By Candlelight

by Janelle Taylor

  Still, the door to the condo was propped open, Jake having arrived before her, and as she crossed the threshold she heard him on the phone.

  “Call here as soon as you learn anything,” he was finishing tersely. “Kate Rose, April’s mother, is with me.”

  He hung up the receiver. “Missing persons,” he explained. “I wanted to say, ‘And make it fast,’ but I guess that’s understood.” His jaw flexed several times. “You’re sure she’s run away.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did she run away?” he demanded, gazing at her squarely for the first time.

  She realized then that he wasn’t just tired, he was completely exhausted. Beard shadow darkened his firm jaw, and his eyes drooped a bit. His mouth was tight and unhappy, and now, as he ran a hand around the back of his neck, she wondered if she looked as strained.

  Kate drew a breath. “I think she overheard us,” she admitted.

  “What? Overheard us! Oh, God.” His expression changed to one of horror. “She overheard us talking about her?”

  “I think so,” Kate admitted unhappily. “Do you remember that Ryan’s car was out front at first, and then it wasn’t?”

  Jake thought hard, his eyes darkening. For an answer he uttered a few swear words, directed more at himself than her, Kate realized, though she shrank inside herself anyway. She blamed herself, and so did Jake, obviously.

  “He had a beat-up Chevy. Cream-colored. Late seventies, early eighties,” he recalled.

  Kate nodded. “I’ve given a description to the police. I’ve called Ryan’s father, but there’s no one there.”

  “They’ll have checked that by now anyway.” Jake prowled toward the kitchen. “Would you like something? I’m having orange juice.”

  “No, thanks.”

  “You can help yourself to the bar if you want.”

  He wasn’t exactly the gracious host. She could scarcely blame him. All she wanted was to lie down and sleep forever, pushing all these worries away.

  No, that wasn’t all she wanted. She wanted the safe return of her daughter, and she wanted to fall into the haven of Jake’s arms and listen to his even breathing and the familiar, sexy timber of his voice as it rumbled from his chest.

  Her eyes burned. Unable to stand it any longer, she sank into a wide ivory, leather armchair, slipped off her sandals and tucked her feet beneath her. She wore a loose white cotton dress that gently hugged her curves. Her hair was down, straight, and she hadn’t brushed it since morning. Now it hung in gold-streaked curls around her face, and Jake, though he fought it with every muscle he could muster, fell under the spell of her simple beauty.

  Why did he have to love her? he mused to himself as he drank the juice. She was directly in his line of vision, though he struggled not to keep staring at her. Why couldn’t her betrayal have made him truly hate her, instead of leaving him with this sick feeling of misery? And April …his brain simply shut down when he thought about his daughter. His daughter! He had barely accepted her new status when she had run off to God knew where!

  Yet, now that he knew the reason, he didn’t blame her. He had wanted to run away, too. But he wasn’t seventeen.

  “Who else knows that—April is my daughter?” Jake asked, his tone stern in an attempt to keep his emotions under strict rein.

  “No one.”

  “You said something to Detective Marsh, didn’t you?”

  “No!” Kate straightened in the chair, her eyes huge. “No, I was upset, but I didn’t even think about it. I just asked him if he’d found April. I wasn’t thinking. I thought—that’s why he was there.” She swept in a breath. “Oh, wait. I told Jillian. She was the one who helped me realize why April took off.”

  Jake propped one shoulder against the wall, finishing his glass of orange juice and setting it on the counter. Kate’s eyes ate up the sight of him. His sensual indolence, the smooth muscles of his throat as he swallowed the liquid. She was even entranced with his long fingers which were perpetually tanned, like the rest of him. Remembering how he looked naked sent spots of color to her cheeks, and she swallowed and looked away.

  “Detective Marsh was at my office because of Phillip,” Jake informed her laconically.

  “Oh.” Kate didn’t know what to say.

  “An ex-employee of Talbot’s—a one-time friend of my brother’s—is responsible for the sabotage. The police want to know how far Phillip’s involved as well.”

