Nathan's Vow (6 page)

On her lunch break, she phoned
him.  As soon as she gave her name, his secretary put her through. 
"Nathan, we have to talk."

"You've seen something
more?"

"I have a strong sense that
your father-in-law has been communicating with Dana."

Nathan swore.  "How do you
know?"

"It's just a feeling, Nathan. 
I found a gold bracelet of hers..."

"Arthur gave that to her on
her last birthday.  Leona suggested it, hoping it would entice Dana to wear a
dress now and then.  But it didn't.  Right now Dana's a tomboy through and
through.  Give her a baseball cap and a ball of any kind and she's
happy."  After a short pause, Nathan swore again.  "Damn the man. 
Arthur knows I've been searching high and low."

"Can we go see him?  Maybe I
can pick up something while I'm around him."

"He won't be pleasant,
Gillian."

"I don't need him to serve me
tea, but a few moments in his surroundings might give us some clues."

"He spends most of his time at
his office.  Why don't I pick you up after work and we'll try to catch him
there?"

"I have my car.  I can meet
you.  Just give me the address." It would be better for her if Nathan
didn't gum up her vibrations before she met his ex-wife's father.

#

Gillian met Nathan at the entrance
of a ten-story office building.  He guided her inside and into an elevator,
pushing the button for the tenth floor.  Every once in a while he glanced at
her.  Finally she asked, "What?"

"Nothing."

"I know better than that. 
You're looking at me as if I'm some exotic species that escaped from the zoo. 
I've seen that look before."

"And you probably misread it
then, too.  You're an attractive woman, Gillian.  Men are going to look.  It
has nothing to do with your psychic abilities.  Don't you ever tune into their
intentions?"

"I don't use my abilities for
personal benefit because I can't.  And I can't read anybody's mind, at least
not the way you mean.  All I can do is tune in on impressions and follow
hunches.  At times words or sounds or pictures pop into my head.  But my own
thoughts and feelings sometimes create static that blocks all of it."

 The elevator door slid open. 
Gillian stepped out and waited for Nathan.  She didn't want to think too long
or hard about his reasons for staring at her.

They passed a set of double wooden
doors.  Nathan explained, "That's Arthur's home away from home.  Lots of
chrome and glass.  He stays here when he works late."

Nathan stopped at a glass door and
turned the knob.  A secretary looked up and from her smile, Gillian knew she
recognized Nathan.  "Hi, Lisa.  Is he in?"

"Yes, he is.  But I have to
buzz him."

"Go ahead."

As Arthur Carrero's secretary
informed him Nathan was outside, Nathan said to Gillian, "The last time I
was here I was madder than hell and pushed my way in."

Lisa nodded to Nathan and Gillian. 
"You can go in now."

Arthur Carrero sat behind a massive
desk.  He was a short man, balding, dressed in a custom-made suit.  He didn't
stand when they entered.  "What do you want, Bradley?"

"You know what I want.  The
same thing I wanted the last time I was here.  Where are my daughters?"

Arthur Carrero closed the file
folder on his desk.  "This is an old song, Bradley.  I told you I don't
know."

Nathan's stance was as combative as
his voice.  "I don't believe you."

The older man nodded to Gillian. 
"I see you brought reinforcements.  Do you think a pretty young woman can
get information you can't?"

"She's helping me search for
them, Arthur.  She has investigative tools my P.I. and I lack.  I know you've
been in contact with Maddie and Dana.  It's time for this game to stop.  If
Leona doesn't bring them back, I'll file kidnapping charges."

Carrero picked up his letter
opener, balancing it in his palm.  "Just for argument's sake, let's say I
do know where they are.  My daughter has primary custody.  This is not a case
of kidnapping.  She simply took them on an extended vacation. You know why
Leona has primary custody.  Chances are good a judge wouldn't let you file any
charges."

Gillian's gaze was drawn to a faded
photograph on the side wall--a house with pillars and a winding drive.  The
words Chateau des Fleurs became as clear as a billboard in her mind. "Mr.
Carrero, your granddaughters miss their father.  Doesn't that matter to
you?"

"No, it does not.  Bradley
knows why.  Leona and the girls don't need him."

"A child needs her father, Mr.
Carrero," Gillian said softly.

