by Dana Nussio
She shook her head as soon as she opened it. “My jewelry is gone.”
They both automatically glanced down at her left hand. Her diamond solitaire engagement ring from Bowie blinked back at them.
“Oh, thank goodness.” Marlowe blew out a breath. “I’ve not been wearing it as often lately since my hands are swelling from the pregnancy.”
“Good thing you wore it today.”
She pointed back to the drawer. “They got the cash I keep in there, too.”
“Does everyone in this family leave cash lying around?”
Since they were on the third floor, anyway, they also checked Callum’s room, which looked much like the first two. Then they checked Asher’s before taking the elevator back down.
“Looks like we’ve all been hit,” Grayson said as they reached the landing.
Marlowe pointed to Asher. “Except for him.”
“I told you that Dulcie was in there with Harper. I don’t have anything of value in there, anyway. And I rarely use cash.”
Marlowe pulled out her phone. “I’ll call the others.”
Genevieve pointed toward the guest suite. “What about Jace’s room?”
“Right. Jace.” Asher hurried that way. “A burglar wouldn’t know which wings to hit.”
The others followed him down the hall but stood back as he pushed open the door.
“It’s empty!” Genevieve called out, speaking for everyone.
Asher stepped inside to look around, and the others followed. The dresser drawers had been pulled out like they had been in the other suites, but this time, there were no clothes on the floor. None of the paintings remained on the wall, either.
“What the hell?” Asher called out.
“This place has been wiped clean,” Grayson said behind him.
Marlowe marched over to the closet and opened the door. It was empty, too.
Grayson shook his head. “The leather jacket I bought him.”
“That hat from Ainsley. The boots from Callum. The clothes from Mom.” Marlowe shook her head. “They’re all gone.”
Genevieve frowned. “I won’t even ask about the cash I gave him to tide him over.”
Could Jace have been the one who’d robbed them? Asher shook his head, the sensation that he’d just been kicked in the stomach making him want to double over.
As they returned to the entry, the doorbell rang. Asher pulled open the door. Kerry Wilder stood on the stoop in her police department uniform, her hair tucked under her hat.
“Oh, hey, Kerry. Rafe isn’t here, but you don’t have to knock. You’re nearly family.”
She shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m here on business.”
“Right,” Asher said. “You don’t usually respond to calls, do you?”
Kerry shook her head. “I volunteered. Everyone else is getting sick of coming out to the Triple R.”
“Can’t say as I blame them.”
Just as he stepped aside to let her in, Ainsley hurried up the walk. As usual, she was on her cell phone. She clicked off as she stepped inside.
“I forgot something when I left for the office this morning.” She stopped and scanned the crowded entry. “What’s going on?”
“I hope whatever you left wasn’t valuable,” Marlowe said.
The others took turns filling Ainsley in on the most recent incident. Her shoulders slumped forward with each detail, but when Grayson announced that Jace was missing, she put her hand to her forehead and squeezed her temples between her thumb and middle finger.
She lowered her hand to her side. “The hospital just called. The results for the repeat test are in.”
“Finally.” Asher and Grayson said it in unison.
As their take-charge sister, Ainsley stepped forward.
“Okay, let’s check to see what’s missing from our suites, and then I’ll go pick up the results. We can open them together.” She started up the stairs and then stopped and turned back to them. “Hopefully, by then Jace will have reappeared from wherever he took off to, and it’ll be a misunderstanding we can all laugh about.”
Though they called out their agreement with her, the sounds fell flat. Asher wanted to believe it, too, but the circumstantial evidence was piling on top of their hope, threatening to smother it. The answers they’d waited for were about to be theirs. Unfortunately, they would have to deal with the possibility that even if Jace was their brother, he also might be a thief.
* * *
“Okay, let’s get this over with.”
Ainsley rested the clasp envelope on the dining room table and sat a few seats down from her stepmother.
Asher nodded her way and slid into the chair between Genevieve and Rafe. The room was too quiet without the addition of his siblings’ husbands-and wives-to-be. Even Harper wasn’t around, as Dulcie had taken her off for a bath.
Just seven family members crowded around one end of a cloth-covered table. The absences of both Payne and Ace had never seemed starker or more obvious. They hadn’t even asked Dulcie to provide a last-minute meal for them as none of them would have been able to eat, anyway.
When everyone was seated, Ainsley opened the envelope.
“Has Jace reached out to any of you since the discovery of the burglary? If so, we’ll wait for him before we read this.”
“I tried calling his cell, but it went right to voice mail,” Marlowe said.
One by one, they said they hadn’t heard from him.
“Okay, then.” She pulled the stack of documents from the envelope and read down the first page.
Asher’s gut clenched as images of another set of tests results filtered through his thoughts. Conclusions that had both thrilled and unsettled him as he’d confirmed he was Harper’s dad but not Luna’s. He doubted now that any results on those sheets would give anyone sitting around that table joy.
Callum leaned forward on his elbows. “Well, are you going to tell us what it says?”
