Twin Seduction

“Wait.” Jordan raised a hand. “You haven’t killed anyone yet, Uncle Carleton. Daniel Pearson acted on his own when he tried to kill Pete Blackthorn. Dorothy acted on her own to kill my mother. You could still walk away from all of this.”

Okay, so he had hired professionals to do his killing for him. She wouldn’t mention that.

“You don’t understand,” he said.

Jordan bit back a sigh of relief that the fury had faded a bit from his voice.

“I have to save Ware Bank. It was left in my care.”

“I understand that. And Maddie and I can help with that. I can’t believe my mother would have wanted the bank to fail.”

“Your mother.” He spat the words out. “She wouldn’t have cared a fig if Ware Bank failed. And she wouldn’t have lifted a finger to save it.”

Jordan realized too late that she’d taken the wrong tack. She’d made him angry again.

“Enough. I’m through waiting. We’re going to do this my way.” He lunged down the steps toward her.

Even as she jumped back, Cash and D.C. raced around the corners of the house.

They both shouted something, and Carleton whirled in Cash’s direction. He fired wildly once before Brutus neighed loudly and reared. It was the horse’s descending hooves that knocked Carleton Ware to the ground.

Cash reached him first and kicked the gun away. Then Jordan rushed into his arms and held on tight.

“UNCLE CARLETON wanted to kill both of us.” The shock and disbelief in Maddie’s voice was a near perfect match to what Jordan was still feeling as she stood in the living room of the ranch with the phone pressed to her ear. The difference was that through the picture window, Jordan could see the spot where her uncle had stood on the porch the night before pointing the gun at her. She could also see the charred remains of the stables. And the lightning-fast images of Cash and D.C. rushing toward Carleton, of Brutus whinnying and rearing and knocking her uncle to the ground were still replaying themselves in her mind. If it hadn’t been for Brutus, she might have lost Cash.

“But he didn’t succeed.” She turned and looked at Cash and D.C., who were standing in the kitchen drinking coffee. They were safe. And so were Jase and Maddie now. The reality of that was slowly sinking in. Her uncle’s injuries from his encounter with Brutus had been minor. He was refusing to talk, but Shay was confident that his accomplices would be more forthcoming.Since it had been long after midnight by the time the detective had taken Carleton and his two henchmen into Santa Fe and Cash had arranged for Sweeney to transport the two horses to his ranch, she, Cash and D.C. had postponed calling New York with the latest news until morning. D.C. and Jase had spoken first. Then Cash had talked to Maddie. And now it was her turn to talk to her sister.

The sister she hadn’t known existed until a week ago. Her knuckles white on the phone, Jordan shifted her gaze back to the window, to the land that stretched for miles until it gradually lifted into those hills, and something inside of her settled. A week ago, she hadn’t known this place existed. She hadn’t known Cash existed. So much had changed in her life so fast.

“He knew about us and the turquoise mine all these years,” Maddie said. “And he never said a word.”

“Keeping secrets seems to run in the Ware family,” Jordan said.

“As far as secrets go,” Maddie continued, “Mike Farrell was no slouch. Jase and I found a box in our mother’s closet containing letters that he’d written to her over the years. She knew when I took my first step, when I cut my first tooth. He made sure she knew everything about me.”

Jordan felt the rush of emotions, this time happy ones.

“And there was a letter to our father that she’d never mailed. It was dated just before he died. She wanted his permission to dissolve their bargain and bring us together. Jase and I figure she found out that he’d passed, so she never mailed it. And she evidently couldn’t find the courage to reunite us on her own. I’ll bring everything once this twenty-one-day thing is over. And we’ll search the ranch house. I’ll bet our father has a box of photos stashed away somewhere, too.”

When this twenty-one-day thing was over…

A little skip of fear moved up Jordan’s spine. She glanced out to the kitchen again. Cash was standing, his hip against the counter, his long legs crossed at the ankles, his head tilted to one side as he listened intently to something D.C. was saying. Two days ago, she’d been so certain that when the three weeks were up, she’d be back in New York. So positive that her life, her responsibilities were there. Was she going to let herself be trapped by the same kind of tunnel vision and fear that her mother had?

