Bedeviled

by Madison Michael

  “I see your point. Charlotte and Alex first, but then we get to the bottom of this secret. Promise?”

  The hours passed quickly and true to his word, Wyatt dragged Alex in shortly after midnight. He looked like hell and he certainly did not look happy to see his friends.

  “What is this? Some damn intervention?” he snapped in lieu of hello.

  “It’s the vacation we all agreed to take together,” Sloane retorted.

  “I was fine vacationing on my own, thank you very much.”

  “You weren’t fine, Alex. The Aspen house was a shambles, you look like you haven’t eaten, slept or shaved in weeks,” Wyatt observed. “I got you out of there just before the laundry reached the ceiling.”

  “So what? That’s my business.”

  “Maybe,” Regan agreed. “But this isn’t. This requires us to put our heads together and solve a problem.” She handed Alex the wedding invitation. “The wedding is just around the corner, on the first of March. We need to do something now.”

  “She’s marrying him?” Alex asked in shock. “March first?” Alex looked like someone had just run over his dog, stolen his favorite toy and flunked him in a class he thought he was acing, all at the same time. “Well, I guess this is what she wants.”

  “Do you really believe that?” Sloane snarled in his face.

  “Back down, my love,” Randall said, taking his fiancé by the hand and physically pulling her back into her chair.

  “You don’t believe that she loves this man, Alex. You know she doesn’t. She told you enough to know that she was afraid of him, didn’t she?” Sloane was like a dog with a bone between it’s teeth.

  Mimicking Charlotte, Alex told them “he lives in Rhode Island and I live here.” With scorn in his voice he continued, “that’s what she told me. That’s all she would tell me. I knew there was more. That was why I got so angry. She denied he was an issue. I even asked her outright and she still denied it.”

  “Oh Alex. There was a lot more. You saw him. He was stalking her. She had a restraining order.”

  Alex was up and pacing now. “I had no idea it was that bad. How could I when she kept telling me there was nothing to worry about? I met the animal. Did Regan tell you? He pummeled my face one night,” Alex confided to them now.

  The whole story came out in bits and pieces. Alex talked about his suspicion that Charlotte was accosted in the park. Regan told them she suspected Charlotte so desperately wanted the Chicago job to get away from Gil.

  When they had answered each other’s questions as well as those the rest of the group, Alex looked at each of them. “Does this sound like a man Charlotte would want to marry?”

  “Not a chance,” Randall told the group. “Sloane, honey, you were completely right.”

  “I know.” She beamed with pleasure at the statement.

  “What have you done to Randall?” Tyler asked in alarm. The group laughed, enjoying a moment of levity before tackling the serious problem.

  “She has to be afraid of something. Gil has something on her. It’s the only explanation,” Wyatt proposed to the group.

  “Or on her family. Or on you, Alex. She would do anything to protect the people she loves,” Regan offered.

  “You think she loves me?” Alex asked in awe.

  “Jeez, you are a complete idiot,” Randall said on behalf of the whole group.

  “Okay,” Tyler said in his best lawyer voice, “we need a plan.”

  “Let’s recap what we know and come up with some possibilities,” the ever logical Alex suggested.

  “Ah hell, boys. Let’s call this trip over and head to Rhode Island,” Randall suggested instead.

  Seven heads nodded agreement.

  “I’m so damn sick of flying,” Wyatt admitted, sheepishly. “Can we wait until tomorrow?

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Regan handed the invitation to Alex on the plane, thereby providing him with Charlotte’s address without ever divulging anything from her employment records. The group would check into the Biltmore Hotel downtown and then Alex would go see Charlotte alone. There had been a long discussion about taking ‘backup’, but the group agreed that they should assume the best, not the worst.

  Both Alex and Regan had tried calling Charlotte repeatedly once they arrived. The number Alex had for her was disconnected. The updated number Regan had got no answer. She sent a text saying she just wanted to find out some details about the wedding and got a call immediately. It wasn’t Charlotte.

  “Hello, Regan, this is Gil, Charlotte’s fiancé. She is at work right now and unable to take calls but I would be happy to answer your questions.”

  Regan was nonplussed by this turn of events, but quickly recovered. “Nice to speak with you, Gil. I am so sorry to bother you over something so trivial. I wanted to know where you two were registered, and discuss gift ideas with Charlotte. Perhaps I would be able to join with some of her friends here, I mean in Providence, to throw her a shower. Girl stuff. You understand. Please just have Charlotte call me to discuss it further. Or her mother if she isn’t too busy.”

  After disconnecting, Regan turned to Alex, white as a sheet. Alex jumped down Regan’s throat. “Her mother? Why would you agree to talk to her mother? We need to be able to talk to Charlotte.” He was fuming from the delays and crazy with worry. The animal was answering her phone. He had her completely cut off.

