Lucky Charm

CHAPTER TWELVE

GABRIELLE PROMISED SHARON she’d drive her back to Stewart right after Gabrielle stopped at her apartment in Boston to pick up some notes regarding her upcoming interview with Mary Perkins. Since Sharon was preoccupied, Gabrielle didn’t mention that her room at the Rhodes Inn had been ransacked and she’d been forced to return home for good. She didn’t want to add to Sharon’s already high stress level.

And since Sharon was upset enough, Gabrielle didn’t even chastise her for stalking her ex. There would be time for that during the ride back to Stewart.

“What’s wrong?” she asked her friend, instead.

Sharon sighed. “I’m just wondering how much it’s going to cost me to get the car fixed, how I’m going to afford it on top of the blackmail.” She glanced out the window, pressing her forehead against the heavy glass.

Gabrielle’s heart went out to her friend. “It goes without saying…”

Sharon cut her off with a sharp wave of her hand. “I appreciate it, but unless I’ve exhausted all my options, I’ll make it work. I just need to vent and think things through,” Sharon said, her tone soft and full of appreciation.

Gabrielle nodded. She respected her friend’s independent streak.

Both women knew Gabrielle’s writing provided her with a surplus of income and she could more than afford to help Sharon with both the blackmail money and the repairs. But Sharon had a little too much pride. Her refusal to tell Richard about the blackmail was an example. If she needed help, financial or otherwise, Sharon understood Gabrielle would be there.

“We’re here.” Gabrielle pulled up to the curb by her brownstone. “Wait here. I’ll run in and get what I need.”

Sharon shook her head. “I’ll come in with you. I need to use your bathroom before we start the car ride home.”

Gabrielle left the car in the illegal No Standing zone and the women ran up the flights of stairs to Gabrielle’s unit, a two-bedroom apartment she’d leased upon her return from Florida.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Gabrielle noticed her door was open and an uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu assaulted her.

“Did you leave this door-”

“No. Definitely not.” She cut Sharon off and halted in her tracks, not wanting to go any closer.

“You’re sure? Because sometimes I forget to lock my parents’ house, you know?”

“I’m positive. I locked it.” After her last night in Stewart, Gabrielle had diligently locked her door whenever she left.

She met Sharon’s worried gaze. “I guess now’s the time to tell you my room at Mrs. Rhodes’s was broken into and ransacked. The person left a calling card in red lipstick.” Gabrielle tried to swallow but her mouth had grown dry.

Sharon raised her eyebrows. “Well? What did it say?”

“You were warned!”

“Jeez, Gabrielle, you should have told me,” Sharon chided, her voice rising.

“Shh!” Gabrielle placed a finger to her lips. “We don’t know if anyone is still in there.”

Eyes wide, Sharon nodded.

“Follow me.”

Slowly and quietly they made their way back down the stairs. From the safety of her car, Gabrielle once again called 9-1-1.

DEREK WAS GETTING TOO OLD for these kinds of scares. Gabrielle had just called and informed him about the break-in at her Boston apartment. This time her computer had been stolen, as well as notes and papers on all her books.

She’d called 9-1-1, for which he was grateful, but she’d avoided calling his cousin. Derek had a hunch she didn’t want to involve his family and he let it go. As long as she’d brought the police in, he was satisfied.

It was obvious to Derek that someone wanted to send her a message-and they weren’t going to let a little thing like distance stop them.

Clearly, she wasn’t safe alone.

She hadn’t asked Derek for anything, but he knew she had nowhere to stay where she felt safe. She wouldn’t put her parents in danger any more than she would put Sharon and her parents, or Derek and Holly in harm’s way.

He’d had one helluva time convincing her to move in with him until the person harassing her was found. But eventually she’d gratefully relented.

He gathered his family together. Uncle Thomas, Hank and Holly sat in his large living room and listened as he explained what had happened to Gabrielle over the past few days.

“So I’m wondering how you’d feel about bunking with Grandpa and Uncle Thomas for a little while?” Derek leaned down on one knee as he asked his daughter’s opinion.

Since Holly had just recently come to stay with him and they were just starting to build a relationship, he didn’t intend for her to feel displaced or unwanted.

“Par-ty!” Holly said, obviously not upset by the request.

Derek rose to his feet, ignoring the stiffness that reminded him he had stopped going to the gym since his move back home.

“Are you sure?”

Holly swung her head around to look at her grandfather. “Can I stay up late? Eat cookies in bed? Watch whatever movies I want?”

