Lasting Pride (Pride Series Romance Novels) (10 page)

“Well,” he shifted uncomfortably now, “I wanted to make sure that you didn’t think of me as a suspect in Mr. Derby’s case.”

She smiled a tight smile, “Let me assure you Mr. Cardone, that if you were a suspect in this or any other cases, you would know when I wanted you to know and no sooner.” She stood and handed him a form. “Fill this out and you can turn it in at the front desk. Now, if you will excuse me, I have other matters to see to.”

Walking down the hall without looking back, she entered the geek’s office. Well, that’s what she called Ryan McAllen. He was a twenty-something kid who was faster on the computer than anyone she’d ever seen. He could crack any firewalls or websites, hack any email, and track all spam and viruses. And, he’s always been able to make Google cough up the answers that she could never seem to find.

When she walked into the dark room, his four monitors, the only light source in the room, illuminated his thin face. His wire thin glasses always seemed to be dirty. His thick dark hair stood up like he’d been running his hands through it or he’d forgotten to comb it that day.

“Hey Mic,” she knew he hated it when everyone called him that, but the nick-name had stuck since day one. “I need your help with something.” She flipped on the lights and could have sworn she heard him hiss. Taking a seat next to him, she pulled out the medallions she’d been carrying since discovering the one in her apartment.

“What?” he asked impatiently.

“I need to find out more about this symbol.” She set the two pieces down.

He leaned over the desk and looked at them, then returned to his computer screen without a word.

It took him less than five minutes to have the matching picture with information on his screen.

“I’ll print everything up for you, but from the looks of it, you’re looking at two coins from Bahia, Brazil. They appear to be from the sixteen hundreds. Very old, very valuable. Where did you get these?” He turned to look at her, she just looked at him.

“You know, there’s a myth about the first gold coins in Brazil.” He typed in something else and another screen came up.

“Here,” he pointed, “It says that gold was discovered in Brazil in the late 1600’s and most coins made around then were later melted and turned into guineas. But, the myth states that a handful of coins had surfaced before gold had been officially discovered in Bahia.” He turned and looked at her again, this time swiveling his whole chair. He paused for effect. “You’ve heard of the legend of El Dorado.” He tapped his desk and held back a laugh.

Roberta laughed, “You have got to be joking. Kid, you need to get out more. First off, these,” she picked up the two pieces, “aren’t even gold. They are…” Looking down at them, she realized she didn’t quite know what they were. “Silver? Second off, there is no way my old man would have kept anything valuable lying around in an old shoe box if he knew he could pinch it for enough liquor to last the rest of his miserable life.”

“Look, I’m just relaying the myth here. Take this,” he reached over and handed her the stacks of paperwork he’d printed. “Read about your coins and maybe you’ll find the answers.” With this he turned back around and cleared his screen and began working again. “Oh, and hit the lights on your way out,” he called over his shoulder.

Rob walked out of the dark office with her stack of papers, wondering how the damn thing had ended up in her place. She didn’t think her father had any living relatives. At least he’d never talked about his family. To be honest, she didn’t even know her grandparents’ names on either side. Then a thought crossed her mind, quickly doing some basic math, she realized that they could still be alive.

Making her way back to her desk, she sat down to do some digging on her family history.

K
atie Derby sat in her brother’s apartment bored out of her mind. How could her brother stand to be on a business call for two whole hours?

She hadn’t decided what she was going to do after college, let alone what major she was aiming for. But, whatever she did decide to do, she was going to damn well make sure it didn’t involve being on the phone for two hours on a Friday night.

Flipping through the channels on his large flat screen, she ended up watching the news and thinking about Jason. Jason Keaton had been on her mind for years. Her best friend, her roommate, her confidante, the only man she’d ever wanted to be with. And, the only man who didn’t have any interest in her at all. Ever since leaving Boston, she’d checked her phone for messages every five minutes.

If her brother knew that the real reason she was in town was to show Jason she didn’t need him, she was sure he’d send her packing. Ric and her were made of stronger stuff, they had never run away from anything, including their problems. They faced them and tore down anything that got in their way. Not like their parents, for them, running to different corners of the globe had been a standard.

Checking her phone for messages again, she wasn’t surprised to not see any. Even Brenda, her best friend since second grade, hadn’t messaged her all weekend. Brenda, along with four of her other friends had decided to spend the weekend in Mexico. Basking in the sun, picking up guys, and drinking all night didn’t sound like much fun to Katie right now. But, maybe the beach was better than here?

Looking around her brother’s sparkling apartment, she wondered why she’d bothered to come here at all. She could be at the beach, getting over the kiss and the embarrassment she caused herself with Jason. Maybe she would call and get a flight for the next day.

Just then, she looked up to see her brother walking in. He really did look like someone had beat him over the head with a baseball bat. Every time she saw him, she cringed knowing he must be in terrible pain.

