Alice's eyes narrowed. "Know what?"
Vicki pursed her lips. A heavy cloud descended upon her brain as she thought one word to herself: lies. Fumbling for words, she met Colt's narrowed and stormy stare. She'd ask Alice later, but right now she turned, gulped, and asked, "Haven't you been in Afghanistan? How do you have a daughter?"
"Someone had to care for her." Colt's strong arms held that girl tight to his chest. "I made time for my daughter, as any man would."
The girl laughed. "Daddy, who's she?"
Colt kept the girl wrapped in his arms. "No one, sweetheart. We have to go."
John stepped next to Alice and called out, "Colt, wait. We all have eyes. My sister faked her death for years. She will have a good reason."
"Clara deserves more than excuses." Colt stepped away and grabbed a small bag.
Vicki's voice cracked. "What? Colt, is she—"
"You know who she is, and why I don't want my daughter hurt," Colt interrupted, and carried his daughter toward the door. "Leave us alone, Victoria Morgan."
Alice called out in a small voice, "What are you talking about?"
Right now Vicki couldn't let him leave. Six years of her life were all a lie. Vicki stepped forward and got in Colt's way as he made a beeline for the door. She inhaled, and Colt had the same smell of oranges mixed with oak trees. Her nose turned toward him despite everything, and no argument formed. All she could do was ask, "Please, Colt, what's going on?"
"Why am I the one with answers?" He kissed the girl, who giggled in his arms. "I came home from war and wanted my daughter to visit my sister and her soon-to-be husband. What are you asking me?"
Her heart raced, though her muscles went rigid. "Who's her mother?"
"Don't do this in front of her." Colt shook his head and tried to cover the girl's ears. "Step out of the way, Victoria."
"Daddy, is that lady my mom?" Clara's singsong voice and trust in Colt knocked Vicki hard in her stomach. "She's awfully pretty."
Vicki's breath hitched. Her baby was alive.
Colt bounced the girl in his arm. "Doesn't matter, sweetheart. Daddy loves you."
"Am I?" Vicki repeated the question with a high voice, her hand on her chest. She needed to hear the affirmation.
"This isn't possible." Alice shook her head. "When in the world did my brother date my best friend?"
Vicki didn't look at her friend, though her heart hammered as she stared into Colt's brown eyes.
"Don't hurt her, Victoria Morgan. The House of Morgan has done enough damage." Colt stepped around her and opened the front door. He kept his daughter in his arms, and outside, on the front stoop, he called to his sister, "Alice, we'll get together another time."
A sudden coldness hit Vicki's core. She doubled over the second the door closed and she heard his truck engine. The words hadn't formed in her mouth to say something to stop him. Her muscles went rigid again. She couldn't believe Colt Collins would deceive her. Unlike her father, Colt had always been a stand-up guy. A small part of her heart whispered that he'd been the one to keep Clara safe.
Her baby's name was Clara.
It was a pretty name.
John came over and hugged her. Turning to her brother, she let him hold her trembling body.
Alice sat on her couch with her mouth open. Then she rubbed her pregnant belly. John repositioned himself to hold his fiancée's hand too. Alice tapped his leg and then switched seats with John to sit next to Vicki. Vicki hardly noticed anything until Alice took her hand. Her friend now smelled more like a mom as she quietly asked, "Did you have a baby with my brother, Vicki?"
Vicki's eyes widened. She'd never spoken about this. Everything in her head was fuzzy, but she nodded.
Alice clutched her stomach, and John dropped hers to massage his wife's shoulder and arm.
Alice pressed her lips together. "Why didn't you say anything? I didn't know you even dated my brother."
"A month doesn't count as dating." Clawing her nails into the seat cushion, Vicki forced herself to relax. She gazed at the marble floors and then up to the windows that showed Biscayne Bay. The water view somehow cleared her mind. Vicki swallowed and stared at Alice. "My baby died the day she was born."
"No one told me about you and Colt." Alice shook her head. "For years, your name never came up. Please explain this one more time. How did you have my brother's baby without me knowing?"
