Vows

by Rochelle Alers

  The police chief gave her a warm, comforting smile. “Señora, I promise you that if I hear of your husband I’ll contact you myself.”

  Vanessa rose to her feet, extending her hand. “Thank you for all of your help. You’ve been very kind to me.”

  The chief rose with her. “If you accompany one of my men to the airport, he will make certain you board your plane for your trip back to the United States.”

  She thanked him again and walked out of the building housing the police department with the officer who had been assigned to take her to the airport. She slipped into the car beside the young officer, with her luggage and Joshua’s stored in the trunk, and stared straight ahead, willing the tears not to fall as he drove toward the Oaxaca airport.

  She had lost Joshua Kirkland, and she was not carrying his child.

  She was going home—alone.

  PART TWO

  The Stranger

  Chapter 17

  “That’s it, Connie,” Vanessa concluded, staring down at her folded hands in her lap.

  Connie Childs’s large eyes were fixed on her sister’s composed features. “I don’t believe you. There was no way it could’ve happened. If you’d married I would’ve known it.”

  “I wouldn’t lie to you, Connie.”

  “But…but you didn’t seem any different when you got back. All you said was that you called Warren and extended your vacation because you were having so much fun. Little did any of us know that your fun meant you’d gotten married.”

  “I wouldn’t call having my husband of one day walk out on me fun.”

  “Maybe something happened to him and he couldn’t contact you.”

  “Get real, Connie. It’s been thirteen months. If he wanted to contact me, he would’ve done it.”

  “Does he know where you live?”

  “He may not know my exact address, but he knows where I work. He admitted he’d heard about GEA.”

  “What if he’s—”

  “Dead?” Vanessa said, completing her sister’s sentence. Connie nodded. “Well, if he isn’t, he’ll wish he was if I ever meet up with him again.”

  “What did you do with his clothes?”

  “I’ve stored them in the closet in the small bedroom.”

  “This is so unbelievable,” Connie continued.

  Yes it is, Vanessa confirmed silently. She didn’t know why she’d packed Joshua’s clothes and personal belongings and brought them back with her. At first she thought she wanted something of his to hold on to, but even that had vanished when she realized that he was never coming back to her. She’d locked the closet and had never opened it again. Joshua Kirkland and everything he represented was lost to her—forever.

  “You still don’t believe me, do you?” Biting down on her lower lip, Connie glanced away, giving Vanessa her answer. “You think I could make something like this up?”

  “I don’t know what to think anymore.”

  Vanessa rose to her feet. “Come with me.”

  Connie followed her up the staircase and into the large, sunny room Vanessa had selected as her bedroom. She was always astounded by the furnishings in her younger sister’s home. Each piece had been selected with the utmost consideration. Each piece of pottery, plant and wall hanging blended perfectly with the existing decor as if it had been chosen by a professional decorator.

  Opening the door of a massive, bleached pine armoire, Vanessa withdrew a small box covered with a colorful green and yellow plaid fabric. She removed the top and handed it to Connie.

  “He bought those for me.”

  Connie’s mouth dropped slightly as she stared at the diamonds in the wedding band and bracelet nestled on a bed of black velvet. Handing the box back to Vanessa, she said, “I could use a cup of strong, black coffee right about now.”

  Vanessa returned the box in its place, closed the armoire, and accompanied her sister as they retraced their steps. It was only after she had brewed a pot of coffee and she and Connie had drunk two cups that Connie spoke again.

  “Are you going to tell Mom and Daddy?”

  She gave Connie a long, penetrating look. “No. It’s my past, and there’s no need for anyone else to know.”

  Connie circled the table in the dining area and hugged Vanessa, offering the sort of love and support they could always count on from each other. “Your secret is safe with me.”

  Vanessa maneuvered into her assigned parking space in the garage beneath the building where the administrative offices of Grenville-Edwards Aerospace were housed. Even though it wasn’t quite eight o’clock, the garage was nearly filled to capacity. It was late June and she wondered, whatever happened to people taking vacations?

