Carly Phillips - Lucky Charm

“Nobody knows what Mary Perkins is capable of better than me,” he continued. “I had the misfortune to run against her in one of her early mayoral campaigns.”

“What happened?” Gabrielle asked.

He settled his back against the house.

Sensing the man was caving in, Gabrielle joined him, ignoring the dull throb in her ankle. She’d deal with it later. Derek remained standing, more of a lookout than a participant.

“Campaign issues happened. I tried to run a clean campaign on the issues that should have been important to the community, but Mary Perkins didn’t play by anyone’s rules but her own. Everything came back to her status and power. Power she had no intention of losing.”

“I don’t understand,” Gabrielle said.

“Obviously you do understand or you wouldn’t be here. She went after me. And now she’s going after you. Mary Perkins doesn’t care about fairness. The only thing that’s important is power and winning at any cost.”

GABRIELLE STARED AT THE MAN in disbelief. “Mary Perkins wants me gone? She’s behind everything?” She shouldn’t be surprised and yet…“Tell me more.”

“She never fails to remind people of the family curse, but not in public. Not in her speeches. In private. When asking for donations. When she’s trying to push her own agenda on town council. She achieves her goals by frightening people into submission. And as you’ve no doubt seen and heard, people need only look to the Corwin men as proof of her point.”

Gabrielle winced, not looking at Derek. “Go on.”

“I tried to bring her dirty dealings out in the open. There was a Fourth of July gathering in the center of town and we were each making a speech. All I did was say that votes must be earned, and curses were only in people’s minds.” He cleared his throat, glancing out in a fog once more.

Gabrielle waited him out.

Finally, he continued. “My life went downhill after that. A picture surfaced of me and a prostitute. At first, it came to me alone with a note threatening to reveal it if I didn’t drop out of the race. It didn’t matter that I swore up and down it wasn’t me, I couldn’t prove it any more than I could prove Mary Perkins was behind it. But I knew.”

Gabrielle shivered because she knew, too. And now she knew who was behind Sharon’s pictures reemerging. Mary Perkins had somehow gotten ahold of them. Sharon and Richard were off talking to her ex-boyfriend. If he hadn’t sold them to Mary Perkins, she’d found another way to get her hands on them.

“So what did you do?” Gabrielle asked. Because she knew this man hadn’t gone from being a mayoral candidate to a hermit over some photographs. There had to be more.

“I refused to give in to the blackmail, of course. I was young and brash and I believed in integrity. I thought I could beat her despite it all. I never got that far. Shortly afterward, my wife had a car accident. It looked like she lost control of her vehicle, even though it wasn’t raining and the roads were in good shape.”

“You don’t believe it was an accident, do you?” Gabrielle asked soberly.

From everything Gabrielle had heard so far, Mary Perkins wasn’t just arrogant, she was evil. And that scared her. Not because Gabrielle believed in witches or curses, but because she feared what the woman was capable of if her power was threatened.

He shook his head. “The police said they didn’t find anything and I had no choice but to believe them. Personally, I think someone sabotaged the car. At the time, though, I was too busy with my gravely injured wife to give much thought to the car. She recovered eventually, but was left with tremors and paralysis on one side. I stayed by her through the whole ordeal, but she never forgave me for not dropping out of the race and preventing the whole thing.”

Gabrielle shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “So am I, but it doesn’t change anything.”

It did for Gabrielle. She wasn’t stupid. She was petrified for Sharon and Richard, who were also in Mary Perkins’s direct line of fire. And she was a little scared herself. She now knew who wanted her not just out of town, but away from the subject of the Corwin Curse.

Was she going to give in?

No way in hell.

Gabrielle was more determined than ever to beat Mary Perkins at her long-standing game.

GABRIELLE CALLED A MEETING. Since Holly was already at Hank’s place, Derek had asked his father to keep her busy for another hour or so. He also promised her that he’d take her out for a father-daughter dinner later on tonight. Gabrielle knew Derek felt guilty moving her out of his house and she understood why he’d want to hang out with her alone. As for Gabrielle, she’d spend the evening safe in Derek’s house, with its locks and alarm system.

Sharon and Richard met up with them at Derek’s place.

“It looks like we have a common enemy,” Richard said after they’d discussed the situation. He stood in the center of the family room, his suit and groomed appearance giving him an air of authority. A conservative air.

Gabrielle knew he loved Sharon deeply. Yet at the same time she could see how the renewed threat had changed their relationship. Sharon needed to find the strength that had carried her once before if she was going to get through this challenge. Sharon loved and wanted to marry Richard. She needed to have more faith in him and in herself.

Sharon shivered. “It’s just hard to believe one woman can be so evil.”

Gabrielle nodded. “So addicted to power that she’d hurt people to keep it.” Gabrielle rose from the couch. “Well, it’s time to bring this all out into the open. Do we all agree on that?”

“Depends on your intended method,” Derek said, leaning forward in his chair. “I don’t want either you or Sharon putting yourself out there as a target.” His gaze bored into Gabrielle’s.

Clearly that comment had been intended more for her than Sharon. Did he really think she’d let Mary Perkins hurt more people? “To start with, we should agree to stay the course. Nobody should change their plans at this stage,” Gabrielle said.

“Now, that I agree with,” Derek said. “I’m not suggesting anyone pull back or run scared.”

Richard nodded. “Certainly not.”

Sharon merely listened. She seemed preoccupied with more than just her blackmail situation. Gabrielle would have to have a long talk alone with her friend later.

