Fight For Love (Wild Hearts, Contemporary Romance Book 5)

by Nancy Adams

  He was having her followed? Even if he were telling the truth about it being someone else, he was happily using whatever results they claimed to have gotten against her. He had no right to be upset about Rob, and she had even told him about her budding relationship with the physical therapist herself. It hadn't been a secret, and she had not lied about it.

  Highway 960, the Old Maxwell Highway, was one of the older two-lane blacktops in the Ozarks. It was full of twists and curves, but she knew the road well. As a teenager, she had often come to Springfield that way, especially when she’d wanted to get into one of the clubs that wasn't so picky about checking ID. Her Chrysler 300 handled the road as if it were built for it, even though she was managing to run a bit over the speed limit.

  Emotional blackmail? Just what the hell was emotional blackmail, she wondered. She hadn't tried to bully him or force him to do anything, she'd simply answered his question, told him what she had felt and what she was thinking. What she had told him was true; she had honestly considered ending her own life after he had broken off the engagement. If she had known for sure of a painless way to do it, Katie Lou Brennan actually suspected that she might not be there at that moment.

  Lately, though, she had been glad she had not resorted to that final solution. The time she had spent getting to know Rob Christopher and eventually acknowledging her attraction to him had begun to make life worth living, again. She admitted to herself that if Darren had not come back into the picture when he had, it was highly likely that those kisses on Saturday night might have led to something much, much more exciting.

  Her phone rang, and she glanced at it to see that it was Darren calling. A morbid curiosity took her, and she just wanted to know what he might have to say, after what had just happened.

  “What?”

  “Katie Lou, I'm sorry,” he said. “Please, baby, let's try again. Tell me where to meet you, and we'll just talk.”

  “Darren, I don't think we have anything to say to each other. I think you showed me exactly what I can expect from you tonight, and I'm simply not willing to try again. I'm sorry, I will probably always care about you, but there is just no way in the world we could ever make it work. I hope you can move on from this, because I guarantee you that I'm going to. Oh, and one more thing. I'll be filing for a restraining order tomorrow, so tell whoever's following me that they better back off.”

  She ended the call before he could say anything else, but the phone began to ring again only seconds later. She turned it off and dropped it into her purse. For the moment, all she needed was herself, the car and the road.

  The highway she was on went straight from Springfield to Maxwell, while Ralston was a little further south and west. When the highway passed under I-44, most people going to Ralston would have taken the westbound ramp, but Katie Lou didn't feel like going home just yet. She kept driving toward Maxwell with no particular destination in mind, just the need to keep moving.

  Fifteen minutes later, she came into the area of the city where the hospital and most medical offices were. She smiled to herself, and turned onto the street that would go by the building she was considering for her own office. She drove past it, then reached over and picked up her phone and called Carla Wilson, the realtor.

  “Hi, Carla, it's Katie Lou. I hope it isn't too late to call.”

  “Oh, no, not at all. What can I do for you?”

  “Well, I think I want to go ahead and sign the lease on the building you showed me last week. I've got everything ready to go, and I'm ready to open my own practice, and that's just the best location I've seen yet.”

  She could tell that Carla was smiling broadly. “Okay, that's great! You want to meet at my office in the morning? Say around ten?”

  “That'll work fine for me,” Katie Lou said. “See you then.”

  She ended the call and dropped the phone back into her purse, then slowly cruised around the block to look the building over once more. It really was about the nicest building in the medical district, and she was getting it for a very reasonable rent. There was plenty of room in it, if she ever needed to expand.

  She drove on past it, and just cruised along one of the main streets, but suddenly she realized that she was going to Rob's clinic. She figured it must be just habit, and laughed at herself, but she couldn't resist stopping in front of his building for just a second.

  She didn't plan on sitting there in the middle of the road, but a flood of memories was rushing through her as she looked at the clinic's front door. A horn honking right behind her snapped her back to reality, and she took her foot off the brake and began rolling forward again.

  A little while later, she pulled into the driveway of her home, parking her car in the spot that had somehow become hers, closest to the ramp that led up onto the deck in the back of the house. Of course, when she had bought her car, she was still using one of the wheeled walkers. It made sense, then, for her to be close to the ramp, but now that she could walk again, she thought she might give up the spot to her mother.

  She walked up the ramp, holding onto the rail out of habit, and found Kylie waiting for her when she stepped into the kitchen.

  “Katie Lou?” Kylie asked. “What you doing home so early?”

  Katie looked at her sister and started to speak, but suddenly, tears were flowing again. “I should've listened, I should've listened to you,” she said. “Oh, Kylie, it was horrible.” It took a couple of moments for her to get her sobbing under control and down to the level of sniffles, but she made a heroic effort and accomplished it. “He—he basically told me that I need to just shut up and do what he wants, take him back and act like everything is all fine, the way it used to be. He wants me to let everyone know that we're back together, right now, and when I told him I couldn't do that, he got all mad. That's when I found out he's been having people follow me around, he even had someone following me and Rob the other night.” She turned red, and lowered her eyes. “He even knew that I kissed Rob, and that only happened in the car. I got up and walked out before they even brought us our dinner.”

