The Wildcat that Tamed the Tycoon (14 page)

“I
don’t care, Wildcat.  I want you to come with me.”

“Babe, you have not seen your mother
for twenty five years.  I should not be there.”

“Yes you should.  You need to keep me
from strangling her.”

They were already dressed and just had
breakfast that Madison whipped up for them.  Logan was quite impressed that she
was so ‘useful’ in the kitchen.  He drew her tight against his body and smiled
at her.

“I need someone to ground me when I
face her for the first time.  I have no idea how I will react.  If not for what
she has been responsible for the past month, it might have been a different
reunion.  She has no heart.  That much is clear.”

She searched his eyes and noticed the
hurt deep in the back of his eyes.  She hugged him against her and sighed.

“If you insist, Babe, I’ll go with
you.”

“I insist.” 

He was relaxed and happy for the first
time in a very long while.  The night gone by was very satisfying, not just
from a physical point of view, but emotionally as well.  In between satisfying
their need for each other they talked and he learned a little more of the
person she was.  He still did not think in the direction of marriage, but
Madison made a commitment to stay with him and that was all he needed.  He
refused to contemplate anything further than that, except that he feels warm
and fuzzy just thinking of her carrying his child.  He refused to dissect that
emotion and what it meant.

Stella Dalton was due to arrive around
eleven and it was already ten in the morning. Madison pulled out of his arms
and turned to go back to the bedroom.

“Where are you going?”

She looked over his naked torso and
bare feet and his blood warmed immediately.

“You might not have any compunction to
appear before your mother dressed like that, but these shorts aren’t really
meeting your mother attire.”

“Madison … she might have brought me
into the world, but she was never a mother to me or to Shane.  Meeting her
today is going to be difficult, not because of some long lost desire to meet my
mother again, but because I hate her with a passion so deep I can’t even put it
into words.  It is going to be difficult because I will have to pretend it
means something more to me to meet her again, now after twenty five years.”

She walked towards him again and
kissed him softly on his mouth, whispering against his mouth.  “I understand,
my love and I will be there to support you, but I am still not meeting her
dressed in this short.”

He let her go and stood outside
waiting for her, his brow furrowed.  The closer the moment got when he was
going to face his mother again, the higher the hate in his heart bubbled.  He
learned to hate her at a very young age.  When as a ten year old boy he had to
soothe his little seven year old brother’s fears and tears and longing for his
mother.  How he became a liar when he could not give him what he promised night
after night when he rocked him to sleep.  The promise was always the same. 

“Don’t worry, Shanie … Mommy will be
back soon.  I promise.”

His throat clogged up remembering the
trust Shane placed in him. Eventually when he told him two years later that she
was gone forever, he accepted it without any heartache and only asked for one
promise.  It was a promise he never reneged on and never would.

“Promise me, big bro, that you will
never leave me!”

Logan stood in the door watching
Madison chatting to Shane and his father on the side patio facing the pool. 
She was totally relaxed and seemed to belong there. Shane stood next to her and
laughed at something she said.  He put his arm around her shoulder and hugged
her against his side.  Logan stiffened immediately, but relaxed when the
immediate rage he felt before when he saw his brother hugging here was absent. 
He realized it was because Madison committed to belong to him. However, he did
not appreciate the continued closeness between them and reaching them pulled
them apart, glaring at Shane.

“I’m not going to keep telling you
this, little bro – keep your hands to yourself!”

“Jeez!  All I did was rest my arm on
her shoulders.  Where did this extreme possessive streak come from, big bro?”

“Since she told me she is going to
have m …”

“Logan Dalton don’t you dare!”  She
glared at him but at the same time there was a hint of panic in her eyes. He
smiled at her teasingly.

“I don’t keep anything from my family,
Wildcat.”

“Some things you just don’t have to
share!”

His eyes were all of a sudden serious
when he looked into hers.

“What if it is something I want to
share with them?”

Her breath snagged in her throat and
her heart beat so wild in her chest she could hear the
thumb, thumb, thumb
in her ears.  He was as much as admitting he wanted her to have his child!

“Hey you two … remember us? Yoohoo!”

Logan caressed his fingers softly down
her cheek and turned to his father and brother.

“She decided she was not leaving
anymore.  However, Shane … you still have to find a replacement for her. 
Pretty soon I won’t allow her to fly all over the country anymore.”

She gasped and Shane and Jonathan
looked at him questioningly.

“Why?”

“All will be explained in due time.”

They heard the soft hum of a car
approaching and stood watching the cab driving towards the house slowly. 
Madison felt Logan stiffening next to her and his hand reached for hers,
plating his fingers through hers.

“Remember, Dad, Shane, you are happy
to see her and welcome her back in your lives.  Shane told her how I feel about
her so at least I don’t have to pretend.  She must not realize we are on to
her.”

They both nodded and Shane ran down the
stairs to meet Stella Dalton at the car.  Logan’s eyes were glued on the white
cab and his heart quivered when she alighted from the car.

She was of medium height and at fifty
seven still a strikingly beautiful woman.  She was well built, had medium brown
hair and reminded Madison of Linda Gray, the actress that played the role of
Sue Ellen in Dallas years ago.  She hugged Shane and slowly walked up the
stairs towards the patio, her eyes first meeting Jonathan’s then moved and
faltered when they met the steely gaze of her eldest son.

When Shane found her years ago she was
flattered that he turned to her and immediately accepted her back in his life
as his mother.  Logan, on the other hand … his face was expressionless, hard
and his eyes shot shards of hatred in her direction.  She swallowed and
wondered if he could see right into her mind, his gaze was that direct and
cold.

