Taken (9 page)

“The watch wasn’t valuable, Kayla.”

“But it also wasn’t Grandpa’s, was it?” She saw her grandmother flinch and knew she was right. “I found a photograph of you and another man. He was wearing the watch. Who was he?”

Charlotte didn’t answer right away. Her eyes took on a faraway look, as if she were going back in time. A small smile played around her mouth, touched off by some dis-tant memory.

“Grandma.” Kayla nudged her.

“He was someone I cared about a long time ago,”

Charlotte said slowly. She drew in a breath from way down deep and slowly let it out. “I guess you could say he was my first love. And yes, it was his watch.”

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“I don’t understand why you lied about it.”

“I didn’t want to have to explain whose watch it was and why it was special to me.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I think you have to explain. Not just about the watch, but about your life. You were in a chorus line. You danced professionally, and . . .” She cleared her throat. “Sometimes you stripped, isn’t that right?”

Her grandmother looked down at her hands, twisting her fingers together in agitation. “I should have cleaned out that attic myself. I’d forgotten there was anything up there. It was so long ago, so many years. It was a different life. I was a different girl.”

“I’m not judging you,” Kayla said softly.

Charlotte’s head lifted, relief in her eyes. “You’re not ashamed of me?”

“How could I be? I know what kind of person you are today and what kind of grandmother you’ve been to me.

I’m certainly in no position to judge anyone else’s choices. I just wonder why you never said anything.”

“In my youth some people would have called me wild or fast. I loved to dance and I was very comfortable expressing myself with my body.” She let out a sigh that sounded like regret. “The stage spoke to me. I felt at home under the lights, the music playing, the crowds of people watching, applauding. It was a great feeling, ex-hilarating. I never felt so alive.”

“Why did you stop?”

“A lot of reasons,” she said, with a vague wave of her hand. “Your grandfather was very conservative, respectable. I wanted to honor him.”

Kayla could understand that, but it almost seemed as if her grandmother were two different people, or that she’d
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changed drastically when she’d married. “Grandpa was so straight, so stern,” she murmured. “Didn’t you ever find life with him a bit constraining?”

“He took care of me. He was a good husband, an excellent father. I respected him very much.”

“Respect isn’t love.”

“Then I should have said I loved him, because I did.”

Despite her grandmother’s vehement tone, Kayla wasn’t quite convinced. “What about the guy in the photo? How did you feel about him? Was he part of your wild time?”

“Yes,” she said after a moment. “He was part of that time and very special to me. He was a charmer, Kayla, so handsome and smooth he swept me off my feet. It was instant attraction. I fell head over heels before I even knew his name. And I couldn’t think straight when he was around.” She took a breath. “Some people thought I was a fool, but he was good to me. I had never met a man so passionate. When he was around me the air sizzled. I suppose that sounds silly, but that’s the way it seemed to me.

I was a young woman. I didn’t know what to make of the feelings he stirred up in me.”

Kayla cleared her throat, feeling a bit warm and uncomfortable by the candidness of her grandmother’s remarks. It was a little too much information, and a part of her very much wanted to drop the whole subject, but she couldn’t. If she didn’t ask her grandmother the questions, Nick would, and this was her family business, not his.

“What was his name?”

“Johnny. His name was Johnny.”

“What happened to him? Why didn’t you stay together?”

“He went away.” Sadness filled her eyes. “It still hurts,
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even now, fifty years later. But he had to go, and I had to let him go. That was that, the end of our love story.”

“Why didn’t you go after him? Or why didn’t he come back?” Kayla asked. It felt strange to be discussing a man other than her grandfather. But whom would it hurt? Her grandfather had passed on.

“It wasn’t meant to be. After Johnny left I met Edward, and we got married and had your mother. I ended up with you as my beautiful granddaughter,” she added with a smile. “I had a great life.”

Her words were positive and cheerful, but Kayla could see a lingering sadness in her grandmother’s eyes. Had it always been there? Had Kayla never noticed it before?

