One-Click Buy: July 2009 Harlequin Blaze

by Julie Kenner

  According to D.C., Dorothy Ware had denied orchestrating the attempted hit on Maddie. Instead, she’d tried to run her down with the same car that she’d used to run down Eva Ware—a car that ironically belonged to Jordan’s mother.

  If Dorothy Ware preferred to handle things by herself, who had hired the man who’d tried to run them off the road yesterday? Or the sniper who’d taken a shot at Maddie?

  Something—the same feeling that he often got on cattle drives when he sensed an unseen danger to his herd—told him that it wasn’t time to relax his guard yet. Not until they had all the dots connected.

  He watched Jordan pull up a chair to Pete Blackthorn’s bedside. She was frightened. Cash had felt it in the way she’d gripped his hand on the ride up in the elevator. What that wild ride down the hill yesterday hadn’t accomplished, a meeting with an old man had. And it wasn’t merely that she was going to ask him about an untapped vein of turquoise. If he was up to answering, she was going to ask him what he knew about her parents’ marriage and why they’d separated. And why they’d decided to separate their two daughters.

  He wanted those answers, too, he realized. He glanced at the door to Pete’s room, which was opened just a crack. He wasn’t above eavesdropping to get them. He also wanted to know why Eva had decided to bring her two daughters together only after her own death. He thought he understood why she’d asked them to change places. It was a quick way to force them to get to know one another. And if she had the kind of tunnel vision Jordan had described when it came to her business, she would have wanted Maddie to experience what it would be like to work at Eva Ware Designs.

  But had she given even one thought to the fact that she might be putting them in mortal danger with the terms of that will?

  He moved closer to the door where he could still keep Jordan in view through the window. He wanted to go to her. He couldn’t. All he could do was stand in the background and try to provide what support he could. Her shoulders were just as tense as they’d been when she’d been setting up the display of Maddie’s jewelry earlier in the day. But she was just as ready to face what Pete might tell her as she’d been to meet the dealers at the show.

  He thought of what she’d been through since she’d changed places with her sister. Jordan Ware was amazing.

  PETE’S EYES were closed, so Jordan sat there in silence, not wanting to disturb him. His hands were bandaged and an IV was still attached to one of his arms. He looked even more fragile and vulnerable than he had when she’d sat beside him on that ledge.

  Her head was still spinning from the news that D.C. had relayed to them in the cafeteria.

  Aunt Dorothy had murdered her mother. And she’d tried twice to kill Maddie. Every time Jordan tried to reconcile those acts with the controlled and sophisticated society matron she’d known all of her life, she began to get a headache. Dorothy Ware was a woman who seemed to have everything she wanted. She was married to a very rich man. She led a prominent social life, one that frequently got her mentioned in the society pages. She served on prestigious cultural and charity boards, and she lived in a mansion.

  If it was hard for her to imagine Dorothy as a killer, it was a lot less difficult for her to believe that her cousin, Adam, had developed a gambling problem and decided to turn to a loan shark for help. But that he’d actually had the guts to rob Eva Ware Designs to pay off his debts? That was a shocker.

  Secrets, Jordan thought. They seemed to run in her family. Jordan wondered if she’d ever really known any of her relatives—including her mother.

  When she saw Pete’s eyes flutter open, nerves and excitement began to dance in her stomach. Maybe he would be able to expose some of them.

  “Ah, you’re here.” His voice was surprisingly strong for a man who’d gone through what he had in the past two days. “Wondered if I’d ever get to see you again.”

  “You’re going to be fine,” Jordan hastened to say. “The doctors—”

  “My granddaughter has filled me in on my prognosis,” Pete interrupted. “Even though there’s nothing wrong with my hearing. Dr. Salinas explained that with time I should recover eight-five percent use of both hands. I got it.”

  Jordan bit back a smile at the cranky tone.

  “Need to tell you some things,” he said. He jerked his head at the IV drip “—and there’s no telling when the stuff they’re pumping into me will have me falling asleep again.”