  “I didn’t want to seem too anxious. This might throw him off the scent a bit.”

  “Good thinking,” Tyler praised. “That’s my girl.” Blushing red at the slip of the tongue, Tyler left Alex’s hotel room where they had all congregated and moved back to his own room for a while. “That boy has it bad, Regan, why don’t you just step up and save him?”

  “Oh Alex, I would if he would just give me one clear signal, but he is all over the place. I can’t really tell what he wants.”

  “Trust me, Ree. He wants you.”

  “Let’s solve this problem first, guys,” Wyatt suggested. “Please.”

  “Yes, sir,” Regan told her brother. “You’re completely right.”

  “So now we wait?” Keeli asked.

  “Not a chance,” Sloane stepped forward. “I didn’t come all this way to do nothing. We go to her office. Oh not you, Alex. He will be watching for you. We girls go. That should be less suspicious.”

  “That is a great idea, Sloane. You always did have a devious mind,” Regan offered before adding, “I mean that as a compliment of course.”

  “And I took it as one,” Sloane told her friends.

  Using GPS, they mapped out a route to the Fox Point location for the specialty foods business. The three women said their goodbyes and made their way there, sightseeing Providence a bit along the way and planning their next few days.

  “Assuming this goes well,” Keeli reminded them.

  Soon they were parked in front of the non-descript building for Old World Foods. There was a storefront for carryout and, although none of them believed they would find Charlotte that way, they agreed it was their best way into the building.

  “Oh my god, this smells good,” Keeli gushed as soon as they were in the door.

  “That’s either the chorizo or the sweet bread,” a young man stepped forward to explain. “They are both homemade here. Do you smell sweet or spicy?”

  “Spicy,” Keeli gushed.

  “But I smell sweet,” Sloane said, stepping forward flirtatiously. She knew she had what it took to get into the back and she intended to use it.

  “We are visiting from out of town and we met a couple that told us we just had to take home some of your cooking,” she oozed, resting a hand on the young man’s arm.

  “They were right,” he told her, flattered. “We make the best authentic dishes in Providence. Real Portuguese cooking. I would know,” he bragged, “I’m the chef.”

  “The chef?” Regan stepped forward. “So young? That is so impressive.” The women were laying it on thick, but it was working. />
  “Well, I am one of them. I finished The Culinary Academy of America last month,” the young man told them, puffing himself up a bit.

  “I am getting married in a few months. I hear your wedding cakes are divine,” Sloane continued before she realized she had given up her flirtatious edge. The man, his name tag said Don, deflated visibly. “Perhaps you have samples, or pictures?”

  “In the back. Let me get someone to show you,” Don said, no longer interested in the unavailable woman.

  “I understand it is a family business,” Regan stepped forward to ask. “Are you family?”

  “Yes, my father, brother, sister and I run the place, using my mother’s recipes.”

  “Wow, so your sister will show us the cakes?” Sloane asked.

  “My brother,” he announced. Disappearing briefly he returned with an older version of Charlotte. “This is my brother, Jacabo Rocha, but call him Jake.”

  “Jake,” Sloane turned on the charm, “we have heard such fabulous things about the food here. Would it be possible to see the wedding cake collection?”

  “They are from out of town,” Don explained when Jake looked about to say something about an appointment.

  “Oh, then come in the back with me and we can take a look.” Jake showed them to a small windowed office with a worn Formica table and pulled forward two large albums of photographs. Keeli and Sloane sat at the table, but Regan leaned on the door before shutting it quietly.

  “Jake,” she interrupted, “where’s Charlotte?”

  While the ladies explained who they were, Jake carefully began turning the pages of the first album, looking out the glass behind the women regularly. “Gil has a job here now. He watches Charlotte all day. She is never alone. He doesn’t let her answer her own phone..”

  “We know.”

  “She doesn’t drive to or from work alone. He brings her straight to our house after work.”

  “That’s where we will get her, from your house,” Regan announced. “As soon as he drops her off.”

  “He calls to speak with her hourly. If she were not there to answer the phone, I don’t know what would happen. He is a violent man, ladies. I would hate to see any of you come to any harm. My brother and I have been discussing this nightly, trying to find a way to spirit her away. But I should warn you, she doesn’t want to go. She will fight leaving and he will come after her. She is afraid of something. Something very bad.”

  “Can we talk to her at least?”

  “Not here. But, if you give me a number I will have her call the moment she gets home. You will probably have 30 minutes before he checks on her.”

  They exchanged numbers while Jake calmly sifted through the photos and Keeli and Sloane appeared completely absorbed. Shaking hands in the doorway, the women moved to leave.

  “I will help however I can. We all want to see Charlotte far away from him.”

  Almost exactly three hours later, Regan’s phone rang. A shaky Charlotte was on the line, excited to speak with her friend after weeks apart. “I have missed you so much,” she gushed.

