Daisy's Choice (A Tale of Three Hearts) (11 page)

The meeting awaited him. He shook off his entourage and slipped into the private office. “What do we have?”

“
Hello, Mr. Keane, I’m…”

Aiden’s eyes narrowed on the stranger next to Donovan. He returned his gaze to his friend and trusted attorney. “You talk to me. What do you know?”

“
Her name is Danielle Locke. She owns the Jahi. She runs it with this woman. I met her today.” Aiden accepted the folder and flipped through the file, smiling and reading over Daisy’s life.

“
Interesting.”

“
Found out something by accident actually, maybe fate. It appears that new casino project you shut down outside of Tucson—”

Aiden was barely listening. He was fascinated with what Daisy had accomplished on her own in such a short time. Fascinated and shocked.

“
Aiden, you listening? Aiden?”

He glanced up. “Is she with someone? Married?”

“
No. We have her address, but by the morning we should know more. This is all we could drudge up tonight. I inquired at the salon if she was married and I was told no,” the detective answered. “They didn’t suspect anything. I just made it into a casual flirt.”

“
Aiden.”

He looked over to Donovan.

“
What is it?”

“
Her business partner, Clara Andrews, wants a meeting with an associate of ours.”

“
So?”

“
She's interested in franchising, expanding Jahi. It’s a project she’s released through the circuit and into the press today for a spa she calls Serenity. I only got the call moments ago. They wanted to see if you wanted to make a counter offer.”

Aiden was blown away. Whether he found her his way, or the next, it was destined that he find
his
Daisy. After all this time, everything was falling into place.

He nodded. “Clara Andrews?” he repeated.

****

Pete yawned. He opened his eyes to find Daisy resting on his chest but blinked in shock when he realized the woman in his arms was Nina. Pete put a hand to his forehead, his breathing labored.
What the hell was wrong with him?

Nina stirred. Smiling and feeling guilty, he rubbed her back. His cock jumped under the covers. He couldn’t resist and rolled her over as she acceptingly sighed. Getting in between her thighs, he entered her soft and slow. Her eyes fluttered and she moaned. He held her to him, pumping in and out her, loving her tenderly. She caressed his back and moved with such grace that it nearly brought tears to his eyes. He really felt their souls binding and soon they climaxed in harmony. Fulfilled, he kissed her face and stayed inside of her, never wanting to leave the safety of her embrace.

“
Can you get me a pop?” she asked.

“
Pop?” Pete said, lifting his head.

She nodded. “Pop machine on the floor. Please. I need a coke. I’m jones’in, baby.”

Pete rolled off her. “A pop at this time?”

“
Half the world is drinking pop right now. It’s not so strange.” She hit him with her pillow. He grabbed her and tickled her. “Fine! I’ll get the pop, and then we shower together. I want some more.” He bit her cheek and reached for his pants. Checking his pockets, he didn’t find any lose change.

“
Need some money, baby.”

“
Get it out of my change purse,” she yawned.

In her purse he found her change pouch. Turning it over, coins dropped out and so did a card. He went to stick it back in but he caught the writing. It was Daisy’s name scribbled with a phone number. Pete frowned. He turned the card over and saw the name Danielle Locke. “Nina, what's this?”

“
What's what?” Nina smiled, looking back. Pete stepped to the bed with the card in his hand. “This?”

One look in her eye and he knew. "Nina? What the hell's going on?"

Chapter Six

“
I can explain.” Nina sat up, her hands in tight fists, clutching the blanket to her nakedness. She looked at the card then to the wild look of confused hurt in Pete’s eyes. She wanted to die.
How did I forget the card? How? And what do I say now?
God help her but not tonight, not this night. Sadly, she shook her head when her voice failed her once more. Maybe she could manage an explanation if her heart would get out of her throat and allow her to speak.

When he took another step toward the bed, she wanted to sink between the pillows and disappear. The way he stared at her in disbelief carved at her already fragile heart. Anger wasn’t there, not yet. No, he really wanted an answer and something to convince him that the writing on the card was wrong. God, she wished that it were. But the truth was much worse. She let her fear gain the best of her and she betrayed him.
How can I put any of it into words
?

“
Nina? Talk to me. What are you doing with this? Who is Danielle Locke and why is Daisy's name on the back of this card?”

She drew in her bottom lip to stop it from quivering, blinked away tears that threatened to fall. She tried again to start. Her mouth opened and the words formed but all that came out was a soft wheeze of her guilt.

“
Nina!”

“
I… I saw her.”

“
Saw who?” he asked.

Why make her say it? Why make her say it when he knew who?

"She came home, Pete… and… I… she came to the hospital before Reverend Johnson died. She came in the middle of the night. She saw her father, but… um she left. She left the card for her mother. I picked it up. I was going to… I really wanted to… but things started to move so fast, and I just… I didn’t think, but I was going to tell you.”

Pete took a step back. She wanted to scream at him, leap from the bed, grab him and stop him from retreating. But she was paralyzed by fear and so scared that it was a physical pain. Her stomach churned and her throat went dry. “I’m sorry, Pete. She just wanted to see her father and leave. That’s all she wanted. I was going to tell you. But I was scared. I kept that card for you, not from you.”

