Читать книгу The Coltons: Nick, Clay & Jericho - Marie Ferrarella, Beth Cornelison - Страница 18

Chapter 11

In order to keep his word and satisfy Emmie, who popped up like toast the next morning to remind him of his promise to “make everything right for Mama,” Nick spent the first part of his morning at Georgie’s computer, tracking down all the charges incurred on her credit cards. Just to play it safe, armed with the user names and passwords Steve had sent him, Nick decided to go back over the last five months.

One by one, he secured the information, then printed it out for her. When he had the charges in a rather overwhelming stack, he gave the pages to her and left it up to Georgie to decipher, separating the piles into charges she had run up and the ones that could be attributed to the “Georgie” doppelganger.

Having lived up to his part of the bargain, Nick got down to his real work. He decided that it might be advantageous to find out as much as he could about the man who had fathered Georgie and her brothers, the mysterious and, from what he’d gathered, self-centered Graham Colton.

It took some digging at first, but once he had some key pieces of information to work with, the rest came more easily.

An hour after he’d gotten started, hopping from screen to screen and from site to site, he found himself staring at the information the winding trail had brought him to. And discovering something he would have rather not found out.

Because what he’d found out unearthed another battery of questions and, more importantly, doubts.

Away from Georgie and the attraction he experienced whenever he was within ten feet of her, Nick felt uncertainty taking root again.

Had he been played?

Or was there some outside chance that she actually didn’t know that her father, Graham Colton, was the Senator’s younger brother? After all, not even he had known that the Senator had a younger brother, much less what his name was.

But then, Graham Colton wasn’t his father. Wouldn’t Georgie have connected the dots? Or was politics something she blocked out, the way so many other people did? After all, it wasn’t as if Graham Colton had been a doting father. All the evidence he’d come across so far pointed to the fact that he’d been, probably still was, a womanizing, narcissistic, greedy scum. In Georgie’s place, he wouldn’t have wanted to have anything to do with the man either. But did not wanting contact mean ignorance of his family background?

He wasn’t sure.

With a sigh, Nick stretched out his legs beneath the table, debating his next move. What he’d just found out wasn’t something he could keep to himself.

But if he told Georgie, one of two things could happen. If she didn’t know, this would be a hell of a shock for her. And if she did know and had lied to him, he wasn’t certain how he’d deal with that particular scenario.

He supposed that he could hold off telling her. There was time enough to discover whether he’d made love with an innocent or a scheming witch. He’d just begun to entertain illusions, he didn’t want to have to risk losing them already.

There was one person he did have to tell. The one person who deserved to be apprised of anything he found out as soon as possible.

Nick shifted in his chair, sitting up straight again as he took his cell phone out of his pocket. He pressed the single button that would connect him to the Senator’s private cell.

Waiting, Nick counted off four rings before he heard the sound of a phone coming to life on the other end of the line. A dynamic, resonant voice said, “Hello?”

Even the man’s voice inspired him with confidence, Nick thought. “Senator Colton, this is Nick Sheffield.”

“Nick.” Pleasure flooded the Senator’s voice. “I was just wondering when I’d be hearing from you. I was beginning to get concerned that you decided to forget about the campaign and just settle in.” There was almost a wistful note in his tone. “Awfully pretty country down there.”

“If you like the rustic life,” Nick responded, not quite able to get himself to agree to the Senator’s assessment. He was just not the rural type. Nick was fairly certain that his voice gave him away on that count. “I’m calling because I found where the e-mails were coming from.”

The Senator immediately heard what wasn’t being said. “But not the person sending them?”

No doubt about it, Nick thought. The Senator was quick on the uptake. “Well, there seems to be some doubt about it,” he told the man. “The woman whose computer was used to send the e-mails was out of town during the period of time we’ve blocked off.”

“Is someone else in the family doing the sending, then?”

“I’m looking into that,” Nick told the man. Uncomfortable with what he was about to say, he shifted in his seat. “Senator, there’s something else.”

“Go on.”

There was no easy way to say this. Since the Senator didn’t talk about his brother, Nick assumed that there was bad blood between them. Or hard feelings. The Senator was a successful, powerful, well-liked man. Maybe his brother, who hadn’t seemed to have amounted to very much in his lifetime, was resentful of his success. “The woman’s last name’s Colton. Graham Colton’s her father.”