Meeting Roberta, Rob as she’d told her to call her, had been the only highlight of the weekend so far. Knowing she had something to hang over her dear brother’s head, she smiled and decided he could take a little more poking from his sister.

Ric hated dealing with lawyers and insurance agents. Having his art stolen in his gallery was an easier task to deal with than having something stolen as it was being delivered. Even though Roberta had filled out the police report, which he had multiple copies of. He still had to explain to three different agents and two different lawyers what had happened. Couldn’t they just look at the damn reports?

His head was throbbing as he walked back into his living room. His sister’s dark head bounced up when she heard him walk into the room. His television was on the news and about twenty decibels louder than he would have liked.

Walking into the kitchen, he poured himself a glass of water and downed his medications.

“No, you don’t,” his sister said as she walked into the room. “you aren’t suppose to take those on an empty stomach. Besides, you promised me you would take me out tonight.

Looking at her, you would think they weren’t related. Where Ric was tall, sandy blond hair and blue eyes, his sister was shorter, dark wavy hair and she had eyes the color of his old chestnut horse, Caramel. He’d actually called her Caramel Katie for most of their childhood.

Leaning against the counter he watched her check her phone for the millionth time.

“Expecting a call?” He laughed at the face she made at him.

“I thought Rob was really very pretty. Don’t you?” She crossed her arms over her chest mimicking him.

“
Touché
,” he laughed with her, “Come on, I know this great little pizzeria just down the street.”

Rob was thinking about pulling her hair out. She spent her days hunched over case files and her nights hunched over her computer trying to track down her father’s family.

She had his police record, the large file sat on her desk next to her laptop. She knew her mother’s name, or what her father always told her it had been, was Mary Catelani, but so far she hadn’t come up with any clues as to where her family had come from. Her father had always told her that her mother had died in a car accident in Seattle when Rob had been four. She’d pulled the records from the Seattle PD for any deaths involving that name within the right time frame. Nothing. She’d searched the whole state of Washington’s database. Again, she’d come up empty.

It was less than five minutes ago that she finally found her answers. Her name was Maria Catalonia, she’d been just seventeen when she’d given birth to Rob. She’d listed the father as unknown on her birth certificate. It appeared that her mother was still alive.

A week after she’d been born with the name of
Ruth Ann Catalonia, she’d been stolen from her grandparents house and never seen again. Her grandparents had offered a reward of ten thousand dollars for any information leading to the whereabouts of their grand-daughter, whom they had full custody of at the time.

Ruth Catalonia. Her mind was spinning. She typed the name and the small town of Washington that her grandparents had lived in at the time.

Old news articles came up, one with a picture of a small dark haired baby girl, dressed in a light pink floral gown.

Rob sat there and looked at herself as a baby. For the first time in
her life, she knew that her father hadn’t just stolen her childhood, he’d actually stolen her.

The next few days with his sister seemed to fly by. It had only taken her two days to destroy his guest room. And another day to pack her stuff and get a flight to Mexico to go be with her friends.

She apparently never received the call she’d been looking for and on several occasions he’d tried to talk to her about it. Every time she would just change the subject to Roberta or their parents.

He’d thought of Rob more often now. She’d called a few times to update him on his case, each time he’d enjoyed her voice and realized how much he missed seeing her.

He was sitting in his office late one night, thinking about her, when Kimberly knocked on his door. “I’m just heading out for the night. Oh, Detective Stanton is waiting for you down stairs, shall I tell her to come on up?”

Standing, Ric replied, “No, I’m just leaving myself. I’ll come down. Goodnight Kimberly.”

Shutting his door behind him, he followed her down the stairs and watched Kimberly walk out the front door. He turned and flipped the lock behind her. He’d expected to see Rob walking around in the main gallery, instead he found her standing next to the window in his store room. She looked lost and sad as she gazed out at the rainy night.

“Detective?” he saw her jump, “Is there something I can do for you?” She turned towards him, leaning against the window sill.

“Well, it appeared that Kenny Sorvillo, your bald art theft was found this morning floating face down in the Columbia River. But, the weird part was that he’d been beaten, stabbed twenty-eight times, and shot five times.” She turned and looked out the window again. “We still haven’t found the other two men who helped him out.”

“You came all this way on a rainy night to give me an update on my case?” He walked closer. He could tell there was something bothering her. He waited to see if she would open up to him.

She took a deep breath.

It had been chewing at her insides for days. She hadn’t talked to anyone else about what she’d found out. How could she? She’d known her father was a bottom-feeder her whole life. But, to actually steal a baby.

After more research, she’d found out that her mother had eventually married. She even had a half-brother out there somewhere, just a few years younger than her. How many cold nights had Rob wished for someone to love her?

Her father had taken everything away from her. Yet, she was torn between hate and love for the man. He hadn’t been such a bad guy all the time. Just when he drank. She’d never once been told to brush her teeth, go to bed early, or do her homework. He’d trusted her to know that those things should be done, and she’d done them.