Come Away with Me

by Jane Reynolds

  Come Away with Me

  Jane Reynolds

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Acknowledgments

  Did You Like Come Away with Me?

  Never miss a release!

  Also by Jane Reynolds

  Also by Jane Reynolds

  Prologue

  Death was always a tragic thing, and the death of Zelda Kelly was no exception to this rule. Zelda Kelly was born in 1915 in New York to two parents who really didn't care one way or the other about raising her, but luckily she was happy and content being by herself. School was something she was interested in, and she ended up getting an Associate’s Degree at a local community college. Life at home got to be too pressing, and from there Zelda started to travel, doing odd jobs here and there to pay for food and board. She was a flapper in every sense of the word, save for the fact that she liked to wear her hair long rather than short. This, of course, caused tension between Zelda and some of the other women only because they would whisper things behind her back.

  But Zelda didn't particularly care. The one thing she absolutely loved to do was dance, and if she had to share a dance floor with women who couldn't stop staring and saying things about her hair, then she would. Zelda had never felt more free on a dance floor, and when she didn't have a partner, she danced by herself.

  It wasn't surprising that she ended up in Chicago as a taxi dancer at a popular night club. She was twenty now and had been married only recently after a two-month love affair. Marriage was never really something Zelda had thought she would ever do, but when he asked, she couldn't say no. However, marriage wasn't exactly what she had thought, and as a result, she wasn't particularly happy. But at least she had the music, and at least she could dance.

  Her life was a mystery to her four children and eight grandchildren, but as they were all seated in her lawyer's office, they couldn't help but wonder just what their mother and grandmother had to tell them on video that she hadn't told them in life. Because if Zelda Kelly was anything, she was blunt.

  The door to the room opened, and in walked Betty Fransky, Zelda's lawyer and longtime friend. "Good afternoon," she said in a soft voice as she shut the door behind her before maneuvering around her guests in order to reach her desk. Once she did, she turned in order to look at everyone, and then slid down in her seat. "I want to thank you all for coming." She paused here, licking her lips as she tried to figure out what to tell the family, how to prelude the video she was about to show. "Zelda was a very mysterious woman, but she was an honest one. And, as we all know, she was desperately in love with her husband."

  "Dad was definitely madly in love with her too," Brian, the eldest child said with a grin. His three siblings all murmured their agreements, and the grandchildren giggled and blushed.

  "Yes, he was," Betty agreed. "My, when the two of them would come in here... Well, it was just easy to see it in the way they looked at each other."

  "That's what Mom would always say," Marianna said with a teary smile. "You can always tell how someone feels about someone else in how they look at each other."

  "And Dad was crazy about Mom," Norah pointed out.

  "So," Eric said, the middle child. He tilted his head and looked at Betty, not exactly sure as to why he was here. Of course he cared about his mother and his family, but he didn't understand why they were gathered here to watch a tape of their mother. "Why, exactly, are we here?"

  Betty smiled at Eric, always the rational child of the bunch. "I'm sure it's no secret that your mother left you a video for you to all watch," she said, turning her head so she could look at the widescreen television located on the far side of her office. "It was of great importance that you see this. I'm sure that you might be wondering just why she didn't tell you everything she needed to tell you while she was alive. After the video, I'm sure you'll realize the answer. I must warn you, this video is somewhat long, so if you're not comfortable where you are, you might want to move in order to get comfortable." She waited a long moment until the guests had situated themselves before starting to talk once more. "Now, you all know how much I cared about Zelda, and when she asked me to video tape this message for her, I couldn't say no. But what she said surprised even me.

  "Now, you might wonder why your mother left this while your father, when he died a couple of years ago, didn't do the same. But again, that should all be explained in this tape."

  With that, she quickly turned off the lights and started the tape before turning on the television. There was Zelda, sitting in a hospital bed, her green eyes sparkling as mischievously as they had been during her youth. She still looked incredible for her old age; her skin, while wrinkled, was well maintained due to the fact that she was a firm believer in sunscreen, and she still had all of her teeth due to her insistence on the importance of flossing and brushing twice a day. Her hair now thin and grey was left down, as she had worn it in her youth, and though she knew she was dying, no trace of sadness could be seen anywhere on the tape.

  "Well, I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here," she said, always straight to the point. "And I'll tell you. But before I do, I want to tell you that I love you more than life itself, as your father did. The reason we've kept this from you for so long was for selfish reasons; we didn't want to spend one minute away from

  each other, and not one second away from you." This confused the audience, but they were silent, waiting for their mother to continue.

  "Now... I know that when I reveal what I'm about to reveal, you may or may not believe me. And that's fine. Quite frankly, I don't care one way or the other if you believe me or not. The only thing that matters is I tell you.

