Matt—The Callahan Brothers (Brazos Bend Book 2) (33 page)

“Look, Doctor, I have a bit of a situation going on, myself. I don’t know that—” Hearing the dial tone in his ear, Matt stifled the urge to throw the phone.

Torie touched his arm. “What’s wrong, Matt?”

“That was Branch’s doctor. He said Mark and I need to go to the hospital.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. He said it wasn’t a heart attack, but that’s all he told me. I swear, I’m putting an end to this privacy b.s. today. Mark?” he called, then waved his brother to come back toward the tasting room. “Got a problem.”

Mark nodded, then shook the cop’s hand. The policeman continued to talk to Mark as he climbed into his car, and it wasn’t until he’d started the engine and pulled in a wide semicircle to exit the parking lot that Mark turned his attention toward Matt.

Meanwhile, Matt’s mind raced. He didn’t like this. Didn’t like it at all. Why would the doctor want the entire family there unless he had bad news to impart?

It must have something to do with the secret that Branch had refused to allow him to share. He hoped it wasn’t cancer. After going through that with Mom ... he couldn’t do it again.

Dammit. Why did everything have to happen at once?

“What’s up?” Mark asked. “Did you hear from Luke?”

“No, not yet. It was Dad’s doctor.” Matt recapped the short conversation for his brother.

Mark didn’t hesitate. “You go. I’ll keep an eye on things here.”

“He asked for us both.”

“Yeah, well, he might as well ask for snow in July.”

“But Mark—”

“Forget it. You need me here. I’ll take the women back to the house away from the crowds. Carson and Harwell can maintain surveillance on the tasting room.”

“Les can’t handle the crowd by himself.”

“He’s already called his lady friend and she’s on the way.”

Matt glanced at Torie. “I could take you with me,” he suggested, realizing once he’d done so that he’d prefer it that way.

She chewed on her bottom lip, her gaze trailing back toward the winery, where Helen and her hubby waited. “Do you need me to come with you, Matt?”

“No,” he answered automatically. He didn’t want her out of his sight. It might be nice to have her company when he talked to the doctor, but he didn’t need her.

He hoped like hell it wasn’t cancer.

“Of course not,” she murmured. “I’ll be fine here. I’d rather not leave Helen until she’s had a chance to calm down. You go on, now. You don’t want to keep the doctor waiting.”

It wasn’t until he was halfway to town that Matt’s mind stopped spinning long enough to realize what he’d done, what he’d risked. What if Helen’s hubby gave the game away?

His fists tightened around the steering wheel. Talk about a rookie mistake. What had he been thinking?

He hadn’t been thinking. He’d been remembering. Mom and that godawful afternoon when she’d called him into her bedroom and told him she was going to die. When she’d asked him to look out for his brothers. And for Branch.
Sorry, Mom.

He grabbed his phone, dialed Mark, and started talking the second his brother said hello. “Hey, you gotta keep Victoria away from Helen’s husband. He hired private help to find her. He might tell her about the credit card.”

When Mark hesitated before responding, Matt’s stomach sank. “Uh, you might have mentioned this before, Matthew.”

“They’ve talked?”

“Yeah. Helen and ol’ Mikey got into it again and she ran upstairs and locked him out of her room. He went to Torie for help, and she dragged him into the study. I’ll give it the old college try, but judging from the crash I heard a while back, I’m afraid it might be too late.”

Matt banged his head against the steering wheel. What would go wrong next?

Chapter Seventeen

Michael Harrison stooped to pick up filing trays from off the floor. “I get clumsy when I’m agitated. I’m agitated today. What’s wrong with your sister? Why won’t she talk to me?”

Torie folded her arms and tapped her foot. She liked Michael, she truly did, but sometimes he seemed so clueless. “She’s angry. You need to give her a little time to calm down. You should know that by now.”

“How am I supposed to learn this stuff if we’re not living together? I want my wife to live with me, Torie. Is that really too much to ask?”

“If that’s the case, then you need to come clean with your mother.”

He slumped down into a chair, propped his elbows on his knees, and buried his head in his hands. “I know. I intend to do that right away, first thing when we get home. I decided that on the drive down here.”

Finally! Then something good had come from this after all. “Good.” She propped a hip on the corner of the desk and asked, “Speaking of the drive down here ... how did it come about? You said this private investigator found me easily? How?”

“He traced your credit card.” He glanced up. “It was stupid of you to use it if you’re trying to hide. You should have known better than that.”

“I did know better than that,” Torie said, confused. “I do. I haven’t used my credit card.”

“Somebody did. Racked up quite a bill at an ice cream shop.”

Torie thought she must have heard wrong. “Where?”

“A place called Princess, Too. My guy told me they sold ice cream, but I figure they had to sell more than just that. The bill was almost four hundred dollars.”

Shock hit her like a fist. Matt? No, he wouldn’t do that. He was smarter than that. This was his business, for goodness sake. He wouldn’t make such a rookie mistake. She couldn’t believe it. “Where’s my purse? I need my purse.”

She ran up the stairs to his bedroom, where it sat on the dresser where she’d left it. As she rifled through its contents to find her wallet, her heart pounded. There. She grabbed the wallet, opened it. Her credit card rested in its usual spot.

Someone must have stolen her number?
 

And used it to buy four hundred dollars worth of ice cream? Yeah, right.
 

Someone named Matt. Matthew Callahan.
 

Why?
 

She sank onto the edge of the bed and replayed the scene in the ice cream parlor in her mind. Matt smiling at Kathy Hudson. Handing over his credit card. Kathy’s puzzled look.

Betrayal soured her stomach. She thought of the efforts she’d taken to hide her route—like the night in New Mexico she’d spent in her car because the only motel in town wouldn’t rent her a room without a credit card. She remembered the long, lonely hours in the car when she’d wanted ... needed ... to talk to her sister, but feared a phone call being traced.

