Chloe

by J H Cardwell

  “I just got off the phone with him. Why, what are y’all doing here?” I asked in a confused yet pissed off voice.

  “She insisted she was coming along Chloe.” He said pointing to Maura. “John wanted me to come by and check on you until he got here.” I had a surge of adrenaline knowing I might finally find out what all of this was about. I needed to play it smooth though, in case John told Harrison not to tell me.

  “Um, yeah I can’t believe what happened!” I looked to Harrison. I saw him look to Maura and give her the look and flat lips to zip it. I could tell she was about to explode. I needed to know, and I knew Maura was going to be the one to tell me. “Yeah, I understand why he would come here after that.”

  “Uhhh.” Maura let out the breath she’d been holding. “Thank God you already know. I was determined to tell you, but Harrison would have killed me if I was the one to let it slip about the car getting blown up.” My eyes went wide as saucers. Harrison threw his hand over his eyes and was shaking his now dropped head from side to side.

  “Oh. You didn’t know did you? Me and my big mouth. Well, I wouldn’t have left here without you knowing Chloe. No way. There was no way Harrison was coming without me either, so there.”

  “Okay, start from the beginning. I have to know everything. A blown up car? In Charlotte? Whose? When?” I had pulled Maura over to the couch as we sat down knee to knee. I still had a hold of the tops of her arms. I was suddenly frantic.

  “Well, I guess I wasn’t supposed to hear anything, but Harrison’s door creaked and woke me up this morning at my parent’s house. I could hear him talking on his cell phone in the hallway. When I got close up to my door, I could hear Harrison’s side of the conversation. When I was worried he was talking about himself, I threatened him if he didn’t tell me. Anyhow, I know it all now, I guess.” She gave Harrison a sideways glance with a soft smile.

  “Would you just tell me already?! I need to know what happened. Was John or any of his staff hurt?”

  “Okay, around 7am this morning John heard a loud boom outside of the penthouse. He had Mr. Rojas go check it out and he found John’s car had been blown to pieces! His antique Jaguar blown to smithereens!”

  I gasped and threw my hand over my mouth. I thought I was going to be sick. “Oh my God! Was anyone hurt?” I jumped up real quick and started pacing. I saw Maura shaking her head of the corner of my eye. “Thank God John wasn’t hurt! What if he had left early for the office? Wait, he wasn’t planning on going in today. So, maybe it was just an accident.” I looked from Harrison to Maura and back, hoping for comforting words.

  “Well, it doesn’t sound like an accident, they left a note.”

  “A note? What kind of note?”

  “Harrison!” John gave an annoyed balk, followed by the slamming of the front door. When did he get here?

  I couldn’t help it, I ran to him as fast as my legs would carry me, smashing my lips into his. I sucked in a deep breath and deepened the kiss. His arms came up around my waist as he went right along with the assault of my mouth on his. Then I leaned back and smacked him across the face!

  “Damn woman! What the hell was that for?” John yelled as his hand flew to the side of his face.

  “That’s for scaring me, and for keeping me in the dark - also a little for almost getting yourself hurt or even killed.” I said trying to keep my emotions under control. My throat felt thick with unshed tears.

  “Well, I’m guessing someone told you.” He said giving Harrison the evil eye. Come here Chloe.” John wrapped me in a hug and started caressing the back of my head. “I’m just glad you weren’t anywhere near.” He leaned back to look at me thoroughly. I bit my bottom lip still thinking of the what if’s. His eyes widened with heat as desire sliced through them. I closed my eyes briefly.

  “Yeah, well, thank God for loose lips over here. She’s the best friend a girl could have. You on the other hand, hide too much. What happened?”

  John let out a long sigh. He motioned for me to sit down, but I just shook my head. I needed to be able to walk if I wanted too. “My grandfather’s jaguar” – he closed his eyes and inhaled – “must have had a timed explosive placed under it sometime yesterday or late last night. According to investigators at the scene, they found shrapnel from a device set up to do just that. They can’t seem to locate anything unusual on the video surveillance, but they did find something else.” He looked up at me briefly and I saw him physically flinch.

