After everything his family had been through...
After the abduction.
After his father’s death.
After years of therapy, physical and mental.
After realizing the fallout of what had happened might never stop coming.
Second Wind might have been a foundation that helped nonprofits who in turn helped others with precision and expertise, but it was so much more for Desmond.
It might have seemed idiotic that something as small as vandalism that could be covered with a little paint had completely derailed his entire focus, especially at a party, yet it had.
So much so that he nearly ran into a guest who found her way into the path between him and Caleb. She’d been staring up at the tent’s ceiling.
“Oh, excuse me,” Desmond said, stopping so suddenly he had to put a hand on her arm to keep them from colliding farther. The woman reached a hand out to his chest to keep the same collision from happening, clearly startled.
It was the siren.
Her face flushed. Her dark eyes widened.
“No, excuse me,” she said with a nervous laugh. “I’m the one walking around in here staring at these tents without looking where I’m going!” Recognition flared behind her eyes. Her cheeks turned an even darker shade of crimson. She dropped her hand and took a step away from him like she’d been bitten. “And you’re Desmond Nash, the host. Wow. Talk about an embarrassing first impression.”
“I’m actually happy someone else is in awe of these,” he said, pointing up. “I’m not about to be upset at someone else for doing what I was ten minutes ago.”
She still looked nervous but she smiled all the same.
“Well, I might as well introduce myself now.” She extended her hand. “I’m Jenna Stone.”
The name was familiar.
Yet, Desmond couldn’t place it.
A look that seemed to reach way past worried flashed across her expression. She dropped his hand quickly and took another step backward. Desmond almost turned around to see if it was someone else who had caused the almost scared reaction.
“I’ll let you get on your way,” she hurried. “I think it’s time I checked out the band now.”
Desmond opened his mouth to say something—he wasn’t sure what—but Jenna was fast.
One second she was there.
The next he was standing alone.
Chapter Two
It was a lie.
She was not Jenna Stone but, boy oh boy, had she said it.
Out loud.
To another human.
To him.
No. She was Riley Stone, Jenna’s sister. Her twin to be exact. Identical in every physical aspect—well except for the tattoo she’d gotten her first spring break in college that her parents still didn’t know about—the Stone sisters were nearly indistinguishable.
Which was why Riley was at the Nash family ranch, attending an extremely fancy gala wearing an extremely tight dress and trying to limit the amount of lies she was telling.
To help her sister she had to be her sister. At least for the night.
But then she’d gotten swept up in the atmosphere and literally run into the man who had made the party possible.
Desmond Nash looked nothing like he did on the foundation’s website. The professional portrait had shown a commanding man with gelled dark hair, cold blue eyes and a smile that said he knew exactly how much he was worth. His bio, with its lists of every successful business venture he’d run before starting Second Wind, only backed up the image of a businessman who never bit off more than he could chew. In person, however, the intimidating image Riley had held since that morning’s briefing by her sister had slightly skewed.
He wore a suit but his cowboy hat threw off the uptight business ensemble, just as his messy hair and carefree laughter had tipped the scale from consummate professional to normal, well-dressed man with a smile that had done something to Riley’s stomach when she’d seen it. His eyes had crinkled at the corners and those baby blues had seemed a lot warmer when she had been close enough to touch him.
Desmond Nash was not what she had expected.
All you have to do is be present, Jenna had coached earlier that day. Go in, eat and drink, mingle, smile and make small talk. That’s it.
Riley wanted to bean her sister on the head. She wasn’t a fan of deception, even if it was for a good cause. Lying, well lately it had taken on a new face for Riley. It meant something else. It hurt more. It angered her more. Now she was moving through a party filled with guests who didn’t even suspect she was effectively a walking and talking lie.
It’s not that big of a deal, Riley tried to assure herself. Jenna couldn’t come so we did a weird version of The Parent Trap. It’s not like we’re trying to grift or anything.
The inner pep talk didn’t completely land but Riley raised her chin and moved on to the next tent, following a beautiful piano medley.
Overlook was much like the Nash family ranch which was also much like Desmond. Riley hadn’t expected to be surprised and impressed with any one of them.
A small, small town in mostly rural Tennessee, Overlook was a far cry from Riley’s last home of Atlanta, Georgia. There was no constant hustle or bustle, no tall buildings of metal and glass, no concrete jungle, no excitement at every turn. Yet, it was beautiful.
Just like the ranch at the end of Winding Road.
The copy online about the family-owned-and-run establishment gave the bare-bones facts: over a hundred acres of land, residential housing on the property as well as a horse stable, barns and the Wild Iris Retreat, also owned and run by Nashes. Riley had done as much homework as she could to dig a little deeper, using Google Earth to zoom in on the land and get a general feel for it.
Trees, fields, mountains. The usual.
Yet, before Winding Road had even ended, Riley had been stunned at the beauty surrounding them.
