Too Grand for Words (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (36 page)

“If he’s smart, why couldn’t he get his fucking life together? Jesus, what am I saying? I don’t give a shit what he does. We just have to find him. Think, Dane. He’ll take her somewhere. Where?”

* * * *

It wasn’t long before ten police officers filled the kitchen and living room. They milled around, asking questions. Their radios squawked quietly as they spoke to everyone, but mainly concentrated on Dane. His mother and father had made it to the house in record time. Daniel Porter paced the floor, the phone glued to his ear, while his mother tried to calm him down.

“Someone will know his routines, where he hangs out,” his father said into the phone. “I want to know where. Thanks.” As soon as he hung up, he dialed another number.

“Steven.” His mother pulled his hand into her own. “Kyle won’t hurt her.”

“Bullshit, he blames me for us turning our backs on him. He wants to hurt me by hurting Moira.” He grabbed the counter, it was either that or he was going to start breaking things.

“Mr. Porter.”

He turned to see the sergeant behind him.

“We found her car and her phone. It was at the Santa Monica Place Shopping Center. We’re having the video cameras reviewed to see if we can get a plate and description of the car your brother was driving. We doubt he went on foot. His apartment has been searched, but there’re no leads to where he could have taken her.”

“We should have let him rot in prison instead of getting him off,” he said, turning to his mother.

“Steven,” she snapped at him. “He’s your brother, regardless if he’s led a different life. Don’t talk like that.”

“Mom—” Dane said quietly from across the island they stood around. “I’m sorry, Steven. If Moira pushes him he could lose his temper, he could even hurt her. He’s so fuckin’ angry he can’t think straight.”

His mother’s face drained of color. “He wouldn’t do that,” she stammered.

“He wants Steven to suffer. No matter what I’ve said to him over the years, he blames him.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you saw him?” Daniel Porter joined the conversation, and he looked as angry and worried as Steven did.

“Would it have mattered? He’s lived on the streets for so many years, he didn’t think you would ever accept him. I tried to convince him to come home, but he’s as stubborn as Steven, with a chip on his shoulder the size of a mountain.”

“He won’t make it to prison if I find him first,” Steven vowed. “I’m going to tear him to fucking pieces.” The police hovered around the phone, setting up a recording unit. “This is a nightmare. Why didn’t she just let Charlie watch her? Why does she always have to be so goddamned headstrong?”

“I told you you’d make her vulnerable, Steven. This shouldn’t be a surprise,” Dane said weakly.

“Moira doesn’t deserve this. He’s our blood. What does he want? If he wants money, I’ll give it to him.”

“I think it’s too late for that.”

The phone rang, and everyone jumped. The sergeant approached them. “Try to keep calm, Mr. Porter. The longer he talks the better it will be for us.”

He picked up the phone. “Kyle?”

“Hey, brother,” Kyle said as if used to calling and chatting for a while. “Moira and I are all tucked away safe and sound. I thought I’d let you know she’s a real trooper. I gotta say she takes pain incredibly well.”

He started to shake, crushing the phone in his hand. “Someone wants to talk to you,” he said and pressed the conference button.

“Kyle, it’s Mom.”

“Hey, Mom, how’s it going? Haven’t talked to you in about—oh I don’t know, what’s it been, over twenty years?”

“Kyle, we didn’t know where you were. Why didn’t you call us or come home?”

“I just couldn’t see you in a waiting room full of love-starved whores and criminals on visiting day, Mom.”

“You’re my son, Kyle. I love you and I’ve worried about you. Bring Moira home and talk to us.”

“Oh yeah, now you wanna talk. I think it’s a little late for that, don’t you, Mom?” Kyle cleared his throat. “Hey, Steven, ya know the more time I spend with Moira, the more I kind of like her. She’s not like all those other bitches you screwed. I always kept track, ya know. Kinda living vicariously through you, knowing you had the kind of life I should have had. But now I have what you had, and I’ve decided I’ll keep her, at least for a while.”

“Kyle, let her go.” He was past angry, and now he was begging. “If you need money you can have it. Just tell me how much.”