  “Me too,” Regan told her before handing the phone to Alex.

  “Me too, Charlotte,” he admitted in a strong voice. “I wish you had told me everything. Now, tell us what he is threatening you with and we will fix it, and then we are getting you out of there.”

  “You can’t fix it,” Charlotte started to cry. ”No one can. We have wracked our brains to come up with an answer but he will destroy my family, Alex. Completely destroy us.”

  “Sweetheart, it cannot be that bad. Please just tell me so I can help. I cannot lose you now that I found you again.”

  “I have to go before he calls. I will call again.” With a click she was gone. Alex stood holding the cell phone in his hand, looking bereft.

  “She’ll call, Alex,” Sloane reassured him. “She’ll call.”

  But it was an accented male voice that called less than fifteen minutes later. “Take the phone off speaker please,” he said calmly. “I only wish to speak with Alex.”

  Alex spoke very little but the man on the other end of the line spoke at length while Alex said, “I understand,” repeatedly and nothing more. Finally, Alex said, “Yes, sir, I do. With all my heart.” The man said something more and Alex handed Regan back her phone.

  “Guys,” Alex told the group gathered in the room, “this is going to be much harder than I expected.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Tyler had been a wizard, working closely with international legal specialist and all around savior, Jonathan Chen. Jonathan had already helped Wyatt and Sloane solve their legal problems when it looked like things were beyond hope but he was honest and skeptical when Alex called.

  “Alex, your friends were dealing with China. I understand China. We have people in the office who are EU specialists, but no one has a good handle on Portugal. We just don’t get many requests. That could make things a little tougher. But we did find a paralegal with family still in Portugal. She called them and they called someone and I am waiting for them to get back to me. I want to vet them for you, of course, and make sure we don’t need to look even further. You need to sit tight.”

  “Jonathan, I will sit tight, as you put it, for forty eight hours and not a moment longer. The clock is ticking toward a Catholic wedding that needs to be avoided at all costs. You need to understand that if it goes through there will be no undoing it. Divorce is not an option and annulment may be equally impossible. I need you to pull a rabbit out of a hat for me.”

  “Money is no object,” Tyler called into the speaker phone from the background.

  “That was a given,” Jonathan laughed. “I love when you send me a client, Ty. I just love it.”

  The three men discussed a few details. Jonathan made sure he had the correct spelling on everything, Alex asked probing questions and took careful notes and the wheels went into motion. Now all Alex could do was wait. He had run off as much nervous energy as he could, and seen much of the famous East Side in the process. The hills had set his lungs burning, but the Brown University campus had been beautiful and he had enjoyed seeing the truly first Baptist church in America.

  January in Rhode Island was no picnic and tomorrow would be February first. It was cold and blustery and the days were short. Alex was watching the calendar and the clock with mounting frustration. He paced like a caged animal when he was in the hotel but he refused to leave in case Jonathan called.

  “He is calling your cell, AJ,” Randall pointed out. “He can reach you anywhere.”

  “True,” Alex agreed, “but I need to be able to focus.” Eventually the group gave up their attempts to lure him sightseeing and left him behind. He was sorry to see them go, bundled in their ski clothes and off to explore Newport for a day.

  Alex was rewarded when Jonathan called while they were out.

  “I have good news,” he began. “We have cleared all charges on the Portugal end without any problems at all. I wonder why no one thought to do anything about this years ago. I will overnight the papers to the hotel in a few hours but you are set to go. I believe we have covered all our bases, but be cautious on your end just in case, and call me if you need anything else.”

  Alex was effusive in his thanks before he began jumping around the hotel room in excitement. It was only noon and he had plenty of time to make something happen today. He dialed Jake at the office.

  “We are a go,” he told Jake, feeling like a character in a crime movie.

  I only wish this was a movie. This is too real for my peace of mind.

  “Okay, give me about 15 minutes and I will have her out of here. You know how she can be.”

  “Tell her your mother wants her,” Alex suggested. “She always drops everything for Luiza.”

  “Good plan,” Jake conceded before hanging up.

  Alex was thrilled to hear back from Jake only minutes after they hung up.

  “You would have loved it. I had Charlotte out of here in se
conds. Mama was the perfect excuse. But check this out. When she got home I was on the phone with her so I just handed it to Gil so she could prove she had arrived. He is such an ass about all this. He doesn’t let her breathe without checking in with him. And we know his buddies are still watching her.”

  “Good thing she isn’t marrying the guy. Would he have had her followed after they were married?” Alex wondered out loud.

  “Thank God, we will never know. Anyway, Mama grabbed the phone from Charlotte and shooed him away like a fly. ‘I have Charlotte safe at home but you need to know that we are going out. No, not now, we women have plans that do not include you. You may speak to her later tonight.’”