Driftwood Cove--Two stories for the price of one

by Debbie Mason

  As did his size. He was brawnier and taller than his brothers but just as handsome with his Gallagher blue eyes and the strong jaw they all shared. With his black hair cut military short, he had a commanding air about him.

  “You,” a deep voice cut through the happy reunion, “have some explaining to do, baby brother.” Connor walked toward them, briefly stopping to greet his older brother before turning on Michael.

  “What are you talking—”

  “I just had an interesting conversation with a man named Luigi, a man who, if I’m not mistaken, thinks I’m you and also thinks I’m into him. Anything you’d like to share?”

  “Sorry, I meant to call. Then again, you probably wouldn’t have picked up anyway.” Michael glanced at Jasper and his brothers, who were staring at him with mouths agape. Colleen had a feeling her jaw had dropped too. “It’s not what you think. Even though I have no idea why you’d think I was in the closet. If I was gay, you guys would’ve been the first to know. I’m working a case. Luigi is a bodyguard for Danny Costello.”

  “That’s you trying to be funny, right? You are not seriously telling me you gave my contact information to a member of the East Coast mob?”

  “What are you worried about, bro? You get guys like that not-guilty verdicts every day of the week. No one’s going to come after you.” Logan winked at Michael. He’d always looked out for his baby brother, even though Michael was probably the last person they had to look out for. In the brains department at least, Colleen reminded herself. He’d never been much of a fighter. “Come on. I’ll drop my bags in my room and meet you two at the bar, and you can tell me what’s going on with Mom and Dad.”

  “Join your brothers, Master Logan. I’ll take your bags to the tower room. By the way, I’ve been keeping up with news from Merradien and hear congratulations are in order. Your brother was awarded the Medal of Honor by His Royal Highness for saving the princess’s life,” Jasper informed Logan’s brothers proudly. The assignment her great-grandson had just left was located in a small principality bordered by Spain and France.

  Both men congratulated their brother, Michael with an almost jovial smile on his face. “This is perfect. Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Jeeves?”

  “I know exactly what you’re thinking, Master Michael. And although the idea holds merit, it’s not fair to throw your brother under the bus when he’s just come home.”

  “No one’s throwing me under the bus, and just so we’re clear, I start my assignment in Washington in ten days. I’m here to figure out what to do with Mom and Dad, that’s all.”

  “All right. What about you? You didn’t happen to fall in love in the past week, did you?” Michael asked Connor as the four men walked down the steps to the great room.

  Connor laughed. “Why would I do that?” Then he cocked his head to study Michael. “You sound desperate. What’s going on?”

  “Mom has decided now that she doesn’t have Dad to manage, she’s going to manage me. And apparently what I need most in my life is a wife.”

  His brothers backed away from him like he had something contagious.

  “Jeeves, I think I’ll stay with Uncle Colin for a couple of days. I haven’t seen him for a while. It’d be great to catch up,” Logan said, reaching for his bags.

  Connor pushed back his sleeve to glance at his watch. “Would you look at the time? I have an appointment I can’t be late for. Call me before you leave, Logan. We’ll go out for a drink.”

  Michael’s objection to his brothers’ excuses were interrupted by an explosive boom that reverberated throughout the manor. Michael and Logan reacted almost immediately. Once they’d ensured no one had been injured, they raced for the door, Michael drawing his weapon. “Jasper, keep everyone inside.”

  If Colleen’s heart was still beating, it would’ve stopped the moment she watched her great-grandsons run out the door. Telling Jasper to keep everyone inside was like waving a red flag in front of a bull when it came to Connor. Always one for the action, he tore off after his brothers.

  “Now where the Sam Hill do you think you’re going?” Colleen called after Jasper. Of course he didn’t answer, not only because he couldn’t hear her but also because he was already out the door. She supposed she didn’t blame him. She would’ve done the same had she been able, but she was tied to the manor. Though perhaps that was no longer the case, she thought, and tried to walk through the dark, medieval door. She bounced off of it instead. There was no help for it; she’d just have to find a guest room with a view of the parking lot.

