Tell Me Your Secrets...

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.