High-Stakes Inheritance

by Susan Sleeman

  Stowing his gun, Russ clomped into the room. “Good, you’re here.”

  “What can I do for you, Russ?” Mia asked as she walked to the kitchen island and set her purse on to the countertop.

  “First off, I wanted to tell you we ID’d the truck in the barn.”

  “How’d you do that so fast with all the VIN numbers removed?” Ryan joined the pair by the counter.

  “Pure luck. The truck belongs to Orrin Jackson. He came back from vacation today and discovered it was stolen.”

  “Orrin, huh.” Ryan said as he processed the news. “He have any ideas who might have taken it?”

  “None. But I’m even more convinced this was done by a pro. Orrin’s house was ransacked and his gun cabinet emptied.”

  Mia’s face blanched. “So this man is armed, and I may be in real danger?”

  “Maybe,” Russ said, his tone light and unconcerned like he was dealing with a traffic violation not arson. “More likely the intruder plans to sell the weapons.”

  “But you can’t be sure,” Mia said.

  “No, I can’t be sure.” Russ’s tone lacked his usual confidence.

  Mia turned away but not before Ryan caught a glimpse of her stricken expression.

  He lifted a hand to squeeze her shoulder in comfort, but let it fall. She was in more danger than he had earlier believed. Danger like Cara had been in. Danger that would keep him from chasing after those wayward feelings he’d had a few moments ago.

  He curled his fingers into a fist and faced Russ. “What do you plan to do about it?”

  “There’s nothing I can do except get this investigation resolved more quickly.” He dug a plastic bag from his pocket and laid it open on his hand. A shiny bracelet settled into his palm.

  As Mia stared at the bracelet secured in the bag, Ryan checked it out. He’d never seen this piece of jewelry before, of that he was sure.

  “We found this in the box with the hand. I’m certain it’s yours.” Russ stepped closer to Mia.

  She backed up until her feet met a bar stool, and her eyes took on an uncomfortable sheen. She resembled a trapped animal. Ryan held his breath as he waited for her to speak.

  “Is this bracelet yours?” Russ shoved his hand closer.

  She looked down at the dog still clutched in her arms. Russ moved into her personal space and her head snapped up. At the tightening of her jaw, Ryan’s instincts urged him to step in between them, but he wanted to hear the answer as much as Russ did.

  “It’s not m—”

  “Before you deny it,” Russ interrupted, “the charms have dates engraved on them. Dates like your birthday.” He maneuvered the charms around and jabbed his index finger at a birthday cake.

  Shell shocked, she slowly lowered her body on to the stool. Bandit licked her cheek, and she hugged him as if he were a lifeline to sanity.

  Ryan didn’t need to see or hear anymore. This was Mia’s bracelet. Her eyes confirmed her disbelief in seeing it.

  So what was her story?

  If she had a bracelet that obviously meant a great deal to her, why hadn’t she shown it to him all those times she cried over her mother? The only answer that came to mind was one he didn’t want to acknowledge. Maybe she hadn’t trusted him as much as he’d believed.

  Mia released the wiggling Bandit and wrapped her arms around her waist. How could anyone have gotten a hold of her bracelet and put it on that hand? And how did that relate to the threat or the fire?

  Maybe this was a setup. Maybe Russ thought he could trick her into confessing to being behind these incidents, but the only thing she could confess was the bracelet was likely hers.

  “I had a charm bracelet when I was a kid.” Her voice came out strained when she’d hoped for a lighter tone.

  “What happened to it?” Russ asked.

  “That’s a long story.”

  “I have time.” His tone was sympathetic but she figured he was just using his interrogation skills.

  She glanced at Ryan for support she had no right to ask for after the way she’d left things when they last spoke. And she got what she deserved. His eyes were hard and appraising.

  Did he think she’d had something to do with the threats? Didn’t he know her at all? She wilted under his gaze.

  “Mia.” Russ held out the bracelet.

