Hearts in Harmony (16 page)

He paged through the file, then applied his signature. “This is all in order. Call the courier and…” his voice trailed off. The address was a block from Celeste's office.

Every new discovery about Celeste had come crashing down on him, in waves. His perception of her had plummeted, based on what he'd seen in the bar, because that's what she said she used to be like.

But was that fair?

No, he told himself. Paul's words echoed through his head. What mattered was how she led her life
now,
not a year ago, not six months ago, not even yesterday.

But he had to know who she was a year ago, in order to understand who she was today.

He had to talk to her, and the best place for that was not at his home, where he had only good memories. Not at her home, which still showed signs of the chaos that had ripped him out of his cozy fantasy. He needed to talk to her on neutral ground.

Adrian stiffened and didn't offer the file back to Brittany. “I have something else in the area to take care of. I'll take it there myself.”

“You? But… Okay. I'll call them and let them know.”

As soon as Brittany left the room, Adrian opened his e-mail program.

 

To: Celeste

I think we should talk. I'm going to be in your neighborhood on business later today, and I'd like to take you out for lunch. My treat.

Adrian

 

Her reply came in under four minutes.

 

To: Adrian

As long as it won't interfere with your meeting. I can meet you at the taco place at 12:05. And I'm paying for my own.

Celeste

 

Adrian sighed. He would rather have taken her someplace nicer, but this was neither the time nor medium to argue with her.

He quickly typed his reply.

 

To: Celeste

That's fine. See you there.

Adrian

 

He finished his current file, tidied up his desk, and left the office, telling Brittany only that he was going to take some extra time for lunch while he was out.

Traffic was lighter than he expected. Since he had extra time on his hands, he parked the car at the taco restaurant and walked to the client's office, then gave the file to the receptionist quickly, before anyone saw him and wondered
why the Western Regional Manager of their accounting firm hand-delivered an envelope.

Since he was early, Adrian decided to meet Celeste at her office rather than take up a table sitting alone at the taco restaurant.

As he stood waiting for the traffic light, he watched the people around him. Most were obviously people who worked in the area, dressed in casual business attire, but one person across the street stuck out from the crowd.

Black clothes from neck to toe. Shocking white-blond hair. The glitter of too much pierced jewelry.

Adrian's heart nearly stopped.

Zac.

Zac was standing under the awning of the building directly across from Celeste's office, doing nothing else but waiting, and watching.

The light changed. Adrian crossed the intersection, but didn't continue on. He stepped to the side to cross the other way, toward where Zac stood. While waiting for the second light, he alternated between watching Zac and watching the door to Celeste's building.

Unawares, Celeste stepped out of the building. She turned in the direction of the restaurant, and started walking toward where Adrian stood. Adrian quickly turned to see what Zac would do, but Zac was gone. He searched through the crowd of people, watching specifically for the disruption to show that someone was running when everyone else was walking. Everything appeared normal.

Adrian turned and hurried to meet Celeste.

She stopped walking, her eyes widened. “Adrian? What are you doing here?”

“I got finished what I had to do sooner than expected, so I thought I'd meet you at the door instead of sitting alone in the restaurant.

One eyebrow quirked, but she said nothing.

He glanced across the street to the last place he'd seen Zac. It was as if Zac had vanished into thin air, but, of course, Adrian knew that hadn't happened.

He wanted to know where Zac had gone. First of all, he didn't want Zac to watch the two of them together, but more than that, he didn't want Zac lurking, following Celeste. Zac's presence alone was a breach of the restraining order, but Adrian didn't know that saying that he saw Zac for a split second would be enough proof to the police.

He jerked his head in the direction of the restaurant. “Come on, let's get going.”

She stepped beside him as they began walking to the restaurant. “Why the hurry? Did you skip breakfast?”

“I never skip breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

“Somehow I knew you were going to say that.”

He watched around him as much as he could without Celeste noticing that he was distracted, but Zac was nowhere to be seen.

Once inside the restaurant, they ordered quickly and soon were seated.

“So what brings you down to my end of town?”

“I just had a little business to attend to. So I thought I'd time it in order to have lunch with you.”

She didn't respond, but only sat there staring at him, waiting for him to say more.

Finally he couldn't stand it any more. “There is some
thing I have to talk to you about, but it's not the reason I came. Tell me, are you going straight home tonight?”

“I've got school tonight, but after that, of course I'm going straight home. Why?”