Vicki bit her lip then answered, "Before college, we both went on that trip to Paris, for the orchestra. You weren't there."
"The church-sponsored choir? I don't believe it." Alice pushed John's knees down then asked, "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
Vicki closed her eyes and let the words fly out. "Dad said he'd take care of me if I stayed home, and didn't start at UM right away. He'd say he'd fix everything so that we weren't giving up on my dreams." Her stomach rolled.
John quietly said, "I never came home from college, Vic. I should have been here for you."
Vicki's gaze flew to her brother's. "The House of Morgan is above everyone else." Vicki's lips curled as she repeated her father's infamous words. "John, you escaped because Peter was the oldest, but I believed our dad. He lied to everyone, but I thought I was the exception."
"He hurt all of us." John's arm went around Alice, and he nodded. "A baby would interfere with his plan to marry you off to the highest bidder."
"The House of Morgan doesn't answer to anyone." Vicki jerked away and stared at her brother. He had their father's nose, though Peter had more of the personality. Tears that she refused to shed formed in her eyes. "You knew him. We were his pawns."
Alice made a sound in her throat and everyone stared at her. Then she asked, "Why didn't you tell my brother?"
The humidity outside the air-conditioned walls would push Vicki toward the ground and take over. Her body felt hot. She swallowed her retort that he'd slept with another woman the day he left. Alice would defend her brother. Vicki's cheeks felt wet from tears that refused to stop. "I wanted to tell Colt, but he had gone to basic over the summer, then officer school in the fall. When the time came closer to my due date, I was ready to tell him. I told Dad my plan to go to DC before Colt shipped out. Dad threatened to take our family fortune away from me if I tried. It was to be my daughter's inheritance." The whine in her voice shouldn't exist. She had no one to blame. "I wish I had told Colt. A few months after giving birth, I ran away."
"You didn't know Dad went that far." John leaned closer to pat her knee. "You told me in confidence at the will reading how you lost your baby. The second I saw the little girl with Colt, I saw you, Vicki. She even has the Morgan birthmark on the bottom of her foot."
"You saw that?" Vicki's eyes watered fully now, but she saw through her soaked eyelashes. "I'm so grateful. Ever since that day, I've never been whole."
"Neither of you better think, for one second, my brother would steal Vicki's baby from her. That's insane," Alice added fast, and crossed her arms. "Colt is one of the best men I know, and I'm not saying that because he's my brother. He's moral and fair and awesome."
Vicki blushed. She shook her head, then wrung the edge of her blouse. Her heart still raced. "No. Dad would have, not Colt. The House of Morgan must always stand, or something like that. I was so stupid."
Vicki's spine was rigid, and she squirmed in her seat.
Alice sighed. "I don't understand. If you think that, why would you have not told my brother he was going to be a father? Just because you're the heirs of a fortune doesn't mean your family controls you."
"Our father controlled everything." John turned to her and placed his hand on her knee. "You say that because your parents love you, unconditionally. We never had that."
Alice shook her head, but said nothing else.
Vicki held her head in her hands and stared at the ground. Her stomach flipped like she was still the teenager whose father thought her the worst daughter. She'd not get sick. "I was eighteen and knocked up by a man with ties to government agencie
s that might threaten my father's business empire."
"We own a farm, though Dad had been in the service and my brother joined the Marines," Alice said. "Was your father selling to both sides of any war?"
"Probably, but the ties you have, it was enough."
"Look, you're my best friend, but Colt's my brother. I'm trying to understand. Let me put the dots together. Your brother Peter is still dating the horrible Jennifer, though he's been kind to all of us lately. John came to town on a mission to destroy your father, which is how we fell in love, and I know you faked your death, Vicki. I can believe all of this, but my mind is still trying to grasp what you said about Colt. He'd have protected you just as he watched out for Clara. Why didn't you go to him?"
"I couldn't. I stupidly wanted to be a good daughter, and then it was too late."
Alice smacked her lips, but said nothing.
