Kept Secrets (Secret, Love & Betrayal Novel Book 2) Read online

  Dr. Yancy looked up from the chart she was filling out. “Did you say something?” Taylor shook her head.

  Dr. Yancy put her chart down on the brown rollaway table and folded her arms across her ample chest. “Taylor, I cleared the room because I want to talk to you more about your condition.”

  Taylor started to panic, and her heart pounded against her chest.

  She tried to sit up straight in the bed, but the pain in her back was too severe. Dr. Yancy rushed over and fluffed the pillows behind Taylor’s head. “Are you okay?” Dr. Yancy asked with a concerned tone. Taylor nodded and rested her head back against the puffy white pillows.

  Dr. Yancy continued, “The little one is all right, but you’re going to have to be on bed rest for a while.”

  Taylor frowned up at the doctor. She tried to speak, but couldn’t get the words around the lump that lodged in her throat. Instead, she pointed at a cup of ice chips sitting on the rollaway table. Dr. Yancy followed Taylor’s line of sight, and quickly placed the cup in her trembling hand.

  Taylor took a sip of water and swirled an ice chip in her mouth a few times before letting it slide down her throat.

  “Can you please explain what you mean by little one?” she asked in a shaky voice.

  Dr. Yancy’s right eyebrow shot up, and her blue eyes widened as she said, “Oh, you don’t know?”

  Taylor shook her head, alarm filling every fiber of her body.

  “You’re six weeks pregnant,” Dr. Yancy replied, giving her a wide smile. “Congratulations.”

  The room was spinning, or so it seemed to Taylor. How did this happen? All of her secrets were out, and now she would have to keep one more from the man she loved!

  ***

  Taylor sat in the wheelchair at her parents’ three-story Colonial home, waiting for the nurse her mother had hired for her recovery. She surveyed the foyer with its cathedral ceilings, vintage paintings, and crystal chandeliers, along with a few plants struggling to get a better view of the sunlight. Taylor was having her own inner battle; she didn’t have the strength to fight her mother on coming to their vacation home in Naperville, nor did she have the guts to confide in her family about her problems.

  Pam and Libby had called and said that Dynasty magazine was thriving in her absence. Mrs. Tabb, her secretary, was back in the office and had overnighted some important documents, which had arrived early that morning. If she had to do this “bed rest” thing, she could at least do some work to pass the time.

  Toni had brought some clothes from her house and made sure everything was secure. She wasn’t sure who had told Ari to come to the hospital, but it was probably for the best. Keeping the media from poking around in her love life was a top priority.

  Tyler had driven her from the hospital to her parents’ house and was now helping the nurse, Joy, bring in the medical equipment from her car.

  She still hadn’t spoken with her father and that concerned her some, but not enough to go asking around for him.

  Taylor ran a slender hand down her flat stomach. “A baby,” she whispered, wondering how she would tell the most eligible bachelor in Chicago that he was about to be a father; it was like clipping the man’s wings. Kalon was a care-free individual, bedding a different woman every night. Taylor was sure a baby was not in his plans or his future. The last thing she remembered him saying was to get out of his house. She had never seen him so angry.

  This was definitely not what Taylor wanted, to still be married and having another man’s baby. Pain ebbed at her temples, and a migraine would soon follow. Taylor laid her head on the back of the wheelchair and closed her eyes, but heard the nurse’s shoes slapping against the wood floor. Joy came into the foyer.

  “Do you need a Tylenol, Taylor?” she asked, the concern evident in her tone.

  Taylor shifted in the chair and nodded.

  The nurse rummaged in the medical bags she had brought in, then went into the kitchen and brought back a glass of water.

  Taylor recalled the doctor’s specific instructions, “You can only take Tylenol for your headaches.” She closed her eyes once more, and knew that it would take more than a pain pill to quell the ache in her mind and heart.

  Joy helped her into one of the guest rooms on the main level, which had already been set up to accommodate her needs. A hospital bed with the sling attached, along with a rollaway table and a few get-well cards placed across the window sill, showed how resourceful Tammy Briggs could be.

