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A MAN LIKE MORGAN KANE

Page 5

by Beverly Barton


  How did she feel? Numb. That's how she felt. Totally numb. "I promised your daughter that I would stay in Birmingham, if you wanted me," Morgan said.

  "Please, Mama, please tell him that you want him." Anne Marie tugged on her mother's arm.

  Hesitantly, her insides quivering uncontrollably, Bethany looked him square in the eye and said, "I want you … to stay in Birmingham."

  * * *

  Chapter 3

  « ^ »

  "Anne Marie?" Claudia called to her granddaughter. "Come here, dear." Lifting one long, slender arm, she held out her hand. "It's getting a bit too warm out here for me. Help me inside, please."

  "I thought you wanted to stay out here and write your thank-you notes," Anne Marie said.

  "I'll come back outside later this afternoon, when it's cooler." Claudia's gaze jumped quickly from Bethany to Morgan and then to Anne Marie.

  "Oo-oh. Yes, ma'am. Good idea. We'll go inside." Anne Marie glanced from Bethany to Morgan. "You two work out all the details about Morgan taking the job." She gave her mother a hug, then turned to Morgan. "It's going to be so great having you live with us. Just think, you'll actually have to stay in our house. We've never had a man live with us before. Heck, we've never even had a man stay overnight, except for Seth. And he doesn't count."

  Morgan's lips twitched, almost forming a smile. "And why doesn't this Seth count?"

  "Because he's Mama's business partner, and he's old enough to be my grandfather and—"

  "And you've said quite enough young lady," Bethany told her daughter.

  "You're right. Sorry, Mama." Anne Marie smiled at Morgan, her strong, square-shaped face softening slightly. "You're the answer to my prayers, you know. Someone who can make everything right again."

  Morgan had the strangest urge to put his arms around Anne Marie Wyndham and promise her that he would take care of her and her mother. That he could indeed make everything right again.

  A lot of people's lives had depended upon him when he'd been a SEAL, and he'd never let anyone down. He'd been trained to rescue under fire and endure unbearable pain to accomplish a mission. In thirty years the Navy SEALs had never left a fellow SEAL behind in combat.

  And after he'd joined Dundee's, he'd put his life on the line more than once in his duty as a bodyguard. But never before had an assignment been personal. And never had anyone believed so much that he could make everything all right.

  Bethany's daughter looked at him as if he were a god, capable of righting every wrong in her and her mother's life. Why the hell had Claudia filled the child's head with such nonsense about him, with her stupid Morgan stories?

  "Anne Marie, I'm waiting for your assistance." Though Claudia's voice grew louder, her tone remained affectionate.

  "I think this is Nana's subtle way of leaving you two alone," Anne Marie whispered. "I'm sure she thinks there are things y'all need to discuss that aren't appropriate for me to hear."

  "She's probably right," Bethany said. "Go spend some time with Nana before we leave. Morgan and I won't be long."

  "Are you moving in with us today?" Anne Marie asked him.

  "Maybe. But I need to talk to your mother before we make any decisions."

  Anne Marie nodded agreement, then hurried to her nana's side. Arm in arm, the two walked past Bethany and Morgan on their trek up the pathway to the house.

  "Would you like to sit down?" Morgan inclined his head toward the gazebo.

  "No, thanks. I sat at the hospital for over twelve hours," she told him. "If you don't mind, let's walk and talk. I always enjoy a stroll around Claudia's garden."

  A long-forgotten memory suddenly overwhelmed him. The memory of a warm summer night, a shy young girl and a first kiss. Morgan had known that evening at his mother's party why Eileen Dow and her daughter had been invited. His father had made it perfectly clear that he was supposed to be very nice to Bethany Dow.

  He'd taken one look at the slightly plump, little brown wren with wire frame glasses and known it wouldn't take much to frighten her away. Hell, he hadn't been interested in a serious relationship with anyone, least of all some mousy daughter of a friend of his mother's. The women in his life were flashier, sexier and a lot more experienced.

  But when he'd taken Bethany into the garden with the intention of scaring her with a hot kiss, he'd gotten the surprise of his life. Sweet, innocent eighteen-year-old Bethany responded passionately.