Asher lifted a hand to stall him. “Give her a minute. There’s a lot of information to digest.”
Callum nodded and sat back.
Finally, Ainsley cleared her throat and read aloud, “In the case of the child, Jace Smith, the alleged father, Payne Colton, is excluded as the biological parent.”
Marlowe struggled to her feet. “You mean Jace is not our brother?”
Ainsley nodded. “That’s what it means. On the Combined Paternity Index, it says ‘zero.’”
“That jerk!” Grayson called out.
Asher had to unclench his molars to be able to speak. “That’s what I thought. At least after what we found this afternoon.”
“Me, too.” Ainsley tucked the papers back inside the envelope. “He must have had something to do with the delay in getting the DNA results back from the hospital, as well.”
Marlowe gripped her hands on the edge of the table as she sat again. “But that would have required help from inside the hospital.”
Ainsley nodded. “How else can you explain that our test had to be repeated, and we received our results after Asher and Willow did?”
Something about that bothered Asher, too, but they had to deal with the truth on the documents first.
“We just have to admit that we’ve been duped by a grifter. Me most of all.”
Rafe shook his head. “You don’t get to own that. We all believed him.”
Marlowe slumped in her chair. “We were all so naive to think the ‘real Ace’ would just appear out of nowhere. We never considered that there might be people out there ready to take advantage of this mess affecting all of us.”
Asher crossed his arms and shook his head, refusing to be let off the hook. Sure, the others had bought him gifts. They were rich. They could buy things for every resident of Mustang Valley if they wanted to. But he’d gone a step furt
her.
“I was worse than any of you. I wanted him to be my brother.” He was furious with himself, but more than that, he was ashamed.
Grayson chuckled. “You weren’t alone, Asher. We all did.”
Rafe held out both hands in a sign for them to hold up. “Well, maybe not all of us.”
They all laughed at that, but the sounds rang hollow. Jace had betrayed them all, and Asher felt like an idiot for letting him do it.
Slowly, Genevieve came to her feet, drawing the attention of her children and stepchildren to her.
“I don’t want you all to feel sorry for or angry with yourselves over this.”
She seemed to be looking right at Asher as she said the second part.
“As awful as it was to be robbed, nothing we lost was irreplaceable.”
Ainsley started to speak up, but Genevieve held up a hand to delay her.
“We opened our home and our hearts to someone we believed could be family. You can console yourselves with that. Things can be replaced. Family can’t. That grifter wasn’t family.”
The meeting broke up soon after as they all quietly returned with their thoughts to their suites and homes.
Only Asher’s sitting room seemed to shrink on him once he reached it. Back in the dining room, he couldn’t bring himself to mention it and add to an already difficult discovery, but now he could think of nothing else. One switched-at-birth report had been fabricated, and the other was real but with an impostor playing the role of the missing baby. Were those things connected?
“I was a chump.”
He shook his head as memories of showing off the new spring calves to Jace crept through his thoughts. Had he hoped he would finally have a brother who cared as much about the land and the animals of the Triple R as he did?
Unable to stay on the sofa any longer, he crossed to the nursery and carefully opened the door, allowing light to stream across the room. His beautiful Harper slept flat on her back, her arms raised above her head, the light blanket he’d placed over her already bunched in a corner of the crib. He took a step toward her, but she startled in her sleep, so he remained in the doorway.
Jace had not only taken advantage of his parents and siblings, he’d also likely targeted Asher’s precious child, the woman he loved and another child he cared for as if she was his own. Was he positive that Jace was the one who orchestrated the fake baby switch? No. Audrey Williams had a motive to do it in her plans to hurt Willow, but if it was Jace, Asher wouldn’t let him get away with it.
Without covering his daughter again since her sleeper was plenty warm, he closed the door and returned to the sitting room with his phone. He needed to get in touch with Rex and Jarvis and let them know they would be in charge the next day. He had to find some answers.
After he made those calls, he pulled up Willow’s name in the contact list and stared down at her photo that he’d added to it. As his finger lingered over the call icon, he reconsidered. He’d told himself he would give her space, and even if he suspected he’d finally found the real connection between the mysteries involving his family and hers, he still needed proof.
Once he had it, he would share the whole story with her and apologize for how she’d been dragged into a drama that had nothing to do with her. Then, if she was still talking to him, he would tell her one more thing: he was in love with her.
Chapter 26
Willow carefully climbed the exterior stairs to her apartment and inserted her key in the dead bolt. She didn’t know why the fire inspector had locked it, since there was almost nothing salvageable inside. She shifted onto her hip the box of contractor trash bags, a pair of work gloves tucked at the top. They would fill many bags that morning.
“Are you sure these steps are safe?” Candace asked from behind her.
“The inspector said we’re clear to come back inside,” Willow said over her shoulder. “The building is structurally sound. But I have to tell you, if it wasn’t, hugging that handrail wouldn’t have made a difference.”
Though Candace made a mean face, she didn’t release the rail until she stood behind her boss at the top.
