Egan Cassidy's Kid

by Beverly Barton

  Who was he kidding? He wanted more. He wanted it all. Maggie. Bent. A normal life. But what were the odds that it could happen for him? Could Maggie ever truly trust him enough to give him a second chance? And was it possible for his son to forgive him? Would Bent ever allow him to be a real father to him?

  Egan stepped aside as Maggie and Bent approached the hotel, Joe and Hunter guarding them. Maggie paused momentarily as they passed, her gaze locking with Egan’s. But Bent looked straight ahead, not even acknowledging Egan’s existence.

  “Your boy don’t seem none too glad to see you,” Ed Butram commented, then tossed a chew of tobacco into his mouth and went inside the hotel.

  Ed was right about that, Egan thought. His son sure as hell wasn’t glad to see him. But how could he blame Bent? After all, the boy had just lived through the most traumatic experience of his life—and he blamed Egan.

  Wolfe pulled the car around into the alley, then returned to the hotel entrance, where Egan waited for him.

  “Any problems?” Wolfe asked.

  Egan stared into the man’s eyes—a light, earthy green, a direct contrast to his dark skin. “No problems. Not even a hint of Cullen. Any word on what happened to him?”

  “None,” Wolfe said. “But then you didn’t expect he’d make his location known, did you? He’s hidden away somewhere safe and sound, waiting to find out where you are before he makes a move.”

  “I want Maggie and Bent to be taken someplace safe, somewhere they can be guarded day and night, until I’ve taken care of Cullen.”

  Wolfe eased up beside Egan. The man’s movements mimicked a sleek panther. Perfectly coordinated. Deadly quiet.

  “Ornelas’s cousin, J.T. Blackwood, who used to be a Dundee agent, owns a ranch in New Mexico. He plans to take Maggie and Bent there. Either he or Whitelaw will be with them at all times and Blackwood’s ranch hands will provide extra protection, as will Blackwood himself. And Maggie won’t feel so alone with Blackwood’s wife and sister around.”

  “First thing in the morning, we’ll leave,” Egan said. “Are you heading back to Atlanta or will you be going to New Mexico first?”

  “Neither,” Wolfe told him. “I’m going with you.”

  Egan snapped his head around and glared at Wolfe. “What do you mean you’re going with me?”

  “We discussed things, before Ellen left, and we decided that apprehending Cullen is a two-man job.”

  “This isn’t a Dundee matter,” Egan said. “This is a personal matter and I don’t want to involve anyone else. I’ll take care of Cullen by myself.”

  “You need an accomplice. Someone who isn’t personally involved. Someone who can think rationally.”

  Egan chuckled. “You know I’m going to kill the bastard, don’t you?”

  “If we can bring him in alive—”

  “Not an option!”

  “The kidnapping charges alone would put him in prison for the rest of his life,” Wolfe said. “If we can do this legally, you’d never have to explain to Maggie or to your son why—”

  “I doubt my son will ever give me the chance to explain anything. And Maggie already understands.”

  Wolfe shrugged his wide shoulders. “However you decide to handle this, consider me your shadow until it’s finished.”

  “Who decided that you’d get this assignment?” Egan didn’t know David Wolfe very well. He suspected that no one did. Except maybe Sam Dundee, the big boss who had hired him.

  “I volunteered.”

  Wolfe’s facial expression didn’t alter, but Egan noted a slight change in his eyes. Those damn pale eyes were spooky. Like the eyes of some predatory animal.

  “So you enjoy suicide missions, do you?” Egan suspected he’d just learned something about the mysterious David Wolfe. Maybe the man didn’t have a death wish, but the prospect of dying certainly didn’t worry him.

  When Wolfe made no reply, Egan slapped him on the back. The man tensed visibly. Egan let his hand fall away, then turned toward the hotel entrance. “Maggie wants me to talk to Bent tonight. She thinks he’ll listen to what I have to say.”

  “Perhaps he will,” Wolfe said. “But if you expect too much, you will be disappointed.”

