Читать книгу A Man's Promise - Brenda Jackson - Страница 10

Two

Caden Granger frowned as he gazed across his desk at his younger brother. “You’re kidding, right?”

Dalton released that crazy-ass chuckle that, at times, could grate on Caden’s last nerve. “No, I’m not kidding. Just think of what could have happened to Jace if he hadn’t had that tracking device on his phone.”

Caden didn’t want to think about it. When he and his two brothers had left Charlottesville for college years ago, each had vowed never to return. After college, they had moved to separate parts of the world, living their dreams. Caden was a well-known saxophonist touring in some of the most sought-after cities to sold-out crowds; Jace worked as an attorney for the government in California; and Dalton claimed he worked smarter and not harder by investing his money while living the life of a playboy/boy toy in Europe. In the end, Dalton was the one who’d become a billionaire. Go figure.

He, Jace and Dalton had returned to Charlottesville when their grandfather, Richard Granger, had had a fatal heart attack. It had been a couple of months ago that the three of them had made the deathbed promise to their grandfather to take over the family business, Granger Aeronautics. When they’d done so, they had no idea that in addition to inheriting a failing company, they would have to deal with employees intent on divulging trade secrets and someone they thought they could trust being a killer. The man had actually kidnapped Jace with the intention of ending his life. If it hadn’t been for the tracker Dalton had convinced Jace to install on his phone, Caden didn’t want to think of what might have happened.

“Fine. Put the damned tracker on my phone,” Caden said, tossing a document he didn’t feel like reading back into the in-box on his desk.

Dalton smiled. “I already have.”

Caden’s frown deepened. “You did so without my permission?”

“Yes.”

Dalton eased up out of the chair as if he didn’t have a care in the world, knowing full well that Caden really wanted to kick his ass. Caden might be two years older but, as far as Dalton was concerned, he was in way better shape than Caden. But he knew Caden wouldn’t do any such thing. He and his brothers might give each other hell from time to time, but they always had each other’s backs.

“So, Jace still hasn’t said anything about what’s going on with him and Wonder Woman?” Dalton observed.

Caden shrugged. Shana Bradford, whom Dalton liked to refer to as Wonder Woman, was the person they had hired to help get the company back on a proper footing. She was a real fixer, which was lucky since it was her team that had figured out about the trade-secrets encroachments, as well as Vidal Duncan’s duplicity.

“What’s there to say, Dalton? It’s been obvious from day one that he had a thing for her, although he claimed indifference. After this week’s rescue, I’d say it’s become pretty damned obvious.”

Caden was referring to the fact that the FBI agents were barely in the door to stop Jace’s head from being blown off before Shana had rushed in and thrown herself in his arms. “And I didn’t see him rejecting that wallop of a kiss she laid on him,” he added.

“Me, either,” Dalton chimed in to say, glancing at his watch. He had an appointment that he planned to keep and didn’t intend to be late.

At that moment, the buzzer on Caden’s desk sounded. “Yes, Brandy?”

“There’s a Sandra Timmons here to see you?”

Surprise shone on both Caden’s and Dalton’s faces. Sandra and Samuel Timmons had been neighbors and friends of their parents. When Sylvia Granger was murdered fifteen years ago, and their father wrongly convicted of committing the crime, the Timmonses and a lot of others had forbidden their children to continue to associate with the Granger kids. Caden had been fourteen, Jace sixteen, and Dalton twelve at the time.

“Send her in, Brandy,” Caden said, standing, straightening his tie.

Dalton stood, as well. “I wonder what she wants.”

“I have no idea.”

“Then I wouldn’t see her if I were you.”

Caden glanced over at Dalton. “Why?”

“She’s probably here to tell you to leave Shiloh alone. She’ll probably make threats and get ugly about it. She could take up where old man Timmons left off—thinking we’re nothing but scum.”

Hearing Dalton bring up the name of the one woman Caden wanted more than anything to forget sent a flash of pain through his heart. “First of all, I’m not involved with Shiloh. She’s the last woman I want to have anything to do with.”

“There was a time the two of you were—”

“Best friends,” he interrupted to say, refusing to fall victim to his younger brother’s nosiness. For months Dalton had been trying to figure out what, if anything, was going on between Caden and Shiloh. Caden had confided in Jace and told him the full story, but he figured the less Dalton knew, the better.

The door opened, and Sandra Timmons was escorted in by Brandy. As always, she looked immaculate, not a hair out of place and her clothing of the finest quality from a top-notch designer. But there was a sadness in her eyes that Caden noted immediately. Was she still mourning the loss of her husband? From what Shiloh had once told him, her parents had an unorthodox marriage that was not based on love.

“I’m glad you could see me on such short notice, Caden,” she said, giving Dalton a brief nod.

“You mean no notice, don’t you, Ms. Timmons?” Dalton interjected.

Caden frowned over at Dalton. “I believe there’s a meeting you’re supposed to attend, Dalton?”

