Legal Heirs - Box Set Edition: Books 5-8 (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles)

by Lee, Kimball

  “I understand what you’re saying Amanda,” Bly said and his voice was low and full of concern, “I’m going to meet my son when he gets back from the cruise. Charlotte and I will figure things out from there. I want him to be happy, but he is my son and that is the greatest joy of my life. I have and will continue to make sure that you and Mother and the twins and even Maddie have very comfortable lives. If any one of you mistreats Atticus or holds a grudge against him for being who he is or what he is, I won’t tolerate it. He’s my legal heir and whether it comes to light now or later, doesn’t matter. My will is being changed as we speak, the results of the long overdue paternity test were opened this morning in my estate attorney’s office. It’s done.”

  “Bly,” Charlotte said, as she felt a chill sweep over her, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “I’d better check on Evangeline,” West said, and Amanda reached for his hand before he could walk away.

  “Let her go, we should take the kids on a cruise. I’ll book it now and we can go on to Florida, you want Beau to be happy don’t you?” she said, gazing up at him with a look that was unmistakable.

  West hesitated and said he would talk to Evangeline and then find out what Beau wanted to do. He let go of Amanda’s hand reluctantly and walked away.

  “What the fuck, Amanda?” Bly hissed under his breath. “Are you sleeping with our mother’s husband?”

  “Oh Alex calm down. You’d better arrange the jet to take her back to Paris, she is the queen of everything, after all. I’m sick of her holier-than-thou attitude, she’s never treated me like a daughter so what difference does it make what I do with her husband?” Amanda said, then she cautiously looked up at Bly to see if he was mad at her.

  “We’ll be in my suite,” Bly said, standing up and holding his hand out for Charlotte to join him.

  “Let me have a few minutes with Amanda,” Charlotte said and grazed her lips across his. Bly looked down at her and raked his hand through his hair, then he nodded and left them sitting there.

  “Come on, let’s go walk the streets of New York, you little slut,” Charlotte said and they left the hotel. Charlotte led the way as they walked along Fifth Avenue past horse-drawn carriages waiting to take tourists through Central Park. She looped her arm through Amanda’s and asked, “Are you really having an affair with West? Come on, Amanda, you have like fifteen kids and I thought you loved JP and the whole being a Mommy thing?”

  “I do, I love my husband and I love my kids, what does that have to do with anything? It doesn’t look like you have much room to judge right now, Charlotte. Are you going to deny that you and my big brother are fucking like two moon-swooning comet-zombies?” Amanda shot back.

  “He found out about Atticus, then it just happened. I’m fucked, I’m damned, I’m confused, I don’t know what to do,” Charlotte said.

  “You haven’t let Alex think you’re actually going to leave Finn have you? Seriously, my brother is balls-to-the-wall crazy about you, but Finn will never let you go. You think he’s all sweet and cuddly, but believe me sister, Finn is fierce about you. You are his, and he might not have my brother’s power and money but to hear the stories JP tells, Finn is one tough scary son of a bitch. You don’t need my blessing to have fun with Alex as long as you can. Just understand that when your husband comes home his knife-wielding gun-slinging ass will do whatever it takes to keep his family together.”

  “Shit, let’s have a drink in Bemelmans and talk about your problems for a while,” Charlotte said and they crossed the street and sat at corner table in the dimly lit old-world coziness of the bar at the Carlyle hotel.

  “I think this is my favorite spot in Manhattan,” Amanda said looking around at the mural covered walls painted by Ludwig Bemelmans who was famous for the Madeline children’s book series. “Chic and cozy and they make a killer martini.”

  “I’m not justifying what’s happening between me and Bly, but you and West, damn Amanda; that is just bizarre. Do you seriously hate your mother that much?” Charlotte asked as martinis were set in front of them with refills in tiny carafes resting in silver bowls of ice. “Wow, now that’s a martini!” she said and they clinked their glasses together and toasted to the salvation of their cheating hearts.

