Matt—The Callahan Brothers (Brazos Bend Book 2) (37 page)

“The lawyer told Carrie that Branch was going to take her baby away from her. He was going to accuse her of being an unfit mother.”

“She believed that?” Maddie asked, aghast.

“She was nineteen years old. Just a kid who was terrified she’d lose her baby. The slime bag lawyer played on every insecurity Carrie ever had.”

“That poor girl,” Maddie murmured.

“Plus, she didn’t have a soul to count on except for me, and I was halfway around the world scratching the sand fleas biting my ass. We had no money to speak of. Branch’s lawyer let her know that wasn’t the case with the mighty Callahan. He had plenty of money and the courts would see things his way. She was scared. She wrote me a letter, loaded up the baby, and took off in the middle of the night. To this day I don’t know where she was headed. All I know is that he’d scared her to death.”

“What happened to them, Mark?” Matt asked.

“A drunk driver ran them off the road into a telephone pole. Carrie was killed instantly. My daughter lived for four hours. I learned about it two days later.”

“Oh, Mark.” Tears poured down Maddie’s face. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. When Branch would dictate letters to you, all he kept saying was that he was sorry. Over and over, he’d say he was sorry. I never knew what for. I asked, but he wouldn’t tell me.”

“Sorry, is he? Well, that doesn’t quite fix it, does it?”

“No, honey.” Her smile was full of compassion. “It doesn’t.”

Matt had to ask. “Why didn’t you tell us? Luke and John and me? We’d have been there for you, man.”

“You couldn’t have done anything. They were gone and besides, I couldn’t talk about it. Almost did when John died, but ...” He broke off, shook his head. He gazed up at Matt with stricken, watery eyes. “At least John Gabriel is up there now to look out for them, right? Carrie and my little girl?”

“Yeah. Yeah, you know he is.” Matt was about to cry himself. He surreptitiously wiped his eyes. “That’s why you haven’t mellowed any. You’ll never forgive him.”

“No, I won’t. The drunk driver killed them, but Branch Callahan is just as guilty for setting it all in motion. Had he just left us alone ...”

Matt didn’t think he could forgive this, either. Him and his blasted need to control everything. That poor little baby ... her mother. Mark. How did he survive such a senseless, stupid loss? All because Branch had to play God.

Mark’s eyes were growing heavy. “Now that y’all know, don’t bring Branch up to me again.”

Ten minutes later, Mark was asleep, and Matt needed to see Torie. As he and Maddie crossed the lobby toward the parking lot, Branch walked through the hospital’s front doors. Matt muttered a curse, then said, “Turn around and go home. The nurses have instructions to throw you out if you so much as show your face on Mark’s floor.”

“But Matt ... Maddie.”

Matt walked right past his father. Maddie paused for just a moment. “Mark told us a story, Branch. About his wife and daughter.” She gave her head a toss and blinked back tears as she continued. “A baby girl named Margaret Mary who never got to meet her daddy because you played the big man and threatened her teenage mother into running away. You’d best leave us all alone for a while.”

They left the hospital without looking back.

***

Torie had her car packed and ready to go. A part of her had wanted to ride off into the sunset and avoid a final scene with Matt, but she refused to be a coward. Not at this stage of the movie.

She and Gigi sat on the front porch of the lake house, waiting alone for him to return. A cop had taken Paco back to Branch, and Helen and Michael had rented a room at Cottonwood Cottage, where they were celebrating the color change on the test kit stick. After they’d received word that barring the unforeseen, Mark should make a full recovery, Les had attempted to hang around and keep Torie company. She’d shooed him away. She’d needed time alone, to think through the events of the day and put everything in perspective.

She’d needed to decide what to do next. About her life, her love. About Matt. A part of her wanted to forgive and forget because all had turned out well in the end. After all, the man had saved her sister’s life. It would be easy to go that route.
 

After much soul searching, she’d realized that easy wouldn’t cut it. She had enough of her father in her to recognize the importance of analyzing her current situation objectively, rather than emotionally.
 

