Chain of Title (19 page)

Before she had even covered half
the distance to the door, Frank’s strong hands were on her, pulling her back,
forcing and pressing her tightly against a wall with his body.  Her heart
accelerated and her breathing came in hot, short bursts as she worked to calm
herself.  The predatory gleam in his eyes and the heat from his erection,
boldly pressed against her belly, triggered warning bells and a sense of near
panic.

Pressing her palms hard
against his chest, Shayna looked him directly in the eyes.  “Step away, Frank. 
You’re hurting me.”  His eyes darkened and a chilling grin lifted one corner of
his mouth slightly.  His proximity, masculine scent, and cologne swirled around
her, pulling her further back in time.

“I saw the way you looked at
me when we were at Jack’s.  When are you going to stop punishing me, Shay? 
Huh?” he asked in an agitated tone.  “Haven’t I paid enough yet?  Watching you
with
him
.  Seeing his hands on you.  Picturing...” he trailed off,
closing his eyes and sighing.  He tilted her chin up toward him.  “You still
love me.  That means there’s still hope.  Enough is enough, Shay.  I’m done
playing this game with you.”  His thumb swept across her trembling lips.

Swallowing and desperately trying
to organize her thoughts, Shayna did her best to speak with a calm measure.  “I
love the memories, Frank.  That’s what you saw—nothing more.  Don’t confuse
it.  Don’t turn it into something it’s
not
.”

She could hear and feel his
hot, ragged breath on her skin.  He seemed to be considering her words, then
his hands unexpectedly circled her wrists, wrenching her arms down hard and
wedging them between the wall and her body.  One large hand firmly shackled her
wrists, while the other glided smoothly up her bare arm, stroked her throat, and
then firmly grasped her chin.

“
I am
the memories,”
he said in a low menacing tone.  “Don’t ever forget it.”  He stared unapologetically
into her eyes, and then softened his grip on her chin and stroked the side of
her face, while his eyes outlined her features.  “I was a fool to let this go
on for so long.  I should’ve done this a long time ago—made you face reality—made
you face
me
!”

Shayna felt a rush of panic squeeze
her, but before she could speak, reason with him, his mouth clamped down on
hers, devouring her and stealing her breath with the sheer force of his body
and overwhelming emotion.  She struggled hard against his kiss and strength,
but he only held her tighter, becoming more emboldened, more aggressive.  Her
shoulders ached from the angle with which he was yanking her arms behind her, and
her fingers tingled on the verge of numbness from his punishing grip around her
wrists.  Fighting him wasn’t working, and the situation was only getting worse
by the second.  Somehow, she had to relax and override her instincts to
struggle, to fight.  She needed him to
hear
her.

When he came up for air,
breathing heavily, he whispered roughly, against her ear, “We’re not finished. 
I’ve paid for what I did.  You’ve punished me long enough.”

He repositioned his face in
front of hers, his eyes softening around the edges.  “I think about you every
goddamn day—and night, when you should be next to
me
in
our
bed.”  Then his eyes hardened again.  “Me!  Not him!”

“Frank, you’re really hurting
me,” Shayna choked out, unable to suppress the fear in her voice.  It was clear
from his expression that he wasn’t listening.

He gripped her face hard, the
anger and regret clearly consuming him.  “She meant nothing to me. 
Nothing
! 
You mean everything.”  Shayna’s tongue darted out to wet her lips and his eyes
followed then lingered on her kiss swollen lips.

“I will never forgive myself
for hurting you.  It’s my biggest regret,” he admitted sorrowfully.  His thumb
swept across her bottom lip and he pressed his forehead to hers.

Shayna’s breathing was deep
and ragged from still trying to calm her frantic nerves.  Then her body
stiffened and her mind froze as his hand traveled over her breast, cupping and
squeezing, before winding its way along her waist and around to her backside. 
She squirmed against his touch and felt tears stinging at the back of her eyes.

“Stop!  Frank,
stop!
”
she pleaded loudly as his hand trailed to the hem of her dress, lifting it and
dragging it slowly up her legs.

“I can’t, Shay.  I won’t,” he
warned hoarsely.

