by Juanita Kees
A loser was something she never wanted to be again, but could she find the courage to expose her father’s actions, start an all-out, highly-publicized war with the potential to touch the Calhouns and put another family member’s life at risk? Because her father wouldn’t hesitate to use the media to his advantage or carry out his threat and all she had was hearsay. No proof other than the threat that rang in her mind, nothing concrete she could take to the authorities.
Zoe waved a fist in the air and Charlie captured it, pressing her lips to the baby soft skin. She’d come this far, fought hard for her freedom. She wouldn’t give up the fight now, not when she had so much more to lose and the Calhouns didn’t deserve the damage Ed Sullivan could do inventing lies.
*
Chase stood in the doorway, watching Charlie as she cuddled Zoe close. Pushing away from the frame, he moved to kneel in front of her, noted her frown and slipped a finger under her chin to lift it. “Hey.”
She raised her eyes to his. “Hey.”
“What’s going on?”
“My father threatened you and your family.”
“I’d like to hear how so I can nail his ass to the wall. Tell me what he said.” He sat beside her against the desk and placed his arm around her, pulling her close.
“He’s given me an ultimatum. If I don’t return home in two days, he’ll leak a story to the press that you were responsible for your mom’s fall. I can’t let him do that to you, Chase. Dig up dirt that isn’t true to sling it at you when you don’t deserve it. Your family has suffered enough. I’m his target.”
Tension seized his shoulders. The same old rip of pain tore at his heart at the mention of his mother. His mom’s life had been cut short too early, yes, but he wouldn’t let the likes of Tony Jackson and Ed Sullivan taint her memory. “Your father won’t be saying anything that hasn’t already been a fleeting thought in people’s minds. Our proof that my mom’s fall was an accident is the coroner’s report. The police ruled out any foul play. A woman alone with five small children, living in an attic. No sign of forced entry. Nothing to indicate a struggle. The only perpetrator a toy train she asked me to put away and I didn’t. No one’s going to believe your father’s lies. Not anymore. But I wish so hard some days that I could change things. Bring her back somehow.”
Charlie leaned her head on his shoulder. “She is here every day.” She tapped his chest above his heart. “It was an accident. You need to forgive yourself, and if I let my father do what he’s threatening to do, you’ll never be able to let go.” She turned her face up to his. “I did this. I need to fix it. Zoe’s welfare is at stake. So many people could get hurt when my father starts slinging mud. I won’t let him sully your mom’s memory by trying to make it something it wasn’t. Nor will I let him hurt Mason, not when he’s on the path to recovery. And your dad … he doesn’t deserve to be the loser in this.”
He hated the crack in her words that forced him to look at her, the hurt that made a frown form on her brow and the inner turmoil that made her lips tighten. He gave her leg an encouraging rub and let his hand rest on her thigh. He didn’t want this trouble on his doorstep when his father’s health and the business should be his priority.
He hadn’t needed the complication that was Charlotte Jackson or the trouble she’d brought with her. Yet she’d found him. In a place where he’d suffered his own losses and pain. She’d brought light and change and happiness with her. She’d made the dark, sad memories of the attic bright again. Made him realize that from bad came good sometimes.
“Chase?” His name whispered between them.
“No point wasting more time, Charlie.” Foreboding snaked its way through him to stiffen the muscles in his neck and between his shoulder blades. “You’ll have our support. A Calhoun never goes back on his word. We’ll work something out.”
“I can’t let them take her. I understand they can afford to take good care of her if they’ve got that kind of money, but they’re still strangers. This won’t be straightforward. If I don’t give Zoe up, my father stands to lose five million dollars.”
Disbelief made Chase’s fingers tighten on her thigh. “Wait a minute. Are you saying that in return for Zoe, the adoptive parents will pay your father five million dollars?”
Charlie nodded, tears spilling over onto her cheeks.
“He’d sell your baby.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement that ripped out his heart as he looked at the baby now cuddled tightly to her chest.
Her voice was barely a whisper in the office. “He’s also threatened to have Trinity forced off the track in the next race. That’s bordering on insanity. My father’s always been a hard man, but this … it’s unforgiveable.”
Anger seared his thoughts. Who the hell did Tony Jackson think he was, threatening his family? Threatening anyone? “That’s one thing that won’t happen. I’ll get onto Trinity’s team manager and warn him since she’s already mentioned your brother’s erratic behavior on the track. We’ll pull her out of the race if we need to. She’s not going to like it, but she’ll deal with it.” He reached up to the desktop behind him and pulled down a box of tissues, pulled one out and handed it to Charlie. “We’ve got this, honey.”
“I’m not sure we have. If we expose him for his threats and this deal, the fallout will be huge. I have nothing except a verbal threat. Ed will rake up everything he can to throw back at us and he has plenty of documented evidence to feed the media with. Including Mitch’s accident and Mason’s role in it. We need to stop them.”
Scenarios unfolded in his mind of how things would play out when the story hit the gossip rags and filtered onto social media. People, hungry for drama, desperate to immerse themselves in the tragic lives of others, would drive that story into the spotlight and rip the Band-Aids off wounds that had only now begun to heal.
