"He didn't speak today, but that day outside the gas station and minimart, he apologized for his poor English and asked for my assistance."
"To do what?"
"Translate for someone having a difficult time with his accent, I think. At least that was the impression I got. But I'm not really sure, because you roared out a command to shake my tush or be left behind before we got very far into the conversation."
He ignored that. "So he's not an American?"
"No. Or if he is, English isn't his first language, although I didn't think it was nearly as bad as he seemed to believe."
"What nationality would you say?"
"Well, since he said gracias , and has that dark-haired, dark-eyed, handsome Latino thing going for him, my guess would be Hispanic."
An unlikely thought occurred to Zach, but he shrugged it aside as farfetched. "Do you have any idea who he wanted you to talk to?"
"No. I remember him waving toward either the mini-mart or the pumps on the other side."
Zach whispered a curse. If the initial encounter had been the extent of things, he might have blown it off as nothing. But his gut insisted this was definitely something. Orcas was a fairly remote island and mostly a rural one. What were the odds of Lily running into someone here who'd wanted to escort her to the unpopulated side of a minimart clear across the state?
Slim to frigging none. Pulling on his shirt, he headed for the phone.
She followed in his wake, standing so close he caught vagrant suggestions of her warm scent as he flipped through his dog-eared address book. She peered at the organizer over his shoulder. "Who are you calling?"
"Camp Pendleton." He paused in turning the pages to look at her. "When I came home from my last deployment, I brought back three South American nationals for a course of specialized training. I'd had a problem with one of them, but I thought we'd put it behind us."
"And you think this might be him?"
"I don't know. But I plan to make sure he's still where I left him." The line on the other end connected, and he pulled the receiver up to his lips. "Yes. Who am I speaking to?" The voice on the other end identified himself and he said, "Corporal Sanford, this is Master Sergeant Zachariah Taylor. Put me through to Magnusson."
Put on hold, he had no problem hearing the hysterical squealing that broke out downstairs a second later. Actual words were indistinct, but the tone was clear, and he exchanged a look with Lily. Something was going on. The question was what?
Then Mrs. Beaumont's voice distinctly screamed, " David !" and he tossed the receiver back onto the hook and raced for the door. Lily's phantom stalker could be dealt with later. Right now it sounded as if they had a more immediate emergency on their hands.
Oh, man, he thought as he pounded down the stairs, his stomach churning anew as his sister's face floated before his mind's eye. Let that have been a scream of joy. God, please, if You're up there, don't let this be bad news. I don't think I can bear to lose Glynnis .
Lily was hot on Zach's heels, so when he came to an abrupt halt at the foot of the stairs, she was moving too fast and was too close behind him to stop. Slamming into his back, she bounced off with enough force to knock the breath from her lungs. The next instant found her sitting precipitately on one of the stair treads.
Zach didn't seem to notice. " Glynnie ?" he said with soft wonder, and Lily's swimming head jerked up.
Dear Lord. Glynnis was here? Craning to see around Zach, she found herself blocked by the solid wall of his back, and to her frustration, it seemed to shift in synchronicity with her own movements. She started scooting her rear toward the banister.
Before she'd shifted enough for a clear view, how-ever, she heard Glynnis's voice saying, " Zach ? What are you doing here?"
He moved then, and Lily finally saw Glynnis, who looked every bit as stunned as she felt, but also hale and hearty, thank goodness. As Zach strode toward his sister, Lily saw Glynnis catch sight of her struggling to get up off the stairs. The younger woman's eyes grew even rounder, and she squeaked, " Lily ? Holy shit—um, cow, I mean! You're here, too? What on earth is going on?"
Zach swept her into a hug so tight it lifted her feet clear off the ground, and burying his face in her dark hair, he rocked them from side to side. "God, Glynnie, I can't tell you how relieved I am to see you safe. I was worried sick."
"You were?" She pulled her head back to peer at him. "Why?"
Zach's brows came together and he set her back on her feet. "What do you mean, why ? You think ransom demands for you and your boyfriend here aren't gonna cause a slight ripple of concern?"
