No Desire Denied

by Cara Summers

  His gaze settled on Nell. More than anything he wanted to go to her and just carry her away. But he couldn’t. Gut instinct told him that she was very close to figuring out where that necklace was. He was as sure of that as he was that something unforeseen was about to happen.

  * * *

  “HOW ARE YOU holding up?” Skinner asked.

  Nell dragged her gaze away from the two young people at the altar to look at Sheriff Skinner. “I just wish this was over. I need to find that necklace.”

  “If anyone can figure out where it is, you can,” Skinner commented.

  Surprised, she met his eyes. “You sound so sure of that.”

  “You’re a lot like your mother.”

  “You knew her?” Even as she asked it, she realized it was a foolish question. She judged Sheriff Skinner to be close to her father’s age, and everyone knew everyone in Glen Loch.

  “I dated her a few times in high school before your father snapped her up.”

  Something in his tone made her ask, “Were you in love with her?”

  “Enough to start thinking I should seal the deal by kissing her up here under the stones. She was sixteen, I was seventeen, and I thought I had time.”

  “What happened?”

  There was a twinkle in Skinner’s eyes. “Your father had some fast moves, and he had the home-court advantage.”

  She’d never thought of her father in that way, as a young man in love. And she’d certainly never thought of him as having fast moves. “Maybe it was my mother who had the fast moves.”

  Skinner chuckled. “You could be right. Once she set a goal for herself, she never let anyone stop her.”

  When the flute player segued into the bridal march, Nell shifted her gaze back to the wedding rehearsal just in time to see the bride-to-be and her father start up the aisle.

  “Molly’s two younger brothers are getting everything on their cell phones,” Sheriff Skinner commented. “With that newfangled technology and zoom feature, those little phones can do videos and stills, and they don’t have to run around the way wedding photographers had to do in my day.”

  A zoom feature. Now Nell knew exactly what she’d been trying to remember just before the sheriff had joined her. She and Reid had already theorized that was exactly what Eleanor had done. The location of the necklace had to be in that final sketchbook. If she couldn’t get to the sketches, she’d just summon them up in her mind. Closing her eyes, she focused on the drawings in the last book.

  The location of the necklace would be in one of the close-ups. Not in the gazebo. She couldn’t recall even one sketch that Eleanor had made of it. But from that perspective she’d sketched the castle several times. Then Nell remembered one series of drawings and a close-up, one that she hadn’t used in her book because she had never wanted to share it.

  The necklace would be there. She was sure of it.

  A spattering of applause broke out as the bride-to-be’s father handed her over to the groom-to-be. Then glass shattered and screams mingled with the sound of glass shattering again.

  “Get down,” Skinner shouted. “Everybody, get down.”

  Nell had no choice when the sheriff shoved her to the floor. “Stay here,” he said as he crouched low and moved away. Keeping her head on the floor, Nell searched for a glimpse of Reid. Too many chairs stood in the way. Lightning flashed as another pane of glass splintered into shards. Fear froze Nell’s stomach as she saw the silhouetted figure and the rifle poised on the far end of the terrace just where the land dropped away to the lake below. Another pane of glass on the French doors shattered very close to where Reid had been standing.

  A hand clamped on her wrist and a voice rasped in her ear. “My partner’s next bullet will hit Reid if you don’t come with me now.”

  * * *

  AT THE SOUND of the first shot, Reid pitched to the floor, and rolled twice until he could use a potted plant for some cover. Then he pulled his gun. He couldn’t see anyone outside the French doors, but the sniper could be crouching behind the stone wall that ran the length of the terrace. The lights inside the ballroom made them all sitting targets. A quick glance over his shoulder assured him that Nell was out of sight.

  There were woods to the right of the terrace. In his mind, he could see just how the shooter had taken advantage of the storm and gotten in position. Wait for everyone to be on the move, take out the volunteer Skinner had stationed at the back of the castle and then wait for the moment to shoot.

