I'll Find You Part 31

His gaze swung back to Teddy. "Andre," he stated coldly.

Teddy said in an aside to Callie, "My dad told me he came by earlier. Says he's Victoria's grandson."

Callie absorbed that. Since Stephen's death, she'd thought West was Victoria's only grandson.

Reading her like a book, Teddy explained, "He claims to be Benjamin Jr.'s son."

"I am Benjamin's son," Andre said. "I came to speak to Victoria," he added, clearly annoyed at Teddy's breezy manner.

Teddy said, "Well, sorry. She's in the hospital. You'll have to wait."

"Hospital?" He turned to Callie again. "What happened? Is she all right?"

"We're waiting to hear," she said.

"Well, I guess you should come on in," Teddy said grudgingly, waving Andre across the threshold. "We're just finis.h.i.+ng dinner."

"Um . . ." Callie said, unsure. She kinda thought Teddy was overstepping his bounds, though she didn't see how she could stop him.

Andre strode past her and looked around, his eyes a.s.sessing everything in a way that made Callie uncomfortable. "Don't look so worried," he told her coolly. "I'm not going to steal anything. I'll just wait in here." He gestured to the great room.

Teddy said, "Victoria's not gonna be back tonight. What is it you want to talk to her about?"

"I just want to get reacquainted with my family." He flicked a look to Callie. "You're the nanny?"

"Yes. I'm Callie Cantrell. Can I get you anything? A gla.s.s of water?" There was something about his face that was pinched, as if he were in pain.

"No, thanks."

Teddy made a motion for them to return to the kitchen, though Callie was reluctant to leave Andre alone. Nevertheless, she followed Teddy back and once they were in the kitchen, she demanded, "Why did you let him in?"

"'Cause Dad said he looked enough like a Laughlin to be believable, and since Victoria's not here . . ." He shrugged. "We should be having a drink. Bet there's some bourbon somewhere."

"Let's just finish this." She sliced off a thin piece of roast beef, added salad to her plate, then sat down at the kitchen table across from Teddy. She ate a few bites of salad, but in the end was unable to face the slightly b.l.o.o.d.y slice of meat. Teddy was eating with relish, but Callie had had enough of his company. She also didn't like Tucker being in the den with Andre waiting nearby.

Sweeping up her plate, she left it by the sink, then headed back toward the great room.

"Hey," Teddy protested, but Callie ignored him.

Andre was nowhere in sight and with her heart clutching, she practically ran for the den.

As soon as she entered she saw Andre standing to one side of Tucker, just watching the boy, who was deep into some afternoon kids' program she didn't recognize.

A s.h.i.+ver slipped down her spine at the intent look in his eyes. She had no idea what he was thinking, but every maternal instinct she possessed went into overdrive. Andre moved his gaze from Tucker to Callie. She felt his eyes following her as she took a seat on the den couch next to Tucker and placed a protective arm around him.

Talia Laughlin breezed in with a loud sigh and dropped her bag with a clunk on the floor. She shook off her coat-the October day had grown gloomy and colder as it progressed-and said, "G.o.d, I could use a drink. Has Victoria got anything? Probably not. She's a teetotaler from way back."

Callie had answered the door, glad that Teddy had apparently left the way he'd come. Andre had eventually wandered back to the great room, so when the doorbell rang, Callie felt comfortable leaving Tucker for a few minutes to answer it.

"How's Victoria?" Callie asked, conscious of Andre somewhere behind her left shoulder.

"I've got a bottle of wine in my car," Talia said. "Let me go get it and we can sit down and talk." She glanced past Callie to Andre. "Oh, G.o.d, you must be Andrew. I'm Talia, Stephen's mother." She moved past Callie and held out her hand.

"It's Andre," he told her.

"Oh, sure. I heard that, too. Andrew, Andre . . ." She shrugged. "Whenever Ben's name came up, which wasn't often, believe me, and his son was mentioned, the name was Andrew. I'll try to remember, but don't hold me to it. I'll be right back." She let herself out and Callie stayed by the open door. When she returned she was carrying two bottles of cabernet.

"Whew," she said, carrying the bottles into the kitchen and placing them on the counter. Callie followed after her and searched through three drawers before she found a corkscrew. Talia fell on the bottle and twisted out the cork like an expert. "Come on in here, Andre," she called.

