True Love

Chapter 13

“So what do you plan to do now?”

Frowning, Shayla briefly mulled over her aunt’s question before finally answering, “There’s only one thing I can do, and that’s to quit. I’ll turn in my two weeks’ notice when I go into the office on Wednesday.”

Callie looked over at her niece, who was sitting across from her on the sofa. Shayla’s shoulders were hunched slightly forward, her gaze was pinned to the floor, and the expression on her face was one of abject misery. But it was the sadness she saw in her eyes that bothered Callie more than anything. There was no doubt in her mind that there was more to Nicholas Chenault than Shayla was saying, and that he meant more than she was admitting.

She watched her for a moment, thinking about another young woman who’d once had that same look of sadness in her eyes over a man. A part of Callie didn’t want to see Shayla make the same mistake.

“And then there’s Paul.”

Callie shot her niece a quick look. “Paul?”

“Yes, Paul Dunlap, Nicholas’s top security man. He worked for Chenault long before Nicholas was born, so he had to have been there when Mom worked there. A couple of times I saw him looking at me oddly. Do you think he made the connection between me and Mama?”

Callie thought long and hard as she studied Shayla’s face, carefully examining her features. She had a resemblance to her mother, but not so much that anyone would easily make a connection. After all, it had been over twenty-seven years. And in Callie’s opinion, she looked more like her father. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Good.”

“What about Trent Jordache?”

Shayla lifted her head and held a calm level gaze with her aunt. “A part of me wants to tell him, but then another part of me wants to forget that I’ve discovered we’re related. Trent being my brother makes the fact Thomas Jordache is my biological father that much more real. And I don’t want to deal with that man being connected to me in any way.”

“People make mistakes, and they do change, Shayla.”

“He hasn’t changed if he’s the one responsible for that fire at Nicholas’s lab.”

“People are also innocent until proven guilty.”

The frown on Shayla’s face deepened, and she lifted her chin a notch. “Why are you coming to that man’s defense?”

“For the same reason I didn’t want you involved with Chenault Electronics in the first place. You don’t know the full story of what happened twenty-seven years ago, and you don’t know the full story of what’s happening now. I think you’ll do everyone an injustice if you assume anything.”

Shayla nodded. “That’s why I’m turning in my resignation. There’s no way I can work there now.”

“I think you should rethink that decision.”

Shayla was startled by her aunt’s suggestion. “But why?”

“Because, although you haven’t admitted it to me and possibly not even to yourself, I think that you care a great deal for Nicholas Chenault.” She stood and crossed the room and sat down next to her niece. “I think I can even go so far as to say you’ve fallen in love with him.”

Callie held up her hand when Shayla started to interrupt her. “Don’t bother denying it, especially to me. I don’t know what happened between you and Nicholas Chenault in Hong Kong, and maybe it’s for the best that I don’t know, but what’s important is how you feel for him inside, here,” she said, placing the same hand over her heart.

Shayla gazed lovingly at her aunt, wondering if she’d ever been in love. For as long as she could remember, her aunt had never been involved in a serious relationship, although she was sure numerous men had been interested. Callie Foster was too good-looking for men not to have been. She did speak like a woman who had experienced love at some point in her life.

The look in Shayla’s eyes turned soft, curious. She thought about what her aunt had just said. She didn’t have to wonder if she was in love with Nicholas. She knew that she was. “What if everything’s one-sided?” she asked her aunt quietly. “What if Nicholas was just caught up in being happy about things working out the way he’d wanted regarding the Ling Deal? What if what he felt was nothing but a case of lust and nothing more, and what if—”

“And what if,” Callie interrupted, “he left Hong Kong caring as deeply for you as you care for him? Don’t you think you’d want to know the truth?”

“The truth…” Shayla’s voice trailed off with those words. A thick lump formed in her throat. “How can I expect the truth when my working at Chenault Electronics has been a lie from the very beginning? I only went to work there to destroy the company.”

“Then at some point you’ll have to be completely honest with Nicholas, tell him everything. And if he loves you he’ll understand.”

Shayla rose and walked over to the window and looked out. She knew what her aunt had just said was the truth. At some point in time she would have to tell Nicholas everything, and hope he understood.

Callie came and stood beside her. “I suggest you put everything out of your mind for a while and get some rest. You have too many issues to deal with, and you don’t have to tackle everything all at once.”

She put her arms around Shayla’s shoulders. “Go on and take your shower and get into bed. When you wake up you’ll feel better.”

Shayla nodded, but she knew it would take more than a shower and a few hours of sleep to make her feel better.

It was close to midnight when Nicholas shut the door behind him, thinking how good it was to be back home. This was his place. His space. And he shared it with no one. He wanted to take a shower, but was too keyed up to do it right then.

After he left his mother’s home he had gone back to the office to see if Elliott had any news for him. He had. Just as was suspected—arson. Someone had deliberately set fire to the lab. Traces of kerosene were found in one corner of the room near a window.

