Pillow Chase

by Jeanie London

  She’d placed his pictures around the house. He’d gotten into the habit of jetting off e-mail posts to keep her up on what was happening with work. He wrote letters longhand when he didn’t have access to a computer, and mailed them in batches when he got back to civilization.

  Miranda had learned HTML to construct a password-protected Web site, a virtual world where he could go whenever he needed a glimpse of home. Knights Online, she’d named it, an inviting place made up of photos from places they’d visited together. She rotated those photos regularly, so he could log on one day to find Niagara Falls. Another day a beach in Hawaii. Or the shore at Norfolk. The boardwalk in Atlantic City. The base in Nebraska, where his parents were currently stationed.

  She had pages devoted to news about their families, and memories of their wedding and honeymoon. She’d even created a virtual tour of their house in San Diego that he could access whenever and wherever he could manage online access.

  Troy didn’t know a damn thing about HTML or Flash or whatever she used to create these pages, but he was impressed with her skill, and always grateful. He couldn’t count the times during the past year and a half that he’d dragged in from a mission dog-tired, only to log on and find a chatty message from her, filling him in on news from the home front.

  And how much she missed him. Always that.

  She’d set up a chat room where they met whenever his schedule permitted and a bulletin board where they could post messages around the clock. This bulletin board saw more use because his orders happened 24/7.

  He found himself skimming through the photos of their last visit to his parents’ home at Thanksgiving. Miranda and his mother standing over the stove as they sampled stuffing from the turkey. Miranda and Marietta setting the table. She’d been laughing in that one, no doubt at something his high-spirited sister had said, and he was struck by how happy she looked.

  Or was her smile simply the one she wore for the world, the one that hid everything she felt inside?

  Tease and Torture. Another time he might have enjoyed the erotic potential of her game, but after this morning, he saw the game as just another way for her to withdraw. She was putting controls in a place where they’d never had any distance before—in bed.

  Why?

  Only Miranda could answer that question, but she wasn’t sharing. And he wasn’t waiting. Not anymore. Victoria and Laura’s investigation had given him an opportunity to drag her out from behind that perfect persona she wore for the world.

  He’d hoped they didn’t find any long-buried skeletons that would embarrass her family, but the bottom line…Troy didn’t care. Investigating the family secrets with her sister afforded him a chance to force Miranda into a new situation, and it was a chance he wouldn’t pass up.

  His next step would be to gather information. Staring at the computer monitor, he surfed page after page of the site, reading the captions on photos, paying close attention to every snippet of text she’d written, every bit of news she’d reported. He had a damn puzzle to put together here, and the perfect place to search for some pieces.

  MIRANDA TOOK A DEEP breath and prepared to deal rationally with this crazy investigation, and by the time Laura Granger’s fiancé opened the door of the Castaway Honeymoon Isle, she had her smile fixed firmly in place.

  “Come on in.” Dale Emerson greeted them as they made their way inside the suite.

  “Should prove interesting,” Troy said.

  “No doubt about it.” Dale laughed. “I’m glad everything worked out and you could make it tonight.”

  While Miranda didn’t agree with Dale’s interpretation of working out, she didn’t fault the man. Since the start of the grand opening, she’d found Dale to be thoroughly respectable, and very likable, which had come as somewhat of a surprise.

  She’d never given any thought to the type of man Laura Granger might involve herself with, but somehow the Wedding Wing’s architect wasn’t what she’d expected. An attractive man—if one cared for dark-haired men—Dale had always been cordial, and if the fact that these two had been attached at the hip through every grand opening event was any indication, he seemed genuinely smitten with his new fiancée.

  Personally Miranda preferred a man who understood the fine line between attentiveness and clingy. She and Troy might be apart often, but they didn’t hang all over each other when they were together.

  I’ve been waiting four months to get home to be with you, Troy had said earlier. I don’t want to waste more time apart if I can help it.

  Okay, well maybe they did cling, a little.