  She grimaced as the word vacation attacked her. It had been more than a year since her last vacation, and she knew she had to get away from GEA for a while…even if it was for only a long weekend.

  A satisfied smile softened her tight features. She’d solved her own dilemma. She would take her vacation as long weekends. Perhaps she would fly to Los Angeles to see her parents, or visit with her former colleagues at the small college where she had taught courses in accounting.

  Stepping out of her late-model Toyota, she slipped her arms into a hip-length, peach-colored linen jacket that matched a slim, fitted sheath. Reaching for her leather tote and shoulder bag on the passenger seat, she heard a familiar voice behind her.

  “Isn’t it a shame about Preston breaking both of his legs?”

  Whirling quickly, Vanessa stared at her assistant, Shane Sumners. Her pulse quickened. “What did you say?”

  Shane’s large hazel eyes widened behind the thin wire frames of his glasses. “I guess you didn’t hear the news because you were out yesterday. The word is that Preston climbed up to the roof of his house to adjust his satellite dish and fell off.”

  “The silly, stubborn, cantankerous, eccentric fool,” she sputtered. “What Preston fails to realize is that he’s an accountant, not an engineer.”

  Shane fell in step beside her as they headed out of the parking garage to the elevators that would take them directly to the office, where Grenville-Edwards Aerospace occupied an entire floor in the modern office building.

  “Is he in the hospital?”

  Shane let Vanessa enter the elevator before him, then stepped in and pushed the button for the seventh floor. “He’s at St. Mary’s. He’ll be there for a few more days before he’s released. We took up a collection yesterday and sent him flowers and a fruit basket.”

  “What he needs is a new set of brains,” she said, frowning. “Last year he almost electrocuted himself because he thought he knew how to rewire his house, and now this. What Preston ought to do is get a girlfriend to occupy his free time, so he can stop tinkering with things around his house.”

  Forty-eight-year-old Preston had spurned the advances of every woman who had seemed remotely interested in him, saying he didn’t have time for a relationship. The only things he had time for were his numbers and his do-it-yourself projects, which on more than one occasion had resulted in his being hospitalized.

  Shane smiled, nodding. “You’re right about that. There must be something about working at GEA that prevents forming relationships.”

  “What do you mean, Shane?” The doors opened at the seventh floor and they both stepped out into a carpeted reception area.

  “Look at you, me, Jenna, Warren, Preston. And too many others who work here and are in their thirties and forties and aren’t married. Why? Because we’re married to GEA. We earn fantastic salaries, but for a price. We have no life outside of GEA.”

  That’s where you’re wrong, she wanted to say to the tall, slender, thirty-seven-year-old accountant with smooth pale skin, rakishly long, dark brown hair and gentle eyes. I am married.

  She gave him a sidelong glance. “I thought you were going to some of the clubs that hosted after-work happy hours.”

  “I did for a while, but I didn’t like it,” he admitted. “Everyone seemed so
plastic.”

  Vanessa smiled up at him. “I wouldn’t worry so much if I were you. You have a lot going for—”

  “Don’t say it,” he interrupted, returning her smile. “I know the line.”

  “If that’s the case, then you have nothing to worry about.”

  He shifted his eyebrows. “That’s what I keep telling myself.”

  “I’ll talk to you later. I have to get to my office and see what’s on my desk. If I’m out one day it seems as if I need three just to catch up.”

  “What did I say about GEA taking over your life?” Shane teased as he headed in the direction of the employee lounge.

  Vanessa made her way down the carpeted hallway leading to her office. Shane wasn’t entirely wrong about GEA taking over the lives of its employees. Many worked beyond their scheduled seven-hour workday. Their workplace was very conducive to spending many hours there.