  “I’m listening,” Jordan said. “And if you doze off, I’ll wait right here until you wake up again.”

  “Good.” Pete narrowed his eyes on her. “First, tell me where Maddie is.”

  Jordan had to work to keep her mouth from dropping open. What she read in his eyes sent any thought of continuing with her masquerade flying. “She’s in Manhattan. How did you know I wasn’t Maddie?”

  A trace of a smile flickered briefly on his face. “Wish I could tell you I recognized you. But I stopped by the ranch a few days ago, and your sister left notes by the phone. Wanted to tell her something. Your name was there on a pad by the phone along with a reservation number for a flight to New York. When I came to on the cliff and noticed your hair was different, I figured you for Jordan.”

  Jordan felt her stomach take a little tumble. “You knew about me, then?”

  “Held you in my arms when you were a baby. Your sister, too. Your grandfather and I were close friends. He let me prospect anywhere I wanted to on his land. When he passed on, your dad was in his twenties. I took to stopping by to see how he was doing. Not that he needed anyone to keep tabs on him. Mike Farrell was born to be a rancher. And occasionally, he could even beat me at chess.”

  “So you knew my mother?”

  “Yes. Surprised me that she decided to put the two of you in contact after all these years.”

  Jordan moistened suddenly dry lips. “Why did they separate us? Do you know?”

  He frowned then. “Your mother didn’t tell you?” Jordan shook her head. “She can’t. She’s dead.” Then she gave Pete the Reader’s Digest version of the terms of her mother’s will and what had happened so far.

  When she finished, he shook his head. “Hard on the two of you. I never did agree with what Mike did. Advised him against it. But he loved her. I’m not suggesting that she didn’t love your father. She did. But to my way of thinking, he loved her more. And when he realized he had to let her go, you were the one gift he insisted on giving her.”

  “What?”

  “He gave her you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Pete shook his head sadly. “Neither did I. Eva was just out of college when she came out to Santa Fe. There was a job her family wanted her to take back on Long Island, but she didn’t want it. What she wanted was for them to finance her so that she could start her own business as a jewelry designer. But when her brother and her father ganged up against her, she took what money she had and ran away to follow her dream. She came to Santa Fe because she wanted to study the Native American designers and work with turquoise. She and Mike met one day, and it was love at first sight. The kind you read about in books. You understand?”

  Jordan nodded. A ripple of fear moved through her because she thought she did.

  “Everything was fine—just like the fairy tales. Three weeks to the day after they met, they got married.”

  “Three weeks?”

  “Twenty-one days. Mike crossed them off on a calendar. He’d wanted to tie the knot on day two, but she’d insisted they wait. In three weeks they’d be more certain of what they wanted. After the wedding, Mike built her a studio so that she could design jewelry to her heart’s content. Then she got pregnant. Mike was ecstatic. She wasn’t. Morning sickness kept her from her work. And when it passed, she buried herself in her studio as if she was racing against the clock.”

  Knowing her mother, Jordan thought she understood. “Eva was a very focused person. She was probably worried that becoming a mother would interfere with her goal of becoming a top designer.�
��

  “That’s the way Mike explained it. But she withdrew from him, too.”

  “And after Maddie and I were born?”

  “Whatever worries she had only grew. You were six months old when she told Mike she had to leave. She was going back to New York. He could have custody of the two of you. She wouldn’t contest it. She wouldn’t even ask for visitation rights.”

  “She wanted to leave us both here on the ranch?” For a moment, Jordan let herself wonder what that might have been like—to have grown up with a twin and a father and not her mother.

  Pete nodded. “But Mike wouldn’t agree. That’s when he came up with the plan. He would give her the start-up money for her jewelry business, and he would let her go back to New York. But in return, she had to take one of you with her.”

  “Why?”

  “Beats me. He tried to explain. He said he loved her and he wanted her to have someone in her life to care about besides her designs. He wanted her to have someone in her life who would love her.”