Rolling fields of green dipped and straightened around, between and at the edges of a forest that went across the ranch and seemingly all the way into town. Ranch buildings, including a red barn that looked like it belonged on a postcard, were interspersed in between, looking as natural as the scenery around them. Overlook was a shock of flora. Just as the mountains in the distance were. Riley had seen the curved outlines against the darkening blue sky when she’d first driven up to the party. She had had the strongest urge to reach out and pretend to touch them, tracing their dips and peaks like a child enthralled in a moment of wonder.
Now, at the very least, she understood some of her sister’s reasoning for settling in Overlook.
It was a far cry from lives that had crumbled in the last year.
It was a cozy and beautiful respite.
But that didn’t mean Riley was any more comfortable lying to everyone who reached out to say hello. One major drawback of the small town? Everyone seemed to know everyone else. She stuck out like a sore thumb. Even more so after her impromptu, and embarrassing, run-in with Desmond.
No sooner had she made it to the end of the tent, ready to glide over into the next one, did a man catch her attention. He was short, stocky and had hair that was messy but not in the charming way. His blazer hung a little too loosely on his frame and the shirt beneath it was somewhat wrinkled. His brown eyes jumped to her and then the area around them.
Riley might be nervous about pretending to be her sister but she had a feeling the man in front of her was a lot more nervous about something else.
“Pretty nice party, huh?” he greeted. “Desmond Nash sure is something, isn’t he?”
Riley felt her sister’s customer-service smile move across her lips.
Play the part.
“Yes! To both! I’m definitely impressed and having a great time.”
The man’s brows pulled in together for the briefest of
moments. Riley didn’t know how to classify the emotion that did it but then he was smiling again.
“You aren’t the only one. I’m Brett.” Riley expected him to offer his hand but he didn’t move an inch.
“Jenna Stone.”
“So how long have you been living in Overlook? I don’t think I’ve seen you around.”
Brett took a small step forward as if he was trying to physically engage with the conversation. It put him close enough that Riley could smell a hint of cologne. It wasn’t altogether pleasant.
“Not long enough to know everyone yet,” she hedged. While Riley had been in Overlook for a little over a month, Jenna had made the move six months before that. Very few locals knew her by sight, let alone name. If Brett didn’t recognize her then Riley wasn’t about to give out information on her sister. “How about you?”
The man shrugged.
“Not that long either.”
He didn’t offer anything else. A silence moved between them. The piano medley faded out and was replaced by an acoustic guitar.
“Well,” she finally broke in. “This party sure is great. Just like Second Wind. Desmond Nash really has a knack for knowing how to help people, doesn’t he?”
Brett actually snorted.
“People like him always think they have the answers—I’ll give you that.”
Riley was starting to feel uncomfortable outside her lying. She didn’t know this man—okay, anyone at the party—but she didn’t think her sister would want to make a connection with him. Jenna was trying to grow her business in Overlook and Riley couldn’t imagine Brett was into graphic design.
“This music is lovely, though, isn’t it?” she asked lamely. The man wasn’t taking any normal social cues in the conversation. He just kept staring. Eyes never straying from hers.
I’ve never felt more awkward in my life, Riley had the time to think.
She took an unintentional step backward. That, at least, he seemed to register. His smile widened. He nodded.
“It’s sure something.” He angled his body as if to leave. Instead he held out his arm. “Maybe we can dance to it?”
Riley felt like she was getting whiplash from the very brief and exceptionally strange conversation. She understood that not everyone could wear charm with ease—heck, her ex-husband Davies used to say she could burn through a good conversation with just one heated opinion in a flash—but there was something about the man that slunk under her skin and went to itching. Still, Riley tried to be gracious as she let him down.
She was pretending to be Jenna after all.
“I would but there’s a few people I was hoping to talk to before I started in on the fun. Rain check?”
Brett shrugged. He dropped his arm, seemingly nonplussed.
“Suit yourself.”
Then he walked off.
Just like that.
Riley stared after him a moment, dumbfounded. Even though she wanted to go to the main tent, she decided to turn around. She was almost disappointed when Desmond Nash was nowhere to be seen.
* * *
SECOND WIND FOUNDATION had spent its career finding and funding nonprofits that all seemed to focus on helping people after tragedy. That’s what Jenna had surmised when she was stepping Riley through small talk all day, yet that wasn’t what any of the guests were discussing when Riley infiltrated each of their groups.
Instead the conversations ran the gamut of brief facts and heavy gossip. Not all of it Riley could follow, but still, she nodded along with everyone else. While Jenna had taught her everything she knew about Overlook, Second Wind and Desmond Nash, there was apparently a lot she hadn’t.
“I hope that Second Wind building isn’t an eyesore. I already don’t like how many trees they cut to clear the lot to build.”
“How much money did they spend on this party? Where does it come from? Don’t you think it’s suspicious?”
“Did you hear about what happened to Madi last year? And what about Caleb a few years before? Talk about bad luck. This family is lousy with it.”
“I heard Desmond only came back because he couldn’t handle being away from his mom.”
