Kestrel

by A. M. Hargrove

  Carter

  It has become abundantly apparent to me that I am completely out of my element around the Hart brothers. They are wealthy. Extremely wealthy. Kolson is beautiful. As tall as Kestrel, he’s blond where Kestrel is dark. They are opposites of each other. Kestrel is broader and more muscular than Kolson, yet Kolson appears to be much more standoffish. Or maybe he just doesn’t like me. He makes me uncomfortable, like I’m a horse and he’s examining me for flaws. He finds many, no doubt. He is the kind of man that admires beauty in all things and he doesn’t find that in me. And that’s okay. I’ve never thought of myself as beautiful. I’m plain and used to it. But when a man like Kolson Hart inspects you, it makes you feel completely self-conscious … naked and exposed. I did my best to cover it up and I hope it worked, but who knows?

  The other man, Jack, is quiet and unassuming. I’m sure he’s different in the business setting, but he let the brothers do most of the talking, only asking a question about Charleston every now and again.

  It was a huge relief when they left and I was more than happy to find Kestrel asleep when I went to bed. I’m not sure what’s happening between us, but I do know I can never fit into his world. I can’t pretend to be like they are nor will I ever hold a candle to that. Maybe Kestrel is right. Maybe I need to run from him, but not for the reasons he says.

  When his alarm goes off, I pretend to fall back asleep, but I don’t. He quietly leaves and then I get into the shower. There’s so much on my mind that the only place I can think straight is the lab. I get to work early and stay there until late. Kestrel calls but I choose to ignore it. When I listen to his message, I’m not sure how to react. I do need to sell, but a part of me feels like the Hart brothers are taking over my life. I need to tell him something, so I text him the address so he can go on his own. He’ll probably think this is strange, but when he calls, I’ll just say I’m busy.

  Saturday morning, as expected, my phone rings and it’s him.

  “Hi.”

  “You don’t want to come with us?”

  “I can’t. I have work to do.”

  “Actually, we’re working today. We were going to stay in the office until about three. Would that work for you?”

  “No. Why don’t just the two of you go? Then you can hash it out. You know, without the third wheel. And you won’t feel uncomfortable talking about it.”

  “You’re probably right. Thanks, Carter.”

  “Kestrel, I’m asking 2 million flat. It’s almost a full acre of beachfront property. It’s a good deal.”

  “Why so cheap?”

  “Cheap?”

  “Yeah. What are the comps?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Before you price it, you need to check. I’ll pay you whatever’s fair.”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  “I would never take advantage of you. I know how important this is to you.”

  Why is he so nice?

  “I appreciate that. I hope you like it.”

  “I’ll call you.”

  We end the call and I sit there, thinking. This is really my way out, but do I want to go through with this? If I sell this house, maybe I don’t have to. But what will I do with the property? I have to pay those God-awful taxes every year, which have nearly bankrupted me. No, I don’t have a choice. It’s sell all the way. Get out from this burden and move forward.

  With the sale looming before me, I look to the positive. I really do need to shop. My wardrobe is atrocious. Maybe I’ll go and buy some jeans today and a few tops. I need a couple of outfits to wear out to dinner and such. I pick up the phone and call my friend Harper.

  “Hey, chica. What’s up Doc?”

  “You in for some shopping?” I ask.

  “Huh? Is this Carter Drayton?”

  “Ha ha, funny. I need some clothes.”

  “I’m always in for some shopping.”

  “I know but I can’t afford King Street. I was thinking Mt. Pleasant.” King Street is where all the exclusive boutiques are located.

  “Yeah. Cool. What time?”

  “Eleven?”

  “Good. Are you driving?”

  “Yep.”

  I pick up Harper and when she sees me she comments on my hair.

  “Oh my God! I love it! When did you do it?”

  “I guess a couple of weeks ago. I got tired of the frizzy crap.”

  We head to the clothing stores in Mt. Pleasant. I buy a couple of pairs of jeans, a few shirts and sweaters, a dress, two skirts, and tops to go with them.

