“Yeah. She wormed her way in all right. Messed up the whole month of summer vacation, too. And then the minute we’re back in L.A. she hit the road again, this time I think it was with a bodybuilder who happened to be into speed and ecstasy. But then I could be wrong. The bodybuilder might have been a couple of years later. The men came and went like a revolving door. It was hard to keep up with all the different men. After I turned ten, I stopped trying.”
Baylee heard a beeper go off in the background. “Sorry, Quinn, I didn’t mean to bring it all up again.”
“No prob. Nothing like walking down memory lane chocked full of potholes. But I gotta go. Looks like I’ve got an accident victim coming in with a ruptured spleen. Cool. I haven’t done one of those yet.”
Baylee couldn’t help it; she laughed. “Good luck then.” When she ended the call she continued to be a little awed by Quinn’s enthusiasm over ruptured organs. And didn’t have a clue how her friend had chosen such a profession where she routinely worked with all that blood and sewing up people’s limbs.
CHAPTER 22
For days he’d had someone searching the records in Vital Statistics. So far they’d come up with nothing, a great big fat zero. Connor was aggravated and growing edgier, if that were possible. He sat back in his desk chair and stared at Cade, who was in the process of trying to prove how industrious he’d been at hunting for any tidbit of information about Baylee and the baby.
“So far there’s nothing at Vital Statistics. There’s no birth certificate on file here in California. Could she have gone out of state?”
“Well. Yeah. Genius. The stupid bitch could have gone to any of the other forty-nine states. Why didn’t she just tell me she was pregnant?”
To Cade the answer was pretty much a no-brainer. But he chose his words carefully. “If I had to guess I’d say it’s because she knew how persuasive you can be at times when you want to get your way.” He held up his hands when Connor gave him a look of contempt. “She might have thought you’d make certain she got rid of it.”
The disdain left his face but was replaced by sheer indignation. “Well yeah, but that didn’t happen, now did it? I might be a father and for months now she’s denied me the right to my own flesh and blood. Any judge would see that as a father I deserve time with the kid.” He slammed his fist down on the desk. “If that baby’s mine, I want custody. To hell with what she wants. I wouldn’t have the bitch now knowing she’s been with that dildo Burke. If that’s my kid, I want her. I want what’s mine.”
Cade looked into his brother’s face, saw he needed some buoyancy. “With the right incentive, a judge might be persuaded to rule in favor of the father and give him full custody, especially if the woman in question is deemed unfit to be a mother.”
Connor’s demeanor brightened. “I could arrange that.”
“Sure you could. Now for the bad news, bro. What if you’re not the father? What if the baby actually belongs to this Burke guy? Have you thought of that?”
Connor shook his head. “I feel in my gut the baby’s mine. And if it is, nothing will stop me from getting my daughter. I need to find her, Cade.”
“Look, why don’t you just ask her old man?”
“What?” Connor looked baffled at the idea.
“Taylor is the old man’s attorney, has been for years. Send him in to do recon. Get him to visit the old guy under the guise of talking to him about his will or something and ask him pointblank where Baylee is. While he’s at it, have Taylor grill him about the baby. From what I understand the guy’s got one foot in the grave anyway.”
“Cade, you’re a fucking genius. All this time the answer’s been right in front of me.” He picked up the phone. “Taylor, get your ass in here. I need a favor. Now.”
“Just get the old man to open up about Baylee or his granddaughter, anything at all just get him talking about them and keep pumping him for information.” Like a broken record, Taylor Geller listened once again as Connor struck the same chord. Stuck on the same groove, he continued to harp on Taylor about how to talk to Baylee’s father as they pulled into the driveway at 15202 Bel Green Drive.
Connor stared at his cousin, so like him in looks. Taylor had always been a bit of a goody two-shoes when it came to things like bribing a judge. But for a thing like this, he was the perfect stooge for the job. “You’re good at shit like this. Just stick to the story about adding the new grandbaby to his will. Updating the will was a stroke of genius, and we should be home free.”
