Something to Prove (30 page)

He checked the call log. Keith. Didn’t that just figure? Why bother being courteous
to people who had to work late? Not that Colin had been courteous in calling Keith
at two a.m. No messages, so Colin dialed.

“Hello?” Keith’s voice was the smooth sound of someone who’d been awake for hours.

“It’s Colin. What did you want?” His own voice was rough and cracked. He stood and
got a glass of water from the bathroom.

“What the hell happened last night?”

“What
didn’t
happen?”

“Elizabeth won’t take my calls. You left some cryptic, threatening message. Then I
get a call from my former bar manager saying he’d been arrested.”

Where to begin? “Mitch was arrested for trying to break into the bar, well, technically,
the bowling alley. We think he was behind other problems we’ve had since reopening.
I have no idea why he called you.”

“I know why he called me. He wants me to bail him out. He said Elizabeth was an unreasonable
bitch, which, of course, she can be, but he tried to say it was all a misunderstanding.”

Anger rose in Colin’s chest, and he wanted to defend Elizabeth. She was no more a
bitch than she needed to be. And even if she was, shouldn’t her own brother stand
up for her? “No misunderstanding. He was trying to use an old key to get in. Based
on the damage he did last time, I don’t want to know what he would’ve done last night.”

Colin felt weird having this conversation with Elizabeth’s brother while naked, so
he pulled on jeans.

“Fine. Now tell me why Elizabeth won’t take my calls and you threatened me.”

He sat back on the edge of the bed. “It wasn’t a threat. It was a request for information.
Before we closed last night, Elizabeth accused me of sabotage. She said she overheard
us talking. I assumed she meant she’d heard about the party. But she said she knew
I was conspiring with you, that you were setting her up to lose again.”

“Shit.”

“That’s not an explanation.”

“It’s a long story.”

“Since she accused me of betraying her, I think I’m entitled to that story, don’t
you?”

“Fuck.” A long stretch of silence followed. “Can we meet for coffee?”

“That long of a story?”

“Unfortunately.”

Keith agreed to come to O’Leary’s in a half hour, which would give Colin enough time
to attempt to look human. As long as he was up, he called Bianca and made sure everything
was set for Elizabeth’s party. He wouldn’t attend, but he wanted her birthday to be
a good one. He just hoped her brother wouldn’t screw that up.

Down in the bar, Colin found the quiet that used to make him enjoy being here. He
still loved working at O’Leary’s, but he’d become accustomed to working with someone.
The quiet didn’t soothe him the way it used to.

A knock sounded at the front door, and he unlocked it to see Keith standing in the
sunlight wearing a suit. What was with this family? He couldn’t come for coffee dressed
like a normal person?

“Come on in. Coffee’s ready. We don’t open for lunch for a few hours, so I can’t offer
you anything else.” Colin locked the door after Keith walked past him. Keith looked
at him and Colin pointed to a table near the bar. “I’ll be right back. How do you
take it?”

“Black’s fine. How did you end up meeting Elizabeth?”

“She came in here and we got to know each other.”

Colin grabbed two cups and sat across from Keith. They stared at each other. Colin
had nothing to say, so he let the silence fill the space.

“I don’t know where to start.”

“How about you start by telling me whatever you did to make Elizabeth be leery of
anyone wanting to help her.”

The man sighed and hung his head. “The year before Elizabeth graduated college, my
dad thought it would be fun to have us compete for work. We’d both worked with him,
but I’d had more experience. My dad bought two properties in Tampa. While they were
in similar neighborhoods, he leveled the playing field by giving Elizabeth the place
that would require less work.

“At first I didn’t care. I knew I’d win.”

“Should I bother asking what the prize was?”

Keith shook his head. “I don’t even remember. It might’ve been bragging rights. It
was supposed to be fun. A way to spend our summer. After the first two weeks, I knew
I was in trouble. Elizabeth is good at what she does.”

Colin knew that already. He focused on Keith. He didn’t like sharing this story, but
Colin was glad that he didn’t back out.

“Our dad did his weekly visit of the two properties and was sure that we were neck
and neck. He was prepared to call a tie.” He took a swig of coffee. “I was pissed.
A tie would’ve been fine, but then Elizabeth opened her mouth.
There can be only one
.”

Colin remembered her saying those words to him and how he’d laughed at it.

“The quote is from—”

“I know. Get to the point.” Colin knew things were going to head south.

“She pushed the issue, and I became willing to do whatever was necessary to win. I
couldn’t let my little sister show me up.”

Keith stopped again, and Colin wanted to shake him. No story could be that long. “Finish.”

“I sent a friend of mine to work for her. She didn’t know I had sent him. He was supposed
to spy and let me know what her plans were so I could top them. She fell for Matt
and they started to date. I used it to my advantage.”

“What exactly did you do?” Anger bubbled in his chest. That Keith could do anything
to his own
sister
burned him. It was his job to take care of his sister. He should be the one man she
could always count on to have her back.

“I paid him to sabotage her work before the end of the competition. She looked like
a fool in front of my father.”

Colin shoved away from the table and paced, afraid that if he didn’t move, he might
hit Keith. This was their family crap, and he had no business putting his nose into
it, plus it was more than a decade ago.

“I was young and stupid. I didn’t think about what it would do to her. I just wanted
to win.”

So much made sense now. She saw this as her chance to redeem herself. She could prove
to her father that she was as good, if not better, than Keith. He only had one question
left, and depending on the answer, he might find himself spending the night in jail
for beating the crap out of Elizabeth’s brother.