“Did you see his limp? Remember when he was a kid? It’s gotten a lot better. Do you think he had surgery on it?”
“Is Desmond here alone? Maybe I can change that.”
The last conversation was from a woman who appeared to be a few years younger than Riley’s thirty. She was done up in a short cocktail dress made entirely of sequins. When she spotted the cowboy across the main tent—which Riley was excited to say she’d finally made it to without running into Brett—the woman had actually readjusted her dress, pushing her breasts higher. That woman was one of three around Riley. The only one she had focused on meeting was Claire, the owner of the same-named coffee shop in town. She had been kind and inviting as Riley introduced herself as Jenna. She had even asked for a business card once Riley was done with her memorized spiel.
The woman now openly ogling the businessman hadn’t been as accommodating. She’d barely met Riley’s eye when the introductions started. There was even a bit of a sneer when Claire asked if Riley had talked to the host already and she admitted she had.
The party might have been celebrating Second Wind and the man behind it, but Riley was finding a lot of focus had found its way to Desmond’s dating life. Riley couldn’t deny she was just a bit curious about it too.
She was about to finally cave and ask a few questions herself when Desmond seemingly disappeared. The next half hour brought in a new wave of conversational topics about other citizens of Overlook. Riley was starting to feel a touch uncomfortable with getting the 411 on relative strangers when a text vibrated her phone. It was from Jenna.
You’ve been there over an hour. Officially shutting down Twin Trickery. Come on home. Made snickerdoodles.
“Well, it’s been wonderful to meet you all,” Riley said, stifling a chuckle. She discreetly put her phone back into her clutch and fished for her keys. “But I think I’m going to call it a night.”
Jenna and Riley were emotional bakers through and through, just like their mother. Every problem had a baked-good answer. Stressed? Gooey brownies. Angry? Chocolate-chip cookies with sea salt. Feeling guilty? Snickerdoodles. The list went on and changed with their moods but it had always made their father laugh.
“No matter what happens, the house always smells wonderful,” he’d said.
Riley was more than ready to benefit from her sister’s most recent bout of emotion. It was just kismet that it synced up with the fact that Riley’s feet were starting to get sore.
Claire and the rest said their goodbyes and Riley strutted out into the night air with more pep in her step than before. When Jenna had begged Riley to pretend to be her for just one night, Riley had thought she was crazy. They were identical, sure, but their personalities varied widely, love for baking excluded.
Yet, as Riley followed the lit garden path to the makeshift parking area, she felt an unfurling of pride in her chest.
She’d helped her sister, and after the year Jenna had, it felt good to get a win for her.
Riley held on to the good feeling and got into her Jeep with a little excited hop. Her mind went to the snickerdoodles and she flung her high heels into the passenger’s seat with vigor. She gave the party in the distance one more long look. The tents were lit up and glowing, the music was soft yet far-reaching and the stars and moon were nothing but ethereal above it all.
The Nash family ranch was a fairy tale.
One Riley was surprised to already miss.
But this wasn’t her life. She wasn’t like her sister. Overlook was a pit stop on the way to something else.
She’d hang around long enough to get her feet back on the ground and help her sister do the same. Then she’d be gone.
Riley drove out
of the parking area and onto the road that went through the heart of the ranch. She was curious about the other paths that branched off it going this way and that but kept on straight to Winding Road. Once she was through the ranch’s main gate and on the two-lane road, she pressed Play on the CD player and started to rock out to the Greatest Hits of the 80s. Moonlit scenery flashed by on either side of the Jeep until the open fields turned to forests and the darkness between the road’s shoulders thickened.
Riley bobbed her head to the music, tapped her foot against the floorboard to the beat and was fully prepared to belt out the opening to “Take on Me” by a-ha. She slowed her speed since streetlights were far apart and few in number.
However, as she opened her mouth to start singing, she realized the headlights that had been somewhat behind her belonged to a car that was in no way adhering to caution. In fact, it was gaining speed.
Riley gripped the steering wheel, the words to her song forgotten. Her stomach tightened but her mind tried to reassure her she was just imaging that the car had not only sped up, but was nearing her bumper.
But then the car went into the middle of the road. The relief made her shoulders relax. The idiot was going to pass her. Impatience, that was all.
Riley glanced over as the red Buick drew even with her. The lights were on inside the car.
That relief vanished.
It was Brett.
He was smiling as he jerked his wheel toward her. Riley didn’t have any time to react.
The song’s chorus started to build.
It didn’t have a chance to finish before Riley was screaming.
Chapter Three
The Jeep was sky blue and always carried a faint scent of cinnamon within its cab. Riley had owned and driven it for ten years and, in all of that time, never figured out why that was. It had driven her ex-husband mad trying to solve the mystery, just as it frustrated him that no matter what air freshener or spray he used, the scent of cinnamon never went away. Riley had oddly come to love the smell. It was synonymous with the feeling of home, if she was being honest with herself. It put her at ease.
Identical Threat Page 2
