Somewhere in His Arms (57 page)

             
“What the bloody hell did you do that for? You were already married!”

             
“Yes, I know. Um...what's up, dad?”

             
Alec had to hold the phone away from his ear lest he be made permanently deaf. Pat was screaming and carrying on so that most of his explanation was garbled nonsense.

             
“Dad? Do you think you could speak a little slower? I'm having trouble hearing you.”

             
“I said I've been arrested!”

             
Alec's eyes were widening in mounting horror. “You
what---!”

             
Lucy climbed out of the tub, wrapping a towel about her, and went to sit beside her husband on the bed. Whatever it was, it didn't sound good. She motioned to her husband who shook his head in confusion. “Here, dad. Let me put you on speaker.”

             
“Is
she
there with you?”

             
“I think so,” Alec said, tipping his wife a knowing wink. “Are you here, my love?”

             
“Stop that, you little twat! I just asked. Do you want to hear it or not?”

             
“Yes,” Alec sighed. “What trouble have you gotten yourself into?”

             
“I didn't get myself into anything!” Pat snarled into the phone. “It's that ungrateful little shite that got me thrown in here!”

             
“Dad? Tell me you didn't try to see Gavin.”

             
“Well, you weren't here and yer mum was carrying on wanting to know where her baby boy had gotten off to. So I went to that studio you told me about and---”

             
“---ran into a tree?” Alec finished for him.

             
“How did you know?”

             
Alec hung his head and rubbed the flesh between his eyes. “Dad, you
didn't!”

             
“He was as big as you said he was!”

             
“Dad, what have they charged you with?”

             
“Um...I think it's trespassing with assault and battery. I had every right to hide that sorry bastard!”

             
“I'm sure you did. Why are you there anyway? Where's Rudy?”

             
“I don't know. Nobody knows where he is.”

             
Lucy gripped her husband's arm. He squeezed her hand reassuringly. “What do you mean
nobody
knows where he is? Where the hell is he?”

             
“Don't know!' Pat shouted against the sudden surge of male voices. “Hey, laddie they're trying to kill each other in here!”

             
They could hear brawling and shouting, screaming and something being thrown.  “Dad! Have they set bail?”

             
“What?”

             
“Have...they...set...bail?”

             
“Oh! Yes, it's twenty-thousand dollars!”

             
“Twenty-thousand---!”

             
“Well, I sent the Tree to casualty and broke me hand trying to fell him!”

             
“Dad! You hold tight. We'll take the red-eye and can probably be there tomorrow morning. You hear that, dad?”

             
“Yeah!” Pat shouted. “I hear you, laddie. I'll be here!”

             
He hung up or the phone was snatched from him, Alec couldn't tell.

             
Lucy took the phone from him and hurried to dress. “I guess our honeymoon is officially over,” she said through her sweater.

             
“It takes all kinds,” he growled, reaching for his boxers. “I'd better call the airport.”

             
“I'll do that. Get dressed and pack our stuff.”

             
“Since when do you wear the pants in this family?”

             
She blew him a kiss and dialed the airport. “Since now!” she grinned.

              They booked a midnight flight back to Los Angeles. In coach since most seats in first class were fully booked. Alec couldn't remember ever spending such a miserable night crammed into such a small space. The passenger in front of him decided to sleep the whole way, and Alec had to bend his knees to keep from smashing into the seat. Lucy didn't have such problems with her petite frame, and commiserated with her husband as best she could, offering him her packets of extra peanuts, and placing a pillow between the seat and his legs.

             
“Remind me to kill Gavin when we get home,” he grunted and tried to get some sleep. Lucy smiled at her husband and decided to catch up on her reading. She'd managed to breeze through most of
Lorna Doone
by the time they landed the next morning.

             
It was a long, tiring process through security and Alec was in no mood to be felt up by the burly TSA agent but gritted his teeth and smiled. By the time the guy finished, Alec was certain he wouldn't need to see a proctologist for at least a year. With that dreadful examination over, they rented a car, threw their luggage in the trunk, and hurried to bail Pat out of the nick.

             
“Sign here,” the booking officer said, whilst munching on a bagel. Alec glowered at the little man and sat down next to Lucy as they went to fetch his stepfather.

             
Pat emerged with his hand and wrist in a cast and flanked on either side by two disgruntled looking officers. “Hey, laddie!” he said cheerfully to Alec, who was in no mood to be gracious. The flight had been draining, and he just wanted to crash into bed and make it all go away. Alec glanced at his wife and helped her to her feet. He stalked off with her in tow and Pat swore and hurried to catch up.

             
“Wait up, laddie!” he yelled. He must be getting old. Surely it wasn't this bad to chase after the boy after all these years?

             
Lucy glanced behind her to see Pat struggling to keep up as they walked to the car. “Alec...”

