OVER HER DEAD BODY: The Bliss Legacy - Book 2 (35 page)

“And?”

Silence.

“You plan on bringing the cynical, hot-stuff gigolo to his knees, don’t you?”

She lifted her face to the rain and smiled weakly. “That would be good.”

More silence, then, “Love, Keeley. Love makes a family.”

She nodded and headed to Mayday House, to do the right thing.

The following afternoon, Gus, steaming coffee in hand, stood on the back porch, waiting for Keeley to come through the hole in the hedge.

She’d already explained everything to Father Barton—she and one of the cops, but after that, she’d wanted some “quiet time” with her mother.

Her eye nearly swollen shut, and her jaw about two sizes bigger than normal, she looked like hell, and he’d suggested she take things easy. But no way could he stop her, and no way would she rest. They were damn near a matched set: his face was cut, and the lump on his head, added to the one Mace had given him earlier, was the size of a baseball. But a couple of painkillers had reduced the ache to a dull throb.

He was settled enough. For now.

He glanced up. The weather had cleared, not to the gold of autumn sunshine, but to a light silver and a sky thick with clouds. Thanks to the storm, the world was scrubbed and polished, and the air moist from last night’s rain. The scent of it was clean, sharp, and fresh with promise.

“Doesn’t it smell like a brand-new promise, Gussie, like yesterday never happened?”

Gus started when the words jumped into his mind, followed by an image of his grandmother standing on a rickety fire escape landing with him and April. She was urging them to look up at the blue lane of sky running between the tall, dirty buildings—April beside him, nodding solemnly, saying, “I can smell it, Gramma, I really can.”

A month later his grandmother was dead, and he and April went back to live with their parents. Two hellish years after that, April was gone. Sold like a trinket to fill a crack pipe.

Gus drew in a deep breath, willed the painful memory aside.

Yesterday
did
happen; he knew that for a fact, and because of it, he had business with Hagan Marsden. He didn’t figure it would take long, and it would be easier now he knew Mayday House and Keeley were safe.

The police were gone—for now. Probably already doing the paperwork required to start digging up St. Ivan’s. The Starks had left an hour ago, and Dinah was upstairs packing. Christiana, at Keeley’s insistence, was staying on a few days. He’d just passed her and Bridget in the kitchen on their way out for a walk.

That was good, Gus thought, better that Bridget attach herself to someone like Christiana than Erica Stark. Paul was okay, but Erica? He’d take a pass. He’d see both of them soon enough, when they came back for the exhumation and to claim the body—or bones, to be dead accurate. The way he saw it, Erica was damn lucky because Keeley adamantly refused to tell the police about the cellar incident—the one where Stark had trained her Glock on Keeley’s chest, or the blackmail attempt. For the babies’ sake, she said, not for Erica. His opinion? Those babies had losing tickets in the motherhood lottery.

Oddly, Erica had exchanged telephone numbers with Christiana. Hell, they’d come damn close to hugging before they’d shaken hands and Erica stomped out the door. Probably wouldn’t hurt the Stark twins to have an aunt like Christiana in the background.

“Gus.” Dinah came up from behind, and stepped up beside him at the rail.

“How you doing?” he asked, turning to touch her cheek.

“I’m perfect. What else would you expect?” The words were pure Dinah, but the tone wasn’t.

“Somehow I doubt that.” He set his coffee down and crossed his arms. “It was rough on you. And maybe not over yet?” He raised a brow.

She shrugged. “I’m stopping at the”—she adopted a sarcastic tone—“local constabulary before I leave town. They want to go over my story—again—but no one’s said anything about my not leaving, so I’m heading home today.”

“No charges then.”

She shook her head. “One cop muttered about my being an accessory after the fact for keeping my mouth shut, but the other one said that because of Mary’s confession and after all this time, they probably wouldn’t charge. I talked to my lawyer a few minutes ago, and he said the second cop was probably on the money.” She looked out over the backyard. “If that changes, they know where to find me—and my lawyer. I’m leaving. Can’t wait to get out of here.” She looked around with distaste. “God, I hate this place!”