Hank winked at her.

Derek shook his head, amazed at her sunny outlook. Bless her, she wasn’t hard to get along with, Derek thought.

“That was easy.”

Hank shook his head. “Not so fast. I’m not sleeping in the same room with her. She snores.”

Holly giggled.

Once again Derek was reminded of what a good man his father was when it came to his granddaughter. He always knew how to make her laugh.

“So nobody minds?”

“Of course not. You know we can take care of Holly without a problem. It’s Gabrielle’s safety that’s important,” Uncle Thomas said.

“Thank you,” Derek said.

Hank muttered something under his breath.

“Dad?”

Hank raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“That’s what I want to know. What’s bugging you?”

His father leaned his elbow against the arm of the sofa. “Nothing.”

“Then what were you mumbling about?”

Hank frowned. “You aren’t going to like it.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “Tell me, anyway.” He’d rather have things out in the open.

“I’m just thinking that Gabrielle wouldn’t be in danger if she minded her own business. Digging into other people’s lives isn’t a very nice way to earn a living.”

“Holly, let’s go take Fred for a walk,” Uncle Thomas said. Rising from his seat, he gestured for her to follow him.

“But…” Holly remained sitting until her uncle forcibly pulled her up. “Fine,” she said, grumbling, clearly not happy about being left out of the conversation. “You know Grandpa’s just going to tell me later,” she said, shuffling her feet as she made her way out the door.

Derek would have laughed if he wasn’t so intent on dealing with his father. He strode over to Hank, who had risen to his feet.

“I think it’s time we have this out once and for all,” Derek said. “What do you have against Gabrielle? Please don’t tell me it has to do with her career choice or the subject matter of her newest book.”

“Fine.” He exhaled a harsh breath. “It’s not about the book. It’s about her. And you.”

Derek narrowed his gaze. “You always liked Gabrielle. So what gives now? Especially since you haven’t seen her in over ten years?”

Hank stomped over to the window and glanced out at the yard between their two houses. “When she first came back, it was about the curse. I didn’t want her dragging up old issues that should remain dead and buried.”

“Not possible, but go on.”

“When I saw how many people showed up for her talk, I realized you were right about that. People are fascinated by our love lives, or lack of them.” Hank braced his hands on the windowsill. “I resigned myself to her writing the damn book. Because whether she does or not, people around here are still going to gossip about the Corwin men.”

Derek nodded. “Agreed. So…?” He prodded his father, wanting him to get to the point. “What’s your problem with Gabrielle?”

“She’s setting you up for another fall, that’s what.”

Derek had a feeling he knew where his father was going. To a place he’d been avoiding thinking about since his night with Gabrielle.

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with her and now she’ll be living with you. You’ll fall in love with her all over again and it’ll make what you went through with Marlene seem like child’s play in comparison.”

Derek’s head began to pound. “I won’t fall in love with her.” He clenched his hands into tight fists at his sides.

“Good.” Hank turned to face him. “I hope you mean that. You weren’t in love with Holly’s mom, isn’t that right?”

Derek nodded. “She was a good woman, a good friend and a good mother. She deserved better than what I was able to give her because I wasn’t in love with her.”

“And yet?” Hank asked, obviously pushing him to say the words.

“And yet I lost my fortune, my marriage and I nearly lost my daughter,” Derek muttered, hating like hell having to discuss the curse out loud.

Hank wrapped a fatherly arm around his shoulder. “I know it hurts, but ignoring the truth will end up hurting even more.”

Derek breathed in deep. “I won’t fall in love with Gabrielle,” he said to his father, wondering how he’d keep his promise when he feared he’d already broken it.

SHARON PACED THE SMALL bedroom of the house she and Richard had bought together. After Gabrielle had dropped her off, she’d called her fiancé and asked him to meet her after work. They needed to talk.

She’d decided to level with him about what was going on. She only hoped he could handle it.

Expecting him around five-thirty, which was when he usually left work at his law firm, Sharon was surprised to hear his key in the lock late that afternoon.

She met him at the front door.

He stepped inside, and though she started forward to embrace him, he walked past her and placed his briefcase down on the floor.

Uh-oh.

She swallowed hard. “You’re home early.”

He inclined his head. “You said you needed me.”

Yet he remained at a distance, emotionally and physically. And she hadn’t even confided in him yet.

“So how was your conference?” he asked.

She rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms, but the chill remained. “There wasn’t one.”

