Page 45 of Absolute Valor

Pushing Grace toward Jackson, my arms were feeling the burn of the games of get the baby tired. “That’s a good question. One I’ve not had the opportunity to really consider lately.”

“You know, I hadn’t planned on coming to this. I usually find a way to get out of it.” He admitted, with a quick look behind him, as Priscilla’s voice could be heard calling for Dylan. “But Priscilla can be quite persuasive when she wants to be. I’m glad I didn’t cancel, especially since I got the chance to get to know you.”

Grace was finally starting to rest her head on the side of the floaty. I was grateful for an excuse to get out of the pool and into dry clothes which covered me. Jackson had been charming and said all the right things, up until he admitted Priscilla had pressured him to come. I wasn’t stupid; the clothes and the hot guy in the pool playing with my baby, were all an elaborate scheme to get Chase to change his mind.

As I wrapped a towel around my waist and pulled my nearly asleep baby from the water, I caught Chase leaving through the side gate. So much for the attempt, I’d call this mission a crash and burn.

Almost every woman I passed as I wound my way to the house, had to look at my baby. A basic instinct in most women is to touch a sleeping child. I was tired, and not just physically. I was mentally exhausted at the lengths this family went to in order to get their way. Why couldn’t they live with Chase’s decision to leave us alone? Who would want a man in their lives who was only there out of obligation?

I needed to get out of here, take a cool shower in the comfort of my own home. Or maybe visit the library after Grace had her nap and look for a new job, far away from the chaos of Charleston.

Grace was sleeping like the dead, and I envied her the ability. Slipping her tiny body out of her swimsuit, I washed the sunscreen and chlorine off her skin. A quick diaper change for her, and an even quicker clothing change for me and I was ready to go. As I opened the door to the room I’d once spent a night in, Dean stood on the other side, his hand raised to knock.

“Hey, Audrey.” He looked from me, to my sleeping baby and the larger than life backpack I had slung over my shoulder. It was impossible these days to get out of the house without taking half of it with me. “Oh, are you leaving? I was hoping to have a quick word with you.” Refusing Dean wasn’t something I could even contemplate. He had, after all, handed me the sleeping child in my arms. “It won’t take but a minute, I assure you.”

“Sure,” I agreed, as I opened the door wider to allow him inside.

He, however, remained in the hall, his tanned skin looking a touch red from his time in the sun. “Actually, there’s something I want you to see.” Pointing down the hall, he steps in the direction he wants me to follow. It’s the same hall where I found all three brothers smiling proudly for their senior pictures. Miss Molly, who had a copy in her library, said the Morgan’s were some of the most handsome men she had ever photographed.

Dean opened the door on the left side of the hall, the smell of new wood and paint hitting me as soon as I walked in. There was a large wrought iron bed, with sheer curtains hanging from an oversized crown at the top of the bed in the center of the room. The walls were pink and purple with white eyelet curtains adorning the windows. An overstuffed polar bear stands guard in the corner beside the largest wooden rocking horse I’ve ever seen.

“Cilla started on this room the morning after she learned about Grace.” He kept walking past the bed and the horse to a closed door along the far wall. When he opens the double doors, the most exquisite nursery comes into view. “She had hopes of sleepovers and afternoons of babysitting.” My heart settles somewhere in my stomach, the letters over the massive crib spell out Grace’s name. “Chase helped her put the crib together as I was working on the information you gave me.” I prayed my face showed no signs of my emotions or any hint of my astonishment, or my opinion of Chase at the moment.

“Come, let’s put her in her crib and have a little chat.” I did as he asked, approaching the lowered rail of the crib, the mobile above made of pink and white bunnies, Grace’s favorite. The smell of new bedding and baby powder camouflaged the smell of new paint. Grace stirred a little, then snuggled into the pillow softness and stilled.