  “You need shoes. I see a cute pair of booties to go with all. A neutral color,” Harper suggests.

  “Yeah?”

  “Hmm. And some tights for the skirts. Yep. Let’s go to this shoe store I know of that has great deals.”

  She directs me there and I end up with a pair of taupe booties, a pair of knee-high black boots, and a pair of grayish flats.

  “Now you’re set,” Harper declares. “You have white T-shirts and blouses?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “You’re good. And you’ll look great. But what’s the occasion?”

  “No occasion. I haven’t bought clothes in years. Just needed some.”

  “Give it up, girl. You’re not fooling me. The new hair and now all these clothes. But please tell me you’re not seeing Simon.”

  “Oh, God, no!”

  “Thank heavens. We were all out last week and I heard him say your name.”

  “My name? What did he say?”

  “I don’t know. He was talking to James and I overheard him.”

  James was one of our mutual friends. We usually met once or twice a month for drinks after work. I missed the last one because the people from StrongMeds were in town and I had to go out with them instead.

  “It was probably some nasty comment, I’m sure.”

  Harper laughs. “Knowing Simon, you’re right. So, if it’s not Simon, then who is it?”

  “Well, the guy that’s buying my house has taken me out. Remember when I borrowed your dress? That’s what I needed it for.”

  “Really? How interesting.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Don’t you lie to me Carter Drayton. You’re buying clothes for the first time in four years so it’s more than nothing.”

  “He’s nice. That’s all.”

  “Mmm hmm. I’ll bet. His name.”

  “What?”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Kestrel.”

  She puts her hands around my neck and says, “Do I have to strangle you for information? His whole name, please?”

  “Kestrel Hart.”

  “Hmm. Kestrel Hart. Why does that ring a bell?”

  “No idea.”

  “So what does Kestrel Hart look like?”

  “Tall, devilishly dark, and exceedingly hot.”

  “Shut it!”

  “Exactly.”

  Harper grabs my arm and clamps down on it. “Have you done it with him yet?”

  “Harper!”

  “Answer me!”

  “Jesus. Okay! Yes, dammit!”

  “Why, Carter Drayton, you little tramp. Sleeping with the enemy!”

  We both start laughing.

  Then she says, “I knew there was more to this shopping trip. Let’s go have us some Bloody Marys to celebrate your end of celibacy!”

  “Amen to that!”

  Only there’s a dark shadow that falls because I may be entering another stage of it, but I don’t dare share that with Harper. She hasn’t a clue about Ells’ room and I won’t tell her. Nor will I tell her about the deal I made with Kestrel.

  Later that evening, Kestrel calls. He wants the Sullivan’s Island lot. But he said he’s going to check into comps before he offers me a price. Of all things, he thinks my asking price is too low. I call Uncle Foster, and he agrees. He thinks it may be closer to 2.75 million. I’m shocked. It’s a good thing Kestrel is a fair businessman.

  ***


  A crazy two weeks pass. Kestrel and I only chat on the phone because he’s been out of town on business, and I’ve been underwater with my research. The StrongMeds team is back, mucking everything up for me. They really don’t, but whenever they pay me a visit, everything stalls. I’m planning on meeting my friends for happy hour on Thursday after work. The team leaves on Wednesday and I work like a fiend after they leave.

  Late Wednesday, something close to miraculous happens. In my research, I accidentally stumble on a process I haven’t tried before. It’s a modulating shortcut I used because I was so far behind. In doing so, it led me on a different pathway. Thursday morning, when I picked up where I left off, I uncovered something I hadn’t before. The results were surprising. I tested them again and again. I kept getting the same results.

  “John, come take a look at this.” My tone was flat so he wasn’t expecting anything.

  He looked into the microscope and asked, “What am I looking at?”

  I repeated the process and let him watch.

  “Is this what I think it is?”

  “Uh huh. Human T-cells chewing up cancer cells, instead of what we usually see. Watch again.” I repeated the process.