             
“Let him sweat a bit,” he said shortly. “Serves him right to interrupt our honeymoon.”

             
“There'll be other honeymoons,” she said, stroking his arm in an effort to diffuse his temper. “I'll let you chase me around the Taj Mahal.”

             
“Taj Mahal, huh?” He grinned and the fury died a little in those piercing blue shards of ice. “Make it the Eiffel Tower and you've got a date!”

             
“Okay.”

             
Pat caught up with them huffing and puffing. “What the hell's wrong with you, laddie? Can't you see your dad can't keep up?”

             
“Whose fault is that?” Alec replied stiffly, taking in the black eyes and swollen mouth. “He really jobbed you didn't he?”

             
“Like hell, he did!” Pat retorted. “I broke his bleedin' nose and a few ribs for good measure! Let's see who got the worst end of it!”

             
“Get in the car, dad.”

             
“Huh? Oh.” Pat eased his bulky frame into the backseat and tried not to think about how he was going to explain this to Maggie. She'd have his head on a platter. But it hadn't been
his
entire fault. “Boy Wonder” had something to do with it too. He didn't know what had happened to the lad, but his eyes had looked him straight into his own and Pat had seen nothing.
Dead eyes,
that's what they were. Cold and dreadful, Pat had only meant to talk to him, to try to make him see the error of his ways. But the lad hadn't wanted to hear it. As soon as he saw Pat, he started ranting and raving about what a fuck up his whole childhood had been and how Pat was the cause of it. And then the Tree had showed up. Alec hadn't been lying when he described the brute.

             
The next thing he knew, the Tree had him in a headlock, and Pat would be damned if some blighter was going to humiliate him like that. A fist had landed in the Tree's eye and then Tree hit him back, and then they were on the floor. Pat had heard one hell of a scream come out of the Tree when he wrenched his arm back. He later found out he'd broken the Tree's arm. Of course, Gavin had pressed charges, the little shite!              

             
What a balls-up the whole thing turned out to be.

             
“Dad, you want to get something to eat?” Pat looked up and saw his daughter-in-law smiling kindly at him. She was good for Alec. He was just sorry about calling her what he did the first time they met.

             
“Um...can we get some of those muffin things?”

             
“Of course, we can.” She turned to her husband and nudged him slightly. “Can't we, dear?”

             
“Yeah, yeah. “ He glowered at Pat through the rearview mirror. “Just as long as he doesn't order the whole restaurant!”

             
Lucy giggled and tipped Pat a wink before settling back into her seat.

             
They arrived back at Rudy's beach house close to noon and both Alec and Lucy were knackered and needed to sleep off the jet lag. Alec escorted Pat to the spare bedroom and handed him his bag of Egg McMuffins. “We'll be up later and you can tell me what the hell happened.” Then Alec went to find his wife who was busy tugging her boots off.

             
He closed the door and tugged his own shoes off before collapsing onto the bed. “I'm wrecked,” he sighed, and urged his wife into his arms.

             
“Me too.” She yawned and snuggled close. “Go easy on him. He meant well.”

             
“Well enough to get a restraining order?”

             
“He didn't!”

             
“He did.”

             
“Oh, for pity's sake,” she said, kissing his neck. “Go to sleep, English.”

             
“Yes, ma'am,” he smiled and closed his eyes.

Chapter Thirty-One

Lucy was the first out of bed after a six-hour nap. Her husband still slept and she smiled how he even frowned in his sleep. She kissed his brow softly and drew an afghan over him. She went into the bathroom to wash her face and comb her hair. Then she padded into the kitchen in socks and found Pat buried in the refrigerator, trying to find something to eat.

             
“Bloody hell!' he muttered to himself. “Don't they have Wensleydale?”

             
“I need to go to the store for that,” she said dryly and giggled when he bumped his head on the freezer door. “Or we could just order pizza.”

             
Pat flushed with embarrassment. “How's my stepson?”

             
“He's still asleep, poor baby. It was a long flight. We had to ride in coach.”

             
“Ouch!” Pat found a can of iced tea and shut the door. “I suppose that's my fault. He told me not to go over there, but I did anyway.”

             
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I had a run-in with the tree as well.”

             
“Oh?”

             
“I'm
glad
you broke his arm!”

             
“Lassie!” Pat gasped in shock and then peered at her closely. “What'd he do?”

             
Lucy flushed and inspected the contents of the pantry, making a mental grocery list. She took some glasses from the cupboard and filled them with ice. As Pat poured the ice tea, she told him: “He wanted me to dress up in a leather thong and be his love slave!”

             
“He didn't!”

             
“Don't tell Alec, he might go to the hospital and smother him with a pillow.”

             
Pat took a sip of the iced tea. “Serve the nancy right saying that to a nice lass like yerself.”