Dean had already taken a seat on a nearby sofa, its fabric matching the paint and curtains. Black rimmed reading glasses dangle off his nose and a stack of papers and files were beside him. He looked so relaxed, yet professional, with his khaki shorts and leather loafers. “Have a seat, Audrey. We’ll hear her just fine if she wakes.” I approach with caution, worried slightly about what the paperwork in his hands contained.

“Audrey, I had a conversation with the manager of the loan company who financed the truck and the trailer. The gentleman I spoke with first didn’t want to talk about the loan or his involvement. When I asked for the manager, the phone mysteriously went dead.” Using his fingers to emphasize the air quotes. “When I phoned a few minutes later, I was able to speak with the manager who wasn’t any more willing to talk, that is until I threatened to have the attorney general’s office call him.”

Removing his reading glasses, he rested them on the arm of the couch. “I did a little digging and found the number for the home office. Once I explained who I was and what I already knew, they were able to send me a copy of the files and the security footage they use to monitor their employees.” Dean slid still photographs across the sofa. “I ran the faces through NCIC and I think you will recognize them.” Amy Campbell sat cross-legged in a chair beside Lucas. Her usual frizzy hair, perfectly straight, and resembled the way I wore mine every day. Her typical t-shirt and shorts, were replaced with a fuzzy cardigan and long skirt. “The identification she used had your name, and her photo. A list of credit cards and bank accounts, also in your name, were used to obtain the loans.”

The look he sent me suggested he was waiting for me to say something along the lines of ‘oh my, God’ or ‘I can’t believe it’. Neither were true and wouldn’t leave my lips. Nothing, I mean absolutely nothing, Amy and Lucas did would ever surprise me. “I’ve turned this information over to her parole officer as, according to the state of Georgia, she was released yesterday.”

Picking up his glasses, he shoved them all the way to his eyes, “I’ve filed the paperwork to have the trailer and truck removed from your credit, the loan company will be picking up the trailer as soon as they can file the paperwork with the city. So, in about thirty days, you should be able to go back to the dealership and purchase the car you wanted.”

He made it sound so simple, a few phone calls and the world was spinning on it’s axis, as it should be. “I can’t believe it was this easy.” I snickered, having a quick check of Grace. “Um…how much do I owe you?”

Looking at me over the top of his glasses, he shifted his legs and turned toward me. “Well…” He drawled out the word, however before he could quote me a price, I needed to tell him something, which may delay everything.

“Dean, I have to tell you, it will take me a little while to save up enough money to pay the kind of money you charge. Between the deposits on the house and paying Chase back the money he spent on the electric, I have all but depleted my savings.”

Dean’s eyes grew wide, his body shaking with silent laughter, and then covering his mouth so as not to wake the baby. “You paid him back?” He chuckled some more. “My son took money from you and didn’t argue?” His face red from holding his emotions back.

“No, I have access to his credit cards and bank accounts since I’m the one who pays the bills for the shop. I called the power company, found out which card he used, and sent a cashier’s check to the account.”

“Audrey, I apologize for laughing at the situation.” Placing his arms along the back of the couch, he crosses his legs at the ankle. “I know my boys, I had a hand in how they view the world. There are things you should know about my son, but more importantly, about the night you got Grace back.”

My mouth instantly went dry and my heart rate increased, while a mental list of possibilities raced through my mind. Dean leaned forward, placing his hand on my thigh. “Calm down, Audrey, it’s not what you think.” His attempt at reassurance does little to calm my nerves. “I think you need to know what happened when they got to Clifford’s house.”

Leaning back into the sofa, I waited to hear if my suspicions correlated with the actual events of that night. I’d watched and listened to the conversations taking place in the shop. Most of the time, I worked as quietly as I could. With Dylan as boisterous as he is, listening wasn’t hard.

“According to Chase, Lucas said a few words about you he didn’t appreciate.” This didn’t surprise me, Lucas hadn’t had a kind word to say about me in over a year. “But according to Austin, Lucas said something which affected Chase, something he won’t admit is bothering him.” Dean looked over at the crib, a forlorn look on his face. “Lucas reminded him that Grace will always be his daughter.”

