Stand By Me Page 5
“I wish to challenge that.” His smug smile toward Jamie across the large table said he had something brewing. “Mrs. Morgan Blakemore here is carrying my child.”
The room gasped.
Faces paled around the room. Mrs. Morgan, Kenya thought stunned at the absurdity of her sister marrying that freak. When had they gotten married anyway? Things were moving too fast. She leaned into Jamie speaking low in his ear, “When did this happen?”
He returned in a whisper, “I have no idea.” This entire show had become a circus of issues.
Sophie's knuckles bleached out under her clenched fist on the hand she held gripped to the folder in front of her. “Yer a sleazy man Brian. Did ye marry the child before the contract expired? Where's the marriage license?” Brian slid an envelope across the table to the attorney, his wicked dirty smile directed at Sophie. Kenya watched the faces go blank waiting to see what the attorney had to say.
Jamie said, “It doesn't matter. The contract's for your first son.” His tone sped up. “It does nae matter if Morgan is carrying your child,” his accent darkened behind his disgust.
Kenya couldn't take her eyes off Morgan. Something was off about her sister. This was all that Morgan had wanted, to be in the estate with money and toys. Why wouldn't she give Kenya eye contact? Everyone could see she was pregnant, though not much bigger than Kenya's. Morgan’s lips were a bit thicker and her breast looked fuller to Kenya.
“Read the contract.” Brian held a hand out to the attorney who shuffled through a few papers and gave the table a sad glance.
The attorney cleared his throat, and then read the paper, “The contract reads as follows, the estate goes to Seamus Blakemore's first son’s first child if he’d married. It does not stipulate by what wife. Kenya turned to Gretchen then Sophie. The importance of their divorce being final became blatantly clear. Morgan’s child would get the estate.
Morgan leaned her shoulder to Brian’s and whispered. He nodded then brushed his mouth over her cheek disturbingly tender and stood as Morgan got up from the table. Brian handed Morgan her purse from the back of the chair and ran a hand over her back. Kenya eyed her sister padding across to the conference room door and opening it; she tossed Kenya a blank stare and pulled the door behind her.
What was that about?
Time crept by as they sat around waiting for Morgan to return. Kenya leaned back staring down the hall. This was too long for Morgan to be gone. Was she sick? Kenya started to angle away from the table when a man in a dark gray suit came to the door and waved to Brian. He pushed away from the table. At the door, heated whispers filled the doorway.
“Is there a problem, Mr. Blakemore,” the attorney asked leaning out over the table.
“My wife has gone home ill. Let’s finish this so I can see to my wife. I have another meeting to attend to, you understand.”
The attorney set the marriage license in a folder beside his arm on the table. He rubbed his hands together, darting a hurried look from Brian to the table. “Well it seems we have a slight dilemma with signing over the estate to Brian.” Brian shoved away from the table. He pounded his fist on the hard surface making the conference phone in the center bounce an inch off the glossy surface. Kenya gave Sophie a vacant expression. She had no more of a clue about what happened than anyone else.
Brian jumped to his feet slapping his hands to the table. “There's no dilemma. Sign the damn paper.”
The room vibrated under his rage flashing out like lightning over the table. The attorney closed the folder, sat forward, un-intimidated and steepled his fingers over the table. “I need Mrs. Blakemore, Morgan, to sign off on the date of the marriage and of the estate. Without it, Sophie retains the title. At least until the bairn is born and the bloodline can be verified, of course.”
Kenya whispered to Jamie. “I have to find out what's she up to. She's still my sister, regardless of the fact that she’s married to Satan, in a Hugo Boss suit.”
Jamie closed his fingers around her arm as she braced to stand and held her tucked into his hard muscled side. “Doona think so, lass.” He halted her movements. “Och, this stinks of a trap, Kenya.” That was obvious and she wouldn't compromise the safety of her child by going after Morgan.
