by Debbie Mason
“I am too.” She tipped her head back and kissed the underside of his chin. “And now I’m going to say something that may have you wishing I weren’t.”
“About this morning, Evie. I—”
“Not about us or what happened last night. It’s about what you’ve grown up hearing about the Gallaghers. I never met Colleen, and admittedly I haven’t lived here all that long, but from what I’ve seen and heard, if the Gallaghers had known about your dad, they wouldn’t have turned Emily away. They would have brought them into the fold. That’s what they do. With everyone. They’ve even done it with me. And it’s not just them. It’s this community. They’re good people—”
“You did read some of the stories in here, didn’t you?” He tapped the book. “Because as much as I tried not to—”
“Everyone has skeletons in their closet. Everyone has done things they’re not proud of. None of us is perfect. Not you, not me.”
“I don’t know. I think you’re pretty perfect.”
“Sure you do. What was it you called me, a shrew? Or was it a harpy?”
“That wasn’t me. It was my evil twin.” He grinned down at her, and the way she was smiling up at him, the way she felt in his arms, made him forget all about the book and his need for answers. “Evie, I—” He broke off at a knock on the door.
“Mr. Elliot, it’s Kitty Gallagher. I was wondering if you could spare us some time to talk about your duties.” The older woman’s voice came through the door.
Evie elbowed him when he didn’t answer. “Duties?” he whispered to Evie, then loud enough for Kitty to hear him, “Certainly. Just give me a minute. I’ll be right with you.”
“Take your time. We’re meeting at the bar.”
“Do not even think about leaving,” he said to Evie when she scooted off the bed. “You’re coming with me to this meeting. I need your protection.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
You’re a six-foot-four gazillionaire. I hardly think you need my protection from Kitty Gallagher,” Evie said to Caine as they got in the elevator.
But she did feel protective of him. It was obvious that the world as he knew it was becoming unglued. He was completely out of his element. Family and holidays were an enigma to him. And because of her, he was wading into the middle of both. And if Emily Green Elliot was a sociopath—antisocial personality disorder was the term Evie would use—like Theia believed, the older woman would know how to use the Gallagher family to her best advantage.
Though these days, thanks to Hollywood, people were often inaccurately labeled a sociopath or psychopath. Evie prayed that was the case with Caine’s grandmother.
“I’m not a gazillionaire, and it’s not Kitty I need protection from. It’s Jasper and Sophie.”
Evie went up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. “I won’t let anyone be mean to you. And I promise not to let them give you a job that makes you uncomfortable,” she said, then kissed him, because that was as close as he was going to get to comfort sex. They were in an elevator, after all.
No, it’s not because you’re in an elevator! It’s because you’re not having sex with him anymore!
“Evie,” Caine said as he broke the kiss, sounding all gravelly and sexy. “I appreciate you trying to comfort me…That is what you were trying to do, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Comfort. I was trying to comfort you,” she said, thinking she would be a gazillionaire if she could bottle this feeling. She gave her head a small shake to get rid of the warm-and-fuzzies as the elevator dinged and the door went to open onto the lobby.
Caine leaned across her to press a button, and it closed again.
“What are you doing?”
“I need a minute. Your comforting worked a little too well.”
She followed his gaze to the front of his jeans. “Oh, I see,” she said, and pressed her lips together to keep from laughing.
“You have an odd sense of humor, woman.”
* * *
Colleen looked at her memoir on the nightstand. “Caine and Evie have left the book in plain sight. Are they mad? Do they not know the danger they’ve put everyone in?”
Spotting a hand coming out from under the bed, Colleen flung herself across the mattress to grab the book off the nightstand, but her hand went through both. “I need your help, Simon. The trip downtown wore me out. I have no energy left to make my hands work as they should.”
Simon jumped onto the bed and went to the nightstand. He tried to fit his mouth around the book, but it was too thick. At the sound of Clio cursing as she pulled herself from under the bed, he tugged on the book with both paws. It fell between the bed and nightstand.
