Chester
She was not ready. Knowing she had a father, one who left her from the time she was five years old when he knew of her, for the last seventeen years to be alone without him, was leaving her torn. She could not fathom a situation where she would be able to leave a child, she knew was hers behind without going to see them.
Yet, curiosity was forcing her feet through the hallways of what she could only describe as a mansion. Everything was stark white and austere.
“Is this your home?”
“Yes.”
“Does Shay and my,” she stumbled over the word, “my father live here?”
“Your father does. Shay is married and lives with her husband in a nearby neighborhood. Your grandfather, biologically speaking and your grandmother, not so biologically but very emotionally, also live nearby.”
“My does my father live here.”
“He will explain.”
“Are you lovers?”
He stopped walking and turned to face her, frowning, “first Shay and now Chester. Do you think all people who are friends and close are lovers? Are you and Sidonia Gaines lovers?”
“No!”
“Yet you lived together.”
She shrugged, “I guess.”
“My parents died when I was young, and I was raised by my grandfather. He wasn’t a pleasant man and insisted on a set of rules he wanted me to abide by and when I didn’t follow the career path he set for me, he cut me off financially. Thankfully, the Navy and my brothers, took care of all the basic necessities of life and provided me support in a way the old bastard never did.”
“Your grandfather sounds like a jerk,” she muttered as they started walking again.
He laughed lowly, “he is but he is my grandfather. After my third or fourth tour he realized, I was sticking to my guns. He trained the son of his best friend to take over his business and he made sure I could access my trust funds if I needed them. I also received a huge insurance settlement from the passing of my parents.” He motioned to a large spiral staircase and a ginormous crystal chandelier, “I do okay for myself.”
At the bottom of the stairs, they came across Shay pacing nervously near a doorway.
“Everything okay, Shay?” Orlando asked with a furrowed brow.
“No,” she looked up. “Dane was doing the task we asked of him, and he’s been discovered.”
“Who is Dane?”
“My husband.”
“Shay, take Zorah to Chester. I believe he’s on the garden patio.”
“I thought he said the office.”
“I think he’s so damn nervous the four walls were closing in on him,” Orlando gave a laugh at Shay’s comment. “I’ll get some intel on Dane. Come find me once you deliver Zorah.”
He turned and walked away without a second glance.
Shay gave her a small smile, “come on.”
“Is Dane in danger?” Zorah asked quietly as Shay led her through the house towards a set of patio doors.
“Remember when I told you Chester and Orlando joined the navy with a third friend? It was Dane. We’ve been together since my thirtieth birthday. He’s two years younger than me. He’s tough as nails and a very capable man. I’m not as much worried about his safety as I am about the task we sent him to do being compromised.” Shay pushed the doors open, “now enough of this. This meeting is so long overdue.”
She walked slightly ahead of Zorah and Zorah felt her footsteps faltering with each step onto the patio.
Sitting at a small table, overlooking a garden was a man wearing a green dress shirt, opened at the collar and a pair of black trousers, shoes which shined bright and a gold chain glistened at his neck. However, it was the chair he was sitting in which drew Zorah’s gaze. Her breath caught as she realized what she was looking at. A wheelchair.
“Chester,” Shay’s voice was quiet, “I brought Zorah down to meet you.”
The man turned his head slowly and Zorah felt an immediate sense of familiarity at the brown eyes of the man.
“Zorah,” his voice was a hoarse rasp, and he cleared his throat and blinked rapidly. “Come, come, sit.” He waved to a chair set at the table. “I asked the cook to set the table for breakfast.”
Zorah sat down at the table nervously as she took in the sight of the man who was without a doubt in her mind her biological parent. Their eyes were identical as were their noses and lips. She’d always believed she looked like her mom, but she knew now she was very wrong. Perhaps Ippocrate’s years of screaming she was exactly like her mother warped her view. Sitting here staring at Chester Frye, she knew she was the spitting image of him.
He chuckled, “Orlando told me earlier I should try dressing in drag sometimes because I’d be quite beautiful. Now I know why. I’ve seen you before, of course, at a distance but up close you are beautiful.” His smile was tentative.
“I thought I looked like Mom but, um,” she shook her head in disbelief.
“I look like my father. You’ll meet him later and you’ll see we have some pretty strong genes.” He reached out and poured a coffee from a carafe on the table. “Coffee?”
“Yes please.” Her stomach rumbled and he laughed.
“Maybe some breakfast as well.” He lifted a phone off the table and sent a text. “I’ve messaged the cook to bring out breakfast. You must feel ravenous.” He gave a tight smile, “I am sorry for the way we brought you in. We got word you were in danger from two different factions looking for you and needed to move quickly.”
“Two? I thought maybe The Walrus or Ippocrate but who else?”
“The Gallo family, thanks to the way Icaro managed his situation with their daughter, put a hit on you. Then Ippocrate paid a family to kidnap you and bring you back to him. The Walrus, well, I wasn’t aware of him until overnight. It seems by the way, he’s Icaro’s number one suspect in your disappearance which gives us a bit more time before he shows up at the door.”
“Ippocrate is trying to get me back to him?”
“Yes. My brother-in-law Dane is in Providence as we speak trying to figure out where the blowhard was going to stash you.”
“Stash me?”
“Yes. We thought at first, he was simply bringing you back and was going to hide you from Icaro. After the revelations you’ve provided Orlando, we realize his plan was a bit more nefarious. We are now of the opinion he wants to keep you for himself for sinister reasons. We need to find where he was going to put you in order to expose his plans.”
“You think he was going to make me a sex slave?”
“Yes.”
“Icaro is going to kill him,” she whispered to nobody in particular.
“Not if Orlando does first.”
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