  “I don’t expect anything,” Egan told him, then mumbled to himself, “I don’t deserve anything.”

  Maggie sat beside Bent on the edge of the twin bed in the room Ed had assigned to her son. The old man had seemed to understand that their circumstances weren’t normal and didn’t question them. But Corrie’s nosiness bothered Maggie slightly. The woman was as sweet as she could be and was truly friendly, but she possessed an abundance of curiosity that prompted her to ask too many questions.

  Maggie glanced at Joe Ornelas who stood guard at the door. “Mr. Ornelas, would you mind if I had a few minutes alone with my son?”

  “No, ma’am. I understand. I’ll be right outside the door.”

  “Thank you.”

  The minute Joe closed the door behind him, Maggie took Bent’s hand in hers and squeezed tightly. She had never realized how much she’d taken life for granted—the normal, everyday events like eating and sleeping and working. After coming so close to losing Bent, she would forever be aware of how quickly the most important things in your life can be taken from you. In the blink of an eye.

  “Are you really all right?” she asked.

  “Yeah, Mama, I’m really all right.”

  When Bent smiled at her, she saw Egan’s smile. Looking at Bent now, she realized how very much he was his father’s son. Not only did Egan deserve a chance to know their child, but Bent deserved a chance to know his father. She had to find a way to convince Bent that Egan was worthy of a second chance.

  “I want you to do something for me,” Maggie said.

  “What?”

  “I want you to talk to your father.”

  Bent jerked his hand from Maggie’s grasp, shot up off the bed and paced around the room. “I don’t have a father. Gil Douglas might have adopted me and called himself my father, but he was never anything but a temporary stepfather. And Egan Cassidy might have provided the sperm that helped create me, but he isn’t my father. He’s a stranger who walked out on my mother and never looked back. He’s a man whose association with the scum of the earth put your life and mine in danger.”

  “Grant Cullen is a madman who has ruined Egan’s life. He sought revenge against Egan because Egan had once exposed him as the evil man he was—the evil man he still is.”

  Maggie watched her son pacing, like a trapped animal on the verge of thrusting himself against the unbendable bars of the cage that bound him. Even though Bent had assured her that he was all right, she knew better. A rage that badly needed venting boiled inside her son. He was angry with Egan. With Cullen. And perhaps even with her. How could she help Bent? What could she do to ease his pain?

  “Talk to Egan,” she said.

  “I don’t want to talk to him.”

  “Perhaps you don’t want to talk to him, but you need to hear what he has to say.” Maggie rose from the bed, walked across the room and placed her hand on her son’s shoulder. “Do this for me, Bent. Let Egan explain to you about his relationship with Cullen. I think once you know the truth, you won’t blame your father for what happened.”

  Bent covered Maggie’s hand with his own and looked directly into her eyes. “Okay. I’ll listen to what he has to say. But only because it’s what you want.”

  “Thank you, darling.” She kissed his cheek. “I’ll tell Mr. Ornelas to go get Egan and let him know you’re ready to see him.”

  Egan wondered what sort of magic Maggie had performed to persuade their son to talk to him. Whatever means she’d used, he was grateful. But he was nervous. And scared. He didn’t kid himself. He knew this might be the only chance he’d ever have with his son. What if he said the wrong thing? What if he misjudged, misstepped, misunderstood? So much was riding on this one conversation. He couldn’t blow this opportunity.

  God,
help me!

  Hunter sat in a straight-back chair outside the room. When Egan and Joe approached he nodded. “Maggie’s still in there with him.”

  “He may want her there when we talk,” Egan said.

  Joe knocked on the door. “I’ve brought Egan with me.”

  Within seconds the door swung open. Maggie stood there alone. Then she stepped out into the hallway, leaving the door open behind her. Egan glanced into the room and saw Bent standing at the windows that overlooked the back alley. The boy stood ramrod straight, as if he had an iron bar attached to his spine.

