by Dana Nussio
Her friend took another bag and followed her.
“Just a suggestion, but you may want to stop by my place first. For a shower.”
* * *
Asher stared up at the weathered sign posted above the door of Wilson’s Buy, Sell & Pawn. The shop closely resembled the six other establishments he’d already visited that morning throughout nearby counties. Even the hitching post on the edge of the parking lot was the same, though, unlike the others, this one had no horses tied to it.
He didn’t want to think about how many miles he’d put on his truck to check out his hunch. It had panned out, as he’d already located a few of his mother’s necklaces and a pair of his dad’s enormous gold cuff links with the initials “P.C.” engraved on them.
It wasn’t close to enough. He wanted to find Jace.
Catching sight of a park bench in a shaded area opposite from the pawnshop, Asher crossed the street to take a quick break. He twisted open one of the two water bottles he’d purchased from the local pharmacy as he watched the spattering of shoppers move along the strip of mom-and-pop businesses and even an old-fashioned general store. He drained the bottle and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
Was he ready to admit defeat? He’d been two steps behind Jace all day, and it appeared he would never catch up with him. With all the cash Jace had stolen from Asher’s careless family members, he didn’t even have to unload all his stolen goods at once. By now, he could have made it to Tombstone or Bisbee or even crossed a border into New Mexico or Mexico.
But as he continued to study the shoppers, something about a young couple carrying several handled shopping bags caught his attention. He couldn’t place the blond guy and his redheaded girlfriend, who laughed and appeared to be wrestling over a Western hat, but something about them struck him as familiar. The woman rested her bag on the ground and put the hat back on her partner’s head.
Asher knew that hat, with its fancy turquoise conchos and studs. And blond hair or not, the man wearing it was the same one who thought he could take advantage of the Colton family and get away with it. Jace Smith. Asher didn’t need to see his grandmother’s antique tea set peeking from one of the shopping bags to confirm it.
The temptation to race across the street and wipe that laugh off Jace’s face was so strong that Asher crunched the water bottle in his hand. But he’d already been warned to be smart. He couldn’t take down two suspects with the bandages on his arms, anyway. Instead, he tipped his own hat down so he wouldn’t be recognized, grabbed his phone and tapped on the number he’d dialed several times that morning.
“What city are you in this time?” Spencer asked immediately. “Did you find more of the missing items?”
At least his cousin had given up trying to convince him to back off and let the authorities take care of the investigation. He wouldn’t have listened anyway.
“I’m in Bilmar. I found him.”
“Don’t go near him.”
“I haven’t. He and a woman are inside the pawnshop now.”
“Did you call Bilmar Police?”
“That’s my next move.”
“Let me handle it,” Spencer said. “Give me your location, and I will call it in.”
After Asher passed along the details, the police sergeant gave him one more warning.
“Now stay put and just watch to make sure they don’t leave the pawnshop.”
“What should I do if they try to leave?”
“Nothing. Just keep me up-to-date. I’m on my way.”
* * *
Jace and his girlfriend were laughing again as they exited Wilson’s, but they froze as they were surrounded by police, weapons drawn. Asher took a little satisfaction in that, even if he hadn’t been able to wipe the smiles from their faces himself.
“Stop. Put your hands up. Police,” one of the officers called out.
Instead of lifting her arms as Jace had done immediately, the woman shifted and darted out in an escape attempt. Spencer stepped into her path, unarmed.
“I don’t think so, Sasha Quick.” He grinned at her surprise. “You and Jason Walters, operating under the alias ‘Jace Smith,’ are both under arrest.”
“You don’t have anything on me,” she said, struggling as a female officer handcuffed her.
“Are you kidding?” Already cuffed and being led to the patrol car, Jace called over his shoulder. “This was all her idea.”
The officer behind him grinned as he recited the Miranda warning to Jace. “Jason Walters, you have a right to remain silent...”
Unable to hold back any longer, Asher rushed over to them.
“Stay back,” Spencer warned.
Asher lifted his hands to show he wasn’t a threat. “Please, just give me a minute.”
Spencer nodded, and the other officers shifted Jace and his girlfriend to face Asher.
“What are you doing here?” Jace asked him.
“Just tracking down my long-lost brother. The results are in, you know. We’re not related.”
“Big surprise.” Jace lifted his shoulders and lowered them. “Hey, it was a good con. You’ve got to give me credit for thinking of it after I learned about the forty-year-old baby-switch thing involving that Luella Smith lady. Sure, it was someone else’s game, but why should she be the only one to reap the rewards?”
Jace shook his head, chuckling. “And you Coltons were so desperate to find your ‘real Ace’ that you swallowed my whole story. My idea to use the name ‘Jace’ was ingenious, if I don’t say so myself. Like the new-and-improved Ace.”
He glanced down at Asher’s fisted hands and grinned.
“You didn’t think I really liked your jerk dad or your filthy cattle, did you?”
