Forget Me Not

by Madden, J. M.

  Forget Me Not

  J.M. Madden

  Contents

  Untitled

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  The Lost and Found Series

  Afterword

  Sneak Peek

  Forget Me Not

  by J.M. Madden

  Copyright © 2017 by J.M. Madden

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover created by Viola Estrella

  Editing by Meg at Megedits.com

  Created with Vellum

  Acknowledgments

  As always I have to thank my family. I love you guys dearly and thank you for putting up with my craziness.

  Sandie, you are such an incredible sounding board and friend. Mayas, you always give it to me straight. Thank you girls! JoAnn, thank you so much for the medical input.

  All three of you helped me so much.

  Thank you!

  Meg (aka. Wonder Woman) You rock! Thank you for all the work you did shaping me up! And those damn timelines…

  Author Note

  This book had a strange feel to it. It felt almost … precognitive. Or something. That’s not exactly the word I need. There was some strange mojo going on.

  My computer was acting hinky, when it never has before.

  There were things that I wrote into the book that started happening around me. A friend of mine fell and broke her upper arm- like one of the characters in the book. Another friend’s husband had a heart attack- like one of the characters in the book.

  I was worried about doing anything else to any more of the characters. Truly!

  But I did write in a scene about a ranch hand winning the lottery.

  If any of you readers win money, I expect a 50% split!!!

  Just kidding … kinda…

  Readers, be sure to read all the way to the end! There’s a chapter of Brock’s book, Untying His Not!

  This is for Karen and Kenny. Hopefully Chad and Lora can have 25 years like you guys did! Much love!

  Chapter 1

  Duncan frowned up at Chad. "This is kind of getting to be a habit," he murmured.

  Chad winced. "I know. Something came up in New York and Lora had to wait for a conference call. If we had known ahead of time, we could have gotten Heather to pick Mercy up at school, but she's doing something else."

  Duncan rubbed his jaw and nodded. "Go get her and bring her in, then. I'll watch the live feed while you do."

  Chad felt even more guilty. Damn, he hadn't realized Duncan was the only one in the office to do this. "Roger's not available?"

  With a crooked grin, Duncan shook his head. "You know he's cut his hours since he and Cass got together at Christmas."

  Yeah, he had known that. Things had changed in the past several months. All good changes, of course, but different none-the-less. Their schedules had had to be more fluid than ever with employees and friends coming and going.

  "I'll be back as soon as I can," he promised. "Literally, nothing has happened in the time the feed has been live."

  "I'll be fine, Chad. Go get your girl."

  Without another word he headed out of the office. The surprise spring snow from last night had mostly been burned away by the sunlight, and the temperature was rising, so there shouldn’t be any delays in getting back.

  Duncan was a good guy. Too damn good sometimes. There weren't many men that would cover for his guys the way Duncan did. Maybe it would be a good time to mention to boss man that they needed to hire more veterans. Chad knew for a fact Duncan still had a stack of resumés in his bottom drawer.

  Chad drove to the school a few miles away, getting there as the last of the buses left. As they pulled away, he could see a couple of kids sitting on the broad front steps of the school, as well as Mercy's second grade teacher. There was a scowl on her pretty, young face, and he didn't blame her. He parked the truck at the curb and smiled in spite of the disapproval in her expression.

  "Hello, Ms. Clark. I know I missed parent pick-up. Plans changed at the last minute and I had to scramble."

  She sighed as she opened the door for Mercy to climb in. "That's fine, Mr. Lowell, we just like to have prior notice when your child has to be pulled off the bus."

  He winced and glanced at Mercy. She didn't seem any the worse for wear, but he was learning that she didn't always show the world everything going on in her heart. "Yes, ma'am. I understand."

  Determined to be charming, Chad gave her a smile and she seemed to soften. "Well, okay then. Bye, Mercy. I'll see you tomorrow."

  "Bye, Ms. Clark."

  Mercy climbed into her booster seat in the back and Chad circled the truck to fasten her in. When she wouldn't look at him, he paused. "You okay, darlin'?

  She nodded her head, glancing up. "Mom forgot, huh?"

  His heart ached at the resignation he could see in her big green eyes.

  "No, she didn't forget. She had a big conference call with New York she had to take."

  Mercy turned to look out the opposite window and Chad knew it didn't matter what he said. Her mother wasn't here in this moment. That was what mattered.

  With a kiss to her forehead he tucked some of the hair that had fallen from her ponytail behind her ear. He shut the door and circled back around. He prodded her several times with conversation, but she was pretty bull-headed. She gave him short answers, but didn't expand on anything. The only time her expression brightened was when she realized they were heading to the Lost And Found offices. "Is Duncan there?"

  Chad nodded, grinning. "Yup, he is. Maybe I should have sent him to pick you up?"

