herself, she realized she was glad she’d come. Obediently, she sat down. “To be honest with you, Auntie, I think I’ve finally done it. I have finally made a complete mess of my life. And right now I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Sounds serious.” Helena frowned. “Maybe you should start from the beginning. I tend to get confused when I come in on the tail end of things.”
“The beginning?” Carissa shook her head. “You already know the beginning. It started when I made the foolish decision to step into my father’s shoes.”
“You mean the ones I told you to leave alone?”
“All right, all right. Are you here looking for the chance to say you told me so?”
“Of course I am, dear. I live for these things. I have no children of my own, so I look forward to the time I can prove my superior knowledge to you.”
Carissa laughed. “You’re too kind.”
“I do try to be. And you’re being evasive. What happened?”
“I think I may have killed a man.”
Silence trailed her sentence, and Carissa had to look up to make sure her aunt hadn’t passed out.
Helena shook her head. “A funny thing happens when you hit sixty. Your hearing has a nasty habit of playing tricks on you.”
“It’s no trick.” Carissa exhaled and tried again. “It started quite innocently. Colin Hunter, my new vice president, brought this small electronics company to my attention. I reviewed the statistics. On paper, there wasn’t anything that really stood out, but it definitely showed promise. With the right direction, I can see it doing quite well. So we looked into acquiring it. There was just this one minor setback.”
“You had to knock someone off?” Helena guessed.
“No.” Carissa playfully slapped her aunt’s knee.
“Well, hurry up and get to the good part.”
“The so-called good part came when the owner refused to sell. It was really no big deal to me, but Hunter persisted.”
“Your VP?”
“Yeah. Well, anyway, one thing led to another and we were able to acquire the company anyway. And, as expected, the owner blew his top. But what I didn’t expect was for the man to suffer a massive heart attack in my office.”
Helena’s eyes rounded with astonishment. “What did you do?”
“Everything happened so fast. I got Liz to call 911 while I stayed with the guy until help arrived, then I went with him to the hospital.”
“Oh, my goodness. Is he all right?”
“No. During surgery he suffered a stroke and slipped into a coma.”
Carissa waited for her aunt to say something, but when she didn’t respond, she looked up at Helena’s blank expression.
“Please tell me you’re joking,” Helena said.
“I wish I was. But believe it or not, it gets worse.”
“He didn’t—”
“No,” Carissa cut her off. “He’s still in a coma. However, I had to lie to the staff and pose as this man’s fiancée in order to see him.”
“Well, that’s completely understandable. I would have done the same thing.”
Carissa held up her hand. “There’s more.”
Helena eyed her suspiciously. “What?”
“The man’s estranged son shows up.” Carissa stood and paced the floor. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what really happened. In fact, our meeting turned out to be downright hostile. He was rude and the next thing I know I’m practically snapping the man’s head off.”
“I see.”
Carissa turned to face her. “You do?”
“No, but finish the story.”
“That’s it. This all happened in the past twenty-four hours. I figured I’d go back to the hospital later today and check on him.”
“Which one—the father or the son?”
“The father, of course. I think it’s in my best interest to avoid the son. There’s something unsettling about him.”
Helena’s brows shot up. “Really? How’s that?”
“I don’t know. He seems dark and jaded somehow.”
Her aunt crossed her arms. “Sounds to me like you two have a few things in common.”
“What do you mean?”
“Dark? Jaded? Have you looked in the mirror lately?”
Carissa rolled her eyes.
“All right. I’ll shut up—for now. You’ve already been through a lot dealing with this situation. So why don’t you go and get some rest? You look exhausted. I’ll unpack, and when you wake up, I’ll have a nice little lunch prepared for us.”
“I have to admit that sounds tempting, but I probably should just grab a quick nap and rush on over to the office. I can probably make it in by noon.”
“You’ll do no such thing. You’ll sleep, then pretend to be a gracious hostess and have lunch with your aging aunt.”
Carissa opened her mouth.
“And I won’t hear another word about it. Now off to bed.” Helena waved her away.
“Fine. I give up.” Sighing, Carissa headed out of the room, feeling as though she were six years old again.
Helena smiled. “I think this little visit is just what we both needed.”
Carissa groaned.
Chapter 5
Nathan wanted to, but he couldn’t force himself to leave the hospital. What in the hell was wrong with him? He’d performed his duty as a son, despite being unprepared to fight the ghosts of the past. It was time to return to his life, time to forget what he’d seen here—and what he was feeling.