The impact it would have on Mason, who’d only just started to forgive himself, to emerge from the darkness of depression and guilt that had held him captive for too long. The pain it would resurrect for everyone, including Paige who, like Mason, still believed the accident was as much her fault as anyone’s.
Carter, Grace, and his father—how much faster would his dad’s health deteriorate if his life’s work was ripped away by the lies that might be told? Because people believed everything they read or were told. Guilty until proven innocent. And just like that, everything they’d worked for would come crashing down with the same force as the sledgehammer Mason used on the pickup every year.
Chase wiped a hand over his face and sighed. “I have to do everything I can to protect my family and keep them safe. I’ll call our lawyer, Frank Mahoney, and get him to work on the legalities of placing an embargo on all press releases pertaining to Calhoun family private business, but we need to make sure Trinity has protection first.”
“I have no proof of his threats or the offer of money for the adoption.”
“So, we catch him red-handed.” All he could see was the devastation and hurt in Charlie’s eyes. Chase pressed his lips to her hair. “I’m pretty sure selling a baby is illegal in all states. I can’t believe he’d do that to you.”
“I haven’t exactly given him reason to believe I would be a good mother to Zoe. Maybe he’s right.”
“He’s wrong. Dead wrong. Anyone can see how much you love that baby.”
“Sometimes love just isn’t enough.” Charlie curled her fingers into his shirt. “This is my mess. I must fix it. I just have to find a way to do that without hurting you and your family any more than I may have already.”
“You can’t give her up, Charlie.” He’d adopt Zoe himself before he’d let Tony Jackson sell her like some unwanted commodity that wasn’t even his to sell.
“Giving her up is one thing. Selling her is whole other ball game.” She shivered against him. “I can’t believe he’d sink that low.”
“My offer still stands.”
“To marry you? That would only make my father even more determined to destro
y you. He wants that money. He’s hungry for a win that will take TRJ Racing to the top of the scoreboard. It’s all he’s ever cared about.”
Chase hugged her tightly. “I wish things could have been different for you.”
“All I wanted was for him to see me. For the first few months alone in the Hamptons, I seriously considered adoption, to do what he wanted me to. But once Zoe started to move, she became real to me. Then, when she was born, I knew I couldn’t give her away. I had to change, take a stand against him.” Releasing her grip on his shirt, her fingers traced a pattern on his chest. “I’m done trying to make him love me.”
Chase cupped her chin in his hand and lifted her face, so she could meet his gaze. “More fool him. There’s a lot to love about you, Charlotte Jackson, and I’d like you and Zoe to stick around. We’re in this together now.” Then his mouth descended on hers and he lost himself in the taste of her lips.
Chapter Fourteen
Darkness settled outside the cabin window, the rain tapping out a beat on the roof. Charlie stretched the kinks out of her spine as Chase tossed another log on the fire. Light flickered off the walls in the great room. She loved this room with its marshmallow sofas and wool rugs, the flames leaping up the chimney of the stone fireplace, and the peaceful surroundings.
Here there was peace, a sense of belonging, and a man she was fast falling head over heels for. He’d worked for hours, going over old adoption court cases, checking legalities, confirming rights, looking for loopholes they could close if her father decided to use them. Scattered memories of his own father’s battle to keep his children lay on the floor in front of them.
“So…” He sat down next to her again and stretched out his legs, his hip touching hers. “In Dad’s case, my paternal grandparents tried to claim adoption rights based on that my grandmother had taken care of us for six weeks while Dad sorted out Mom’s funeral and estate. The law states that they could claim adoption if they’d taken care of us in a guardianship role.”
“Why would they want to do that?”
Chase’s shoulder rubbed against hers as he shrugged. “I guess they figured Dad couldn’t raise six kids alone. Trinity and Grace were their biggest concern, especially with Trinity being a newborn and all.”
Charlie curled her fingers around his where his hand rested on his thigh. “They cared.”
“They thought they were doing the right thing. Dad didn’t quite see it that way at the time. It caused a rift in the family, but when it went to court, he won the case for custody. My grandparents retired to Sarasota and Dad stayed out of contact for a while. Then Grandad had a heart attack and Dad took us all to see him.”
“They settled their differences?” She wished her story would have the same happy outcome. That she’d read her father wrong, that her mother wasn’t cold and distant, and that her brother wasn’t a puppet of terror tied to the end of her father’s strings.
“It took a while, but they got there in the end. After that, they spent some time up here in the summer with us and they could see Dad had it under control.” He smiled, his dimple creasing his cheek. “He worked extra hard to prove it too. Nan didn’t find a single speck of dust or a can out of order in the pantry.”
Charlie squeezed his fingers. “I’m glad they made their peace.”
He turned his head to hers, his mouth a whisper away from her lips. “I hope you find peace too.”
“I think I have. All I need to do is jump one last hurdle, but it’s one I wish I didn’t have to. This time he’s gone too far.” Any hope she’d had of him changing had evaporated into the stony silence that had followed her father’s call.
“Together we’ll stop this, Charlie.”
She reached up to cup his face between her hands and kissed him lightly. “Thank you.” And because he tasted like promise and hope, she kissed him some more.
