Quest for Love: Los Angeles Armstrongs 1 (The Armstrongs Book 7) (11 page)

Chuck was lying on the hard bench in the prison cell, boring holes into the ceiling with his stare. Sleep was elusive and there was nothing else to do but think, after they’d taken his watch, along with his wallet, cell phone, and everything else in his pockets when they’d booked him.

He’d spent endless time thinking about Linda and worrying whether she was okay. The police hadn’t answered his demand for an explanation of the kidnapping charges they were threatening to file against him.

It was plain ridiculous, but the officers seemed to think differently. Despite Linda’s loud protests they had believed neither him nor her. By now he was sure the whole kidnapping story was Evangelina’s doing. She’d threatened to ruin him, but he hadn’t expected her to go to such extremes.

“Armstrong, let’s go,” the jail guard ordered him in the wee hours of the morning. Chuck stood with a glimmer of hope that everything had been resolved. But he was disappointed when the guard pointed to a phone. “You have one call. Make it count.”

Chuck stared at the officer and then glared bleary-eyed at the clock on the opposite wall.
Which one of my siblings is likely to answer the phone at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m.?

He dialed Vivian’s number, praying she’d pick up the phone before it went to voicemail. His prayer was answered on the third ring.

“Chuck? This had better be good. I just went to bed,” she said sleepily.

“Sis, sorry to wake you, but I need your help.” He ran a hand through his hair. Usually she came to him for help, not the other way round.

“You need my help? That’s a new one. Don’t tell me you fought with your girlfriend.”

“Kinda. I got arrested.” In a few years he’d probably laugh at the occurrence. Right now it was anything but funny.

“Don’t tell me you beat the crap out of some guy because he tried to touch her?” Vivian asked, half-joking.

“Worse. I got arrested for kidnapping Linda.”

“What the hell? Did she…”

“No. Look, you’re my one phone call. Can you come down here? They aren’t telling me much.” He shoved his hand into his pocket.

“Yeah. I’ll wake Gwen up and bring her with me.”

“Bring Gwen. Maybe she can get some answers.” Gwen worked as a probation officer and he knew this situation would result in a never-ending barrage of teasing from her, but it was a price he’d willingly pay if she could figure out what was going on here.

“See you soon. Don’t go away,” Vivian teased him.

“Thanks, sis. I owe you one.” Chuck hung up the phone, and this time when he was ushered back into the holding cell, he didn’t feel as hopeless as before. Vivian was on her way with help. Hopefully Gwen would prove to be the cavalry riding to the rescue.

Two hours later, Chuck entered the small room where Vivian and Gwen sat waiting for him. He nodded to the officer escorting him and then hugged the two girls. With a crooked smile he said, “Thanks for coming.”

Gwen smirked at him. “Well, I never thought I’d see the day you’d become one of my probationers…”

Chuck gave her a grim look and took a seat at the table. “Very funny. Were you able to find out anything?”

Her face grew serious as she nodded. “Nothing good, though. You need to take these charges seriously. They are. At this point they are not allowing bail, and you’re going to be stuck in here until this situation is cleared up.”

“But…”

“Hold up a minute,” Gwen added. “Evangelina Ross has pressed charges against you for kidnapping her daughter and for stealing her Oscars.”

Chuck jumped up, livid,  and said, “She’s a freaking liar!”

“Becoming angry and yelling isn’t going to solve anything,” Gwen reminded him. “You need to stay calm and let us try to clear the suspicion her charges have created, or until I can reach a judge to approve bail for you on Monday.”

“So, what? I’m supposed to sit in here while some bitch ruins my life?” He sat down again.

“Pretty much.” Vivian joined in the conversation. “I think we should call Frank.” Frank was a friend of the family and a lawyer. Chuck trusted the man explicitly.

“Fine. Maybe he can get me out of here.”

“Hang in there.” Gwen grinned as the guard opened the door and announced their time was up. “We’ll be back. I promise.”

Chuck nodded and walked morosely back to the holding cell. He tried to find a silver lining in his situation.
Things could be worse. I could be dead. Linda could be dead.
Well, that thought didn’t help.

Linda stirred in her bed, her mind having a hard time rousing from sleep. She lay in bed for a long time, trying to remember why she felt like a wrung-out towel. But the events stayed fuzzy.

Out of the corner of her eyes she glimpsed at the alarm clock. 4:26. No wonder her head was filled with cotton balls. She rolled over tiredly to get in a few more hours of sleep, but as she rolled toward the window, the sunlight coming through the blinds made her blink.

Sunlight? That early in the morning? Her fried brain hurt with the effort of making sense of the observation.
Ohmygod! It’s 4:26 p.m. I’ve slept the entire day away?

She pushed herself up in the bed, and slowly the events from the night before came rushing back. Chuck. The police. Her mother. Nobody believing her. The doctor giving her a sedative.

Anger rose in her and she burst from the bed, shoving her tangled hair back from her face as she stormed out of her suite and down the hallway to her mother’s rooms. She found Evangelina in her dressing room, getting ready to go out to some public function.

