A Man's Promise (2 page)

Two

C
aden Granger frowned as he gazed across his desk at his younger brother. “You’re kidding, right?”

Dalton released that crazy-ass chuckle that, at times, could grate on Caden’s last nerve. “No, I’m not kidding. Just think of what could have happened to Jace if he hadn’t had that tracking device on his phone.”

Caden didn’t want to think about it. When he and his two brothers had left Charlottesville for college years ago, each had vowed never to return. After college, they had moved to separate parts of the world, living their dreams. Caden was a well-known saxophonist touring in some of the most sought-after cities to sold-out crowds; Jace worked as an attorney for the government in California; and Dalton claimed he worked smarter and not harder by investing his money while living the life of a playboy/boy toy in Europe. In the end, Dalton was the one who’d become a billionaire. Go figure.

He, Jace and Dalton had returned to Charlottesville when their grandfather, Richard Granger, had had a fatal heart attack. It had been a couple of months ago that the three of them had made the deathbed promise to their grandfather to take over the family business, Granger Aeronautics. When they’d done so, they had no idea that in addition to inheriting a failing company, they would have to deal with employees intent on divulging trade secrets and someone they thought they could trust being a killer. The man had actually kidnapped Jace with the intention of ending his life. If it hadn’t been for the tracker Dalton had convinced Jace to install on his phone, Caden didn’t want to think of what might have happened.

“Fine. Put the damned tracker on my phone,” Caden said, tossing a document he didn’t feel like reading back into the in-box on his desk.

Dalton smiled. “I already have.”

Caden’s frown deepened. “You did so without my permission?”

“Yes.”

Dalton eased up out of the chair as if he didn’t have a care in the world, knowing full well that Caden really wanted to kick his ass. Caden might be two years older but, as far as Dalton was concerned, he was in way better shape than Caden. But he knew Caden wouldn’t do any such thing. He and his brothers might give each other hell from time to time, but they always had each other’s backs.

“So, Jace still hasn’t said anything about what’s going on with him and Wonder Woman?” Dalton observed.

Caden shrugged. Shana Bradford, whom Dalton liked to refer to as
Wonder Woman,
was the person they had hired to help get the company back on a proper footing. She was a real fixer, which was lucky since it was her team that had figured out about the trade-secrets encroachments, as well as Vidal Duncan’s duplicity.

“What’s there to say, Dalton? It’s been obvious from day one that he had a thing for her, although he claimed indifference. After this week’s rescue, I’d say it’s become pretty damned obvious.”

Caden was referring to the fact that the FBI agents were barely in the door to stop Jace’s head from being blown off before Shana had rushed in and thrown herself in his arms. “And I didn’t see him rejecting that wallop of a kiss she laid on him,” he added.

“Me, either,” Dalton chimed in to say, glancing at his watch. He had an appointment that he planned to keep and didn’t intend to be late.

At that moment, the buzzer on Caden’s desk sounded. “Yes, Brandy?”

“There’s a Sandra Timmons here to see you?”

Surprise shone on both Caden’s and Dalton’s faces. Sandra and Samuel Timmons had been neighbors and friends of their parents. When Sylvia Granger was murdered fifteen years ago, and their father wrongly convicted of committing the crime, the Timmonses and a lot of others had forbidden their children to continue to associate with the Granger kids. Caden had been fourteen, Jace sixteen, and Dalton twelve at the time.

“Send her in, Brandy,” Caden said, standing, straightening his tie.

Dalton stood, as well. “I wonder what she wants.”

“I have no idea.”

“Then I wouldn’t see her if I were you.”

Caden glanced over at Dalton. “Why?”

“She’s probably here to tell you to leave Shiloh alone. She’ll probably make threats and get ugly about it. She could take up where old man Timmons left off—thinking we’re nothing but scum.”

Hearing Dalton bring up the name of the one woman Caden wanted more than anything to forget sent a flash of pain through his heart. “First of all, I’m not involved with Shiloh. She’s the last woman I want to have anything to do with.”

“There was a time the two of you were—”

“Best friends,” he interrupted to say, refusing to fall victim to his younger brother’s nosiness. For months Dalton had been trying to figure out what, if anything, was going on between Caden and Shiloh. Caden had confided in Jace and told him the full story, but he figured the less Dalton knew, the better.

