Legal Heirs - Box Set Edition: Books 5-8 (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles)

by Lee, Kimball

  “He’s not going to be there, is he, my love?” Finn asked, catching Charlotte’s hand as she walked by the sofa and pulling her down next to him.

  “If he is, I’ll run in the opposite direction,” she told him, kissing his irresistible mouth, he had a fever and his lips were red and burning hot because of it.

  “Careful, I’ll give you my disease,” he said.

  “You are my disease,” she said, stretching out next to him, “and if I get sick, then we will lie around in bed together.”

  “Let’s do that anyway, and at the party, my love, I wish you would wear panties,” he said. “Since I won’t be there to protect your virtue.”

  “I am wearing panties, and my virtue flew out the window the night I saw you standing in the shower,” she said, and he gave her his crooked grin and they kissed until they were both out of breath.

  *

  Charlotte wandered through the museum at Balboa Park and she didn’t stop as she passed the Gauguin where her life had changed. She said hello to Witt Collier who was running for governor and she promised to vote for him. The bartender handed her a vodka-tonic and she sipped it, then she went to stand on the back terrace. She had gotten her period that morning and she knew it was soon to hope for another pregnancy, but still it made her sad.

  “You look ravishing,” Bennet said, and Charlotte jumped. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, Charlotte. I’ve been watching you tonight, you’re so lovely. I thought perhaps if you really won’t represent me, that I could just fuck you. If you’ll be very quiet, we can do it right here,” he said and caught Charlotte’s arm before she could run away. He slammed her against him and slipped his hand up her dress so fast she simply reacted and broke her cocktail glass against his forehead. He spun away from her cursing and she ran through the museum and out to her car.

  When Charlotte got home, Georgina said Finn’s fever had finally broken and he was sound asleep upstairs. She thought it was best if she took Atticus home with her until the chance of his being infected had passed. Charlotte kissed the baby and put him in Georgina’s car, then she filled the big tub in the master bathroom and settled into the hot water.

  She wanted to tell Finn about Bennet Sommerfeld, but she was afraid he might actually kill him. She couldn’t imagine why the man was suddenly showing up everywhere, or why he was interested in her. She thought of Bly suddenly, and she almost wanted to call him and say, “There’s this strange man who makes me feel uneasy.” Of course, that was a ridiculous thought and she shook it from her head, and she climbed in bed soaking wet and pressed herself against Finn. His body was so hot it dried her instantly, and even though he was sick he turned her beneath him, and later on they slept.

  *

  Bly held the jet for over an hour waiting for Bennet, but he never showed up. He and Amanda settled in for a long flight and Bly smiled at the young woman who busied herself serving drinks. She smiled back, batting her long lashes and asked if there was anything she could do for him.

  “Oh, great,” Amanda said, watching the young woman hand Bly a plate of fruit and a croissant while she carefully arranged a napkin on his lap. “How is your pregnant wife?” Amanda asked loudly, looking the young woman in the eye.

  “She’s good, her mother is staying with us and she’s taken Maddie in hand. She has her on a schedule of healthy meals and moderate exercise, Maddie is blossoming under her care. How about you, are you ready for little Jack to arrive?”

  “I am so ready! I stopped by to see Charlotte yesterday; she had pictures taken of Atticus for his one-year birthday. Oh my God, Alex, you can’t imagine how dreamy that child is. You haven’t seen him since he was tiny, right? Well, let me tell you, if it’s possible, he is going to be even more amazing looking than Charlotte. He has her sapphire eyes and I think he’ll have her black hair, other than that he has this whole different look. He’s almost surreal looking, you know, like a computer-generated version of the perfect face, and he has this sweet little dimple in his chin. I’m telling you, that boy is going to break some hearts in his lifetime,” Amanda said, and she realized Bly was watching the young woman as she cleared away his plate. “Okay, take it to the back of the jet if you and ‘miss continental breakfast’ are about to get nasty, I’m taking a nap.”

