Sandpiper Shore

by Debbie Mason

  The bullets ripped through the tree Logan was crouched behind. He needed better cover and dove behind a boulder. His foot snagged on a root, jerking him back. He fell hard, hitting his chin, his teeth slamming together, rattling his brain and shaking his memory free. It took only a moment for the memories of the last month to return in full and for him to regain his bearings, but it was long enough for the gunman to get away.

  At the sound of the security team entering the woods, Logan identified himself and slowly pushed to his feet. When they reached him, he took one of the officers’ radios and let Shay know his status and that of the shooter.

  Despite the situation, the corner of his mouth lifted when he heard Jenna in the background demanding to know if he was okay. At least he now understood where his feelings for her were coming from and no longer had to feel guilty about them. He was just about to ask Shay to put her on but decided against it. He might give himself away, and they had an audience. For now, it was best no one knew his memory had returned. Which was why he sent four members of the security team to the cottage to escort Jenna and Isabella back to the manor instead of doing it himself. He needed time to sort through his memories for clues as to why Luis, Pilar, Mateo, and Isabella had lied to him.

  He and Isabella hadn’t had a whirlwind romance in DC like they’d professed, and they weren’t engaged. Isabella had asked him to go back to Tiffany’s and pick up the ring he’d supposedly given her the day of the accident. She didn’t want anyone to know and promised to wire Logan the funds once she’d returned to Merradien. Only she had no intention of returning to her homeland. He was sure of that now. And just as sure of the identity of the man who would’ve placed that ring on Isabella’s finger if he had the means. Now Logan had to figure out if Mateo had been trying to take him out. Or was Isabella in as much danger here as she was in Merradien?

  * * *

  Colleen stood at the French doors that opened onto the balcony of her suite in the tower. Logan and Aidan were there along with the head of security and Isabella and her entourage. Luis was holding court, standing in front of Colleen’s old canopied bed, laying out a case to prove Jenna was behind the assassination attempt.

  “It’s plain for anyone to see that the woman is in love with you. She wants Isabella out of the way. She planned the day. Chose the spa, a place where you’d have to walk through the woods, and sent Mateo back to the manor.”

  “Don’t let him make you doubt Jenna, my boy. That girl wouldn’t harm the hair on a flea,” Colleen murmured.

  Logan rubbed his hand along his jaw. “You’re saying she hired a hit man?”

  “I don’t understand why you find it inconceivable. Just the other day we saw her on Main Street riding with two bikers. Clearly, she has connections to the underbelly of society. I’ve read all about her ex-fiancé, and she’s still in contact with him.” Colleen’s great-grandsons shared a glance at the news.

  “How do you know that?” Logan asked.

  “I was in the study when she took the call. They were discussing the missing ring. From what I heard, he didn’t believe it had been stolen. Perhaps she offered to give him his ring back in exchange for assassinating Isabella.”

  “Her ring was stolen, and your theory has about ten other holes in it,” Logan scoffed.

  Luis was an accomplished liar. It was too bad Colleen didn’t know where they’d hidden Jenna’s phone or the ring so she could implicate the lot of them in the thefts at the manor. Things would begin clicking into place for Logan anytime. He’d know he was being played then. He needed to figure it out soon or he’d find himself married to the wrong woman.

  “Is there a reason you don’t wish to implicate Ms. Bell? Both Isabella and Mateo tell me that you were partnered with her instead of your fiancée for the massage.”

  Logan gave the couple a hard look.

  “No, my boy. It’s Luis and Pilar you have to watch. They’re the ringleaders. They’ve set all this in motion. We just need to find out their motivation.”

  “My cousin will be questioning you in the next room, Mateo,” Logan said. There was a knock on the door, and he went to answer it. “Thanks for coming. Pilar, Shay will be questioning you here. Luis, you come with me. Isabella, you’re free to get something to eat in the dining room.” He nodded at the head of security, who accompanied Isabella out of the room.

  “What of Ms. Bell? Will you not question her?” Luis asked.