Callie had been just about to go make sure he was still in the great room when he appeared in the dining room doorway. By that time Talia had found the winegla.s.ses and had poured one for herself and one for Callie.

"No, thank you," Andre said when she waved the bottle at him.

"Okay," she said in a voice that suggested he was making a big mistake. "So, Victoria . . . it's not looking good. Maya's a wreck. Blames herself, but it sounds like a car just blasted through the back parking lot and clipped them as they were walking toward the door. Maya was actually hit harder by the car, but Victoria's head smacked into the pavement."

"Do they know what kind of car it was?" Andre asked.

"A brown sedan. Maya didn't notice whether it was foreign or domestic. G.o.d, this wine is good. Are you going to even try it?"

She was looking at Callie, who dutifully brought her gla.s.s to her lips. She wished she could talk to West. She wanted to ask him about his cousin Andrew/Andre.

Talia went on, "It's kind of a wait-and-see game now. I hope she makes it. How ironic that she was at her lawyer's. I thought she got that new will taken care of. I don't know."

"New will?" Andre asked carefully.

Callie slid him a look. His eyes were practically boring through the back of Talia's skull as she tipped back her gla.s.s while she walked toward the bottle for a refill.

"Oh, I got it," she said suddenly, holding the bottle up but not pouring yet. To Andre she said, "It wasn't about the will. She went to see him because of you! She needs to vet you. Doesn't believe you're who you say you are, but you look just like Ben before he took off to find his bliss in the South Pacific, so I figure it's true. Were you there the whole time? We got the message that he died, but no one ever knew what happened to you or your mom."

Andre wasn't enjoying Talia's casual twenty questions. "My mother's gone too."

"Oh. Sorry." She said the words but Callie saw they were nothing more than a polite, expected response.

"My father was disinherited," Andre said.

"He sure was. By his father. Ben Sr. Victoria might've loosened up but once Ben Sr. was deceased, I don't know. Let's all hope she survives or we're at the mercy of her last choices, right? I thought she was going to give most of the ranch to Cal, but now my grandson's back." She lifted her shoulders and smiled, a silent "what're you gonna do?"

"Cal . . ." Andre repeated scornfully, as if he couldn't hold himself back. He was so transparent it was painful.

"Ted Stutz, the ranch manager," Talia said. "Everybody calls him Cal. He's a great guy and my mother-in-law loves him to pieces."

Callie thought of Teddy's comments about Talia "jonesin'" for Cal. Were they in some kind of relations.h.i.+p? And was that why she seemed to feel so powerful about her place in the Laughlin hierarchy?

"She wouldn't leave everything to someone outside the family," Andre said, biting off each word.

"And you know her so well," Talia said, her eyes sparkling. "But you're probably right. The bulk of the estate will be Tucker's. G.o.d, how ghoulish we sound. Talking about money when she may not live through the night." She yawned and heaved a sigh. "Okay, I'm going to take this gla.s.s with me. Third bedroom, right?" she asked Callie. "Tucker's in the first and you're in the second."

Callie nodded.

"I'll turn on the alarm after Andre leaves," Talia said, stressing his name with a faint smile. "Cal said Victoria's taken to locking the back door, too. About time. This place was like a robber's dream."

Callie took another sip of wine, specifically to hide anything that might show on her face after witnessing the growing rigidity of Andre's jaw. Talia seemed to be specifically goading him, which, in Callie's opinion, was pretty much like poking a snake.

West showed up close to eleven o'clock. Callie had managed to get Tucker into bed, though the strangeness of his surroundings finally penetrated and he clung to her and cried out when she tried to leave. She rocked him and whispered gently to him, going over the highlights of the day so he would remember the good things and get himself to sleep.

"Furrall cats bite," he said sleepily as he finally wound down.

"That's right, and scratch. You have to be careful."

"Careful," he mumbled.

He slipped into slumber a few minutes later and Callie eased herself out of the bed and back downstairs. Andre had taken Talia's broad hint to leave with ill grace, but had reluctantly headed back outside. As soon as he was gone, Talia checked all the doors and set the alarm. "The code's 'bullbbq,'" she'd said as she headed up to her room. "You should take Tucker to Laughlin BBQ tomorrow. h.e.l.l, maybe I'll still be here and we'll all go."

