CLOSE TO YOU: Enhanced (Lost Hearts) (36 page)

             
If Teague were smart, he'd put that comment out of his mind and never think of it again. If he was the ruthless jerk he used to be, he'd exploit her affection until she'd given him everything he wanted, then he'd ease her out of his life.

             
But he had these stirrings . . . emotional stirrings . . . he couldn't identify them, but from what people had said and what he'd seen in the movies, he was afraid the emotional stirrings might be—

             
"Where is she?" Gemma asked.

             
"Someplace safe." He hoped. He hoped Brad managed to follow directions and keep her busy today.

             
Really, Teague had done Kate a favor by getting her out of the capitol building. The cold front had blown through. It was a beautiful autumn day. There had to be news stories all over Austin that she could cover. Plus, she'd be safe. Teague really needed for her to be safe.

             
She loved him. Fool that she was, she loved him. And he—

             
"What are you going to do with this?" Rolf indicated the FBI report.

             
"Go to them with the information I have," Teague said. "Get protection for Kate."

             
"And yourself," Big Bob added.

             
"And me. I hesitated to turn this over to the Austin police. Oberlin's got too much power. But if the FBI's already investigating him, they'll take my input seriously." Teague's cell phone rang. "We'll get this situation cleared up before Kate does something stupid."

             
"Yeah, like sleep with you," Gemma said.

             
Pulling the phone out of his pocket, he glanced at the number.

             
Mrs. Montgomery. Kate's mother.

             
Apprehension flew through his mind. Was she going to tell him that he was right, that he wasn't worthy to touch her daughter? Was she going to demand to know the truth, the whole truth, about his background?

             
Did she have information that would help him discover the truth about Oberlin's obsession with Kate?

             
He flipped the phone open.

             
Mrs. Montgomery's rich, sweet, Texas-flavored voice greeted him. "Teague, how good to talk to you again."

             
He knew she hadn't called him to exchange pleasantries. "Are you all right?" Oberlin hadn't sent someone to hurt
her
, had he? "Are you alone?"

             
"Yes. Yes, I'm fine. No one's here." Her voice changed, became strained. "Can you come over? Now?"

             
"I'm on my way." Briefly, he told his crew, then headed out the door.

             
He met Juanita coming in. Her mechanical wheelchair whirred, but her greeting died on her lips when he cupped her chin and looked down into her brown eyes.

             
He had told Kate he believed in Fate. Here was the evidence of its existence. Juanita was here, right now, the living reminder of what could happen when he listened to his own reckless soul.

             
"What's wrong,
querido
?" she whispered.

             
"Nothing." He rubbed his thumb across her cheek. "Yet."

             
As he drove, unease plagued him.

             
Kate hadn't called and checked in.

             
It wasn't time yet. She wouldn't call before noon, but the more he thought about it, the more he worried about fixing her schedule with Brad. If Kate found out, she could possibly . . . would
definitely
be pissed.

             
She might be mad enough to do something foolish.

             
Goddamn it, Teague, you little bastard, you can't take that kid to a gang fight. Don't be so goddamned stupid. You're a goddamned stupid half-breed gringo and if you get knifed, no one will care. I sure as hell won't. But that kid is only fourteen. If something happens to her, her father will kill you. Look what he did to me. He's a lousy brother and a lousy father, but he doesn't let anyone hurt me and if someone hurts that kid, it's going to be him. You'd better not take her! You'd better not!

             
Damn it, Madre, if she wants to tag along, she can. She'll be okay. I won't let anything happen to her.

             
Once more, Teague might have done something with the best of intentions . . . and ruined another life.

             
The Mrs. Montgomery who let him in was not the same Mrs. Montgomery he had met previously. She wore brown slacks with a blue silk shirt that tied in a bow at the neck. Her upsweep of brunette hair looked regal. She didn't flinch at the sight of his face. She gestured toward the living room as he entered. "Come on in. Can I get you something to drink?" She said the right things, but her face looked drawn.

             
She wasn't simply Kate's mother anymore, she was a frightened woman, and he responded as he always responded to a woman in need. Taking her hand, he led her to the couch. "Let's sit down and you can tell me what you're worried about."

             
She sat with him, her stricken eyes fixed on him. On his bruises and his stitches. "Are you . . . may I ask what happened to you?"

             
"I ran into a few guys who didn't like my face." It hurt to smile, but he gave it a try. "Your daughter took one of them out with the heel of her shoe."

             
"Oh, dear." Mrs. Montgomery didn't smile back. "Is this because . . . do you think this is related to the matter you discussed with me before?"

             
"I would almost guarantee it is. Do you know something that will help us figure out what's happening?"

             
"I know you thought I knew something about the adoption that I didn't tell you, but it's not true. Or wasn't. Her gaze shifted away from his. "All those years ago, almost as soon as we signed the papers, Skeeter said something funny was going on. I. . . I guess I knew he was right, but Kate was my baby. Caitlin. We changed her name, but that was what her family named her. Caitlin. I don't think that was a bad change, do you?"

             
"Not at all. She probably would have picked Kate as a nickname, anyway," he said in a soothing tone.

