CHAPTER TWENTY
By the time he woke up the next morning, Tabby was no longer on top of him.
She had gotten up, showered, brushed her teeth and gargled, and had combed her thick hair into a ponytail.
When he looked over, he saw where she was seated on the edge of her bed in another cute pair of shorts and a sleeveless tucked-in blouse, putting lotion on her gorgeous legs.
“I don’t remember packing any lotion for you,” he said to her.
“It comes with the room.”
“I see.”
“It comes with every room. You didn’t know that?”
Since he never used it, he never noticed it. “On some level, I guess I did.” Then he stared at her. She looked wonderful. She looked refreshed. “How do you feel?”
That was when he saw the crack in her armor as she stopped doing what she was doing.
And that doleful look in her eyes returned.
“I’m still trying to process everything.
I still can’t believe they broke into my house.
I’ve been living there for over four years and I never had a peep of trouble out of either one of those boys. But they break in my house?”
“Have you ever had a man drop you off in a luxury car before?”
She hesitated. “Now that I think about it, no. I mean my ex-boyfriend Darius drives a BMW, but he never dropped me off. Anytime we did anything together, we met up in our own separate cars.”
That was odd to Stuart. “He’s never come to your house before?”
“Never.”
“How long did you date him?”
“We’d been together for something like a year before I caught him in bed with that white girl.”
“And he’s never been to your house before?”
“Never. He said he didn’t do hood. Whatever that meant. We usually hung out at his so-called upscale apartment whenever we were together.”
“What does he do for a living?”
“He owns a small clothing store on Grant Street. That’s probably where that heifer was headed when she ran into my car.”
But Stuart could tell something else was bothering Tabby. Something that concerned, not her ex nor those two thugs, but him. “We’re going to be fine, Tabby.”
When she looked at him, he knew their coupling last night was front and center on her mind as well.
And he regretted putting yet another situation in her path for her to deal with.
And what he put on her last night was maybe a bigger situation than a break-in because that kind of emotional connection was longer-lasting.
It was not something she was going to soon forget.
But she kept staring at him as if she needed reassurance that he wasn’t some joker out for what he could get from her body and then he would hit the road.
Which was another issue for him. Because of her youth and inexperience, and her vulnerableness at a time like this, he felt an outsized sense of responsibility for her.
He had to be there for her, to look out for her, to protect her.
He didn’t know why he felt that way, but he felt that way.
“You’ve never slept with anyone this soon, have you? ”
She shook her head. “Never.”
“Do you feel I took advantage of you?”
“No way.” She said this as if it was ludicrous to even think that. “Nobody takes advantage of me. I was as willing as you were. That’s not it at all.”
If that wasn’t it, then he knew what it was. He knew she wanted to ask the million-dollar question: Where, she wanted to ask, do they go from here? He knew where: he wasn’t giving her back. She was going with him. But because he knew she wasn’t ready for that answer, he didn’t answer her.
And then his phone began ringing.
Stuart had to get out of bed because it was still in the bathroom, but when he grabbed it and saw that it was his daughter calling, he hesitated.
Because she sided with her mother about everything, they weren’t on good terms at all.
But he stood in the doorway of the bathroom, leaned against the doorjamb, and answered. “Good morning.”
“Daddy, why aren’t you at the hospital with everybody else?”
Stuart was confused. “The hospital? What are you talking about, Clare?”
When Tabby heard that it was a woman on the other line, she looked over at Stuart.
He was full-on naked, and his penis, even at rest, loomed large.
She wondered how in the world could she believe that a man that sexy wouldn’t have a line of women waiting for him.
This man had a real life before he met up with her.
And probably a real girlfriend or even a wife too. She really knew nothing about him!
But she also heard him mention a hospital. The call wasn’t on Speaker, so she couldn’t hear the full conversation.
“Clare, why are you beating around the bush? Stop playing games and tell me what’s going on. Now I mean it!”
“You truly don’t know?” Clare asked her father.
“No, I don’t know. Why would I know? I’m not even in town. Did something happen to your mother?”
“It’s Alan.”
Another hesitation when Stuart heard that name. He was still dealing with the devastation of his son’s betrayal. Now something else? “What about Alan?”
“Somebody shot him, Daddy, and left him for dead.”
Stuart stood upright in shock. Tabby could see that something was horribly wrong by the sudden look on his face. “Is he okay?” Stuart asked his daughter.
“We don’t know anything yet. He’s still in surgery. I thought your office would have phoned and told you by now.”
Stuart knew that wasn’t going to happen. Everybody at Dellstone felt they had to remain aligned with Alan in order to keep their jobs. Including those who were usually very loyal to Stuart.
“Where are you now?” Clare asked him.
“I’m in Ohio. I’m handling my mother’s affairs.”
“Why?”
Neither one of Stuart’s children had any relationship whatsoever with his mother. “She passed away.”
“Oh.”
It was about as much emotion as he would have expected from his children toward their grandmother. He tried to bring them to see her once, but his mother refused to allow it. So he never tried again. “But do they know who did it?” he asked Clare.
“I told you we don’t know anything.” Then she asked him like a daughter who could not trust that her father would be there for her. “Are you coming?” she asked him.
Alan betrayed him mightily, unlike any human being ever had, but he was still his son.
