Embracing Danger

by Olivia Jaymes

  Her adrenaline surged and she turned much too sharply, pushing her two left tires into the loose gravel on the side of the road. Her heart jumped into her throat as the vehicle skidded and only a death grip on the wheel kept it from spinning in the other direction. Just when she thought she was out of danger, the tires caught the firmer ground and the car barreled forward, straight at a cluster of trees. She slammed on the brake but not before her bumper came into hard contact with one of the immoveable tree trunks.

  An object flew at her face, knocking her back into her seat and pushing the oxygen from her lungs. She sat there for a long time, letting her breathing and heart rate return to normal. The airbag had deployed on impact and she had slight red marks on her hands from the chemicals. A quick inventory of her limbs and head let her know she was dazed but unhurt.

  Blinking tears away, she was able to locate her handbag, hooking it on her shoulder before stumbling from the car. The front of the car was smashed in and would probably need to be towed. Sighing, she locked the vehicle and looked up the long road and then down at her already aching feet, encased in gold Jimmy Choo sandals with a three inch heel.

  The half mile walk to the house was going to hugely suck. In fact, the entire evening had been a disaster. She couldn’t wait to crawl into a bathtub and soak her cares away.

  * * *

  Flinging her purse onto the couch, Arden fell into the inviting cushions, groaning in relief. Her feet had already been sore from dancing at the party and the half mile hike hadn’t helped that situation. Her heels were rubbed raw and her arches were screaming for mercy as she slid the expensive sandals off her feet, letting them fall to the floor with a satisfying thud. She rubbed her frozen toes, trying to get the circulation back into her chilled to the bone feet and pains shot through the soles as the blood began to flow again.

  “Shit,” she muttered. “Next time I wear boots. The kind with furry linings and flat heels.”

  Leaning back and closing her eyes, she found the silence in the house comforting after an evening of music and chatter with people she barely remembered, if at all. Most of them had been more curious about her than anything, and she’d tried to keep a smile on her face even during the most humiliating questions regarding her divorce.

  Nothing like being a sideshow this evening.

  Then the whole fiasco with Shane hadn’t made things much better. He was bitter and he had a reason to be, but she’d assumed that he’d moved on and didn’t care much anymore. She’d kept discreet tabs on him over the years and he’d become quite the playboy with a different woman on his arm every night. Honestly she’d assumed he barely remembered their summer so long ago and had often wondered if perhaps it only had meaning to her. They’d both been so young.

  But she’d never forgotten. That brief time had haunted her even as she’d married another man. No male could measure up to Shane but she’d known that when she left.

  Her shoes hooked in her fingers, she slowly stood, her back popping and cracking in a few places. She’d been caught by several people on her way out of the party so her father had ducked out before her, but there didn’t seem to be any sign that he’d returned home. Normally he turned on the television in the study saying he liked the noise in the background, but the house was eerily quiet. Padding on bare feet, she stuck her head into the garage to check for his car. Perhaps he’d stopped somewhere on his way home.

  The dark luxury sedan was sitting in its usual spot.

  He was probably already upstairs asleep.

  Entering her own room, she flipped on her bedside lamp and tossed her shoes in the bottom of her closet. It would be a long while before she’d wear them again after the torture of tonight. She stripped off her dress and hung it up before wrapping a robe around her body and tightly tying the sash. She worked on the pins in her hair as she walked back into the bathroom.

  Tomorrow would be a new day and she’d start fresh. She’d talked to Shane and survived. It hadn’t been easy but she’d known it wouldn’t be. He was angry, and rightfully so, but even if she told him why she’d really left would it make any difference? Nothing had changed.

  She’d tried so hard to put him behind her, to forget him, but Shane wasn’t a man easily forgotten.

  And clearly he couldn’t forgive.

  Humming a song from that fateful summer, Arden stopped in front of the mirror to see a folded piece of paper propped up against her toothbrush holder. She unfolded it and quickly scanned the brief contents.

  Arden,

  I’ll be out of town for awhile. Please don’t worry.

  Love,

  Your father

  Out of town? For sure, he hadn’t mentioned any trips. She would have remembered that. In fact, he’d talked about having a welcome home party for her in a few weeks. Whatever this trip was it had come up at the last minute.

  She walked back into the bedroom and picked up the landline on the bedside table and dialed her father’s cell, listening as it rang and rang before going to voicemail. She left a message to call her as soon as possible, surprised her father hadn’t answered. His phone was like another appendage and he was never without it. He depended on it for medication alarms, appointments, and contact numbers. He’d been one of the first people to embrace having a mobile phone and she often teased him that he loved it like a child.

  Something didn’t feel right.

  He wasn’t answering his phone.

  But his car was in the garage.

  His note didn’t give her any details.

  And why had he even written a note? Normally if he had something to tell her he’d either say it in person or send her a text. He’d seen her less than an hour ago, after all, and nothing had seemed amiss.

  A quick glance at the clock told her it was too late to call Dexter, her father’s attorney and best friend. If Ben Cavendish was taking care of any sort of business Dexter would know about it. She’d call him in the morning and get the details. In the meantime, she’d remind herself that her father was a grown man and could take care of himself. He’d specifically said not to worry. But that only made her worry more.

