The Predator [2]

by Brooke May

  “No more.” She nods. “No guys for a while. I need a break and get my life together.”

  “Good.” She squeezes me and lets go to give Marissa a hug and kiss. “We will call as often as we can.” I want to pack her up and take her with us, but I know this is something she needs. She has her own career and future to look forward to, and I’m not going to stop her. But it doesn’t mean I won’t miss her any less.

  “You do that.” She plants a wet kiss on Marissa’s cheek. “Tell me all about your adventures, okay?”

  “Yes, Aunt Beth.” Marissa giggles.

  “Be a good girl.” Beth stands and walks to my door. “I need to go get ready for work.” She groans. “Maybe during my ‘me time,’ I’ll find a job I actually want.” She rolls her eyes and blows us both a kiss. “Love you two.”

  Marissa and I answer her in unison. “Love you, too.”

  I take a moment to wipe my eyes before I turn back to my daughter. I’m going to miss seeing Beth almost every day, and I know Marissa will too. I force a smile and look at her; she’s now by my side.

  “Where Daddy been, Mommy?”

  I start to talk but close my mouth, unsure what to say. “Can I explain it to you when you are older? It will make more sense then.”

  “Swure.” She shrugs and pads out of my room and heads downstairs.

  I start the three-trip process of hauling bags down to the front door before I find Karmin, Aunt Jackie, and Marissa in the kitchen eating the extra oatmeal cookies that Chamberlain and Scott left.

  I lean against the doorway and smile at the people who have been my family for the past four years. I’m so thankful for each of them. Aunt Jackie took me in and healed my broken soul when I needed someone most. Karmin was always there for me when I need to cry or help me with Marissa. And then there is my baby girl. She gives me a purpose and a reason to do better every day.

  “Mommy!” Marissa giggles as I walk in and steal a bite from her cookie.

  “Are you all packed up?” Aunt Jackie asks as she pours me a glass of milk, and Karmin hands me a cookie.

  “I believe so.” Smiling, I thank them. “We will be in Boston in a few weeks. Chamberlain said he would send for the rest of our things once we get there.”

  “Are you going to be okay being there again?” Aunt Jackie takes a seat across from me. She hasn’t been back East since her father, my grandfather, sent her away. “I’m not concerned about you two being with Chamberlain. From what I saw the other day and yesterday, he really cares for the two of you.”

  “I know.” I take a bite and chew it before I answer her. “We will be fine. I’ll just have to be extra careful with the press.”

  “Chamberlain will help with that too. I’m sure of it.” Karmin takes her seat across from Marissa after handing her another cookie.

  “My daddy great!” Marissa says with a mouth full of cookie. “He an’ Mommy get married and have a brover.” She squeals, shooting cookie all over the table.

  “Marissa, not with your mouth full,” I scold her. I don’t say anything else. I don’t want to crush her dreams. Sure, I still love Chamberlain, but I think it is going to be a long while before we discuss marriage and any more children. “I’ll miss you two.” I grab both of their hands and hold on tight.

  “For you, K.C., for you and Marissa, I would gladly make the trip to Boston to visit.” Aunt Jackie places her other hand on the top of mine. “We are family, and though we may be miles apart, we will always be together in our hearts.”

  I smile at them just as the doorbell rings. Marissa takes off sprinting out of the kitchen screaming, “Daddy.” I stand and follow while she throws the door open and jumps into Chamberlain’s arms.

  “Hey, princess.” Chamberlain chuckles as he wraps his giant arms around our tiny little girl. She definitely took after me when it came to her size.

  “Hi.” I come up to them, placing a hand on Marissa’s back and lean in to give Chamberlain a kiss on the cheek, but he turns and my lips land on his.

  “Hey, baby,” he says huskily when I quickly pull back. “You two ready to hit it?” He places Marissa back down.

  “Yes!” Marissa jumps and then quickly looks around. “Be wright back. Don’t weave me!”

  “Never.” He laughs as she runs off. He looks down at the bags. “This it?” He doesn’t believe this is it.

