Connelly's Flame (28 page)

see if Jayde could help him get a good lawyer who worked at her father’s firm.

A brief smile crossed his face as he thought over the barbecue they had gone to at Sheriff Dale’s. It

seemed like a good portion of the town had come to it and by the end of the night everyone there knew that

Dezarae was his woman. She had accepted his touches, kisses, and blatant possessiveness.

That smile faded as he pulled into the parking lot of the diner. He saw Joy’s rental car and knew she

would be pissed he was late. A sick smile crossed his face as he imagined her face when he said he had been

making love to Dezarae before coming here. Then he sobered. He couldn’t do anything that would make Joy

take Charmane away from him. Had to get her happy and somehow to agree to him making payments.

Should just “arrange” for an accident and have her fall off the face of the earth.

So he walked into the diner with sixty-five thousand dollars in his pocket. His gray eyes found Joy

sitting at the same table with a scowl on her face. Without a word, he slid into the booth seat and gestured for

the waitress.

“You’re late.” Her sickly drawl reached him as she sucked down another cola.

“I’m here,” he responded as he looked at the woman who came to take his order. “I’ll have the

special, please, and coffee.” The blond waitress nodded and walked away.

“Why are you late?” the mother of his child asked.

“What difference does it make?”

She shrugged. “Tell me, don’t you ever miss being in bed with me?” Her slim hand reached across

the table towards him.

“No!” he snapped, moving his hand so she couldn’t touch him. Ross wasn’t sure what he would do if

she actually did touch him.

“Well, I miss you. You always were a good fuck.” Joy’s brown eyes moved hungrily over his body.

“Once more for old times?” she wondered as she opened two buttons on her shirt.

Raising a brow he asked, “What about Don?”
She can’t be serious.

Her shoulders rose and fell in an easy motion. “Who has to tell him?” Pushing aside the material, she

allowed his eyes a free preview if he wanted.

He didn’t and it didn’t attract his attention at all. “I’m not here to sleep with you. I’m here for

Charmane.”

She rolled her eyes in disgust. “We’ll get to that. Do you even have sex, Rossy?” Joy sneered at him.

His eyes narrowed, she knew he hated that name. “Yes. But I have no interest in anything you could

offer.”

Hatred flashed across her face as the waitress came back with his order. “You never had any problem

screwing me before. In any place, either, as I recall,” she said, watching the woman’s reaction who set down

the food. “Don’t you even remember fucking like animals in places like this?”

“Times long past,” Ross said emotionlessly.
Think of Charmane, think of being together. Don’t let

her psych us out.

Sensing she wouldn’t get a rise out of him with that, she dropped it. “They weren’t all bad.” Joy said

as she picked a handful of fries off her plate and shoved them in her mouth. She had the table manners of a

barn animal.

Picking up his fork, Ross began to eat. He knew that Joy wanted him to lose his patience with her

droning on and on about their past. She seemed to have forgotten that he was trained to wait. So instead of

allowing her to egg him on, he painted on a face of indifference and ate.

“Don’t you think so; I mean, we did get Charmane out of it. Well, I got stretch marks and sagging

breasts,” she grumbled.

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Still silent, he sipped his coffee and waited for her to finish her tirade. As her mouth continued to

move, Ross tried to figure out what it had been about her that attracted him in the first place. She had been

one beautiful woman, petite, and not more than a size six. It had been her eyes, he figured. They had been so

big and he fell right in.

Their marriage had been rocky at best, even before Charmane came along. Being a new seaman

recruit and desperately wanting to make it to BUD’s, he hadn’t been the most devoted husband. The glory of

marrying a military man quickly wore off for Joy and she wanted someone who got a lot more money.

Funny, she is with a man who barely makes anything now.

As he drank his coffee, he watched her mouth move. His mind pictured a woman with full dusky

lips, dark chocolaty eyes, and a figure that could make his body give a twenty-one gun salute. Not the

woman in front of him, no. Hell, no. The woman who was spending the day with his child.