“It was Georgie’s computer that was being used to send the e-mails?” Joe asked, surprised.

So much for catching the man off guard. But then, that was part of what he admired about the Senator. The man was as savvy as they came and literally seemed to be on top of everything. No one had ever managed to catch him sleeping.

“You know about her, sir?”

“Yes. And about her brothers, Clay and Ryder, as well. I know all about my brother’s other family, Nick.” Nick thought he heard a stifled sigh on the other end. “Proud woman, Mary Lynn. After Graham had deserted her, I tried to give her money but she refused to accept my help.”

Nick wondered if the Senator had kept tabs on the family through the years. “She’s dead, sir, according to the daughter.”

“Yes, I know. Terrible shame. Graham loved her in his own way. Probably the one actual love of his life,” he speculated. “Unfortunately, he loved his wife’s money more.” Nick heard the Senator sigh on the other end. “Don’t waste your time with Georgie. She wouldn’t have sent the letters or the e-mails. She’s just like her mother, proud and filled to the brim with integrity.”

He’d had no personal dealings with the young woman, but nonetheless, he had kept tabs on her. After all, she was family. It wasn’t her fault that her father had turned out to be so shallow.

The Senator’s tone changed. “Listen, since you’re down there, I was wondering if you might do me a favor and look in on a Jewel Mayfair. She runs a branch of the Hopechest Ranch. A foundation that, as you know,” he added quickly, “is near and dear to Meredith’s heart. My wife’s afraid that Jewel might not be quite up to all the challenges running something of that nature entails. Let me give you Jewel’s number,” Joe offered.

“That’ll make it simpler,” Nick commented, flipping over a piece of paper he pilfered from the printer.

As the Senator read off the phone number, followed by the address where the foundation was located, Nick quickly wrote down everything. “Got it,” he told the Senator, then added, “I’ll call her later this afternoon if that’s all right with you.”

“Of course. No real hurry. Just keep me in the loop,” the Senator requested just before he terminated the call.

Slipping the cell phone back into his pocket, he looked up and realized that his wife had been standing in the doorway to his office, listening. He smiled at the woman who had won his heart so many years ago.

“I’ve got him looking in on Jewel.”

Meredith strode in on those long legs of hers that he had always admired. Her legs had been the first thing to catch his attention. The trim, but curvy figure—a figure she still maintained—had been a very close second. “I heard.”

Joe gave her a long, knowing look. “Now maybe you can stop worrying about her.”

“Maybe.”

He laughed then, seeing right through her. “Your problem, Meredith, is that your heart’s just too big,” he told her. “You can’t keep worrying about the immediate world.”

“Not the immediate world,” she protested, even though she had always been a soft touch. “Just the part that’s related to me.”

Coming up behind him, she lightly feathered her long fingers along his forearm. He wore his sleeves folded up, a symbol of his getting down to work. She’d always loved the way that looked. Loved the way he just got better looking with age, keeping his physique muscular and fit by working out and riding whenever he got the opportunity. There were telltale sprinkles of gray in his dark brown hair, but they only succeeded in making him look more distinguished.

He’d get the female vote without even trying, she thought.

Joe turned around to face her. “You know, things might be a little easier for you if you told Jewel that you’re her aunt.”

But Meredith shook her head, her short, golden-brown bob swaying from side to side. “That would mean that I’d have to tell her that Patsy was my sister. I’ve gotten Jewel to like and trust me. If she knew that I was the sister of the crazy birth mother who stabbed her father to death on the day she was born because he’d stolen Jewel and given her to a doctor who promised to place her in a good home, she might look at me differently. She certainly wouldn’t trust me anymore. I can’t risk that. She’s been through too much already. On top of not getting any closure from Patsy because Patsy was in a mental institution when she tracked her down, don’t forget Jewel also lost her fiancé and her unborn baby in that car crash they were all in. That’s more than any one person should have to put up with. I just barely got her out of that depression she’d spiraled down into.”

He tucked his arms around her waist. “I’d say finding out that she had such a terrific aunt might just begin to make up for the rest of it. At the very least, that should help her start to heal.”