  “Yes, we don’t need a whole lot …” I trail off as my mind takes over to make sure I do have everything.

  “No, that’s fine. We’ll just send someone to bring the rest of your things.” He pulls me into his arms and kisses me again. I don’t fight it like I should because I miss his lips too much. They are still the perfect combination of soft and firm against mine. I’m selfish. “You’ll be in my bed from here on out tonight.” The husky texture of his voice returns, making me quiver with need. “Ready?”

  “Whenever you are.” I breathe. My chest rubs against his as it rises and falls, causing my nipples to tighten and peak.

  “Do you say your good-byes?” He hands a couple of the bags to Scott and then grabs a couple for himself.

  “No.” I turn around and find my aunts giving Marissa hugs and kisses. I walk to them and hug each of them. “You two take care.”

  “You too,” they say together.

  “Watch over Beth for me, please.”

  “Don’t worry. We told her she still has to come to family dinner. Plus, it will be easier for her once we move her in.”

  “Really?” I smile with hope at my aunts.

  Aunt Jackie winks. “You’d better get going. Don’t want to miss your flight.” They both kiss a cheek and push me out the door.

  “Bye!” I wave as I get in the front seat as Scott helps settle Marissa in the backseat. I laugh as Marissa explains to him what he is doing wrong.

  “Wrong, Uncle Scott. Wet Mommy do it!” She bats his hands away.

  “Fine.” He holds up his hands in defense. I reach back and snap her in. “You make it look easy,” he grumbles.

  “Because I’ve been doing it forever,” I reply as I get back to my seat and buckle in. Chamberlain grabs my hand and pulls it onto the gear shifter with his.

  “My cook is already in Orlando waiting for us, so it’s just the four of us on the plane.” He throws the car into reverse, and we are off.

  “Bye, home! Bye, Aunt Jackie! Bye, Auntie Karmin!” Marissa waves like a crazy girl as we leave the only home she has ever known.

  “I hope you packed a couple of dresses,” Chamberlain says, breaking me from my sad thought.

  “I did.” I smile over at him.

  “The one from the fight the other night?” He’s so hopeful it’s adorable.

  “Maybe,” I tease. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Katie

  MARISSA’S ENTHUSIAM TO get on the plane for the first time made getting through security a whole lot easier than I thought. We boarded the plane in first class, completely different from the last time I flew. The last time I was up in first class was with my parents when we flew to Los Angeles for a conference my father had to attend.

  “I sit with Daddy!” Marissa jumps in one of our seats while the rest of us put our carry-ons above us.

  “Okay.” I help her buckle up and take a seat in front of her with Scott.

  Marissa watches out the window as the others board and get to their seats. “Are you excited, princess?” Chamberlain buckles himself into the seat next to her and leans over to look out the window as well. He drops his nose to the crown of her blond hair, inhales, and places a tender kiss on her head.

  “Yes!” She bounces in her seat, hitting the top of her head on Chamberlain’s chin. It doesn’t faze her in the least, but Chamberlain moves away, rubbing his chin.

  I smile at him when he looks up at me. “She has a really hard head.”

  “No shi- kidding.” He winces.

  “Just like her daddy.” My smile turns smug. I turn around a
s the flight attendant starts all the pre-flight checks and instructions. I grab my book and settle in for our flight as the plane starts to taxi.

  “He went through hell, you know?” Scott pulls me from my book. He is leaning against the armrest between us. I glance back and gush when I find Chamberlain and Marissa asleep, leaning against each other.

  I turn back to Scott and close my book. “I did too, Scott. Being pregnant on my own wasn’t easy, but I did it.”

  “It was a fucking mess for a while.”

  “Really?” I look back at Chamberlain again; his arm is wrapped around Marissa.

  “Yeah, he went so far as to hire a P.I. to find you.”

  My head whips back to him. “What?”

  Chamberlain hired a private investigator to try to find me?

  When?

  If he had, shouldn’t something have turned up and he would have found me sooner?

  He nods. “When C couldn’t reach you, and your family wouldn’t speak to him, he went to a private investigator to locate you.”

