“I don’t know. But I imagine he’ll do a variation of what he intended to do before Cameron and I agreed to marry. In his current will he leaves Cameron the estate and the land, but all of the decisions about running the ranch and the business, including any sale of the land, is placed under the control of a board of directors, a group hand-picked by James. He’s been pretty closemouthed about whom he’s selected, but my guess is that Doc Carter would be on it, perhaps Rachel Lakewood and Jack Boland. They are all close friends of James and very like-minded. James would like to have control of this place even from the grave.”
“But he was going to give that up and turn the place over to you and Cameron if you marry because…?”
Sloan gave me a wry smile. “My guess is that Cameron gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. She’d marry someone he’d approve of with the ability to run the ranch just as well as his hand-selected board, and he’d have at least the hope of grandchildren. That’s just a guess on my part, but she’d know what kind of a carrot to dangle in front of her father. Of course, it could have been that the marriage part was James’s idea. A carrot he dangled in front of Cameron’s nose—marry someone I approve of and I’ll leave you both everything.”
“And Cameron chose you?”
“Perhaps. It could have been James’s idea. He didn’t want me to leave five years ago, and he knows how much I love this place. He also knew what to dangle in front of me to get me to come back.”
I swallowed hard again. I didn’t like putting my growing suspicion into words. “And if something has happened to Cameron, who would James leave the place to then? Beatrice and Austin with the board making all the decisions?”
“Probably. I hadn’t given it any thought.” His frown deepened. “But that would be a good guess, and I don’t like where this is going.”
“I don’t, either. Who might know James’s backup plan? Who would he confide in?”
“Doc Carter,” Sloan said without hesitation. “He and James have been close since they were kids. James trusts him.”
“Promise me you won’t tell anyone yet who I really am, not until we know more about what might have happened to Cameron.”
“And if something has happened to Cameron, your impersonation of her puts you in danger. I don’t—”
I stopped him by putting my fingers against his lips. “Just until tomorrow. I’ll have to let James know who I really am before the wedding.”
For a moment, he hesitated. “On one condition.”
“What?”
“We’ll ask questions together. I don’t want you wandering off with any of them alone. Whoever went through your things and left that message on your cell phone was at the hacienda last night.”
“I agree and I promise.”
He drew me into his arms and just held me. “Don’t forget that there’s at least one other person who hasn’t been fooled by you.”
“The person who sent me the anonymous letter.” In spite of the warmth of Sloan’s body, I felt a little chill move through me.
“Yeah,” Sloan said. “Someone is playing a very deep game here. The question is who?”
Soon. Soon. Soon. The shadow waited in the shade of the trees, repeating the word over and over again until it became a chant. A promise. A prayer.
The mistakes of the past could be corrected. One could always achieve what one wanted with patience. And persistence. One didn’t have to be second best. That perception could be corrected—with time.
She would be here very soon. She always came here. So predictable. That’s what had made it so easy the last time.
And there would be no mistakes this time. Rage rose like a bitter-tasting bile and was quickly repressed. There was no need for anger or self-recrimination. Never again. Not when a mistake could be so easily remedied.
The shadow ran a hand over the weapon. The gun, a sleek Winchester, would ensure that this time the end would be final.
Soon.
Chapter 15
“We’re taking a tour of the ranch in that?” I’d stopped short the moment I saw the shiny red plane on a short runway behind the stables.
“Yeah. Isn’t she a honey?”
To me, the plane looked small, very small, like a shiny red kid’s toy. And it had propellers. Sloan strode quickly toward it, and I had to double my pace to keep up. I glanced down at my breeches. “I thought we’d be riding.”
Sloan climbed up on one of the wings, and held out a hand to me. “It’s a big ranch, and believe me, this little beauty will be a lot easier on your seat than if we did the tour on horseback.”
I let him help me up and I took a skeptical look into the tiny cockpit. “Where will the pilot sit?”
He laughed then. “I’m the pilot.”
I turned to stare at him. “You fly?”
“James taught me when I was in my teens. Want to see my license?”
I could see the excitement in his eyes, and I realized that the little red plane was a toy. Sloan’s toy.
“Don’t tell me you have a secret fear of flying.”
“Of course not.” But I preferred my planes to be jumbo jets. Or at least jumbo period.
He opened the door, and I climbed over the pilot’s seat and into the passenger’s. “You’re the one who insisted that we take the tour.”
He had me there. I’d convinced him that if we didn’t, someone might suspect something. And James wouldn’t be pleased if Sloan didn’t show me the ranch. There were bound to be questions, and since I’d already blown my cover with Sloan, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t do the same with anyone else.
I buckled myself in, then gripped the edge of my seat hard.
“You are afraid of flying,” Sloan said, and this time I heard the concern in his voice.
“No. Really. I have a slight aversion to heights, but it’s never affected me in a plane. And I do want to see the ranch.”
He sent me a smile as he turned on the engine. “I’ll try not to fly too high. Just relax.”
Whatever anxiety I’d been experiencing faded as the nose of the plane rose into the bright late-morning sky. The only clouds I could see were far away in the direction of the Pacific. So I wasn’t prepared when a tricky patch of crosscurrents sent the little plane rocking. My heart shot to my throat and I dug my fingers into the edge of my seat.
