“Remember that next time you run out of penicillin to treat your little herpes-ridden—”
“What are you two talking about?” Janet asked, arriving just in time to be disgusted.
“Leigh’s dying clinic.”
“It’s not—”
“Well, enough about that.” Janet took each of them by the arm. “Come into the garage. It’s time for Carter’s gift and it’s family only.”
“You’re just jealous,” Carter said as Michael pushed him past the kitchen and into the mudroom. “You saw me getting her number and you’re hating on me.”
“Please.” Michael stood at the door that led to the garage. “If I wanted her number, I could have gotten it.”
“Not with Kimberly watching your ass like you owe her money.” Carter stuffed his hands in the pockets of his pleated Ralph Laurens. “Now, what did you have to drag me out here to tell me? Hurry up so I can get back to my new best friend.”
“It’s in—” As Michael put his hand on the door, a voice on the other side interrupted his plan.
“This is not fair!”
“Damn, Haley,” Michael said.
Carter laughed. “Step aside, little boy.”
Michael opened the door to the garage full of the family’s cars, and Carter stepped inside. His first inclination, upon seeing his family standing in front of him, was to be defensive. In the last six months he had been trapped into more than one intervention with his parents, who warned him of his reckless behavior. Was this another one?
“This sucks!” Haley said, her arms folded across her chest. “I’m the one with a birthday coming up.”
Michael pushed Carter closer to the family.
“What is going . . .” Carter saw the smiles on his parents’ faces and Leigh’s while Haley stood a few feet away, pouting. This wasn’t an intervention.
“Congratulations, son.” With a proud nod, Steven stepped aside and revealed the surprise.
As his mother and sisters stepped away, Carter couldn’t believe his eyes. He opened his mouth but couldn’t find words as Michael slapped him on the back and called him a lucky bastard.
“Are you serious?” Carter asked, approaching the car. “You cannot be serious.”
Steven smiled as Janet squeezed his hand in hers. “Michael said it’s what you talk about all the time.”
The Maybach 62 was on the top of the list of Carter’s cars to buy. After seeing the ultraluxury vehicle at a show, he had become obsessed with it. The price tag of four hundred thousand dollars usually would have been insignificant, but after having paid $2.5 million to Lisette McDaniel in a failed attempt to keep her from telling Avery, he had to put a handle on his frivolous spending for a while.
“I . . . I . . .” Carter walked along the side of the sparkling black sedan, touching the detailed trim. “I can’t believe this. What did you . . . ?” Carter looked at his father, searching for the right words. “I can’t believe this.”
Haley sighed impatiently. “I’m very unimpressed.”
“Wait until you look inside,” Carter said.
“You’ll need to give me a ride in this right now,” she ordered, “or my thumbs-down stands.”
“Congratulations, Carter.” Leigh took his arm and reached up to kiss his cheek. “You, at a loss for words? What kind of lawyer are you?”
Carter smiled, grabbing Leigh and kissing her on the forehead. “I’m the kind that can’t believe this.”
“Neither can I,” Michael said. “Pretty generous.”
“You got the Range Rover when you were appointed to the board,” Janet said. If he got rid of that whore he was married to, she’d buy him two Maybachs. “And you love that, right?”
Carter approached his father, feeling a genuine happiness for the first time in the longest. “Thanks, Dad. I can’t thank you enough.”
Steven opened his arms and when Carter reached out to hug him, Janet felt her eyes begin to tear up. It had been years since she’d seen them hug each other.
Steven patted his son on the back and leaned away. “You want to thank me? Be a good member of the board. Be a part of Chase Beauty.”
“I guess I can’t refuse that,” Carter said.
Michael turned away from the scene, pretending to be more interested in the car. He hated himself for being so envious. It was all a little too close for his taste. He wished Kimberly was here. He needed her now.
“This is really convenient,” Haley said, sidling up to Carter. “Considering you wrapped your Mercedes around a tree.”
“Haley.” Janet gave her daughter a warning stare. “We aren’t going there.”
“Going where?” she asked. “So he got in a drunken rage over his girlfriend leaving him. He got out of it with barely a scratch.”
“What is she talking about?” Leigh asked. “I thought you said you got hit by a truck running a red light. Mom said—”
“I did,” Carter said, not interested in reliving the moment. “As far as anyone is concerned.”
“As far as he remembers.” Michael opened the driver’s-side door. He got a glimpse at the center console. The car was really amazing.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” Janet said. The accident happened just after she and Steven had returned from South Africa. Carter was a mess and she still wasn’t sure he hadn’t done it on purpose.
Haley wrapped her arms around Carter’s waist and dragged behind him to the car. “Please take me on the first ride. Please, please . . .”
“All right, hot stuff,” Carter said, laughing. “Get in.”
Haley jumped and yelled as she ran around to the other side.
“You can’t go now,” Janet said. “We have a party, remember? It’s for you.”
“Just a quick ride, please?” Haley slid into the driver’s-side seat, which was smoother and softer than any seat she’d ever been in. Even though the car wasn’t sexy, it was luxurious.
“Don’t touch anything,” Carter ordered.
