Shadows At Sunset - Anne Stuart [98]
Rachel-Ann was still, silent, watching him out of her betraying green eyes, so very like Coltrane’s.
If Jackson was daunted by her lack of response he didn’t show it. “Where are your suitcases? Not that it matters—we can buy anything we need once we reach Rio. We’re starting out in Brazil, darling, and then we’ll see where we want to go from there. Thanks for everything, Coltrane. You’ve done a good job.”
He reached out for Rachel-Ann, but Coltrane didn’t release her. Jackson frowned. “What’s the problem? Afraid I haven’t taken care of you? Don’t worry, I’ve left instructions with Afton—”
“I’m not going with you,” Rachel-Ann said, her voice wobbling slightly.
Jackson’s disbelief should have been comical. Instead it was even more chilling. “Don’t be ridiculous. Coltrane brought you here to me—”
“I didn’t bring her here,” Coltrane said. “She insisted on coming. I was trying to get her out the back door.”
Jackson’s smile was benevolent. “Of course she insisted. I don’t know what you’ve said to upset her, but all she has to do is look at me and know that I love her and always have. I’d never hurt her. Come with me, Rachel-Ann. You’ve always hated this house, hated this life. We’ll start a new life, far away, where no one knows anything about us.”
“I’m staying with my brother,” she said calmly.
“Don’t be ridiculous! Dean is useless, and who the hell even knows where he is—”
“No,” Rachel-Ann said. “My real brother.”
The silence in the room was chilling, deafening. Jackson’s attempt at charm vanished, leaving him cold-eyed and dangerous. “You lying son of a bitch,” he snarled in fury. “Don’t believe him, Rachel-Ann. It’s nothing but lies. I don’t know what stories he’s been telling you, but I don’t know anything about him.”
“He told me you murdered his mother. My mother. Why would you do that?”
“Baby, I wouldn’t!” Jackson said, so charming, so believable that even Jilly knew a moment’s doubt. “I don’t know who he says he is, but it’s lies. I don’t even know who your mother was. You were an adoption case I was handling that fell through, and I decided to keep you for myself.”
“If it was an adoption case you were handling wouldn’t you have met my mother?” she countered.
“She died in childbirth,” he said without hesitation. “Who are you going to believe, baby? A stranger, or your father who loves you? Walk away from him, now. Come with me. Just go upstairs and get a change of clothes and we’ll get out of here. Go on, sweetheart.” He must have sensed her hesitation, and he nodded encouragingly. “I’ll be right down here waiting.”
Like a sleepwalker she pulled herself out of Coltrane’s grasp, moving away from them, up the stairs. Jilly watched her in numb despair until she disappeared into the shadows, and when she turned back Meyer was holding a small but undoubtedly effective gun on them.
“I’m going to have to kill you both,” he said in a conversational tone of voice. “I really thought it was going to be easier than this, but you brought it on yourself. I never even guessed. You’re good, Coltrane. Almost as good as I am. Who would have thought that snot-nosed little toddler would grow up to be you?”
“I’m nothing like you,” Coltrane said.
“Of course you are. Much as you hate to admit it, we’re the same, under the skin. Amoral, greedy, wanting what we want. Like your bitch of a mother. She was trying to blackmail me, you know. She’d left you and your father the year before and showed up here with the baby, demanding that I divorce Edith and marry her. Either that or she’d go to the police about the things that had gone on around here. It was a wild time—no one was to blame. Hell, I didn’t even remember half the things I did.”
“So you killed her.”
“I’m afraid so,” he said with unconvincing remorse. “I drowned her in the swimming pool. She put up a hell of a struggle, but she was no match for me. Things would have been a lot simpler if I’d just carried through