Matt—The Callahan Brothers (Brazos Bend Book 2) (19 page)

But in light of the explosion, on the off chance that whoever was after her might decide to go after those she loved, Torie had to let Helen know to be on her guard.

She typed:
You there?

A moment later, her sister responded:
sorta. distracted. interesting results in lab today.

I need your attention for a couple minutes. H, someone is after me.

oh, t. what have you done now?

Torie clenched her teeth. Nothing bugged her more than when her sister parroted their father’s point of view. Impatience sent her fingers flying.

I’m on the road because I’m being stalked. I don’t know who or why, but he’s doing scary things. You need to be careful, H. He rigged an explosion in my apartment. I’m hiding and someone is helping me, but I’m afraid he’ll come after you when he can’t find me.

Almost thirty seconds ticked by without a response before Helen wrote back.
WHERE ARE YOU? CALL ME NOW!!!!!

Well, at least she had her sister’s attention. She eyed the phone and considered using it. But no, she’d avoided the phone up until now because calls were too easily traced. No sense running that risk now. She probably shouldn’t even instant message, but she needed some sort of communication with her sister.

Of all available methods, this felt safest.
Can’t. I’m safe. Don’t worry. Just be careful. Promise?

Again, another pause, then:
does dad know?

No. PROMISE, H???????

i’m so scared for u, t.

A lump formed in Torie’s throat. She hated upsetting Helen. She just hated it. She was the caretaker in this relationship, not the other way around.

That’s why she decided to take one more risk.
Don’t be. I’m with Beautiful Buns.

“Beautiful Buns!” Matt exclaimed from directly behind her.

Torie jumped. Her hands jerked. She hadn’t heard him come in.

“Who are you IMing?”

“Matt, I’m so glad to see you.” She backspaced the gibberish she’d inadvertently typed off the computer screen and attempted to explain. “It’s my sister. I had to warn her.”

“Beautiful Buns?” he repeated, his eyes narrowed and hot with temper.

Helen typed:
ooooooohhhhhhh! sure you aren’t faking the stalker?

He’s here. Gotta go. TTYL.

give him a kiss from me. ttyl

Now it was Torie’s turn to scowl. She really didn’t like being reminded that Matt Callahan and Helen had locked lips.

“Dammit,” he muttered, pacing the room. “I can’t believe you—oh, never mind. We don’t have time for this.”

“How is your brother? I’m so sorry—”

“He’ll be all right,” Matt snapped, cutting her off short.

“Good. I feel so bad about how he came to be hurt, and under the circumstances, I’m giving you a pass for being a jerk to me about….” Her voice trailed off as she saw him glaring at the computer screen. Her teeth tugged at her bottom lip. “Was this a mistake, Matt?”

“Referring to me as Beautiful Buns? Yeah, I would say so.”

“Not that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I meant instant messaging my sister. Is it traceable like a credit card?”

“For me it would be. For the average criminal, no. Here.” He tossed a new yellow legal pad onto the desk. “You need to make me a list of every single person in the world who has reason to be pissed off at you. That includes everyone from old lovers to the hairstylist you stiffed at Christmas.”

“I don’t stiff my hairstylist!”

“There’s more paper in the desk if you need it. I’ll be back later to get the list.” Then he turned on his heel and started to leave.

“Wait a minute!” Torie demanded. Enough was enough. Forget the pass. She was so done with being treated like dirt. Shoving to her feet, she said, “Look, Callahan, I’m sorry your brother was hurt, but I didn’t wire that explosion. I’m not the bad guy here.”

“No, you’re not the bad guy.” His gaze raked her up and down. “But you’re still That Damned Woman.”

The screen door slammed behind him.

Torie sank back into her seat, scowling after him. She drummed her fingers on the desk for a moment, then opened the drawer to retrieve the package of M&M’s she’d spied there earlier. True, these weren’t the best of circumstances; he had every right to be upset and angry. But did he have to act like such a spectacular jerk?
 