Haley shrugged. “You should have asked for a convertible.”
“You can’t even get out,” Janet said. “The driveway is blocked with cars.”
“Make them move,” Haley ordered.
“Later, Princess,” Carter said as he leaned into the car.
Just then, the garage door opened and everyone turned to see Kimberly standing in the doorway. The look on her face made Michael rush to her.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked, thinking of his boys.
“It’s on the news,” Kimberly said. “Chief Jackson has been shot.”
There was a silence as everyone in the room looked at Kimberly as if she would say she was joking in a second even though they knew she wouldn’t.
“Chief Jackson?” Janet asked. “Is he . . .”
“He’s in the hospital is all the news would say.” Kimberly’s hand went to her stomach. “Shot twice in the stomach by some kids trying to steal a car.”
“Oh my God.” Leigh turned to her father. “If everyone has seen it, I . . . I guess we should send them home.”
“Let’s go.” Janet took Leigh’s hand and they headed for the party.
As Steven watched Michael comfort his wife, he wondered if he should care more. He didn’t want Charlie Jackson dead, but he wasn’t going to pretend to be emotional about the man who once tried to pin an attempted murder charge on Carter and an assault charge on Haley.
“Carter?” Steven was a little uneasy about the look on his son’s face. Mostly because something odd was there that he couldn’t figure out.
Carter turned to his father.
“You okay?” Steven asked. He had been going to marry the man’s daughter once.
With every sense inside him on high alert, Carter felt adrenaline kick in. He didn’t know what to do or what to think. Instead, the only thing he thought to do was slowly run his fingers along the edges of the door to his new car.
Two gifts in one day, he thought as his head cleared.
“I’m fine,” Carter finally said.
“Of course he’s fine.” Haley got out of the car with a devilish smirk on her face. “His girlfriend is coming back.”
Carter looked at his baby sister and met her smile with one of his own.
3
As she lay on the beach in Saint-Tropez, Avery’s eyes were closed and her trashy novel had already fallen to the side of her lounge chair. She was half asleep, the sun slowly darkening her smooth brown complexion. But suddenly something was blocking the sun and when she opened her eyes and saw who it was, she smiled and felt her body temperature heat up.
“Where have you been?” she asked, swinging her legs to the side of the chair so he could sit down.
“Getting some ice,” Carter answered. From around his back he exposed a sterling silver ice bucket with a glass of seven-hundred-and-fifty-dollar Bollinger Blanc de Noir champagne inside. “Thirsty?”
“Yes.” She leaned forward and grabbed hold of the top of his linen pants, the only thing he was wearing. “But not for champagne.”
Carter had that wicked smile on his face that drove her insane. “Maybe I should just throw this ice on you to cool you down.”
“Don’t you dare.”
His mouth was on hers in a second and Avery felt the warm breeze whizzing around them as their bodies lifted into the air. His kiss was like flying and made her tingle from head to toe. Her torch was lit when she felt his tongue flirt with her own and she wanted him again as if she’d hadn’t had him in years.
“Avery,” he whispered as he lowered his mouth to the cleavage between her large breasts. “I love you so much.”
As his mouth teased her left nipple, Avery felt her entire body shiver from the anticipation. It was always like this with Carter. Damn him, she thought. The man just owned her body and he knew it. She would let him do anything and still want more.
Just as she reached behind her back to undo her bikini, Carter suddenly pushed away with an angry expression on his face. “What is that?”
She followed his eyes to her stomach, her very pregnant stomach, and became very, very nervous. “It’s nothing. I just ate too much.”
She went to kiss him again, but he pulled away. “You’re a liar, Avery. You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Avery turned away from him. “I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Why not? Don’t I have a right to know? It’s my baby!”
The anger in his voice made her turn back to him and she leaped in fear as suddenly the entire family was behind him. Steven, Janet, Michael, Haley, and Leigh all stared at her with eyes so angry they were red.
“This is my baby!” Avery’s hands went defensively to her stomach as she backed up.
“No,” Carter said. “It’s mine and I want it.”
“We want it,” Janet said with a voice sounding more like a snake’s hiss. “It’s a Chase. It belongs to us.”
“You can’t have my baby,” Avery yelled.
“If I can’t have you,” Carter said, “I will take the baby. I won’t end up with nothing.”
“We’ll get the baby,” Steven said as he put a hand on Carter’s shoulder. “The courts will give us the baby. We’ll buy the judge.”
Carter’s frown quickly turned to a smile. “That’s right. You’re a liar. You left me because I kept secrets from you and that’s exactly what you’re doing to me. No secret is worse than this.”
“No,” was all Avery could repeat over and over again as the family took one step closer, then another and. . .
Avery’s eyes shot open in a panic, her entire body tense and shaking. She looked around, trying to get a hold of herself. Yes, it was just a dream. It was the same dream she’d had last week and the week before that.
All twenty-seven-year-old Avery Jackson wanted was to spend a calm Monday morning sitting in the window seat of her second-floor apartment catching up on her magazines, but she’d made the mistake of dozing off.
