To my surprise, I heard a note of sincerity in his tone and read it in his expression. “No apology needed. I’m sure that my sudden return must have been a…” I paused to search for the right word. “…a bit of a shock to you.”
Austin met my eyes steadily. “I’m happy to know that you’re all right. It’s just…”
“That you’ve been doing very well in the business and you think now that I’m back, that will change.”
“I know it will.” There was anger in his tone. His jaw tensed, and his knuckles whitened on the hand holding the reins. “Everything will go back to the way it was.”
Austin’s horse, sensing the anger, moved restlessly beneath him, and I became aware suddenly of the fact that my cousin and I were virtually alone. We’d ridden more deeply into the woods and we were going even more slowly now, following the winding path of the stream. Marcie and Hal had moved ahead and trees blocked them from my sight.
“Why don’t you tell me why you think everything will change now,” I said.
“Because Uncle James doesn’t trust me. Now that you’re back and you’re marrying Sloan, I’ll go back to babysitting a desk. He’s never given me the kind of chance I deserve.”
He sounded a bit like a whining child. “Why not?”
“Because my father had a gambling problem and embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars while he was running the ranch. No one suspected anything until he died of a heart attack on one of those riverboat gambling cruises.”
I made a mental note to tell Pepper that the mystery of Beatrice’s disappearing husband had been solved. “That doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“It shouldn’t. But Uncle James is big on bloodlines. You’re his blood. And he figures I’ve inherited my father’s bad genes. Add that to the fact that I’ve never been able to compete with you and Sloan. I have as much McKenzie blood in me as you do, but I’m not good enough to be trusted with any responsibility.”
I studied him for a moment, putting what he’d just told me together with what Marcie had said and with what Pepper had written in her report. “I’ve been told that you like gambling better than you like to work.”
Color flushed Austin’s face. Once again, I saw his knuckles whiten. Clearly, my cousin had anger management issues. “I’ve made mistakes. I know that. While I was in college, I figured if everyone thought I was like my father, I might as well live up to the name. But things have changed since I met Marcie. I’ve changed, and I’ve made a fresh start. I know I didn’t make a good impression last night, but that was…not me.”
“Marcie says that you haven’t had that much to drink in a long time.”
He met my eyes. “My reformation began when you hired her six months ago. She’s made me see things differently because she sees me differently. No one has ever believed in me the way Marcie does. She’s helped me to change.”
He was in love with her. I could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. Did he have any idea that Marcie’s interest in reforming him might be motivated by the possibility of his coming into a great deal of money and land? And if Marcie was so intent on helping Austin change his ways, why had she been with him in Vegas on the very day that Cameron had disappeared?
“Look. I’ve done a good job in the last month. You can even ask Uncle James about that. All I want is the chance to continue.”
In spite of the questions and suspicions spinning around in my head, I really wanted to believe Austin. There was the possibility that he’d been taken in by the Lintons and that he was just a pawn in a bigger game the sister and brother were playing. But there was also the possibility that Austin was his father’s son and was trying to con me. In my mind, I could picture the story line going either way. And if Austin was trying to con me, my best bet was to let him think he’d been successful.
“I don’t see that as a problem,” I said.
A mixture of relief and hope washed over his face. “You’ll give me a chance then?”
I reached out and covered his hand with mine. “Of course, I will.”
“Thanks, Cam.” He looked so pleased as he leaned over to brush a kiss on my cheek that I felt a twinge of guilt. “I won’t disappoint you.”
What was he going to think when he found out who I really was and that my assurances meant squat?
As Austin urged his horse forward to join Marcie again, my cell phone rang. I dug it out of my pocket and checked the caller ID. Pepper. I reined in Lace Ribbons. “What have you got?”
“Hello to you, too,” Pepper said with a laugh.
“I’m out riding the range,” I explained. Well, not really, I thought as I glanced around. As we’d followed the stream, it had widened and the forest had dropped back a bit from the bank. There was still plenty of room for the horses, but trees effectively hemmed us in from the open country.
“You have company I take it, so I’ll be brief. Cole checked in Las Vegas, and Austin and Marcie were both seen in a restaurant and at the gaming tables. One of the croupiers remembers that Austin lost about ten thousand dollars. However, no one was able to verify that Hal was with them.”
“Interesting,” I said. It meant that Austin hadn’t been quite truthful about his reformation. He’d been gambling on the day that Cameron had disappeared. It also meant that Hal didn’t have an alibi for that day. Ahead of me Austin and Marcie urged their horses into a trot and disappeared around a bend. Hal turned his horse around and headed toward me.
“Beatrice was indeed at the flower show in San Diego,” Pepper said. “Several people saw her there. She gave a speech at the luncheon.”
So that left Sloan, James, Doc Carter and Hal Linton without alibis. “Any chance you could find out if either of the Lintons have any expertise with guns?” I asked in a low voice as Hal slowly but surely closed the distance between us. Through the trees to my right, I saw that Marcie and Austin had veered off from the path we’d been following and were probably headed out of the woods.
“Sure, but I don’t like the sound of that.”
