Inevitably, he had to think about her mother, and that almost brought a scowl to his face. Cathy was in a world of trouble, but he meant it when he told her to choose him this time. Fact was, he was not discriminating where she was concerned. He would take her back in a heartbeat.
His phone vibrated as soon as he stepped out of the conference hall. He answered it.
"Hey bro’, heard you were in Jamaica." It was Micah. "Couldn't you give me a call?"
Adrian chuckled. "I never thought you'd care to hear from me."
"Where are you now?" Micah asked.
"At the conference center, downtown."
"Well I am at your hotel, uptown," Micah said easily. "Had to come into Kingston to get some special material for my house. I thought you were here. I thought Marcus was around too. Only to hear that he is in some European country for a track meet. Why can't the Bancroft boys keep in touch?"
Adrian chuckled. "I keep in touch; you are the one who loves his own company." He glanced at his watch, "I will be there in twenty-minutes."
Adrian reached the hotel in just under thirty minutes. Micah was waiting for him in the reception area. He uncoiled his body from the chair where he was sitting and flashed his brother a grin, his teeth noticeably white and even.
"If it isn't Goody-two-shoes," Micah said in greeting.
Adrian ran his eyes over his rangy brother and shook his head. "If it isn’t my teasing Big Brother. Want to go get something to eat?"
"I'll accompany you," Micah said, "I've already eaten."
They went into the hotel restaurant and for the second time in as many days, Adrian found himself in a restaurant chair about to make a confession. First, it was to that girl, Natasha, and now to Micah.
Telling Micah that he was not the goody-two-shoes he had always thought him to be was going to take some courage. He realized now that he had always liked to be his brother's mature voice of reason. Now all of that would be shattered.
"Why are you looking so shifty-eyed and fidgety?" Micah asked after Adrian ordered his food and was tapping his hand on the table nervously.
"I have something to tell you and I don't find it particularly easy."
Micah whistled and then grinned. "Don't tell me, wait let me guess. You don't really have angelic wings?" He laughed, "I figured that out long time ago Sir Goody. That's stale news, though one time I was convinced. Mommy used to call you her little angel so often… One night I went into your room with the scissors, determined to cut off your wings."
Adrian chuckled, despite himself. "You were crazy."
"I was six. You were five. I had to find out."
Adrian looked at Micah seriously. "It's really good to see you."
"Ah," Micah said, "same here."
"When I come back to Mount Faith you and I can go fishing sometimes," Adrian said. "But what am I saying? You have another brother now. You don't need me around now."
Micah laughed. "Oh, yes. I have another brother— a psychiatrist no less—a welcome addition to our family but I am always glad to have you around."
Adrian finished eating, wiped his mouth on the napkin, and then cleared his throat deliberately. "Micah, I have a daughter."
Micah went still and furrowed his brow. "Okay, where is she?"
Adrian relaxed. Micah didn't seem to be overly surprised. In fact, he was still looking at him with a puzzled look on his face.
"She is...," his phone buzzed and he answered it. It was Mrs. Pink.
"Adrian," she said breathlessly. "I have been trying to get a hold of Cathy all morning. Have you seen her?"
"No." Adrian said alarmed. "Is something wrong?"
"Well, just the usual." Mrs. Pink said, "Avia had a little relapse. I guess all the excitement from meeting you last night. She is now in hospital."
"Which hospital?" Adrian asked. His head felt like a heat was enveloping it. He could not for the life of him understand how Mrs. Pink could be saying she was in the hospital so casually.
"The Children's Hospital," Mrs. Pink said calmly. "No need to panic. Avia comes here quite frequently. Visiting hours begin in a half an hour so you can come by, if you'd like."
Just like Kylie in the early days. He shook his head after hanging up the phone. He was going to have to adjust his life to fit around these asthma attacks, just as his mother had done for Kylie.
"What's wrong?" Micah asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"You were asking where my daughter is?" Adrian said. "She's in the hospital."
