Millionaire in Command Read online

  “What do you know about her?” Sebastian nodded toward Phoebe, who was lifting the baby up to burp, a hand towel from the bathroom draped over her shoulder.

  “Nothing at all.” Kyle flipped open the manila file folder again and thumbed through the papers. “I’d never met her, but those photos of her with Bianca look real.”

  “The private investigator I keep on retainer will be able to verify her story by morning. The fact that she lives and works in state makes things easier all the way around.” Sebastian tapped the documents spilling out across the desk. “Everything seems authentic and in order though. We’ll see soon.”

  Not soon enough. “So, we’re stuck for now.” Kyle lowered his voice, even though no one across the room seemed to be paying any attention to them. “Either she’s on the up-and-up helping out a friend, in which case she needs help, so the baby stays. Or she’s a nutcase, in which case for the baby’s safety, she has to stay.”

  “Be careful, my brother.” Sebastian leaned closer. “There’s a lot of money at stake here.”

  Sebastian’s wife glanced over her shoulder. “Men are so cynical.”

  Damn, he could have sworn they were keeping their voices down. Could Phoebe have overheard them too? Not that they’d really said anything that mattered. She should expect they would have her investigated.

  The wife of their oldest brother, Matthew, stepped aside, opening the circle as she caressed the slight curve of her stomach. “They’re right to be concerned,” Ashley said. “I’ve seen some sad cases of how heartless people can be when it comes to the needs of a child.”

  Their youngest brother, Jonah, snorted, lounging on the other wingback chair, one leg draped over the armrest. “Who are you condemning here? The baby’s mother or Phoebe?”

  Ginger rested a hand on the back of Phoebe’s chair and shot her sons a censuring stare that hadn’t lost its impact over the years. “I’m sorry you had to hear that. My boys should be more diplomatic.”

  Kyle watched his mother win over Phoebe with a few well-chosen words. There was no doubting who wore the diplomatic mantle in their family.

  “I’m not offended,” Phoebe said. “In fact, I’m relieved that you’re all being practical about this. That bodes well for Nina, and I have nothing to hide.”

  Jonah twitched back an overlong lock of hair from his brow. “Lady, I have to confess, this all sounds a little hinky to me. You wouldn’t be the first person to want a piece of the Landis lucrative pie.”

  “I’m not here for money.” She patted Nina’s back steadily until the baby burped, then lowered her to the crook of her arm. “I only need time. I want to keep her out of foster care until we can find her mother, and if we can’t, then it’s my hope I can adopt her.”

  Jonah tugged his dangling tux tie free…not that it had even been tied before they stepped back here for the family confab with Phoebe. “Then let the legal system sort it out. If you’re best for her, that’s where she’ll land.”

  Ginger waved her rebellious youngest son up from the chair and motioned for pregnant Ashley to sit.

  Ashley smiled her appreciation as she sat with a heavy sigh. “It’s not that cut-and-dried. I was lucky.”

  Phoebe smoothed her hand over the baby’s head with obvious affection, but her face creased with concern. “Yours is a success story, then?”

  “My foster sisters and I found a wonderful home with ‘Aunt’ Libby and were better off. Claire’s biological mother wanted to keep her, but was too young and didn’t have the money. Starr’s parents were criminals who refused to relinquish custody. My parents gave me up.” Quiet Ashley grew more fervent as she spoke. “Not all of the girls who were placed with Aunt Libby came straight there from their biological parents, though. Most foster parents are well-meaning, big-hearted people, but there are some…” She shook her head in obvious disgust.

  The defender in Kyle, the military part of him that had spent the past six years of his life protecting, made him want to pluck the kid up and keep her safe from the world.

  How much stronger would those feelings become if it turned out the baby was his?

  Phoebe rested her cheek on Nina’s head. “I don’t want to run any risk of Nina landing in an unloving home for even a day.”

  “Exactly,” Ashley agreed. “Some people don’t have choices. There are options here for little Nina.”

  His mother nodded. “I’ve already spoken with my assistant and she’s scheduled a paternity test.”