  “What! What did they find John?”

  He looked off to the side then his eyes landed on mine. I saw compassion and maybe regret in his eyes. I’m not sure, but it scared me to death.

  “They found a typed letter that they are putting through every type of testing possible. Hopefully we’ll hear something soon.” He shook his head and turned to Harrison, acting like he was whispering plans to him while Maura and I looked at each other with pure fear and confusion.

  I walked quickly towards John again. “Oh no you don’t! You’re going to tell me what that letter said John. I need to know. You can’t keep that kind of thing from me. After all, I’m in danger now too!” Danger of losing you.

  John slammed his body up against mine. “You think I don’t know that Chloe. My God what have I done? I’ve put you right in the middle of this. I’m so sorry.” He said as his hand wrapped around the back of my neck and he rested the tip of his nose against my cheek. Our bodies couldn’t have been any closer unless we were stripped of our clothes. Which by the adrenaline coursing through my veins, could be just a moment away. I closed my eyes tightly and sucked in a deep breath trying to level out my heart-rate.

  “What did the letter say John?” Obviously Maura didn’t know either or she would have blurted it out by now. She knows I was finding this ‘not knowing’ torturous.

  “It said next time it won’t be empty, and…and…” John was stuttering the words, delaying the rest of the letter. “and hopefully filled with you AND your gorgeous new wife.” I felt his grip on my waist tighten as my knees tried to buckle out from under me.

  “Oh my God.” Maura and I said in unison. My eyes were locked on the floor. I know every bit of color must have drained from my face. John was ushering me to the nearest chair so I wouldn’t pass out.

  “Chloe, I won’t let anything happen to you, you have to know that. I’m going to fix this. I WILL find out who’s doing this and keep them from ever doing it again.” John’s promise sounded good and I knew he would move mountains to protect me, but this threat was real. After all, this guy destroyed a car and could have hurt people around it. Thank God he didn’t.

  Chapter 25

  After a long discussion among the four of us, we decided it would be best for John and me to get away somewhere private and confidential until we had some answers. We weren’t sure if the suspect or suspects would know I lived in Penderton, but it was easy to find people on the internet these days. If they were also after me, I needed to get away. We decided to have Aunt Ronnie go away too, at least for a little while. John had many wonderful vacation homes in his family. He would set her up in a vacant one with adequate security. The hard part would be convincing her to go.

  “I know she will be worried most about her job John. Except for when we were kids and would get sick, she’s never missed a day of work.”

  “Hopefully her employer will understand, but either way, she will be taken care of financially. I was actually going to talk with you about this anyway.” He glanced at Maura and Harrison and back at me then he dropped his voice even lower. “Ronnie is all the family you have, and she shouldn’t be living like this and struggling day to day when her family has means to support her. After all, you’re my wife now, so you have the means to help her out.” I stared at him with a million unspoken words passing between us. He knew I was thinking that in about four months that would no longer be the case.

  He shook his head as if to answer my question. “You will always be financially stable now Chloe. Always.�
�� I let out a deep breath. Yeah, I was sure he would plan to never let me struggle again, but that would probably only last until he married again. I didn’t want to talk about this with Maura and Harrison around, so I changed the subject to where we might be going to hide out. He wouldn’t give me answers, but said he already had an idea. Maura whined that she better at least know, and then she worried we might not be back in time for their wedding in two months. John assured her we would make it happen. He didn’t want to miss Harrison’s big day anymore than I wanted to miss Maura’s.

  We all agreed though that except for the four of us, no one needed to know where we would be for the next several days. The more people that knew, the bigger the chance for the suspect to get word of where we were. NOW, we had to figure out who that suspect might be.

  John had already taken everything to the local police, and with his connection to national security, he also enlisted help from other law enforcement and the FBI. John had spent a lot of time on the phone trying to coordinate our next move as well as tie up some loose ends at his work.