  She took the bag and spread the thick chain across her open palm. The cool metal slashed a line across her hand. Memories undulated like ocean waves over her back. The bracelet seemed alive, like a snake reaching out to bite her.

  She couldn’t hold it any longer so she thrust the bag back at Russ. “It’s my bracelet, but I don’t know how it ended up in that box. It was disposed of the summer I moved here.”

  “Disposed of?” Russ asked. “How? Where?”

  Mia thought about the summer and the loss of her mother. She’d never wanted to speak aloud to anyone about this. She’d certainly never share the gut-wrenching details with Russ. But she could give him enough information to understand that barring a miracle—barring the fact that the evidence was in his hands—this could not be her bracelet.

  She’d make the telling brief. She rattled through the details of the car accident then stopped to fight back the tears that always threatened when she thought about that day. She looked at Ryan whose eyes had filled with compassion. Guilt for the way she’d treated him earlier pummeled her heart so she turned to Russ. His sympathetic gaze was nearly her undoing.

  If a closed man like Russ empathized with her story, she felt justified in falling apart. It took all the effort she could dredge up to continue. But the sooner she told this, the sooner she could file the memory back in the don’t-open-unless-forced file in her brain.

  She looked at her feet. “My father was distraught over Mom’s death. He didn’t want to see anything that reminded him of her, and he certainly didn’t want to go back to Atlanta. After deciding we would live here, he convinced Uncle Wally to get rid of everything we owned in Atlanta. Our house and all of our stuff. All Dad let us keep were the things we brought up here. Minus Mom’s stuff, of course.”

  “Sounds harsh,” Russ said.

  “It was. But hey, we got over it.” Liar. You’re still carrying it around like a backpack full of rocks.

  “Wally might not have gotten rid of everything,” Ryan said. “Maybe he kept the bracelet.”

  Mia shook her head. “Not likely. Wally had a picture of my mom. He gave it to me at her funeral. When my dad found out, he threw it in the fireplace and threatened to kill Wally if he gave me anything else. There’s no way anyone would want to stand up to that rage again.”

  “So if Wally didn’t keep it, who does that leave?” Russ asked.

  “No one. My dad would never have asked for the bracelet. All of the charms were from special times with Mom. It would bring him too much pain. And David was fifteen. No teenage boy would want his little sister’s bracelet.”

  “Then maybe someone had a replica made,” Ryan said more to Russ, than to Mia, as if he felt the need to defend her. “To hurt her. To get her to leave.”

  She thought about the charms. Could they be duplicated? She ticked them off one at a time, mentally stroking them as she traveled along the length of the silver chain.

  When she reached the end, the answer struck her like a bolt of lightning. “Check the penny from Stone Mountain. When you smash a coin in one of those machines, it stamps the year into the copper. They could easily smash the penny, but how would they replicate that date?”

  Russ laid the plastic in his palm and flipped the penny over. Mia stared at the bracelet. As it moved, piercing rays shooting through the window glinted from the charms as if the bracelet were sending out a warning.

  “1982. This is the real deal.” Head bent, Russ jiggled the charms again. “Assuming, and this is a big assumption, this warning and the fire are related, then the bracelet points toward someone from your family. Access to your old bracelet would most likely be restricted to your family
and, of course,” he looked down on Mia, “you.”

  As she stared at him in disbelief over his need to keep her on his suspect list, he shoved the bag back into his pocket. “We were able to lift two sets of prints from the charms so that should move us forward.”

  “Finally, something to go on.” She let relief color her words. “And something that will clear my name.”

  “Not necessarily,” he said. “You could have hired someone to put the bracelet in the box just like you did to start the fire.”

  What? She did not expect him to go in that direction.

  Ryan’s jaw tightened. “We’ve been over this, bro. Move on. Mia’s not involved in this.”

  She came to her feet. “He’s right, and I can prove it.”

  “I’m listening,” Russ said, cocking a brow.