The door opened, and Sandra Timmons was escorted in by Brandy. As always, she looked immaculate, not a hair out of place and her clothing of the finest quality from a top-notch designer. But there was a sadness in her eyes that Caden noted immediately. Was she still mourning the loss of her husband? From what Shiloh had once told him, her parents had an unorthodox marriage that was not based on love.

“I’m glad you could see me on such short notice, Caden,” she said, giving Dalton a brief nod.

“You mean
no
notice, don’t you, Ms. Timmons?” Dalton interjected.

Caden frowned over at Dalton. “I believe there’s a meeting you’re supposed to attend, Dalton?”

Dalton lifted a brow. “Is there?”

“Yes. I distinctly remember your telling me about it this morning.”

Dalton looked at his watch. “Christ! I almost forgot.” And then without saying another word, he rushed out of Caden’s office, slamming the door behind him.

“I heard about what happened to Jace. That was simply dreadful. And just to think Vidal Duncan was behind it. I recall that he was once a close friend of your family.”

Caden leaned back against his desk and shoved his hands into his pockets. “And, if I remember correctly, Mrs. Timmons, so were you.”

Caden watched as the woman inhaled a deep breath. “Yes, and I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong about a lot of things.”

“Were you?”

“Yes. And I’m here to apologize to you personally. None of you boys were at fault for what your father did to your mother. I should have stood up to Samuel when he wouldn’t let Sedrick and Shiloh have anything to do with you and your brothers.”

“Yes, you should have.” Caden decided not to add that, as far as he was concerned, his father hadn’t done anything to his mother—much less murder her—but he figured it would be a waste of his time. Fifteen years ago, the Timmonses didn’t mind letting everyone know they thought Sheppard Granger was guilty of murder.

“Is that why you came here today? To apologize?” If it was, her apology was fifteen years too late.

“Yes, to apologize for
everything
Samuel did. I tried apologizing to Shiloh, but she refuses to take my calls.”

Caden raised a brow. “Take your calls? Isn’t Shiloh living with you at Shady Pines?” he asked, surprised.

“No, she moved out the same night she went to see you at Sutton Hills. That was over three weeks ago.”

Caden remembered that night all too well and he had no intention of discussing it with Sandra Timmons. “Mrs. Timmons, Jace will be out of the office for a few days, which means Dalton and I are pretty busy in his absence. If there’s nothing else you’d like to discuss, then I must ask you to—”

“You don’t know, do you?” she interrupted.

Caden drew in a frustrated breath. His patience with the woman was wearing thin. “Know what?”

She stared back at him, and he detected nervousness in her features. “That night, when Shiloh came to see you, didn’t she tell you anything?” she asked softly.

“No. I didn’t want to hear a word she had to say.” He walked around his desk toward the door, intending to open it so she could leave. “Now if you will excuse me, I—”

“What do you mean you didn’t want to hear anything she had to say?” the woman demanded in an angry tone, causing him to pause and look at her as if she’d lost her mind. A part of him was beginning to wonder if she had become unhinged. A lot of strange things had been happening since he and his brothers had returned to Charlottesville to take over the running of Granger Aeronautics, and this could be one more.

He turned around to face her. “I meant just what I said. I didn’t want to hear anything Shiloh had to say that night.”

“So, you have no idea where she was that weekend four years ago when the two of you planned to elope to Vegas and marry?”

Caden was surprised Shiloh had told anyone about their plans to elope four years ago. Plans
she
hadn’t kept. “I already know where she was, Mrs. Timmons. I received photographs that were compliments of your husband, letting me know that he was still controlling Shiloh’s life. The photographs showed her on the beach having a good time with one of Mr. Timmons’s business associates. The same person he’d been trying to shove down her throat for a year or more. Your husband, Samuel Timmons, wanted me to know she’d finally caved in.”

Sandra Timmons frowned. “And you believed that?”

Caden shrugged. “Seeing is believing.”

The woman shook her head. “You saw what Samuel wanted you to see. Those photographs were altered with Photoshop. That was not Shiloh. She was nowhere near the beach that day.”

