“Oh my God,” Calista whispered. She looked at him. “You survived a train wreck. Not a car accident.”
He shook his head. “We don’t know that for sure.”
She lifted the written report, which was followed by photos of his brothers. “Look at them. They look just like you,” she said. “They’re your brothers.”
Too stunned to take it all in, he shook his head. “I put my own P.I. on this. Why wasn’t he able to find it?”
“Maybe, despite Rob’s obnoxiousness, he got lucky and dug in the right place. Leo, this is amazing. Momentuous. You have to call your brothers. They will be so happy you’re alive.”
“How do you know?” he asked and shook his head. “What am I going to tell them? I had a criminal past and have a fake marriage.”
Calista turned pale. “Is that what you really think?” she asked, shaking her head. “I know you don’t believe in all the romance, but do you really believe our marriage is fake? I thought we’d both decided we wanted a fresh start. I thought that meant we were building something real.”
Leo stood. The news about his family was too overwhelming. He didn’t trust it. He didn’t trust Calista. He didn’t want to count on her. He’d learned he couldn’t count on anyone. “What’s reality? What’s perception? I don’t remember these brothers. They’re not real to me. Why should I get in touch with them?”
“Because they’re your family,” she insisted. “And based on this report, they want to find you. Can you imagine how much pain they’ve experienced thinking you’re missing or dead? For all these years,” she said.
Leo walked to the window and stared outside. This was what he’d dreamed of for years, but he couldn’t go after it. He’d changed from whomever he’d been when they’d known him. And not necessarily for the best.
Calista gently touched his arm. “Leo, I know you had a terrible childhood after the accident, but you’ve come out of it an amazing person. You’ve become a man I could fall in love with,” she confessed and his gut tightened. “A man I have fallen in love with.”
Her admission struck him at his core, but he couldn’t accept it. He couldn’t believe it. “My money is making life easier for you and your sisters. Don’t mistake your gratitude for love, Calista.”
He heard her shocked intake of breath and she snatched her hand away from him as if she’d burned it. Remorse surged through him. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her, but he couldn’t open up to her, especially now. “Calista,” he said, turning.
She backed away, shaking her head, tears in her eyes. “No.”
“Calista,” he said again, moving toward her.
“No, really. Don’t say another word,” she whispered and ran from the room.
She didn’t return to his bed that night and he didn’t go looking for her. Leo stared at the ceiling for most of the night. He couldn’t believe the P.I.’s report. He had brothers. His mother and father had died. Medici was his real last name. He whispered it. “Medici.” It rolled off his tongue with a strange familiarity.What had happened to his brothers, he wondered. What kind of course had their lives taken? He’d stopped reading the report midway. Unable to tamp down his curiosity, he got up and began to read it. Damien Medici, 35 years old, married, successful CEO of his own business. Rafe Medici, 33 years old, married. One son, another child on the way.
Something inside him twisted at the thought of a nephew.
Leo swore under his breath. He didn’t know these people. This wasn’t real to him and it never would be. He shoved the report into a drawer and glanced at the clock. Four o’clock in the morning. Screw it. He would go into the office. He couldn’t stand being in his own skin at the moment. Work would be his panacea. It always had been.
When Leo arrived home that night, Meg greeted him, but Pooh didn’t.
“Welcome home, Mr. Grant. Would you like a cocktail?” she asked.
Leo glanced around, frowning. “Where’s the dog?”
“Oh, Mrs. Grant took him with her,” she said.
“Excuse me?” he said, his gut tightening.
Meg nodded. “Mrs. Grant left this morning. She said she didn’t know when she’d be back.” Meg paused. “Shall I tell the chef to prepare your meal?”
He shook his head. “Just a sandwich will do. I’ll be in my office.” Feeling a sense of dread, he walked to his office. He’d been hard on her last night. Too hard? He wondered if she’d decided not to stay. He punched out the number to her cell phone, but it went straight to voice mail. No message, no note. Where had she gone?
The sense of dread in his gut grew to a large knot. Calista was gone. Tami was gone. Pooh was gone. And Calista wasn’t answering her phone. Leo did the math and suspected Calista had left him for good.
