by M. Malone
Chapter Ten
TRENT WAS IN the middle of answering emails when his phone rang. He'd given explicit instructions not to be interrupted if possible so he knew that something big must have happened. When he heard who was downstairs, he immediately gave his approval. The elevator opened a few minutes later and his old classmate, David Baxter, walked in.
Six feet of muscle and tattoos, with his dark hair cut close and spiked up slightly in the center, Dax was an intimidating sight. He looked like a meathead but Trent knew from experience that he was as sharp as a razorblade and twice as lethal. He was also a damned good private investigator.
He grinned at Trent when he saw him. "It's good to have you back, man. How have you been?"
"Better now." They clasped hands and Trent gestured at the chair across from him. "Have a seat."
Dax shook his head. "You won't want to shoot the shit when I tell you what's going on. James flew in to LaGuardia last night. He's at the Waldorf."
Anticipation spiked Trent's blood. "He didn't go home?"
There was no change in Dax's expression but Trent could feel the disapproval palpably. "No, sir."
"Maybe that's a good thing. I don't want Avery to even know he was here unless he's staying."
Trent immediately closed his laptop and strode to the elevators. Without another word, Dax fell into step behind him. They rode the elevator down in silence. Trent took a deep breath. There was no part of him that didn't want to throttle his brother on sight but he was going to keep his cool for Avery's sake. And for Travis. In this entire situation, they all needed to think about the welfare of the little boy they all loved first and foremost.
He turned to Dax. "You don't have to come along. You've done your job and found him. Now I just have to make him see reason. Hopefully he'll do the right thing and I can let Avery know what's going on."
"I'm coming with you. Just in case he doesn't see reason."
Trent nodded. "He's my brother. He can be an ass but he wouldn't hurt me."
Dax crossed him arms. "People can do a lot of things when they feel cornered."
The elevator stopped on the garage level and they walked to Dax's black SUV, parked in one of Trent's assigned spaces. As Dax pulled out into the traffic, Trent glanced at the time. Mara would likely be gone most of the evening. His sister was intense about her shopping. Mara was the same way. After a few tense moments at lunch, he'd gotten Sophia's promise that she would be on her best behavior. He would have never agreed for Mara to accompany her otherwise.
It was good that she wasn't around for this. He wasn't going to introduce her to James until he knew where things stood. Also until he knew his brother could keep his mouth shut.
The car pulled up in front of the Waldorf. They walked through the hotel's luxurious lobby and entered the elevators.
Dax hit the button for the thirty-seventh floor. "He has one of the suites. The clerk said he booked the room only for the next few days."
Trent chuckled. "How do you get these people to talk to you?"
A wicked grin crossed Dax's face. "Money. Sex. Or both. Trust me, this girl was so hot, I felt like I owed her something."
Trent could only smile. His friend got things done and somehow managed to leave everyone with a smile on their faces. He couldn't quibble with his methods of extracting information.
The elevator stopped and he followed Dax as he approached room 3710. There was a room service cart in the hall and a "Privacy Please" sign hanging on the door.
"I guess we're about to interrupt his solitude," Dax murmured, before knocking on the door with three knuckles. "Room service," he called out in a high voice.
A few minutes later, the door opened slightly. "I didn't order anything else."
Dax stuck his foot in the door before it could close. "Well, I brought you something anyway." He shoved the door open the rest of the way.
James stood in the middle of the entryway in a dressing gown. A cigarette dangled from his teeth. He looked hung-over and smelled like vodka. There were clothes and empty bottles all over the room. A lamp lay on its side on the floor, the lampshade bent and ripped.
"Looks like we missed a hell of a party," Trent commented.
James grimaced and covered his ears with his hands. "You did. Come in. Have a drink. How nice of you to stop by." James walked away, leaving them standing in the entryway.
Trent held up a hand, indicating to Dax that he didn't need to follow. He entered the bedroom his brother had walked into. It looked just as trashed as the rest of the suite.
James fumbled in the pocket of his dressing gown until he found a lighter. With a shaky hand he attempted to light the cigarette in his mouth. After the fourth unsuccessful attempt, he gave up and tossed the lighter on the bed next to him. "As you can see, I'm not really up to entertaining guests right now."
"Everything is a joke to you, isn't it?" Trent watching with disdain as James flopped back onto the bed, fluffing the pillow under his head. His nephew had been in the hospital wondering where his daddy was and James was on a drug-fueled bender up and down the East Coast.
"Who's joking?" James smirked.
"It’s one thing to screw our father over. He’s proven that he only cares about himself. But Avery has done nothing to deserve this."
"You always defend her," James stated. The soft tone of his voice somehow seemed more accusatory than if he'd yelled the statement.
"I don't always defend her. But I do try to consider her point of view and what she needs. Which is what you are supposed to do. She's the mother of your child. Even if you don't love Avery, at least be there for Travis. He's your son."
"Funny thing that is, brother. He looks more like you than me."
Something cold and ugly passed between them. Trent watched wordlessly as James stood and walked over to the small bar in the corner. He struggled to pour two fingers of scotch into a glass. He lifted the drink to his lips, watching Trent over the brim.
