Chapter Fifteen

Dawn was painting the sky with a bright promise of spring warmth when Kathryn heard the door behind her quietly opened and closed. She stiffened, expecting her visitor to be Ket wanting to bait her cruelly about Alex’s kidnapping.

Instead, when she turned in her seat, she saw Andrew Shepherd padding quietly toward her. In one hand he carried a tray with two coffee mugs, in the other a small bundle of papers. He produced a weak smile for Kathryn, placed one of the mugs in front of her, and settled his tall frame in a patio chair opposite her.

“I have something to tell you, Mrs. Morgan, but first I need your assurance you won’t tell your husband who you got this from.”

Kathryn’s heartbeat picked up speed. Andrew was privy to almost all of Ket’s affairs and whatever he wanted to tell her in confidence had to be important. They’d never been friends, because how could a woman be friends with the man her husband would rather be with than her? On the other hand, while Andrew might have been cold toward her, he had never gone out of his way to make her life difficult. So she gave him the assurance he asked for and then leaned back in her chair to listen.

He took several deep draughts of his coffee, as though he were playing for time or struggling to put into words what he had to say.

“Andrew, if you want to tell me something you find difficult, probably the best way is just to spit it right out.” She spoke gently, her eyes never leaving his.

“It’s a sad truth that one lie will always lead to another. Like Ket pretending you are his wife and Alex is his son.”

“And like you, pretending to be his secretary when you mean more to him than I ever could.”

“Do you ever wonder how we all got into this mess?” Andrew looked away, studying his coffee cup as though it held answers to unspoken questions. “Ket and I met in college, and what started as a friendship grew to be so much more. But he could never to admit who he really was to his father, a harsh, conservative man who was more concerned with having heirs to carry on the family name than with his son’s happiness.

“Ket would have jumped through hoops of fire for just one kind word from his father. No matter how he cared for me, he couldn’t face disappointing the man. You have no idea how often I have pleaded with him to run away with me, to go where no-one knows us and where the Morgan family name means nothing. He started out wanting to please his father, but then I think he fell in love with the idea of power and wealth. Perhaps more than he loves me.”

She reached out to touch his fingers, this man who’d been her rival for so long. How ironic that Andrew loved Ket with all his heart yet she, married to the man, longed to get away from him. “How deeply involved are you in this business, Andrew? Because we have to face the facts that this is no ordinary business. This is criminal.”

“That’s one of the reasons I want to give you these.” Andrew held up the small parcel he carried, but didn`t hand it to her. She could see it was a bundle of letters and her pulse began an erratic beat. “Ket ordered me to intercept these and destroy them, but I kept them hidden away. It didn’t seem right to burn someone else’s letters, which seems such a petty crime compared to everything that’s happened since. I think the Morgan house of cards is about to collapse and I want to get Ket out of the tangle before it destroys him.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“I want to bring the truth out into the open. It has to be done before Ket does anything…anything worse than he’s already done. Did you know that Morgan Senior ordered the killing of Bertie Hanover? When a taboo like that is broken, how much easier will it be to order the execution of someone else who gives him problems?”

Appalled, Kathryn leaned forward in her chair and placed her coffee cup on the table with trembling hands. “You think he’d actually kill his own son?”

“Ket has been running his own show recently, disobeying orders, almost like he’s competing with his father. It’s causing Mr. Morgan problems, and he doesn’t like competition. Nor do the organized crime bosses he’s in bed with.”

She swallowed back the lump of fear that made her throat raw. “What about you? Aren’t you in more danger than Ket? If Morgan finds out you’re Ket’s lover…”

Andrew’s smile was sad, his thin face pinched. “We’ve been very careful. But you’re in more danger than I am, especially when Mr. Morgan finds out Alex is not his blood kin. Read these and then go see Ben Asher, Kathryn. He’ll find your son and keep you safe.”

“Please keep yourself safe, Andrew, and if there’s anything I can do to help…”

Ket’s lover smiled sadly, shrugged his shoulders, and walked away.

****

Ben hadn’t been able to sleep much that night. Too many threads of too many crimes were running through his brain, tangling themselves. The murder of a hardened criminal, the kidnapping of a child, the conflict between a father and son who were knee-deep in criminal activities.