  All of the offices were large, with windows and vistas that looked out at the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, while the employee lounge was furnished with all of the latest electronic equipment including a large-screen television, a library stocked with popular magazines, daily newspapers from major U.S. cities and bestselling hardcover and paperback books. All of the building’s employees were offered sizeable discounts at the health spa housed on the lower level, and most ate in the building’s cafeteria, which offered a cross section of cuisine, including restricted diets and those for the health-conscious extremist.

  Opening the door to her office, she was met with a space which reflected her personality. Pieces of sculpture and artifacts from African-American and Native American cultures dotted the tables and shelves. A large cactus sat in a corner where bright sunlight lingered throughout most of the day once the vertical blinds were opened. Thickly-bound reports were stacked on a worktable behind her desk, along with a set of accounting manuals and binders containing updated government regulations. Nowhere in the office was there a photograph of Vanessa or any member of her family. She had made it a practice to never combine her personal life with her career.

  Closing the door behind her, she tossed her handbag and tote on a comfortable, taupe-colored leather chair before she slipped out of her jacket and hung it in a closet concealed along a wall. A small clock on a side table chimed eight o’clock as she sat down to retrieve her telephone messages.

  “Vanessa, this is Warren” came a soft voice she would recognize even if he failed to identify himself. “I’ve scheduled a meeting of my key people for tomorrow morning at nine-thirty. We will meet in my office rather than in the conference room.”

  She listened absentmindedly to the other messages as she mulled over the word key. What was Warren saying? That because Preston was out on a medical leave she was to fill in for him? Shrugging her shoulders, she replayed the other messages, scribbling notes on a legal pad. Whatever Warren wanted would be revealed at the nine-thirty meeting.

  Vanessa met Lisabeth Nelson as she made her way toward Warren McDonald’s office. “What’s going on other than Preston’s broken legs?” she asked the petite personnel director in a hushed voice.

  Lisabeth shook her neatly braided head. She shifted her professionally arched eyebrows seconds before her dark brown eyes sparkled, and formed an attractive smile. “Your guess is as good as mine, Girlfriend. But you know Warren. He orders, and we snap to attention.”

  “You’ve got that right,” Vanessa agreed, smiling.

  The gleaming brass plate on the solid mahogany door with Warren’s name and title silently acknowledged the man’s rank in the corporate structure before one set eyes on him, and the size and furnishings in his magnificent office mirrored Warren McDonald’s passion for luxury and the exotic. Remington bronzes and Chinese ivories only captured one’s gaze briefly before a nine and one-half foot long and five-foot wide desk of rosewood and marble in the center of the rosewood floor demanded full attention.

  The size of the table never ceased to overwhelm Vanessa, and rumor had it that a steel frame had been anchored into the floor to lend sufficient support for the heavy piece of furniture.

  “Ah—the ladies are here,” Warren announced in a softly modulated voice that belied his size and strength. He crossed the large room with a light swinging gait, again throwing one off guard with his two hundred forty pounds evenly distributed over a six-foot-five frame. His unlined dark face was as smooth as an oiled, African ebony mask. His equally dark eyes swept appreciatively over the women before he closed the door.

  “Please have a seat,” he offered, gesturing toward two empty leather chairs. Vanessa and Lisabeth murmured thanks and sat down.

  It wasn’t until Vanessa glanced around the room that she felt as if the space had shrunk. The walls seemed to close in on her. There were more than ten people in the expansive office, but there might as well have been only one. Her gaze fixed on the stoic face belonging to Joshua Kirkland!

  It has to be him, a silent voice screamed; she was grateful that she was seated, because she doubted whether her trembling knees would support her body. How many men claimed a pair of eyes that could burn and freeze at the same time? And how many men claimed close-cut, silver hair that shimmered against mahogany brown skin layered with burnished gold? His gaze met hers and moved slowly over her face; nothing in his expression indicated that he’d seduced her and married her. It was as if they were strangers.