  Chapter Three

  ‡

  Shane’s stomach was rumbling as he pushed open the door to the local sports bar the next day, the smell of charred meat and melted cheese wrapping around him. After a long morning of paperwork, he was meeting his brothers for lunch, an Anderson family tradition actually started at the behest of their mother who wanted them to remain close no matter how their lives might diverge.

  They’d eat some artery clogging grub, drink a few beers, maybe flirt with a cute waitress, and generally catch up with the latest news. All four brothers tried to make it but every now and then something did come up. But this time, they would all be there.

  His brothers were waiting for him at a table near the back but close enough to the televisions to watch the college football games. Shane shrugged off his jacket and hung it on the back of his chair while he signaled to Jackie the waitress for a beer.

  “Christ, the temperature really dropped last night. Yesterday felt like a summer day and today I’m freezing my nuts off,” Shane observed with a shiver. “I wish the weather would make up its mind.”

  A longneck was slid in front of him and he thanked Jackie with a smile. They’d dated a few years back but were now just friends. No hard feelings. She had a boyfriend over in Springwood that worked at the Perry ranch.

  “You boys know what you want?” she asked, a hand on her hip. She was a pretty girl with auburn hair and long legs, but she also had a bad habit of drinking with her girlfriends and drunk dialing him at three in the morning.

  “Or do you need some time?”

  They’d been coming there for years and knew the menu by heart. Shane had known last week what he was going to have. All four brothers ordered and Jackie swayed back to the kitchen, Carter’s gaze on the woman’s ass.

  “Jackie’s looking really good these days. Maybe you and she should spar
k something up again.”

  Shane snorted into his beer. “Only if I can confiscate her cell whenever she goes out. She’s a sloppy drunk, my brother. But you’re welcome to find out for yourself. She’s given you the eye more than once.”

  “No, thanks. I’d like a woman who hasn’t fallen under the spell of my older brother.”

  Noah, the eldest son by seven minutes, choked and coughed. “That’s going to cut down on female candidates, little brother. Shane here is making his way through the female population like a buzz saw. Better grab one while you can.”

  Carter gave Shane a sour look. “Find one woman and settle down, for fuck’s sake. You’re going to be forty soon. You’re starting to look creepy with a different woman on your arm every weekend.”

  An image of Arden in a scarlet bikini splashing around in the pool by moonlight flashed through Shane’s mind, but he shoved that memory away as quickly as it had come up. That was old news and they’d both moved on. She’d moved so far that she’d up and married some other guy.

  Shane grabbed a few pretzels from the basket in the middle of the table and lobbed one at Carter. “I’ll find one when I’m good and ready. Your woman problems are not my issue.”

  Easton, the more serious brother and twin to Noah, heaved a long sigh. “Stop bickering. Christ on a crutch, don’t you all have anything better to talk about than Shane’s addiction to females? It’s a worn-out topic.”

  “So pick a new one,” Noah replied easily. “Anything interesting going on?”

  Carter took a swig of his beer and slapped it down on the table, giving Shane a side-eyed look. “Arden Cavendish was in West’s office this morning raising hell. Apparently she can’t find her father and she’s worried. He left a note that he was leaving town for a while but he’s not answering his phone and Dexter Lowell doesn’t know where he is either, and that’s strange as hell. Cavendish’s car is in the garage but he’s nowhere to be found. She went to the police but they told her he wasn’t a missing person until he’d been gone for seventy-two hours, plus he left a note so technically he’s not missing in the eyes of the law. I guess she thought West might put some pressure on them to open an investigation. She looked and sounded frantic, said she knew something isn’t right.”

  Shane’s fingers flexed around the cold bottle but he deliberately kept his features schooled. His brothers were aware that he’d dated Arden but they didn’t know all the details. He wanted to keep it that way, if possible.

  “Where does she think her father is?”

  “That’s the interesting thing. She had no idea. He was at the party last night and now he’s gone with only a two sentence note telling her he was leaving. I guess someone also ran her off the private road to their house last night, so she had to walk the last half mile. No one should be on that road unless they’re visiting the Cavendish place.”

  One thing Shane knew was the Arden of the past hadn’t been a hysterical female, so hearing that she was upset and worried about her father had him wondering if she might be right.

  “What were you and West doing at the office this morning?” Easton asked. “It is Saturday.”

  “No rest when you’re working on a big project,” Carter laughed. “We had some last minute details on the teen center to discuss and it was the only time we were both free. We should be able to schedule the open house before the holidays.”

  Carter ran the construction arm of Anderson Industries and he was heading up West’s pet project as mayor – a new teen center, which had been built completely from donations.

  Shane sat back in his chair, crossing his legs, not wanting to appear as if the answer was important to him. “Does West know anything about who ran Arden off the road?”

  Carter shook his head. “It was too dark so she didn’t see anything and there were no witnesses. He’s got the police looking at the traffic light footage a few miles up the road. They might find something there.”

  Noah frowned. “So what does Arden want West to do exactly? Run Ben’s credit cards and see if he’s charged something somewhere?”

