“Everyone, let me have your attention,” George yelled over the buzz of the room. When quiet reigned, he continued. “I want you to raise your champagne glasses in a toast to Toni and her husband, Zachary Knight. May their marriage be long and fruitful.”
“Here, here,” the response came.
“And I hope each of you will come by and greet my newest granddaughters,” George continued, “Lisa and Lori.” George pointed at each girl.
Zach was surprised and pleased by George’s acknowledgement of the girls. Lisa beamed as she sipped her soft drink. Lori smiled shyly.
Watching George over the past few days with the girls gave Zach a totally different perspective on the gruff man. George assumed the role of adoring grandfather, which his girls ate up. It was a bonus Zach hadn’t even thought about.
Fred’s wife joined the group.
“Toni,” Claudia said, “I was so shocked to hear on the news tonight about Ollie Townshed being found dead in the trunk of his car. You must be shocked.”
Toni’s eyes met Zach’s. So, the death had made the news. They’d been so busy checking on the fraud at the company that they had ignored the local news. But maybe Stephanie Norman had heard the news and that was the reason she skipped town.
Tom shook her head. “It’s a shock to us all, Claudia.”
“Well, my dear, I hope the police can solve that murder and quickly.”
“We all do.”
“It was so nice to meet your new husband. Congratulations.” The tone in which Claudia said it made it sound as if no one expected Toni to ever marry and that they were surprised that she had. Zach resented the woman’s attitude and frowned. Claudia pulled Fred away to meet the girls.
“The old bat,” Zach grumbled under his breath.
Surprise colored Toni’s eyes. When she met his gaze, Zach gave her an unrepentant look. The corner of her mouth twitched.
Zach was aware that there was still a gulf between them, the one he’d put there, and one he didn’t doubt that he’d hear about once they were alone. They shared the moment, but it quickly disappeared.
The rest of the evening passed in much the same manner, many of the individuals expressing surprise, subtly and not so subtly, at Toni’s sudden marriage. Zach knew that because Lisa and Lori’s future depended on his performance, he smiled and kept his arm around Toni’s waist. But she never relaxed against him as she had this afternoon.
Finally, after ninety minutes of torture, Toni made the excuse that the girls were tired and needed to go home. The drive back there was made in silence. With each mile, Zach noted that Toni became more anxious.
Once at the house, they carried the girls to their bedroom. As Zach helped Lori into her nightgown, Toni paused. “I can do this.” He knew that she wanted to be rid of him. Perversely, he smiled.
“It will be quicker if I help.”
Never had an offer of help been greeted with such aversion.
Without talking to him, Toni finished getting Lisa ready for bed. After she kissed both girls, Toni walked out of the room. Zach let her go.
Once in their room, Toni shed her clothes and hopped into the shower. She hoped a hot shower would relieve some of the tension in her muscles.
He hadn’t trusted her. The refrain rang over and over in her mind all night long. Each time she’d said it to herself this evening, the hurt and anger increased. What made the situation even worse was having to stand by Zach all night, feel his hand on her waist, and play the loving couple. She’d felt like a fraud. And then on the ride home, Zach had acted as if nothing had happened.
After she stepped out of the shower, dried herself off and slipped into her robe, she looked at herself in the mirror.
Her eyes were dark with hurt. His lack of confidence in her was like a knife in her heart.
Her heart broke, along with the dreams she’d been spinning.
After he checked the doors and windows, Zach stopped by the girls’ door. They were asleep. Sam was between the girls and Lisa had her leg thrown over Sam’s back. Two months ago he couldn’t have imagined this scenario in his wildest dream. His life had changed so dramatically, he was still groping to find his way.
But Toni had helped.
So, had he blown it by not trusting her? That was the question he had wrestled with all night at the reception. The guilt and confusion.
No, dammit, he hadn’t been wrong in his actions, he finally convinced himself, staring at the girls. He’d been only going on what he knew and experienced.
When he stepped into their bedroom, Toni came out of the bathroom. Her wet hair left wet spots on her robe. She didn’t look at him, but went to the dresser and pulled out a nightgown. As she turned to go back into the bathroom, Zach caught her arm.
“Toni, we need to talk,” he began lamely.
Her gaze went to his hand on her arm. He released her and stepped back.
“Why, Zach?” Hurt darkened her eyes.
He didn’t answer.
“Tonight, it became perfectly clear that you don’t trust me and only gave me enough information so I could solve your problems. Am I wrong, Zach, in my assessment of the situation?” Her gaze bore into his.
He couldn’t lie to her. “No.”
“I thought not, so what have I missed?”
“I wanted to explain to you why I kept some details from you.”
She crossed her arms under her breasts and waited for him to explain.
“Toni, you know that there’s been no one outside my unit in the military who I’ve trusted. The women in my life didn’t inspire those feelings in me. My mother- Well it’s best if I don’t say anything there. My ex-wife, she enjoyed sharing with her lover what I had told her during and after our lovemaking. It was hard to hear my words out of the mouth of another man who’d slept with my wife. She, most of all, shattered what little illusions I had about women.”
