Leader of the Pack (The Dogfather Book 3) Page 6

  There was something vaguely familiar about her. Something unsettling to Andi, also.

  “How can I help you?” Andi asked, her voice tense. “Tell me who you are.”

  “My name is Eleanor, but everyone calls me Nora.”

  Nora? She didn’t know anyone named Nora.

  “Nora Jean Scott.”

  Andi swayed a little, pressing her hands on the door as the name hit home. “You’re Jeff’s sister.” He’d mentioned her a few times, with disdain and disgust, mostly. Nora was the blackest of black sheep who had broken off communication with Jeff and his parents. What would she be doing here?

  “I am,” the woman confirmed. “His twin sister. And I’m also Christian’s aunt, so I would appreciate it if you would let me in.”

  Andi fought for a steady breath. Why, two years after Jeff died and six years after his son was born, would his sister—his twin sister—show up in Bitter Bark? And why talk to them in the square that morning and not identify herself?

  “Andrea, please. I’d like to come in and talk to you.”

  “Why?” The question was strangled in her tight throat.

  “Because I don’t want to have this conversation through a closed door.”

  “I…can’t. We’ll talk tomorrow. I’m not coming out there, and I’m not letting a stranger into my house.”

  “I’m not a stranger. I’m Christian’s blood relative.”

  The way she said blood made Andi’s own veins go cold. Jeff’s family had cut Andi and Christian off in the cruelest, coldest way. His mother had called to tell her Jeff was dead because Andi, who was legally no more than a roommate, hadn’t been listed as his next of kin. Then Nadine Scott had informed Andi that they would handle all the arrangements and, worst of all, Andi and Christian were not welcome at the funeral service. She’d made it clear that she suspected Andi would be looking for a piece of the family money and that she had her doubts that Jeff was really Christian’s father.

  Yes, it had been ugly and heartless for Andi, but not having an official goodbye had been much worse for Christian, who was too young to understand any of it. She’d heard him whispering in his room, using the word Daddy, and he no doubt harbored childish fantasies about a reunion that would never happen.

  “Why are you here now?” Andi asked. “Why didn’t you come when he was alive?”

  “I came to tell you that my mother has passed away.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” But the words felt disingenuous. The bitter, cold woman who didn’t care about meeting her own grandson? Andi didn’t feel a drop of grief for Nadine.

  “Which means I have no one, only Christian. He’s the last Scott alive.”

  Except he was a Rivers. “Nora, let’s set up a time to talk tomorrow. I’m happy to tell you everything about Jeff and—”

  “I don’t care about Jeff. It’s Christian I want.”

  Suddenly, her legs felt weak. “We can talk tomorrow, Nora,” she said, fighting for air.

  “You can’t put me off, Andrea,” she said. “I have all the paperwork, a lawyer, and a family arbitrator on my side. I’m seeking custody of Christian, and I’ll get it by proving you are an unfit single mother who has purposely kept Christian from his father’s family and will undoubtedly try to steal his trust fund.”

  “Excuse me?” She almost opened the door to be sure she’d heard right, but the words lawyer and custody and unfit mother and trust fund paralyzed her.

  “You heard me.”

  Fury bubbled up like a hot volcano, making her whole body shudder. “You’re out of your mind,” Andi ground out, inching away from the door to find her phone to call the police and get rid of her.

  “Andrea, maybe Jeff never told you how much his family was worth, but as of two weeks ago, when my mother died, Christian inherited a trust of six million dollars, and without a Scott to supervise that money, I know you’ll steal it. I will not let that happen.”

  She froze midstep, blinking as though this were all a dream that she had to clear out of her head. “You need to leave.”

  “You need to listen,” she shot back. “I can prove that you work long days and spend your evenings with college students and in bars. He’s with a sitter as much as he’s with you, and anyone can break into your house, and I do mean anyone. I paid someone to do it, retrieved his toothbrush, and now have a DNA match if you think you can get away with saying he’s not my nephew.”