They’d been close over the years, but not really confi-dantes, not until now. “But you didn’t have a great life with your first love,” she murmured. “You must have missed him.”

“Terribly.” Charlotte paused. “Johnny left the watch with me before he went away. He said he’d be back to get it, that it would remind me of him and of our love, and that I should never let it out of my sight. It would be a symbol of our future together. I was young, only twenty-three years old. When he said he’d come back, I believed him with all my heart. I thought he could do anything. I thought he could beat the odds.” She drew in a long, shaky breath. “But years passed and he didn’t return. I kept the watch tucked away in my panty drawer. I’m not sure why. Every once in a while I’d remember, and I’d take it out and look at it and think about him. After your grandfather died, and I decided to move out of the house and get on with the next stage of my life, I thought it was time to give up the watch, too. That’s why I gave it to
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you. It was about love, Kayla, and I wanted you to give it to the man you loved.”

“Well, that didn’t work out too well.” Kayla felt even worse now that she knew the whole story. She hadn’t just lost the watch; she’d lost the only thing her grandmother had left from her first love. “I’m so sorry. I should have waited, made sure Evan was going to last, that our relationship and our love were the real thing. I made so many mistakes.” She hesitated, curious about something else.

“I guess Grandpa didn’t know about this other guy if you kept the watch tucked away?”

“He knew there was someone else before him, but not anything more. Edward didn’t ask, and I didn’t tell.” She looked Kayla straight in the eyes. “Don’t misunderstand, Kayla. I loved your grandfather. Edward was a wonderful man. I don’t want you to think any differently about him.”

Kayla was relieved to hear that. She’d always held up her grandmother’s long marriage as the kind of relationship she wanted to have. “Thanks for telling me.”

“I do understand what it feels like to love the wrong man. You have to forgive yourself for doing that,” she said, patting Kayla’s leg. “It’s in the past now, dear. Let it go.”

“I don’t move on as easily as you do.”

“Try. You can’t change what happened.”

“But I can find Evan and get that watch back for you.

Do you have any idea why the watch would have been important to Evan? I understand why it’s important to you, but why would he care? What’s special about it?”

Her grandmother hesitated a split second too long. “I don’t know.”

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Kayla didn’t believe her. “I think you do know. Where did the watch come from?”

“It was a present.”

“Do you know what the inscription meant?”

“Johnny never said.”

Kayla frowned. She was getting nowhere fast. “So you don’t know anything about the watch? There’s nothing you can tell me?”

“I think I already said that, Kayla,” Charlotte replied, sounding irritated. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you. Just forget about the watch. It’s not important.”

“It is important. If it weren’t, you wouldn’t be so evasive. You have to tell me what you’re not saying. I’m not the only one involved, Grandma. Nick won’t forget that Evan stole his money or that I helped him spend it. I owe it to him to try to help.”

“You don’t owe him anything. You were a victim, too.”

“That may be, but I’m still involved. Nick will not give up this search. He’s going to go after the truth until he finds it. And the watch is the only clue we have.”

“I don’t want to put you in danger,” Charlotte said.

Kayla was surprised by her grandmother’s choice of words. “How could you put me in danger?”

“By telling you too much. I think the watch was stolen, Kayla. That’s why I don’t want you to look into it.

I don’t know who the real owners are or what they’ll do if someone goes looking for that watch. Will you stop now? Will you do that for me?”

Nick pulled into a parking spot behind his sister Jenny’s beauty salon in Noe Valley and turned off the engine. He had debated whether or not to involve her in his search for Evan. In the end, he’d decided it would be bet-74

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ter to warn her that Evan was back in his life rather than leave her vulnerable. He didn’t want Evan to show up and catch her off guard — if he hadn’t done so already.

Nick found it odd that Jenny hadn’t contacted him while he was away. They’d always kept in touch, at least sporadically. He hadn’t worried about it. Instead, he’d been relieved not to have to worry about his family and just concentrate on work. Now he couldn’t help wondering if he’d missed something. Not that Jenny would have helped Evan rob him. But he didn’t know what she would allow Evan to do. Or what game he might be playing with her. Because if Evan hadn’t forgotten about him in twelve years, Evan certainly hadn’t forgotten about his sister.