  “You really think—Phillip could hurt you that way?”

  “He’s not wild about either my father or me.”

  Since this might be a fairer assessment than she could know, Kate simply demurred, “All I know is he honestly cared about having April as spokesperson for Talbot. He was excited about it. He thought she was perfect for the job. That doesn’t sound like someone who would sabotage the company.”

  “Phillip did that because he wanted the edge on Sandra. He was angry at her. He wanted to usurp her power.”

  “Are you saying he picked April for other reasons?”

  Jake hesitated. “No. He did think she was perfect. She is perfect.”

  Kate fought her reaction to that. What must April be feeling right now? Did she hate her mother for lying to her? What did she believe?

  “Maybe Phillip isn’t entirely to blame. From what I know of Nate Hefner, the guy’s a loudmouth with a chip on his shoulder who liked to drink with my brother. When things got out of hand, Phillip fired him. Maybe it’s a revenge against Phillip.”

  Jake sounded like he didn’t believe that theory, but Kate was more than eager to accept that explanation. “I don’t think Phillip’s all bad, do you?”

  “My father does.” Jake slid Kate a look she couldn’t read. “I don’t know. When people disappoint you, you don’t know how you’ll react.”

  It was an opening of sorts, though hardly an auspicious one. Kate linked her fingers together and gazed at the man she loved. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

  He was no proof against her candid emotions. Fighting her spell, Jake closed his eyes and counted to twenty. When he was under control once more, he said roughly, “Well, it doesn’t matter now. Let’s find April and see what she’s thinking. That’s our real problem.”

  * * *

  It was twelve-thirty when the call came in. Jake had ordered take-out Chinese food, and they had stared at their food in relative silence since neither of them knew what to do. Jake had then turned on the news, and though images flickered across the television screen, Kate had taken no notice of anything except the slow tick, tick, ticking of the clock.

  Her muscles were cramped, and her eyes burned from lack of sleep. She checked her own answering machine constantly, hoping for some word from her daughter. She even left a message, begging April to call her as soon as she got home.

  Kate finally concluded she ought to go home and wait for her there, though the idea of staying in the house alone, waiting for God knew what kind of call or information, made her inwardly shudder. She had just uncramped her legs and was wondering if Jake was asleep with his eyes open, the way he stared at the screen, when the shrill telephone bell made them both snap to attention.

  “Yes?” Jake demanded, snatching up the receiver. His shoulders slumped a moment later, and Kate’s heart leapt to her throat. She wrung her hands, eyes huge, staring at Jake. “Okay. Thanks. We’ll be right there.”

  “What?” she demanded anxiously as he hung up.

  “She’s fine. The Seaside police picked them up after a description of the car went out. They’re bringing them back to Portland, and they’ll be at the station in half an hour.”

  April could not believe she was being driven back to Portland in a police car like some common criminal. Ryan, clearly, felt the same way. They kept gazing at each other in disbelief while the officers, long-used to this kind of thing, engaged in conversation that had nothing to do with their two teenaged passengers.

  It was humiliating and kin
d of frightening. April hated it. She wanted to cry, but she was too tough and too smart to head for tears. She was her own person. Independent and all on her own. She didn’t need anyone’s help or interference, and when these officers finally dumped her out, she was going to tell her mom much the same.

  The thought of fighting with Mom broke something inside April. She couldn’t bear it. Her bottom lip suddenly found a life of its own, quavering like some two-year-old’s. April clamped it between her teeth, and then her nose started tingling and burning, and those blasted tears formed despite all her efforts.

  She closed her eyes, but those wet betrayers drizzled down her cheeks and off her chin to land in tiny wet puddles on her cotton T-shirt. She was alarmed when her whole body began to shake as well.

  “Are you crying?” Ryan whispered, and she gave him more of her shoulder. She was mad at him, too, because he had been almost glad when the police had picked them up. He was out of money and gas and had lost all interest in “going on the road.” Wouldn’t you know? April thought, angrily swiping at the tears.

