She offered it to Cam. Saying nothing, he took out the single sheet of
lined paper and passed the envelope to Phillip.
"She mailed it from Virginia Beach," Phillip murmured. "We lost her in
North Carolina. She's sticking with the beaches, but coming north."
"What does she want?" Ethan stuffed hands that had curled into fists
into his pockets. A low, simmering rage was already pumping through his
blood.
"What you'd expect," Cam answered shortly. "Money. 'Dear Quinns,' " Cam
read. " 'I heard how Ray died. It's too bad. You might not know that Ray
and me had an agreement. I think you'll want to make good on it since
you're keeping Seth. I guess he's pretty settled in there in that nice
house. I miss him. You don't know what a sacrifice it was for me to give
him up to Ray, but I wanted what was best for my only son."
"You ought to have your violin," Phillip muttered to Ethan.
"'I knew Ray would be good to him,' " Cam continued. " 'He did right by
the three of you, and Seth's got his blood.'"
He stopped reading for a moment. There it was, in black and white.
"Truth or lie?" He looked up at his brothers.
"That's to deal with later." Ethan felt the ache begin around his heart
and move in to squeeze. But he shook his head. "Read the rest."
"Okay. 'Ray knew how much it hurt me to part with the boy, so he helped
me out. But now that he's gone, I'm starting to worry that it might not
be the best place for Seth there with you. I'm willing to be convinced.
If you're set on keeping him, you'll keep up Ray's promise of helping me
out. I'm going to need some money, like a sign that you've got good
intentions. Five thousand. You can send it to me, care of General
Delivery here in Virginia Beach. I'll give you two weeks, figuring the
mail's kind of unreliable. If I don't hear back, I'll know you don't
really want the kid. I'll come get him. He must be missing me something
awful. Be sure to tell him his mom loves him, and might be seeing him
real soon.'"
"Bitch," was Phillip's first comment. "She's testing us out, trying her
hand at a little more blackmail to see if we'll fall for it the way Dad
did."
"You can't." Anna put a hand on Cam's arm, felt the quiver of rage. "You
have to let the system work. You have to trust me to see that she
doesn't do this. In court--"
"Anna." Cam shoved the letter into the hand Ethan had held out. "We're
not going to put that boy through a court case. Not if there's another
way."
"You don't mean to pay her. Cam--"
"I don't mean for her to have one fucking cent." He prowled away,
struggling to fight off fury. "She thinks she's got us by the balls, but
she's wrong. We're not one lone old man." He whirled back, eyes blazing.
"Let's see her try to get through us to lay hands on Seth."
"She was pretty careful how she worded things," Ethan commented as he
scanned the letter again. "Doesn't make it less of a threat, but she's
not stupid."
"She's greedy," Phillip put in. "If she's already angling for more after
what Dad paid her, she's testing the depth of the well."