He rubbed his neck. “And I’ll admit I wasn’t a monk after my divorce, but there’s been no one I felt I could trust.”
Toni’s expression softened. “I understand that, Zach, but I’m not your mother nor your first wife nor a casual woman in your life. You’ll have to judge me on myself, not on the sins of another.”
Her words hit him hard, angering him. “Are you telling me that you don’t judge me against that SOB to whom you were engaged?”
“Touché, Zach.” She took a deep steadying breath. “I started by comparing you with him. But somewhere along the way, what he did faded away, and I only saw you. Can you say the same?”
Her last remark hit him dead center, making him flinch inside. “I’ll sleep in the spare bedroom, tonight.”
“That would probably be a good idea.”
As he walked from the room, Toni’s stricken expression haunted him throughout the night.
Chapter 13
Toni glanced in the bathroom mirror and touched up her makeup. The dark circles under her eyes were a mute witness to the sleepless night she’d spent. She’d reached out several times in those hours to find Zach’s warmth and his reassuring strength but only found emptiness. Odd, how quickly she’d become accustomed to having him sleep beside her.
But each time she’d felt the urge to go to him, she remembered how he hadn’t trusted her. Apparently, she’d been good enough to care for his children, good enough to sleep with, but not good enough to entrust with all the information about the thefts at her dad’s company. What she wanted from Zach was a partnership, a giving and taking. Trust. Not just good sex. Although—
When she walked out of the bathroom, Lisa was sitting on the bed, her nightgown bunched around her knees, her legs swinging off the mattress.
“Why’s Daddy sleeping in the other room?” Her earnest expression touched Toni’s heart.
Toni sat beside her. “Why do you ask?”
“’Cause I saw him walking out of that bedroom—” she pointed to the room across the hall “—with a bad frown on his face. I didn’t want to ask him when he h
ad that mad look.”
Toni pulled Lisa close. “Do you and Lori fight?” Toni questioned.
“Yeah, but we always make up. Sometimes, Lori acts really icky and makes me mad. Then we fight” Lisa leaned back. “Did that happen to you and Daddy?”
The innocence of childhood, what a blessing. “That’s what happened, Lisa. Your daddy and I got cross with each other.”
“But you’re going to make up, aren’t you?”
Toni heard the note of fear in Lisa’s voice.
“I think so.”
“Is that a yes or no?”
The child wanted assurances, ones she didn’t have the right to make, but would. “Yes.”
“Good. I’m hungry. Can we eat now?”
“Why don’t you and your sister get dressed, then we’ll eat.”
Toni watched Lisa walk away and decided that she would try her best to make the promise to Lisa come true.
As Toni helped the girls to dress, she was able to look at the situation between her and Zach without the pain of betrayal clouding the view. Perhaps she had expected too much of him. She’d wanted perfection. What he’d given her was a beginning. He’d trusted her with a good deal of the information they’d uncovered.
He’d tried.
That thought made her pause. He’d tried. And hadn’t he changed from that reserved, self-contained man that she originally knew to a man who was affectionate with his children? And her?
Maybe things weren’t so black as they had appeared last night.
A ray of hope sprang to life in her heart.
When she and the girls entered the kitchen after they were dressed, Zach stood by the coffeemaker, a cup in his hand. He’d cut grapefruit for everyone.
From the haggard look of his face, Zach hadn’t spent any more restful a night than she had. Perhaps he’d been plagued with doubts and remorse as she had been.
“I would’ve done the scrambled eggs, but—” He shrugged.
“Ick, Daddy,” Lisa commented. “Don’t do that. Let Mommy. She does it better.”
He didn’t smile, but a warmth crept into his eyes. “You’re right, Lisa. She does it better.”
It was a compliment, and Toni didn’t think Zach was talking about eggs.
“He’s dead, Carl.” Stephanie’s fear-filled eyes met Carl’s.
He wanted to shout at her for running like she had. He was lucky he remembered about the farmhouse. He wouldn’t do anything to spook her now. Traveling with her would make him less conspicuous. Everyone would think they were vacationing.
“He was going to ruin it for us, Stephanie. He’d gotten squeamish.” Carl ran his hands through his hair. Everyone was turning chicken on him. He couldn’t count on a single one. No one knew why he wanted to bleed that stupid company dry. He was meant to be the next successor as president of Anderson Oil. Except that the stupid broad dropped him after the incident at the Christmas party.
Oh, maybe, he shouldn’t have come on the way he had, but the dumb woman didn’t cooperate. Maybe it was better this way. He got a thrill each time he had Stephanie submit a false billing. It was better than sex. It certainly was better than sex with Stephanie.
“What are we going to do?” she asked, her eyes filled with worry.
“Leave.”
“What?” Stephanie looked like a landed trout, eyes glassy and mouth open.
“We’ll leave today, after I go back and get the money and the numbers of the accounts.”
“I don’t want to leave,” Stephanie protested.
Carl’s hand lashed out and he struck her across the cheek. “There’s no choice.”
Fear entered her eyes.
“Is there?” he asked.
“No,” she whispered.
He smiled and lightly kissed her bruised cheek. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Be ready to go.”