Taylor looked agitated. He didn’t like the idea of coming here to harass William Scott. The guy was dying, and he actually liked the aging director. But anytime Connor entered the mix it always turned into a disaster. You never quite knew if the man would blow up and hit something or you. Taylor’d gotten roped into this because he was the old guy’s attorney, but he didn’t like coming here acting like the eight-hundred-pound-gorilla, not one bit.
Connor absently adjusted his tie as he reached to ring the doorbell and reminded Taylor, once again, “You know these people better than I do, just don’t fuck this up. There’s a lot riding on finding out where that baby is.”
When a small black woman opened the door, Taylor went into charm-mode. “Hi there, Ms. Lincoln, I called earlier about seeing William this afternoon. Is he ready for us?”
Tanya eyed the two men carefully before deciding to open the door wider and allow them inside. “When you called you didn’t say anything about bringing anyone else with you, Taylor. You usually come alone. What’s this about?”
“Well, it’s like this, Ms. Lincoln. This is my cousin, Connor Boyd, who’s in charge of the firm now that we’ve had a series of deaths in the family. We were doing some checking, going over some of our high profile client lists, William’s name of course popped up. As we went through some of his papers, just routine stuff really, Connor here happened to mention that William’s daughter, Baylee, had recently added a baby to her family.”
Tanya eyed Connor suspiciously, giving him the once-over. “How did you know that?”
“Saw her the other day, Ms. Lincoln. Pretty as a picture, both mother and daughter, that is.”
Taylor went on, as if nervous. “A birth is always a good excuse to go over the will, make sure everything’s updated with the latest information and is in order, ready for anything. I just need a little more information, a date of birth, where the baby was born, and we can take care of this right here, right now, today, get the new grandbaby squared away in the will.”
To Tanya the guy sounded too much like a used car salesman trying way too hard to close the sale before she walked off the lot. But the man was William’s attorney. If they needed to add the baby to the will, so be it. She would see to it that they took care of every detail while William still had the energy and the time.
But as she showed them into the study, skepticism began to seep in, something she hadn’t considered before she’d let them both in the house. Why did it take two attorneys to add a little baby to a will? These guys seemed a little too eager. “If you’ll wait here, I’ll go get William.”
But when she told William about their visit, told him who was waiting for him, his eyes changed into cold fury. “Push me into the room and then leave us alone. I’ll take care of this, Tanya.”
When they got to the study, as soon as William heard Tanya close the door behind her, he turned a furious glare Connor’s way and pointed a bony finger, demanding, “I want you out of my house. You think I don’t know you. You think I don’t know what you are. You’re Jessica’s oldest son. Trash is what you came from; trash is what you are now. Nothing can change that. Now get out of my house. Your mother ruined my life. That bitch ruined my fucking life. Now you get out of my house this very minute and never darken my door again.”
“But sir,” Taylor did his best to keep up the ruse for his cousin’s benefit. “Your will. We understand you recently had a granddaughter. She isn’t in the will. We need to add your granddaughter…”
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William turned his cold, furious eyes on Taylor. “You aren’t hearing me. You aren’t adding anything to my will. I’ll get new attorneys. Today. Now. Tanya, Tanya, where are you?” When the door flew open as if she’d been listening at the door, William turned in his chair. “Get these bastards out of my house, or I’ll call the police.” His face went white. His breathing became erratic, difficult. Tanya stood like an iron statue and demanded, “You heard the man, move. Get your asses out of here.”
Taylor moved toward the door, but Connor stood planted where he was. “When did that bitch of a daughter deliver, William? When was your goddamned granddaughter born? What is her name? I’m not moving an inch until you give me some information, old man.”
Despite the ashen gray look on William’s face, he shook his head and managed to gasp out, “Then you’ll…wait until…hell freezes over. Don’t…” His wheezing grew worse. “Tanya, don’t tell this son of a bitch…anything. Don’t…say a word. Call… the… police. Now.” As the air went out of his lungs, with each word, William gasped for breath.