  Nell. A mix of panic and fear sprinted up his spine as he twisted to pinpoint her location. He spotted Skinner crouched low near one of doors leading out of the ballroom, but Nell wasn’t with him. A second later the sheriff reached up to douse the lights.

  “I’ll cover the terrace doors.” Daryl called to him from behind another plant. “Go find Nell.”

  Crawling on his belly, he moved quickly to the spot where he’d last seen her. The wood beneath his palms was still warm from her body. Fear pumped through his veins like a flooding river. His cell phone rang.

  Not a number he recognized.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Keep everyone in the ballroom and tell Skinner to call off his volunteers. My partner will shoot to kill the next time. Nell has ten minutes to give me the necklace.”

  James Orbison. Reid barely recognized the voice because of the tone. Gone was the eager young scholar and journalist he’d questioned on the kitchen terrace earlier.

  If he’d only acted sooner—he’d had all the evidence he needed seconds ago, when Cam had given him the description of two people who’d visited the Campbell estate seven months ago. And Edie had told him minutes before that Orbison had lied about coming to Edie’s diner alone. According to Edie, he’d been with an older woman who’d acted besotted with him. She’d matched Gwen’s description.

  Ruthlessly, he shoved aside the recriminations. “Let me talk to Nell.”

  A beat went by, then Nell said, “I’m fine. I’m going to take James to where Eleanor hid the necklace.”

  An icy blade of fear sliced through Reid right to the bone. The excitement in her voice told him that she’d figured out Eleanor’s hiding place. But once she handed the necklace over, Orbison would kill her. Reid’s only hope was to get to her first. Praying that the lack of light in the ballroom would cover his movements, Reid belly crawled his way back to Daryl and filled him in on his plan.

  * * *

  NELL STOPPED SHORT just as she and James passed the staircase in the foyer.

  “Keep going.” He jabbed the gun he was carrying into her back. “Giving me the necklace is the only way you’re going to save the people you love. My partner will shoot someone the second I tell her to. Do you want a demonstration?”

  His tone had Nell whirling to meet his eyes. There was a hardness and a steely determination that contrasted sharply with the one that her sister Adair and her aunt had described to her. Stiffening her knees to hide the shaking, she said, “The necklace isn’t in the gazebo.”

  He grabbed her arm. “Don’t toy with me. I know it’s there.”

  Nell swallowed to ease the dryness in her throat. She was taking a huge gamble. Reid would come after her. Would he figure she was stalling and go to the gazebo? She had to bank on the fact that his instincts would guide him. “I discovered the listening device, and I said that to throw you off.”

  His eyes narrowed as his fingers bit into her arm. “If you’re lying, all I have to do is press a button on my cell and someone inside the ballroom will die— starting with Reid Sutherland.”

  Nell pushed past the panic. “I’m not lying. Let me show you.”

  After a beat, he gestured with the gun. “Eight minutes—that’s all you have left.”

  Past James’s shoulder, she could see Eleanor’s painting. She was acting on instinct and a guess, and everything depended on her being right. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Eleanor hid the necklace in her bedroom. There’s a secret cupboard that Angus built for her
.”

  “A secret cupboard.”

  Nell could almost see the wheels turning in his head.

  “That would make sense,” he said, a thread of excitement in his tone. “During those months when I was doing nightly research in your library, I looked for a second cupboard in that fireplace. Angus was the kind of man who would want the woman he loved to have one of her own. Then to make sure it remains a secret, he makes his own public knowledge and keeps all the attention on that. Distraction. Magicians use that same technique. Clever.”

  Nell climbed the stairs as slowly as she could. All she had was a theory. She had to keep him talking. “How do you know so much about Angus?”

  “Research.” He pushed her toward the stairs. “Eleanor Campbell kept diaries. I discovered them when I visited the Campbell estate in Scotland. She wrote about everything, including the story of the sapphires and how they came into the possession of Alistair MacGregor.”

  Nell stopped and looked over her shoulder at him. “Who is Alistair MacGregor?”

  James jabbed the gun into her back. “Six minutes.”

