He wiped off his grin and focused on Rand’s scowling face. “Looks like identical DNA doesn’t produce identical personalities.”
These past few weeks of playing house had made him question his “everybody has a price” mantra. And he’d begun to believe Carly would never tire of Rhett and responsibility, and run.
Rand stared at him as if he’d sprouted horns. “You think marrying her will put a lock on the kid.”
He should have known big brother would figure out his plan. “It won’t hurt. But that’s not why I’m marrying her.”
“You telling me you love her?”
Did he love Carly? No. But could he?
“Your silence is screaming, little brother.”
Mitch glanced at his watch. A knot of tension snarled at the base of his skull. “I know what I’m doing. So are you going to be there Friday night at eight or not?”
“I’ll be there. But I hope to hell you’re not making as big a mistake as Dad did when he became entangled with the other Corbin.”
So did Mitch. Because Carly made him want to try something he didn’t believe existed—an honest, committed relationship based on something besides his bottom line.
He could get used to this.Mitch stared at the moonlight dancing on his ceiling and waited for his heart rate to drop back into double digits. But that wasn’t going to happen if Carly pressed her lips to his chest one more time.
He tangled his fingers in her hair and tugged her head back. She smiled up at him and tenderness filled him—an emotion that had nothing to do with ringing the bell to start round two of astronomical sex.
This marriage to Carly would be good. And perhaps he wouldn’t rush to end it immediately after the adoption went through.
“Thank you for everything you did today, Mitch. It helped…a lot.”
“I’m glad.” The approval in her eyes made him want to pound his chest like some damned caveman. He settled for pulling her flush against his body and tucking her head into the crook of his shoulder. The air-conditioning kicked on, cooling his sweat-dampened skin.
She took a shuddery breath and tensed against him. “I woke up this morning thinking about Marlene’s last moments. That’s why I sneaked out. I needed to call the police detective and check the status on the investigation. I need to know the bastard who hit her will be held accountable for what he did.”
Mitch fought the tension invading his limbs and robbing his peace. He couldn’t tell Carly he suspected his father had either been driving the car or had paid someone else to take out her sister. “What did the detective say?”
She rolled up onto her elbow. “He says the case has been put on the back burner due to more pressing issues. You’re an almighty Kincaid. Can’t you light a fire under them? I want someone punished for leaving Marlene to die.”
“Carly—”
“Please, Mitch. I don’t want your money and I couldn’t care less about the Kincaid fortune. But I would really, really like for you to use your influence on this.”
He didn’t know what to say to her plea. Finding her sister’s killer could destroy his family and KCL.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
But he wouldn’t be calling the police.
Carly’s parents were due in a matter of hours, and she still hadn’t found her missing bra.Mitch had whisked her straight upstairs to bed after she’d accepted his proposal, and then life had intervened and she hadn’t had time to return to the study and search again. Her days had been an exhausting crush of caring for Rhett, working in rescheduled patients, looking for a wedding dress and squeezing in lawyer visits. Her nights had been filled with Mitch.
She plucked at her shirt, fanned her overheated body and expelled a long, slow breath.
She’d expected one of the cleaning ladies to find her bra, and then it would turn up in her laundry. But they hadn’t. With her luck, her father would find it. She knew how much he liked libraries, and the Kincaids’ book collection was impressive. He’d probably locate her Playtex between Plato and Poe…or wherever Mitch had thrown it.
She headed straight for Mitch’s study the minute she handed Rhett off to Della who had begged to borrow the child for another Web cam chat. The widowed Duncan sisters had declared themselves honorary grandmothers, and with her parents living all the way across the country, Carly couldn’t be happier for Rhett to have a makeshift extended family.
The study smelled of lemon polish and eucalyptus. Every surface gleamed—even the desk where she and Mitch had savaged each other five nights ago. Carly scanned the furniture and the tall cherry shelves. Nada.
She dropped to the floor and looked under furniture. No bra. Wait! A white fragment caught her eye. The fax rang as she scrambled to her feet. She ignored it and headed for the floor-length curtains. She whipped back the heavy drapes. Jackpot!
She snatched up her bra and stuffed it in her pocket. The fax spewed pages. There had been a bit of back and forth conversation between her lawyer and Mitch’s over the prenuptial agreement and Rhett’s adoption. Was this more of the same?
She crossed the room as the last sheet slid onto the tray and lifted the report. Her name jumped out at her from the cover sheet. But this wasn’t from an attorney’s office. The header said Lewis Investigations, Discreet Private Detective Agency.
A sense of foreboding invaded her, chilled her, and made her hands tremble as she turned to page two.