  He'd steered clear of her for months afterward, but finally succumbed to his mother's nagging insistence and invited Bethany to his fraternity's Christmas party. He found he had little in common with the quiet, intellectual girl his parents hoped would be a good influence on him and turn their bad boy into the son they'd always wanted.

  Over the next few months, he dated Bethany from time to time, in order to pacify his parents and keep them off his case for a while. But not once did he kiss her again.

  Looking back later, he realized that their first kiss in his mother's garden had backfired on him. He'd been the one it had scared, not Bethany.

  "Is something wrong?" Bethany asked. "You have an odd look on your face." Was he remembering, she wondered, the evening they'd met, the night he had kissed her the first time, here in this very garden?

  "No. Nothing's wrong," he said. "I was trying to figure out why you agreed so readily to my taking the assignment as your bodyguard. I'd have thought I would be the last man on earth you'd put your trust in."

  Bethany walked away from him, down the winding brick path. "Are you coming with me?"

  Catching up with her in several long strides, Morgan strolled along beside her. She didn't glance his way or make any reply to his comment. Somewhere close by, a variety of birds chirped in a mixed chorus. The warm, humid breeze danced through the rows of iris, peonies and foxgloves that grew along each side of the Victorian wrought-iron gates.

  Bethany paused, pivoted slowly and glanced up at Morgan. She had a very good reason for wanting him to stay on in Birmingham, but it wasn't something she could tell him. Not now. Not until she had no other choice. If hiring him to be her bodyguard and to investigate Jimmy's death was the only way she could keep him here, close by, in case Anne Marie needed him, then she would agree to his moving in with them.

  Bethany looked at him with her big, gold-flecked, greenish-brown eyes, her full pink mouth parting as she took a deep breath, and sixteen years melted away. Morgan felt as if he'd been punched in the stomach. For a second he couldn't breathe. He closed his eyes momentarily to block out the sight of her, then opened them again just in time to see her glaring at him.

  "I think you should know, up front," she said, "that despite our … our past history, I neither want nor expect our association to be personal." Bethany twisted the diamond and emerald ring on her finger back and forth as she held her hands together in front of her. "I trust you to do your job because you come highly recommended by the Dundee Agency. I'm putting my life in your hands, Morgan, not my heart."

  The words not ever again hung heavily between them, like a thick curtain of regret that would forever keep them apart.

  The twenty-year-old girl he'd left behind had been warm and sweet—and madly in love with him. But this woman seemed to be cool, almost aloof, and most certainly not in love with him. The plain, plump little duckling had definitely turned into a beautiful swan, one whose haughty stance reminded him far too much of his socialite mother and her type.

  Bethany stepped off the brick walkway, through the open gates and onto the grass pathway designed to invite exploring. Morgan followed, staying at her side.

  Bethany was the very epitome of a successful and sophisticated woman in her lavender linen slacks and lavender-and-white-striped silk blouse. A gold watch and diamond tennis bracelet graced one slender wrist, while a heavy gold bangle bracelet draped the other. The plain, plump little debutante who had paled in the glow of her elegant mother's radiant beauty no longer existed. Even with her dark hair falling about her shoulders in loose di
sarray, her makeup faded and her clothes wrinkled, Bethany was lovely. And every masculine instinct Morgan possessed reacted to her undeniable feminine allure.

  "Why did you allow Mother to fill your daughter's head with a bunch of those stupid Morgan stories?" he asked. "Surely you hate the idea that Anne Marie seems to idolize me."

  Bethany led him through a wisteria-covered arbor, the cross timbers decorated with classic corbels. "I allowed it for Claudia's sake. She so desperately needed to hold on to you in some way." And she needed to share her love for you with your daughter. "And Anne Marie needed a hero in her life. A male figure she could admire. Amery was killed when she wasn't much more than a baby. She doesn't even remember him. And although your father adored her, she was always aware that she wasn't the grandson he had hoped for."

  "My parents didn't have any trouble accepting Amery as a substitute son and accepting his daughter as their grandchild, did they?"

