Second Chance (18 page)

“Where is she?” Elizabeth snapped.

“If you mean Keeley, she’s still asleep. When she wakes, I’ll tell her you stopped by.” Cole’s deep voice was quiet but Keeley recognized the anger beneath the surface.

“I just heard that my granddaughter is home. I demand to see her right now. How could you bring her home and not even call me?”

“How the hell did you even know about it?”

Though Cole’s voice remained quiet, his tone was becoming more disgruntled, verging on furious. Keeley didn’t know why, but for some reason she liked this Cole much better than the one who’d been so charming and flirtatious with Elizabeth. Maybe because she recognized that this was the real Cole?

“I heard about it on the news.” Elizabeth huffed, “The news of all places!”

“Why do you want to see her?” Cole asked.

“Because it’s my right. Keeley should have called me and told me what happened. I shouldn’t have to watch television to find out these kinds of things.”

“Well, she was slightly busy.”

Cole’s sarcasm brought a lift to Keeley’s mouth.

“The reporter didn’t even say which one it was.”

“Hannah,” Cole said.

There was a short pause, and even from a distance, she could see Elizabeth’s confusion. “Is that the blond one or the dark one?”

Cole jerked the front door open. His voice, even softer and quieter than before, was filled with a seething fury. “Get out. Now.”

Elizabeth gasped but apparently recognized she’d gone too far. She took a step outside. Cole barely gave
her enough time to get clear of the door before he slammed it shut behind her.

Elizabeth’s insensitivity and arrogance no longer surprised Keeley, but it was obvious that her not knowing which granddaughter was which had hit a hot button for Cole.

She eased down the stairway, wondering if his headache was worse. “Good morning?” She made it a question.

Cole jerked his head up to look at her. “I just threw your mother-in-law out of the house. You got a problem with that?”

Her heart flipped and then melted at her feet for this fierce, protective man. “Absolutely none.”

The small twitch to his mouth told her he approved of her answer. “Good.” He headed back toward the kitchen. “Breakfast is almost ready.”

Something slowly unfurled inside Keeley. That budding crush she already had for this grumpy, gorgeous man became an enormous, full-sized bloom.

Her heart kicking up an excited beat, Keeley said, “I’ll go get Hannah.” She turned and raced up the stairs.

Elizabeth barely waited for Patrick to open the door before she stormed through it. Of all the overbearing, obnoxious, and rude people, Cole Mathison had to be the worst. How dare he talk to her in such a way? She was a Fairchild, the only one left that mattered. Did he not realize the power she wielded? Two days ago, the man had been absolutely charming, and now he’d become an obnoxious bastard. No doubt that slut’s influence.

“What’s wrong, Mama?”

She whirled around. Miranda stood in the middle of the foyer, her daughter, Maggie, at her side. These two would probably be thrilled with the news.

“Don’t call me Mama. Haven’t I told you again and again I don’t care for that term?”

Mealy-mouthed child that she was, Miranda said, “I apologize, Mother. What has you so upset?”

“That man staying with that slut insulted me.”

Miranda frowned, causing a line to appear on her forehead.

“Miranda, haven’t I told you hundreds of times—don’t frown. You’ll look older than you already do.”

“Sorry, Ma—Mother. But what man are you talking about?”

“That Cole Mathison that was here the other day. When he visited, we had a perfectly pleasant conversation. Now he acts as if I’m some sort of vagrant.”

“Keeley believes that—”

She waved an irritated hand at her daughter. “I don’t care what
Keeley
believes. Why you choose to hang out with such trash is beyond me. When your brother first married her, you were as livid as I was.”

Elizabeth waited to see if her daughter would dare defend the slut. She was slightly disappointed when all Miranda said was “We all make mistakes.”

She rolled her eyes … whatever the hell that meant. “The mistake that man made today won’t be forgotten. He’s a rude, obnoxious bastard and he’ll rue the day he treated me that way.”

Miranda’s face held a mixture of emotions as she looked down at Maggie. “Why don’t you go ask Cook what we’re having for lunch today?”

Maggie’s green eyes were wide as she stared at Elizabeth, then she nodded and took off running.

“I don’t like her running in this house, Miranda.”

“Mother, I realize that we’re here by your good graces, but please refrain from cursing in front of my daughter.”