  “On a weekend?”

  Apparently Phoebe didn’t grasp his mother’s ability to move mountains.

  Ginger toyed with one of her diamond stud earrings. “We’ll have an answer before child services opens on Monday morning.”

  Time to test how far she was willing to go with this. He put his hands behind his back, military bearing tough to shake even with his separation papers in the works. “Since you all seem so certain Nina is mine, we might as well start moving her things into my wing of the house.”

  “Excuse me?” Phoebe’s eyes went wide with alarm. “Um, Nina and I are already settled in our hotel, but thank you.”

  Kyle braced a hand across the door. “If there’s even a chance that’s my daughter, I’m not letting you just walk out of here with her.”

  Phoebe looked around nervously, then bolstered, her arms locked around Nina. “I’m not leaving her behind.”

  “I don’t expect you to.” Nobody was going anywhere until he had answers. “You’ll both be staying with me at the family compound.”

  Three

  S he didn’t have a choice but to go with him, and she knew it. Sitting in the back of Kyle’s Mercedes sedan beside Nina in her car seat, Phoebe just wished she’d foreseen this twist in the plans.

  His broad shoulders, encased in the uniform jacket, spread in front of her in the driver’s seat. He guided the luxury car through the security gate into the Landis family beach compound. As the gates swung closed behind them, she shifted closer to Nina, the infant asleep and drooling in her rear-facing car seat. Morning was going to come early after this late night and she needed any edge she could scavenge to soothe her already frazzled nerves.

  By appealing to Kyle for help, she’d also made herself vulnerable. One call from him to child services could steal her few days’ window to secure Nina’s future. She hadn’t felt so powerless since she’d watched helplessly while her husband had drowned.

  Her gaze skimmed nervously ahead to the beachside Hilton Head mansion owned by the Landis family. Kyle had told her that his lawyer-brother and wife had a home a few miles away, and the oldest brother, a senator, and his wife had an antebellum mansion in downtown Charleston. Kyle had kept his gear in the third-floor quarters of the mansion since he’d deployed so often.

  She’d rubbed elbows with plenty of affluent families at the college fund-raisers, but she’d never visited anywhere nearly this opulent. In spite of insisting she didn’t need money, a hotel over the weekend would have taken a chunk out of her account. She had to keep her savings intact for any legal fees she might need in adopting Nina. Staying here was the fiscally smart thing to do.

  She’d seen photos from a Good Housekeeping spread when she’d looked up the Landis family on Google for more details, and she’d read about their diversified fortune that increased under the savvy care of each generation. But no picture could have prepared her for the breathtaking view. On prime oceanfront property, they’d built a sprawling white three-story house with Victorian peaks overlooking the Atlantic. A lengthy set of stairs stretched upward to the second-story wraparound porch that housed the main entrance.

  Latticework shielded most of the first floor, which appeared to be a large entertainment area. Just as in Charleston, many homes so close to the water were built up as a safeguard against tidal floods from hurricanes.

  The attached garage had so many doors she stopped counting. His sedan rolled to a stop beside the house, providing a view of the dense green bushes behind them and the Atlantic shore in front of them. An organic-shaped pool was situated between the house and beach, the chlorinated waters of the hot tub at the base churning a glistening swirl in the moonlight.

  He put the car in Park and reached for the door. “I’ll get your things from the trunk while you unload the munchkin.”

  Kyle stepped out before she could even answer. Apparently he’d inherited his mother’s take-charge attitude. Phoebe walked around to the other side of the Mercedes, security lights activating like sunrise coming early, and unhooked the carrier from the car-seat base so as not to wake Nina.

  He lifted her small suitcase and duffel with a porta-crib out of the trunk. “You sure do travel light compared to most women I’ve met.”

  “I had only planned to stay overnight.” She’d pretty much counted on getting his support and then heading home in the morning, a naïve fantasy now that she saw how complicated things were becoming as reality played out. “I have a job to get back to in Columbia.”

  He gestured toward the sprawling staircase. “Then you can leave Nina here.”

