“There’s no need.” He could envision her waving her bejeweled hand dismissively. “I had a limousine service send a car down from Odessa to drive me to the Life Medevac hangar.”
“Then I guess I’ll see you shortly,” he said, resigned to his fate of spending the afternoon with his indomitable grandmother.
Fifteen minutes later, when he met the limousine in the Life Medevac parking lot, Hunter wasn’t surprised to see Luther Freemont, Emerald’s trusted personal assistant, standing ramrod-straight beside the open back door of a sleek black limousine. “Hey there, Luther. How’s it going?”
“Very well, sir,” the man answered, as formal as ever. Once he helped Emerald from the backseat of the limo, he gave Hunter a short nod. “It was nice seeing you again, sir.”
When his grandmother slipped her hand in the crook of Hunter’s arm and started walking toward the office entrance, he noticed that her assistant got back into the limo. “Do you think old Luther will be all right out here on his own? After all, this place is to hell and gone from a corporate office.”
“Poor Luther, he’s a proper gentleman and very set in his ways.” Emerald laughed. “He doesn’t quite know what to make of you and your brothers.”
“The feeling’s mutual.”
“And he’s not at all sure what to think of southwest Texas.”
Hunter opened the door and waited for her to precede him into the building. “Is Luther always such a tight…uptight?”
As she laughed, her silver-gray eyes twinkled merrily. “Yes, he’s always very formal.”
“I’ll bet he was just a barrel of laughs when he was a kid,” Hunter said as he escorted Emerald into the dispatch room.
He introduced her to the on-duty Evac III team as they passed through on the way to his private office, but purposely avoided calling her his grandmother. He still wasn’t entirely comfortable thinking of her as a family member, nor did he need the added pressure that went along with others knowing he was her grandson.
“Where’s Mary Lou?” she asked, seating herself in the chair in front of his desk.
“When she found out you were dropping by, she decided to run into town to pick up something for refreshments. She’ll be back soon.”
“Good. I haven’t seen her in quite some time and I’m looking forward to catching up.”
As they stared at each other across the desk, Hunter couldn’t help but think how out of place Emerald Larson looked. She was professional elegance from the top of her perfectly styled silver hair to the soles of her Italian pumps. His office furnishings were light-years away from the opulence she surrounded herself with at Emerald Inc. headquarters.
“A few months ago, when you learned I’m your grandmother and I told you about your father, you weren’t as vocal about your feelings as your brothers, Caleb and Nick.”
She gave him a look that he had no doubt intimidated the hell out of anyone facing her in a corporate boardroom. But he wasn’t one of her loyal lackeys and she was on his turf now.
“I’m here to clear the air once and for all,” she said bluntly.
“Do we have to?” he asked before he could stop himself. He knew for certain she wouldn’t want to hear what he thought of her interference in his life.
“Yes.” There was a steely determination in her voice, and whether he liked it or not, he knew come hell or high water she was going to have her say. “I’m sure you’d like to know why I insisted that your mother keep her silence about your father’s identity until I was ready to tell you myself.”
He glared at the woman who until three months ago he’d known only by reading about her in newspapers and national magazines. He hated dancing to her tune. But as his mother had pointed out before he’d left Miami, if he hadn’t taken Emerald up on her offer of giving him one of her companies to run, the sacrifices she’d made to ensure his birthright would have been in vain. Keeping his father’s identity a secret from her close-knit Irish family had caused a breach that had never been reconciled.
Hunter clenched his back teeth together so tightly his jaw ached. “I’m still having a problem with that. What gave you the right to coerce my mother into signing a paper stating that she wouldn’t tell anyone—not even me—who my father was?”
“I know you’re bitter about the way I handled everything,” Emerald said patiently. “I’d probably feel the same way. But believe me, it was the best for all concerned parties.”
Anger, swift and hot, burned at his gut. “For who? You or your son?”
“I never once considered the effect it would have on me or Owen.” She shrugged. “My only concern was you and your mother.”
“What you did to my mother, as well as to Caleb’s and Nick’s mothers, amounts to blackmail.” He hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, but the truth wasn’t always pretty.
To his surprise, Emerald didn’t seem the least bit offended by his accusation. “You see it as blackmail. I saw it as protecting my grandsons and their mothers from the hazards of dealing with the paparazzi and a corruptive lifestyle.” She sighed. “I was determined to see that you and your brothers didn’t turn out to be anything like your father. Owen might be alive today if I had given him more of my time and attention instead of everything he thought he wanted.”
Hunter took a deep breath in an attempt to bring his temper under control. “Did he even know that he’d gotten three women pregnant?”
For the first time since meeting the mighty Emerald Larson and learning that she was his grandmother, Hunter watched her lower her head as if she might be ashamed of her philandering offspring. He could almost feel sorry for her. Almost.
“Yes, Owen knew he had three sons. But, as usual, he relied on me to bail him out of taking responsibility for his actions.” When she raised her eyes to look at him there was unapologetic defiance in their gray depths. “I’ll admit that I’ve made a lot of mistakes and have more than my share of regrets, but whether or not you approve of my methods to insure you boys were nothing like him, you can’t deny that it worked. And I didn’t exactly coerce your mother into signing the agreement to remain silent about your father. I just made it clear that should word get out that I’m your grandmother, I would have to deny it in order to protect you from the media frenzy it would create.”