He turned toward her, his handsome face more a mask of disappointment than confusion. She shivered even more.

“Would you care to explain?” he asked.

“Come. Sit down.” She led the way into the small study they would one day share. They planned on building bookshelves to line the walls, her own little library, his desk and home office.

He sat on the couch while she chose a chair across from him. Elbows resting on his knees, he stared at her, his gaze intense. He didn’t say a word.

She studied him, too. His dark hair, neatly combed, gave him that air of propriety she both loved and feared would be the end of them.

She drew a deep, fortifying breath. “A few days ago, I received an anonymous letter in the mail.” She glanced down at her hands, not surprised to see they were shaking. “And though I’m not sure who sent it, it was clear what was in it.”

He met her gaze. “What was it?” he asked, his voice steady.

He was everything she loved and wanted in her life. But there was obviously more separating them than the story she had to tell. Not knowing what it was scared her beyond belief.

“A picture,” she whispered. “An old photograph. One of those old photographs, if you get my drift.”

“Oh, I get it, all right,” he said, clenching his jaw.

“There was also a note demanding five thousand dollars.”

“That bastard.” He rose from his seat in a burst of sudden, angry energy. “I’m going to kill him.”

She came up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder. “No, you’re not. Because then I’d lose you to prison instead of just…losing you.” She stepped back, easing away from him.

This time he came up behind her and she felt his body heat close. Reassuring.

“Why would you say that?” he asked.

She faced him again. “Because I didn’t get the letter today. I got it a few days ago.”

“And you didn’t tell me.” His disappointment spoke louder than his words.

Nausea rolled through her and she wished she’d listened to Gabrielle’s advice about telling Richard sooner.

She shook her head. “You had so much on your plate between work and the campaign. I thought, I hoped, I could make it go away.”

“How?”

“The note had instructions. A drop point for the money. So I withdrew the cash from the bank and Gabrielle and I went to the Wave.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “You two went to meet with your blackmailing ex-con boyfriend alone?”

She winced at the fury in his voice. “Not exactly.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Then what, exactly, Sharon? Spell it out and be clear.”

She knew what she’d say next would only make her keeping him in the dark even worse, but she had no choice. “Gabrielle was thinking more clearly. She knew better than to go there alone, so she told Derek. He showed up before the set meeting time.”

He stared at her in silence. She could almost hear his thoughts. Gabrielle trusted Derek but you couldn’t trust me?

“I trust you,” she assured him. “I just didn’t want to burden you with my problems when you have so many of your own.” God, her words sounded lame.

Why hadn’t she shared this with him earlier? She knew why. She hadn’t wanted to see the disgust in his eyes. Every time she thought about those photographs, about that time, she felt it. She was sure he did, too.

“Burden. Right.” He muttered something else under his breath. “Go on. What else don’t I know?”

“At some point during the night, someone slipped a note in my bag telling me where to leave the money, but I didn’t find it until the next morning. I panicked. I thought for sure they would expose the photo and it would kill your campaign. Gabrielle said Derek called his cousin, who is a police detective in Boston. He told Derek where Tony was living since his release and they spoke to him. He claimed to know nothing about the sudden resurrection of the pictures, but they weren’t sure if they should believe him. I needed to know.”

“What. Did. You. Do?” he asked.

She ran her hands over her eyes, trying to hold it together and not cry. “I stalked him. Sort of. I mean, I stood behind trees and buildings and I watched. He has a wife now. Can a man who has a wife and a child be a blackmailer? I was going to confront him in front of his family, but my car died. I had to call Gabrielle to come get me. We stopped by her place and someone had broken in there, too-” Sharon knew she was rambling, but the stony look on Richard’s face had her in a panic.

She didn’t know what else to do except to keep talking. If she explained, maybe he wouldn’t be angry. Maybe he’d understand and forgive.

She forced herself to look into his eyes and that’s when she realized. “You already know something. That’s why you’ve been acting so strange. What is it you know?”

He gestured to his briefcase in the hall. “I also received a photo and a note.”

The blood in her veins ran cold. Her legs grew weak and she stepped back to the nearest chair, collapsing into it. “Go on.”

“The note said you didn’t pay up the first time so now the burden was on me. But the blackmailer didn’t want money. No, the terms were that I had to drop out of the race or the photo would be made public. Guess what my first reaction was?”

“What?” she whispered.