  “What if this really is some environmentalist who has taken this protecting the earth thing too far? I mean, don’t they know you all do things as safely as possible?” I was grasping at straws, but I was honestly scared to death. “What if they find out who our friends are, or if they go after your family?” John turned to the window at the mention of his family. His dad was not well at all, and the stress of this threat may put his health in further jeopardy.

  I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. I waited for him to talk to me about what was bothering him with his dad. Finally he spoke. “If I’m away, my dad will probably die while I’m gone.” His lips were in a flat line and his expression serious and solemn. I knew deep down John loved his father because he was just that, his father, his flesh and blood. “I was hoping maybe after he retired, he and I could finally have a relationship. You know, when I might finally be more important to him than his livelihood.” I could tell his eyes were brimming with tears. But I was sure John wouldn’t let them out. Seeing him nearly in tears was enough to crush me.

  “Can I ask you something John? Would you have all that you have and would the company be as huge as it is today if it wasn’t for all of your dad’s hours and focus on it?” I was just curious. Part of me was even more concerned about John’s future as a CEO and his ability to have a life outside of the company.

  He turned to me and his eyes melted my heart. “I would NEVER live for my company Chloe. My grandfather was able to start and run our international company and still have the home life I dream of having with a family someday. My dad just didn’t have it in him to separate the two. Or at least he chose not to.” He turned back towards the window. “I will have both worlds Chloe, or I’ll sell the company. Life is too short to be married to a company. Look at my dad. I’m sure, at least part of me hopes, that he realizes what all he’s thrown away to live a short life being married to a loveless company instead of my mother.”

  He was quiet a moment then he took in a deep breath and started packing my things again. “We need to get out of here now.”

  “Will you finally tell me where we’re going?”

  He looked at me. “If I had my way, I would take you far, far away. Maybe even to another country. We could stay in any of our homes near where our oil rigs are located. But, I’ve been discouraged from leaving the country. The FBI has assured me our protection will be greater here and the exchanges from anyone trying to get to us can be better tracked.” He walked up close to me, inhaling a deep breath, he reached out and smoothed a hand over my jaw.

  “We’re going to Houston. I have two homes there near our Houston rig and we can hide out with maximum security. Plus, my small plane can fly directly to those grounds and we won’t be tracked on the larger aviation recordings.”

  My eyes grew big. “You think this is that big of a deal John? Do you think we need to be that secretive?”

  I could see the passion in his eyes. He was truly worried. “When it comes to protecting you Chloe, I’ll go to China if I have to, Saudi Arabia, Russia, wherever to keep you safe.” He leaned down and pressed his soft lips to mine. “You’ve become very important to me Chloe Steele Rider. I can’t explain it, but I want to be the one to keep the bad guys away from you, and to be the one to take away your pain from the unfortunate life you were dealt.”

  He licked his lips and my eyes followed his tongue. Gently grabbing my chin he bent down and gave me another sensual kiss. This time, he parted my lips with his tongue and deepened the kiss. I let out a low moan which encouraged him to press his warm, gorgeous body up to mine.

  I reached out, sliding my hand under the hem of his shirt, feeling his delicious skin ripple under my fingertips from a tremble. His torso was so toned, it drove me wild. I inhaled, deepening the kiss even further as he groaned into my mouth. I jumped when I felt his phone vibrating in his pocket, bringing me back to reality – to the issue at hand. That was probably our driver. We had to depart from Penderton, and depart quickly.

  We leaned back looking into each other’s eyes. After a moment of silence John said, “You ready to get this behind us?”

  “Ready as I’m going to be, I guess.”

  I was about to move away from him when he grabbed my hand. “We’ll find this bastard Chloe, and we’ll move on with our life, okay?” I nodded my head. I’m sure he meant lives, because probably by the time we found him, our tour as a couple would be over as well.