Asher’s stomach tightened as if the guy had just punched him. In many ways, he had, but at least he wouldn’t get away with what he’d done to his family.
“Now you take credit for the plan?” Sasha spat at her coconspirator.
“Fine. It was all her idea to have me pose as the baby switched with Ace.” He paused to grin at the woman next to him. “She also came up with the plan to call in the phony tip about the current Colton baby, so you’d all be too focused on that to pay any attention to me while I sucked your family dry until the DNA results came back.”
“What about the delay at the lab and the repeated test?” Asher asked.
“She had a friend in the lab, too. Isn’t that great? But we won’t be sharing all our secrets.”
“Oh, don’t worry. We’d already figured that one out,” Spencer said. “We’re expecting an arrest by the end of the day.”
Asher wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer, but he had to know one more thing.
“Why did you do it?”
“You probably think it’s all about the money,” Jace said. “Well, it wasn’t. You all deserved everything that happened to you after what one of your former foremen did to my dad, Bill Walters, when he was a cowboy on the Triple R. They drove him to a heart attack.”
“I don’t remember the name.”
“It was before your time, but that doesn’t make any of you Coltons less responsible.”
Asher swallowed, again feeling bad for actions of those on the Triple R before he was born or had any impact on the ranch decisions. “He survived, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but he was never the same after that. They took my father from me. He was just a shell of a man.”
“I’m sorry your father was treated badly, but the atmosphere on the ranch is different now. I’m the foreman, and you know I care about the ranch hands as much as I do the animals and the land,” Asher said. “No matter what happened, it didn’t give you the right to target my family.”
His heart squeezed as he remembered how Willow had as much reason to hate the Coltons as Jace had, but she’d never struck out at them the way he had
.
“Oh, hell,” Sasha called out. “Could I have found a worse accomplice for this con?”
Jace glanced over at her. “You needed me. I’m the one who got inside. I’m the one who gained everyone’s trust enough to have them letting me provide security, like a fox guarding a henhouse.”
“And you wouldn’t even have known about the game in the first place if I hadn’t been forced to do home care for that gabby retired nurse from Mustang Valley.” She spoke to Asher. “Does the name Nancy Hersh sound familiar to you?”
He swallowed because it did. Nancy, also known as Nan Gelman, was the nurse Callum had tracked down two months before, hoping she could lead them to Luella Smith. They still hadn’t located Luella.
Sasha shifted to the officer holding her by the arm. “So, you see, your guy here has confessed. You might want to uncuff—”
Spencer raised a hand. “Not so fast, Ms. Quick. Besides the charge for receiving stolen goods, you have a rap sheet a mile long with a few outstanding warrants.”
He slid a glance to Asher. “I did a little research on Jace Smith and his associates after the first time you called while trying to track down your belongings.”
“How did you find so much information so fast?”
“Apparently, these two don’t know a lot about facial-recognition software. Successful criminals need to avoid social media.” Spencer stepped over to Asher and tapped him with his elbow. “And, for the record, not only freelancers like you happen to be good at this job.”
Asher grinned. “I’ll remember that.”
The Bilmar officer directed Jace toward the patrol car, but he twisted his head for a parting comment. “You Coltons deserve everything that has happened to you. The bomb threat, though it should have been the real thing. The lost cattle. A fake baby switch. And you’ll deserve it, too, if Payne never wakes up.”
The fragile control Asher had over his anger snapped, and he barreled forward, his hand fisted and poised for contact. Spencer caught his arm before he reached him.
“I know it would feel great, but he’s not worth it.” He indicated the other officers. “Also, you might want to think twice about rushing people who are carrying weapons.”
“Sorry, guys.” Asher waved to the officers and then got in his own parting comment to the suspects before the doors closed. “Enjoy prison.”
As the cars pulled away, he turned back to his cousin. “Thanks for meeting me here.”
“Just doing my job.”
“Going beyond the call, in my opinion. But it’s time for me to get back to Mustang Valley. A little girl there is waiting for me. There’s also someone else I need to see.”
“I’m guessing that ‘someone’ also has a baby girl at home?”
Asher only smiled and then waved before they headed toward their own vehicles. Now that he’d located Jace, he could think of nothing else except getting back to Willow. He’d given her enough time, enough space. He had to tell her and Luna that something good could come from Jace Smith’s arrival in all their lives.
Chapter 27
“Mom, she’s gone!”
Asher chased his voice into Genevieve’s suite, where she looked up from her book and smiled.
“What are you grinning about? Didn’t you hear me? Harper’s missing. I’ve checked everywhere. My room. The kitchen. The family room. Neda doesn’t know anything.”
He shot a look out the window as if he would find answers there. “Do you think Harper’s been abducted?”
Genevieve didn’t even rush as she tucked a bookmark inside her book and set it on the table beside her. “Relax. She’s with Marlowe right now.”
“Marlowe? What’s she doing home? And where are they?”
