Kate Takes Care Of Business (7 page)

“It doesn’t matter what I think . . . but what I believe . . . and I was wrong.”

“Hey Kate, I don’t want to get a ticket. Let’s go.”

She turned and saw Sterling waving at her from the entrance to the hotel bar.

“Kate, please, let me explain.” Reid grabbed her arm. “I don’t know how it happened but I swear I didn’t—”

She jerked her arm away and rushed toward Sterling. As Kate hurried out into the lobby to join him, she paused and turned to look at Reid one last time.

But he was gone.

And with him the dreams and love they could have shared.

She was alone now.

So alone for the first time in her life.

CHAPTER TEN

Sterling drove as if he were the lead car in a cross-country race. He took back roads and shortcuts so he could drive at any speed he wanted and avoided the highway patrol. Jeff and Bridget shared a big bottle of peach-flavored vodka in the back seat and carried on like a couple drunk teenagers on a joyride.

Although scared at first, Kate settled into the thrill of flying along with the wind away from everything and
everyone.
She had insisted they leave the city and Sterling’s summer home seemed the best choice.

After calling her father to apologize again, Kate felt a little less guilty when he said he wasn’t angry. Was that because he assumed she was with Sterling now so there still might be a chance he could reach a compromise with Mr. Hallman? Kate didn’t know but there was enough blame to go around and Dad sounded resigned to what he had to do next.

It was just before one in the morning and they had been driving toward Sterling’s summer home on Chesapeake for almost four hours. Exhausted and depressed, Kate stared out the window.

Since her father was going to back down on his proposal, she didn’t need to stay at the hotel to witness his final embarrassment in front of the board. The last meeting was on Thursday so she could return with Sterling then and finally go home to Westport.

Kate reclined her seat and closed her eyes. She tried to remember the last time she had been at the Sterling summer home. It must have been just after her mother passed. In her mind she saw the beach road stretching ahead, smooth and white, intersected by a series of small bridges whose stone guard walls rioted with wild rambler roses.

The road wound its way down the middle of the upscale tourist town of Parson’s Beach lined with smart, freshly painted shops and ended at the boardwalk leading to the Sterling’s magnificent beachfront home.

But the memory offered Kate only fleeting comfort as her heart returned to its tortured feelings about Reid. Angry and hurt as she was, she suffered more from the dull ache of desire at the mere thought of never seeing him again.

She felt the car slowing.

“How about passing that bottle up front?”

Kate opened her eyes. “Sterling, don’t be stupid. We’re almost there.”

“I know. That’s why it’s not a problem.” He took the bottle from Jeff and gulped a mouthful. Sterling scrunched his face. “Oh yeah! That’s it. Let’s get this party started!” With one hand on the wheel, he accelerated as he took another drink from the bottle. He offered it over to Kate. “C’mon, have a drink. Looks like you could sure use it.”

She shook her head. “Later, okay? I don’t feel like it.”

Bridget giggled in the back seat. “I hope you’re not going to be like that the whole time we’re here.”

Jeff drank from the bottle and belched. “Sterling told me about what that lying prick did.” He slurred his words. “Your friends would never do something like that. Seriously, Kate. What were you thinking?”

“I . . . I don’t know but can we just drop it?” She turned around to face Bridget. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” Kate heard her voice sound as cold and stiff as her heart felt.

Bridget laughed out loud and grabbed the bottle from Jeff.

Sterling leaned across and peered at her out of sharp, dark eyes. “And don’t tell me that Liz bitch wasn’t part of it too. They’re more than just
friends
, Kate. You know that, right?”

Yes, she did now but she felt stupid for not listening to herself when they first met at Maxwell’s. Kate shrugged it off. “I don’t care.” The car swerved to one side. “Just keep your eyes on the road.”

Kate’s teeth had been on edge for the last few minutes. She was worried that Sterling’s mind was not on his driving. He looked jittery and was constantly checking his rearview mirror even though there was clearly not another single car on this isolated back road. “Everybody’s really pissed,” he said. “My old man won’t even speak to me unless I can do something to help fix this mess.”