“Wow, she means that much to you, huh?” He paused. “Aw sorry, big brother, don’t think so. I gotta say she put up a good struggle. Pretty mouthy too to begin with, but I don’t think that’ll happen again.”

His anger flew out of control as he imagined Moira trying to fight off his brother. “What did you do to her, Kyle? God fucking help you if you hurt her.”

“Kyle.” His father raised his hand to silence him. “Let Moira go. Let her go. She’s your family, too, son.”

“Son,” he scoffed. “You stopped being my father when Steven brainwashed you.”

“No one brainwashed us, Kyle. You walked away. You left your family. We wanted to help, but the drugs kept you away from us, not Steven.”

“I’m clean, but you wouldn’t know that. You didn’t give a shit,” he said bitterly.

“Kyle, this is going to end badly if you hurt her. Bring her back and we’ll start again, slowly,” Daniel Porter said calmly.

“Fuck you, Dad. None of you wanted an ex drug addict attached to the family.” He paused, and the sound of a door closing sounded in the background. “Moira and I are going to have a little talk. She should know what a self-righteous prick she’s marrying. And by the way, you’re right. She’s not well. I think she’s losing the baby. Sorry, Steven. Guess you’ll just have to go back to screwing all those beautiful bitches you had. Forget about Moira. She’s not coming back to you—ever.”

Steven picked up the handset. “Kyle, let me talk to her?”

“Why? So you can tell her how much you love her.”

“Yes,” he said solemnly.

“I’ll pass the message.”

The phone went dead. Steven dropped the handset back in the cradle. The room was silent as a tomb.

“God,” Steven yelled, thrusting his hands through his hair. “He’s lying.”

“We’ll find her, Steven,” Dane said, thumping a fist on his shoulder. “I’m sure Moira is fine.”

“Sergeant?” Daniel Porter turned sharply toward him.

“We’ve got an area. It’s a wide area though. The call came from Fresno.”

Silence filled the room.

“Did you say Fresno?” Gail turned her attention to Daniel. “Could he be at the cabin?”

“What cabin?” Steven asked.

“Don’t you remember the cabin at Pine Flat Lake? We used to take you boys there when you were very young”

“The lake, I remember the lake.” He ran for the garage.

“Wait,” Dane called after him. “I’m coming with you.”

“Check it out,” Daniel Porter said to the sergeant. “It’s on the north side of the lake on East Trimmer Springs Road just before the road turns north.”

“It’s a five-hour drive, Steven,” Gail yelled after him. “Let the police go.”

“I’ll be there in an hour by plane.” He ran out of the house and jumped into the car, barely letting Dane close his door before he tore down the driveway.

* * * *

“Sergeant, call the Fresno Police Department and have them search the area. They need to find Kyle before Steven does,” Daniel Porter ordered. He turned his attention to Gail. The fear and the love were plain to see.

Moira sat on the couch, watching Kyle’s movements. The sound of the frogs and crickets filled the night air, and filtered into the old log cabin. It was fully furnished and maintained, except for a little dust in the corners. Large French doors led to a massive patio that lay only steps from a lake.

On the drive here, she tried to get him to talk, but he ignored her.

She waited silently after hearing half of the conversation with Steven and the family. “Kyle, why did you tell him I’m losing the baby? He’s going to go crazy.”

“I hope he does, the fucking prick deserves it.”

She shook her head and glared at the wooden floorboards. “I don’t have any family, except for yours,” she said. “But if I did, no matter what I did wrong, I know that family always forgives. Why don’t you let them try?”

Kyle plunked down on the old coffee table in front of her. “Because they don’t want my baggage attached to them.”

She peered into the triplet’s face in awe. “How could there be three of you?” she asked.

“Well, apparently the egg splits in three and…”

“Yeah, I know that, smartass,” she said. “I mean the three of you are identical.” It had been enough of a shock to see Steven and Dane together. The characteristic differences between them were very small, and she had to get close to see them. The triplet, Kyle, was the same. All three of them exuded a masculine energy that could make a woman’s libido race. Now that she was close enough, she could see that Kyle appeared a little rougher around the edges, but he was absolutely identical. “It’s unbelievable.”

Kyle eyed her. “You talk like we’re having a drink at a family picnic. I’m holding you hostage, Moira. You’re sitting there like nothing is wrong.”

