Taken (23 page)

M
atthew glanced over at Shannon. She hadn’t spoken since they drove away from the FBI building. “We’ll stop and get a bite to eat, give you a chance to unwind in an environment that’s not the apartment’s same four walls.”

“Whatever you think,” she said absently.

“It went well today, Shannon.”

“It got done,” she said. “Once it’s known I’m alive, they’ll be looking to find me, to make sure I can’t testify.”

“John and I will make sure nobody can get near you. Of everything you might worry about, don’t pick that one up.”

She nodded. “Thanks for being there today. And that swim really helped.”

“I’m glad. You’ve ‘done good’ today, Shannon. You did the right thing.”

“It helps to hear that.”

Matthew found the restaurant he wanted, a place named Cues, parked in the side lot and moved around the car to open Shannon’s door. “This is an Italian restaurant Bryce mentioned. He and Charlotte often come here on Saturday nights to have
dinner and play some pool. If they’re here tonight, they won’t be offended if we wave and then do our own thing. But if you want some conversation that’s unrelated to any of this, Charlotte’s probably the safest person I can suggest.”

“I like them, Matthew. If they are here, let’s at least stop and say hello.”

Bryce and Charlotte had just arrived themselves. The four ended up sharing two medium pizzas, with the conversation moving easily around upcoming Chicago summer events, the campaign for governor, Charlotte’s career in art, Ellie and John’s impending wedding—absolutely nothing during the meal touching on Shannon’s story or her FBI debriefing that day. But Matthew thought Shannon had to make an effort to stay engaged even while she was enjoying the evening.

Charlotte had brought along her own custom pool cue, offered to share it, and the ladies moved to a free table to play a game. Matthew joined Bryce at an open dart board. It had been years since he’d played, but as he hefted a dart it felt right in his hand. “Thanks for mentioning this place, Bryce. Shannon needed the break.” He tossed his first dart and was pleased with where it landed.

“I’m glad it worked out—for you and us.” Bryce tossed a dart, and Matthew realized his chance of offering a good match was going to be mostly luck. Bryce had the dart board zeroed in. Matthew did his best to offer a competitive game, was halfway pleased when Bryce won the game by only several points rather than dozens.

Matthew was watching the women as Bryce collected the darts. “What do you think they’re talking about?”

Bryce studied his wife with a narrowed gaze, smiled. “Shoes.”

“You’re serious.”

“My wife has a thing for them, and she just spotted what Shannon’s wearing. They’ll be planning a shopping trip soon, I imagine.”

“Shoes. Okay. It
is
the one thing Shannon has expressed an interest in shopping for since we reached Chicago.”

Bryce laughed. “They’ll be fine, those two. Charlotte’s good at reading people. She’ll nudge the conversation in a direction that’ll be helpful to Shannon.”

“We’ve had a long day. Shannon spent most of it talking with Paul and his team.”

“I wondered,” Bryce said. “She has that expression like she’s gone down a dark memory lane and isn’t quite fully back yet.”

“How does Charlotte handle the dark memories?”

“She works on her art, though sometimes she decides it would help to talk—mostly with Ellie, I think, but occasionally she’ll bring up something to me. She’s not looking for much feedback, simply to have someone else know the memory and share it with her.”

“I haven’t figured out how Shannon deals with a day like this. Shopping, going for a swim, talking—whatever it is, she needs more of it right now, and I don’t know what to offer. I’m not sure even she knows that answer. She hasn’t had her freedom long enough to have found a pattern.”

Bryce squared a dart in his hand, sent it flying to start another match. “Charlotte said the first days after her rescue were like being hit with a tidal wave—the volume of things happening around her, so many people coming and going. Constant change. Nothing ever the same. She longed for things to be the same from one day to the next.”

Matthew stopped a dart mid-throw. “That’s utterly profound. How did I miss it?” Shannon’s life since Atlanta had
been constant change. He could do a lot more to help her find a daily rhythm. “What else did Charlotte say?”