  Tyler brought in the last of the items and the nurse directed him to place them on the dresser. He came over and kissed her cheek after making sure she was comfortable in the bed.

  “I’ll be back and check on you soon,” Tyler said.

  Taylor glanced up at her brother and crinkled her nose in a slight smile.

  “Thanks, Ty,” she responded in a mellow tone. Clamping his hands together, he exited the bedroom door.

  Nurse Joy worked effortlessly around the room, setting up her equipment. Afterwards, she took Taylor’s temperature and blood pressure, and then she fluffed the pillows behind Taylor’s head. “I’ll be down the hall if you need anything.”

  Taylor leaned over and spotted her mp3 player on the side nightstand. “Can you hand me that?”

  “Sure.” Joy walked swiftly over to the nightstand and handed Taylor the portable radio. “Anything else?” Taylor half-smiled.

  “No, not right now, and you don’t have to wait on me hand and foot. I know my mother probably told you to make sure I’m well taken care of, but don’t worry I will be an easy patient.”

  Nurse Joy raised the corners of her mouth in a smile and nodded.

  Relaxing her head against the fluffy pillows, Taylor gazed around the room, looking for the cordless phone. Her mother had every room in the house decorated in the theme of a different country she had once visited. The living room reflected France, the dining room had a Italian décor, the bedrooms on the upper level were in the style of Bahamas islands, Ghana, and Hong Kong, and the basement … well, the basement was her father’s domain, so it had been decked out with Chicago Bulls portraits of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, six plasma, flat screen televisions for his sport nights, and his golf equipment occupied a spacious corner.

  The room Taylor was slated to stay in for a while had a Spanish theme. Orange tiles and sun-kissed drapes let a sparkling glow into the dimly lit room. The phone wasn’t in its usual place, which caused Taylor to let out a frustrated sigh. Cordless phones were in every room of the house, and now one was “conveniently” missing from this one.

  She needed to call Kalon to let him know she was out of the hospital and doing somewhat well. The images of him in the ambulance with her were still fragmented pieces. She wasn’t sure if she conjured him up or if he really had been there after the crash. Just like when she was in the hospital; she could swear that his baritone voice had radiated in her ears. Luckily, the Tylenol kicked in, pushing all thoughts of Kalon, the accident, and her unwanted husband to the background as she fell into a much needed sleep.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Jay shuffled around his tidy kitchen inside of his townhome, trying to piece things together before he came to Ari with any type of information. He walked to the fridge and reached in for a beer, but then thought better of it. He needed to keep a clear head right about now.

  In the last few hours, Maci Drummer had become ghost. She had just packed up and left without a single word to anyone. That chick stayed on the wrong side of broke, so she wasn’t financially stable enough to move at a moment’s notice. Regardless, she had somehow.

  The worst part was that Jay wasn’t sure if she was alive or if someone was going to try and blackmail his brother about her absence. He remembered his brother’s words, Someone hit me upside the head. Who could that have been?

  Moving past the sofa, end table, and plasma television to stand at the window, he lowered one of the slats of the blind and peered out.

  Jay recognized that his unpre
dictable ways put a lot of stress on his parents, but he never had the kind of trouble with women that Ari always seemed to have. Jay did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to do it. In his thirty-two years, he had never settled down with a woman. He had a few love interests right now, but nothing serious. Asking someone to adapt to his lifestyle was selfish. Jay had a few enemies lurking around from his days in the streets, but never feared running into any of them. He realized one day he would have to face his demons, but by then he would be more than ready. However, that was a story for another day.

  Ari Gallagher was everything Jay wished he could be. By the time he saw that there was a better path to take, Jay was too far gone to come back to being the good son again. So he poured all the goodness and smarts he had into Ari so that he could excel. After college, Ari expressed his interest in aviation and went on to pilot school to earn the proper documentation and receive the minimum flight hours. Then he became a pilot for a commercial airline. He married a successful woman, which was something their mother wanted for him. Jay had done everything in his power to make sure it happened. If Ari knew that undergrad and those pilot lessons were paid for with dirty cash, he might not consider his life such a triumph. Jay had been smart enough to hide his contributions in the form of “scholarships” and anonymous donations.