“Easy,” Sloan said. “I’ve got it handled.”
I could see that he did, and I gradually blew out the breath I was holding.
I glanced at him. He was comfortable at the controls. It occurred to me then that he was a man who would be competent at any job he took on. I thought of the way he’d calmed Saturn on the bluff when we’d first met. Even if he didn’t come out on top in a fight or a competition, he wouldn’t stay down long. Hadn’t that competence and determination been a big part of what had attracted me to him from the get-go?
I forced my hands to release their grip on the seat. “I’m sorry that I’m such a coward.”
The look he shot me held surprise. “You’re not. Coming here to take your sister’s place because you’re sure that something’s happened to her—that takes a kind of courage that few people would have.”
His compliment warmed me and had my heart doing a little flutter. No, I thought. I was not going to go there. Heart flutters were out. It was bad enough that I had this uncontrollable chemistry with a man who belonged to my sister. I was not going to even think of letting my heart get in the mix.
Sloan leveled off the plane and banked it to the right into a circle. “If you can manage to look down, you’ll treat yourself to the best view there is of the hacienda.”
I made myself glance down and discovered he was right. We were directly over it, and I could see the tower reaching toward us. The sun turned the water falling from the fountain into what looked like different-colored gems. The lush green of the gardens in stark contrast to the mostly arid land surrounding the ranch gave the hacienda a fairy-tale appearance.
It was hard in the bright sunlight to believe that there were secrets here, but I knew there were. “It’s a beautiful place to have such a sad history.”
“How so?” Sloan asked.
“The mistresses of the Hacienda Montega don’t have a very good survival rate. Beatrice took me to view the portraits in the ballroom. Only one of those women made it to her fortieth year.”
“I’ve never given it much thought,” Sloan said. “But you’re right.”
“I wonder if there’s a curse?”
Sloan glanced at me. “Do you believe that?”
“No.” But it would make a good story line. “Perhaps not a curse, but there’s an interesting pattern….”
He banked the plane again and set a course for what I thought was the Pacific. As we headed over the first hills, we hit a bit of turbulence, but this time I didn’t go into white-knuckle mode. It was clear that Sloan knew what he was doing. True to his word, he flew low. At times, I could even see individual cars moving along a stretch of highway. The terrain below was marked by little valleys here and there, and vast stretches of land that had been unmarred as yet by civilization.
“This property must be worth millions,” I said.
“The latest offer James received for the area along the coast was a cool quarter of a billion, but they would have been willing to go higher.”
I stared at him. “Why doesn’t he sell?”
“Because he loves this place, and he doesn’t want to see it turned into a vacation destination with malls, gas stations, golf courses and a string of high-rise hotels along the coast. I’m quoting him directly on that.”
I could almost hear James saying it.
The coast came up fast, and Sloan took the plane out over the ocean before he turned and followed the coastline. What I saw beneath me was rugged, pristine and beautiful. High cliffs bordered the Pacific, and we were flying low enough to see the power of the water as it crashed into the shore.
Out of curiosity, I asked, “What about you and Cameron? Will you respect James’s wishes?”
“I would never sell.” He hesitated for a moment. Then he continued. “I think I can say the same for Cameron. But she’s gotten very friendly with Hal Linton, and he’s connected to a group of buyers who are very interested in acquiring the property we’re flying over right now.”
“How long has he known her?”
“Six months or so. Since shortly after she hired Marcie.” Sloan glanced at me. “Cameron isn’t a fool. She wouldn’t be taken in by Hal. She knew what he was about. James made sure she did.”
I kept my own counsel. Of course, he might be a very good actor, but I wasn’t so sure that Hal’s interest in Cameron was purely monetary. But then, Marcie had almost convinced me that her interest in Austin was sincere. I couldn’t discount the possibility that the brother and sister were very accomplished actors. “If James knows that Hal Linton represents a buyer, why does he allow him to be a guest at the hacienda?”
Sloan smiled then. “He likes to keep his enemies in his sights.”
It was my turn to laugh then, and to my surprise, Sloan reached out and took my hand. “You have a nice laugh. I’d like to hear it more often.”
My heart did that little flutter thing again. I was barely able to register it before the plane took a sudden and violent bump that had me grabbing for a handhold.
“What was that?”
Sloan didn’t answer. But I got a clue when the glass in the door to my right shattered. Someone was shooting at us.
“Get down!” Sloan shouted, unnecessarily. I’d already ducked my head as close to my knees as I could.
The plane was dropping like a rock toward the ocean and so was my stomach. Sloan swore under his breath as he struggled to get the nose back up. The swearing part wasn’t good. But he was, I tried to tell myself.
“Look toward the cliffs,” Sloan said in that terse tone of command that was becoming familiar to me.
Lifting my head, I did what he asked.
“Tell me what you see.”
I was ready to say “the cliffs,” but then I saw the dark-colored vehicle as it sped away from a spot on the cliffs behind us. “An SUV, I think. It’s driving away.”