“My dad’s the same way.”

“Remember our promise, Kate?” His voice carried a note of desperation. “I . . . I don’t want to wait any longer . . . do you?” With one hand on the wheel, he slid his other over her warm thigh.

“Secrets?” Bridget squealed from the back seat. “Are you two keeping secrets from us? Oh my God . . . you better not be talking about what I
think
you’re talking about.”

Jeff laughed. “Ahh, you’re too late, honey. Always a bridesmaid but never—”

Bridget blasted her poor boyfriend. “Shut up and have another drink.” She pushed Kate in the shoulder. “So is it true?”

Kate was silent. The world was whirling too fast on its axis and she was too numb to care who knew her secrets anymore. “Guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

Sterling grinned like a mischievous monkey. “Okay, enough of that.” He swung his speeding car effortlessly around a wide corner. “We took a vote before we left and we came to a unanimous decision.”

Kate sighed. “About what?”

“We’re having a bonfire on our private beach and going skinny dipping. I mean, when was the last time we did that?” Sterling’s voice taunted Kate. “Unless someone doesn’t feel like it . . . again.”

Bridget leaned forward almost spilling out of her top, still trying to convince the man in the driver’s seat that she was still available. “C’mon. We’re all old friends. It’s not like we haven’t seen each other naked before, right Sterling?”

Sterling laughed. “At least try to keep your shorts on this time until we get there, okay?”

Kate’s hesitation was almost imperceptible. She turned away and grinned as she remembered the last time they had gone swimming butt naked in the ocean. Oh God, they
were
a bunch of drunken teenagers then, swimming at night in the dark, dangerous waves but feeling so excited and alive under the stars.

Jeff whispered in her ear. “You’re still not worried about sharks like you were the first time, are you?”

Bridget tittered. “Weren’t you in the water for all of five minutes before you screamed and ran out on the beach?”

With a toss of her shining hair, Kate defied her friend’s mockery and insulting expectations. After what Reid had done, there was nothing they could say that could hurt her so deeply again. “The only sharks I’m worried about are the ones in this car.”

Everyone whistled and laughed louder.

Kate glanced around at Jeff. “Can you save some of that until we get to the beach? We’re almost there.”

“Ahh . . . too bad, so sad. All gone.” He looked one drink short of being totally hammered. “But the good news is we don’t have to wait now to open up the second one. Woo hoo!” He unscrewed the cap and took a drink.

Kate laughed with her friends. She began to feel like summer was finally here. She was glad too that she had changed for the trip in a brief-sleeved yellow jersey blouse, long swing skirt of tangerine, and ankle strap sandals.

She opened her window. The rushing ocean air ruffled her hair across her shoulders and whipped her skirt provocatively about her slim, bare thighs.

Kate let Sterling steal as many seductive glances as he wanted because the harder she tried to ignore the truth the more it persisted.

With Reid gone and never there to hold her again, she had reached a point for no return with Sterling. In her heart Kate knew that tonight was the night their relationship had to be resolved under the stars.

One way . . . or another.

Sterling screeched around a long curve into a straight road running alongside the ocean. “This is my favorite stretch. Everyone keep their windows down so they can feel what it’s like when I really open her up.”

Bridget snickered at Sterling’s unintended carnal suggestion. “Oh my. I bet Kate would love that
. . . I know I would.
”

Jeff shoved Bridget on the shoulder. “Give her a break, all right?”

Sterling switched off the headlights.

Kate caught her breath. “Are you crazy?”

“Don’t worry. I’ve done this lots of times. Don’t you want to feel as free as the wind?”

“Ooo this is exciting,” Bridget squealed.

Kate held her breath and watched the LED speedometer climb to 90, 100 . . . 110.

“I can push it over two hundred if I wanted . . . maybe even two-twenty.”

“This is fast enough, Sterling, please!” Kate couldn’t look any longer or she’d scream just like she did on the monster roller coaster they used to ride at night when they were kids.

Sterling glanced at her. “You’re never going to see that lying bastard again, are you?”

“What? No, and who cares? Just slow down!”

