“It seems to me you might be more concerned with your son’s health than his ability to keep the family money away from Will.”
“You think I don’t care?” Nola’s lips parted in protest. “Is that what you think?”
“I think you’ve got the cart before the horse.”
“When I saw Jarred in the emergency room, I thought I was going to die. And then when I learned he was going to live, I broke down and cried.” Nola’s hands shook. “Jonathan got down on his knees and prayed.”
Kelsey’s anger became a low simmer. Being furious with Nola for being Nola wasn’t going to help anyone. “How does Jonathan feel about the terms of Hugh’s will?”
“He doesn’t want Will to inherit any more than I do. You may not believe me, but that’s the truth.” She sighed. “He’s become rather religious over this whole experience, I’m afraid. It’s all been so… hard. But then Jarred woke up and you and he started to reach out to each other, and I thought maybe miracles do happen. You just have to realize they’re miracles. But I can’t sit and wait for you two to court each other all over again! Jarred’s fortieth birthday is coming right up.”
“He won’t even be thirty-nine until January,” Kelsey pointed out.
“And that’s not that far away.”
If Nola were anyone else, Kelsey would have laughed out loud at her fears. With all the problems facing the company and the mysteries surrounding Jarred’s accident, this was the issue that ate away at her soul? This was the most important piece of her life still unfulfilled?
But this was clearly no laughing matter to Nola. She gazed at Kelsey intently, desperate for that heir, that grandchild, that permanent wall that would keep Will locked away from Bryant money.
“Do you want a baby, Kelsey? Jarred’s baby?”
The thought brought Kelsey up short. Though she thought Nola was completely out of line on the issue, there was no denying the idea was more than attractive to Kelsey. She’d wanted that first baby. Nothing had changed in her heart.
Reading the series of swift expressions that crossed Kelsey’s face, Nola visibly relaxed. She walked over to Kelsey and patted her arm. “That’s all right then,” she said. “Welcome back to the family, Kelsey.”
The ride home was quiet, and Jarred fought to keep his hands off his pretty wife as she drove them through the wind-torn night. She’d withdrawn from him after her encounter with Nola, and it bothered him. Kelsey was way too adept at pulling away. That he remembered in spades.
“So what was that conversation with Nola all about?” he asked.
“Your mother welcomed me back into the family.”
“With open arms?”
She slid him a look and a slight smile that blew his concentration. “As open as they will ever get. How did it go with your father? You looked kind of tense when I returned. What did he think of Will and Sarah?”
“I’m not sure.” Jarred inhaled slowly and shook his head. He was worried sick about his father. Something was going on there that he couldn’t understand. The man was deteriorating right before his eyes, and he had a tendency to want to hold on to Jarred’s hand or arm, as if touching his son were some kind of lifeline. It wasn’t that Jarred minded, but it was so damn weird since Jonathan Bryant had always been a standoffish individual. He wasn’t as cold as Nola, for certain, but he’d never been the touchy-feely guy he was today either.
“He didn’t seem to register that Will was with Sarah and not Danielle. I don’t think it’s on his mind. I don’t know. I think my father’s feeling his own mortality. Ever since my accident, it’s as if he’s staring death in the face.”
“Nola said something about him embracing religion.”
Jarred ran a hand through his hair. “He’s so fervent about it, and he never was before. It’s like I woke up in the hospital, and my father was somebody else.”
“Does Will notice the change?”
“He has to,” Jarred said, although tonight he seemed to be noticing more of Sarah than anything else.”
“What do you think that’s all about?” Kelsey questioned.
“I think it’s directly related to Danielle. She’s not exactly full of warmth and joy.”
“She is a bit remote.”
“No kidding.”
Thinking of how remote things had been between them not so long ago, Kelsey said lightly, “Maybe neither one of them is trying hard enough.”
Jarred shot her a sideways look. “Maybe they should look at what they’ve got and give it a second chance.”
“Are you going to be the one to tell him?”
