by Nora Roberts
“Don’t threaten me.”
“I’m not. I’m giving you facts. It’s your family who likes threats.” His smile was sharp, dangerous, and without an ounce of humor. “The Quinns make promises, and they keep them.”
“I’m not Gloria.”
“No, but we still have to see just who you are. Nine o’clock,” he added. “Oh, and Dr. Griffin, you may want to look over your own notes again. When you do it might be interesting, psychologically speaking, to ask yourself why you find it so much more rewarding to observe than to participate. Get some sleep,” he suggested as he walked to the door. “You’re going to want to be sharp tomorrow.”
“Phillip.” Going with the impulse of temper, she rose and waited for him to turn around, with the door open at his back. “Isn’t it fortunate that circumstances changed before we made the mistake of sex?”
He angled his head, both impressed and amused that she’d dared such a dangerous parting shot. “Darling, I’m counting my blessings.”
He closed the door with a quiet snap.
ELEVEN
SETH NEEDED TO BE TOLD. There was only one way to do it, and that was straight out, as a family. Ethan and Grace would bring him home as soon as Aubrey was settled with the baby-sitter.
“We shouldn’t have let her out of our sight.” Cam paced the kitchen, hands jammed in his pockets, gray eyes hard as flint. “God knows where she took off to, and instead of having answers, instead of straightening her ass out, we’ve got nothing.”
“That’s not entirely true.” Anna brewed coffee. It wouldn’t help to settle nerves, she thought, but everyone would want it. “I’ll have a police report for the file. You couldn’t very well drag her out of the station house, Cameron, and force her to talk to you.”
“It would’ve been a hell of a lot more satisfying than watching her walk.”
“Momentarily, perhaps. But it remains in Seth’s best interest, and ours, to handle everything in an official, bythebook manner.”
“How do you think Seth’s going to feel about that?” He whirled, and the leading edge of his temper whipped out at his wife and his brother. “Do you think he’s going to feel it’s in his best interest that we had Gloria and did nothing?”
“You did do something.” Because she understood his frustration, Anna kept her voice calm. “You agreed to meet her in my office. If she doesn’t keep the appointment, it’s another strike against her.”
“She won’t be anywhere near Social Services tomorrow,” Phillip began, “but Sybill will.”
“And we’re supposed to trust her?” Cam snapped out. “All she’s done so far is lie.”
“You didn’t see her tonight,” Phillip said evenly. “I did.”
“Yeah, and we know what part of your anatomy you’re looking with, bro.”
“Stop it.” Anna stepped quickly between them as two pairs of fists curled, two pairs of eyes flashed. “You’re not going to beat each other brainless in this house.” She slapped a hand on Cam’s chest, then Phillip’s, found them both immovable. “It’s not going to help anyone if you rip pieces off each other. We need a united front. Seth needs it,” she added, pushing harder when she heard the front door open. “Now, both of you sit down. Sit down!” She hissed it, the image of those ready fists swinging over her head, adding both urgency and authority to her voice.
With their gazes still heated and locked, both men dragged out chairs and sat. Anna had time for one relieved breath before Seth came in, trailed by two dogs with cheerfully swatting tails.
“Hey, what’s up?” His cheerful grin vanished immediately. A lifetime of living with Gloria’s wildly swinging moods had taught him to gauge atmosphere. The air in the kitchen was simmering with tension and temper.
He took a step back, then froze as Ethan came in behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Coffee smells good,” he said mildly, and the hand on Seth’s shoulder remained, part restraint, part support.
“I’ll get some cups.” Grace hurried past them to the cupboard. She knew she’d be better off with her hands busy. “Seth, do you want a Coke?”
“What happened?” His lips felt stiff and his hands cold.
“It’s going to take a little while to explain it all.” Anna walked to him, put her hands on his cheeks. The first order of business, she determined, was to erase the fear that had come into his eyes. “But you don’t have to worry.”
“Did she ask for more money again? Is she coming here? Did they let her out of jail?”