In his mind’s eye, he remembered the last time he’d seen his father. It was days after he’d returned home from Vietnam. Nathan shook his head at his crazy effort to search for a lost father. Was he insane?
But what if he had lost him yesterday? No sooner had the question crossed his mind did he regret asking it. An unexpected rush of tears blurred his vision. “Hell, I never had him,” he muttered under his breath. In the back of his mind, he knew that wasn’t true. Throughout his childhood and even as an adult, he’d thought of his father. However, he’d never been able to forgive him.
Nathan found a pay phone, then cursed at his inability to find change in
his pockets. Gina’s constant nagging for him to purchase a cell phone echoed in his head. Grudgingly, he called the operator to place a collect call.
“I accept,” Gina told the operator, then launched a series of questions at her employer. “How are you? Have you seen him yet? Do you need me to come to Atlanta?”
“Fine, yes, and that won’t be necessary,” he answered, then allowed an awkward moment of silence to elapse.
“I’m a great listener,” she suggested.
“That’s the reason I called.” A much-needed smile lifted the corners of his lips. “I don’t know how long I’m going to hang out down here.”
“You take as much time as you need. Aria has already called and she completely understands the situation. She wanted me to remind you that she’ll be in Atlanta next week for that promotional party.”
“I doubt that I’ll be here that long.”
“I have to admit we were a little bewildered yesterday.”
Nathan nodded against the phone. Most people believed his real father had been dead for years. So no doubt his father’s miraculous materialization surprised everyone. But he’d deal with that later. “I was wondering if I could ask you a favor?”
“Anything. If you want me to go over and feed George, I’ve already taken care of it.”
He smiled at the thought of his loyal German shepherd. “You’re a doll.”
“I’m glad you’ve noticed.”
“I know I can always count on you.”
“You just deal with your father and call me if you need anything.”
“Will do.” Nathan hung up, then placed another call.
“Hello.”
“Guess who happens to be in the neighborhood?”
“Well, I’ll be damned, Nate. What are you doing in town?”
“I guess there’s no way for you to know this, but Travis is in the hospital.” As he expected, a long silence trailed his announcement.
“So you came to see him?” His stepfather’s voice lowered.
“I know. I’m not quite sure how I feel about being here, either. Hell, to be honest with you, I’m surprised I came.”
“So am I.”
Nathan shook his head. What did he expect? A thirty-year-old rivalry still existed between the two men. And without his stepfather actually saying anything, Nathan sensed that his own loyalty was in question.
It was a feud he’d understood at times, then had been completely mystified by at others. However, before the war, the men had actually been the best of friends. We would have died for one another, his stepfather had quoted numerous times in the past. But circumstances change, and everyone’s lives traveled different roads.
“Are you game for getting together later on?” Nathan asked.
“Would you rather I come there?”
The offer rendered Nathan speechless. “I can’t ask you to do that, but thanks anyway.”
“Well, I just want you to know that I’m here for you.”
Nathan smiled. “Of course. I know that.”
“Good.” His stepfather’s voice perked.
“Back to the reason I called. I thought that since I was going to be in town for a little while that maybe we can get together for dinner or something.”
“Well, now, that would be nice. Do you still have that apartment in town?”
“Yeah, lucky for me. Last month I was thinking about selling the place.”
“You know you’re always welcome to crash here. In fact, it would be a great chance for us to play catch-up. Are you still seeing that anthropologist?”
Nathan rolled his eyes heavenward. “You mean India?”
“Ah, yes. A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We broke up a while back.”
“Anything you want to talk about? I know a thing or two about women.”
“Is that all, a thing or two?”
“Son, that’s all a man can hope to achieve on the subject in one lifetime.”
They laughed.
“Nate, how about you call me around three on my cell phone and we’ll compare schedules then?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
By the time the call ended, Nathan’s spirits had lifted.
Hanging up, he exhaled a long, tired sigh and retraced his steps back to the ICU. Once there, his nerves had calmed and a certain type of peace settled within him as he stared down at his father. As he watched, he couldn’t help but wonder where his father’s mind traveled…
Chicago. April 2, 1966
Captain Travis Edwards of the United States Army rapped on the Plexiglas in the nursery, trying in vain to grab his newborn son’s attention. Pride expanded the young officer’s chest while he waved and mouthed the words, “Hello, fella.”