Gripping the phone more tightly, she said, “I have news on this end, too. Pete Blackthorn knew about both of us all this time. He has a letter that our father addressed to both of us. He’ll deliver it when you get here. And he told me why we were separated.”

Jordan began to pace back and forth as she told her sister about the decision their parents had made all those years ago.

CASH WATCHED as Jordan paced, wishing he could do more to ease the burden of all she’d discovered in the past few days.

“She’s a strong woman,” D.C. said as he topped off Cash’s mug and then refilled his own.“So’s Maddie,” Cash said. “But they’ve got a lot on their plates. It’s not only Eva Ware Designs and the ranch that they have to deal with. I’m betting they’re going to have to take on Ware Bank’s problems, too.”

“Good thing they each have someone to lean on.”

“Yes, they have each other.”

“I was thinking of you and Jase.”

Cash felt fear tighten in his belly. He’d nearly lost her twice yesterday. He didn’t want to let himself think about the possibility that he might lose her again in eighteen days. “For now.”

D.C. turned to him, studied him for a moment. “You don’t impress me as a man who’s slow off the mark.”

“What?”

“Life’s short. If I had a woman looking at me the way Jordan looks at you and I felt the same way, I wouldn’t wait eighteen days to stake my claim. If you don’t mind a bit of free advice, you could use the dude ranch thing as leverage—if you wanted to persuade her to stay here instead of returning to New York. She’s really into it. I have half a mind to put her in touch with the real Greg Majors.”

“Everything’s happened so fast,” Cash said.

“It’s happened fast for Jase and Maddie, too. But I’ve seen the way my brother looks at her. And he’s got that business background in common with Jordan. I’ll bet he’s already making plans—maybe to open a branch of his business out here in Santa Fe.”

Cash looked back at Jordan. She was still talking to Maddie, and she’d paused in front of the window to look out at the land her father had sent her away from. He’d wanted to give her time, to give them both time, but she looked so right standing there.

Suddenly, all his nerves settled. They might come from different worlds, different backgrounds, but she was right for him, too. It was just that simple. Just that true. Now all he had to do was convince Jordan of that.

D.C. set his mug down on the counter. “Well, I think my work here is done. I’m going to pack up and get out of your hair. I’ll stop on my way to the airport and get the latest update from your friend Alvarez.”

Cash nodded absently, never once taking his gaze off of Jordan as D.C. left the room.

IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON when Jordan and Cash urged their horses up the last incline to the top of the bluff. Once D.C. had left, Cash had talked her into letting him complete that tour of the ranch he’d promised her—was it only two days ago? He’d driven her over to his place and had barely said a word. Then he’d given her a whirlwind tour of his home while Sweeney had saddled Brutus and Cash’s horse, Mischief.

His housekeeper had packed them some food and they’d ridden off toward the canyon that joined the two ranches. The ride had been fast and hard, and it should have cleared her mind. But she’d felt wired from the moment that D.C. had driven off toward Santa Fe. It was as if a clock were ticking and time was slipping away from her.At some point while talking to her sister, she’d come to a decision. Now all she had to do was share it with Cash. She’d made business presentations hundreds of times. She knew how to persuade people. So why was she ten times more nervous than she’d been representing Maddie’s jewelry at that show yesterday?

When the horses reached a level piece of land, Cash turned Mischief around and Jordan followed suit.

“I brought you here because I wanted you to see this.”

Jordan looked around and simply absorbed the view. The land fell away on either side of the hills, pristine and breathtaking in its beauty. In spite of the shimmering heat, she could make out the miniature buildings of the two ranches. With the exception of those structures, nothing marred the landscape.

“I see now why my father didn’t want anyone to know about the turquoise mine. No matter how much money he could have made, it wouldn’t have been worth it.”