Anything He Wants: The Betrayal (#5) (3 page)

I glanced up at Jeremiah and saw him studying his brother through narrow eyes. “Would she know anything about this?”

Lucas snorted. “Definitely not, other than the fact I came here to warn you.”

He sounded flippant and uncaring, but Jeremiah seemed unconvinced. He turned back to Ethan and said, “Leave her car outside the gate. Search both it and her thoroughly, then bring her to the house.”

Ethan nodded and whispered instructions to a nearby guard who disappeared from the room. For all of a second, Lucas’s lips pursed and his eyes flashed, then the jovial mask slipped back into place. “I do love drama,” he said, his lips turning up into a tight smile.

“What is the meaning of this?” came a woman’s voice from the entryway, her strident tones bouncing off the wood and stone. Lucas’s smile froze, eyes widening as his head snapped around toward the voice.

Jeremiah glanced at Ethan, jaw tightening in annoyance. “Why isn’t she gone?” he demanded.

“She hadn’t left the gate yet when you ordered the lockdown,” Ethan said just as Georgia Hamilton swept into the room. She was flanked by two more guards who faded back toward the front door, escort duty done. The older woman fixed her eyes on Jeremiah and marched straight up to him angrily. “What is the meaning of this?” she snapped, glaring up at her son. “You throw me out of my own home, send your police force to escort me off the property, then force me back in when I’m obviously not wanted?” She drew in a shaky breath, covering her mouth with the knuckles of her hand. “Haven’t you any concern for my feelings?”

The overwrought performance was sublime but, given my experience with the woman, I couldn’t dredge up any sympathy for her imaginary plight. Nor, apparently, could Jeremiah who replied coldly, “Rest assured, Mother, you’ll be gone from this house as quickly as we can manage.”

Annoyance wrinkled her nose briefly, then the waterworks started. “How can you dream of keeping me away from my…”

“Well, hello, Mother. Did you miss me?”

Lucas’s snide words stopped the older woman in midtirade. Clearly shocked, she turned around to stare at her eldest son, who stood glaring at her from the center of the room. “What is he doing here?” she demanded, all traces of her previous grief disappearing in an instant.

“Lovely to see you, too.” Gone was the professional nonchalance Lucas had maintained throughout the conversation with Jeremiah. Sarcasm now laced everything, the bitter sneer across his face angled toward the thin woman who’d just entered the room. The scar across his cheek stood out as the skin around it darkened in repressed anger.

Georgia looked as though she’d bitten into a lemon as she rounded on Jeremiah. “Don’t listen to anything he says,” she spat. “He’s nothing but a liar and a cheat.”

Lucas threw his head back and barked a laugh, then bowed toward his mother, a mocking smile on his face. “I learned from the best. Inherited from both sides, in fact.”

Puzzled by the exchange, I looked up at Jeremiah for some clarification but he, too, seemed confused. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

“Nothing,” Georgia spat, then lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. “I’d like to leave now as it appears family means little in this house.”

“Oh, Mother, no. Please. Stay.” The sarcasm dripped off Lucas’s every word, but the woman merely crossed her arms without looking at her eldest son. A cruel smile tightened Lucas’s face but the wounded look in his eyes didn’t quite jibe with the expression. “Wouldn’t you like to know what happened to that thirty million dollars I was accused of stealing?” Lucas asked. “Surely curiosity had been eating away at you about how I spent it.”

Georgia flinched ever so slightly, the sign little more than a momentary purse of her lips. “I don’t need to hear this, it’s not my business,” she said, sniffing in disdain and pivoting toward the entryway. “When you’re little argument is over, I’ll be in my car.”

“Stop her.” Jeremiah’s command was immediately followed as the two guards along the doorway closed ranks, blocking the exit. Georgia squawked in outrage but Jeremiah ignored her, his attention on his brother. “I don’t like secrets,” he said, voice low.

“Yet you’ve helped perpetuate one for almost eight years now.” Lucas never stopped watching his mother, even when she refused to return the favor. His eyes were a cauldron of emotions, flickering and changing so fast it was difficult to decipher anything in particular. “Come now, Mother, should I tell him or would you like to do the honors?”