“What in the hell have you done?” she screamed, clenching her fists by her sides in an effort to not physically attack her mother. Evangelina raised her eyebrow at Linda’s disheveled image in the mirror of her vanity table.

As the maid scurried from the room, Linda kicked the door shut behind her and walked around to face her mother.

“Nothing I didn’t have to do,” Evangelina said.

Linda swallowed hard, her hands on her hips. “You had to tell the police Chuck kidnapped me?”

“Of course. I had to protect your image. I couldn’t allow my daughter’s reputation to suffer because she made a stupid mistake.”

“You are unbelievable. You’ve never done a damn thing for anyone but yourself. You lied to the police to get back on him, because he preferred me over you.”

Ev gave her daughter a pitying look. “See, I know how to deal with the likes of him, but you don’t. You were head over heels falling for him and  I had to prevent that. Chuck isn’t good enough for you. He’s nothing more than a private investigator and not a very good one at that.”

Linda fumed, but her mother continued, “Besides, you can thank me for saving you the heartbreak of being dumped. You’re not beautiful enough for a man to fall in love with you. It’s such a shame you didn’t inherit my beauty.”

She listened and hated herself for being too weak to stand up to her mother. Her effort to run away had been an outright disaster, ruining the life of the only man who’d ever loved her and bringing her right back to the Ross mansion. Chuck probably hated her by now.

“…God knows I have done everything I could to make a presentable lady out of you, but I failed miserably. And I have no one to blame other than myself that my only daughter grew up to be such an unattractive klutz.”

Ev seemed honestly upset about her own shortcoming, but Linda just stared at her incredulously and shook her head. Something inside of her snapped. Everything in Ev’s life centered around her person. Always. She even managed to make Linda’s personality about her. It was so terribly wrong. And it had to stop. Now.

Linda straightened her shoulders. “This is not about you. It’s about me. It’s my life you ruined. And Chuck’s. He has loved me more in a few days than you did in my entire life.” Tears sprang from her eyes, but this time she wouldn’t give in. “You are the most selfish person I know. I’m done hearing all the ways I’m not good enough. Adopt someone who is. I’m moving out.”

She turned on her heel, with the single focus of getting out of there before she broke down.

Her mother seemed aghast, “Linda. Wait. You’re not strong enough to survive on your own. You need me.”

But Linda kept on walking, one step after another, until she was out of the room. She grabbed her purse from her own bedroom and then headed toward the driveway. Her car was still at the doctor’s office, so she borrowed one of the vehicles the staff used when running errands for the household.

With no idea what to do next, she pulled out of the long driveway and drove aimlessly for twenty minutes before she realized she should have been heading straight for the police station to find out about Chuck.

Once there the police confirmed he’d been taken to county jail, but she wouldn’t be able to visit him without a court authorized visitation right. And that wouldn’t be possible to get before Monday.

With slumped shoulders she left the police station and headed to the doctors’ office. The dogs would be waiting for their food. And she had to sleep somewhere.

Courage came to lick her hands and she took him and Picasso to the therapy room where she sat between both of them and cried, until no more tears were left. Then she pulled out her cell phone. Maybe Nate would know what to do.

Chuck was royally pissed. He’d already done a few hundred push-ups, sit-ups, and squats, but still hadn’t worked all the anger out of his system. He laughed at the irony as he started another round of prisoner squats. Apart from working out and thinking about Linda there was absolutely nothing to do in his cell.

As the day wore on, he was moved from the temporary holding cell to a regular jail cell, which was an improvement. The detention officer who came to get him was an old acquaintance whom Chuck had helped solve a missing persons case.

“Man, I can’t believe this. Did you really kidnap Evangelina Ross’s daughter?” Knox said.

“Knox, you know me. I wouldn’t do that. She was with me at the farewell party for my brother Drake.”

Knox waggled his brows. “You’re in deep shit. I was in the room when Mrs. Ross gave her statement and I have to tell you, she was very convincing.”

“She’s an actress, of course she was convincing,” Chuck said through his gritted teeth.

“And she’s very powerful. Even if you manage to convince people you’re innocent, the DA isn’t going to let you go, nor is any judge going to dismiss the charges against you without valid proof you’re innocent.”

“So, I’m basically screwed.”

“Pretty much.” Knox turned and opened the sliding door, “Welcome to your humble home. And…good luck.”

Then Chuck was alone again.

Linda shifted her weight back and forth, from side to side, and then from front to back. Nate had just returned early from his weekend away, and he’d promised to come get her immediately.

“Linda?” Nate called from the doorway to the garden. She turned and rushed into his arms, “Easy, sweetheart. We’ll figure this out.”

She nodded, letting Nate’s nearness offer her the comfort she so desperately needed. He wasn’t Chuck, but right now he was her only friend in the world.

“What am I going to do?” she murmured after several long minutes.

“Well, you could go to the police and tell them you weren’t kidnapped.”

Linda shook her head. “I tried that already, remember? My mother made sure nobody will believe me. This is her revenge.”