She recalled Matt Callahan giving away her location with a generous smile on his face.
I want to use you, Victoria.

“Oh, he used me all right.” Iciness settled in her bones. He’d used her in bed and out of it.

A bitter numbness spread through her. She should have expected it. That’s what spies do, right? Lie to people? Use people? How stupid had she been to trust a spy? To trust Matt Callahan?
 

That’s what stuck in her craw the worst. She’d trusted him.

Oh, he likely had a reason to set her up and use her as bait like the perch he hooked to the trotline in his cove. Probably even had a good reason. But to do it without telling her? Without asking her if she was willing? Without allowing her to make the choice when it was her life at risk? Where was the respect?

Nowhere, that’s where. That particular road was one well-traveled for her. She absolutely would not go that way again. Experience had taught her that when the man in her life didn’t respect her, eventually, it began to whittle away at her own self-respect. Well, she wasn’t going to let that happen. Not now. She’d worked too hard to build it, restore it, strengthen its defenses. Respect was Torie’s permanent line in the sand, and Matt Callahan, curse his lying tongue, had crossed it.

She’d come to him for help; she’d ended up giving him her heart. She’d known it was risky, knowing he might blithely walk away, but she’d never seen this coming. She’d never expected betrayal. Heartache and humiliation rumbled through her. He’d made a fool of her and, in doing so, revealed his total and complete lack of respect for her.

Staring at her reflection in the dresser’s mirror, she said, “Well, they do say that women often fall for men just like their fathers.”

As realizations went, it was as demoralizing and hurtful as anything she’d experienced in a very long time.

But Torie wasn’t the type to curl up in a fetal position on the bed and cry. Not under these circumstances. Wounded, in pain, she got angry, and it was that emotion that drove her to her feet and carried her down the stairs. Matt wasn’t here, but Mark was. He was the next best thing. He had to have known, to have been in on it. He could darn well attempt to explain to her why his brother had acted without respect for her input, wishes, or willingness.

So full of righteous fury and indignation was she that she almost missed the scene taking place in the great room as she walked through it looking for Mark.

Michael had lifted Helen off the floor and was twirling her around. Her head dropped back and she laughed joyfully. Torie couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her twin look quite so happy. “I take it you two have kissed and made up?”

Michael gently returned Helen to her feet, then looked at Torie with wondrous joy. “She told me, Torie. Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Told you what?”

His eyes rounded even more. Then he jerked his gaze back to Helen. “You didn’t tell her?”

Love brimmed in Helen’s gaze. “No, Michael. I wouldn’t do that. You deserved to hear it before anyone else.”

“Oh, Helen. I love you.”

As the couple kissed, Torie figured it out. “You’re pregnant. Helen!” For the moment, excitement chased away her rage at Matt. She stepped toward her sister. “You’re pregnant?”

They broke off the kiss, and Helen beamed at her. “I think so, yes.”

“Oh, honey. Yes, it is wonderful. You’re gonna be a mom. I’m going to be an aunt!” Torie wrapped her arms around her sister and hugged her tight. Then she hugged Michael, which morphed into a group hug.

“Hold on a minute,” Helen cautioned. “I’m not one hundred percent positive. I think I am—I have all the symptoms—but I haven’t done a test yet.”

“What are we waiting for?” Michael asked. “Let’s do it.”

“I don’t have one.” Helen gave his mouth a quick kiss. “I just figured it out yesterday, and I haven’t been into town to buy one.”

“Okay. I’ll go get one. I saw the WalMart in town. I’ll be back in a flash.”

Michael literally ran from the house, jumped off the front porch, then halted abruptly. “His car is at the winery,” Helen said.

“My MINI Cooper is in the garage,” Torie replied. “He can take it.”

“Too late.” Helen laughed again. “He’s running up the hill.”

“What the hell is going on?” Mark said as he walked into the room, Paco trotting along at his heels. “What is Harrison up to?”

When she saw Matt’s brother, Torie’s ire returned, though it didn’t burn quite so hot. She found it difficult to be insanely happy and hotly furious simultaneously.

Difficult, but not impossible. She advanced on Mark with murder in her eyes.

***

Matt wanted to murder his father. “You want to run that by me again, Doctor?”

“Matthew, just calm down,” Branch interjected.

“Calm down? You want me to calm down? The good doctor here just told me that you haven’t allowed him to talk to your family, not because you wanted privacy, but because you didn’t want us to know that nothing is wrong with you! Dammit, Branch!”

“Wait a minute. I do too have something wrong with me.”

“Yes, a total and complete lack of conscience. For God’s sake. You faked a heart attack!”

“He did experience an episode of angina,” the doctor interjected. “Hospitalizing him for tests was justified. Keeping him here another day longer is not, which is the reason for this meeting. Mr. Callahan, physically, your father is in relatively good health for a man his age with his history. However, it is my opinion and that of the psychologist who conferred with me on your father’s case that, mentally, he has some issues.”

No effing kidding. “You got my father to see a shrink?”

“It delayed his discharge.” The doctor and Matt shared a look of understanding; then the doctor let out a long sigh. “We’re recommending family counseling. Your father has agreed to participate.”

“Family counseling,” Matt repeated. Could the day possibly get any crazier? “With my family.”

“Yes. He refused to leave the hospital unless I spoke with you about it. Mr. Callahan, the unresolved issues between your father and his sons cause him a great deal of stress that is taking a toll on his body. I understand that a confrontation with your brother Mark contributed to the incident last week. One of the primary reasons he doesn’t want to leave the hospital is that he’s seen more of you and your brother”—the doctor checked his notes—“Luke since his admittance than he had for quite some time prior to the fact.”