  “What did you do?”

  I explained about the shortcut I used to encode the cancer RNA.

  “You’re joking.”

  “No. I was behind yesterday so I did it to catch up and this is what happened.” I force myself to contain my excitement.

  “Carter, explain to me in detail exactly how you did it.”

  I show him, step by step.

  “There’s no lysis,” he says in awe.

  “I think it’s because of the short cut. There isn’t time. My concern is that this is in vitro. In vivo may be another story because of the time differential.”

  His eyes brighten and he hops up and down, as he does when excitement bursts through him. “We’ll deal with that. Right now, at least we have the process.”

  “Yes, one step closer, right?”

  “You are a genius, my girl.” He hugs me as he hops, which makes me hop, too. As a result, we both laugh.

  “We have to come up with some type of mechanism to protect this from lysis.”

  “Well, the pharmaceutical companies did it for the penicillins when they developed beta lactamase inhibitors. Remember how they added them to protect the beta lactam ring? Maybe we can do something similar.”

  “John, you’re right! I need to call StrongMeds!” Now excitement rushes through me. This may only be a tiny blip on the horizon, but it’s the beginning of what could be a viable treatment for terrible diseases.

  Grabbing the phone, I place a call to Winston Miles.

  “Winston! It’s Carter Drayton. I know it’s Thursday and kind of late, but I need to talk with your best biotech engineer. I stumbled onto something here.”

  “What did you find?”

  My explanation is lengthy and he wants to fly down tomorrow. I tell him I’ll be waiting for him.

  When I glance at the clock, I see it’s seven-thirty.

  “Oh, hell!”

  “What is it?”

  “I was supposed to meet my friends at five-thirty and I’m always standing them up. Damn!”

  John says, “Go. I’ll close up shop. See you early tomorrow.”

  I race out of the lab and hurry to my car in the hopes my friends are still at our designated watering hole.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kestrel

  It’s seven p.m. when I wrap up the day. I’ve been out of town all week, so there was a ton of piled up paperwork that needed my attention. Shayla and I did a great job of tackling it so I’m calling it a day. The week’s almost over, but I want to relax a bit so I detour into a nice and quiet bar for a couple of drinks. It’s never jammed with people, like so many of the bars in town are. My favorite seat in the corner is vacant, so I plop my ass on it where I can peacefully sip my Lagavulin and people watch. There’s a mixed group sitting at a couple of tables they’ve pulled together, chatting animatedly. After about twenty minutes or so, of all people, Carter scurries in, apologizing profusely to everyone about being late.

  I’m blown away by her appearance. It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve seen her because we’ve both been working like dogs, though we’ve talked on the phone just about every day. She looks fucking hot as hell! She’s wearing tight jeans, and they’re the kind that sit low on her hips, a form-fitting emerald green sweater, and a pair of short boots. I want to eat her up. She’s undoubtedly gone shopping since I’ve seen her last. But then I notice that asshole Simon is sitting there. His back has been facing me so I didn’t realize that’s who it was.

  My attention is now zeroed in on them, though I don’t want it to look like I’m eavesdropping. Carter looks flustered as hell.

  “I’m so sorry. I started working on this project and I took a little shortcut and made this amazing discovery with RNA. John and I got so excited because I found a way to make the T-cells work without getting hydrolyzed.”

  They stare at her with blank faces and suddenly Simon says in a nasty voice, “Will you just shut the hell up already about your stupid fucking research? None of us gives a flying fuck about it, Carter. You’re always late to our get-togethers, and that’s if you even bother to show up at all. Maybe if you’d pulled your ass out of your stupid lab, our daughter would still be alive today.”

  Dead silence descends over the group like a black cloud. Carter looks as though she’s going to be sick. The excitement that lit up her face is extinguished in a snap and it looks like the asshole pummeled her in the guts and ripped out her heart. I’ve heard enough of his insults to last me a lifetime and I won’t allow this to continue one more second. Putting a couple of twenties on the bar, I grab my coat and walk over to their cute little group. It’s quite apparent by the look of disbelief on his face Simon never expected to see me.

