“You should understand something, AJ. I didn’t know Gina well. Most of what I heard came from Rosita, Mike, and María. The times I met her were when I was acting as Mike’s head of security, and one of the people he accused of wanting him dead was your sister.”
“Gina loved him,” she repeated, then drew a deep breath. “Okay, I know they ran into problems before … before she died. She hardly kept in touch with us. It’s almost like she wasn’t allowed to. But Gina would never have hurt anyone, and you”—her voice shook with anger and disgust—“you were the one trying to sleep with your boss’s wife. With my sister!”
“Who fed you that line of bull, AJ? Because it’s crap. I had no interest in Gina, except to protect Mike. And since she was his wife, I felt I had to look out for her interests, too—as much as I could.”
“María said—”
His expletive filled the room. “Seriously? You’re that bad a judge of character?” He shook his head. “She’s the one who started getting Mike to pay attention to Gina again—in a bad way. From what I heard from people I trust, like Rosita—she acted with special gusto when she saw a chance to attack la gringa.”
In spite of herself, she believed what he said. María’s clear dislike of Chance seemed based on his origin as much as the fact that her allegiance was blatantly pointed in Jaime’s direction.
“So,” she forced herself to ask, “you and Gina weren’t involved? You didn’t want her for yourself?”
`He pushed himself upright. “Your sister was a beautiful woman, but I never—never—am interested in someone else’s woman.” He walked over to the window and moved the lacy curtain aside before turning back. “My ex-wife was one of those women like Gina. Being married didn’t mean anything to her, either. I have no use for cheaters—in marriage or anything else.”
She stood, too, facing him angrily. “Gina wasn’t a cheater. Men noticed her. She didn’t encourage them. She didn’t use men. If anything, Mike Towers used her.” Chance didn’t argue with her, just stood there, too close, looking agitated, the envelope still in one hand.
Finally he shrugged and walked to the door, cracked it open, and glanced out. When he closed it, he locked it again.
“How well did you know Gina?” he asked, finally. “You never came to visit.”
The old pain of their estrangement crept back. All the wasted time, short as it had been.
“She was my sister, Chance. I knew everything about her.” She fell silent a minute, wishing she didn’t feel so drawn to be honest with the enigmatic, scowling man in front of her. Wishing she didn’t want to trust him with her secrets when he could destroy her so easily.
“Look, she and I had a falling out when she met Mike. I thought she was being stupid—that she shouldn’t have fallen for a man from out of town, with too much money, and who was so much older than she was. She disagreed, claimed she loved him. And don’t you dare even suggest it was about the money!”
“Shhh. Calm down, AJ. I didn’t come here to pick a fight.” He jerked a hand through his hair and inhaled sharply. “There’s so much we need to talk about, and I can’t—cooped up here like this.” He paused, and even with the clear frustration in his voice, he smiled. “In that gown, you’re just too big a distraction without a little more distance between us.”
“Humph. Not a problem for me, Chance.” She walked to the door and opened it. “And there’s an easy answer. Leave.”
He didn’t though, just walked up to her and poked his head outside once more, then turned in the narrow door frame and laid a hand on her arm.
She didn’t draw away, tried not to let him feel how quickly her pretended ease slipped into jumbled feelings—none of them easy or welcome.
“Mike won’t come back before that damn conference ends, unless María calls him. I don’t think anyone else is a problem. So we’ve got … what, four days? He might be back late on Friday, although he might stay over and come back Saturday. We’ll go somewhere tomorrow, if we can do something about María. You need to hear what I know about Gina—”
He cut off her protest before she could start.
“And I’ll listen to you, too. I promise. But tomorrow. Tonight …” The word slid out on a sigh. “There’s something I want you to know tonight.”
He eased out the door. “But I’m warning you, once I tell you—you can ruin lives. I hope you won’t. Meet me in the nursery in about ten minutes.”
He closed the door as he moved away.
