“Dear God. Where did you get these?”
“Ray gave them to me. Surely you know that.” Letting out a long, low sigh, her shoulders slumped as she sagged against the door frame. “I’m tired, Gideon, so please don’t play these games. Just go.”
“Dammit, Shannon!” His shocked and angry eyes zeroed in on her as he declared with conviction, “I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers! When did Ray give these to you? This check is dated 2004 and signed by him.” Flipping to the letter, he stared at his signature, standing out in bold pen strokes on the folded, worn paper. “It looks like my signature, but the letter is in someone else’s writing. I didn’t write this.”
“So you had one of your flunkies do it. What does it matter? You wanted us gone from your life and we left. I’d like the same courtesy.”
Her tremulous voice cracking with emotion had him up and moving. Pulling her out of the open doorway, he closed it and pushed her up against the hard panel. “Something is seriously wrong here. This letter—it isn’t from me, and I didn’t approve this check. Nor did I turn you away with my unborn son, I swear. I loved you, Shannon. That news would have been very welcome back then, if I’d known. I swear to you, babe. I had no idea.”
“That’s your signature. I recognize it.” Her face was troubled, but she was unconvinced by his contention.
“Yes, it is, but I have no idea how it got there.” Looking away, he grimaced. “Back in those days, I was more about the show than the business. I let Ray have free reign. It wasn’t unusual for me to sign a stack of papers without reading them.”
He suddenly became aware that he was holding her, his grip much too tight on her upper arms, and he released her, straightening. A barrage of memories was swamping his beleaguered brain as a highlight reel of images looped through his mind. He was truly taken aback by this news. No wonder she had left him. He now had more questions than before he’d walked in the door. Ray Reynolds seemed to be the man with all the answers.
“I don’t know what this is all about but I promise to get to the bottom of it all. For now, I need you to know that today is the first I’ve learned of our son’s existence, Shannon. I swear to this. What is his name?”
“Elijah Gideon Hughes.”
“My first names…” He looked at her face, raw emotions—uncertainty, hurt, anger—clearly written on her features. “Why didn’t you cash the check?”
“I had my reasons.”
“No, Shannon, too much has been kept from me for too long. Tell me why?”
“Fine. I didn’t take the money because I didn’t want my child to ever know that his father didn’t want him, that he paid to keep him out of his life.”
“So where does he think I am?”
Looking away, she let out a ragged breath before saying, “I told him you were dead.”
He flinched, cut to the quick. His heart ached.
The poor kid.
He was going to be confused when he learned the truth. And he would learn it. No way was Gideon going to pass up the chance to be a part of his life, and if he could convince her, his mother’s.
He took a deep calming breath, regaining his composure, his control and confidence, and opened the door. As he paused, his white-knuckled hand harshly gripping the knob, he looked back at her, eyes marked with pain. “Resolve yourself to the fact that I will be a part of my son’s life and yours. Believe me when I say that if you run from me again, I will find you and there will be hell to pay. Someone has fucked with us, but I am not going to let it happen again. I’m leaving for now to find some answers, Shannon, but I’ll be back. While I’m gone, think of something to tell Eli about his father’s sudden resurrection.”
* * *
Gideon stormed into Raymond Richards’ office the next morning. Passing by the receptionist’s desk, he stormed through the luxury suite. He was livid.
“Mr. Richards is in a meeting, Mr. Eli… If you’ll wait—”
Ignoring her, he walked without hesitation to his manager’s door and threw it open violently. It slammed against the wall, startling the occupants of the room. Ray stood instantly and moved toward him. “Gid, what the hell?”
Gideon approached him and grabbing him by the lapels of his five thousand dollar designer suit, slammed him against the wall, his feet dangling at least six inches off the floor. “Do you know what you’ve done to me, you son of a bitch? You sent her away. She was pregnant, for Christ’s sake.”
“I don’t know—” he started, but Gid slammed him harder against the wall, robbing him of breath and further denials.
“Don’t lie to me and make it worse. I saw him last night. I’ve missed out on years with him that I can’t ever get back, you meddling prick!”