“Do you double check the locks on the car doors when you're out? Do you make sure the door is locked when you're driving? Especially at night? I know Bob's done a lot of work on that car, but just in case it stalls, do you have the battery for your cell phone fully charged? Do you have a charger for it in the glove compartment?”

Celeste blinked and started at him. “What's gotten into you? You sound like my mother.”

Knowing now what he didn't know then, he wasn't insulted by her accusation. Her mother had to have had some knowledge of Zac and Celeste's situation, and the potential dangers, which had come to pass. Adrian suspected the reason Celeste hadn't stayed at her mother's house initially had been because that would be the first place Zac would look. Also, trading cars had served two purposes—not only did it mean a safe trip for her mother, it also gave Celeste additional anonymity. Except, it hadn't worked. Zac had found her anyway.

“Do you remember when that police officer said that in situations like yours, the offending ex often shows up again, within forty-eight hours? Zac is one of those statistics.”

“But he's been warned by the police. In person and in writing.”

“He's been here. I saw him just a few minutes ago. Then, the minute you appeared and there was the chance you'd see him, he was gone. I don't know where he went, but I saw him.”

“How would you know…oh…I forgot. You've seen him. Are you sure it was him?”

Adrian nodded. “He's pretty unmistakable.”

Celeste lowered her half-eaten taco to the wrapper. “I should probably tell the police, but I doubt they'd do anything just because Zac went downtown.”

“You're wrong. Zac is supposed to stay two blocks away from you. He knows where you work, so he knows his boundaries. Officer Jacobs said they could arrest him if he breaches the agreement, and he has.”

“I think sending the police after him right now would do more harm than good. A fine means nothing to Zac, and they're not going to put him in jail. Officer Jacobs warned me about that. Even if they did, it wouldn't be for long. Then he'd be mad, and you've seen how dangerous and unpredictable Zac can be when he's mad.”

Adrian nearly corrected her with the difference between
mad
and
angry,
but stopped himself. In this case, he wondered whether Zac was a combination of both. “Then I should take you to school and pick you up.” As soon as the words left his mouth, the overwhelming surge of protectiveness he felt surprised him.

“I don't want Zac to control the way I live my life. I've got to handle this on my own.”

“I only want you to be safe.”

“I promise you I'll keep the car doors locked, and I'll be sure I don't leave the building alone.” Celeste checked her watch. “I have just enough time to get back to work, and my half hour is almost up.”

Adrian blinked at her sudden end to the conversation. “Can I walk you back to the door?”

Celeste stood and stiffened from head to toe. She cleared her throat and raised her head high. “You can walk me back to the office, but you can't escort me everywhere I go. I'll manage. I have to.”

“Then at least phone me when you get home from school tonight.”

“Why? At what point will you decide that something's wrong if I don't phone?”

Adrian gritted his teeth. He was well acquainted with Celeste's defiant attitude, but regardless of her present temperament, she was no match for Zac. He'd seen the results of one of Zac's tirades, and now that he'd actually seen Zac in person, Adrian knew that he wasn't a match for Zac either. The only person he knew who might have the physical strength to handle Zac would be Bob, but Bob didn't know the tricks to successful streetfighting.

“I don't know. I just want to know that you're okay, especially because I know he's out there, watching you.”

She shook her head. “I don't think you understand. At some point, you'd draw the line if I haven't called, and then you'd try to find me. But if something was wrong, by then it will be too late, so phoning is pointless. Also, having to phone you to check in all the time makes me just as much your prisoner as Zac's.”

Adrian suddenly understood why Celeste doubted the effectiveness of the restraining order, and why she didn't want to anger Zac. Zac acted quickly and secretly. A restraining order gave little protection if all they could do was report Zac as having breached its terms and conditions, especially if Zac confronted Celeste and hurt her.

Adrian's stomach churned. The restraining order would do little good after the fact if Zac raped or killed her.

He didn't know what he could do, but he had no intentions of leaving Celeste open to risk. He wanted to follow her himself, but he knew she would never stand for that. It did make him acknowledge that he wanted to protect her, regardless of anything she'd done in the past.

He stared at Celeste. God promised that He'd forgive anything a person did in the past if they gave their heart and soul to follow Him and do His will.

If God had forgiven her, certainly Adrian could, too. But every time he looked at her, he couldn't let go of what he'd seen in the bar, a mirror of what Celeste once was, including being Zac's partner, for more than just the business of the band.