Elizabeth jerked. “Don’t you dare lecture me in my own home. If it weren’t for me, you’d be—”

Miranda held up a hand. “I would be out on the streets. Yes, you’ve reminded me numerous times. And I will be respectful as I can be; however, when it comes to my daughter, I will not have you exposing your hatefulness to her.”

Before Elizabeth could speak, Miranda turned and walked away.

Trembling with rage that her daughter was developing a backbone, Elizabeth snarled, “Don’t you want to know why I went to see your friend Keeley?”

“Other than to torture her, I can’t imagine why.”

Triumph filled her that she knew something Miranda obviously didn’t yet know. “I went over there to see Keeley’s child.”

Gasping, Miranda whirled around and grabbed a nearby table. “What do you mean? The kids are back?”

“Children
, Miranda, not kids. Kids are goats. Besides, just one of them was found. Unfortunately, not the blond one. The dark one that looks like her mother.”

“Hannah?”

Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders, found herself frowning at her daughter and smoothed out her face. “Her name starts with an ‘H.’ That’s all I know.”

“They both do.”

“Whatever. They got her back last night. I heard about it this morning … on the television news of all places.”

The shock on her daughter’s pale face caught her attention. “Oh good grief, you’re not going to faint, are you?”

Miranda shook her head. “I’m just so surprised … I didn’t think—”

Elizabeth headed upstairs. Listening to Miranda’s mumblings
accomplished nothing. There were things to be done. The slut probably thought her troubles were over. Damned if she would let that happen.

   Keeley tugged on the hem of Hannah’s favorite princess-print pants. Her daughter had grown and now they were almost too short for her. Thank God the people who’d had her had fed her well. Was Hailey being treated as kindly?

The ringing of the doorbell pulled her from that tortured thought. This would be the second visitor she’d had this morning. For someone who rarely received visitors, she seemed to be getting very popular. Remembering the identity of the last visitor, she amended that word to
unpopular
.

Hannah wrapped her arms around her mother as Keeley lifted her. At some point, she knew she needed to let her daughter walk, but not yet. She just didn’t want to let her go. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s go get breakfast.”

She was just coming out of her room when Jenna and Miranda shouted in unison from the foyer, “Keeley!”

Keeley ran to greet them as they came up the stairs, meeting them halfway down the staircase. “What’s wrong?”

“We just heard that Hannah’s back.” Jenna reached out her arms. “Hannah, come to Aunt Jenna.”

It took all of Keeley’s willpower to hand her daughter over. Even as much as she loved Jenna, she just hated to let Hannah out of her arms.

Jenna hugged Hannah close to her and kissed her forehead. Tears sparkled in her eyes as she looked up at Keeley. “How did you get her back? Where’s Hailey? When did this happen? Why didn’t you call me?”

Miranda pulled Hannah from Jenna’s arms and hugged her tight. “Hey there, baby doll. Maggie’s going
to be thrilled that you’re home.” She pressed Hannah against her shoulder and whispered, “We want details!”

“Come on down to the kitchen and I’ll tell you both all about it.”

The women turned to head back downstairs, but Keeley put a hand out to stop Miranda. She just couldn’t help herself. “Let me take Hannah.”

Looking a bit startled, Miranda handed her daughter back to Keeley.

When the warm sturdy body of her child was finally in her arms, Keeley breathed out a sigh and headed downstairs. Her friends followed her to the kitchen where a delightful and familiar aroma emanated.

Keeley skidded to a stop at the kitchen door, almost causing Miranda and Jenna to bump into her. Cole stood at her stove, flipping pancakes. One of her short, frilly aprons was wrapped around his waist.

“Good morning.” Eden’s words pulled her out of her trance. The knowing amusement in her tone told Keeley she knew exactly what she’d been thinking.

Jordan was pouring juice and coffee at the table and stopped to pull out a chair for Keeley. She flashed him a grateful smile as she tried to ignore the hard thump of her heart at the sexiness of the cook.

“Mama cakes!” Hannah cried out her delight.

She shook herself and smiled at her daughter. “We’ll call them Mr. Cole cakes today.”

Keeley poured syrup over the fluffy pancakes Cole set before her and cut several pieces for her daughter to eat. Then, aware that Jenna and Miranda were patiently waiting for an explanation, she took a couple of sips of coffee and described what happened.