"What the hell are you talking about? I’ve never slept with Avery. It’s always been you. Ever since we were kids, the only person she’s ever been into was you."
James swallowed, his eyes closing briefly as the scotch went down. "I saw the way you used to look at her. And that night at her graduation party the both of you were so wasted. I found you naked in bed together."
Trent's mind raced as he tried to remember all the events of that night. Avery had taken a year off to travel after high school so by the time she graduated from college, Trent had already been done with school and living full-time in an apartment in Virginia. He'd come up for a rare visit because Avery had begged. She'd accused him of forgetting about her, treating her just like James did.
He hadn't been dating anyone at the time so it had been easy to come up for a visit. He'd regretted it almost immediately though because Avery had spent all night telling him the details of her latest fight with his brother.
"I wasn’t that wasted. I put Avery to bed and then crashed in another room. She must have come into my room in the middle of the night. But nothing happened."
"Are you sure about that?"
* * * * *
WHEN MARA HAD been told that they were going shopping, she’d envisioned something like those scenes from the movies where they’d bounce from store to store trying on clothes and shoes while carrying bags in each hand. The reality of shopping with Sophia Townsend Winbush was entirely different.
They’d come to an exclusive boutique owned by one of Sophia’s girlfriends from her days at Yale. As soon as they’d entered they’d been shown to a special section in the back and served champagne where they waited. She didn’t want to seem completely clueless so Mara just sipped her champagne trying to figure out what they were waiting on. That’s when Sophia’s old friend Cleo had appeared with outfits she’d selected for them to view.
Apparently women like Sophia didn’t even do their own shopping. They had someone else pick out the best stuff and bring it to them. Mara tipped back her glass and swallow
ed the rest of her champagne in a big gulp.
“So, what was Trent like as a little boy?”
Sophia sat, one leg primly folded over the other as Cleo arranged the outfits on the rack in front of them. A second later, an assistant appeared carrying several different pairs of shoes which Cleo snatched before shooing her away.
“He was much like he is now. Focused. Driven.” Sophia didn’t seem to notice the flurry of activity in the room but Mara found she could barely concentrate with all the people coming in and out.
“Driven, huh? I guess I just see him differently. I would have said easygoing. Funny but not in an obvious way. He has a subtle sense of humor but it’s there.”
Sophia regarded her with open curiosity. "I suppose so."
Not the most friendly response but Mara figured this was probably as warm as Sophia was going to get. She decided not to take it personally. As Sophia nodded to another one of the selections, Mara had to admit that even if the other woman wasn't fond of her, she at least had impeccable taste. Every one of the outfits she'd picked out so far looked like it would complement her skin tone and figure perfectly.
When Cleo finally left them alone to go get more items to show them, Mara glanced over at Sophia. “What did you mean yesterday when you said that Trent ran away from his problems?” Mara asked.
Sophia picked at the platter of fruit sitting on the table between them. “You’re asking a lot of questions but none of the right ones. Doesn’t it seem odd to you that a wealthy young man would suddenly decide to leave it all behind and live like the commoners?”
“I don’t think he left it all behind. Hasn’t he been traveling here to visit family all along?”
“He’s been visiting Avery. Not us.” Sophia said the name with such disdain that Mara didn’t have to wonder what she thought. It appeared that Avery's dislike of Trent's sister was mutual. Obviously Avery wasn’t someone Sophia thought Trent should be spending time with. Although she secretly agreed, she figured Sophia probably felt the same way about her so that didn’t mean much.
“I didn’t realize.”
“There’s a lot of stuff you don’t realize. I’m guessing he didn’t tell you about Tia?”
She turned around to face forward as Cleo brought out a selection of handbags and accessories to go with the outfits. Sophia looked over the offerings with a critical eye. Every so often, she’d glance over at Mara and then back to the items as if imagining how they would look on her.
Mara sat quietly but the whole time, her mind was racing. Who was Tia? And just what the hell did she have to do with Trent’s decision to leave home?
What seemed like hours later, Cleo finally packed up the remainder of the outfits and Mara handed over the black credit card. Once they were alone again, Mara finally broke down.
“Who was Tia?”
Sophia sighed as if greatly put upon but there was a satisfied gleam in her eye that told Mara she’d been waiting for her to ask.
“Tia was my brother’s high school girlfriend. Spicy Latina girl just like you. Her father was some sort of relation to Spanish royalty or something. Anyway, she died. Trent was devastated.”
Mara’s hand shook so hard that she had to set her champagne glass down after Sophia's callous recitation of events. There had been so many times when she'd recounted stories from her high school days and she'd always wondered why Trent didn't talk about his past more.
He'd mentioned once that he'd been a champion runner and had several medals in track and field. But for some reason he hadn't joined the team in college, which she'd found odd. He also didn't talk about any old friends or seem to keep in contact with any of them. It had seemed off but she hadn't wanted to push. High school definitely wasn't filled with happy memories for a lot of people, she knew.
Was this why? Was he still so devastated over the loss of his high school girlfriend that he couldn't even think about that time?