Then there was Kathryn. Beautiful Kathryn who’d betrayed him and now claimed her son was his child. She’d cried when he told her he was going to enlist, and he’d kissed away those tears before he boarded the bus that would take him away from Lobster Cove and, eventually, into a desert land where death lurked around every corner. He’d gone to Afghanistan a boy, believing he was doing his patriotic duty. He’d come home a man, wounded, still believing in law and order but questioning the justice of a war so far from home.

And just when he’d needed her the most, he’d discovered Kathryn had forgotten him in the arms of another man.

Yet his pulse raced every time he saw her. It was all he could do to keep his hands to himself when she was around. Was he a fool, lining himself up for more heartbreak?

He had done his duty for his country. Now he was a law officer whose duty it was to put his personal life on the back burner to concentrate on helping to crush a criminal hierarchy. Even now, as he rode his motorcycle through the growing dawn to see Kathryn Morgan, he told himself he was just doing his duty and could put his own feelings aside.

The housekeeper answered his knock at the Morgan mansion’s door and showed him out to a patio where he found Kathryn seated at a small glass table, dressed in simple jeans and a sweater. Tears stained her cheeks and she was holding a letter—a letter he quickly recognised as one of many he had written to her—letters she said she’d never received.

She was staring at the words as if she`d never seen them before.

“You told me you had never received my letters.” His voice sounded harsh with disappointment, even to him.

She looked up, startled, as if she`d been unaware of his presence. The green of her eyes was magnified by the tears that pooled there.

“Oh, Ben, if I had only known…” She broke off as Cynthia returned, carrying a tray with a teapot, milk, sugar, cups, and a small plate of cookies.

“Is everything all right, Mrs. Morgan?” Her words were stiffly formal, warning Kathryn that Ket was up and about.

“Yes, thank you, Cynthia. I expect Sheriff Asher will be grateful for tea, since he’s out and about so early.”

“Shall I ask Mr. Ket to join you?” The housekeeper eyed Ben warily. Did she think Kathryn needed her husband for protection? Or to offer her an alibi? Ignoring the tea tray—he was too angry for such a civilised ritual, Ben’s eyes went once more to the small pile of letters by Kathryn’s hand.

“No, that’s fine. I think I’d rather not disturb him.” Kathryn’s eyes flickered toward Ben but he couldn’t read the message in them.

When the housekeeper left, Kathryn turned to him. “These are the letters you sent, but I never received them. Ket ordered his secretary, Andrew Shepherd, to intercept and burn them.” She raised an eyebrow as Ben swore softly. “For some reason, Andrew kept them. He and I just had a long talk and he returned the letters to me.”

“So all these years, you thought I’d abandoned you, forgotten you?” Emotion tightened his throat and he could hardly get the words out.

“I married Ket because I was pregnant with your child. He found me crying one day in the office when I thought everyone had left. I told Ket you had abandoned us. I’d just had an ultrasound and showed him the picture of my baby boy. Oh, Ben, I was so frightened and alone. Lobster Cove’s not the kind of place where single mothers can thrive, and Dad was no help at all.

“So when Ket offered to marry me and accept the child as his, I felt like I’d been thrown a lifeline. When he said it would be a marriage in name only, I thought he was just trying to spare my feelings but was relieved because I knew I would never love him. I also knew my son would be well cared for and have a better future as a Morgan than he would as the illegitimate grandchild of the town drunk.” Her mouth twisted. “How wrong I was.”

Ben ached to reach for her, to hold her in his arms and whisper soothing words into her hair. Knowing now that she had never received his letters had lifted a huge weight of pain from his heart, and there was still so much to talk about.

But he had a job to do, and this mansion was full of watching eyes. Kathryn was a witness to a murder and a possible witness to the Morgans’ criminal activities. He had to get her away from the Morgan Mausoleum to keep her safe.

“I want you to come to the station and give your statement about Hanover’s murder, Kathryn, and answer some questions.” She nodded.

There’d be time for talking later. Even so, as Kathryn climbed up behind him on the Harley, as she wrapped her arms around his chest to hold on, he couldn’t help but think of how different their story might have been.