Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (62 page)

“So you were the first one Mandy Marlow sank her claws into.” She clutched the shiny black purse that hung from the crook in her elbow on rhinestone-encrusted straps.

The mere mention of the woman’s name had David’s skin chill. He stood from his seat to be eye level with the woman who seemed to have secrets hidden behind her dark stare. “Who are you?”

“I am obviously no one. But now that I’ve seen your face, I remember you.”

He studied her, at a disadvantage because he had no idea who she was. “I’m sorry. I don’t recall your name,” he said, trying to keep his calm.

“You wouldn’t. You were too busy knocking up seventeen-year-olds.”

Her words stabbed him in the heart. Right where he assumed she was aiming. Whoever the nasty woman was, she was part of his past, but why she was standing in his daughter’s store looking for her was beyond him.

“I don’t know what you want with my daughter, but I’d appreciate it if you left.”

“All I want is what is mine. I’ll be back for it.” She turned and stalked out the door.

David huffed out a breath and watched as the woman drove away in a taxi that had waited right outside.

Hope was waiting for him at the baggage claim, and the smile on her face told him she missed him as much as he’d missed her.

She ran to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, and the part of him that hadn’t felt whole since he’d left her was complete again.

“God, how long were you gone?” She kissed him hard on the mouth and he held her close to him, never wanting to let her go again.

“Too long.” He lifted his head back to look at her. “Everything is quiet?”

“Sure.” She kissed him again before releasing her grasp on him. “Thomas hasn’t let me out of his sight for three days. I’ve had to go to work with him in the morning, lock up, and go home with him at night. It’s like I’m in protective lockdown.”

“Well, that’s okay.” He retrieved his luggage and with his arm wrapped around Hope’s waist, they started toward the parking garage. “Where is your sister today?”

“Teaching, why?”

“I have something for both of you. But I want you together when I give it to you.”

“You brought us a present?”

“You could say that.” They reached her car, and Trevor tossed his suitcase into the trunk and gave it a slam. “So does your offer still stand?” he asked as he slid into the car.

“Which one?”

“All of them,” he said with a wink and she smiled as she slid on her sunglasses. “The one about me staying with you. I’m officially homeless in Kansas City and New York.”

Hope turned her head toward him and removed the sunglasses she’d just put on. “You’re homeless in New York?”

“Yeah. Funny, the landlord decided that it was my neglect that caused my apartment to get broken into. He sees that, as I trashed the place, he no longer wants me or Bryce as tenants of said space.”

“Bryce?”

“My roommate.”

“Wow, so he evicted you?”

“Yep. So up to the fourth floor I went to grovel to the redhead with the big boobs who’s been chasing me for the past three months.”

“Oh.” She replaced her sunglasses and started the car. “So you’re going to stay with her?”

“Didn’t I just ask to stay with you?”

Hope turned to him, her brows knit behind the shield of her glasses. “Well… yes.”

“Okay.”

“So what’s with the redhead?”

“Trying to see if it gets under your skin. That means you’re into me.” He slid his own sunglasses on and smiled.

“Trevor, that’s not nice.”

“What’s nice is that Bryce has the hots for the redhead, who, I was told over and over again, has a name. Patricia, I think he said. But she took him in and all of his crap.”

“Oh.” She shook her head. “So he’s living in the same building he was evicted from, with the redhead who has big boobs who was chasing you?”

“Yep that sums it up.”

“And you’re not living in New York anymore?”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

She hadn’t moved the car. She didn’t say anything else. He turned to her, pulled his sunglasses from his face, and adjusted himself in the seat.

“There isn’t anywhere else in the world I’d rather be than right here with you.” He watched her swallow hard. “Did I make a mistake?”

She shook her head and pulled her sunglasses off, again, and tears began to stream down her cheeks.

“Hope, don’t be sad. I can make arrangements…”

“Don’t you dare.” She smiled as she sniffed back her tears. “My grandmother told me in a dream once you’d come searching for me, and here you are.”

“Here I am.”

“Did you come searching for me, Trevor?”

