“Do I need to?”
“It just happened, that’s all. We didn’t plan it.”
“No, sir. That did not just happen.” Donovan laughed.
“Dude, will you shut the hell up?”
Noting John’s growing irritation Donovan lowered his voice. “That particular cat’s been scratchin’ at that post for a long time. I knew you’d cave sooner or later. Every time she calls you go runnin’, anytime, night or day. I can’t say that I blame you though.”
“Look, you can’t . . . You’re not gonna tell Toliver about this, are you?”
Donovan glanced around to see who among the three other people in the office might be listening. “How long have we been partners?”
John shrugged his shoulder. “Hell, I don’t know. Four years.”
“Five.” Donovan corrected him. “I got this assignment January 16, 2005. I remember ’cause it was the day after I lost Bear. Havin’ to put my dog down was somethin’ I’ll never forget. Somethin’ like that stays with you, you know what I mean?”
“So, what’s your point, Harley?”
“My point is we’ve been through some rough times together. We went through them as partners. Hey, I’m Uncle Donny, right? I got your back, my friend.”
“Yeah, well, I hope so.”
“What? Are you doubtin’ me now? You know you can trust me, John. Besides, if I was an enemy you’d know it.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, it’s like my granddaddy Herman always said, ‘your best enemies are the ones you don’t see comin’.’ Just don’t let this thing you’re doin’ make you lose focus.”
John went back to his coffee cup. “Now this shit is cold.”
Donovan pressed on. “So, what are you gonna do?”
“About what?”
“C’mon, you know what I’m talkin’ about.”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Well, while you’re decidin’ do you mind if I give Lorraine a call?”
John looked at the man as if he should already know what his response would be.
Donovan threw up his hands. “Hey, I was just checkin’. At any rate you need to figure out what you’re gonna do about this Sullivan situation before it goes south on you. You’ve heard the expression you don’t shit where you eat. You wouldn’t be the first hombre who let his dick get him into trouble. And gettin’ that particular cat back in the bag is gonna be a helluva lot harder than when you let it out.”
“Let me guess, another wise old saying from your dear ol’ Granddaddy Herman.”
Donovan laughed. “Man, I could write a book.”
“I think that subject has already been covered.” John chuckled. “It’s called You Might Be a Redneck If. You know you look a lot like the dude who wrote it.”
Donovan smirked. “Ha! Ha!”
The bell on the door drew Alex’s attention from the customer she was checking out at the counter. The sight of Lorraine Chase unnerved her. Momentarily distracted she ran the credit card in her hand upside down through the terminal. She quickly righted herself, bagged the woman’s purchases, and completed the transaction.
One of the other clerks made her way over to Lorraine to see if she could be of assistance.
“No, thank you,” Lorraine responded and continued to the register.
Alex mounted her game face. “Is there something I can do for you, Mrs. Chase?”
“Do you know why I’m here, Ms. Sullivan?”
“I assume you either have an exchange, or there’s something else you’re interested in purchasing.”
“I wouldn’t be so glib if I were you. We need to talk and I don’t think you want me to make a scene in front of these people, do you?”
Alex cut her eyes toward Margot, who was dressing a mannequin near the window and gazing at them with gossip-mongering interest.
Undaunted, Lorraine stood and eyed Alex as if to intimidate her. Alex glared back defiantly.
“We can either have this conversation here, or we can go somewhere else, Ms. Sullivan. Either way I’m not leaving here before I say what I came to say.”
Alex sucked in her cheeks. “All right. I’ll meet you outside in the square.”
Celeste approached them. “Mrs. Chase, is there a problem?”
“No, not at all,” Lorraine said without taking her gaze away from Alex. “I just need to have a few words with Ms. Sullivan. We need to clear up a personal matter.” With that Lorraine turned and left the shop in a fragrant whoosh of Giorgio.
“Celeste, I need to take a quick break. This shouldn’t take long,” Alex said evenly. Not waiting for the woman to respond, Alex cinched the leather sash of her dress and followed Lorraine into the quadrant surrounding the boutique. She didn’t want a fight but if there were to be a physical altercation, given her Bronx, New York upbringing, she was confident that Lorraine Chase was ill matched.
Lorraine began by lobbing an insult. “I find it curious how you can afford to wear Armani. You can’t be making that much working here.”
“You don’t know what I can afford. And I seriously doubt if you’re here to critique my wardrobe,” Alex shot back.
“Fine, I’ll get to the point, Adriane, or whatever your name is.”
The caustic snipe “whatever your name is” gave Alex pause. She didn’t know exactly what, if anything, Lorraine knew about her. She didn’t want to make any assumptions. Alex peered over her shoulder back toward the shop window to see Margot and another salesgirl peering out. She shifted her position behind a terracotta fountain angling out from the side of the building to force Lorraine out of their sightline.
“What do you want, Mrs. Chase?”
Lorraine pulled her sunglasses from the crown of her stylish bob and slid them up the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know what my husband has told you about our relationship, but I can assure you that he’s not going to do anything that would put you over the welfare of his children.”