For a moment, Arthur Carrero didn't
look quite as arrogant or as cold, and Gillian held the hope he would tell them
what they needed to know.  But then the moment was gone.  "I can provide
what they need."

"That's guilt talking, Arthur,
for all the times Leona needed you and you weren't there."

Arthur Carrero stood.  "This
meeting's over.  Lisa will show you out."  He pushed a button on his desk.

"For today," Nathan
returned calmly, though Gillian could tell he was seething inside.  "Tell
Leona what I said.  She'd be the one facing charges, not you.  Unless, of
course, you conspired with her."

Before Carrero could make a
comeback and the bad feelings between the two men escalated, Gillian placed her
hand on Nathan's arm.  Lisa opened the door to the inner sanctum, and Gillian
gave him a small tug.  His lips were still a tight slash, but his arm lost some
of its rigidity.  He led the way to the elevator.

Nathan was silent until they stood
outside the office building.  "I'm sorry you had to be involved in
that."

"Tell Jake Donovan to check
Mr. Carrero's properties in France, or those of people he knows.  The Chateau
des Fleurs."

Nathan looked at her in amazement. 
"You got something?"

When Gillian told him about the
picture on the wall, he wrapped his arms around her in an exuberant hug. 
"We're finally getting somewhere!"

Nathan's hug threw her into a
tailspin.  His big body surrounding hers made her feel fragile and safe, yet
tingly and waiting in anticipation for more.  But more of anything with Nathan
was too dangerous to contemplate.

Dropping his arms, he asked,
"Would it be worthwhile for you to stay at the house again tonight?"

Worthwhile or not, it wasn't a good
idea.  Not if she wanted to keep her distance from Nathan.  Especially since
they might already have the answer they need.  "See what your P.I. comes
up with.  Then we'll decide what to do next."

He looked as if he wanted to say
something but changed his mind.  "I'll let you know what we find out. 
Maybe this will all be over soon."

She hoped so, for both their sakes.

#

Late Saturday afternoon, Gillian
was painting nails for her last customer when Harriet stopped at her work
station.  "He's here again.  Says he has to talk to you.  I sure wish he'd
stop in to talk to me."  The receptionist's gaze was full of questions. 
More than once she'd tried to pump Gillian for  information about Nathan.

"Tell Mr. Bradley I'll be
finished shortly."  Gillian didn't look up but continued her brush stroke
on her client's nail.

"Whatever you say."

Gillian wished the situation were
that simple.  She hadn't heard from Nathan since he'd hugged her on Thursday. 
Since then, she'd tried to put him out of her mind without much success.  Now,
here he was.  The thought made her heart flutter, and she chastised herself. 
Nathan still had ties to his ex-wife.  Not only his daughters. And he didn't
speak of Leona with hatred or bitterness.  Only with sadness.  Did that mean he
still loved her?

Gillian finished with her client,
wished her a pleasant evening, and tidied her work table.  Untying her apron,
she hung it in the closet then went to the reception area.  Nathan was standing
at the window, watching people walk by.  His denim cut-offs and black T-shirt
were quite different from the pressed and polished clothes she'd seen him wear
before.

"Nathan?"

He turned, and the hope that had
glowed in his eyes on Thursday had vanished.  "Go for a ride with
me?" he asked.

She couldn't refuse him. 
"Sure.  I'm finished for the day."

Deciding she'd rather leave her car
at her apartment than in the parking lot at the shopping center, she asked
Nathan to pick her up there.  When he did, she hopped into his Mercedes and
closed the door.  "Where are we going?"

"How about the beach?  I need
to sweep the cobwebs away.  The ocean can do that."

"The beach is fine." 
Actually, anywhere with Nathan would be fine. 
Whoa, girl.  That is not the
kind of thinking you want to encourage.

Gillian sensed Nathan had something
to tell her, and she waited.  He drove a few miles in silence before he said,
"Chateau des Fleurs belongs to a friend of Arthur's.  From what Jake could
discover from the housekeeper, Leona and the girls stayed there for the first
month.  But no one he talked with knows where they went from there.  He hasn't
been able to trace her charge card because she's apparently using cash."

"I'm sorry, Nathan.  The past,
present, and future converge.  Usually, there is no time in what I see."