  His cell phone rang.

  “Have you got it?” The voice was faint but Nell could hear it.

  “Not yet. She has six minutes left to give it to me. Let’s give her an added incentive. Fire another bullet into the ballroom.”

  Nell stumbled at the sound of the shot. She had to buy more time. James Orbison wasn’t a big man, but she doubted she could get the gun away from him. She’d already given him a hint of where to look for the necklace. The moment she led him into the bedroom, he might risk killing her and going after the sapphire necklace on his own.

  “Five and a half minutes.”

  Get his mind off the clock. Keep him talking. “Who is Alistair MacGregor?”

  “He was my great-great-great-great-grandfather’s cousin, several times removed. I grew up hearing stories of how Mary Stuart gave her sapphires to his father in payment for saving her life, and how they mysteriously disappeared after Alistair’s death. I’ve spent my life studying Mary Stuart and trying to find some trace of them. They belong to me.”

  “How did Eleanor get them?” Even as she asked the question, Nell thought of her dream and believed she already knew.

  “Alistair fell so hard for Eleanor that he gave them to her as a betrothal gift. And she betrayed him.” Hate and anger were clear in his voice. “Your beloved ancestor had no right to take them and run off with another man. They were never heard from again. There was no contact with the family as far as I could discover. Alistair hanged himself when he discovered what she’d done. That part wasn’t in her diaries. She never knew she had caused that man’s death. I found out from descendants of the servants.” As they reached the door of the bedroom, he jabbed her with the gun. “I want what’s mine.”

  Closing her hand around the doorknob, Nell swallowed hard. “You burned the library at the Campbell estate. Why?”

  “To destroy any record legitimate heirs might use to claim the sapphires. They belong to me. Only me. She’s appeared to me in dreams and told me that she wants me to have them.”

  Nell ignored the chill that flooded her. He was crazy. Obsession could do that to a person. Reminding herself to breathe, Nell opened the door to Eleanor’s bedroom and crossed to the fireplace. He was right behind her, the gun in her back. Stall. “How in the world did you ever get mixed up with Gwendolen?”

  “I came across her in my research. She’s a true descendant of the Campbells. My plan was to use her and her stepdaughter and then let them take the fall when I disappeared with the sapphires. She also fancies herself in love with me, and she’ll do anything I ask.”

  Or at least that’s what she’s made you believe. “Who’s idea was it to run down my sister?”

  “My suggestion. But Gwen was very agreeable. She blames your sister for putting her stepdaughter into a coma. I blame your sister for distracting Gwen. She’s been less efficient since her stepdaughter went into the hospital. She was supposed to kill your boyfriend last night. But she intends to rectify her failure today. I wouldn’t be surprised if she took him out with her first shot.”

  No. Nell had to exert all her self-control to prevent herself from shouting the word out loud. Not Reid. Please not Reid. She would know if Gwen had succeeded in killing him because part of her would die, too.

  “Three minutes.”

  15

  IN HIS MIND, Reid could hear a clock ticking as seconds sped away. He’d left taking out the shooter in Daryl’s and Skinner’s capable hands, but it had still taken precious minutes to get out of the ballroom. No time for second-guessing now. Not that he needed to. The Nell who he was coming to know would take Orbison straight to Eleanor and Angus’s bedroom. Hitting the foyer at a dead run, he took the stairs three at a time.

  Stall, Nell. Stall.

  The words became a chant in his head as he reached the third floor and pushed through the double doors. Then he slowed his pace. He couldn’t afford to alert Orbison. At the inner door, he paused. It was open a crack, which was large enough to reveal Nell kneeling at the left side of the fireplace. Orbison stood less than an arm’s length away, his gun pointed at her back. Ruthlessly, he pushed feelings aside. A cool head was what he needed now. Slowly, he drew his weapon, aimed it and weighed the risks. If he took the shot, there was a chance Orbison’s gun would go off. If he walked in, Orbison could grab Nell and use her as a shield.

  If she found the necklace, Orbison would be distracted. That would be his moment to act. But that was a big if.