  She was about to head for the grand staircase or catch a ride in the elevator when the door burst open. “Now, Master Connor, I’m sure your insurance will cover the damage.”

  “Damage, Jeeves? A bomb just blew my one-day-old Lamborghini to smithereens. Or I should say, the mob blew up my car because they thought my brother was me.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Two hours after the explosion, feeling like she’d had quite enough excitement for one day, Colleen retired to the quiet of the library.

  She loved her great-grandsons to distraction. However, for the safety of her family and guests, she was tempted to send them packing. How she planned to do that, she had no idea. It wasn’t easy to scare off an FBI agent, a Secret Service agent, and an attorney who’d dealt with a long list of unsavory clients over the years. Colleen was proud of the jobs all her to-serve-and-protect great-grandsons did, but there were times, like this, that she wished they’d chosen nice, boring careers. Careers that didn’t have the East Coast mob blowing up her great-grandson’s brand-new Lamborghini in the parking lot of her family estate.

  To be fair, Michael’s investigation might not have anything at all to do with the car bombing. It’s possible this Luigi man who’d called Connor wasn’t involved. Though to hear Connor tell it, Michael might as well have planted the bomb himself. Colleen supposed the lad had a point. After all, Michael had dragged his brother into the investigation by using his name.

  While questioning his brother’s theory, Michael threw out several of his own. His suggestions ranged from the possibility that Connor’s disgruntled clients were involved to the women his brother had loved and left carrying out an act of vengeance. Until Michael ticked off the names of the many women, Colleen had been unaware Connor was a serial dater.

  Deep, aggravated voices came through the vents. Her great-grandsons were still arguing across the hall in the study. Par for the course, she supposed when you put a former prosecutor and a defense attorney in the same room. Every few minutes, Logan tried to inject some level of calm to the conversation.

  “Good luck with that, laddie,” Colleen murmured as she took a seat in the wingback chair by the window. She was just about to close her eyes to rest after the events of the day when she heard a scraping sound and then a low thunk. As cold night air tickled the back of her neck and the smell of spring and garden soil wafted past her nostrils, she straightened and turned, releasing a shocked gasp at the sight that greeted her.

  A black baseball hat worn low on her head, Shay Angel pushed up the window. Something caught the girl’s attention, and she glanced over her shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing? I told you to wait in the car.”

  “I can’t. The place is crawling with cops, and they keep shooting me suspicious looks like I might have had something to do with that burned out car in the lot. I feel safer here with you.”

  “Fine. Crouch behind the tree and don’t make a…What are your hands doing on my butt?”

  Colleen leaned around to see the buxom blonde from earlier. “I thought you could use a boost,” the woman said.

  “I’m perfectly capable of doing this on my own. All I have to do is reach through the window”—Shay grunted a little as she stretched out her arm to do just that—“and put the phone on the table.”

  “But that’s not where Michael’s mother left it. She left it on the chair.”

  Maura’s phone? What the bejaysus had Shay�
�s friend been up to earlier?

  “It doesn’t matter as long as she finds it. And no one finds it on you. I’m not fooling around anymore, Cherry. I’m calling Dr. Gallagher to get a referral for you first thing in the morning.”

  The woman did a dance with her hands. “I forgot to tell you. He and his wife are expecting. The nerve of him hitting on me when he has a pregnant wife at home!”

  “The man wasn’t hitting on you. I told you, Michael was the reason Finn kept you locked in the examination room. So forget about it and stop talking about it. All we need is for someone to hear you. Trust me, the last thing you want to do is make trouble for the Gallaghers.”

  “You’re still bitter, aren’t you, girlie? I can’t say I blame you, though I had hoped, when you learned I was the reason that social services allowed you to remain with your uncle, that you would be able to forgive me. I promised your case worker that I would keep an eye on you. As best as I could, I fulfilled that promise.” Until that fateful day that long ago summer.

