by A. C. Arthur
“You’re not the best listener,” Brynne said softly.
Bernard looked over at her and gave a slow smile. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
She loved this man. As Brynne stared at him, as she felt his strong hand holding hers she knew that she loved him no matter what. All the reasons she’d had for staying away from him were still valid in her mind, but they seemed less important now as she sat next to her father with the understanding that this moment, too, could have been taken from her.
“I had no idea that woman in the airport was Roslyn. I was drunk and horny and I just did what I wanted to do at that time. Sexually transmitted diseases weren’t as prevalent back then. I know I should have used protection to prevent pregnancy too, but I just didn’t think of it. I had sex with her and then she showed me who she really was. It was too late for regrets at that point.”
“When I was thirteen you gave me a box of condoms and told me to always keep one in my wallet,” she said. “I thought that was weird because I was a girl. Mom was livid.”
“Jocelyn didn’t understand. I wanted to protect you and Keysa from everything. So if there was a guy like me who didn’t have a condom with him, then I wanted you to be able to protect yourself. I didn’t want either of you turn up pregnant and not have a father for your child.”
Brynne understood what he was saying, but she still replied, “That’s exactly what happened to Dane.”
He nodded. “I know.”
“You could have stopped it from happening.”
Bernard squeezed her hand. “I know that too. But I didn’t. The man I was back then, the pride and the anger at the big mistake I’d made, prevented me from doing the right thing. I’m always going to be sorry for the years I missed out of his life and for the pain I know that caused him.”
“He wants to be part of the family,” she said. “I know he’s been seeing Keysa and the baby and he came to see me too.”
Bernard looked at her then. “I saw him at the hospital when Keysa had Madison. We didn’t talk but Mary Lee said that I should reach out to him. She told me that I owed him an explanation.”
Mary Lee Donovan. Was her father still in love with his first wife? Jocelyn had often believed so. Now was the time for Brynne to find out.
“No,” he said before she could say a word. “I’m not involved with Mary Lee again. But since Keysa had the baby and Mary Lee found out what was going on with the family, she’s been a good listener whenever I needed to talk.”
“You couldn’t talk to mom?”
“Jocelyn and I haven’t talked in a long time, baby girl,” he admitted. “I’m not sure how that’s going to turn out.”
“Are you going to try and make it work?” Brynne needed to know. If her parents no longer loved each other, she would deal with that. But if they were simply going to let something that happened a long time ago separate them, she was going to be very disappointed in them.
“I’m going to try and make my family work again,” was his answer. “That means I’m going to keep visiting Keysa and my new grandbaby. I’m going to reach out to Dane. And right now, I’m going to get my baby girl home to Seattle so I can take proper care of her.”
“Dad,” Brynne was saying as she looked up to see Wade walk in.
He’d gone into his office to take a phone call just before Mrs. Ramsey ushered her father in. So Brynne was sure Mrs. Ramsey had told him that Bernard was here and to give them some privacy. He’d timed his return perfectly.
“Mr. Donovan,” Wade said as he came closer, his hand extended. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
Bernard stood and looked down at Wade’s hand. He shook it finally, albeit reluctantly. Brynne didn’t know what to think.
“You’re Wade Banks. The one who called me,” Bernard said as he released Wade’s hand.
“Yes, sir. I thought you should know what happened,” Wade replied and came to stand next to where Brynne remained seated. “We’re taking good care of her and the doctor expects her to make a full recovery.”
“I’ll be taking her back home now,” Bernard stated evenly. “The jet is on stand-by at the airfield. I have a rental car so I can drive her there. If you and your staff could pack up her belongings and have them shipped to Seattle I’ll gladly reimburse you for any expenses.”
Brynne immediately tensed. “Daddy,” she began, but felt Wade’s steady hand on her shoulder.
“I think the decision of where Brynne recuperates should be hers,” Wade said.
His shoulders were squared, his voice even and serious. Bernard glared at him.
“She’s my daughter,” Bernard said.
“She’s my fiancé,” Wade countered.
Silence.
Brynne could hear her heart beating rhythmically throughout the room. She took a deep steadying breath and then spoke. “Daddy, I would like you to meet Wade Basset Banks, III. My fiancé.”
It had just happened officially this morning. In the very early morning hours when she’d reached for him before dawn to tell him how much she loved him. She’d dreamed of the crash and of how she’d never answered the question he’d sort of asked her on their walk the morning before the accident. She’d been about to answer him last night but the news of the murder had interrupted and then the pain pill had taken effect. So before she started another day Brynne had wanted Wade to know how she felt and that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
When neither of the men in the room spoke but continued to stare seriously at each other, she cleared her throat and continued. “I’ve also been offered the opportunity to manage a branch of the Lakefield Galleries in San Francisco. So I’ll be moving there. I mean, Wade and I will be moving there.”
Chapter 14
If Wade thought meeting his future father-in-law had been a tense event, he should have braced himself for the first dinner with the man. Mrs. Ramsey had prepared a fabulous feast, Virginia baked ham, leg of lamb, rice pilaf, macaroni salad, fresh cut green beans, broccoli and roasted potatoes. A bottle of Basset Banks Cabernet Santo, Mirage and their most popular Bordeaux, called Donati Select was also on the table.
