“The guy whose face you couldn’t see?”
“Yes.” Matteo clicked to fast-forward through the tape. Then stopped it, zoomed in. His heart picked up speed as the pieces began to fall into place. “There.” He tapped the screen. “Right there. His watch. That’s an antique. A distinctive one. And the guy at Brewster’s was wearing one just like it.”
“Wearing something like that tells me it has sentimental value,” Chance said.
“I don’t know many stalkers who suffer from sentimentality,” Ben chimed in.
“Know that many of them, do you?” Jon asked innocently.
Ben glared. “Still don’t have a face to go with the watch, though, do you?”
“No,” Matteo agreed. “But it’s something else to add to the list.”
“You should call Peyton. See if maybe she recognizes it.”
“She and Gino went out trail riding a few hours ago,” Ty said before Matteo could. He glanced at his watch. “They aren’t scheduled to be at the ranch for another hour or so.”
“Besides,” Matteo added. “She doesn’t have her cell phone.” And that could be Matteo’s one miscalculation in all this. How could he have slipped so badly? Separating her from her phone could put her in direct danger.
“Still couldn’t hurt to call someone,” Ben suggested.
“I’ll phone Hadley,” Ty said. “Chance, you call Katie. Find out for sure where Peyton is. And fill them in on the rest. We’ll make sure Peyton isn’t alone.”
“Right.” Chance pulled out his cell.
“I should have said something sooner,” Matteo confessed. “I could have used all your help.”
“You did what you thought was right at the time,” Ben told him. “Look, if you want to beat yourself up about it, no skin off my nose, but keep in mind, Big E didn’t let on to any of us. And he would have if he thought she was in trouble up here.” He pulled out his cell when it rang, turned his back on them to answer it.
“True. Our grandfather’s many things,” Jon said, “but he’d never put his family in jeopardy. He sent you guys here because he thought it was the safest place for Peyton to be.” Jon rested a hand on Matteo’s shoulder. “If she wasn’t safe before, she definitely is now. You tell us what we need to do to keep her safe, and we’re with you.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“You thought we’d say otherwise?” Ethan’s arched brow noted irritation. “She’s family, Matteo. She’s ours. Family you’ve taken it upon yourself to protect. That goes a long way with us.”
“Heads up.” Chance held his phone against his chest. “Katie got a call from the trail guide. Gino has an upset stomach, so Peyton and he headed back to the ranch a little over a half hour ago.”
“Another reason for me to head over there now,” Matteo said, but before he logged off, he sent a screenshot of the video to Peyton via email. “I’ll try calling her on the way.”
“Hold up.” Ben held up his hand as Matteo packed up his laptop, finished talking to whomever had called him. “We’re coming, too. That was the sheriff. He just got a call from Ship Haply, who was driving into town earlier. He spotted the guy’s truck this morning.” He grabbed his jacket and stopped long enough to add, “It was on the way to the ranch.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I’M SORRY I throwed up.” Gino rested his cheek against Peyton’s shoulder as she carried him to the cabin from the stables. “I didn’t mean to get sick.”
“These things happen, little man.” Peyton hefted him up higher and tried not to admit to herself just how heavy a six-year-old could be. Clearly she needed to up her weight lifting at the gym. “Let’s consider pancakes off the menu for a while, though, okay?”
“I told you I could eat four.”
Peyton pinched her lips together to stop from laughing. “Yes, you did.” Too bad they hadn’t stayed down. Seeing Gino be sick over the side of his horse had felt both worrying and unsurprising. She’d spent her childhood growing up with someone in her family having an upset stomach, ankle sprain or acne at any given time. Peyton reached up and pressed her hand against Gino’s forehead. “I don’t think you have a fever. We’ll get you cleaned up, and you can have a nap. I bet you’ll be feeling better in no time.”
“I feel okay now.” He locked his arms around her neck. “Just sleepy.”