“It’s not ideal, but perhaps she’ll think Caine took the book with him,” Colleen said as her great-granddaughter stood, brushing off her dusty sweatshirt and jeans.
Simon gave a pessimistic meow.
“Leave me with some hope because right now I need something to hang on to. I fear she heard what Caine said, Simon. And if she did, and uses it to her advantage, we are in big trouble. Pretend you’re asleep. Guard the spot. If you have to take a swipe at her to do so, go right ahead.”
Beside the bed, Clio said, “I know you’re here, GG. And I know it was you who tried to spook me from under the bed. My da told me all about your tricks. So you don’t scare me. Neither do you, cat. Now move away or I’ll move you. I heard the book fall. I’m not deaf like my cousin,” she said, and shoved Simon out of the way.
“No, don’t do it,” Colleen warned when he went to take a swipe at the girl. “I don’t trust her not to toss you off the bed. She has a temper, and she blames all of us for the trouble her father got into. If only she could see she’s headed down the same path.”
Clio’s arm disappeared up to her shoulder as she dug between the bed and nightstand. A triumphant smile spread across her face when she straightened, holding the book aloft. “Now let’s see what Caine’s grandmother is willing to pay for the book. I’d wager a lot more than the pittance her grandson foisted on me. No one cheats me and gets away with it,” she said as she pulled a phone from her back pocket. It had to be her own. Caine had retrieved his from the floor before heading out the door.
Colleen had watched Clio snatch up the cell phone when Caine first dropped it, getting a good long look. Once she’d gotten the information she needed, she’d pushed it in front of the nightstand. Colleen had prayed Caine would see Clio when he’d bent to retrieve it, but he’d been anxious about his meeting with the family.
“Cheat you?” Colleen said when Clio sat on the side of the bed. “You stole my memoir, and you’re doing so again, preparing to sell it to the one who means to bring us down. But you don’t care as long as you get what you feel you deserve. One day soon, like your father did, you’ll discover the happiness money buys is fleeting. It’s the love of family and friends that brings you true joy. In some ways, you’re like Caine. Only he’s closer to learning that truth than you. Which is why you’re about to make a deal with the devil. May God help us all.”
Noting the way Clio straightened her spine and pulled in a deep breath through her nostrils, Colleen said, “You should be nervous, child. What you’re about to do can’t be undone.” But Colleen’s warnings fell on deaf ears as Clio began typing on the phone. “Stop!” she yelled beside the girl’s ear, but again it did her no good. She’d picked a bad day to take a trip to town.
When there was no immediate response to Clio’s text, hope rose inside Colleen. Caine had said his grandmother should be in bed. If they were lucky, she would be, and Clio would miss her opportunity. Because once Caine returned to his room and saw the book was missing, he’d put two and two together and know who the culprit was. Clio would see the other side of her cousin then—of that Colleen was certain. And she was glad of it. Someone had to take the girl in hand.
The cell phone rang in Clio’s hand. They were doomed. Unless…Colleen dove at Clio’s arm in an attempt to grab the phone from her hand. It didn’t work, and she e
nded up sailing off the bed. From the floor, she watched as Simon pounced, succeeding where Colleen had failed. He batted the phone from Clio’s hand and then jumped down to push the ringing phone under the bed. Cursing, Clio went after him. Colleen heard a throaty meow, followed by an Ow, and then Clio pushed herself out from under the bed.
“Hello. Hello,” she said into the phone. “Clio. My name is Clio Gallagher. Please, don’t hang up. I have something you want. It’s a book, written by my great-grandmother Colleen. It’s called The Secret Keeper of Harmony Harbor. I heard Caine. He doesn’t want you to have it.” Clio paused to listen to the woman on the other end of the phone. Colleen pressed her head close to Clio’s, but the only thing she could make out was that the voice was Emily’s.
“He was looking for anything written about you and his father. He sounded upset that there wasn’t anything. The woman with him…” She nodded. “Yes. I think that’s her name. He called her Evie. He sounded…They seemed close. Like they were together, you know. Um, boyfriend and girlfriend? I can’t remember what she said exactly, but it sounded like she thinks you lied to him.” Clio made a face and pulled the phone from her ear.