Gideon heard shuffling behind him and a door slam. He sensed they were alone, his other clients having wisely fled. “Here’s what you’re going to do. You are going to write out a full confession of your role in this clusterfuck. Then you are going to stay the fuck away from me. If I hear that you have even thought about contacting Shannon, I will not only mess up your pretty face with my fists, but I will spread the word about what a sick, twisted, meddlesome mother fucker you are and see that you never get work in this town again. Are we clear?”
As Gideon left, Ray’s signed confession in hand, his rage had not diminished in the least. The worm had told him about what he’d missed that night nearly ten years ago.
Chapter Six
Shannon felt brain dead. It was her fourth online application and she was tired of the monotony. She hated looking for a job. In the old days, one could just walk in and talk to the manager. Face to face contact and a little charm worked wonders for getting a foot in the door. “You can’t see charm over a computer,” she grumbled aloud as she entered her employment history for the fourth time.
The real problem, the reason for her distraction, was the confrontation she’d had last night with Gideon. She’d barely slept, unable to keep the disturbing scene from playing repeatedly in her head. She’d give anything to believe him, but there was no mistaking what she’d seen in that bedroom on that bed on that awful night. She’d been sober, one of the few in the room that had been, and remembered every moment in great detail. There was no doubt in her mind that he had been unfaithful. Then there was the subsequent rejection of her and Eli, well… she held the evidence of that in the form of the letter and uncashed check.
However, for the first time in years, her resolve had started to weaken as she watched him and saw something she never believed possible. Gideon Eli, a man with confidence and bearing, always just a cut above the rest, a public figure larger than life, a celebrity with untold wealth and adoring fans all over the world—this man seemed uncertain and vulnerable and seemed to deflate before her very eyes. Then he had raked his fingers through his hair, and it was at that moment that Shannon believed he was being truthful about Eli. Although he tried to maintain a cool, confident rock star image, she had always known when something was really bothering him—he had a tell, you could say. Like last night, she knew something was up, and surprisingly her conviction had faltered.
He hadn’t acted like a man who knew he had a son and heartlessly walked away. Or like a man who paid off the mother of his child to stay out of his life. He had acted like a determined man with an indomitable resolve to find some answers.
That’s what was really bothering her now. Gideon was a terrible liar. When they had been together, it had been rare, but he had occasionally bent the truth a bit when he was trying to protect her. Like the time when her estranged mother had called seeking money, not from her but from him. Shannon had overheard the tail end of the conversation, and when she asked him about it, he had lied, telling her it was a wrong number, trying to protect her from further heartache. As the false words had left his mouth, he’d anxiously raked his fingers through his hair. She remembered being charmed by his protective streak and loving him more for it.
What nagged at her now was his denial of the cheating. She hadn’t seen any indication of deceit. He had looked her straight in the eye and unfalteringly denied it.
Dammit, Shannon,
she scolded herself.
A few minutes with the man and you’re ready to cave like a house of cards? You can’t deny what you saw that night.
A knock on the door was a welcome respite from her musings. Setting her laptop on the couch, she gladly put the application aside and went to the door. As she reached for the knob, her hand trembled. What if it was Gideon? He’d promised he’d be back. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she prepared herself for another altercation. With a mixture of dread and excitement, she opened the door.
It was the devil himself, standing before her, so tall and handsome. She pursed her lips… Something was different. Was it his hair? As her eyes scanned down his body, she noticed he was wearing a western shirt and a hand tooled belt, and her brow furrowed in confusion.
Since when had Gideon gone country?
A deep voice sounded from the hallway as Gideon number two stepped into the doorway, “Move, Grant. Let’s get out of the hallway.”
Shannon gasped in alarm—there were two of him. She didn’t know he had a brother, let alone a twin. Gideon number two pushed into the apartment and took Shannon firmly but gently by the arm, pulling her out of the way so Gideon number one could enter. Her eyes flew between them. Gideon number two was the man she knew, just as tall and handsome, but he was dressed in a long-sleeved, fitted shirt in his standard black and a pair of faded jeans. His hair was a little longer and shaggier, and he smelled utterly—to die for—delicious. She remembered that scent. She had read somewhere that olfactory memories were one of the strongest and was now convinced it was true.