“Noted.” She climbed the porch stairs and had them inside the cabin in record time. “You know the drill.” She set him down and turned on the water in the bathroom. “Strip and into the shower. We’ll bundle you up, and you can take a nap in your dad’s bed, okay?”
“Mm-kay.” He sighed and trudged inside.
“And stand under the water,” she added, remembering that was one of those details Matteo had begun to specify. “Oh, and don’t forget the soap.” She ducked into her own room, changed into a T-shirt and kicked off her boots, which, she had to admit, had been a blessing today. “Chalk one up to Matteo being right.”
The buzzing from the other room had her walking into the kitchen barefoot. Her phone light was blinking, and when she pulled it off the top of the fridge, she found four missed calls from Matteo. And just as many voice mails. She was about to call him back when he called again.
“Hey. Sorry,” she said as a greeting. “We had a bit of a—”
“Yeah, I heard,” Matteo said. “Is Gino all right?”
“He’s fine. Pancake overdose.” She strained to hear. “He’s in the shower now, then I’m going to put him down for a nap. What’s going on?”
“So, you’re back in the cabin. Okay.” He sounded so relieved she couldn’t help but be confused. “I guess that’s good. I’m coming back now, but I need you to check your email.”
She hesitated. “Is this some kind of trick?”
“No, it’s not a trick,” he snapped, then sighed. “Sorry. Just...check your email, okay? Open the picture I sent you.”
“Hang on. I need to turn my computer on.” She set the phone down and opened her laptop. A few minutes later she clicked on his email. She frowned. This didn’t make any sense. She stared at it for countless moments trying to find something that seemed familiar or she could identify...
She heard Matteo calling her name over the phone. “Sorry. I’ve pulled it up. What am I looking at? I don’t see anything—”
“The watch, Peyton. Look at his watch.”
Peyton clicked to enlarge the image. Her breath caught in her chest.
“You recognize it, don’t you?” Matteo demanded.
Her mind raced, flashing back to a night a few weeks before. The night Big E had shown up at the restaurant on one of her dates. Her date...
“Yes,” she breathed, her hand shaking on the touch pad. “Um.” Her thoughts spun in and around each other. “His name. What was his name?” She could hear the engine of Matteo’s SUV rev up, along with another voice. “Is someone with you?”
“Chance. We’re heading back to the ranch now. I need you to tell me—”
“Chance Blackwell is in your car?” She practically squealed as her mind began to clear. “I can’t meet him like this! He’s—”
“He’s your cousin, not made of solid gold. And if you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’m going to put him on the phone with you right now.”
“Fine. It was my date that night at Toscanini’s. Um.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, tried to remember. “Shurley. Gabriel Shurley. He was a last-minute matchup from Mr. Josiah. He had a watch like the one in the picture.” She heard a creak from the front porch. “You weren’t kidding. That was fast.” She headed for the door.
“What was fast?” Matteo asked.
“You. You’re back already.”
“Peyton—”
She pulled open the door. And froze.
“Peyton?” Matteo’s voice yelled through the cell.
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She met Gabriel’s dark gaze, barely recognizing him beneath the beard and too-long hair she now realized he’d combed back for their date. He’d been nicely put together that night. But now? He looked as if he’d been roughing it far longer than probably either she or Matteo suspected. “I need to talk to you.” His hands were shoved into deep pockets, but she could see them flex, and she wondered if he had a weapon.
“Gabriel.” She spoke into the phone, directly to Matteo. “What are you doing here?”
Gabriel reached out, plucked the phone out of her hand and clicked it off. “I need to talk to you alone. Inside.” He slipped her phone into his pocket. “Now.”
* * *
MATTEO SWORE WHEN the line went dead.
Chance grabbed hold of the side bar as Matteo floored the SUV, all but flying down the road toward the ranch.
“Get on the phone with the sheriff,” Matteo ordered. “Tell him there’s a possible hostage situation at the ranch. Cabin number four.”