“Revenge? For what?” Nate asked.

She swallowed, met his eyes, and then looked down. “I did something really stupid.”

He reached out and tipped her chin up. “We all do stupid things sometimes. What did you do?”

“I stole her Oscars.”

“You what? Tell me that’s a joke.”

Her voice was barely above a whisper. “It’s not. I stole them to teach her a lesson, but everything spiraled out of control when she hired Chuck to find them...”

Nate took a deep breath before he asked, “Where are the statues? If you give them back, she might withdraw the charges against him.”

Linda bit her lower lip. “You’re going to hate me….”

“I could never do that, girlfriend.”

She wasn’t so sure about that, but bravely answered. “I hid them in your hallway closet in one of the boxes with Christmas decorations.”

“My closet? You hid your mother’s Oscars in my apartment?” He rolled his eyes in shock. “If anyone finds them I’ll be the one going to jail. They need to leave my apartment right now.”

Linda gave him a weak smile. “I’m sorry.”

“Be sorry later.” He pushed her to his car. “I drive. And you think what to do once we’ve got them out of my place. You have some nerve.”

She followed him and took the passenger seat. “Not sure what I’m gonna do with the Oscars. The police wouldn’t believe me last night – what makes you think they’ll listen today?”

“Hmm, you might be right there,” Nate agreed. “What about taking them to your mother and agreeing to give them back if she drops the charges?”

“They’re the only leverage I have. If I give them back and she doesn’t drop the charges, what then?”

Linda thought long and hard about the situation, and an hour later, she and Nate were back in his vehicle, headed to see Chuck’s parents. It was worth a try.

To say Chuck’s parents were surprised to see Linda would be an understatement. Neither of them were aware he’d been arrested.

“Chuck was arrested for kidnapping you?” his mother asked with a worried expression.

Linda nodded. “But he didn’t do it.”

“Well, obviously, or you wouldn’t be here trying to defend him.” Annie looked inquiringly at Nate. “And this is?”

“This is Nate, my dog training partner. I promise I can explain everything…” She wrapped her arms around herself and suddenly regretted coming here. Now Chuck’s parents would hate her, too.

But instead, Annie smiled and hugged Linda. “You’re trembling, honey. Why don’t you two come in and I’ll get us all something to drink.” She turned to her husband and said, “Jeff, I think I’ll need a schnapps. Would you be so kind and get us some?”

Linda thought how different Annie was from her own mother. It had been a good idea to come here. She already felt more relaxed.

Twenty minutes later, Annie and Jeff were shaking their heads as Linda told her story. Jeff repeatedly took Annie’s hand when she tensed up, and Linda felt warmth spreading throughout her body as she watched how much those two loved each other, after thirty-plus years and six kids together. She wanted to have that with Chuck.

The sound of people entering the house via the kitchen door stopped the conversation. “By the sound of it, that’s Vivian,” Jeff said, and Annie laughed at his words. “She’s always been tumultuous.”

“Mom? Dad?” Vivian voice called out.

“In the sunroom, dear.”

Moments later Vivian bolted into the sunroom, with her friend Gwen and a suit-clad man accompanying her. Vivian stopped cold when she saw Linda and Nate Pointing at her, she asked, “What’s she doing here?”

Annie looked at her daughter. “I assume you know why she’s here and that there is something you forgot to tell me?”

Vivian nodded, blatantly ignoring Linda and Nate as she came forward and hugged her parents. “I didn’t want to worry you before we could get hold of Frank. Chuck was arrested for kidnapping her. They won’t let him post bail. And all because of her.” Vivian glared at Linda as she said this last part.
Rightly so. It’s my fault he’s in prison
.

“Nice to see you again, Frank. This is Linda, the person who was supposedly kidnapped by Chuck and her friend Nate.” Chuck’s father Jeff made the introductions.

Frank was around fifty years old with salt-and-pepper hair, looking like the proverbial lawyer in his business suit. “Sorry for the trouble. I wish I had come with better news. I’ve been pulling strings all day, but Chuck has to remain in prison for now. The situation is grave.”

Vivian looked as if she wanted to strangle Linda, and Linda’s eyes filled with tears of guilt. “I’m so sorry…”

But Annie wrapped a hand around her forearm. “Now, now. None of that is your fault. You are not responsible for what your mother did.”

Linda turned to address the lawyer. “What can I do? There has to be something.”

“The stolen Oscars are right outside in Nate’s car,” Annie explained.

Frank scratched his chin. “Well…that changes the situation. Maybe…” Nobody said a word, and all heads turned to the lawyer. He thought for a minute and then said, “I believe there is something. Firstly, you need to return the Oscars to your mother. I will go with you to serve as witness.”

Linda’s knees were shaking at the idea of confronting her mother again. “B...but how will that help to get Chuck free?“

Frank smiled smugly. “Then we’ll play hardball with her and get her to drop the charges.”

Even though Linda had no idea how to pull this off, she trusted Frank. He’d come with her and he’d know what to do.