A Love Story:
6)
He couldn't take Aidan today, he just couldn't. The Brit was an okay guy, but he just couldn't handle his unending yapping in the background.
Tad Martin needed quiet; he needed a silence that he could breathe in. Unfortunately, none of the places he searched for were quiet, had any kind of silence.
Pop said he was busy, so did Mom. Edmund and Maria were at one of their marriage counseling sessions and Jack was working on something with Livia.
But he didn't understand how he happened to find his one-time stepson, standing in front of the law offices of Livia Frye, talking with Kendall, who was… Holy Hell, was that a diamond or a piece of rock salt? Even on the other side of the street, Tad could see it, a mound of diamonds, a gold band.
She was in what looked like a hazy green dress, her knee-length coat open as she chatted it up with her best friend.
Now, foresight is 20/20, almost always, but as soon as they realized what he was thinking, Tad's warning bells started going off like the were hooked on Red Bull. And this time, for the first time since Babe had come to town, he listened.
Tad Martin listened to the warning and stood and watched.
He couldn't hear the words, but… he didn't need to.
They talked and every so often Kendall would reach out and touch JR's arm or shoulder, nod her head. One second they'd be laughing and examining the ring, the next, they'd move closer and seem to shift into a kind of comforting stance.
It should be about Bess/Miranda, about all the Hell, about that little boy. Except… All of Tad's instincts told him it wasn't, it was something else, something that made the hair on his arms lift. Yet, he didn't go across, didn't interfere, sensing on some level that he didn't want to hear.
And, then, she embraced him, they held each other for nearly a minute before she turned and flounced away in a flash of brown curl and perfect fashion.
And then JR saw him.
It was like some old Western, the stare-off across the street, but the thought didn't humor Tad; he was too busy trying to figure out that look in his son's eyes.
JR had been good at hiding his emotions as a child, had been gifted. These days, there was nothing there to indicate anything. The fact that Kendall Hart could so easily embrace him, talk so easily with him, right in the middle of Pine Valley, unnerved Tad in a way that he couldn't quite explain. Later, when he was on the flight, trying to figure out a way to figure it out, Tad would realize that the thing he'd felt when he saw the two of them together had been nothing so much as burning jealousy.
It didn't matter that Tad had lost that understanding somewhere after his son went after Babe, when he made Babe a new Dixie. The point was, he'd lost the right to chat, to embrace him, a long time ago.
Tad Martin was in a state of emotional upheaval that had pretty much started building the day that she had gone off that cliff; since that day, it had been building, steadily, until he could hear it pounding against the walls of that village that he had tried so hard to protect.
When the walls had come down in the face of that fury, in the aftermath of two nights, they had been destroyed, no evidence of them left. JR had fled but he had stayed, like an idiot, trying to find any evidence of another way.
Now, they watched each other and for the first time since he'd held JR as a baby, he couldn't see JR. No matter how much he searched, there was nothing in JR's fathomless eyes, Dixie's eyes, that he could understand, read, see at all. Anything that was there was gone, washed away in that breakdown.
The sick epiphany was like a blow from the executioner's ax. When he'd put his head on the block, he'd known that it was coming, that this was the only possible outcome. But at the last second, as he'd heard the whistle of air, the first real understanding was there. And, like the unfortunate victim of a beheading in that final second, Tad had only a second for it to sink in, to strip away the effects of his own deception of the truth.
It was a single heartbeat, a single second.
And then JR threw away his coffee and was in his car, backing out and leaving Tad to wait in the winter cold, staring after him, cowering as the ax fell.
And then Tad Martin gave himself a mission.
A mission he would regret when both of his girls would move out months later.
Micaela had offered to stay, to help with Amy's friend, but the pagan wouldn't let her.
So, on the morning of January eleventh, Micaela Kincaide was climbing into the Chandler jet, pushing her thoughts of Amy and Pa from her mind, preparing to be dropped off at Switzerland to meet up with the owner of the Blue Note, Fox Crane, who apparently was one of Adam Chandler's favorite people.
She had no way of knowing that at that very moment, a livid redhead was learning about Adam's nasty little scheme from his loyal twin brother.
That somewhere in Llanview, a widow was mourning her husband's death.
That her future was sitting in the hands of those who had come before her, especially a rather devious matriarch of the Chandler family.
If she had, she might have done things differently; if she had known about that secret, she'd have tracked down the greedy little bitch herself, made her pay the way Lynette never had.
Unfortunately, foresight is 20/20.
Now, she pushed her shoulder-length black hair back, running her fingers through it. Her silver and emerald ring, a gift from her father for her eighteenth birthday, flared with the movement, flashing the morning light.
In her dusty green pleated skirt and jacket, she was in a good mood.
Until she heard the voice of The Enemy from before her, acting as a kind of last warning to run while she could.
"Please tell me you're not the business partner."
