Rags 2 Pitches: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (22 page)

Chase

I didn’t like the way Kayla had been reacting when I left. During the night, I’d managed to calm her down. I’d made her feel safe, but the way Kayla had been shaking and avoiding her mom… she didn’t seem to be a fan of hers. Kayla had said something about not trusting her mom, but she never went into details.

I didn’t even tell Kayla about the Private Detective. If I had, Kayla would have panicked even more about being left with Mary. I didn’t have enough proof to show that Mary had had something to do with Kayla’s disappearance. I had just found Kayla, I didn’t want to lose her again.

Besides it would have confirmed what Kayla was suspecting; that all this had something to do with her mom. I had just told her that we had been looking for her, and keeping in touch with the police. I’d told Kayla that my dad and Mary had flown down to Stanford as soon as they knew she was missing.

They had both been genuinely concerned about her welfare. We all were. I’d just skipped the detail about us being told she was in Chicago. That was the part that I didn’t understand, and I worried about my dad and Mary’s involvement in all this.

Why had the Private Detective said that about Kayla, when it was obviously not true?

Mary was the one who had hired him. Maybe he was a scam artist who came up with the story just to con them out of money; make out that he found Kayla and fob us off with some story. The whole thing was doing my head in, but I couldn’t deal with that right now. My focus had to be on keeping Kayla safe.

“Dad, do you think they’ll be okay?” I asked as we started walking to my dorm. I wasn’t sure how much Reg had told him. So many things were happening so quickly. I hadn’t even had a chance to make that phone call to Reg to find out what he’d been thinking to call my dad in the first place.

“Don’t worry about them. I’m more interested in meeting my granddaughter. I thought that maybe Reg would bring her over. He knew we were flying in this morning.”

That answered my question. Reg had told them about Sydney. I should have been pissed. Then again, Reg had taken that matter out of my hands. I had toyed with the idea of telling dad, and now I didn’t need to.

“Oh, he told you?”

I was really talking to myself, but I still looked at the old man as I said it.

He stopped me by putting his arm on my shoulder.

“When did you stop trusting me? You know, I thought we went through all this when your mom died.”

It was confession time, but I didn’t want to do it right now. I was hot, wearing the same clothes I’d had on yesterday, which was pretty unusual for me, and I needed a shower. The summer heat was in full force today. I couldn’t do any of that, because I had to get my daughter, introduce her to someone else, even though she knew none of us, and get to class.

“We did, Dad, but you changed. Things changed…” I drifted off, picking up speed and heading to the dorm.

“When I married Mary?”

He knew the answer to that question too. I didn’t answer.

“There’s a lot you don’t know, son. A lot you don’t understand. I should have come clean.”

Before I could open my room door, Reg opened it as if he had been standing next to it.

“About time!”

I gazed at his leg, and sure enough, Sydney, my beautiful blue-eyed daughter, was by his leg. She smiled when she saw me, but still held on to his leg.

“Hello, there!” Dad practically pushed me out of the way to get to her.

She moved to the back of Reg’s leg as if she was expecting him to protect her. Reg turned around and spoke gently to her.

“Remember, I said that I would leave you with Stephen for a little while. Then, later, we will all meet for lunch. Okay?”

She seemed a bit confused, but then, as he continued to reassure her, she agreed and slowly took Dad’s hand. I had no idea what he had in mind to do with her.

“We’ll go to the park and then we will meet up with Reg later.”

She responded by saying, “And you?” pointing to me.

I was happy that she acknowledged my presence. I nodded, and again she smiled as Dad took her hand. She thought twice about it. A nod of encouragement from Reg led her to hold Dad’s hand. He beamed as if it was the best day of his life. It was the same look that he had had on his face when he’d told me that he was marrying Mary.

I should have said more, but the whole scene felt surreal. The only thing I could think to say as I looked at the time was, “We need to go. We’ll meet at the restaurant at one thirty.” He agreed.

As I walked down the steps out of the building with Reg, I blurted out, “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

He laughed. “Tell me about it.”

***

As we sat in the lecture theatre, I kept wanting to leave and just get Reg to tell me what he’d been thinking, calling my dad. But it was difficult when we were in the lecture theatre and under the watchful eye of Professor Howard.

“Why did you call him?”

He looked at me as if I was crazy.

“Why do you think? What were you and Kayla going to do? Ride off into the sunset? She is in deep shit. She needs help. Proper help…”

Professor Howard stopped for a minute to see who was talking. Lisa, the miss goody-two-shoes who hated people talking during lectures, and who never got less than ninety percent on an exam, was about to open her mouth and tell Professor Howard that it was us who was speaking, but Reg threw a pen at her head.

She screamed while giving him the evil eye.

Professor Howard asked if she had something to share with the rest of us.

She said, “No,” and he continued the lecture.

Very strange behavior, especially because of the look that she gave Reg.

Holy crap!

Of course. “Shit, since when did you start banging Leaky Lisa?”

We were kids at heart, still coming out with nicknames for the ones who pissed us off.