“Don't you think I can smell it's a scam or frame up and it's more than probable it's lies or even a set up? At this point they equal the same for me--Jonathan's in jail. I'm gonna make some calls to see if she's contacted anyone back home, and maybe they're waiting for her at the airport, here or in the States.” Jamie released her hand giving her a sideways glance. Open suspicion oddly warmed her heart, it was the sign he viewed her as family. Reclining along his arm, she tried to look non-plussed as Brian looked on. “Did you notice Brian's jaw when his henchman came to the door? He doesn't believe Morgan's sick. Probably has one of his goons following her right now going home to get in the bed, to report back what she had to eat.” Kenya twisted her ring on her finger, searched the faces at the table, and realized she wasn't the only one.
Jamie spoke close to her face as they left the conference room, “I have to use one of the open offices to make a few calls. You're about to call Jonathan?” he questioned but it was clear he already knew her plans. Did her excited grin give her away? Or her nipples poking her blouse? He was a Blakemore so he knew the unsettling influence they had on women.
“Yes,” she replied, thinking she had another plan.
Jamie offered pointing down the hall, “Make it in one of the call rooms.”
“Oh I'd love the privacy, but if Brian is up to no good, I need to watch the parking lot when he leaves. He could toss a Molotov cocktail through the window because it started to rain...anything. He's not the most stable of men. I'll call Jonathan from my cell here in the lobby where I can watch them leave.”
Jamie cursed under his breath. “Yer right,” he said pivoting around scanning the corridor and out through the windows overlooking the parking lot. “Stay out of sight over there along the wall,” he warned indicating the wall full of certificates. “I’ll make me calls from the other side of the reception desk where I can see the road as well. Sophie and Gretchen are with the attorney in his office.”
She glanced at her watch, “Alright. I have to call the prison. Hines set it up for me to call this first time as we didn’t know when the meeting would end.” Jamie kissed her face and walked off.
“Stay out of sight,” he warned then disappeared down on the other end of the hall.He was so much like her Jonathan, protective.
Her butt started to grow numb sitting so much. She set her feet on the floor between the footrests after Jamie rolled her wheelchair out to the lobby. Standing she propped her shoulder along the wall beside the picture window, then crossed her ankles waiting to hear the warden pick up the line on the other end.
“Mo Ru'n, how's my beautiful wife and bairn?” his graveled deep brogue made her panties wet, instantly, and she had to give her body a second to enjoy the caress his voice sent over her skin, thick and warm. “Kenya…Mo Ru’n…”
Flush with excitement, her words jammed in her throat at the sound of his voice. Sniffing, trembling burrowing her face in the crook of her elbow, Kenya wiped away the tears. It was all she could accomplish under the pure, raw joy of hearing the dark deep timbre she loved. He was safe. No slurred words from swollen lips where he’d been fighting other inmates.
“As long as I can hear yer voice, it does nae matter if yer crying, Mo Ru’n,” his brogue wrapped around her heart warm and snuggly.
Nodding her head, she coaxed the words past her lips through the wrenching hole caused from not hearing his voice for so long, placed in her heart to finally talk to him, she didn't recognize her calm voice when it eventually surfaced. “Hi, it's so good to hear your voice, Jonathan,” she turned composing herself while watching Brian's men at the end of the hall huddled in conversation. Turning back hearing Jonathan’s voice, she faced the wall like a teenager whispering to her first boyfriend.
She missed him that's what's wrong. “I love the sound of your accent. Feels like I haven’t heard it in months,” she preened syrupy and sweet. “Your child and I am fine. I’m just a little overwhelmed hearing you talk.” Kenya caught her hand sliding down her thigh rubbing up and down the way Jonathan had when he’d come to her apartment after work back in the States. “Lord, honey, you got me touching myself in public.”
“There's always phone sex…,” he offered in a low tone that was a hot, lurid conversation all by itself.
“I wish,” she complained and it was the truth as heat circled her breasts burning her bra. Her hormones were bumping today, screaming for Jonathan’s special touch, his tongue. “Don’t mind me, honey. My nipples hurt and you’re not here to…help me. My body misses you too.”