The thought made every cell inside him hurt. The sensation shocked him. He hadn’t believed he was that vulnerable. But maybe he was.
He swore underneath his breath. Leo had always told himself not to count on people, including Calista. He’d clearly failed. From the first minute he’d seen her, he’d wanted her. Aside from her obvious physical assets, she’d had a charm about her that made him feel warm inside. Just by her presence, she’d made everywhere they were together feel like home.
She’d made him want to open up to things he’d closed himself to in the past. She’d made him want to be the man she needed. The man who would take care of her and her sisters financially. The good man she could count on in an emergency. He’d seduced her and married her, but he couldn’t give her what she’d ended up wanting and needing from him. The one thing he hadn’t thought he would ever experience. Love. The biggest grifter scheme of all. Even though she’d known about his past, known that he was a con man, she’d made him feel like a real man.
Leo climbed the stairs to his bedroom, dreading entering it again. Once inside, the subtle remnant of the scent of her perfume haunted him. The possibilities he’d felt with her haunted him. He tried to push thoughts of her from his mind, but it was impossible. Images seeped inside him like smoke under the door. He wondered if he would ever be the same again. Did he want to be?
Everywhere he looked, he saw her, heard her laughter, felt her silky skin and warmth. He couldn’t stand the memories. He had to get out of here.
George drove him to a hotel in downtown Philadelphia. “Is there something wrong with the penthouse?” he asked.
Only that Calista had been there and he needed to go somewhere she hadn’t. It was the only way he could escape his thoughts about her. “No,” Leo said, but added nothing.
“Are you meeting someone?” George asked.
Leo frowned at his longtime sparring partner. “God, no. I just need a different environment.”
George glanced in the rearview mirror. “When is Mrs. Grant supposed to be back?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her,” Leo said, staring out the window into the night.
“It’s not my place to interfere,” George said.
“That’s right,” Leo said. “It’s not.”
“But you could go after her,” George said. “If you want her.”
Leo narrowed his eyes, feeling as if his insides were being torn apart. He knew. He sensed it deep inside him. He’d smashed her overtures repeatedly. “It’s too late.”
Two days later, Leo felt like death warmed over. He hadn’t slept more than a couple hours each night. Taunted by need for Calista and unanswered questions about his past family, he’d found no rest or peace. Staying at the hotel hadn’t helped one damn bit. Now he just imagined he could smell her and hear her voice.He cloistered himself in his office. He must have looked frightening. Even his assistant appeared reluctant to approach him. He received an odd text. Mr. Grant, your housekeeper called. There is a problem at your home in the country that needs to be addressed immediately.
Leo picked up his phone and paged his assistant. “I’m busy. What kind of problem?” Leo asked.
“I’m not certain sir. I only know she sounded upset when she called, sir,” his assistant said.
Leo heard an odd nervousness in his assistant’s voice. “Call her back and get specific information.”
“I’ve already done that, sir, but there was no answer.”
Leo frowned. “What the hell,” he muttered.
“I’m very sorry for the interruption, sir. Shall I page George?”
“Yes,” Leo said tersely.
His mood, which had already been nasty, deteriorated with each passing mile. As George drove inside the gates to the large home, he spotted a stretch limousine parked in front of his house. “What’s going on? Don’t bother with the garage. I’m getting to the bottom of this.”
Leo strode up the steps to the front door. The house was completely silent. For once, Meg didn’t greet him. He walked four steps into the foyer and Calista appeared.
Leo felt as if he were viewing an apparition. God knew, he’d seen her in his dreams and mind every other minute during the last few days. “What are you doing here?”
She met his gaze and took a deep breath. “I’m about to piss you off.”
Confusion rushed through him. The apparition spoke. “What are you talking about?”
“You know the old saying, If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, then the mountain must come to Mohammed?”
“Yes,” he said, starting to realize that she wasn’t a figment of his imagination. “Where have you been? Why did you leave?”
“I had to. I had to do it. If I really loved you, there was no other choice.”
He felt as if she’d just punched him. “You’re making no sense. Are you here to stay or not?”
“You might be throwing me out in a few minutes,” she muttered. “I took Tami and Pooh to my cousin’s house then flew to Atlanta to visit one of your brothers. They’re waiting to meet you in the living room.”