Being Chased (25 page)

Allen sat in his office staring at the pictures on his desk, swirling the cognac in the glass he held. The first picture was one Julia had taken of him and Gwen about three years before she died. They were laughing at something, their heads leaned into each other as if they'd been sharing an inside joke; he couldn't remember what it'd been they were laughing at. He stared hard at the picture trying to remember. They were sitting on the couch at the beach house. He had his arm around her, pulling her into him. He recalled that Julia had gotten hold of the camera and had been snapping pictures left and right in the house, out on the beach, wherever it was she'd gone. She'd been about seven or eight and sneaked into the room, catching them off guard. What was it they were laughing about? He raked his hand through his hair feeling every bit of the fifty years that he was.

He looked at the other picture.
Julia had been, what, three? Four? She was sitting on Gwen's lap while Gwen read to her, and Julia was looking up at her mother as if she'd hung the moon. And in Allen's eyes, she had. Julia's big, hazel eyes had so much love in them as she gazed at her mother, looking just like a miniature replica of her, long auburn hair that was thick and flowing, her skin the same delicate tone. He'd taken the picture without their even knowing it at the time. It was such an honest portrayal of life back then. Simple. Love-filled. Easy. Gwen had made everything feel that way. God, he missed his wife.

He
suddenly swiped his arm across the desk knocking all the pictures to the floor, sitting back in his chair, frustrated as hell.

After the two years of her illness and then her death, he'd been worn out. One doesn't recover easily from having one false hope after another annihilated time and time again. They'd thought the cancer had been caught in time. The doctors said they'd been lucky, but then it had returned. Another round of chemotherapy.
Another 
Whew! That was a close call
. Another chance at life. Then the horrid disease had returned one last time. By the end, Gwen's body had been totally consumed by the sickness and she'd finally given up her fight and passed.

The night she died
Allen had drunk the entire bottle of the almost $20,000 Dalmore Selene Scotch a colleague had given him for his birthday that year. He'd been saving it for his and Gwen's fifteen-year wedding anniversary that had only been a couple months away. He'd cried the entire time he'd drunk it. They'd never celebrate that particular occasion again. He pretty much died inside that night.

Trying to pick up the pieces and raise a ten-year-old daughter when he'd just lost the love of his life was not just difficult, it'd been next to impossible. He knew
Julia needed him, but he just didn't know how to be there for her when he was falling apart. So he'd done the only thing he knew to do—hire a nanny. And somewhere along the way, he'd lost his daughter.

How the hell
had he let that happen? Well, he knew damn well how, or, better yet, why it'd happened. She'd just looked too much like her mother, a daily reminder of what he'd lost. And now he was about to lose
her
for good, too. He drank what was left in his glass, setting it down then placed his elbows on his desk and held his head in his hands and cried.

Julia
thought he loved his money more than he loved her when really it was that he loved her beyond all reason but he'd been scared to death to get close to her for fear of being hurt again, chickenshit that he was. And each year things had gotten progressively worse. He'd all but closed himself off to her, letting her find her own way, practically making it on her own, no parent around to guide her. He was such an asshole.

Then when the kidnappings had first started, he'd panicked, hiring
Chase immediately. He liked the young man, knew he was more than qualified for the job, and felt comfortable having him work for him.
Passed her right along to someone else, didn't you, dickhead?

He now realized that
Julia had grown into quite an accomplished young woman. When they'd been at the beach house this week and she'd been such a smartass to him, it'd hit him how much she was like her mother. And it made his heart ache, but not in a bad way. He knew then that she'd been the missing part inside of him. He was proud of her and he needed to let her know this. Hell, he needed to explain many things to her. He grimaced knowing he had a lot of ground to cover in making things up to her. He just hoped it wasn't too late.

****

"Mr. Larson, you have twenty-four hours to get the money transferred or your daughter is dead."

"Wait! Wait! I need to talk to my daughter first! I need to know that she's okay!"

The Boss nodded at Liam. "Take the phone to her."

Liam went to the basement door, grabbing the cap and sunglasses off the table by it, putting them on, then opened the door and headed down the stairs. "
Here. Let your father know you're okay," he said, shoving the phone into Sherry's hands.

"Daddy?" She started crying.

"Sherry! Are you okay?"

"Yes, Daddy. Please, I want to come home!
Ple—"

"Enough!" Liam yelled at her, grabbing the phone. "If you want to see your daughter again, you'll have the money transferred immed
iately," he said then hung up. "You'd better hope your father is a man of his word." He sneered at her, leaving her sitting on her cot as he went back upstairs. He took off his shades and cap after locking the door. Coming back into the office he tossed the phone at Brady.

"They talk?"
Brady asked.

"Yep. Should be a done deal soon."

"I'll call Ephraim and have him re-route the money." The Boss looked at the two henchmen, effectively dismissing them. They nodded and left the room.

****

"You what?"

"I-I made contact, but this shit's gonna be harder than it looks." The Kid held the phone to his ear knowing the Boss was going to be pissed.

"Why's that?" The Boss asked in a
you
will
die if you fuck this up
voice, flicking cigarillo ashes into the ashtray.

"She's pretty well protected."

"But you made contact."

"Yes. I finally caught her alone."

"Then why isn't she here now?"

"We were, uh, interrupted."

"Explain."

The Kid knew he'd mess
ed up but he didn't want the Boss to know the specifics. "Well, I was about to grab her when things got complicated."

"My office. Now. You've got twenty
minutes." The Boss hung up. Moron better get his ass there in twenty or today would be his last.