“I think he’s going to have to figure that out for himself. The problem is, Will’s interest in Sarah is probably a direct result of his failing marriage. When things aren’t working out, you want someone to make you feel good.”
“Someone like Sarah?” she said, and her tone of disbelief made Jarred chuckle.
“She’s not that bad.”
“Oh, no?”
“I’ll never convince you, will I?”
“I’m sure she’s good at business,” Kelsey said. “But I saw the way she looked at you, and the way you looked at her, and it was tough.”
“Well, it’s nice to know you noticed, at least. You were so damned impervious. I just wanted you to look at me!”
“Look at you?” Kelsey snorted. “Are you kidding? You acted as if I were invisible!”
“You weren’t invisible,” he sated firmly. “Your heart was with Chance.”
“Never,” she said softly.
Silence fell between them. Jarred remembered the time Kelsey had asked him if he would hire Chance. A business major himself, Chance Rowden had not fared well in a series of jobs after graduating college. He’s been too unstable, too addicted. But Kelsey had never given up on him, and Jarred had believed that she had never stopped loving him. So he’d refused to hire Chance, and then Jarred had overheard Kelsey on the phone with Chance later that night, softly promising to keep after Jarred to give him a job.
And that was directly after he’d learned—from Sarah again—that Kelsey and Chance had been sleeping together, even after the wedding.
“It’s all so stupid now,” he said.
“Yes.”
When they got back to the house, Kelsey pushed the button on the answering machine. Detective Newcastle’s distinctive voice said he would like to meet with Jarred soon about some developments on the case. “A man was seen hanging around your plane that day, but everyone thought he was one of the mechanics. Description is vague. About five foot ten inches, thin, dark, unkempt hair, blue jeans—pretty much describes everyone who works there. Let’s talk tomorrow.”
Jarred listened thoughtfully to the message. Kelsey regarded him soberly. “Does that sound like anyone you know?” she asked.
“Will?” he teased. “Except for the unkempt hair. Will’s too fastidious.” When Kelsey instantly tensed, he added, “Oh, come on. I was kidding.”
“I know. But Will isn’t acting like himself these days.”
“He had nothing to do with that plane crash. You know it, Kelsey.” He refused to even entertain any ideas in that direction. It was those kind of sneaking, trust-destroying thoughts that had nearly ruined his marriage.
“I agree. But…” She swallowed hard. “Gwen thinks Will is the leak in your office. She thinks he’s been passing information to Trevor. She’s heard him on the phone.”
“What?” Jarred said in a deadly voice.
“Maybe it’s because he doesn’t feel he’ll ever be a real Bryant,” Kelsey said quickly. “I don’t know. But Gwen really believes he’s the one.”
“Will doesn’t think he’s a real Bryant? Did my mother put that idea in your head?” Jarred demanded, sounding more like his previous self than he had thus far. “Will is a Bryant. My father is his father, and it doesn’t matter how much Nola prefers to think otherwise.”
“Talk to Gwen,” she said, washing her hands of the whole thing. “She�
�s the one who’s noticed things.”
“Gwen isn’t the right person to make that judgment call. She’s not that… clear about people’s characters. Half the time she’s not even in the office because of her migraines.”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t trust Gwen?”
“It’s not a matter of trust,” he disagreed. “It’s that her insights aren’t always accurate. That’s as diplomatic as I can be. I know all about Gwen,” he added, in case she thought this was one of those slippery memories. “She was my father’s secretary and now she’s mine. And she’s wrong about Will.”
“Fine.” She lifted her hands in surrender.
Frustrated with their conversation, Jarred reached for her. After hesitating only a moment, she slipped into his arms. “Now help me upstairs and let’s go to bed,” he whispered against her hair. “And no more talk of any of this until morning.”
An hour later, Kelsey lay beside him, her hand lightly running over his abdomen, her breath soft in his ear. He’d made love to her with a tenderness that had surprised and delighted her, and she wanted to tell him that she loved him. He’d told her, hadn’t he? It was her turn, but the words still trembled on her lips, unable to be voiced.