  Now his brother might be facing murder or kidnapping. Hell, he wasn’t sure what to call it.

  Ari rattled the keys in the door and Jay ran to open it. Letting go of a long, slow breath, Ari trudged to the sofa and plopped down. He rested his arms behind his head and laid back against the armrest.

  “How is Taylor?” Jay asked.

  “I think she’s going to survive,” he answered, staring at the ceiling.

  Jay rubbed his chin, thinking of what that could mean. “You think she’s going to be okay? You don’t know?”

  Ari shrugged his shoulders. “She didn’t want me there, so I left.”

  Jay shook his head in disbelief. “Whatever, man,” Jay said in a low tone, still unable to figure out how his brother had gotten tangled up with the likes of Maci in the first place. “We got bigger problems.”

  Ari sat up straight and said, “Shoot.”

  Jay told Ari about the trip he took over to Maci’s condo and his findings.

  “They left?” Ari whispered.

  Jay nodded.

  “Do you think I killed her?” Ari asked Jay.

  Grabbing a rubber band off the coffee table, Jay pulled his long dreads up into a ponytail.

  “No, I don’t think Maci’s dead. As a matter of fact, I think she’s alive and well. Everything in her home was too neat and we both know Maci is not clean.”

  Ari pushed up from the sofa as he mulled over Jay’s words.

  “I’m going to have to call in some favors on this one,” Jay said simply. “I believe Maci’s out there.”

  Ari breathed a sigh of relief.

  Jay leveled a stony look at his brother. “But I need to know one thing …”

  Ari’s eyebrow went up.

  “Do you really want me to find her?”

  Ari’s jaw dropped. He stood and jammed his hands into his pants pockets. “Let’s get something clear, Jay. I want to find my daughter and that’s it. I just want my daughter.”

  Jay locked an intense glare on Ari as he asked, “No matter what I have to do?”

  Ari crossed the distance between them and clasped a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “No matter what it takes.”

  ***

  Ari’s pearl white Navigator sped down North Avenue and made a turn at Grand Avenue. The Whispers café was on the corner of Clark and Division, and had been his brother’s favorite spot to meet since they were teenagers.

  Jay had been working with his contacts and told Ari to stay busy. While Jay tried to get a line on Maci and Adrianne, and Taylor was holed up at her parents’ place, Ari picked up extra flight assignments to keep himself occupied. When he landed at O’Hare airport thirty minutes ago, he discovered that Jay had left a message on his cell asking Ari to meet him as soon as his flight landed.

  He didn’t even have time to change from his blue, white, and red uniform into some jeans and a T-shirt. Ari placed a call to Tammy to check on Taylor, who still wouldn’t take his calls. He could hear the concern in his mother-in-law’s voice, but right now everything was on Taylor. He still hadn’t spoken to her since she had been released from the hospital. He wanted to save his marriage, but Adrianne took precedence right now. His daughter could be in danger, or it could be Maci playing games. Either way, his brother would get a handle on things. Evidently, the fact that they needed to have this meeting, meant that his brother already had a handle on things.

  The traffic light flashed a solid red. Ari jammed on his brakes, trying to rein in his truck before it went careening into the intersection. The action sent his body jolting forward. He closed his eyes, resting his head against the steering wheel.

  His thoughts had drifted frequently over the past month, so this stuff seemed to happen to him all the time. “A month,” Ari repeated out loud, waiting for the light to change. Thankfully, when he was in the skies, his focus would always be where it should—keeping hundreds of passengers safe. However, when it came to driving, that was another story altogether. He had to do better. His life was important, too. He had to be there for his daughter. And if he could make things right, he would be there for his wife.

  The moment the light turned green, Ari punched the accelerator. Pulling his truck into the takeout spot, he jumped out and hit the alarm on his key ring. Storming through the glass door, he scanned the café for Jay, who was seated in a secluded area with a full view of the window, surveying the area, which was normal for his brother. He always sat at a spot where he could see people coming in, or if any strange cars were staking out the area.

