“It’s been a pretty normal Thursday around here.  How about you?  Meg’s note says you needed to hear my voice. Is everything all right?”

He let go with a tension filled breath.  “Yeah, everything’s good now.  I just wanted to hear your voice and tell you that I love you.”

He could hear her smile as she responded, “And I love you.  Come on, there’s more to it than that though, what’s going on?”

“I’m probably going to be working late tonight.  I have a 4:30 appointment.  Do you remember about six months ago when we ran into Liza Conrad at Papa’s?”

Lane thought back.  Sure, she remembered.  Liza had been a beautiful woman who was about five feet six inches tall, had long brown hair and big brown eyes.  She was a former KC Chiefs cheerleader who was now a Psychologist.  They’d run into her with a date but Lane remembered thinking at the time that Liza would have fallen back into Ben’s arms in a heartbeat if only he’d given her the slightest sign that he was interested.

“Yes.  The former cheerleader, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.  It’s a long story, and I’m going to condense it.  When I dated her she had a stalker.  Carol Anne was a consultant for the police on the case.  Liza called today to say that she thinks Lila might arrest her for Carol Anne’s murder.  She wants me to represent her and we have an appointment at 4:30 to talk.”

Lane rubbed the bridge of her nose.  A small headache was starting to form.  It had been a short night.  Ben had gone home around eleven o’clock and Jess had called around 1:00 a.m. to say she’d landed.  She’d called again a couple of hours later to say she was safe and sound in her condo.  Lane had tossed and turned after that, thinking about what might have happened to Ben yesterday if he hadn’t put his phone on speaker.

“Okay.  Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because of our conversation Sunday.  Only telling you about my past if it impacts the here and now.  I think this qualifies.  If you have even the slightest concern about me representing Liza, tell me and I’ll have her find another attorney to represent her.”

Lane sighed.  Ben was a babe magnet.  And now he was her babe magnet.  Ben didn’t cheat.  She’d seen that in his relationships over the last three years.  They’d have to move to Montana to avoid him having contact with any of his exes.  She didn’t want to move to Montana.

“I have no concerns about you defending an ex-girlfriend.”

He didn’t say anything.

“Ben?”

She heard him let out a breath.  “All right.  I love you.”

“I love you, and Ben, I don’t want to move to Montana.”  She ran her fingers over the necklace he’d given her as an engagement gift.  She knew she held the key to his heart.

“Montana?”

“It’s where we’d have to go to avoid ever having contact with one of your exes.”

He laughed, but the real joke was that moving to Montana wouldn’t guarantee anything.  One of the girls he dated in college was from Billings. It didn’t seem like that had any impact on the here and now, so there was no reason to disclose that particular fact.

“I’ll see you as soon as I can get away,” he said as he ended the call.

He went back to his notes, but not five minutes passed before his cell rang again.  When had he turned into a conductor at grand central?  He checked the screen.  It was Jess.

“Is everything all right,” he asked.

“You tell me,” Jess replied icily.

That was right, what did they say?  What are the three fastest forms of communication?  Telephone, Telegraph and Tell-a-Parker.  He and Lane had told Jamie about Rochelle last night.

“Yes, everything’s fine.  No one was hurt.  Your mother wasn’t even there.”

“No, she wasn’t there.  She was on the other end of the phone listening helplessly to some lunatic who was trying to get you to denounce my mother and declare your undying love for said lunatic.”

Jess had lowered her voice to just above a whisper enunciating each measured syllable.  It was something he knew well.  The Parkers didn’t shout when they were really pissed, they lowered their voices and forced you to lean in and listen hard to hear them.  The Bellinis on the other hand were Italian.  They were shouters, but he lowered his voice and matched Jess’s measured tone.

“Well, believe me, no one is ever going to get me to denounce your mother.  I’ll declare my love for her with my last dying breath.”

Jess raised her voice to conversational tones again.  “I believe you.  This isn’t about whether or not you love her.  It’s about whether or not you can protect her.  I hear the lunatic may have killed Carol Anne.”  She lowered her voice again.   “How many more are out there, Ben?”

He couldn’t argue.  It was something he’d thought about several times today.  Could he keep Lane safe?  Hell yes, he could keep her safe.  That’s what he’d told himself every time the topic had intruded into his conscience today.  Jess was a tougher audience than he was.

“What do you always tell us kids?  Mom’s naïve.  We have to pay attention to everything because she doesn’t always.  She trusts everyone.”  She lowered her voice again.  “What if the next one comes after Mom instead of you?”

“Jess…”

“No, Ben you know what the right thing to do is.  I know you do.”  She lowered her voice again.  “Do the right thing, Ben.  I’ll give you until Saturday and if you haven’t done it by then, I’ll take care of it.”

And he was listening to dead air.

She was directing again, but that didn’t make her wrong.  Lane had told him a story of Jess at about two years old.  Lane was pregnant with Jamie, and Jake and Jess had been riding a tricycle through the house from one end of the house to the other.  It was raining and they couldn’t go outside. Finally Lane had enough and she’d told them to stop.  Jess had gotten off the back of the trike and stood toe to toe with Lane.  Hands on her little hips she had said “you can’t talk to my brother that way.”  Lane had told him she barely made it into her bedroom where she buried her face in a pillow so she could laugh.

Could he protect Lane?  Could he keep her safe or was the very fact that he loved her putting her in danger?

So Jess was giving him until Saturday to do what?  Break her Mother’s heart?  And his?  Because you’re still alive with a broken heart.  Hadn’t he just told her no one could get him to denounce his love for Lane?  He didn’t know what Jess would do, but he did know that if anyone ever made Lane choose between him and her kids, the kids would win every time.

He’d try to reason with Jess, but he’d wait until after her audition on Friday.  He knew she didn’t need this worry right now.  Why the hell had the Bambino called her?

Chapter 21

One Bellini two Bellini

His admin, Stephanie, showed Liza into Ben’s office.  He stood and reached across his desk, shook her hand, and motioned for her to sit.

“Let’s get right to it, shall we,” he said.

Liza nodded.

“Tell me why you think Detective Crane might arrest you.”

“I cancelled all of my appointments for last Friday afternoon.  As I told you on the phone, I was supposed to meet Carol Anne at the Club.  She was the CSW consulting on my stalker case, do you remember?”

Ben nodded.  Carol Anne was a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and consulted with the police to create a profile for Liza’s stalker.  Carol Anne had said the stalker was most likely a woman who wanted Liza’s life.  She was a cheerleader for a professional football team, she was beautiful, she was smart and she was a student getting an advanced degree.  As he recalled, it was the stalking incident that had prompted her to go into clinical psychology.

“So had you and Carol Anne kept in touch after the stalking incident?”

He’d dated Carol Anne a year after the incident and she’d never mentioned Liza even though she had to have known Ben and Liza had dated.