“Glad Tori could babysit Luna today.”
Willow nodded, but she didn’t look back at her. “She said she was glad to have a little extra income. I’m sorry I’m unable to cover payroll until we’re up and running again.”
“That’s what unemployment insurance is for. Besides, you know I don’t need this job. I’m just here for the distraction, and because I adore you and Luna.”
“Thanks. We love you, too.” She stared at the same peephole where she’d looked out at Asher that night not so long ago. Was everything in her apartment going to remind her of him? “Get ready to be really distracted today.”
As she pushed open the door, her breath caught. She’d thought she was prepared to see it. The fire department officials had warned her. That didn’t stop the images and the stench from hitting her like a two-by-four to the face. This was the home she’d made for her tiny family, the business she’d built, piece by piece, and that plan that was supposed to provide her with the type of security her mother had never known.
At least this part of it was gone.
Anything that hadn’t been burned lay bloated and destroyed from the high-powered fire hoses. Even days later, her tennis shoes squished on the soggy carpeting as she took her first few steps inside.
She swallowed a sob, reminding herself that only things had been inside that building. No one she loved had been badly injured. Luna was unharmed. Even Asher’s injuries were minor. None of her employees or charges were hurt. So why did she still have the urge to sit on the floor and cry?
“Wow. I was expecting it to be a lot worse.”
“You’re joking, right.” She whirled to face Candace, who grinned back at her.
“Yeah, it’s bad. We’ll fill up that dumpster you rented in no time.” The older woman scanned the room. “But it could have been a lot worse. And if I’d lost you and Luna...”
Candace closed her eyes and sank her front teeth in her bottom lip.
“Right. We’re fine.” Willow straightened her shoulders. They could do this.
She tied a bandanna over her nose and mouth, put on the gloves, yanked out the first huge trash bag and handed the box to Candace.
“It was a good idea doing this part first.” Candace donned her own scarf, slid on her gloves and spoke in a muffled voice. “It’ll make the downstairs look a lot better.”
Willow shoved garbage inside her bag, trying not to attach memories to each item as it disappeared inside the plastic. If she did that, they would never be finished. Still, she had to blink back tears as she grabbed what was left of Luna’s crib and lugged what she could of it down the steps to the dumpster on the driveway. Her sweet child had been in that bed when Asher had pulled her from the fire.
“Have you heard from Mr. Rancher?” Candace said, her voice indistinct behind the cloth.
She shook her head and pulled off her bandanna, using the inside to wipe the sweat off her neck. As much as she loved Candace, she wished her friend hadn’t brought him up this time. She’d already stared at the table where they’d shared coffee, the bed where they’d made love. He was as much a ghost in this space as she and Luna were.
“Maybe it was just too much to expect that anything would work out between us in a high-stress situation like the way we met. I’m the former maid’s daughter, and he’s a prince from the local royal family. We wouldn’t even have met if not for a ridiculous claim about switched babies.”
Candace pulled off her scarf. “Yep, and you would have gone on hating the Coltons for something most of them had nothing to do with.”
“Some things just weren’t meant—”
“And neither of you would have found your one true love.”
Willow stopped just as she was about
to tie on the bandanna again. “You don’t believe in all that, do you?”
“Haven’t you ever wondered why I never dated in the ten years that Hank has been gone?”
“I thought you weren’t ready.”
Candace lowered her bag to the ground, pulled off her gloves and flashed the wedding band she always wore. “It’s because I’m still married to my love.”
For several seconds, Willow could only stare at her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”
Candace smiled. “Asher Colton might be ‘a prince,’ as you call him, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is watching. That young man’s in love with you. He put guards on your house. He rescued your baby.”
Each of her friend’s words caused more tears to fill Willow’s eyes until they finally spilled over. Candace was crying, too, twin tears forming lines through the soot on her cheeks.
“And if you say you’re not in love with him, I’ll call you a liar.”
Willow wiped her face on the sleeve of her T-shirt. “I am.”
“Then the question is, what will you do about it? Are you going to wait for him to come to you?”
Willow tied her scarf back on, grabbed a trash bag and tossed some of her destroyed clothes inside. Was that what she’d been doing? Waiting for him? She’d stared at Candace’s front door that whole first night after Luna had been released from the hospital, expecting him to come, at least to check on the baby. But he hadn’t, that night or the next.
Was she brave enough to go to him after he’d had time to conclude that being with her and Luna was too much? She’d waited for him to make the first move, but hadn’t he already done that? He’d been trying to tell her how he felt when the fire broke out. He didn’t get the chance, but hadn’t his sacrifice to save Luna been the best love letter he could have written?
Slowly, Willow lowered the bag to the floor. “Would you mind...?”
Candace grinned. “If we came back to this project tomorrow? I think it can wait a little longer.”
“Then I need to do something I never expected to do once, let alone twice. I’m going to the Triple R.” Willow grabbed an overstuffed bag and pulled open the door. “Coming?”