“Thanks to your Mr. Fury. And Max.” Celeste reached around and took the hand of the man standing behind her. Cassie glanced at him curiously. He was around thirty, tall and good-looking in a serious, conservative sort of way.
“I’m Max Tripp.” He extended his hand to Cassie.
“I know you must have a lot of questions,” Celeste said, “And I’ll try to explain everything to you, but first…” She motioned to a small wooden table and chairs across the room. “Let’s sit down, shall we?”
Once they were all settled, Cassie glanced at Jack. He had been strangely quiet during the exchange. She wondered what was going on inside his head.
“First let me tell you that Margo has confessed to everything,” Celeste said. Even after her ordeal, she still managed to look incredibly beautiful. And she had Max Tripp’s undivided attention. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
And Jack? Was that the reason for his silence? Was he comparing Cassie to Celeste?
“She killed Owen and she tried to kill me,” Celeste was saying.
Cassie wanted to feel compassion for her cousin, but at the moment, mostly what she felt was resentment. She wasn’t proud of the emotion, but there it was. “That’s why you wanted me to pretend to be you, isn’t it? You knew someone was trying to kill you.”
“You have every reason to be upset with me, Cassie, but you have to believe me. I never thought you’d be in any real danger.” She looked very earnest saying that, but Cassie wasn’t convinced.
“Then why the ruse?” she demanded.
Celeste and Max exchanged a glance. Then Celeste bit her lip. “I think I’d better go back to the beginning.”
“Yes, why don’t you do that?” Cassie agreed.
Her angry tone seemed to throw Celeste. Honestly, did she think Cassie was going to be thrilled by everything that had happened?
“It all started after my affair with Owen became public.” She paused and glanced down at her hands, as if overcome with shame. “Suddenly, I went from being a relatively obscure actress to having my picture splashed across all the tabloids. The paparazzi camped out on my doorstep night and day trying to catch me with Owen. It started wearing on my nerves. And then…I began to get phone calls. Hang ups at first, and then the caller started making nasty accusations. Threats. The harassment went on for weeks until I decided to leave town. That’s when I called Max.”
Jack sat forward suddenly. “You called Max?”
She nodded. “I’ve known him for a long time. We met in college, in fact. I knew he’d become a cop after graduation, and I heard through a mutual friend that he’d opened a private investigation firm. I thought if anyone could help me, he could.”
“Help you do what?” Cassie asked.
“Find out who my harasser was. I suspected Margo, of course, but I couldn’t prove it. And without proof, I had no leverage against her.”
Another glance passed between her and Max, and then he took over the explanation. “We were fairly certain that if Margo was behind the threats, she wouldn’t give up just because Celeste left town. We figured she’d follow her here. So we decided to set a trap.”
“With me as bait.” Cassie couldn’t believe how gullible she’d been.
“Like I said, I never thought you’d be in any real danger,” Celeste said. “Not with Jack watching over you.”
Cassie turned, her heart suddenly in her throat. “You were in on this, too?” she asked in a wounded tone.
His eyes glinted with anger. “No. I was as much in the dark as you. It seems we’ve both been played.”
“What do you mean?”
“Jack works for me,” Max said.
Cassie swiveled back around to Jack. “But I thought…you said you worked for Interpol. That was just a lie, wasn’t it? I must be the biggest fool in the world.” She glanced away, then her gaze swung back to his. “Who are you?”
He shrugged. “Just an unemployed ex-cop.”
“Unemployed?” She nodded toward Max. “He said you worked for him.”
“Not any more,” Jack said grimly.
“We’ll talk about that later,” Max said. “You see, Cassie, my business is not exactly your run-of-the-mill P.I. firm. I’ll let Jack explain the details to you later, but suffice it to say that his assignment was to keep an eye on you. Find out everything he could about you. I knew you couldn’t be in better hands. Jack was the best cop I ever worked with, and he’s like a dog with a bone when he’s working a case. All I had to do was arrange for him to see someone trying to break into your suite one night. Knowing him the way I do, I knew he’d move heaven and earth to keep you safe.”
“So you just made all that up about the diamond and the jewel thief.” A part of her had known that all along, but in light of Celeste’s deception, Jack’s betrayal suddenly seemed like the last straw. Cassie felt like a fool, and she hated it.
“I needed a cover,” Jack said. “After the boat exploded that day, I had to come up with a reason to stay near you.”
“Why didn’t you just tell the truth?”
He shrugged. “Why didn’t you?”
She lifted her chin. “I explained that last night.”
Last night. Cassie had almost forgotten what had happened between her and Jack the night before, but now it came rushing back. Every passionate detail.
She blushed and glanced away.
“I suspected my roommate was the one feeding information to Margo so I set her up,” Celeste said. “I deliberately left my itinerary where Olivia would find it, and sure enough, Margo came to Houston and checked herself into the Mirabelle to wait for me.”
“Only she found me instead.”
“According to her, she knew all along you were an imposter.”
“Then why did she try to kill me? Why did she blow up Ethan Gold’s boat? She was behind it, wasn’t she?” Cassie asked doubtfully.