They were seated in the formal dining room in high-backed dark wood chairs, around the ten-foot long matching table. Lauren had joined them and sat beside Bernard Donovan. Earlier, when Lauren had arrived home, she’d taken Brynne upstairs to rest. This had left Wade alone with Bernard.
“How old are you?” Bernard had immediately asked.
“Thirty-seven,” had been Wade’s reply.
“You’re nine years older than my daughter,” Bernard stated.
“I know.”
“She’s not as worldly as you are,” the man had continued.
“With all due respect, sir, you don’t know her like I do.”
The man had very obviously bristled at Wade’s words.
“If you’re going to say something about my race, I’ve heard all that before too. Mrs. Ramsey has both our best interests in mind and she’s already had the talk about racist people in this world with me,” he told him.
“Can you protect her?”
Wade had nodded at that question. “As well as you have,” he replied.
Bernard frowned. “Look, here son, let me explain something to you. That’s my little girl up there. Nothing in this world is more important to me than her welfare. I’m a fierce opponent when it comes to what’s mine.”
Wade had stood in front of the man with nothing but respect. He had no intention of alienating Brynne’s family or giving them any reason not to accept him. At the same time, he wasn’t about to cower beneath Bernard Donovan’s intense scowl and rough demeanor. He was just as strong and just as commanding as this man and he’d learned a long time ago that the best way to deal with this type of person, was to stand your ground.
“She’s mine now,” he told Bernard. “And in addition to protecting her, sir, I plan to take care of her. That’s why I called you. I know why she stayed away from her f
amily for so long, but after the accident I knew she needed to see you and her mother. She needs both of you now more than ever.”
Bernard had taken a step back then. “You called Jocelyn too?”
“I did,” Wade had said with a nod. “But I didn’t get an answer so I left a message.”
“I want her to be happy. I see that she’s lost some weight. Was that your doing? Do you need her to be a certain size in order to marry her?”
Wade had chuckled and shook his head at that comment. “You really don’t know your daughter at all. No, I had nothing to do with Brynne’s weight loss and if you were any type of parent you would be sure to find out everything you could about the journey Brynne has been on this past year. You owe her that much.”
Bernard had only frowned then and Wade had left him in the living room alone to continue doing just that.
Now, hours later, they were sitting in silence enjoying the good food and wine when Lauren—because she loved to keep a good fire burning—said in her most cheerful voice, “So now that you two are engaged, have we set a date?”
Brynne had looked at Wade and when he turned away from her, he’d glared at his sister who was bringing her glass to her lips to cover a mischievous smile.
“No,” Brynne answered finally. “There are some things I want to have in place before I start to plan anything.”
“When are you going to tell your mother?” Bernard asked.
“I tried to call her earlier today but I did not receive an answer. Our last conversation did not go well, so she may be screening her calls now,” Brynne told him.
“I hope I wasn’t the cause of the bad conversation,” he said.
Wade knew that he was because Brynne had shared her concern when her mother hadn’t answered her call today. He didn’t tell her that she hadn’t answered when he’d called from Brynne’s phone either. But now that she’d mentioned her mother may be screening calls, he made a mental note to call her first thing in the morning from the house phone. Maybe then she would answer and he could tell her about her daughter’s accident. It baffled Wade how Brynne’s parents could care so little about her that neither of them had come looking for her or found her at the vineyard in all the time she’d been gone.
“I think it should be a huge and elegant. With lots of flowers and music and of course wine,” Lauren said as she filled another glass.
His sister was going to be talking about this wedding and the preparations from now until the moment Wade walked down the aisle with Brynne. There was no getting around it so Wade had simply focused on finishing his food instead of entertaining Lauren’s conversation. Brynne had answered her and the women kept the conversation going at the table, until the uninvited guests arrived.
“I’m offended we weren’t invited to dinner,” the first guy said.
“Oh my goodness!” Brynne squealed as two men were escorted into the dining room by Mrs. Ramsey.
The first guy, the taller, light complexioned one immediately circled the table and came around to where Brynne sat, leaning down to wrap his arms around her. He was the one who was offended. And right now he was the one hugging Brynne until Wade began to feel more than a little uncomfortable.
Taking his attention away from this man and Brynne for just a second, Wade saw that the other guy had stopped near the chair at the other end of the table. He started at Bernard and when Wade looked at his future father-in-law it was to see him tensely returning the second man’s gaze.
“What are you doing here?” Brynne was asking the first guy.
“What are you doing driving off the road? I know I taught you better than that.”
Brynne swiped at his shoulder. “I went to driving school. You did not teach me how to drive.”
He grinned at her. “Which is probably why you’re running off roads.”
Brynne laughed and that alone released some of the tension in the air, for Wade at least.
“Why don’t you two join us for dinner,” Wade offered since it was apparent that Brynne and her father knew them.