"When did she die?"
Sophia pursed her lips. "Trent's senior year. It was actually the day after his prom, so it was near the end of the year. Then he disappeared and ended up in some college in Virginia. When did you meet him?"
"Right at the beginning of the term. August," she managed to get out. Trent had met her only three months after his previous girlfriend had died and he'd never mentioned a word to her.
Sophia gave her a pitying look. “Don’t feel too bad. Rich men are used to having whatever they want. If one of their toys gets broken, they go out and buy another one.”
* * * * *
THE ENTIRE DRIVE home, Trent turned the conversation with his brother over in his head. Dax seemed to sense his inner turmoil because he didn't ask him any questions about what had been said in the hotel room. He just drove the car, parked and let him out. Trent rode the elevator back up to the penthouse alone.
Could it be true?
He wasn't sure what would be James' motivation for lying but then again he didn't understand a lot of things his brother did. But the more he thought about it, the more it made a twisted sort of sense. All this time he'd wondered how James could leave Travis for months at a time, leaving Avery to deal with everything. And although Avery had told him what they fought about, in way more detail than he actually wanted, the things she'd told him had never seemed like enough to warrant their constant fighting.
Was it because his brother had been carrying this suspicion around ever since Travis was born?
He hadn't had the best relationship with his brother over the years. His father had always focused the brunt of his criticism on James and nothing his brother had ever done was good enough. Whereas Trent had decided at a young age that he didn't care what his parents thought. Strangely enough, his indifference and determination to forge his own path had earned a begrudging respect from their father, something that James had never managed despite his many attempts.
But to put this kind of accusation out there, it went way past sibling rivalry. Trent knew what had really happened but these types of things tended to take on a life of their own regardless of the facts. If James told anyone what he'd seen, then the truth wouldn't even matter. People were always more than happy to believe the worst. And if Mara ever got wind of it, Trent would have a problem.
A big one.
He entered the penthouse and took a seat on the couch. The purplish hues of dusk painted the sky behind the city with big blotches of color. He wasn't sure how long he sat there, staring out into the night when he turned his head and saw it.
A picture on the table next to him.
The breath he was about to take got stuck in his lungs. Pressure built as he stared at the familiar image. It had been taken his senior year of high school. He looked straight at the camera, while Avery and Tia both kissed his cheeks.
He snatched the picture so hard, the frame bent. With a shaking hand, he traced the faces in the photo. Glancing around frantically, he pried the back of the frame open and pulled the picture out. With trembling fingers he walked into his office and placed it in the bottom of one of his desk drawers.
Had Walter missed a photo when he'd done the clean sweep the prior day? It had been a tall order and he'd figured the other man might miss one or two, which was why he'd gone through all the rooms yesterday, looking for any strays. He supposed he couldn't fault him for missing that one since Trent had clearly missed it, too.
He walked into the bedroom and stopped short. There were bags all over the bed. "Mara?"
She walked out of her closet. "Hey. Where did you go?"
He glanced over at her bags. "I had errands to run. It looks like your trip was successful. I guess that means you found stuff you liked."
Mara picked up one of the bags and carried it with her into the closet. "It would be hard not to find things you like at the kind of places where your sister shops. She has amazing taste."
Surprised at the compliment, Trent followed, leaning against the door of her closet to observe her as she put the clothes away in the empty dra
wers of her new dresser.
"Amazing taste. That almost sounds like you like her."
Mara glanced up at him. "I'm not sure I'd go that far but she did pick out some great stuff for me."
He followed her with his eyes as she went back into the room to grab another bag. Something wasn't right about the way she was moving. Her back was too stiff and she looked almost mechanical as she tore tags off each item of clothing. It probably would have taken him longer to figure out what was different if he wasn't in the same place mentally.
She wasn't happy. She was miserable and trying very hard not to let on.
As she passed him to go back to the closet, he grabbed her arm. She turned into his arms and buried her face in his shoulder.
"Hey now, what's wrong?"
Mara let out a soft hiccup and shook her head. The movement sent her long curls tumbling around her shoulders.
"Well, good. I was a little worried there."
"About me?"
He smiled, willing to do anything to erase the miserable look on her face. "Not just about you but about Sophia, too. You're completely capable of taking her on if you want to."
Mara looked down at the clothes in her hands. "At one time I would have agreed with you. Now I'm not so sure."
"I'm sure. You can handle anything. You've never been the type to take crap off anyone."
Suddenly, she raised her head, a spark of her usual sass in her eyes. "You're right. I haven't had the luxury of being shy. Especially working in the legal profession which is such a good old boys club. So why am I so meek and mild around everyone here?" Then her face twisted and she threw the sweater she held down. "Well, it's actually not that hard to figure out. I feel out of place here. Completely and totally out of place."
"Well that's not possible since this is your place. You belong here with me."
"No, I really don't. This is your place, Trent. You own this penthouse. You own these clothes. None of this is mine."
He held her cheeks between his palms gently, tracing the sides of her face with his thumbs. She relaxed into the caress and closed her eyes. He nuzzled her cheek, just breathing in her scent.