Giving an irritated groan that sounded childish coming from the older woman, Georgia turned her back on her eldest son. Suddenly realizing that she had an audience scrutinizing her every move, she smoothed her features and waved her hand airily. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Now if you’ll excuse me…”

Lucas’s eyes narrowed at the display, then he turned to Jeremiah. “Have you ever wondered where Mother gets all her money?”

The question seemed to startle Jeremiah. He gave his brother a long, hard look before turning to glance at his mother. I followed his gaze and wondered if he was thinking the same thing as me. Georgia Hamilton wasn’t a good an actress; she avoided anyone’s eyes, her head swiveling from one exit to another as if pondering which one would get her away quicker. Finally, she met Jeremiah’s look and rolled her eyes. “Come on, you don’t actually believe him do you?” she snapped.

“Believe what?” Jeremiah looked between his family members, confusion mixing with annoyance. Neither his brother nor his mother seemed inclined to do more than glare at one another, so he raised his voice and asked again, “I’m not to believe what?”

A cell phone rang, the sharp sound piercing the terse atmosphere. Ethan melted out of the room as the answer to Jeremiah’s question hit me like a ton of bricks. Oh, my God. “Your mother was the one who stole the money.”

I hadn’t meant to vocalize my thoughts, it was only a theory, but the words electrified the audience. “That’s absurd!” she snapped. Georgia rounded on me, face contorting in anger. It was an odd sight to behold, as much of her face had been deadened by Botox injections and their near-tranquility didn’t match the obvious rage in her eyes. “What would you know anyway? You’re just the trollop my son brought home.”

“Wasn’t that how you, too, started out this life?” Lucas practically cooed as my hands curled into fists. “Didn’t Father find you in a Vegas dance hall? Come now, Mother, projecting your issues on her doesn’t forgive you your own sins.”

A spasm of pain cracked across the older woman’s face at the memory, which she tried and failed to conceal. “I don’t need to hear this,” she repeated bitterly, but much of the fire had gone out of the words.

She turned away, only to have Lucas block her path and snag her arm. Despite the cuffs around his wrists, he held her firm. “Do you know what you’ve done to me, Mother?” he murmured as she turned and glared. He leaned in close, their gazes locking, but neither seemed willing to budge first. “Do you know what your lie reduced me to?”

I stared at them, still shocked by my own revelation, then looked up at Jeremiah. He was as still as I’d ever seen, and it was difficult to tell what he was thinking. Part of me wanted to know more about Georgia—had she really been a Vegas showgirl?—but now was definitely not the time for questions. There’s so much about this family I don’t know.

“Don’t blame me for what you chose to become,” Georgia spat, glaring up at her eldest son.

“How was anything that happened to me by choice?” Even from several feet away I saw his body trembling as he released his mother’s arm, his hands curling into fists. “Everything I was, everything I had, was locked up in this company. Then that was taken away, I was accused of stealing thirty million dollars, and I took the only option available to me that didn’t include jail time.”

“Selling weapons to the highest bidder?” Jeremiah interjected in a wooden voice. “That was your only recourse?”

Lucas blinked at the interruption then stepped away from Georgia. He looked shaken, his eyes hollow as he looked back at his brother. “It didn’t start out that way. I needed to get out of the country and a man I once considered a friend needed a skilled negotiator to broker a deal on some cargo. I didn’t know until I was in the air what that ‘cargo’ consisted of or I swear, I’d have walked into the jail myself.”

Georgia snorted. “And you want to lay the blame at my feet?”

“Take some responsibility for what you’ve caused,” I said, unable to contain myself any more. Every face in the room held varying degrees of disgust and astonishment at the older woman’s behavior and words but nobody was willing to speak out.

She rolled her eyes and casually inspected her nails. “The reason doesn’t matter. He is what he made himself—I’m not the one who should live with the shame.”

I sputtered, unable to control my own anger. “He’s your son,” I exclaimed. “They’re both your sons! Don’t you care for them at all?”

“Of course I love them,” Georgia snapped, giving me a haughty glare. “Keep your opinion out of matters that don’t concern you.”

I wanted to throttle the sanctimonious bitch but at her words Lucas’s face shut down. “You’re right, Mother,” he said, chin coming back up. I recognized the moment his familiar mask snapped back into place. He gave the woman a tight-lipped smile even as she ignored him. “We each have to live with our own mistakes, don’t we?”

