Chapter 17

© Copyright 2006 by Elizabeth Delayne



Jason had moved south following Gabriel’s whim, his dream. It had been a quick decision, really, for both of them. Gabriel had grasped onto it as an escape. He’d probably gotten the idea from being around Julie for so long. The life in the south that Julie complained dragged on it on without relief ... such a life suddenly appealed to them both.

And Jason had discovered the life did appeal to him. He loved his house, with its big yard, out away from the center of activity. In fact, the center of activity in the small town was manageable. If he needed to focus his mind, to spend some quiet time alone, he just stayed home and went outside. He loved to get on the big tractor that he’d bought with the house and mow his lawn.

He’d never dreamed, during his life in the city, that the action could be a catharsis for him.

In his life, he’d taken a lot of funny turns. He’d never expected a night school economics class and stock market game to turn into a profession. He hadn’t expected the scholarship to business school or the invitation from top firms on wall street.

Even then, he’d been more surprised that he’d run in the other direction. He didn’t want a big career. He wanted to stay sane.

For a long time, that’s all he’d wanted.

He’d never expected to follow in his mother’s faith, now his own.

He’d never expected to want family.

Nicole, Dusty ... and Trisha.

Thinking of her today made him smile. It had been a long road to find this peace with her. He wasn’t exactly sure why she’d held on, waited for him, put up with his long term moody spells and unwillingness to commit. He had neither paid much attention to her needs, nor sought to discover from where they came.

Well, not as he should have.

Keeping him around, dealing with it all, couldn’t have been easy on her. He’d just put her off time and time again.

He hadn’t just put her off ... he’d overlooked big parts of her.

She’d had to give up her dreams; return home after her mother’s death and help her father out at the diner. She’d been in school to be an accountant and only had a part time job as one now.

He wondered what she would do if she had the choice. Or maybe it was her choice.

He hadn’t expected to be taking his siblings on.

Some might say—he might have said a month ago—that he hadn’t had a choice. But he thought he had. And like the move south, the journey toward Christ, and his friendship with Gabriel, it felt right.

He’s taken on a sister, a brother.

He grinned ... he was about to take on a wife.

* * *

Sitting on a rocking chair on the back porch, Nicole watched the old green tractor roll across the lawn. She had never watched a lawn being mowed, or a tractor, for that matter. It was hard to believe it was Jason’s lawn and it was Jason on the gigantic machine.

He said it helped him think.

She turned the phone she held in her hand around and around and watched him. He seemed so content now, at peace with himself. He wasn’t the same boy she’d known in the old neighborhood. He hadn’t just grown up or grown into himself. He’d changed.

Maybe so had she ... or maybe she was just discovering who she was.

She’d always thought she read best in the library. Still there was something about the soft summer breeze, the heat of the sun, the smell of fresh cut grass.

It played, like a symphony, on her senses.

Nicole shook her headas she set the phon in her lap and dropped her eyes back to her book. It all seemed surreal.

But maybe it wasn’t too much to believe that Amelia Rossi would have been happy here. Hadn’t she talked of the Italian countryside—which she’d never seen—as if it was heaven on earth? Hadn’t she described a vineyard down to the tools needed?

Nicole smiled as she pictured her mother as the one on the tractor; with a straw had and her face lifted up to the sun.

With that smile, she returned to the book and sank into the information. It was nothing but facts and details ... but they enlivened her.

When the phone rang, she answered it. It was her job after all to moniter Jason’s calls while he couldn’t hear or answer the phone himself. He was in contact with people all around the world. He monitered their stocks, their finances, their retirement accounts.

And the one time she’d been close enough to someone to look at their accounts, she’d made the wrong choice.

She hated that Jason was trusting her even this close to his job.

And she was just answering the phone.

“Jason Rossi’s ... office,” she said, for lack of a better term. She looked around at the trees and the yard, and Jason on his tractor. In a way, it was his office.

The line was still silent.

“Hello?”

“Been looking for you.”

Nicole froze and felt her book slide to the porch. It hit with a thump.

“Dad—“

”Where are the jewels, Nicole?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“He doesn’t trust you with them?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“You’re my business. I can see you now, sitting out n the porch looking like a country girl.”

She looked up, looked around, scanning the trees. How could she have felt safe, she wondered. He could hide in the city. He had hidden completely at times when he was hot.

And he was here. Still here. Still waiting.

“You’re not a country girl, Nicole. You know your place. You have talent. With me. Come back to where you belong.”

She pressed a hand to the tender spot where he’d stabbed her. Her father. Her own father ... who’d left her for dead, had taken Sarah’s money and left her to take the wrap.

“I don’t belong with you.”

“Sure you do. I’ll be back of the library when you come in at two. That’s your regular schedule, isn’t it? Taking those computer classes, trying to make your way through college. Volunteering for the library, making everyone think they can trust you. They should know better. I know better. I know your schedule after all. You belong with me.”

“Leave me alone.”

“I know you, Nicole. I know what you’re like.”

“Just leave me alone,” she shouted, pushing to stand, even as she trembled violentl. “Just leave me alone!”

“When you bring me what I want. I’ll be at the library today. At two. Bring the jewels with you.”

“They don’t belong to you. And they don’t belong to me.”

“You belong to me. You’ve always been my daughter.”

“I’m not your daughter,” Nicole’s voice shook.

“You are. And your brother, Dusty. He’s such a good kid ... but he’s got potential. No one would suspect him.”

“He’ll never—“

”You can’t hide him away forever. I know he’s at that school. The one for the deaf? Made my way up there last week. Cased the joint, thought about sneaking in ... but thought I’d wait. You know I can get to him. I can get wherever—“

The phone was ripped from her hands. She turned, watched Jason bark into the phone. He had his hand on her arm, holding on.

She couldn’t breath. She couldn’t ...

“Nicole,” tossing the phone onto the padded ottoman, Jason lowered her to the chair. “Nicole, look at me.”

“He knows where Dusty.”

“He won’t get to Dusty.”

“He can get anywhere. Jason, he can get where ever he wants to get.”

“Not to Dusty,” Jason shook her gently. “Nicole, look at me. He can’t get to Dusty, and he can’t get everywhere. If he could, he would have robbed Fort Knox by now.”

She was shaking. She couldn’t stop shaking. Why had she thought she would find answers down here? Why had she thought Dusty would be safe? “Jason ...”

“He won’t get to Dusty, Nicole, but he knows how to get to you. What did he say?”

“He wants me to bring him the jewels.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”



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