  Jordan swallowed away the lump in her throat. As difficult as it was, she thought she could understand her mother’s panic. All her life Eva Ware been driven by a dream—to become a top designer. And for the first time since she’d come to the ranch, Jordan thought she might be coming to know her father. He was a man who was capable of great love—of his land and his heritage, of his daughters and of the woman he’d fallen in love with.

  Her father had given her up so that Eva wouldn’t be alone.

  “I told him he was crazy—especially after she insisted that if she did take one of you, the other could never know about it. There was to be no contact.”

  “One child was enough,” Jordan said, nodding.

  “That’s the way I saw it. She didn’t want to be involved in visits or in dealing with trips when the two of you would want to be together. She wanted a clean break. I told your father he was a fool to agree. But he loved her.”

  “Very much, it seems.” And she thought her mother, whatever she had accomplished in her life, had been a fool to turn away from that kind of love.

  Unable to remain seated any longer, Jordan rose and began to pace back and forth beneath the windows. But she turned when Cash entered the room, and when he crossed to her she simply stepped into his arms.

  Safety, she thought as the warmth stole into her. And understanding. If this was what her mother had found with Mike Farrell, how had she ever been able to walk away?

  “Your father didn’t keep to the letter of the bargain,” Pete said after a moment. “He sent letters and gifts and pictures of Maddie.”

  Jordan turned. “She never gave them to me.” Suddenly she frowned. “But there were gifts sometimes, surprise presents.”

  “The toy ranch you talked about,” Cash said.

  “Yes. And she never objected when I became interested in riding and I wanted my own horse.”

  “Guilty conscience?” Drawing her with him, Cash moved toward the bed. “Thank you for telling her.”

  “’Bout time I told someone. Mike swore me to secrecy a long time ago. Your father, too. Shortly before he died, he gave me a sealed letter addressed to both of you. Made me promise I’d deliver it if you ever found each other. After Mike died, I thought long and hard about giving it to Maddie and telling her she had a sister. But a promise is a promise.”

  “Did anyone else know about the twins?” Cash asked. “Other than you and my parents?”

  Pete frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t think so.” He shifted his gaze from Jordan to Cash. “Thanks for bringing me in here. I owe you one.”

  Cash smiled slowly. “I think I’ll collect right now. Tell me about the fresh vein of turquoise you’ve been mining on Maddie’s ranch.”

  Pete winced. “That’s something Mike swore me to secrecy on, too. I discovered it years ago, right about the same time he met and married Eva. The deal was that I could work it for as long as I wanted. But I couldn’t tell anyone where I was getting the stones.”

  “He never filed a claim?” Cash asked.

  Pete shook his head. “Not Mike Farrell. He didn’t want any of the big mining companies out at his ranch sniffing around. He didn’t want the land harmed in any way.”

  “So part of Maddie’s heritage is that she owns a turquoise mine?” Jordan asked.

  “Yep. And it’s a damn rich one, too.”

  13

  IT WAS FULLY DARK when Cash turned his pickup down the road that led to the ranch. D.C. was about five minutes behind them in his rental car. He’d still been on the phone with Detective Stanton when they’d left him in Shay’s office.

  The NYPD was getting closer to wrapping up their cases against Adam and Dorothy Ware. Though both continued to deny having hired any hit people or having any connection to Rainbow Enterprises Limited, both had connections to John Kessler, Adam’s loan shark, who could easily have put either of them in touch with a paid assassin. And to Cash’s way of thinking, both Dorothy and Adam certainly had motive to kill Maddie and Jordan. If the twins were both eliminated, according to the terms of Eva’s will, Dorothy, Adam and Carleton would each get an even bigger slice of the pie that was Eva Ware’s estate.

  Maddie and Jase were still out of cell-phone contact at the hospital, but Dino Angelis was using every resource he had at Campbell and Angelis Security to check into both Dorothy’s and Adam’s e-mail and phone records.

  They’d left Shay questioning Daniel Pearson. The real estate man had lawyered up as soon as he’d been brought in. Faced with the DNA results on the cigarette butts, he admitted to having been in the area where Pete had been found, but he vehemently denied that he’d been there that morning. He had confessed that he did indeed have a buyer for the Farrell Ranch, but the only contact he’d had with his client was through a spokesperson for Rainbow Enterprises Limited.