"Are you for real?" Micah asked incredulously. "I thought you were talking about some mentorship program or the other. I was just about to tease you about how seriously you take these things. Do you mean you have a real daughter? How old is she? Who is her mother?"
Adrian got up. "Let's go."
He quickly paid for his lunch, and then they strode out of the hotel.
Micah was glancing sideways at his brother incredulously. "Where are we going?"
"To meet your niece," Adrian said. "If it were any other situation I would have a good laugh at you right now. I have finally shut you up."
Micah shook his head and got into Adrian's car.
"I am not a goody-two-shoes anymore," Adrian said to Micah. "I am a mere man who has made some mistakes in his life. One of them was to have premarital sex with my girlfriend when we could have waited. We could have..." He shook his head.
"So Cathy is this child's mother?" Micah was looking at him as if he had two heads.
Adrian nodded. "And Cathy is a private dancer… a stripper at a club."
Micah gasped. "I told someone recently that I was 'un-shockable'. I think you just proved me wrong. How old is my niece?"
Adrian smiled. "She'll be six in February, a couple weeks from now."
By the time they reached the hospital and got the chance to see Avia, Micah had asked him question upon question about Cathy.
Adrian had been so busy rehashing his past with Cathy for Micah that he had forgotten to be panicked about coming to the hospital to visit his child. When he eventually saw her, she was a slight form on the bed. Her brown hair was out like a cloud around her head. She was fast asleep but her breathing sounded torturous, like a nail scraping against a wall.
Mrs. Pink was at the bedside crocheting, her fingers flying swiftly over the threads. "This is par for the course," she whispered to Adrian when he asked how bad she was.
"I will have to bear this in mind," Adrian said.
"Our sister Kylie was the same," Micah chimed in. "We visited the hospital pretty frequently to look for her."
Mrs. Pink looked at Micah appreciatively. "I can see the family resemblance between you two. Nice to meet you."
She pulled Adrian outside into the waiting area. Micah stayed behind in the room, fascinated with his new niece.
"I know you said you'd be taking Avia on Monday."
Adrian nodded. "Definitely, Mrs. Pink. I have to. I can't know she's around and not take care of her personally."
Mrs. Pink nodded. "I know. Cathy used to say that you would take care of your child, after wondering if she had made a grave mistake in not contacting you. I always knew that Avia would be with me temporarily, but I have become so attached to her. Even though I used to warn myself not to, it is kind of impossible not to love Avia."
"Maybe you could come with us," Adrian said hopefully, at least for a few weeks. "I am getting a four bedroom house. It is more than ample accommodation, and since you are retired and have no ties…"
Mrs. Pink nodded her head vigorously. "I would love that. I am more comfortable with that. I know it's not my place to worry because Avia does have her parents, but that would make me feel much better helping her settle in."
Adrian smiled. "You are a good woman, Mrs. Pink."
Mrs. Pink shook her head. "The truth is that Cathy and Avia are really my only family in Jamaica. I have two girls, but they live in London. For some time I've been resisting the calls for me to go and stay with them
because I thought I was needed here."
She frowned. "I have never called Cathy and she has not answered her phone. I wonder if something is wrong with her. Did she seem all right the last time you spoke to her?"
Adrian sighed. "I told her to leave that thug she was with and choose me. Maybe that traumatized her to the point where she can't move." He shrugged.
Mrs. Pink looked at him in consternation. "Cathy does not love him. You really don't understand who you are dealing with, do you? Nanjo Jones is a very powerful man in these parts."
She whispered looking around the narrow hallway. "He has his tentacles everywhere. Cathy can only be free if he lets her go."
Adrian responded to her quietly. "I am not afraid of Nanjo or any man. I serve God. I may have made some mistakes in the past, but I am squarely in His camp these days and 'no weapons formed against me shall prosper.' If Cathy had that kind of faith, she could prove God, but she doesn't, so she is going to stay ensnared in fear of this man. I am finding that I am not having any sympathy for that kind of fear or for the reverence in which you speak of him. He is no God, and the people who think that they are the gods of this world are usually abased."