  When the jet landed in Paris, West met Bly and Amanda at the airport and said they should prepare themselves; they had just arrived at the eye of the storm. He said Evangeline and Gabby were at each other’s throats over everything. They were fighting over details of the wedding, Evangeline was bitching nonstop about Gabby being a freeloading leech, and now Evangeline had been forced to buy an airline ticket for Bennet.

  “I held the jet for the dumb son-of-a-bitch, where was he?” Bly asked. He could only imagine what excuse his cousin would come up with.

  Gabrielle’s son had been in and out of jails, prisons, and reform schools all his life. He was a career criminal as far as Bly and the state of California were concerned. He’d embezzled from all his mother’s former husbands and he had narrowly escaped a statutory rape charge a few years back. Bly had helped him out financially for years until the scandalous rape case; he cut him off after that, certain that Bennet was guilty.

  “He was in the emergency room, evidently,” West said, “getting his head stitched up, and now he’s ready to sue the brute who accosted him. That’s all according to Gabby, of course.”

  “Well, I hope someone kicked the shit out of him, I still believe he’s a rapist. His last stepfather’s money got those charges dropped, obviously. I’ve told my mother to steer clear of him, but if anyone can manipulate Evangeline, it’s that psychotic sister of hers,” Bly said.

  “Well, Bennet has always acted like I don’t even exist,” Amanda said, “he told me long ago I’m not really a Bly so I don’t count. I would imagine that means I don’t have enough money for him to steal. I wish he wasn’t coming, if I never had to see his sleazy ass again it would be a day too soon. He just creeps me out with his whole ‘Larry the lounge lizard’ persona. You’re right Alex, Mother always ends up caving in to anything Gabby wants and bitches about long enough. West, how are you holding up? You shouldn’t have picked us up, we could have taken a cab, you’re getting married tomorrow.”

  “Believe me, anything that gets me away from the house is good thing. Your mother is pretty intense, but that sister of hers takes being a diva to whole new level. She doesn’t have the same ability to insult without injury like Evangeline, so we’ve had a constant influx of new staff to train as the others quit,” West said as they arrived at the house.

  “Gabby and Bennet, geez, what a thrill this weekend is going to be,” Amanda sighed. “Sorry about our crazy relatives, West. Alex, can’t you just give them some money and make them disappear?”

  “I’ve given and given to those two, they’re like the clap, hard to get rid of,” Bly said, and West laughed and seemed relieved to have someone in his corner.

  *

  Walking into a house where Evangeline was preparing to marry a handsome younger man and Gabrielle was mourning the loss of her late husband’s fortune, was like walking into a war zone.

  Gabby shrieked at the maids and Evangeline shrieked at Gabby and all the household staff scurried around with their eyes firmly on the floor.

  “Mother, are you preparing for a wedding or the opening of a Broadway play?” Bly asked, kissing Evangeline on both cheeks in the Parisian fashion.

  “Alexander, you are more handsome as each day passes, and you know everything about making money, but you’d do well to leave the wedding festivities to me,” Evangeline said. “You cannot conceive of the anguish this entire event has caused me. Trimming the guest list alone has turned many of my dearest friends against me, but alas, the caterer says my garden will only accommodate five hundred. Well, c’est la vie, an intimate ceremony it will have to be.”

  “Five hundred of your closest friends, Mother? How quaint,” Amanda said, stretching out on her mothe
r’s big bed and yawning, she was always sleepy as her pregnancy advanced.

  “Dear God, Amanda, when is that child due? I swear, you’re as big as a Clydesdale, it’s frightening,” Evangeline said, as three seamstresses buzzed around her, pinning and tucking her wedding gown.

  “Thank you mommy dearest, I have two months to go,” Amanda said, and even though her mother’s words stung, she was used to them.

  “Your mother has worked me to death since I’ve been here, Alex,” Gabrielle said, sweeping into the room. “I feel certain you’ll want to compensate me in some small way, I’ll give you my account number and you can make a monetary transfer.”

  “Well, I’m sure mother can’t do without you or you wouldn’t be here,” he said.

  “She’s an absolute horror,” Evangeline said, “but she has no other family so I can’t turn her out with a clear conscience. Gabby, run and get me a cocktail and a small wedge of cheese, I feel faint.”