  She started to shake. Hard. “Go away,” Andi said in a harsh whisper. “You need to go away and go back to whatever rock you’ve been hiding under.”

  “Have it your way. I’ll leave the paperwork right here, and you can call me when you’re ready to discuss the case.”

  There is no case.

  Andi backed away from the door and slipped to the front window in the living room, inching the drape wide enough to see the bottom of the front stairs that led up to her door. She gasped softly when the woman came down the steps and turned toward the house, the carriage light spilling over her face.

  Now she could see it so clearly. The same intense eyes, the same wide mouth, the same angular bones. The female version of Jefferson Scott.

  This couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t possible. A stranger, an estranged relative, could take her son? Or even suggest that it was possible?

  Six million dollars?

  People would do anything for that kind of money. She watched the figure disappear down the street and into the shadows. For a long, long time, Andi didn’t move. She stared out the window, too stunned and terrified to open the door and get what the crazy woman claimed to have left behind.

  While she stared, she knew she needed help, and deep inside, she knew exactly where to get it.

  * * *

  When Liam came in from drug-detection training, he was hot, starved, and sick of talking. He was finally finished with the four TSA agents and their dogs for the day, and they’d done amazing work in the rubble pile. It was time for all of his students—two- and four-legged—to break for lunch. The dogs would sleep in cool kennels all afternoon, and the trainers would listen to a lecture from Waterford’s resident dog behaviorist. That left Liam free to head into the main house, ready to eat in air conditioning and speak to absolutely no one for a while.

  The hardest part about training wasn’t the dogs, it was the small talk and conversation, his least favorite thing to do with strangers. The four agents weren’t really strangers after a few hours of digging through trash and rewarding dogs for finding drugs. But they wanted to chat about dogs, kids, bad guys, Waterford, stuff.

  He loathed chatting.

  In fact, he was a little pissed off to find his sister Molly and his brother Shane having their lunch at the kitchen counter, laughing about something they were both watching on Shane’s phone. Great. More freaking chatting.

  “Hey, Liam.” Molly greeted him with her easy smile. Her long, wavy hair was pulled up in a knot, and she wore white vet scrubs, both of these things telling him she’d been seeing patients and their owners all morning. Shane looked as sweaty and tired as Liam felt, no doubt because the civilian dog training class he was teaching had reached the agility phase, which was hard as hell in this heat and frustrating because owners had much higher expectations than the dogs could usually meet.

  He grunted, “Hello,” hoping that told them he had no interest in joining their little lunch party.

  “Crystal made chili,” Molly said, gesturing to the stove. “It’s weird how eating something hot cools you down, but that’s what they say.”

  He made another noise meant to sound grateful and headed to the sink.

  “I’m sorry.” Molly leaned forward. “I’m not fluent in caveman. What did that mean?”

  He shot her a look. “Means I’m hot, tired, and not in the mood to talk.”

  She rolled her eyes as he washed his hands and Shane sniffed noisily. “Shower would be better.”

  Molly snorted. “You should talk, Shane.”

  He was
in no mood for family joking. “I’ll eat in the family room,” Liam said, glancing at the expansive sitting area that was blessedly empty. The staff, guests, trainees—human and dog—rarely came into the house during the workday. The main house was reserved for Kilcannon family who’d all been raised in this homestead and still had their own “places.” His was at the end of the big couch, with a cushy hassock, under the AC vent, next to the remote.

  Being the oldest had its privileges.

  “Don’t leave, Liam,” Molly urged. “We all smell like dogs. I had two in surgery this morning, and we ended up putting Cinnamon on an IV. It’s been a rough day in the vet office.”

  He paused in the act of scooping chili into a bowl. “That long-haired doxie? She going to be okay?”

  “I think so. Pancreatitis.”

  “Your specialty, Moll,” Shane said. “No better vet in North Carolina for that. Liam, did you hear Garrett might have an adoption for that Saint Bernard, Seymour?”

