G
riff turned onto the busy street. The modern office building he sought appeared on his left.
“Last chance to back out.” Ryan thumped his hand against the dashboard.
The time had long passed to second-guess his decision. So much of his life and his future rode on this meeting. Griff turned the steering wheel, angling the SUV into the nearest parking spot in the underground lot. “No way in hell. You?” He glanced at Ryan.
“Nope.”
Griff had known the answer before he asked the question. Ryan had never deserted him in the past. He wouldn’t start now. The trust he placed in his friend had taught him a valuable lesson, one he intended to extend to Chelsie. Both people were loyal and cared for him. Griff only wished he’d heeded what was in front of him for so long.
They walked through the dark lot and into the building. A security guard greeted them at the front entrance. “Stevens and McLaughlin,” Griff said. “We have an appointment with one of the attorneys.”
The burly man in the gray suit nodded. “Sign in.”
Griff scrawled his name. Ryan did the same. “Fifth floor,” the guard said.
They stepped into the elevators. “So far, so good.”
Griff rolled his shoulders. “Take it easy, Ryan. The hard part’s yet to come.” Griff had no illusions about dealing with the man Chelsie had once called her husband. He hadn’t reached the top of his profession by letting other people have their way easily.
“I can handle it.”
“We’ll see. Just stand behind me and keep your mouth shut.”
Ryan frowned. “Yeah. I never should have agreed.”
“But you did.” His friend wouldn’t be here otherwise. Griff would have liked to handle Jeff Sutton on his own, but Ryan’s persistence couldn’t be ignored. Besides, the backup would shore up his points with Chelsie’s ex and ensure the outcome. Two men would intimidate Sutton much more than one, but Ryan’s temper tended to get in the way of common sense.
Griff needed cool heads and clear thinking for his plan to work. He was counting on the self-serving side of Jeff Sutton’s personality to swing things their way. He could at least give Chelsie back her life before truly placing his trust in her hands.
The receptionist took one look at Griff in his three-piece suit and Ryan in his favorite jeans and leather jacket and led them back to Jeff Sutton’s office without argument.
The young woman raised her hand to knock on the office door. “We can take it from here,” Ryan said.
“He prefers to be notified when he has unexpected company,” she said.
“Then we wouldn’t be unexpected, would we?” Griff asked. “It’s okay. We’re old friends.”
The woman looked uncertain.
“I’ll say you were indisposed and we walked ourselves in.” Ryan gave her a wink that had been charming women throughout the years.
She blushed, looking flustered. “Go ahead.” They waited until the receptionist disappeared down the hall and around the corner.
“After you,” Ryan said with a grin. “I’ll just hold up the wall and keep my mouth shut. For as long as I can stand it,” he muttered under his breath.
Griff rapped once with his knuckles. Without waiting for a reply, he walked inside. Jeff Sutton sat behind a large wooden desk, looking every inch the self-important attorney.
“What the hell?” His gaze shifted from the computer in front of him to his visitors. He pushed himself to his feet. “Who let you in?”
Griff stepped inside. Ryan followed and slammed the door shut behind him. “Consider this a pre-trial hearing,” Griff said.
Sutton reached for the phone. Ryan swerved behind Griff and slammed his hand down on the receiver.
So much for holding up the wall, Griff thought “I hear you like deals, so I’ve got one for you,” he said to Chelsie’s ex. Reaching beneath his jacket to the inside pocket, he withdrew a small manila envelope.
Chelsie’s ex-husband paled at the sight. “I’m listening.”
“You’re a smart man.” Griff opened the envelope and began laying out pictures, face up on the desk. Some photos were of Amanda, others of Chelsie. None were pretty. “I call this evidence. I have copies, by the way. You’re a partner.” Griff glanced around the man’s office. “Nice digs. I assume you want to keep them as well as your clients and your
good name.
”
Ryan coughed in blatant disgust.
Griff ignored him, concentrating on Jeff Sutton. “Here are the terms. Fly to the Caribbean and obtain a quick divorce, agree to twice-weekly counseling, and stay the hell away from your ex-wives and women, in general, until you get your act together. You don’t, and these go public.”