  **

  The flight was fairly quick. I was surprised to find an FBI agent on board. John definitely had pull when it came to having extra protection. After all, he had been head of security over the status of his oil rigs both domestically and internationally for a few years now. Of course he enlisted the help from the best ex-army, and ex-federal agents who didn’t mind traveling when he hired the staff. In fact, by the look of the bomb that was used on John’s car, the agent was worried that this may be a disgruntled security employee and that the rigs could be in jeopardy. The type of bomb was that which was routinely used underground to start a vein for oil flow. That news had John on the phone the rest of the flight trying to get a count for bombs within each facility to see if one was missing.

  By the time we landed I was mentally exhausted hearing John conduct safety and perimeter checks for each of his eleven oil rigs. The man was passionate about his business and knew it backwards and forwards. I had put my head in my hands to rest and close my eyes to think about all that was happening. Not to mention, to send a silent prayer up for the safety of my friends and Ronnie in all of this. I was startled when I felt hands pulling my hair out from around my neck and tucking it behind my ears. I reveled in this intimate, soothing, touch.

  “Hey,” John said in a soft voice. “You okay?” He leaned around to look into my eyes. “I know this is a lot to take in. I…” He sucked in a deep breath and quickly looked away. “I can’t believe I’ve put you in this position Chloe. You shouldn’t be in danger because of me.”

  I reached up and grabbed his face in my hands. I could tell this was wearing on John. “You would have never put me in danger John. That’s not the kind of man you are. You protect and, and…”

  The piercing look of his blue eyes was enough to steal my words. “And love Chloe. I am a man who loves, deeply.” I gasped as he pulled his lips to mine and gave me a deep kiss. As the flight door was being opened, we broke the kiss. My mind was reeling at his words. He didn’t say he loved you Chloe, just that he loved deeply. Either way I couldn’t believe my heart was swooning at the possibilities. No! I couldn’t go there. I had to stay true to myself. I couldn’t allow myself to want to be in love with John, or to have his love. I needed to be able to pick myself up when this was all over.

  I straightened my shoulders and stood stiffly, ready to depart from the plane. I didn’t even look at John, although I felt his gaze directly on me. Security was all over us, making sure we had a safe exit an
d that our drive from the landing field to the entrance to the home was uneventful.

  The view of the home was surreal. Much like one would imagine a southern estate to be. I was amazed at the two story, white brick home with a wrap-around porch standing in front of me. How could anyone have this home as one of their extra homes was beyond me? I wanted the time to take it all in. The glossed black wooden porch with furniture straight out of Southern Living magazine. Yellow, black and white cushions adorned comfy swings and gliders. Ceiling fans were lazily going round and round with the Texas breeze. This was pure bliss.

  I looked off to my side and saw a huge black and white barn with miles of fencing. Inside it were gorgeous horses grazing in the manicured pasture. Wow! All too quickly I was being ushered into the door.

  “So, what do you think?”

  “I think I’ve died and gone to Heaven.” I gazed up at John. “How could you have this home here and not live in it year round?” I was baffled by the amount of money the Rider’s must have. I wasn’t sure if I would ever know the extent of it, or if I would want to. It was more than I could fathom.

  He grabbed my chin in his fingers and gently raised my eyes to meet his. The stupid grin on my face must have given me away. “I would give everything I own to see that look of awe in your eyes and the excitement on your face for the rest of my life.” I dropped my gaze to the floor.

  “You don’t mean that John.” I caught his sincere look. “At least you shouldn’t mean that.”

  I quickly changed the subject before he could speak again. “My mom would have loved it here. I remember she always read me horse stories as a child. We would watch the Black Stallion some on Friday night movie night. Especially when she was so big and pregnant with my brother.” I walked over to look out at the wall of windows facing the horses. “She used to make me believe in my prince riding up on a beautiful, black, shiny horse to take me away, like my daddy did her, and live happily ever after.” I laughed. She would always say, ‘but not until you’re thirty Miss Chloe. Until then, you’re my princess.’ I couldn’t believe all of those memories came rushing back. Warm tears were flowing down my cheeks. Where did those come from?