  A pained expression came over the blonde’s face. “And because of me taking the phone, you’re breaking into their castle. I’m sorry. But his mother was going on and on about one of her favorite candidates for Michael’s wife, and I got upset. You know what happens when I get upset. I can’t help myself; I just pick things up. You’d be upset too. I mean, the woman’s beautiful, a veterinarian, and heir to her family’s dog food fortune. How are you supposed to compete with this?” Shay’s friend said, patting down the pockets of her bright pink and bejeweled jacket. “Maura had a picture of her on her phone, and I snapped a pic of it with mine.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “You might be able to fool your friend with your calm and cool voice, but you can’t fool me. Don’t you worry, though, you’ve got me on your side.”

  Jasper too, Colleen imagined.

  The blonde emitted a panicked gasp, and Shay glanced over her shoulder. “What?”

  “My phone! I don’t have my phone!”

  “Relax, it’s probably in the car.”

  “No, I think”—she hooked her arms on the windowsill to pull herself up—“it’s over there. It must have fallen out of my pocket when I was making my getaway earlier.”

  * * *

  “You know what? I’m done arguing with you, Connor. I’ve left a message with Luigi telling him I’d mistakenly given him my lawyer’s business card and not my own,” Michael said. “So, if there’s a chance they’re behind the car bombing, which, as I repeatedly told you, I highly doubt, that should be enough to get them to back off. By this time tomorrow, they’ll know exactly who I am and how far we’re into their business.”

  If the prison grapevine hadn’t already spread the word, Michael and his partner had decided it was time to rattle Costello and see what shook out. They were both tired of wasting time.

  He could tell by the expression on his brother’s face that he wasn’t prepared to let it go. Connor would never admit that there was a chance he’d brought this on himself. While Michael was 99 percent sure that he had. The car bomb didn’t fit the Costellos’ MO.

  “No, we’re not done, baby brother. Not by a long shot. There’s—” Connor began, only to turn with Michael and Logan as their mother walked into the study.

  “Enough of this squabbling. It’s been ages since we’ve all been together as a family, and I won’t have you waste another moment of it fighting. I’ve had the kitchen prepare all your favorites to welcome you home, Logan. I hope you’re hungry, darling.”

  Michael smiled as his mother looked up at her oldest son, her face practically glowing with pride. Michael was sure from the expression on her face that Maura knew all about Logan’s heroic royal rescue and was plotting ways to snag her oldest a princess bride, and that left Michael feeling more positive and hopeful about his own love life than he had been in the past couple of days.

  If his mother was focused on making a royal match for Logan, she’d leave Michael alone to patch things up with Shay. In his heart, he knew they didn’t stand much of a chance with his mother hanging around to remind Shay of their past. Not to mention Maura’s almost rabid obsession with finding him a suitable bride.

  There were only two ways Michael could see out of the situation. Either he got his mom to patch up things with their dad or he made sure Maura went to Washington with Logan. Since he loved and admired his brother, Michael went with option number one. “Shouldn’t we wait for Dad?” he asked, pulling out his cell phone. “I’ll give him a call. See how far out—”

  “Put your phone away. I didn’t invite your father. I didn’t want him encroaching on my time with my sons. He’s done it enough over the years. If you boys want to see him, you can do so on your own time.”

  Okay, so Operation Reconciliation was out. He didn’t have the luxury of time where his relationship with Shay was concerned, and it was beginning to look like getting his parents back together would take weeks. He took in the hard set of his mother’s features. Maybe months.

  “Mom, is there something else going on? Something you’re not telling us? Because Dad seemed as surprised as we are that you left him. And just as surprised that you’re here. You always hated the manor,” Logan said. There was no judgment in his brother’s voice, just a genuine concern for their mother. Logan was the favorite son for a reason. Which was why Michael didn’t feel guilty for what he was about to do. His oldest brother was better equipped to handle Maura than Michael and Connor were.