  He was as elegantly dressed as she remembered, his light gray trousers falling at just the right break above his highly shined black imported loafers. The matching gray jacket hung with perfect precision on his broad shoulders, and she recognized his trademark Windsor-knotted tie under a spread collar, white shirt.

  Vanessa let out a breath as Warren stood behind his desk, his hands clasped tightly behind his back. “There have been a lot of rumors floating around GEA over the past few months about mergers and restructuring, and I’d like to give you an update, as department heads.

  “Firstly, I’d like to inform everyone that our own resident Bob Vila slash Martha Stewart, a.k.a. Preston Richards, has been hospitalized again. Preston will be placed on a medical leave for the remainder of the summer. Which brings me to the next announcement. Vanessa will be filling in for Preston as Acting Chief Financial Officer until his return.”

  There was a spattering of applause of approval as Vanessa focused her attention on Warren for the first time. So that was what he’d meant by key. She managed a tight smile.

  “I suppose some of you are wondering who this gentleman is,” Warren continued. “I met with the Board of Directors several months back, and the majority recommended that before GEA entertains a merger or downsizing we hire an expert on corporate efficiency. Joshua Kirkland is that expert. He will be meeting with each of you over the next two weeks, and I’ve assured him of your complete and absolute cooperation.

  “Mr. Kirkland has been given your résumés along with evaluations, so he is aware of your strengths and weaknesses. I assured him that the weaknesses are few, otherwise you would not claim the distinction of being GEA employees. I’ve also given Mr. Kirkland your vacation schedules, so he’ll work around the days when you’ll be away from the office. Are there any questions?”

  “Is he married?” Lisabeth whispered sotto voce without parting her lips.

  Yes, he’s married, Vanessa answered Lisabeth silently. He’s married to me!

  There was silence and a wagging of heads from the assembled. Most of the department supervisors were anxious to get back to their desks, where they were engaged in neverending races to complete forms and reports before impending deadlines.

  Warren shrugged wide shoulders under his tailor-made suit jacket. “Thank you for your time.”

  Lisabeth grabbed Vanessa’s ice cold fingers as they walked out of the CEO’s office. “Can you believe that, Girlfriend? We finally get a man at GEA who could get a rise out of a dead woman, and the brother’s an outside consultant. Damn! Talk about bad luck!”

  Vanessa did not respo
nd, but jerked her hand away. She wanted Lisabeth to stop talking.

  Lisabeth gave her a sidelong glance. “What’s wrong?”

  She stared at Lisabeth. “Had you known that Warren was going to bring him in as a consultant?”

  The personnel director shook her head. “It never came through my office. Why?”

  How could she tell her that she knew the man in Warren’s office? That the man who’d looked at her as if he’d never seen her had married her, then disappeared.

  “I thought that as Personnel Director you would’ve known, that’s all.”

  “You have to remember that GEA is still part of the Old Boy’s Club. Just because I’m the only female department head, that doesn’t made me privy to all of their decisions. Now that you’re Acting CFO I’ll have an ally.”

  “The word is Acting. I’ll have to get used to the fact that I’m going to have to do Preston’s job along with my own,” she lied smoothly, trying to slow down her pounding heart. She had to get away from Joshua Kirkland. It was either that, or everyone would know she’d been fool enough to trust a stranger and marry him within a week of their meeting.

  “How about lunch?” Lisabeth asked.

  “I can’t today.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “You’re on. Make it late.”

  “One-thirty?”

  “One-thirty it is,” she confirmed, rushing down the corridor that would take her back to her own office.

  Vanessa made it to the sanctuary of her office and closed the door. Walking across the room on shaking legs, she collapsed onto the chair behind her desk.

  Why had he come to her? Why now, and not months before? And why had he pretended not to know her?

  The uneasiness she had felt when she first met Joshua Kirkland returned. The fears and doubts she thought she had put to rest once she had agreed to marry him chilled her, despite the warm rays of the summer sun flooding the office through the expansive wall of glass.