“Oh,” Brynne said quickly and reached over to grab Wade’s hand. “Wade this is my cousin Cade. Cade Donovan, this is Wade Basset Banks.”
“He’s her fiancé and I’m her future single sister-in-law,” Lauren chimed in.
Wade stood and Cade came over to shake his hand. “Nice to meet you, man,” Cade said.
“Pleasure’s mine,” Wade said in return.
After Cade circled the table to shake Lauren’s hand as well, he turned to Bernard. “Hi Uncle Bernard. It’s good seeing you.”
Bernard had stood as well and embraced his nephew. “Cade. Glad you’re on the case now.”
Cade nodded and then looked over to Dane.
“This is my cousin Dane Donovan,” he said to everyone in the room.
The silence was heavy and Wade thought, ridiculous.
“Hello, Dane. Have a seat and some wine,” he said.
Dane nodded and said, “Thank you. It’s nice meeting you Wade and Lauren.” He walked around to where Brynne was sitting and touched a hand to her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay. If I had known this was going to happen I would have stayed with you the other day. I would have stopped this.”
Brynne was nodding. “I know you would have. I don’t blame you.”
“Wait a minute,” Bernard interrupted. “You were here with her before the accident. Did you know your mother was going to try to hurt her?”
“No, daddy,” Brynne said. “That’s not how it happened. Dane was here looking for Roslyn.”
“She’s right Uncle Bernard,” Cade said. “That’s actually how I came to be here as well. The FBI put a tail on Dane so when he came out here, we did too. And before we go any further let me update you on Brynne’s accident.”
“Please do,” Wade said. He’d called Detective Brimley this morning after breakfast for any updates, but the man hadn’t called him back.
“I stopped at the police station and had a meeting with Detective Brimley and Chief of Police Wilford Henson. Their lab techs reported that the brakes on Brynne’s car had definitely be tampered with. Another report that they didn’t receive until this morning listed a second set of tire tracks had been traveling directly behind Brynne and they found a box cutter near the wreck that had Roslyn Ausby’s prints on it.”
“That’s how she cut the air bag out of my way,” Brynne said.
Noting the stricken tone in her voice, Wade squeezed Brynne’s hand tighter.
Cade nodded. “Makes sense,” he said. “We don’t have any proof that she was the one who tampered with the car though. But I’m thinking its pretty likely.”
“Why? She’s worked with others before,” Bernard said. “I don’t think we should rule that out this time. I mean if we don’t consider it that leaves us vulnerable.”
“I hear you, uncle,” Cade said. “But there’s more.”
Brynne sighed. “Is this ever going to stop?”
“I know you heard about your therapist being killed last night,” he said.
“Yes,” Brynne told him. “I called Bailey and Devlin about that this morning. I wanted them to know what was going on out here because I know they’re still investigating Roslyn too.”
“And Bailey called me,” Cade said. “About five minutes after Dane had walked into my hotel room.”
All eyes went to Dane Donovan at that moment.
“After my meeting with the Napa police I returned to my hotel because I wanted to go over my notes before I came to see you. I knew you’d want answers and I had them, I just wanted everything to be in order because I didn’t want to offer any false hope. It was a good thing I stopped there first,” Cade told them. “Dane was waiting in the lobby for me when I arrived. He told me about the therapist.”
“Why were you interested in her murder?” Brynne asked him.
“Because she was also my mother’s therapist,” Dane answered. “My mother was staying at my house in San Francisco in the
early part of last year. She’d talked about getting better then, so I found her a therapist and she was once again started on a medication and therapeutic regime. She stopped taking the medication when she found out they were finally going to do the DNA test.”
“Damn,” Bernard muttered.
“That’s when she went back to Houston and bombed Albert’s house,” Dane continued. “When I told her the results she lost it.”
“And burned down Henry’s house,” Bernard said as he looked at Dane shaking his head.
“I saw her a few weeks ago and suggested she start seeing Sybil again, but she refused. When my PI said she was out here I hoped she might stop by to see Sybil.”
“That’s when I saw her at the office,” Brynne said. “I was leaving and she was sitting in the waiting room. She commented on my shoes.”
“Really?” Lauren asked. “Your shoes? What kind of woman is this?”
“A very sick one,” Dane said. “That’s why I came here to finally take her to get the treatment she needed. But before I could do that she…” He paused. “I got a phone call from my mother last night around seven. She was crying and yelling that she wouldn’t give her the pills. She said she’d tried and she couldn’t get the pills she needed. She apologized to me over and over again. I left my house immediately and headed for Sybil’s office. I thought she would still be there maybe arguing with the therapist. I was going to try and fix this situation. I really was,” he said and lowered his head.
“When Dane arrived at the building the police were already out front. He drove around all night, calling the number his mother had called him from, while he looked for her,” Cade said.
“We need to start a manhunt for her. She’s dangerous!” Bernard yelled. “Call in your Fed friends right now and get them on this before someone else dies!”
“That’s exactly what Dane did,” Cade told his uncle. “He called the field office and asked for me. They knew I was out on this case, so they patched him through to my cell phone, but I was in the meeting with the Napa police so he’d had to leave a message.”