Ladd Haven

by Dianne Venetta

  Gavin lifted from his desk, circled back to his chair. “I see a lot of holes in your story, Delaney. And you want me to take you at your word over Jack’s?”

  “Yes,” she replied flatly. “I’ve told you everything—the truth.”

  “Funny...” He placed a pointed finger to his desk. “But I remember a time when you saw fit to withhold details from me. What’s to say you aren’t doing the same now?”

  “What are you talking about? I haven’t withheld anything from you.”

  “As I recall, you didn’t see fit to fill me in on the details of Jeremiah’s situation when you had the chance.”

  Blind-sided, she gaped at him. “But that’s different. You know Jack abused me—it’s the reason I left him!”

  “You never reported him for it.”

  “I had a daughter to think of!”

  Gavin shrugged in what felt like a horribly insulting gesture. The whole town knew why Delaney left Jack. Walls talked. Families protected their own. She knew for a fact there’d been a collective sigh of relief when Jack left town for Nashville. Gavin did, too. He knew all this yet stood here resisting her. Why?

  “If you’d a told me about Jeremiah ahead of time, I could have saved the department a lot of grief. Instead, you forced the authorities in Las Vegas to call my boss who then directed me to bring him in.” Gavin sat in his chair, rolled forward to his desk. “Go on home, Delaney. Let the justice system do its job.”

  She stared at him. Was she missing something? Gavin scratched the side of his head, waiting for her to leave.

  Overwhelmed by an imploding sense of futility, Delaney was rendered immobile. Where was the justice? The common sense of decency? Gavin was seriously telling her to let him and the justice system handle it? He wasn’t even listening!

  A half hour later, Delaney slugged up the stone steps to the lobby entrance. Heedless to the beautiful surroundings of Hotel Ladd, the luscious bloom of hydrangea, the thriving fern and rhododendron, she couldn’t see past her failure. Despite her best effort, she had failed to make Gavin see the truth. More than her failure, she was disturbed by his reception. In no uncertain terms he had shut her down, basically accused her of making up a story to save her employee, an employee Gavin implied she was sleeping with.

  It was sick. The whole situation was twisted, a convoluted mess of false allegations and disgusting tongue-wagging lies. It was enough to send a weaker woman running, but dammit, she couldn’t run. Troy was depending on her. Through the front glass panels, she caught a glimpse of Nick. His imposing stature towered over the young women beside him at the front desk as they discussed something. His image of strength was emphasized by the wall of river rock behind him, the navy of his button-down making him a standout against the girls dressed in white. To the right, several guests milled about the gift shop, perusing a jewelry case filled with gold pendants formed in the shape of wishing wells. It had been designed as a symbol of eternal hope and spiritual fulfillment, neither of which she felt at the moment.

  Hesitating on the threshold, Delaney didn’t feel like going in and putting on a pleasant face for guests. She didn’t feel like hashing out her failure for others to see. But Nick wasn’t looking outside. Sleeves rolled up, he was working. As he should be. As Troy should be.

  Pushing through the door, Delaney was struck by a wave of cold air. Chilling the perspiration on her naked arms, it quickly swallowed her whole. Nick glanced up, papers in hand. As he held her in his gaze, his demeanor cooled several degrees. Could he sense the results of her meeting with Gavin? Was she that transparent?

  Rather than going to him, she hovered near the indoor fountain. Its water gurgled and splashed, dropping delicately from one tiered basin to the next. Instead of calming her, the sound irritated. Nick neared and drew her off to the side, near a pair of lounge chairs. Neither sat. Lowering his voice, he asked, “Well, how’d it go?”

  “Horrible.”

  “Horrible?”

  “Yes. Gavin has arrested Troy and won’t listen to my side of the story. Thanks to you and Malcolm, he thinks I’m some kind of conspirator against him, not to mention he’s falling for that con artist of an ex-husband of mine’s bull crap—”

  Nick grasped her shoulders. “Slow down. You’re not making any sense. What do you mean, conspirator?”