Jenna gazed around the table, her expression filled with awe. “I can’t believe you actually have her back. But what about Hailey?”

Breath shuddered through Keeley. “We’re meeting with the FBI later today and hoping they’ll have some news for us.”

Miranda reached over and pressed a kiss to Hannah’s head, but the little girl was enjoying her pancakes so much she didn’t acknowledge the kiss.

Jenna laughed. “She acts as if nothing has happened.”

Keeley tightened her arms around her daughter. “I’m just hoping she stays that way.”

Miranda took a sip of the coffee Jordan had poured for her. “What do the people who had her have to say? Are they the ones who took both girls? Or do they know who did?”

Keeley shook her head. “We think—”

Cole put a hand on Keeley’s shoulder as he refilled her half-empty coffee cup. To anyone else, it probably looked casual and meant nothing. But Keeley could feel the tension in his hand. It was a warning. For some reason, he didn’t want her to answer Miranda’s question. Why?

“We what, Keeley?” Jenna asked.

She jerked her attention back to her friends. “Huh?”

Cole answered for her. “We’re almost sure they know something. The FBI are questioning them. We should hear good news soon.”

“But that’s wonderful,” Jenna said.

Too distracted by Cole’s lie, Keeley could only nod and say, “We’re very hopeful.”

Jenna stood and smoothed her hand over Hannah’s head. “I’ve got to get to work. I have three family meetings today. I’ll call you later. Okay?”

Miranda grimaced and stood, too. “Yeah, I’ve got to get back home, too.”

Holding Hannah in one arm, Keeley got to her feet and hugged Jenna and then did the same to Miranda. For some reason, Cole wanted to exclude her friends
from what was going on. Though she wouldn’t argue with him in front of them, she wanted both women to know how much she loved and appreciated them. She would never have gotten through so much, especially the last few weeks, without her best friends.

Keeley waited until she heard the front door close, then she looked at Cole. “What was that about?”

“Until we identify who’s responsible, we keep everything we know between the four of us and Honor.”

Apparently seeing her dismay, Eden said, “It’s nothing personal against Jenna or Miranda.”

“Miranda is Hailey and Hannah’s aunt. And I’ve known Jenna since we were in grammar school together. I tell her everything.”

“And you can again someday soon,” Jordan said. “But until we identify the assholes who took them, we—”

“Jordan!” Eden admonished.

Despite her concern over shutting out her friends, Keeley couldn’t help but chuckle as the normally gruff and stoic Jordan Montgomery blushed profusely.

“I’m sorry, Keeley.” He shot a concerned look at Hannah and then an almost helpless glance at his wife. “Guess I’d better clean up my language since Paulo will be with us soon.”

Laughing softly, Eden kissed Jordan on his still-red cheek. “We both will.” She glanced back over at Keeley. “Once this is over, you can explain why we needed to keep things from them. It’s just the less people who know what’s going on, the better chance we have of targeting the right person.”

“But why did Cole lie and say we should know something soon?”

Cole shrugged. “I knew you were going to say we didn’t know anything. If Jenna or Miranda talk about it, I’d rather they reveal we’re onto someone. That
might force him to do something stupid.” He shrugged again. “Long shot, I know.”

Though she understood, Keeley couldn’t help but wish they’d allow her friends in their “need to know” circle. If there were two people she could trust, it was Jenna and Miranda.

She pressed Wesley’s number into her cellphone, her hands shaking with fury so badly, she pushed the wrong numbers three times.

Wesley answered on the sixth ring, his voice sounding groggy. Lazy bastard was still in bed.

“They found one of the kids.”

“What? Stop your squealing and say that again.”

Teeth grinding together, she spoke between clenched lips. “I was just there…. One of Keeley Fairchild’s daughters is back home. How the hell did that happen?”

“Which one?”

“The dark-haired one.”

He snorted. “So?”

“So? Are you crazy? If they find out you took them, your ass is fried. And then they’ll be coming after me.”

“First of all, they ain’t going to find out. Nobody can trace either of them kids back to me. Secondly, do you really think I give a fuck what they do to you, if you get caught?”

“If you’d taken them where I told you to go, none of this would have happened. If they catch me, you’re going down, too.”