“No. Come sit down. We’ll explain everything.” She shook her head at Cam before he could speak and locked her eyes with Phillip’s as she guided Seth toward the table. He had more firsthand information, she decided. It was best that it come from him.
Where the hell was he supposed to start? Phillip dragged a hand through his hair. “Seth, do you know anything about your mother’s family?”
“No. She used to tell me stuff. One day she’d say how her parents were rich, really rolling in it, but they died and some slick lawyer stole all the money. Another day she’d say how she was an orphan and she’d run away from this foster home because the father tried to rape her. Or how her mother was this movie star who gave her up for adoption so she wouldn’t lose her career. She was always changing it.”
His gaze shifted around the room as he spoke, trying to read faces. “Who cares?” he demanded, ignoring the soft drink Grace set in front of him. “Who the hell cares, anyway? There wasn’t anybody or she’d’ve tapped them for money.”
“There is somebody, and it seems she did tap them for money off and on.” Phillip kept his voice quiet and calm, as a person would when soothing a frantic puppy. “We found out today that she has parents, and a sister.”
“I don’t have to go with them.” Alarm rang in his head as he surged out of his chair. “I don’t know them. I don’t have to go with them.”
“No, you don’t.” Phillip took Seth’s arm. “But you need to know about them.”
“I don’t want to.” His gaze flew to Cam’s, pleaded. “I don’t want to know. You said I could stay. You said nothing was going to change that.”
It made Cam sick to see that desperation, but he pointed to the chair. “You are staying. Nothing is going to change that. Sit down. You never solve anything by running.”
“Look around, Seth.” Ethan’s tone was soft, the voice of reason. “You’ve got five people here, standing with you.”
He wanted to believe it. He didn’t know how to explain that it was so much easier to believe in lies and threats than in promises. “What are they going to do? How did they find me?”
“Gloria called her sister a few weeks ago,” Phillip began when Seth sat again. “You don’t remember her sister?”
“I don’t remember anybody,” Seth muttered and hunched his shoulders.
“Well, it seems she spun a tale for the sister, told her that we’d stolen you from her.”
“She’s full of shit.”
“Seth.” Anna drilled him with a look that made him squirm.
“She conned the sister out of some money for a lawyer,” Phillip continued. “Said she was broke and desperate, that we’d threatened her. She needed the money to get you back.”
Seth wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “She bought it? She must be an idiot.”
“Maybe. Or maybe she’s a soft touch. Either way, the sister didn’t buy the whole package. She wanted to check things out for herself. So she came to St. Chris.”
“She’s here?” Seth’s head whipped up. “I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to talk to her.”
“You already have. Sybill is Gloria’s sister.” Seth’s dark-blue eyes widened, and the angry flush faded from his cheeks. “She can’t be. She’s a doctor. She writes books.”
“Nonetheless, she is. When Cam and Ethan and I drove down to Hampton, we saw her.”
“You saw her? You saw Gloria?”
“Yeah, we saw her. Hold on.” Phillip laid a h
and over Seth’s rigid one. “Sybill was there, too. She was posting bail. So it all came out.”
“She’s a liar.” Seth’s voice began to hitch. “Just like Gloria. She’s a damn liar.”
“Let me finish. We agreed to meet them both in the morning, in Anna’s office. We have to get the facts, Seth,” he added when the boy snatched his hands free. “It’s the only way we’re going to fix this for good.”
“I’m not going.”
“You can decide that for yourself. We don’t think Gloria’s going to show. I saw Sybill just a little while ago. Gloria had given her the slip.”
“She’s gone.” Relief and hope struggled to beat back fear. “She’s gone again?”
“It looks that way. She took money out of Sybill’s wallet and split.” Phillip glanced over at Ethan, judged his brother’s reaction to the news as angry resignation. “Sybill will be in Anna’s office in the morning. I think it would be better if you went in with us, talked to her there.”
“I don’t have anything to say to her. I don’t know her. I don’t care about her. She should just go away and leave me alone.”