  Delaney flipped her face up to meet his, a whorl of emotion funneling through her. “Because you and Malcolm didn’t tell him about the warrant out for Jeremiah’s arrest, the one he had to learn about from his police chief, he thinks I withheld evidence from him. Information that could have helped him nab Jeremiah.”

  “But he did get Jeremiah, arrested him and held him for the Vegas DA.”

  “He doesn’t see it that way. He thinks you should have told him what you knew so that he could have brought Jeremiah in on his own, without the direction of his boss.”

  Realization registered in his eyes. “And be the hero.”

  “Exactly.”

  Casting a glance around the lobby, shadows formed beneath the line of his dark brows, and Delaney felt as though he were moving his forces out of sight, going underground. She placed an arm to the muscular round of his forearm. “Nick? What are we going to do? I can’t let Troy be charged for something he didn’t do. I mean, he did hit Jack but only under duress. If he’s charged with assault and battery, it will stay on his permanent record.”

  “We’re going to fix it.”

  “How? Troy’s parents are working against us.”

  “How so?”

  “By letting him sit in jail! They think it will teach him a lesson.”

  Nick raked a hand through his hair, waves of brown clipped short and neat. He looked at her in astonishment. “Don’t they understand the circumstances? That he did the right thing?”

  “I told them, but they’re angry. Upset.”

  “How the hell do they think you feel?” he erupted under his breath.

  “It’s complicated, Nick. The Parkers are good people. They raised eight kids and only one has caused them any trouble.”

  “That one being Troy.”

  “Yes. But he’s a good kid. This time he’s caught up in bad circumstances that are beyond his control.”

  Nick pulled the cell phone from his pocket. “I’m going to bail him out.”

  Relief swept through her. “Thank you. I don’t want to fire him, Nick. He helped me, and he’s back on the mend with Casey. I don’t want any of this to interfere with his job here.”

  “Who said anything about firing him?” he asked, dialing as he spoke.

  “So that means you won’t?”

  “It means I intend to clean up this mess so that a firing isn’t warranted.”

  “How?”

  “I’m calling Lanny.”

  Lanny, his attorney, the man Nick and Malcolm went to for anything and everything legal. “But isn’t he a corporate lawyer? What does he know about criminal law?” Criminal law. Troy was no criminal—he was a defender, a protector! Visions of Jack’s assault trickled in. The man had pointed his gun at her yet Troy was the one sitting in jail. A wave of nervous energy tumbled in her gut. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair!

  “Lanny will put us in contact with the best criminal lawyers in the country,” Nick said, holding the phone to his ear. “We’ll have Troy out and free of these charges in no time with a few of our own to file.”

  “Against Jack? But I told you, Gavin doesn’t believe me.”

  “Well, we’ll have to make him believe you.”

  “How? It’s not like Jack is going to confess.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that.” Into the phone, he said, “Nick Harris. I need to speak with Lanny right away.”

  “Nick,” she urged worriedly, “you can’t jeopardize the hotel by beating a confession out of him.”

  “I don’t intend to.” Then to his lawyer’s office, he replied, “Have him call me on my cell. Tell him it’s urgent.”

  Watching him end the
call, Delaney wasn’t convinced. Nick wasn’t the type of man to let others handle his business for him, not when it came to revenge. Hadn’t he flown to South America to exact his revenge on Jillian Devane? Rather than call her father and gather his information, he’d personally flown to Brazil to meet with him in person, in the flesh.

  Flesh.

  Beating.

  “I’m going to get Troy,” Nick said, “and then I’m going to settle matters with Jack.”

  “You can’t handle Jack on your own. You need law enforcement involved. It has to be legitimate.”

  Nick said nothing, casting his attention to the front desk. Delaney turned, surprised to see Malcolm emerge from the office. The two men shared a glance. Behind the black of Nick’s gaze she could see a thousand thoughts swirling. The lines in his face had deepened, hardened. Whatever Nick’s plan, it wasn’t going to be pretty. Distracted by a couple crossing the lobby, a blonde couple who appeared Norwegian or Swedish with their fair skin and naturally rosy cheeks, urgency clawed at her. Once again, Delaney was consumed by the surreal turns her life was taking. First Felicity learned the truth, cursing her mother’s decisions, and then Jack’s attack, Troy’s arrest and Nick’s promise to “fix it.” It was too much. Nick was unpredictable. “Settling matters” with Jack could mean any number of things.

