Their supposedly small voices were completely drowning out the plumber, who, judging by the disgruntled look on his face, was protesting being sent away without collecting a fee. The fact that he hadn’t done any work didn’t seem to matter.
Meanwhile Connor found himself fascinated by the dynamics of the household he had walked into. Besides the scrappy dog, by his count he had glimpsed two cats and some sort of creature—a sea turtle perhaps?—living in a tank in the far corner of the living room. All he could really make out were a pair of eyes looking in his direction.
Connor’s attention was drawn back to the squabbling children, who were growing progressively louder with each passing minute. Glancing in their mother’s direction, he thought that she definitely looked overwhelmed. Taking pity on the woman, Connor decided to distract the children so that she could at least clear things up with the plumber.
“Gimme that!” Axel shouted, grabbing a frayed dress from his sister.
Though small, Ava was every bit as strong as her brother.
“No!” she cried, pulling the dress back out of her brother’s hands.
Connor thought of physically pulling them apart but decided that he’d get more accomplished if he treated them as short adults, not discipline problems.
“You know,” he began, “my brothers and sisters and I once dressed up our horse for Halloween.” He had to raise his voice above theirs in order to actually be heard.
Axel stopped trying to pull the dress away from his sister. Meanwhile Ava’s eyes widened as she suddenly became aware that there was someone besides her brother in the room.
“You dressed up your horse?” the little girl questioned, looking up at the strange man in her living room. Though she appeared a year or so younger than her brother, she was more articulate than Axel was.
“We sure did,” Connor told her, subtly coaxing the brother and sister away from the front of the house and the plumber. The dog decided to trot along with them, as well. “My sisters wanted to put a ballerina costume on Lightning but my brothers and I said that the ballerina costume would just embarrass him.”
“Who won?” Axel wanted to know. He gave his sister a superior look. “Bet it was the boys.”
“Bet it wasn’t,” Ava countered, ready to get into yet another argument with him. “Everybody knows that boys are dumb.”
“No they’re not!” Axel yelled back.
“Actually,” Connor said, raising his voice as he took each of them by the hand and brought them toward the kitchen, “Lightning won.”
“The horse?” Axel questioned, scrunching up his forehead.
“How could the horse win?” Ava wanted to know. “Could he talk?” she asked in awe.
“No, he wasn’t a talking horse,” Connor managed to say with a straight face.
“Then how did he win?” Axel asked, crossing his arms before his small chest and waiting to be given an answer.
“Lightning won because he got to keep his dignity,” Connor told his small audience.
Ava and Axel exchanged perplexed looks. “What’s dig-nitee?” Axel asked.
“Being proud of yourself,” Connor explained.
Intrigued, Ava asked, “How did the horse get to keep that?”
“Well, Lightning was a boy horse,” Connor told them. “We put a pirate’s costume on him, using some of my mother’s scarves. We all agreed that he looked a lot better in that than he would have in a ballerina costume. Besides,” Connor confided, lowering his voice and winking at the children, “the tutu would have really been impossible to get on Lightning.”
The abbreviated reference to the ballerina costume seemed to tickle Axel and he started to laugh. He laughed so hard, he wound up rolling around on the floor. The sound was infectious and it set Ava off. In no time flat, both children were on the floor, holding their sides and laughing.
Which was how Brianna found them when she walked into the kitchen.
The sight astounded her. For once, her children were actually getting along and no longer at each other’s throats. Brianna stood for a moment, drinking in the sight.
Stunned, she looked at the man who was apparently responsible for her kids’ miraculous about-face. She was both amazed that this Connor Fortunado had somehow managed to calm her little hellions down and horrified that she had allowed a total stranger to come into her house.
Allowed? She’d literally dragged him in, Brianna thought, berating herself.
Okay, there’d been a mix-up, which caused her to make the mistake, but even so, she’d let a stranger into her house. The house where her children lived. The man could have been an ax murderer or a serial killer and she had just let him come waltzing in without so much as checking his credentials.
What kind of a mother did that make her?
“Did your mom yell at you for making the horse wear her scarves?” Axel asked the possible ax murderer.
Connor looked perfectly serious as he said, “No, she decided she didn’t like those scarves anymore. She said she was happy to give them to Lightning.”
They were lapping this up, Brianna realized. And this stranger was obviously very good with children.
She supposed she was overreacting, she thought. If this man was a possible ax murderer or a serial killer, chances were that he wouldn’t be sitting cross-legged on her floor with her children, telling them this exaggerated story.
And besides, he did fix her toilet, she told herself. She strongly doubted that ax murderers went around fixing toilets for their victims just before they did away with them.
Brianna had just decided to exonerate the man in her kitchen when he suddenly looked in her direction with the softest brown eyes she’d ever seen.
For the briefest of moments, she felt something inside of her tighten in response.
“Everything all settled?” he asked her.