  “No I don’t hate my mother, I just love sex with West. God, it’s so fucking hot you cannot imagine. The fucking is like fucking way out there. Come on Charlotte, wake up and smell the coffee. Did you really think I would just let JP off Scott-free after the Lizzie episode? And don’t fool yourself that she was JP’s only dalliance. You and Finn are… excuse me, were, the only couple I know who didn’t screw around. Now you’ve ruined all my faith in humanity.”

  “What? NO!” Charlotte said and Amanda had to laugh at the horror in her voice.

  “I’m kidding, you and Alex have been on a collision course for too long, it was bound to happen. It’s not the act, it’s the aftermath that scares me. You look happy, Charlotte, why don’t you just call a pow-wow when Finn gets home and the three of you can hook up in bed?” Amanda said and laughed as the martinis began to take effect.

  “Shut up, you are sick and kinky. Mention that to your brother and he might just cut off your trust fund or have you committed, whichever you would hate the most.”

  “I will take committed over poverty any day of the week. Fuck, I think Alex is going to make me pay for not telling him about his love child,” Amanda said, she had finished her first martini and was pouring the contents of the little carafe into her empty glass.

  “Why West? You’re always going on and on about Billy Kipling. For some reason I thought if you were going to screw around it would be with him,” Charlotte said and she too was on her second martini and feeling no pain.

  “No, I thought about it for about a minute and a half, but he has such a boner for Maddie, I decided to go for a man with better taste.”

  “Maddie? You’ve got to be kidding. She’s been sliced and diced so many times she doesn’t even look real anymore,” Charlotte said as another round of martinis magically appeared.

  “I know, she’s practically skin and bones and her face looks like a bad imitation of Joan Rivers. She and Spencer Beck are stupidly in love and they have a little boy now. Can you imagine how that kid is going to turn out? She doesn’t have a motherly urge in her body for the twins, but she’s crazy about her precious Milo. Get this, they have an open marriage, they go to a private nudist colony on the weekends and take the kid with them. Talk about fucked up, Billy Kipling thinks he’s in love with her and he doesn’t even care that she’s become a human blow-up doll. That woman does nasty shit with any man who will give her a second look. I guess my brother really pushed her over the edge by flaunting his infatuation with you. Or who knows? I think she was just a good girl waiting to go bad. She’s spent most of the money Alex gave her to form a film production company in Hollywood because Spencer has aspirations to become a director. Directing porn films, that’s what they should be doing.” Amanda said and since they had polished off another round of martinis she was beginning to slur her words. “Hey, I feel like I could fly right now, let’s go dancing. To hell with West and Alex, we should find some younger men and take advantage of them.”

  “Excuse me,” Charlotte called to the waiter as he passed by, “We’ve had a tad too much to drink and I think we need a cab back to our hotel please. Like right now before my friend gets us into serious trouble.”

  “Sister, you get yourself into plenty of trouble without my help!” Amanda said and leaned forward so that her boobs made quite a showing.

  The waiter was about Charlotte’s age and his smile broadened as he recognized her, “Hey, wow! The American Jock cheerleader. Man it’s been a few years since your infamous cover but you look amazing. My shift is over in ten minutes, why don’t I show you ladies the town?”

  “Oooh, good idea!” Amanda said, flashing him a dimpled smile.

  “Uh, I don’t think so. We need to get back to the
Plaza or two very big, very angry men will come looking for us,” Charlotte said and as she thought about Bly she dug through her purse for her phone. It was ringing before her hand ever touched it and she clicked on and held it to her ear.

  Bly was not happy. “Were the hell are you Charlotte? I’ve been calling and calling… say something dammit!”

  “We’re at Bemelmans a little drunk and trying to get a ride back to the hotel,” she said and she knew she sounded more than a little bit drunk.

  “Stay there, we’ll be there in a few minutes. Don’t leave, WAIT THERE,” he ordered and hung up.

  “Uh-oh, the man who is not my husband but I’m having sex with is mad and he’s on his way here. Worse than that he’s bringing his former body guard with him, this is not good!” Charlotte said and the waiter said an abrupt goodbye.