  She hesitated at the bottom step, suddenly claustrophobic about entering his house. Sheesh, it wasn’t like he could lock them away in the attic. “I won’t abandon her.”

  “And neither will I,” he said with unmistakable determination, which made her glad for Nina.

  If she could trust him.

  She looked away from his persuasive blue eyes and back up the length of stairs. This would be temporary, until he left on his next assignment, then she could resume her life. “It seems we’re at an impasse.”

  “What about your job?” His intoxicating bass drifted after her shoulder as he followed her up the outside wooden steps.

  “I’m teaching all my classes online this
semester anyway.” She’d adjusted her schedule to be with Nina, seeing this as her once-in-a-lifetime chance to take care of a baby. Little had she known when Bianca dropped off her daughter…“I can work from here until we have things settled.”

  Until he left.

  She would have her life back on track shortly. His job, along with his track record for short relationships, would have him out of her life soon. And she really didn’t have any other options if she wanted to keep Nina.

  She pointed to the cluster of live oaks and palmettos framing a two-story carriage house. “Who lives there?”

  “My youngest brother, Jonah. He’s finishing up his graduate studies in architecture. He stays here between internship trips to Europe.”

  White with slate-blue shutters, the carriage house was larger than most family homes, certainly bigger than her little apartment in downtown Columbia. “It’s lovely.”

  She understood he came from money, but seeing Kyle’s lifestyle laid out so grandly only emphasized their different roots. Phoebe gripped the increasingly heavy car seat with both hands as she reached the top of the stairs. The tall double doors opened before Kyle could even reach forward.

  His lawyer brother, Sebastian, filled the entrance, their appearances close enough to be mistaken for twins. Except the lawyer didn’t have Kyle’s laugh lines. “You finally made it.”

  Kyle deposited her bags on the polished wood floor. “I drove slower because of the kid. Where’s Mom?”

  “Still at the club with the general closing out the party so it’s not as obvious we’re gone.” Sebastian eyed Phoebe and Nina briefly then looked back at his brother. “We need to talk.”

  Kyle ushered her into the cavernous foyer. “As soon as I get them settled.”

  A woman, the wife of the lawyer brother, stood waiting in the archway leading to a mammoth living room with a wall of windows overlooking the ocean. “I can show her around.” The woman—Marianna, she’d been called back at the country club—swept a loose dark curl from her face. “You’ll want to put the baby to bed. I’ll take you to your rooms.”

  Phoebe glanced into the hall where Kyle had deposited her bag. “Did the porta-crib make it inside?”

  “Don’t worry,” Marianna reassured her. “Everything’s taken care of.”

  Still, Phoebe hesitated. What did the brothers need to speak about that she couldn’t hear? Suspicion nipped her ragged nerves, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it, especially in her exhausted state. Maybe she could ferret some information of her own from this woman while Kyle was out of the room.

  She smiled back at Marianna. “Thank you, I appreciate your help.”

  Marianna extended her hand for the diaper bag. “Let me. Those things weigh a ton. Come on and I’ll show you to the nursery.”

  “There’s a nursery here?”

  “My husband and I live a few miles away, but Grandma Ginger keeps everything we need here if our little guy needs to nap. Ginger’s second husband, Hank Renshaw, also has grandchildren from his daughters. Between us all, we make good use of that room. You’ll find everything you could possibly need in there.”

  Still, Phoebe hesitated. Giving Nina a room here, even a temporary one, seemed such a huge step. One she should have been happy about.

  Marianna hitched the pink-flowered diaper bag over her shoulder. “There’s a nursery monitor so you can hear the least little peep if she needs you.”

  Even swaying with exhaustion, Phoebe hesitated. “I don’t think I could leave her to wake up alone in a strange place.”

  Marianna’s face softened with understanding. “There’s also a daybed in the nursery if you would rather sleep in there with her.”

  “Show me the way.”

