by Alice Sharpe
“You bankrupted your restaurant, tapped out your father, stole jewels from your grandmother, all to finance a drug habit,” Cassie said. “Bennie was your supplier. You rigged the lights in your parents’ garden and used the pillar as a drop site. You’d leave money, Bennie would leave drugs.”
“Except for the one time he came to my restaurant to threaten me and you ran into him.”
“He was on his way to the private exit at the end of the hall. He gripped my arms when we collided and I saw a wavy stripe on his hand that barely registered in my brain. It was a serpent’s tongue, wasn’t it?”
Robert waved the gun like it was an extension of his hand. “Stupid tattoos. Even the name he gave you was a tip-off. Taipan, the most deadly snake in the world. Nasty buggers, but Bennie had a thing for them. Anyway, when you told me you’d met him outside my office I knew you had to go. Sooner or later Bennie’s body would show up and there was too good a chance you’d recognize a photograph.”
“And yet you failed to kill me over and over again.”
“Let’s hope practice makes perfect,” he said.
She’d had some of it right, just with the wrong person. “You’ve been clever,” she said, fighting to keep her voice steady and calm. “You must be dying to talk about it. I bet you’ve been taking your grandmother’s diamonds for years and replacing the stones with fake ones. Any missing jewels discovered during the audit would be assumed to be as real as the ones you made sure it looked like I pilfered. It all fits except for the phony emerald ring.”
“A little mistake on my part,” Robert said. His eyes truly were too bright, like he was high on something. That could explain the braggart quality to his voice. Cassie wondered if this all seemed like a dream to him.
“The emerald ring was the only colored stone I switched. I meant to hide it in the box with the necklaces but I put it in your purse instead. Coincidentally, I’d driven straight home after you survived my first attack up on that hill. When I saw your package in the morning mail I couldn’t believe my luck.”
“So you opened it before your parents did and took out the ring.”
“And stuck it in with the fake diamonds. Exactly.”
“So that’s why you didn’t care if the jewels got blown up with me when you rigged the heater at the apartment. You wanted that ring destroyed. How did you know I was there?”
“Your husband led me right to you. After he left, I waited until the wake was long over and my parents had gone out to eat, then I went back to your apartment and created a gas leak. The owner had an extra garage door opener hanging on the wall so I swiped it and hid out down the block.”
“That was the clicking sound we heard. When you saw us coming out of the apartment earlier than you expected, you hit the switch and it caused a spark.”
Robert opened his hand fast, as though emulating an explosion and grinned at her. “It should have worked perfectly. And it would have, except for your husband. He’s there every time, isn’t he, looking after you, protecting you?”
She glanced down at her ring finger. “Yes,” she murmured and in that moment understood that she and Cody’s future was written in stone—these stones. These symbols of how he felt in his heart despite the fears and uncertainties.
Real stones, real meanings… “Yes,” she murmured. “He’s been there for me every time.”
Robert laughed again. “Except now. Too bad.” Scowling, he turned serious. “Come out from behind the desk.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle as she moved into the room as directed. Was she trying to protect her baby, or was she hoping the sight of her would awaken the humanity in Robert? Both notions seemed unlikely.
“I liked you,” he said suddenly. “I never intended—”
“You never intended to have to look me in the eye when you murdered me. Is that what you want to say?”
“Yesterday—”
“The railing? You were trying to throw me off that deck, weren’t you?” He nodded.
She swallowed what felt like a brick of air. “Listen to me, Robert. You kill me and you kill this child. My heart stops beating and his or her heart stops, too. Are you prepared to do such a thing?”
“Yes,” he said, but the gun barrel actually lowered a hair, and his hand shook. Other than the rigged rail ing, every attempt on her life had been from a distance. Both her shooting and Sally’s were done so far away they were failures. Tampering with the lug nuts on the wheel was relatively impersonal. So was the explosion at the apartment. Hopefully he didn’t have the guts to look her in the eye—
He’d killed Kevin Cooke up close and personal.
Sensing movement, she glanced over Robert’s shoulder in time to see something small and round appear in the open door behind him. The barrel of a rifle! Just as hope surged through her body, Robert grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. He jabbed the muzzle under her chin.
“I think I’m over being squeamish,” he said.
Cassie had to stall him. That had to be Mike out there in the hall, she had to give him a chance.
“Listen, no one but me knows about Bennie—”
“Are you trying to tell me you won’t tell anyone? Do you think I’d believe that? Maybe my mother keeps quiet, but why should you?”
“Your mother followed you that night, didn’t she? That’s why she was outside.”
“She was suspicious. She saw me hit Bennie. I told her killing him was an accident and we had to get rid of his body. She believed me because she wanted to.”
“But don’t you see?” Cassie continued. “You can convince others that it was an accident, too. You’re an upstanding citizen from a good family. Bennie was a drug dealer who corrupted who knows how many people up and down that river.”
“You’re forgetting Kevin.”
“No, I’m not. Who’s to question if his death was murder or self defense? You don’t have a record, it’s not like you’ve hurt anyone else.”