“
That’s a lie! You kept this from me! After everything I’ve told you, you kept it from me!”

Nina flinched, closed her eyes then let go an unsteady breath. She opened them again, shaking her head in hysteria. “And why do you think that is? Why do you think I’d keep the one thing from you that can rob me of your love? Why!”

“
Get dressed. We’re leaving.”

“
Pete, please.”

“
Get dressed!” he snatched up her dress, bra, and underwear from the floor and threw them at her. Her fears wouldn’t stop. They made her weak, and she needed so desperately to be strong to fight back. Wiping at her tears, she couldn’t help but cry more. “I’m sorry. I did it because I love you. Don’t you see?”

“
No, Nina. You did it because you didn’t trust me. I told you that all we had was
trust
. It was more important than love. The most important thing we share.”

“
It’s not more important than love!” she shouted back. “Damn it, Pete! Don’t you get that? I spent two years of my life waiting for you to get over her. Trying so hard to help you see what you meant to me. And you…you couldn’t tell me you loved me. Two long years of you still holding onto the past. All I had to give was my faith in you, to trust you to get over it. Why? Because I love you. I’ve loved you since I was a little girl. If I didn’t love you, why would I bother? Love, Pete, is what you lost in Vegas, but love is what you have found with me. Please.”

“
Get dressed!” he snapped, turning and punching the ottoman cabinet door. It swung shut.

Nina scrambled out of the bed, pulling the sheet with her. “Why? What are you going to do… call her? What?"

“
I told you we're going home!”

Nina backed away. “So you can find her? Go to her? What about the promises you made to me. Us? Does her phone number change all that?”

He whirled on her. “You changed that when you lied to me! When you sat back and watched me torture myself believing she didn’t come. You had me thinking that I kept her from her family. I thought she was out there either not knowing or too terrified to be with her father in his last moments because of me.”

“
No. That’s not what I was doing.”

“
Damn it, Nina! It makes you no different than Daisy! No different!”

“
Good!” she shouted back at him. “Then maybe I'll have a fighting chance! Maybe if I treat you like she did you'll stop finding excuses not to love me.”

Pete pulled down his shirt and grabbed his keys. He shot her a look of disgust. “I’ll be waiting for you in the car.”

“
Pete!!”

****

The ringing phone caused Daisy to roll out of her sleep. Amy’s curls tickled her face and the inside of her nose. She frowned. The fog in her head cleared and the ringing grew louder. Soon her eyes, heavy with exhaustion, parted. She looked around. It was well after midnight. Who would call her at that time of night? Reaching for the phone, sleep still wrapped up around her, she put it to her ear.

“
Hello,” she croaked.

Silence.

“
Hello,” she repeated, wiping at her eyes.

Nothing. At first it didn’t register. She attributed it to sleep and cleared her throat to repeat herself clearly. “Hello?” she said softly. When no one spoke again, her eyes stretched and she sat up in bed. They scanned each shadow crouched in the corner of her room. She and Amy were alone. Somehow she didn’t feel so alone anymore. The frown on her face drew her brows together. She sat there, sure that someone else was on the other line listening.

“
Who is this? Who is it?”

Nothing.

Daisy turned the phone over and checked the ID. It said the number was unlisted.

“
Don’t call here again,” she said, ending the connection. She set aside the phone. She stared at the black shiny cover fearing it would ring again. The minutes ticked by and no second call. A cold sense of dread spread through her stomach. She eased back under the covers. Finally, she tore her eyes away from the phone to check on her baby. Her little face was barely seen under unruly tufts of hair. She reached for Amy and pulled her warm small body up into hers.

“
No, mommy,” Amy groaned.

“
Shh,” Daisy said, kissing her chubby cheek. Amy sighed and rested against her breast. Daisy lay there staring in the darkness.
It was a wrong number. It had to be.
Just a wrong number. It happens. It happens.

****

Aiden lowered the phone. Donovan sat across from him. “Well? Did she answer?”

He looked at the phone. Staring at it in his hand, his chest tightened from the mere sound of her voice. He still couldn’t speak. He dropped his head back on the chair.

“
She didn’t answer,” he mumbled, unwilling to admit his weakness.

Donovan gave him a doubtful look, which he chose to ignore. He turned the glass in his hand, listening to the soft clink of the cubes bobbing and hitting the rounded sides of it. Moistening his lip and deciding not to take yet another drink, he set it aside and exhaled slowly. “Let me ask you, my friend. Why do you think she would go this far? Create this Danielle Locke? Just to keep me away?”

“
She was quite clever and determined,” Donovan affirmed.

Aiden licked his parched lips. The alcohol was a nasty habit he wanted to be free from. He needed to clear his head. Donovan was the only person to give it to him straight, so he forced himself to listen. He looked his friend in the eye when he spoke. “There’s something more to it. A reason why she’d hide in plain sight like this and stay close but away. Why wouldn’t she return to Pete? Her home? To hell with all that southern propriety bullshit. It was her father and she sneaked in and out of the town in the dead of night. Does she hate me that much?”

Donovan’s eyes told him the truth, and secretly it hurt. “What the fuck am I doing?” he questioned again.

“
I’ve tried to tell you this for years, Aiden. This thing with her, she doesn’t want it. You can’t force it.”