Losing Ladd (32 page)

“
We all do.”

“
I wish I could say I was
above petty jealousy but I can’t.” She blinked, evading him for a
moment before returning to look at him head on. “I always knew he
wanted to marry her, and would have, but for the simple fact she
said no.”

Cal couldn’t imagine the person who
would have revealed such information to his mother. He couldn’t
imagine how they could be so hateful when his mother had done
nothing but follow a man from her hometown to his. Victoria Guthrie
had been a young socialite from Chattanooga, an innocent woman who
hadn’t been privy to the goings-on in their community before her
arrival. To fill her in after the fact was downright spiteful.
“We’ve all experienced a young crush, Momma, but that doesn’t mean
it’s ‘meant to be.’ It’s nothing but a first kiss.”

Staring at him, she seemed rapt by his
words.

“
Marriage is for life,” he
said, overcome by a wisdom he felt undeserved but driven to share.
“It’s about building a home, a family, continuing a love through
the generations. Daddy wanted that life with you. He might have
loved Susannah, but he also loved you. Isn’t that
enough?”

Victoria Foster pressed
her lips together and nodded. Tears sprang to her eyes but she
nodded, quickly, surely. She nodded,
yes
.

Cal remembered the words penned by his
father verbatim.

Susannah, I’m writing to
inform you of my engagement. Victoria Guthrie of Chattanooga has
accepted my proposal for marriage. She is a beautiful woman who I
am sure you would approve. Not only of excellent upbringing and
education but she has a heart of pure gold, making my days shine
with joy, my heart overflow with love.

I know you and Harry have
been married and I wish you nothing but happiness for the years to
come. Your friendship has meant the world to me and I hope you will
wish the same for me. While we have shared many special moments, it
occurs to me that I should tell you I cannot imagine my life going
forward without Victoria. You and she will most assuredly cross
paths and I wanted you to have this in your heart to hold.
I am dedicating my life to Victoria.

Yours truly,
Gerald.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The fire ravaged several acres before
firefighters were able to extinguish the last of it. Men in boxy
suits hiked heavily up and down the hill, their horizontal
reflector stripes flashing iridescently as they crossed walls of
light flooding from portable lamps. Nick stood entrenched, watching
the progress. He’d wanted to leave hours ago. He wanted to see
Delaney, tell her how much he loved her, but his presence had been
required here. After scouring the mountainside, retracing his roll
down the hill with Jeremiah, he’d managed to locate the gun. The
pistol Jeremiah most likely used to shoot Travis, the same one he
used to shoot him. It was all the police needed to charge him with
attempted murder and haul his butt to jail.

God willing, Travis wouldn’t die.
According to Felicity it was still touch and go, but he was out of
surgery and alive. It was all they could ask for—that and Delaney’s
recovery. Add the fact the Ladd boys had been picked up on a
highway outside of town, and the news was improving all around.
Incredibly, Lacy had identified the two with the help of Travis’
surveillance photos. Adding a name to the mix enabled the police to
identify license plates and send out an alert. Once they matched
the hair sample found at the robbery scene, they could tie the men
to the hotel burglary and send them away for a long time. Wicked
pleasure coursed through him. Stealing a firearm in the process of
robbery would chain their jail cell closed.

Unclenching his teeth, Nick massaged
his jaw. The bruises on his body were beginning to ache though none
of them were too serious. Muscles would heal. Buildings could be
rebuilt. Trees would regrow. Nick’s only unsettled business
remained that of Jillian. Somehow, some way, he had to tie her to
the fire. He didn’t believe Jeremiah set off the explosive by
himself. He wasn’t smart enough. But Jillian was. She was smart
enough and malicious enough to blow up the stables, including every
living animal inside them. She stopped by the stables the day
before, which gave her access. She could have easily obtained the
know-how to construct a bomb. Motive, she never lacked. Jillian was
behind it, he was sure of it.