  Michael stuck his phone in the pocket of his suit coat as he gave his mother a commiserating smile at the same time avoiding Logan’s narrowed gaze. “She didn’t have anywhere else to go, did you, Mom? But now that you’re home, she doesn’t have to stick around here anymore. She can help you get settled in Washington, bro.”

  “I have a better idea,” Connor said. “Why don’t you take Mom to Merradien and introduce her to the royal family? I’ll pay for the entire trip. I’ll send you first class and put you up in the best hotel. You know what, I’ll send you to Paris first. You look like you could use a holiday, Mom. You too, big brother.”

  Michael glanced at Connor as he made his generous offer. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that, despite being ticked, his brother was joining forces with him. Like Michael, Connor had a vested interest in getting their mother out of town before she turned her matchmaking sights on him.

  There was something about his brother’s comment that teased a memory. It had to do with the morning his mother had found Shay in his bed. There’d been something she said that had given him pause. Every word she spewed in her hate-filled rage took him aback, but there was something else she said that he couldn’t remember. And for a guy who had a pretty good memory, that was annoying. In his defense, he’d been half awake, furious on Shay’s behalf, and a little embarrassed too. It would come to him eventually, he knew. It always did.

  “Connor’s right, Mom. You don’t look like yourself. You’re pale, and you seem more tired than usual.” He didn’t add she hadn’t been acting like herself either. Sure, the matchmaking wasn’t completely out of character, but she was being nicer to Jeeves and Kitty, taking their feelings into consideration rather than bulldozing over them. It was an odd and somewhat worrisome development.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m perfectly fine. If I look pale and tired, it’s because I’ve been losing sleep over you and that…that Angel woman.” His mother sniffed and lifted her chin. “You boys need to talk to your brother. Especially you, Connor. You’re a lawyer. Tell him what he’s risking being involved with an ex-con.”

  “Ah, Mom, are you forgetting I was an ADA before I became an agent? I don’t need my brother advising me on my love life with Shay.” He didn’t think it was the time to enlighten his mother to the fact that Shay being an ex-con didn’t create a problem so much as her insinuating herself into his case did. And then there was the chance that her uncle might be more involved than they knew. Now, that would crea
te a problem, one he hadn’t been allowing himself to think about.

  “Wait a minute. If you’re involved with Shay, why are you bachelor of the month? And why are Grams and Mom searching for your future wife?”

  Michael gave Connor a look like the one his mother had recently given him, one that said I used to think you were so smart.

  “He’s not involved with her,” his mother scoffed. “He was in…He slept with her, that’s all.”

  “And you know this how?” Logan asked with an edge in his voice. His oldest brother had been out of the country when everything went down with Shay, but he hadn’t been happy when he’d heard about it later. Neither had Connor.

  “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that Michael stays away from her. I expect you boys to talk to him about it. He’s your baby brother after all. It’s your job to protect him.”

  “Oh, God, Mother, not this again. If anyone needs protection, it’s Shay. And she could probably make a case that she needs protection from us.”

  “Mom, I’m warning you. Stay out of this and leave Shay alone. Michael’s old enough and smart enough to know—” Logan began before Connor cut him off.

  “What do you mean she needs to be protected from us?”

  Michael told them what GG had done and how difficult losing her sisters had been for Shay. He hoped in sharing the story that his mother would be more compassionate toward her.

  “I don’t want to rain on your parade, but between what GG did to her family and what Mom did to her, you can kiss a relationship with the woman goodbye,” Connor said.

  Just as Michael was about to tell his brother that he was wrong, a thunderous crash came from the direction of the library, followed by a high-pitched scream. Michael and his brothers ran out of the study to what sounded like a waterfall of books hitting the floor.

  Logan reached the door first. He rattled the knob. “I can’t get in. It’s locked.”