01 - The Heartbreaker (26 page)

“Look,” she said, coming up to Samson. She scooped up the pug for good measure and petted his head. “I need a place to stay, and since we want to get to know each other, I thought I could stay with you,” she told Samson.

It wasn’t until she’d spoken the words aloud that she realized she was afraid he’d say no. Reject her. She curled her fingers into the fur on the dog’s back.

“The sofa in the family room pulls out,” Pearl said at the same time Samson growled at her.

“You ain’t staying here. I said I wanted to know if you was mine, but I didn’t say I wanted no kid in my life.”

Sloane shut her eyes, but his words remained out there. “It would just be for a day or two. Until I’m ready to go home.”

“Stay with your boyfriend. There’s no room here,” he said, a defiant tilt to his chin and an uncompromising tone in his voice.

Even Pearl, whose eyes had opened wide, merely remained silent.

“Chase only wants me when I’m some damsel in distress,” she admitted aloud for the first time. And the notion hurt.

Samson’s head jerked up and he met her gaze.

Eerily familiar eyes stared back at her, reinforcing a family resemblance she hadn’t acknowledged until now. But he glanced away just as quickly, severing the connection. Apparently, two men were about to turn her out of their lives, but she forged on, determined not to make it easy on Samson. “I can stand on my own two feet just fine.”

“Maybe you can, maybe you can’t. Depends on what kind of stuff you’re made of.”

“I’m made of
your
stuff,” she shot back. “And apparently, you’re not that much of a recluse if you’ve heard the gossip about me and Chase.” Sloane straightened her shoulders, holding her own with him.

“Yer shacking up with the man. How could I not know?”

She sighed, not wanting to let him get off track. “I think we have some things to discuss, like my mother, for one, and where you’re going to live, for another.”

He waved a hand, dismissing her. “I don’t remember saying I wanted or needed you in my life. I can handle things without your help, thank you very much.”

She bit down on her lower lip. “What if I want to know you?”

“Then you’re flat out of luck. Now give me my dog.” He grabbed his animal out of her arms and turned away.

She told herself it was fine. He hadn’t been a part of her life until now and she didn’t need him in her future.

She’d ensure his safety from her father’s men and be gone. But her emotions didn’t match her thoughts and the pain she felt was raw. Her chest hurt and her throat grew full. She swiveled toward the front door, but instead of an escape from the hurt, she found more.

Chase stood at the open door, along with Rick and Kendall, and a couple she’d only seen in pictures but recognized as Roman and a very pregnant Charlotte. All witnesses to her humiliation.

Oh, she didn’t need this now. Unable to deal with the embarrassment, she walked past them without meeting anyone’s gaze and headed for the street. Her rental car beckoned like the haven she didn’t have, and ignoring the voices calling her back, Sloane unlocked the car, slid inside, and drove away.

Where was she headed? She had no idea.

After Sloane’s departure, the quiet in the small guesthouse was palpable. No one dared speak, but Chase wasn’t afraid of
breaking the silence. He’d never forget the pain and humiliation in Sloane’s eyes and he knew who was to blame.

“Samson.” Chase barked at the older man.

Sloane’s
father
ignored him, muttering under his breath as he stroked his dog’s head, giving the animal the affection his daughter craved.

“I’m talking to you.” Chase strode to the man’s side and grabbed his arm, forcing him to look up and acknowledge him.

In his eyes, Chase saw the same hurt he’d witnessed in Sloane and that observation gave him hope that his gut feeling was correct. That the man had a reason for rejecting the daughter he’d initially sought out.

“What do you want?” Samson asked.

Behind him, Chase heard Rick whispering to Pearl and Kendall, no doubt giving orders about who’d be staying where until the threat to Samson was eliminated. Now that they knew where the man was, Chase and Rick agreed no one should be living with a walking target. Kendall would take Hannah to Raina’s, along with Charlotte. Rick and Roman would stay here in the hopes of preventing further disaster. It had been quiet since the explosion in Samson’s house, but they’d missed the older man once. Chase had no doubt another attempt on Samson’s life would be coming.

“I know why you rejected Sloane,” Chase began. “You wanted her away from you and any potential danger. Nice sentiment, but wrong way of handling things.” He released his grip before he took out his anger on Sloane’s father.