It took her a minute to focus on his words. “With the plumber?” she finally asked. When he nodded, she said, “Yes, I convinced him that it was a false alarm and that the toilet was running fine now. He wasn’t happy, but he left.” Coming closer, she stood over Connor and extended her hand. “We never got a chance to finish with our introductions. I’m Brianna Childress,” she told him. “And those are my children, Axel and Ava.”
“I know,” he said. “At least, I know who you are. The kids I have to admit were a surprise.” In more ways than one, he thought.
Brianna’s suspicions returned. She shifted so that she stood directly in front of her children, as if to protect them. “Why do you know who I am?”
Chapter Four
Connor smiled at her, doing his best to assuage the wary look that had returned to her eyes. He didn’t want her afraid of him. If she was, then getting any useful information out of her might be difficult.
“I know your name,” he told her, “because I’ve done my homework.”
“You have homework?” Axel cried, appalled. “But aren’t you old?”
“Axel!” Brianna chided, upset at her four-year-old son’s unfiltered response to the situation.
“Yeah!” Three-year-old Ava joined forces with her mother and got into her brother’s face. “You don’t tell old people they’re old.”
She couldn’t have her children here while she was trying to deal with this stranger. “Axel, Ava, why don’t you two go play with Scruffy?” Brianna said, herding the dog and the half-pint dynamic duo toward the bedroom that they shared. “Quietly this time.”
It was obvious that both children wanted to stay and hear what this new person who had come into their house had to say, but one look at their mother’s face told them that they needed to listen to her.
Looking miffed, Ava reluctantly walked out of the room. “This is all your fault,” she accused her brother. “You got mommy upset.”
“It is not!” Axel shouted back at
his sister as he left the room.
“And they’re off,” Brianna sighed. She tried to remember a time when life was peaceful and couldn’t. Collecting herself, she turned to face Connor. “Would you mind explaining just how I figure into your ‘homework’?” she asked.
“That’s easy.” First order of business, he thought, was to assure Brianna that he meant her no harm. Taking out his wallet, he flipped it open to show her his credentials. “I’m a private investigator and I need to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.”
“What kind of questions?” Brianna wanted to know. For the life of her, she had absolutely no clue what this was about or what she could possibly tell him. Regarding him warily, she asked, “Should I be worried?”
“Why?” He tucked his wallet back into his pocket. “Have you done something bad?” he asked, amused despite himself.
“No,” she answered with a little bit too much feeling.
She couldn’t remember a time when she had done anything even remotely “bad.” She was too busy raising two overenergetic children and holding down miscellaneous part-time jobs trying to make ends meet to do anything even remotely bad. Or fun for that matter.
“But you’re here wanting to ask me questions and I haven’t got the vaguest idea why,” she informed him, still eyeing him nervously.
Connor felt a little guilty for making her feel so uneasy. He quickly began to explain the situation to her. “I’m looking for some information about a job you did for Charlotte Robinson last year.”
Brianna blinked. She prided herself on remembering the names of the people she dealt with but this name was definitely not familiar.
“Who?”
“Charlotte Robinson,” Connor repeated a little bit louder now.
The name still meant nothing to her. Brianna shook her head. “Sorry, that name doesn’t ring a bell. Maybe you have me confused with someone else,” she told him.
“Maybe,” he allowed, not wanting to come on too strong. But he had done his due diligence and he knew he wasn’t wrong about this. “However, I don’t think so,” he told her politely. “This is a photo of Charlotte taken in the last six months.” Connor took out his cell phone and swiped through a few pictures until he came to the one he was looking for. He held it up for Brianna to see. “Look carefully. Does she look familiar?”
She took the phone from him and studied the photograph for a moment. Shaking her head, she handed the phone back to him.
“No.” When he looked disappointed, she explained. “But that really doesn’t mean anything. All my business is conducted over the phone or online. I never get to meet any of my customers. But her name definitely isn’t familiar,” she repeated. “Sorry.”
Connor put his phone in his pocket. “How about Charlotte Prendergast?” he asked. He knew that Charlotte had a number of aliases. Maybe she had been using one of them when she’d contacted Brianna.
Again Brianna shook her head. This was turning into a waste of time for both of them and she didn’t have time to waste.
“Sorry,” she said again. “Now I really have to—”
But Connor wasn’t ready to give up just yet. “How about Charlene Pickett?” he asked, remembering yet another alias he knew that Charlotte had used at least on one other occasion.
That got Brianna’s attention. While she wanted the man to leave, she had too much integrity to lie and the name he’d just said did sound familiar. “Say that name again, please.”
“She might have used the name Charlene Pickett,” he said, watching Brianna’s face for the slightest sign of recognition in case she denied knowing the woman.
But she didn’t.
“That does ring a bell,” Brianna acknowledged. “What’s with all the different names?” she couldn’t help asking. “What is this woman, some kind of spy or undercover agent?” She didn’t know of any other reason why anyone would be using so many aliases. Con artists were not a part of her world and she didn’t do business with them.
