Private Lives Read online

  “I’m not going to be able to make you believe anything except what you want to believe,” Elizabeth said bitterly. “You’ve convinced yourself that Austin’s okay. Odd, since you probably don’t even particularly like him. At least, I didn’t see much evidence of strong male bonding between the two of you during the two days I’ve had to observe. Your attitude is so typical. You won’t let yourself think that a fellow lawyer, a well-educated contemporary from a privileged background could be a cruel, vindictive, violent creep, will you?”

  “Not without something more than the word of two—”

  “Lesbians?”

  Again, he was shaking his head. “Ah, I don’t believe that.”

  “Then why did you insinuate it to Judge Hetherington?”

  “I’m a lawyer. I use whatever tactics I can to benefit my client.”

  She stood up, nearly tipping the coffee over. “I never could understand why anybody would want to be a lawyer and you’ve reassured me about my instincts.”

  Ryan touched her hand. “Wait, wait a minute, Ms. Walker.” The look she gave him was so furious that he fell back. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t approach you to stir things up worse than they are between Austin and Gina. Believe it or not, I’m trying to do some good here.”

  “How, in God’s name, are you trying to do good?” she asked, genuinely baffled.

  “I need your help in trying to get Gina and Austin to work something out for the sake of the kid…for Jesse’s sake. And I don’t think it’s going to happen if it’s left to them.”

  “I can promise that Gina is more than willing to do whatever it takes to work out something for Jesse’s sake. She loves her child more than life itself.”

  “And Austin doesn’t, is that what you’re saying?”

  “If the shoe fits.” She wadded up her soaked napkin and tossed it and her unfinished cappuccino into the trash. “And now, if you’ll excuse me…”

  He caught up with her just as she stepped outside into bright sunshine. “Don’t you even want to try?”

  She put a hand up to shade her eyes and stared at him. “Excuse me, but it’s difficult for me to believe that you’re thinking of Jesse and Gina, Mr. Paxton. The only way this could have been worse is if Austin had been given full custody of Jesse. Then she really would have been lost to us. This way, Austin will still be in her life and in Gina’s, I’m sorry to say.”

  “Ryan.”

  She blinked. “What?”

  “I’m Ryan, not Mr. Paxton.”

  “Look,” she said, drawing a weary breath and digging for her car keys, “the only two people who are relevant in this…this agreement that the judge has decreed are Gina and Austin. And nothing you or I can do is going to affect that. I don’t quite understand why you felt comfortable leaving your client with Gina and Maude, but without you they may be able to work something out. Maude is smart and coolheaded and even Austin must respect her.”

  “Yeah, and it would be nice if Maude was in there with them. Unfortunately, when they booted me out, they booted her out, too.”

  Keys forgotten, Elizabeth stared at him. “What do you mean they booted her out?”

  “Just what I said. She—” He stopped abruptly as a sporty BMW stopped at curbside, brakes squealing. The driver was a woman. “Damn it all,” Ryan muttered as she got out of the car and looked over the top of the car at him.

  “Where the hell have you been?” she growled, snatching sunglasses from her face. “Why do you have that damn cell phone if you aren’t going to bother answering it?” She was halfway around the front of the car now. “I’ve been trying to reach you for hours, Ryan. Damn it! You’re impossible. You’re—you’re—”

  “Excuse me a moment,” Ryan said to Elizabeth in a grim tone, adding, “Don’t go away. I still want to talk to you.” He intercepted the furious woman, catching her by the arm just as she stepped up on the sidewalk. But even though he turned to shield their conversation, the woman was oblivious to an audience.

  “You’re taking her, Ryan. This time, I’ve simply had it. She can come live with you. I’m tired of fighting it. We’ll see how you cope if she’s with you 24/7.”

  “Calm down, for God’s sake, Diane. The whole world can hear you!”

  “It’s too damn bad you can’t hear me, Ryan.” She shoved her sunglasses back on her face and turned away, lips trembling. “Oh, hell, I know I’m wasting my time.” She drew in a shaky breath. “I’ve been trying to reach you since early this morning.”