“She took a few hours off from work. She volunteered to watch Harper for a while.”
“Well, she just gave me a heart attack, so tell me where she took my daughter.”
Her smile was starting to annoy him.
“If I understood her correctly, they’re in a tent they built under the deck.”
“Marlowe built a tent?”
“With Dulcie’s help, I think.”
He backed out of his parents’ suite and hurried toward the back of the house. Genevieve followed him from the room.
“Wait. You didn’t give the rest of the details about Jace’s arrest.”
Asher paused, shaking his head. He’d given her no more than the basic information from the road, but now wasn’t the time to fill in the blanks. He needed to get to his daughter and then to the woman he loved.
“I will later, okay?”
“That’s fine.”
Still, she followed him as he reached one of the sets of French doors at the back of the house.
“Oh, Asher. Hope you don’t mind, but Marlowe brought along a friend or two.”
He drew his brows together and then stepped outside. In the shady end beneath the second-story deck, a play tent had been made of old quilts thrown over a nylon rope, anchored between two six-by-six posts. That the structure wasn’t collapsing over its inhabitants signaled that his sister must have received help in building it. Dulcie apparently had skills with play tent construction, as well.
“Marlowe, are you in there?”
A loose flap of material moved. His sister emerged, stooped over, before she straightened.
“What is all this?” he couldn’t help asking.
“Just getting a little practice for my own upcoming event.” She grinned and settled her hands on her rounded stomach. “And having a little playdate.”
As if responding to her comment, the side of the makeshift structure rippled with movement from inside. The squeal that joined it sounded strange to him. Not like Harper at all.
“Was this your idea?”
“Not really.” She pulled the flap farther open for him. “Come inside.”
As he bent to enter the tent, several things suddenly made sense. His mother’s knowing smile and hovering. His sister’s uncharacteristic choice of activity. Even the happy-baby cheep that hadn’t sounded like his child.
Not one but two infants scooted around on the blankets covering the cement slab, and just beyond them, sitting cross-legged, was the woman he’d been dying to see.
“Hello.”
Her voice squeaked when she spoke. He could relate to her nervousness. His hands were so sweaty that he had to wipe them off on his jeans.
“What are you doing here?”
This time she smiled. “Didn’t you hear? We’re in our tent, having a playdate.”
“I mean why are you here? On the Triple R?”
“We came to see you two.”
“And how long have you been here?”
“Two hours or so.”
As their gazes connected, his heart thudded in his chest. She’d not only come to see him, but she’d waited for him. Another delighted squeal, this one from his own child, split the silence. Like always, Harper reached out her arms to him.
“Your baby wants you to join us.” Willow’s tongue darted out to dampen her lips. “I do, too.”
Asher glanced back at his grinning sister as he slid off his boots. “You coming in?”
Marlowe shook her head, holding back a smile. “It’s getting a little crowded in there. I will go and get some lemonade, though.”
Good thing since his mouth was dry as he scooted inside, settled with his legs crossed as Willow’s were and reached for Harper.
“Your sister told me what you found out about Jace. I’m sorry about that.”
He shook his head. “I’m just sorry you got caught up in the mess.”
“It’s okay. How are your arms?”
He glanced down at the bandages. “They’re fine. Looks like we all are.”
Luna was busy scooting her way over to him. When she clim
bed up on his leg, he lifted her to sit next to Harper and then ran his fingers through each girl’s hair by turns.
“She liked you from the start.” Willow pointed to her daughter.
“What can I say? You have a smart baby.”
“She also was right about you.”
He’d wanted to hear words like those from her, but now he found them unsettling. Had she come to him only because he’d rescued her child?
“I don’t want you to feel beholden to me about Luna. In different circumstances, you would have done the same thing for Harper.”
Willow shifted. This wasn’t going the way she’d planned it at all. She needed to make him understand.
“I’m grateful to you, but if you think that’s why I’m here, then you’ve got it all wrong. I came to you because—”
“Lemonade,” Marlowe called out from outside the tent.
“Lousy timing.”
At his whispered words, Willow grinned.
Instead of Asher’s sister, Genevieve crouched outside the tent entry. “We also thought two little girls might need diaper changes.”
“Good idea,” he said.
Genevieve reached in, and he handed Harper out to her. Marlowe set the tray with a pitcher of lemonade and two glasses on the cement outside the tent before her mother passed off the first baby to her. Then Asher shifted Luna into Genevieve’s arms.
With a few chuckles, the two women were gone.
Asher shook his head. “I can’t believe we were interrupted. Again.”
“I’m hoping we’ll have the chance to get used to interruptions. Big ones. Tiny ones. Hundreds of funny, sometimes annoying disruptions.”
“What are you saying?”
“That it’s something the parents of two infants—nearly twins—would have to deal with regularly.”
He cleared his throat. “Two?”
Willow nodded and gripped her hands together. She could do this. “So, before we’re interrupted again, I want to tell you that I came because... I’m in love with you.”