  She nodded. "I’d like that."

  When they headed into the offices, she grinned up at Duncan like they were old friends, which, Chad supposed, they were. Though the boss man was not used to kids, they seemed to love him. Maybe because he wasn't used to them. Duncan talked to them like they were adults.

  "Hello, Miss Mercy. Where's your hat? It's still pretty chilly out."

  Mercy pulled the hat from her backpack and brandished it at him. "It's getting warm out now, though. Almost all the snow is gone."

  Duncan cocked a brow at her. "I guess you're right. I need you to come with me. Somebody erased the picture you drew me on the whiteboard. Do you believe that? I need a new one."

  They wandered off toward Duncan's office, Mercy skipping with excitement.

  When they headed home a few hours later, Chad worried that she would get discouraged again, but Lora was there at the door waiting for them. Mercy whooped and ran into her mother's arms as soon as Chad set her down from the truck. Lora stroked her hair and asked her where her hat was. Rather than answer her, Mercy told her that Duncan had asked her the same thing.

  Chad took his time getting to the door, aware that he had a bit of resentment rattling around inside him. Actually, he had a couple of bits of resentment.

  When Lora looked up at him, though, her expression clear of everything but love, it was hard to stay aggravated at her. "Hello, darlin'."

  Dropping a kiss to her lips, he wrapped an arm around her, bumping her inside so that he could close the door behind them. Lora moaned into his m
outh and ran a hand into his hair. "I needed this."

  He did too, he realized. It had been a couple of days since they'd really connected. More than that since they'd actually made love.

  "I did too, babe."

  She pulled away a little too quickly, but excitement shone in her eyes. "You should have seen the meeting I just ran. It was incredible. There were CEOs from several major east coast banks, and I talked to them like I knew what I was saying."

  Chad laughed, loving the look of confidence in her luminous green eyes. "That sounds daunting."

  "It was at first," she admitted, "but they want to do business with our company, so they were kind of kissing my ass."

  "Was William there?"

  The middle-aged executive had been hired to operate the investment company day to day, and he'd been teaching Lora as much as possible via conference calls. It wasn't the most ideal way to do it, being on opposite ends of the country, but it seemed to be working for them. Chad had gone to bed the past few nights long before Lora had. As he'd walked down the hallway to their room, he'd heard the soft tones of her voice through the office door, talking money things he had no earthly idea about.

  He would say that for Lora. After Derek had gone off the deep end and come after them, Lora had stopped him in the most definitive way possible. She'd taken his life to protect her daughter in the attempted kidnapping. She’d saved her own life, too; Derek would have killed her without a second thought. After that, the company had been given to Lora to hold in trust for Mercy. Rather than completely giving the operating over to a nameless face who didn't care about fostering a heritage, she'd started taking classes and learning the business for herself. She had the determination of a bull.

  When she wasn't learning from William Styles Jr., the proxy they'd hired to run the company, she was at the local community college taking business classes, absorbing as much information as she possibly could as quickly as she could. The once a week class had now transitioned into three times a week online, several hours at a time.

  In his heart Chad knew that she was trying to secure her daughter's future, but he hated the time that it was taking away from them.

  "I didn't have time to get anything for dinner, so I thought we'd order out."

  He sighed, nodding. That's what he'd expected. Maybe he needed to take over the kitchen. Mercy loved his French toast.

  The new house they'd moved into was in a very good location for takeout. Besides the standard pizza and oriental food, they also had a Thai and a Mexican place they ordered from regularly. Tonight they settled on that. As Mercy crunched through tortilla chips she chattered about her day. Chad was feeling quiet, so he just let her talk.

  "Is something wrong?"

  Lora's eyes were concerned as she rested a hand on his knee.

  "I'm fine."

  He wouldn't say anything about his concerns in front of Mercy. He could do that later.

  But later never came. By the time he cleaned up the rest of the takeout, Lora was making sure Mercy did everything she was supposed to do before bed. Chad missed their nightly rituals of reading two books before bed. She was getting a little old for that now. Maybe it was time to start a couple chapters at a time of longer books, like Harry Potter or something like that. Hmmm, was Louis L’Amour too grown up to read to a kid? He’d started reading them when he was about nine or ten. While he was thinking it over, he went in to kiss her goodnight and chat just a few minutes. While he was chatting, Lora disappeared with an armload of laundry. Chad didn't see her again until she was heading into her office. When he ducked his head around the door jamb, she had put her headphones on to listen to a class.

  Damn it.

  Things were going to have to change soon.

  Chapter 2

  Lora felt like her brain was going to explode. All of the words were running together and beginning to confuse her. She was supposed to get to the end of this chapter before class tomorrow, but she didn't think it was going to happen. Widening her eyes to force alertness, she reached out for a swallow of tea, but it was long gone cold.

