Negotiation Tactics

by Lori Ryan [romance/suspense]

  Kelly filled Jennie in on life in Connecticut and gave her updates on Maddy, who was ‘growing more beautiful by the day.’

  Before Jennie knew it, she was spilling out the truth. She told Kelly about what happened with Chad in Florida, about the baby, everything. All of the mixed-up feelings that filled her head and her heart every day. She needed to have her best friend know the truth, know everything that was going on, even if they couldn’t talk every day like they used to. Jennie felt like she wasn’t herself any longer and she knew Kelly would understand that.

  Kelly was unusually quiet after Jennie stopped talking.

  “Kelly? Are you still there?” Jennie asked. Kelly should be reassuring her that everything would be okay, shouldn’t she?

  “Oh God, Jennie.” Jennie could hear in her friend’s voice that she was crying and Jennie didn’t understand.

  “Jennie, I have to tell you something. I’m so, so sorry, Jennie. We didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” Kelly said, her voice thick with tears.

  “What are you talking about, Kelly?” Jennie asked, not at all sure she wanted to hear the answer.

  “When Jack sent you into the resort, he sent you and Chad together as honeymooners on purpose. He and Andrew thought it would nudge you and Chad to see if there was something real between you – or not. I… Oh, God, Jennie. I’m so sorry. I knew and I let them do it.”

  Jennie felt cold. She didn’t even know what to say to someone who had done this, someone she thought was her friend. How could Kelly do this? How could this happen?

  “Jennie, please, say something.”

  Her voice sounded foreign to her as she spoke. “What do you want me to say, Kelly? I trusted you. I thought you were my friend and I trusted you with the truth about my…about Kyle.”

  Suddenly Jennie was screaming and she didn’t care. She didn’t stop when Chad came in the room or when she heard Kelly sobbing on the other end of the phone.

  “How could you do this to me? You knew how I felt about Kyle! You knew I didn’t want this! Why would you think it was okay to play with my life this way? I’m pregnant now, Kelly. My, God! What have you done?” Jennie threw the phone at the wall, where it broke, falling to the floor, cutting the call off.

  The room was quiet for a minute as understanding dawned on Jennie. She looked up, horrified as she realized Chad must know. When she met his gaze, it was clear. The guilt was etched on Chad’s face.

  “Oh, God. You didn’t. Please, please tell me you didn’t know about this,” she said, shaking her head.

  “I didn’t know, Jennie. I suspected but I didn’t know for sure.” Chad was quiet and calm. Just like he always was. Steadfast in the face of anything, it seemed. Just as calm as he always was…

  But this was her life. Something in Jennie snapped.

  “When, Chad? When did you suspect?” Jennie spit out. She wanted to grab him and shake him.

  He didn’t answer for a few beats.

  “In Jack’s office. When he told us he was sending us,” Chad said, just as quiet as ever.

  “How could you know and not tell me? Why didn’t you stop them? What’s wrong with you?” Jennie was screaming again and on some level, she knew she should try to get herself under control but she couldn’t. It was as if her whole fucked-up, crazy life was coming to a head.

  Before the Florida assignment she had finally felt the first glimmer of happiness since Kyle’s death…and now it was all lost. All at the hands of the people she’d thought were her friends. She’d been set up. Jennie felt tears fall as her lip trembled. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “I won’t regret the baby, Jennie. I’m sorry for everything else that’s happening, but I won’t regret our baby.” Chad’s voice was calm, as he turned to walk away and any control Jennie had left slipped away at his cool, collected response. So measured. So in control.

  She chased after him, following him through the living room and out onto the porch. She pounded small fists on his back before he stalked off the steps and whipped around to face her. He stood in the dry grass in front of the porch watching her with stormy eyes.

  “Do you even feel anything, Chad? Will you for once stop walking around, all in control and fucking calm? Do you have any idea what you all have done. I lost everything, Chad. Everything, when Kyle died. I lost myself. I had finally begun to build a new life with new friends. With people I thought cared about me. I have started to be just a little bit happy again. Was it too much to ask? Did I ask for too much by just wanting to have a little bit of a life again? Now, it’s all screwed up again and you walk around here like you don’t feel anything about what’s happened.”

