Chain of Title (23 page)

Could she accept that?

She thought she had known
Frank and look how that turned out.  At least Sean had been honest enough to
tell her there were things he was unwilling to discuss, unwilling to involve
her in.  And what about Wes?  If he had lived, would they still be together? 
Would she have found out later that he wasn’t who she remembered him to be, who
she had built him up to be?  He was still untouchable in her memories, but
after all, they had just been kids when they married.  So much of life had been
ahead of them, ups and downs that certainly would have challenged them, even changed
them.  She sighed heavily as her thoughts consumed her.

A look of defeat slowly veiled
Sean’s face and his eyes closed, his forehead dropping to press against hers as
if to read her mind, or change it.  She couldn’t stand seeing him like this,
couldn’t stand being responsible for his anguish.  He loved her, and of that
she had no doubt.

Head or heart, Shay?  Which
one do you listen to this time?  His hands fell from her, taking their warmth
and promise with them.

Not able to cause him any further
agony, she made a decision and steeled her resolve.  Cupping his square jaw in
her hands and leveling their eyes, she answered with conviction, “I’ll marry
you, Sean Parker.”  The immediate relief coloring his face was palpable and the
hint of a smile tugged at one corner of his mouth, his eyes warming and
softening, his hands returning to her body.  “But you should know, I would’ve
married you anyway,” she whispered, voice trembling, as a lone tear fell across
her cheek.  His eyes widened at her admission.  He hugged her so tightly she
thought she might break.

“You’ll never regret it, Shay. 
I promise.  We’re going to have a great life.  I know I can make you happy,” he
pledged, his tenor thick with emotion.  He kissed the shell of her ear, nipping
at her neck and caressing her back.

“You already have,” she said
breathily, feeling the warmth spread on her skin in the cool night air, as heavy
heat pooled low in her belly.

Her hands slid down his broad
chest and quickly dispensed with the button and zipper on his faded jeans. 
Skimming a hand under his trunks, his breathing hitched as she began stroking
the hard, velvety smooth prize in her hand.  They had made out like teenagers
the last few days, working their way up to third base, and now she felt ready
to slide home.  Her cheeks warmed when she realized she was rocking against him
shamelessly.

“I want you, Sean.  I want
all of you—now,” she said, with choked desire in her voice.  The world around
them faded into the powdery mist rising from the inky water as their bodies
molded to one another.  Nothing else, no one else, existed at that moment.

He pulled back, gazing into
her dreamy eyes, his own heavy lidded and cloudy.  Tilting her chin up, he
admitted huskily, “You’ve had me, all of me, since the first day you walked
into my restaurant.”  He kissed her fiercely, devouring her lips and mouth,
stealing her breath and branding her as his, forever.

He
listened to her calm, measured breathing, sometimes punctuated with a long,
peaceful sigh wrapped in the hint of a moan.  Felt the tickle of her balmy
breath across his skin and scattering of chest hair.  A satisfied smile eased
slowly across his square, shadowed jaw, and he carefully molded her even more
snugly against his body, not wanting to wake her.  They’d had quite a night,
and she deserved a rest—until later that is, he thought lustfully.

He rewound his memories to
the image of Shayna prowling sexily above him, offering her gorgeous breasts
and sweet pink nipples to him, as she expertly stroked his cock before
mercifully sinking down onto him and riding him into oblivion.  Sean closed his
eyes tightly at the memory and sucked in a deep breath of air with a hiss.  If
he didn’t fully understand before, he knew now, without question, he would
never get enough of her.  There was no fighting it.  Every time he had her, he
only wanted her more.  No other woman had ever made him feel that way.  No other
woman had ever owned him so completely.

Sean rolled his head and
nuzzled Shayna’s hair, inhaling her sweet scent.  She smelled like sunshine.  He
chuckled quietly at his metaphor of choice.  Oh, what this woman had done to
him, the ways she had changed him, the things she had made him feel—without
even trying.  Now he was finally going to have the life that he had written off
long ago.  He smiled in the dark, and a sense of peace settled over him as he
imagined everything they would share.  The adventures they would have together. 
That’s what Shayna called them—adventures.  He could already picture her
stretched across the deck as he guided them from port to port, to new lands, fresh
experiences, and different cultures.  Their days would be followed by steamy,
sweaty nights on the boat, or wherever, he grinned to himself.  He could
envision a richer, fuller life ahead for both of them.  A life he wasn’t sure
he deserved, but would hold onto with both hands for as long as possible.

Shayna stirred with a sigh,
and attempted to stretch and turn.  He hated to let her go, but he needed to go
up and check the mooring and the monitors anyway.  With the unexpected turn the
day had taken, he had bypassed his usual routine before calling it a night.  He
let her shift, fall away, and reposition herself next to him, her warm curvy
ass pressed up against him, her hands tucked up under her chin, and her head wedged
under his raised arm on the pillow.  He smiled, kissing her shoulder and
pulling the covers up over her.  Then he slipped quietly out of bed and pulled
his jeans on, took one last look at Shayna sleeping soundly, and padded
barefoot to the upper deck.