He shook his head as Mrs. Pink stared at him in awe. "You know, I was feeling a bit fearful that Nanjo would find out about you and take some form of revenge, but since you are God's man I am going to take a chance on you."
Adrian put his hand on her slight shoulders. "It is God you should prove, not me. Anyway, can you be ready in three days, to leave with me…early Monday. I am going to have to get my Mom to do some short-term preparations for us."
"I'll be ready," Mrs. Pink said. "I just wish I could hear from Cathy." The worry was back in her voice, and she pulled out her phone." Let me call her one last time. I have been calling all morning."
"Let me leave you to it," Adrian said, going back into the room.
*****
Nanjo was at Cat's place pacing her apartment floor. He had her phone in his hand. He had put it on vibrate and every time the strange number came up on the screen he glanced over at Cat. She had pleaded with him to hand over the phone, but he had already told her no.
"Is this him?" He asked her for the umpteenth time.
"No." Cathy moaned. Nanjo had slapped her across the room earlier and grabbed the phone. She was sure that she would have a black eye later; already the right side of her face was swelling.
He had never hit her before now, and she seethed inwardly. She had always vowed that this would be the last straw for her where a man was concerned. She didn't care who it was, she would walk.
She had always viewed women who took abuse as weaklings who deserved it. Her own mother had been a weakling in her mind, but here she was, still lying at the corner of the white settee, her toes curling in fear in the three-inch-thick white carpet.
She had no idea who kept calling her. She was fearful that it was Adrian. Yesterday he had said the words that gave her a second chance with him, and like an idiot, she had run right back into the claws of Nanjo.
He was dressed in all black and now had a sartorial glare in his eyes. "I am going to answer this call,” he said menacingly, “and if it's that man, he is dead and you are dead."
As if death was the worst thing that could happen to me, Cathy thought feverishly.
Nanjo flicked open the phone and growled. "Why do you keep calling this phone?"
"Er..." Mrs. Pink felt chills running through her at his voice. She had never met Nanjo before, but the news accounts and his street reputation preceded him.
He sounded like he was angry. She had never called Cathy before and had him answer, and for a moment, she was tongue-tied.
"Er..., may I speak to Catherine Taylor please?" she asked, with a tremor to her voice.
Nanjo frowned. He had genuinely expected the call to be from Adrian Bancroft.
"Why'd you want to speak to Cat?" he asked suspiciously.
"Tell her it's Nurse Pink." Mrs. Pink’s voice was a bit stronger. "I just wanted to check up on her. "
"Nothing is wrong with Cat," Nanjo said, snapping. When since had Cat acquired so many friends and people he did not know, and why where they checking up on her, he wondered. He glanced at her cowering at the corner of the settee, and he knew, for certain, that she was hiding something from him. Maybe this lady was working for Adrian.
He handed her the phone abruptly and watched as her hands trembled as she took it.
"Mrs. Pink," her voice was a hoarse whisper, "what's up?"
Mrs. Pink could sense that something was wrong, "I just wanted you to know that Avia had an attack early this morning. She is in hospital. I didn't know your calls were being screened, sorry for the intrusion."
"It's okay," Cathy said, biting her lips and realizing that it stung when she did so. “I'll let you know when I can come by," she said hesitantly, looking at Nanjo, who stood over her watching her expression closely.
Cathy disconnected the call, and watched him as he watched her. His sloe-shaped eyes were dark and unfathomable.
He grabbed her chin firmly, and tilted her head to look up at him. "Tell me the truth. I swear I won't hurt you. Just tell me the truth. Why were you at the Pegasus so long last night?"
Cathy swallowed. A tear ran down her cheek. He was bending her head at an angle, which was quite uncomfortable; her cheeks were hurting and swollen.
"I went to the Pegasus to see Adrian," she whispered hoarsely. "Then we went to Mrs. Pink, to look for my daughter."
Nanjo's fingers tightened on her chin, she could feel shooting shards of pain in her tilted neck.
He let go of her chin suddenly, and a maddening glint entered his eye. "You have a daughter?"