“She wanted to talk about the process going on, not the things in her past. She wanted to know what to expect in the days and weeks ahead. She needed to know the future in order to get comfortable with it before it arrived.”

“What was the thing that got her through those weeks?”

“John hired on as her bodyguard and instinctively provided for both needs: a constant she could depend on, and a heads-up for what was going to happen. He didn’t allow anything to be a surprise.”

The ladies had ended their game and were walking back to the table. Matthew watched them be seated and saw they were settling into a conversation. He turned his attention back to the game. “Tell me something, Bryce. Did you marry Charlotte knowing her past, or was it a long discovery?”

“Both.”

Matthew glanced over. “Any regrets?”

“None.”

“Mention that to Shannon sometime, would you? It might help her to know your perspective. For that matter, mention it to my daughter should she ever visit Chicago.”

Bryce smiled. “My wife is an interesting woman, both despite what happened and because of it. It’s her history. With time it becomes our history. A marriage can work with that.”

They finished the dart game and walked over to rejoin the ladies. Matthew slid into the booth beside Shannon, picked up the soft drink the waitress had refilled, considered another slice of the pizza.

Shannon leaned into his shoulder as she reached across for the hot pepper. “I’m going shopping with Charlotte tomorrow.”

Matthew had to grin. “Okay. Becky tells me that retail therapy is good for the mind, body, and soul.”

Shannon poked him with her little finger. “There speaks a skeptic. Charlotte also said we could probably slip into the balcony at their church, come and go unnoticed, if we attend the eight a.m. service tomorrow.”

“It’s a plan. I’ll work out directions with Bryce.”

Shannon dropped the pepper stem on the edge of her plate. “Is darts an easy game to learn?” she asked, changing the subject.

“Can you read that sign over the door?” Matthew asked, pointing it out.

“What? Why?”

“If you can, you don’t need glasses, and I can probably teach you. If you can’t, you need to see an eye doctor first, then we’ll be in business.”

She looked at the sign and gave an exaggerated squint.

Charlotte laughed. “Come on, Shannon. I’ll teach you darts. We can play teams against the guys next week. And you two be prepared to lose . . . badly,” she added, looking meaningfully at the men as she shifted her pool cue to Bryce for safekeeping.

Matthew and Bryce chuckled and got to their feet so the women could slide out of the booth. Matthew watched as they chose a board and began divvying up the darts between them, laughing together. “It looks like we’re going to be joining you again next week. Sorry about that. I realize this is probably your date night with Charlotte.”

“No problem,” Bryce said. “We’re working on a list—top ten favorite dates. It gives me an excuse to take her out a few times every week. We can afford to share the occasional Saturday night.”

“Shannon really needed this evening. It’s a good break for her from the hard things of today.”

“I’m glad we can be of help. How are you doing, Matthew?”

He grimaced.

“That bad?”

“She came to find me. I’m not walking away before this is finished. But she’s dealt with it over eleven years. I’m hearing the story in about eleven days . . . and it’s not an easy thing to absorb.”

Bryce picked up his glass and tapped Matthew’s. “I know it’s not. But it helps her on her journey back. So you do it without flinching.”

“I’m doing my best. She’d be able to do it on her own if necessary. There’s nothing fragile about her,” Matthew admitted.

“She hasn’t shown it yet but, yes, there is. That broken part that will wonder, ‘Am I still worth loving?’” Bryce replied.

“You married Charlotte.”

“A good move on both our parts, done for our own reasons,” Bryce said with an easy smile.

“You’re in love with her.”

“Of that you can be certain.” Bryce leaned back, studied him. “And yes, before you have to ask, that question was a large part of Charlotte’s struggle with trusting me. Don’t worry so much about the timing of things, what people will think, what makes logical sense when it comes to a woman like Shannon. You’ve got a good friendship forming there.”