  “What a pussy,” Amanda said as the waiter practically ran away, and they toasted and started drinking again. “Hey, did I mention that West is hung like a horse and has a tongue like a snake?”

  “You’re filthy, you know that? I cannot believe you grew up surrounded by money and class.”

  “Money and class do not always go together, stupid!” Amanda was raging drunk and began to laugh and Charlotte joined her and soon they were laughing so hard they couldn’t stop.

  *

  “You are raging drunk,” Bly said as he carried Charlotte into the suite and dumped her on the bed. “How much did you have to drink?”

  “Who can count that high, lover boy? Now come here and undress me and make love to me,” Charlotte smiled and then hiccupped.

  “Sorry, I don’t have sex with women who are too drunk to remember it the next day,” Bly said and he peeled her clothes and shoes off and tucked her beneath the covers. He was pissed as hell that she was raging drunk and that he had an aching erection from looking at her naked for half a second. He was mostly pissed off because some mouthy massage therapist sat next to him and West in the Oak Bar and said he’d seen Charlotte naked. He knocked the shit out of the guy and he would have done worse but West stopped him and management threw the guy out and said he would never work at the Plaza again.

  Bly undressed and took a shower, relieving his need for Charlotte as the water poured over him and he imagined her beneath him. He climbed into bed naked and drew her burning hot body close against him. Her skin was so smooth, it was like nothing he’d ever felt, her temperature seemed to hover a few degrees above normal. He didn’t want to think that he would lose her again, that she meant it when she said they were only having an affair. She stirred against him in sleep and whispered his name so sweetly that he thought he would do anything in his power to hold on to her.

  Chapter Four

  “I’m done,” Finn told JP. Finn was sitting on the edge of a dirty mattress in a cardboard shack on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. “How the fuck can I shoot with my left hand? And look at this,” he said ripping the bandage away from the side of his head. “I must be fucking crazy, Charlotte was right about this whole thing.”

  “Calm down, you could shoot with one eye closed and your left hand tied behind your back. If we pull out now we’ll lose all credibility, not to mention the bounty on that last motherfucker on our list. Come on Finnegan we can do this, I’ll carry your fucking rifle for you,” JP said, as he watched an ancient woman and a teenage boy set Finn’s broken right arm. “Don’t pussy out on me now, one more shot, that’s all we need. Then we can get out of here, no more games, I swear. I won’t even try to drag you into any whore houses on the way back to the States.”

  “One more shot? You no longer have a clue about what I do, JP. You sit in a fucking motel room looking at a satellite screen and tell me to turn left or right, that’s what you do. You stopped risking your life a long time ago. You’re a voice in my earpiece and that’s all. You find ‘em and I kill ‘em, talk about a fucking pussy. Well listen up brother, I don’t need this anymore. How many years has it been since I went home with a bullet wound or any other mark on me? That’s right, it hasn’t happened in years because I was damn careful so my wife wouldn’t know I was still doing this shit. I’m thirty-five years old and I’ve lost my edge, the truth is I don’t love it anymore. I used to only see the target in my mind like a flashing beacon, now I can only see my wife and kids. Look what it’s come to, I have a bullet hole in my leg, a broken arm, and if the bullet to my head had been half an inch to the left I’d be a dead man with one eye. I’m going home, so get on your fucking sat-phone and get us the hell out of here. Let these crazy bastards fight their own wars, I’m no martyr, I just want to go home to my family,” Finn said, and JP’s face turned green when he heard the pop of Finn’s bone being set.

  “Fine,” JP said, wiping away the sweat that had broken out on his face while Finn sat calmly and let the old woman do her job. “I’ll call for our ride but we’re gonna have to stop over in D.C. and face the boss.”

