Sparring Partners (30 page)

"Come here." Reed said, patting the bed next
to her, where he sat earlier.

Jordon pushed away from the door and moved
slowly toward the bed. He seemed hesitant to approach too
quickly.

"I'm not going to scream again. I
promise."

"I'm a cautious man."

She tilted her head to the side admiring the
smooth grace of every shift of his hips as he came toward her. She
wished he was naked. They hadn't made love in her bed in too long.
Outside was nice, but she was sick of grass stains on her
bottom.

"Don't look at me like that. Not if you were
serious about getting Freya to the vet before we go to the
cottage."

Jordon hesitated by the side of the bed,
holding out his offering, but not sitting. Reed reached up and
pulled the gold from his fingers. She stared at the pendant and its
perfectly set rainbow of stones forming a peace sign. In the
middle, where the lines connected, sat a beautifully carved tiny
green frog with an even tinier red-gold butterfly on his nose. The
stones were surrounded by channels of rich yellow gold that looked
much deeper and more pure than the few pieces of eighteen carat
gold she had in her small jewelry box.

"Say something, Elf. You're killing me
here."

Reed looked up at him and he wiped tears she
hadn't known she'd shed from her cheeks.

"Do you like it? I had it made for you after
the first time I saw you wear that ridiculous shirt." He said,
nodding at the shirt she'd worn to bed that still smelled of him,
with its giant rainbow striped frog, now faded with age and years
of washing, flashing the peace sign.

Jordon took it from her and bent to clasp it
around her neck. "Tell me you like it."

"It's perfect. Just like you."

"I'll have Jesse take Freya to the vet." He
said, climbing into bed with her.

...

After making love twice, once in a hurry and
once more slowly in the shower, Jordon presented Reed with matching
rainbow sapphire earrings and bracelet, and insisted she wear the
whole ensemble and nothing else for him. She offered to put on her
hiking boots, but he didn't want to risk that display putting him
over the top, and making all of them more than a little late for
family dinner.

All in all, it was a very pleasant way to
spend a summer afternoon.

As it turned out, it was merely the calm
before storm Bennett.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

How is it with this love,

I see your world and not you?

Rumi ~ 11th Century

She'd taken the road to Lake Geneva many
times. It was old and familiar in a way that brought comfort from
things known and non-threatening. That lasted until Henry turned
onto Lake Drive.

In many respects, Lake Geneva is like any
other resort town, more for locals and weekend transplants than
true tourists. The same people populated the same space routinely,
and old money and family name pulled more weight than it
should.

Not that Reed knew anything about old money
or influence. She frequented the shop with iron flying pigs and
handmade fair-trade jewelry. Occasionally, she hit the wine shop or
the Starbucks, depending on her mood. When she came with Jesse they
ate at Popeye's and shopped at the store on main street featuring
Life is Good
apparel and Birkenstock shoes.

They never mixed with the maritime
crowd.

A sense of foreboding rushed Reed's system
like a flash flood, overpowering the peacefulness of earlier in the
afternoon, flushing it away, replacing it with a murkiness she
couldn't see through instead of the post-coital clarity and sense
of rightness she'd been floating in.

All that, and they hadn't made it past the
Wrigley mansion yet. Good gum. Two centuries of more money than a
circus troupe of spendthrifts could dent.

And so it went, second after second, mansion
after mansion, Reed's anxiety grew. She felt it growing in the van
the second they came up the hill into town. Silence and heaviness
cracked the air with invisible lines of dry energy transmitting
power.

Henry slowed. Since he'd only been going
about twenty miles per hour, the difference was painful. Reed
wanted Scottie to beam them up already and cut through the
proverbial crap of getting there.

Scottie wasn't around.

Henry lowered the driver's window and spoke
into a black box. "Jordon Bennett" was all he said, and he hadn't
even gotten to the last name before the ornately detailed black
gates swung open. Reed didn't see surveillance cameras, but she
knew they had to be there. Jordon had them installed around the
perimeter of Potters Woods for her safety. Potters Woods didn't
have any iron gates to keep people out. Is that truly what these
were for, or were they there to keep people in?