His heart kicked up a notch, and he pressed his palms against his thighs to keep his hands from shaking. “Yes. I did in fact come searching for you.”

“Then that would explain why I’ve fallen in love with you.” She smiled and raised her hand to his cheek. “I fell in love with you the moment I saw you,” she whispered. “I only paint those I love.”

Hope slid her sunglasses back on her face and backed out of the parking space.

“So how is your family?”

“Oh, fine. Mom looks forward to meeting you in a few weeks.”

Hope smiled. “You told her about me?”

“I don’t have to tell my mother much. She knows me pretty well. We’re very close.”

“So she knows I’ve stolen your heart.”

“Yes,” he said, reaching for her hand and interlacing their fingers. “Why don’t you call your sister and have her meet us at your… our place when she’s done teaching.”

Hope nodded and dialed the phone while she sat at a stoplight. Trevor watched her carefully as she spoke to her sister. She didn’t look toward him and she answered any questions that Carissa was asking with a grunt. Something had transpired while he’d been gone. He had his secrets, and now it seemed she had her own.

Hope pulled up in front of the apartment, and Trevor hurried to her side of the car to open her door.

Hope stepped out and rested a hand on his arm. “You know, I could really get used to that.”

“You’ll have to. I’ll always be doing it.” He leaned in and kissed her. “I guess you’ll need to get used to me saying something else too.”

“What’s that?” she asked, her lashes fluttering up at him.

“That I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Maybe after your sister leaves, we can have a nice long talk about us.” He’d put it out there and even behind her sunglasses he knew her eyes had changed. “A fill-in-the-blanks kind of talk.”

Hope nodded, then shut the door and started across the street.

Trevor carried his suitcase and the box from Ruth up the stairs and stood behind her as she slid the key into the lock, but she didn’t have to turn it, the door pushed in.

“What in the…”

“Don’t move.” Trevor dropped his suitcase and the box.

He pushed open the door and stood for a moment. Reaching inside the door, he took an umbrella from her umbrella stand and gripped it in his hands like a weapon.

“Don’t move,” he whispered to her and she nodded.

He stepped into the hallway and looked down the hall toward the kitchen and back toward the living room. He took a few more steps and then stopped. The entire living room had been torn apart, the bookshelves emptied, and desk drawers pulled out. He walked down to the bedroom. It too had been gone through. Trevor backed his way through the kitchen. Cupboard doors were left open, and a few broken plates crunched under his foot, but there was no one in the apartment but him.

He walked back to the door and found a frightened Hope. Without the case he’d never have found her. But if Donald Buchanan hadn’t walked into his office perhaps she’d be safe.

He gritted his teeth and he felt the hard ball of anger form in his stomach. “They hit you. It’s torn apart.”

CHAPTER NINE

Hope didn’t say a word as tears began to stream from beneath her sunglasses. What could be beyond the door? How much of her life was destroyed?

Trevor wrapped his hands around her arms and gave them a gentle rub. “Why don’t we lock this up and call the police. I’ll take you to your sister’s house or your parents’.”

She shook her head. “No. They may have scared Mandy away, but they aren’t going to scare me away.”

“What do you mean they scared Mandy away?”

Hope tucked her lips between her teeth, not yet ready to tell him what she’d learned of her birth mother. She pulled her sunglasses from her eyes, slid from Trevor’s grip, and stepped into her apartment to see firsthand what Trevor had found.

“Oh damn!” She covered her mouth with her hand. The pictures of her family had been torn from the walls. Books had been dumped into the floor, and the cushions from the furniture discarded to the side of the room. She walked to her bedroom and stood at the doorway, afraid to walk in. The bed was turned over, the dresser drawers emptied, and the contents of her closet had been thrown throughout the room.

“You feel violated, don’t you? Nothing like someone touching all your things.”

She felt sick to her stomach. “Did they leave anything intact?”

“No. I’ll call the police,” he offered and she nodded. “Look around. Do you see anything missing?”

“How would I know?” she bit off quickly, then let out a heavy breath. “I’ll look.”

Trevor opened his cell phone and called the police while Hope carefully walked through the rubble that was her life.