“No,” he said, almost dreamily. “No one else.”
At the weird tone of his voice, she twisted her head to look up at him. He stared right into her eyes and she knew.
“The day after you killed your drug supplier, your grandmother looked out in the garden and gasped,” she whispered. “I wondered what had alarmed her so I looked, too. Your parents were out there with the judge and lawyer. I thought their presence frightened her. But it wasn’t them she was worried about, was it? You were there, too, standing by the fountain.”
“Why would she be worried about me?” he said, but she could feel his body tense.
“Because that’s the moment she began to suspect it was you she’d seen out in the garden, isn’t it?”
“You’re not making sense,” he said. “If she suspected I was a murderer then she would have written me out of her will that day. She had the lawyer right there, she took Dad out and put you in, but she left me alone.”
“She wouldn’t write you out of her will because she loved you. She wanted to punish your father, but not you. She loved you.”
One tear rolled down Robert’s newly gaunt cheek. “The fake diamonds were still in her room,” he said in a voice that seemed to float away. “Dad confided he was being audited, and the household belongings would be included because Grandma was certain some of her things were missing or different… I had to get those necklaces back.”
“Why didn’t you just walk in and take them?”
“Because she wouldn’t leave her room. I didn’t have a choice. Things were happening too fast. And anyway, it had to look like an outside job. I had it all figured out…”
“So you climbed up a ladder and came through her window.”
“She should have slept through it.”
“But she didn’t.”
“She woke up and saw me and she knew everything. She pointed her finger at me. She said I had until morning to tell the police or she would. I…I panicked.”
“And smothered her with her own pillow,” C
assie cried. “A frail, elderly woman whose only weakness was not seeing what a monster you really were!”
Robert pushed Cassie away as though touching her burned his skin. “Shut up,” he screamed, the gun in his shaking hand pointed straight at her heart, the heel of his free hand pressed against his temple. “Please, please shut up.”
Cassie stumbled backward toward the door, appalled at the crazy light in Robert’s eyes. She’d so forgotten everything in her disgust of him, it actually came as a surprise to feel other hands grab her and pull her from the room. So quickly she barely knew what happened, she was swept out of harm’s way.
She looked up at her savior and into Cody’s eyes. Cody! Of course it was him. It was always him and it always would be.
He turned back to the office. “Give it up, Robert,” Cody said, advancing forward, the rifle trained on Robert, Cassie behind him. “Set the gun down on the desk and move away from it.”
She was watching as Robert lifted the gun from where it dangled by his side. He paused, looked right into Cassie’s eyes, then turned the weapon on himself.
“No!” Cassie screamed as a gunshot blasted the air and Robert seemed to disappear in a red haze. She squeezed her eyes shut to block out the horrific image. Cody clutched her tightly against his chest and together, they stumbled out of the office.
They looked up as the front door flew open and Adam raced inside.
“I heard a shot,” Adam said, coming to a halt. “What happened?”
Cassie tucked herself as close to Cody as she could. Let him explain. She didn’t have the heart.
Chapter Seventeen
Over two weeks later, on the day after Thanksgiving and the day before Cassie’s baby was due, the whole family and a few good friends assembled in the Open Sky living room for three weddings.
The grooms stood by the fireplace—Birch Westin and his two sons, all tough, strong men, men who reflected the rugged land and lifestyle of their birthplace: this ranch. Cody was acting as best man for his two brothers, and he stood beside them. While Adam and Pierce both looked amazing, it was Cody Cassie’s gaze strayed to over and over again.
Cody, with his dark eyes and square shoulders and the way he had of looking at her, half shy, half possessive, one hundred percent smoldering.
Her Cody, whom she’d come so close to losing.
The brides were clustered behind the Christmas tree. Princess Analise was dressed the least formally and yet, true to her station and nature, she looked the most regal. She was dressed in a snow-white sheath with a delicate tiara nestled in her black hair to hold her veil in place. It struck Cassie every time she saw Analise that here was a woman who knew what—and whom—she wanted.
And she wanted Pierce. The sparks between them were palpable.
Then there was Pauline, who just that morning had taken the bandage off her head for the first time. She wore the fanciest dress of all, a light pink frill-fest that reflected the excited blush on her cheeks as she made ready to claim the man she’d served—and loved—for almost thirty years.
Echo, catching sight of Cassie’s over-the-shoulder glance, winked. Her dress was also white, but it was lacy and long and fit like a second skin. Echo wore it the way she wore everything—with panache and attitude. She looked like the bride figure atop a wedding cake. And Cassie happened to know she was a month pregnant.
Cassie smiled as she tried to get comfortable on the folding chair. She had a secret of her own.
She’d been having contractions for the past several hours. Nothing too bad yet, nothing that would cause her to delay these weddings, but it wouldn’t be long now…
She wiggled on the chair again. The baby took up a lot of her midsection, leaving her wondering if her organs would ever find their way back to their appropriate places after she gave birth.
And just like that, another contraction started but this time it was different.
Now?