  “I want you to go to the stables,” he said to her, pulling her into a hug. “Take your mind off this business and let me handle it from here, okay?”

  Cheek pressed firmly to his chest, Delaney soaked in the feel of him. She trusted Nick but feared the circumstances might prove beyond his control. Jack would taunt and bait and try to lure Nick into a compromising position.

  “I’ll let you know when I have something concrete.” Nick kissed the top of her head.

  She nodded dutifully. Did she have a choice?

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Please, Casey,” Annie pleaded. Clipped to the edge of the sofa in their apartment, her daughter sat resistant to reassurance of any kind. She wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink, wouldn’t listen to reason. She wouldn’t do anything but wait for Troy’s phone call. Annie didn’t like the situation any more than Casey, but there was honestly nothing they could do.

  “He said he’d call. But he hasn’t! I have to go to him!”

  “We have to wait for Nick to take care of things.”

  “Troy’s in jail—his parents won’t bail him out! How can I just sit here and do nothing?”

  Annie hated the panic in her daughter’s voice. She was losing control—understandably so—but it couldn’t be good for the baby.

  Brightly dressed in a blend of green and blue and swipes of eye shadow to match, Ashley Fulmer stepped in. Her rhinestone-studded wardrobe felt wildly out of place in the fluster of upset, but Ashley only did bright and glittery, and this morning was no exception. “Now calm down, darlin’ before you come apart at the seams. Mr. Harris is going down to bail him out and he’ll be home by lunchtime. There’s no sense in your going, too.”

  “What if he can’t? What if the police won’t let him go?”

  “Bail only takes money, darlin’ and Mr. Harris has it spillin’ from his pockets.”

  Casey’s gaze darted between the two. She didn’t trust them. She didn’t trust Nick. She didn’t trust anyone at the moment. Annie couldn’t blame her. No one had told Casey about what happened between Jack and Delaney. Why shouldn’t she think they were holding back from her now?

  “What if he can’t prove Troy is innocent? What if no one believes him?”

  “He will. Delaney said Nick’s lawyers will fight and Troy will be cleared of these charges, you wait and see.” Ashley exchanged a solemn glance with Annie, communicating a concern that went beyond the pregnancy. She was worried about Casey’s past. High strung on a good day, she had taken to drugs in the past and Ashley feared that if Troy were found guilty of the charges and sent to prison, Casey would skate off a cliff. Annie couldn’t refute the notion.

  Annie squeezed Casey’s hand. “Nick will take care of it, sweetheart, you’ve got to trust him.” Delaney said as much when she called this morning, though Annie still couldn’t believe Gavin was defending Jack. Everyone knew the history. It wasn’t a secret. But when Candi said Jack’s and Gavin’s mothers were close, Annie hadn’t realized she meant closer than two kernels on a cob! It was ridiculous to think they would collaborate to protect a criminal like Jack but they were. “They’ll call us as soon as they know something. Worrying about it now won’t help.”

  Casey stared at her like a frightened cat, a kitten dangling from an electrical line over a pool of water. Just when Casey allowed herself to believe the future was bright and happy, Troy could be ripped from her life and sent to jail. “I’ll ask Cal when I get to the salon, okay?” Annie had to work, the schedule stacked from open to close. She didn’t want to leave Casey alone which is why she called her godmother. Ashley would stay with Casey and keep her calm.

  But still Annie was concerned for Casey’s health and the health of the baby. She couldn’t shake what the doctor had said about stress. Stress is a killer. You must make sure she keeps it to a minimum. Easy for him to say. He wasn’t living the nightmare!

  Drawing her purse close to her body, Annie looked to Ashley. “I’ve got to go.”

  Ashley nodded and walked with her to the front door of the apartment. “Go on. I’ve got it covered here.”

  Her heart looped around Casey, Annie murmured, “I wish I didn’t have to leave. It doesn’t feel right.”