• • •
The nursery? In the dead of night? Her stomach clenched and she took several deep breaths as she slipped out of the gown and changed into a T-shirt and sweats. Why on earth would he suggest the baby’s room—Gordito’s room—as a meeting place?
She thought suddenly that she seldom saw María up here, and most certainly never with the baby. Could it be that María resented Rosa’s little one? Or the position it might give Rosa if Towers recapitulated and recognized the son he appeared to ignore altogether? Maybe some of María’s bitterness stemmed from fears that she could lose her status as housekeeper to the younger woman.
She glanced at the desk clock, its gold frame glowing softly. She hadn’t taken ten minutes, but she wanted to hear whatever Chance was selling now. She only hoped she could control her temper and not wake the baby if he attacked Gina.
She checked the hall, glad no one else seemed to keep these insane hours, and padded barefoot down the hall to the nursery.
Electric candles glowed on the baby’s massive dresser and the room was tastefully decorated, but too elegant and formal to meet an exuberant child’s needs. Not a dragon, horse, or toy car in sight. Her lips twitched in amusement. She hadn’t been a child in a while. Maybe kids didn’t play with anything that mundane anymore.
Drawn to the crib, she smiled down silently at the sleeping child, resisting the urge to touch him gently.
But as suddenly as tenderness overcame her, something dark and sinister swept over her, and she clutched the railing of the crib, dizzy. The feeling of being watched—or hunted—raised the hairs on her arms, and she jerked away from the crib, one hand going to her mouth to silence a gasp of fear.
`And Chance came through the door sideways, apparently seeing her, as he locked the door before he faced her. “My God,” he muttered. “You look like you saw La Llorona. Or maybe—like you’re her.”
“There’s something evil in this room,” AJ muttered, rubbing her hands over her arms. “I’m freezing. Won’t the baby—” She stopped then. “Do you know I don’t even know Gordito’s real name? What kind of a life does the kid live, anyway?”
Chance looked around the luxuriously furnished room and lifted a shoulder. “Some would say he lives just fine.”
“And you, Chance? What would you say?”
“All the money in the world isn’t worth a damn without love.” He walked over to the baby’s crib and smiled faintly. “He’s much sweeter asleep.”
“So—is he named after his dad? After Mike?”
Chance shot her a sideways glance, then leaned his own hand on the crib, unaffected by whatever strange sensation had overwhelmed her just seconds ago. “No. Gordito’s name is Alejandro Robert.”
AJ’s mouth opened and she gulped, trying to drag air into her lungs.
He pressed the paper closer and added, “Stanford.”
She took the paper with hands that shook and managed to unfold it. Then she stared at the space listing her sister as the mother of the baby, Alejandro Robert Stanford. No name was listed for the father.
“She lost her baby. She told me—” Tears streamed down AJ’s face. “She—why would she lie?”
He took the birth certificate back, folding it carefully and putting it in his pocket, then rubbing a hand over his face and sighing.
“We can’t talk here,” he whispered. Gently he took her arm and led her to the wooden rocking chair across the room from the baby’s crib.
He folded her into the chair, then went to
the crib and pulled a crocheted afghan from the foot of the bed and draped it around her shoulders.
She couldn’t stop the silent flow of tears as he knelt in front of her, taking both her hands in his and squeezing.
“I’m sorry it’s such a shock,” he murmured. “I couldn’t wait any longer to tell you, though. We’re both running out of time, AJ.”
His words were a dull hum in her ears. Running out of time for what? But she couldn’t talk.
“I have to go. If María doesn’t see me making rounds, she’ll start paying attention.” He brushed ineffectually at her tears. “AJ, stay here with Gordito if you want, but you have to pull yourself together. You can’t spend the whole day with him. María and the others can’t know anything’s different. We can’t risk them getting in touch with Mike before we have a chance to talk.”
This time, most of what he said registered, and she nodded slightly to let him know that.
He blotted her cheeks with his hands once again, and she sensed his hesitation. Then he leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
“Try to get some sleep.”