He turned to her, his lips under hers soft and pliant. Coaxing, inviting, gentle, and unhurried. As if they had all the time in the world to learn each other’s flavor. As if no threat waited on the threshold, ready to tear them apart if they failed. As if the baby who lay sleeping in the room next door would always be theirs and they were playing for keeps.
They’d been brought together by a twist of fate, but anything they felt for each other had to be more than just another fling that might dwindle to nothing when the heat subsided. She had Zoe to consider now and if the fight to keep her dragged on for months, maybe years, would Chase have the patience and staying power to see it through? Did he love them enough? Did he love them at all or was this simply attraction that would burn out like the fire in the grate?
Charlie drew away from his kiss, still holding his face. “Where are we going? Us?”
Chase covered her hand with his. “We’re taking one step at a time. You’ve grown on me, you and Zoe. Each day with you, I fall in love a little more. I’d like you beside me in the future, as my wife, my business partner, the mother of our children. And I’ll stand beside you in this fight for Zoe every step of the way.”
“What if I lose?” She didn’t want to think about losing, but money and power often trumped truth and fairness. Judges could be bought, blackmailed, swayed by lies, and misinterpretation of the law.
“You won’t lose if we fight this the right way.” He drew her hands down and held them, his thumbs stroking across her knuckles. “You know we need to lodge a report with the sheriff about the money your father has been offered for Zoe, right?”
An ache squeezed her heart. Family was family, and, even though her father was on the verge of committing a crime, it still felt like betrayal. No matter how badly he’d treated her, or how much distance and bad blood had come between them, all she’d craved was his acceptance and love. An empty wish fading as fast as the shimmer of heat on the track’s surface as it cooled.
“I know. I feel sorry for the Diegos. This will impact them too.”
“Honey, the Diegos are accomplices in this. They’re prepared to buy a baby under the banner of adoption. They know what they’re doing is wrong. Frank will deal with them, find out who instigated the deal. If they approached your father or if he approached them.”
“We won’t be able to do this without it getting media coverage. It’s too big for the gossip rags to ignore and put their own spin on. Big name in NASCAR sells his rebel daughter’s baby… they’ll dig up my past, rake around in our lives, stir up everything I’ve tried so hard to leave behind and let settle.”
The domino effect it would have until the last tile toppled and ended her brother’s career in racing. The damage Ronan could do with his acid tongue when TRJ Racing would be made to roll down the shutters on their pit garage because it wouldn’t survive another scandal.
“Then we need to make sure the press gets your side of the story first. We can’t stop this from going public, but we can manage how it does. After we’ve been to see Sheriff Hutchins in the morning to lodge your case, we’ll write up a press release. Frank will look it over and ensure that an embargo is placed on anything that doesn’t come from sworn statements, tie them up in knots so that the only story that goes live is one that has been thoroughly checked for factual reporting. Make it too hard for them to give too much airtime to the story.”
“I wish there was another way.” No matter how awful and criminal her father’s actions were, she hadn’t wanted it to come to this.
Chase ran a hand over her hair, tucking the weight of it behind her ear. “If we can find another way, we will. But I don’t think your father will make it any easier for you. The difference is, you don’t have to do this alone anymore. Come here, Charlie.”
He tugged her onto his lap and wrapped her in his arms. She settled on his thighs, her head on his shoulder, her body pressed to his chest. His warmth seeped through her, the rub of his thumbs against the wool of her sweater creating a fiery friction of awareness.
She lifted her face to his, caught his gaze as hot as the fire that threw flickering light in
to the room, watched his lips descend, and closed her eyes to the sensation of them on hers. A light rub of request before she granted him permission and opened her mouth to the unhurried, gentle seduction of his tongue.
With a sigh, she kissed him back, falling into the taste of Chase, a flavor far more addictive than the herbal teas he brewed for her, or the wine he’d served with dinner. A taste so unique, she never wanted anything else. Chase—mother, brother, carer, lover—all of him wrapped up and hers to keep if she wanted him. She wanted him. With every breath, every stroke of his tongue, every whisper of his lips. Right here, in front of the fire, on the soft rug under them.
She wanted to fall, with him, into the comfort of love and promise of forever. Into the reality of a future that promised happiness and fulfillment. And, even if only just for tonight, she wanted to forget about the battle ahead, to feel alive under the hands that slipped under the hem of her sweater and the fingers that trailed her skin.
He whispered words against her neck, so quiet she couldn’t hear them only feel them. Then his lips trailed to her collarbone and every nerve ending came alive, sensitive to every touch, responding to every stroke, melting any last remaining thread of resistance and doubt.
His hand cupped her breast, his thumb grazing the budded nipple through the cotton of her feeding bra. He smiled against the pulse in her throat. “Sexier than any silk underwear right now.”
His fingers unclipped the hook that held the flap in place and then his palm was warm against her skin, curling around the fullness, stroking with unhurried attention that made her want to urge him on. His body hardened under her. Hers tightened in response. She wanted to straddle him, take him, love him, take that next step forward off the cliff into the unknown. Fly with the sensations his lips and hands created and give him back every ounce of pleasure she knew would come.
