Lucky Charm

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE DAY OF FILMING arrived. Gabrielle and Derek stopped for breakfast in town. They’d just finished eating and were going to meet her friend Kayla and the camera crew at the Wave, the chosen place to begin “The Day in the Life” segment.

Derek paid at the register while Gabrielle waited.

Her cell phone rang and she picked it up on the first ring. “Hello?”

“Darling, guess where I am.”

“Maman!”

“Of course it’s me. Turn around.”

Gabrielle pivoted toward the window facing the street and saw her mother waving at her from the sidewalk. Gabrielle flipped her phone closed at the same time she ran outside.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, surprised to see her mother in town.

“Is that any way to greet me?” Her mother cupped Gabrielle’s face in her hands and leaned in to kiss first one cheek, then the next before pulling her into a warm hug.

It didn’t matter if Gabrielle saw her mother a week ago or a few hours, her mother always greeted her the same exuberant way.

“Your friend Kayla called to tell me about your television segment and she asked if she could interview me and your papa. He has summer classes, but I was free, so voilà! Here I am.”

Derek walked out of the restaurant and joined them on the street. “Hello, ladies.”

Gabrielle smiled. “Derek, do you remember my mother, Juliette Donovan?”

“Of course I do.” He extended his hand. “May I say you haven’t changed a bit?” He kissed the back of her hand in the French manner.

Gabrielle bit the inside of her cheek and wondered where he’d come up with that bit of chivalry and whether it was enough to soften her mother’s feelings about-”

“Derek Corwin, the man who broke my daughter’s heart,” Juliette said bluntly.

“Maman!” Gabrielle said, appalled that her mother would go directly for the jugular.

Derek smiled grimly. “That’s okay. I understand how your mother feels. I’d feel the same way about any man who Holly got involved with…” As he spoke, his eyes darkened and his expression closed.

As if he’d just gotten a new, enlightening perspective on his relationship with Gabrielle.

Merde.

“I think we have to be at the Wave,” Gabrielle said, pulling on Derek’s arm. “Kayla, the interviewer, called my mother and asked her to participate in the segment,” she explained quickly, hoping to split the two people she loved apart before her mother gave Derek more motivation to pull away from her.

Since Holly’s departure, Derek hadn’t been the same. Although he’d apologized, Gabrielle sensed he was holding himself back from her, and she didn’t think it was only because she’d jeopardized his custody. In her heart, Gabrielle believed that with his renewed fear of losing Holly, came the reminder of the curse and all the loss he and his family had suffered. He wasn’t about to let himself love-and lose-Gabrielle, too. He didn’t have to spell out his feelings for her to understand them. They were too deeply ingrained for her not to comprehend.

“We’ll leave in a moment,” her mother said. “Derek, I’m so glad you can be honest with me and with yourself. It’s the mark of an honorable man. So can you assure me you won’t hurt my daughter again?”

Gabrielle shook her head, her heart pounding hard in her chest as Derek faced Juliette.

“I can assure you Gabrielle is well aware of my feelings and the situation we’re in,” he said, his explanation vague to her mother.

But crystal clear to Gabrielle.

THE GOOD PEOPLE OF STEWART and Perkins heard that a film crew was in town and turned out in droves for their chance to be on television, even if it was simply local TV and the only people who might see the segment were other locals. Gabrielle was a celebrity and everyone wanted their fifteen minutes of fame, too.

Even Derek’s father showed up for his opportunity.

“Think we should remind him he was one of the people who wanted me gone?” Gabrielle asked, laughing.

Derek shook his head. “It won’t do any good. My father has a shorter memory than his old dog’s.”

Gabrielle chuckled. “At least Kayla won’t have a difficult time weeding out who she can use in the documentary. I gave her a list of people who knew me, in the past and in the present.”

“So Hank just might be in luck after all.”

Gabrielle was certain Derek was right. His father was a prime candidate to talk about Gabrielle’s past in Stewart and the curse as it pertained to her book. Ironically, she was the one who wasn’t in the mood to discuss the damn curse. Her mother, in asking Derek to promise he wouldn’t hurt Gabrielle again, had brought up Gabrielle’s greatest fear. And Derek’s answer-or rather his nonanswer-said it all.

As soon as Gabrielle was safe from Mary Perkins, Derek planned to walk away.

Again.

Unless she could convince him that by eliminating Mary Perkins as a threat, the curse, or rather the perception of the curse, would disappear with her.

One way or another, Gabrielle would know whether she was successful soon enough.

“Okay, folks, here’s the story.” Kayla’s voice interrupted Gabrielle’s thoughts.

