What Hammer Wants Read online

  “Oh, yes, ma’am. His plane is expected to land at three this afternoon. If that will help.”

  “Oh, it will,” Amelia said, relieved that Hammer had not gone beyond D.C..

  “We can’t surprise Daddy?” JoJo asked. He had been told that they were going back to Montreal to surprise Hammer.

  Amelia smiled. “We sure can,” she said. “He’ll be back soon.”

  JoJo smiled. For a kid with parents like her and Hammer, Amelia thought, he was always so happy!

  She aimed to keep him that way.

  That was why, at three pm sharp and with Rowena remaining at Charlemagne, Amelia and JoJo were on the tarmac, sitting in the backseat of one of Hammer’s SUVs, waiting for his plane to land. Amelia’s plane was at a different airfield, at a regional one, but Hammer’s plane was too big for regional and always had to land at the airfield for larger private aircraft.

  Two SUVs were already waiting further up the tarmac, one of which Amelia knew belonged to Hammer. But because she and JoJo wanted to surprise him, James drove them over in a different one of Hammer’s SUVs, and they waited for the plane to complete it’s taxi up the runway, and stop.

  On board the airplane as it landed on the runway and taxied to a stop, Reggie Dell removed her seatbelt and sat beside Hammer. Hammer sat in on a booth seat reviewing important government papers he had spread out on the table. Reggie bumped against him. “What are you reading?” she asked him.

  “None of your business,” Hammer responded without looking at her.

  Then she casually lifted her blouse off of her body, revealing her bare breasts to him. “Want some?” she asked him. “You can have’em. Don’t even have to ask.”

  But Hammer was in deep reading mode and wasn’t giving Reggie a second thought. Until she laid her head on his shoulder.

  Hammer looked at her. It was then that he saw her breasts, too. “Cut it out, Reg,” he said bluntly. “And that’s an order.”

  Reggie, frustrated, moved back on the seat across from Hammer, on the other side of the table, and slipped back on her blouse. But then she smiled. “You know you want me,” she said.

  “Your ass wouldn’t be on my plane if I hadn’t been ordered to give you a lift,” Hammer said. “Don’t forget that.”

  A sad look appeared in Reggie’s eyes. “You used to enjoy my company.”

  “That was many years ago,” Hammer said, and then glanced at her. “Many years ago.”

  “But what changed, Hammer?” Reggie asked him as if she didn’t know. “That Amelia came in the picture?” She said Amelia’s name as if she hated to pronounce it.

  “It has nothing to do with Amelia,” Hammer said. “Your ass changed. That’s what changed.”

  “Because I openly declared my love for you?” Reggie asked him. “That suddenly became a problem?”

  Hammer kept reading.

  “Hammer?” Reggie pleaded like a petulant child. But Hammer continued to ignore her. And that sadness became even more pronounced in her eyes. She looked out the window, and then back at Hammer. “The plane has landed. Hello? Anybody home? Time to deplane!”

  But Hammer continued to read over his paperwork. Reggie got up, angrily, and went to the plane’s restroom, to freshen up. She still had a ride ahead of her to get to the agency offices in Ottawa. And the only reason she had to go at all was to report her findings concerning a double agent working out of Nova Scotia, but reporting to Moscow. But the trip over with Hammer, after doing several blow jobs with superiors to get Bellamy to order Hammer to give her that lift, hadn’t gone as she had hoped. Not at all.

  But as soon as she went into the restroom and looked out of the window, she saw two SUVs waiting for them to un-board. One to take Hammer to Charlemagne no doubt, and one to take her on to Ottawa. But she wanted to go with Hammer.

  But then she kept looking and noticed something else. Much further away from the plane, near the front entrance onto the tarmac. Another SUV was waiting, and she saw that Amelia and that little black boy of hers getting out of that SUV. Undoubtedly to welcome Hammer home.

  Reggie was livid. It felt as if Amelia was rubbing it in coming there, even though she had no earthly idea that Reggie had caught a ride on Hammer’s plane.

  But then again, the more Reggie thought about it, she smiled. Amelia was on her turf, she felt, and she might as well make the most of it.