“So now you’re a mind reader as well as a reporter.” Samson snorted.

Drawing on his patience, Chase inhaled deeply before tackling the stubborn old man once more. “How about we play this one straight? No games, no smart-ass answers, and no pretending to be some dumb backwoods hermit. We both know you’re smarter than you act.”

“I don’t want her around me because I don’t want her getting hurt. I don’t want Pearl and Eldin at risk either, but I had nowhere else to go.” Samson spread his hands wide, looking more like a dejected man than a sullen, angry hermit. “So I’m here, but I’m not going to bring anyone else into my life. At least not until it’s safe.” He confirmed Chase’s hunch.

“Why not stay in Hampshire? Earl or Ernie would have taken you in and you’d be far enough from Yorkshire Falls to make your trail even harder to follow.” Chase paced the floor, still uncertain of how to handle this man, with his unexpected moods and curious way of thinking.

“Because then I couldn’t keep an eye on my daughter.” His voice cracked at the admission.

Chase paused in his walk across the floor, stunned and unsure how to react. As much as he’d figured Samson was looking out for Sloane, he’d never given any thought to the older man’s feelings. He’d never acted as if he had any before.

“She looks so much like her mother, it hurts to see her,” the man went on, still stroking his dog. “I had to let Jacqueline go, but I’d never have done it if I knew she was pregnant. I lost Sloane’s mother. Then I lost seeing Sloane growing up. I’m not going to risk her life now.” He swiped a hand across his eyes, refusing to look at Chase. “Even if I just drove her away for good, at least I’d know she wuz alive.”

Chase nodded, understanding. “You did the right thing, not letting her stay here. But after this is over, you damn well better make things right,” he muttered. “She doesn’t deserve to think you’re rejecting her.”

“Not any more than she deserves the way you’re treating her, Mr. High-and-Mighty Chase Chandler.” Samson put the dog on the floor and circled around the sofa until he invaded Chase’s personal space, taking him by surprise. “She’s
my
baby girl and you hurt her just as much as I did. That much is obvious, even to someone as antisocial as me.”

Chase winced, knowing Samson was right. “We both knew the score going into the relationship.” But his words sounded lame to his own ears. Because knowing the score only meant something on their first night together.

Once Sloane came to Yorkshire Falls, things changed. The explosion that rocked Samson’s house also rocked Chase’s world and things hadn’t been the same since.

“You’re a grown man. If you ask me, you should start acting like one,” Samson said. “Take responsibility for your actions. Decide what you want, once and for all. I made my choices all those years ago and I have to live with the regrets now. If you want to let her go, then wave good-bye and don’t look back. Don’t hang around playing her savior when it suits you and pushing her away when it don’t,” he said, reverting back to normal Samson-speak.

“For someone who’s been hiding out, you seem to think you know a lot about me and Sloane.”

He shrugged, but there was an arrogance in the gesture Chase was coming to notice more and more. At least when it came to Sloane.

“I’ve seen and heard a lot more than you realize,” Samson said. “And I don’t care if your last name
is
Chandler; the way you’re acting is a disgrace and my little girl deserves a lot better than you.”

On that parting shot, Samson settled into the couch, back in his surly mood, ignoring both Chase and Pearl, who was trying to catch his attention.

Chase couldn’t forget Samson’s words. They echoed in his head even as Rick directed Pearl and Eldin to pack their bags and move in with Raina. Samson would stay and hopefully draw out the men after him with Rick keeping watch. But Chase had no time to think or draw parallels between his life and Samson’s until the threat to Samson and, indirectly, to Sloane and the rest of Chase’s family blew over.

L
ast time we were all together like this, one of us had to get hitched.” Roman folded his arms across his chest and laughed, reminding the brothers of their coin toss more than nine months earlier. A time when Raina’s heart episode had been nothing more than indigestion, but the brothers hadn’t known that then.

Raina had used the incident as the beginning of her illness charade, begging for one of her boys to settle down and give her grandchildren before she passed on. The three single Chandler brothers had tossed a coin to see who would get married and give their mother a grandchild first. Roman had lost the toss and his reunion with his long-lost love, Charlotte, had begun.