  “My cousin will, once he’s finished questioning Mateo.”

  Colleen went to follow Logan and Luis down the spiral staircase to the lower level, but a demanding meow brought her up short. “What is it? Can’t you see I’m busy?”

  Simon meowed again, lifting his chin toward Kitty’s tower room across the way.

  “Is Jasper there, then?” At what looked like a nod, Colleen hurried to her daughter-in-law’s door and walked through it. “Thank the good Lord and the Holy Ghost,” she murmured at the sight that greeted her. Jasper sat on the edge of the wingback chair, frantically flipping through her memoir.

  As she rushed to his side, he glanced her way. “It feels like the air conditioner is working overtime, so I imagine Simon let you know I was here, madam, and with no time to lose, I’m afraid. I apologize for ignoring your attempts to take out the book. I’d begun to wonder if it shouldn’t be locked away for good. But I don’t know what else to do to help the young miss. I’m hoping you have something about Jenna’s family that will allow her to deal with her stepsisters and stepmother.” He flipped through the pages, clearly upset.

  “You have a soft spot for the girl, haven’t you, my boy? I can’t say I’m surprised. I had a soft spot for her too. And much to make up for.”

  If it weren’t for Colleen’s interference, Jenna wouldn’t have been deprived of her father for ten years. Colleen had been good friends with Arianna and Serena’s great-grandmother and had taken a special interest in the family. When it had come to Colleen’s attention that Richard was having an affair with a waitress in town, she’d confronted him on the street. He wasn’t a local boy, so she didn’t know him well. Perhaps if she’d known him better, she might have believed him when he said he and his wife were separating. It was only for his young daughters’ sake that he returned to Harmony Harbor on weekends from his job in the city.

  But she didn’t trust the handsome charmer and laid down the law. If he didn’t quit seeing the waitress, Colleen threatened to have Richard fired from his fancy job in Boston. She was a Gallagher, after all, and the Gallaghers knew people. It helped when your grandson was governor of the state. There was nary a whisper about the affair again.

  Oh, there was talk when the young waitress found herself with child, but Colleen threw suspicion another man’s way and soon the talk died down. And when her own guilt got the best of her, Colleen would have a coffee at the café and leave the mother-to-be an overlarge tip. One day it got to be too much for Colleen, and she offered the waitress a job at the manor. The pay and tips were far better than at the café.

  Still, every time she saw the young mother and daughter, the guilt ate at Colleen. It got worse when she’d overheard Richard’s wife with a group of her friends at a baby shower. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but it became clear Richard’s wife no longer loved him. She did like his money though. So many years had passed by then, but Colleen still felt the need to do something, and she sent Richard an anonymous note letting him know he was Jenna’s father and that her mother had never stopped loving him.

  “I couldn’t protect Jenna from Ryan Wilson’s threats, but I’ll protect her from her stepfamily and Luis,” Jasper muttered as he drew his finger down the page. “He thinks I don’t know what he’s up to, trying to point suspicion at Jenna when he’s the one they should be focused on. He’ll learn his folly soon enough. He’s underestimated me.”

  Other than Ryan Wilson, the rest came to her as mumbo jumbo. She couldn’t focus on anything but that name. She knew there was something about the lad. It was i
mportant. Her mind had been poking at her since…Her eyes went wide. She remembered. Ryan’s grandfather had been chief of the Harmony Harbor Police Department. Colleen had him fired before he uncovered the truth about that long-ago summer night. She crouched low, pushing at the pages, flipping them with her finger. Jasper needed to know how dangerous Ryan Wilson could be to them all.

  “I don’t have time for this, madam.” He briskly flipped the pages back to her notes about Jenna’s family. He stabbed the page. “Ah, there it is. Right in front of…Oh, madam, what have you done?”

  “I was protecting one family at the expense of another as it turned out. But as best I could, I made amends.” A lot of good it did trying to explain when Jasper couldn’t hear her.

  “Difficult as it may be for Jenna to learn she lost ten years with her father because of you, she’ll at least have proof she’s as much a Bell as Serena and Arianna.”