  "You all know that I was born in 1915 and did this and that with my life. You all know that I was married once, for a very short while, before and when I met your father. At the time, I was working as a taxi dancer, and what that means, for those of you that don't know, is that men would pay me a dime – which was a lot back in the day – for a dance. And your father, well, let me tell you, that man could dance." There was a nostalgic smile on Zelda's face as she remembered her beloved husband, and it reminded her children of what she had looked like when she was younger.

  "I should probably tell you the whole story so everything is explained to you because what they have in those history books is downright phooey. But..." Here, she let her voice trail off before she sighed. "But that was what needed to be done in order to save your father's life. I know that what I'm asking you is a stretch to believe, but on my life, on your father's life, what I say is true. But so you can understand it, I'm going to have to go back... maybe a few days before I met your father." Zelda paused and her eyes glanced away from the camera so she could look at her friend. "Now Betty, when you show this to them, you should probably pause it here and ask them if they need to get some food or go to the bathroom or something because it's a long story."

  Betty paused the tape at
that moment and looked at the audience expectantly. She knew she didn't have to ask, and when none of them said anything, she nodded and played the tape once more.

  "I should also warn my children that some of the things in here may or may not be appropriate for the grandchildren to hear," Zelda continued. "It involves violence, crime, sex, gangsters – you know. So I should ask Betty to pause it here in case you want to go put your kids in the attached daycare center. You guys know Grandma loves you, don't you? And if it was my decision, I'd tell you, but you know you need to be older for some things, to fully grasp the situation."

  Betty paused the tape, and the four children and their spouses decided to heed their mother's warning and placed the children in the daycare. When they had all returned and were currently reseated, Betty played the tape again.

  Another sigh slid out of Zelda's nose. "Again, I'm going to tell you that this is a long story, and there are some parts you may or may not want to here. But since I'm dead now, I don't care. You're going to hear them anyway.

  "Let's start off with the main point: Your father was not Jimmy Lawrence. Your father was John Dillinger."

  Chapter 1

  August 13, 1933

  The hazy nightclub, known as The Viper Room, was a natural scene for Zelda Kelly, one of the resident taxi dancers that inhabited the famous place. Smoke filtered through her nostrils, and though she had never picked up a cigarette in her life and though the smell wasn't all that appealing to her, she couldn't deny that this was what she was used to, and things that were constant felt like home to her.

  Her velvet green eyes scanned the dance floor, walking in one of the many dresses she had specifically for her job until she leaned back against a wall and waited for someone – anyone – to approach her and ask her to dance. She didn't look like the rest of the flappers or taxi dancers that occupied the club's atmosphere, but that seemed to draw customers to her instead of hindering their regard for her. Due to the swinging twenties, raven black hair was in style, cut short in a bob. Figures mirrored those of boy's – straight and slim, taut. Curves were a thing of the past. And the dresses that were in fashion were normally formless. They were glitzy and glamorous, of course, but it was more comfortable to dance in loose dresses rather than tight ones. And the makeup was dark as well, highlighting a pale face, enhancing full lips, bringing life to otherwise dull eyes.

  Zelda Kelly was none of those things. Her height was nothing to brag about; she barely qualified for the five foot five mark, though she was constantly in heels in order to add a couple of inches to her height. (And, to be honest, Zelda never felt sexier than dancing in a good dress and a nice pair of heels.) She had hair that mirrored that of dark wheat, and instead of cutting the locks that took quite a while to grow, she kept them long. Her face was pretty on its own, but she saw the value in makeup, and wore it, but did not overdo it as some of her colleagues were known to do. She, too, wore formless dresses, but they were tighter than most, and always had some sort of color in them instead of being the usual black. Her skin was a peachy color, so she made sure that the clothes she did wear didn't wash out her face. Her body was not as slim as her counterparts', but she had feminine curves that men desired from time to time, whether it was in fashion or not.

  And even though Zelda was just left of center when it came to her looks and her personality, she was the best dancer the Viper Room had. It wasn't because she had trained professionally or because she knew the steps better than anybody, but she enjoyed herself the most, and as a result, her partner's enjoyed themselves. She didn't try and be sexy and she didn't show off; she simply had fun, and that was what made her the best, and the most highly-sought after.

  However, this didn't mean that Zelda had a lot of money coming in. Despite the fact that business was booming, even in the Depression, a percentage of what she made went directly to the club, and her husband took what was left. Zelda had nothing for herself except her dancing, and as a result, she cherished it all the more.