  “That’s one place to start,” Carter replied. “Let’s face it, Cavendish ran with some unsavory characters, so Arden has a reason to be concerned if you ask me. Maybe one of his business associates finally got tired of his shit.”

  Shane shook his head. “Listen, I don’t like the bastard any more than you do. Hell, I have more than a few reasons to hate his guts. but if anything happens to him Arden is going to be heartbroken. She loves him, although I don’t know why.”

  Easton pointed a fork at Shane. “He’s her father, dumbass. It doesn’t have to make sense, it just is. But I agree with Carter, she has reason to worry. He’s been elbow deep in illegal shit for years, except nobody could prove it. It may have caught up to him.”

  How many times had Shane tried to convince Arden that her father had made his money with deals that weren’t always above board? She’d been adamant that he was lying and they’d had more than a few arguments about her unflinching loyalty to a man that Shane knew was as crooked as Blue Mill Road.

  “So what did West say? Is he going to help her?”

  Carter shrugged and picked at the label of his longneck. “He said he’d run her daddy’s credit cards and put out a BOLO for him. But he pointed out that Ben is a grown man, left a note, and doesn’t have to check in with his daughter, especially since she’s been in New York all this time. For all she knows, he does this every now and then. He doesn’t have to answer to anyone.”

  Their food came right after, and in between bites Shane heard about the latest headaches on the ranch from Noah and some issues that had come up with the financial investments with Easton. Every Anderson male had a job to do to keep the family business running smoothly. Only the lone female Leann had escaped the pull of Anderson Industries.

  They paid their bill and headed out into the chilly air. Shane bid his brothers goodbye and headed to his motorcycle but he quickly realized Easton was on his tail.

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  Shane wanted to pretend he didn’t know what his older brother was talking about. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Don’t be obtuse. I’m talking about Arden. She’s back and you’re going to be seeing a lot of her.”

  Leaning against the parking meter, Shane played with the keys, his gaze on the tip of his boots. Easton and Noah were old enough to know he’d dated Arden that summer but they didn’t know everything that had gone on. They just thought they did.

  “It was a long time ago, East, and best left in the past. When I see her, I’ll be polite and cordial. I hope she does the same. But that’s it. I’m not looking to rekindle anything if that’s what you’re thinking. Those days are over.”

  The woman he saw last night probably didn’t have much in common with the girl he’d loved so many years ago, although he’d seen a flash of the past when she’d got her back up.

  But Daddy said she was going back to her ex-husband. Shane doubted it was true but then Ben Cavendish could be mighty persuasive when he wanted to be.

  “She’s divorced now.”

  “So?” Shane challenged, straightening up and looking his brother in the eye. “Is that what you think I’ve been doing all these years? Pining and waiting for my chance to pounce? I can assure you that’s not the case. We had a summer fling. End of story.”

  I am such a fucking liar.

  Easton regarded Shane steadily, no smile on his face, but then he was the most serious of all the sons. “Is that what you’ve told yourself? You haven’t been the same since she left town.”

  “I grew the hell up.” Shane picked up the helmet and pulled it over his head. “Love is a fairy tale, big brother. It’s an illusion created by mirrors, lights, and alcohol. I might have believed in it once but I’m not that naive anymore.”

  “Jesus, Shane. You are one cynical asshole. Is there anything you do believe in?”

  Shane laughed and fired up the cycle, a 1
965 Harley Electra Glide he’d restored with his own two hands. “Hell, yes. I believe in me, our family, and an honest day’s work. Oh, and I also believe in karma, although I don’t get to witness it nearly enough. So actually, I believe in quite a bit. What do you believe in?”

  “I believe you’ve been lying to yourself for so long you don’t know what the truth is anymore.”

  There were no words left to say. Shane wasn’t angry with Easton; he’d only meant well, but an argument on the sidewalk of Tremont wasn’t going to change anyone’s mind.

  Now all Shane had to do was convince himself that he didn’t love Arden anymore.

  Chapter Four

  ‡

  Arden’s grandmother’s home was as formal as the woman who lived in it. Dark cherry wood, heavy woven rugs, and original paintings on the walls gave the home an uncomfortable feeling, like those scratchy dresses with the crinolines that Arden had been forced to wear on holidays so she could pose for pictures and be shown off like a prize cow.

  Arden was sure her grandmother had never worn a pair of jeans in her entire life. Even now in her late seventies, she was dressed in an off-white Chanel suit with her silver hair meticulously coiffed and her face tastefully made up. Elaine Graham had been a beauty in her day and was still a handsome woman who attracted attention when she attended a social event or traveled. In fact, there was a rumor that an older Greek millionaire had proposed marriage just last summer.

  Of course he had been tactfully turned down and sent on his way. Elaine often said that she was too old and set in her ways to shoehorn a man in her life at this juncture.

  Arden carefully lifted the antique ceramic teapot with the ring of pink roses and poured two cups of tea, one for her and the other for her grandmother, who was currently sitting on the damask settee in her parlor room.

  That her grandmother even had a parlor room had always amused Arden to no end. Elaine had been brought up with wealth and that meant homes that were photographed for glossy magazines. Homes like that had parlors.