It was an undeniable fact that when it mattered the most, Matt hadn’t trusted her. He hadn’t respected her.
 

She couldn’t...she wouldn’t...live that way.

So she turned her mind to figuring out just where to go from here, and how to survive the trip. She’d left the lie of the engagement ring in the refrigerator like just another cupcake. Somehow, that had simply felt right. She’d called her father, too, to let him know of Helen’s ordeal, omitting the details of her marriage and pregnancy, but priming the pump by mentioning Michael’s presence. To her shock and surprise, the general had actually expressed concern about her. He said he’d planned a trip back to the States next month and asked if she’d have time to see him. When she mentioned her commitments at Cannes, he hadn’t made a single snarky remark.

She’d told him she’d do her best to make it.

The sound of a boat engine distracted her from her thoughts. Matt? She’d expected him to arrive by road, so this mode of transportation caught her by surprise. Walking around to the back of the house, she watched him expertly ease the huge Fountain into its slip. The man and his machine, she thought. Both of them powerful. Both exhilarating. Both, sexy as sin.

“Demon Callahan,” she murmured. He’d stolen her heart and her soul, but at least she had taken back her pride.

She hoped.

He took determined strides up the walkway, his gaze finding her, locking on her. She could feel the power of his person across the distance. In defense, she turned away and returned to her seat in the porch rocker. She gathered Gigi into her lap because she needed something warm to hold on to. She was so cold inside.

“Torie,” he said as he rounded the corner. “You’re a sight for sore eyes. Sorry it took me so long to get back.”

“How’s Mark doing?” When Matt’s expression turned haunted, her heart caught. “We were told he was out of the woods. Matt, is Mark okay?”

“Okay? No, he’s not. He survived the gunshot wounds, but he’s far from okay. He’s hurting in a way I can’t help him. No one can.”

“What are you talking about?”

He waved a hand. “I don’t want to rehash it all. It happened years ago. Suffice to say I now understand why Mark hates our father so much. I’m inclined to hate him, too. But let’s not talk about Branch right now.”

“All right.” She didn’t look him in the eyes. She needed the wall she’d erected to stay up. “How’s your other boat? Les said doing what you did can ruin the engines.”

“It’s a mess, but the local mechanics are good.” He stepped up onto the porch and studied her carefully. “I know we need to talk. You probably want to know why I ... uh ...”

“Set me up? Used me as bait? Threw me to the wolves?”

“Wait a minute. It wasn’t like that.”

“Oh, really?” she snapped back, the flare of her temper welcome because it burned away the pain. “Are you trying to tell me you didn’t use my credit card on purpose? You didn’t intend to get my name mentioned in the newspaper and on the Internet? You didn’t intentionally put me out there as bait for that maniac at the same time you were sleeping with me? What would you call it?”

“One had nothing to do with the other,” he attempted to defend.

“And of course, I’ll believe you because you never lie to me.” She gently set Gigi on the ground, then stood. “Did it ever occur to you to explain your plan? To ask for my cooperation? I’d have done it, you know. You didn’t have to sleep with me just to keep me distracted from what was going on.”

“Stop acting as if our relationship was based on ...”

He didn’t finish, so she did. “Sex and lies?”

“Stop right there.” He slammed his hand into the porch post. “You don’t believe that. You tell me you don’t believe that!”

She didn’t want to believe it, but there it was in black and white. He’d lied. Over and over, he’d had the opportunity to tell her the truth, but he’d kept his mouth shut. “Why weren’t you honest with me?”

“Because that’s the way I work. I work alone. You didn’t need to know.”

“Alone? So you’re telling me Mark didn’t know the plan? Luke was in the dark? Do you expect me to believe that?”

“They’re my brothers!”

He grimaced and she could tell he’d realized what he’d done, but it didn’t move her. Not an inch. “And what was I, Callahan? A bed warmer? A way to pass the time?”