She watched as he pushed himself up. As he reached the door, she realized that he’d just given her Gina’s son. A living, loving remnant of her sister.
“Thank you,” she whispered through the lump still clogging her throat. She didn’t know if he heard her, but the door closed softly and he was gone. Leaving her alone with Gina’s son. With her nephew.
Chapter Thirteen
Sandpaper eyes, stubble, and a vague but constant feeling of dread accompanied Chance through the empty house. He paused in the kitchen to make a quick cup of instant coffee and gulped it down, ignoring the burn. “With any luck, I’ll get out of here before I have to see that woman’s face,” he muttered.
“Señor Chance,” María purred behind him, and he tried to cover his words by fanning his hand in front of his mouth.
“Damn coffee burned me,” he said, hoping she hadn’t heard him clearly.
The housekeeper’s eyes glittered with her dislike.
“Hay que tener más cuidado,” she said sweetly. “You—”
“Should be more careful,” he finished for her. “You’re right.” He shot a quick smile at her over his shoulder. “How are you today, María?”
“Humph. I am as I always am.” She moved around him and took the coffee pot. “There was real coffee,” she pointed out. “Señor Mike likes my coffee.”
She took the pot over to the table and set it on a mat, poured herself a cup of coffee, and sat down.
“Would you like breakfast?” she asked without looking back at him.
“No, thanks. I want to make my rounds and check in with Mike to see if he needs anything.”
“He will be away for all of this week?”
Chance leaned against the counter as he sipped the remainder of the coffee more carefully. “Those were his plans when he left,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything different, and I know he’d like to be there to see the governor on Friday.”
“Trusting man, Don Mike.” Venom laced the woman’s word, and the look she cast his way was just as poisonous. “He’s been away a couple of days and already the gringa puta is taking all she can get.”
Anger jolted through him like an electrical shock. His fingers tightened on the handle of his cup, but he waited until he trusted himself to answer.
Then he exhaled slowly. “You know that AJ was born in Laredo, right? She’s really not a gringa, María. And she is Mike’s guest. What has she done now?” he asked.
She shrugged and refilled her coffee cup without looking his way. “Bah. She is not Mexican. Not even Mexican-American. She is trash. You don’t think Monterrey cost the boss a fortune? And she’s all over this house like she owns it—you’d think she had a ring on her finger. And Mike’s senora not dead a year.” She half turned in her chair. “I heard her singing in the guerco’s room. Does she think he’ll give her a kid, too?” Again she snorted her disdain. “And all the time, you sniffing around like—”
“Enough! ¡Basta ya!” The fury he’d been trying to tamp down burst through and he slammed the coffee cup down so hard that the little he hadn’t drunk splashed out on the table. He made no move to clean it, just reached across and snatched María’s fork out of her hand as she raised a bite of egg.
“Listen up. I don’t give a damn what you think about Ms. Owens, but she’s Mike’s guest, and you don’t talk about his guests like that. Since you seem to think she’s taken over, what if she finds out what you’re saying about her? She’ll get you thrown out without a penny, you understand that? You think he’ll choose you over her if she wants you gone?”
He saw her think about his words and pale slightly. Deciding he had an advantage, he pressed it. “And just for the record—I may be a stupid americano to you, but I’m not stupid enough to go after the boss’s woman. Got that? Because you sure as hell didn’t get it when Gina was alive and you dropped all your little lies about our affair, did you? Mike knew better, but I blame you for her trying to run away with that accountant.”
He paused, before calming his tone and continuing in a lower tone, “Any time I spend with Ms. Owens is because Mike told me to take care of her for him and be sure no one made her feel unwelcome.”
María muttered something inaudible and glowered at him before retrieving her fork and eating another mouthful of egg.
“I have never insulted her,” she said. “But you had better be very careful. I am useful to Mike Towers and he would not fire me.”
“I’m useful to him. Hell, if you think AJ Owens isn’t useful to him—” The words burned his throat. But he had to buy time, and a phone call to Mike Towers from this snake could ruin everything. Keep him from saving his uncle. From protecting the baby. Or AJ.