After making some adjustments
at the helm and reviewing the weather map again, Sean picked his mobile up from
the worktop and found that he had numerous missed calls and multiple voicemails. 
He clenched his jaw, feeling his chest tighten.  Just as he readied to retrieve
them, another call came through.

“What’s going on, Charlie?”
he asked impatiently.  Sean paced, squeezing his free hand over his forehead.  Then
he dragged his hand hard down his face and exhaled loudly.  “When?” he asked. 
He nodded and braced himself in the open doorway and stared absently into a black
night too cloudy for even the stars to penetrate.  “Why wasn’t Carter following
her?”  Sean snorted loudly in disbelief.  “He couldn’t stay up with a girl out
for a run!  What the fuck?”  He slammed the side of his fist hard against the
fiberglass panel.  “Then he should’ve gotten out of the goddamn car!  Tell me
you know where she’s at right now.”  He shook his head in aggravation, and
ground out angrily, “Find her!  I’m heading back now.  Get Mick and the other
guys around.  I want everything ready when—”  Sean gripped the cell tighter and
narrowed his eyes listening intently.  His head bobbed with a modicum of relief. 
“Good.  You better know something by the time I get back.”  Sean pinched
unmercifully at the bridge between his eyes and his brow furrowed deeply.  “The
local dirt doesn’t have the balls to do something like this.  It’s Morales’
scum, isn’t it?”  Sean’s head dropped at Charlie’s confirmation.  “Fuck,” he
hissed through clenched teeth.

He abruptly ended the call
and stuffed the phone in his front pocket.  Breathing in, then expelling a
cloud of chilly night air, he turned to prepare the Tuscan Dream to head home.  Sean
inhaled sharply, startled at the sight of Shayna’s scantily clad body and her
proximity to him.

“What’s going on, Sean?  Why
are you so upset?” she asked tentatively, moving closer and eyeing him with
suspicion.

He swallowed hard and wet his
lips, not sure where to start, what to say.

Her nostrils flared.  “Does it
have something to do with your
friends
?” she asked, in an accusatory
tone.

Sean stood straighter,
lifting his chin and narrowing his eyes.  His chest expanded with a deep
breath.  “My
friends
are the only chance your daughter has right now.”

Shayna’s eyes widened and her
face drained of color.  “What are you talking about?”

He needed to get them back to
Mt. Pleasant and didn’t have time for an interrogation, but he kept his feet
planted for the moment.  Warming his cold tone as best he could under the circumstances,
he replied steadily, “I told you before that your ex is mixed up with some
nasty people.  They want their money and they’re using Danielle as insurance.” 
He could feel Shayna’s panic slam into him.  Best not to tell her that it
wouldn’t matter if these animals got twice the amount.  She would never see
Danielle again if he and his friends didn’t get to her—soon.

“We have to call the police!”
she shrieked.  “I need to call Frank and see what’s going on, see what he’s
doing about this!”  Her hands clamped over her mouth as if trying to hold back
the rising hysteria.

Sean’s hands sliced through
the air as he towered above her with mounting menace.  “No fucking way!  No
police!  And no
Frank
!  Hasn’t he done enough?  You really think he’s
going to protect you and Danielle?  This is
his
fault!  All of it! 
I’ll
handle him
and
this situation.  You stay out of it, Shayna!”  He lowered
his gaze, meeting hers.  “And you stay away from
him
!” he warned
angrily, backing her up against a closet door, pinning her and roughly tipping
her chin up and her head back, closing her mouth before she could speak again.

He saw the terror in her
eyes.  She didn’t recognize him right now, but it had to be this way.  If he
was going to get her daughter back, this was who he had to be.

Nose to nose, he ordered sternly,
“If you ever want to see Danielle again, you will do
exactly
as I say. 
No questions.  No fight.  Just.  Do.  As.  I.  Say.  Got it?” he barked, in a
cold, commanding tone.  He felt her tremble slightly, and could tell that she
was trying to keep her emotions in check, but a stray tear betrayed her and
raced down her cheek.  She nodded in the limited space he had given her to
move.  He eased back from her cautiously and then quickly pivoted toward the
helm.

From the corner of his eye,
he watched Shayna slide down the paneling and slump onto the floor, tenting her
knees and dropping her head onto her crossed arms.  He noticed her head bobbing
as she tried to sob discretely.  Ordinarily, her distress would’ve affected him,
but he had already flipped that switch off.  Emotions and empathy would only
slow him down now.

He had a mission to
accomplish.

****

Frank
moved away from the wall of windows and back to the executive desk in his den where
he continued packing the oversized black duffel bag with large denomination
bills.  He had managed to get the money.  It wasn’t easy.  Basically, he had
robbed Peter to pay Paul.