“On it,” Chance said.
He never should have left her alone. He should have insisted they go with him into town, but Peyton and Gino had ganged up on him so they could go on that silly trail ride.
The whys and regrets piled on, keeping his emotions, his throat-closing fear barely at bay. Why hadn’t he taught Peyton how to defend herself? Panic he’d never once given in to—not even when he’d been growing up on that ranch or serving overseas—threatened to choke him.
Peyton was in trouble. Serious trouble. And all he could think about right now was what would happen if he was too late. He couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not when...not when so much was possible.
“You’re not going to lose her,” Chance said as he hung up with the sheriff.
“Huh?” Matteo swiveled his gaze to Chance.
“You aren’t going to lose Peyton. From what I hear, that woman is a quick thinker, clever and tough. She knows you’re on the way. Whatever she’s dealing with now, she’ll handle it. Have faith in that, Matteo. Have faith in the woman you love.”
“Love?” Matteo wasn’t sure he’d ever squeaked before. “Who said I’m in—”
Chance pulled on his seat belt as if to verify it was still working. “I sing about it for a living, remember? I’ve also experienced it a few times myself. I recognize it when I see it. And, brother, your feelings for Peyton Harrison Blackwell are written all over you.”
“And you think now’s a good time for this heart-to-heart?”
“I think now’s a good time to talk about anything other than the fear that’s going through your head. Now.” Chance pushed himself back in his seat. “How about you tell me what your plan is once we get there?”
* * *
PEYTON LEANED DOWN and brushed a kiss to Gino’s damp temple. He was back to his snuggly, little-boy warmth and burrowed under his father’s blankets, already drifting off. She couldn’t get her nerves under control. She’d said she’d be quick, and Gabriel hadn’t argued, but she didn’t want to press her luck. She wasn’t, however, going to leave anything to chance.
Before she returned to the living area, she quickly unlocked the bedroom window and lifted it up an inch, just enough so someone would see it was open. If Matteo needed a way in, she’d just given it to him.
She left the room, quietly closing the door behind her.
“Thank you for letting me do that,” she said as she joined Gabriel at the table. “He got sick while we were horseback riding. He just needs some sleep to get over it.”
Gabriel had chosen one of the chairs, but he hadn’t removed his coat. He sat there, hands folded, looking at the picture on her laptop. “It was the watch, wasn’t it?” He glanced up as she took the chair across from him.
She’d built up this unknown person in her mind for so long, she wasn’t sure what she expected, but it wasn’t this calm, almost timid, and very, very serious-looking man.
He ran his index finger over the scratched glass of the watch. “This was my father’s. He was an inventor. You know, the kind Hollywood loves to kind of make fun of. Wacky scientist with a lab in the basement.” His smile almost reached his eyes. “I haven’t taken it off since he died last year.”
“I’m sorry,” Peyton said quietly. “My mother died last year, too. It’s not easy, is it?”
“No.” Gabriel shook his head. “No. Especially when...”
“You don’t work with a technology investment company, do you?” They might as well get the truth out where they could deal with it. “You put that in your profile because you knew the type of man I was looking for. You stole one of the employee laptops and got into the system to put yourself on file as a match for me. So you could, what? Hurt me for some reason?”
“No.” His eyes went wide. “No, see, that’s why I’m here. I never wanted to hurt anyone! I just needed to talk to you, to ask why you’d done what you did. How you could have stolen Olwen from my father. From me.” He blinked as if tears clouded his vision. “From us.”
Peyton didn’t move. She barely breathed. “Stole Olwen? But...” She didn’t understand. “Crossroads Industries came to us. They presented us with the invention, the technology they developed—”
“My father developed,” Gabriel said, cutting her off. “He worked for Crossroads for more than thirty years. Thirty years of his life he devoted himself to finding new energy sources that would be available at a fraction of the cost to customers. Do you know what his favorite word was? Free. He thought discoveries in the scientific community should be made available to everyone, to lift everyone up. Instead, Crossroads claimed his research—the work he’d done outside of the office—as their own; every thought he had, every advancement he made, they stole from him even though his employment contract stipulated none of that.”