  "Amery did everything they wanted him to do, including marrying me," Bethany said. "He went into the firm with your father. We bought a house only a block away. We gave them a grandchild. Yes, Amery was a dutiful son to your parents until the day he died."

  She had often wondered if the reason Amery had been so distraught when she'd asked him for a divorce was that he'd been afraid of disappointing Henderson and Claudia. Amery might have wanted her because she had belonged to Morgan, but he had never loved her.

  Grasping Bethany's arm, Morgan halted her abruptly. She stared up at him. He wanted to ask her why she had married Amery so quickly after he'd left town? If she'd loved him so damn much, why hadn't she waited? Why had she let his parents force her into marrying his cousin? But instead he said, "My mother loves you and your daughter a great deal. She's shown Anne Marie more maternal affection today than she ever showed me."

  "Anne Marie is very easy to love." And you were very easy to love, too, Morgan. I think I loved you from the moment you kissed me the first time.

  Morgan released his hold on Bethany's arm. "I can see that she'd be easy to love. She's a charming young girl. Not as quiet and shy as you used to be."

  "No, she isn't." Bethany wanted to tell him that their daughter had inherited her charm from him, for she remembered a time when he had been charming. "While you're staying in our home, Anne Marie's adulation might wear a bit thin. If it does, please don't let her know. Don't disappoint her. When this is all over, I want her to still see you as a hero."

  "When this is all over," Morgan repeated her words. "How the hell did you get yourself in this situation? You're the last person on earth I'd ever figure to get arrested for murder."

  "Even though the police believe otherwise, I didn't kill Jimmy. Yes, he was a total sleaze. A loud-mouthed, uncouth womanizer who made my mother's life a living hell. And I'm not the only person who despised him."

  "Then we'll have to find out who despised him enough to kill him," Morgan said. "I'll need to set up a meeting with Maxine Carson, and I'll want to talk to the detective in charge of Farraday's murder investigation. Then maybe I can get some help from the FBI agents who investigated the mail bomb."

  "How did you know that the FBI was involved?"

  "Mail bombs are a federal crime."

  "Oh, yes, of course."

  "You and I will need to compile our own list of suspects. Everyone and anyone who had a reason to hate your stepfather and might have had a reason to want him dead." Slipping his hands in his pockets, Morgan relaxed and followed Bethany as she started walking again. "But first, I need to get moved in with you and Anne Marie and set up things there. Can you stick around long enough for me to pack my bag and say goodbye to Mother and Ida Mae?"

  Bethany paused beside the pond. Instead of looking at Morgan, she glanced out across the pool's surface at the water lilies. The sunlight reflected off the decorative glass balls floating on the pond. "Are you moving in with us today?"

  "The sooner I'm on the job, the quicker we can begin our investigation. And the safer you'll be. I can't think of any reason to delay, can you?" Morgan gripped her chin, lifting her face. "Unless there's someone who might object to your having one of your old lovers sleeping under your roof."

  Bethany's mouth opened on a shocked gasp. "Is that how you see yourself? As one of my old lovers?" She snorted, the sound a combination of chuckle and grunt. "Just who do you think might object to my having a bodyguard?"

  "Who's this business partner that has spent the night at your house? The one Anne Marie thinks is old enough to be her grandfather?"

  "Seth Renfrew. And despite what my daughter thinks, he isn't quite old enough to be her grandfather."

  "I see," Morgan said. "Will Seth object to your having a live-in bodyguard?"

  She could tell Morgan that Seth was one of her best friends and that the two of them loved each other dearly. She could also tell him that their relationship was strictly platonic. The only woman Seth had ever been in love with was Eileen Dow Farraday.

  "Seth loves me and he wants what's best for me." Bethany didn't care how Morgan interpreted her comment. Let him think what he would. She owed him no explanations about her personal life.

  "And am I what's best for you?" Morgan lowered his head until his lips almost touched hers.

  "Right now, your being in my life is what's best for both me and my daughter."

  Before he could kiss her, Bethany pulled away from him and ran up the grass pathway. She could not—would not—allow Morgan Kane to seduce her.