“Having a beautiful ass is no excuse for being one,” she muttered, ripping open the package. She poured out a half-dozen M&M’s, tossed them one by one into her mouth, then picked up the pen, organized her thoughts, and began to write. He wanted a list?

“I’ll give him a stinking list.”

***

The day following the explosion, the Callahan brothers arrived at Four Brothers Vineyard within half an hour of one another. Luke showed up first, his expression grim, his manner curt, just as Matt turned away yet another baked-good-bearing female with the news that Les was ill with something contagious. He asked that she please pass along word that townsfolk should consider Four Brothers under quarantine.

Matt took one look at Luke and knew his brother was as worried and anxious as he, though neither voiced their fears.

“Where’s Les?” Luke asked.

“He says he’s making a run to Fort Worth for parts for the irrigation system, but I think he has a hot date. Took Angie Rametti with him. He said not to expect him back tonight.”

The brothers talked about Luke’s wife, Maddie, and his dog, Knucklehead, and the engine trouble he’d had with the Miss Behavin’ II, the houseboat currently berthed on the Texas Gulf Coast where the couple spent half of the year. Though neither Matt nor Luke had much of an appetite, they told themselves that Mark was bound to be hungry when he arrived, so they fired up the charcoal grill on Les’s patio. Upon hearing the sound of wheels on the gravel road, the brothers sauntered around to the front of Les’s house.

Wincing, Mark climbed out of his Porsche. Matt’s gaze drank in the sight of his brother, and he took his first decent breath since yesterday’s phone call. Then in the manner of brothers, they exchanged insults by way of greeting until Mark said, “I need drugs. Now. What do you have?”

Luke glanced at Matt. “What sort of question is that to ask of a DEA agent?”

“Former DEA agent,” Mark responded. “You’re my partner now, remember? If you ever decide to tear yourself away from your wife long enough to work an investigation, that is.”

Matt eyed the abrasion on his brother’s face and grimaced. “Didn’t you get anything at the hospital?”

“They gave me prescriptions, but I thought I could get by without them. I didn’t want to wait around to get them filled.”

“You idiot.” Matt tugged out his cell and made a quick call to the local drugstore. The pharmacist was an old friend whose discretion Matt knew he could trust. Minutes later, he ended the call and said, “Relief is on the way, stupid. Next time, get your meds before you travel.”

“I’m hoping there won’t be a next time,” Mark grumbled. “Even so, I needed to keep my wits about me—the few that weren’t scrambled by the blast, that is. Didn’t want anyone following me here. Can we go inside now? I need to sit down.” He swayed, just a little bit, and in a flash one brother stood at each side, offering their support.

Matt and Luke helped Mark to a chair on the back patio. He eyed the rib eyes and smiled with anticipation. “Just wave mine over the flames, would you? I swear I could eat it the way it is.”

With that, Matt’s appetite came roaring back and he went about preparing the meal with new enthusiasm, while Luke cracked open a beer and asked Mark, “So, you want to give us a rundown on yesterday’s events?”

Mark wistfully eyed the beer in his brother’s hand as he stretched his legs out in front of him. “I was careless. I deserved what I got for being stupid. I noticed the smell, but didn’t pay enough attention. The photographs hanging on her dining room table distracted me.”

“Photos of what?” Luke demanded.

“Disturbing stuff. Executions. Mutilations. We need to know where she took those pictures and why she took them. I mean, the Evil Twin might really be evil.”

“If she took those pictures,” Matt observed. “That doesn’t sound like Victoria. They could have been planted by the perp. He’s already done that once.”

“True,” Mark agreed.

“I thought she took pictures of starlets,” Luke said. “What did she do to create enough hate for someone to blow up her apartment? Who’d she make mad?”

“That’s what I intend to find out,” Matt said grimly. “It’s personal now. The bastard could have killed our brother.”

“Besides that, his little surprise ruined my favorite pair of sneakers,” Mark pointed out. “That’s all the motivation I need to continue this investigation.”

