"Jazzy, honey… please-"
"Don’t you 'please' me," she told him. "Somebody had better start talking right now!"
Jim cleared his throat. "I believe that's your cue, son." ‘’Stop calling him son! "Jazzy screeched at Jim.
When Caleb tried to approach Jazzy, her deadly glare warned him off. He threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay. Who am I? My name is Caleb Upton McCord." The moment Jazzy heard his middle name, her shoulders stiffened and she sucked in her breath.
"My mother was Melanie Upton, Big Jim and Miss Reba's daughter."
Speechless, her mouth parting on a silent gasp, Jazzy sat there staring at him.
"I had no idea my mother had any family," Caleb said. "Not until right before she died fifteen years ago. She told me about her parents, but… well, I was a wiseass kid who thought he didn't need or want a family. It was only a few months ago, after I resigned from the Memphis Police force, that I decided I wanted to find my mother's family." 'That's the reason you came to Cherokee Pointe-to find the Uptons?" Hugging herself nervously, her eyes downcast, Jazzy shook her head in disbelief. "You're Jamie's first cousin. And you knew all along who he was, who Big Jim and Miss Reba… you've been lying to me since the first night we met." Lifting her head, she glared at him. "Damn you, Caleb. Damn you for making me care about you, for letting me think things would be different with you." 'Things are different with me. I swear, honey. I swear-"
She flew off the desk, rushed toward him, and slapped him soundly. "What was it? Did you want everything Jamie had-including me? Was getting me in the sack some sort of prize?"
"Stop talking like that." Caleb ignored the stinging pain throbbing through the left side of his face. I wanted you the minute we met. Before I knew anything about your relationship with Jamie."
Jazzy zeroed in on Big Jim. "How long have you known?" ‘’This is all my fault. I didn't know that you and Caleb had anything serious going on." He looked to Caleb. "I didn't mean to-"
"How long?" Jazzy demanded.
"Caleb told me yesterday," Jim said. "But I didn't believe him. Not at first’' "Apparently you believe him now." Jazzy kept her gaze fixed on Jim. "Got yourself some sort of proof, didn't you? You wouldn't have come here to claim the new heir to the Upton fortune if you weren't pretty damn sure he was your blood kin."
Jim glanced at Caleb. "I hired the best PI firm in Tennessee, Powell Investigations, to do a thorough check on you, boy. Every indication is that you're definitely our Melanie's son. My grandson."
"Well, isn't this nice?" Jazzy crossed her arms over her chest as she smiled sarcastically. "A warm and fuzzy reunion in my office. Aren't I lucky to be witnessing such a heartwarming event?" Jazzy gasped mockingly. "My God, I'll bet Miss Reba is thrilled. Lose one grandson, gain another." Narrowing her eyes to mere slits, she fixed her gaze on Caleb.
"And once she finds out about me-"Jazzy laughed. "She'll be fit to be tied. You see, I'm not good enough for an Upton. Jamie would have married me years ago if it hadn't been for his grandmother."
"Jazzy, don't do this," Caleb said.
She tapped him in the center of his chest, each punch a little harder than the one before. "It doesn't even matter if you really do care about me. Hell, it doesn't matter if you love me. And you know why? Because you're the Upton heir now. You're Miss Reba's grandson and she'll move heaven and earth to keep us apart."
"It won't be like that." He looked to his grandfather, tell her. Tell her that Miss Reba doesn't even know that, when she does-" ‘’Miss Reba doesn't know yet?" Jazzy shouted the question.
"No, Reba doesn't know," Jim said. "I had hoped Caleb would meet me at the hospital in the morning so we could tell her together."
"Ah… how sweet." Jazzy marched across the office, swung opened the door, turned and aimed her gaze on Caleb. "Take your grandfather and get out of my office. And while you're at it, get out of my bar. You're fired." 'Jazzy, we can work through this. It's not as bad as you think." Caleb held out one hand to her.
"Get out. Now! Out of my office. Out of my bar. Out of my life!"
''Jazzy…"
She stood there trembling, her cheeks flushed, anger boiling over inside her. He knew when to accept defeat . But this was only one battle, the first skirmish. This bat-de might be lost, but, by God, he intended to win the war.
"Let's go." Caleb laid his hand on his grandfather's shoulder. "I think the lady has made her feelings perfectly clear."