His fingers grazed the arm she had thrown over his chest. Glancing up, she saw that his eyes were focused on the windows, as if he were seeing something far, far out on the water. “What are you thinking about?” she asked, swallowing back her own need to confess her feelings.
“You.”
“Liar. I see the way you’re looking outside.”
He twisted to gaze down at her, his fingers tenderly tracing her winged brows. “I was thinking about when I asked you to marry me.”
“You were?” Kelsey lifted herself up on her elbows, her hair tumbling gorgeously around her bare arms.
“I used to wonder why you said yes. I thought you loved Chance, so I thought you married me for other reasons.”
“What other reasons?” Kelsey demanded, thinking she should be more incensed than she was.
“Security mostly, I guess. When you wanted Chance to work for Bryant Industries, I figured it was so you could be near him. And then when you said you were pregnant, I thought the baby might be Chance’s. It just seemed so coincidental, since Sarah told me she’d seen you coming out of Chance’s apartment early that morning before the wedding, and then that you were still seeing him. And you were so adamant about having him come to work for Bryant.”
“I just wanted him to succeed at something. I wanted him to have a break.”
“I should never have listened to Sarah,” he admitted.
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Kelsey agreed. “Look at all the trouble it caused.”.
“But then I went to see Chance and he confirmed that you were lovers. I realize he “lied to me. Now. But I believed him then.”
“I feel so bad about him,” she said softly, laying her head against Jarred’s warm chest once more. “I think he wanted to tell me how he felt that night before the accident. I wish I’d—”
A roaring bang cut Kelsey off. Her ears rang. She couldn’t hear! Heat flared into the room. Timbers shuddered. Sheetrock cracked and the house trembled. Dust swirled and bits of tiny shrapnel darted around. The whole house felt as if it were caving in.
With a cry of terror, Kelsey clung to Jarred, who tumbled them both out of bed onto the floor. The house alarm whoop-whoop-whooped. Mr. Dog whined and snuffled their huddled bodies, his furry body trembling violently.
Felix crouched by Kelsey’s head and let out a long, terror-filled wail.
“Jesus,” Jarred muttered, holding Kelsey close. He waited for something worse to happen. He knew he’d wrenched his leg but the pain was eclipsed by his own wildly thundering heartbeat.
“What is it?” Kelsey whispered.
“Some kind of explosion,” Jarred answered. The house stood. The alarm shrilled on. Mr. Dog’s and Felix’s bodies pressed close to Kelsey and Jarred and each other, their animosity forgotten in the moment of shared fear. They lay in a tense embrace. Seconds passed. Eternities. Slowly, Jarred gently unwound himself from Kelsey.
When he reached for the discarded crutches, she said, “Where are you going? What are you doing?”
“I’m going to find out what happened. Can you cut that alarm?”
“I…don’t know.”
Jarred thumped into the gallery. Dust and debris floated in a cloud, filling up the house like fog. He worked his way downstairs, hardly even conscious of his own disability. The kitchen was white with Sheetrock dust. The door to the garage hung askew on its hinges. A hole gaped and frigid air blew into the kitchen.
Kelsey came up beside Jarred, her arms surrounding him, her body shaking uncontrollably. “Oh, my God!” she whispered, her gaze following Jarred’s.
There was no south side of the garage to speak of. Jarred’s Porsche lay blasted apart, a hunk of blackened, twisted metal, shards of which had embedded in and smashed against Kelsey’s Explorer.
Above the still whooping alarm, in the distance, they heard the sound of an approaching police siren. Silently, wonderingly, Jarred and Kelsey settled in to wait.
Chapter Ten
Kelsey poured black coffee into three cups. Decaf. Detective Newcastle suffered heart palpitations and his doctor had ordered him off caffeine.