  Sighing, she pulled the headphones from her ears. There was an immediate loosening in her skull, like they had been on too tight and she just hadn't noticed. Ouch...

  She glanced out the window to get an idea of time, but the security lights were obscured by fog. There was no way to tell what time it was. Heading for the door she listened for movement in the house, but there was no chance of this. This new house was the most secure she'd ever been in, with tile floors and nice thick walls. Safe, secure. But pretty much soundproof.

  The kitchen was dark and all of the food had been put away. Chad, obviously. Her heart warmed at the thought of him. He had been such a huge help recently.

  Lora felt like she was a kid again, going to school and learning. Though she'd never had any leanings toward banks or money, it was becoming second nature to her. When she and Derek had been married, she'd been beyond frustrated by the lack of control in her marriage. As a woman and as a mother, she'd had no say in anything. She'd been subjugated and humiliated and it had taken an extreme act of courage to break away from the Malone money. Rosalind, her former mother-in-law, even as cold and unsupportive as she'd been, had been a mother figure to her and given guidance to Lora after Mercy was born.

  Lora paused as she circled the marble island, coming to a slow halt. Had Rosalind actually been a mother figure to her? No, not really. Lora's own mother Mary had died a year before she'd met Derek and her life had gone to hell. Mary had been a real mother, loving and encouraging, until ovarian cancer had taken her down.

  Every bit of her own mothering instincts she attributed to her own mother. She wouldn't credit Rosalind with anything, other than creating the monster that had ruined all their lives.

  It made her sad that her mother had never met her granddaughter, and vise versa. Mary had been an incredible woman.

  And Francine Lowell was an incredible mother. It had taken her a while to warm up to Chad's mother, but now that she had she couldn't imagine her not being in their lives. It had been a few days since she'd talked to them...

  Pulling her phone from her pocket, she scrolled to the calendar. It had been months, Christmas time, since they'd actually seen the Lowells. She should talk to talk to Chad about going for a visit.

  She laughed. Like she had a lot of spare time for visiting.

  Tiredness dragged at her mind. She needed to go to bed and recharge. Turning off all the lights but the one above the sink, she left the kitchen and headed to bed.

  Chad didn't move when she climbed between the sheets, but she curled against his broad back, tucking her hands against her chest. The feel of his hot, smooth skin against her own made her wish he was awake. It would be nice to cuddle for a while.

  These damn classes were really getting in the way of living life, but she had to keep at them. She knew in the long run it would be the best thing to secure Mercy's future.

  * * *

  Chad woke early, stretching hard. He also had the boner from hell. He peeked across the expanse of the bed, hoping to see his fiancée, but Lora was already gone. She'd been there in the night, he remembered the feel of her hand on his waist and stroking his back, but he hadn't woken enough to talk to her. And now she was gone again. It was Friday, so she had an early class. He probably wouldn't see her until tonight.

  And he needed to get Mercy to school. Grabbing his phone from the bedside table, he peered at the screen. Fuck... he was already ten minutes late. He must have snoozed it without realizing it.

  Moving to the side of the bed, he reached for his sleeve and prosthetic. There was a wear spot building on the outside of the stump. He needed to make time to take the thing in and get refitted.

  He'd have to add it to the never-ending list.

  "Mercy, you gotta get up baby doll," he called. "We're running late."

  From down the hallway he heard a faint 'okay'... He'd have to hurry through his shower and go wake her aga
in in five minutes. Hopefully Lora had laid out her clothes the night before like she normally did.

  The entire morning was a manic rush, but they managed to get to school a few minutes before the final bell rang. One of the school monitors watched Mercy as she ran into the school, and Chad cringed. The outfit he'd allowed the eight year old to pick out had been ... unusual, but it had been what she'd wanted. It would have taken too much time to argue for acceptable normal, so he let her go.

  When he got to work he could finally relax. The thought left him chuckling and John looked at him curiously. They were back watching a live feed, waiting for a suspect to appear exactly where he wasn't supposed to. They had civil papers to serve on him and he'd been harder than an ornery mustang to catch.

  "What are you laughing at?"

  Chad shook his head. "Lora's been running like crazy and taking classes, getting ready to take over Malone. I've been doing everything recently, and things are falling through the cracks."

  John laughed, sitting back in his wheelchair. "Oh, puhleese... you ought to try living with a pregnant female on the verge of giving birth to two babies. And a partially damn housetrained puppy. You talk about craziness?"

  Chad noted that Gunny glanced over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't over heard by his fiancée. Shannon, their office manager, must be in the outer office. Chad hadn't seen her when he’d come in, but he'd been distracted.

  "I have no sympathy with you and the dog, Gunny. That was your own fault for springing it on her at Christmas."