“Are you hearing it now, child? Are you sensing you may have gone too far? It’s not too late. Hang up. Hang up now.”
“I think this was a bad idea. I’m sorry to have…How much?”
There’d be no turning back for Clio now.
“Just a sec. I’ll get a piece of paper.” Clio jumped up and ran to Colleen’s desk. Finding a pen and a pad of paper, she took a seat. “I’m ready. What do you want me to look for in the book? Mr. Bradford. The owner of the Savings and Loan. Okay, got it.” Colleen lowered herself to the floor beside the desk as the child scribbled Bradford’s name on the pad of paper.
Emily was going after the bank, and she was going to use what Colleen had written in the book against Bradford. He’d sell. He wouldn’t want his wife to learn about his affair or the child he’d fathered. Colleen remembered his wife well. She’d divorce Bradford and take him for everything. And now Emily would have the opportunity to do the same to them. Unless Colleen figured out a way to stop Clio from sharing the information. “Anything about you and your son and Caine. Okay. I’ll have it for you tomorrow. No, I won’t mention it to anyone.”
Clio disconnected and then went to the bed to retrieve Colleen’s leather-bound book. Returning with it to the desk, Clio grabbed the pen and pad of paper. Then she looked around the room as though ensuring she hadn’t left any evidence of her visit behind before heading back to the closet with her head bowed.
“You’ll not say anything to me, will you? Is it beginning to sink in what you’ve done? You’re not a stupid girl. You know well and good what she’ll do with the information on Bradford. But in case she doesn’t, Simon, we need to…Holy mother of God, we might be saved,” Colleen said at the beep of the door lock disengaging. She jumped to her feet, her gaze shooting to the closet.
Clio had already used the hidden door to the passageway to disappear from view. It wouldn’t matter though. As soon as Caine discovered the book was missing, he’d know who’d taken it. The door opened. It wasn’t Caine. It was Jasper, and he wasn’t alone. Sophie was with him. She was carrying a box, and Jasper was hauling in a tree.
Jasper was the next best thing to Caine, but Colleen knew her once-trusted confidant would ignore any attempt she and Simon made to engage him with Sophie in the room. Jasper would worry that Sophie would think he was losing his mind. As far as Colleen knew, he’d never let on to anyone that he sensed her presence, not even Kitty.
“We’ll just have to bide our time until Sophie leaves,” Colleen told Simon.
“I don’t understand why Kitty insisted we decorate the tower room for the CEO of a company who will use any means to wrest the estate from the family,” Sophie grumbled while setting the box on the end of the bed. “The man doesn’t even like Christmas from what I’ve heard.”
“You know Kitty. She’ll do whatever she can to ensure that Evie wins her bet with Mr. Elliot.”
“I think it’s more than that. She wasn’t acting like herself. I caught her staring at Caine a couple times, like she knew him. Then she asked him if he had any musical talent, which seemed odd because the choir is women only. But what stood out the most was when he mentioned his grandmother. Do you know her, Jasper? Because I could have sworn Kitty did, and she looked like someone had walked over her grave.”
“Kitty’s guessed that Caine is one of ours, Simon. Learning his grandmother is Emily Green will have confirmed it. Now to see what she does with the information. If I know Kitty—and I’ve known her for more than sixty years—she’ll do right by the boy. She’ll tell Caine what she did and ask his forgiveness. I’d be surprised if he didn’t give it to her. Maybe then she’ll be able to forgive herself. Sadly, that won’t be the end of it though. Even if Kitty were to apologize to Emily and to beg her forgiveness, Caine’s grandmother won’t give it to her—of that I’m certain. Our only hope is for Caine to stop Clio before she gives his grandmother the ammunition she needs to seek the ultimate revenge.”
* * *
“See, I told you Kitty was a lovely woman, and you had nothing to worry about,” Evie said as Caine took out his card to unlock the tower room door after their meeting at the bar.
“Easy for you to say. She didn’t have a list of Christmas activities as long as her arm that she expected you to take part in.”