  “Apologize to her now,” I say in a low, steely voice. I’m enraged.

  He sneers at me. “You don’t tell me what to do.”

  “I’m telling you now. Apologize to the lady.”

  “Or what? Are you gonna punch me or something?” he taunts as he stands with a smirk on his face.

  I walk up to him and invade his space. He’s not as tall as I am so I have to look down at him. He throws a jab at me, but it’s simple to evade. I’m fast; I’m experienced at dodging these things. Grabbing his arm, I spin him around. To everyone at the table, it appears I’m only holding it behind his back. What they don’t see is I have two of his fingers twisted and can easily break them with a snap.

  Bending my head toward his ear, I say so only he can hear, “You don’t ever want to fuck with me. I’ve been in places that make hell look like a walk in the park. Now apologize or you may be paying a visit to the hospital tonight. Your choice, asshole.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Say it like you mean it. With a little sincerity. And use the lady’s name.”

  “I’m sorry, Carter. I didn’t really mean it,” he hisses through gritted teeth. He’s trying to cover up the pain.

  I release his fingers, but not his arm and whisper in his ear again. “If you ever insult her again, this will seem like a trip to Disney World. Clear?”

  He nods.

  I let him go. Then I turn to the group. “Are all of you her friends?”

  They answer in the affirmative.

  “Well, you’d better do two things. One, pray she finds that cure you just scoffed at. And two, pray you never need it. With friends like you, who the fuck needs enemies?”

  Turning to Carter, who looks like a snowman in a blizzard she’s so damn pale, I say, “Come on angel, let’s get out of here.”

  My arm circles her waist and we leave. When we’re about a block away, I stop and gently push her into a small indentation of a shop entrance where I proceed to wipe her tears away.

  “What the hell kind of people do you hang with, angel?” I whisper. Her eyes are huge
as they look back at me. “I never had friends because of my father. He wouldn’t allow it and the kids at school weren’t allowed to hang out with ‘Those Hart Boys.’ We were branded, you see. But, dammit, I would’ve chosen more wisely, I believe.”

  She doesn’t speak, but her bottom lip quivers. And that makes me feel like shit. I’m such an ass, as usual. Running my thumb over her lip to make it stop quivering, I soften my voice and say, “I’m sorry. Insulting you further is not my intent, but please examine the people you hang out with. They’re hateful. I wanted to strangle that bastard.”

  “I know. But that bastard gave me the most beautiful child in the world.”

  “I realize that. The only thing that eases this whole situation is that you never loved him.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I want to retract them. Why did I say that? Where did they come from? I rub my face, trying to figure all this out, when we both hear her name.

  We look up to see one of the women from the group.

  “Carter, you left your backpack.” She hands it to Carter.

  “Oh, thanks. Harper, this is Kestrel Hart. Kestrel, Harper Welch.”

  My head slices up and down once. Harper is an unwelcome sight.

  “I’m really sorry about what Simon said. I don’t feel like that at all. I was so shocked at his behavior that I froze. I’m sorry I didn’t defend you.” She reaches out a hand and places it on my arm. I want to cringe. “Thank you, Kestrel, for saving her.”

  I don’t respond. She stands there expecting me to say something, but I can’t. She was with those shit heads.

  I finally say, “Yeah, it’s a good thing I was there. Poor Carter would’ve been shredded by you assholes.”

  Carter gasps and Harper’s mouth hangs open. Catching flies, my mom would say. I grew up being insulted on a daily basis and I won’t stand by watching an innocent woman take them. Harper had a chance to say something, yet didn’t.

  “I was so shocked …”

  “Yeah, I heard that part. Next time, unfreeze yourself and stick up for your friend. This woman has been through more than you’d better pray you’ll ever have to experience. What I really don’t understand is why any of you put up with that tool. He needs a foot shoved up his ass.”