Without saying another word, Jim exited the office and Caleb followed. The very second they entered the hall, Jazzy slammed the door shut.
''Jazzy's always been high-strung and temperamental," Jim said. "The girl's got grit."
"You sound as if you almost admire her."
"I do, in away."
''Then why-"
"Miss Reba hates Jazzy," Jim admitted. "If you've got serious intentions where she's concerned, you might as well know your grandmother isn't going to like it one little bit."
"Meaning no disrespect to Miss Reba, but my relationship with Jazzy-or any other woman-is none of her business."
Jim slapped his hand down on Caleb's back and laughed. "Damn, boy, you sound just like me."
"Is that good or bad?" Caleb asked.
"Neither. It's just a fact." Still chuckling, Jim walked down the hall beside Caleb.
Once they reached the smoke-filled hub of Jazzy's Joint, Caleb said, "Wait for me outside, will you? I need to talk to Lacy, the bartender, before I leave."
Jim nodded, and as soon as he headed for the door, Caleb walked over to the bar.
"What's up?" Lacy asked when he leaned over the counter.
"Jazzy and I just had a major falling out," he said. "She fired me. And she kicked me out of her life. For the time being."
"All because of Big Jim Upton? What's that about anyway?"
"Big Jim is my grandfather," Caleb told her.
Her eyes round and wide, Lacy whistled loudly. "And you didn't bother mentioning that fact to Jazzy? Good God, man, you must have a death wish."
"Listen, this tiling isn't over between us by a long shot, but until she cools off… you understand. She shouldn't be alone tonight. Give Sally a call and tell her what's happened. Tell her to come on over to Jazzy's apartment and spend the night. Once Jazzy's had a chance to cool off and think things through, I'll talk to her again."
"That could take a while."
''I'll give her until noon tomorrow."
Lacy rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.
He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Keep an eye on her, will you?"
''You really do love her, don't you?"
"Yeah, I'm afraid so," Caleb admitted.
* * *
Jazzy swept everything off the top of her desk in one angry pass, letting things hit haphazardly against the wall and scatter over the floor. Lifting her foot, she kicked the swivel chair and sent it sailing halfway across
the room and into a file cabinet.
"Damn him! Damn him to hell and back!" she shouted.
Once a fool, always a fool!
How could she have been so stupid? Why did she think she could actually be happy? You were born under a damn unlucky star, she told herself. Hell, a witch must have placed an evil spell on you the day you came into this world.
The last time she'd been this angry, she had threatened to blow off Jamie's balls. She hadn't thought any man could ever hurt her the way Jamie had. Boy, had she been wrong. Putting so many hopes and dreams for the future into her relationship with Caleb had been a huge mistake. She should have known better.
When will you ever learn that happily ever after isn’t for you?
Of all the men on earth to have fallen for-another goddamn Upton! Oh, his last name might be McCord, but he had Upton blood flowing through his veins. High society, Miss Reba blue blood. Rich, powerful Big Jim blood. Just like Jamie! She'd gone and traded in one Upton grandson for another.
He should have told her. She'd had a right to know. Why had it taken him all these months to approach Big Jim? Why had he waited around, working as a bouncer at Jazzy's Joint, when he was the heir to a vast fortune?
Maybe she should give him a chance to explain. Surely it hadn't all been an act. If he'd been pretending to care about her, then he deserved an Academy Award. Just thinking about the way things had been between them-all hot and wild-upped her body heat a few degrees and moistened her inside as if his big hands were stroking her naked flesh.
No, no, no! You aren’t going to give in to him, allow him to ¦weave some believable tale to explain away his behavior. You can't trust him. Even if he swears on a stack of Bibles that he loves you, you cannot believe him.
Okay, Jazzy, stop and think about what you're telling yourself. Just who are you talking about anyway? Caleb or Jamie?
Caleb might be Big Jim's grandson, but he was not Jamie. Caleb and Jamie had very little in common. Caleb was totally different. Everything Jamie hadn't been.
But he'd change now that Big Jim had declared him an Upton. All that money and power would get to him sooner or later. Give him a few months and you won't recognize him.
Hey, girl, what makes you think that in a few months he'll even want you? Add wealth and social standing to all of Caleb's other fantastic qualities, and there wasn't a woman anywhere who wouldn't jump at the chance to belong to him.