  She reached across the counter and withdrew the first letter along with the will from her purse then thrust them into Russ’s hand. “Here’s the will. Once you read it, you’ll know I don’t gain anything until the year is up. In the envelope is a letter that was waiting for me at the post office yesterday.”

  Russ tucked the will under his arm then opened the envelope and scanned the letter. “Okay, so how does this prove you aren’t involved? You could’ve sent it to yourself.”

  “Look at the postmark. I was in Atlanta when it was sent.”

  Russ rolled his eyes. “So the guy you hired to start the fire mailed the letter.”

  “You’re unbelievable,” Ryan burst out. “Can’t you at least acknowledge you could be wrong and someone is threatening Mia?”

  “Despite what you both think about me,” Russ paused and looked at them in turn, “I have an open mind. I’m more than willing to entertain another suspect, but so far there doesn’t seem to be anyone else good for this.”

  Ryan advanced on his brother. “How about Mia’s father or David for that matter? You could at least look into them.”

  “And why would I do that?”

  Mia held her hand in front of Ryan. “Ryan, don’t.”

  “I’m sorry, Mia, but he needs to hear this.” Ryan explained her father and David’s motive.

  Russ fixed a hard stare on her. “Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?”

  “She hopes to one day reconcile with her father, and she doesn’t want people in town to gossip about her like they did back in high school,” Ryan answered for her. “That would only make Dr. Blackburn angry.”

  “I’ll talk with your dad and David about this.” Russ straightened to full height and tucked the letter into the envelope. “If I have additional questions, I’ll get back to you.”

  “No, wait. Isn’t there some way to do this without talking to them?” Mia asked, even though she already knew the answer.

  “Not if you want me to get to the bottom of this, there isn’t.” Surprisingly, his tone was sympathetic and his eyes kind before he strode off.

  She watched him leave and dug deep to find the confident woman who bolted for cover as she always did when her father was involved.

  “You don’t look so good,” Ryan said.

  Her head shot up. “Really?” Her sarcasm hit him like a Mack truck, and she instantly regretted the harsh tone. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you, but it hurts to think my father might hate me this much. Not to mention the fact that you’ve probably started the ball rolling for the news to be spread all over town.”

  “I’m sorry, Mia, but the stolen guns show how much danger you’re in. Even if I don’t think your dad is behind this, I had to tell Russ about the letter. It was the only thing I could think of to draw Russ’s attention from you.” He sighed. “He has to realize someone is threatening you and not waste time trying to prove your guilt.”

  She knew Ryan spoke the truth, but right now it was a better choice for Russ to blame her than to interrogate her father and David. After Russ questioned them, all hope of reconciling would end and she would be without a family forever.

  TEN

  Ryan moaned and pushed back his chair. Enough was enough. He’d spent the last two hours in the rec center preparing for the students arrival tomorrow, and he couldn’t concentrate with thoughts of the stolen guns and Mia’s bracelet weighing heavy on his mind.

  The more he thought about the situation, the more certain he felt that her father and David had nothing to do with this. One thing was clear, though. They had no clue who was behind the warnings and with Mia’s life in jeopardy he couldn’t go on with his normal life. He’d done that with Cara and look how terrible that had turned out.

  He had to talk to Mia. Discuss the latest happening and figure out how to bring this to a close.

  Outside, he kept his gaze from the counselors working near the fire pit as he didn’t want to be distracted from his mission. He traveled to the lodge and knocked on the door. As he heard Bandit’s nails clipping across the wooden floor, he stepped back.

  A loud thump was followed by laughter and Mia saying, “You silly dog. You need to be more careful or you’ll get brain damage.”

  She pulled open the door and Bandit charged out. He circled Ryan and danced on his rear feet.

  “Ryan,” Mia said, a question in her voice.

  “Can we talk for a minute? Maybe out here on the porch? I just can’t quit thinking about the bracelet and feel like we’re missing something.” He moved out of her way and gestured toward a chair.

  She settled into a rocker.