The music started. The brides began walking down the makeshift aisle.
Sally wasn’t here. She and Ethan had eloped as soon as Sally got out of the hospital, so there was no quiet way to enlist help. Cassie would have to wait this out…?.
Another contraction shook her and she tried breathing slowly. It took hours to have a baby, especially a first baby. Days even. Weeks, months! She was not going to ruin these fairy-tale weddings. Each and every one of these couples had struggled to make it to this day. She would sit here and get through this, and then she would have a baby while everyone else ate cake.
She gasped into her hand and felt light-headed.
Her gaze darted around all the brides, grooms and the preacher to settle on Cody. He was paying attention to the ceremony, as well he should. She grasped her stomach as delicately as she could and concentrated on breathing.
Think of something else, she told herself. Like Donna Banner. Poor Donna. Her husband dead. Her father back in jail due to parole violation. He’d tried to fly to Cape Verde, where there was no extradition, but he didn’t make it past the airport in Boise. Her mother accused of accessory to murder for her part in covering up Bennie Yates’s killing. Robert gone. Even worse, he’d killed their grandmother.
Cassie had called Donna to offer condolences and to assure her she didn’t want a penny of Mrs. Priestly’s money. Donna had dismissed that idea at once. “No way. Grandma loved you, and you were the only one in that house who cared about her for who she was and not what she could do for you. I am so glad she had you the last few months. I’m sorry for everything I said to you.”
So Cassie was going to be wealthy in her own right if she didn’t pop open and die in the next few minutes.
Because brother, that was how it felt. She knew giving birth was work, she’d read all the books, she’d watched the farm animals do it—but, boy, they made it look easier than this.
She needed to stand up and walk, but she knew the minute she got to her feet all eyes would turn toward her. Why hadn’t she left the room when she could?
They were exchanging vows. It took forever! Then the room grew quiet except for a chorus of masculine I dos…
Hurry.
The preacher was talking again. Cassie felt something wet between her legs. Was that her water breaking? Good heavens.
Hurry…
And then she heard the women say I do, one after the other, each voice clear and joyful. Cassie sat there as another contraction sucker punched her. Were they supposed to come this fast and furious? Uh-oh…
Cody asked everyone to be quiet. He looked at Cassie and she did her best to plaster on a grin instead of a grimace…
“As long as you’re all here, I’d like to ask my wife Cassie to marry me all over again. How about it, Cass? Right now, before the baby, before anything else. Will you marry me? Again?”
Every person in the room was staring at her. The contraction had lessened to the point where she could stand by gripping the back of the chair in front of her and she got to her feet. Water rushed down her legs and puddled on the floor. The man sitting next to her made a startled sound.
It was Echo whose smile turned to alarm.
“Cassie?” she called. “Are you in labor?”
Cassie, touched by Cody’s words, overwhelmed with what was happening and truth be told, a little scared, managed a nod.
CODY STOOD ON THE DECK outside and stared at the road, Bonnie standing by his legs.
Where was that damn doctor?
Echo was going to deliver his baby and she’d never done it before, she’d only seen a film in class and pictures in books and where was that damn doctor, anyway?
“You’d better come inside,” Analise called from the doorway. “Echo says it’s time.”
“But the doctor—”
“Cody? Come inside.”
He rushed past her and his brothers and made his way through all the wedding guests to Pauline’s room, as it contained the only bed on the ground floor.
He caught himself in the doorway. He’d arrive
d just in time to see his new sister-in-law, still dressed in her wedding gown, take delivery of a very small, very pink bundle of humanity.
He rushed to Cassie as the baby took a deep breath and let out a holler worthy of every Westin male born on the Open Sky.
“It’s a boy,” Echo said, as she fussed with the umbilical cord, but he already knew that.
Cody sat abruptly in the chair by Cassie’s side and kissed her face a half dozen times. “You’re crying,” he whispered, as he wiped tears from her cheeks with trembling fingers.
Her soft hand landed on his face. “So are you.”
Echo stood over them, their baby in her arms. He was wrapped in the small green and yellow blanket Cody vaguely recalled picking out weeks before. She handed him to Cody, and Cody tilted the baby so both he and Cassie could see their new son’s face.
“He looks like you,” Cassie said.
Cody couldn’t speak. His throat was filled with emotions so varied and so strong they robbed him of a voice. All he could do was stare into the slate eyes of his infant son.
His son.
“I should have known all along you’d turn into a giant marshmallow the minute you saw your baby,” Cassie said.
He nodded at her and tried to smile.
“You asked me a question a little while ago,” she said. “I was kind of preoccupied at the time, but now I’m ready to answer.”
He swallowed the lump and spoke. “Will you marry me all over again, Cass?”
“Yes,” she said softly.
He sealed it with a kiss, then cautiously handed her their son. He’d never seen anything as beautiful as Cassie holding her baby.
He was hugging them both when the rest of the family erupted into the room to meet the newest Westin.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1595-5
WESTIN FAMILY TIES
Copyright © 2011 by Alice Sharpe
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