Connor stepped to the wheelchair and grabbed William by the shirt. “I hope you die, old man. That baby is mine, and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do to change that fact. I’ll find out what I want to know one way or another with or without you. And when I do, I’ll see to it that bitch of a daughter of yours is deemed unfit to raise my child, my daughter.” He leaned further over him and taunted, “Do you hear that? Are you listening? Now, take that to your grave, you stupid, fucking old man.” Connor stormed past him, leaving Tanya trembling. As soon as she saw William’s condition, she grabbed for the phone and dialed 911.
Hours later, Tanya stood in the private room looking out the window at the night time traffic below. She watched the lights of the cars from the twelfth floor, as sadness swept over her. For thirty years she’d worked for William Scott. She’d kept secrets she had no business knowing. Now, it was time for all those secrets to see the light of day. Her sweet Baylee needed to know the truth. But even she didn’t know all the particulars, no, not every detail. She’d had questions. She’d asked so many times and gotten no answers. She was just the housekeeper, the nanny, the one who tried to provide a decent home for a little girl left without a mother.
If William died without ever revealing the truth, Tanya knew Baylee would turn to her, ask all those questions all over again, and she wasn’t the one who could provide the answers. Tanya had done everything she could do for William. She glanced over and looked at the man lying in the bed. He was rambling again, had been since the doctors had admitted him. Even the nurses said it wasn’t the medication, since he’d refused anything for pain except what they’d given him when he got here.
An hour ago, during his latest round of outbursts, William had demanded to see his daughter, telling Tanya there was something he needed to tell Baylee before he got worse. His rants were difficult to understand because he kept going in and out of consciousness, from present day to the past. None of it made any sense to Tanya. And that was the problem. Baylee needed to know the truth about her mother and she needed to hear it from her father. Despite the lateness of the hour Tanya checked the time on her watch. Maybe William’s revelation could wait until morning, but she couldn’t be certain of that. There had already been enough time wasted. She pulled out her cell phone. No better time than now for William to unburden his guilt.
On Catalina Island, Baylee’s cell phone rang.
Dylan sprang up out of bed like he’d been shot, immediately going on alert. But when he realized it was simply a ringing phone, he scrubbed a hand over his face and reached over to the bedside table. When he saw Tanya’s number displayed in the digital readout, a number of scenarios ran through his head. At two in the morning, this probably wasn’t good news. He glanced over at Baylee, who was just now beginning to stir from the sound of the ringing phone.
“Dylan, I hate to wake you. But you need to get Baylee here fast. There’s no good time for this. I don’t think William has much longer. He’s in a bad way. You’d better prepare Baylee for the worst. And Dylan, Connor came to the house. He’s going crazy trying to find out where she is. He was furious when William wouldn’t tell him anything. William made him leave the house. Connor went into a rage.”
Dylan blew out a breath. “We’re on our way.” He looked at Baylee’s face and sighed. “We need to go. I’m sorry Baylee. It doesn’t look good.”
For the next twenty minutes, Dylan put his exit strategy into play, which really amounted to nothing more than calling in a favor from a friend. Thanks to a surfing buddy he knew who flew helicopters for one of the major corporations in Los Angeles, Dylan and Baylee and Sarah were airborne within forty-five minutes after Tanya’s phone call.
Thirty minutes after that, a taxi picked them up from Santa Monica Airport and took them to the Medical Center. With Sarah still tucked into the infant carrier fast asleep, Baylee and Dylan walked into the hospital a little before dawn. They took the elevator up to the twelfth floor where Tanya was waiting for them in the hallway. She ushered them in the direction of William’s room.
“How bad is it?”
“He’s been asking for you. There’s something troubling him, has been for months now, Baylee. He needs to unburden himself. I want you to keep an open mind.”
“You know, don’t you, Tanya? It’s about my mother, isn’t it?”
“I don’t have the answers, child. But he does.”