  Chad spun around, and for only the second time since she’d known him, she saw the flash of anger so fierce her breath caught in her throat and she took an involuntary step back, away from him. Jennie knew Chad would never hurt her on purpose, but the anger rolling off of him was palpable. It seemed to force her backwards as if it had a life of its own, a power of its own.

  “Not feel anything, Jennie? Are you fucking kidding me? I walk around here every day and I ache every fucking minute I’m with you. I’m so twisted up with loving you and hating you, I can’t breathe. I can’t keep my hands off you, but I can’t let myself kiss you because I might lose myself in you. I can’t make love to you because I’m afraid you’ll pretend I’m him. I know you want his arms around you, not mine. I know you want it to be his baby inside you, not mine. And I know you can’t love me back, no matter what I do, because you’re still so in love with your husband, you can’t even begin to see me.”

  Chad didn’t stop and Jennie didn’t try to stop him.

  “And every day, I have to sit here and wonder how I’ll be a part of my baby’s life. I wonder if you’ll let me be in the delivery room, if you’ll let me help you name the baby. I wonder how much money I’d have to offer the people who live across the street from you to get them to sell me their house, just so I can see my child grow up. If you’ll let me…” Chad stopped as if he’d run out of steam.

  They stood in uneasy silence for a long time before Chad spoke again. He sounded worn out and bitter and angry, mirroring Jennie’s chaos of emotions.

  “Am I feeling anything? Yeah. I’m feeling some fucking shit, Jen.” He turned and walked through the trees, leaving Jennie on the porch of the cabin, stunned. Feeling everything in her life was broken.

  She had no idea how to fix things. No idea if she even wanted to.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chad slowed to a walk. He didn’t know how many miles he’d run. Longer than his typical morning run. He shouldn’t have left Jennie alone at the cabin so long, but he knew he couldn’t go back there right now. He felt more mixed up than ever.

  It was time to take Jennie home. He needed to get her home. Get her testimony on record before they both got arrested for impeding a federal investigation. Then he’d figure out a way to keep her safe without the sheer and utter torture of living in a small, isolated cabin with her.

  Chad didn’t know if his mom had been right about him wanting to be unhappy or not. Maybe he had done this to himself subconsciously. And if he had, he was sorry he’d dragged Jennie into it.

  Chad knew it was time to move on. He’d love his baby and he’d find a way to raise it with Jennie, as friends, but he needed to find a way to stop loving her. Being here with her, and yet not with her, made him realize how important it was that he move on and build a life, create a family with someone who could love him back and make him happy.

  Chad knew deep down, his mother was right about one thing. He did feel guilty for coming home from the war. He’d left so many friends behind. Good people who already had families of their own waiting for them to come back. And for reasons Chad couldn’t understand, he got to come home and many of them didn’t. And, yeah, he’d always hated that. Always wished he could have brought all of them back with him.

  But he couldn’t go on like this. And he couldn’
t wish to trade places with them because he wouldn’t wish that pain on his mom or Jack. Taking a deep breath, Chad bent. He put his hands on his knees and closed his eyes.

  It’s time.

  And as he took cleansing breath after cleansing breath, Chad let it all go. All the guilt and anger and feeling that maybe he was somehow undeserving of the life he had. The life that had been spared. And, he let his guilt over Jennie go as well.

  He wouldn’t regret loving her even though he had to face the fact that she might never love him back. Her heart had been buried with her husband. But, maybe their baby would bring her some happiness, and for that, Chad would be grateful.

  Taking one last deep breath, Chad turned back toward the cabin. It was time to take Jennie home.

  ***

  They left the cabin three days later. Chad didn’t tell anyone they were coming. The less people knew about their whereabouts, the better. He still had plenty of cash stashed away so there was no need to use credit cards or anything that could be traced.