  A trickle of sweat ran down his back as the ticking clock in his head grew louder. Nell traced her fingers along the stones of the fireplace. Not the side that opened Eleanor’s cupboard. It was the side like the one used when Angus had built his secret cupboard in the main parlor. Of course. He’d built another one in this room so that Eleanor could hide her necklace in it. And Nell was going to find the priceless sapphires. When she did, he had to be ready.

  * * *

  “TWO MINUTES,” ORBISON SAID.

  Nell felt the jab of a gun in her back and fought against panic. She’d run her fingers over the rows of stones twice now, trying to find something that would open the cupboard. Had she been wrong?

  Orbison jabbed her with the gun again. “Stop stalling.”

  “I’m not.” Pushing against panic, she summoned up the image of the sketch that she was certain held the key to finding the necklace. Eleanor had drawn the fireplace at an angle that highlighted the left side. She ran her fingers over the first row of stones again. “It has to be here.”

  “Has to? You haven’t seen the necklace?”

  His voice had risen in pitch, and Nell swallowed hard against fear. “You said yourself that it makes sense that Angus would build a secret cupboard for Eleanor, then publicize his own to protect its existence. A classic case of distraction. I just need another minute.”

  “Thirty seconds.”

  As she began to search the third row, she caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. Reid. He was outside the door.

  Fear stabbed sharper than ever. She had to buy time. “You said you researched the story of the sapphires and Alistair MacGregor. What did you find?”

  “I found out who has the strongest claim on the sapphires, and it isn’t you and your sisters or even Gwen. Although I convinced Gwen that her claim was stronger.”

  “Why is that?” Saying a little prayer, Nell continued along the third row.

  “She is a descendent of Eleanor’s oldest sister. I found proof of that. And Eleanor ran off with the jewels. Had she stayed in Scotland after Alistair MacGregor’s death, the sapphires would have belonged to the family. So in a sense she stole them. It would have made a strong legal argument, but once we found out that someone had a stronger claim, I convinced Gwen that a much better plan would be to simply take them.”

  Nell feathered her fingers down to the final row of stones. “Who has a stronger claim?”<
br />
  “Are you just playing dumb? Or are you simply stalling because you think someone is coming to rescue you?”

  “No.” Her heart jumped when she felt the tiny depression in the stones. But she needed a minute. “What are you talking about? Who has a stronger legal claim than Eleanor’s descendants?”

  “Alistair MacGregor’s true heirs. After his death, his estate went to a cousin twice removed, Ennis Sutherland. Your friends, Reid, Duncan and Cam, are the only remaining Sutherlands left in that line. But the jewels belong to me. And your thirty seconds are up.”

  The gun stabbed sharply into her back. Even as panic threatened, she felt the tiny gap between the stones. Easing her fingertips into it, she pulled. A foot square section of the fireplace swung silently open. When she saw the suede pouch lying inside, her heart skipped a beat. Fingers shaking, she opened the flap and slipped out the necklace. The jewels caught every bit of the light in the room, gleaming as blue as the surface of the lake at its deepest point. They grew warm in her hands, and for a second she was sure she felt the presence of the woman who’d so carefully hidden them away. And she felt the love.

  “Mine.”

  The rasp in Orbison’s voice brought reality back with a snap. Reid. He hadn’t made a move yet because of her. And when he did, Nell didn’t doubt that James Orbison would shoot him. She had to distract Orbison. Clasping the necklace tightly in her left hand, she held it to her side out of his sight as she rose and turned.

  “Let me see it.”

  Slowly, she raised her hand, the jewels dripping from her fingers. Orbison’s gaze dropped to the sapphires—just as she’d hoped.

  “Lovely,” he murmured. “They’re more beautiful than I imagined. You can carry the memory of them into the next world.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the door swing open and a figure step into the room. But Orbison caught the movement, also. The hand that was reaching for the jewels was suddenly around her neck and the muzzle of Orbison’s gun pressed hard into her temple.