Nathan returned a lopsided grin, which Travis took as a sign of exceptional intelligence. A world of future possibilities floated in Travis’s head.
A heavy hand slapped across his back. “Congratulations, Captain. I see you finally did something right for a change.”
Travis shook his head and answered his best friend, Smokey, without a backward glance. “Jealousy’s a bitch, ain’t it?”
His friend’s boisterous laugh stole another smile from Travis. “I really did do something right this time, didn’t I?”
“Yeah. I’d say by the way that li’l guy’s beaming at you, you got yourself a fan for life.”
“Trust me, buddy. I have no plans on screwing this assignment up.”
“Well, good luck to ya. The worst you can do is turn out to be like my old man. Congratulations again. I got to head on over to the club. I’ll catch you later?”
“Yeah, sure thing. I’ll tell Val you stopped by.” Travis continued to watch his son in the nursery, enjoying the strength of the newly formed bond.
For months, he and Val had been preparing for a little girl. They’d even picked out the name Natalie, named after his eccentric grandmother. Now the name had been modified to Nathan. Visions of baseball and football games materialized in Travis’s head, and a double dose of testosterone pumped through his veins.
Later, Travis peeked in on his wife and smiled at her sleeping form. “I’m a lucky man,” he declared and eased inside the door. She was even more beautiful now than the day he met her.
As if sensing his presence, her eyes fluttered open. “Hi there.” She smiled.
He loved her husky vibrato, the gentle curl of her hair and the warmth of her eyes. “Hi there yourself.” He rested a hip against the bed, then leaned down and kissed her.
“Have you seen him?” Pride made her smile wider and even more beautiful.
“Yeah. He’s something, ain’t he?”
“Isn’t he,” she corrected playfully. Her few years as an English teacher made correcting everyone’s grammar a habit.
“He sure is.”
They laughed, then just gazed at each other. A pool of love deepened within their hearts, making words unnecessary to express how they felt.
Travis reached for her hand and kissed her wedding band. “Our little family is growing.”
“I think this is the happiest day of my life.”
“What about our wedding day?”
“It’s a close second.”
“I think they both tie for first place.” He laughed.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you more.” He kissed the ring again. “You’re going to make a wonderful mother.”
“And you’re going to make an excellent father.”
Chapter 6
Nathan reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper he’d received from Gina and stared at the name Elizabeth Townsend, administrative assistant of Cartel Enterprises.
From what he understood from Gina, this was the woman who’d called about his father. Nathan contemplated contacting her to find out what happened yesterday. As the thought crossed his mind, a contradicting thought questioned why he even cared.
“I’m going to drive myself crazy with this.” He balled the paper back in his fist and swore under his breath. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar outfit. His mind raced back to the beautiful woman he’d clashed with that morning.
Despite the shame of his earlier behavior, he raced after the figure. When he rounded the corner, he stopped in his tracks. It wasn’t her.
He took a calming breath to slow his accelerated heartbeat. A strange reaction, he thought as he turned and went in search of the cafeteria. In retrospect, he had to admit that the woman he’d discovered by his father’s side was gorgeous. So much so, he realized his harsh words were more out of jealousy than anger.
When he remembered that the nurse had identified her as his father’s fiancée, he shook his head. The woman was too young for Travis.
A few minutes later, Nathan sat relishing his first jolt of caffeine for the day while worrying over Travis’s condition. In the back of his mind, he wondered if there was something he should do. Anything would be better than this waiting game.
He warmed to the thought. Maybe he could use this time to learn more about what had happened. He remembered the slip of paper and retrieved it from his pocket. The first place he would try to get some answers would be Cartel Enterprises.
“You murdered my father!” Fire simmered in Nathan Edwards’s gaze and burned a hole through Carissa.
She stepped back and mouthed the word no. The accusation rumbled in her head like a freight train, rendering her powerless against the field of guilt it left in its wake.
He matched her movement, bearing down on her as if preparing to attack. “I should give you a taste of your own medicine. Maybe you’d like it if I stripped you of everything—robbed you of your dignity. I’d love nothing more than to wipe that ‘holier than thou’ smirk off that smug face of yours. Maybe afterward, I’d discard you like a piece of trash.”
Backed against the wall, she shook her head, still unable to voice any protest.
His head lowered, his hot breath rushed against her face.
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