She took a deep breath to relieve some of the tension inside her. It was just a dream. She reached for the magazine that had fallen out of her hands as she slept and opened it back up. The irony of what she saw frightened her and she couldn’t turn away from it. Maybe she shouldn’t have chosen Upscale magazine, considering the odds of coming across a picture like this.
God help her, all she could think of was how handsome he was and then how that little part of her that still missed him really, really missed him. It was the part that she told no one about, not even her mother.
CHASE FOUNDATION SPONSORS SMALL BUSINESS SYMPOSIUM was the headline. The article was about yet another good cause the family would support: paying for top consulting firm services to minority-owned small businesses that opened shop in underprivileged areas around the country. The picture was of Janet Chase, in all her glamorous wonder, speaking at a podium with Steven standing behind her and Carter and Michael standing next to him.
Carter always stood out, even next to a man as powerful as Steven Chase and one as good looking and vibrant as Michael. All the Chase men had a way of lighting up a room, but for Avery, no one shone brighter than Carter. He had that familiar smirk on his face, the smirk of a man who had life going his way as far back as he could remember.
Part of her wanted him miserable because of the stress he was causing her family. The way he had acted toward them since she’d left only solidified her belief that she had made the right choice in leaving.
Turning the page, Avery smiled at the next two pictures. One was of Leigh and Haley looking like the beautiful princesses they both were, the other of Michael again with the twins. She missed those boys much more than she expected to. She missed Kimberly and Leigh.
“Stop it,” she ordered herself, closing the magazine.
She couldn’t let herself dwell on her life with Carter. Because no matter how much she thought of the secrets, deceptions, and lies, ultimately she would remember the things that made her happy and she would want that life back. She had this amazing, powerful man who blinded her with a beautiful lifestyle, charm, addictive affection, and incredible sex. The cherry on top was the best of everything, a way of living she had never imagined she would have. The sheen and gloss of endless money, influence, and power was all wonderful and tantalizing. It was all a seduction and she had paid a high price for letting it get to her.
As she looked out the window, watching the backpack-laden students rush to campus for their morning class, Avery found peace and joy in her life now. She hadn’t expected to be happy when she moved to the small close-knit college community in Coral Gables, Florida. She was going to stay with her second cousin, Alissa, while she figured out how to keep away from Carter until the baby was born. She needed the time to get her head straight before that Chase family tried to get their hands on her baby.
As if on cue, the baby kicked and Avery’s hand went instinctively to her stomach. Although not always comfortable, the baby’s kicking always elated her.
“You trying to start something?” she asked the little love of her life. “It’s a little early for all that nonsense, so keep it down.”
Another kick and Avery laughed. This little one was defiant from the start. She was going to have her hands full with him or her. She was going to have her hands full with Carter as well. Because even though something had happened only a few weeks after arriving in Florida that changed the course of everything, ultimately she would have to deal with Carter and the Chase family. She only hoped she was up to it.
The phone, which she had taken with her to the window, startled her when it rang. She had caught herself again thinking of Carter, which seemed to be happening more and more frequently. Avery felt a tightening in her chest at the sight of the number on caller ID. She blinked, certain she was just imagining it because of her homesickness, but she wasn’t.
“Are you gonna get that?” the voice from the back bedroom yelled. “I’m getting dressed! I’m already late.”
“Yeah.” Avery slowly brought
the phone to her ear and pressed the button. “H . . . hello?”
“Avery? Avery, is that you?”
Avery immediately recognized the voice as that of her twenty-year-old baby sister. “Taylor, what’s wrong with you? You know you aren’t supposed to call me from home.”
“Forget that, Avery. It’s an emergency.”
A sense of dread swept over her. “What is it? What happened?”
“It’s Daddy,” Taylor said. “Daddy’s been shot and it’s really bad.”
Avery gasped, almost dropping the phone. “What happened?”
“He and Sean were . . . These guys were stealing a car and . . . they shot him and he’s all hooked up to tubes. It’s not good, Avery.”
As Taylor began sobbing uncontrollably, Avery felt her stomach tightening. “Are you with Mama?”
“She’s talking to . . . to the doctor. She’s gonna lose it any second now.”
“Okay,” Avery said calmly for Taylor’s sake. “It’s going to be okay. You stay with Mama and tell her I’m coming.”
“Please hurry, Avery. I don’t know if he’ll make it.”
“He’ll make it, baby,” Avery assured before hanging the phone up. “Anthony!”
Six feet tall and a smooth raisin brown, Professor Anthony Harper rushed into the living room with a half-buttoned shirt on and pants unzipped. Anthony was the “thing that had happened” to Avery only a few weeks after arriving in Coral Gables and he changed the course of everything. He had saved her, and Avery loved him for it.
“What is it?” He looked ready for anything, like most men with expecting wives. “What’s wrong?”
“We have to go home.” Avery was trying to keep from panicking. It wasn’t good for the baby. “It’s Daddy. He’s been shot.”
“Jesus!” Anthony’s hands went to his head as he stared in disbelief. His plainly handsome face made that squinting look like it did whenever he was upset. “Is he . . .”
“He’s in the hospital and it doesn’t look good.” Avery wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Mom will just die . . . She . . . I have to be there.”
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