Micaela stared at him, working desperately to keep her face empty. There he was, JR Chandler, in a flawless suit, slouched down in his seat, and she thought helplessly of a five-year old just told that Christmas was cancelled.
"I don't know if that was a question or a comment, JR."
Blue eyes narrowed in annoyed warning, and if there wasn't that disturbing glint of intelligence beneath the gaze, she would have laughed at the image he presented. "Mr. Chandler. Now get off."
"I have business to conduct."
"Conduct it elsewhere, then, Kincaide."
Micaela knew, on some level, that she shouldn't be walking around a homicidal bull in a red Prada… but the way he looked at her, all but huffing in his childlike fury was too baiting for a Texan. "Oh, you can call me Micaela, Mr. Chandler."
So this is what it must be like to have children, she realized with a smile at his reaction. His eyes chilled, froze over into a haze of blue, his jaw tightened down and he looked at her the way a cat must look at a mouse.
"Look at that, you hate that, don't you?" She set her black leather bag on her seat, studied him intently. "So is it the thought of somebody disobeying you or the thought of someone caring that you hate so much?"
"The only thing I hate is you."
"Nice one." Micaela was somehow fascinated by him, and couldn't understand it. So she didn't try to understand it, at least not now. "I'm just going on this plane, Mr. Chandler. Don't worry about me attaching myself to you."
She snorted as she sat, rolling her shoulders. "Wouldn't want to."
It was easy enough to get into the flight and it was left to him to hide.
Tad found himself a kind of closet, hunkered down and praying to the Chiropractic Gods that he would be able to walk again. He may be the human embodiment of Adonis but he simply wasn't as young as he used to be. Sure, he'd never had problems enjoying sex, especially with Dixie, but then, she could make anyone feel young, couldn't she?
He listened to the two bicker, rolling his eyes, but never lost his mission. He was here to find out what JR was hiding… and why he was heading to Switzerland, of all places.
He'd never forget his shock at learning that the younger Chandler was heading there. It had felt like someone had nailed him in the chest with a sledge hammer, destroying any chance of using his lungs again. This wasn't a business trip, Tad was sure of that. Later on, he'd have yet another revelation that he hadn't thought it was Dixie-related because he refused to connect JR and Dixie.
So, in the remains of his mind, he connected JR's business trip with Jamie and Babe. Why he was going to Switzerland to torment Babe and Jamie did not matter to the remaining shreds of Tad Martin. All that mattered, at least to him, was that JR had to be after something… after his son.
These thoughts would be yet another blow when everything came out, another weight on his conscience, another blow to his soul.
But today, on the flight to Switzerland, all that mattered to Tad Martin was what he thought he knew.
Sadly, he'd see, when his house was empty and he spent Christmas alone, visiting just to drop off presents, only that one daughter coming to see him and coming to spend a few hours to comfort him, that he hadn't known anything. Not where lies were concerned, lies and betrayal and hurt and regrets for all those heartbeats that he could have fixed. A single sentence to change a life.
The point is not that he made the mistake.
The point is, he didn't fix it.
Kendall Hart swept up into Zach Slater's apartment like a flash hurricane, swirling in like a breath of Artic wind.
Watching her take full and complete control of his guest, Fred Newman, age 45, balding but charming, would have made a lesser man laugh his head off, probably giggle like a twit. But Zach Slater was not such a laughing, giggling man. He was a man who sat at his desk and watched her.
Flawlessly, she folded her coat over an empty chair, draping herself, in a perfect dress, in said chair. Crossing her legs, she set her hands on her folded knee, making sure to put her bejeweled beauty atop. Only a Kane could make such an entrance without a single word, and leave poor Fred Newman trying to pick his jaw up off the floor.
Fred had almost succeeded when she offered the older man a dazzling smile… another Kane patent. Well, there went any hope of him regaining his wits. When Zach cleared his throat, Fred's head snapped to his boss like a hyperactive Chihuahua, staring at him with blue bug-eyes.
"Mr. Newman, could you perhaps…"
Fred nodded furiously, fumbling for his jacket as he stood. He fled from the room without a second glance to Zach… or the grinning Kane.
Silence filled the room, settled around them like a warm breeze, not awkward, but cautious. Finally, meeting her eyes cleanly, "Don't do that again, Kendall."
Hart grinned like a cat, and she must have subconsciously been trying for that effect; he watched in hidden amusement as her long, graceful fingers flexed, once, then twice, causing light to flash off her "precious".
He didn't get the joke, why she'd said it in that voice, but planned to ask her when she wasn't expecting it.
"Come on, a girl's gotta have some fun."
He tapped his pen on his coffee table twice before setting it down, trying to will her with his gaze. "You can have fun when you get my casinos back… and your little, what do you call it, Fusion?"