“Stella … thank you for coming. 
You’re looking lovely.”

She smiled her socialite smile in her
husbands’ direction.  Maybe there was an easier way to get her bank balance
back to where she wanted it.  She used to be able to wrap him around her
finger.  Getting the offshore rig was taking too long and she was running out
of funds.  If she couldn’t get Phillips Financial Bank to approve her
application she would be in deep trouble.  As collateral she indicated that she
would put up her shares of the company.  She already sold forty percent over
the past year and had to sign over another ten to Vernon Miller who drove the
campaign to get their hands on the Dalton’s offshore rig that would turn their
lives around immediately.

“Jonathan, thank you.  You are still
as handsome as ever.” 

She walked up to him and offered her
mouth for a kiss.  He stiffened and leaned down to offer a quick peck on her
cheek, her deceitfulness and heartlessness too much to bear to touch her any
more than that.

She frowned at him and he smiled to
cover his true feelings.  Stella turned and walked up to Logan and his fingers
tightened painfully around Madison’s.  She hugged him and held on for a while,
but when she realized he was not going to return the hug, stepped back and
looked into his brooding eyes.

“Logan, you have turned into such an
imposing man.  I am so proud of you.”

“Why?  You had nothing to do with how
I turned out.  Nor Shane, for that matter.” 

His voice was hoarse and cold as ice. 
Madison traced slow circles on his palm and his body relaxed slightly.  Stella
gasped and glanced back at Jonathan.

“Are you going to allow him to talk to
me like that, Jonathan?  Just remember I am still your mother, Logan.  I demand
your respect.”

He smirked.  “Respect has to be
earned, mother dear, and you have done nothing to earn even a pinch of it.”

Jonathan shrugged and informed her
with a smile.  “Logan is a thirty five year old man, Stella.  I have stopped
giving him instructions when he was twelve years old.  When he realized you
were not coming back and he had to take over the household and become mother
and father to his brother, because I was too busy with work and drowning my
sorrows in the bottle.  He has been in charge of Dalton Oil from when he was
just twenty two years old.  At that point he just finished his PhD in Drilling
Engineering.”

Madison looked up at Logan with pride
in her eyes.  He had to endure so much at the hands of this woman.  No boy of
ten should have been forced into such a life.  Her heart warmed when she
realized how similar their lives had been, except hers were forced on her and
he chose his himself.

“Well, I suppose it won’t serve any purpose
to offer my apologies and regret for leaving you boys at such a young age.”

“No, I’d rather you don’t, purely
because we both know you won’t mean a word of it.”

Stella shook her head slightly.  “I do
regret leaving the way I did and not being there for you boys over the years,
but I had a life to live as well.”

She turned to Madison and looked her
up and down, her expression one of disapproval.

“And who is this lovely lady, Logan.”

Shane piped up before Logan could
answer.  “This is Madison, our pilot.  Madison as you would have guessed, this
is Stella, our mother.”

“Please to meet you Mrs. Dalton.” 

She held her hand out politely and
Stella waited a long while before she gave Madison a limp hand, which the
little red devil on her shoulder encouraged her, she grabbed in a tight grip
and shook it up and down.

Stella pulled her hand back and
snorted.  “Well, I never!  Don’t tell me you are coveting with the hired help,
Logan?  It is beneath your station and completely inappropriate that she is
even present at our reunion!”

Shane jumped in between Stella and
Logan when he recognized the look of fury in Logan’s eyes.  Madison just
chuckled and Jonathan closed his eyes in relief that he already signed the
divorce papers he lodged with the courts a week ago.

“Ehh … Mother, what can we get you to
drink?”

“Oh, some tea would be lovely, my
dear.  But why don’t we ask … what is her name again … Madeline?  To go and
make it for us?”

Madison allowed the insults to roll
off her back, but she noticed Logan’s ire building higher with every word she
uttered.  She pulled her hand from his and turned towards the kitchen.

“Of course, it will be my pleasure. 
Tea for all of you?”  At their collective nods she escaped gratefully to the
kitchen, pulling her phone from her pocket.  She could not allow this woman to
destroy the life of the man she loved, even if it meant she must do the one
thing she hated to do and what Grand Pops tried to prevent when he gave her his
full estate.

She put the kettle on and set
everything in place to brew the tea and quickly scrolled to a number on her
phone.  She bit her lip when the ringtone filled her ears and she closed her
eyes when his deep voice made her quiver in longing.

“Hello Daddy … I need your help.”

There was dead silence and she nearly
cried.  He had to help her.  She took a deep breath and shot a prayer up to her
Grand Pops in apology for what she was about to do.

“What do you need?” 

She gasped when he spoke, not having
expected him to.  She explained everything and he didn’t interrupt once.  When
she was done she waited breathlessly.

“Will you help me, Daddy?”

“Why should I, Madison?  You chose to
walk away, now all of a sudden you want my help.”

“I always tried to keep in contact,
Daddy!  Please!”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Daddy … I … If you help me, I will
give my inheritance from Grand Pops.  Most of it is still there and with
interest over the years slightly more at this stage.”

She heard his gasp and a slow release
of his breath.

“You would do this for a man?”

“Not just any man … Logan Dalton.”

“The Oil Magnate in Texas?’

“Yes, Daddy.”

“Very well, Madison.  I will help you,
on one condition.”

She bit her lip.  She knew there would
be, he always had conditions, but she had hoped with her offering her
inheritance he would not demand more.