Triple Trouble (8 page)

“Because Stan’s will named me guardian if Amy’s sister Lana couldn’t take them.”

Nick took a drink of coffee, hoping to erase the lump of emotion in his throat. He still hadn’t come to terms with the abruptness with which Stan and Amy had disappeared from the world. “So they’re with me until the attorney locates Lana.”

“Where is she?”

“No one knows.” Nick stared broodingly at his plate, holding a sandwich and chips.

“She and her husband work in Africa and Amy seems to have lost track of them a few months ago.”

“Damn.” Darr eyed him. “Who’s taking care of the kids while you work?”

“I hired a nanny,” Nick replied. “And Melissa’s working longer hours while I’m at the Foundation during the day.”

Darr stared at him. Nick took a bite of his sandwich.

“And?” Darr prompted when Nick didn’t elaborate.

“And what?”

“Don’t give me that. You’re stalling. What else aren’t you telling me?”

“The nanny I hired works full-time. Her name is Charlene. She’s a redhead and she’s great with the triplets.”

Darr lowered his coffee mug to the table without taking his gaze from Nick’s face.

“She’s a babe, isn’t she.”

It wasn’t a question. Darr knew him too well to be fooled.

“Yeah. She is.” Nick shoved another bite of sandwich into his mouth.

“Full-time,” Darr said consideringly. “What hours does she work?”

“She’s pretty much on call twenty-four hours a day.”

“So…she’s living at your house?”

“Yeah.”

“Sleeping down the hall from you?”

Nick nodded, saw the glint appear in Darr’s eyes and bristled. “Yes, down the hall. She has her own bedroom. What the hell did you think, that she was sharing mine?”

Darr shrugged. “It did cross my mind. Face it, Nick, you’ve never been slow with the ladies. You said she’s pretty—and she’s living in your house….” He spread his hands.

“Sounds like a no-brainer to me.”

“Well, it’s not,” Nick snarled, restraining an urge to wrap his hands around his brother’s neck and choke that grin off his face. “She works for me. Have you heard of sexual harassment? She’s off-limits.”

“Too bad.” Darr lifted his coffee mug and drank. “So,” he said, setting the mug down and picking up his sandwich, “just how good-looking is Charlene?”

Too beautiful. Nick bit back the words and shrugged. “Beautiful.”

“On a scale of one to ten?”

“She’s a fifteen.”

Darr’s eyes widened. “Damn.”

“And she’s too young,” Nick continued.

“How young?”

“She’s twenty-five.”

“Thank God.” Darr pretended to wipe sweat off his brow in relief. “I thought you were going to tell me she’s underage and jailbait.”

“Might as well be,” Nick growled. “She’s twelve years younger than me. That’s too damned young.”

Darr pursed his lips. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight. You’re cranky because you’ve got a nanny you can’t make a move on because you’re her boss and she’s younger than you.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Nick conceded.

Darr grinned. “Maybe you should fire her. Then you can date her.”

“I can’t fire her—and I don’t want to,” Nick ground out. “She’s good at her job. If she wasn’t helping me take care of the girls, I’d be screwed.”

“So hire someone else—and then fire her.”

“Yeah, like she’s likely to go out with me after I’ve fired her.” Nick rubbed his eyes. They felt as if there was a pound of sand in each of them. If he didn’t get some sleep soon, he’d need more than the saline eyedrops he’d been using in a vain attempt to solve the problem. “There’s no solution that’s workable. Believe me, I’ve considered all the angles.”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

“Stop being so damned cheerful,” Nick growled.

“Aren’t you the one who told me there’s always another girl just around the corner?

Wait a week and there’ll be another corner, another girl. If things don’t work out with the redhead, why do you care?”

Because I’ve never met anyone quite like her.

Nick didn’t want to tell Darr that Charlene was unique. He was having a hard enough time accepting that he’d met a woman who broke all the rules he’d spent thirtyseven years setting.

“Maybe you’re right,” he said with a slight shrug, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

“Have you heard anything new about the note Patrick got at the New Year’s Eve party? Or about the ones Dad and Cindy received?”

“No.” Darr didn’t appear thrown by Nick’s abrupt change of subject. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to Dad and J.R.—to ask if they’ve learned anything more.”