"Ransom demands!" exclaimed both Glynnis and a deep male voice, and Lily's fascinated gaze left Zach and Glynnis to zoom in on David. Even as she watched, he disengaged his mother's frantic hold from around his neck and held her at arm's length to stare down at her. "You thought we were kidnapped ? That's what you've been screaming about?"
"Yes," she sobbed, and collapsed against his chest again. Once more David gently disentangled himself from her embrace, but he slung a comforting arm around her shoulders and escorted her across the foyer to where the Taylors stood. He thrust his free hand out at Zach. "You must be Zachariah. Glynnis's told me a lot about you. But I don't understand. Why would you think we'd been kidnapped?"
"Because a ransom note was left in our mailbox," Mrs. Beaumont said as Zach's dark eyebrows gathered above his nose. "And we've gotten phone calls!"
"But that doesn't make a lick of sense." David looked baffled, but before he could say anything further, the front door opened and Cassidy strolled in. She stopped when she saw the crowd in the entryway.
"Well well" she said in her I-have-terminal-ennui-but-am-still-terribly-amused-by-the-little-people voice. "What have we here, a military coup in the foyer?" She reached up to pull a bejeweled hatpin out of her beret. "Are you on the rampage again, Master Sergeant? How very macho of you—" Her arms froze overhead as the individuals comprising the group in front of her suddenly registered, and her mouth went round with shock. "David? Omigod, David! You're all right!" And with a peal of the most genuine laughter Lily had ever heard out of her, she rushed to close the space separating them.
"Cass. I'm fine. I'm just trying to figure out what the hell's been going on."
"Aside from that pesky kidnapping thing, you mean?" She gave him a fierce hug.
"We weren't—"
The front door opened once again and Christopher strolled in. Giving the group a curious glance, he closed the door behind him. Then he, too, went very still. "David." A smile broke out, making his face, already striking, downright gorgeous, and he closed the space between them, his hand thrust out. "It's good to see you, guy. Thank God you're okay. Jess is gonna be so relieved."
"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Glynnis snapped, and her let's-all-just-dispense-with-the-BS tone of voice was so like her brother's that Lily had to smile. "We were not kidnapped."
Lily had been getting that impression, but it was still a shock to hear it said aloud. And clearly she wasn't the only one who felt that way. Looking at David's relatives, she saw they looked as dumbfounded as she felt.
Cassidy was the first to recover. She slid her arms out from around David's waist and turned to give Glynnis a thorough perusal. "This must be the little girlfriend," she said and raised her brows at her cousin. "A tad simpleminded, is she?"
"Knock it off, Cass." Breaking away from her and leaving his mother by the parlor door, David made his way to Glynnis's side, where he slipped an arm around her shoulders. "She's telling the truth. We were never kidnapped, and I don't know why you would think we were. We've been in touch."
"With whom?" Mrs. Beaumont demanded incredulously.
David looked from face to face as if hoping someone would grin and say, "Gotcha!" But when all he received was everybody's rapt attention he shook his head and said, "Richard."
For one brief moment, Zach thought he probably should have figured it out for himself. Then he got real. Nothing had p
ointed to Richard, and Zach wasn't a man to waste time berating himself when there were more important questions to be asked and details to be gathered. So he shrugged his failure aside and looked over at Glynnis's boyfriend.
What he saw was a sturdy young man who carried himself well and had level eyes whose gaze tended to soften whenever they touched upon Glynnie. Zach gave a single terse nod of approval, then caught David's eyes. "You called here?"
"Yes. A couple of times."
"And you talked to Richard?"
David nodded. "I told him the first time that Glynnis and I had gotten caught up seeing the sights along the way and were going to be about a week later than I'd originally told Mother to expect us. He said he'd pass the message along and told me I'd better call him on his cell phone from then on because they'd been experiencing some difficulty with the land lines." David shrugged. "That often happens after storms here, so I didn't think anything of it."
"When did you last talk to him?"
"Yesterday. I told him we'd be home on Sunday."
Since this was Saturday, Zach simply raised his brows.