Connor laughed dryly. “Nothing nearly that glamorous or interesting,” he assured her. And then he grew more serious. He was following bread crumbs, doing his best to follow the trail left behind by the woman he felt was responsible for everything that had befallen his family. “Just what was the nature of your business with her?”
Brianna shrugged, completely at a loss as to what was going on and what it had to do with her and her family. “Charlene told me that she was putting together a genealogy chart for the Fortune family. She also asked if I could find addresses—and possible aliases—for certain people she’d uncovered in the family tree.”
Connor never took his eyes off Brianna’s, doing his best not to allow himself to be mesmerized by the soft brown orbs. He was onto something and couldn’t afford to be distracted.
“And did you?”
“Yes, I did,” she answered. “My turn,” Brianna declared, catching him off guard. “Why do you want to know all this?”
Connor paused for a moment, weighing his options. He decided that sticking as close to the truth as possible would be useful in this case.
“I’m a Fortune myself, related to them,” he clarified. “In all probability, one of those people she had you looking for might have been me.”
Brianna’s eyes widened even as she exhaled. Now it was all beginning to make sense to her.
Connor Fortunado.
Connor Fortune.
The man standing before her wasn’t a potential ax murderer. He was a man who was looking for his family, or at least parts of his family.
Brianna caught herself smiling. There was nothing sinister in that.
Reassured, Brianna relaxed. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help to you. I haven’t heard from Charlene, or whoever she really is, in months. As a matter of fact,” she said ruefully, “she still owes me money. She paid half up front and she said that she’d pay me the rest when I gave her the information.
“It took a little doing, but I managed to find some of the people she was looking for. I sent the information on to her, but...” Her voice trailed off as she looked at him, embarrassed at her naivete. “I’m still waiting for the rest of the payment.”
Connor nodded. “That definitely sounds like Charlotte, all right.” And then, under his breath, he murmured, “She doesn’t care who she sticks it to.”
He looked around the living room. There were toys, mostly very used-looking ones, scattered all over the floor. The furniture, what there was of it, was pretty threadbare.
Brianna pressed her lips together, trying not to wince as she saw him take everything in. She didn’t have to be a mind reader to guess what he was thinking.
This shouldn’t have happened to this woman, Connor thought. He found himself feeling guilty that she had been used like this.
“If I can track down Charlene—Charlotte—” he corrected, “maybe I can get your money for you. How much did she wind up owing you?”
Brianna didn’t even have to pause to try to remember the sum. She had a good head for figures and this one was etched into her mind. “Three thousand dollars.”
“Three thousand dollars,” he repeated. Growing quiet for a moment, he seemed to be thinking something over. And then he said, “You said that you located those people for her?”
Where was the man going with this? she wondered. “Most of them, yes.”
“Tell you what,” Connor proposed. “If you can help me find Charlotte, I’ll pay you that three thousand dollars she owes you—and a fee for helping me locate her on top of that. Do we have a deal?” he asked, ready to shake on it.
She wanted her money, but she was still cautious. Brianna had no intentions of entering into any agreement blindly.
“Just exactly what do you need me to do?” Brianna asked. And then, as he opened his mouth, she quickly issued her disclaimer. “Before you
answer, I have to tell you right off the bat that I can’t travel anywhere. I have Ava and Axel to take care of, not to mention the various furry creatures that seemed to have adopted us. And, because this job doesn’t exactly provide a steady salary, I have a couple of part-time jobs to help make ends meet. I can’t just abandon them.”
The woman definitely came with strings, Connor thought.
“What kind of jobs?” he wanted to know, curious.
“I’m a medical transcriber and I fill in at the animal shelter reception desk a few times a week,” she told him. As she said it, she was sure that any one of these things would be a deal breaker.
“Animal shelter,” he repeated. “That would explain the menagerie,” Connor commented.
“I’ve always loved animals,” she told him a little defensively. She took a breath, resigning herself to the conclusion he’d undoubtedly reached. “So I guess it’s a no regarding our working together.”
“What makes you think that?” Connor asked, surprised. Just then, there was another crash, followed by a very plaintive “Oh-oh” coming from the room where her children had retreated. Connor couldn’t help grinning. “I can come back at a more convenient time,” he told her, rising to his feet.
“That would be in another fifteen years when they’re both in college, provided I can keep them alive that long,” Brianna commented, struggling not to be overwhelmed again. She’d lost count how many times that made in the last week.
Connor smiled at her. “I’ve got a feeling you can.” He saw the skeptical look on her face and knew it didn’t have anything to do with his last comment. She was worried about his coming back. Obviously he hadn’t laid all her fears to rest. “All I want to do is pick your brain, Brianna,” he told her sincerely. “I want to go over all the names that Charlotte asked you to investigate and I also want to know just what information you discovered for her.”
The skeptical look was still on her flawless face. “And that’s worth three thousand dollars to you?” she asked in disbelief. Something just wasn’t adding up in her estimation. There had to be something more going on that she wasn’t privy to.
Texan Seeks Fortune Page 4