What I didn’t like was the fact that I’d once more been outmaneuvered by the Lintons. Unless I wanted to turn tail and run back the way we’d come, I was now alone in an isolated area with a man who had no alibi for the day my sister had disappeared. A man who might have a very good reason for wanting her to disappear.
Chapter 17
“I’m sorry for last night,” Hal said as he reined to a stop directly in front of me.
No, I decided. I was not going to turn around and run. Mallory Carstairs certainly wouldn’t and I didn’t think Cameron would, either. Besides, this was my chance to learn more about the man my sister had kissed in the garden the night before she’d gone missing. “This seems to be my day for getting apologies.”
He had the grace to wince a bit. “Austin and I both behaved poorly last night.”
I couldn’t help but wonder if behaving badly was an aberration for Hal Linton, too. I thought it might be. The man had all the marks of one smooth operator. He reminded me a bit of a character on Secrets who managed to always come out on top.
Studying Hal, I tried to see him as Cameron might have seen him. With that dark hair, tanned skin and good bones, he was handsome in a pretty way that Sloan wasn’t. Hal’s features were smooth while Sloan’s were rugged. Hal was sleekly groomed, his hair neatly trimmed. Sloan looked as if he was long overdue to see his barber. I remembered how it had felt to run my hands through that hair and of how messed up it had looked when we’d just finished making love. Heat crept into my cheeks.
Hal dismounted and held up his hand. “Why don’t we rest the horses and walk for a bit?”
I hesitated, looking to my right, but Marcie and Austin had completely disappeared.
“Please,” he said. “This is a place that we came to more than once. Doc Carter thought it might help you remember.”
Curious now, I held out my hand and dismounted. Hal’s palm was soft and smooth with none of the calluses that were
on Sloan’s. He was a more sophisticated dresser, too. Last night, he’d worn Armani, and I knew that the golf shirt and riding breeches he wore today had designer labels. There was a sheen of money and sophistication here. This was a man who’d court a woman carefully with flowers, champagne, elegant restaurants. As a lover, he’d be both smooth and skilled.
If Sloan wanted a woman, I didn’t think he’d bother with all that. In fact, he hadn’t. In my mind, I pictured him standing in the archway to his kitchen and the way he’d looked at me when he’d closed the distance between us. He’d had me right then. But later, he’d provided the romance. I thought of our picnic on that flat rock in Cameron’s favorite place.
“Cameron?”
“What?” Dragging my thoughts back, I turned to see Hal looking at me in an odd sort of way.
“Are you all right? Are you remembering something? Do you want me to take you back to the ranch?”
“I’m fine,” I said. At least I would be if I could stop thinking about Sloan Campbell. I’d been away from him for—what?—twenty minutes, but I couldn’t get him out of my mind. Ridiculous. I should be thinking of finding out what this man might know about my sister’s disappearance. “What did you just say?”
“Does this bring back any memories?” He gestured to the space around us, and for the first time I took it in. We’d walked into a little clearing. The stream widened a bit here, and wildflowers grew along its border. Their scent filled the air, and there was a place just ahead of us where a cluster of trees offered complete privacy. “It’s lovely.”
“But you don’t remember anything?”
I met his eyes and saw that he was studying me very intently. “I don’t remember ever being here before.”
There was a tightening in his jaw that I didn’t like. So there was temper beneath that smooth-as-silk facade. While I found it interesting, I didn’t much like the fact that I’d let myself be manipulated into being alone with him. He was even carrying my horse’s reins.
Drawing in a deep breath, he said, “I don’t want to pressure you. Doc Carter said that’s the worst thing I could do.”
“What exactly do you want, Hal?”
“I want you to remember what we meant to each other, what we were before you went away.”
To my surprise, it wasn’t just temper I saw, but pain and perhaps regret. Had Hal Linton actually been in love with Cameron? Had she been in love with him? Was that what she had gone to the cliffs to think about? I wanted to know.
“What exactly were we to each other?” I asked.
Hal looked at me for a moment. “Do you know how hard it is for me to see you standing there, to hear you say that you can’t remember me? We were…friends. I wanted more. You didn’t. But that was going to change.”
“Why?”
“Because you were having second thoughts about marrying Sloan.”
“I told you that?”
“Yes. Several times. You told me that the night before you disappeared, the night that your fiancé eavesdropped on us and caught us kissing in the garden.”
Something knotted in my stomach.
He gripped my shoulders. His hands might have been smooth, but they were strong. I felt a skip of panic.
“You’re in danger. I sensed it that night. I should have done something. If I had…” He broke off, releasing me as if he’d just realized he’d grabbed hold of me. He ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry. I promised myself that I wouldn’t touch you.”
He turned and paced a few steps away, as if he had to keep his distance if he was going to keep his promise. “I’m going to tell you something that I didn’t tell you before you left. When I ran into you at the Derby, it wasn’t by accident. I was hired by the group of investors who have approached your father with an offer to buy this place. My job was to make contact with you, to get close to you. Hell, I was supposed to use any means I could—including seduction—to convince you to persuade your father to sell the place.”
“The surprise announcement of my engagement to Sloan must have thrown a spanner into the works.”