  “Nothing came up?”

  “No.” He rubs his face. “Your parents did a good job of covering their tracks when you vanished.”

  “When you become a dirty secret to a powerful family, that tends to happen, but I’m surprised there wasn’t at least some hint that turned up.” I don’t bother to hide my disgust with my so-called family. Scott knows well enough.

  He shakes his head. “Nope, it drove C crazy.” He glances back at him and then back at me. “Then with everything that went down with Gwen—”

  “What happened with Gwen?” I cut him off, wanting to know everything. “Chamberlain said they don’t talk anymore.”

  “They don’t,” Scott answers. “She apparently really wanted him for herself. When you vanished, she started moving in on C, and he wasn’t having it. He wasn’t ever going to give up on you, and that finally broke their friendship. We haven’t talked to her since we left Boston that May.”

  She started moving in on him well before I vanished.

  “You haven’t been back since? Chamberlain said he has a house …”

  “Oh, we go back at the end of each season, but we never see her.”

  “Oh.”

  “The one thing I don’t get is how you managed to get pregnant and still leave C; you two were really in love?”

  “How could you tell?”

  He huffs. “K.C., I may look and act like a jackass, but I can tell shit like that. You two really loved each other, and I can still see that love now.” He smiles warmly at me.

  I nod and look down at my feet. “Remember when I told you Lizzy was plotting to trap you?”

  Scott frowns, trying to figure out how this all comes together. I didn’t even realize it until Beth said something. “Yes?”

  “The night of your birthday, do you by chance remember who you got the condoms from that you gave Chamberlain?”

  His pale green eyes pinch together and then widen when it comes to him. “No fucking way.”

  “They were damaged, and you handed them to—”

  “Chamberlain,” he finishes my sentence. “You two used them, didn’t you?”

  “Your answer is sitting behind me. She’s the best thing to ever happen to me.”

  “Wow …” He throws his head back against his seat and looks at the overhead compartment. “Crazy bitches—”

  “As much as I was hurt by Chamberlain kissing Gwen, I couldn’t find it in me to be so cruel to keep information about her dad from her.”

  “She knew all about Chamberlain? Didn’t she ever ask where he was?”

  Shrugging, I look back up at him. “I told her I would explain it when she was older and could understand it all better. She’s a smart little girl and accepted it.”

  Scott smiles. “Like her momma.”

  “I named her after Chamberlain’s mom because I thought her name was beautiful and my little girl was as well. It was a link to a family member who is always watching over her and would love her with everything she possessed. Fiona was a given.”

  “You still care for him, don’t you?”

  “I do. I still love him very much. My heart finally has relief from the ache it felt thinking he didn’t feel anything for me.”

  “Life fucking sucks.”

  “No, it doesn’t. Life tests you and shows you how strong you are. And when you overcome an obstacle placed before you, you accept the strength. It makes life more fulfilling and makes you value it more when you have to work for something.”

  I look back to check on Marissa and find a pair of dark blue orbs piercing into me. I suck in a breath before an easy smile comes. “I love you, Katie.” He looks like he has been awake for a while. Idly, I wonder if he heard everything I said.

  My smile warms as I melt from his words. “I love you too, Chamberlain.”

  XOXO

  I’M GLAD I decided to wear a skirt and a tank top because when we walk out into the Florida heat, I’m about ready to melt. I’ve become so used to the cooler temperatures of Denver that the Florida heat hits me hard.

  Scott helps me get our bags onto a cart that he grabbed for us while Chamberlain holds a still slumbering Marissa in his arms along with her panda.

  “I can’t believe you kept this.” Chamberlain walks alongside me and gestures to the tattered and worn panda.

  “H’s had to be sewn a few times over the years.” I lift one of the legs and show him the stitch. “She took to it as soon as she could figure out how to hold things.”

  “Still, I can’t believe you kept it.”

  “Why?”

  “After everything you’ve told me, I’m surprised you didn’t stab it a few times.”

  “I couldn’t do that.” I lift my purse strap back up my shoulder as it fell. “I don’t have that kind of anger in me.”