At that point Keeley’s head came through the hedge. Dinah watched her unfold from the tangled bush and head for the house. After a moment she said, “It’s you and her, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

She nodded and he saw her swallow. “I kind of figured that out from the first day in the kitchen. You were working so goddamned hard at ignoring her. There had to be a reason. What did you think I’d do, put a knife in her back?”

“Something like that.”

“You underestimate me. I’d have been much more shrewd and creative.”

“Yes. I guess you would.”

A breeze drifted between them, bringing a riff of silence. She moved into him, put a hand on his face, and covered his jaw with her palm. “You know I love you, don’t you?”

He took her hand from his face and kissed her palm.”You’ll get over it. Over me. You and I both know that.”

She looked at him a long time, then took her hand from his and shook her head. She smiled, but Gus didn’t miss the sheen of tears in her eyes. “There’s always shopping,” she said as Keeley took the first stair.

Gus nodded, pulled her close, and kissed her forehead. “Take care of yourself, Dinah.”

She straightened away from him. “Now there’s something I do know how to do.” She turned and walked back into the kitchen.

Keeley took the top step, watched her go, then switched her attention to him, or as much of her attention as she could give from an eye that grew more vivid by the hour. “Complicated, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“You okay with it?”

He took the two steps separating them and stood in front of her. “I’m okay with you. Only you.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and for a few moments they held each other. Finally, Keeley said, “When are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow. I’ve set up a meeting with Hagan for late afternoon in Seattle.”

“What if he won’t tell you where April is? After everything that’s gone on, he’s not going to be happy.”

“Hagan’s never happy, but I’ll work it out,” he said.
And I’ll get what I want from him, or he’11 be one sorry bastard.
He kept his last thoughts to himself. “What about you? When are you going?”

“They plan to exhume the body the day after tomorrow, I’ll leave right after that. I don’t see any reason to wait. Apparently my father doesn’t have much time left. Plus I want to visit Dolan—if he’ll see me.” She shrugged.

“Complicated,” Gus said, using her description of his relationship with Dinah.

She stepped back. “Definitely complicated. But I have to go.”

“I know.” He smoothed her hair. “How long will you be gone?”

“Two or three days, maybe. I don’t really know, because I’m not sure what to expect. It isn’t every day I meet a father I didn’t know I had.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

It was more than a week, and as Gus had promised, he was waiting for her. After a couple of days of flight delays due to bad weather, Sea-Tac was jammed. There was barely enough time for a hurried embrace before they joined the throngs waiting for luggage at the carousel. Serious talk would have to wait.

“Did Christiana get hold of you?” Gus asked, his eyes on the passing luggage. “She left a message at the house. Something about you attending a service for Stark.”

“Yes. She and Paul arranged it. It was small, just a few people.” And one of the most uncomfortable days of her life.

He looked surprised, then shook his head. “You went.”

“I think Mary and my mother would have wanted it”

He glanced down at her. “Then you know Bridget went to stay with Chris.” He checked on a look-alike bag to Keeley’s, then stepped back.

“Yes. She’s given her a job, not sure what, exactly. Something like an assistant to her assistant. Christiana has a large measure of do-gooder in her, I think.” She settled her shoulder bag more comfortably. “Oh, and she’s going to New York—Christiana, I mean. To meet her brother, Perry. God, I hope she’s luckier in the brother department than me.” She grimaced, stifled her hurt and disappointment. Dolan still refused to talk to her, so she’d decided to give him some time before trying again. What she wouldn’t do was give up on him.

“Perry’s okay. They’ll like each other.”

“Good.” Keeley prayed that out of all the tragedy and chaos of the past, some good would come out of it for Christiana. As it had for her. She stole a glance at the tall, purposeful man at her side. Definitely good.

“Here it is.” Gus retrieved her case. “Let’s go.” When they got to the car, he dropped the bag and pulled her into his arms. “Now, let’s say hello again. Properly.” He made up for the hurried part of their reunion by kissing her breathless. “God, I’ve missed you.” He put his forehead to hers when he ended the kiss. Then he kissed her again, this time until her knees went weak.

“I think—” She managed to get some air in her lungs. “We’d better move along before we get arrested for public indecency.” Which at the moment didn’t bother her a bit. It had been a hard week emotionally, and she couldn’t think of a softer place for it to end than in Gus’s arms.