Alex’s gaze narrowed. “Excuse me.”
Lorraine inched closer. “Don’t feign innocence, Ms. Sullivan. It doesn’t suit you. Please don’t insult me by pretending nothing is going on between the two of you.”
“I’m not going to insult you by pretending anything, Mrs. Chase. And I won’t give you the benefit of defending myself against your groundless speculations. The only reason I came out here to speak to you is to keep my business my business. If there are problems in your marriage you may want to take a long, hard look in the mirror. “
“I don’t know what delusions you’ve conjured up about you and my husband being together, but it’s never going to happen.”
“You know what, I don’t have the time or the energy for this discussion.” Alex sidestepped Lorraine and started back. “If you’re going to fight for John, you should be sure it’s a fight you can win.”
“Did he tell you what happened between us the night we went to our daughter’s dance recital? He came back to the house after . . . Our house.”
Alex huffed. “And the two of you kissed. Yes, he told me.”
“Oh, it was a lot more than that. I suspect he didn’t tell you everything.”
In that moment Alex thought about all the other women like Lorraine she’d encountered in her lifetime, and she knew just how to put an end to this tiresome presumption. “Let me ask you something, Lorraine, where was all this determination to hold on to your husband when you cheated on him? If the time you spent together was so all-consuming why are you even here? Why the hell do you feel threatened by me? Is all of this desperation worth holding on to someone who doesn’t want to be held on to?”
Lorraine’s pinched expression said everything that needed to be said.
“That’s what I thought,” Alex sneered. “Have a good day, Mrs. Chase.” With that she sashayed back inside the boutique.
“What was that about?” Margot asked.
“It was nothing,” Alex replied. “Just a misunderstanding.”
Alex disregarde
d the glances exchanged between Margot, the salesgirl, and two other customers.
By that afternoon the backlash from Lorraine’s visit came back to bite her in the ass. Lorraine had rallied her resources and friends and threatened to boycott La Bella if Alex wasn’t “dealt with.”
Celeste poked her head out of her office door. “Adriane, can I talk to you?”
Alex smirked, shook her head, and went into the woman’s office, expecting the worst. She would not be disappointed.
Celeste was seated behind her marble-top desk with a sober expression on her face and her weathered hands clasped in front of her. “Close the door and have a seat,” Celeste instructed.
Alex complied.
“I just got off the phone with Lorraine Chase. I’m not happy with what she had to tell me concerning her visit with you earlier today. I’ve also been on the phone with several of our regular patrons . . . all of them complaining about you. I—”
“You’re firing me,” Alex interrupted.
“I hope you understand that we can’t have you working here under these circumstances. It would be very bad for business. I’m sorry, Adriane. Your last check will be sent to you by mail.”
“Fine. I’ll get my things.”
Alex’s unceremonious departure wasn’t completely unforeseen. Driving home she pulled the $300 Italian silk scarf she’d taken as a parting gift from her purse and smirked. The gauntlet had been thrown down. She couldn’t know what else Lorraine Chase had up her sleeve. But, she knew better than anyone that a scorned woman was a dangerous woman. This was a setback, but it wouldn’t be the last.
Her cell phone rang. It was John.
“Hello.”
“Hey, how’re you doing?”
“I’m fine.”
“You sound funny. Is something wrong?”
“I had an interesting encounter with your wife again today.”
“What did she say?”
“She implied that something more was going on with the two of you than what you told me.”
John scoffed. “I thought she might.”
“She said you weren’t going to do anything to hurt your children, and I assume that means that she has no intention of giving you up without a fight.”
“There’s nothing left for her to fight for,” John responded.
“She doesn’t seem to agree with that assessment. And I guess it didn’t help that I baited her,” Alex countered.
“It doesn’t matter,” John assured her. “Listen, I really want to spend some time with you. Do you want to grab some dinner after you get off work tonight?”
“Well, thanks to your lovely wife I no longer have a job.”
“What did she do?”
“Apparently several complaints came in shortly after she left. Celeste didn’t want to lose her most valuable customers, so I became expendable.”
“Dammit,” John spat.
“Don’t worry about it. She did exactly what I would have done if I was in her shoes. It’s just a job. I found that one, I can get another one.”
“What are you doing now?”
“I’m on my way home.”
“I’m going to go and have a little talk with Lorraine. Can I call you later?”
“John, please don’t do anything that’s going to make things worse.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle Lorraine.”
Anticipating a visit from her estranged husband, Lorraine sent the children to her parents. She was seated at the bar, working on her third martini, when John charged into the foyer.
“Lorraine!”
She closed her eyes and braced herself but didn’t respond.
“What the hell is going on?”
She spun around to face him. “I’m having a drink. Would you care for one?”
“No, I don’t want a drink. Tell me why you went to that boutique this afternoon and why you confronted Adriane Sullivan?”
“I had to get your attention somehow.”