“I
don’t
want this,
Frank.  You’re better than this.  I know you are.  We need to talk,
please
,”
she implored desperately as his fingers skimmed underneath her silken panties. 
Then she inhaled sharply from the invasion of his fingers inside her.  She had
never felt so completely powerless, small, and breakable.  Turning her head to
escape the assault, she felt the sting of his kisses on her neck and heard his
groan, followed by the rumble of his self-satisfied voice in the distance.

“The time for talk has
passed.  It’s time for action now, and you still want me, Shay.  I can
feel
it,” he said hotly against her flesh as he slid his fingers in and out of her, rubbing
her clit with his thumb.

Shayna shook her head defiantly
in protest, voice trapped, heart shattering, mind escaping body.  Then she skipped
her hollow eyes to the expansive bank of windows.  She set her focus on the old,
droopy, weeping willow tree in the distance—yielding, bending, and swaying to
the force of the late afternoon wind—powerless to do anything else.  Hot tears
streamed in a fiery path down her cheeks, dropping to her throbbing shoulder
and racing down her pinned, aching arm.

She had always hated that
tree.

Shayna
swiped away the remaining tears and tried pinching some color back onto her
cheeks, a contrast from her ghostly pallor.  Then she raked her fingers through
her hair trying to fluff and revive the blonde layers.  She gasped at her
reflection in the mirror.  The streaked mascara, the haunted eyes staring back
at her.  She quivered from the punch of nausea that consumed her.  Then giving
up, she slammed the sun visor shut in disgust against the roof.

She gripped the steering
wheel for dear life.  Get it together Shayna.  Sean’s inside.  Don’t let him
see you like this.  Things will get so much worse if you do, she counseled
herself repeatedly.

Her heart had dropped just
moments ago when she caught sight of Sean’s car in her driveway.  She should’ve
known he would be waiting for her.  A sudden thought had her yanking out the
cell phone from her purse.  Shit.  Missed calls from Sean.  She’d had the phone
on silent mode at the attorney’s office and never changed it back.  Would her
ringing phone have stopped what happened with Frank?  She shivered
uncontrollably and felt chilled to her bones.  She could feel the tears
swelling and threatening to fall again.  She shook her head roughly and willed it
away.  No, damn it!  Get a grip, Shay.  You can do this.  Get out of the car—
now
,
she screamed in her head.

Jumping up and out of her car
before she had a chance to rethink things and make a quick getaway, she headed
for the door and depressed the button to lower the garage door.  She entered
the mudroom, tossed her purse on a bench seat, and cautiously stepped through
the archway and into the kitchen.  She had been nervous that Sean would be
waiting for her with immediate questions about her whereabouts, but she didn’t
see him right away.  Then he walked in from the terrace and she quickly
pivoted, heading for the refrigerator.  She knew there would be a bottle of
chilled wine.  Sean liked it with dinner.

“There you are!  I’ve been
worried, left you messages.  Everything okay?”

She heard his steps getting
closer and quickly grabbed a stemless wine glass from the cupboard before
darting off in the opposite direction toward the terrace.  It was dark.  That’s
what she wanted—dark.  She didn’t want to see Sean and definitely didn’t want
him to see her—not like this.

She placed the bottle and
glass on the table and pulled out a chair.  Why had she even brought a glass? 
Drinking right out of the bottle sounded like a better plan.  As she poured
herself a drink, she slopped some of the wine on the table and noticed that her
hand was shaking.  Sean apparently saw it too and steadied her hand with his.

“Why are drinking, Shay? 
What’s going on?”

The concern in his warm, deep
voice pulled her from the sordid color images playing in a mind-numbing loop in
her head.  Her body ached and a chill ran down her spine, lifting bumps all
over her skin.  She didn’t even remember the drive home.  It was a blur now. 
Sean angled a chair around so that he was closer to her.  She shifted her seat
so that she was looking out over Lake Indigo in all of its starlit glory—and
not at him.

He reached out and touched
her hand.  “Shay, you’re scaring the hell out of me.  Tell me what’s going on? 
Why couldn’t I get a hold of you at all today?  Why didn’t you return any of my
messages, text me, anything?”

She involuntarily jerked her
hand away from his warm touch and brought the wine to her lips.  She guzzled it
and poured some more.  Taking a few more drinks, she placed her hands in her
lap holding tightly to the wine glass for balance, hoping he wouldn’t touch her
again.  He pried the glass from her hand, placing it and the wine bottle on the
other side of the table.

