Found Wanting (44 page)

She tried to focus on Jonah. If all went as planned, she would have him with her again in only a few hours. She imagined what it would be like to put her arms around him and hug him close. Safe. He would be safe. He would be hers.

But before that happened, she would have to betray the man she had fallen in love with.

Bracing her hands on the vanity, she closed her eyes as her stomach churned violently. Oh, how her betrayal would hurt him. And he'd already been hurt so much.

Yet no matter how much she cared for Mitch, her duty as a mother was to seize the first chance she had to whisk her child to safety. Once she did that, there was no other choice but to run. If she told Mitch her plan, she would place him and everyone he cared about squarely in the sights of Layton's hired guns.

She would rather betray him than get him killed.

* * *

Mitch stood on the other side of the bathroom door of the hotel room he and Alaina had checked into after the meeting with Chuck and Addison, debating whether he should disturb her. But she had been in there so long, and he was beginning to worry that perhaps she was ill. He rapped his knuckles against the door. "You okay?"

A moment of silence, then she swung open the door, a smile pasted on. "I'm fine."

He narrowed his eyes as he studied her face. She didn't look fine. She looked wan and stressed, her eyes shadowed. The showdown with Addison had taken its toll. Which was why he had yet to tell her that he had scheduled a meeting with Layton Keller that evening -- to deliver her. Except that the Alaina he showed up with would be an FBI decoy agent who would be carefully shielded from Keller while Mitch, wearing a wire, tried to get him to spill his guts.

It was a desperate, risky ploy, one that didn't ensure Jonah's freedom or Mitch's safety. So he kept it to himself for now, waiting until Alaina seemed less fragile. Maybe he wouldn't even tell her. He'd just go do it and apologize profusely later. If all went well, he would return with her son. He was certain all would be forgiven then.

He cleared his throat. "Are you hungry?" They hadn't eaten since breakfast, and it was already mid-afternoon.

"Not really." She seemed to dodge him to go to the windows, where she peered out at the gray day as if it were the most interesting thing she had ever seen.

Distance. He was disappointed by it, but it didn't surprise him. She'd had a tough day. The exchange with her sister had no doubt ripped open old wounds.

Yet, there was something more. She'd avoided his gaze when she'd come out of the bathroom, and that was unlike her. Crossing to her, he slipped his arms around her from behind and drew her against him. Her resistance alarmed him. "Talk to me, Alaina. Please."

She turned into his arms, ran her hands under his shirt. "I don't want to talk."

* * *

Addison tossed her purse and keys onto the counter and lowered herself to a kitchen stool. Her head ached from all the wine she had consumed. Her heart ached from what Alaina had told her. And for the first time, Addison saw the past clearly.

It struck her how thoroughly their lives had contradicted expectations. Addison had been considered the smart sister with loads of potential. She had married well and had an impressive home and philanthropic career. She had been the golden child, the one considered most likely to succeed. The strong one.

Alaina had been the rebel with creative aspirations that were not only considered unrealistic but defied her father's wishes. She had lived for fun, her behavior, though not a harm to anyone but perhaps herself, occasionally causing the family embarrassment.

Addison had looked down on her at the same time that she had admired her ability to cut loose and have a good time. Addison never would have dreamed of staying out past curfew or borrowing their mother's car without asking. She certainly never would have dared to strew streamers of toilet paper through the trees of a friend's house. But Alaina had done it, gotten caught and spent the night in juvenile detention because of it.

Her rebellion had only burgeoned after their father refused to let her attend an audition at Juilliard. Alaina had been crushed, and looking back now, Addison began to understand why her sister had become ever more defiant, skipping school, staying out all night, coming home with alcohol on her breath. She'd been angry, frustrated, and perhaps those were the only times she felt able to exert some control over her own life.

Things got much worse a month after Addison and Layton were married, when Alaina told them that Layton had raped her and she was pregnant with his child. Paul hadn't believed her story about the attack for an instant. He'd accused Alaina of making it up to cover for her no-good boyfriend. What else could they have been doing together into the wee hours of the morning besides boozing it up and having unprotected sex?

Addison hadn't believed her either, and she'd been livid at the lie, accusing Alaina of coveting Layton from the start. It was obvious in the way she flirted with him at every opportunity. Alaina's crush on Layton was no secret. It was also no secret, Addison charged, that Alaina was insanely jealous of Addison. Addison had the gorgeous fiancé and their father's adoring attention. Paul had often told Alaina she needed to be more like Addison.

Then, shockingly, Layton had confessed that he and Alaina had indeed had intercourse, that he had been drunk and unable to turn away when Alaina had aggressively seduced him.

