Excerpt of Once A Family by Gina Wilkins

Once a Family…

by Gina Wilkins

Tony D'Alessandro looked up from the letter in his hand to the young woman sitting absolutely still in a worn leather chair on the other side of his desk. With her rich brown hair swept into a neat coil, her blue eyes focused intently on his face, her seductive mouth unsmiling, her slender body clad in a suit that probably cost more than his monthly food allowance, the woman could have passed as a mannequin for a Rodeo Drive boutique.

When his secretary, Bonnie, had escorted Michelle Trent into his office less than ten minutes earlier, Tony had been struck speechless by the woman's beauty. Only after he'd closed his mouth and self-consciously cleared his throat had he become aware of the icy shell she maintained around her — invisible, but unarguably real.

He'd wondered if her lovely, porcelain-fair face ever warmed with a smile, ever softened with emotion. Now he knew that at least one person had loved Michelle Trent with an almost neurotic intensity — her adoptive mother, Alicia Culverton Trent, the late widow of immensely wealthy, near-legendary Dallas business tycoon Harrison Ellington Trent III. Tony knew of the family, of course, in the same way everyone else heard about them — through newspapers, magazines, gossip and rumors.

So what was wealthy, reclusive, incredibly beautiful Michelle Trent doing in the office of a low-profile, ex- cop-turned-private-investigator? With his usual straightforward approach to mysteries, Tony decided the only way to find the answer was to ask. "Why are you here, Ms. Trent? Why did you want me to read this letter?"

Her voice was as cultured and alluring as the rest of her. "I would think the answer is obvious, Mr. D'Alessandro. I want you to locate my brothers and sisters."

His left eyebrow rose as it always did when something intrigued him. "Why me?" he asked bluntly. "Surely you have attorneys who could initiate this search as easily as I can."

She inclined her head in an annoyingly regal gesture. "I have attorneys, of course, but I've chosen not to involve them. To be completely honest, you're the only one other than myself who has seen this letter or who knows about my search. I've been told that you are an honest, discreet investigator. I trust that your business ethics will ensure strict confidentiality in my case."

Piqued by the undercurrents of doubt in her voice, Tony scowled. "I've never gossiped about a client in my entire career, Ms. Trent, and I can assure you that won't change with you. I'm only trying to determine why you came to me with this."

She moistened her artfully tinted lips with the tip of her tongue, for the first time looking somewhat less imperturbable. "Eighteen years ago my father hired your father for an assignment that was highly sensitive and even involved physical danger to your father. It was important that the case be handled quickly, efficiently — and privately. My father was always grateful to yours for the skillful way he handled the job, and he told me that if I ever needed help, I should contact Vincent D'Alessandro."

"Who retired in '86," Tony finished for her. "I started the business back up two years ago."

She nodded. "So I found out."

Tony tried not to look surprised that his father had once handled a "highly sensitive" assignment for one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in Texas. He wasn't at all surprised, however, that the mysterious case had been handled well, or that it had apparently been kept utterly private.Vinnie D'Alessandro had never, in some thirty years in the business, broken client confidence, a record Tony had every intention of maintaining.

Michelle Trent crossed her long, silk-covered legs and subjected Tony to a thorough scrutiny. "Are you as good at your job as your father was, Mr. D'Alessandro?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and met her eyes, knowing if he looked down at those luscious legs he'd find himself stammering. "No one's as good as my father was, Ms. Trent. But I'm damn close."

It was a calculated risk, of course. If this insouciant attitude offended her, he'd lose what could turn out to be a profitable assignment. On the other hand, he intended to let her know that he didn't particularly care to be treated like a menial subordinate during their association, should there be one.

Her lips twitched in what he would have sworn was the beginning of a smile, and he felt his left eyebrow rising again. But she quickly suppressed the expression and nodded in response to his words. "I can depend on you to keep my business completely private?"

"You can trust me," he replied, too curtly. "I trust very few people." Her tone was cool. Some might have called it icy. "Your father was one of them. I'm taking a risk that he trained you to be as honorable as he is."

Tony couldn't help but soften at her praise of his father. After all, his dad was a hell of a great guy. "I've always tried to be as much like my father as possible," he admitted grudgingly.

"Then consider yourself hired," she said. "I'll pay your usual rates, plus expenses, of course. I'd like to handle the transaction in cash, if that's agreeable to you. How much do you want up front?"

She opened the small leather bag resting in her lap. Tony held up a hand, palm outward. "Now hold on a minute," he said quickly. "I haven't agreed to take the case yet. There are a few things I'd like to know first."

Michelle looked surprised that he wasn't jumping to take her money. "What things?"

He glanced back down at the letter. "This is dated five months ago."

"Yes. My mother wrote it six weeks before she — before she died," Michelle said, quickly masking the slight break in her voice. "I found it among her things the day after her funeral."

