He dropped Alex at the front door, watched him in, then drove the limo around the house to the garage. After he put the car in, secured the garage and pocketed the keys and alarm control, he went in through the back entrance to the kitchen, where, just as expected, he found Selene.
The youngest of the Oklahoma litter, she was stunning to look at. Hair such a pale blond it appeared silver, and those pale-blue eyes that reminded him of an Arctic wolf. There was something about this little cousin of his. He’d never noticed it when he’d been a child, those few times his family had interacted with hers. Of course, back then he hadn’t been what he was now.
She turned from the counter where she’d been chopping vegetables and sent him a knowing smile. “Hello, Wes. I’ve been hoping for a private conversation with you. Coffee?”
“Got anything colder?”
She nodded toward the refrigerator. “Help yourself.” She picked up the cutting board, used the knife to push all the vegetables from it into the pot bubbling on the stove. Then she moved to the sink to rinse the board, the knife, and her hands.
Wes took a soft drink from the fridge, glancing at her as she wiped her hands on a towel. “One for you?”
“Yes, thanks.”
He grabbed her a cola, handed it to her, then went to the kitchen door to open it, and let her precede him outside. He didn’t need to tell her they couldn’t speak freely in the house. Not even in the kitchen. They had all been briefed.
They walked along the narrow white gravel path that twisted from the house out into the gardens in the back. He sipped his soft drink, and she sipped hers, and he wondered who was going to start. Finally she glanced up at him and asked, “So why are you really here?”
He didn’t bother pretending. Not with this girl. She knew, and he knew that she knew. “I had a dream,” he said. “I dreamed about your sister. Even though I hadn’t seen any of you in well over a decade, I dreamed about her.”
“What did you dream?”
He pursed his lips. “She was here, in Austin. And she was in danger.” He shook his head. “I know it’s all pretty vague, but that’s honestly all I got. I saw her in my mind, and she looked scared. She was in the dark, but I knew she was in Austin. When I woke, a wolf was crying outside my window.”
“And that was significant to you?”
He nodded. “I’m a Shaman, Selene. Wolf is my totem. When he tells me something is important, I pay attention. So I looked up the number and called your mother in Big Falls. Asked her if any of her daughters were going to be in Austin. She said no, but a couple of days later, she called me back.”
“Right after Alex showed up asking Mel to take part in this ruse.”
He nodded.
Selene licked her lips. “Right after Alex told us what he wanted Mel to do, I got this horrible feeling about it. Then, all that night, I felt this foreboding, like a dark shadow hanging over all of us, waiting to fall. I got up, took out my Tarot cards.”
She looked at him, waiting, he thought, for some kind of comment.
“I knew you were a seer,” he said.
“More than a seer, but that’s beside the point. The cards that fell were not good. Something is going to happen. I just wish I knew what, or when, but I’m drawing a blank.”
“Me, too.”
She drew a breath, closed her hand around his. “I’m really glad you’re here, cousin.”
“A family reunion is long overdue. When we get through this mess, we really need to do something about rebuilding those old ties, don’t you think?”
“Whatever rift there was between us, it’s so old that I don’t see how it could matter anymore,” Selene said.
“Oh, it matters. To your mother, especially. My branch of the family hurt her pretty badly a long time ago. But I think we can heal that wound now.”
“Hey, how can we fail, with two magical people in the family?”
“Three. Ben studied Buddhism with a Zen master from Tibet. He’s pretty amazing.”
“I never would have guessed.”
He studied her face for a long moment. “What’s your calling, Selene?”
She lowered her eyes, shook her head. “I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”
“You can trust me, you know. I won’t judge you.”
“Mamma will. This isn’t the time.”
“All right.”
She drew a nasal breath, looked around at the gardens, the late-blooming flowers and the shrubs. “Thanks for being here, Wes. It means a lot to me. To all of us.”
“It’s not just me, kiddo. The rest of the family is only a phone call away. They don’t know what’s going on—well, except for Garrett—but they’ll be here in a heartbeat if we need them.”
She smiled. “Sounds just like our family.”
“We are your family.” He lifted his brows. “And I’ve got pictures!” He located a bench in the garden, and they went to sit down while Wes tugged out his wallet and began flipping through the small photos. “Here’s my wife, Taylor, and our little baby boy. He’s just six months old. His native name is Wolf.”
Selene’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the photo. “That’s a story you’re going to have to tell me sometime soon.”
“I will. Maybe around a bonfire one night with both families gathered.” He nodded firmly, setting that goal in his mind. “My son’s English name is Jonathon Orrin Brand.”
Selene blinked and looked up from the photo. “Jonathon was my father’s name.”
“And Orrin was my father’s. They were brothers, and they were estranged. But they’re both gone now, and we need to start again. I was thinking about that long rift in the family when Taylor and I chose Jonathon’s name.”
Selene put her arms around his neck and hugged him gently. When she straightened away, she was misty-eyed and sniffling.
“We’d, uh, best get back to the house. Be nearby in case they need us,” Wes said. But deep down, he felt like he’d found a long-lost baby sister.