  By that time, both of her parents had come into the kitchen, and they all sat down at the table. “Oh, my goodness,” Judy said. “Katie Lou, I just can't believe Darren would act like that.”

  “Oh, come on, Honey,” Allen said. “Of course he would—look at the way he acted when she was in the hospital. Couldn't have a crippled wife, that's what he said, and you're surprised at this?”

  “Well, I'm not surprised,” Kylie said. “Darren is an ass, there's just no other way to describe him. You can't put up with this, Katie Lou, you just can't.”

  “Oh, I don't intend to,” she said. “I told him already, I'm filing for a restraining order tomorrow. I don't want him anywhere near me, I don't want to talk to him, I don't want him calling me, nothing! I'm done, completely done!”

  “Well, I'm very glad to hear it!” Kylie said. “And it's about time, too. Have you told Rob yet?”

  Katie Lou held up a hand. “No, I haven't, and I'm not ready to, not just yet. I'm trying to figure out just how I want to proceed from here. I did call Carla Wilson and told her I'll take the clinic she showed us the other day. I'm gonna go sign the contracts on that in the morning, and then I'll find out how to get the restraining order.”

  Judy suddenly looked at Katie Lou. “Wait, you said you walked out before you got your dinner,” she said. She was up in a flash, snatching open the refrigerator and pulling out leftovers from the family dinner they had finished an hour earlier. “Keep talking, I'll heat you up a plate of spaghetti!”

  12

  Darren was in a foul mood when he got to the office the next morning, and he stormed into his father's office without even stopping at the receptionist's desk.

  “Dad,” he said, “you were right. I was making a big mistake, trying to reconcile with Katie Lou.”

  James smiled broadly. “And I knew you would see the light,” he said. “That's why I told Walter to keep an eye on her, find
out what she was really up to. Good thing we found out when we did, right?”

  Darren sat down in the chair in front of his father's desk. “Yeah, I guess so. I met with her again last night; we were going to go out to dinner. I wanted to try one more time, see if maybe there was hope, but she made it clear she was never going to get serious about us. Don't get me wrong, I still believe it was my own fault that I lost her in the first place, but after hearing those recordings of her and her boyfriend, I have to say she's not the woman I thought she was. It still hurts, and I wish it never happened, but I'm probably better off without her.”

  “Of course you are. Son, a woman like that—all she really wants is what she can get from a man, and you can see that by how quickly she got her hooks into that doctor after she lost you. Didn't take her long, did it? And you saw those kisses; that looked like more than just a boyfriend to me. I'm afraid Miss Katie Lou might be damaged goods, now.”

  Darren shook his head. “Like I said, I wish this had never happened, I wish we had just gotten married like we planned and everything had gone the way it was supposed to go. Somehow, though, I guess it just wasn't meant to be.” He sat up straighter in the chair, and looked his father in the eye. “She told me last night she's planning to get a restraining order against me. Should we just let her do it, or should we take some kind of action preemptively?”

  James leaned back in his chair and steepled his hands in front of his face. “Hmmm,” he said. “Good question. Any idea what she'll claim as grounds?”

  “Can't be anything but verbal harassment. I imagine she'll claim that I've been calling her too often. I, um, I did leave about a dozen voicemails for her last night, after she stormed out of the restaurant on me.”

  James pursed his lips and thought for a moment. “If that's all she does, we'll let it go. Everyone in town already thinks there's bad blood between the two of you, so it won't hurt your reputation any. Just keep your ears open, in case she gets up to anything else. If she really does try to sue, we'll squash her into the ground like a bug.”

  James sat forward and picked up a page from the file lying open in front of him, but Darren failed to recognize the dismissal and stayed in his chair. After a couple of seconds, James looked up at him. “Is there something else, Son?”

  Darren hesitated for a moment, then leaned forward so that he wouldn't have to speak as loudly. “Maybe. Dad, I know that you—you've had to deal with people from time to time, get them out of the way, you might say. Do you have somebody you actually trust completely for that?”

  James narrowed his eyes. “Son, just exactly what are you trying to ask?”

  “I just don't like being in second place to someone who only got with Katie Lou by using sympathy. That doctor, that Christopher, I'd like to see something happen to him. Not anything fatal, not even necessarily anything happening to him personally, except maybe in a financial sense.”

  James Allsip felt a smile spread slowly across his face. Maybe his boy was more like him then he'd ever allowed himself to believe. “Well, when I run into a situation like that, I generally just go to Walter. He always seems to know somebody who can handle things quietly.”

  Darren looked at his father for a long moment, then nodded his head. “Would you mind to get me an appointment with him?”

  “Son, are you sure you want to go down this road?”

  Darren smiled, but there was something sinister in it. “I just want to look at some options,” he said. “See if maybe I can send a message to Doctor Christopher, know what I mean? Maybe I'm wrong, but I have the feeling that if he hadn't been in the picture, if he hadn't been snuggling up to her, Katie Lou would've come back to me. Since he was, well, I'm losing something important to me. I just think that maybe he should lose something important to him, too.”

  James grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “Let me give Walter a call,” he said, and picked up his phone.