The Kid sighed. He hated the situati
on he was in, but what else could he do? These people owned him now, and he knew if he wanted to live, he'd do whatever they told him. He walked to his car, getting a new shirt out of the trunk to change into, throwing the other one in. After starting the engine, he took off, preparing himself to face his doom. Life had become a bad beat any way he looked at it.

****

Sitting in the theater, Julia realized she'd been a teensy bit out of it the last twenty-four hours. Temporary insanity, anyone? Anyone? Her thought process was so jumbled she didn't know whether she was coming or going. 

But
, hello? She'd received a threat on her life. That was serious. So what was she doing leaving the apartment? Alone. God. By going out tonight, she'd made herself a live target, being vulnerable to anyone who wanted to take a shot at her. Stupid. So stupid. Oh, and that little side note where she'd almost been raped by her asshole of an ex-boyfriend? Now that was just brilliant on her part, putting herself in that position. Just when 
had
 her brain stopped functioning?

Also?
What had she been thinking when she'd told Chase that their being together was pointless? The domino effect of total self sabotage on her life from all sides was just about complete. Wasn't life so much fun sometimes? He'd been the only one she could count on yet she'd gone all martyr on him and thrown away what they had like it was so much trash. Boy, she was a smart one, she was.

As
Chase sat there, he was so angry, upset, dejected and a thousand other words that meant 
I'll kill the next motherfucker who looks at me crooked
. He couldn't believe things had turned out the way they had, but as the previews played on the screen he thought back over what had happened between Julia and him. He needed to look at things objectively. He was training to be a lawyer, right? Well, let's put that shit to use then. She'd said she needed him. They'd had sex. Hard. Then suddenly she'd decided it wasn't a good thing for them to be together. Of course she was trying to protect him. He knew that was it. She might've been a pretty good actor, but his bullshit detector had been buzzing since she'd told him that they needed to be apart.

He’d talk to her after the movie, tell her
he knew what she was doing, and he wasn’t going to accept it. He felt his heart lighten just a little. Maybe things could be salvaged after all. But he still wasn't stupid enough to get his hopes up. For all he knew, she'd been serious about their not being right for each other. And this thought just pissed him off anew.

The movie started and
Julia sat there staring at the screen not comprehending anything that was going on. All she knew was that she'd screwed up royally. If she could ever straighten things out with Chase again she'd be damn lucky. This mess she'd made was so tangled it'd take some time to undo. And sitting there between Lily and Claire and their
Love Connection
 reenactment just made her more upset. She should've gotten a medal for not crying right then and there, but halfway through the movie, she couldn't do brave anymore, and became so uncomfortable she had to excuse herself to the restroom, leaving her purse with Claire. It hadn't helped that there'd been a scene where a man and a woman were having some pretty damn hot table sex, which brought back visions from the day before with Chase. She'd felt his eyes on her during the scene and she had to get out of there. It was too much. She knew he'd probably follow her but only because he was doing his job.

In the bathroom, she splashed cold water on her face as the tears came pouring down.
What a night it'd already been. All the crap she'd pulled with Chase, and then Josh and all his greasiness. Ugh. She stared at herself in the mirror knowing what she’d done was just too idiotic for words.

****

"What the hell happened to your face?"

"I cut myself shaving," the Kid replied when he walked into the house. He was sure he
had a broken nose and this prick asking about it was just pissing him off.

Liam chuckled then slammed a fist into the Kid's gut. "Ah, we got a smartass here,
Brady. Kid thinks he's a comedian."

The Kid doubled over, holding his stomach and about to cough up a lung.

"C'mon, Kid. Boss wants to see you."

"Yeah, that's why I'm here,
numbnuts." 
Bam! 
Another fist to the gut. Kid wasn't too intelligent, was he? No wonder he'd gotten into so much trouble. Didn't know when to quit.

They walked into the office and the Boss raised an eyebrow at the state the Kid was in.

"Jesus. What happened to you?"

Kid knew better than to be a
wiseguy to the Boss. "Like I said. I ran into some complications."

The Boss blew out a puff of smoke. "Did you now. Guess you're going to need some help to nab this one." The Boss looked at Liam and
Brady. "You need to get something worked out. As soon as we get the money on this one, we need to have the other girl ready to go."

"Got that, Kid? We gotta work together on this one. Think you can do that?"
Brady looked at him with his dead eyes.

"Yeah, sure, I mean, yeah, I can do that." When
Brady looked at him like that, it made him want to piss his pants.

"Boys, leave us. I've got something I need to talk with the Kid about."

Liam and Brady left the room but not without looking a little suspiciously at the Boss. Kid half smirked at Liam but his face turned serious when he glanced at Brady. Dude was scary as fuck. The two goons left the room, pulling the door shut quietly behind them.

The Boss got up, pouring two glasses of
Bushmills sixteen-year-old whiskey, handing one to the Kid.

"I really hope you're doing all you can to make this last one happen." The Boss drank, looking at him over the glass.

"Yes, I really am. It's just tough getting her alone."

"I had Donovan follow you tonight." The Kid's head jerked up to look at the Boss. Holy shit. Then it was known what he'd done. "You kissed her?"

The Kid swallowed roughly. "I, was just, uh, trying to get her alone. Trick her into coming with me."

"You sure that was all it was?"

"Yes. I have no feelings for her at all."

The Boss walked to the Kid, leaning to the side of his head, whispering in his ear. "That'd better be the truth."