  “I’ve been in court. Which is why my cell phone was off. What’s going on?”

  “It’s Jennifer, of course.”

  Ryan looked at the ground as though taking a moment to count to ten. “What now, Diane?”

  “She’s really done it this time, Ryan. She stole a car. Can you believe that?”

  “What!”

  “It gets worse. She had an accident.”

  Ryan’s attitude went instantly from shock to concern. “Is she hurt?” He looked at the car as if expecting to see Jennifer. “Where is she?”

  “She’s not hurt. She’s at your house. I dropped her there and told her I was going to find you.” She pressed a hand to her lips. “She’s in serious trouble, Ryan.”

  “Are the police involved?”

  “I haven’t called anybody yet.” She pushed her hair back and looked directly at him again. “She left the scene. She hit somebody who was biking in Hermann Park. There was no other car involved. And then she—she just drove off, Ryan.” Diane spread her hands in a gesture of pure bafflement.

  “Jesus Christ.” He leaned against the car, then turned to see Elizabeth watching. Straightening, he caught Diane’s arm and moved out of earshot. “Go back to my house and wait for me there. I’ll clear up what I’ve got going here and be there within an hour. Don’t talk to anybody else about this. I’ll do that when I get home.”

  “I called the hospitals to try to get some information about the—the victim,” Diane said hesitantly. Her face was tight with strain. “No luck. I—I didn’t call the police to see if he was—”

  “I’ll handle it.” Ryan reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Try not to worry, Di.” His jaw went rigid. “And tell Jennifer—” He stopped, waited a moment or two as if reconsidering. “Tell her to sit tight and we’ll talk when I get there.”

  Diane’s face was bleak as she met his eyes. “I can’t believe she did this, Ryan.”

  “Yeah, she’s out of control. We’ve both seen it coming.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “You’re going to have to take her. She needs a stronger hand, Ryan.” She pushed a hand through her hair wearily. “I’m just at the end of my rope.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, nodding. “We’ll work something out. Go back now and stay with her. She shouldn’t be left alone too long under the circumstances.”

  She nodded wordlessly, then as she stepped off the curb to go around her car, she glanced about and saw Elizabeth. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I guess your friend heard everything. Or is she a client?”

  “Neither. Drive carefully now.”

  He stood watching as she walked back to the BMW, got in and started it. He lifted a palm and waved her off, his face troubled. Finally, he turned where Elizabeth was waiting. “Sorry about that.”

  She gave a small shrug and smiled sympathetically. “Looks like you’ll have your hands full for a while.”

  “I’d like to keep this private, Elizabeth. My daughter seems to be going through a bad patch.”

  “Certainly. Consider it forgotten.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You were saying that Gina dismissed Maude when you left. I can’t believe that.”

  “See for yourself.” He looked beyond her as Austin’s Porsche pulled into a parking slot across the street from the coffee shop. Gina got out and even from this distance, Elizabeth could tell she was flushed and animated. At a signal from Austin, she waited for him to come arou
nd the car. He bent and said something in her ear. She nodded, not quite smiling, but she looked far less fragile than she’d been in the courtroom less than two hours ago. Tucking his hand beneath her elbow, they started across the street. There was no sign of Maude Kennedy.

  “Hello,” Ryan murmured, watching them. “Looks as if they’re all made up.”

  “Thanks to you,” Elizabeth said bitterly. “Once Austin got her alone, he would have wasted no time convincing her that they didn’t need anybody to help them work this out. So now he’s got a free hand to persuade her to anything he wants. Trust me, it won’t be to Gina’s advantage.”

  Ryan looked down at her. “You really despise him, don’t you?”

  “He’s a despicable human being.”

  Both were silent as the couple approached. Gina’s smile, when she spotted them, was a little too bright. “Lizzie, I’m glad I caught you. Hi, Ryan. Are you two getting acquainted?”

  “Mr. Paxton was just leaving,” Elizabeth said, then added coolly, “Hello, Austin.”

  “Liz.” Austin’s pale eyes sliced over her.