Celeste lifted her shoulders. “I suppose in her twisted way, she thought she could draw me out of hiding.”
“There are still some things that don’t make sense to me,” Jack said. “If Margo Fleming was behind everything, why did Ethan Gold act so guilty? Why did he run away that day at the beach house when he saw us? And why did he threaten Cassie?”
“He ran because he wanted to get back to Houston and warn me about what had happened. But, unfortunately, Margo had him followed. She found out where I was staying, and that’s when she got in touch with the Cantrells. Once she figured out you and I had swapped places, Cassie, it was a simple matter for her detectives to find out who you were and that you had a jilted fiancé in your past who might be willing to strike a bargain in exchange for your whereabouts.” Celeste let out a long breath. “And the rest you know.”
“There’s still one thing you haven’t explained to my satisfaction,” Cassie said. “You say you came to Houston to lay a trap for Margo. If you truly thought there was no real danger, why not use yourself as bait?”
Color tinged Celeste’s cheeks and she glanced away.
“Oh, I get it,” Cassie said. “You didn’t just come here to set a trap. You came here to meet Owen. That’s why he was in Houston. He came here to see you.”
“We were going away together.” Celeste put a hand to her mouth, choking back sudden emotion. “With you already here pretending to be me, we knew it would buy us some time with the paparazzi. We were going to use the evidence we gathered against Margo as leverage to get her to agree to a divorce.”
“So she murdered him.”
A tear rolled down Celeste’s cheek, and Max handed her a handkerchief, which she accepted gratefully.
“I don’t know about you,” Jack muttered. “But I could use some air.”
The sound of Celeste’s quiet sobbing followed them out of the room. At the door, Cassie glanced back. Max Tripp had folded Celeste in his arms and was holding her close.
And Cassie could see from his expression that he was already madly, passionately, desperately in love with her.
Poor devil.
Outside, Cassie sank down on the steps, her voluminous skirts billowing all around her.
“So what did you think of that little performance?” Jack sat down beside her.
“You think it was all an act?” Cassie asked in surprise.
“Who knows?” He shrugged. “I’ll tell you what I do think. No matter how she tries to sugarcoat it, she set you up, Cassie. She knew someone was after her, and she deliberately put you in the line of fire. She wasn’t trying to bait a trap. She was trying to save her own butt.”
“I feel like the biggest idiot in the world,” Cassie said.
“You’re not an idiot.”
“No?” She studied the street. “I believed you, didn’t I?”
“I didn’t lie about the important things,” he said softly. “I did want to protect you.”
“So why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”
“I wanted to. When I saw someone trying to break into your suite that night, I went to Max and told him we had to tell you everything. We had to warn you that you were in danger. I even threatened to go to the cops.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He rested his forearms on his knees as he watched the street. “Because I knew I couldn’t get anyone at police headquarters to listen to me. I didn’t exactly leave the department on amicable terms.”
Cassie gave him a curious glance. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t quit. I was fired.”
Her eyes widened in shock. “Why?”
“You remember that criminal psychologist you saw on TV talking about the Casanova case? She said there was an HPD detective who still believes the killer is out there somewhere. That cop was me, Cassie.”
She shook her head in confusion. “How did that get you fired?”
“I kept investigating after we had a conviction. I knew the wrong man had been sent to prison, and I set out to prove it.”
“They fired you because of that?” she asked incredulously.
“It’s called insubordination.” His gaze was still on the street. His voice had gone hard when he talked about the police department, and Cassie suspected he still hadn’t come to terms yet with the fact that he was no longer a cop.
“What did you do after they let you go?”
“I continued to investigate for as long as I could, but eventually my savings ran out. My resources dried up. That’s why I took the job with Max. Without funds, my investigation was at a standstill.”
“That’s admirable, Jack, but it sounds—”
“Obsessive?” He frowned. “So I’ve been told.”
“I was going to say dedicated,” she murmured.
He turned at that. “I promised those women justice, Cassie, and I won’t rest until they have it.”
Something in his eyes made Cassie shiver. She’d never seen this side of him before. “Why?”
“It’s…complicated. My mother was murdered when I was thirteen. Her killers were never found, and it nearly tore our family apart. Betty helped save us, but it was something none of us ever got over. I promised myself a long time ago I’d do everything in my power to keep other families from having to go through what we did.”
“That’s why Max said he knew you’d move heaven and earth to protect me,” she said softly.
“So there you have it. All my deep, dark secrets.”
Somehow, Cassie doubted that very much. “What are you going to do now?”
“Find another job, I guess. Keep looking for the killer. He’s out there somewhere. And if I don’t find him, he’ll kill again. Maybe he already has.” Jack’s gaze left the street then and met hers. “What about you? What are you going to do?”
She fiddled with the gossamer skirt of her dress. “I don’t know. I never thought I’d come back to Manville, but…here I am.”
“You don’t have to stay, you know.”
“There’s no reason for me to go back to Houston now, except to get Sam. Besides, I have a house here. And I could probably go back to teaching if I want to.”