  “You have to do what you have to do. You sittin’ here isn’t gonna wind the clock any faster. We’re gonna hear when we hear and that’s all there is to it.”

  “But she needs me.”

  “And so do your employees. You’ve got a job to do so get to it. And try to relax, darlin’.” Ashley inched closer. “You’re wound up tighter than a possum on a freeway.”

  Annie blinked. Staring into blue eyes, lashes heavily coated in mascara, she asked meekly, “Can you blame me?”

  “No, but it’s not helping anyone.” Ashley rubbed a hand up and down her arm. “You’ve got to stay strong for the child. She needs you to be calm and steady not unraveling like a ball of quilt yarn.”

  Everything she didn’t feel. “You’re right. I’ll try.”

  Ashley whittled her gaze to a fine-tipped point. “You’ve got to do better than try. There are people dependin’ on you.”

  “I will.” Annie nodded dumbly. “I will. Will you talk to Ida?” Ashley and Ida went way back. Her sister was married to Booker’s first cousin. It was possible she could talk some sense into her and in turn, get Ida to convince Gavin to settle this mess.

  “I told you I would and I will, first chance I get.” Ashley ushered Annie toward the door. “Now git. You’ve got responsibilities waitin’ on you.”

  Annie was already running behind, but she couldn’t shirk the entire morning. It was true. People were waiting on her, clients included. “Thank you.”

  “You don’t have to thank me. We’re family. It’s what we do.”

  Family. A word growing by leaps and bounds in Annie’s world. With one last glance to Casey, Annie was determined her daughter wouldn’t suffer because of Jack Foster or Troy. She was determined the incident with Delaney would not serve to ruin her child’s and grandchild’s lives.

  Casey sniffled, the sound tugging at Annie’s heart. Taking a step back into the living room, she said, “Sweetheart, I’ll call you the minute I know something.”

  A bleary-eyed Casey nodded.

  Annie accepted Ashley’s kiss and hug. Swathed in a rush of heavy perfume, she allowed herself to be pushed out the door, a reluctant call to duty weighing on her mind.

  “Call us, you hear anything, okay?” Ashley asked. “We’ll be fine until then.”

  The door closed, leaving Annie alone on the second-story balcony, awash in a bath of bright morning sunshine. Turning, she cast a glance out over the parking lot. Quiet, m
ost spaces empty, the bulk of apartment residents were already up and out the door for work. Work. She loved the new salon but at the moment not a cell in her body wanted to be there. She turned back to her front door. Every fiber of her being wanted to be at home with Casey.

  Nick, Malcolm and Cal drove to the county jail. Seated in the backseat, Cal had a bad feeling as he listened to Malcolm’s phone call. He was on the line with the attorney for Harris Hotels, coordinating a plan to defend Troy on the charges—charges Cal couldn’t believe had made it this far. According to his father, his mother was digging her heels in on this one and squeezing her contacts for favors. Momma was protecting Jack, insisting Gavin Shore charge Troy to the fullest extent of the law. Daddy said she wouldn’t listen to reason but then again, Cal doubted he would push. Gerald understood this was Victoria pitting Jack against Delaney in a silent play for revenge. While the town would see the Fosters versus the Ladds in a court dispute, very few would know that Foster versus Foster lay at the heart of the battle.

  “Thanks, Lanny.” Malcolm ended the call and reported, “Lanny suggests a guy out of Chattanooga. Says he’s the best in the state when it comes to criminal defense.”

  “Good,” Nick replied, one hand firmly on the steering wheel. “Call him. See how fast he can get on Troy’s case.”

  “It might take some time,” Malcolm advised. “The police are claiming he’s a flight risk which might pose a problem with bail.”

  “That’s ludicrous. Troy’s no more flight risk than you or I. Pay the man extra. We need Troy out and back on the job.”

  Malcolm’s pale blue eyes changed to near gray as he asked Nick, “Have you thought about the repercussions down the road?”

  “What repercussions?”

  “We can’t employ a convicted felon.”

  “He’s not going to be convicted.”