  When the plane finally stopped on the runway, Amelia and JoJo happily got out and leaned against the SUV. JoJo looked so cute, Amelia thought, in his little suit and coat, and she was decked down, too, in a pair of rider’s pants and a swede black blazer. They were both like kids when they knew they would be seeing Hammer again.

  Which didn’t bode well for Amelia. Because he’d already told her he wasn’t ready for a lifetime commitment to her, although he claimed she wasn’t ready either. But she was. God knows she was. She’d searched the field and realized nobody made her feel the way Hammer did. And she didn’t think it was possible to love anybody more than she loved Hammer.

  But his love for her was the issue.

  And as soon as the steep steps were placed at the door of Hammer’s plane, and Hammer stepped out onto the top step, her heart began to flutter. And she couldn’t help it. She smiled. Despite their still rocky relationship, she couldn’t help but smile. Hammer did that to her.

  JoJo was smiling, too, and jumping up and down, which made Amelia feel even better. He really loved his father, and wasn’t ashamed to show it. But Amelia’s head kept going back to what Hammer had said the last time they were in Montreal, and how he wasn’t ready, and her enthusiasm was automatically stifled.

  Especially when she looked back over at the plane and saw Hammer step aside and then a female step off of his plane too. Her smile was completely gone when she saw that the female was none other than that Regina Dell, her old nemesis and the last person on earth she wanted anywhere near Hammer. It felt like a betrayal, like the ultimate act of disloyalty, that cut her to her core!

  And the way he began escorting Reggie down those steps with him, and the way he placed his hand on the small of her back, stunned Amelia.

  Even JoJo realized that didn’t look right. “Who’s that lady with Daddy, Mommy?” he asked.

  But Amelia was too stunned to speak. She was too busy staring at Hammer and the woman. At that beautiful, manipulative, conniving Reggie Dell.

  Reggie was walking on the side of Hammer that ensured Amelia and JoJo would be shielded from Hammer’s view. And she was doing so on purpose. Because, as soon as Hammer opened the door of the SUV for her, Reggie made her move and kissed him on the lips.

  At first Hammer automatically kissed her back. There was a time when he loved and cared for Reggie deeply and they were very affectionate with one another. But then he quickly caught himself and angrily slammed her against him and leaned into her ear.

  To the outside observer, it looked as if he was returning Reggie’s affection, but he wasn’t. He was giving her an earful. He was telling her in no uncertain terms what he was going to do with her lips if she ever laid them on him again.

  Although Reggie continued to smile as she broke free of Hammer and got into that SUV, her heart was broken. He really didn’t want to have anything more to do with her. She knew it now. She should have known it that time when he allowed Amelia to beat her ass to unconsciousness. But Reggie Dell, as her mother and father both used to say, she didn’t even have the sense she was born with.

  But when Hammer first opened that door for her and she kissed him, and then Hammer grabbed her as if he was passionate for her, too, Amelia, on the outside looking in, was devastated. Her heart dropped. It was one thing to hear rumors. It was one thing to have doubts about his fidelity, even though he always denied being unfaithful to her. Or, when he was unfaithful, he’d claim they were never in an exclusive relationship. But to see it up close, personal, and in living color rocked her. She had hoped it wasn’t true. She believed he wouldn’t hurt her like that. And especially not with that Reggie Dell! She stood there in shock.

  And Hammer still had not seen her on the far end of the tarmac, standing there with his only child.

  It wasn’t until Ozzie Jones stepped off of the plane, too, and noticed the SUV further away. When he realized who it was standing at that SUV, he was shocked too. And he hurried down the stairs and casually, but definitively, bumped Hammer.

  Hammer turned away from Reggie and looked at Ozzie, a little pissed that he would be so clumsy as to bump him. But Ozzie casually nodded his head toward the SUV much further away.

  “What?” Hammer said, confused. Then he looked where Ozzie was motioning. And when he saw Amelia standing there, with their son, even his own heart dropped. “Millie?” he said, stunned to see her too.

  “Who’s Millie?” Reggie played dumb and asked.

  But Hammer didn’t respond to her. He didn’t even look at her again. He began walking toward Amelia and JoJo.