  “Austin and I are going to lunch, Liz. We’re going to talk this over ourselves, try to put something together without the…the lawyers.” She gave a quick, embarrassed half laugh. “No offense, Ryan. So, Liz, you needn’t wait around to give me a lift home as we’d planned.”

  “What are you doing, Gina? You know why the judge directed you to work out an agreement with the help of your lawyers. These things are handled best with people who aren’t emotionally involved.” She gave Austin a quick glance, unmoved by the venom in his glare. She expected Austin to try an end run around the judge’s order, but why would Gina give him the opportunity after the abominable way he’d treated her? “If you go with Austin now, you give up any advantage you might have in negotiations. You know how he is, Gina.”

  “Oh, Lizzie—”

  “Yeah, Lizzie,” Austin said, with sarcasm, “however Gina decides to work this out is none of your business. And even if she wants advice from her lawyer, that’s Maude Kennedy, not you. So butt out. Now.”

  Ignoring him, Elizabeth focused on Gina, but it was a struggle to keep the edge from her voice. “Does Maude know you’re going to handle this without her and does she approve, Gina?”

  “She—she was a little reluctant, but—”

  “C’mon, Gina. I’m ready for some fresh air.” With his arm around Gina’s waist, Austin’s razor-sharp smile included Ryan as well as Elizabeth. “That judge was so full of shit that it’ll take me and Gina a while to shovel through it and come up with a reasonable plan, but we can do it, can’t we, honey? And without the help of lawyers.”

  He took a step or two, but stopped as another thought struck him. There was no smile on his face when he addressed Ryan. “Hey, Ryan, you’ll want to stick to criminal defense if your performance today is an example of what you can do in a civil suit. Luckily, Gina’s going to be reasonable about this and we’ll let you and that ball-buster who represented her know how it comes out.” Lifting his hand, he pushed Gina ahead a little more forcefully than she expected, but she quickly regained her balance and picked up her pace to match his as they headed toward the car.

  “Seems in a hurry,” Ryan observed, watching as Gina was hustled into the Porsche.

  “It’s necessary…before she changes her mind.”

  Ryan shifted his briefcase to his left hand and urged Elizabeth into a walk. “I think I’ve just been dissed big-time,” he said dryly.

  “I wouldn’t expect a bouquet of flowers tomorrow from your client if I were you,” Elizabeth said, still frowning at the Porsche that was peeling out into heavy traffic. But concern and disappointment were a thick knot in her throat. He’d done it again. He’d smiled and mouthed a few smarmy words and Gina had caved, just as she and Louie had feared.

  “All I need now,” she said mostly to herself, “is to get back home and find a message that she’s decided to go back and live with him again.” She was barely aware that it was Austin’s lawyer beside her.

  “I don’t think that’ll happen.”

  “Oh, it could. She’s done it many times.”

  “It might be difficult this time. Three’s a crowd and I’m not counting Jesse.”

  She gave him a quick glance. “He has another woman already?”

  He shrugged. “He hasn’t admitted it. I’m just repeating gossip.”

  “Isn’t that a breach of ethics? The man’s your client.”

  “As I said, it’s only gossip. Besides, Austin’s parting salvo makes me think he’ll be looking for fresh representation soon.”

  She would have laughed, but she was simply too disheartened. “It won’t matter. He’s in damage control mode and we’ll only know how much damage he’s controlled when Gina gets home tonight.”

  “I thought they were just having lunch,” Ryan said.

  “Oh, they’ll have lunch all right…and then he’ll persuade her to spend the afternoon with him to give him more opportunity to get her to rethink her attitude. Then he’ll treat her to dinner in a great restaurant. It’ll be expensive and romantic, a place to remind her of all the perks that come from sleeping with the enemy.”

  As they neared her car, Elizabeth fished her keys out of her purse and chirped the remote to unlock it. But before she climbed inside, Ryan stopped her.

  “May I ask you a personal question?”

  “Ask anything you want, but I certainly don’t promise to answer.”