Selene nodded and got to her feet. “You go on ahead. I want to gather some weeds before that pesky gardener gets out here and ruins them again.” He arched a brow. “Nettle, burdock and dandelion,” she said. “They’re very protective.”
He nodded, glanced around the area, and decided it wasn’t good to leave her alone. There were plenty of agents in the house to protect Mel and Alex, but no one in sight of the garden out here. So he remained on the bench. “I’ll wait.”
“What did you find out, dear?” Mel asked in her best Katerina voice. She’d been waiting in the foyer for Alex’s return, largely because there was little else for her to do. Thank-you cards needed to go out, but they had a forger on hand who was far better at copying Katerina’s handwriting than Mel would ever be, so he was taking care of that little job. And there were no social events slated until the ball that night.
“What did I find out about what?” he asked, as if she were the airhead this prissy little voice made her sound like.
“About the blowout last night, on the limo? I assumed that was one of the errands you had to run this morning. Following up on what those nice policemen found when they ran their tests.”
He shot her a look, and she knew she was piling the ditz routine on a bit. She wondered irritably if he knew the real Katerina. Had he been high on the woman already, long before Mel had taken on her role, or was this a new development?
“You assumed correctly,” he said.
“Well? Tell me the truth, Thomas. Contrary to public perception, I’m not a fragile flower who will wilt at the slightest sign of trouble. Did the tire blow out on its own, or was that sound we heard what it sounded like?”
He licked his lips, studied her face and drew a deep breath. “It was a gunshot.”
Chapter 6
S he paled. Alex saw it clearly, but he had expected it. Contrary to her own opinion, he thought sarcastically, Melusine Brand was not made of stone. He was close enough to put his arm around her, and he did it au
tomatically. It was only as he led her to a chair and eased her down onto it that he realized he was acting his role without meaning to. Without thinking about it.
“I’ll get you a glass of water.”
“No.”
“Something stronger?”
She shook her head left, then right, and seemed to gather herself, to focus her vision. “I just never expected—I really expected you to say it was just a blowout.” She lifted her gaze to lock it with his. “Someone shot at us?”
“Not necessarily.”
She lifted her brows.
“It could have been an accident. They could have been shooting at something or someone else, and we just got in the way of a stray bullet.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s likely. Was it a high crime area we were driving through? A place where gangs hang out? Or maybe it was just hunting season on that particular stretch of highway.”
“Calm down, Katerina.”
Her eyes flashed wider and she whispered, “Do you really think I’m going to continue this game when I’m being shot at? You told me this would be safe.”
“Steps are being taken—”
“Steps? They shot at us last night. Is this not registering in your brain somehow?”
He pursed his lips, reached into his pocket, took out the small revolver he’d acquired for her. “As I promised,” he told her, handing her the gun.
She flipped open the cylinder, checked to be sure it was loaded, clapped it shut again. She pointed it at something beyond the nearest window, her grip as good as his own. Her hands didn’t even shake.
“I’ll need more—”
He handed her the box of ammo before she could finish the sentence, telling her with his eyes to watch what she said aloud. “We haven’t found those two items we’ve been looking for yet,” he told her softly. “For the first time, we have to consider the possibility that they might have been…taken.”
“You mean…?” She blinked in shock, and he could see by her eyes that she understood he was referring to Katerina and Thomas Barde. “My God. This…this changes everything.”
“Yeah. It does.” He licked his lips.
She got up from the chair suddenly, gripped his hand and tugged him behind her through the house, up the wide staircase to their suite, and through it, into the bathroom. Just as he had done before, she closed the door, then walked around turning on all the faucets, flipping on the fan. Steam billowed. The hot tub bubbled.
She turned to him, stood very close, so close he might have thought she was going to kiss him if he hadn’t known better. He kept remembering last night. What it felt like to kiss her. To have her kiss him back. His heartbeat sped up, and his body tensed in reaction to the memory and to her closeness.
“Are you telling me that Katerina and Thomas have been kidnapped?” she whispered.
He averted his eyes. “We don’t know that.”
“But we have reason to think it, when it wasn’t even considered before?”
He met her probing gaze. “Their limo and their driver have been found in the desert. They were apparently on their way here from whatever love-nest they’d been visiting when they were intercepted.”
Staring into his eyes she whispered, “Their driver? Dead?”
He nodded. “We know it wasn’t a simple robbery because his wallet was still on him, cash and plastic. And we know it was recent, as the driver had only been dead a matter of hours.”
Her knees buckled, and Alex gripped her shoulders, helped her sit down on the edge of the oversize tub. “We can’t be sure they were taken,” he whispered. “They could have escaped, run off, gone into hiding.”
“Oh, right. I’m sure the princess got a long way in her four-inch stilettos and designer gown in the desert.” She shook her head. “No, they would have contacted someone if they’d escaped.”
“Maybe the driver was killed after dropping the couple off somewhere. Maybe the killers still don’t know where the couple are hiding.”
“And we were shot at last night because…?”