Sutton flicked the photos with his one free hand. “Blackmail. I don’t have to take this crap from you.”
Griff shook his head. “Look, buddy, do you want to go to trial and make things public?” He shrugged. “My pleasure. I’m just giving you an option we can all live with. I can’t get disbarred for offering you a settlement. You, on the other hand, can do jail time if you don’t accept. I can live with either option.”
Which wasn’t exactly true. Griff had done his homework. The family courts were clogged with cases like these. Statistically, a man like Jeff Sutton would be slapped with a continued restraining order at best, and maybe some court-ordered counseling, nothing as intense as what Griff and Ryan had in mind. Keeping him away from Chelsie and Amanda was of paramount importance. Preventing him from harming other women was also a consideration.
“By the way,” Ryan said, removing his hand from atop Sutton’s. “Did I mention I’m a private investigator? I’m an expert at tailing people. I’ll know your every move, buddy. One missed counseling session and you’re ours.” He punched his hand into his other palm for emphasis.
Griff stifled a groan. Ryan had often gone overboard, even as a kid. The threat to this man’s career would have been enough to keep him toeing the line. It was all that truly mattered to him in his pathetic life.
Sutton glared at Ryan and shook his hand out as if he’d been injured. The man didn’t even understand the irony. Griff would like to kick his teeth down his throat for what he’d done to Chelsie, but refrained. He was taking the best route for everyone involved.
“Well?” Griff asked.
“What about my son?”
About time the man got around to what was truly important in life, Griff thought. He shrugged. “For now, you sign away custody. A few years from now, if the psychiatrist tells me you’re a fit human being, we’ll consider renegotiating the deal.”
“This is extortion,” he yelled.
Griff shook his head. “It’s a fair offer. You like this corner office and your so-called reputation. I suggest you accept. The papers will be here by four this afternoon. Sign them by tomorrow.” He gathered the pictures together in his hand.
The other man’s face flushed an angry shade of red. “Just like a woman to send you two to do her dirty work,” Sutton muttered. “Chelsie should have taken me at my word.”
“Excuse me?” If Chelsie had been in contact with her ex-husband, this was the first Griff had heard about it. If it was true, he’d throttle her himself. His stomach churned at the very notion. At least she had the eastern seaboard separating her from her violent past, he thought. But the protective feeling he’d begun to accept as normal when it came to Chelsie, remained with him.
Sutton sat back in his seat hopefully beginning to accept defeat “She called the other day to broker this same deal.”
“You figured you could weasel your way out.”
“I don’t answer to her. Besides, she didn’t mention surveillance or you and your bouncer buddy here.” He gestured to Ryan.
Griff bent down over the desk, making sure he towered over the man who had no compulsion about hurting women, but who cowered before men his own size. “Listen well. You so much as breathe in her direction, you answer to me.” Griff made a show of lining the pictures up and placing them back in his pocket.
The thought of Chelsie having anything to do with this slime, even long distance, made his skin crawl. Yet he admired her courage and the foresight it took for her to come up with the same plan he and Ryan had formulated together.
“Let me ask you a question, Sutton.”
The man raised defeated eyes to his.
“Doesn’t it even bother you, what you did to those two women?” The two they knew about, Griff silently added. He didn’t want to think there could be others and hoped this deal would prevent further victims.
“They asked for it. It’s not my fault they push a guy to the end of his rope. I never meant to hurt either of them.”
Figures. Griff shook his head. He just wanted Jeff out of their lives and less of a threat to womenkind. “Then do yourself a favor. Take this deal and get yourself some help.”
Without a second glance, Griff turned and walked out. Ryan followed. The easy part was behind him. The hard part was yet to come. Chelsie returned today, and Griff’s life hung in the balance.
* * *
“How was your trip?” Griff looked at his partner with hungry eyes after a weekend of deprivation.
Chelsie wore jeans, an old sweatshirt, and a pony-tail with stray strands of hair falling around her neck. Not a woman dressed for work, that much he knew. She obviously hadn’t changed her mind about severing their partnership. Nor could he ask her to.