“Will you keep an eye on Sarah for us? I need Dylan to come with me. I don’t want to do this alone.”
But as soon as Baylee and Dylan pushed open the door, they saw bedlam. Doctors and nurses surrounded William’s hospital bed, a crash cart to one side. One doctor worked frantically on him, paddles still in hand. Baylee heard the loud bleep of a heart monitor. She felt Dylan’s arms go around her. She stood back watching, wondering if her father would make it. Suddenly she was torn, filled with concern about her father but upset that she’d come so close to finding out the truth about her mother only to be denied yet again.
It seemed like an eternity before the team got him stabilized, got him breathing on his own. The lead doctor took one look at the visitors and motioned them back out into the corridor.
William fought for his life. He stared down a bluish white light shining brightly from a dark, elongated tunnel.
He remembered a wild night of sex, the booze and cocaine flowing plentiful. Not a party exactly, but he couldn’t get rid of the image of a hotel room with a king-sized bed where he lay naked with two gorgeous females, one stunningly blonde and the other equally beautiful with silky black hair down to her ass.
The three of them were wrapped up in each other, enjoying each other. They had been at it for hours. He remembered the two women bickering, gossiping, both trying to one-up the other with how much they’d spent on jewels, clothes, cars. The list was endless, the competition between the two always fierce. But he recalled how the talk always returned to their two favorite subjects, sex and money.
As they all three lay sprawled among the sheets, the conversation came back to William in sickening clarity.
“What did I tell you? Didn’t I say he was worth it?”
“I had to try him out for myself, didn’t I? He has terrific stamina.”
“Now that he’s single again, we can do this as often as we like.” Alana turned to William. “I told you the little prude was no good for you. I’m the only one you need, William, the only one who knows what you like. You know that.”
The black-haired beauty laughed at that as she moved out of bed, naked. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that. We both can make William happy. Three is a lot more fun than two; two’s boring. Alana and I know how to do all kinds of things much better than the little wife ever could.”
“Let’s have some more champagne and celebrate William’s newfound freedom.” Alana crawled out of bed to pour the wine and picked up an overturned glass off the floor in the process. Stumbling in
the direction of the bottle of champagne still on the room service cart, she bumped into the wall. “The way Jess and I took care of things, you won’t even have to get a divorce.”
“Why’s that?” William asked, still dazed from the sex and the lines of blow he’d inhaled.
Jess staggered over to where Alana stood, tried to help her with the pouring. “Because, you idiot, you can’t divorce her when she’s dead.”
The hairs on the back of William’s neck stood up as he stared at the two women. But it wasn’t their nakedness that had his attention. “Alana, what the fuck is she talking about? What did you do?”
“Oh, William, don’t be so dense. Jessica and I took care of your whining little problem, that’s all. Well, our problem, really. No more bitchy little wife to nag you. It’s as simple as that.” Alana giggled. “You won’t have to worry about a custody battle or paying that bitch any kind of alimony, no settlement. She’s gone. And she isn’t coming back.” Alana laughed at her own joke.
“What did you do? You told me she was having an affair with Luc. That she ran off to Europe with the tennis pro and left Baylee alone in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, William, how stupid you are. You told me you wanted out of your marriage. You’ve been telling me that for years. What did you expect me to do? I got impatient. Jess and I made that whole story up. We’re the ones who started the rumor at the country club.” She giggled again, which set Jessica into full-blown laughter. “We got rid of Sarah and Luc in one fell swoop.”
Lana waved her arms in the air in an exaggerated fashion. “We had to start the rumor about the affair. Little goody two-shoes Sarah was too tight-assed to ever cheat on you. Don’t you know that? She was too concerned about spending time with her little brat to spend any time with Luc. So we got creative.”
“We’re an amazing team, aren’t we? Lana and I make sure we get what we want.” Jess put her arm around Lana and they did a little dance, giving each other high-fives.
Deeper Evil (The Evil Secrets Trilogy Book 2) Page 33