Everything was spiraling out
of control, now.  He had to get Danielle back before Shayna found out she was
missing.  Then what?  He huffed to himself.  Danielle would tell her mother, would
want to go to the police; it would all end up in the papers, on the news.  He white-knuckled
the edge of his mahogany desk and braced himself, closing his eyes.

Danielle had been missing for
over forty-eight hours, now.  Harper kept calling him wanting to talk to Dani. 
Frank had lied to the kid.  Told him Danielle hadn’t been feeling well and was
staying at the house.  Nothing serious, but she was sleeping a lot.  He
promised to have her call when she was feeling better.  He called her employer
and gave the same story.  His stomach threatened to betray him again, but there
was nothing left to purge.  He’d had no food, no peace since the call about his
baby girl, two days ago.

How had he gotten to this
point?

He sank into his padded
leather chair with a deep, defeated sigh.  The gambling had just been a way to
blow off steam when he was younger, have a little fun.  He had done it as far
back as he could remember, but he had always set a limit for himself—an
acceptable loss limit.  When he reached it, he quit and walked away, no harm,
no foul.

It had never been a problem
until the economy started tanking and tenants broke leases with no new lessee’s
in sight.  Construction soon came to a standstill and CCL had to dive deep into
its reserves—too deep for too long.  He had leveraged his personal assets to
keep his company from sinking down into the sludge.  That’s when his acceptable
loss limit began increasing and gambling became more about survival than
recreation.  Then Shayna followed through with the divorce he never wanted,
forcing his hand.  His people made sure the books looked good, but he had to
come up with hard cash after she signed the papers.  So that’s when he moved the
funds from an offshore account to back up the numbers on his financials and to
pay off Shayna—all except for that damned tract of land she wanted so badly.

Events merged and swirled
into the perfect storm that unwittingly conspired to bring him crashing down.  A
vicious cycle had become brutally real, with his daughter’s life now in the
balance.  There was no price he wouldn’t pay.  Nothing he wouldn’t do to get
her back safe and sound.

Of course, he should’ve
shared all of this with Shayna, but at the time, and even now, he couldn’t
stand the thought of her viewing him as weak and incompetent.  Instead, he’d
had a ridiculous, clichéd affair with a much-too-much younger woman to prop up
his ego and distract him from the brewing storm.  He closed his eyes and shook
his head in despair.  He had never loved any two people as much as Shayna and
Danielle.  They were everything to him.  They were the reason he did all of
it—the good and the bad.  He had never wanted to disappoint them and now.... 
Dropping his head in his hand, he pushed back the sting of emotion at the back of
his eyes.  Now he was a monumental fuck up.  Nothing he could ever do from this
point would change the permanent stain of his disgrace.

Frank jumped when his cell
yanked him deeper into the nightmare.  “Hello?” he answered with more
confidence than he felt.

The hairs on the back of his
neck bristled and he glanced up quickly in the large murky room, lit only by
his desk lamp.  He reached across, pulling down on the brass switch to increase
the wattage.  Scanning the room carefully, he decided his mind was playing
tricks.  He was alone.

“Have you got what we want
now, Frankie-boy?” the caller mocked over the phone.

Frank gritted his teeth. 
“Have you got what I want?” he growled, trying to sound threatening.  He heard
a snort followed by a derisive chuckle.

“I think we’ve already
established you’re in no position to make demands, asshole.  You bring it
tomorrow—at midnight—Breakers Cliff.  Don’t be late—not even by a second, old
man.”

The call ended, and Frank
exhaled loudly, not even realizing he had been holding his breath.  He tossed
his phone on his desk as if it had burned his flesh, and swallowed hard, trying
not to picture Danielle with those animals.  That’s when he saw it
again—movement.  Or was it a shadow playing tricks from the clouds dragging
across the moon outside the windows?

Then a figure stepped out of
the darkness, cloaked in black, confirming his worst fears and moving with
assurance to stand menacingly across the desk from him.  The thick black
streaks across the intruder’s face only amplified the intense hatred blazing
from his cruel eyes.  Frank sat frozen in his chair, unable to speak, think, or
breathe.  This was it.  This was the moment he would die.

Time stood still, as a
lifetime with Shayna and Danielle flashed in front of him.

“You’re not going to say a
word unless I ask you a question.  You’re going to listen and do exactly what I
tell you to do,” the man in black hissed with authority.

Frank inhaled sharply at the
familiar voice.  “You!  You’re behind all of this, Parker?” he growled with
condemnation.

Before Frank could utter
another word, Sean leapt over the desk and brutally launched him from his
chair, before swiftly pinning him like a rag doll against the wall with a large
SOG SEAL knife positioned tightly at his jugular.  He could feel a trickle of
blood race down his throat.  Maybe it was sweat.  God, he hoped it was sweat. 
He could feel Sean’s hot, measured breath fan out across his face.