“No! You’re my lover. I love you! Do you hear me? I. Love. You!”

She sucked in a breath. “That’s cold, even for you.”

She turned to walk away. She needed to get away from him. Right now, before her hard won scraps of pride evaporated.

Now he was furious. “What? You think I’d lie about that?”

“I think you’d lie about anything and everything. Lying is your profession. It’s your first response and your last. It’s what you do.”

“Well, I’m not lying now.”

“I don’t believe you. I don’t trust you. I thought you were different, but you turned out just like all the rest. I came to you for help, and you did the job. My stalker is dead. I’m safe. But in the meantime, you made a fool of me.”

“Torie, it wasn’t like that.”

“It was and it is. It always is. I guess I just needed to be reminded of where I stand. But look, this is unnecessary. I waited to tell you I’m sorry that Mark was hurt on my account once again, and that I’m so glad he’s going to recover. I also want to thank you for your help today. If I’d followed that woman by myself, I’m afraid to think how it might have ended.”

“Quit talking like that. You’re making me crazy. You’re talking like it’s over.”

“I don’t think it ever began. Not really.”

“How can you say that?”

She couldn’t let him see that he’d destroyed her. “We had the boat chase and the villain died and the credits are rolling. Whatever bit of drama we had, it’s over. I’m leaving now. Maybe I’ll catch you on the red carpet someday.”

“You’re not leaving. You love me.”

Torie called upon every scrap of acting ability she possessed to give a short, careless laugh. “Oh, but I am leaving, Matt. I have a plane to catch and a story to chase. I told you all along that it was temporary. The Callahan Bond girl loved you, but this movie is over.”

“That’s ridiculous, Victoria.”

“Don’t worry, Callahan. There’s a new Bond girl in every flick.” It was as good an exit line as she was liable to come up with, so Torie whistled for Gigi and headed for her car.

“Stop it. Just stop it,” he demanded, scowling with frustration. “Once and for all, you need to stop this idiotic Bond stuff. This isn’t a damned movie. This is reality. It’s our life. I love you, Torie Bradshaw. And you love me, too.”

A vulnerable place deep inside her heard him, wanted to believe him, but the scar tissue from old wounds and new kept her heart hardened. “All right.” She lifted her chin, squared her shoulders, and met his gaze head on for the first time that evening. “No movies. No make believe. You want reality? Here it is, then, in hard, cold glory.

“I don’t love you, Matt. I let myself get caught up in the romance and adventure of the fantasy I built around you.”

“That’s a lie, Torie. You love me.”

“I thought I did until I realized I was living a part for which I’d been totally miscast. See, that’s the world I live in—celebrities and their escapades and their on-and-off-again love lives. It’s all fiction. It’s easy to get lost in the make believe when you live it every day, and that’s what I did with you. I made you into a larger-than-life hero who would rescue the damsel in distress. You accomplished the job, too, and for that, I’m grateful. But real heroes don’t lie, and that part made me realize the truth. The reality. Maybe I knew all along that what we had was just a joyride, and I enjoyed it while it lasted. So did you.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this. Tearing us apart. It’s stupid. I need you, Torie. Can’t you see that?”

“What you need is to be free to move on to the next adventure and the next Bond girl. This one has another casting call.”

“Once and for all, would you stop with the James Bond B.S.!”

She paused, and in that moment, everything became crystal clear. “You’re right, Matt. Of course, you’re right. Life isn’t a movie and there’s no happy ending for us. Just an ending.”

“Goodbye, Matt Callahan. Have a happy life.”

Chapter Twenty

Côte d’Azur

Three weeks later

“Torie, luv. Thank you so much for coming.” Julie Kelley took her hands and kissed her on both cheeks, then flashed her billion dollar smile. “I know you’re exhausted from the insanity of Cannes, but I wanted you to share this night with me and Jack. In fact, you could say this night is all about you. You look gorgeous, by the way. The gown is fabulous. You’re divine in red.”