“It hasn’t been all that long, and now two of us are married, leaving just one bachelor,” Rick said, leveling a glance at Chase, who didn’t find the topic of discussion at all amusing.

The situation was sadly ironic, though, since now Raina really was sick, and Chase would do just about anything to see her well. Except that his getting married to suit Raina’s needs wouldn’t do anything to help his own.

Not even his brothers seemed to realize that fact. “Do either of you two morons realize you fell right into Mom’s trap? Trying to escape her meddling, you gave her exactly what she wanted.” Chase glanced out the window of Rick’s kitchen, the one that overlooked Pearl and Eldin’s house in the back.

At one time, Pearl and Eldin lived in the house while Kendall
had stayed in the guesthouse, but the older couple’s health and Rick and Kendall’s marriage made swapping houses the perfect solution.

Meanwhile, all appeared quiet in the backyard while everyone from the guesthouse packed to leave. Only Samson remained inside the guesthouse, refusing to leave.

Roman shrugged, then headed for the refrigerator. “Soda?” he asked his brothers.

Both grunted “no.”

“Suit yourself.” He pulled out a bottle of Coke and started rummaging through cabinets.

“What the hell are you looking for?” Rick asked.

Roman slammed a cabinet and opened another. “Drinking glasses.”

“The door next to the microwave. And by the way, feel free to make yourself at home,” Rick said.

Roman chuckled, apparently not the least bit offended. “Back to basics,” he said, seating himself on the Formica counter. “Did
you
realize that the way things turned out, what Mom wanted was in our best interest, after all?”

“Kendall’s going to kill you if that counter cracks,” Rick said.

“Naah. She’s going to kill
you.
” Roman grinned, then raised his glass in a mock toast, before guzzling his drink. “So when are you going to give in and admit Sloane’s the woman to give you a kick in the ass?” he asked Chase.

Chase let out a groan. Just because Roman and Rick had opted to marry and have families didn’t mean that doing the same was in Chase’s best interest. “We all have our own paths to follow.”

“And you can’t follow yours and be with Sloane at the same time?” Roman lifted an eyebrow. “Seems to me I said the same thing. I can’t have my career and settle down with Charlotte. I was wrong.”

“
You
were a foreign correspondent and willing to change positions in order to accommodate both of your needs. I’m going to
write an article that’ll get picked up by every paper out there and decimate Sloane’s father’s political career. That’s hardly being a decent
partner
in marriage.”

“We’re talking marriage?” Rick asked. “Woo-hoo!”

Chase leveled him with his sternest glare. The one that had worked when a sixteen-year-old Rick had threatened to take Chase’s car if he didn’t choose to lend it to him. At almost nineteen, Chase had felt more like thirty and hadn’t trusted his middle sibling behind the wheel.

Rick merely shrugged. “You said the dreaded word first, not me.”

Obviously, now that Rick was thirty-five, Chase’s anger didn’t mean much anymore. Not when Rick thought himself right.

“Would you two behave?” Roman said, attempting to be the voice of reason.

Rick chuckled, but sobered quickly. “The kid’s right. We’ve got more immediate concerns, for now. What about Sloane?”

“What about her?” Chase asked, deliberately playing dumb because he wasn’t in the mood to deal with his siblings.

“She sure as hell doesn’t need to be alone after what Samson just pulled on her.”

Chase rolled his shoulders before giving his brothers the answer he’d been trying to make himself believe for the last hour. “Sloane needs time to sort through her feelings about Samson.”

“How about protection?” Rick asked, falling back into cop mode. “We already made sure the rest of the family, Pearl, Eldin, and Samson were safe. Doesn’t Sloane deserve the same?”

“As long as Sloane’s not with Samson, she’s fine. We already agreed on that. And Samson’s holed up in the guesthouse.”

“She may be physically safe, but what about emotionally?” Rick shook his head, treating Chase to a look that told him he was pathetic at understanding the opposite sex. “All women like to have that strong shoulder to rely on in times of need,” he said cleverly.

“And you would know.” Chase slanted his head to one side and met his middle brother’s amused gaze.

“Can I help it if I excel at rescuing damsels in distress?”

“It got you married in the end.”