  Ozzie looked at the driver of the SUV Reggie was sitting in. “Get her out of here,” he ordered, and the driver, understanding, drove in the opposite direction of the SUV that Amelia and JoJo stood beside. Then Ozzie walked over to the second SUV that was still waiting for Hammer, and sat on the backseat.

  But it was Hammer’s movement toward Amelia, more than any other activity on that tarmac, that shook her out of her sudden freeze. And she began hurrying JoJo into the SUV. “Let’s go,” she said.

  JoJo apparently sensed that something was off, too, because he quickly got into the SUV with his mother even as Hammer began hurrying toward them. “Go,” Amelia said to James.

  “But Mr. Reese is coming this way, ma’am,” James said.

  “I said go!” Amelia said angrily. “Go and go now!” she yelled.

  And James, caught between a boss and the boss’s woman, drove off. He saw that female too. He understood Amelia’s anger. Besides, the boss always told them to service Amelia, but no other visitor to Charlemagne, as if they were servicing him.

  Hammer began running when he saw the SUV pulling off, and he was calling Amelia’s name, but the SUV didn’t stop. James made a U-turn, and kept on going.

  Hammer stopped running. Ozzie had Hammer’s SUV drive up to Hammer. And Hammer got onto the back seat. Hammer was so outdone he leaned his head back too.

  The driver, awaiting instructions, turned around to Ozzie. “Home,” Ozzie said, and the driver obeyed.

  But Ozzie looked over at his boss and best friend. It was obvious Hammer was highly upset with himself. Why did he keep pulling that shit? Ozzie wanted to tell him I told you so so badly, but he didn’t tell Hammer a thing. Because nobody could just talk to Hammer that liberally. So Ozzie kept his trap shut.

  But back in DC, he did tell Hammer not to let that woman get on his plane, order or no order. She and Hammer had too much of a history together. Amelia wouldn’t like it. He told him that! But it was no big deal, Hammer said. She needed a lift. And besides, he added, he was ordered to take her.

  She got a lift alright, Ozzie thought.

  What Ozzie couldn’t understand was why Hammer kept messing up with the only woman he ever gave a damn about. But he kept messing up. Good for Amelia to stop taking that shit, Ozzie thought, as he glanced over at his boss.

  And just looking at Hammer angered him. He had a great woman. What was his problem? And he couldn’t help himself. “I told your ass,” he said to Hammer.

  Hammer looked at him angrily, with fire in his eyes. He didn’t allow anybody to talk to him that way. But then those eyes softened, because he knew his best friend spoke the truth.

  But Hammer didn’t go there. He didn’t discuss it. He never did, Ozzie knew.

  “Drive faster,” Hammer ordered his driver, and the driver didn’t hesitate. The SUV sped down the road.

  Back at Charlemagne, Amelia threw the few clothes she had removed back into the suitcase, grabbed JoJo and told Rowena they were leaving now, and the three of them made their way down the stairs. That was when Hammer hurried into the front door. When he saw Amelia and JoJo, he froze.

  Amelia did too.

  But JoJo didn’t. “Daddy!” he said happily and ran down the remaining stairs and into his father’s arms. Hammer lifted him up and hugged him. “Hey, son,” he said. But his eyes remained on Amelia.

  Amelia looked at Rowena. “Put him in the car, Ro,” she ordered.

  Rowena grabbed the suitcase from Amelia and continued down the stairs. Hammer released JoJo to her. Rowena and JoJo went out of the front door.

  Amelia tried to hurry out, too, but Hammer blocked her path. “Move, Hammer,” she said.

  “It wasn’t what you think it is,” Hammer said but Amelia didn’t want to hear it. She sidestepped him again, and this time got around his big frame, but he grabbed her by the elbow.

  She tried to snatch away from him. “Get away from me!” she yelled with clenched teeth, and attempted to break free of his grasp again.

  “It’s business, Millie,” Hammer said to her. “She’s here on assignment. All I did was give her a ride.”

  “You gave her a ride alright. I saw that myself!”

  Hammer didn’t like that insinuation. “I’m no liar, Amelia!”