  Her husband Orval, a man she married because of a whim rather than because of love or feeling wasn't the best husband she could have picked for herself. Little quirks she had adored now grated on her nerves, and there were moments when his infamous temper got the better of him, and he took it out on her, both physically and mentally. Nothing too serious had occurred – he didn't throw anything at her or wound her with a foreign object – but his hand was quite familiar with her face. It was somewhat difficult coming to work after such a brawl but she lost herself the most in the jazz music and wished for another sort of life. There were moments when she fantasized about leaving Orval, about continuing to travel around the United States, dancing in different clubs, and just living on her own. She had only been married for four months, only knew Orval two months prior to that. But times had changed from the Roaring Twenties to the Depression Era the thirties were now in. She couldn't just up and leave when she had a steady job that she enjoyed, had a roof over her head. Running away could only be done in her mind, and as long as she could dance, she could dream.

  It wasn't long before someone approached her and asked for a dance. She made a note on her dancing card before allowing him to lead her to the floor during a fast-paced song. Zelda had made a rule, a promise to herself, that she would never allow a man to lead her in a slow song, no matter how deeply troubled times got. It was a silly rule, and Zelda only began it to prove herself that if determined enough, she could own to it, but now, she realized she didn't want to waste an intimate moment with a man she didn't love, including her husband. Many of her fellow taxi dancers teased her about it, didn't take it seriously, but since Zelda took nothing more serious than dancing, she followed the rule to a tee.

  The night went by. Men came up with her and danced, and during the slow songs, she refreshed herself with ice water from the bar. Because Zelda was so well-known at the club, regular customers knew not to ask her for a slow dance, but it wasn't long before her ticket was filled up.

  During a particular song with a customer, her eyes glanced around at the fullness of the club, and suddenly stopped on a man who seemed to be observing her, a crooked smile on his face. Zelda felt her entire heart skip and immediately glanced away. He was one of the most beautiful – probably the most beautiful man – she had ever had the honor of gazing her eyes upon. Of course she hadn't seen that much of him – it had only been a glance, after all – but what she did see was nothing short of pleasing.

  The man wasn't that tall, maybe just underneath six foot. He was dressed conservatively, but it was discernable that his outfit was sharp. His face was in the shape of an oval, and his eyes were a grey-blue, a color she had never seen before. His hair was brown, messy, and short, and there was a noticeable dimple in the middle of his chin. Arrogance surrounded his air, but confidence trumped the disagreeable trait, and from that glance, Zelda would bet that he was charming.

  If only he would ask her to dance.

  He was dancing with another taxi dancer, and watching him from the corner of her eyes, Zelda could tell that the man could dance. Such a rare trait to find in members of the opposite sex, and he seemed to be really enjoying himself.

  It wasn't long before her very desire was given to her. Once the dance had ended, he disentangled from his dancer and headed directly for her. It wasn't like her to get a fluttery feeling in the whole of her stomach; Zelda was never the type of person to get nervous. And yet here she was. What would she say to him once he got over to her? He really was coming to her, right?

  The man slid over to her. His eyes never wavered from her own, as though he wanted her to know he wasn't going to check her out (though he wouldn't admit if he had done so before). His smile was still on his face, though now that Zelda had a better view of it, it resembled more of a smirk rather than a smile – a smirk that happened to reveal nothing and everything at the same time: he had a secret and he wanted everyone to know that he did, but he wasn't going to give it up for nothing.

  A
nd then he spoke. "Where've you been all my life?" It was slightly Southern, a rough growl, deep and low, mumbled and articulate at the same time. A mix of contradictions that seemed to be, at least for him, the tip of the iceberg so to speak.

  And then, suddenly, Zelda wasn't nervous anymore. Her lips curled up and her eyes sparkled as she replied, "Waiting."

  His smirk only deepened at her words and he looked at her with those grey-blue eyes of his with approval, interest, and something else, something Zelda couldn't quite read, which made him all the more enticing. He stuck out his hand. "I'm Jimmy Lawrence," he told her. She placed her hand in his, expecting him to shake, but was pleasantly surprised to find that he rose it until his lips brushed across her knuckles. "What if I told you I was going to sweep you off your feet one day?"

  The answer was easy, and just like that dance he had yet to ask her for, she said in return, "I look forward to it."

  Chapter 2

  It had been two weeks since Zelda Kelly had first laid eyes upon Jimmy Lawrence, and the man who had most certainly stolen her heart from that first glance had been in the Viper Room every day since their first meeting. In fact, Jimmy had managed to secure a dance with Zelda at least once each night, no matter how full her dance card was, even offering to pay double what other guys were paying just so he could hold her in his arms. Of course, Jimmy never said this, or even admitted it to himself, but it was always there, in the back of his mind.