             
"That's what I thought." A little of the color came back into Mrs. Montgomery's face. "From the first moment I saw her picture, I wanted her. When I held her . . . I loved her so much, and she needed me. She was so unhappy. Do you know the first thing she said to me was 'Mama'?"

             
"I'll bet all babies love you."

             
"Not like Kate. She was special—and I was afraid. Afraid to come back and find out Skeeter was right. That something funny was going on. That's why we stayed away from the States for two years. Finally, my grandmother turned one hundred, and we had to come back for the big celebration. And Skeeter . . . I knew Skeeter was going to insist we go back to the adoption agency, and he did." She squirmed under Teague's gaze. "It was gone. I'm not lying. Gone! No trace of it existed. Skeeter checked the records—the adoption agency had never been there."

             
Teague's watchfulness became bone-cracking tension. "What did you do?"

             
"We checked . . . we checked to see that Kate's adoption had been filed correctly with the state."

             
"And it had been."

             
"Yes. I begged Skeeter,
begged
him not to look further. He loved Kate, too, you know, and he had a job overseas. We left. We never looked for him again."

             
"Him?" Teague hated this whole story. He just knew it was going to have a bad ending.

             
"The man—the minister—who gave her to us. Pastor Wright. Blond man, very tall and handsome." Mrs. Montgomery lifted her tear-filled brown eyes to Teague. "I was watching television this afternoon, and I saw Senator Oberlin interviewed about, um, school funding. He looks like . . . he looks like Pastor Wright, the man who ran the church adoption." She swallowed. "He
is
the man who ran the church adoption."

             
Teague forgot his company manners. "Shit."

             
"Yes." She started to cry. "Senator George Oberlin gave us Kate."

             
Teague took out his cell phone and checked the time. Why hadn't Kate called? It wasn't noon, but . . . Brad had screwed this up, hadn't he?

             
As he dialed Kate's number, Mrs. Montgomery asked, "This thing with Senator Oberlin pretending to be a minister is bad, isn't it?"

             
"I won't lie and say I like it."
Teague hated it
. "The only time a man can masquerade as someone else is at a Halloween party, and in Oberlin's case, it would be Count Dracula."

             
Mrs. Montgomery's face crumpled. "This is my fault. I knew there was a possibility Kate was kidnapped from her real parents, and I didn't do anything about it."

             
He listened to Kate's cell phone ring. She didn't pick up.

             
He cut the connection. Taking Mrs. Montgomery's hand, he pressed it in his and looked earnestly into her eyes. "This is most definitely not your fault. It's the fault of the man who kidnapped her, if that's what happened. From what I can tell about Oberlin, that's the least of his sins."

             
A tremor shook her. "Is he . . . is he going to kill my daughter?" Clearly, her husband's brutal death had left its mark on Mrs. Montgomery, too.

             
"It's my job to make sure he doesn't. Mrs. Montgomery, if you'll get a jacket and come with me, we're going to the FBI to tell them your story. Then I'll tell them what I know and suspect. We're going to put Oberlin in jail—and hopefully, in hell."

             
Hurrying to the coat closet, she pulled out a brown jacket that matched her pants and picked up a purse that matched the whole ensemble. "This whole ordeal is God's punishment on me for not trying to do the right thing."

             
"Mrs. Montgomery, unless you have a connection I don't know about, I'd say we can safely assume you don't know what God's intention is." He helped her into her coat and held the door. "Maybe you've been put here to right a great wrong."

             
"Before I thought you were a nice young man. Now I know you are." She walked out into the sunshine with him. "Call me Marilyn."

             
"Thank you, Marilyn. I will." They headed for his car, and, as they walked, he dialed Kate's cell phone again. When she didn't pick up, he told her voice mail,

"Call me. Kate. I've got news. We're getting somewhere in our investigation."

              He hung up, pocketed the phone, and wished he knew why she hadn't answered. Was she doing an interview? Was she in an elevator or a basement where service didn't reach?

             
Had Oberlin kidnapped and killed her?

             
His hands clenched into fists. Pulling the phone from his pocket, he dialed his people at the capitol. "Gemma? Is Kate there anywhere? No? How about Oberlin?" Gemma assured him that Kate was nowhere in sight and that Oberlin was wandering the corridors looking for something—Kate, probably.

             
So right now she was safe, at least from Oberlin.

             
Knowing that Oberlin had been the one who had given Kate to the Montgomerys, Teague could safely assume Oberlin had known her natural mother. Had he killed her mother? That must be what Evelyn Oberlin had meant when she said he was going to kill Kate
again
.

             
Teague concentrated, trying to understand the crooked passages and rotten places that constituted Oberlin's mind. He couldn't, and the sound of his name, spoken in a tone of surprise and delight, caught him by surprise.

             
"Teague? Teague Ramos?"

Two guys walked t
oward him on the sidewalk. The one who had spoken, the blond, looked familiar. Not in his face, but in the way he walked, the clipped way he spoke. Military or former military, Teague decided, someone he'd met along the way. But he couldn't remember the guy's name, and it seemed inauspicious that he appeared now when Teague was already battered from yesterday's attack. "Yes?"

             
"I thought I recognized you." The guy put out his hand to shake. "Do I know you?" Teague moved between Marilyn and the men.