“She holds all the cards, María. Has a man ever favored you over his lover?” He remembered his first encounters with AJ and the revulsion she’d fought so valiantly to hide from Mike. She’d understand if he trashed her. Still, it almost gagged him.
María’s mouth turned down in a bitter grimace. “All men are hijos de puta,” she swore, then gave him a knowing look. “If Towers trusts you with her, he is a fool. As you say—I don’t need to tell him. But you are the fool if you think he will ever fire me.” Smugness flitted across her face. He could see it in her eyes. In the slight upward twist of her lips, something akin to a smile. “No. When one knows much—cuando se sabe mucho—one is safe.”
Sudden inspiration hit him. He needed to get AJ away from the ranch. Without María calling Towers home. In spite of the woman’s position, she did have the boss’s ear. And malice enough to call him the minute he stepped out of the kitchen.
He dug his phone out of his pocket and walked over to look out the window as if he’d forgotten María altogether. He hit Towers’s button, and after a few minutes, his boss came on, groggy and annoyed.
“What the hell you want, Landin?” Mike demanded. “Don’t have to be up for an hour or two yet. Something wrong down there?”
“No, Mike. Sorry I woke you up. Just wanted to touch base on a couple of things. You told me to keep AJ here on the ranch?”
“AJ? Oh … uh yeah.”
He heard the muffled complaint of a woman and Mike’s rude order to “just shut up,” and felt sick. How could AJ risk herself for a horse? Or even for her sister? Gina was dead, for heaven’s sake.
“What’s the deal with the filly? She bolt or something? Maybe shack up with that supposed fiancé of hers?”
“No, she’s here. I don’t talk to her much, but she asked if I knew when you’d be back. Said she really didn’t have any reason to stay if you weren’t here, but that you’d told her not to be coming and going, so she’d stayed.”
“Well, now, sounds like she’s come around!” Towers fell silent for a minute. “But I can’t come back till Saturday. You have any idea how important the governor’s deal is on Friday? He might announce his run for president. A
nd Thursday—tomorrow—there’s a huge luncheon to plan strategies for some of the candidates. I heard I’m gonna get a position on one of the finance committees.” Again the silence, followed by a heavy sigh. “Try to cheer her up, Landin. But not too much, if you get my meaning.”
“She was talking about wanting to eat out and do a little shopping. I wondered if you’d like me to drop her off in Laredo, then pick her up and take her back when she’s ready.”
“Take her, but try to keep an eye on her. Don’t know why she wants to leave the ranch anyway.”
“Might be better,” Chance suggested. How much can I push this thing? Gordito—but María’s such a worthless snake. “Thing is, she discovered the baby. Plays with him a lot. Harmless, but she might get really attached to Gordito—”
“She’d better not. Might have to pay Rosita off just to leave with the baby unless I need him for something. I don’t want women who want babies. Gina wasn’t smart enough to listen. Too much a whore to have my brat anyway.”
Towers’s callous words sent a chill through him. Had he missed the man’s dislike for AJ’s sister so badly? Mike told him the day he started working that Gina had cheated on him. More than once. Sudden doubt niggled. But he ignored it and plowed on. “I’ll take her back across for the day, then, Mike. Solve a lot of problems with one stone, so to speak. But I wanted to clear it with you, because I need my job.” He turned around as he said that, fixing María with a hard stare that made her look away briefly.
“And your life,” Mike retorted, chuckling. “Just kiddin’, Landin. But keep your hands clean.”
He disconnected and Chance put his phone down on the counter and folded his arms. “María, I’m going into Laredo. AJ wants to go shopping, and Mike wants her happy. But I was thinking—you never have a day off. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to go with her?”
María sniffed. “I need nothing from your country or your stores. I go there with Don Mike because he pays me well to take care of his home affairs. But I will not go there with that—”
Texas Temptation Page 90