  “Hello.” Laura, looking casually elegant in a skirt ensemble, emerged from the kitchen to join them. With her pale hair hanging loose down her back, Miranda couldn’t help but notice how she’d not only grown into her model-thin body, but had learned to showcase it to advantage.

  “We’re almost all set,” she said. “Bruno sent up dinner, which I promise will be delicious, and Dougray’s on his way up with some extra computer equipment I’ve requested.”

  With a smile, she motioned around the room. “Please, make yourselves comfortable. I had a buffet set up so we can all sit around and talk while we eat. We’ll be ready to go as soon as Victoria and Adam get here.”

  Leave it to her sister to arrange a get-together then arrive late. Only fashionably late, Miranda hoped, because she didn’t want to be stuck chitchatting with Laura and Dale.

  “Mind if we take a look around?” she asked, looking for an escape.

  “Please do. This suite caters to the stranded-together-on-a-desert-island fantasy.” Laura waved them into the living room, and Miranda couldn’t miss the way her new engagement ring sparkled beneath the light.

  During the first week of the grand opening, Laura had insisted she and Dale were only dating. Then as if by magic—or a miracle—she sported a rock on her finger the size of Horseshoe Falls.

  After her sister and Adam’s spontaneous engagement… Well, Miranda hoped that whatever miracles were happening around this place would cover them when they started digging into their family’s past.

  When Troy let out a low whistle, Miranda followed his gaze to the wall of glass and the tropical paradise beyond.

  “Wow,” was all she could say at the sight before them. She’d been impressed by the oasis in the Egyptian Pleasure Pyramid, but this rushing waterfall and lush pool paradise was nothing short of awesome.

  “Wow is right.” Troy was already pulling her through the open doors. “Come on, Miranda. Let’s check this out.”

  “Have fun. You can get into the bedroom and master bath from out there,” Laura said before heading back to the kitchen.

  “Almost makes me wish we’d been the featured wedding couple for the grand opening.” Troy circled the pool, heading toward the waterfall, where a rocklike shelf had been built into the poolside, surrounded by blooming tropical plants. “This waterfall is six feet tall.”

  “Our wedding was lovely.” And a lot less hectic, Miranda thought, remembering all of the functions they’d attended during the past weeks of the Naughty Nuptials. “And we had fun in the Roman Bagnio baths.”

  He smiled absently. “I’m not complaining. Just impressed with what Laura and Dale have done with this place.”

  She hadn’t meant to sound critical. But being around Laura had always had the ability to put Miranda on edge. She would have thought that with so many years passing since Westfalls… Old habits died hard, apparently.

  She’d hoped to avoid memory lane on this visit. Laura had steered clear of her while she and Troy had planned their wedding, assigning the job to an assistant. She’d expected similar treatment this time around.

  Had it not been for Victoria, she might have had it, too.

  But in all fairness, Laura had made a valid point when she’d said they’d never really known each other during school. Miranda had certainly never put forth any effort to know Laura, had never felt the need. But after living with a bunch of witchy women who
were judging her unfairly, she had a different perspective.

  “This suite is impressive.” Joining Troy, she took his hand, and they stood together in the water-soaked quiet.

  Similar to the layout of their suite, the Castaway Honeymoon Isle had been designed around the lagoon. The bedroom doors were thrown wide and they strolled inside, admiring the colorful Key West theme and the huge bed beneath the skylights. The bath also resembled theirs with a garden tub and shower with wall jets. The rush of running water pervaded the entire suite.

  Troy snagged her for a kiss inside the bathroom, and Miranda melted into his arms, seizing the moment.

  “Horny, Lieutenant Commander?”

  “You have to ask after the way you worked me over in the sauna?” He ground his hips against her, letting her feel the solid bulge that only needed permission to become an erection.

  “Guess not,” she whispered against his mouth. “If it’s any consolation, you’re not the only one.”