Reed's mouth dried at the thought. The sound
of the gates locking behind the van as they inched slowly forward
and down didn't help her swallow the dust in her throat. It
reminded her of the first time she'd visited the Radkin
Correctional Institution and had the prison's gates locked behind
her.

Reed looked through the back window. The
road she traveled, albeit only a handful of times, Lake Drive, was
high above them, rimming this borough of estates larger than many
of the county's public schools and farther away than Reed could
easily get to. She felt like she was falling and the only thing
left to break her fall was the cold depths of the lake beyond.

Jordon must have sensed her sudden panic
because he reached back and wrapped his hand in hers. Leaning
toward her he whispered, "Don't worry. You're not descending into
hell. It just feels that way. I'll be right beside you."

Only he wasn't beside her. He was in front.
Unfortunately for them both, that wasn't about to change anytime
soon.

...

The feeling of descent into the first ring
of hell washed away with the sheer opulence of the Bennett
'cottage'. She'd been too angry her first visit to absorb its
magnificence..Reed's first thought upon viewing the two story
stained glass entry, that an eighteen wheeler could easily drive
through, was,
wow
.

Her second thought was,
holy shit what am
I doing here
?

Her third thought as the doors swung open,
seemingly of their own accord, she recognized from her few forays
into the elite and viciously polite fund-raising world.
Keep
your eyes open, watch your back, don't have more than one glass of
wine, polish your armor and watch out for stilettos in the
back.

Then she saw Lily's smiling face and some of
her anxiety melted away. The armor, well that stayed in place. Reed
was too old and too intuitive to jump too far too fast. She'd also
been hurt before. The last time she was invited to house half this
grand, she was sixteen and pregnant. She'd grown some balls, and
learned to wield her own stiletto, since then. Fear, and the pain
of betrayal, had of way of doing that to a girl.

Lily's heart-melting smile was for her son,
slow, sweet, and full, transforming her from a beautiful woman into
an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Ageless and elegant, like
Jacquelyn Smith, only with teeth showing and darker, richer
hair.

Her smile may have been for Jordon, but it
was Reed she enveloped, in a wildflower-laced-with-musk-and-vanilla
hug, so genuine feeling that Reed almost believed she could belong
here as much as she belonged in Potters Woods. Almost. For a
second, it was possible to envision herself as a true Bennett. Reed
caught sight of William Bennett standing on the top step just
outside the doorway and the vision eroded like it never
existed.

"I'm so happy to have you and the rest of
Jordon's new family here, Reed. Thank you so much for accepting our
invitation."

Reed wondered briefly if 'our' referred to
Lily and William, or if, like the queen, Lily was using the royal
'we' to mean
her
invitation. Not that it mattered. Reed
already understood that what Lily wanted, Lily ultimately got,
whether it was by smile, threat or tranq gun.

"Did I have a choice?"

Lily pulled back, but held firm to Reed's
shoulders, a twinkle in her eyes and a mischievous smile lighting
her face. "No, darling. You didn't. I want to keep you in my family
too badly."

Reed wanted to ask what she meant by that,
but with grace and efficiency Lily pulled her into another quick
hug, kissed her cheek, and was on her way to embrace her son before
Reed got one word out. Her mother-in-law was tricky, slippery too.
And if Reed's instincts were correct, she missed her son and meant
every word about accepting Reed as one of her own, if only to have
him close.

A woman could do worse. Glancing over at
Jesse, keeping his distance, busying himself by pulling out luggage
from the back of the van, Reed wondered if she'd be as welcoming
with her own daughter-in-law if the circumstances were reversed.
Probably not. Reed moved Lily up a couple of notches on her
imaginary respect meter.