“Now, Shayna.  Tell me now.”

Her head felt like a mass of
colliding chaos.  Where to start?  What to tell?  What to leave out?  Oh she
knew which parts to leave out—
for sure
.  “I don’t own the land I thought
I did.”  The words just spilled out.  It didn’t even sound like her voice to
her.

Sean’s head cocked, his
expression quizzical.  “What do you mean?”

She swallowed and felt the
wine burning away a bit of the cold in her veins.  “Problem with the chain of
title.  The mortgage hasn’t been released on my acreage.  I can’t move forward
with my plans until it’s cleared up.”

“How the hell did that
happen?  Is that why Karol Simpson wanted to meet with you today?”  Shayna only
nodded, still not looking at Sean.  “I’m sure your ex had the best team of
lawyers his money could buy.”  He paused for a moment, and then flopped back in
his seat.  “It’s no mistake, right?  It was intentional,” Sean said with an
angry sigh.  “That sonofabitch.  Well, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, it
only delays your plans temporarily.  Does he really want to pay more legal
fees?”

Shayna hugged herself tight
as the chill from the very words she had asked only hours ago came back to
haunt her with frightening clarity.

“I don’t know,” she answered
despondently.

Sean inched closer, trying to
get a better look at her, but she kept glancing away or down, anywhere but at
him.  “Wait a minute,” he said suspiciously.  Shayna could hear Sean’s sudden
realization slam home, hard and fast.  “You went to see him today, didn’t you? 
After you finished with Karol, right?”  There was loathing in his voice.

“Are you involved with the
properties he’s been losing, the loans that have been called?” she asked in a
small voice.  Once again, he sank back into his seat, fingers drumming an angry
beat on the tabletop.

“I can’t believe you went to
see him.  Your lawyer should be handling it, not you.  There’s no reason for
you to see him, Shayna.”

Her insides spasmed and her
heart ached at the truth in his words.  She should’ve called Sean right away
after leaving the attorney’s office.  He would’ve talked her down from going to
Frank’s, or at least he would’ve tried.  Maybe that’s why she hadn’t called
him.  Her stubbornness and raw anger probably would have overridden his
rational advice anyway.

“Answer my question, Sean.  A
simple yes or no will do,” she said evenly.

He remained quiet for a bit before
finally speaking.

“Do you really think a man
like Frank Chastain got to where he is by playing nice?”

Shayna turned to look at Sean
for the first time since arriving home.  “What kind of answer is that?”  She
tried to read him through the murky shadows, but couldn’t.  “Is that your way
of saying yes?”  Her stomach began to churn.

Sean brought his hand up;
elbow perched on the table, and began smoothing his fist just above his upper
lip.  He was clearly deciding what to divulge and what to withhold.

“Your ex has some IOU’s that
have come due in the last year or so that have nothing to do with me.”  He went
silent as if that should be answer enough.

Shayna’s chest tightened. 
“You still haven’t answered my question, not directly.  Yes or no, Sean,” she said
coolly.

“Frank Chastain has some
nasty friends, Shay.  They’ve come to collect.”

Shayna shook her head in
exasperation.  “How in the hell would you know that, Sean?”

The way he sat back in the
shadows began to unnerve her.  Then he angled forward out of the darkness and
across the corner of the table.  The expression that tightened his face caused
her momentary panic.

“Because mine are even
nastier,” he warned, through tight lips.

She inhaled sharply as a hot
blast of awareness brought her squarely into the present moment.  “How...why do
you know people like that?” she asked tentatively.

He considered the question
before answering.  “Let’s just say I inherited them, and leave it at that. 
That’s all you need to know.  All I want you to know—ever,” he said sternly.

“So the answer is yes, then. 
You are involved in what’s been going on.”  He remained still and didn’t
answer.  “You’re hurting more people than just Frank, you know.  This affects
my brother, too.  His business.  The work that’s been delayed, stopped, handed
off to different contractors and subs.”  She looked away shaking her head in
disbelief as the pieces fell in place.  “And what exactly are you going owe
these
friends
of yours?  Huh?  When does it end?  Why would you do
this?”

“I’m not going to owe
anything.  I’ve called in favors
owed
to
me
.”

Shayna’s heart began to race
as a sense of dread threatened to smother her.  “What have you done to earn
these kinds of favors, Sean?”  She didn’t know if she really wanted to hear the
answer.