  “Glad to hear it. I’d say my game’s working.” One kiss and she felt flushed and achy, her body reawakening with lightning speed.

  He chuckled, a burst of warm breath against her lips. “I bet you never imagined you’d be making out in your cousin’s bathroom.”

  “Not in a million years. But I like touching you.”

  “I like you touching me, too.” And to prove his point, he dragged his tongue over her lower lip just as voices cued them in to her sister’s arrival.

  Miranda stepped out of his arms and gave a shaky laugh. “Looks like we’ll have to pick this back up later.”

  Troy pressed his hand to his crotch and smoothed the bulge there. “Okay, ready.”

  They headed into the living room. One look at Victoria with her new fiancé, and Miranda realized that seeing these two together would take some getting used to. Adam Grant was exactly the kind of professional powerhouse Victoria had always run from, a man who, remarkably, reminded her a lot of Troy.

  Her husband wore command with ease, and over the past two weeks, she’d found Adam no different. An attractive man with dark hair and eyes, he wore custom-tailored suits rather than a uniform. Despite the insanity of their hasty engagement, he appeared to have a calming effect on her sister. Or so Miranda hoped. It would be an unexpected perk in an otherwise crazy situation.

  After exchanging greetings, they all sat around the suite, plates propped on laps or chair arms to enjoy a delicious feast from the hotel restaurant.

  As usual, Victoria placed herself front and center. “Look at this—we’re all a big happy family. Who’d have ever guessed?”

  Not Miranda for sure.

  “Let’s recap so everyone has the details, and then discuss what we need to do.”

  Both her self-appointment to the role of leader and her suggestion met with polite agreement, and she recapped the details of their earlier conversation for the benefit of Adam and Dale, who, judging by the attention they paid their plates, had already heard the finer points.

  “Basically we need to know three things,” Adam said. “Who your grandmother really was, where the senator met her and why they changed her name.”

  Miranda liked the way the man boiled things down to the relevant issues. Apparently so did her sister, who smiled up at him in beaming approval. It was a totally non-Victoria look, a look that seemed almost intimate, and, well…loving.

  This was going to take a lot of getting used to.

  “Tracking down Laure Roussell and her family should be a matter of searching Internet databases and genealogy sites.” Laura raised her hand to signal everyone’s attention. “Since Dale and I don’t have any specialized areas of expertise with investigating, we can handle that.”

  “Miranda and I are the logical choice to look into where the senator and your grandmother met,” Troy said. “Like I said earlier, I’ve got access to certain military databases, so I can look into the senator’s career and see where he was stationed. I’ll need dates, though.”

  “Got them.” Victoria reached down beside the sofa to retrieve her briefcase. “Or at least a time frame. I’ve got two marriage certificates with Grandfather’s signature and I can’t be sure which is accurate.”

  When Troy nodded, Adam said, “Which leaves Tori and me to figure out what the deal is with the name change.”

  “Our grandmother came into this country as Laura Russell, so her papers had to come from somewhere.”

  Miranda set her plate on an end table and leaned close to Troy as he perused the documents Victoria handed him.

  “The U.S. didn’t get involved in the war until after Pearl Harbor. Will you be able to find out when Grandfather was deployed?”

  “I should,” he said. “I’ll need to get a clue where they might have met.”

  “One marriage certificate says they married in England after the war was over,” Laura pointed out. “The other says before in France. How hard do you think this will be to find out which is right?”

  Troy shrugged. “The war is well documented, so I’ll have plenty of places to look for information.”

  “This all begins and ends with the senator,” Adam said. “Tori was telling me how little she knew about the details of the senator’s Army career—”

  “All I’d ever heard mentioned was Grandfather being involved in some sort of transportation bombing that wound up getting him and his men captured in occupied France,” Victoria said. “While I was working today, Adam researched media coverage from when Grandfather escaped the concentration camp.”

  Miranda didn’t know much more about their grandfather’s career than Victoria. He’d been injured in the concentration camp, and still walked with a cane to this day.