“You feel up to clueing us in on what you found out before the blast?” Matt asked.

“Won’t take long. I don’t have much.” He gave a brief synopsis of his investigation up to the time of the explosion. The only piece of information Matt found new was that Torie spent two mornings a month rocking sick babies in a hospital nursery. That bit of insight into her character caught him by surprise.

Mark finished up his recitation by asking, “What have you found out on your end?”

Matt grabbed the legal pad he’d retrieved from the lake house study late last night. She’d filled three sheets with names for him to investigate and another three sheets with complaints and opinions about his character, or lack thereof.

“Victoria made a list of everyone she could think of who might possibly hold a grudge against her.”

“That’s a good place to start,” Mark observed. “Do you think she was thorough?”

“My name is at the top of her list. Yours is at the bottom. Middle includes such likely suspects as the queen of England and her paperboy, who she’s repeatedly turned down for dates. He’s twelve.”

“Twelve is such a difficult age,” Luke observed.

Matt rolled his eyes and continued. “After going over the names, I’ve picked who I think are the three most likely suspects. First on the list is ...” He paused, rubbed the back of his neck, and said, “Collin Marlow.”

His brothers shared a look. Luke drawled, “Excuse me, but isn’t he dead?”

“Well, we can’t be quite sure. We never recovered a body.”

“He was shot and tossed into a shark-infested lagoon,” Luke fired back. “I doubt there was enough left of him to scoop off the sand.”

“I still want it looked into.”

Mark and Luke shrugged an okay, Mark failing to hide a wince from the effort. Matt continued. “The second name that raises a red flag for me is a guy named Jason Banning. He writes for the tabloids. They worked together. Slept together. She dumped him after…” S
he met me,
he thought. Aloud, he said, “The incident on Soledad Island. According to Victoria, his career hasn’t been the same since.”

“Now, that’s a better suspect than a dead guy,” Luke observed.

“Maybe. There’s a third man I think might be the best prospect of all. Y’all remember the sex scandal last year in Washington?”

“Which sex scandal?” Mark interjected. “There’re so many to choose from.”

“The one with the senator and his ... dog?”

“The costume orgy?” Luke asked.

Matt nodded and the Callahan brothers all grimaced at the memory. Matt continued. “Guess who took the infamous shot?”

“No.”

“Afraid so.”

“What was she doing at a sex club?”

“She was following the, uh, dog. The man had landed a role in the next
Pirates of the Caribbean
. The publicity cost him the job.”

“So are you counting the senator or the actor as the perp?”

“Could be either one. We’d better look at both of them, but I think the senator is a stretch.”

“Not from what I recall about the picture,” Mark drily responded. “More like a stub.”

Matt and Luke both snorted at that; then Matt turned his attention to the steaks, and the delivery guy from the pharmacy arrived with Mark’s painkillers. They took a break from attempted murder over supper. Conversation turned to baseball and rumors of a big pitching trade in the Rangers organization. Despite his plague warning, two women showed up with invitations for Matt during dinner, proving he’d been right to stash Torie elsewhere. Four Brothers was simply too public a spot to make a good hideout.

Once dinner was done, Mark stood and stretched. “I’m sinking fast, guys. Do we have a plan or can we finish this in the morning?”

“The plan is to find the S.O.B. who placed that bomb.” Matt scraped scraps into the garbage pail and loaded plates in the dishwasher. “You’ll sleep here, Mark, but I want you spending your days convalescing at the lake place, while Luke and I track down leads from Victoria’s list.”

“You want me to babysit Ms. Babelicious?” Mark asked, a slow smile spreading across his face. “I can do that. I’ll be happy to do that.”

Matt suddenly felt as grim as he had the moment he heard about the explosion. He didn’t like his brother giving Torie a nickname. He didn’t like thinking about his brother with Torie at all. As irritated as that made him, it paled in comparison with his mood upon realizing that he could put off his news no longer. He had to tell his brothers about the death in Paris.