Caden stared at the woman as her words sank in. “Then where was she?”

Sandra Timmons eased back down on the chair across from his desk, and Caden actually saw her trembling. And then he saw the tears. Whether they were genuine or not, they were there all the same. “I came here thinking that you knew. Certain that you did, and now to know that you have no idea...”

An uneasy feeling crept up Caden’s spine. What did she mean that those photographs had been altered with Photoshop? That woman in the pictures had been Shiloh. Hadn’t it? He narrowed his gaze at Mrs. Timmons as he crossed the room to her, and anger consumed every part of his body. “Where...was...she?”

The woman dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief, saying, “That same weekend, while you waited for her in Vegas, she was in a hospital in Boston, fighting for her life.”

Stunned, Caden grasped the edge of his desk to keep his balance. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Sandra Timmons lowered her face to study her hands in her lap before lifting a tear-streaked face to Caden. “I don’t know how, but Samuel found out what the two of you planned and flew to Boston to try to stop her. He said he was only going to talk some sense into her. They argued, and she asked him to leave. When he refused, she rushed from the house and darted into the path of an oncoming car.”

Shocked beyond belief, Caden had to lean back against his desk for support. “Shiloh was hit by a car?”

“Yes. Things were pretty bad. She had to remain in the hospital for almost two months. The doctors managed to save her...but they couldn’t save the baby.”

The bottom of Caden’s stomach dropped. “Baby?”

“Yes. She was pregnant with your child.”

Three

C
aden remembered very little after that. He recalled that the shock of Sandra Timmons’s words had rendered him speechless, mindless and senseless. He’d been so stunned, so horrified by what he’d learned that he’d covered his face with his hands as an onslaught of emotions slammed into him. Shiloh had been pregnant? With their child? And when she had finally discovered the duplicity of her parents, she had come to him to tell him. And he had rejected her in a very cruel way.

He vaguely recalled hearing the sound of Mrs. Timmons walking softly toward his office door, whispering tearfully, “I’m truly sorry,” before opening the door and leaving. He recalled clutching his stomach and remembered feeling suddenly sick as he agonized over and over about what Shiloh’s mother had said.

He had believed the worst of her. If anyone should have recognized those pictures had been doctored, he should have. But he hadn’t. Instead, he had accused her of the worst betrayal possible, calling her degrading names. Names she hadn’t deserved.

And while he’d been indulging in his holier-than-thou attitude, she had been lying in some hospital room fighting for her life after losing their child.

Oh, God. The thought of her lying there in pain, hurting, brokenhearted, without him there to comfort her, filled him with anger. Intense rage. “Damn you, Samuel Timmons! Damn you!” he muttered under his breath with an alarming force because, at that moment, he knew how it felt to hate someone.

He thought he’d hated the man at fourteen, when he had ended his and Shiloh’s friendship, but now he knew how real revulsion felt. At thirteen, she had been afraid to go against her tyrant father’s orders; however, their friendship never really ended—it was just suspended. She would still smile at him whenever they passed in the halls at school, would silently slip birthday cards in his book bag and tape those
you’re still my best bud
notes on his locker. And then there was the time on prom night when they managed to slip away from the watchful eyes of the chaperones to steal a kiss in the garden.

Then he finished high school and left for college. But he had thought about her often, wondering what she was doing and if she was still under her father’s thumb. Had she broken free of him, now thinking for herself, living the full life she deserved?

He’d always thought about looking her up and he used to ask his grandfather about her during his visits home, but fear of what Samuel Timmons would do to her made him keep his distance.

He would never forget that night, six years ago, while onstage performing with his band, when he had looked out in the audience and had seen her. Shiloh was in her last year of college, and it was her birthday weekend. It had been years since he’d last seen her, but he had recognized her immediately. Gone was the kid he’d grown up with, the one who used to be his best pal, who would smile up at him through her braces. She had grown into a totally beautiful woman.

When the concert was over, he invited her backstage, and later they went to the after-party. When that party ended, he took her to a late-night restaurant for ice cream and cake to celebrate her twenty-third birthday. After that night, she would show up at his concerts whenever she could while working on her graduate degree at Northeastern University in Boston.