"Colt was the perfect guy that I was forbidden to date." Vicki rubbed the back of her neck and hoped the heat vanished. "He was off limits because he was a Collins, but my heart told me he was so different than everyone else."
John added, "Alice thought I was a spoiled, rich brat, and until recently hated my guts."
"I didn't hate you. I just didn't like you." Alice smiled, and Vicki watched the engaged couple tighten their handholding. "Then you stole my heart."
Part of Vicki's heart soared. Love was supposed to be happy, like with these two. Her life was complicated.
She gave a closed-lip smile, then Vicki told them, "I found out as I packed my bags for college of my pregnancy, and Colt shipped out the next day for basic. He had his life planned to leave Miami for a while and never come back. I had my life planned with music that helped keep my sanity in my father's world. We were going our separate ways. So I thought my life changed with a baby. Then my dad promised to support me, and he's all I ever knew."
Alice narrowed her eyes. "Colt's had Clara since the day she was born. I didn't know you were the mother. He never said anything to me, and I never guessed you'd have had sex with him."
"The girl has my hair," Vicki argued fast, though she regretted the words.
"Lots of women are blondes. I didn't know you even liked Colt." Alice stood and twirled like she would go to the kitchen. Then she stopped and gazed at Vicki. "You're going to have to talk to him, but he had that look of a bear out to protect his baby just now."
"Where does he live?" Vicki asked. She had to pull herself together. She had to talk to Colt and make him understand. "I've not seen him since we came home from that summer trip to Europe."
Alice stood, walked over, and opened the refrigerator, and refused to stare at Vicki. Vicki gazed at her friend as she pulled out vegetables to chop. Alice found a large knife and went to the counter to dice. Finally Vicki followed and stood next to her. Alice wiped her face dry, shook her head, and finished. "He's staying at our family's ranch now, and our parents live in Palm Beach, near the beach, as a sort of retirement."
To see Clara, she'd face Colt. "So he's alone with Clara?"
Alice chopped the celery. "Until his new fiancée, Belle, gets out of the service and joins him here. She's never been to Florida, but the wedding is in two months. They planned to move north to the bigger ranch and tend to the planting up there, but now I don't know. I can call my dad, but I'd guess Colt's seen enough war. He wants to stick to his farm and not come off it."
Vicki closed her eyes and, despite having to face down Colt, fought back a fit of hysterical laughter. Her baby had lived. She'd been a fool, but she had a second chance. Motherhood meant she was necessary. She had risked her neck, but now giddiness rose in her. For the first time, it was enough. "I'll head there, then. My daughter will need her mother."
Chapter 2
Colt rubbed his temples and closed his daughter's bedroom door. His heartbeat stayed fast and unsure. Tonight had been bad. He reopened the door to check on her one more time. His daughter was stubborn. Clara had cried herself to sleep because he'd not admitted Victoria Morgan was her mother. Now she slept like an angel, but a cold fury rose in his brain.
Vicki had acted surprised, but that was impossible. Women didn't forget that they bore a child. She'd left town.
The house was quiet now, and allowed him to think.
Colt turned on his feet, headed to the kitchen, held his head high, and went to get a beer out of the fridge. The second he popped it open and heard the fizzing sound, his nostrils flared. Even a small pleasure wasn't enough to block out Vicki's baby-blue eyes today. He closed the fridge, sat on his couch, and took a sip.
The cold brew calmed him for a second. But how dare Vicki just show up?
He should have known she would. Even reptile mothers raised their children to a point. She'd abandoned her daughter and hadn't told him about anything. He rubbed his eyes.
Of course, Victoria Morgan must have changed her mind and returned for their daughter, unannounced. Was that why she'd come back to life? The Morgans were notorious for lying, cheating, or stealing to get what they wanted. She must have learned that from her father, but she was years too late. Colt had raised his daughter the best he could, and no one would take her from him.
His skin prickled. It was one thing for her to lie, and use him, but she'd not do it to their baby girl. His job was to protect Clara.
Clara deserved better.
With his feet up on his coffee table, he settled deeper in on his couch, but the beer didn't slow his heartbeat. A cold unease pricked at his skin and left him itchy to go somewhere or hit something. But he couldn't.