He still loved him. That was the way Stuart was built.
His own mother hated his guts, but he still took care of her too.
“Of course I’m coming. Which hospital?” She told him, they said their goodbyes, and then he ended the call.
Tabby wanted to ask what was wrong, but she saw that perplexed look on Stuart’s face. So she waited for him to tell her.
But after a few seconds of thinking things through in his head, he went back into the bathroom, peed for a long time, and then came back into the main room and began scrambling and putting on his clothes.
Tabby felt he was so distracted that he had forgotten about her. Which kind of broke her heart. She knew the day would come when he’d go back to his own life and his own world. But she didn’t think it would come this fast.
Then his phone rang again. He looked at the Caller ID. It was Mel Weiss, the Chief Executive Officer at Dellstone. “I just heard,” he said to Mel.
“So did I.” Mel was livid. “Can you imagine that these assholes kept that shit from me? Our chairman has been shot down, and they don’t bother to let the CEO know about it?
This place is dysfunctional as fuck since you’ve been out of the loop, I’m telling you.
I found out from a reporter. A reporter! How did you find out?”
“Clare just phoned me. I need to get back to New York.”
“Since you decided to drive all the way to Ohio, I’ve chartered a plane to bring you back. It’ll be ready for you at the airfield. I’ve also hired security to escort you to the plane.”
Stuart found that odd. “Is that necessary?”
“Probably not. But we aren’t taking any chances. Give me your location and the team will be there to escort you in. Somebody shot down Alan like he was a dog in the street. We’ve got to make sure it’s isolated to Alan.”
Stuart understood that. He gave Mel his location.
“I thought you said you were going to do a quick turnaround and drive back yesterday,” Mel said. “What happened?”
Stuart looked at Tabby. If he would have told Mel that some waif of a girl nineteen years his junior happened, he wouldn’t believe it.
Stuart never went for younger girls. Not even when he was young himself.
It would have been absurd to Mel. “I’ll see you soon,” Stuart said instead of answering his question, and ended the call.
Now Tabby was too curious. “Is everything alright?”
He continued to stare at her. He didn’t want to traumatize her further with more news of violence. “I’ve got to get back to New York,” was all he would say about it.
Her heart sank. She knew it was going to happen. She knew he was eventually going to have to leave her. She just hoped that . . . She wasn’t sure what she hoped. The man had to go on with his life. And so did she. “Okay,” was all she said.
But Stuart was still staring at her. How was he going to leave her to fend for herself?
The police wouldn’t back her up. She had no friends and not even that cousin of hers would go that extra mile for her.
And she was still scared shitless about that close call last night.
And pile what he put on her last night and he knew it was too much for a person like her to deal with all at ounce.
And besides, he wasn’t giving her back.
Against all rhyme and reason, he made up his mind. She was his responsibility because she was nobody else’s. “Finish getting dressed,” he said. “You’re going with me.”
Had Tabby been herself, she would have questioned the mess out of such a bold statement. But she wasn’t herself. After last night, she was far from it. She didn’t question a thing. She finished getting dressed.
They were supposed to wait for some local security detail Mel had hired, but Stuart was too anxious to stick around. His son was in surgery, undoubtedly fighting for his life, and he wasn’t about to sit around worrying about his own life. Once dressed, he decided to leave.
As they stepped outside, they realized it had been raining, and probably all night long, as great big puddles of muddy water were everywhere.
But Stuart’s anxiousness caused him to not only step into the biggest puddle of water right at the front door, but to forget his car keys and his wallet altogether. Which wasn’t like him at all.
But even though Tabby still didn’t know why they were leaving, and why he was so anxious, she could easily see that whatever the reason was it had him deeply distressed. “I’ll get’em,” she said as she hurried back into the room.
She had just stepped back outside, and hadn’t even had a chance to close the motel room door when a car suddenly sped up to them.
Men in blue windbreakers with FBI written all over them, and with guns already drawn, hopped out, yelled for Stuart to hit the pavement face down, and to put his hands where they could see them.
She was so terrified that her phone and Stuart’s keys fell from her hand and dropped into the huge puddle of water beside her feet.
The only reason his wallet didn’t fall was because it was so thick in her hand.
She stood there stunned as they lifted Stuart up, cuffed him and frisked him, and threw him in the backseat of their car as if he was on the FBI most wanted list. Which seemed so insane to Tabby that she didn’t know what to make of it.
“What’s happening?” she finally asked one of the agents standing near her.
“You know him?”
“Yes, I know him. Why are you arresting him?”
“How do you know him?”
“I mean, he was helping me out. We met up yesterday.”
She could tell the agent found her useless and was about to leave.
“But why are you arresting him?” she asked again.
“We’re extraditing him back to New York.”
“But why?”
“Last night, at approximately ten pm, an assassination attempt was made on Alan Jacobs. We have an eyewitness who saw Mr. Jacobs enter the parking garage in Manhattan where the incident occurred, and then speeding out just after shots were fired. He’s facing attempted murder charges.”
Attempted what, was Tabby’s first response.
Who’s Alan Jacobs, was her second.
But none of those agents were willing to stick around to try and explain something to what they had to assume was some random woman. They had their man.
They all piled back into their car, with the billionaire Stuart Jacobs as a massive fish notched in their belts, and then they sped away.