Still, he couldn't not do anything when she was in danger, whether she wanted his help or not. “I still want you to phone me.”

“Fine.”

They walked back to her office building in silence. Adrian waited until the glass door closed behind her and she disappeared from his sight inside the building before he began the walk back to the taco restaurant parking lot to retrieve his car, and return to work himself.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. All evening, Adrian paced. He couldn't pray for an answer to how he felt; he could only pray for her safety until she phoned to confirm that she'd arrived at home intact. Until the phone rang, her words echoed through his head.
If something was wrong, by then it will be too late.

Knowing she was safe allowed him to relax, but when he crawled into bed, he couldn't sleep.

Ever since the day of the break-in, he'd struggled to come to terms with what he'd found out. He didn't know what hurt the most—her background, or the fact that she'd lied to him. Not that she'd really lied, but she certainly hadn't told him the truth.

At the same time he tried to understand why either bothered him so much.

He couldn't help it. He still loved her.

He wanted to put the past behind him, and leave it there, but he couldn't.

Adrian flipped over and did what he should have done days ago. He prayed for an answer.

“C
eleste? There's a man here to see you. He asked if you'd left for lunch yet.”

Celeste forced herself to remain calm. She didn't have a job that brought visitors, so therefore the visit was personal. She doubted it was Bob again, because whatever Bob had done to her car, it was running better than it ever had, probably even better than when her father first bought it.

Adrian had been in the area at lunchtime yesterday, so she knew he wouldn't be back two days in a row.

There was only one other person she could think of who might be in the neighborhood.

Zac.

Knowing Adrian had seen Zac watching the door told her that Zac was testing his boundaries. Looking back, despite how careful she thought she'd been to stay inside except for the one day, the only way Zac could have found her in the first place was by watching the exit from the underground parking. Since she was late leaving, the presence
of a man asking for her only meant that he knew she was still there.

Celeste cleared her throat. “Is it my mechanic? Can you describe him?”

“He's not the same guy as before, but he's tall, dark and handsome.”

Zac was tall. He was handsome, but he wasn't dark, although he had dyed his hair black a few times when the mood struck him. “Anything else?”

“He's wearing a suit to die for underneath a nice overcoat. He's got glasses and beautiful big brown eyes.”

Adrian.

Celeste hurried out to meet him. “What are you doing here? This is two days in a row.”

He smiled, further accenting those beautiful big brown eyes Sasha had mentioned. Actually, Adrian's eyes were hazel, but for today,
brown
was close enough. “I just happened to be in the neighborhood again, and thought I'd see if you were free for lunch.”

“I thought it best for me to stay inside today.”

“It's okay. You won't be alone. You'll be safe with me.”

She hesitated for just a second. She really did want to go out.

“Okay. Just let me go grab my purse and my jacket.”

Celeste headed for the door with more confidence than she'd felt for a long time. For months she'd stayed inside, using the office building like a fortress, to protect her. She'd considered it a haven, but now that she knew Zac had been lingering outside, it felt like a prison.

It wasn't a permanent answer, but for today, being with
Adrian would do. For today, if Zac was out there, he would see that she had at least one big strong friend.

She looked up at him. “Where do you want to go?”

He shrugged his shoulders and held the door open for her. “I thought we could grab a hot dog at the stand and walk around the mall for half an hour where we can get lost in the crowd.”

Or where we can be surrounded by hundreds of witnesses, she knew he was thinking, and appreciated the option.

She could feel the stares of her workmates on her back as the door closed behind her. They were going to ask a million questions upon her return, especially since someone was bound to recognize Adrian from the picture she had on her desk.

She remembered vividly the day the picture was taken.

One day at practice, Adrian and Paul had been playing side by side as usual, looking especially spiffy since Paul was left-handed and held his bass guitar the opposite way from Adrian. Dark-haired versus blond, right-handed versus left, Adrian and Paul were picture-perfect together. A few weeks ago Randy had brought his digital camera and caught a perfect photo of Adrian and Paul fooling around. The picture was so good that Randy printed it on photo-quality paper and gave it to her. She couldn't display the picture at home because she didn't want Adrian to see how much she treasured it. Therefore, she took it to work where she could see Adrian's smiling face for eight hours a day, five days a week.

They turned to the left, in the direction of the downtown shopping mall, but they hadn't gone three steps when Celeste's feet skidded to a halt.