During his concerts he would search the audience, seeking her out, hoping to see her face. And then there was the night she had gone back to his hotel room with him after a concert and they’d made love. Wonderful, beautiful love, and he’d known that night that he loved her and that he had always loved her.

For two years, they’d kept their affair a secret from everyone and planned to elope to Vegas. She was supposed to meet him in Vegas that weekend, and once the ceremony was over they would fly to Paris for a brief honeymoon.

But she hadn’t shown up that weekend. He had waited in that hotel room for three days; he had tried calling her. When he finally made a connection at one of her numbers, some man had answered her phone and said she was in the shower and couldn’t be bothered.

He had just been about to leave, to fly to Boston to find out what the hell was going on, when he’d received a special delivery packet—a packet containing pictures that were still imprinted on his brain. He had taken one look at them and, combined with the conversation with the man who had answered her phone, he had immediately assumed the worst.

Caden moved away from his desk and walked to the window, a deep self-loathing within himself for the way he had treated Shiloh after that. He hadn’t heard from her for more than three months after receiving those photographs, and now he knew why.

Believing the worst, he had deleted her number from his contact list and blocked any calls from her. Even when she’d shown up at one of his concerts eight months later, he’d asked Security to escort her out. He hadn’t wanted her there.

She hadn’t attended another concert...until that night last month in New York. He had looked into the audience and she was there, but still he had a hardened heart. And over three weeks ago, she had sought him out to tell him what had happened, and he hadn’t wanted to hear anything she said. He closed his eyes when he remembered how he’d spoken to her, the mean, hateful things he’d said. How could he have been so wrong?

He had to apologize. He had to ask her to forgive him. But what if she didn’t accept his apology? What if she didn’t forgive him? Dread consumed him at those thoughts. He inhaled a deep breath, knowing he had to try. But first he had to find out where she was. Mrs. Timmons said she was no longer living at Shady Pines. Had she left Charlottesville? If she had, where had she gone? If she was still here, then where was she living? The last person he wanted to talk to again was her mother, but he would try her brother. Sedrick would know how to contact her. All he had to do was contact St. Francis Hospital and track him down.

Caden was about to move away from the window to use the phone on his desk when there was a knock at his door. Thinking it was Dalton returning, he said, “Come in, Dalton.”

Instead of Dalton, his brother Jace walked in.

Taking one look at his younger brother, Jace said, “What is it, Caden? You look like shit.”

Caden knew Jace’s observation was probably true, because that was exactly how he felt right now. “What are you doing here, Jace?” he asked, instead of responding to his brother’s inquiry. “We thought you wouldn’t be back for a few more days. You didn’t think Dalton and I could handle things till you got back? You aren’t the only one who can run things around here.” As soon as he’d said the words, Caden regretted doing so.

“Sorry,” Caden said, moving to his desk, pulling out the chair to sit down. “Ignore me today. It hasn’t been my best.”

Jace stared at his brother for a moment. “Does it have anything to do with Sandra Timmons’s visit? She was getting on the elevator when I got off. She seemed upset about something.”

“And she should be. Damn, Jace—she and Samuel Timmons did the unthinkable and, like a fool, I fell for it. How could I have been so damned gullible, so fucking stupid?”

Jace took the chair in front of Caden’s desk. “I can’t answer that until I know what you’re talking about.”

Caden drew in a deep breath and then told Jace the nature of Sandra Timmons’s visit. He could tell from Jace’s expression that he was just as appalled as Caden was, but he listened without interrupting.

Then Jace asked, “So what are you going to do? From what you’ve told me, you treated Shiloh pretty damned shabbily.”

Yes, he had. And Caden wasn’t proud of what he’d done. “First I intend to find out where she is. Then I’ll go to her and apologize and then try like hell to convince her that I’m truly sorry for my actions.”

“I’m playing devil’s advocate for a minute,” Jace said, staring at his brother. “What if she doesn’t believe you and wants nothing to do with you?”

Caden tapped his finger on his desk a few times as he thought about what Jace was asking and had to face up to the fact that that was a real possibility. “I won’t give up on her, Jace. No matter how long it takes, I will not give up. I will make it up to her. But first, I need to find out where she is. I need to go see her and talk with her. Then we’ll go from there.”