LITMIR.BIZ

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a four-to-five-million-dollar statue for the inconvenience? Talk about having money to burn. “That sounds like a better deal to me.”

      “What does? Not being related to us and going home with a costly consolation prize? Your inheritance is worth far more than that, nephew. And the Remington is yours either way.”

      Nephew? “No harm? No foul?”

      “Exactly.”

      Except for his angel, Justin thought. The woman who’d already told him who they were. “I could press charges against you.”

      Brian tilted his head. “Yes, you could. Kidnapping is a federal offense.”

      How poised could the other man be? How calm? How sure of himself? “But you don’t think I will, do you?”

      “No. I think you need us. That there’s an emptiness inside of you we can fill. And we need you, too. You’re all that’s left of Beverly. I can’t tell you how much we loved your mother. How special she wastous.”

      Justin bent the corner of the envelope. He still hadn’t opened it, still hadn’t looked at the results. He nailed Brian’s gaze instead. “My mother’s name is Heather Elk.”

      “Heather raised you, but she isn’t your biological mother.” Brian tasted the pate. “Do you know how we figured out that you might be Beverly’s son? My father, your grandfather, came across a newspaper article in the prison library about a dead baby, and it triggered his memory. Something from the past.”

      Justin turned morbidly silent, as though he hadn’t heard about the infant before now.

      Brian continued, “The police were looking for the public’s help to identify the baby. They offered all sorts of details. They said it was a newborn that had been dead for thirty years. A boy with Native American genetics. They can tell a lot about a corpse by its bones.” He finished the appetizer. “Dad knew he’d stumbled onto something. The location where they’d found the baby rang a bell. Thirty years ago, we tracked Reed, Beverly and Heather there.”

      “Why?”

      “To kill Reed and bring Beverly home. They’d run off to elope, and Heather was trying to help them. They all managed to escape. This was before Reed went into WITSEC. Witness Security,” Brian clarified.

      “That still doesn’t explain my paternity.”

      “Both women were pregnant. Of course at the time we didn’t know there was one baby, let alone two. Reed, Beverly and Heather were on the run for eighteen months. Even Michael had no idea where they were. When Heather and Beverly returned on their own, Beverly was terminally ill, and Heather presented Michael with a ten-month-old son.”

      “Me?”

      “Yes, you. As far as we can figure, their real child died and was secretly buried. It’s the infant that was found, the one Dad read about. According to the article, it was laid to rest with a toy, a windup pony. And guess what? We discovered that you had one just like it. We got a hold of old photographs. You used to cart that thing everywhere.”

      Justin narrowed his gaze. It was obvious they’d been investigating every aspect of his life, past and present, making sure he was connected to the dead baby before they kidnapped him. “So Beverly came home to die, Reed struck a deal with the government, and Heather and Michael became my parents?”

      “Only it was Beverly who conceived you with that traitor lover of hers.” A slight pause. A slight thought. “Did you know that Reed was a West Coast Family soldier? Besides being an ex-con and an accomplished thief, he had a genius IQ and built countersurvelliance equipment in his spare time. He impressed us at first, especially Dad.”

      “What does that have to do with me?”

      “We’re aware that you have a genius IQ, too.”

      Meaning what? That he’d inherited his superior intelligence from a guy with no morals?

      Justin finally opened the sealed envelope and looked at the contents. 99.9 percent positive. He wanted to crumble it, to trash it, but that wouldn’t change the results. He steeled his emotions instead.

      The other man waited a beat, then continued, “When Reed seduced Beverly, all hell broke loose. She was a college student, the pride of our daddy’s eye. In the old mob way, you’re supposed to ask for permission to date the boss’s daughter.”

      “So why didn’t Reed ask?”

      “Because he botched up a job he was sent to do, and Dad stopped trusting him. There was no way he was going to let him keep seeing Beverly. He warned Reed to stay away from his daughter.”

      “So Reed convinced Beverly to run away with him?”

      “Exactly. And then Heather got dragged into it. She was naïve when it came to her brother.”

      Justin gripped the back of a wing back chair. His mother rarely talked about Reed. Aside from admitting that he’d testified against Denny Halloway and entered the witness protection program, she kept her memories to herself.

      “That bastard left you behind,” Brian said. “He could have taken you into WITSEC with him, but he couldn’t be bothered. You’d do well to hate him.”

      “Don’t tell me how to feel,” Justin shot back, even though he was starting to despise Reed. “What’s the deal with Beverly? Why didn’t she admit to her family that I was her son? Why the big charade?”

      “Beverly loved us, but she detested our lifestyle. I guess she thought you’d be better off without us.”

      “I can’t say I blame her.”

      “We’re different now.”

      Justin blinked. “What?”

      “We’re not involved in organized crime anymore. People still associate us with it, of course. But all of our businesses are legitimate now.”

      Yeah, right. He might have been born under shaky circumstances, but he hadn’t been born yesterday. “You actually expect me to believe that?”

      Brian laughed a little. “No, I suppose not. Not after we kidnapped you. But aside from that, we haven’t broken the law in years. Richard and I weeded out the bad blood in our organization. We made a conscious choice to change who and what we are.”

      Justin glanced at Leo, but the security chief didn’t react. He stood like a sentry, gun clipped to his belt, with the sun illuminating his Hulkish form.

      People don’t change, he thought. Not like that. “Whose idea was it to kidnap me?”

      “Dad’s.”

      “So he’s still calling the shots? Even though he’s locked up?”

      “Dad thought it was important to expose you to the kind of power our family wields. Whether we’re criminals or not.”

      “I don’t give a crap about your power.”

      “Eventually you will. Once you get past the kidnapping, you’ll enjoy the entitlement that comes with being a Halloway. And you’ll admit that your life was getting boring. That we managed to spice it up.”

      Screw this. “I’m going back to Texas.”

      “What for?”

      “Why the hell do you think? To talk to my mom and dad.” To rage, to vent, he thought. To fight the pain, the lies, the deceit.

      “We were hoping that you’d spend the rest of your vacation with us.” Brian made a joke. “After all the trouble it took to get you here.”

      Frustration hit him hard and quick. He wasn’t in the mood for petty humor.

      The other man caught his scowl and turned serious. “Are you angry at your parents?”

      Justin didn’t answer the question. He spun it around on his supposedly

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