“Is that what you want?”
“I…don’t know.”
Jack was silent for a moment, then he said, “You told me once you’d always dreamed of being an artist, but you gave it up to take care of your mother. There’s nothing holding you back now. Why not give it a try?”
“Because I don’t have any talent,” she said flatly.
“Now you’re being modest.”
“No, I’m not.” She shoved back a strand of limp hair. “I’m being realistic. I always told myself that under different circumstances, I could have done exactly what Celeste did. I could have pursued my dreams, too. But you know what? Being an artist was just a pipe dream, and it’s time I admit that. It’s time to let go of that particular fantasy.” And she did so with hardly more than a prickle of regret.
“Well,” Jack said. “There are a lot of other things you could do. Why not try something different?”
“Like what?”
“I’ve been thinking about opening my own P.I. firm. I might be looking for a partner. Are you interested?”
Cassie’s pulse leaped with sudden excitement. Was she interested? Was she interested? Oh, she was interested all right, but she tried not to jump at the offer. She didn’t want to be too hasty here. Jack had lied to her, after all. Of course, she’d lied to him, too, so maybe that made them even. “I don’t know the first thing about detective work.”
He dismissed her concern. “You could learn. It’s not like we’d be opening our doors overnight. It could take months or even years to get this thing off the ground. In the meantime, you could take some classes. You and Sam could even stay with me until…you know…you find your own place.”
And if she played her cards right, that search could take a good long while, Cassie thought. “Are you sure you want to make an offer like that? You’ve only known me for a couple days. For all you know, I could turn out to be some psycho.”
“Or you could turn out to be the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met,” he murmured.
Her heart started to pound in earnest. When she turned to stare at him, he smiled. And Cassie was lost.
“You did say you wanted an adventure, didn’t you?” he murmured.
“Yes, I guess I did.”
He smiled. “The way I see it, we’ve got some pretty interesting chemistry. Why not see where it takes us?”
Why not, indeed? “But starting a business together…surely there’s someone else you know who’s more qualified—”
“There’s no one else.”
Something in his voice, that look in his eyes, sent one of those little shudders through Cassie.
He leaned over and pressed his shoulder against hers. “What do you say? Partners?”
Cassie drew a long breath. “Partners.” She held out her hand. He took it and lifted it to his mouth, skimming his lips across her knuckles. Cassie shivered in anticipation.
A partnership with Jack Fury? What was she thinking?
Her, a P.I.? No way she could pull that off.
But, boy, would she ever have fun trying!
And along the way, she just might find herself head over heels in love with the most exciting man she’d ever met.
It was worth a shot, wasn’t it?
* * * * *
Intimate Knowledge
Amanda Stevens
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Penelope Moon—She’s drawn into a deadly conspiracy after glimpsing her fiancé, a man who has supposedly been in a coma for months, on board a yacht in Mexico.
Simon Decker—Is he who he says he is…?
Allen Decker—Why does Simon’s father harbor so much animosity toward Penelope?
Edward Moon—Penelope’s father is a renowned plastic surgeon whose private clinic has become the target of a governmental investigation.
Helen Moon McKenna—How far is Penelope’s sister willing to go to retain her youth and beauty?
Grayson McKenna—The owner of a pharmaceutical firm, his research and development department is working on a controversial procedure that could make him wealthy beyond his dreams.
Avery Bennett—The curator of the Putnam Museum has developed expensive tastes.
Theresa Domingo—She’s determined to safeguard the secret ingredients in her skin care line. But what else is she hiding?
Doug Fairchild—Edward Moon’s protégé, and a man who has been hiding a deadly secret for years.
Alex Salizar—Grayson McKenna’s partner, Alex has access to a powerful toxin that could revolutionize the cosmetic industry. The only problem is, women who have been injected with the poison keep dying.
Chapter One
Max Tripp could smell a scam a mile off. He’d known the moment Simon Decker walked into his Houston office a week ago that the man was bad news, although his nondescript appearance and squeaky-clean image seemed to suggest otherwise.
Their background check hadn’t turned up so much as a parking ticket in Decker’s past, and it had been Max’s experience that no one’s files were that antiseptic unless they’d been purged, either officially or unofficially.
Question was, why? What was he up to? Max wondered uneasily as he watched his secretary usher Decker into his office.
This was their second meeting, and Max couldn’t say that his initial impression of Simon Decker had changed much. If anything, his doubts had been strengthened by those whitewashed files.
“So,” Decker said with an anxious smile. “You said to give you a week to reach a decision. What’s the verdict? Are you willing to take me on as a client?” He tugged at his conservative navy striped tie, then nervously pushed his dark-rimmed glasses up his nose.
He certainly wore the accoutrements of an accountant, Max decided as he folded his arms and regarded Decker across the expanse of his desk. All he needed was a pocket protector. “I asked to take a week, not only to give us a chance to review the information you provided, but also to make certain that you understand the consequences of your decision. You haven’t changed your mind about this woman…this Penelope…”
Unauthorised Passion/Intimate Knowledge Page 17