For the past half hour, Kayla had walked around the Wave, surveying the bar and the people. She was all business, and she struck a commanding presence just as she intended. With her straightened strawberry-blond hair and white pantsuit, she stood out in the crowd.

When she barked orders, people listened. Most of the crowd stood in silence, waiting for her to continue. “As far as the camera crew is concerned, we’re concentrating on scenery for today. I want you to shoot footage of local hangouts, this place included. While you’re at it, get Gabrielle interacting with the locals. Tomorrow when we’re all fresh, we’ll move onto specific interviews. I want to work on the local flavor first.”

Billy, her head cameraman, nodded and began directing his crew.

Kayla was a pro at handling people. Gabrielle wasn’t bad herself, but she’d always admired her friend’s ability to deal with a situation by reading the people involved. Watching her work was a treat.

“Gabrielle, you go about your day, business as usual. Juliette, we won’t get to you today, but we can shoot you first thing tomorrow if that works. Otherwise you name the time and I’ll work around you. I’m sorry I made you come out here for no reason today. I never know what I’m going to want to do first until I get the lay of the land.”

Gabrielle’s mother, who’d taken a seat at the bar and was chatting with George, didn’t seem to mind that she’d driven out here for nothing. A people person, Juliette was enjoying herself immensely.

“How the hell are you going to go about your business with camera crews everywhere?” Derek asked.

Gabrielle shrugged. “Good question. I guess I’ll just do the best I can. I’ve seen Kayla work miracles with harder subjects than me. I’ll just try to ignore them.” She pulled out her laptop and was about to flip it open when she caught sight of the woman she’d come to think of as public enemy number one. “Look. Mary Perkins just walked in,” Gabrielle whispered to Derek.

He stiffened. Gabrielle knew he was still unhappy with the idea of antagonizing Mary Perkins, tempting Fate and the damn curse, but they had no choice.

“I have to admit that was faster than I thought it would be,” Gabrielle said. “I figured she’d lay low and see what the TV people intended before showing up.”

As they watched, the mayor, dressed immaculately in a summer linen suit with a flower pinned to her lapel, headed directly for Kayla, the head interviewer and lead on this project.

“Are you sure Kayla can handle her?” Derek asked.

“Yes. She’s been well versed on all the issues. Kayla might have come here to do a story on a local author, but she also knows the reason I asked. I’ve informed Kayla about our suspicions regarding the mayor, and told her to expect Mary to want to get herself featured prominently in the story. Since the subject is ‘A Day in the Life of an Author,’ Mary is going to have to be creative. I assume that she’ll want to give her opinion on my latest book and offer herself up as the resident expert on the curse-which is my current work in progress,” Gabrielle whispered, explaining to Derek what she’d told Kayla when pitching the project.

“So at a minimum, Kayla is getting herself a local-interest piece on a bestselling author. At best, she’s going to get a scoop on abuse of power at a local level?” Derek asked.

“Yep. Complete with bribery, blackmail, sabotage and much, much more. Everything hinges on how far Mary Perkins can be pushed. The plan is to keep her out of the spotlight and ignore her so-called power and authority.”

As they spoke, Gabrielle and Derek kept an eye on Mary Perkins. As if scripted, the mayor had already approached Kayla and introduced herself. As planned, Kayla shook her hand and excused herself, walking away from the mayor.

Kayla headed straight to Gabrielle’s table, where she paused, leaned over as if she had something important to discuss, and winked at Gabrielle before zeroing in on someone else.

The mayor tried once more to talk to Kayla, but found herself brushed aside for Gabrielle’s mother. Kayla continued to make notes and book interview times-with everyone but the town’s long-standing mayor.

Derek placed his hand on the back of Gabrielle’s chair protectively. “She doesn’t look happy,” he said, sneaking a glance at Mary Perkins, who’d turned her attention to the sole cameraman at the Wave.

As per instructions, he was to keep the long-distance camera angle on Gabrielle at work, not on the mayor or anyone else.

“It’s going to get worse,” Gabrielle said. “There’s one more part of this plan.” What she found fascinating was that Mary Perkins was so predictable that they were able to play this out exactly as they’d hoped.

Gabrielle picked up her phone and dialed. “Richard?” she whispered to her best friend’s fiancé. “It’s time,” Gabrielle said softly, and flipped her phone shut.

A few minutes later, the telephone behind the bar rang. George answered, then called out to the crowd. “Ms. Lawson?” the bartender called out to Kayla.

She turned. “Yes?”

“Phone call for you.”

Kayla shook her head. “Take a message, please?”