  Jay had the phone to his ear and held up his index finger to Ari, who had cornered the counter and quickened his steps to make it to the booth. Ari could tell the conversation was serious by Jay’s creased eyebrows and the faraway look in his dark grey eyes. Ari left the table, walked past a couple of people on their laptops, a man perched up on a small platform playing a guitar, and went up to the curvy waitress at the counter to order a coffee.

  She gave him a lusty once-over and said, “Coming right up, sugar.”

  Jay ended his call as soon as Ari sat down. He opened his mouth to speak, but the waitress showed up with Ari’s coffee.

  “Anything else I can get for you two handsome men?”

  “Naw, we’re straight for right now,” Jay answered, giving her a toothy grin. “We’ll let you know.”

  She bounced away with a little pep in her step.

  “A little old for you,” Ari teased Jay.

  “No such thing as too old, if you can keep up.”

  The two shared a laugh.

  Stirring a little cream into the coffee, Ari asked, “What did you find out?”

  Jay took a swallow of his mocha latte and stared at Ari, locking him with an intense gaze. The bags under his brother’s eyes and the wrinkled clothes showed he hadn’t slept in a few days.

  Ari pushed his coffee away from him. Whatever information Jay had found out, it wasn’t good.

  “You said it was two men in the room when you got hit upside the head, right?”

  Ari nodded.

  “Okay, according to my informant there were two men taking clothes from the apartment and loading them into a moving truck.”

  Jay surveyed the area for a moment and lowered his tone. “This person also said a woman came out of the apartment, too, carrying some items. Also, there was another woman with dark shades on and long hair talking to Maci, who drove off in a black car.”

  Ari shook his head. “Hold up, was the woman carrying the stuff, Maci?

  “The two women’s identity is unclear right now, but I believe the first woman coming out of the house was Maci. I think if we can find out who the second woman was, we can find M
aci.”

  “So you think Maci had some help?” Ari asked.

  “Yeah,” Jay replied. “You said it yourself. Maci doesn’t have the financial means to just pick up and go. She was basically living off the money you gave her.”

  Ari rested his elbows on the table. “I hear what you’re saying, but who would help Maci disappear and why?”

  Jay downed the remainder of his drink. “That’s what we have to find out. I got a lead on the truck’s license plate. It’s going to take me a few days to find out who rented it.”

  “Did anyone see Adrianne?”

  “And that’s the sad part. No one said anything about a child.”

  Ari sat in silence for a few moments, sipping his coffee. The heated liquid did nothing to move away the ice in his veins.

  Ari recalled the times Maci would always tell him if he didn’t come home to her and his daughter, so that they could be a family, she would make him pay. He figured this was her way of proving a point. He had to admit he went too far when he wrapped his hands around Maci’s neck, but she had pushed him to the breaking point. Stalking Taylor and attacking her in a parking lot was not cool. Taping them supposedly having sex and mailing it to Taylor was the last straw.

  “What do you think is really going on?” Ari asked his brother.

  “For her to leave with your child like that, we could be dealing with a bitter woman. Or she could be crazy enough to have done something to Adrianne just to get back at you,” Jay stated in a smooth voice.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A banging sound at his front door yanked Kalon from a restless sleep. He pulled the covers over his face, as if that action alone could drown out the noise. “Whoever you are, go away,” he shouted from his bedroom.

  It had been eight weeks since Taylor’s accident and he hadn’t heard from her or any information about how she was doing. He called her cell phone a few times, and the first few days it just rang constantly. Now the voicemail picked up on the first ring. He wasn’t sure if she was ignoring him or if Mayor Briggs was staying true to his threat. Kalon could still hear the mayor’s voice as if he was standing right beside him. Stay away from my daughter. Do not contact her or see her again. Those bitter words sent a piercing stab of pain into his heart, and were the main reason he hadn’t left the house in a while. He still hadn’t found a way to get to Taylor.