“She can’t hurt you, Seth.”
“I hate her. She’s probably just like Gloria, only she pretends to be different.”
Phillip thought of the fatigue, the guilt, the misery he’d seen on Sybill’s face. But he said, “That’s for you to decide, too. But you need to see her and hear what she has to say to do that. She said she’d only seen you once. Gloria came to New York and you stayed at Sybill’s place for a little while. You were about four.”
“I don’t remember.” His face went stony with stubbornness. “We stayed in a lot of places.”
“Seth, I know it doesn’t seem fair.” Grace reached over to give the hands he had balled into fists on the table a quick, reassuring squeeze. “But your aunt may be able to help. We’ll all be there with you.”
Cam saw the refusal in Seth’s eyes and leaned forward. “Quinns don’t walk away from a fight.” He paused until Seth’s gaze shifted to his. “Until they win it.”
It was pride and the fear of not living up to the name they’d given him that stiffened his shoulders. “I’ll go, but nothing she says is going to mean dick to me.” With eyes hot and brooding, he turned to Phillip. “Did you have sex with her?”
“Seth!” Anna’s voice was sharp as a slap, but Phillip only raised a hand.
Maybe his first instinct was to tell the boy it was none of his business, but he knew how to think past the quick retort and study the whole. “No, I didn’t.”
Seth gave a stiff shrug. “That’s something, then.”
“You come first.” Phillip saw the surprise flicker in Seth’s eyes at the statement. “I made a promise that you would, so you do. Nothing and no one changes that.”
Beneath the warm thrill, Seth felt a greasy tug of shame. “Sorry,” he mumbled it and stared down at his own hands.
“Fine.” Phillip sipped at the coffee that had gone cold in his cup. “We’ll hear what she has to say in the morning, then she’ll hear what we have to say. What you have to say. We’ll go from there.”
• • •
SHE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT SHE was going to say. She felt sick inside. The dregs of a migraine hangover fuzzed her brain, and her nerves were stretched to the breaking point at the prospect of facing the Quinns. And Seth.
They had to hate her. She doubted very much they could feel more contempt for her than she felt for herself. If what Phillip had told her was true—the drugs, the beatings, the men—she had by the sin of omission left her own nephew in hell.
There was nothing they could say to her that was worse than what she had said to herself during the endless, sleepless night. But she was sick with anticipation of what was to come as she pulled into the small parking lot attached to Social Services.
It was bound to become ugly, she thought, as she tilted her rearview mirror and carefully applied lipstick. Hard words, cold looks—and she was so pitifully vulnerable to both.
She could stand against them, she told herself. She could maintain that outward calm no matter what was happening to her insides. She’d learned that defense over the years. Remain aloof and detached, and survive.
She would survive this. And if she could somehow ease Seth’s mind, whatever wounds she suffered would be worth it.
She stepped out of the car, a cool and composed woman in a elegantly simple silk suit the color of mourning. Her hair was swept up in a sleek twist, her makeup was subtle and flawless.
Her stomach was raw and burning.
She stepped inside the lobby. Already the waiting area contained a scattering of people. An infant whimpered restlessly in the arms of a woman whose eyes were glazed with fatigue. A man in a flannel shirt and jeans sat with his face grim and his fisted hands dangling between his knees. Two other women sat in a corner. Mother and daughter, Sybill deduced. The younger woman had her head cradled on the other’s shoulder and wept silently out of eyes blackened by fists.
Sybill turned away.
“Dr. Griffin,” she told the receptionist. “I have an appointment with Anna Spinelli.”
“Yes, she’s expecting you. Down this hall, second door on your left.”
“Thank you.” Sybill closed her hand around the strap of her purse and walked briskly to Anna’s office.
Her heart plummeted to her stomach when she reached the doorway. They were all there, waiting. Anna sat behind the desk, looking professional in a navy blazer, her hair pinned up. She was scanning an open file.