  “What am I, Evangeline, your chambermaid? Have one of the peasants do it,” Gabrielle said and opened Evangeline’s jewelry box and began trying on her best pieces. “Girl,” she yelled at one of the seamstresses, “hurry to the kitchen and fetch some food for us, then get out of this house. Your needlework is as hideous as your face, I won’t have you having you ruining my sister’s dress.”

  “Gabrielle, please. Your rudeness is so low class, try and contain your venomous tongue,” Evangeline said, then apologized to the girl in French.

  “I’m out of here for a while, Mother. I believe your fiancé and I have a two man bachelor party to attend,” Bly said.

  “Oh, Alex! You must wait for Bennet, he’ll be wounded if you don’t include him,” Gabby said, fastening a huge diamond necklace.

  “He’ll get over it,” Bly said, and he went to find West.

  “Mother,” Amanda said, sitting up on the bed and staring at a wall of family portraits, “how old was Alex when that picture was taken?”

  “It was taken when he was a year old, wasn’t he an absolutely marvelous looking child? He was a little devil but he looked completely angelic. That very portrait was on display in the Sorbonne, it was a great honor to have your child’s portrait featured in the exhibition. Of course your father had a fit, he didn’t want to call any attention to Alex, he was always imagining someone would kidnap him and hold him for ransom. I went ahead and let them use the portrait, I was still modeling then and people came from all over to marvel at my beautiful son,” Evangeline said with obvious pride.

  “Oh… my… God,” was all Amanda could say.

  *

  “So, how’s your wife? You must be excited about those babies, when will they be born?” West asked as he and Bly sat drinking scotch at Harry’s New York Bar.

  “December seventh, Pearl Harbor Day, a nice unforgettable date,” Bly said.

  “Well, I’ll get to see your babies then, I have a court date that day in San Diego. The girl who aided and abetted Natasha or Natalie, whoever she really was. Anyway, the girl goes on trial that day and I am, of course, the star witness, having let her fuck my brains out while you were drugged and abducted,” West said, and drank two glasses of scotch fast, then he ordered two more.

  “I hate to prosecute a young girl, but it’s in the hands of the D.A., just give your testimony and it will all be done and in the past,” Bly said. “Let’s toast to your marriage and to the health of my children.”

  “Here, here,” West said, raising his glass.

  “What about you, West, did you ever want to have kids?”

  “Hell no, me as a father? I’m forty-six years old. Besides your mother requires a lot of attention, she’s all I can handle,” and they laughed and toasted again.

  *

  It was a wedding fit for a woman like Evangeline, over the top extravagance done with such elegance that it was sheer perfection. The ceremony was short and to the point and the reception lasted all day and night and into the wee hours of the morning.

  Evangeline held court, reigning over five hundred guests that included the cream of Paris society, several heads of state, three a-list actors and a Pulitzer Prize winning author. West watched his new wife with love and pride and admiration, and wondered how she was going to manage on their honeymoon being away from her clan of admirers. They were leaving the next morning for Majorca, and Gabby and her worthless son would be staying on in the townhouse. West didn’t like the idea, he didn’t trust either one of them, but Evangeline was adamant that they were family and she couldn’t possibly turn them out.

  “That’s some cut on your cheek, Bennet,” Bly said, settling next to Amanda on a sofa in the living room across from his cousin. The reception was in full swing and pretty mademoiselles flitted around vying for Bly’s attention.

  “Thirteen stitches, but the little bitch who clocked me with a high-ball glass will get what’s coming to her,” Bennet said, smiling in a way that made Bly wanted to call and warn the woman immediately.

  “Should you really be talking like that with your track record, Bennet?” Amanda asked, laying her head on her brother’s shoulder. She was anxious to get the wedding behind her and have a long talk with Charlotte about Atticus.

  “This was thanks to a little hell-cat attorney who thinks she’s too good to represent me against Del Toro Shipping. It really fucks with my mind to think she dumped you, Alex, and I thought I might teach her a lesson about fucking with the Bly’s,” Bennet said.

  “You are not a Bly,” Amanda said, but her brother cut her off quickly.