Bridget, sprawled half naked across Jeff’s lap, leaned forward becoming more and more excited as the car rocketed down the road.

Sterling gripped her arm so hard that she was sure his fingers would leave bruises. “And if you
did
see him again you would never believe another word he ever said, right?”

“What are you doing? Put your hand on the wheel, you idiot!” Kate’s scream rose above the roar of the engine and the scream of wind torturing their faces.

“Did you see that?” Jeff yelled.

Bridget jerked around. “The headlights just came on. Do you think it’s the cops?”

Jeff gasped. “Oh shit! The cherries just lit up on the roof!” He grabbed Sterling’s shoulder. “Pull over!”

Sterling paid no attention. “Are you kidding me? With my record? Those guys likely just woke up so don’t be such a pussy.” He came down hard on the accelerator. His powerful Brabus Rocket shot forward. “No way they can catch this car. We’re too far ahead.”

Kate’s heartbeat sped up with the accelerating car. She looked at the speedometer. 120 . . . 130 . . . 140. “Please, Sterling,” she pleaded. “Remember our promise. We can fix this.”

“Not if I get caught.”

Kate didn’t know what else to do except hang on for her life. Sterling seemed to be extracting the last measure of horsepower from the world’s fastest sedan, and it began to look as if he might be right.

He
could
lose the police car. Its headlights were fading behind them, its siren growing fainter. Both lights and siren were almost gone.

“See? What did I tell you?” Sterling eased off on accelerator and turned on the headlights coming into a high banked corner near a cliff.

But it wasn’t enough.

The car skidded and couldn’t hold the road. It zigzagged then fishtailed twice.

Bridget screamed.

Kate glimpsed Sterling fighting to control the wheel, using all his skill, trying to compensate for the spin. Coming out of it the headlights lit up the white guard rail. Kate threw her arms across her face and saw no more.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Kate shook head and opened her eyes. Dazed and disoriented it took her a few moments to realize that she was sitting in a near-horizontal position, leaning over on Sterling.

Thank God they had all been wearing their seatbelts. She didn’t even want to think about what could have happened if they hadn’t.

Kate put her arms down and peered through her open window. She gasped, fighting back the urge to scream and leaned back in her seat.

The car was tilted on a thirty-five degree angle on a cement guard rail post high above the rocky cliff. It had remained upright but continued to creak and shift forward. Kate shivered with fear but she knew with pulse-pounding certainty what she had to do. At any moment it could tip over and send them all to crashing to their deaths in the rocks and waves below.

As far as she could tell, she and Sterling were unhurt. No one moved or spoke for a few more moments.

Bridget began to cry.

“Shut up!” Sterling snapped.

“But Jeff’s bleeding!”

“He’ll live. We’ve got bigger problems than that.”

Kate glanced around a Jeff. He moaned and touched the bloody three-inch gash across his forehead. Kate swallowed trying to moisten her dry throat.
Likely from the bottle. It could have been worse.
She turned back. “He’s right. We have to get out of the—”

The front end of the car tilted down a few more degrees.

Bridget screamed again.

The tilt stopped but now they were almost balanced parallel with the road.

Kate looked at Sterling. “We have to do this together.”

“What?” He stared at her through the uncomprehending eyes of a terrified child.

“We have to climb in back with them to shift the weight.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Yeah, because I got into this stupid crotch rocket with
you
in the first place.” Her heart swelled with a sudden, inexplicable feeling to see Reid again. The mere thought of that possibility helped to calm her fear about the risk she was about to take.

She glared at Sterling. “Ready?”

He nodded.

Gingerly, they unfastened their seatbelts.

First, Kate wriggled out of her seat and crept into the back cramming herself on top of Jeff.

Sterling went next and managed to scrunch himself on Bridget’s lap.

The car creaked and the rear wheels tilted back toward the road.

A few moments later, Sterling grabbed the door handle.

“Wait!” But before Kate could open the other door Sterling jumped out landing feet first on the road.

The three remaining passengers gaped at each other in shock.

With the loss of the extra weight in the back, the car tipped forward little by little again . . . and this time it didn’t stop.