“Were you behind the problems we’ve had? Did you set Mitch up to make her fail?”

“What?” Keith stood, his eyes shooting daggers, as if he had the right to be offended.
“Fuck no. I’ve been trying to make up for it ever since. I love my sister. I want
her to be happy.”

Even as angry as he was, Colin could see the remorse on the other man’s face. It was
easy to recognize because he’d seen the same look in the mirror.

“What’s all this to you, anyway?” Keith asked. “What’s your relationship with Elizabeth?”

I love her
. The admission swamped him and he felt light-headed. He pushed it back, knowing that
it didn’t matter. “We’re partners. My contract stipulates that I get a cut of profits
and a bonus when we sell. I obviously want the business to succeed.”

“The place isn’t for sale.”

Colin bristled again. “That’s Elizabeth’s call.”

“It’s mine. The business is mine, not hers.”

Tension filled Colin’s muscles. In addition to accusing him of being a criminal and
of betraying her, Elizabeth had lied to him? “You said it was supposed to be hers.”

“It’s not yet.”

“Thanks for telling me. The party’s ready for tonight. You might want to talk to your
sister before she’s blindsided by the party. She’s preparing for battle, not a birthday.”

“You’re not coming?”

Colin shook his head. He, too, wanted Elizabeth to be happy. If he showed up at her
party, he would probably ruin it. He didn’t know what to do with his emotions. He
felt sorry for Elizabeth, but he didn’t know if he could forgive her lack of faith
in him. He’d definitely confront her about lying about owning the bar. What a clusterfuck.

“You’re welcome to come. I’ll make sure she knows you had nothing to do with any sabotage.”

“She already knows that,” Colin answered. “We have other issues.”

“Okay.” Keith turned and left.

Colin began the prep for opening O’Leary’s. Here, he knew exactly what to expect and
people knew what to expect from him. Family offered that.

The nagging little voice in his head reminded him that Elizabeth didn’t know that
feeling. He brushed it aside.

He was done trying to prove himself worthy.

Elizabeth was beyond tired. She’d barely gotten any sleep between dealing with the
cops and worrying about her dad. And Colin. She’d screwed that up, but she’d apologized.
She didn’t know what else to do, how to fix it. He walked away without accepting her
apology. She didn’t know what to do about his declaration. Her own feelings were murky,
so she ignored them to face the problem at hand.

Keith had been calling all day, but she dodged the calls. Surely he knew what had
happened by now. During one message he said he’d talked with Colin, which meant that
he knew exactly how she’d messed up and could toss it back in her face. So she’d accused
the wrong man. It didn’t matter much now.

There had been no sign of Colin at either the bar or the bowling alley. Although Mitch
had been caught, she wouldn’t put it past Keith to have someone else waiting in the
wings. She’d feel better if she didn’t have to leave Mike in charge. She was fairly
sure Mike would be on her side. Neither Keith nor Mike had showed even a flicker of
recognition when they’d met. She couldn’t afford any more problems.

Maybe she should call Colin and ask him to work while she was out. But her pride wouldn’t
let her make that call. She’d told him she didn’t need him.

Such a liar.

Everything would be fine for a few hours. She’d eat dinner and then get her dad to
go back to the bar tonight. She might as well get it over with. It wouldn’t look any
better in the morning. At least tonight she had her birthday working in her favor.

Her father sent a car to pick her up. God forbid she should drive herself to the restaurant.
When the car pulled up, she groaned. A limo. Really? What was he thinking? Unless
it was Mom. This was totally something she would do. Dad hadn’t mentioned anything,
but maybe Mom traveled with him.

She looked down at the navy suit she wore. If Mom was at dinner, the first thing she’d
comment on was her attire.

Elizabeth headed toward the back of the limo while trying to contain a giggle. Her
mother would keel over if she found out about Colin. She could almost hear the
He’s beneath you
. Maybe she should invite him to dinner. Riling her mother was an excellent way to
spend her birthday.

Then she remembered that inviting Colin anywhere was no longer an option.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat and steeled herself for the meal ahead.

The car pulled up in front of the restaurant. Sure enough, her mother stood beside
her father. Unfortunately, Keith waited with them. She took a deep breath and climbed
from the back of the car.

She could almost hear her mother’s
tsk
. Her stomach roiled with a pain she hadn’t felt in weeks. She wished Colin were here.
He’d put her at ease with one of his smiles. Then he’d win her mother over with his
charm.

Keith walked to meet her. “We need to talk.”

“Not now.” She moved to skirt by him, but he caught her elbow.

“Yes, now.” He turned and waved to their parents. “Go on in. We’ll be there in a minute.”

Keith propelled her to the side of the entrance.

She yanked her arm away. “What do you want?”

“First, I had nothing to do with whatever Mitch did to the bar. Neither did Colin.”

“Your lies mean little to me.” She turned away. She’d expected him to say that.

“I told Colin everything. Even about Matt.”

That caught her attention. The entire episode had been swept under the rug for years.
They never mentioned it. She looked into her brother’s eyes. He wasn’t lying. “Why?”

He shrugged. “It seemed like he deserved an explanation, and he wasn’t getting it
from you. He cares about you.”

He loves me.
The lump returned to her throat and she couldn’t speak, so she nodded.

“He told me that you planned to sell the bar and the bowling alley.”

She cleared her throat. “What else would we do with it? It’s not like it fits in Dad’s
portfolio.”