  “I know; that’s what I love about you.” He kisses my temple when we reach the rental car area.

  “You said your stuff is already here?”

  “Yeah. Well, just my cook. She came yesterday to get the grocery shopping done and all that.” He flashes me a secret smile before biting his lip.

  Okay?

  Once we get a car and find it, we make sure it has a car seat for Marissa while Scott and I load up the trunk. “Here, you’ll need this.” Scott hands over a phone that is almost the same size as my tablet.

  “I have one.” I pull mine out of my back pocket and wave it at him. “I’m good.”

  “Not when you are going to be C’s manager. You need this.” He slaps the monster into my hand. “This prepay phone won’t do what you need it for. All the contacts are already loaded into it along with C’s schedule.”

  “Can I have my phone, please?” I extend my other hand for my old phone that he snatched away from me.

  “Why?”

  “So I can get my other number out of it.”

  “Like whose?”

  Scott is being a turd. I narrow my eyes at him. “Like my aunts’ and Beth’s.”

  “Scott, quit being an ass and give her back the phone. She needs to move her numbers over,” Chamberlain barks after closing Marissa’s door.

  Smugly, I snatch my phone back and skip around to get in and start putting the important stuff on my new monster phone. “How am I supposed to turn this on?” I move it around, looking for the power button. I tap the screen, but nothing happens.

  “Like this.” Chamberlain laughs as he grabs it and pushes a button on the side and hands it back to me.

  “Oh.” I start playing around with it as Chamberlain navigates the streets of Orlando to get us to our hotel. When I figure out some of the things, I add the number I need and transfer all the pictures I have on my prepay phone. When I’m done, I text my aunts and Beth with my new number and shut off my old phone; it can be a play phone for Marissa now. I pull out the battery and turn to check on Marissa, who is just waking up.

  “Hi, Mommy.” She yawns and stretches while looking out the window.<
br />
  “Hi, baby.”

  “We here?”

  “Yes,” Chamberlain answers, looking at her through the rearview mirror.

  “Yay!” She claps. “I want princesses!”

  We all laugh. “Soon, princess, but we need to get settled first. I promise; you will get to see princesses.” Chamberlain has a way with her that I only thought I would ever have. Smiling at him, I reach over and cup his strong jaw.

  “Otay,” she says cheerfully as she kicks her feet and continues to look out the window.

  We pull up to the hotel, and I’m not surprised it’s a nice one. No Motel 6 for us, apparently. The bellhop helps Scott and Chamberlain with the bags while I get Marissa out. The valet takes off with the car to park it when we have it unloaded.

  Marissa and I stare at everything around us in excitement while Chamberlain checks us in. We ride a glass elevator up to the fifth floor and walk to the suite his chef is already in.

  “I have a little surprise for you, baby,” Chamberlain whispers to me before opening the door.

  I step inside, looking around at the beautiful ocean blue theme around the huge suite. The back wall of the main room is nothing but glass and overlooks the beach. To one side is a hallway leading to bedrooms and to the other side is an open … kitchen …

  I hear humming, very familiar humming. I walk to the kitchen only to stop in my tracks as I release a gasp and drop my bags.

  “Hi, baby doll.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Katie

  “OH. MY. GOD.” I’m frozen. Before me is the same black hair that is slightly grayed, the same creases in the corners of those brown eyes, and the smell of honey throws me back in time to the last time I saw all these features.

  “Surprise, Katie.” Chamberlain’s warm voice soothes the ache in my chest that was about to burst.

  Shaking my head and letting the tears fall freely, I rush into Fiona’s waiting arms. “I thought ... I didn’t ...” I’m gasping for air.

  “Shh.” Fiona folds me into her arms, stroking my ponytail, and rocks us. “I’m here, baby doll.”

  I bawl into her shoulder, so thankful they never hurt her. I didn’t just lose Chamberlain when I was sent away; I lost Fiona as well. Not a day went by when I didn’t wonder what happened to her and how things would have been different if I would have left with her instead of being sent away like I was.