  They planned to go to Jennie’s parents’ house first to see them, then spend no more than a day or two getting Jennie’s testimony taken care of before heading back to the cabin. Chad wasn’t happy with this plan, but Jennie was adamant about going to her parents’ house. And, she’d made a few good points in her argument. No one was expecting them. They wouldn’t call Burke until they arrived. They wouldn’t let anyone else know their location. Even Chad had to admit, it was highly unlikely that Rick Bandon would be sitting on Jennie’s parents’ house an hour away from where she lived. If anything, Bandon would be watching Jennie’s house or maybe Chad’s condo in New Haven.

  So, in the end, Jennie won. They were heading to her parents’ house. Meanwhile, Chad was brainstorming a longer term way to keep her safe, one that didn’t require them to live in such close confines. He needed to find a way to step back from Jennie and let the feelings he had for her fade away.

  They’d fallen back into an uneasy friendship, of sorts, but they didn’t talk much and things were strained. Chad could see dark circles forming under Jennie’s eyes again and knew she wasn’t sleeping well.

  Chad pulled off the highway a half hour from Jennie’s parents’ house. He dug out a burn phone they hadn’t used yet and pulled a sheet of phone numbers from his wallet. He punched in one of the phone numbers and handed the phone to Jennie after placing it on speaker.

  “Don’t tell your parents where we are and don’t let on that we’re coming. Tell them we’re hopping from one hotel to another,” Chad said as the phone rang.

  Jennie nodded.

  “Jennie? Is that you?” Jennie’s mother sounded about like you’d expect. Desperate for news. Desperate to hear her daughter’s voice.

  “Yeah, Mom, it’s me. Chad’s on the line, too.”

  “Hi, Chad, Honey. How are you guys?”

  Chad would have smiled at the way Jennie’s mom greeted him as if he were just as important to her as Jennie was, but he needed to stay focused on getting Jennie in and out quickly.

  “We’re great, Mom. We’re staying in hotels right now, but it’s not too bad,” Jennie said.

  “We wanted to check in and see if you’ve seen anything unusual there. Has anyone been around that shouldn’t be? Anyone that seems out of place?” Chad asked.

  “No,” Jennie’s mom said, “nothing unusual.”

  “How about any houses for lease or rent on your block. Or any houses that are empty for renovations or anything like that?” Chad asked.

  Jennie’s mother was quiet, as if she were thinking, before answering, “No.”

  “Have you seen any workmen or a new mail carrier on your route? Anything? Telephone repair? Construction nearby?”

  “No,” came the answer, the tension in her voice clear.

  Chad nodded at Jennie and pulled off the road as Jennie finished her conversation with her mom. They talked for a few minutes before ending the call quite close to her parents’ house.

  When they pulled into the driveway at Jennie’s parents’ house in the early evening, he took out a new cell phone and texted Agent Burke to arrange for Burke to take Jennie’s statement the following day. He texted her parents’ address and told Burke to have an agent come there for the statement. Chad wanted to control things as much as possible.

  Jennie’s parents came out of the house and enveloped her in tears and hugs. He could see their disappointment when she told them the visit would only be for a day or so and that she and Chad would go back into hiding. They tried to be upbeat about it, but how upbeat could you be in this situation?

  Chad shook hands with Jennie’s father, Phil, and hugged her mother, Barb. He had met them once before at Kelly and Jack’s wedding and knew they were the type of people that immediately welcomed friends as if they were family.

  “We’re going over to the Evans’ house for a barbeque in a few minutes. They’ll be thrilled to see you,” said Jennie’s mom.

  It struck Chad then that Jennie’s last name – Evans – was her married name. He’d never really thought about it before, but of course she still went by it.

  The front door of the house on the left opened then and Chad assumed the man and woman drawing Jennie into more hugs were Kyle’s parents. He nodded politely when they were introduced as Annie and Brian Evans.

  When they all settled into the Evans’ backyard, drinks in hand, burgers on the grill, Chad could almost pretend things were normal. But they weren’t.

  He saw the second when Jennie’s mother noticed the changes in her daughter’s body and turned an uneasy questioning look to Chad. Jennie wasn’t showing yet, but maybe mothers somehow know these things about their daughters. Her waist was ever so slightly thicker than it had been, but you couldn’t tell with the shirt she had on.