  “He’s very hostile,” Maggie said softly. “He’s on the verge of exploding, so if he lashes out at you—”

  “If he needs to vent his anger, I’m tough enough to take it.” When Egan reached out to touch Maggie, she sidestepped him and he realized that their son’s resentment stood between them, a barrier as potentially dangerous to their future together as Grant Cullen’s existence was to their lives.

  Egan entered the room, but halted just as he crossed the threshold. He glanced over his shoulder and looked at Maggie who waited in the hall. “Aren’t you coming in with me?”

  “No,” she replied. “You and Bent need to be alone for this conversation.”

  Egan nodded. Maggie closed the door, shutting him inside the room with a young, raging bull, who was ready, willing and able to attack with the least provocation.

  “Bent?”

  The boy stiffened. “Yes, sir?”

  “Your mother said that you’ve agreed to talk to me.”

  “I’ll listen to whatever you have to say, only because my mother asked me to hear you out.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Bent whirled around, his steely gray eyes narrowed, his cheeks flushed and his big, manly hands clenching and unclenching with nervous energy. “Fair? What the hell would you know about fair? Was it fair that you got my mother pregnant and left her? Was it fair that she’s had to raise me all by herself? Was it fair that because you’ve spent your life associating with a bunch of fanatics and lunatics that one of them kidnapped me and put my mother through hell?”

  The blast of Bent’s venomous anger bombarded Egan, making direct hits to his already overburdened conscience. Guilt piled upon guilt, weighing him down with regret. “You’re right. None of it was fair. Not to you. Not to your mother. And whether you believe it or not, none of it was fair to me, either.”

  Bent glared at Egan, his gaze surveying his father from head to toe. “Every time Mama looks at me she must see you. If I were her, I’d hate me.”

  “Maggie loves you more than anything,” Egan said.

  “I know! My mother is the best. She’s a good person who deserved a lot better than you ever gave her.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Egan held out his hands, the expression beseeching his son for understanding.

  “How could you have taken advantage of her the way you did?”

  “Is that what Maggie told you?” Egan asked. “Did she say that I had taken—”

  “Gil told me.”

  “Gil?”

  “Yeah, Gil. You know, the guy my mother was engaged to marry when you showed up in her life and screwed up everything.” Bent’s hands shook; his chin quivered. “If it hadn’t been for you, Gil Douglas would have been my real father. They’d have gotten married, had me and they’d still be together. But no, you had to ruin things. Gil told me how you used your friendship with my uncle Bentley to worm your way into Mama’s heart—and into her bed!”

  “Gil Douglas had no right to tell you anything about my relationship with Maggie. All you’ve heard is the opinion of a man who hated me because—”

  “Because you stole his fiancée right out from under his nose!”

  “Because your mother fell in love with me.” Egan closed his eyes momentarily as the memory of that last night with Maggie washed over his consciousness. I love you, Egan. I love you so much. How many times during the past fifteen years had he heard that sweet voice echoing inside his head?

  “But you didn’t love her—you used her.” Bent sneered at his father, a look of pure contempt on his handsome face.

  Admit the truth. Don’t lie to your son, Egan’s conscience warned him. “I never meant to hurt Maggie. I didn’t mean to use her. You’re a little young to understand what happens between a man and a woman—”

  “I know all about sex. You needed a woman, so you took advantage of my mother because she was infatuated with you.”

  “It wasn’t like that, Bent. I swear to you that Maggie was never just some woman to me. I cared about her. I still care. About her and about you.”

  “Yeah, well, where were you fourteen years ago when I was born? Where was all that caring then?”

  Egan took a tentative step in Bent’s direction, but halted immediately when he noticed the stricken look on his son’s face. The boy was scared to death that Egan might touch him, but Egan knew better than to tread on thin ice. If he even tried to place a hand on Bent’s shoulder, the boy was likely to fly into a panicked rage.

  Egan sat down in the only chair in the room, a wingback that had definitely seen better days. Once seated, he noted the slight relaxation in Bent’s shoulders.

  “When I was eighteen, I got drafted and wound up in Vietnam,” Egan said, trying to keep his voice calm and unemotional. “To make a long story short, I met your uncle Bentley when he saved my life. We became friends then and remained friends as long as he lived. Bentley Tyson was probably the only real friend I’ve ever had.”