Grace jumped from the guffaw, which erupted from my chest, but didn’t wake. “Oh, that is rich! He refused to be in the delivery room or sign the birth certificate, and he never, not once, held her. He wouldn’t know how to be a father if it came with an assistant.”

Dean held in a laugh of his own, shaking his head as he continued. “Dylan said Chase spit in Lucas’s face after the bullets stopped flying, telling Lucas it was for you. Now, Audrey, I am blessed to have three sons who know they can come to me at any given moment and talk about anything.” Slicing the air with his hand, his chin followed the direction. “Imagine something you want more than anything, and just when you’re about to get it, someone pulls it away.” I didn’t have to imagine, Lucas had made it a reality.

“Chase has wanted a family since he figured out where babies came from. He wrote a paper in the fifth grade on how he wanted to be a husband when he grew up.” I nodded my head in silent agreement, assuring him I was paying attention. “He never changed his mind. Carson and I saw the look on his face when he told us to take the baby to you, ‘Take her to, Sweetness,’ were his exact words. He wants to protect you and Grace, and now he is fighting a battle with himself.”

“What battle?” I asked, with a bite to my tone, frustration lacing in my words. “He’s stayed as far away from the two of us as he can. He made it clear he doesn’t care for Grace when he made me put her in daycare. I’m not stupid, Dean. I’m not going to beg him to be with me, or wait around as he figures out what he wants. I know Dylan and Priscilla set this whole thing up to get him to see what he was missing. Well guess what? He saw me talking to another man and left the party. He’s not battling anything, Dean. He knows the danger has passed, the hero he was trained to be is no longer needed.”

It felt good to finally say what I had kept bottled up inside. Dean listened, never once trying to interrupt or correct me. “You know what, Dean, those sons of yours that you hold so high, the ones who think they’re so goddamn smart. Well, let me tell you something, the next time Dylan puts a guy in the oil pit, he might want to make sure the vents are closed so you can’t hear his screams from the alley. Everyone knows hog boiling happens in November, not in the middle of March when their scent sacks are full for mating. Austin may be a computer genius, but he forgets when he isn’t at his own desk, leaving his thumb drives behind.” My anger, which once raged like an inferno, had fanned down to a meager burning ember. It was time for me to leave—to take my baby, and get out of here.

“One more thing,” I turned, as I got ready to pick up Grace. “Clifford had buried a propane tank in the backyard a few years ago when he thought about starting a barbecue business. The six propane tanks Chase rigged to go off were a waste of time. He might want to consider getting new boots. He could use the money I put back on his credit card.”

Dean stood from the couch, his hands raised in surrender. “Hold on, Audrey, you can’t drop information like this and not explain. What makes you think Chase rigged the tanks which exploded?”

Shaking my head, I put my hands on my hips, so sick of the lies men told. “I didn’t need the information on the thumb drive Austin left in my computer. Dylan wears Doc Martin boots everyday in the shop, Chase wears Batemans, the leading Military boot maker in the world. His boots have leather soles, not rubber like Dylan’s and are non conductive, perfect for dealing with explosives and ammunition. He carries chapstick and dental floss everywhere he goes, yet never applies it—but his lips are never chapped and his dental hygiene isn’t some thing he talks about. But chapstick can be used as an insulate for C4, and dental floss for a fuse. But it’s his multi-tool, a knife for stripping tiny wire and pliers, too small to work on any fitting a bike has.”

Dean closed the distance between us, my body shaking slightly from the adrenaline I’d just burned. His chest was firm and warm, smelling of his cologne, a masculine scent which was comforting. “Miss Audrey, please don’t give up on my son, he is battling with himself. When he found the evidence of Ginny’s betrayal and the extent it went, he questioned everything and everyone.” He pulls me back, “He cares for you and Grace so much, more than he is willing to admit, even to himself. Let him stew on seeing you today, what his stupidity is about to cost him. I assure you, when it all hits him—and it will—you won’t be able to stop him from winning your heart.”

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