“Indecent, huh? Sounds good to me.” Gus touched her hair and smiled down at her. Like his kisses, his rare smiles captivated her, turning his handsome, sharp-angled face to mesmerizing and lightening his brown eyes to a deep amber. When joy touched his face, all the wariness and cool remoteness disappeared, leaving it clearer and more beautiful than ever.

Keeley tightened her grip on his waist, overwhelmed with her feelings for him—the fierceness of them. “Me, too, but if it’s all the same to you, I’d like the indecent part behind closed doors.”

He laughed and opened the car door. “Get in,” he said. “I want to hear all about your week. Especially your time with your father.”

And I want to hear about April.

During their telephone calls, whenever she’d asked, he’d sidestepped her questions, saying vague things about how he was still working on it. Gus would tell her when he was ready, but she couldn’t squelch the fear Hagan had been too angry to be cooperative, that Gus had lost his only lead to his sister because of her.

When he settled in beside her, he said, “Okay, shoot. From what you told me, you and he hit it off well enough.” He started the car, checked the car’s mirrors, and reversed out of the parking spot.

“My father is—” She tried to think of the right words. “A very rich, very lonely, very bitter man. Sad, really.”

Gus slanted her a gaze. “I’d be bitter, too, if I had Dolan for a son. Finding out he’s up on murder charges can’t be easy.”

“The odd thing is that didn’t seem to upset him—or surprise him. He muttered something about Dolan being a ‘bad seed’ and never said his name again.” Keeley’s heart weighed heavy in her chest. “Something’s so awfully wrong between them. If there was ever any love there, it was lost long ago.”

“Dolan’s mother around?”

Keeley shook her head. “Dead. Years ago. She was William’s third wife. And last, so he said.”

When she didn’t add anything else, he prompted her, “Will you see him again? William, I mean.”

“Yes. And soon, I think.” She needed to know him better, this man with the faded red hair and the gloomy soul. In the few days she’d spent with him, a tenuous link was formed, and soon that link would be broken. Her father was much too ill to last much longer, a fact her years of nursing made obvious, and his doctor confirmed.

“What happened? Between him and your mother?”

“She walked out on him—which isn’t the story I heard. Apparently, my father’s family was very prestigious, for want of a better word, and had a lot of money—which I gather he’s spent most of his life adding to. When his father found out about the ‘young Irish girl’ he was involved with, he threatened to disinherit him. William says he was prepared for that, that he loved my mother and wanted to marry her, but in the heat of things she wrote a note, saying something about not wanting to ruin his family, and walked away.”

“Did he know about you?”

“No. He thought it was a possibility, he said, but my mother never told him she was pregnant.”

Gus whistled. “That must have been something. His meeting a daughter he didn’t know existed.”

“Yes.” And strange, because William had accepted Keeley immediately, with very few questions asked. Although several times, as she’d smoothed his bedding or sat with him while he ate, she’d caught him staring at her, once with tears in his eyes. “He said I had his hair and my mother’s smile.”

“And that was that?”

“He said he looked for my mother, but never found a trace of her. He thought she’d gone back to Ireland. He’s finding it hard to believe she was here all these years.” She paused. “An old story, isn’t it? Love gone wrong.”

“And you believe him.”

The comment, so cautious and guarded, was so Gus-like, it made her smile. “Yes, I believe him.” She stopped smiling. “Maybe because it makes my mother’s secrecy about Jimmy Stark’s death make a crazy kind of sense. She must have been afraid if there was publicity of any kind, William would find her.” She looked out the car window, puzzled. They were heading north, not south. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

Fifteen minutes later, Gus pulled into the parking lot of the Marriott Waterfront Hotel; ten minutes after that, they were in a suite looking out over Seattle’s waterfront.

“This is decadent,” Keeley whispered, standing at the window and looking in awe at the glimmer of lights across Elliott Bay.

Gus came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and rested his chin on her head. “I figured you could handle a taste of ‘decadent’ for one night.” When he nuzzled her ear, she closed her eyes. “I ordered room service,” he said, “but I can cancel if you prefer to go out.”