  “And you repaid his friendship by getting his little sister pregnant just a few weeks after his funeral.”

  Bent hovered over Egan, his hands knotted into fists. Egan knew that the boy was itching to hit him.

  “If you want to hit me, son, then go ahead and do it.” Egan lifted his chin and looked up at Bent. “Otherwise, give it a rest until you know the whole story.”

  Bent fumed. He clenched his jaw, clamped his teeth and snorted as his breathing grew fast and hard. Keening, he closed his eyes, wheeled around and stomped across the room. Egan waited, not saying a word.

  With his back still to his father, Bent said, “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

  “While I was in Nam, I was captured and spent nearly a year in a Vietcong POW camp.” Egan paused, not wanting to remember those days and yet never truly able to forget. “That’s where I met Grant Cullen. I survived. But most of the men didn’t survive…because of Cullen. He betrayed his country and his fellow soldiers. He traded information for favors and he also exposed a planned escape that cost a lot of men their lives. So, when I got the chance, I turned him in for what he’d done and a captured Vietcong major backed up my story. Cullen’s West Point training and his family’s position didn’t help him much when the truth came out. Cullen’s career was over. His wife left him and took their daughter. His father disowned him. And he blamed me for all his misfortunes.”

  “He blamed you for something that was his own fault?” Bent turned and faced Egan. “He hated you because you’d told the truth about what he did?”

  “He swore that he’d never let me have any peace, that he would watch and wait until the day came when I had something that meant everything to me and then he would take it away.”

  “But that was how many years ago? Twenty-five? Thirty? Are you telling me that he’s been keeping tabs on you all these years, waiting for a chance to hurt you the way he thinks you hurt him?”

  Egan nodded. “I could never allow anyone to be more than a casual part of my life. I couldn’t love a woman and get married. I couldn’t have any children. I couldn’t even spend more than a few days at a time with friends. Anyone who cared about me ran a risk and it wasn’t a risk I was willing to let anyone take.”

  Bent’s shoulders slumped, his whole body relaxing. “Then why did you get involved with my mother?”

  “I didn’t mean for it to happen,” Egan said as he scooted to the edge of the chair. “But Mag
gie was…different. She was special. I tried damn hard to resist the way I felt about her, the way I knew she felt about me.” But loving her was the sweetest thing I’ve ever known, he longed to say, but didn’t. I wanted her as I’d never wanted anything or anyone, before or since. And I still want her, now more than ever. “I didn’t want to leave her. I swear to you that if I’d thought I had a choice, I’d have stayed with Maggie forever.”

  “You left because you didn’t want Cullen to know about her, so that he couldn’t use her to get to you.”

  Egan saw the realization dawn in Bent’s eyes. His son knew the truth now. Was he mature enough to accept and understand?

  “I should have told Maggie about Cullen.” Egan dropped his hands between his legs and twined his fingers together as he gazed down at the floor. “But I had no idea she was pregnant. If I’d known…”

  “If you’d known, then what?” Bent asked eagerly.

  “I’d have made damn sure that you and Maggie were safe.”

  “How did Cullen find out about us…about me?” Bent asked.

  “A private detective somehow unearthed my credit card records that showed I paid for flowers that were sent to Bentley’s grave each year. From there, the detective did a little more digging and discovered that Maggie had a child and that I was listed on his birth certificate as the father.”

  “And once he found out about me…” Bent walked across the room and stood directly in front of Egan. “I understand. Like Mama said, it wasn’t your fault that Cullen kidnapped me. And I guess I owe you my life, don’t I?” Bent grunted. “So what happens now? What’s to keep Cullen from coming after Mama and me again?”

  “Me,” Egan said. “I’m what’s going to keep him from ever getting anywhere near you and Maggie.”

  “How are you going to stop him?”

  “You don’t need to worry about that. All you have to do is cooperate with Joe and Hunter and let them do their job as your and Maggie’s bodyguards, until I take care of Cullen.”