Unnatural Relations (Lust and Lies Series, Book 1) (36 page)

"Speaking of everyone leaving, your friend Tammy Garrett wasn't home when the detective went by her apartment to get her statement and she hasn't returned the messages left on her answering machine. If you hear from her, try to convince her to stop in at the station or at least give me a call. I'll be glad to handle it personally, out of uniform, if she's really that phobic about talking to police."

Barbara rolled her eyes. "I think phobic might be an understatement. The instant she realized police were on their way, she was gone. I can't help but wonder what could have happened to her that would terrify her that much."

"Hard to tell, but it usually means the person either is, or once was, on the opposite side of the law. Although, the way Matt talks about her, it's unlikely she'd fall into that category."

Dani hesitated a few seconds before moving on to the next person on her list. "I checked on your other friend before I came here. It was only a flesh wound—hurts like hell, but he'll be out of the hospital by tomorrow morning."

Barbara's expression hardened. "Too bad."

"Yeah," Dani said with a slow nod, then continued in a clearly sarcastic tone. "Too bad he wasn't killed. Better yet, too bad he wasn't set on fire and slowly cremated. That would have been a lot more painful."

"You think I should feel some sympathy for him?"

"I think you should feel something. I know our friendship is very new and I may have overstepped my bounds, but you were falling in love with this guy and suddenly he's the devil incarnate, to the point where you didn't even ask about his condition. The thing is, I think your emotional antennae are very finely tuned when it comes to men, and the fact that you trusted him as much as you did shouldn't be ignored. Anyway, I had a talk with him."

Barbara clucked her tongue and sighed. "Don't tell me you were sucked in by his chemistry."

"I'm pretty sure any natural chemistry he has was canceled out by the shot of morphine he was given while I was there. He was a little out of it, but he managed to tell me an interesting story about who he is and why you now hate his guts."

"And you believed him?"

Dani chuckled. "A man pumped full of narcotics is usually fairly truthful."

"But did he admit that he planned the whole thing to get his hands on Hamilton money through Matthew?"

"He doesn't need their money."

"Are you sure they didn't give
you
some hard drugs while you were there?"

With a shrug, Dani said, "You'll believe whatever you want, so I'm going to save my breath, except for one suggestion. Look up a list of the wealthiest people in the world and see whose name ranks above whose."

When she was alone again, Barbara tried to busy herself by reorganizing the kitchen cabinets, but Dani's suggestion kept haunting her. What if Kyle had told the truth about having more money than the Hamiltons? What other reason would he have for seducing her?

"Maw? Could I talk to you for a minute?"

Barbara withdrew her head from the cabinet under the sink and smiled at Matt. "Did you sleep all right?"

He nodded and sat down on the floor next to her. "Is Kyle going to be okay?"

"Yes, he'll be fine. Dani checked on him earlier." They had talked about the shooting for a while after the police left, but she was willing to go over all of it again if he needed more reassurance. Barbara gave Matt time to ask for more details, but he didn't. "Is that what you wanted to talk about?"

"No. I mean, I wanted to know if he was okay, but that wasn't it." Rather than say what
it
was, he untied and retied the shoelaces on his new sneakers.

"You know you can ask me anything." He stopped playing with the laces, but he couldn't seem to find a comfortable position. "Should I start guessing, or will you give me a hint first?"

Though Matt stopped fidgeting, he kept his eyes downcast. "I've just been wonderin' about... stuff."

From the embarrassed look on his face, she thought she'd figured it out. Once upon a time, nine-year-old boys didn't know about sex and didn't want to. Today, they had knowledge forced on them at an early age. Either that or being around Tammy was playing havoc with his prepubescent hormones. "Is this about boy-girl stuff?"

He wrinkled his nose at her. "Naw. I told you I know all about that junk."

"Oh, that's right. I forgot. Come on, kiddo. I can't fill in the blanks if I don't know the questions."

He went back to playing with his laces, as he asked, "Did you and my real father ever get married?"

Her stomach clenched. So that was the problem. He wanted answers to the questions she'd been putting off. Evasion would no longer do, and she couldn't lie. "No, we weren't married."

He let that sink in then went on to the next question. "Is he really dead?"

"Yes. He died in a car accident the night before you were born."

"Why didn't you two get married?"

Again, honesty seemed to be the best policy. "We loved each other very much, but we were from two different worlds. His family was very wealthy and didn't think I would fit into their social circle, so they... did things to convince him not to marry me."

"Huh?" Her explanation clearly made no sense to him.

"His mom and dad didn't like me," she summarized more simply.

"Oh. They must have been real assholes.
Oops!"

"Matthew!" She was about to scold him, but the devilish grin he was trying to hide made her laugh. "Yes. They were royal assholes, but I don't want to hear that word out of your mouth again."

"Sorry." He started to retie the lace then abruptly looked directly at her. "That means I
do
have another gramma and grampa, just like Tammy said I did. How come I never saw them? Are they dead, too?"

"No, they live in Boston in a big, stuffy old mansion with lots of servants who aren't allowed to smile. You've never met them because they didn't know about you. I always figured, when you got a little older, you could decide if you wanted to meet them. But as long as you brought it up, you may as well know it all. That gray-haired man, Simon Decker, works for them. Through him, they've offered to buy you from me."

