Legal Legacy (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles) (7 page)

“I doubt that the film’s producers would knowingly put me in danger, Alex. And as for Holden, he needs to be more concerned with his own safety, I would think,” Hadley said, putting an end to any further talk of her needing a bodyguard and trying in vain to conceal her anger toward Holden.

“Alright then,” Bly said quietly, rubbing his chin and then pinching the tense spot between his eyes.

Charlie was wearing the new Beats Solos headphones that Bly had given him so he was totally immersed in his game. Hadley moved to the seat next to Bly and
said, “Alex, you can’t protect all of us even though it’s clear that you want to so badly. It’s perfectly clear that my mother means everything to you and you’ve waited for her for a very long time, so it’s sort of surprising that my dad’s condition is hurting you so much. But, then again I’m not surprised, because you’re such a good man, one of the best, and I guess I hadn’t given any thought to how much you must have suffered over the years. My mom is not always logical, you understand that she’ll need to play the martyr after he’s gone, right?”

“Yes. Your mother has made my life both heaven and hell and I’ve found it more fulfi
lling to love her from a distance than to love any other woman. I never stopped believing that she would make life complete eventually, but I have a feeling that she’ll grieve so long and so hard for your father that it will change her. Whatever she’s felt for me will be lost and it’s doubtful that she’ll ever be mine.” Bly said simply and Hadley knew that in her lifetime she had been an observer to the truly mythical and enduring love of one woman and the two men who had no wish to escape her.

Now that Hadley had a better understanding for being a woman and being in love she had a deep appreciation for the obstacles Charlotte had been faced with over the years. She no longer saw her mother solely through a daughter’s eyes.
She was not quite nineteen and yet she understood that love was both a healing balm and a sword with many edges. It healed and invigorated and made life a paradise beyond the rational or logical, and it cut and wounded and left scars that were either shallow or too deep to be endured.

“I love Holden, you know. I’ll marry him someday when he’s done with risking his life with Atticus,” Hadle
y said and Bly nodded his head. “Ten years from now or five or whenever, he and I will have the most beautiful baby and it will be part of you and my mom and dad. Isn’t that an amazing thought? I know it will happen, I can feel our life together waiting like a new seed inside of me.”

“Yes it is, your dad said the same thing at the beach last summer. He said Charlotte and I would live to see that miracle happen,” Bly loved this young girl, loved
that she was devoted to his son; that she was Charlotte’s daughter. She was extraordinary looking, with Finn’s large grey-eyes, full lips and mink colored hair as well as his tough yet fun loving spirit. To top it off she had a genuine sweetness combined with Charlotte’s mannerisms and tall slim body. She was in love with Holden, he had no doubt, but she was still young with so many possibilities ahead of her. The future, even a day as close as tomorrow, was an unknown entity. Charlotte could place herself beyond his reach entirely and fame could change Hadley into an altogether different person.

*

“As soon as I’m finished with you, I’m going home to San Diego. After that… I don’t know, it seems like I’m losing my way, or mind, or both,” Hadley said and Reef’s eyes narrowed as he watched her.

“When
you’re finished with me? I don’t like the sound of that, princess.”

“That came out wrong, not
finished
, but when we’ve covered the technical aspect of motorcycle clubs and the hierarchy of biker chicks and ol’ ladys and mamas or what have you. Reef, you’ve been so helpful and your dad is like the scariest person I’ve ever met and I don’t know how you live that lifestyle. You’re a nomad, a curiosity, an unknown entity for a girl like me, you know, tough and tattooed and… way too hot to handle.”

“
I’m a nomad, what the fuck is that supposed to mean? Wait, you think I’m hot?” Reef asked and he seemed so surprised that Hadley turned her face away and pressed her fingers to her lips to keep from laughing.

“Come on,
” she said, “really? Is that a serious question? All those half-naked girls with neon hair and the ‘desperately clinging to their youth’ older women were all over you back there at your dad’s lodge, office, strip club, whatever.” She wondered if he was really in the dark as to his looks and more than that, his raw animal magnetism. Reef didn’t have Holden’s flawlessly symmetrical features and all-American bloodline but he had an abundance of rough-and-ready sexuality. Hadley wondered if Alex Bly had noticed the spark in her eye when she looked at Reef. Bly had met them at the airport to pick up Charlie and Vivi for the weekend and Hadley had given him a long and rambling explanation as to why she was staying on set.