  Shay was having two of his men check Pearson’s alibi. Since it promised to be a long night, Cash hadn’t objected when Jordan had asked if they could return to the ranch.

  She’d been dead on her feet. Little wonder. Still, she hadn’t fallen asleep on the ride from Santa Fe. He suspected that she was just as wired as he was. He figured he wasn’t going to get much shut-eye until he could be sure that the danger for Jordan was over.

  And he wasn’t sure that it was. He thought of D.C.’s analogy to a connect-the-dots puzzle. To his way of thinking, they still didn’t have a clear picture. If it turned out that neither Dorothy Ware nor Adam had hired the hit woman in New York or the man who’d tried to drive them off the road yesterday, who had?

  As they rounded a curve in the road, he glanced toward Jordan. “Penny for your thoughts.”

  “My mind keeps returning to the secrets everyone has been keeping. My aunt, my cousin, my mother. My father, too. All those years of hiding the existence of that turquoise mine. Preserving the integrity of the land and his heritage must have been very important to him.”

  She paused for a moment as he turned into the drive that led to the ranch house. “You knew him. Would he object to the idea of starting up a dude ranch as a side business? Would that go against what he would have wanted for his land?”

  Reaching over, he linked his fingers with hers. “I think he’d go along with it if you believe it’s a way that Maddie can make ends meet.”

  “I don’t have it all thought through yet.”

  “I don’t know about that. The way Greg Majors explained it to you at the jewelry show, it sounded pretty good.”

  She smiled at him. “It did, didn’t it? I was really tempted to buy into it. But Maddie won’t be able to take it on. I’ll have to figure a solution to that.”

  Cash’s heart took a hard thump. “Why not run it yourself, Jordan?”

  There was a beat of silence. “I can’t be in two places at once. I’ve thought about the fact that Maddie is now the most obvious choice to step into our mother’s shoes as head designer at Eva Ware Designs. But that may not be what she wants. It could be that she’d li
ke to remain independent. In that case, I’ll be needed more than ever at my mother’s company. We’ll have to find a new designer, and I’ll have to be there to negotiate the transition.”

  “And you seem to be equally committed to find a solution so that Maddie can keep the ranch.”

  “I am.”

  “Perhaps neither one of you are going to be able to return completely to your own lives. Maybe that’s why your mother gave you twenty-one days.”

  “According to Pete, she needed that amount of time to be sure she was making the right decision in marrying my father. Clearly, it wasn’t a magic number.”

  “Who’s to say it wasn’t?” Cash countered. “If Mike Farrell and Eva Ware had never married, neither you nor Maddie would be here. However much you may judge them for the decisions they made later, they both took a risk. And you were the result. Who’s to say that it was wrong?”

  For a couple of beats, Jordan said nothing, and something around Cash’s heart tightened. Finally, she said, “We still have about nineteen days left to work out the details.”

  Cash had always thought he was a patient man, but to his way of thinking, nineteen days might be too long for him to wait. There were details that he wanted to nail down right away.

  But it was the wrong time to push her. As he rounded the last curve in the drive, the shadowy outlines of the ranch buildings came into view. “That’s odd.”

  “What?”

  “The floodlights aren’t on. They usually only go off during a power failure.” He braked to a stop in front of the ranch house and they both climbed out.

  Cash smelled it first. The faintest sting in the air. He glanced at Jordan and saw that she’d caught it, too.

  “Smoke,” he said as he scanned the outbuildings.

  Nothing. In the starlight, it was hard to see.

  Then a horse whinnied in the stables, and there was an explosion that blew windows at the near end of the stable out. Flames shot upward behind the broken glass. Then the night filled with the sounds of panic-stricken horses.

  For a moment Jordan couldn’t move. The horses. Brutus and Lucifer were in there. Cash had covered half the distance to the stables before she unfroze and tore after him. By the time she reached him, he had both palms pressed against the stable door. “It’s hot. Stand back.”