  “I downloaded what I found,” Adam said.

  “Here, take a look.” Propping her laptop on the coffee table, Victoria booted her system then spun the monitor around, manipulating through windows of news items about their grandfather’s escape.

  “It appears he was involved with preparation for the Normandy invasion, but not one of these articles says anything about what he was doing. Don’t you remember hearing about railway transportation, Miranda?”

  She nodded. “Vaguely, but I don’t have a clue where I heard it. Mother, most likely.”

  Victoria laughed. “At least I’m not hallucinating.”

  “I don’t think hallucination is an issue,” Troy said. “It’s not strange that the media wouldn’t have access to the details. The senator would have been under orders, so that information would have been classified.”

  “Get this, Miranda,” Victoria said. “It’s a picture of Grandfather receiving his medal of honor.”

  She glanced at the photo of the man who stood impeccably dressed in his uniform while being presented with the medal. Her grandfather had been well into his fifties before Miranda had been born, so she only remembered him as the solemn, white-haired man he was now.

  But William Marshall Prescott had been young once, and as she gazed at the image on the screen, she realized that he’d been a stern man even back then. Tall with wavy dark hair even his short haircut didn’t hide, he had strong features that were recognizable decades later in the man he’d become.

  “Wasn’t he handsome?” Victoria sounded dreamy. “I’m rooting for a love story here. I want to hear our grandparents fell in love at first sight. Maybe he even saved her from the concentration camp.”

  Miranda wasn’t surprised that particular fantasy would appeal to her sister.

  Dale laughed. “This place has gone to your head.”

  Victoria waved a dismissive hand. “I’m also hoping for a good explanation for why he refuses to discuss anything about our grandmother. He was probably heartbroken when she died and has never gotten over it.”

  Even Laura smiled, and when Troy whispered for her ears alone, “We’ll keep hoping for that miracle,” Miranda smiled, too, feeling much better about this get-together, although she wasn’t entirely sure why.

  6

 
; THE SUN HADN’T YET risen when Troy heard the knock on the door. Glancing at his watch, he noted the time at precisely oh-five hundred and smiled. Whatever the past grievances between his wife and Laura—and their families for that matter—Laura was an exemplary hostess.

  He especially appreciated her effort today. After their dinner last night, he’d caught her in the kitchen and sprang a last minute change in plans on her as a surprise for Miranda. Her arrival proved she’d gone above and beyond the call of duty to make the arrangements, and sure enough, he pulled open the door of his suite to find her dressed in her work uniform, standing beside a pushcart loaded with gear he’d requested.

  “Thank you.” Troy meant it. “I know this took some work.”

  She smiled. “That’s what I’m here for. I believe I have everything you asked for.”

  Motioning her in, he stepped aside as she maneuvered the cart through the door. He took stock of the items as she passed. Looked like everything. Backpacks. Thermal cooler.

  “Any problem with the clothes?” he asked.

  “None at all.” Bringing the cart to a stop in the foyer, she withdrew a neatly folded stack of outdoor wear from the bottom shelf. “Everything should fit her. If not, give me a call, and I’ll take care of it so you and Miranda can be on your way.”

  “How badly have I messed up your plans for the day? If I’d thought about this outing earlier, I’d have arranged it for yesterday. But it didn’t occur to me until you mentioned that sunrise fishing tour you had heading out this morning.”

  “That tour’s already on its merry way.” Reaching inside her pocket, she lifted out a set of keys. “You and Miranda are my guests, Troy, and as the Hottest Honeymoon Couple, you have privileges, so don’t worry about the schedule.”

  “What about the event you had planned for the Toy Shoppe?”

  “I’ll reschedule it for another day if you’re still interested or we’ll simply cancel. It’s your second honeymoon. Your only job is to have fun.” Her smile assured him she meant what she said. “Just make sure you report back to Tyler and your sister-in-law how accommodating we are here at Falling Inn Bed, so we get lots of good press.”