His stomach churned with dread, but he remained calm. His perspective may have changed, but she didn’t know it, and he’d put her through hell. She deserved to make her own decisions about her future.
“Not bad if you like heat and humidity,” she said.
“Did you get much sun?”
She laughed, but it sounded strained. “Not all that much.”
“Could we move past the weather?” Otherwise they’d become exactly what he feared most. Friendly adversaries, two people who cared too much, but couldn’t get past their opposing points of view. He couldn’t live with that. In fact, he flat out refused to try.
She looked startled at his unnecessarily abrupt tone, then shrugged. “Okay. The trip was productive.”
“They’ve forgiven you?”
“Actually, they never blamed me as much as they blamed themselves. But my parents were never the warm type and they didn’t know how to show what they were feeling.”
“So they retreated to Florida to lick their wounds?”
She tilted her head, obviously assessing his sincerity. “To heal, Griff. To get over losing a daughter, to come to terms with the kind of people they’d become.”
“I know that.” Just watching the play of emotions over her face, listening to her defense of people she didn’t understand but still loved, how could he not?
“I can’t justify their attempt to bribe you, but they realize they were wrong. And now that they’ve begun to readjust their priorities and are trying to live without Shannon, they’ll come back home soon.”
She glanced up, meeting his gaze with serious, imploring eyes. “They miss Alix. They’d like to see her, and I’d like them to be her family, if you’ll let them.”
How like Chelsie to put her parents’ needs before her own, to risk his anger by pressing their case. “Of course they can see her. I never said they couldn’t.”
As Chelsie’s parents and Alix’s grandparents, he’d have to make peace with them eventually. It helped that they’d won Chelsie over, but it wasn’t a necessity. Blood bound them to his niece. He’d have given them another chance regardless. He paused before asking, “Did you tell them about your past?”
She nodded. “It was hard, but necessary—and in the end, cleansing for me. Very shocking for them. But the truth is out in the open now.” Her warm, dark eyes met his. “For all of us.”
“Speaking of truths, when were you going to tell me you’d been in touch with your ex?”
Her eyes narrowed. “At the same time you told me you’d done the same,” she said, challenge lacing her words.
Griff couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing. “I should have known you’d be one step ahead of me.”
“I’ve been in contact with Amanda. You shouldn’t have done it, Griff.”
“Neither should you. Why don’t we call it a good business decision and leave it at that?”
A smile tugged at the edges of her mouth. “It was a good plan.”
“Had to be. We both came up with it.”
“Yeah, we did.” She laughed again, and the heaviness weighting down his heart this last weekend seemed to ease.
From the side of her desk, she lifted an empty carton and placed it on top. His stomach twisted again. Once she made a decision, Chelsie obviously didn’t waste any time implementing it.
Forcing normal conversation while she packed to desert him wasn’t easy, but he managed. “How did your parents take the news?” he asked of her parents’ reaction to her abusive marriage.
“They didn’t fault me for any of my decisions.”
“That’s because you weren’t to blame.”
She smiled. “Thanks. It took me five long years to realize that, but at least it’s behind me now.” While she spoke, she transferred her books, tape dispenser, and other belongings from her desk into the large carton. When she reached for the tiny silver frames, he knew he was in trouble.
But because the distraction kept her talking without any awkward silences, Griff let her continue. Her weekend had been as cathartic as his. He wanted to hear as much as she was willing to divulge.
“Guess what?” she asked.
The pleased tone in her voice made him wary. “What?”
“I sublet my apartment, furniture and all.” Turning away, she began to collect books from the shelf behind the desk. “Before I left, I put up a sign. Someone left a message while I was away. Two law students love the area and were waiting for an opening in my building.”
“When do they want to move in?”
“The end of the month,” she said.
Two weeks away. “What made you decide to do that?”
She turned away from the bookshelves and she looked at him. “I don’t need it anymore.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s simple. I realized exactly why I’d chosen that apartment and decorated it the way I had—for the same reasons I pulled away from my sister and never allowed myself to get too close to Alix. All that crystal and glass told me, every day, that there would never be a child in my life.”