With the crisis here winding down and
under control, his next goal was to connect Jillian to the cell
phone. They’d located bits and pieces from the detonating device,
but discovering where it was purchased would prove the challenge.
Jeremiah’s cell phone had been used to call the phone, thereby
triggering the explosion, but he claimed he’d lost it. Likely
story. More likely he sold it to Jillian for a pretty penny. Of
course there remained the business of his bail as well. Someone
paid a lot of money to see him go free. Made sense it was a down
payment for arson.

Turning away from the disheartening
scene, Nick had about all the bad news he was going to tolerate. He
strode across the stone-paved patio and up the few steps to the
outdoor sidewalk. Malcolm would have some ideas. Between the two of
them they could brainstorm their way through any
problem.

Malcolm. What would he do without the
man? Nick closed his eyes briefly as he walked by floor-to-ceiling
windows along the spa. Interior lights were dim, deepening the
shadows in and around overstuffed chairs and sofas positioned along
the hall of windows. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind he would have
killed Jeremiah if Malcolm hadn’t intervened. He would have locked
his hands around Jeremiah’s throat and squeezed the life from him.
A mild tremor raced through him. It was a death that evoked mixed
emotion.

With the spa behind him, Nick wondered
briefly as to Cal’s whereabouts. Was he at the hospital? Nick hoped
not. With his daughter in town, Cal should be spending every last
second with her. Family was precious. Life was short. Hotel Ladd
was his job, not his entire existence.

Shouldn’t be Nick’s
either. He’d been doing a lot of thinking over the last couple of
days, taking stock of his life, thinking about what mattered. It
had been late in his life when he found the woman of his dreams,
and then to have her nearly ripped from his arms had given him
pause. He’d planned on scouting the Asian continent for a new
locale next year, maybe India or one of the islands, but now he
wasn’t so sure. His problem wasn’t deciding on which exotic locale
but convincing his wife to join him. Delaney refused to leave. She
contended the horses needed her, the stable staff needed her. They
weren’t ready for her departure, she argued, but Nick knew the
truth. It was Delaney. Rooted deeply in her corner of the world,
the slice of paradise staked out by her family before her, she
wasn’t going anywhere.
Maybe someday after
the hotel has been opened for a year or so.
Maybe when Felicity is out of college.
But if Nick had learned anything from the events of late, it
was that “maybe” doesn’t always come. Sometimes fate yanks you out
of the game before “someday” arrives.

Swinging open the rear door to the
lobby, Nick scanned the faces mingling about. Most of the guests
had gone, leaving only the most curious to probe for information.
Taking stock of his presence, a front desk clerk looked to him
expectantly but he waved her off. He wasn’t on duty. He was on his
way to the hospital.

Nick walked down the hall to the
waiting room for ICU. He’d called ahead to check on Felicity,
wondering how she was holding up, if she was hungry, if she needed
anything. He could pick something up from Fran’s on his way but her
response had been a placid refusal—Ashley had come and gone with
food. Casey was keeping her company at the moment, the baby at home
with grandma. While Nick was glad Felicity had company, he was
worried about her. She was fair-hearted, too young and innocent to
be exposed to the uglier side of life.

But after an attempted kidnapping and
witnessing her boyfriend’s shooting by a lunatic, she could say
goodbye to innocence. It had left her at the poker table with a
losing hand.

Entering the room, he slowed his pace,
treading softly as he took a seat beside Felicity.
“Hey.”

“
Hey,” Felicity replied.
“Have you seen mom?”

“
No. I wanted to see you
first.” Nick took her hand and held it gently between his own.
Warm, slender, it felt fragile, matching the shaky quality in
Felicity’s gaze. Her eyes were puffy, devoid of cheer. Even the
brightly colored floral blouse she wore didn’t help to paint a
happy picture. Not that he could blame her. Nick was feeling pretty
gloomy himself these days.

Casey stood. “I’m gonna go grab some
water.”