Jeremiah finally stepped forward. I laid my hand on his arm and felt him tremble, the emotional upheaval locked deep inside. His attention was focused on Lucas, who had visibly retreated from the conversation, locking himself behind a familiar wall of congeniality. “Brother…”

“Do you know our mother is shopping around a biography about the Hamilton family dynasty to various publishers?” Lucas said, interrupting his brother. The sudden color in her cheeks betrayed Georgia’s anger, but he continued. “An insider’s look at our family dynamics, from our dear departed father to the current leader of the family business. She, of course, is the beleaguered heroine in this tale of drama, wealth, and corporate espionage. Reportedly the bids for the book were up close to seven figures before every last editor pulled out.” At Georgia’s shocked look, Lucas waggled his fingers. “You’re not the only one with industry contacts willing to help you screw somebody over.”

“What are you talking about? This is absurd…”

“
And,
” Lucas continued, his haunted smile widening, “she’s also selling access to her billionaire son. If a businessperson can’t gain an audience with the CEO, why, he or she can be an impromptu ‘guest’ at the family home, conveniently timed to run in to the new head of the family. All for the right price, of course.”

“This coming from a man who sells weapons to dictators and scum of the earth for them to use against innocent people?” The color on Georgia’s cheeks was high as she glared down her nose at her eldest son. “You dare come in on some high horse, spouting this load of lies, after what you’ve done?”

“At least I don’t hide what I am,” Lucas murmured, parroting his mother’s arrogant stance.

Georgia rounded on Jeremiah. “Tell me you don’t believe this drivel,” she demanded, hands on her hips.

Jeremiah’s gaze however was intent on his brother, ignoring his mother completely. Lucas didn’t flinch from the probing look. “You can prove this?” Jeremiah finally asked.

“I can,” Lucas replied as their mother huffed in outraged affront.

“You take his word over mine.” Georgia gave Jeremiah a disappointed look whose sincerity, given her previous outbursts, rang hollow.

Does she even realize how she looks to everyone?
I wondered. Judging by the way she ignored the guards and other occupants of the room, I highly doubted it. The woman seemed locked inside her own little world; the opinions of others didn’t matter. What a horrible way to live your life.

Jeremiah stepped forward until he was standing in front of his mother. He leaned forward, and while I couldn’t see his face I did see Georgia flinch away. “I swear, Mother, if what he says is true, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” she challenged back. “Throw me out? Cut me off? Do you really think you’re the first Hamilton male to make those threats to me?” Georgia snorted. “How do you think I stayed married to your father all these years? Good looks and charm? No, I always had something over him—it was the only security I had.” She met Jeremiah’s glare with one all her own, but the color had drained from her face, leaving only cosmetics to give her any color. “I knew that old bastard wouldn’t leave me a red cent when he croaked, but how was I supposed to know he’d go so soon? You two thought I was no different than your father, and maybe now that’s the truth, but I knew for certain the only person I could rely on was myself.”

“So you threw me under the bus.” Lucas’s statement wasn’t quite a question, but it was obvious he wanted answers.

Georgia blanched, as if the impact of her actions only then occurred to her. Her mouth moved silently for a moment. “It was never supposed to go this far,” she finally said, voice low. She fiddled nervously with her purse, grabbing a tube of lipstick and small mirror, but her hands were shaking too much to apply a new layer. “That bastard father of yours didn’t leave me a dime; in fact, he managed to tie everything I thought I’d secreted away into Jeremiah’s inheritance. I knew there was no way my sons would take care of me. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you act around me,” she added as an aside to Jeremiah. “Barring me from my own home, acting as if I’m an infant. You’re just as bad as your father, assuming I can’t take care of myself.”

The accusation jolted Jeremiah, but Georgia continued. “Everything happened so quickly. I managed to find the will and read enough before the lawyers came to know I’d been screwed. Over thirty years I’d been with that bastard, borne his children, overlooked his infidelities, played my part as the dutiful Stepford wife, and he left me nothing. I helped run some nonessential committees, the ones Rufus felt perfect for my distinct lack of any useful talent. Each had been allocated a certain amount of funds and combined equaled just over thirty million dollars.” She lifted her chin. “So I took it.”