“Other than playing Santa Claus tomorrow after the parade, they weren’t that bad,” Evie said, doing her best to hide the amusement in her voice.
“Well, don’t count on my uncle helping out at Holiday House tomorrow, because he’s the one who will be putting on the red suit, not me.” His voice trailed off as he opened the door to the suite.
Evie squeezed by him to walk into the room, turning in a circle to take it all in. “This is gorgeous. It looks—”
“Like someone’s idea of a practical joke.” Caine surveyed the room with his hands on his hips. “And they like glitter almost as much as you do.”
She laughed because she could tell that he was putting on a show for her, but then his eyes went to the canopy bed dripping in gold garland, and the semi-amused expression left his face. “Colleen’s memoir is gone,” he said, and strode to the nightstand, moving it to search behind and beside it. When he came up empty, he went down on his hands and knees to look under the bed. Then he walked around the bed to the other nightstand to do the same.
While he’d been searching near the bed, Evie had searched the desk and sitting area. “It’s not here, Caine. Do you think whoever took it was the same person who decorated your room?”
“I do. Jasper.” He pointed at the footprint left in the ashes beside the stone fireplace. He crouched to examine it and then looked up at Evie, the dancing flames of the fire casting his handsome face in shadows and light. “Seems a shame to let all his hard work go to waste.” He nodded at the bottle of wine and the plate of grapes, assorted cheeses, and crackers on the end table beside the leather wingback chair. “You want to spend the night with me? At least one of us will enjoy sleeping in Santa’s bedroom.”
“You’re not concerned that Jasper has your great-grandmother’s book?”
He shook his head as he came to his feet. “From everything I’ve learned, there was no one more loyal to Colleen than Jasper. I’m actually more worried that you’re going to say no. I’ll understand if you do though. I know I messed things up this morning.”
“What’s changed between then and now?”
He shrugged. “You know who I am. I don’t have to hide anything from you.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “And maybe I’m tired of doing what I think I should instead of what I want to.”
She understood what he meant. She’d been prepared to say no for exactly that reason. She should say no. There was no doubt in her mind that Caine had the power to hurt her in myriad ways. But the more time she spent with him, the more laye
rs were peeled away, revealing a man she thought might be worth the risk.
She smiled and pointed up at the ball of mistletoe hanging from the light over their heads. “I think that’s a sign I’m supposed to stay.”
“Huh. I’ve never been fond of mistletoe before, but suddenly I’ve had a change of heart.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
You’re awfully smiley today,” Evie’s mother said from where she stood behind the sales counter awkwardly counting the cash thanks to the cast on her right hand.
“Come on, Mom. Even you have to admit our sales were fantastic today.”
“Well, it didn’t hurt that Santa Claus was giving you free advertising during the parade.” Her mother’s red-painted lips twitched as Evie fought a smile of her own.
“Or that his elves were.” Evie laughed, thinking of the three of them up on the float. Caine as Santa Claus, and Seamus and Jamie as his elves. When Caine wasn’t ho ho ho-ing while promoting his favorite Christmas store, his elves were. “Seamus gave a pretty special shout-out to the lovely Lenore. Is there anything you’d like to share with your daughter?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. The man hasn’t held a steady job in decades. He doesn’t own a home or have a bank account. Though he does have an extremely wealthy nephew, who seems to be as fond of his uncle as his uncle is of him.”
Evie ignored the part about his wealthy nephew and said, “Seamus is also one of the sweetest, kindest men I’ve ever met. And the customers adore him.”
“Because he’s charming and has the gift of gab, just like your father. But I’ve already spent twenty-five years of my life with a man who went from one get-rich-quick scheme to the next. I’m not spending the next twenty with another one. But what about you? Is there anything you’d like to share with your mother? I noticed you didn’t sleep in your bed last night.”
“You know, you were never as nosy about or as nice to my other boyfriends as you are to Caine. I wonder why that is, Mom. It wouldn’t have anything to do with his bank account, would it?” She hoped her mother didn’t notice she’d basically admitted they were in a relationship.