“The thing is, I don’t think staying the course is going to be enough to get the reaction we need from Mary. We need to step things up pretty quickly. Richard needs not to just continue his campaign but to be as vocal as possible about running on merit and not fear,” Gabrielle stressed. “Discuss the good mayor’s family history with the curse and get people discussing it. Better yet, get people questioning it.”

This time she let her stare linger on Derek as she lay down the challenge, not just for everyone in the room, but for him and his most personal beliefs.

He raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

But she wasn’t finished. “In the meantime, I plan to start writing my book. I’ll interview as many people as possible and make my presence and my topic known.” And once everyone began gossiping about Gabrielle Donovan’s book on the Corwin Curse and Mary Perkins’s desperation to cling to the perception of it, Gabrielle had an even bigger plan.

One she wasn’t ready to share with her friends. Especially not with Derek, whose scowl only seemed to grow larger with each word Gabrielle spoke.

“Why in the hell would you want to deliberately antagonize a woman who will go to any lengths to get her way?” Derek asked, furious.

“It seems obvious to me. The only way to prove what Mary Perkins is capable of is to lure her into getting caught. If we keep the pressure on her from both ends, she’s going to get nervous and screw up.”

“Whether she screws up or she succeeds, someone is going to get hurt. That’s her MO and I don’t want it to be you.”

“Would you rather I sit back and do nothing?”

“Yes!”

“Hold on!” Sharon jumped up and stepped between them. “Fighting with one another is not going to get us anywhere.”

Richard nodded. “I agree. Let me see what I can find out about the guy who wanted to buy the photographs. Maybe he’ll give us a legitimate connection to Mary Perkins, although I’m sure she’s insulated herself. There are probably layers of people between Mary and those who do the actual dirty work.”

Derek inclined his head. “I think that’s a good idea.”

Gabrielle clapped her hands together. “Okay, then, now that that’s been decided-”

“You’ll do nothing until we see what Richard turns up?”

She gritted her teeth and forced a smile at Derek. “Nothing except what it usually entails to write a book.”

Which she knew involved a lot more than sitting behind a keyboard and doing nothing. But what Derek didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

DEREK DROVE HOLLY TO T.G.I. Friday’s for dinner. She picked at her chicken fingers and fries, something completely out of character for his daughter, who usually dug into her meals with gusto. Especially meals he had nothing to do with preparing.

“What’s wrong?” Derek asked.

She glanced up at him with sad eyes. “I dunno.”

“Yes, you do. So out with it.”

She laid down the french fry she’d been playing with. “I don’t understand why we had to leave Gabrielle home to eat alone.”

Derek sat back in his booth, surprised. “Am I such lousy company? I thought you’d want to spend some time alone together, since you’ve been sleeping at Grandpa’s.” He’d thought Holly would be feeling left out and maybe even resentful of Gabrielle’s sudden presence in his life.

He and his daughter had just started bonding when Gabrielle had returned, and now his former flame was monopolizing his time. He couldn’t imagine that his daughter didn’t have a problem with it.

“I just think it’s rude, that’s all.” Holly stared into her plate. “And I don’t mind being at Grandpa’s. Fred is there and it’s not like I never see you. It’s fine.”

“You miss hanging out with Gabrielle, too.”

She nodded.

He signaled to the waitress and she walked over to the table. “Can I help you?”

“Would you mind wrapping this up? We’ve decided to take it to go,” he said, winking at Holly.

Her eyes lit up at the idea.

“Can you add a Caesar salad with grilled chicken to the order?” he asked.

She nodded and strode off.

“Thanks,” Holly said, smiling.

He returned the grin, but inside his stomach was churning. Holly was turning Gabrielle into part of their family.

And not only was he allowing it, he was even starting to like it.

GABRIELLE HAD BEEN ABOUT to pour a bowl of cereal and curl up on the couch to watch television when Derek and Holly arrived with dinner. She’d been pleasantly surprised, especially when she’d discovered that Holly had been the one wanting to include Gabrielle. She understood Derek’s need to spend time alone with his daughter, so she’d happily agreed to do her own thing for dinner. It meant a lot to Gabrielle to realize that Holly didn’t resent her for displacing her in Derek’s house.

They’d enjoyed a relaxed meal while watching The Devil Wears Prada, Holly’s choice and current favorite movie. Derek had an issue with the PG-13 rating, but since Marlene had sent the movie along with her daughter’s clothes, he couldn’t very well argue. Holly was bright for her age and Gabrielle thoroughly enjoyed her. In fact, she had so much fun with the father-daughter duo, she was downright nervous.

Nothing in life came with a guarantee, least of all Derek. And the thought of losing all this as quickly as she’d discovered it scared her beyond reason. Although she couldn’t control the outcome, she darn well planned to do her best to sway things in her direction, beginning by not manipulating or pressuring Derek in any way.

He’d just walked Holly over to his father’s house when his telephone rang. She hesitated a second, then decided, what the hell. She picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Um…I think I have the wrong number,” a female voice said. “Is this Derek Corwin’s residence?”

“Yes, it is. I’m sorry. He stepped out for a minute. Can I take a message?” Gabrielle glanced around the family room and found a pen and paper beside the phone.

“Is Holly there?” the woman asked.

Realization dawned. She must be talking to Derek’s ex-wife, Gabrielle thought, a wave of emotion she couldn’t name washing over her. “Actually, she’s with Derek,” Gabrielle said vaguely.

She wasn’t sure what Marlene knew about the shift in living arrangements, and Gabrielle wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.