“She’s between the age of my daughter and myself. That pushes me both ways—she’s someone to take care of and someone to care about.”

Bryce chuckled. “Both nice sentiments. You’re a good friend to her, Matthew. So be that. Shannon’s healing is faster with you than without you. So carry what she’ll let you carry, do
your best to fill in the gaps for her. That’s basically my story with Charlotte—a really good friendship that evolved into the trust and depth of a love affair within a very good marriage.”

Matthew’s eyebrows raised. “Why do I get the feeling you’re asking me something?”

“Shannon’s simply the . . . interesting woman who’s walked across your path,” Bryce offered with a smile, defining reality for him. “I look at the two of you and I see . . . the possibility of something that is also interesting. Let’s find a pool table. You can take some of the emotion of today out on a game or two.”

“You’re only trying to tie me up in knots, throw off my concentration for the game,” Matthew said as they stood.

“Distracting you,” Bryce corrected with a laugh. “Have you thought much about what happened today since you’ve been here?”

“No,” Matthew conceded.

“See? I’m good at this.”

Matthew laughed. “Yeah, you are.” He tilted his head, curious. “Has Charlotte got your number yet?”

“She had that done long before she finally accepted my marriage proposal.”

“How long did she make you wait?”

“After the proposal? Months.”

Matthew shot a glance over at Charlotte.
Interesting
.
She’d made a good choice and also read Bryce very well, from the look of it.

Matthew hunkered down beside the restaurant booth, picked up the last breadstick in the basket, enjoying the garlic and the melted cheese baked in. “Shannon, we’d better head out.”
It was coming up on nine o’clock, and he’d lost the last three games of pool to Bryce. And as comfortable as Shannon was right now, sharing a piece of cake with Charlotte, she needed sleep even more than he did.

Shannon nodded and finished her drink, slid out from the booth. Matthew smiled a thanks at Charlotte. “Bryce says John’s going to act as chauffeur for the shopping trip tomorrow, so if by chance I don’t see you, I want to wish you good luck finding perfect outfits and their matching shoes.”

“Our plan is to start with the shoes and work our way up from there,” Charlotte said with a chuckle.

They said good-night to Bryce and Charlotte, and Matthew led Shannon out of the restaurant. She covered a yawn before they were halfway to the car. “I am wiped.”

“I can imagine. I’m really glad you were able to relax.”

“I like Charlotte,” Shannon mentioned as she settled in the car. “A lot.”

“I can tell you do,” Matthew said lightly. He closed her car door and circled around to take the driver’s seat. “Bryce impresses me too.”

“He’s charmed by her, and she feels safe with him. It was kind of interesting to watch their interplay tonight. They’re close for being a married couple.”

Matthew was amused at her remark. “The way it should be in a good marriage.”

“Did you have a good marriage with . . . I’m so sorry, but I don’t remember your wife’s name.”

“Jessica.” He smiled. “We had a great marriage. We were young and very much in love. She died way too soon, long before the passion between us mellowed.”

“How did she die?”

He wanted to avoid answering at the moment, but it was a relevant question. He tried to give Shannon a word picture as a reply. “It was the kind of accident that was no one’s fault. A man had a heart attack while driving. She couldn’t avoid the resulting collision. Her loss left a huge hole in my life, in Becky’s too. Jessica was the bright light we both revolved around, took our cues from. She made our days flow together as a family. It took a while to find our footing again.”

“I’m sorry I asked and made you uncomfortable.”

“Don’t worry about it, Shannon. It’s part of my past. Not as crushing as yours, but my own version of memories and emotions that need some thought before opening them once more. I don’t mind talking about Jessica. It’s a good history, being married to someone I truly loved, and I’ve made peace with the loss. It’s just . . . big.”

“It’s like the rock that the rest of your life now rests on.”

He liked the analogy. “A big, flat rock, as it underlies most areas of my life. I can build whatever I wish to on that history, but it’s there.”