Glynnis bristled. "David's not one of your recruits," she said hotly. "So you can just quit using your Master Sergeant look on him. And in answer to the question you might have simply asked , we'd planned to spend the weekend in Seattle, but when we woke up this morning, I found myself more interested in meeting David's family and seeing his home than I was in playing tourist in the Emerald City."
"We figured we could always explore it another time," David said, tightening his hold on Glynnis as he smiled down at her.
She gave him a fatuous smile in return, and Zach barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"Right," she agreed. "So we checked out early and jumped in the car." She snuggled against David's side. "And here we are."
"The question is. where is Richard?" Zach glanced at Mrs. Beaumont and braced himself for her usual argument when he said, "We'd better call the sheriff's department."
To his surprise, she merely nodded, her mouth grim. "I'll do that right away." She began to turn away, but then swiveled back to face him. "I owe you an apology," she said. "If I'd listened to you, you probably never would have gotten hurt last night."
Glynnis's head came up. "You were hurt?" Pulling out from under David's arm, she raced over to Zach. "Where? Ohmigod, you've got a knot on your head!" She reached up to touch gentle fingertips to his temple. "Are you all right? Did you have a doctor check it out?"
"I'm fine, Glynnie." Clasping her hands in his own, he pressed them together, palm to palm. "It was pretty much a nothing little bump to begin with, and Lily fixed me up right as rain."
"But there's a knot!"
"According to Cooper Blackstock," Lily said, "that's actually a good sign." She cited the explanation she'd been given.
Glynnis craned her head around to stare at her. " Coop is here?"
"Not here, as in the house." Zach told her. "But on the island, yes. He and Miglionni."
"John, too?" She looked dazed. "My God. You called them in?"
"Yes."
"Because you thought I'd been kidnapped?"
He shrugged to cover the fierceness of his feelings. "I planned to get you back one way or the other."
"Aw, Zach." She kissed him on the chin. "I love you."
His heart clenched tighter than a fist. "Love you, too, baby sis." He grinned down at her, "So, I hear you're getting married."
To his regret, her eyes grew a little cautious, but he noticed it didn't prevent her from meeting his gaze squarely. "Yes. I am."
He looked past her at her fiance for a moment, then returned his gaze to her face, feeling more grateful than he could express to have her back safe and sound. "David seems all right."
She flashed him a megawatt smile. "Oh, God, he is so much more than 'all right.' He's wonderful ."
"Then if you're happy, I'm happy."
"I am." She hugged him. "I am so happy, Zachariah. And I gotta say, I'm delighted you're pleased for me. For a minute there I was afraid you might have come all the way up here to stop me."
"Who, me?" Zach shot a glance at Lily. She treated him to an ironic smile but kept her mouth shut, so he graced his sister with a cocky grin and kept up the feigned innocence. "And wreck the course of true love? Not a chance."
Out of the corner of his eye he watched as Lily and Christopher put their heads together and spoke in undertones. A moment later the other man left, his forehead furrowed as he took the stairs two at a time. Mrs. Beaumont gave her son a final hug, and announced she was going into the parlor to call the police. Apparently at a loss for a snide remark, Cassidy said she'd go keep her aunt company. All of a sudden, the only ones left in an foyer that only moments earlier had teemed with people were Lily, David, his sister, and him.
Then Glynnis dragged Lily over by the front door to hold a low-voiced conversation, and the two men were left alone. The silence between them stretched out, and Zach began to feel as if he should say something. But. hell, it wasn't as if he really knew the guy or anything, so he could probably be excused for not having a lot to talk about.
On the other hand, David was going to marry his sister, and Zach noticed the younger man's expression when he wasn't doing the moony thing over Glynnis was pretty glum. Remembering the comfort he'd gained from Lily's condolences earlier, he blew out a breath and offered the younger man a light thump on the back. "I'm sorry about your cousin. Hearing what he's done has gotta be rough on you."
"I don't understand it. If he needed money so damn bad, why didn't he just ask? I would have given it to him."
"Well, it's never too late," another voice interjected. "I'll take it now."