She smiled up at him, stealing a moment as she wrapped her arms about his neck. “Think you’re smart, don’t you ‘Dr.’ Colton?” she teased.

There were times he wished he was just like everyone else, that he didn’t feel as if he had a mission to fulfill, a cause to champion in order to pay society back for all the good fortune he’d had during his lifetime. That if he wanted to take some time with his wife, a score of responsibilities wouldn’t get in his way.

Compromising, Joe stole a quick kiss. “Yes, I do. But only because I hung out with this really terrific, smart woman. Some of that had to rub off.”

She laughed softly. “That silver tongue of yours is definitely going to get you elected.” With a reluctant sigh, she disengaged her arms from around his neck. “I’d better leave you to your work.”

“Promise me you’ll stop worrying,” he said, running his forefinger down along the furrow that had formed just above her nose, smoothing it.

“I’ll try,” she told him, crossing her heart. Right after I call Clay and ask him to watch over Jewel, she added silently. That was what she should have done in the first place, Meredith decided.

Joe released her just as the phone on his desk began to ring. “That’s all I can ask,” he told her before turning his attention to the person on the other end of the line.

Instantly, he became Senator Colton again, getting back to the ground work for his campaign.

“I’ve got something,” Georgie announced, waving a piece of paper over her head as she walked quickly into her bedroom.

Nick was exactly where she’d left him, sitting at her computer. He tried not to type too forcefully on the keyboard because with each stroke, the card table would wobble precariously.

After a beat, he looked up from the screen on the monitor. “What?” he asked absently. Focusing, he realized that Georgie was holding one of the statements he’d printed out for her.

“I found a charge here that had to have been made in person. There’s no online site for it. Baker’s Jewels,” she told him. When he watched her blankly, obviously waiting for more, she explained, “It’s the name of a jewelry store in Esperanza.”

Her one piece of good jewelry, a bracelet her mother had given her on her sixteenth birthday had come from there. She’d left that in the safety deposit box, along with the deed to the ranch and several pieces of her mother’s jewelry that her mother’s lover—Georgie couldn’t bring herself to think of him as her father—had given her in what Georgie assumed was a moment of weakness. All the pieces of jewelry had been stolen from the safety deposit box. Something else she intended to get back along with her good name.

“I’m going there now. To the jewelry store,” she added in case Nick didn’t follow her. He had that faraway look in his eyes, as if pondering some deep problem. “You want to come along with me to make sure I don’t make a break for it?”

She made the suggestion glibly, as if she really didn’t want him along, but the truth of it was, she did. He’d awoken something within her last night, something she hadn’t even realized was there. She wanted to prolong that feeling for as long as she could. Having him around did that for her.

Nick weighed his options. If he opted to go with her, it would seem as if he didn’t trust her and she’d take offense. If he remained, there was a small chance she could bolt. He didn’t want to be standing there with egg on his face even though the Senator had said he didn’t believe she had a part in this.

Before he could say anything, his cell rang.

“Go ahead, answer it,” she urged, waving her hand at his pocket. “I’ve got to go round up Emmie anyway. I’ll get back to you,” she promised, already going out the doorway.

“Sheffield,” Nick said the moment he had the phone to his ear.

“Nick, someone tried to break in last night.”

He recognized the voice. Garrett Conrad, the Secret Service agent he’d left in charge while he was gone. Garrett was competent, but a little wet behind the ears.

“Garrett, I just talked to the Senator this morning. He didn’t say anything about it to me.”

“That’s because he doesn’t know yet,” Garrett answered. “I wanted to tell you first and ask what you wanted me to do about it.”

Damn, he was wasting his time here. He should have remained in Prosperino. “Give me the details,” Nick ordered.

Garrett recited the events as he’d committed them to memory. “Whoever it was by-passed the security system somehow. Several of the surveillance cameras had black paint sprayed on their lens. The window to the downstairs library was broken. We found a gun nearby. He must have dropped it—and the credit card.”

“He dropped a credit card and the gun?” Nick asked incredulously. Whoever had tried to break in was smart when it came to technology and seriously lacking when it came to common sense. “That’s a little too pat, don’t you think?”

Garrett paused, as if framing his answer. “Not every criminal belongs to MENSA.”