  Ten minutes later, Darren drove out of the building's parking lot, headed for Walter's office. The drive wasn't a long one, and he was face-to-face with Walter only minutes after he arrived.

  Walter shook his hand, and had him sit on the same couch he had been on the day before. “Darren, what can I do for you?”

  Darren smiled. “First off, can you assure me that this conversation will be kept in strictest confidence? And that there's no chance anyone else can overhear it?”

  “Your father can tell you, anything that is said in this office stays in this office. And as for anyone else overhearing us, I have this office swept for bugs every day. It's soundproof, and there's absolutely no way anyone can hear what goes on in this room. You may speak freely.”

  Darren nodded. “Okay, good. Walter, my father tells me that you handle certain delicate situations for him, or that you know people who do. I've got something I want handled, and I need it to be done quickly but discreetly.”

  It was Walter's turn to smile. Such requests always came with a healthy price tag attached to them. “Certainly,” he said. “What have you got in mind?”

  “That physical therapist that my former fiancé is dating,” Darren began. “I'd like something unpleasant to happen to him, not personally, not physically, and certainly not anything permanent or fatal, but something that will be extremely detrimental to him financially and economically. Do you think you could arrange something like that within the next few days?”

  Walter leaned back and pretended to think about it. “It would depend on the type of thing you have in mind. I mean, if you want him to suffer something like a malpractice suit or scandal, that would take a little time to arrange, and would involve the courts and news media, of course. I suppose we could destroy his clinic building, I know that he owns it, and I suspect it's probably underinsured. That could be done rather quickly. Would that work for you?”

  Darren grinned. “I think that might fit the bill. How soon do you think you could arrange it?”

  Walter shrugged. “I know someone who enjoys going into seemingly secure buildings and setting off electrical fires in them. It's sort of a challenge for him, and he's very good at it. If he's not busy with something else, he could probably get it done tonight or tomorrow night. Of course, his services are not exactly cheap.”

  “Of course not,” Darren said. “How much would be talking about?”

  “His usual fee is twenty thousand. Would that be a problem?”

  Darren reached inside his jacket and withdrew his checkbook. “Do I make the check out to you?”

  In Maxwell, Rob Christopher was working his way through the first morning without Katie Lou. Anna had skimmed through some of his other patients and called to let them know that there were earlier appointments available, so he was anything but bored. He just didn't feel right, not seeing the most beautiful woman in his world walking through the door of his clinic as she had done each day for several weeks, now.

  Anna smiled at him as he escorted his most recent patient back to her desk. “Hi, Mrs. Janssen,” Anna said. “Do we need another appointment?”

  Rob nodded. “Yes,” he said. “Let's see her back here in a week, okay?” He turned to the older woman and spoke loudly, because of her hearing loss. “Mrs. Janssen, you'll be coming back next week, all right?”

  Mrs. Janssen nodded. “Next week, that's fine,” she said. She turned to Anna and smiled. “You know, Dear, your brother always makes me feel like I'm thirty years younger. If I keep coming to see him, I'll probably live to be a hundred and ten.”

  Anna smiled. “Hey,” she said loudly, “if that works, I'm going to put him in a cage and sell tickets. People who want to live that long can pay me. That'll work, won't it?”

  “Whoa, now, slow down,” the old lady said. “You have to cut me in as a partner, I'm the one who gave you the idea. We'll get rich together, right?”

  Anna laughed, and handed Mrs. Janssen her appointment card. “See you next week, then, partner,” she said. She turned to her brother. “You ready for the next one?”


  Rob leaned over and looked at her appointment list, then groaned. The next appointment was a man named Harold who didn't actually need physical therapy, but refused to stop coming. Every time Rob tried to tell him that he was done, the strange little fellow would break down and begin crying. Anna was convinced that he was simply so shy that he was lonely, and that he had gotten over his shyness with them after he had been struck by a car while crossing a street. Her theory was that if he couldn't come to physical therapy sessions, he probably would never leave his home.

  Rob wasn't quite as charitable as his sister. He just thought the guy was loony. Unfortunately, he just wasn't cruel enough to refuse to see him, so once a week, he took Harold back and let him ride a stationary bike for an hour, all while talking Rob's ear off. Harold had a number of pets, and Rob knew all of them by name, how many litters each had had, and could probably describe them all from memory, even though he had never seen any of them.

  “Harold? You ready? Come on, let's go.”

  Harold got up and skittered across the floor to follow Rob back to the treatment room. Anna snickered as the door closed behind them.

  Katie Lou was still in Ralston, signing the lease papers on her new building at Carla's office. There was something about actually putting her signature on the papers that got her so excited she could barely sit still, and when Carla handed her the keys, she almost squealed with delight. She forced herself to keep calm while they finalized everything, then handed over the check for one full year's rent. As quickly as she could, though, she was out the door and in the car, ready to go and survey her new domain.

  Katie Lou and Kylie had already done a lot of the shopping for office furniture and equipment, but she would need to call the stores and have everything delivered, now that she had an address. She would also have to contact all of the utility companies as well as the telephone and Internet providers, to get all of her services started.