Dalton lifted a brow. “Is there?”

“Yes. I distinctly remember your telling me about it this morning.”

Dalton looked at his watch. “Christ! I almost forgot.” And then without saying another word, he rushed out of Caden’s office, slamming the door behind him.

“I heard about what happened to Jace. That was simply dreadful. And just to think Vidal Duncan was behind it. I recall that he was once a close friend of your family.”

Caden leaned back against his desk and shoved his hands into his pockets. “And, if I remember correctly, Mrs. Timmons, so were you.”

Caden watched as the woman inhaled a deep breath. “Yes, and I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong about a lot of things.”

“Were you?”

“Yes. And I’m here to apologize to you personally. None of you boys were at fault for what your father did to your mother. I should have stood up to Samuel when he wouldn’t let Sedrick and Shiloh have anything to do with you and your brothers.”

“Yes, you should have.” Caden decided not to add that, as far as he was concerned, his father hadn’t done anything to his mother—much less murder her—but he figured it would be a waste of his time. Fifteen years ago, the Timmonses didn’t mind letting everyone know they thought Sheppard Granger was guilty of murder.

“Is that why you came here today? To apologize?” If it was, her apology was fifteen years too late.

“Yes, to apologize for everything Samuel did. I tried apologizing to Shiloh, but she refuses to take my calls.”

Caden raised a brow. “Take your calls? Isn’t Shiloh living with you at Shady Pines?” he asked, surprised.

“No, she moved out the same night she went to see you at Sutton Hills. That was over three weeks ago.”

Caden remembered that night all too well and he had no intention of discussing it with Sandra Timmons. “Mrs. Timmons, Jace will be out of the office for a few days, which means Dalton and I are pretty busy in his absence. If there’s nothing else you’d like to discuss, then I must ask you to—”

“You don’t know, do you?” she interrupted.

Caden drew in a frustrated breath. His patience with the woman was wearing thin. “Know what?”

She stared back at him, and he detected nervousness in her features. “That night, when Shiloh came to see you, didn’t she tell you anything?” she asked softly.

“No. I didn’t want to hear a word she had to say.” He walked around his desk toward the door, intending to open it so she could leave. “Now if you will excuse me, I—”

“What do you mean you didn’t want to hear anything she had to say?” the woman demanded in an angry tone, causing him to pause and look at her as if she’d lost her mind. A part of him was beginning to wonder if she had become unhinged. A lot of strange things had been happening since he and his brothers had returned to Charlottesville to take over the running of Granger Aeronautics, and this could be one more.

He turned around to face her. “I meant just what I said. I didn’t want to hear anything Shiloh had to say that night.”

“So, you have no idea where she was that weekend four years ago when the two of you planned to elope to Vegas and marry?”

Caden was surprised Shiloh had told anyone about their plans to elope four years ago. Plans she hadn’t kept. “I already know where she was, Mrs. Timmons. I received photographs that were compliments of your husband, letting me know that he was still controlling Shiloh’s life. The photographs showed her on the beach having a good time with one of Mr. Timmons’s business associates. The same person he’d been trying to shove down her throat for a year or more. Your husband, Samuel Timmons, wanted me to know she’d finally caved in.”

Sandra Timmons frowned. “And you believed that?”

Caden shrugged. “Seeing is believing.”

The woman shook her head. “You saw what Samuel wanted you to see. Those photographs were altered with Photoshop. That was not Shiloh. She was nowhere near the beach that day.”

Caden stared at the woman as her words sank in. “Then where was she?”

Sandra Timmons eased back down on the chair across from his desk, and Caden actually saw her trembling. And then he saw the tears. Whether they were genuine or not, they were there all the same. “I came here thinking that you knew. Certain that you did, and now to know that you have no idea...”

An uneasy feeling crept up Caden’s spine. What did she mean that those photographs had been altered with Photoshop? That woman in the pictures had been Shiloh. Hadn’t it? He narrowed his gaze at Mrs. Timmons as he crossed the room to her, and anger consumed every part of his body. “Where...was...she?”

The woman dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief, saying, “That same weekend, while you waited for her in Vegas, she was in a hospital in Boston, fighting for her life.”

Stunned, Caden grasped the edge of his desk to keep his balance. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Sandra Timmons lowered her face to study her hands in her lap before lifting a tear-streaked face to Caden. “I don’t know how, but Samuel found out what the two of you planned and flew to Boston to try to stop her. He said he was only going to talk some sense into her. They argued, and she asked him to leave. When he refused, she rushed from the house and darted into the path of an oncoming car.”

Shocked beyond belief, Caden had to lean back against his desk for support. “Shiloh was hit by a car?”

“Yes. Things were pretty bad. She had to remain in the hospital for almost two months. The doctors managed to save her...but they couldn’t save the baby.”

The bottom of Caden’s stomach dropped. “Baby?”

“Yes. She was pregnant with your child.”