This sounded more like the work of a high school drop-out. “What’s the name on the card?”

There was noise on the other end, as if Garrett was looking for the card. “Got it,” he murmured under his breath, then read, “Georgeann Grady.”

Okay, that cinched it, Nick thought. If he’d had any doubts, this erased it. Someone was definitely out to frame Georgie.

Was it a matter of someone trying to kill two birds with one stone? Or was this strictly about revenge with the focus entirely on bringing Georgie down any way they could?

“It couldn’t have been her,” Nick told his subordinate flatly. “Georgeann Grady has been here in Esperanza for the last two days.”

“Maybe she’s working with an accomplice?” Garrett suggested.

“An accomplice who is trying to implicate her?” he asked incredulously. “It doesn’t make any sense. No, my guess is that someone is trying to frame her.” Restless, Nick got up and began to pace. “The question is, is whoever’s behind this trying to get the Senator, too, or is there some other connection we’re missing?” He stopped by the window and looked out. Miles of flat land spread out before him. God, but the terrain was lonely. “Tell Steve I don’t want him leaving his desk until he has a complete history on the woman. If she had so much as a schoolyard altercation in kindergarten, I want to know about it. Is that understood?”

“Understood.” He could almost see Garrett snapping to attention. “I’ll have him get back to you.”

When he put away his phone, Nick felt the back of his neck prickling. As if he were being watched.

Glancing to the doorway, he saw Georgie. She held on to Emmie’s hand. Antsy, Emmie all but danced from foot to foot.

“I had lots of ‘altercations’ in kindergarten,” Georgie told him crisply. There wasn’t even a hint of a smile on her face.

Emmie tugged harder on her hand. “What’s a ’cation, Mama?”

“Altercation,” Georgie corrected. “That’s a fancy word for fighting.”

Emmie’s green eyes widened. “You punched someone out, Mama?” she asked, clearly fascinated.

Georgie wasn’t ashamed of what she’d done. She’d been raised to stand up for herself. Her brothers had been proud of her. “Only when some nasty little kid called your grandmother or your mama a bad name.”

“I’d altercation them too,” Emmie told her solemnly, carefully enunciating the word.

It took effort not to laugh, but she didn’t want to hurt her daughter’s feelings. Emmie’s heart was in the right place. Georgie gave her a little squeeze.

“I know you would, pumpkin. I know you would.” All the while, she kept her eyes on Nick. “Why are you investigating me again?” She thought they were past this, especially after last night.

Or was she an idiot to believe that?

“Because somebody tried to make it look as if you attempted to break into the Senator’s house in Prosperino. A gun and a credit card were conveniently left on the premises.” He didn’t want her to think he had any doubts about her innocence. “And because the laws of physics haven’t been, to my knowledge, repealed in the last few days, you couldn’t have been in two places at once.”

“Mama rides really, really fast,” Emmie offered helpfully.

Nick shook his head. “Not that fast. She would have had to have been in California and her bedroom at the same time last night.”

Looking every inch like a miniature adult, Emmie nodded her head. “And she was there with you the whole time.”

Startled, Nick exchanged looks with Georgie. It was Georgie who spoke first. “Emmie, how do you know where he was?”

“’Cause I went to see him in the guest room. He wasn’t there. Then I went to your room and there he was. You were asleep. Was he keeping you safe, Mama?”

It was ironic that the little girl would choose those exact words.

“Yes, honey, he was keeping me safe,” she told her seriously, then glanced up at Nick. “Okay, Emmie and I are off to Baker’s Jewels.”

He made a quick decision. “I’m coming, too,” he told her.

A twinge of disappointment twisted inside of her. “Still don’t trust me?”

“It’s not you I don’t trust,” he answered, getting his suit jacket from the back of the chair and slipping it on. “I think I need to go on keeping you safe,” he said, using Emmie’s words. The little girl flashed him an approving grin.

His tone told Georgie that there was no way she was going to argue him out of it. She didn’t bother wasting her breath.

“Okay, c’mon. Let’s get going. The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better.”

“My thoughts exactly,” he agreed.

Except that, she thought as she led him out of the house, once they got to the bottom of this, he’d be gone again.

She blocked out the thought as best she could. There was no point in dwelling on what she couldn’t change.