Jenny was blow-drying a woman’s hair when he walked into the shop. Her jaw dropped when she saw him. She shut off the dryer. “Nick, you’re back. What are you doing here?”

“I came to catch up,” he said.

“I’m almost done, if you want to wait.”

He nodded and sat down in a chair. There were two other stylists working in the shop, both young women, and their chairs were occupied. There was music playing and a busy, energized air about the place. He knew Jenny wanted to open her own shop one day. She’d already approached him about investing, but he’d put her off. A part of him still wished she’d do something more with her life than cut hair. She’d been such a smart girl, such a good student, until Evan had sapped her confidence and her ambition.

Jen finished a few moments later and chatted with her client while the woman wrote out a check. Then she said good-bye and walked over to give him a hug. “Hey, there.

Long time, no see.”

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She felt smaller, thinner, and he could see her bones above her low-riding blue jeans and small white T-shirt.

“You’ve lost weight,” he muttered.

“Wow. You know just what to say to a girl,” she teased.

He looked into her hazel eyes, hoping to see a sparkle, but instead he saw tired shadows. Even her brown hair appeared limp. “What’s going on, Jen?”

“Nothing. Jeez, you’re back five minutes, and you’re already interrogating me.” She stepped back, wrapping her arms around her waist, which only emphasized her slender frame. “How was your trip?”

“It was fine, productive, successful, the usual. But I didn’t come here to talk about me.”

“Big surprise. So what are you doing here?”

“Can we go somewhere more private?”

Her eyes narrowed. “That sounds serious. No one is hurt, are they? Mom and Dee are on their way to Carmel for a few days. There wasn’t an accident or anything —”

“No. It’s nothing like that,” he said quickly. “They’re fine.” He’d just spoken to his mother and had been relieved to learn she would be out of town with his other sister, Dee. He didn’t want Evan anywhere near his family.

“All right. We can sit in the park,” Jenny said. My next client won’t be here for a few minutes.”

Jenny’s salon was located on a street of boutiques and cafés adjacent to a small, grassy park. As they sat down on a bench, Jenny said, “So tell me what’s wrong.”

He wasn’t sure how to start, but he’d never been one to mince words. “Evan.”

Her skin paled, and her eyes glittered with some emotion he couldn’t quite define.

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“Evan? Good heavens, Nick. Why are you bringing him up after all these years?”

“Because he’s back. He broke into my house while I was out of town. It appears that he spent a number of weeks living there, impersonating me, helping himself to my money, my credit cards, all that.” Nick was watching her so closely he could see her pulse jump in her throat, and the confusion and wariness spreading across her features. Confusion he could understand. Wariness made him suspicious.

“God, Nick, that’s horrible. Are you sure it was Evan?”

“Positive.” He let a moment pass before he added,

“Aren’t you going to ask me how I know?”

“You must be able to prove it. You seem certain.”

“I am. I met someone who showed me a photo of the man who was in my house. It was Evan.”

“I can’t believe it. Why would he do that now — after all these years?”

“I was hoping you had an idea.”

She avoided his gaze, staring down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. “Why would I?”

“Because if Evan came back for me, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d contacted you. And to be frank, you look like hell. Your eyes are tired. You’ve lost weight. If it’s not Evan causing your sleepless nights, then who is?”

“No one. I’m busy with work. I had a cold last week.

I’m still recovering. Why don’t you give me a break?”

“Why don’t you give me an answer? Have you heard from Evan?”

She hesitated, then said, “I did receive some presents that were sent to me anonymously in the last few weeks, flowers, candy, a book, that sort of thing.”

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“And you thought they were from Evan?”

“Well, it wasn’t the first thing I thought,” she snapped.

“I have dated a few other men in my life, you know. Anyway, the presents stopped, so that was that.”