Looking back, Addison saw how shrewd that move had been. He'd seen "the big picture," as her father had often put it when he talked about Layton's excellent management skills. Assuming that eventually a paternity test would show that the child was his, Layton had used their weaknesses against them. He'd exploited Alaina's lack of credibility with Paul brought on by her constant rebellion. Paul adored him, considered him the son he'd never had, so when it came down to a "he said, she said," Paul chose to believe the one he trusted: Layton. After all, he had reasoned, Layton didn't have to confess to anything. He could have simply denied that anything ever happened between him and Alaina. Plus, there was the matter of why Alaina had waited until after she'd discovered she was pregnant to say anything about the alleged attack. Her response that she'd known her father would never take her word over Layton's had sent him into a spitting rage.

With Addison, Layton had played perfectly to her conviction that Alaina was jealous of their relationship and had conspired to steal him away. While babbling out apologies and self-recriminations, he had reluctantly (so it seemed) revealed that Alaina had laughed about their encounter afterward, saying she couldn't wait to see the look on Addison's face when she found out. He'd pleaded with Alaina to not say anything because he knew Addison would be devastated, and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt the only woman he'd ever loved. He told Addison that once it became clear that Alaina was pregnant, he knew he had to come clean about his lapse and beg for forgiveness.

Addison remembered being almost eager to forgive him. He -- the handsome, charming and very coveted Layton Keller -- was her husband. Everyone loved him. Alaina was the only one who had anything bad to say about him. That made it very clear to Addison that Alaina was the liar and that Layton had merely stumbled unwittingly into her trap.

Only Eve -- Alaina and Addison's mother -- had questioned Layton's claims of drunken and weak male resistance, Addison recalled. Only Eve had been horrified at what had transpired between her youngest daughter and her oldest daughter's fiancé. She had tried to insist that Alaina's claims be investigated, perhaps even by the police. But Paul had shot her down in a thundering tone that had brooked no argument. The publicity alone would be devastating, both to the reputation of an innocent man and the image of a well-respected family already made shaky by Alaina's earlier transgressions. Eve, having been cowed by him for nearly twenty-five years by then, had meekly shut up.

The depth of betrayal staggered Addison. That she and her parents had been so cleverly manipulated by a man they trusted ... she still couldn't quite grasp it. And she didn't think she would ever be able to comprehend what it had been like for Alaina.

"There you are."

She turned, surprised to see Layton in his trademark position, one shoulder leaning casually against the door frame, hands in his pockets. "Where have you been?" he asked. He acted casual, curious.

"I had an appointment," she said.

"I see. Were you driving?"

The question threw her. "Of course. Why?"

"You're drunk. In fact, you've been spending entirely too much time drunk. Perhaps it's time for you to seek help."

"Why? So you can get me declared incompetent and screw me over in the divorce?"

He smiled, and there was no humor in the expression. "You're too quick for me, Addy."

"You won't get away with it, Layton. I won't let you."

"What, exactly, are you not going to let me get away with?" he asked. "Because you've let me get away with a lot over the years."

"I didn't know then --"

"Sure you did," he cut in with a smirk. "On some level, you knew all along what I was doing. And you let me because it got you what you wanted."

"I didn't want you to rape my sister."

"No, that was just a bonus."

"You bastard!" She launched herself at him, fingers hooked and aimed at his eyes.

Catching her by the wrists, he shoved her back against the counter. And chuckled. "Gee, Addy, it took you only fifteen years to work up that indignant rage."

Shame erupted inside her, and she tried to jerk away, but he held fast to her wrists. "I believed you," she said through her teeth. "I loved you."

"No, you didn't. You loved that your father loved me. You loved what I looked like and what you looked like next to me. You loved the image we presented of the perfect couple with the perfect marriage who lived in the perfect house and hosted perfect parties. We both got what we wanted from each other, Addy, but it wasn't love. It was never about love. And face it, if you truly loved me, you never would have ratted me out to the feds."

She gaped at him.

He began to laugh. "You're so cute when you're shocked. Yeah, I know what you've been up to. In fact, I knew every move you made before that new guy took over."

"Agent Potter told you?"

"Someone in his office, actually. I knew about the listening devices, the deal you made to protect Alaina, everything."

"But why didn't you --"

His icy eyes danced with smug satisfaction. "Because, Addy, honey, if I'd let on that I knew what you were doing, someone would have figured out that I had sources in the FBI. And, at the time, finding Alaina and her brat were more important to me than punishing you for betraying me." He paused, pursed his lips. "Though I am curious about what tipped you off."

She gave him a smug smile of her own. "I overheard you on the phone. You said 'kill the bitch and bring the kid to me.' I may be an expert at denial, but there was no plausible explanation for that one. So tell me, Layton, what do you want with the son you never wanted in the first place?"

He made an impatient gesture. "I don't have time for this. I have preparations to make. Your sister is paying us a visit tonight."

That startled her, and she blurted, "I wouldn't count on it."

His gaze sharpened. "Why would you say that?"

Realizing her blunder, she tried to shrug it off. "Forget it." Grabbing her purse and keys off the counter, she turned to walk out of the kitchen, only to surge back when he came at her. The counter at her back stopped her retreat, and he cornered her against it, a hand braced on either side of her.