George spoke to the person on the other end of the phone, then called out, “It’s Mr. Richard Stern. He says he’s a personal friend of Gabrielle’s and he’d be happy to add his insights to your project. His fiancée, Sharon Merchant, is Gabrielle’s best friend. Isn’t that right, Gabrielle?” George asked her.

“It is. Sharon and I went to high school together, so you’ll want to interview them,” Gabrielle said to Kayla. “Besides, Richard is running for mayor. People will be interested in hearing from him, too.”

Beside her, Derek groaned. “Boy, when you plan, you plan big.”

Gabrielle didn’t meet his gaze.

Kayla glanced at her appointment book. “Tell him he can have 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning,” she called to George.

The older man gave her a thumbs-up and relayed the message.

Mary Perkins’s face turned beet red at the conversation shooting around the bar.

“I wasn’t keeping the plan from you.” Gabrielle pretended to work as she spoke to Derek. She lifted her laptop open and hit the power button. “If you’d been around yesterday, I’d have filled you in. And I would have done it last night, but you insisted I try on my newest purchase, and after that, you couldn’t keep your hands off me,” she said, deliberately reminding him of how good things had been between them.

The thought turned her insides soft, and despite the crowd and the intense scene playing around them, desire thrummed low in her belly. With Derek behind her, his body heat surrounding her, the yearning only grew.

“I can’t keep my hands off you now,” he said, his voice low in her ear.

Meanwhile, obviously feeling impotent, Mary glared first at Kayla, then unmistakably at the source of all the media attention-Gabrielle-before storming out of the Wave, extremely unhappy at being ignored.

Gabrielle shivered. “I think she left frost in her wake,” she murmured.

Derek’s hand moved from the chair to Gabrielle’s back in a warm, protective gesture. “I’m more worried about what she’s going to do to get even.”

DONALD WATSON, EDITOR-IN-chief of the Journal, the leading newspaper in both Perkins and Stewart, stared at the photograph in front of him in disbelief. Even if he hadn’t been forewarned and asked not to run this picture, there was no way he could print it, anyway. He was in charge of a newspaper, not a porn magazine.

When Richard Stern had approached him off the record and asked to be notified if any photographs of his future wife passed Donald’s desk, he’d agreed. Hell, he’d have endorsed Stern if he wasn’t afraid of Mary Perkins’s wrath.

The favor might be off the record, but Donald was a newspaperman and unable to contain his curiosity. He’d done his research. Donald glanced at the photo and shook his head. Poor woman. To be so violated at such a young age. At least she’d had the guts to send the guy who’d drugged and photographed her to jail.

But, then, who’d sent the photograph in an unmarked envelope to the newspaper? And how had they gotten their hands on police evidence?

Donald had earned the editor-in-chief position the old-fashioned way. He’d started sweeping floors during high school and worked his way up, earning the trust of the editor-in-chief before him. Along the way, he’d built up some good friends in important places. Even small-town papers had to get their scoops.

Another glance at the photograph, and he decided to call his “friend” who worked the evidence room at the police station. “Hey, Rob, I’m calling in that favor.” Two months ago, he’d covered for Rob with his wife, claiming Rob had been at their weekly poker game when, in fact, he’d been with his mistress.

He asked Rob if anything was missing from the Evidence Room and Rob began to stutter before saying no. Since that was his poker tell, Donald knew the man was lying.

“What kind of trouble are you in, buddy?” Rob wasn’t just a cheater, he was a gambler, and he often owed more than he had on hand.

Five minutes later, Donald had his answer. He also had, thanks to Rob, the evidence Richard Stern needed to take down his mayoral opponent.

AFTER JULIETTE’S INTERVIEW, Hank Corwin was granted his turn. Kayla sat across from him at the Wave and waited as they did a sound check on Derek’s father.

Derek couldn’t help but laugh. Hank’s tune about discussing the curse in public had certainly changed. Not his views on the curse, those he expressed in detail, reminding the world-and Derek-how tragedy had befallen every Corwin man who fell in love.

How tragedy always would follow.

Derek couldn’t shake the foreboding that settled over him. Without Holly and her cheerful voice bouncing around him, Derek felt the loss keenly. He could live with the temporary custody arrangement because he could look forward to the next time he could be with his daughter.

But what if there wasn’t a next time?

What if Marlene’s threat became reality?

He shivered and forced his attention back to his father’s interview, trying without success not to internalize the older man’s words.

As he listened to Hank, his gaze was drawn over and over to Gabrielle. His beautiful Gabrielle, perched on a bar stool in her emerald sundress that offset her hair, watching the crew work. He couldn’t let himself think about his feelings or anything else about her, for fear his father’s prophetic words would kick in at any time.