He blushed and whispered, “Don’t change the subject. Were you and Kayla going to bang into the sunset and forget what is going on? She’s in deep shit. Your dad’s a an oil tycoon, you need someone like him to help you. He’s seen a lot of shit. He’ll know what to do. You should be thanking me.”

I took my time, but I did thank him and, as we moved to our next class, he confessed about Leaky Lisa. He admitted that Lisa was the one who’d got Sydney the clothes, and he’d even stayed in Lisa’s apartment last night. She was one of the students that actually came from New Haven, so she just commuted every day. Her parents were loaded and hardly at home. I couldn’t remember what they did. Anyway, it looked like Reg had fallen in love.

Lisa would be pretty if she didn’t wear braces, if she didn’t have her hair in a bun like she was part of some convent, or if she didn’t wear a suit. She was one of the rare students that didn’t understand the meaning of casual. Still, she had looked after my daughter for the night. And my friend liked her. Even if he didn’t want to admit it.

I spent the morning trying not to contact Kayla, hoping that she was safe, and that my fears about Mary were just paranoia playing around in my mind. One thing was for sure, I didn’t have to worry about Sydney. Her grandfather was going to spoil her rotten. He had probably taken her to the mall and bought every dress and toy he could find.

Kayla

The restaurant had already seen a number of fireworks from me. I needed to figure out where to go next, as I obviously couldn’t stay here forever. Mom had had the sense after our talk to stay out of my way.

Chase came back, and because I was sat at the table alone, the first thing both Chase and Stephen asked was, “Where’s Mary?”

I saw my baby girl and, as she let go of Stephen’s hand, I couldn’t help but feel guilty at the way she seemed to have settled with them so easily in such a short space of time. She wasn’t a clingy child. Even having being brought up with Hannah her whole life, she never would stay in the same room as her. She would always leave as soon as Hannah entered.

I spent most of my time with Sydney in her room when Hannah was around. The babysitter mainly kept Sydney at her house because Sydney was afraid of Hannah. Then again, kids have a sixth sense about people and can sense when they are bad.

Maybe Sydney had known about Hannah all along.

I wished I had from the start.

“Mommy, look what Steph bought me.”

I laughed as she said his name. Her eyes lit up as she showed me dolls and a little bag. Sure enough, it was obvious that Stephen was smitten, as he watched her hand over her presents.

“There’s more,” Stephen proudly said, “but they’re in my room.”

I nodded. I’d expected there to be more. The way his eyes fell on her as she spoke, it was clear that he was going to be a very devoted grandfather.

Everyone was playing happy family. I blurted out, “I told her to leave.”

Stephen nodded. “That’s why she wasn’t in our room or picking up her phone. I thought that you were talking. You two have a lot to sort out.” He slumped down in a chair, probably out of tiredness.

And then, after he called the waiter, he asked, “Did she tell you everything?”

I nodded slowly. “Everything.”

Chase sat down too, with a frown on his face, as they brought over a high chair for Sydney.

Stephen ordered a bottle of wine. Chase waited for either Stephen or I to speak, his eyes dancing between us, and then he demanded, “Well, I wish someone would tell me everything.”

Stephen replied, “I will as soon as I have a drink.”

***

Chase was in shock as we ordered, and he hardly touched his food after Stephen revealed that we were part of a witness program that had gone badly wrong. Mom had told Stephen from the time he proposed that she was already married and that there was some complication with the divorce. She felt secure enough in their relationship to tell him the truth.

This made me hate her even more.

She’d never felt that way about her own daughter. But then, as she had explained earlier, she hadn’t told me in order to protect me. I’d told her that I never wanted to see her again, and poof - she was gone. Out of my life once again. I couldn’t believe how quickly she’d left.

“You see, the thing is,” Stephen continued, “the fight went out of your mom the day you left, Kayla. She’s hardly slept and she had nightmares she was so worried about your whereabouts.”

I remembered seeing bags under her eyes and had noticed that she hadn’t been dressed as smartly as she usually was, but I’d put it down to her coming here in a hurry.

“That didn’t stop her dismissing the private detective when he said that Kayla was in Chicago,” Chase blurted out as he suddenly got back his appetite.

Where did that come from?

“What private detective?”

They looked at each other as I asked the question. Sydney didn’t touch her food. She was too busy playing with her doll and trying to figure out what dress to put her in after dinner. One thing about my daughter, she had spent so much time playing alone, she was good at entertaining herself.

“Well, Chase, that wasn’t a private detective. That was the lead investigator who put Paul away in the first place. He came up with that story so you wouldn’t take matters into your own hands and so we could look for Kayla.”

Stephen took a big swing of his drink and added, “The problem was Kayla was like a ghost. We never thought it would be so hard to find you. Nearly impossible. Thank God you went to that fight, Chase. Otherwise, we may have never found her. Or rather, both of them.”

Stephen smiled as he looked at Kayla. “She really is beautiful, Kayla.”