He gave a muffled groan. “Can you get to an empty office for a minute?”
Moisture pooled between her thighs and she tried not to sound raspy when she said, “Not enough time,” she failed because her voice squeaked out and she turned toward the wall to shield the heat growing up her throat. “You're always thinking of me aren't you?”
“Sound of your voice got me stroking myself in front of these men, Kenya,” he told her and she felt rolling heat pouring up her body from her swollen flesh between her thighs. She flexed her hand holding it away from her body pressing it to the cold wall to calm her breathing. Jonathan asked, “What happened at the hearing?”
She flushed embarrassed running a hand along her ribs back and forth. “Excited to hear your voice, I almost forgot we'd had a meeting.” He grinned on the other end. “Things are at a standstill until Morgan signs off on being married.”
Jonathan grunted something incoherent on the other end. “Signs off...When did they get married?”
“The lawyer didn’t say, only that he needed her signature and she wasn't there to sign the papers.”
Jonathan made a choking noise. “And Brian came without her, knowing she'd need to sign the decree?”
“I don't think Brian knows where she went. She was there at the start of the meeting until the attorney declared Sophie and Brian officially divorced. During the meeting, she’d gotten up and gone to the restroom, I can’t imagine where else she could’ve gone.” Unless she’d hidden in an office. “Ten minutes later, one of his goon’s came to the conference door back and told Brian Morgan went home sick or that’s what he told the room.”
Kenya jutted out a hip and rested against the wall looking up and down the hall realizing for the first time how big the firm was. Five offices lined both sides of the hallway leading up to the reception desk.
“You think the marriage is bogus?”
As a three-dollar bill, she kept to herself not knowing who could hear her conversation. She rocked side to side, looking down at the floor, wiping her foot along the crack between the floor tiles. “Something’s bogus; I’m just not certain what.”
“Maybe she’s not pregnant.”
Kenya recognized her sister’s fuller lips and knew she was pregnant.
“She’s pregnant. I saw it on her face. I’m wondering if it’s Brian’s.”
“How long had she been separated from her husband?”
“Six, seven months,” she revealed. “At first, Rick fought the divorce and Morgan moved out. They were separated for months, but he never stopped loving her.”
Jonathan said, “No chance they hooked up one last time?”
She choked on his suggestion that Morgan had sex with Rick when Morgan couldn't wait to divorce him. She kept saying he was too immature for her because he was two years younger than her. “I doubt it. Morgan couldn’t stand Rick by this time,” she let her attention move down the hall. The lawyer stood speaking with Jamie and he said something and began moving toward her. “Rick wanted children and she didn’t. But Morgan is money hungry. Another possibility is that Brian paid her to have his child and the marriage is more than she could handle. She’s not a woman who likes being controlled.”
“If it’s his child, and she ran, she just took on more trouble than she can handle,” he warned. “Are you certain her divorce was final?”
Good question.
“Honey, it’s not like she'd show me the papers. I can only go off what my Mother's told me and that could be watered down to protect Morgan's reputation.”
“If it’s not final then her marriage to Brian isn’t valid and he’ll go looking for her with murder in his eyes.”
She closed her eyes to the vision of Brian's goons searching her family for Morgan. “She’ll go to my parents to hide out.” She shoved a hand into her trouser pocket while she paced back and forth, robot stiff holding onto the handicap bar that ran the length of the wall.
“Doona worry, lass. I’ll take care of your parents.”
“From prison?” she blurted out and regretted her tone the moment it hit the air. The quiet told her she’d offended him by questioning his ability to take care of her. Protecting her was huge for him. “I'll call so they'll be packed when Cedric gets there. Thank you, honey.”
“You're welcome. How’s Judge?”
“My log of muscle, he’s starting to sleep at the foot of the bed.”
“Good,” he said and she could picture him running a hand over his head missing his dog.
“How are you getting along with the other men?”
“It's a prison, Mo Ru'n. You don't get along with the other men. I stay to myself for the most part. I'm not looking to make friends.”