Grace sat with her hand swallowed by Ethan’s. Cam stood at the narrow window, scowling, while Phillip sat, flipping through a magazine.
Seth sat between them, staring down at the floor, his eyes curtained by his lashes, his mouth set, his shoulders hunched.
She gathered her courage, started to speak. But Phillip’s eyes flicked up and found hers. The one long look warned her he hadn’t softened overnight. She ignored her trembling pulse and angled her head in acknowledgment.
“You’re prompt, Dr. Griffin,” he said, and instantly all eyes were on her.
She felt scalded and pinned all at once, but she took the last step over the threshold into what she fully understood was Quinn turf. “Thank you for seeing me.”
“Oh, we’re looking forward to it.” Cam’s voice was dangerously soft. His hand, Sybill noted, had gone to Seth’s shoulder in a gesture that was both possessive and protective.
“Ethan, would you close the door?” Anna folded her hands on the open file. “Please sit down, Dr. Griffin.”
It wouldn’t be Sybill and Anna here. All the friendly female connection that came from cozy kitchens and simmering pots was gone.
Accepting that, Sybill took the vacant seat facing Anna’s desk. She set her purse in her lap, clutched it with boneless fingers, and smoothly, casually, crossed her legs.
“Before we begin, I’d like to say something.” She took a slow breath when Anna nodded in agreement. Sybill shifted and looked directly at Seth. He kept his eyes on the floor. “I didn’t come here to hurt you, Seth, or to make you unhappy. I’m sorry that I seem to have done both. If living with the Quinns is what you want, what you need, then I want to help see that you stay with them.”
Seth lifted his head now and stared at her with eyes that were stunningly adult and harsh. “I don’t want your help.”
“But you may need it,” she murmured, then turned back to Anna. Sybill saw speculation there, and what she hoped was an open mind. “I don’t know where Gloria is. I’m sorry. I gave my word I would bring her here this morning. It’s been a very long time since I’d seen her, and I . . . I hadn’t realized how much she’d . . . how unstable she is.”
“ ‘Unstable.’ ” Cam snorted at the term. “That’s a rich one.”
“She contacted you,” Anna began, shooting her husband one warning look.
“Yes, a few weeks ago. She was very upset, claimed that Seth had been stolen from her and that sh
e needed money for her lawyer, who was going to fight a custody case. She was crying, nearly hysterical. She begged me to help her. I got as much information as I could. Who had Seth, and where he was living. I sent her five thousand dollars.”
Sybill lifted her hands. “I realized yesterday when I spoke with her that there was no lawyer. Gloria has always been a clever actress. I’d forgotten that, or I chose to forget that.”
“Were you aware that she had a drug problem?”
“No—again, not until yesterday. When I saw her, and spoke with her, it became clear that she’s not capable at this time of handling the responsibility of a child.”
“She doesn’t want the responsibility of a child,” Phillip commented.
“So you said,” Sybill responded coolly. “You indicated that she wanted money. I’m aware that money is important to Gloria. I’m also aware that she’s not stable. But it’s difficult for me to believe, without proof, that she’s done all that you claim.”
“You want proof?” Cam stepped forward, fury all but visible in waves around him. “You got it, sugar. Show her the letters, Anna.”
“Cam, sit down.” Anna’s order was firm before she turned back to Sybill. “Would you recognize your sister’s handwriting?”
“I don’t know. I suppose I might.”
“I have a copy of the letter found in Raymond Quinn’s car when he was killed, and one of the letters sent to us more recently.”
She took them out of the file and passed them over the desk into Sybill’s hands.
Words and phrases leaped out at her, burned into her mind.
Quinn, I’m tired of playing nickel and dime. You want the kid so bad, then it’s time to pay for him. . . . A hundred and fifty grand’s a pretty good bargain for a good-looking boy like Seth.
Oh, God, was all Sybill could think. Dear God.
The letter to the Quinns after Ray’s death was no better.
Ray and me had an agreement.
If you’re set on keeping him . . . I’m going to need some money . . .