"And this was the first you knew of your brothers and sisters?"

"Yes. I'd always assumed that I was an only child for my biological parents, as well as my adopted ones."

Tony studied her shuttered expression, wondering if he'd imagined a note of longing in her words. He'd had cool customers before, had dealt with masters at concealing emotions and facts, but Michelle Trent confused him as few people had before her. Outwardly, she was cool, reserved, aloof. But there'd been something in her eyes when she'd talked about his father, something in that slight break when she'd mentioned her mother's death, something in her voice when she talked about her unknown brothers and sisters.

He couldn't help wondering if there was much more to Michelle than she allowed him — or anyone else, perhaps — to see. A veritable storm of emotions concealed behind a bank of impenetrable clouds.

It had been years since a woman had rattled his composure the way this one did, years since he'd felt as though all it would take was a fleeting touch to reduce him to tongue- tied incoherence. His reactions to her greatly annoyed him.

"Why are you so concerned with privacy?" he asked, though he suspected he already knew — the answer had to do with her money.

She proved his guess to be correct. "I'm a very wealthy woman, as I'm sure you know. Through unpleasant experience I've learned that there are many unscrupulous people who would leap at the chance to take advantage of me. Should word get out that I'm searching for my long-lost family, I'm sure I'd find impostors by the dozens lined up at my door."

Tony nodded. "Quite probably. Which explains, of course, why you want to keep your search out of the newspapers. But you said I'm the only one other than you who has seen this letter or who knows about your siblings. You haven't told your friends? Family? Your attorneys?"

She shook her head, avoiding his eyes for the first time since she'd entered his office. "I have only a few close friends, and I haven't seen the need to discuss this with them as yet. Not many of my adoptive family are left now that my parents are gone. Some distant relatives on my mother's side, my father's older brother and his son, both of whom live in California and whom I see only rarely. My attorney also happens to be my godfather. He tends to be overly protective, having known me ever since he handled the legal details of my adoption. He would be concerned about the financial risks of finding family members about whom I know nothing."

Tony wondered if such an attractive, obviously intelligent young woman could really be happy living as reclusively as Michelle apparently did. Her experiences must have been unpleasant, indeed, to make her this distrustful.

He scanned her mother's letter a third time. "How old are you now?"

"Twenty-six."

"So it's been twenty-four years since your family was separated."

"Yes."

"You don't remember anything about them?" He looked up at her as he asked the question.

She opened her mouth to answer immediately. But then she paused, frowned a bit and looked down at her lap before answering more slowly. "No, I don't remember."

"You started to say something else. What was it?"

In response to his tone — the one he'd used for interrogation back in his police officer days — she looked up quickly, her eyes widening. "I don't remember anything," she repeated. "I was only two. How could I remember?"

He didn't think she was being entirely straight with him, though he, too, wondered how she could possibly remember anything from that young age. Still, there'd been something in her voice when she'd answered....

Deciding to come back to that later, he nodded and changed the subject. "Your mother said the family was split up. I must assume that they were widely scattered, perhaps adopted, as you were. Most likely, their names will have been changed, as yours was. The younger ones, anyway. They're grown now, and the chances are slim they're all still living in Texas."

"I realize I haven't given you an easy assignment, Mr. D'Alessandro."

He gave her a cool, utterly confident smile. "I'll find them, Ms. Trent. Don't you doubt that."

Her answering smile was tentative, as though it was something she didn't do often enough. "I'm beginning to believe you will."

He cleared his throat abruptly, forcefully. "Which leads to the next question. What do you want me to do when I find them? Do you want to contact them yourself or would you like for me to make the initial contact on your behalf?"

"No!" She spoke too hastily, her knuckles going white from her tightened grip on her purse. Realizing her vehemence had startled him, Michelle took a deep breath and tried visibly to relax. "I don't want you to contact them. All I want is a list of their names and locations, if possible."

"So you intend to contact them yourself?" he asked carefully, still watching her face.

She hesitated only a split second before nodding. "Yes." She's lying. Tony didn't know why, but he suspected that Michelle Trent had no intention whatever of meeting her long-lost brothers and sisters. So why was she hiring him to find them? Baffled, he stared at her in frowning silence until she squirmed in her chair.

"You'll take the case?" she asked.

What the hell. "Yeah, I'll take it."

If she was pleased or relieved, she hid it just as she hid her other emotions. With a brisk nod, she opened her purse and extracted a plain white envelope. "This contains a thousand dollars in cash," she told him, holding the packet out to him. "Will that be enough to get you started?"

"More than enough," he assured her, hesitating to take the money for some reason he couldn't quite understand.

When he didn't immediately reach out for it, she set the envelope on his desk and rose gracefully from her chair. "I'll call you in two weeks for a report, around the first of May. Will that give you enough time to gather some preliminary information?"