  Chad ducked his head against her mother’s look. Jennie would be the one to tell her this news.

  They gathered inside, in a casual dining room, for dinner. When the plates had been filled with burgers, coleslaw, potato salad, and three bean salad, Chad saw Jennie fight back nausea as she eyed her plate. He knew perfectly well she couldn’t eat this food. He didn’t know how she planned to fake it.

  Chad got up and went to his duffle bag by the door and returned with two baby food pouches. He handed them to Jennie without a word, despite the four questioning gazes that jumped between him and Jennie. He knew he wasn’t being very subtle about her inability to eat real food, but Chad wasn’t in the mood for games. Jennie needed to tell her parents the truth. Besides, a few more minutes trying to pretend she could eat that food and she’d be running to the bathroom. Trying to slip her the food pouches unseen somehow would just be futile.

  “Thank you,” Jennie murmured and opened one pouch to eat it. Chad removed her plate, putting it aside so the smell of the burger wouldn’t make her sick. The medicine the doctor had given her had helped a lot. But Jennie was still overly sensitive to strong smells.

  “All right,” Jennie’s mother said, tossing her napkin on the table and standing up. “What’s going on, Jennie? Chad?”

  “You need to tell them. Jennie. Your mom’s already guessed,” Chad said quietly.

  “What? No, she hasn’t!” Jennie shook her head a little too vigorously, as if she were still trying to will everything away.

  “Jennie, you’re either sick or you’re pregnant, but you’re scaring the wits out of me. Tell me which one it is,” Jennie’s mother said. Kyle’s mother didn’t look surprised but the men sure did. It must be a mother thing. They seemed to have radar.

  Jennie looked up into the faces of her parents and her in laws. Faces that showed nothing but love and worry for the woman sitting in front of them. And, then she bolted.

  Chapter Thirty

  This can’t be happening. It just can’t be happening.

  Jennie hadn’t planned on telling her parents about the baby on this trip and she certainly hadn’t planned to tell them in front of Kyle’s parents. She wasn’t showing yet so
she hadn’t even thought she’d need to face this so soon.

  Jennie paced in the living room as Zeke circled around her, whining. Chad came quietly into the room and sat on the couch – ready and waiting as if on standby until she needed him. Why he still cared about her, she couldn’t figure out. She’d caused him so much pain. After all the horrible things she’d said to him, he still sat ready and willing to help her.

  It wasn’t long before the others followed him, waiting for her to explain.

  “Jennie, please tell me you’re not sick. Please.” Jennie’s mother spoke quietly, but the panic in her voice was evident.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. I’m not sick.” Jennie swiped at tears and wrapped her arms around herself, holding tight.

  She still hadn’t admitted to being pregnant, but based on her answer it was now clear to everyone in the room.

  Jennie’s dad met Chad’s gaze. He didn’t sound angry when he spoke, which surprised Jennie. “Do you love her, Chad?”

  Chad looked straight at her father when he answered. “Very much, but unfortunately, that’s not relevant here.”

  Jennie felt her breath coming in shallow gasps and she thought she might pass out. Her arms shook as she tried to will away the events unfolding before her.

  It was Kyle’s mom who spoke next. Jennie had always loved her as much as she loved her own mother. It hurt to have both women looking at her now. She wanted to hide, to crawl away and curl up, instead of facing this.

  “Jennie, honey, I know you loved Kyle. I know how hard it was for you to lose him. But, it’s time, Honey. It’s time for you to let him go. It’s time to let yourself be happy again.”

  Don’t they understand? Don’t they get it? She couldn’t be happy. Wouldn’t be happy in another man’s arms.

  Tears streamed, unencumbered, down Jennie’s face as she faced the people who loved her. Would they still love her if they knew the truth?

  “Jennie…” Kyle’s dad took an almost imperceptible step forward and seemed to want to reach for her – but didn’t. “Honey, she’s right. He wouldn’t want to see you like this. He wouldn’t want you to give up on having a life, on finding love again, just because he’s gone.”