“To find you. To confide in you. To see if you were okay and to fix this together. That’s when I realized. If you didn’t pay the money the first time, you already knew about the photo. You were being blackmailed. But you hadn’t confided in me.” He turned away from her. “How in the hell do you think that made me feel?”

Sharon pushed herself to her feet. “Don’t you think if I thought I could confide in you, I would have?”

He stared at her in disbelief. “What is that supposed to mean?”

She straightened her shoulders and forced herself to face him head-on. “Just that every time I brought up my past with Tony, you brushed it aside. You said you didn’t want to hear about it.”

“I didn’t want to put you through reliving it,” he said, correcting her. His eyes flashed angry sparks.

She blinked away tears. “That isn’t what you said. You said you didn’t need to hear it. As if it disgusted you. As if I disgusted you.” Her voice broke on the last word.

“Disgusted me?” Suddenly he was in front of her. He tipped her chin up, making her meet his gaze. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

“You did! Every time you kissed me softly and started to get excited, every time I thought you’d become more aggressive, treat me like you wanted me, you’d back off. Get gentle. And it didn’t feel like you wanted me anymore. Not as much as you should,” she said, her voice rising.

She didn’t recognize the words coming out of her mouth. She didn’t believe she was saying them, yet she was. She was talking from the depths of her soul, admitting things to him she’d never even admitted to herself. Because she was afraid.

Afraid if she said them aloud, she’d lose him.

But, she realized now, she just might have lost him, anyway. So really, maybe she had nothing left to lose.

Nothing and everything, Sharon thought.

DEREK HAD LIVED ALONE for the past couple of years so he wasn’t used to worrying about others. He’d always known Marlene was taking good care of Holly and heaven knows his father took care of himself. But now that he had two women in his life, he thought about them constantly. At least Holly was safe with his father and uncle.

Where the hell was Gabrielle?

He glanced at his wristwatch. “Almost dinnertime,” he muttered. He tried her cell phone, but it went straight to voice mail and he left a message.

She said she would drop Sharon off at home and come right over. Thirty minutes from Boston with no traffic, an hour with traffic max. Half an hour tops to drop Sharon off, to walk her inside and chat with her parents. Five minutes to get here.

All told, an hour and forty-five minutes, two hours at the most. Instead three hours had passed since he’d gotten her call and rearranged his and his daughter’s lives in order to keep Gabrielle safe.

So he asked himself again. Where the hell could she be?

IT HAD BEEN OVER AN HOUR since Gabrielle had pulled up to Mary Perkins’s mayoral office, located in an old Victorian mansion on the border of the two neighboring towns. The house was painted a grayish blue with white trim, common in the New England landscape.

Grabbing both her handbag and her laptop for safekeeping, she walked to the front porch. The screen was closed, the main door open.

Taped to the screen was a typed note, not sleek perfect computer ink but old-fashioned typesetting, complete with dropped letters: Back soon. Let yourself inside. M.

Although Mary wasn’t expecting her, Gabrielle did as the note suggested and stepped into the front hall. There was no receptionist waiting behind the messy, paper-strewn desk.

“Hello?” Gabrielle called out in case someone was inside.

Nobody replied.

She walked around, peeking into various meeting rooms, only to find those empty, as well.

At the far end of the only long hall, a set of heavy-looking double doors were shut tight. She didn’t have to read the sign to know what it said-Mayor’s Office.

She bit the inside of her cheek and knocked.

Silence.

She jiggled the handle.

Locked.

Mary Perkins didn’t have a problem leaving the outer office open, but the doors to the inner sanctum were practically vaulted shut. She wouldn’t be surprised if the room was soundproof, she thought wryly.

She couldn’t decide what to do. She could leave and head to Derek’s, but based on the note on the door, someone was due to arrive soon.

Gabrielle exhaled hard and eased herself into a chair in the sitting area in the front of the house. She crossed her legs, leaned back against the old velour couch and picked up a fan, which had been left on a table. She shut her eyes and fanned herself, hoping to ease the heat and humidity that seeped into the old house and into Gabrielle’s pores. Logically she knew waving hot air into her face wasn’t going to help, but it couldn’t possibly hurt.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when she finally heard the creaking of the hinges on the screen door. She rose from her seat without letting go of the fan. At some point she’d become convinced the hot air was somehow cooling her off.

“Grandma?” A female voice called.

“Nobody’s here but me,” Gabrielle said, feeling like an intruder.

“Who’s me?” A pretty brunette stepped into the main area where Gabrielle stood.