"Huh? That's dumb. You can't buy kids from their moms." He paused and cocked his head at her. "Can you?"

"Not unless the mom agrees to it."

"Then they're bad people too."

"Yes, but they're very rich and they think that makes it okay to do whatever they want."

"I don't want to meet them. Ever. Tammy's wrong. I don't care if they could buy me anything I want and fly me to Disney World every weekend in a private jet."

Barbara felt a chill run through her. "What did you say about Tammy?"

He had to think for a second. "Oh. We were talking about rich people last night. She thinks being rich is the coolest thing. She said if I had a family with lots of money, I could have everything I ever wanted and so could you, and Russ would never be able to scare us anymore."

There was something terribly unsettling about Tammy bringing up wealth
and
grandparents with her son on the same evening. "And what did you say to that?"

"Wel-l-l, when we were talking, I thought it might be cool to have piles of money. I mean, I'd like to have all that stuff and for you not to have to work so hard. But if being rich turns you into the kind of creep who thinks you can buy somebody else's kid, I don't want to be like that. Kyle isn't rich like that, is he?"

Barbara's brain was still focused on Tammy and the odds of her casually discussing the benefits of having rich grandparents with Matt.

"Is he?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, baby. What did you say about Kyle?"

He made a face, but didn't complain about the endearment. "I was just wondering if he was rich, but I guess not, 'cause he doesn't even drive a fancy car. Can I ask one more question?"

"Of course."

"What was my father's name?"

After years of careful answers and guarded secrecy, it took a lot of courage for her to fill in the final blank, but it now appeared as though she needed to arm him with all the facts for his own protection. "Howard Hamilton the fourth was your father. He was a big, strong, handsome man and you look just like him."

Having cleared his mind of puzzling questions, Matt went off to play a video game. Barbara tried to get back to her project, but she now had even more to wonder over than before.

She didn't really care what Kyle's financial status was, but Dani had roused her curiosity and the conversation with Matt had given her an idea how she could get more facts than what would appear on a published listing of wealthy people. She vacillated for several more minutes then called Simon Decker.

"Why, Ms. Mancuso. What a pleasant surprise. But I heard you had a bit of an unpleasant surprise last night. Awful business, these drive-by shootings. Just awful. Believe me, I was appalled that the policewoman thought to question
me,
as though I would stoop to such a level to convince you to be reasonable."

Barbara listened to him ramble for a little longer. It was reminiscent of how Kyle had gone on and on the other night after she caught him making a phone call from his car. "Mr. Decker, excuse me for interrupting, but I didn't call about the shooting. I called to let you know I have considered the Hamiltons' final offer."

"Really?"

His surprise and excitement were exactly what Barbara counted on to get what she wanted. "But I wonder if you would help me clear up a bit of confusion I have."

"Anything. Anything at all."

She could imagine him salivating. For the first time in weeks, she had a flurry of self-confidence. "Good. I assume you were told who was shot last night."

"As a matter of fact, I was, but it was quite bewildering to me how Hamilton Treadwell happened to be in your front yard."

"Then you didn't know he was here and had spent the last two weeks trying to seduce me into marrying him?"

"I beg your pardon?"

His response sounded as though he was genuinely confused. "You're surprised? When I found out who he really was, I assumed you had hired him."

"H-hired him? My dear lady, Hamilton Treadwell would never... has no need... oh, my, no. I haven't even seen him in a decade. Since... since young Howard's funeral. His family and the Hamiltons do not associate with one another. Oh, my, no. If Mr. Hamilton ever heard a rumor that I... well, I just wouldn't."

"Are the Treadwells rich?"

He let out a nervous laugh. "Oh, yes. Quite."

"So, Kyle, or rather Hamilton, wouldn't need to marry me and adopt Matthew to get his hands on millions."

Another high-pitched laugh preceded his response. "I should say not. If he was pursuing you, his motives would have been for an entirely different reason."

"Oh. What other motive might he have?"

"Revenge."

Chapter 18

"Revenge? I thought Howard and Ky—Hamilton were best friends."

"Oh, they were," Decker confirmed seriously. "The dispute goes back to the prior generation. Treadwell Enterprises was Hamilton-Greene's stiffest competitor in the food industry at one time. Howard the third's sister, Celeste, fell in love with the founder, Kyle Treadwell, and married him despite all her brother's threats and warnings, thereby thumbing her nose at her family. Howard cut her out of his will and has never spoken to her since. It is believed she named their first son Hamilton to annoy her brother even more."

"It was only at Edith's insistence that the two boys were permitted to play together so that her son would learn to associate with children in his social class rather than someone like the gardener's son."

"Under Hamilton Treadwell's leadership, their company diversified into a number of other industries, allowing Hamilton-Greene to reclaim the lead in the food industry."

"I'm not sure I'm following you. Are you saying that Hamilton Treadwell made some bad business decisions, but blames Howard Hamilton for getting ahead of him, so he would get revenge by gaining control of the only Hamilton heir?"