  With an effort she pulled herself together. She had to be ready for her battle with Mom.

  And Dad, she reminded herself with another shudder. Jacob Talbot. Her father! The thought of facing them both filled her with cold dread, and as the patrol car swept into the outskirts of Portland she steeled herself for what was bound to be a nasty confrontation.

  * * *

  Kate cradled a white Styrofoam cup full of coffee between her hands. The cup was crippled from the pressure of her tense fingers, and the coffee threatened to slosh over the sides. Taking a tentative sip, Kate wasn’t really surprised to find the liquid on the tepid side. She had been sitting with it like this for the better part of an hour. The half hour the police had said it would take to bring April back had stretched to twice that long, and with each passing minute Kate’s nerves tightened a little more.

  She and Jake had been shown a couple of chairs in a waiting-cum-interrogation room. At least that’s how Kate would have described it. One thing about a police station, no one wasted a lot of money on decor. Her chair was black, durable plastic meant to resemble leather, the arms plastic designed to look like wood. The floor was polished linoleum, and the general odor was some kind of industrial cleaner.

  Jake stood to one side of the room. He had scrupulously avoided sitting next to her, and though Kate would have enjoyed the comfort, she also understood his own tensions. Maybe it was best that they waited in silence.

  She glanced at Jake, whose sleeves were now rolled up his arms. He had discarded his tie long ago, and several buttons were undone at his throat. His hair had grown overly long in the past few weeks, Kate realized in a detached part of her mind. She remembered burying her hands in its lush thickness. Dangerous thoughts. With an effort she dragged her gaze away from his lean body.

  Distantly she heard a door open and the clomp of footsteps. She glanced at Jake, but he didn’t react. They had been through this scenario a few times already, but until April appeared in the flesh, there was no need to work themselves up

  Stress was digging its way through her whole system. Fighting its enervation, Kate climbed to her feet, pushing back her mane of hair and mentally girding herself for when she faced April. Just thinking about it made her wince internally, and she made some small sound of discomfort, for Jake threw her a sideways look.

  “You should have told me,” he said.

  Kate, unable to battle any longer, simply replied, “Yes.”

  At that Jake swung around, his gray-blue eyes regarding her somberly. Her own gaze was half apology, half defiance, and when he inclined his head in a kind of acceptance, Kate’s spirits rose a few notches. Her lips parted. She was about to say something, but it withered on her tongue, for at that moment a police officer pointed to where she stood and April rounded the corner to stop short in the doorway.

  Behind her shoulder, Ryan glanced up, his head bent like a whipped puppy facing more expected abuse. But Kate saw only her daughter, who was far less cowed. Accusations hovered in April’s blue-gray eyes, so much like her father’s that when Jake’s intake of breath sounded near her ear, Kate knew he had discovered the resemblance for himself.

  “I’m glad you’re all right,” Kate said on a rush. Oh, God, she wanted this moment to be behind her!

  April chose not answer. She dropped her gaze to the floor, tightened her jaw, then threw a hard look at Jake. Kate could only stand back helplessly and watch. If she’d had any doubts about whether April had overheard her, they were answered at that terrible moment.

  “She called you?” April charged.

  Jake lifted his brows and nodded.

  Digging into her back pocket, she pulled out a crumpled stack of bills. She pressed it into his palm, and when Jake gazed at her blankly, she said, “You left it as a tip. I’ve been meaning to give it back to you. I don’t want it.”

  Two officers entered the room. The elder one broke into a long account about how they had found the car and the two teenagers, and the litany seemed to go on and on. When Jake stepped forward and handled the official business, Kate gratefully let him. April, however, clearly resented it. From being Jake’s champion, she had quickly become his adversary.

  “It’s not his fault,” Kate told her in an aside as she was glaring daggers at her father’s back.

  “I know it’s not. It’s yours. You lied to me!” she spit out harshly. “How could you?”

  “Ben wanted to be your father, and I—”

  “You lied.” April was having no excuses, and Kate didn’t blame her.