“And you thought, because I made the deal with Crossroads, that I must have been in on that side of things.”
“Yes.” Gabriel looked at her. “I did think that. Until a few days ago. When her story started to fall apart.”
“Whose story?”
“Belinda Carmichael. She said she’d heard from a friend at Crossroads that I was trying to find a lawyer to file a claim of intellectual property theft against the company. She told me Crossroads wasn’t who I should be going after, but Electryone, and more specifically the person at Electryone who had pushed Crossroads into the business arrangement.”
Belinda, who had been nipping at Peyton’s professional heels for the past eighteen months. Ever since... Peyton’s face flushed. Ever since Belinda had brought Crossroads Industries to Peyton and Vilette’s attention.
“Hold on. Give me my phone.” She held out her hand. Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “You need to give this information to me on the record. Let me record it. Please, Gabriel.” She flexed her hand. “I promise I won’t make any calls. I just want to record this conversation.”
He hesitated, but then finally he pulled her phone out of his pocket and set it on the table. Without moving it, she accessed her apps and hit Record. “Now, I want you to start at the beginning. And tell me everything.”
* * *
“WHAT DID YOU SEE?” Ben stood with his brothers behind the back of Lily’s cabin next door to Matteo and Peyton’s.
“They’re sitting at the kitchen table talking.” Matteo didn’t understand it. The quick walk-by he’d done by the window made it seem as if Peyton and Gabriel were sharing high tea. “She doesn’t look like she feels threatened. I’m going to go in.”
“All right.” Ethan and Jon both nodded. “Where do you want us?” Ethan asked.
“Let’s have you both by the kitchen window, the other two just outside the door. If I do need you, I’ll let you know.”
“Exactly how will you be letting us know?” Ben asked.
“Trust me. If I need you, you’ll know.” He holstered his 9 mm and ran quietly around to
the front of the house. Slowly, he clicked the latch on the door handle and pushed it open.
Peyton stood up from her seat, her brow arched, and she waved him into the cabin. “Quiet. You’ll wake Gino.”
“No, I won’t. He’s snoring,” Matteo said, walking quickly over to place himself between Peyton and Gabriel Shurley, who looked like a spooked rabbit about to bolt. Hardly the picture of obsessive focus he’d anticipated. “One of you want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Fraud, theft, possibly industrial espionage.” Peyton walked around him, then stopped when she peered out the kitchen window. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Are those the Blackwell brothers lurking out there?” She yanked open the window and leaned out, coming face-to-face with Ben and Ethan. “Everything’s all right. He’s harmless. Mostly,” she said. “Come on in, and I’ll explain. Matteo? Put the pot on for coffee, and grab a bottle of whiskey. We’re all going to need it.”
* * *
“ANYONE HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?” Peyton asked the men sitting in the living area of her cabin. This had not been the way she’d intended to meet her long-lost cousins, the Blackwell Brothers, but at least she knew where she stood with them. They’d come to help protect her, no questions asked, the instant they thought she was in trouble.
And that was pretty darn impressive.
“Where to start?” Ben said with a shrug before he held out his mug to Ty, silently asking for a refill. “It’s the first time I’ve been in on a video conference call quite like this. Ms. Wright, I’m assuming this is the first you’re hearing about the contested solar panels?”
“You assume correctly,” Vilette said from Peyton’s laptop screen. Peyton had caught her at home, alone, which was exactly how Peyton wanted it. She didn’t want anyone at Electryone getting even the faintest hint of what was about to come down. “Clearly I’m going to be needing to consult with our own attorneys, but I can assure all of you that Electryone will not be going through with the deal as it is currently proposed.”
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