John’s jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. Lorraine stood and steadied herself before she walked over to him. She caressed his face and neck. He grabbed her hand and shoved her away. “You did this to get my attention? You had an affair to get my attention? Well, you got it, now what?”
“Now we put everything behind us and remember the things that brought us together in the first place. I want us to work, John. I’d do anything to make that happen.”
He shook his head and paced the room. “You’re something else, you know that? This is bullshit.”
“If it weren’t for that woman we’d be on our way back to each other right now.”
“You’re deluding yourself, Lorraine.”
“I know what it meant when you kissed me. When you held me. When we—”
“Did you tell her that we slept together?”
“No, I didn’t tell her that.”
“But you implied it?”
“You’re still my husband.”
“Did you get her fired, too?”
“I simply told the owner of the boutique that I was taking my business elsewhere. If she fired the bitch it’s not my fault.”
“You know damn well she’s not the reason we’re separated.”
Lorraine’s eyes filled with tears. “How long are you going to punish me for that?”
“Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“You weren’t there for us, John. You were hardly ever there. You made me feel like I didn’t matter . . . like we didn’t matter. Do you know how hard it was to watch you run off in the middle of the night on one case after another? Every time I heard a siren my heart would stop. Every time the phone rang and you weren’t lying next to me I thought I was going to be told that something had happened to you.”
“I can forgive what you did. I can even understand it, but I can’t forget it.”
“Because of her, right? Don’t stand there and lie to my face, John. At least give me the courtesy of being man enough to tell the truth. Do you even know what that is anymore?”
“Dammit, Lorraine! Why in the hell are you trying so hard to hold on to something that you say caused you so much pain? Why can’t you just admit what this is really about, huh? This isn’t about how much you love me, or how much you need me. This is about winning and losing. Liam Reardon didn’t raise his princess to lose out on anything to anybody. Well, this isn’t some fucking beauty pageant!”
“I know this isn’t a contest.”
“Then let’s end this sham of a marriage so we can move on.” John sat down and buried his face in his hands.
“So you can move on . . . isn’t that what you mean?” Lorraine wiped tears from her eyes and hesitantly moved to the sofa and sat next to him. “We’ve both made mistakes, but in spite of everything I don’t want to let you go. If your family means as much to you as you say, there has to be a part of you that doesn’t want to let that go either. I know your work is important to you, but is it more important than being an example to our children? You’re only thirty-seven years old, John, and I believe you’re still idealistic enough to go back to school. That was your dream. You can have that now.”
“Dreams change. People change.”
“What is it you’re afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid of anything.” John pushed up off the sofa, went to the bar, and poured himself a shot of bourbon.
“The first time we met you were working security at one of my mother’s parties and I made a joke about you being one of the best-looking rent-a-cops I’d seen. I flirted with you the entire night.”
“We’ve already been down memory lane more times than necessary.”
Lorraine stood up and faced him as he poured another shot. “You were working your way through law school. I fell in love with you because I believed in you. I believed in your dreams. I believed that you wanted to make something more out of your life.”
“I did make something out of my life,” John angrily fired back. “When I was a cop I was the bes
t damn cop I could be. Now I’m damn proud of being a marshal. If you’re so disillusioned then why can’t you stop this?”
“Because I know how much I loved you then, how much I still love you.”
“Then you should also recall why I gave up that dream. You got pregnant. We got married—”
“And you’ve blamed me for it in one way or another ever since.”
“I stepped up and I took care of my responsibilities the best way I knew how.”
“You promised you’d go back to school. Daddy would be happy to—”
“I’m not taking another dime of Liam’s money. God knows he would never let me live it down. He already holds this house over my head every chance he gets.”
“You paid him back.”
“That’s not the point. It took every bit of what I saved and a chunk of my self-respect right along with it. But, this is my family and I decide how I choose to take care of them. Next to my kids, this job is the most important thing in the world to me.” John tossed back another shot, slammed the glass down on the counter, and walked toward the door. “We can have an amicable divorce. I may not be rollin’ in it, but I told you before I would make sure you and the kids had everything you needed. There’s no point prolonging the inevitable.”
“You weren’t so damn eager to run off and get a divorce before Adriane Sullivan came along.”
“Lorraine, I want to be able to look at you again and not see you in bed with another man, but I can’t. I know that my job has been hard for you to deal with and you’d rather see me in a suit working a nine to five, but that’s not who I am.”
“I know who you are, John.”
“Do you? Or do you just see who you want me to be?”
“What is so wrong with that?”
“Nothing is wrong with that. But, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with me. I like who I am, Lorraine. You can blame my job, you can blame Adriane Sullivan, hell, you can blame global warming, but we’re not the same people we were before the kids . . . before the house. I didn’t destroy what we had all by myself; we both had a hand in it. I’m not doin’ this anymore. I’m done.” John tossed back another shot and grimaced. “I never pegged you for a martyr. Sometimes when something is broken it should just stay that way.”
Avenging Alex Page 10