Spinning around, Zach came face to face with Richard, who had entered unheard through the front door and now stood across the entry way behind Glynnis.
The shotgun in his hands pointed straight at her head.
Chapter 20
ICE TRICKLED THROUGH ZACH'S VEINS, BUT HE kept his hands loose at his sides and his voice gentle and nonthreatening as he took a step forward. "I don't think you want to do this, Richard."
The younger man looked at him as if he were crazy. "Of course I don't want to do it! I never intended for anyone to get hurt. The plan was just to get the money and be gone before David got home." He glared at Zach. "But then you had to come along and fuck everything up."
Zach held his hands wide of his body in a shrug of entreaty as he edged a millimeter closer. "I thought my baby sister had been snatched. You would've moved heaven and earth, too, I'm sure, if it had been one of your sisters."
Richard made a rude noise and pressed the double barrels against the angle of Glynnis's jaw. Her eyes were huge with fear, but Zach was proud of her; she stood still and quiet in the midst of a situation where anyone could be excused for going all hysterical. Only her eyes moved, flitting between himself and David.
"Not frigging likely," Richard jeered. "My sisters are up for grabs, as far as I'm concerned. Jess is nothing but a doormat, and Cass is a bitch."
"Who are you calling a bitch, you wormy little maggot?" Cassidy demanded as she strolled out of the parlor, " I'm not the lowlife thief stealing from my own fam—" She stopped just inside the foyer as if she'd run smack up against an invisible force field, staring in shock at the tableau that greeted her. "Oh, my God, Richard," she whispered, staring at her brother, Glynnis, and the shotgun. "What on earth are you doing?"
"Go back into the parlor," Zach said calmly, sparing her the briefest of glances, "and try to keep your aunt occupied. The last thing we want is her out here going into hysterics."
Cassidy nodded, but as she took a cautious step backward, Richard barked, "Stay right where you are." He glared at Zach. "How dumb do you think I am? As if I'm going to let her go where she can call the cops."
"Your aunt's already called the sheriff's department, so if you've got half a brain, you'll beat it the hell out of here while you still can."
"Yeah
, right," the younger man scoffed. "Pull the other one, why don't you."
"It's true, Richard," Cassidy said. "Aunt Maureen is furious with you. She told me you're the one who kept reinforcing her fears that the kidnapper would kill David if Zach called the cops like he wanted to. So she didn't hesitate to call them on you."
"Fine." He gave his hair a nervous toss, adjusted his grip on the stock of the shotgun, and glared at Zach. "Give me the goddamn money then, and I'll be on my way."
''Just as soon as you let Glynnis go," David interjected. "I'll give you anything you want. But first, let her go."
Richard turned to look at him, but glanced back every few seconds to keep Zach in sight. He bent a scornful look on his cousin. "You always were a chump."
"Why?" David demanded. "Because I love someone and don't want to see her get hurt?"
"No, because you're such a frigging Little Lord Bountiful. You're just Mister Goddamn Generosity, aren't you?"
From the corner of his eye, Zach saw Cassidy open her mouth to protest. He gave an infinitesimal shake of his head, and to his relief she subsided. Richard had his attention focused pretty firmly on his cousin at the moment, and Zach wanted to keep it that way, since he was using Richard's preoccupation to edge nearer an inch at a time.
"Let me get this straight," David said incredulously. "You're pissed at me because I invited you to live with us and gave you a good-paying job.
"Please. Like you did it from the goodness of your heart." Richard's laugh was bitter. "You're such a hypocrite. You invited us here and gave me a job because you get your kicks out of lording it over all of us and never letting anyone forget you're prince of the goddamn castle."
"That's bullshit!"
"The hell it is." As if sensing danger was approaching, he began to turn back toward Zach.
Lily, who stood on the far side of David, took a step forward. "You know what, Richard? You're a spoiled brat."
He turned to look at her. "Oh, that's good. So says the slut. Did I give you permission to speak, blondie? What are you doing out of the kitchen, meddling in the affairs of your betters, anyway?"
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