Jazzy poured herself a drink and downed it in one long swallow. The whiskey burned a sizzling streak down her throat and set her belly on fire. She coughed and spluttered a few times, then poured herself a second drink. As she lifted the glass to her lips, she thought about now she'd been so sure she could count on Caleb, how she'd believed he would see her through the nightmare her life had become lately.
"What are you going to do now?" she asked herself. Now that Caleb isn't going to be looking out for you?" She downed the second shot of eighty proof and wondered just how much liquor it would take to get rip-roaring drunk.
* * *
Chapter 28
Cecil had wandered out into the garden seeking solitude from not only his wife, but from everything incomprehensible that his life had become recently. How h he reached this point? What had he done to deserve such misery? Wasn't every man entitled to a few mistakes?
All the old nightmares had returned. He'd dream about Margaret last night. Vivid, ugly dreams. It ha taken him years to put the past behind him, to live wi' out fear that someday the truth about Laura's biolo cal mother would be revealed to the world. His swee precious Laura. Except for the pale blond hair, she a tually resembled him much more than she did h mother. That alone had been a blessing. If every tim he'd looked at his elder daughter he'd seen the ma woman who had almost destroyed his life nearly twen five years ago, he wasn't sure he could have loved he But he did love Laura. And oddly enough, so did Andr Oh, he knew she didn't love Laura the way she did She dan, but the fact that she loved his child at all neve ceased to amaze him. It had been Andrea who had de fended Laura time and again. It had been Andrea who had insisted Laura receive the psychiatric help she'd needed as a young girl. And it had been Andrea who had cared for and protected Laura during these black days following Jamie's brutal murder.
Cecil finished off his tea, then set the china cup and saucer on the glass and metal patio table. Herbal tea often soothed his nerves, but he suspected that tonight he would have to take another sleeping pill if he wanted to rest.
He wished he could stop dhnking about somedhng that had been tormenting him since Jamie's death. If he didn't know for a fact that Margaret was dead, that she had died in the fire that swept through the private mental hospital where she'd lived, he would wonder if she had been the one who'd killed Jamie. Margaret had tortured his fa-ther, had almost killed him. And at her trial, a gruesome truth had been revealed. Margaret's own father had been found brutalized-castrated-when Margaret was only fifteen. Although there had been no proof that Margaret had killed her own father-and the judge couldn't consider that crime evidence against her-everyone involved, from the police officers to the district attorney, had been convinced that Margaret was a psychopadhc killer.
Laura. His poor Laura. She must never know about Margaret. Although Laura had always been emotionally fragile, Cecil had never seen any evidence that she had inherited her mother's evil sickness. Not until that Roberts boy had accused her of trying to run him down with her car.
But that was only one incident, he reminded himself.
Until Jamie's murder.
No. Absolutely, unequivocally no! Laura is incapable of uch cruelty. You can't allow yourself to think, even for one minute, that she has killed two men.
"Daddy?"
Jumping at the sound of her voice, Cecil gasped and turned to face his elder daughter.
"Yes, Laura, what is it?"
"Are you all right?"
He offered her a smile as he walked toward her. 'Just concerned about you. You've been through so much lately. Jamie's death. Losing the baby. And now this asinine attempt to blame you for Jamie's death."
"Do you think I killed him?"
She looked at him, her heart in her eyes, and Cecil wanted to pick her up and set her on his lap as he had done when she'd been a little girl.
"Of course not. I know you didn't-"
"I don't remember where I was the night Jamie was killed."
"What?"
"Mother told me that I mustn't say anything to anyone about it. But I had one of those odd spells, like the one I had when-"
Cecil grasped Laura's shoulders. "Your mother is right. Don't ever repeat to anyone else what you just told me. If the sheriff were to find out…" Cecil shook his head. "No, no, that mustn't happen. He wouldn't understand. He could use that fact as evidence against you."
"But, Daddy, what if I did kill Jamie?"<
br />
Cecil shook her gendy. Tears welled up in her eyes. "You didn't kill him. I know you didn't."
"Your father is right, Laura. You didn't kill him," a female voice said. "I did."
Cecil searched the darkness for the source of the voice, a voice that seemed oddly familiar.
"Who said that?" Laura clung to her father as she looked all around her.
A small gray shadow moved out of the tall shrubbery that lined the back garden wall.
Cecil held his breath as she came into view, the soft patio torchlights casting a golden glow over the woman. He stared at her for an endless moment.
The Last To Die Page 37