  Liam’s shoulders dropped as they piled on the small talk. “Yeah. Good. I’m going in the family room to eat alone.”

  “Are you in a bad mood?” Molly asked.

  “He’s awake and breathing, isn’t he?” Shane jabbed.

  Liam glared at him, then started to walk out, carefully holding his bowl of chili and a spoon.

  “Oh, look, we have a guest pulling in.” Molly stood to peer out the kitchen window to the drive. “Isn’t that Andi Rivers’s SUV? She drives a silver Acura, right?”

  And Liam froze, jerking to a hard stop and almost spilling the chili. Then he exhaled, refusing to look when he realized what his siblings were up to. “I’m not taking your bait, Molly.”

  “It is Andi,” Shane said. “And look at that. Dad is on her like a fly on honey.”

  Liam gritted his teeth. They were yanking his chain, which was a favorite family pastime. He continued to the family room.

  “They’re hugging,” Molly reported. “And talking.”

  “Ten bucks he’s inviting her to Wednesday night dinner to sit next to you, Liam,” Shane said with a laugh. “Dogfather doin’ his matchmaking thing.”

  Liam still didn’t turn to look, because he did not trust them to be telling the truth. Or himself, if they were.

  “Oh, she’s talking.” Molly continued her play-by-play. “A lot.”

  “She looks serious,” Shane said, adding the color. “Dad’s frowning and putting an arm on her back. Pointing to the kennels.”

  “I bet she came for Jag!” Molly exclaimed.

  “Son of a…” Liam slammed down the chili bowl on the coffee table and marched back to the kitchen, swallowing the damn bait whole. Which wasn’t bait at all, but the truth. “Holy crap. She is here.”

  “You think we’d lie?” Molly asked, feigning shock.

  “Dude, you better get out there before Dad plans your wedding.” Shane cracked up, and so did Molly, the two of them sharing a ridiculous high five like a couple of ten-year-olds.

  But Liam ignored them, staring at the woman who was, indeed, in the middle of a serious conversation with his father. She wore white jeans and a pale blue top, and while the outfit looked summery fresh and beautiful, there was something about her expression that didn’t look happy.

  Not that he could tell the nuances of her features from this distance, but…actually, he could.

  She wasn’t happy. And the minute he knew that in his gut, he headed out to the yard. He stepped out into the steamy afternoon and, as if she sensed his presence, Andi turned to the house. He could have sworn her shoulders dropped a little, as if she was relieved to see him.

  “Hey,” he said, trotting down the stairs from the back porch to the expanse of the yard. “You change your mind about Jag?”

  She gathered some of her thick, flaxen hair, lifting it off her neck and pushing it behind her shoulder. “I changed my mind about everything.”

  He paused midstep, not sure he’d heard that right. “Everything?”

  She came closer, and Dad was right beside her, he noticed. “I need the dog, yes, Liam, I do. And I might need more than that.”

  He frowned, angling his head, searching her face to figure out what she meant. “You can have anything you want,” he said softly, vaguely aware that his father was observing the exchange.

  Let him. He had nothing to hide where Andi Rivers was concerned. They all knew he was crazy about her.

  She got close enough that he could see the pain and agony in her cornflower blue eyes as she held out a thick white envelope. “Someone is trying to take my son away from me.”

  “What?”

  “Andi’s got trouble, Liam,” Dad said. “But we’re going to circle her with Kilcannons, get her all the help possible, and we’ll be the family she needs right now.”

  Liam wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but he really didn’t care about anything but the fact that Andi looked like she’d been through a war since he last saw her.

  Without saying a word or even thinking about it, he reached for her hand, and she let him pull her closer.

  “I’m scared, Liam.”

  “Don’t be,” he whispered. “I won’t let anything happen to you or Christian.”

  He felt her collapse a little in his arms and knew that no matter what had happened, he would never let her get hurt or be scared. He’d do whatever it took, sacrifice anything, to protect her.