Chase said, “Well it worked. I really did think that she was with some other guy in Chicago and put it to rest.”

Stephen seemed fed up. “I just want this thing to come to an end. Your dad was under a watchful eye. He started at his new job when he came out. Everything was falling into place, and then one day he just disappeared. Things were starting to go wrong in the department again, which was why Mr. Johnson got involved. They never found out who else was a dirty cop at the precinct. Otherwise, how else would he have found you?”

This wasn’t helping me at all. I was caught up in all this bullshit mess and the worst part was, even with the police and Stephen knowing what was going on, I didn’t feel safe. In fact, I felt worse than I had when I left Stanford. The idea that Internal Affairs couldn’t keep an eye on Dad, and that he had people on the inside helping him, made me feel suffocated, like I had nowhere to run.

When we were away, we were safe.

Then again, no we weren’t, because we had Hannah threatening us. I hated showing emotions in front of Sydney, but I started to cry uncontrollably. I was so fucking scared. We were sitting in a restaurant, acting as if we were a normal family. The problem was we were far from it. I had someone who wanted to kill me.

The worst part of it was that he was my dad.

Chase

“Kayla, listen to me. Everything is going to be okay,” I squeezed her tight, trying to be the voice of reason. I knew if I didn’t, she would be gone. Like she had done before. I loved this woman, but I could tell that she still had the mindset that running was her only salvation.

“Dad is here. He will not leave you.”

Dad shook his head. He was probably thinking the same thing too. Where the fuck was his wife?

I kissed her on the forehead. “I need to go back to a couple of classes and then I’ll be back. Promise. Just don’t…”

She shook her head and lifted her finger to my mouth. “I won’t.”

I felt relieved that we had an understanding. I kissed her one more time on the lips before I left.

Mary hadn’t been in touch. Her phone was off, and my mind was on everything but my studies. I wasn’t happy about the fact that Dad had known and kept it from me. Maybe that was part of the reason he’d changed once he met Mary. He felt as if he had to protect her.

The thing about Dad was, up until he met Mary, it was him and me against the world. Then, in the space of a few months, he’d just changed. He’d explained that he’d found love again. He’d been given a second chance, but the woman he had fallen in love with had so many scars.

Mary had tried to deny that there was anything wrong, but Dad had said it had been obvious.

“One time, I was so damn mad… my client wasn’t being straight with me. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Mary came in and I was shouting down the phone. She left right after she came in, so I went after her. Do you know the first thing she said?”

I took a guess. “She thought you were going to hurt her.”

He confirmed. “Pretty much. That was when I knew she’d had an abusive husband. Also, sometimes when I called out to her, she didn’t respond. Especially after she’d had a couple of glasses of wine. That was when I suspected that ‘Mary’ wasn’t her name.”

Getting together with a business man hadn’t exactly been the best move for her. Dad was so used to studying people that he worked with and for him, that he had studied body language. He knew everything about a person, without even speaking to them, by the way they spoke, right down to the clothes they wore; it was fucking unreal.

My dad wasn’t the type of man to date loads of girls. No, that used to be my department. He didn’t even look at another woman for years after Mom died. But, when he told me that he was dating Mary, I hadn’t been happy about it.

Sure, I’d wanted him to be happy, but there had been something about her that I didn’t like and, now that I knew the full story, I knew exactly what it was.

She was always so damn eager to please. I’d thought that she was just damn uptight.

Dad and I spoke at the bar while Kayla and Sydney were tucked up in the bedroom at the hotel, and I started to wonder where we were all going from here.

Dad couldn’t stay here forever, and I couldn’t either. I had planned to go back home to Dallas, but between Kayla not wanting to see Mary, and her dad still being at large, I didn’t know what the fucking options were. Everything was all fucked up.

“Dad, I’d planned to come back home in the next few weeks before I start law school in the fall. But now…” I said, and took a sip of my vodka.

“Now, it’s all fucked up,” he said, and he downed his bourbon.

He took the words out of my mouth and I laughed as he did.

“What? What’s funny?” he said. He ordered another bourbon from the bartender.

“Nothing. Not so much funny. But more ironic.”

The voice of reason spoke. “Finish college. We have security at home. Sydney and Kayla can come home with us, and I will just tighten it. I’ll get more men in until they find the son of a bitch. I should be out looking for Mary. I just hope she’s cooling off and not with him.”

I shook my head. Shit, did Dad really think that?

“Wait, you think she’s been kidnapped?” I said as I grabbed his arm and stopped him from drinking too much.

“If I did, would I really be sitting here drinking with you?”

He had a point, but this whole thing was so fucked up, I didn’t know what to think. We drank, and I decided to take it one step at a time. Finish college, go back home, and then we would take it from there.

Dad’s phone rang. It was Mary. She had something to say, and the news was so fucking good, that I ran up to the room to tell Kayla. The whole fucking thing finally had closure. Something that I’d thought wasn’t possible. Finding Kayla had put everything to rest. She had to see that. She must believe it now.