“Are you listening to me, Ross?” Joy demanded.

“No,” he said before he could stop himself.

“What has your attention so hard? That waitress who was here? I didn’t think she was your type.”

Those brown eyes he used to love so much were narrowed with jealousy.

With a roll of his eyes, he answered, “I am not thinking about the waitress. I was just trying to figure

out why the hell we ever got together in the first place.”
I was thinking about the woman I left naked in bed

to come here.

“I don’t know. And I don’t care because it was a waste of my time. Now about the money…” Joy

had always been like that. If the conversation wasn’t going the way she wanted she would change it.

Finally.
“About that,” Ross began praying she would take the offer. “I—”

Her cell phone rang and she answered it, “Hey, Baby. Is it there?”

Ross groaned. He had hoped to explain it before Don called and said that there was no transaction.

His eyes never moved from Joy’s face as he tried to gauge her reaction to the call she had received.

“Really,” she said in a low tone, her eyes flickered up to glare at Ross. “I see. Thanks, Baby.” Joy

hung up her phone and reached for her purse.

Damn, I can’t let her leave without giving me a chance to explain my position.
“Joy,” he began,

hating the almost pleading tone in his voice.

Opening her purse, the skinny woman withdrew a paper and slid it across the table. “I must say,

Rossy, I am shocked that you were able to do it. But, then, you did have some rich friends. As agreed, here is

the paper that relinquishes my rights to your child.”

Brows gathering in stupefaction, he picked up the paper and looked over the notarized document that

did just as she had said. Gave him full and total custody over Charmane Precious Connelly.
What the hell

was going on?

“But you held up your end of the bargain and so did I.” For the first time in many years, he saw an

emotion almost tantamount to compassion fall over her features as she slid out of the booth. “I hope the two

of you are very happy. Goodbye, Ross.” Then she was gone.

Alone in the booth, Ross couldn’t let go of the paper.
It was over, Charmane was his.
Pulling out

some money, he opened his cell phone and called Charmane, telling her he had to fly out to Virginia today

but would be back as soon as he could and that she was free to stay with Dezarae. Then he called for a plane

reservation.

Within three hours, Ross Connelly was on a plane heading to get this paper filed with an attorney

and face Scott for putting the money in his account.

****

A Black woman opened the door with a smile. “Ross, how nice to see you. Come on in. Scott is out

running but he should be back soon.”

“Hey, Lex,” he answered as he heard a squeal from the front room.

“Baby’s up.” She rolled her eyes playfully. “He never wakes up when I am on my run, just when

Scott is on his.” She pulled him in the house, closing the door behind them. “Something to drink?”

“Water’s fine.” Ross answered as he walked up to the crib in front of the big windows and picked up

her son.

“Watch out, he’s probably wet,” Lex shouted as she walked to the kitchen.

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“Won’t kill me.” Ross grabbed the diaper bag and laid Harrington Prescott Broderick Leighton IV on

the floor and changed him.

“Taking over my family, are we, Jeb?” A deep voice from the patio reached him.

Ross looked up from his job and saw his commanding officer and friend walking in the house. “You

know how much I love Lex,” he said as he finished snapping the outfit back on the baby on the floor.

“Hey, handsome,” Lex purred as she kissed her husband before setting the water for Ross down on

an end table. Glancing at her son who was gurgling with happiness at the man who held him she said, “I

didn’t mean for you to change him.”

“Not a problem,” Ross said with an easy shrug as he pushed to his feet. “I need to talk to you, Scott,”

his tone serious again.

Eyes flickering between the two men, Lex reached for her son and said “Go talk. I will make

something to eat.”

As they walked out onto the porch Ross said, “I meant what I said. I didn’t need your help to get

Charmane back. I was going to give her all I had and then pay her the rest over time.” He slapped a thick

envelope down on the railing.