Nicholas inhaled deeply, wishing for something stronger to drink than the can of beer in the refrigerator. Better still, he felt the need to slam his fist into a wall. It was a good thing the phone rang right then. He picked it up. “Yeah?”

“Nick? This is Trent. You okay?”

With a heavy sigh Nicholas sat down on the edge of his desk. “I’m just fine and dandy, for someone who discovered that someone tried to burn him out.”

There was a pause. “You think my father had something to do with it, don’t you?”

Nicholas rubbed his palm against his forehead. “Considering his past track record, I’d be lying to you if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind, Trent. But I want to be fair.”

“You always have, and I appreciate that, Nick.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not always easy where your old man is concerned.”

Nicholas heard a slight chuckle. “I know that.”

Nicholas frowned. “There’s going to be an investigation. Whatever the outcome, it’s out of my hands,” he said carefully.

He heard Trent draw in a slow breath. “Yeah, I know.” There was another pause, then Trent asked, “Did Shayla give you my message?”

The raw ache Nicholas had been battling all day intensified. “I haven’t talked to Shayla since I left Hong Kong.”

“Oh?”

“But you have?” Nicholas found himself almost snapping out the question.

“Yes, we were on the same flight returning to the States. I managed to get a seat next to her.”

For the second time a feeling of jealousy began to take root inside Nicholas, and that infuriated him as much as the thought of Trent and Shayla spending time together on the long flight. He was tempted to tell him to find a woman of his own, but stopped short. No woman had ever made him feel jealousy toward his best friend. He knew that Trent, like any man, would appreciate a beautiful woman. But he also knew his best friend could be trusted.

“Nick?”

“Yes?”

“Why haven’t you talked to Shayla?”

Nicholas’s frown deepened. “I’ve been busy.”

“We’ve been back four days now.”

“Yeah. So?” Nicholas found himself feeling irritable because he knew he should have called her, and guilty because he hadn’t.

“I’d think you’d have at least picked up the phone to contact her. She indicated that you said you would,” Trent said.

“As I told you, I’ve been busy. Besides, our engagement was fabricated for Ming and the others. I told you that.”

“Yeah, but you also gave me the impression—in fact you made it pretty damn clear—that she was off-limits.”

Nicholas struggled to keep his hands from tightening around the phone. “I got caught up in the moment, being in the company of a beautiful woman, Trent. Forget anything I said, or insinuated.”

There was a long pause. “Are you sure about that, Nicholas?”

Nicholas laughed softly, wanting desperately to believe the words he had spoken to Trent. “Yeah, I’m sure. I have too much going on to get involved. A woman like Shayla can cloud your mind,” he said. She can invade your space, he thought, even worse, she could get into your heart.

There was another pause. “When will you be returning to Chicago, Nick?”

“In another week or so. I have plenty of stuff to do here.”

“Give me a call when you get to town so we can get together. There’s something I need to talk to you about. There’s a favor I need to ask,” Trent said.

“Okay.”

Nicholas ended the call with Trent, knowing he had just lied through his teeth. As much as he wanted to deny it, he was already involved with Shayla. Sleeping with someone like her constituted some sort of an involvement.

With a disgusted sigh he walked off to the kitchen.

Shayla made it through her first morning in the offices of Chenault Electronics. After her conversation with her aunt on Sunday, she had decided to continue working for the company until she could decide how she would handle giving Nicholas her resignation. His still being at the Jacksonville office made things easier for her. She didn’t agree with the saying, “out of sight, out of mind,” though—Nicholas was constantly in her thoughts.

It had been five days since she had returned from China, and he hadn’t called her. At first she thought he hadn’t gotten around to calling because of the fire situation. He’d probably been too busy. But, according to conversations she had overheard among the employees in the break room, damage wasn’t all that extensive, and things were now pretty much back to normal. There was also some talk about bringing the big Jacksonville lab project to Chicago while the lab was being repaired.

Leanne, Nicholas’s Chicago secretary, had put her in a spacious office down the hall from where Nicholas’s office was located. She’d given her a huge stack of reports to read and go over that were related to her training as one of the managers for this particular site. The woman had also informed her that Mr. Chenault was not expected in the Chicago office for another week or so.

Deciding to put Nicholas out of her mind and concentrate on doing a good job, Shayla had begun going through all the papers on her desk. When she looked up, a man she’d never seen before was standing in her doorway.

“I didn’t mean to disturb you, Ms. Kirkland.”

Shayla put aside the papers she had been reading. She had been introduced to the office staff earlier that morning, and since she knew how office gossip worked, she wasn’t surprised that the man knew her name. “You didn’t.”

He entered the room. “I’m Carl Stockard, head of security here at Chenault.”

Shayla frowned. She thought Paul was head of security. She stood and held out her hand. “Nice meeting you, Mr. Stockard. What happened to Paul?”

The man lifted a dark eyebrow and accepted her hand in a businesslike handshake. “What do you mean?”