"At least we know they were in
France.  Jake is going to concentrate his efforts there.  The problem is that
Leona and her father have the money to cover their tracks well.  They can buy
silence, hire a chauffeur so Leona doesn't have to apply for a license, hire a
tutor to keep Dana out of school..."  Nathan smacked his fist on the
steering wheel.  "It's so damn frustrating!"

After a few more miles, he switched
on the CD player.  The music was a welcome substitute for the tense silence.

Nathan had missed Gillian the past
two days.  He'd told himself he was being irrational, but the house had seemed
even emptier than before she'd stayed the night.  Maybe because she'd been a
diversion.  His attraction for her had filled his head with thoughts other than
those of his daughters and work.  When he'd hugged her the other day, she'd
turned him on instantly.  Yet that hug had been a symbol of something more--a
type of caring he hadn't experienced in a long time...if ever.  Still, he
wasn't ready to think about a relationship with a woman.  He didn't know if
he'd ever want one again.

Eventually, he pulled into the
driveway of a long, one-story house.  "This is Linc's house.  When he's
away on business, I keep my eye on the place.  I often come out to this stretch
of beach to walk and think."

Nathan guided Gillian to a path
along the side of the house.  He took her arm as they descended stone steps to
the sand.  Yanking off his sneakers, he left them on the bottom step.  Gillian
set her sandals beside his sneakers.

As they walked across the sand,
Gillian said, "It might help me to know the whole story."

Nathan jammed his hands into the
pockets of his cut-offs. 

"Why are you reluctant to tell
me?" she asked softly, as the breeze blew a few strands of her hair along
her cheek.

If he told Gillian his story, if
she knew he hadn't been available to his daughters, would she still try to find
Dana and Maddie for him?  With Gillian, he wanted to hide his shortcomings and
failures.  But if she needed the whole story to zoom in on his daughters'
location, he had to risk telling her.

He didn't answer her question, but
kept walking, slowly, so she could keep up.  "I told you Leona and I came
from different backgrounds.  I came from poverty, she came from wealth.  I fell
for her beauty and poise.  I didn't see the insecurity underneath."

Gillian didn't pry or ask more
questions.  She waited.  They'd reached the wet sand when he added,
"Arthur's approval meant everything to Leona.  It did to me at first,
too.  My father had walked out on my mother and me when I was four.  So I guess
I saw Arthur Carrero as a father figure."  Nathan shook his head. 
"That was a mistake."

He stopped walking at an
outcropping of boulders.  Gillian didn't seem to care about her khaki slacks
and red blouse as she slid onto one of the boulders and waited for him to
continue.

He wondered what she was thinking,
what she'd think when he'd finished.  "Leona wanted me to succeed to the
same level as her father.  I wanted that, too.  Before the girls were born, she
was as busy as I was with charities and foundations.  After the girls were
born, her mindset changed.  She wanted me home more.  But by then, I was on the
fast track.  I wanted the same admiration and respect she gave her father.  I
wanted to provide her with all the material possessions she expected.  And
after Dana came and then Maddie, all I could think about was the poverty I'd
experienced as a child.  I wanted our daughters to have private schools, music
and dance lessons, and of course eventually to step onto the campus of an Ivy
League College.  I thought the best way to prove my love was by providing as
well as Arthur Carrero."

"What happened?" Gillian
asked softly.

He stared out at the ocean,
remembering his disbelief and shock.  "Maddie was almost a year old when
Leona told me she wanted a divorce.  I suggested counseling, but she said we no
longer had any feelings to build on.  The marriage was over."

Gillian slid to the edge of the
boulder.  "She didn't want to fight for it?"

"Leona's not a fighter.  She'd
rather run than face conflict.  We never fought because she wouldn't.  She'd
either agree or just turn away.  Our marriage disintegrated because neither of
us faced our feelings and our needs, neither of us communicated them."

"Why did she take the
girls?"

Looking beyond Gillian to the
horizon, he explained, "Because I was finally becoming a real father and
that threatened Leona.  When we were married, I left in the mornings before
Maddie and Dana were up.  I came home when it was time for them to go to bed. 
I tucked them in now and then, but I didn't know them.  They adored their
mother and I let Leona have primary custody because she was their anchor.  Yet
I realized if I couldn't save my marriage, I wanted to save my relationship
with my daughters.  So after the divorce, I used my visitation rights to build
the father-daughter bonds I'd missed.  Six months ago, I decided I wanted joint
custody."