Soon after she was gone Callie saw the splash of West's headlights across the front of the house and she punched in the code to release the alarm, opened the back door, and stepped into a cool, starless evening. West shut his driver's door, spied Callie, and strode her way quickly.

Before she could say anything, he pulled her close and kissed her. Then he buried his face in her hair and said, "G.o.d, I've missed you."

"Back at cha," she said lightly, inhaling his male scent, which she was beginning to crave like a drug. "How's Victoria?"

"Hanging in there . . . just. I talked to her doctor and he didn't want to say too much. Her lawyer showed up too. He was in shock and felt responsible since it happened at his offices. He gave me his card."

"You think she's going to be okay?"

"G.o.d, I hope so." He half-laughed. "Didn't know I cared so much about her until this happened."

He ran his lips over her face and to her mouth again, and she kissed him desperately. They were like teenagers in their secret, all-consuming need to touch, caress, and rediscover each other. She was pressed hard against the side of the building and his body lay urgently against hers but it wasn't enough. Realizing how much she wanted him felt so absurd that she started soundlessly laughing.

"What?" he asked, his mouth against the skin of her neck.

"I almost want to make love to you out here."

"I'm game."

"But what if someone comes back, like Cal, or Teddy, or even your cousin?"

She hadn't meant to curl her lip on "your cousin," but she did and West reluctantly pulled himself back from her, peering at her through the darkness. "What cousin?"

"A guy who claims to be Andre Laughlin came by today. Teddy said his dad told him that he met with Victoria earlier, then he came back again when Teddy and I were having dinner. It was Talia who actually got him to leave."

"There is no Andre Laughlin," West said.

"Sorry. He goes by Andre now, but his real name is Andrew. He says he's Ben Jr.'s son."

"Bulls.h.i.+t."

"Maybe not. Talia said he looked just like his father. I don't know."

"And who the h.e.l.l's Teddy?" West demanded. "Not Cal's son, Ted."

"Yeah, Teddy Stutz. You haven't met him?"

"No. What was he doing here? Victoria said Cal and Ted were on the outs because Ted gambles money away as fast as he makes it."

"Huh. Well, he's here now."

He shook his head, kissed her once more, then reluctantly pulled away from her. "Okay, we'll go in."

"Maybe we can be together upstairs?" she suggested.

"No maybe about it," he responded as they headed back inside. As Callie reset the alarm, he asked, "What about this Andre?"

"I don't really know. He's . . . well, you'll probably meet him. Talia was talking to him about the Laughlin inheritance and when he heard her intimate that Tucker, as Victoria's great-grandson, would probably inherit, he stared at her in a way that gave me the w.i.l.l.i.e.s."

"You think he wants a piece of the inheritance."

"That's what it looked like to me, and believe me, I know about people who think they deserve something they think you're keeping them from."

West didn't really want to talk any longer. He was tired and he just wanted to hold Callie, make love to her, and let it all go for a while. But this Andre sounded like a scammer. "Seems coincidental that he showed up today and then someone runs Victoria down."

"You think there's a connection?"

"What time was he here?"

"He showed up about an hour after Victoria left. He was here a while, but maybe he could have made it back to Castilla before she was out of that meeting. Depends on how long it ran."

"You really think he did this?" West asked soberly.

Callie hesitated. "I didn't like him. I don't know. Somebody ran her down."

"Did you see what kind of car he drove?"

"I got a glimpse when Teddy let him in, but I wasn't really looking. A black SUV of some kind, maybe?"

"That's not the vehicle that ran into Maya and Victoria. Maya said it was a brown sedan."

"Maya said?"

"I talked to her before her daughter picked her up."

"Oh," Callie said, derailed a little.

West stretched and ran his hands through his hair, stifling a yawn. "What about this Teddy? Why'd he show Andre in?"

"He seemed very familiar with things around here," Callie admitted. "And I didn't know how to stop him."

He half-smiled and gathered her close again. "This has all been pretty weird for you. For all of us, but especially you." He inhaled the soft spring scent of her hair and added, "Teddy was one of the guys on the hunting trip when Mikkels accidentally killed Stephen."

"Huh. He doesn't seem the type that would go hunting."