William Bennett? No, he was an unknown. Reed
didn't know how to take him or what to expect from him this
weekend. He was one of those rare people she couldn't read no
matter how hard she searched for clues. When Reed was practicing
law, and she caught one of them on a jury, she always struck them
first, you just never knew what they were going to do.

Reed made eye contact with William as he
approached. Jesse must have sensed her unease, or maybe he felt it
too, because he came and stood at her side, dropping both suitcases
he carried. He didn't say anything, he just stood close beside her
as he always did when he sensed trouble. William made Reed
uncomfortable in a way she couldn't define. Maybe it was the way he
seemed to know everything about her and she knew very little about
him. Jordon diverted the conversation every time William's name was
mentioned. That in and of itself wasn't a good sign, as far as Reed
was concerned.

William stopped a good foot away from Reed
and held out his hand. Not quite the hug Lily gave, but his
expression was welcoming enough, albeit a bit bland. Reed shook his
hand firmly, making his lips slowly curl and his eyes dance in
approval.

"Welcome." One word, but it was enough.

"Thank you."

William turned to Jesse. "Mr. Mohr," he
said, offering his hand to Jesse who took it and nodded with more
confidence than most men twice his age, "nice to see you again,
son."

"Nice to see you, Sir. Thank you for
inviting me."

Reed's chest swelled with pride. Jesse was
growing into a fine man, confident, strong and kind. She wasn't
sure she had much to do with that, but she was grateful he was her
son.

"Call me William."

"William." Jesse said respectfully,
acknowledging the unspoken compliment he'd just been given.

William stood back, bowed slightly and said,
"If you two will excuse me, I have some business to discuss with
Jordon before dinner."

Reed looked over at Jordon who was walking
toward them with his mother on his arm, still smiling, although the
smile was smaller, more private now. She lifted her head from his
shoulder as Jordon visibly stiffened at the sound of William's
words.

What is going on?

"Is that necessary, William?" Lily asked.
"They just got here."

William said nothing, just looked at Jordon,
who extricated himself from his mother as expertly as she got away
from Reed. He kissed his mother's cheek, withdrew his arm, and was
on his way toward William before Lily could protest further.

"I'll have him back for cocktails, Lily. Why
don't you get everyone settled." It was a statement, not a
question. The smile slid slowly from Lily's face as she watched
both men disappear into the cavernous monolith she called 'the
cottage', both men's backs ramrod straight, a good foot of distance
between them.

Jordon didn't look back.

He didn't look at Reed, period.

Here she was left to follow.

Behind.

Lily turned to look at the rest of her
Potters Woods guests, a polite but now sad smile on her lovely
face, standing just a little bit shorter than she had minutes ago.
She swept one hand down then up toward the stairs.

"Shall we go inside."
Said the spider to
the fly.

Reed suddenly felt like the fly surrounded
by very expensive, very sticky, fly paper.

CHAPTER FORTY

"I've invited Mr. Takahara and some other
business associates to dinner." William said, crossing his mahogany
and leather clad study to the globe where he kept his favorite
scotch. William rarely drank. When he drank Macallan whisky, the
subject was serious.

"I thought tonight was supposed to be about
family, not business?" Jordon did his best not to imbue his tone
with anything more than curious neutrality. His heart was in his
throat so he wasn't sure he'd succeeded.

William handed him a perfectly poured dram
of scotch in a leaded crystal tumbler hand cut in Ireland over a
century ago. William liked old things. Tradition and age meant more
to William deep down than the innovations he professed to want for
the betterment of Bennett Holdings. Jordon suddenly felt like the
sage green walls of William's massive study trimmed in deep hunter,
burgundy and gold were closing in on him. He longed for the
openness and freedom of Potters Woods. What the hell was he doing
here?

Getting your life back, idiot. Don't blow
it.

Jordon set the deep amber liquid aside,
untouched, he had a long night ahead of him and he didn't need the
fog of the highlands churning in his gut, he had quite enough acid
there already.