  Marianna started the winding walk through pale-yellow halls until Phoebe wondered if she would be able to find her way back out of the Landis world again. Beach landscapes mingled with framed family candids that added a surprise touch of hominess to the designer decor. A grandfather clock ticked, their footsteps muffled by the light patterned Oriental rugs.

  Phoebe couldn’t take the silence any longer. Besides, she would never learn anything from the woman this way. “Aren’t you going to ask me if I’m lying? Everyone else doubts me.”

  Marianna glanced back with a reassuring smile, her thick dark hair swishing like the clock’s pendulum. “I believe you’re telling us the truth about Nina being Kyle’s daughter.”

  “How can you be so certain?”

  Marianna gestured to a portrait on the hall wall, a painting of an infant boy. Undisguised love shone in her eyes. “That’s my son, Sebastian Edward Landis Junior. And very obviously Nina’s cousin.” She tapped four other framed images of babies along the way, all with striking blue eyes. “These are of Matthew, Kyle, Sebastian and Jonah when they were little. There’s no mistaking the Landis look.”

  She totally agreed. The deep blue eyes, the signature one-sided smile…they all had it, as did Nina. “If you see the likeness, why can’t they?”

  “Because I’m evaluating with maternal eyes, and so are you.” Marianna stopped in front of a closed door, her hand resting on the brass handle. “We see them in a way nobody else ever will.”

  Marianna’s words stabbed her with an inescapable reality. “I’m not her mother.”

  “You’re willing to do anything for Nina. In my eyes, that makes you her mother.” Marianna looked at her with an understanding. “The family will want a paternity test for legal reasons, of course. They’re that way about details, but truly it will protect Nina’s interests as much as their own.”

  “Those results take a while, don’t they?” Would they know soon enough to satisfy a family court judge?

  “Nothing takes long when you’re a Landis. They’re an impatient bunch and have the money on hand to see that their wishes are met speedily. Don’t worry. You’ll get your answer quickly.”

  Marianna swept open the door to reveal an airy nursery, decorated in neutral sea-foam-green, a white crib on one wall with a coordinated white daybed tucked under a window. A fat, delicious-looking rocker and ottoman took up a corner underneath a mural of fairy-tale characters. “Here we are.”

  “Thank you for showing me the way.” Phoebe stepped inside with mixed feelings, wishing she could have given Nina all this and more.

  Marianna kept her hand on the open door. “I’m sure Kyle will check in when he’s done talking with Sebastian, but I really need to head home now so the sitter can leave. I don’t like being away from little Edward too long. Good luck.”

  “Hopefully I won’t need it.”

  With a smile and a quick squeeze of her arm, Marianna seemed to sense her worry. “It will be fine. You’ll both be fine. You’ll see.”

  She closed the door behind her. The click reminded Phoebe of her plans to learn more from the woman. She hadn’t found out much more than confirmation of what she’d already known in her heart. Nina was a Landis.

  Long after Marianna left and Nina was tucked in her crib, Phoebe sat on the daybed, hugging her knees and staring out at the ocean, unable to sleep. Too many questions, uncertainties, fears churned in her mind like the curling waves, rolling and retreating only to crash right back over her again. One thing shone through as clearly as the moonlight slashing away at the murky depths.

  The Landises had power.

  The kind of money and impatience that could buy an overnight paternity test could surely oust anyone who didn’t belong in their elite world. With no blood claim to Nina, and Bianca gone, Phoebe could easily find herself at odds with Kyle all too soon.

  After having been helpless while she’d watched her husband leave her, she couldn’t tamp down the reflexive fear of having someone she loved taken from her again.

  Parked behind the desk in the family study, Kyle scrubbed a hand along his bristly face that had long ago gone past a five-o’clock shadow. Early morning rays from the sun were just beginning to poke through the horizon and past floor-to-ceiling windows. Answers were piercing through just as surely.

  Sebastian slept on the butter-yellow leather sofa in front of built-in library shelves of warm oak, but Kyle kept watch for the updates that had been coming in from the private investigator over his BlackBerry throughout the night, while doing some checking on his own. Money and the Internet provided a wealth of fast information.