The real Gideon guided her to the couch and gently pushed her down. He then motioned for Gideon number one to join them. Standing side by side, she saw the subtle differences, but unless she had that comparison, they would be difficult to tell apart. A small niggling fear started to take root in the back of her brain. It swept away all the fuzzy tricks the real Gideon’s presence had played on her senses and allowed her to focus more clearly. After her eyes swept over the fake Gideon one more time, she slowly, and with quite a bit of reluctance, met her ex-lover’s gaze.
“I think you might have figured this out already, but humor me.” He crossed his arms over his chest, seeming a bit irritated. Uh-oh, his irritation appeared to be directed at her.
What the heck?
This wasn’t her fault; she was the injured party, she and Eli. Weren’t they?
“The night of the wrap party, tell me exactly what you saw in that bedroom.”
“I saw you and two bimbos. You were all three naked.”
“What exactly was I doing? Was I fucking them?”
She flinched at the word. He’d never used that kind of language around her before. He must be more than irritated with her—he must be pissed.
“No, but they were giving you quite a massage, with their uh…” Her hands came up and she gestured toward her breasts.
“I think she means their tits, Gid.” The fake Gideon spoke for the first time. If he’d spoken when she opened the door, Shannon would have known in an instant that this was not her Gideon because he had a slow Texas drawl and a higher pitched voice. She mentally shook herself. When had he become ‘her Gideon’ again?
“I get that, Grant.” Although he addressed Grant, his eyes never left Shannon’s face as he spoke. “So, we were naked. Did you see my face?”
“No, you were on your stomach and your head was turned away.”
With a grunt of comprehension, he continued his interrogation. “What else did you see?”
“Do we really have to do this? It’s not a pleasant memory, by any means.”
“What else, Shannon?”
“Well… One of them pulled off your boots—the ones I gave you for Christmas, I might add—and then she sucked on your big toe. Is that the kind of detail you want? If so, I’m done here.”
When she started to get up, Gideon pressed her back down, his hands clamped firmly around her shoulders. “You will sit there until I say you can get up. I’m not playing here, Shannon. This shit has gone on for almost ten years. Surely you can spare a few more minutes to see it resolved.”
She searched his eyes and saw how serious he was, so she nodded her agreement. She was actually curious to see where this was going.
Rising to his full height again, he nodded to Grant, who started unbuttoning his shirt. “What about my tattoo, Shannon? Do you remember seeing that?”
Her brows lowered and the skin between them scrunched up as she tried to remember. She saw the blonde’s hands, their red-tipped fingers massaging his shoulders. She didn’t remember seeing it. Looking up, she gaped at the two Gideons, standing side by side with their shirts off. From behind, they were identical, same height, same wavy brown hair, same muscular build and skin tone. The only difference was that the real Gideon, her Gideon, had a tribal tattoo in the shape of a phoenix on his left shoulder.
Images slammed through her mind, the blonde rubbing those spectacular shoulders, with her hands, then her breasts. Horror swept through her as she realized her mistake. “Oh my God!” She pointed at the imposter. “It was you! What were you doing there? Wearing his boots?”
Her eyes flew to the real Gid, and she saw the anger below the surface. He was pissed at her, blaming her for believing Grant was him. She knew it. “Reynolds was there…” His words replayed in her mind. He hadn’t actually said it was Gideon in the bedroom, just led her to believe it was. A sob escaped.
“He played you, Shannon. He never wanted his stars to settle down. Thought it ruined their rock star image and that the women wouldn’t flock to buy tickets anymore. That’s bullshit. Justin is married and has to have protection 24/7 to keep the fans away, even back then.”
“Dear God!” Shannon was crying now. Her arms wrapped around her stomach as she rocked in misery. What had she done?
“This is my cousin, Grant McCord, by the way. Our fathers were twins. In high school we used to play tricks on our teachers all the time.”