  “Are you talking about Charlotte? She gave you that cut on your face? What do you mean you thought you’d teach her a lesson?” Bly grabbed Bennet’s jacket and pulled him to his feet, “did you fucking touch Charlotte, you insane motherfucker?”

  “Hey, settle down, she’s the naked cheerleader one minute, then a hot-shot lawyer the next. I was gonna settle a score for you. She left you at the altar, didn’t she? She acts like a cold fish, but I could tell she was eager to get down and dirty. You know, maybe learn a thing or two about bodily breaking and entering….”

  Bly threw him against the wall hard, then jerked him up as he slid to the floor and didn’t stop beating him until West wrestled them apart. Bennet lay bloody and unconscious, and Gabby walked in the room and began to scream.

  Evangeline followed Gabby’s screams into the living room and said, “My God, you’ve damaged my Picasso, Alexander, couldn’t you boys have taken your argument outside?” She finished her martini and motioned impatiently for Amanda to get her another one.

  Bly’s fists were a bloody mess and he looked ready to finish Bennet off for good if West would just let him go.

  “Mother, you’ve never shown any love for me, and I’m telling you this only once. Your sister and Bennet are no longer part of this family and I want you to wash your hands of them. I have a good mind to have him arrested for attempted rape. He as much as said that’s what he intended and Amanda is a witness,” Bly said, he was seething mad as he faced his mother and her hysterical sister.

  “Oh Alexander, you’re over reacting, I’m sure Bennet was just boasting to impress you,” she said, looking at her damaged Picasso with disgust.

  Bly yanked the painting out of her hand and tossed it aside, “I’ll buy you another fucking painting, now, are you done with them or not? Decide, Mother, I’m sick of waiting for your love and your loyalty. Either choose me or that hopeless neurotic and her rapist son.”

  Amanda drew in her breath, there, she thought; he’d finally said it. It had taken him all his life to stand up and demand his mother’s love.

  Bly left the room and went upstairs. Evangeline took a cigarette from silver box on the coffee table and lit it. She never smoked unless it was a life or death situation. He came back downstairs with his luggage and stood in the entry hall looking back at Evangeline.

  “Let him go, and good riddance,” Gabby said, drying her eyes and speaking directly to her sister. “He always was an insolent
child and he’s grown into an arrogant man, just like his father. I’ll decide whether or not to file assault charges, Alexander, you’d better get your checkbook out. I can assure you that your fit of temper today will cost you dearly. However, it will help support me well for the rest of my life. Ha, you’re not so cocky now are you? You really do seem for all the world like a forlorn little boy whose mommy has deserted him.”

  Evangeline calmly handed the cigarette to West and slapped her sister’s face so hard it knocked her to her knees. Then she extended a hand and helped her sister stand up again. Gabrielle stood and opened her mouth to scream in outrage, but Evangeline grabbed a handful of her hair and led her to the front door and held it open.

  “You, Gabrielle, are a fool above all your other faults. If you think for one second that I would choose you, or that lowlife criminal son of yours over my child… well, think again you toxic idiotic leech. Get your shit and your drooping ass out of my house and away from my family. Just so you know, Alexander didn’t get that arrogant attitude from his father, he got it from me.”

  With that she pushed her sister out into the cold, closed the door and stopped to kiss Bly’s cheek as she walked to the living room.

  “Put your bags away, Alexander. You and I have some talking to do before I go on my honeymoon,” she said, and she turned to him from the far end of the room and gave him the warmest smile he’d ever known.

  Chapter Six

  Bly tried to get Charlotte on the phone after the jet left Paris and headed to California. She didn’t answer his first three calls and then she blocked his number. He started to ask to use Amanda’s phone, but he decided to go straight to Finn’s office. In the meantime, he gave instructions for Billy Kipling to stay close to Charlotte without being seen.

  “Finn how are you? We need to talk,” Bly said, when the office assistant showed him to Finn’s office and told him to have a seat.

  “Yes, it probably is time for us to talk, Bly, would you like for me to start the conversation?” Finn asked. He was fucking furious that this arrogant billionaire wouldn’t leave his wife alone.