Steal Away by Katharine Clark

Author:Katharine Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2011-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

There is a panther caged within my breast...

Wheelock, "The Black Panther"

Chapter 21

Rachel sat on the bed in the impersonal hotel room in Chicago and tried to still the chaos in her soul. In her hand, the unnoticed receiver repeated the endless, grating voice of the operator, urging her to hang up. What was going on? She needed to talk to Stephen. She'd already tried to call him twice earlier tonight and left messages on the machines at home and at his office. Then she'd called and the line was busy and now he wasn't answering. Why wasn't he home? Was something happening that she should be home for? Something no one had bothered to call her about? Finally the noise of the phone penetrated the swirl of questions in her mind and she disconnected.

What a day! She felt like she'd been in a gigantic paddleball game with herself as the ball and everyone batting her back and forth. That was how it felt, but the perception was wrong. She hadn't been that helpless, had she? Stephen had expected her to fail, to be frustrated and embarrassed. Well, he'd been partly right. She had been frustrated and embarrassed and outrageous and scared and desperate and furious, but she'd come to Chicago to get something and she'd gotten it. Maybe not easily, and maybe only because she'd had a bit of good luck. Still, she'd told Stephen she was going to come out here and get information about David's father, and she'd done it. And tomorrow she was going to go home, and find him, and bring David back.

Yeah, that probably wouldn't be as simple as she imagined it, either. In her mind, she had a vision of marching up to Dr. Peter Coffin in his New York City apartment, ringing the bell, and demanding that he return her son at once. What if she arrived and Dr. Coffin no longer lived there? Or was there and he wouldn't let her in, refused to talk to her? What if he'd taken David and gone away, gone someplace where no one would find him? What would she do then? Could she get Gallagher to search for him—Gallagher who, like Stephen, thought she was totally off the wall—or would she have to hire a private detective? And how long would that take?

Once again she had an urge to act, and no plan. As a child, she'd hated Monopoly and chess and only tolerated checkers. When she tried to think out a coherent plan, her mind betrayed her by racing off in odd directions. It was one of the ways in which she and Stephen were entirely different. She was all instinct and intuition, he all logic and planning. It used to seem like a good thing, something they admired about each other, but more and more, Stephen pressured her to be more like him, was frustrated with the things about Rachel that made her most herself. How ironic relationships were! I love you because you're you, and now I want to make you ever more like me.

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