  “My mind keeps coming back to the fact that Wally must have kept the bracelet.” He took the chair next to her. “I don’t know why, but there’s no other possible explanation for how it could have shown up here.”

  “I’m leaning the same way, but then why didn’t he give it to me when I moved to Atlanta? My dad had no hold over either of us then.”

  Ryan shrugged. “Who knows what he might have been waiting for. But we need to assume he brought it back to Pinetree and someone around here got a hold of it. That’s the only way we can move forward. So who might have found it and realized what it was?”

  “Only one person has unrestricted access to Wally’s stuff up here and that’s Verna.” Mia’s eyes lit up. “She knows all about our family, and she was acting weird when I talked to her this afternoon. You know Wally never locked anything around here so I asked her why the barn was locked, and she gave me a vague answer then acted all secretive.”

  “So you think Verna locked the barn to hide something?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not even sure both doors were locked. I can only vouch for the one I got stuck in.”

  “There was a chain hanging on the other handle, but I didn’t see a lock.”

  “We can go down there now and check.” Mia jumped to her feet.

  Ryan held out his hand. “Not so fast, Mia. I know you want to do something, but how does it help us to move forward if we find out it was locked?”

  “Because if the padlock is still there and the chain is intact we know the arsonist had to have the key. If he had a key, then maybe that connects him to Verna.” She flashed a dazzling smile his way.

  Ryan’s pulse raced. This was the vibrant Mia he’d once known. This was how he wanted to see her. Happy and free from turmoil.

  “C’mon.” She danced in place.

  “Okay, but we do it my way. Rutting through a burned building is dangerous. You can come with me, but I’ll do the looking.”

  Her happiness deflated a notch. “Fine.”

  He stood. “Let me get a pair of boots from my truck. And you might want to put Bandit inside or at least leash him so he doesn’t get into trouble.”

  “It’ll do him good to go for a walk. I’ll get his leash.”

  She went inside, and Ryan crossed to his truck. He slipped into protective boots and retrieved his pry bar and gloves. He doubted looking at the chain would pan out, but when he saw the exuberance on Mia’s face, he’d have offered to pick up every charred hunk of wood in the barn to find a clue.

  “
Ready?” Mia asked when she joined him.

  Before he could answer, Bandit shot off, jerking the leash and pulling Mia along at a fast clip.

  “I probably shouldn’t have said I’d take Bandit.” She laughed as she tried to rein in the frisky pup. “I don’t have the first clue on how to take care of a dog.”

  “How about I give you some pointers when we get done here?”

  “That would be great.” She looked up at him with the same admiration she’d had for him in high school and a warm feeling spread through his chest.

  Did her look mean she might be on the road to trusting in him again? Or had her failure to show up for orientation meant she’d changed her mind about working with him?

  With the unsettling news of her bracelet fresh in her mind, he didn’t have the heart to bring up the subject earlier. And now with the upbeat mood, he should leave things alone, but he had to know.

  “Have you had a chance to look at Eddie’s file?”

  She shifted the leash to her other hand and faced him. “I did. In fact I stopped by the rec center for orientation, but you were busy with your staff.”

  He wanted to shoot his hand into the air and shout yes, but he didn’t want to scare her off by his enthusiasm, so he responded with a flat smile.

  She grew very still, stopping to assess him with narrowed eyes, and he knew he’d failed to keep his excitement in check.

  “You did say we would keep this on a professional level,” she said carefully.

  He did say that but could he really follow through when she looked at him as she had a few moments ago? Her forgiveness lifted a huge weight, but he also wanted her respect and trust. He raised his face to the tall pines, listening to the chirping birds.

  “Ryan? Can we work together?” Her voice had gone soft like she was afraid to hear his response.

  He watched a hawk soar through the trees, and he ran a hand through his hair. “You want the easy answer or the truth?” He let his gaze fall on her face again.

  “The truth,” slipped from her lips like a sigh of the wind rustling the trees.