They were driving
toward the lush rolling hills northeast of Arroyo Grande, away from the airport and the motorcycle club and the film set. Reef had left his Harley behind and his dad had winked and tossed him the keys to a new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.

“
It’s only because I’m Tommy Rex Townsend’s son, those chicks, even the old ones, that’s their way of showing respect to the club’s president. My dad likes his badass reputation but he’s not
that
bad. Has he ever killed men? Maybe. But if he has they were men who deserved to die. What do you know about bikers, anything? Or are you like everybody else? All you can see is a group of men in shabby leather with beards and trashy looking women. Men who like to smoke pot, deal drugs, raise hell and kill whoever gets in their way. That’s the way it is for some clubs, my dad was a big man in the Hell’s Angels but he didn’t like selling drugs to school kids and guns to teenagers or being told who was gonna die next. So he left and took three other members with him, they had to stay low and out of sight for a couple of years, try and outlast the death warrants that were hanging over their heads. They lived on a piece of farmland my mom inherited from her grandfather and they helped her start a pretty good organic farm.”

“And your parents fell in love but they didn’t live the dream obviously, since your dad is an o
utlaw biker who formed the ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’. And I don’t know what to say about your mom that won’t piss you off. She was kind of overly affectionate with you, but, hey, if that’s the way you like it…”

“Stella is my dad’s wife, my dad’s
‘Old lady’ to be precise, and you’re right, she isn’t the motherly type. She hits on me and my brothers all the time, she has since we were twelve or thirteen. My mom is a pacifist but she gave Stella that knife scar down the side of her face for fucking around with my brother, Cade when he was teenager.”

“Cade Townsend… Kincade Townsend, is that r
ight? The mastermind behind Alice-Anne’s Farm Markets?”

“Yep, that’s him alright, he’s a big fucki
ng deal, thanks to my mother. Just so you understand, my mother is the mastermind behind it all.”

“So your mother is
Alice-Anne Kincade? Whoa! Forgive me for saying so, but if your dad chose that freaky Stella over a woman who’s a pioneer of organic farming, a philanthropist and global humanitarian, he’s been smoking something stronger than pot. Does that mean this farm you’re taking me to, is the renowned
Alice-Anne’s Farm
? The legendary ‘no cameras, no press, no celebrities’ sanctuary where the good the bad and the socially challenged are given an entirely new start in life. Your mother singlehandedly started the whole organic farming movement to entice schools, restaurants and families to buy locally grown whole foods. There are thousands of articles and websites devoted to
Alice-Anne’s Farm
, but I don’t think anyone has ever seen a picture of her. So, is she okay with you bringing me into her super secretive territory this weekend?”

“
She cuts me a lot of slack ‘cuz I’m her favorite,” he said giving Hadley a sly smile. “My brothers are twins, identical except that Cade is an asshole and Traeger isn’t, which makes me the baby of the family. Alice-Anne eases up on a few of the rules where I’m concerned. You’re right, the farm’s purpose, other than to provide jobs and all natural agricultural products, is to offer a safe and secure haven for those who need to escape their pasts. Okay, here we are, come on, I think you’re gonna be a big hit with my mother. A word of caution… Alice-Anne is a good ol’ girl from Ft. Worth, and she
will
tell it like it is, but she’ll add “bless your heart” to soften the blow.”

Alice-Anne Kincade stood up fr
om her work in the small herb garden that meandered along the front of her large Spanish hacienda. The house was set with its back nestled against the soaring green hills and a vast expanse of cultivated crop and livestock fields jutted out in every other direction, surrounding it as far as the eye could see. Hadley was right, there hadn’t been a photograph taken of Alice-Anne Kincade, the guru of the natural foods movement since she was a senior in high school. That was the year she had come to California from Texas to visit her grandparents and first set food on the fertile spread of land she would inherit. The same summer she’d found Tommy Rex Townsend and three other bikers living in the hay barn planning a brand new motor cycle club. She and Tommy Rex had fallen in love and they made plans, and all of those plans had come to pass, but some were easier to live with than others.