  Colleen looked from Jasper to the book. Surely he’d know this was not a revelation that would work in Jenna’s favor. All the child had ever wanted was her sisters’ love. She’d not get it if Jasper was to reveal that Richard Bell had an affair with Jenna’s mother more than a decade before he’d taken her as his wife, and Jenna was the result.

  “Are you mad? Think it through, my boy. You want to help Jenna, not harm her,” she cried as he began tearing out the relevant pages. Colleen dove on top of the leather-bound book to stop him. Instead, her body went through both the book and coffee table to land on the floor beneath. She tried again, but it was no use. She couldn’t stop him.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jenna stared at the detective sitting across from her in the study. It was slightly disconcerting because Aidan looked a lot like his cousin Logan and even more disconcerting because it was becoming clearer by the minute that he believed her capable of murder. “I thought you wanted to question me to see if I’d witnessed something that would help in your investigation, but that’s not it at all, is it? You think I had something to do with this, don’t you?”

  “No one is accusing you of anything, Jenna. We’re questioning everyone who has—”

  “Are you questioning Shay?”

  “Well, no, but she—”

  “Are you questioning Isabella?”

  “No, but she’s the—”

  “Then why are you questioning me?”

  He looked up at the ceiling before returning his gaze to her. “Because it was suggested that you had means and motive.”

  She pressed a hand to her throat. It was worse than she suspected. Somebody had actually accused her of the crime. “Who would say something like that? I have no means. I have nothing, thanks to my ex-fiancé and my stepmother. If I didn’t have this job and free room and board, I’d be out on the street. And what possible motive could I have? If something happened to Princess Isabella, there’d be no wedding, and I need there to be a wedding. I’m the wedding planner. The town needs there to be a wedding, and that includes my sisters.”

  “Those are all excellent points,” Aidan admitted.

  “Then why aren’t you writing them down?” she asked.

  The study door opened before Aidan could answer, although he might’ve released a relieved breath when Logan walked into the study. Jenna hadn’t seen Logan since he charged four members of the security team with delivering her and Isabella back to the manor while he and the others combed through the woods. Jenna had taken the time to change into a work-appropriate sleeveless sundress, but Logan remained in the board shorts and T-shirt he’d worn earlier.

  Except now they looked like he’d been in a battle. His shorts were ripped and covered with dirt and grass stains, and there was what appeared to be a bloodstain on the front of his T-shirt. His chin had been cut, and there were two light scratches on his right cheek. She might’ve felt sorry for him if he hadn’t sent his cousin to question her as a suspect in an assassination attempt.

  “Is everything okay in here? Did you get Jenna’s statement?”

  “Statement? Are you sure you don’t mean my signed confession? I can’t believe you think I’m guilty of this, Logan. You have no idea what I’ve had to do to pull this wedding off. You have no idea the hours I’ve put in or the time I’ve spent racking my brain for ways to turn a woman who’s not your one and only into your perfect match.” What was wrong with her? Just because it was the truth didn’t mean she had to blurt it out. What if they asked…?

  “Did it bother you that Logan was marrying a woman he didn’t love, Jenna?” his cousin asked. At least he didn’t ask if she thought she was Logan’s one and only.

  The man in question leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. Unlike her, his face was a closed book. It bothered her that Logan stood there watching instead of coming to her defense. Which meant she wasn’t about to admit her feelings with him in the room. “You’re his cousin. Wouldn’t it bother you if you thought he was marrying someone he didn’t love?”

  “Of course it would, but I’m his cousin, not someone who’s in love with him.”

  “Aidan,” Logan said, a warning in his voice.

  Jenna bowed her head, her face growing hot. Logan thought she was in love with him. Aidan did too. After today, she could no longer deny it, even to herself. When he was going back into the woods to hunt for the shooter, she’d felt a terror like she’d never known. She’d been afraid she was going to lose him, and not just to another woman. She actually could handle that. He and Isabella were having a baby together, and he’d made the choice to marry her. Getting killed doing what heroes do, putting someone else’s life above your own, never seeing him again…She would’ve had a hard time living with that.