  * * *

  When Morgan departed from his mother's home, he had Anne Marie in tow. She'd pleaded with Bethany to let her ride with him. Following close behind Bethany's white Mercedes, he soon realized that she lived farther than one block away.

  "Y'all don't still live in the house your parents bought right after they got married?" he asked.

  "Oh, no. After my father died, Mama sold their house in Redmont and we lived with Nana and Grandfather for a couple of years." Resting her head against the leather seat, Anne Marie looked up at the bright blue summer sky. "Then after Mama made a success of her first boutique, we bought a house of our own in Forest Park."

  He hadn't known that Bethany and her child had lived with his parents. But then, he didn't know anything about Bethany's life these past sixteen years. "Who took care of you? Ida Mae?"

  "Sometimes, but most of the time I stayed at the boutique with Mama. By the time she opened her second shop, I was already in school."

  Morgan stole a glimpse of Bethany's child as she sat beside him, her face turned to worship the sun, her shoulder-length, golden brown hair blowing in the warm wind. She was a pretty girl, with strong, sculptured features and a long, lean, well-proportioned body. Large for her age, but then, that was another Morgan trait. Maturing young. He marveled again at how much Anne Marie resembled his mother. Indeed, she appeared to be a combination of Bethany and Claudia.

  "You must miss your father a great deal," Morgan said.

  "Not really," Anne Marie admitted. "I was just a little thing when he died. I can't remember Amery at all, and Mama never talks about him. I don't think they were very happy."

  "Haven't you ever asked your mother about him?"

  "Sure. And she's always answered my questions. I know all the vital stuff. What his name was, what he did for a living, who his family was. Things like that. I just don't know anything about him personally. You know, what kind of man he was. What his favorite color was. Did he like rock music or country." Turning in her seat, Anne Marie leaned toward Morgan as far as the confinement of her seat belt would allow. "You were Amery's cousin. What do you remember about him?"

  "Why do you call your father Amery?"

  "I don't know. I guess because Mama never referred to him as my daddy, just as Amery. And so did Nana and Grandfather. I don't remember calling him Daddy."

  "Well, your father and I were cousins, but we weren't friends." He could hardly tell this wide-eyed innocent that he had despised her father, that Amery Wyndham had been a col
d, calculating, highly ambitious man who did anything to succeed. And that Amery had, from the time they'd been children, envied Morgan, had wanted whatever Morgan had. "Amery was a few years older than I, and where I was a hell-raiser and always in trouble, your father was more serious-minded. He always did what other people expected of him."

  "Sounds like he was pretty dull." Anne Marie sighed loudly. "I can't imagine why Mama married him instead of you. If I'd been her, I would have—"

  "What do you know about your mother and me?"

  "What's there to know?" When Morgan glanced at her, she grinned broadly and winked at him. "Nana told me that you were Mama's boyfriend before Amery."

  "Your Nana—"

  "Hey, here we are," Anne Marie said. "Turn right. See where Mama's turning in?"

  Bethany drove into a circular drive in front of a neat beige Colonial saltbox with a brown roof. A breezeway connected the house to a two-car garage. When the garage doors opened, Bethany drove inside and parked. Morgan eased his Ferrari in beside her Mercedes.

  "Let me show Morgan up to his room. Please." Anne Marie grabbed Morgan's arm just as he lifted his suitcase from the car. "You'll like our guest room," she told him. "It's right next to my room and straight across the hall from Mama's. It has two big windows, with plenty of sunshine and it has its own bath and—"

  "Anne Marie! Enough. You're talking him to death," Bethany scolded teasingly. "Go ahead and show Morgan to the guest room, then leave him alone for a while so he can get settled in."

  "Yeah. Okay. I guess you two have stuff you need to discuss, don't you?" Anne Marie frowned, then suddenly smiled again. "Hey, we could have dinner out by the pool, couldn't we, Mama? You'd like that, wouldn't you? It would make things seem more normal for all of us." She looked to her mother for approval.

  "I think that's a marvelous idea," Bethany said. "You're right, I'd like to make things as normal as possible for all of us."

 

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