She grabbed Adrian's arm, causing him to stop as well. “It's Zac! I see him. There. Across the street!” She pointed, just in case Adrian didn't see him. “And there's some motorcycle thug there with him. What are we going to do?”

Adrian smiled from ear to ear. “We're going to go talk to Zac and the motorcycle thug.”

Celeste tugged on his arm, but Adrian began walking anyway. “Don't be stupid. What do you think you're doing?”

“I'm stopping a situation before it gets started. Come on.”

Celeste had two choices. She could go with Adrian and confront Zac and his friend, two against two, or she could run back into the office and continue to hide, which so far hadn't done much good.

“God, give me strength,”
she muttered, not sure if she was praying or begging.

She hurried to catch up to Adrian, praying for courage and the right words as they crossed the intersection together.

As they approached Zac and his friend, Celeste studied the man, whom she didn't recognize from the back. She didn't recognize the motorcycle, either. It was an older model, and it was big. The red paint shone and the chrome glistened. As a whole, the bike was in pristine condition, which was unusual for Zac's friends. As much as the bike was big, it was also noisy, as was any classic bike. The rider revved the motor, then shifted position slightly, almost like a further reminder of his presence.

When they were within three feet, Adrian stopped. Celeste stopped beside Adrian.

Adrian smiled slightly. “Hello, Zac. Bob.”

Celeste's heart stopped. Bob?

Bob turned, and smiled at both of them.

It was… Bob. Their friend. On a motorcycle. He'd told her he had alternative transportation when he'd loaned her his car, but he hadn't said what it was.

Adrian turned toward Zac. “Back in the neighborhood again, Zac? Don't think we don't know what you've been doing.”

Zac only sneered. “So? The cops will never catch me.”

Bob grinned with a lopsided smile. “Probably not, but then the cops won't catch me or my friends either.”

Zac's sneer faltered as he looked down at Bob on the motorcycle. Celeste had never seen Bob dressed like this before. He wore tight jeans and a worn T-shirt, accompanied by a well-worn leather jacket that was currently unfastened, despite the chill in the weather. She didn't know how Bob wasn't cold, but she wasn't going to tell him to fasten the jacket in front of Zac. She didn't know where Bob got the jacket, but it had some kind of crest on the back that looked like a gang logo. Yet the jacket fitted Bob to perfection, and he appeared perfectly comfortable in it, as though it was made for him, and as though he wore it often. If she didn't know him, he would have scared her. The whole picture contrasted like day and night with the gentle Bob who was her friend.

Zac turned back to Adrian, and very openly studied him from head to toe.

Adrian stuck one hand in his pants pocket, which reminded her that he didn't have his coat fastened either. His suit would have protected him from the cold autumn day, but Celeste felt cold even with her jacket fastened to her chin. More than the weather, Zac's attitude would have given her chills in the heat of a summer day.

Adrian faced Zac and cleared his throat. “It should be obvious that Celeste isn't interested in you anymore, and she's not interested in your band, either. She's happy where she is, and it's time for you to leave her alone.”

Zac turned to Celeste. “You're not really going to give up everything for him, are you?”

Celeste shuffled closer to Adrian until she was pressed up against him. She wrapped her hands around his arm, not caring if she looked clingy. “Yes. I am.” She wanted to tell Zac that Adrian was everything he wasn't. Kind. Gentle. Considerate. Adrian also lived his life to please God and help others, while Zac only lived to please himself. The truth was that she would have given up what little she had left for Adrian, if he'd needed it. She loved him that much.

Zac backed up a step. “You haven't seen the last of me,” he snapped, then turned and strode off.

Celeste started to shake. She tightened her grip on Adrian's arm, but it didn't help. Her world still swam. After a few large gulps of air, she finally found her voice. “I don't believe this. After all this, all that I've been through, he's gone.”

Adrian covered her fingers with his free hand. “For today. I wish I could think of what to do next. I thought confronting him would show him you weren't alone, and that this is a situation he can't win.”

Celeste shook her head. “You don't understand. Zac doesn't allow anyone to see weakness in him. If he was going to confront you or strike back, he wouldn't have said anything. He catches his victims unaware, when the mood strikes him. It's a power thing. Everyone is supposed to live in fear of him. It's the only way he gets what he thinks is
respect. He said he would be back to make you nervous, so you'll always be watching over your shoulder for him, fearing his return. If he can't get what he wants, in his warped mind, that gives him a partial victory. He sees he's not going to get what he wants, so he made his threat, and left. It's finally over. I'm free.”