He ignored her question. 
“Don’t forget that your ex started this.  He shouldn’t have picked a fight he
wasn’t sure he could win.”

“He’s going to figure this
out, Sean.”

He chuckled at her words and
then he stopped smiling.  “Frank Chastain has a false sense of who he is.  He’s
just a big fish in a little pond—and I’m the shark he didn’t see coming.”

“Why are you doing this?” she
asked fearfully.

His answer suggested he’d
read the worry in her eyes.  “I promise I will
never
hurt you, Shayna. 
Ever
. 
But I will make no promises about how far I will go to keep you, to keep
him
out of our lives.”

A stuttered breath rushed
past her trembling lips.  “But you are hurting me.  Don’t you see that?  You’re
undoubtedly causing stress on Jack’s business, and so many other people that
work for him and Frank.  What about Danielle?  CCL is supposed to be her
legacy,” she said angrily, on the verge of tears.

Shayna bolted up from the
chair and immediately regretted it.  The wine on an empty stomach, her aching
body, and her shattered confidence were a dizzying combination.  She bobbled
and Sean tried to steady her, but she recoiled from his touch, waving him off. 
As she made her way back inside to the warm fireplace, Sean grabbed her arm and
she shrieked from the pain radiating out from her shoulder.

Sean’s hands immediately shot
up.  “Whoa.  What’s going on, Shay?”  He cut her path off, quickly stepping in
front of her.  She wouldn’t look at him as she cradled her arm.  “What the hell—”
he blurted with alarm in his voice as he grasped her forearms and extended them
in front of her, his hands slowly skimming down to her wrists.  He saw the
bruises.  She slammed her eyes shut and dropped her head.  She could feel
palpable menace rolling off him, scaring her.  He gently brought her wrists
together, lining up the bruises, piecing together the puzzle.  She already knew
that he had figured it out.

“What did he do to you,
Shay,” he said with barely restrained rage.  She kept her head down, but he
tilted her chin up to face him.  “Look at me, Shay,” he begged softly.  A lone
tear trailed down her cheek and he tenderly brushed it away.  He moved closer
into her space.  “Open your eyes.  Look at me.”  She shook her head.  He grasped
her face and gently stroked her temples.  “Do it, Shay.  Do it,” he whispered
with a hint of desperation.

Slowly, apprehensively, bit
by little bit, she opened her mournful eyes to him.  His eyes locked onto hers
and read the story in them.  His breathing became shallow and his face hardened
as his eyes filled with pain and then fury.

He shook his head.  “No,” he
said in a wary hushed tone, “No.”  He paused and breathed deeply a couple of
times, attempting to control his emotions.  “There’s more of these...aren’t
there?”  Once again, she looked away, closing her eyes, and nodded her head
shamefully.  “I will fucking kill him.”  He breathed the words out like fire.

“No!” Shayna yelled, pushing
away from him.  “Don’t even say that.  Don’t you dare, Sean.”

“Then you’d damned well
better go to the police.  I’ll take you myself.”  She began shaking her head
frantically.  “If you don’t make him pay for this,
I will
.  You can
count on it,” he said with a brutality that frightened her.

“I’m not going to the police! 
I don’t
ever
want Danielle to know about this!  I just want to forget
it.  Leave it alone, Sean.  I mean it,” she warned through clenched teeth.

“Maybe it’s time Danielle found
out just what kind of man her father really is,” he countered angrily.

Shayna slapped him hard
across the face.  She saw his stunned expression and then glanced to her
trembling hand, the palm tinged red and stinging from the blow.  Then she
pointed her finger at him.  “This is
my
decision to make
not
yours!  If you love me at all, you won’t say another word and you sure as hell
won’t do what you’re thinking about.”  She took a few quick breaths, her
adrenaline suddenly flowing.  “Now leave.  I want to be alone.”  She backed
away from him tentatively and then turned and fled up the stairs, slamming her
bedroom door shut.

She ran to her bathroom,
shutting and locking the door behind her, sliding down and sinking to the cool
tiles beneath her.  None of this seemed real.  Nothing that happened today made
sense or fit into the world she had known up until today.  Shayna absently toed
off her heels and worked her way slowly back up on her feet.  She moved to
stand in front of her full-length mirror and stared at the stranger in it.