“We can only guess at that. The current favorite theory is that the kidnappers have been monitoring the news. When they saw you and me and heard no mention of the Bardes being missing, they might have believed they’d been duped. Maybe they think they grabbed a pair of doubles, who were sent on ahead of the real couple as a security measure.”
“So they think we are the real Katerina and Thomas?”
“It’s possible. As I said, that’s just the current pet theory.”
“But wouldn’t that put the others in danger?”
“The kidnappers would want to make sure first.”
“And now they’re after us.”
“We can’t be sure of that.”
She lowered her head, licked her lips. “Look, no amount of money is worth getting killed for. I signed on for this with the understanding that it would be safe, that the real couple were just off on a lark somewhere.”
“I know. And I’m getting you out of here just as soon as it can be arranged. We need to be sure it’s safe, be sure you aren’t followed when you leave here, and we have to come up with a plausible reason to tell the world why Katerina Barde has dropped out of sight.”
She sighed. “And what about you?”
“I’m staying on in the role of Thomas.”
Her eyes got wider, intense. Worried, he thought. For him? “Why on earth would you do that?” she asked. “Someone wants to kill Thomas.”
“You’re right. I think they would kill Thomas as soon as look at him, then hold Katerina as leverage to wrest political control from her father. But if they think they might have the wrong couple, they won’t do anything except try to verify who’s who. The longer and more convincingly I can play this role, keep them uncertain, the longer the real Thomas gets to live.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “I…I didn’t realize…. I didn’t think of that.”
“There’s no reason you should think of that. This isn’t your problem, Mel. We’re shipping your mom and sisters out today. No one would have any reason to be suspicious of staff leaving here, so they’ll be safe. They’re going to the Brand ranch in Quinn. That’s near El Paso.”
“I know where it is. Why aren’t they just going home?”
“It’s just a precaution. Just in case anyone uncovers your real identity and traces you back to Big Falls, Oklahoma. Your other two sisters and their families are already being moved to Quinn.”
She nodded slowly. “What about Wes?” Those blue eyes dilated again. “He’s our driver. They killed the other driver.”
Alex nodded. “I know. He fought it, but we finally convinced him to escort your sisters and mother back to Quinn. He was bound and determined not to leave until you did. I had a hell of a job convincing him he could trust me to keep you safe for a few hours.”
“I’m surprised you were able to convince him at all.”
Alex averted his eyes, not wanting to tell her any details about his conversation with Wes. He’d had to admit some things he would rather not bring up again just now.
“So that’s where I’ll be going there, too?” she asked. “The Texas Brand in Quinn?”
Sighing, he sat down on the tub’s edge beside her. “Yes. Just as soon as we get everything in place. They’ll be expecting the two of us at that ball tonight. Not showing would tip them off immediately. So we will arrive, but you won’t be staying. It’ll be crowded, confusing. The perfect time for us to spirit you away. I’ll keep their attention on me while some other agents whisk you out of there. No one will realize you’re gone until the end of the evening, when the place clears out. If I play it right, it’ll look as if the two of us slipped away together, went home before the end of the evening and straight to bed. With any luck they won’t know you’re gone until tomorrow.”
“Just who are ‘they,’ Alex?”
“The CIA thinks it’s Curnyn Shaw. They’ve been in touch with President Belisle to bring him up to spe
ed.”
“He’ll probably break off all relations with the U.S. over this,” Mel said.
“Not until his daughter’s rescued. He needs to work with us. After that—well, I think a lot depends on how all this turns out.”
She licked her lips, turned her head, met his eyes. “Things sound pretty grim, don’t they?”
He nodded.
“I, um, I want to say goodbye to my family before they leave.”
“Of course.” He ran a hand over the back of her hair, crown to nape. “I’m sorry I got you into this, Melusine. I honestly thought it was safe.”
“I know you did.”
“All I ask is that you stay in character until you’re out of the house. No sense giving it away too soon.” He got to his feet, turned and extended a hand.
She took it and let him pull her up to her feet. “Of course I will.”
He walked around the bathroom, shutting off the valves and faucets, then joined her again near the door, slid his arm around her waist and spoke softly near her ear. “Stay close to me from here on. I don’t want you out of earshot until you’re far away from danger.”
When he lifted his head away from her ear and looked at her, she seemed to be searching his eyes, and he thought her cheeks had warmed a little and wondered why. But she only nodded, then stepped out of the bathroom.
Mel hugged Selene, not saying a word. Then she hugged Kara and then Wes. She saved her mother for last and hugged her hardest. Her mom whispered in her ear that she would see her at the ranch soon, to keep herself safe until then, that she loved her.
Mel hugged her even more tightly, nodding against her mother’s shoulder as if she agreed with every word, even though she didn’t. She couldn’t. She’d been wrestling with this all morning, and she knew what she had to do.
Wes would be driving the three women to Quinn in a domestic-looking minivan that wouldn’t raise a single eyebrow. Just to be sure it didn’t, “Katerina” and “Thomas” made themselves visible and vocal as the van left. Anyone watching would know for sure they were not sneaking along for the ride.
Secrets and Lies Page 8