As Carl drove back to Midland, he began to whistle and tried to come up with ways he could kill Stephanie once they were in Mexico.
Zach glared at June Davis. He knew he was in his intimidating-soldier mode, but he couldn’t put a lid on it. “Do you know where Stephanie could be?”
The woman bristled and drew herself up to her five-foot-two-inch height. “Ms. Norman didn’t call this morning, notifying us of her absence. Since I am not her mother, I didn’t call or go to her house. Mothering is not in my job description.” The look in her eyes would’ve done his old drill sergeant proud.
A sigh escaped his throat. “Do you have any idea where she might be?”
“I don’t make it a habit to know my employees’ lives.” The woman’s attitude rang with hostility. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do,” she snapped and marched off.
Zach looked around the room to where the other accounting employees sat. From their closed looks, he knew he wouldn’t get any information there.
As he walked back to his office, he cursed himself for having the tactical approach of a bull elephant on the scent of a female. If he’d thought for a moment, before going in there with guns blazing, he might have gotten June to cooperate. His only excuse was his mind had been preoccupied. And what had his mind been consumed with?
Toni.
He had tried all through the night to come to grips with what had happened yesterday. Although he’d thought Toni didn’t have any right to be angry with him about withholding information, he had to look at the situation honestly. Finally, in the early hours of the morning, he decided she might have a point.
So, where did that leave him? He hadn’t ever had a reason to trust—until now. But could he rely on the new feelings that Tom stirred in his heart, or would it end in disaster again?
He’d done what he thought was right and kept this case close to his vest. His head and heart were sending him conflicting messages and, as of yet, he hadn’t resolved the discrepancy.
As he walked down the hall, he noticed that Carl’s door was closed. He turned the handle and discovered the door locked.
“He hasn’t come in yet, Mr. Knight,” the woman from the neighboring office informed Zach as she walked out into the hall.
“How do you know?” he asked.
“Because there have been several people who needed to speak to Mr. Ormand this morning. They usually end up in my office, asking about him.”
“Thanks.”
So, now he had both Carl and Stephanie missing. He was ready to put his fist through a wall when he walked into his office and found Toni.
“Did you forget our appointment with the social worker at ten this morning?” Toni asked.
His eyes widened, then he mouthed a word not fit for proper company. Glancing at his watch, he saw they had fifteen minutes to get to the social worker’s office.
“I’m ready to go.”
As they walked to his car, Tom reminded him, “Don’t growl at the woman. It won’t help your chances if you do.”
At this point, he wouldn’t bet a nickel on his chances.
Amazingly enough, Zach attempted to answer Francis Getty’s question.
“No, it wasn’t an amiable divorce. Once Sylvia left me, I never saw her again. I got the divorce papers in the mail. I was on a mission when the court hearing was held. I didn’t object to anything she claimed. She didn’t ask for support. She just wanted out.”
“Why didn’t you object?”
“I wasn’t a good husband. When the initial attraction wore off, Sylvia and I didn’t have anything in common. I focused on my job in Special Forces, while Sylvia went looking for other men. She needed attention. Constant attention.”
Francis eyed him. “She was unfaithful to you?”
“She was.”
“And you’re sure that the girls are your biological children?”
“When the social worker in Phoenix called me, I was shocked and sure I wasn’t the father—that it was a bad joke. I submitted to a paternity test in Phoenix and it came back, confirming me as the father. And then when I laid eyes on the girls, I knew they we
re mine.”
“What makes you think you can raise these children?” Francis pressed.
“Because, Ms. Getty, I’m committed to them. No matter what else happens, I’m the girls’ father.”
When he added the information about his own childhood, how he’d been abandoned, Toni thought she saw a softening of the woman’s attitude.
“All right,” Francis said, “since the girls have been with you awhile, tell me what the girls like to eat.”
He was honest. “Nothing that I’ve cooked, but they love my wife’s cooking.”
Toni seconded Zach’s observation. “That’s the truth. The girls beg Zach not to try to cook.”
Francis smothered a smile.
“Lisa is the talkative one. Lori is quieter.” He explained about their love of Sam and burying the fish in the flower garden.
At the end of the interview, Francis told them she’d write a report and submit it to the court. They’d get a copy.
“I think you impressed Francis with your answers,” Toni said as they drove back to Anderson.
“I tried to be honest.”
“I know you did, Zach.”
He glanced at her. Their argument from last night rang through his head, and he wanted to reexplain to Toni why he’d done what he had. He wasn’t successful the first time he’d tried, and he doubted he’d be any more successful a second time. So, where did that leave him?
“Carl isn’t at work today,” he said instead. The words popped out of his mouth before he could think.
“Do you think he’s with Stephanie?” Toni asked.
“It sure looks like it. I just wish I knew where to look for those two.”
“Why don’t you stop by Carl’s house before we go back? That way we can see why he’s not at work.”
“That’s an excellent idea.” He detoured to Carl’s house. There was no one home, and Carl’s car wasn’t in the garage. When Zach got back into the car, he said, “He’s not there, and I’ll bet if we locate Stephanie, we’ll find Carl.”
Suddenly a Family Page 18