  “And I’m no fool! You hear me? I’m no fool, Hammer!” Amelia was near tears. “Reggie Dell? Really? You would flaunt that woman in front of me. Did you forget she could have killed me that day? But you still give her a ride on your plane? Her? That’s the best you can do?” Then she frowned. “Let me go!” she said as if she was defeated already.

  Her look was so disappointing and sad that Hammer’s heart squeezed in agony. He saw her pain up close. Too close. And the tears began to appear in her eyes.

  The pain in her eyes stunned him so, and hurt him to his core to such an extent that he released his grip on her before he realized it. And Amelia snatched away from him, and then hurried out of that house.

  Hammer leaned his head back, ready to give up too, but then he decided he couldn’t do that. He went outside too, where James was putting the suitcase in the SUV. Even Watson, his butler, came outside too. And nobody had to tell him why what should have been a happy get together ended in such agony.

  Why on earth was he always doing that stupid stuff, even Watson wanted to know. What was wrong with Hammer?

  But Amelia wasn’t hanging around to find out. She, JoJo and Rowena were in the SUV, and James didn’t wait for permission from his boss. Service Amelia, Hammer had already told his staff, as if they were servicing him. James drove them away.

  Ozzie was waiting outside. He still stood beside Hammer. But he was about it. Even Watson, Hammer’s long-time butler, shook his head and went back into the house. Hammer wasn’t treating Amelia right, and that was all there was to it.

  And nobody knew that better than Hammer.

  When the SUV was clean out of sight, Hammer placed his hands on his hips and let out a hard, harsh, painful exhale.

  But Amelia didn’t cry. Not all the way to that small, regional airfield. Not on the flight back to Baltimore. Not even when she was putting JoJo to bed.

  But when she got in her own bed, and the silence of the night overtook the busyness of the day, she kept seeing Hammer getting off of his plane with Reggie Dell. And how satisfied Reggie looked. And how Hammer had his hand on Reggie’s back in that intimate way she thought he reserved just for her. And how Reggie kissed him. And how he slammed her against him and whispered sweet nothings in Reggie’s ear, or whatever he did in her ear. And she broke down. She couldn’t stop herself from crying. She cried all night long. She cried her eyes out. She cried for the love of her life, the man of her dreams, that wasn’t going to be.

  CHAPTER NINE

  That next morning, after Amelia had dropped JoJo, along with Rowena, at the private country day school the children of the elite in Baltimore attended, and that Hammer paid for, she was back at Sinatra Solutions. And Sebastian, being told she was back, hurried into her office, closing the door behind him. “Well?” he asked. “How did it go?”

  “Terrible,” Amelia said. She was seated behind her desk.

  “Please don’t tell me that.” Seb walked around her desk and leaned against it. “What happened? He wouldn’t help you?”

  Amelia didn’t respond.

  “Did you explain to him the kind of character we owe that money to?”

  Amelia still didn’t respond.

  “What are we going to do, Millie? Because we’ve got to do something. This is not a situation you can sweep under a rug.”

  “I’m not sweeping anything under shit,” Amelia said. “What do you take me for? You think I don’t know what could happen? I know better than you’ll ever know, so stop trying to convince me about shit I already know. He’s not helping. I don’t want his fucking help, alright?”

  “Alright, don’t take my head off with the rage,” said Seb. He was accustomed to her outbreaks. “But again,” he added, “what are we going to do?”

  “Have any of the investigators reported back?”

  “Darvin did. He said maybe Lenny stole his own shipment.”

  “Oh, please. Why on earth would he do a dumb thing like that?”

  “According to Darv, Lenny might want Leo T’s turf that Hammer so generously gave to you.”

  “And by stealing his own shipment, what would that do?” Amelia asked.

  “Start a war with your brother. Because they know he’s going to protect you. Start a war with Hammer, which would be insane. I don’t know! It was something Darvin threw out there.”

  “Tell him to keep those throws to himself,” Amelia said.

  “Which brings me to the main point again,” Seb said. “If Hammer is out, what are we going to do?”

  Amelia leaned back in her chair. “I don’t know,” she said.

  “And your brothers are still off the table?”

  Amelia hesitated.

  Seb was surprised. “You aren’t saying yes,” he said. “That’s a good thing.”

  “Yes,” Amelia said.