Were they arguing now? “Honey, I didn’t mean if you were having Tupperware parties, I meant were guys…you know…?”
“Asking me to shower…no.”
“You’re being flip and I’m serious, Honey.” Serious, hell she was terrified of what she’d seen in the movies and heard from her uncles as a little girl. Prison was no joke. “You're gone a week and we're arguing.” Her eyes darted over the floor. Tension had started to creep in between them already. “Jonathan, I won't argue with you. I don't like it.”
He said voice calm, “We're no arguing and yer no serious, Kenya, sweetheart, yer worried. Let me worry and you concentrate on staying healthy and being there when I get out,' his accent thickened behind each word. He was worried too.
Kenya blinked as the sun sliced through the large glass window shining over her stomach. Love warmed her knowing a life grew inside her body by the love of her life. Closing a hand over the bump, she smiled and leaned against the metal bar.
“One good thing out of all this is we don’t have to move from the castle yet.” Brian would have their things on the lawn in a matter of hours.
“Oy, things are on hold so Brian can nae put you out of your home.”
Kenya stopped pacing long enough to ease the friction between her legs. “You’re slipping into Gaelic, honey and I'm in a public place with your family. Please stop before I start moaning,” or grinding her thighs together.
“Kenya,” he spoke low signaling their time was up and he'd have to go. “I have to go, but tell Jamie to come down to the prison with my lawyer. I want you to rest.” He paused. “My lawyer says Randall's sent him some positive leads on Graham’s death and I love you for getting things going. But keep the bairn safe Kenya. Hines will notify you when he gets a date for the trial.”
“Hmm,” Kenya sighed hating to hear him go.
“Ye miss me, Mo Ru’n,” passion oozed from his words, thick and warm.
That was a joke. She more than missed him she ached for him. Closing her eyes she could picture his arms around her, his firm lips pressed to her neck whispering from behind her in her ear. The touch of the phone on her skin felt indecent, so she held it closer. “It's just not fair. You're in prison and all these other slugs are walking around like they had no part in all this.”
“Don't worry over them. We'll be together soon. Stay safe and out of trouble.”
�
�Go so they don’t restrict your phone privileges. This is already an extended exception for you to call me now.” She ended the call and turned to see Gretchen holding out a hand for her to return to her wheelchair. Jamie stood guard holding the handles. She told him of Jonathan's request and watched Sophie walking behind speaking low to someone on her cell and Kenya could guess it was Calder. They spoke more and more lately.
Kenya was pleased everyone was on board for the party. And seeing as this was a family problem she'd call on family, friends, farmers, fisherman and anyone else that had positive dealings with Jonathan. First she needed to speak with her family.
Kenya sat in the wheelchair, and dialed her mother. As the landscape outside filled each windowpane as Jamie rolled her along, she chewed the side of her finger, hoping she could pull this off and waited to hear her mother's voice. The clicking of the wheels over each tile change, mocked her heartbeat speeding up with each thought.
“I was just thinking about you,” Katherine Claiborne greeted.
Kenya wrapped an arm around her body hearing her mother's voice. “Hey Momma...How's everybody?”
Katherine hesitated on the other end. “We're fine...what's wrong, baby? I can hear it in your voice.”
“I need you and Daddy and Auntie to come back to Ireland. Don't worry, I'll pay for everything, it's just, well, this situation with Jonathan is bigger than me and I'm gonna need your help.” She blinked hearing her mother scoff through the phone. Did she just smack her lips at me?
“I should say no...” What was wrong? Kenya could picture Katherine standing in the kitchen stirring a pot of grits with cheese and a skillet of turkey bacon sizzling on the stove. Katherine's voice broke into the homey vision. “Getting married without me and your daddy there, probably don’t have one picture do you?” What was the point of answering, Katherine was on a roll, chewing her out. “Your Aunt, Karla's, still walking around calling you a heifer and something else I don't have time to look-up. You know how much she loves you.”