Kayla wrapped up Hank’s interview and Hank headed outside, preening and proud of himself and his time in front of the camera.

“Derek, do you have a minute?”

Derek turned to see Richard Stern. “Hey, Richard.” Derek shook the other man’s hand. “What’s up?”

“I think I have the information we’ve been waiting for,” he said quietly.

“Hello, boys.” Gabrielle joined them. “Why are your two heads together?” she asked, clearly not intending to be left out.

“Richard was just saying he had information for us.”

Richard leaned in closer. “The photograph of Sharon was stolen from the Evidence Room at the police precinct. The guy who works the day shift has skeletons in his closet, which left him vulnerable to blackmail. But he wasn’t stupid. He refused to deal with a middleman. He wanted to know who he was stealing for.”

Derek had no doubt what was coming next. “Mary Perkins?”

Richard nodded.

“Why in the world would she have told him? She could have just used whatever leverage she had against the cop to make him cooperate,” Derek said. “It doesn’t make sense that she’d leave herself open and vulnerable after years of being so careful.”

“Richard is the first viable candidate running against her in years. She got scared,” Gabrielle mused.

“And scared people get sloppy,” Richard confirmed. “According to my source who spoke directly with the cop in question, she wanted that photograph desperately.”

“Enough to show up herself to get the information?” Derek asked.

“Apparently, she was beyond reason,” Richard said. “She wanted insurance and that photograph was it.”

Gabrielle let out a low whistle. “Wow. What do you plan to do with the information?” she asked Richard.

Suddenly, people came screaming toward the front of the bar.

“Fire!” someone yelled, barreling past them and rushing out the front door.

Chaos ensued.

Derek thought only to grab Gabrielle’s hand as he jerked his head toward the back of the restaurant and saw flames licking around the curtains and traveling toward them.

“Oh, my God!” Gabrielle screamed.

“Let’s go,” Derek said.

“Follow me.” Richard headed out first.

Derek pulled Gabrielle, and along with the rest of the crowd, they bolted outside. The Wave had been more crowded than Derek had realized and someone pushed between him and Gabrielle, breaking their hands apart. He turned to call her, but the people behind him shoved him forward in their rush to escape.

Once they were outside, the firemen had already arrived and began directing people far from the burning building. Derek turned to look for Gabrielle, but he didn’t see her in the crush of the crowd directly behind him.

He was forced onto the far grass by a fireman. Others began cordoning off the area and prohibiting people getting anywhere near the Wave.

“Derek!”

He heard his name being called and he whipped around at the sound of his father’s voice. “Dad! Over here!” Derek waved so his father could see him.

“Thank God!” Hank said, hugging him until he couldn’t breathe.

“You weren’t inside, were you?” Derek asked. He’d thought his father had left once his interview ended.

Hank shook his head. “I was outside when I heard someone screaming about the fire. I looked up and saw the flames. I just wanted to find you.” Hank wiped the sweat from his brow. “I couldn’t bear to lose my son,” he said, his voice cracking.

“I’m fine,” Derek assured him, emotion and so much more clogging his throat. “Have you seen Gabrielle? We got separated trying to get out of the building.”

Hank shook his head.

Derek glanced back again, but there were too many people crowding around to see everyone.

It had been too long since he’d made it out and he still hadn’t seen her. Panic nearly suffocated him. “I’ve got to find her.”

He started for the building, only to be stopped by his one-hundred-ninety-pound father jumping onto his back.

“You aren’t going near that fire,” Hank said in Derek’s ear.

“At least let me tell the fireman she’s missing.”

Hank released himself and rushed with Derek toward the nearest firefighter. His father never released his grip on Derek’s collar. Derek was choking on the material pulling against his neck but figured it was his father’s way of keeping him safe.

“I’m looking for a woman. Reddish hair, about five foot five. Last time I saw her was inside the building,” Derek said to the fireman.

“I’ll relay the information,” the man in uniform promised.

As he waited, Derek clenched his hands into fists, his nails digging into his skin.

“She’ll be fine,” Hank said, placing an arm around Derek’s shoulders.

“Because our good luck says so?” Derek asked his father.

The older man looked at him with wise eyes but said nothing. How could he, Derek thought, when he’d lived through his share of pain and tragedy, too?

“Don’t hold it against me for not letting you run back into that building, son. You wouldn’t want Holly to be fatherless, now, would you?”

Derek shook his head, unable to speak as he waited for news on Gabrielle.