It was the wrong way to will her, but the right way to piss her off. Making a noise like an angry cat, he half-expected her curls to fluff up and for her to hiss, she kept the smile on her face… but it changed. It chilled froze over, becoming edged and dangerous.
Zach had seen her just a few hours before his "proposal", coming home after Maxie had delivered the news that she was shutting down Fusion, effective immediately. From what he understood, Maxie had waltzed right in, just after Mrs. Lavery had gone flying out, and calmly informed them that as soon as possible, she intended to dismantle it.
"We made this deal for a reason, Slater, now, when are we gonna tie the knot?"
He couldn't fight this smile. He'd first come up with the idea after his dear daughter had oh so casually shredded his gaming licenses. But he'd hesitated, not sure what to tempt her with. Until he heard about her beloved cosmetics company, and had found her Achilles heel, and had moved in.
Zach hadn't been surprised in the least when she'd banged on his door at three in the morning, six hours after she chased him out of her place with a very expensive bottle of bourbon, telling him to find a "Padre".
Was Bianca still supporting little Maxie after she learned that she had stolen Hart's, well, heart and soul? Considering how she was treating Junior, without a doubt. Zach had been in Kendall's apartment when sister Kane learned the plan; he'd never put into words how surprised he was at her instant attack of both the plan and of her own sister when Kendall brought up something about a hospital visit, Miranda and Junior himself.
Zach Slater, Alexander Cambias, knew the feel of a family battle. And the way that Kendall had looked… Zach knew the look that the older woman had given her sister as she stood, holding the door, staring at Bianca. No words had been needed, and Bianca had stomped out like a exceptionally tall three-year old, even down to the dirty look and crossed arms.
If it was just a fight about him, he would have aborted the plan right then, but he was no idiot. That fight had been about her actions in handling Junior… who, apparently, had been refused the right to visit her. Bianca, for some reason that neither Zach nor Kendall could decipher, had decided that anyone who supported Junior was completely and totally in the wrong. Except, still, it was more.
It was that mysterious "more" that had caused Kane and Cambias to sit on the couch and have an actual, honest-to-God, conversation. And, in the end, they both reached the same decision in a matter of minutes.
Bianca Montgomery, daughter of Erica Kane and Travis Montgomery, was hiding something… and it was something that, in just the week since what Kendall called the "hospital rejection" happened, was beginning to give to her soul-rot.
But right now, Zach's concern was on his daughter, Maxine "Maxie" Malone, now Cambias, who was, like Bianca herself, rotting through in just the week since she'd gained the reins from Lavery. If this plan worked, he could send her back to Las Vegas, to her job as a showgirl. She would hate him, for taking what was "rightfully" hers, but, in the end, she'd still be Maxie Malone, showgirl to the stars.
Standing, Zach took the papers she offered, daggers shooting from her eyes, and studied the signatures. The biggest blow-up between Bianca and Hart had been over this. But Ms. Montgomery had found, to her dismay, that her sister could not be bullied into hating a dear friend. "Did you get all of them?"
Kendall sighed, clearly making an effort to drop her seething, and again flexed her fingers. "I'm walking around, trying to get through to him by phone, and all of a sudden, there he is, ordering coffee."
"He can't make his own?"
"He's going…" For the first time, she hesitated and he resisted the urge to study her face, instead keeping his focus on the papers. "He's heading out of town, his plane's probably already taken off… business."
Another hesitation before she continued, putting more steel into her voice. "We talked, and he thought it was a great plan, especially since Adam found out, this morning, that Maxine's dismantling it."
"What?"
"Yep. Gee, I wonder why."
Zach didn't need her to continue. He had no doubt that she suspected that Bianca had decided to take her attack on Junior to the next level… the business one. But, yet again, she would find herself thwarted by her own sister, who would, once again, step in to act as Junior's personal knight in shining armor.
"So you, what, called up his personal lawyer."
"No, today was like fate. He had parked in front of Livia's. How great is that? I mean, how can you deny that the cosmos supports us now?"
Pleased, he set the papers carefully down, studied her intently. "And you're sure he won't double-deal us?"
"I'd bet my life on it. See, he'd chop you into bits and pieces and feed you to kitties for a dime, but me? No, see, JR's very into loyalty. He's into trust, loyalty, all those other things that never work in the real world." She waved her ringed hand absently, playfully dismissing what had so captured his interest. "You don't have to worry about him. My mom, my sister, my uncle Jack? Huh, prepare to die, but him? Adam and I have stuck by him while everybody else left him to rot like old fruit. We have ourselves a perfect accomplice."
Zach Slater, studying the papers that would, upon Zach's reclaiming of the Cambias fortune, would give Chandler Enterprises, and all connected companies, back into Junior's hands, sure as Hell hoped so. The last thing he needed was a Chandler down his throat, wanting his head.
Yet, at the same time he wasn't actually afraid. Kendall Hart didn't run around making herself vulnerable to people every day and he doubted she'd start today.