“What do you want from me? You want me to cry and beg because you might take my life.” She laughed.

He gazed at her, his brows pushing together with uncertainty. “I’m not going to kill you, Moira. I’m not a murderer.”

“But Steven doesn’t know that.”

“That’s right.”

“Why, Kyle?”

“Because of your husband to-be,” he snarled. “That asshole has lived a charmed life, and I’ve barely scratched out an existence.”

“Mr. Porter, you’re not the only one who’s lived a hard life on this planet. You don’t get the entire pie of pity to yourself.”

Kyle backed away and roamed the room. “My brother doesn’t know hard.”

“Not from your perspective maybe, but no one gets away from hard in this life, Kyle.”

“Oh yeah, it’s been so tough for him, hasn’t it? He’s a billionaire, with women slobbering at his feet.”

“I don’t slobber, Kyle.”

He glanced at her. “I didn’t say you.” He wandered to the window and looked out into the dark night. “Where’s your family?”

“Right in front of me, I guess. The rest have passed on.”

“I’m not your family.”

She shrugged, placing her hand on her stomach. The twinges that began when Kyle wrestled her into his car had gotten worse, and she squinted with a sharp pain. She could feel the stickiness of blood between her thighs. She had to be losing the baby. A slice of coldness cut through her. She’d been scared to death when she’d first found out she was pregnant, and then she’d become excited giving herself a thin slice of hope, knowing she would have a family of her own. She’d allowed herself to feel happy. That was a mistake.

“Why aren’t you asking me to take you to a hospital? You should be begging me,” he said darkly.

“What’s to beg? I can’t fight nature. I can’t fix what God won’t allow. I should have never gotten pregnant in the first place.”

“Why is that?”

She didn’t feel like explaining herself. Kyle’s anger seemed to be on simmer since he’d talked with Steven. For thirty minutes, Kyle simply paced the floor deep in thought. She didn’t know anything about him. Was he mentally unstable or was he just angry at his family? Either way, she had to stay calm and not antagonize him.

“I only got to see Dane’s girls twice. They’re cute. But he didn’t trust me around them.”

“Why?”

“Did you miss that part of the conversation? I’m a recovered drug addict, Moira.”

Obviously, it had been bad enough that it had drawn him away from the family, she thought. “A parent is overly protective. If Dane saw you at your worst then of course he’s nervous.”

“I’ve never hurt anyone, except in self-defense. I would never hurt the girls.”

“But you’ve got a temper like Steven.”

“I’m nothing like him,” he stated.

“You’re wrong there. You’re more like him than you are Dane.”

“Why do you say that?” he said, his eyes glaring at her, not liking the comparison.

“Your aura, it’s like Steven’s. You exude a strength and willfulness that’s all-encompassing. Dane doesn’t have that.”

“What do you mean strength? I’ve been in and out of prison three times. That isn’t strong.”

“No, those were the results of your choices, but the man that you are inside is like your brother Steven.”

He leaned away from her.

“Don’t look so surprised, Kyle. Your brother conquered Hollywood. Dane will probably conquer the computer industry given enough time. Who knows what you would have taken over if you hadn’t shot up, and let the drugs and feeling sorry for yourself conquer you.”

He glared at her, and she glared back.

“Jesus Christ, lady, do you ever listen to yourself?”

She’d unsettled him with her comment.
Easy, Moira
she thought. “Hope is what gets us up every morning, Kyle, even you. With every new day there’s a chance to make things right. I know that more than most. After my parents died, I woke up every day hoping God would take my life, but he didn’t. I was orphaned when I was ten. I spent eight years in a foster home. They were good people, but I knew I wasn’t really family.”

“Then I joined the Coast Guard, and I found a home in the marine industry. But I’ve had to walk alone, until your brother found me. I’ve been by myself for thirty years Kyle, longer than you, and although you hide it, it doesn’t mean you don’t feel lost. I know what lost feels like.”

Kyle rose and began to pace again. “I didn’t get a break, Moira. No one wants a recovered addict and ex-con for anything but flipping hamburgers.”

“Then why didn’t you flip hamburgers until you took over the place and named it Kyle’s burgers?”