Kincaid, I promised you a mother lode of info to discredit Carly Corbin as guardian of your father’s kid. Here it is. You’ll have to consult your attorney to see if Corbin’s juvenile records will be admissible in court. If so, then you should have a good shot at gaining sole custody.Her knees buckled. She sank into the leather chair behind the desk. Mitch didn’t want to adopt Rhett and become a family. He wanted to rip her precious nephew right out of her arms. And he was willing to marry her to accomplish his goal.
The gifts, the lovemaking, the proposal had all been ways to win her trust and cover his duplicitous tracks.
Her eyes and throat burned. She blinked and turned the page.
You were right about Carly graduating high school a year later than her twin. Good catch. That clue led to the break I needed.At age sixteen Carly Corbin had an affair with her twenty-four-year-old volleyball coach. She became pregnant. The coach stated publicly that he wanted nothing to do with Carly or her child—which he doubted was his because Corbin was promiscuous. He accused her of seduction and trying to break up his family. He returned to the wife and kids after receiving no more than a slap on the wrist for screwing an underage kid. His wife not only stood by him, she filed an “Alienation of Affection” suit against C. Corbin, which was later dismissed.
C. Corbin spent six months in a home for unwed mothers and gave the baby up for adoption.
See attached copies of court documents, newspaper articles from Nashville paper, etc.
Carly numbly sifted through the pages and her past came rushing back. She’d been crucified in the papers, deemed the Locker Room Lolita, abandoned by her friends and asked to leave school. She’d disappointed her parents and herself. She’d lost her heart, her innocence and her baby. Her family had moved to another state while she was in the home for girls, to escape the shame she’d caused.
An elephant-size weight settled on her chest. Like every other man she’d fallen for, Mitch had betrayed her. She couldn’t believe how much more it hurt this time than the others.
She forced herself to read on.
C. L. Corbin opened an offshore account eighteen months ago with a single one-hundred-thousand-dollar deposit. The beneficiary of that account is Rhett Kincaid Corbin.She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. Mitch hadn’t lied. Marlene had taken the money to abort Rhett and then not gone through with the procedure.
Questions tumbled like an avalanche through Carly’s brain.
Why hadn’t Marlene aborted after taking the money? Why had she continued the pregnancy but kept it a secret? Why had she practically gone into seclusion in Carly’s house and waited until Rhett was eight months old to introduce him to his father?
Had she felt guilty because she knew taking the money was wrong? Or had she been afraid?
Why had her sister opened the account in Carly’s name? It wasn’t as if Marlene hadn’t pretended to be Carly before, but…this made no sense. If the money was for Rhett, then why not list the account in his name?
“Marlene, what have you done?”
Acid burned a path up her esophagus, but she was determined to finish the last paragraph of the damning report.
I have yet to find evidence linking your father to Marlene Corbin’s “accident,” but will continue to investigate if you are convinced of his involvement.Shock stole her breath. Mitch suspected his father had been involved in Marlene’s death.
Slowly the gears in her brain turned. That was why he’d silenced her with a kiss last night. He didn’t want to discuss Marlene’s death or his father’s part in it. The Kincaids certainly had enough money to cover up something of this magnitude.
She had to do something. But what?
She heard Mitch’s voice in the hall and wanted to run. She couldn’t face him now. Not while she felt raw and exposed and too hurt to be logical. But short of diving beneath the desk, escape wasn’t possible.
He entered the office with his cell phone to his ear. “I’m getting it now.”
And then he spotted her. His gaze dropped to the papers in her hand, then bounced to the now empty fax tray and back to her.
“I’ll call you back.” He snapped the phone closed. “Carly.”
It hurt to look at him. Hurt to know she’d been such a fool. No better than she’d been at a young, naive, stupid sixteen. Now she couldn’t use young or naive as excuses.
This time she’d just been stupid. But now she was hurting and angry. She pushed to her feet. “You think your father killed Marlene. How could you keep it from the police? How could you keep that from me—especially after last night?”
“There is no proof he’s responsible, but I needed to know—for my sake—that he wasn’t.”
“And if he was?” A tremor overtook her. Not even wrapping her arms around her middle could stop it.
Mitch shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. He’s already dead, Carly. He can’t be held accountable. But if this leaked, the press would take the family and KCL down. People who had nothing to do with Marlene’s death would suffer. Nadia, Rand, Rhett and sixty thousand employees.”
The way Rhett would suffer if the Kincaids found out Marlene had deliberately trapped their father. Both of them had secrets they’d rather not share. “And you.”
“And me.”
“Cleaning up Everett’s mess is all you care about.”
“It’s not all I care about, but it is my job.”
And she, Marlene and Rhett had been just another cleanup detail. She understood Mitch’s logic for withholding his suspicions, but she didn’t like it.
“You could have asked about my past, Mitch. You didn’t have to sneak around behind my back.”