“
Hadley Hale, my goodness, how very lovely you are, sweetheart,” Alice-Anne said in her slow drawl. She wiped her brow with a glove that had the trademark
Alice-Anne’s Farm
logo, and she peered into the face of the girl who had so recently taken Hollywood by storm. “Come on in and make yourself at home, you must be tired after all that acting and then having to meet my boy’s daddy and the trash he lives with. Oh Lord! You don’t even want me to open that can of worms. Bless your heart, tell me darlin’, did you like that big burly action hero who played your love interest in your last film? I can’t stand him, he just makes my skin crawl. Would you like to know what I think is interesting about him? Nothing, not one thing, if you ask me he’s a total nut sack. Now, Reef, get your friend a cold drink from the icebox. I have to change out of these coveralls and then we’ll sit down to dinner.”

“Mother,” Reef called after her as she
climbed the long curved staircase, “nut sack does not mean what you think it does. I swear to you, it has nothing to do with squirrels.”

“Oh, nonsense! Nuts and squirrels go together like
frick and frack, I’ll be down in a while, son. Ya’ll make yourselves at home.”

“Hey Reef! When did you get back? Dude it’s been boring as fuck around here since you left. Your mom is making me keep up my piano lessons and all sorta shit like that, I might as well be back in Juarez.”

“Hadley Hale this is Pedro, he’s a guest at the farm. Pedro, this is Hadley,” Reef said with a tight smile, shaking hands with the tall dark haired young man.

“Aw dude, I’d know Hadley Hale anywhere. Man, you are truly beautiful, like fucking gorgeous! Oh, sorry about that, but seriously, you look even better in real life, if that’s possible. Like Reef said, I’m Pedro, no last name, just Pedro. It’s so cool to meet you.”

“Just Pedro, huh?” Hadley said and gave Reef a smile to let him know she would not say a word in the outside world about the strikingly handsome boy who seemed awfully young to be in Alice-Anne’s infamous new age witness protection program. “You remind me of someone, Pedro, do you have relatives in San Diego? I can’t put my finger on it, maybe we met in Baja or something, have you ever been there on vacation?”

“Um,
I don’t think I’m supposed to say, am I, Reef? I’m working on my accent and it’s going pretty good, what country would you say I come from?”

“Pedro, you’re he
re for your own protection, you met Hadley two minutes ago, you need to work on your James Bond undercover routine,” Reef said and the boy’s wide green eyes sparkled as he shrugged at Hadley.

“Mexico,
I suppose since you mentioned Juarez,” Hadley said, and she decided it was something about his eyes that made her feel as if she knew him. “I would have guessed that you’re from the interior rather than a border town. I was going to say Mexico City. You have dark hair, green eyes and you’re pretty good at rolling your R’s. You know, I’d swear that we’ve met before, but maybe not.”

Chapter Five

Evangeline
arrived from Paris with suitcases and hat boxes and vintage Louis Vuitton trunks. Her entire fall wardrobe had been painstakingly wrapped in tissue and neatly packed by her maids. Bly asked his mother if she intended to open a Chanel Boutique in one of his guest bedrooms, she certainly had enough inventory.

“
Humor is not your strong suit, Alexander, you should stick with running the world. Ah, don’t listen to me, I’m… not myself these days. I’m only here to help Charlotte and her children get through this awful time, she’s going to need our strength, Alexander.” Evangeline said and for the first time that he could remember, Bly realized his mother was crying.

*

“Pain is weakness leaving the body, have you ever heard that before? Well, get ready to live it boys and I do mean boys. You are nothin’ but spoiled, bullshit-tough pretty boys who wanna be Navy SEALs, and that ain’t gonna happen. You wanna know why? Because you, Hale, have an infamous Daddy, and Bly has an ungodly rich
and
famous Daddy, and that kind of shit makes me sick. But I got my orders and I have to take the two of you. Some politician sharpening his pencils in Washington thinks you got what it takes to be among the most elite warriors God and the United States Navy ever created. And you’re both in damn good physical shape, but that don’t mean shit in my world, I’m real good at breakin’ a man’s will. I’d wager you’ll drop out after the first day of BUD/S training, if not then, Hell Week will make you wish you were dead. Nine-tenths of SEAL candidates quit in the first six months and it isn’t because of physical deficit, making it through training is ninety percent mental. You gotta want it more than you want your next breath, more than you want a drink of clean water after a week in the desert, more than you want to fuck a Victoria’s Secret model. On top of all that I’ll make it my mission in life to break you both, you wanna know why? Because I can and I will and it’ll make me happy, do you understand?”