Adrian released her hand and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small device not much bigger than a credit card. “I hope you're right. But if you're not, I recorded our conversation on my digital voice recorder, which I'm going to turn over to the police if I ever see him again, for evidence. I think they'd be especially interested in the part about the police never being able to catch him.” He turned the unit off, returned it to his pocket, and turned to Bob. “Thanks for holding Zac so I could talk to him—for all the talking I did. I think seeing you is what really got him backtracking.”

Celeste also turned to Bob. She swept one arm in the air to encompass the motorcycle and his mode of dress. “What is this? It looks like you're in a motorcycle gang or something. Where did you get all this stuff?”

He smiled and patted the bike between the handlebars. “This is my baby. She used to be my dad's. Isn't she a beauty? I've restored her over the years. I take her out for special occasions, but I also belong to a Christian motorcycle group. We have a retreat once a year, in the summer, where we all camp out in the mountains. And then at Christmas, we have a toy run for underprivileged kids.”

Celeste's head swam. “You're kidding…”

His smile widened. “I'm glad I was able to put everything to use to help intimidate Zac. But I've got to get back
to work. If I don't see you Saturday, then I'll see you at church Sunday morning.” Bob slid his helmet onto his head, fastened the strap, revved the bike, nearly deafening her, and roared off into the traffic.

When he was gone, Celeste sighed. “Don't tell him this, but he didn't have as much effect on Zac as you did.”

Adrian's free hand rose up to wiggle the knot in his tie. “I doubt that.”

“Seriously. Zac has lots of experience with biker gangs. They don't scare him because he has friends in gangs. He treats gang members with a distant respect, but he doesn't fear them as much as he should. What really intimidates him is someone who can be a success without resorting to threats, violence or intimidation by the number of one's followers. That suit of yours shouts money and success, and your quiet voice shows that you have all the authority you want or need, without having to yell. You say something, you expect people to listen and they do. Zac can compete with bikers and roughnecks, but he's no match for the upper echelons of the corporate universe. Especially since it looks like you've got muscle for backup.”

“Really? The guys always tease me about my quiet and uneventful accounting job. I guess I get the last laugh.”

She wouldn't have called it a last-laugh situation, and she wouldn't have called Adrian's position as Western Regional Manager merely an accounting job. Also, in Zac's eyes, rather than Bob and Adrian simply being friends, she suspected Zac thought that since they looked so different, with Adrian in his designer suit, and Bob in his gangwear, that Bob and all those that went with him were followers of Adrian. Simple friendship meant nothing to Zac, be
cause his supposed friends would only do something for Zac when there was something in it for them.

But what Zac thought didn't matter. Adrian had come out the winner.

“What was Bob doing here, anyway? And how did he end up talking to Zac?”

“I knew Zac was lurking, so I talked to the guys about it. We all thought it would be a good idea for me to talk to Zac, and then for you to tell him to leave you alone when someone else was with you. Since Paul can't take time off school, and Randy can't take time off from his job at the mall, Bob volunteered to come down to help keep Zac occupied if I caught him lurking again. Since Zac was here yesterday, I suspected he would be back again, today, and he was. But unlike yesterday, today he seemed a little jumpy. I took that as a sign to call Bob and see if he could keep Zac occupied until I could bring you to him and we could tell him together to go away. Bob thought bringing his old Harley would be a nice touch. It apparently worked.”

“You left work to come here and watch for Zac, to see if Zac was watching me?”

“Yup.”

“What if he had seen you? We were together yesterday, so he would have recognized you.”

“So? I wanted to talk to him, anyway.”

Celeste stiffened. “Didn't you stop to think of what might have happened if he decided to confront you?”

Adrian shrugged his shoulders. “Then I would have said my prayers and dealt with it. This is the middle of downtown, where a million people would be watching from the high-rise towers.”

Celeste stared at Adrian in silence. Adrian wouldn't have known that the only people who could intimidate Zac were corporate-executive types, those whom Zac knew he couldn't bully to get to the top. That was why Zac buried himself so deeply in the dregs, people whose lives centered around drugs and alcohol, thieves and addicts, people who had no other ambition than to survive until the next party on the next weekend. Those were the type of people Zac could control, and he did control them. Those whom he couldn't impress with the scope of his deviousness, he scared into worship by intimidation. Zac had successfully managed to control her until she had learned about the love of Jesus, and that Jesus didn't want her to live that way.