  “This is why I’m conducting the interview, not you,” his cousin said before returning his attention to Jenna. “Would it bother you enough to have someone try to scare off Isabella?”

  So she really was a suspect. She reached for the phone.

  That at least got a reaction out of Logan. He pushed off the wall. “Who are you calling?”

  By the wary edge in his voice, he knew exactly who she planned to phone. “Your brother and my attorney. So if you have any further questions for me, you can direct them to Connor.”

  Aidan groaned, while Logan exhaled a frustrated sigh before saying, “You can hang up, Jenna. You don’t need an attorney.”

  “Really? Maybe you should share that with your cousin,” she said, refusing to look at him. She was hurt that he felt it necessary to allow Aidan to question her and didn’t want him to read the emotion on her face.

  “Jenna, the accusation was made in front of Aidan and the head of security. I didn’t have a choice but to have you questioned.”

  Maybe, but he could’ve done it himself. She couldn’t help but feel he was avoiding being alone with her. She supposed she didn’t blame him after the massage session. Not for the first time, she wished she’d never suggested it. If Logan had figured out she was falling for him, he probably thought she’d maneuvered it so she’d end up his partner. Her gaze shot to the two men. “You think I orchestrated the couples massage session to draw you into the woods and then got rid of Mateo by asking him to get the picnic and blanket at the manor.”

  The men shared a look. “Did you ask him to go back to the manor or did he offer to, Jenna?” Logan asked.

  “I remember mentioning the picnic, but I’m not sure if I asked him to go or he offered. I’m sorry. I honestly can’t remember,” she said, sensing Logan’s frustration. Now that she looked at the situation from their point of view, she could see why someone might think she had played a part in the shooting. If she didn’t want to find herself in jail, she needed to come clean. “I wouldn’t break your confidence if I didn’t have to, Logan, but I really don’t want to go to prison for something I didn’t do. Aidan’s your cousin, so he probably already knows about the baby, right?”

  Logan stared at her and reached for the back of the chair. “You’re pregnant?”

  “Me? No, you and Isabel
la are. Because of the amnesia you don’t remember, do you? I’m sorry.” She frowned. “Wait a minute. How could you forget something like that? Surely you and Isabella talk about the baby when you’re together. Actually, from what I’ve seen, you probably don’t.”

  She looked up at Logan. “You and Isabella aren’t a perfect match. As far as I can tell, you aren’t a match at all. But I want you to be happy, Logan. I don’t want you to spend your life in a loveless marriage, and you’re the type of man who would. You wouldn’t ask Isabella for a divorce. You’d just keep trying to make…Why are you both looking at me like that?”

  “You just made a case for motive, Jenna,” Aidan said.

  “I know. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Logan, you were there. Isabella vetoed all my other ideas, and I was desperate to find a way to help you bond and develop trust in each other. You might not be each other’s true loves, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t have a wonderful marriage with some work. That’s why I suggested the couples massage. It’s supposed to supercharge a couple’s trust and intimacy.”

  They didn’t look like they believed her, which obviously meant Logan hadn’t felt a tenth of what she had during the session. “Trust me, it does.” Okay, so maybe that was the wrong thing to say, she thought when Aidan raised an eyebrow at his cousin. “Watch the pottery scene with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in the movie Ghost and you’ll see what I mean.”

  Afraid Aidan might ask how their massage session had worked out for her and Logan, Jenna decided it was a good time to continue her attack on their theory. “So, as you can see, my motive for going to the spa was pure. I have no reason to want either Isabella or Logan hurt. And since it wasn’t me out there shooting at us—as in Logan, Isabella, and me—you obviously think I paid someone to do it. As I told Aidan, I have no money. I also don’t know people who would do something like that or where you even find them.”

  “The person who implicated you suggested you used your ex-fiancé’s engagement ring, which we all now know is very valuable, to pay for the services of your biker friends,” Aidan said.