  “It’s about your friendship with Gina. Anyone can see that the two of you are nothing alike. From what I learned about her after I took on the case, Gina’s made some really bad choices. Granted, Austin’s not a very reliable source, but on the stand yesterday you said the two of you have been together as foster kids since you were five years old. Tell me, why is her personal life a wreck and yours almost the exact opposite?”

  “Almost?”

  “Well, nobody’s perfect. So, unless you’re going to tell me something bad, my comment stands. And my question.”

  “I’m not going to tell you anything, Mr. Paxton. My personal life is just that, personal. And private.” She got into the car, but he caught the door before she could close it. “What?” she demanded. Both hands on the wheel, she looked straight ahead.

  “You have a reputation for avoiding publicity, for reclusiveness. Don’t you know that the more mysterious you seem, the more intriguing you are to your fans? Avoiding them just adds to your mystery. Throw a few scraps out there and they’ll back off. And it’s Ryan, not Mr. Paxton.”

  “Reporters don’t want scraps, they’re hunting red meat. I have a right to avoid anyone prying into my life. Thanks for the advice, but no thanks.” She put the keys into the ignition and started the car. Getting on a first name basis with Ryan Paxton was another thing she wanted to avoid. “And my fans won’t care—because they’re children.”

  “How do you communicate with them, other than your books, of course? By e-mail on the Internet? Letters? What?”

  “Letters mostly.” She could just drive off, but he’d unknowingly touched on something she was not reluctant to share. “And I answer them all, each and every one.” Her fan mail came from children, innocents who wrote from the heart. Elizabeth understood that need to communicate. She knew how it felt to write a letter when you still believed there was someone out there who would listen. And she knew how it felt to wait expectantly for a reply that never came.

  “Kids send you letters,” he said, considering that with a half smile. “You must get some real cute stuff.”

  She thought of the eight-year-old whose letter lay even now waiting for a reply in her in basket. The child’s younger sister needed a heart transplant. Would Elizabeth please tell the child’s parents that she would like to give her sister “half of her heart?” “Sometimes they aren’t very cute.”

  He still blocked her leaving, standing with his weight on one hip, his left hand resting on the door frame of he
r car. She didn’t wait to hear what else he had to say about her career or her personality drawbacks. Instead, she reached for the handle of the door, forcing him to move back, and closed it smartly. “Goodbye, Mr. Paxton,” she muttered to his receding outline in her rearview mirror.

  Ryan stood for a minute watching Elizabeth drive away. Okay, he’d satisfied his curiosity. He’d had a conversation with her out of the courtroom. Away from her pal and soul mate, Gina. He hadn’t made up the reason for seeking her out, not exactly. He knew, if left to his own devious devices, Austin would chew Gina up and spit her out, sans any financial settlement, no matter what the court decreed. And just to ease his conscience, he was going to give Curtiss Leggett an earful about his prick of a son. He might not be as black as the two women had painted him, but he wasn’t a boy scout either. So, Ryan’s motive in talking to Liz was honorable. Sort of. He also wanted to talk, one on one, with the daughter of the man who was responsible for John Paxton’s death.

  He’d watched her for a few minutes at the coffee bar before approaching her. She was easy on the eyes, as gorgeous in person as her press photo. In fact, he’d had a hard time keeping his thoughts in line when he had her on the stand in the courtroom. He admired her loyalty, too. She was as fierce as a mama tiger defending Gina. Or possibly, it was the little girl, Jesse, who stirred the fires in her breast. Beautiful breasts. He’d had no trouble imagining the feel of them in his hands as he stood talking to her, even in that severe suit with the starched blouse underneath. But he didn’t intend to get caught up in any sexual fantasies about Elizabeth Walker. He had other, more compelling reasons for getting to know her better.

  Her old man was dead, killed in a house fire just a day or two after his dad’s suicide. That much was public knowledge. But information beyond that about Judge Matthew Walker was extremely hard to come by. Maybe Elizabeth was a possible source. She’d been only five when he died, but she probably had his papers, his files, a record of the cases he’d been involved in at the time of his death. If she hadn’t destroyed them. Being a foster kid, her possessions might have been lost as she’d been palmed off to one anonymous family after another.