The two hundred thirty-five pound man stepped back from the venom in his friend’s voice. “Ross,

what are you talking about? I offered to help and you said no. I respected that. All I did was call Tyson and

get the number to his father-in-law’s firm. And what is that?” he gestured to the envelope.

Gray eyes narrowed as they met and held the brilliant blue ones of his friend. “Money to repay you

with. You didn’t put the money into my account?”

“No, are you saying that it was there?”

“I have the paper from her saying that Charmane is mine. I filed it yesterday and came here today.”

Scott shoved the thick envelope back at him and said, “Well, take that back. I swear to you, Ross, I

didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Who else knows?” Ross asked.

“Tyson, Jayde, and Lex. I don’t know about the rest of the team.”

Totally puzzled, the men looked at each other. “You don’t think that Lex would…” Ross said.

“No, but I will ask her.”

“Don’t bother asking. I didn’t, although I am glad someone did. You needed to get her away from

that bitch,” Lex said as she handed Scott his son. “Food’s ready. Come get something to eat.”

Ross’s phone rang during the meal. “Excuse me,” he said as he stood and answered it. “Connelly.” A

smile crossed his face, “Hey, Charmane, what’s going on?”

Scott watched as the smile faded from his face and his eyes narrowed. Ross’s body tensed as he

listened to his daughter on the other end. “Let me talk to her,” he ordered.

“What the hell are you going to California for, Dez?” he practically shouted into the phone. “I don’t

want to meet you there. I want to meet you back at your place.” Before he could say anything else, his beeper

and the one strapped to Scott’s waist went off. Both men glanced at it and grew somber. “I have to go, Dez,

we are being summoned.” Eyes blinked a few times as he realized that the voice on the other end was now

his daughter. “Bye, Baby. I love you. Listen to Dez, okay? Bye, bye.” He hung up.

As his transportation flew them over the ocean to reach the aircraft carrier, Ross was oblivious to the

smiles the men shared among themselves. He was focused on the mission at hand.

Charmane was his. She was safe and happy with Dezarae. Now all he had to do was convince

Dezarae to marry him. The sharp banking of the helicopter pulled his attention off the ebony woman he had

left behind in Montana with his child.

Standing in a phone booth, he waited for the recipient of the call to pick up. It had been a month

since he had left Montana and this was their first chance to call home. Immediate relief filled him as he heard

his daughter answer with a cheerful, “Hello?”

“Hey, Baby,” he said.

“Daddy!” Charmane squealed. “How are you? Are you coming home?”

“I’m doing well, Baby. We are coming home soon. How are you?”
She sounds so happy.

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“I’m great. I love it here. We have been busy. Dez finished all the cars but the Miura; actually, that is

where she is right now. Well, that and her Lotus.”

“How was California?” Ross asked, not really sure he wanted to know.

“Good. I got to meet her friend Lateef. We went to his thirtieth birthday party. It was loads of fun.”

“Oh, I see.” Here he had thought she was going to see Jack. “I didn’t know that was what you were

going to do.”

“Yep, he is one of her best friends.” Charmane paused and said, “It’s Daddy, Dez.” Then she came

back on the line. “I have gone off-roading with Shawn and Tank is teaching me to drive a tractor. Oh, and

Jack says that he will let me drive his yacht next time we are there.”

“Jack?” His voice was dangerously low.

“Yeah. He just left yesterday.”

“Why was Jack there, Charmane?” Ross began to flex his muscles.

“He came to get the Shelby. Dezarae sold it to him. Don’t worry, Daddy, he didn’t stay the night,

just for dinner,” Charmane told the man across the globe from her.

It was all as clear as the mountain stream to him now. Dezarae had sold her car to Jack and used the

money to let him get his child. Dropping the crushed can in his hand, he said to his daughter, “Can I speak to

her please, Baby? I have to go soon.”

“Sure. Dez! Daddy wants to talk to you,” she yelled. “Bye, Daddy, here she is. I love you.”