Through the tan I could see a flush stain his cheeks.
“I’m not proud now of what I had planned to do. At the time, when my associates proposed the job, it seemed easy enough. It paid well, and I found you attractive. That was the kind of man I was before I met you. Everything changed then. The last six months we’ve had fun together. You’re different than other women for me. We’d become friends. You confided in me. And I fell in love with you.”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t speak for Cameron. And I wasn’t quite sure that he was telling the truth. He looked sincere enough, but the man had to be an accomplished liar to have gotten where he was in life.
“I won’t tell you that you felt the same way,” Hal said.
I raised my brows. “Isn’t that exactly what you tried to do last night?”
His face reddened even more. “I was worried about you. You have amnesia, for God’s sake. I wanted to give you some reason for not being swept up in James’s plans again. Believe the worst about me. But I want you to know that you were having second thoughts about your upcoming marriage on the night before you disappeared.”
He took a step toward me, but kept his hands at his sides. “Don’t marry him, Cameron. For your own sake, wait at least until you get your memory back and can remember why it was that you felt you had to run away from here.”
Once again, I couldn’t think of anything to say. Everything he said made sense, and his account of what had happened in the garden matched Sloan’s. Was he confessing all this because he was concerned about my safety? Or was he doing it on purpose to confuse me?
Marcie, Austin and Hal all seemed perfectly fooled by my impersonation. They believed that I was Cameron McKenzie suffering from amnesia. The person who’d been suspicious of me from the get-go was Sloan. Was that because he knew what had really happened to Cameron?
No. I didn’t believe that. He’d been in that plane with me. Both of us could have been killed. My head began to spin, and I pressed a hand to my temple. Not because I was suspicious of Sloan, I wasn’t. It had just been an eventful day. I’d been shot down in a plane, nearly toppled off a cliff.
“Something is wrong.” Hal took my arm. “I’ll take you back to Doc Carter.”
“No. I’m fine. I—” I broke off when I heard hoofbeats approaching, and I knew before I turned that it would be Sloan and Saturn. I could feel the anger radiating off him in waves as he reined in Saturn and dismounted. But his voice was controlled and it was Hal he addressed when he reached us.
“Your sister and Austin are waiting for you. James sent me to bring Cameron back. He needs to see her.”
Sloan’s tone was even, pleasant almost, but it was clear that Hal was being dismissed.
Hal turned to me, a worried expression on his face. “I’ll stay if you like.”
“No.” I didn’t glance at Sloan. I knew he’d have that mocking look in his eyes. “I have something that I want to talk to Sloan about before we go back.”
Hal’s expression changed, lightened. “Good. That’s good.” He gave Sloan a nod before he mounted his horse. “See you in a bit then.”
Sloan waited until Hal was out of sight and ear-shot before he turned to me and even then he kept his voice low. “You promised that you wouldn’t go off alone with any of them.”
“I didn’t go off alone. There were four of us.” Okay, technically, I knew I was on shaky ground.
“I only counted two when I got here.” His voice might have been under control, but there was anger in his eyes and in the way he grabbed my arm to lead me toward the horses. “C’mon.”
“Wait just a minute.” I dug in my heels. Maybe it was the culmination of the dramatic events of the day, or maybe it was because I felt I was being lectured like a child, but my own temper rose to meet his. “I came here to try to find out what happened to my sister. I can’t do that if I’m confined to the house. Austin,
Marcie and Hal all have reasons to want Cameron to disappear.”
“Which is exactly why it was reckless and stupid of you to go off riding with them.”
“Stupid?” I used my free hand to poke him in the chest.
“Yes, stupid.”
I poked him again. “Stupid was sitting around for five weeks without even wondering if something had happened to Cameron.”
I saw in his eyes that my comment had struck home.
“Okay—you’ve got a point. But you’ve convinced me that Cameron is at the very least in trouble. And so are you. The plane nearly crashed. You nearly fell off that cliff. I came close to losing you twice, and then I learn you’ve gone off riding with three of the people who might have been responsible for Cameron’s disappearance!” Sloan grabbed my shoulders and gave me a shake. “Which is why you’re going to go back to the house and stay put until we figure out who’s behind all this.”
He’d raised his voice, so I did, too. “Until we figure this out, we includes me. I’m not going to cower in my room. I came here to find my sister, and you’re not going to stop me!”
His eyes were bright angry slits. “You’re just like her—stubborn, unreasonable—”
“I’m not Cameron.”
He gave me another shake. “No, you’re not. She could never push me this far. No one could. No one but you.”
His mouth crushed down on mine, and in one fluid move I was beneath him on the ground. Passion erupted with such force, such speed. Was this what had been simmering inside of him since he’d pulled me to safety off that ledge? Was this what had been simmering inside of me?
Those hands could be so gentle. This time they weren’t. This time he was relentless. Those hard, callused fingers ran over my skin in that meticulous way he had, scraping, setting new fires and fueling the ones that were already burning.
This is what I’d been craving—the fury, the fire, the freedom. I yanked at his shirt, pulling it free of his jeans and ran my hands up his back, exploring the steely strength of those muscles.
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