  “Yes,” she said wearily, and it was her defeatism that seemed to penetrate the most because April subsided into hurt silence until they were on their way home.

  Tom, Ryan’s father, had been called to collect his son, and when he and Kate saw each other, Tom gave her a reassuring hug. He was with his girlfriend whose waistlength gray hair and artist’s smock gown spoke volumes about her own artistic nature. They looked the epitome of what one would expect from a couple who craved a simpler, less commercial life. Just as she and Jake represented the perfect picture of the urban professionals of the world, she decided, her mind spinning out on tangents to keep from facing the reality of her own situation.

  At the house, Jake cut the engine and opened his door.

  “You’re coming in?” April demanded belligerently.

  Her daughter’s turnaround was excruciating for Kate. April was blunt and liked to be outrageous, but never had she displayed such out and out hostility.

  “Yes, I’m coming in,” Jake answered right back, surprising both Kate and April. He eyed his daughter with a certain amount of challenge.

  “Suit yourself.” April strode away from them. “But I’m not interested in talking,” she threw over her shoulder.

  “Tough,” Jake muttered under his breath, and Kate’s mouth dropped open.

  “Maybe it would be better if I handled this,” she suggested uneasily.

  “You’ve had seventeen years.” He slammed the door to the Bronco. “It’s my turn.”

  She didn’t believe he was serious, but when he stepped across the threshold, she learned that he was. April, who had chosen to hide herself in her bedroom and close the door, soon found herself with a new, decidedly determined father, invading her space. In shock, Kate listened to the raised voices of a very vocal argument, though she couldn’t actually hear the words since April had cranked up the volume on her stereo to ear-splitting decibels.

  She couldn’t decide how she felt about it. Ben had let her handle everything, sometimes to her annoyance since she could have used the support. Jake, who’d had a little over twenty-four hours to accept the fact that he was a father, had barreled into the job with more determination than Kate might have liked. Of course, April’s disappearance had certainly upped the ante, so to speak, when it came to parental stakes. And Jake had decided to go for broke.

  “What the hell,” Kate muttered to
herself. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten, so she made herself a peanut butter sandwich and poured a glass of white wine and waited for the storm to subside.

  If it hadn’t been so tragic, it would have been funny.

  Silence finally prevailed. Well, silence apart from the throbbing music. Even as the thought crossed Kate’s mind, the stereo lowered in volume, and a few moments later April’s door opened and Jake strode into the kitchen, his expression dark.

  Kate eyed him warily. He’d had a lot to cope with, and she knew he was a long way from forgiving her. But a dose of parenthood from a strong-willed daughter had to have some effect. “So, how was it?” she dared to venture.

  The sound he emitted could have meant anything. He gazed at her sandwich and wine. “Who’s the gourmet?” he asked on a sigh, and Kate managed a faint smile.

  “Would you like one?” She lifted the sandwich.

  “Thanks. And I wouldn’t mind a glass of wine, although after last night I thought I’d never drink again.” He shook his head in bewilderment. “Was it only last night?”

  “I don’t recall you drinking too much,” Kate said, slathering another piece of bread with peanut butter.

  “Yeah, well, you weren’t there…” He cleared his throat.

  “Is she…really hurt and upset with me?” Kate asked, handing Jake the sandwich.

  “What do you think?”

  “I never wanted it to be like this.”

  “What did you want it to be like?” Jake demanded, biting into the sandwich as Kate poured him a glass of wine. “Did you ever think about what would happen when the truth came out?”

  “All the time! It’s been like a time bomb!”

  “Why didn’t you do something about it?”

  “What?” Kate demanded, meeting his accusing gaze. “When? Good grief, Jake, it’s not like there’s any perfect moment, is there? Okay, I was wrong, terribly wrong. And I betrayed you, and hated you, and loved you. And I should have told April the truth. I’ll take all the blame, but it doesn’t change anything! I’m sorry. How many times can I say it? If I could change the past, I would! No,” she corrected herself immediately. “That’s a lie. I wouldn’t.”