The Fortune family had gone through a series of mysterious events over the last few months, starting with the cryptic note left in Patrick Fortune’s jacket pocket during a New Year’s Eve party. The strange message—“One of the Fortunes is not who you think”—baffled the family, even more so when they learned the same message had been left anonymously with Cindy Fortune and William, Nick and Darr’s father.

Patrick had called a family conference at Lily Fortune’s home on the Double Crown Ranch in February, on the very day Red Rock had been hit with a freak snowstorm. Darr hadn’t been present at the gathering, since he’d been snowed-in with Bethany in her little house. But Nick had brought him up to speed on everything that happened, including the family’s assumption the notes were the precursor to a blackmail demand. So far, however, no such demand had been made. But two subsequent fires—one that burned down the local Red Restaurant, and a second that destroyed a barn at the Double Crown—were suspicious. And potentially connected to the mysterious and vaguely threatening notes.

“Let me know if you reach Dad and J.R.,” Nick said. “Meanwhile, I had a message from Ross Fortune when I got back to the office today. We set up a meeting to discuss the notes and fires. Has he contacted you?” Nick and Darr’s cousin was a private investigator with an agency in San Antonio. His mother, Cindy, had convinced the family they should hire him to check into the cryptic threats.

“Not yet,” Darr said, “but I heard he’s in town. The Chief said he called and asked for copies of the department’s report on the fire at Red.” Darr pushed his empty plate aside and leaned his elbows on the tabletop, his voice lowering. “This isn’t for public knowledge, but I’m sure my boss agrees with us—he has serious reservations as to whether the fire was accidental.”

“What about the barn that burned at the Double Crown?”

“He didn’t want to talk about that one—I suspect he believes I’m too close to the subject, since it happened on Lily’s ranch.”

“Do you have a gut feeling as to his opinion?”

“Yeah. I’m convinced he believes the Double Crown fire wasn’t an accident, either.”

“I hope to hell Ross’s investigation gets some answers,” Nick said grimly. “You or someone else could have died in those fires.”

“Bethany damn near did,” Darr said darkly, his features hardening. “She was barely conscious when I found her on the bathroom floor at the restaurant. She could have died of smoke inhalation.”

“We have to find out who’s behind these threats to the family before someone loses their life,” Nick said. “I hope Ross is good at his job.”

“When are you talking to him?”

“Tomorrow afternoon at one.” Nick glanced at his watch. “I have a meeting in a half hour. Gotta get back to the office.”

Darr nodded and both men dropped money on top of the check.

“Thanks, guys,” their waitress called after them as they left the booth and headed for the exit.

Nick shrugged into his jacket as he stepped outside, a brisk breeze cooling the air, although the sun beamed down, warm against his face.

“Let me know what Ross has to say tomorrow,” Darr said, pausing on the sidewalk. “I have the day off, but I’m not sure what Bethany’s plans are or if I’ll be home, so call my cell phone.”

“Sure.” Nick stepped off the curb. “Tell Bethany hello from me.”

“Will do.” Darr headed down the block to his vehicle.

Nick climbed into his Porsche, the powerful engine turning over with a throaty, muted roar when he twisted the key. The low-slung car had only two seats—room for the driver and one passenger.

“Too small,” Nick murmured as he backed out of the slot. “I need to get an SUV.”

Or a minivan. He shuddered. He didn’t think he could bring himself to drive a minivan—even for the triplets. Minivans were mommy cars. For a guy who loved fast cars and powerful engines, a minivan was a step too far, vehicle-wise. He made a mental note to go SUV shopping on his lunch hour tomorrow. Charlene could use it to drive the babies during the week and he’d use it on the weekends if he needed to take the little girls anywhere.

If anyone had told him two weeks ago that he’d be contemplating buying a vehicle to transport babies, he would have laughed at the sheer insanity of the idea. He didn’t do kids. Never had. And kids hadn’t been part of his plans for the future. There was some kind of cosmic karma at work here. Nick couldn’t help but wonder what fate planned to hit him with next.

Chapter Four

N ick returned to the office, where he forced himself to concentrate on meetings. By the time he reached home that evening, he’d almost convinced himself he’d overreacted that morning.