He gazed at her like she had two heads.

“Your brothers didn’t just pole-vault into success. They worked at it. I can’t even begin to understand the mind that it would take to do what they’ve done, but you have the same mind. Your brother is a genius, an industry leader. But someone didn’t just walk up to him and drop the keys to Hollywood in his hand and say, ‘Hey, take over would ya!’”

“Where the hell did he find you?” Kyle swiveled, shaking his head.

She laughed. “I’m just a good listener. It’s what I’ve done all my life. Observed and listened. In your words, I hear frustration. You know you’re meant for better, capable of it, but every time a roadblock went up in front of you, you backed away instead of bulldozing over it like your brothers. That’s the only difference.”

“I tried, Moira.”

“No you didn’t.”

“How the hell would you know?” he said.

“Yeah, you’re the same as Steven all right, in more ways than one.” She couldn’t help grinning. “Get close to the truth and the hair stands up on the back of your neck and you show your teeth.”

He rubbed his stubbled chin and eyed her. “You must drive my brother nuts.”

“Because I’m not intimidated by a big, strong, good-looking man? Yeah that’s really intimidating. Believe me—I know intimidating. I worked with it all my life.” She shifted on the couch, trying to find a place that didn’t have lumps. “Your brother learned that trying to control me is like trying to grab wind.”

For the first time a smile cracked on Kyle’s hardened face. “I bet.” He leaned against the log wall of the cabin and crossed his arms over his chest. “I imagine every woman gave him what he wanted, aspiring to be Mrs. Porter, but you didn’t—did you?”

He stared at her as if trying to figure her out. It felt strange looking into the identical features of the man she was supposed to marry. It had been bad enough coming to terms with Dane. But Kyle’s persona was so close to Steven’s, it made her shiver. “You want your family back, don’t you? And don’t lie to me. Truth is a good virtue to start with on the road back to home.”

“Maybe,” he muttered.

She smiled sadly at him. “For a short time, I had a big family, your family—to love. They’re not pompous or stuck-up. They’re good people, Kyle.”

“But it’s worse when you have a family that doesn’t want you. My own brother turned my parents against me.”

“I don’t think that’s it. I think your parents wanted to see you grow up and succeed just like your brothers. Drugs are a hard thing to battle. An addiction never ends. You just control it. You’ll fight it for the rest of your life, Kyle.”

“You talk like you know something about it.”

She dropped her gaze to the floor. “Maybe.”

He wandered over and sat down in front of her again. He reached for her hand. “You? Does Steven know?”

She shook her head. “Not me.”

“Who?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.”

“Can’t share with your brother-in-law, huh?”

Feeling the tears push at her eyes with the memories she said, “My father.” So many years had passed, but it still brought the hurt when she thought about her family. “You obviously think your family doesn’t love you, but I’m telling you they do, even Steven.”

Kyle’s brows shot together. “Lady, I think you’re dreamin’ up shit now.”

“No.” She stared at him. “My point is, even when you walk down a wrong path or two in life, no one says you can’t keep walking. Winston Churchill said, ‘if you’re going through hell, keep going.’” She curled her fingers around his hand. “Your family lost their trust in you, but it’s up to you to make them trust you again. It won’t happen overnight, but it can happen.”

“What happened to your family, Moira?”

She gazed at him silently.

His brows rose and the anger in his eyes was replaced with a glint of warmth. “What happened?” he prodded gently.

“They died in a car accident. In those days, driving drunk wasn’t treated the same as it is today. My mom and dad and brother were driving home from a summer barbeque. I had gone with my girlfriend’s family to the beach. They never came back to get me.” She pushed the numbing pain deep down, hiding it away as she always had.

Kyle watched her silently for a moment. “I was seventeen and growing up in LA where drugs were available like candy. My friends started shooting up, and so did I. I was an addict instantly. After that, I’d do anything to get the drug. I stole, I prostituted, I did anything to support the habit.”

“How long have you been clean, Kyle?”

“Fifteen years.”

“Why didn’t you try to go home? Your mother hasn’t forgotten you. I saw it in her eyes, just three weeks ago. She mentioned you, and said she missed you.”