Nick silently acknowledged her
departure, then returned his attention to Felicity. He hated that
she was hurting, hated that she was hit by two tragedies at once.
Giving her a gentle squeeze, he said, “Travis is a strong guy.
He’ll get through this, you watch and see.” She nodded but seemed
detached, as though she knew the deal. There were no guarantees.
“It was a brave thing he did for you. It’s obvious that boy loves
you. He’ll fight to get back to you, you have to know that. Believe
in the power of the spirit, the heart.” As he spoke, Nick could
feel something churning inside her. There was something she wasn’t
saying. Alone in the room, he brushed the loose tendrils of hair
from her face. “Talk to me. Let me take some of the pain from
you.”

Red-rimmed eyes peered into his. “Our
last words before he was shot...our last conversation…I told him I
didn’t want him interfering for me.”

“
What do you
mean?”

Tears welled as she averted his gaze.
“He stopped by my father’s hotel room, he saw my car so he stopped
and I told him—”

Alarm bells sounded in his head. “You
were at your father’s hotel room? What for?”

She blinked, wary yet unapologetic. “I
believed he started the fire. I went to confront him about it, and
Travis saw my car parked outside.”

“
You did
what
?” Nick asked, stuck in the part where
she said she went to confront her father. Was she out of her mind?
Jack Foster was a dangerous man. Nick didn’t care that Felicity was
his daughter. Jack could strike out at anyone, including her! “Tell
me what happened,” he demanded, his mild tone barely controlled. “I
want to know everything.”

Sniffling, she clasped her
hands around his and held tight. Staring at their entwined hands,
she continued, “Unfortunately, nothing much. I went to his room to
see if I could find any clues. I thought maybe if I could smell
smoke on his clothing, see something charred…” Her voice fell away,
as if she realized how foolish she sounded. But firming her tone,
she flipped her gaze to meet his. “I
had
to do something. We found his
lighter outside the stables. I know he was involved somehow, and I
couldn’t just let him walk around—my mom was lying in a hospital
bed! You know what that’s like—it’s awful!
Horrible
.” She shook her head. “I
had to do something but Travis stepped in. He stopped me before I
could learn a thing, and now he’s lying in a hospital
bed.”

Felicity was unraveling. Slowly,
before his very eyes, Nick watched her come undone and his heart
ached for her. She was voicing the same things he himself had felt
only hours before. A loved one is lying helpless in a hospital
room. It gives rise to an urge to act, a need to set things right.
Nick dropped his gaze and clutched her hands more forcefully. So
young and delicate, yet he’d always known Felicity was a strong
young woman. Hadn’t he told Delaney as much?

Don’t sell your daughter
short. Felicity is made of strong fiber
.

“
We need to let the
authorities handle the criminals.” He was speaking almost as much
to himself as he was to Felicity. “We need to step aside and let
them do their job.”

“
He attacked her at the
stables and no one listened!” she cried out. “He tried to burn them
down—I had to see what I could find out on my own. I figured if I
could soften him up, make him think I wanted to reunite, he’d allow
me the time to investigate. Then Travis barged in on us. The minute
my father laid eyes on him, he accused me of setting him up. I was
so angry with Travis... Once we were outside I told him
exactly
what I thought.
I told him to mind his own business and stop interfering with me.”
Suddenly she choked up and sputtered, “I told him ‘next time don’t
stop.’ I didn’t need his kind of interference on my
behalf.”

Tears swam into her eyes, cutting him
to the quick. If Travis hadn’t stopped when he saw her on the side
of the road, who knows what could have happened to
Felicity.

“
Thank goodness he didn’t
listen to me. It could be me in there instead of him!”

“
This isn’t your fault,
Felicity.” Nick pulled her to him and held her close, but she
resisted.

“
He thinks I hate him! Our
last conversation was me
rejecting
him.”

“
It was a fight. Travis
knows you love him.”