  No matter how much it hurt him in the end.

  Chapter Six

  Andi had never experienced anything quite like the tidal wave that was the Kilcannons on a mission. There was a palpable energy in the room when these people joined forces, laser focused, to address a problem that needed to be solved.

  For a few minutes after Liam led her inside and into the family room, Andi just took it all in. She momentarily wondered if this was what it had been like on that well-documented day after this family buried their beloved mother. That was when Daniel proposed that all his kids pick up their lives and move back to Bitter Bark and transform Waterford Farm into a world-class canine training and rescue institute.

  She remembered Liam telling her about the morning that the grieving Daniel came out to the backyard and presented his idea and how they spent the rest of the weekend planning the project and had it built, running, and profitable less than a year later.

  Did they gather in this room that day to open the floodgates of family power?

  An only child with a professorial father and passive mother, Andi had never experienced this much heart and brainpower in one family. She’d learned at a young age to solve her own problems and hoped to be teaching that to her son. All these opinions. All these voices. All these powerful individuals dragging her along made her both uncomfortable and relieved that she didn’t have to navigate the white water of Nora Scott alone.

  She’d tried that overnight and slept little, barely able to hold it together when she took Christian to his first day of school and finally spewing her troubles to Dr. Kilcannon when he met her in the driveway.

  Alone wouldn’t work in this crisis, so she’d have to ride the tsunami of Kilcannons and see where it took her.

  Right now, it had taken her to the middle of an overstuffed sofa, with Liam sitting on her left, as close to her as he could without putting her on his lap for comfort.

  “I know you said Christian’s at school,” Liam said, “but are you one hundred percent sure it’s secure? Isn’t it a new school?”

  “New grade, same school he’s been in since pre-K. I don’t think anyone could get past the office into the classrooms, and I have an approved pickup list.”

  “But you said Nora was the woman from the square,” he reminded her. “What if Christian thinks he recognizes her or sees her on the playground?”

  She closed her eyes. “They still wouldn’t let her take him since she’s not on the list.”

  “Call the school now,” he said calmly. “Talk to the principal and tell him or her that no one, without exception, no matter w
ho they claim to be, can be allowed in his classroom or near him on the playground or wherever he might be. If they are not on the list, they can’t get him, no matter who they say they are.”

  She silently agreed, slipping her phone out of the side of her bag.

  “So how was he today?” Liam asked. “Excited or nervous on the first day?”

  She slowed her finger on the keypad and looked up, a kick of warm emotion that he’d even asked the question. “He was a little of both. He was still talking about Jag all morning.”

  A smile pulled at his lips. “He’ll be so happy when we bring him home today.”

  She opened her mouth to respond, but knew he was right. She needed Jag.

  As she talked to the school, more and more Kilcannons showed up as if a secret SOS had gone out to the entire clan. Shane had taken ownership of the papers Nora had left, reminding Andi that he was an attorney with quite a bit of experience. She gladly let him take over the fine print of Nora’s shocking news.

  Molly sat on her other side, her hand on Andi’s back in single-mother solidarity. Tiny Gramma Finnie came down from her third-floor apartment, got quietly briefed by her son, and took her place in a rocking chair next to the sofa, her eighty-some-year-old eyes alert but warm when she smiled at Andi.

  Daniel Kilcannon paced the floor, his loyal setter, Rusty, keeping up with every step. “And you say you’ve never met Jeff’s sister except for the encounter in the square?” Dr. K asked, a tinge of confusion in his tone. A family like the Scotts was probably hard for a Kilcannon to understand.

  “The entire time I knew Jeff, both in architecture school and when we worked together and after he came back from Europe to live here, he had no contact with his twin sister. All I knew was that she had done something the family felt was unforgivable, and I got the impression it had to do with a romantic entanglement, and she moved away to the West Coast and cut all ties with his parents and him.”

  “And his parents? You knew them?”

  “I met them once in Boston, when we both got our master’s degrees.”