He was stuck.
Finally, Colt picked up the phone and called his sister. Had she been a party to that ambush? He hadn't wanted to think so, but her last name was about to be Morgan too.
Had the family's influence dragged his sister down too?
On the second ring, Alice answered. "Colt. Thank goodness you called. I had no idea Vicki was Clara's mother. Why didn't you tell me?"
His sister had been Vicki's groupie in school and did whatever Vicki decided she'd do. Alice grew up, but he saw how she'd been then. He coughed. "I had just joined the Marines. You didn't wonder how I suddenly had a baby girl?"
"I thought the mother was someone in the Marines."
"That wouldn't have been allowed," Colt said. "And basic lasts six weeks, not nine months."
"You never said a word. If it was Vicki, you should have stayed home and kept Clara safe."
"I kept her safe." Another lie from her lips? Despite the headache, Colt couldn't believe that. Alice had never once betrayed him, and she was always a good sister. His voice held his spite, despite his love for her. "Men don't quit. I worked out a deal that made our parents happy. And Clara is fine. What's not fine is what happened today."
Alice repeated herself: "I didn't know."
He closed his eyes and held the bottle to his head. He believed his sister, but all he could do was repeat himself. Vicki had to have known. "She told you to jump in school and you only asked how high. I have to ask this. Did you set me up?"
"No. I'd never do that to you."
His blood pressure calmed down a little. He trusted her.
His voice still had its edge as he asked her, "How did she show up at your place unannounced, then, asking for Clara? Have you turned into a Morgan that fast?"
"I'm not a Morgan until after the wedding and our baby is born."
A sigh escaped his lips, but he said nothing.
His sister's voice wavered. "John texted her."
His heartbeat raced again and he shook his head. Men didn't involve themselves in the affairs of others. The vein in Colt's neck thumped and the heat of the phone burned through him. Coldness swept through him as he told Alice, "Okay, I'm going to kill your husband-to-be."
"Please don't. John should have talked to me first. Vicki's his sister, and the Morgan family wasn't very loving to their children. At least you and I had family, but they had no one."
She'd abandoned their daughter. "Not
an excuse, Alice."
"John said the past few years Vicki had been haunted by something. The moment he saw Clara, John did the math. He saw what I clearly missed. So let's get back to my question. Is she Clara's mother?"
He closed his eyes and sipped his beer to let the cold drink calm him down. Then he answered, "Yeah, I didn't sleep around knocking up every woman I met."
Alice breathed deeply and Colt sat straighter the second his sister said, "Colt, she didn't know. She thought her baby died."
"Morgans are all liars. She gave birth, so she was in the room the day Clara was born."
He pursed his lips. His sister had jumped ship already and defended the perfect Victoria Morgan. In high school, Alice had tried to be exactly like Victoria. And the beautiful blonde had adopted Alice into her little group, like she was a pet, despite their families' history of avoiding each other.
"You're being stubborn, Colt."
"The Collins of Miami all serve their country and do the right thing. The Morgans are unsavory."
"Mitch Morgan was horrible. He lied to his daughter, but his sins don't make his children guilty."
"Stop." Colt had stayed out of everything until that summer trip to Paris. He figured one day Alice would grow out of her Morgan infatuation. "You're about to marry one, but I never will."
"No, you're marrying this Belle, who you never once brought home to meet me or our parents."
"Belle's very busy in Washington, D.C. She has a job." Colt's mind stayed on Vicki and how her lips had once tasted like rose petals.
"It's still strange you intend to marry someone who's never come to Miami."
His head couldn't remember Belle at the moment. His mind shouted instead that Vicki had signed away all rights on adoption papers. He had the papers in his office. "Vicki was dead."
"On that she lied. I thought we were talking about Belle now."
He blinked and almost dropped his beer to the ground. He caught the glass and told his sister, "Or, like she always did, she lied to get you to believe whatever she wanted you to think."
[House of Morgan 01.0 - 03.0] Boxed Set Page 21