She picked up a picture of her family taken at her high school graduation while Trevor explained to the police what had happened. She looked at the joy that beamed from her father’s eyes and at Sophia who looked at her with such love. What was she doing? These were her parents. Why did she think she needed to hurt them to find out who she was?

Trevor closed his cell phone and walked over to her. He looked down at the picture in her hand and rested a hand on her shoulder. “They’re on their way. Did you find anything missing?”

She shook her head. “No. They didn’t find what they were looking for.”

“Hope, what are they looking for?”

She didn’t have a chance to answer before there was a gasp at the door. They both turned to see Carissa standing in the doorway.

“Oh, dear God! What happened in here?” She looked around. “They hit you too?”

“Looks that way.” Hope walked around the cushions and scattered books back toward the door.

“Thank goodness you weren’t here.”

“They would have waited. I don’t think they’re looking to hurt any of us. They’re looking for something.” Hope focused on Carissa, who she knew would understand the meaning behind it.

Carissa nodded and turned to Trevor. “Hope said you brought something back with you.”

“I did, but I think we should wait until the police leave to go through it.”

She shifted her eyes back to Hope. “I think we should tell him.”

Hope pursed her lips as she contemplated her sister’s words. She hadn’t wanted to tell him about the contents of the safety deposit box yet. She hadn’t completely been able to grasp the truth around the letters, stocks, and money. Before she could say a word, Trevor stepped up to her.

“Tell me what?”

Carissa straightened her shoulders. “While you were in New York, we located the safe-deposit box.”

“You did?” Amazement and then anger flashed in his eyes. “That could have been dangerous. Why would you do that?” He rubbed his hand over his forehead and took a deep breath. “Where did you find it?” he asked in a calmer tone.

“It was in a bank in Jefferson City,” Carissa said.

Trevor narrowed his eyes. “How would you know to look that far away?”

“That’s where I closed out the other accounts that she’d had twenty-three years ago. I didn’t close out the box because I didn’t know to ask about it.” Carissa opened her purse and pulled out the stock certificates. She handed them to Trevor. “This is what was in there.”

“The stocks.” His eyes widened.

Hope studied him as he looked at them. There was a glimmer in his eye that spoke of more than just curiosity. She hated that fear flickered in her; Carissa may be right and he shouldn’t be trusted. “The stocks? You sure say that like you knew something about them.”

Trevor shifted his stance and thumbed through the papers in his hand. “I just found out about them. I didn’t know they were in Mandy’s possession.”

Carissa narrowed her eyes on Trevor. “How exactly did you just find out about them?”

“Ruth.” He fixed his eyes on hers.

“Ruth? You talked to Ruth?” Carissa’s voice rose. “How did you get to her?”

“Wait.” Hope walked closer to them, holding her hands with her palms out to stop them from continuing without her involved in the conversation. “Who is Ruth?”

Carissa let out a forced laugh. “Do you not tell her anything about who you’re talking to?”

“I haven’t had the chance yet,” he argued, but Hope could hear the control it was taking to keep his voice calm.

“Hello? Who the hell is Ruth?” Hope asked again, her patience draining.

“The mother of the woman you think you need to find out about,” Carissa snapped and walked to the kitchen.

Hope and Trevor followed her. She pulled a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. Hope noticed her hands shake as she held the glass.

She picked up one of the kitchen chairs that lay on the floor, giving herself a moment to control the anger that was fighting its way to the surface. “Why do I feel completely left out of the loop? Why don’t I know about Ruth?”

“Remember I told you she said never to contact her again?” Carissa reminded her.

“You told Hope you called Ruth?” Trevor asked.

Hope turned to Trevor and gritted her teeth. “You knew she’d talked to this woman?” Trevor nodded, and Hope wondered what else they had spoken about and neglected to tell her.

Carissa leaned against the counter and sipped her water. “Why did you go? Why did you find her?”

“I was close by. I figured it was worth a shot.”

“And she didn’t shoot you at the door?”

He smiled. “Oh, I think she might have wanted to, but I had information she didn’t.”