  “Just get me out of here, and remember JP, I’m the one who can shoot straight no matter what. So you better hope I sleep with one eye open. We’re sitting in the middle of a bunch of drug traffickers who are on the run from their bosses. You want to know what I see down here in beautiful Argentina when I look through the scope on my rifle? I see men who stole a half ton of cocaine in Columbia and are hiding out here trying to escape the cartel they just fucked over. Today I watched as a man’s balls were cut off and fed to him. Two other poor bastards had their hearts cut out and they were still alive to watch when the beating hearts were thrown to a pack of dogs. I’m not sure I can protect you anymore, so make the fucking call,” Finn said, and refused the shot of morphine the old woman offered. “One of us has to stay alert, give him the shot,” he said, pointing to JP, “he looks like he could use it.”

  “Fuck!” JP said, “That crazy ass Lizzie is married to one of those sadistic cartel bosses. Finn, he’s the one we need to take out to be sure they never try to come for Skyler or Beau. Here’s the plan, we can stop over in Mexico, drink some fine tequila and you can take the bastard out with one shot. Do it as a favor to me, buddy.”

  “Have you lost all sense of reality? How am I supposed to hold the fucking rifle, aim, and pull the trigger? I think the whores you’ve been frequenting in the South American ghetto have given you syphilis. If not, then some other mind-altering STD, because you are fucking insane. Now get the damned jet down here so I can go home to my wife and kids,” Finn said, and he paid the old woman and the boy then laid down on the mattress with his rifle close at hand.

  *

  “Tell me you’re not serious, John Paul. This isn’t an aircraft it’s a prehistoric piece of shit,” Finn was at the end of rope with JP. The poorly set broken arm was swollen to nearly the size of his thigh and the pain was nearly unbearable. Now they were standing at a decrepit airstrip on the edge of Buenos Aires and JP was throwing his bags into a rusty single engine airplane.

  “Show some fucking balls, Finn, the plane is stable enough to get us close to Mexico and then we’ll catch a ride from there.”

  “I’m not going to Mexico, JP, I told you before. You’ve got some fucked up notion about killing that cartel boss and I don’t think you want to do it because of those kids. You’re completely psychotic JP, thinking that Lizzie will want to come back to you. Have you lost your mind? I can’t shoot a rifle in the condition I’m in and you haven’t been able to hit a target in years. No, I’m not risking my life so you can rescue a crazy woman who abandoned two babies. Admit it, you want her back, you want that sweet little ass of hers pressed up against you no matter what the cost. Well fucking go for it, but you can go it alone. Even if I had a serious death wish and wanted to do it, I can’t. Look at my arm, it’s infected and if it wasn’t so swollen I guarantee you the bone would be sticking out through the skin.”

  “I’m going Finn, after you described what the cartel is capable of I have get her out of there,” JP said and Finn could tell it was no use to try and change his mind. It was a ninety-percent
certainty that JP wouldn’t leave Mexico alive, and even if Finn wanted to, he wasn’t physically able to back him up.

  Finn wiped the sweat off his face, he was sweating and yet he was freezing to death. His arm and the bullet hole in his leg were severely infected and he was so dizzy he could barely stand up. “It’s been great knowing you JP, I wish you wouldn’t do this. I can’t go with you and if I can’t talk you out of it, I’m washing my hands of the whole situation. How many times have I risked my life for you, and now you’re throwing it all away for nothing. Lizzie married the bastard because she wanted to, but I suppose you just won’t leave it at that.”

  JP shook Finn’s good hand then hugged him and climbed into the battered airplane. Finn picked up his gun case and began the long walk back into the city. He heard the airplane engine sputter to life and he stopped listening as it rattled down the runway and took off. There were tears on his face and he wiped them away when a flat-bed truck full of teenage boys stopped and let him climb into the back. He promised them money to take him to the international airport and he was so weak by the time they let him off he wasn’t sure he could make it through customs. He left his gun case in the truck since he would surely be arrested for carrying it into the airport. He bought a ticket on the next flight leaving for the S.tates using one of his many passports. When the plane was well on its way to Houston a flight attendant bent over him and asked if she could get him anything.