Jarred and the detective sat in Jarred’s den—a square room at the back of the house paneled in cherry wood, which was stained a dark, beautiful mahogany and seemed to whisper “rich” when anyone crossed the threshold onto the lush green carpet. Brass knobs glinted beneath the flames of a gas fireplace. The gas lines had been left untouched by the blast, and the fireplace threw out a lot of heat. Kelsey, in fact, felt flushed and uncomfortable, though she suspected the reason was rooted in fear rather than the hissing gas flames.
Hands on his thighs, Newcastle sat broodingly in one of the black leather wing-backed chairs. He lifted one hand for the coffee mug, barely remembering to offer thanks, he was so intent on talking to Jarred.
“There’s some reason this happened,” he pointed out again. He seemed to feel if he covered and recovered the same territory enough times Jarred’s brain would suddenly jerk into overdrive and pop out an answer. “These people want something: either to scare you into giving it to them or to remove you as an obstacle.”
“I prefer the first interpretation,” Kelsey murmured.
Jarred, seated behind his desk, looked grim and a bit white faced. Hearing Kelsey’s soft voice he glanced at her and half smiled. She wanted to drag him away somewhere safe and make love to him for hours. Her desire must have communicated itself to him, for his expression altered slightly. For a moment, she sensed he was ready to chuck it all and go with her.
But running away would hardly solve their problems. “Who are ‘these people’?” Jarred asked.
“This wasn’t an amateur job. This is the kind of thing I’ve seen done by loosely organized groups. Not exactly organized crime as you might think of it, but a rawer, younger, more ganglike group.” He paused. “The drug culture.”
Kelsey’s dread increased with each word Newcastle spoke.
“I’ve seen this kind of car bomb before. Not like the crude dismantling of your plane. I’d venture to guess that was done on the spur of the moment. You were going on the trip. Someone knew it, and they were desperate enough to take desperate measures. This, though, took some thought.”
Jarred met the detective’s eyes and shook his head. “I don’t represent a threat to anyone.”
“Somebody’s pissed,” Newcastle disagreed. “They took out the Porsche, not the Explorer. They either think you’re up and driving or they meant this as a warning. Either way, you could have easily been killed.” Jarred seemed lost for words, so Kelsey asked. “When did they do it?”
“The explosive was planted in the last couple of days. Had a timing device. It was set to go off at midnight.”
We could have taken the Porsche. If Jarred were
better, or if I had some skill with that machine, we would have. And we could have come home later.
“What about your business?” Newcastle asked. “Made anybody mad at you lately?”
“I told you before, no.”
“A business rival?” The detective took out a small notebook, clicked a pen, and prepared to write.
“No one who would do anything this drastic,” Jarred said.
Kelsey curled into the window seat behind him, feeling the icy cold off the panes on her back and the warmth of the fire at her feet. Hammering sounded from the direction of the garage. Workmen. On the payroll at Bryant Industries’ construction division. Willing to come and secure the house at night for their employer without even being asked.
“Maybe somebody’s got a serious beef with you.”
Jarred lifted his palms. “The man who dislikes me the most just outbid me on a piece of property. He thinks he’s ahead of me. Ahead of the game.”
“Thinks?” Newcastle waited for an explanation, but Jarred shrugged. “Maybe he wants the competition out of the way permanently.”
“If your talking about Trevor,” Kelsey inserted, “you couldn’t be more wrong. He likes to win, but he likes to do it by his wits. This kind of thing is too… terrible, too blatant.” She cleared her throat, conscious of the shaking quality of her own voice.
“What about your family? Anyone benefit from your death?”
“No.” Jarred was adamant. Kelsey fleetingly thought of Will, but knew better than to throw suspicion on Jarred’s half brother in front of the detective.
Newcastle clicked his pen again several times. “You seem to be in control of Bryant Industries today. Your father was before you?”
“Yes,” Jarred answered cautiously, frowning.
“I understand the company never did as well under his management.”
“No.”
Kelsey shifted position. Jarred’s clipped voice declared his dislike for this avenue of questioning.
Not Without You Page 18