Michael glared at her. “What are you doing?”
I winced at his tone. If he was hoping to intimidate her into giving up her weapon and her advantage it wasn’t going to happen. This was a woman who’d gleefully ordered the death of another human being without any sign of remorse—she wasn’t going to weep because her hubby grew a pair.
“Keeping our future secure.” She waved the light weapon around. “The baby’s better off with me, with us. We’ll give him everything he needs, everything he deserves.”
“So you’re going to show up with Liam at the next charity ball?” I brought her attention back to me, keeping my eye on where the pistol was pointed. “How are you going to explain him away?” I gestured at her slim form. “You don’t look pregnant. Going to be tough explaining a year-old child away as a newborn if you’re planning the ‘taking a year abroad for my health’ scenario and returning with him in your arms.”
She let out an annoyed sigh. “Don’t be an idiot. It’s a classic scenario. A distant relative’s child brought to us after an unfortunate accident overseas. We adopt the baby as our own and no one cares as long as the proper paperwork gets filed. If you have enough money you can make anything happen.” Her warped smile grated on my eyes. “Hanover Investments will have a future.”
“What?” Bran interrupted. “What about me?” His grip tightened on my fingers.
“You’re still our son. But you’ve never shown any interest in the business. This fascination with journalism—we thought you’d outgrow it in time and consider your responsibilities to us, to your heritage.”
I frowned. We were slipping down the rabbit hole fast and furiously. “He’s a respected journalist. What do you want from him?”
Bernadette smiled. “I wanted him to step up and be a man, claim his place. Instead he persists in writing these stories for pennies, scrabbling out a living when he could be working beside his father.”
“I like what I’m doing. It’s my life,” Bran replied.
“But you could do so much better,” Bernadette whined. The pistol waved in my direction. “You just need to expand your vision.” Her upper lip curled up. “If you came back to the family business you couldn’t bring her to the dances, to the parties. The Knights have a lovely daughter and the Bentlesons have two. Good families, good reputations. They’d kill to marry into the Hanover line.”
I bit my tongue at the unfortunate phrasing.
“But I don’t want to,” Bran interrupted. He raised our entwined hands. “I love her.”
“Love,” Bernadette scoffed. “Love won’t keep a roof over your head or food on the table. Money does. You should know that. You’re living in the condo, the one we bought. You’re cashing those monthly checks. So don’t tell me how important love is to you when you have your fingers in your father’s pocket.”
My pulse hammered in my ears. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Bran was thinking, what he was going through. Within the last twenty-four hours he’d discovered his father was an adulterer and his mother was a murderess, along with the existence of a half-brother. I wondered why his head hadn’t exploded.
To say this was a lose-lose situation was a major understatement. The least that could come out of this was someone going to prison for a long time.
The worse would be more dead bodies. Judging from the wild look in Bernadette’s eyes it was a viable possibility.
Her hand shook, not from the weight of the tiny weapon. Her master plan was unraveling and I wasn’t sure how far she’d go to keep it alive. I kept watching the pistol barrel as it jumped up and down, left and right on her emotional wild ride.
I might be able to get out of the way of a bullet with my Felis reflexes but I knew Bran wouldn’t and I was darned sure Michael couldn’t.
“So you hired Keith Shaw to follow me to the hotel and find Molly Callendar. You told him to kill her and take the baby back to his own hotel room until you could meet him.” I kept talking, hoping to find some way to bring her back to earth and ground her in reality. Maybe if she realized the depth of what she’d done, the enormity of her bad decisions, she might come around and let us settle this as best we could.
She stared at me.
I didn’t see a high-society woman trying to do what she thought was best for her family.
All I saw was madness.
My heart went into overdrive.
Any hunter will tell you the most dangerous animal isn’t necessarily the one that’s injured or cornered.
The rabid ones are right up there, because when you don’t fear anything you might do anything.
I continued talking, trying to predict her next move. “He sat there in his dirty, grungy little hotel room waiting for your phone call to arrange to drop off the baby or for you to show up and finish the deal.”
The small pistol moved between the three of us, shifting targets. “The woman left her apartment weeks ago, not long after the baby was born. I didn’t know where she was.” She scowled at Michael. “She didn’t leave anything behind, nothing to track her with”
Michael didn’t say anything.
“I paid for her parents to be followed. I figured they’d go visit their daughter at least once before she left town. Nothing.” The spittle flew from her lips. “Damned woman thought she had it all figured out—don’t let anyone know where you’re going, and cover your tracks. I had nothing and Shaw was waiting.”
Her eyes tracked to her husband. “Until we had dinner and you asked to talk to Rebecca alone. I knew you didn’t like her any more than I did. I told Shaw to be there when you had your meeting with her and she trotted off like a good little courier girl to go to where the bitch was holed up.” Her voice broke. “Nice fucking hotel. Keeping your whore in high style.”
Bran’s grip tightened.
“I told Shaw to follow Rebecca and as soon as she was gone to take care of the woman. I knew the cops would look at Brayton. As far as I can tell they still are. The sole ones who know who Liam is are right here. I went to the hotel where Shaw agreed to meet me and saw you walking in, you and Rebecca with some other woman. I waited until I thought it was safe and went to Shaw’s room. He was dead and the baby gone.” The edges of her mouth twitched. “Killing Shaw saved me a bit of cash—I assumed he’d ask for more when he had the baby in hand. Thank you for that much.” The icy stare returned. “But that means you’ve got Liam. Where is he?”
The pistol swept the room, her gaze following.
I anticipated her next move. “He’s not here. He’s with a friend. Safe and sound and out of danger.” Now it was my turn to sound menacing. “From both of you.”
“Shaw struck me as a pretty tough character. How did you get the jump on him, stab him like that?” Fear entered her voice for the first time since I’d met her.
My stomach jumped at the memory of Shaw’s dead body. But this wasn’t the time or place to get sensitive about death.
I curled up my fingers, squeezing them into a fist. “What do you think?” I sounded as nasty as I dared, given the circumstances. If she were afraid of Bran and myself so much the better.
I left out the part where it was Jess who delivered the killing blow, not myself. The devil might be in the details but right now the devil pointed a pistol.
“He was smothering Liam,” Bran offered by way of explanation. “We had to do something to save the baby.”
“What? Why would he do that?” The pistol wavered in her grip, enough to tempt me. I might make it across the floor to knock the gun free but I wasn’t willing to play those odds with Bran’s life.