Gabrielle lifted her free hand in a half wave. “My name is Gabrielle Donovan. I came by to see Mayor Perkins. Nobody is here, but the door was open and the sign said someone would be back soon so I thought I’d wait.”

“I’m Lauren Perkins,” the woman said, extending her hand.

Gabrielle shook it. “Mayor Perkins is your grandmother?”

She nodded.

“Doesn’t she have another granddaughter? Her assistant?” Gabrielle asked, thinking of the Mary Perkins clone.

Lauren smiled. “That’s my sister.”

Gabrielle narrowed her gaze. She just didn’t see the resemblance between the two women.

“Don’t tell me. We look nothing alike,” Lauren said, laughing. “I hear it all the time.”

Gabrielle grinned. “You read my mind.”

“Yes, well, my grandmother is expecting me as you can tell by the note on the door. I’d recognize Grandma’s old Smith Corona type anywhere.”

“A typewriter?” Gabrielle asked. “Wow.”

Lauren laughed. “Not many people know what those are anymore.”

“I’m a writer. I’m into research and old things.”

Lauren wrinkled her nose in thought, then snapped her fingers. “Gabrielle Donovan! The author. You’re that Gabrielle Donovan! I’m a huge fan of your work,” she said.

“Well, thank you.” She thought about the notion of someone still using an old typewriter today. “I take it your grandmother isn’t into the computer age?”

Lauren shook her head. “Although it would be easier for her if she was. Arthritis makes it difficult for her to write. I can’t say that typing is much easier, but she says at least it’s more legible. I hope my sister is planning to bring her into the technological age soon. But Gran is very set in her ways, I guess you’d say. It makes her hard to please sometimes,” Lauren confided.

“Who says I’m hard to please? Shame on you for talking about your grandmother that way!”

Both Gabrielle and Lauren turned at the sound of Mary Perkins’s voice.

“Grandma!” Lauren exclaimed, obviously happy to see the older woman and not at all concerned at being caught talking behind her back.

And Mary had obviously not been upset with her, since contrary to her normally restrained demeanor, she held out her arms and pulled her granddaughter into a warm hug.

“How’s your arthritis?” Lauren asked.

“Nothing can keep your grandmother down, you know that,” Mary said.

“Where’s my sister?”

“Running errands for me in town. She left the note for you, but she said to tell you she’ll be back soon.” Mary stepped back from her granddaughter and turned to Gabrielle. “Ms. Donovan, how nice to see you. What brings you by?”

“I’ve been wanting to make an appointment, but Elizabeth said she didn’t know your schedule, so I thought I’d take a chance and stop by.” Gabrielle decided not to mention her upcoming book unless asked. She didn’t want to discourage the other woman from setting up a time to talk. Obviously, since her granddaughter was here to see her, she was too busy now.

“Well, Elizabeth can be overprotective of my time.” She smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “What did you want to discuss?” Mary asked.

Gabrielle drew herself up straighter. “Actually, I’d like to talk to you about the curse, how it’s affected your family from the original generation on. Whatever you can tell me, I’d love to hear it.”

“For your book?” the mayor asked.

“You’re writing a new book? About what?” Lauren asked.

Gabrielle glanced at the mayor.

“The Corwin Curse,” Mary said.

Lauren shook her head, a skeptical look crossed her face. “Have fun,” she said lightly.

“I take it you don’t believe in it?” Gabrielle asked.

“Oh, no.” Lauren waved away the notion.

Mary frowned.

“Yet Elizabeth does?”

Lauren inclined her head. “My sister and grandmother are cut from the same cloth.”

Mary turned back to Gabrielle. “I’d be happy to discuss my family with you,” she said, surprising Gabrielle. “Let me make the appointment myself.”

She pulled a set of keys from her purse and walked over to the double doors, letting herself into her office. Since she didn’t invite them in, Gabrielle waited where she was, despite her curiosity.

Mary returned with a leather-bound appointment book in her hand. They agreed on a morning appointment during the week and both wrote it down.

Gabrielle glanced at her watch and realized, with a start, how late it had gotten. Derek was expecting her. “I really should be going,” Gabrielle said. “Nice to meet you, Lauren.”

“Same here.” The other woman nodded. “I’m only here for a short time, but hopefully I’ll see you again soon.”

Considering this woman was related to Mary Perkins and could offer insight into her psyche, Gabrielle nodded. “Count on it,” she said, before heading out the door.