Surely he’d overestimated the power of his attraction to Charlene. The neighborhood was quiet, the street lamps casting pools of light in the early darkness when he slotted the car into the garage and got out, tapping the panel next to the inner door to close the garage door smoothly behind him. He unlocked the door leading from the garage into the utility room and passed through, stopping abruptly in the open doorway to the kitchen when he saw Charlene. She stood at the stove across the room, her back to him as she poured steaming water from the stainless steel teakettle into a mug. A box of tea sat on the counter next to the cup. Her hair was caught up in a ponytail, leaving her nape bare above a shortsleeved green T-shirt tucked into the waistband of faded jeans. She wore thick black socks and she looked comfortable and relaxed, as if the kitchen were her own. Coming home after a long day at work and finding a pretty woman in my kitchen is kind of nice.

The thought surprised him. He’d never really understood married friends when they insisted that walking into a house that wasn’t empty was one of the great things about being married. He liked his privacy and didn’t mind living alone. In fact, he thoroughly appreciated the solitude of his quiet house after a day spent in meetings.

But finding Charlene in his kitchen, clearly comfortable and making herself at home, felt good.

Of course, he thought wryly, maybe I’d feel differently if she was a girlfriend with marriage on her mind and not the nanny. Maybe her employee status erased the natural wariness of a bachelor when confronted with an unmarried, attractive woman puttering in his kitchen.

Whatever’s going on here, Nick thought, I’m definitely glad to see her. Before he could say hello, Rufus bounded in from the living room, his nails clicking against the tile floor. Woofing happily, he charged. Nick quickly lowered his leather computer bag to the tile and braced himself. The big dog skidded to a halt, reared onto his back legs, planted his front paws on Nick’s shoulders and tried to lick his face.

“Hey, stop that.” Nick caught Rufus’s head in his palms and rubbed his ears.

“Hi.” Charlene looked over her shoulder at him. She set the kettle on the range and carried her mug to the island where a notebook lay open beside her laptop computer. “I thought I heard your car pull into the garage. How was your day?”

“Busy,” he said, releasing Rufus and bending to pick up his computer bag. The big dog followed Nick to the island and flopped down next to Charlene’s chair. “How was yours?”

“Busy.”

He laughed at her dry, one-word response. “Yeah, I bet it was. How did it go with the girls?”

“Fine.” Charlene spooned sugar into her tea and stirred. “Jackie bonked her chin on a chair rung and has a new little bruise. Jessie smeared oatmeal in her hair and had to have a second bath this morning barely an hour after her first one. And Jenny…”

She paused, her eyes narrowing in thought. “Come to think of it, Jenny had a fairly quiet day.”

“That doesn’t sound possible.”

“I know,” she laughed. “But she doesn’t seem ill, so I’m happy—but surprised—to report that although I’ve only known them for three days, there’s a possibility that maybe one of them has an uneventful day on occasion.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

“Did you talk to the employment agency today?”

“Yeah, they might have three candidates for me to interview soon. They’re running background checks and verifying references for each of the women.” Nick turned on the tap and washed his hands, turning to lean against the counter as he dried them. “What did Melissa make for dinner?”

“Lasagne, french bread and salad—she left a plate for you in the fridge and the bread is in the pantry.” Charlene set down her mug and shifted to stand. Nick waved her back. “Stay where you are, I’ll get it.” The stainless steel, doubledoor refrigerator was only a step away. He located the plate and salad bowl, took a bottle of dressing from the inner-door shelf and let the door swing closed behind him as he walked back to the counter. He peeled the plastic wrap off the lasagne and slid it into the microwave to heat, tapping the timer before closing the door.

“What do you want to drink?”

He glanced around to see Charlene at the fridge, glass in hand.

“Ice water sounds good, thanks.”

He heard the clink of ice and the splash of water behind him as he walked to the island and pulled out one of the low-backed stools. The microwave pinged just as he finished pouring vinegar and oil dressing on his salad and he returned to the counter, grabbing a knife and fork from the cutlery drawer. Charlene set his glass of water down next to his salad bowl and returned to her seat as he carried his steaming plate back to the island. He sat across from Charlene and folded his shirt cuffs back, loosening and tugging off his tie.

“Tell me about the triplets,” he said. “How did Melissa survive the day?”