Cathy whispered a hoarse, "yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Nanjo asked. "I am not a monster. I would have taken care of her too, just like I do you. I am going to jump to the obvious conclusion that Adrian is the father."
Cathy nodded.
"How cozy," Nanjo said, resuming his pacing. "How old is she?"
"Five," Cathy said miserably. She shouldn't have told him. She could feel it in her bones that this information would come back to haunt her.
"So when I met you three years ago, you were the mother of a two-year-old?" Nanjo stopped pacing and stooped in front of her." Is that what all of this cloak and dagger business has been about?"
Cathy inhaled tremulously. "There was no cloak and dagger business. I hadn't told Adrian either."
Nanjo nodded. "I see. So now he has found out that he is a father, and I bet he wants you back too, doesn't he?"
His gaze roamed over Cat, with her tawny hair and tawny gaze; even his fingerprints so vividly imprinted on her slightly swollen jaw couldn't hide her beauty. He felt like hurting her for lying to him, and then a stark possessiveness gripped him.
He wasn't going to give her up. Not ever!
Adrian Bancroft would not be taking this woman and riding off into the sunset with her. He would have to cross him first, and nobody had crossed him in the past and lived to tell about it.
"Here is what we are going to do," he said to Cat slowly. "You are going to get your daughter."
Cathy gasped. "No, Nanjo. She is fine with Mrs. Pink. Besides, she is in hospital."
"For what?" Nanjo frowned.
"She has severe asthma. The least little thing triggers her off."
"When she gets out you are going to get her and bring her here. I will take care of both of you from now on."
Cathy bit her lip and the stinging sensation reminded her, once more, of how deep her misery was.
"Nanjo, please let her stay with Mrs. Pink!"
"No!" Nanjo gritted out. "As soon as she is ready to leave the hospital she comes here. She stays here, and that man will not have access to either one of you! Got that?"
Cathy looked at him pleadingly. "Nanjo, please don't."
"Stop telling me don't! I can, and I will destroy Adrian Bancroft if he comes near you ever again, an
d you’d better behave yourself because that child of yours is now my new bargaining tool, until you have my children of course. Then, and only then, I might consider sending her away. I am going to hang on to this."
Nanjo said snatching up her phone. "Just in case you feel a need to make calls."
He grabbed her car keys from the mantle. "And this too."
He also snatched the house keys. "Just in case you want to leave here and play happy family with that Bancroft guy. And don't believe you can run away. I am sending Natty to personally watch this place. He is outside in the car. Anybody who attempts to come to this apartment will be shot… Be good."
He turned back and kissed Cathy a hard punishing kiss on her hurting lips. "Things will have to go back to the way they once were. I need to be able to trust you again."
Chapter Nine
Adrian was worried after Mrs. Pink told him that Cathy sounded as if she was in danger. Avia had eventually woken up. The doctors had taken her off oxygen and her breathing was somewhat better, but it still sounded coarse.
He thought it odd that Cathy did not show up at the hospital or answer her phone. All the calls he made to her went to voicemail.
"Maybe we need to visit her and make sure she is all right," Micah said for the fourth time after Adrian brought him back to the hotel after visiting Avia. "That guy, her boyfriend, sounds dangerous."
Adrian shuddered in distaste. "I just can't understand why our lives had to go this way. I really don't. We had everything going right for us and then this comedy of errors. Cathy had my baby and now is a dancer at a nightclub. She is the boss' girlfriend, and the police is warning me to get out of town."
"Whoa," Micah said. "The police? This is serious business."
"Yep," Adrian said, sitting across from Micah. "This detective named Natasha. You should know her. She said she arrested you for rape."
"I didn't rape anyone!" Micah exclaimed, knitting his brow. "So Natasha is working undercover here in Kingston? You know, she is Taj's girlfriend—almost family."
Adrian sighed. "I don't even know Taj, but I got the feeling that she had a thing for him. She kept staring at me and remarking over our resemblance. She also said she was working undercover at the nightclub, and that I should get out of town as soon as possible."
Private Dancer (The Bancrofts: Book 3) Page 7