What I also saw were dark plumes of smoke spiraling away behind us. When I summoned up the courage to look down, I saw that we were close, very close to the ocean. Another few yards and we were going to hit.
“Hold on,” Sloan said. Sweat stood out on his forehead as he struggled with the stick in front of him, pulling it hard. The strong winds blowing in from the sea at this level had the plane pitching first one way and then the next. At one point, I was sure that I saw the spray from a wave hit the windshield.
Then suddenly, miraculously, the nose of the plane began to rise again, higher and higher. I held my breath, praying as Sloan fiddled with the controls and coaxed the plane up to the level of the cliffs. The engine coughed and sputtered. For a moment, I was sure we were going to take that long fall to the water below. Then land was coming up to meet us.
The wheels hit the ground with a vicious, teeth-jarring thud. The plane shook, shuddered, teetered to one side, and then skidded in the direction of the cliff. I held my breath. Sloan’s hands remained steady as he fought to regain control. The engine sputtered one more time, went silent, and we rolled to a stop with only a few feet to spare.
I barely had time to let out the breath I was holding before we were engulfed in thick, black smoke. I tried not to breathe it in, but I must have failed because I heard myself coughing.
I felt Sloan’s hands as he unstrapped me from the seat, but I could barely see him.
“C’mon.” His voice was a terse command in my ear as he grabbed my hand and the backpack he’d stored behind the seat. We scrambled across the wing, jumped and hit the ground running. I didn’t look back until Sloan finally stopped. The little red plane was totally engulfed in the smoke, but I didn’t see any flames.
Gripping my shoulder, Sloan turned me to face him. “Are you all right? Did one of the bullets hit you?” He swore, pulled out a hankie and began to dab at my cheekbone. “You’re bleeding.”
“Glass,” I said, remembering that the window had shattered. “I’m fine.” Even as I said it, my knees went weak and a mix of shock and disbelief settled into a knot in my stomach. “Someone shot at us.”
“Yeah.” Sloan pulled me hard against his chest and just held me there. “You’re sure it was an SUV you saw?”
“Yes.” I thought about the one that I’d seen in the garage and the other that I’d driven up to the bluff the day before. Either could have been the one that I’d spotted.
He didn’t say anything, but I knew that we were thinking the same thing. Sloan’s arms tightened around me. For a few moments I let myself rest against him. Just until the fear subsided and I got my breath back. The steady beat of his heart soothed me, and the warmth of his body melted away the sudden chill that had engulfed me.
There was none of the heat that I’d experienced before in his arms, nothing of that all-consuming passion. Instead, I just felt as if I’d come home. Not good. Because Sloan Campbell would never be home to me. He could never be mine.
When I drew back, he regarded me steadily for a moment, then leaned down and pressed his lips gently against the scratch on my cheek. This time my heart didn’t just flutter. It turned a full somersault.
Drawing back, he said, “You’re right. Someone wanted Cameron out of the way.”
The knots in my stomach tightened. This was one argument I would have preferred to lose.
“They want you out of the way, too.” Sloan’s tone was grim.
“Who?” Now that I’d finally convinced him that Cameron hadn’t just taken off in a snit, I wanted his opinion. He knew these people far better than I did.
“Anyone who was at that dinner party last night and who heard James announce that I would give you a tour.”
“But they wouldn’t have necessarily known that you
would take the plane, would they?”
“They wouldn’t have to know how I’d bring you here. All they had to know was that we’d come to this spot, and it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Anyone who knows Cameron knows that this is her favorite place on the whole ranch. Ever since she was a little girl, she’s come here. She calls it her ‘gathering place.’ If any place would jar her memory, this one would.”
Curious, I turned to study the area, careful to keep my eyes off of the still-burning plane. We were standing near the edge of a forest that covered this portion of the ranch. The view was spectacular—lush green trees, sheer cliffs and the power of the Pacific in front of me stretching all the way to the horizon. I could see why Cameron would fall in love with this place. I could also see that it would make the perfect spot for an ambush.
“Did you come here with her?” I asked.
Sloan glanced at me. “No. She never wanted anyone with her when she came here. But I flew James out here the day after she disappeared. He was sure that she came here the morning after I argued with her.”
He lifted a hand and pointed to a gap in the trees. “There’s an old logging road that leads up here. It’s rutted, but Cameron drove her car up here frequently.”
“So someone hid in the trees and just waited for us. Someone driving an SUV.”
“That doesn’t narrow it down much. The ranch owns two. Austin has his own, and Doc Carter drives one, too.”
Much as I tried to block it, another thought slipped into my mind. If Cameron had indeed come up here on the day she disappeared, someone could have been waiting for her, too. I knew that Sloan was thinking the same thing when his arm tightened around me.
“I’m calling the police,” he said. “The car you saw may have left tracks, and they may be able to find a bullet.”
Chapter 16
The edge of the cliff was long and rocky. Since we had half an hour to kill until the police would arrive, Sloan had suggested we walk along it to get away from the still-smoking plane. He’d also called Gus at the stables and asked him to come out and pick us up. At my curious glance, he’d explained that though James had given him a place to live after his father had left, it was Gus and Elena who’d raised him. And right now, Gus was the only person he trusted.
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