Tell Me Your Secrets...

Sure enough, Austin urged his horse into a trot and started toward the stream. It had been so long since I’d ridden that I was yearning for a fast run. I was about to say so to Marcie when she moved her horse forward and Austin fell back.

I bit back a sigh and managed a smile for my “cousin.” I had a hunch that the Lintons and Austin had an agenda that didn’t include the gallop I was longing for.

“I want to apologize for my behavior last night,” he said as soon as he drew alongside me.

To my surprise, I heard a note of sincerity in his tone and read it in his expression. “No apology needed. I’m sure that my sudden return must have been a…” I paused to search for the right word. “…a bit of a shock to you.”

Austin met my eyes steadily. “I’m happy to know that you’re all right. It’s just…”

“That you’ve been doing very well in the business and you think now that I’m back, that will change.”

“I know it will.” There was anger in his tone. His jaw tensed, and his knuckles whitened on the hand holding the reins. “Everything will go back to the way it was.”

Austin’s horse, sensing the anger, moved restlessly beneath him, and I became aware suddenly of the fact that my cousin and I were virtually alone. We’d ridden more deeply into the woods and we were going even more slowly now, following the winding path of the stream. Marcie and Hal had moved ahead and trees blocked them from my sight.

“Why don’t you tell me why you think everything will change now,” I said.

“Because Uncle James doesn’t trust me. Now that you’re back and you’re marrying Sloan, I’ll go back to babysitting a desk. He’s never given me the kind of chance I deserve.”

He sounded a bit like a whining child. “Why not?”

“Because my father had a gambling problem and embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars while he was running the ranch. No one suspected anything until he died of a heart attack on one of those riverboat gambling cruises.”

I made a mental note to tell Pepper that the mystery of Beatrice’s disappearing husband had been solved. “That doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

“It shouldn’t. But Uncle James is big on bloodlines. You’re his blood. And he figures I’ve inherited my father’s bad genes. Add that to the fact that I’ve never been able to compete with you and Sloan. I have as much McKenzie blood in me as you do, but I’m not good enough to be trusted with any responsibility.”

I studied him for a moment, putting what he’d just told me together with what Marcie had said and with what Pepper had written in her report. “I’ve been told that you like gambling better than you like to work.”

Color flushed Austin’s face. Once again, I saw his knuckles whiten. Clearly, my cousin had anger management issues. “I’ve made mistakes. I know that. While I was in college, I figured if everyone thought I was like my father, I might as well live up to the name. But things have changed since I met Marcie. I’ve changed, and I’ve made a fresh start. I know I didn’t make a good impression last night, but that was…not me.”

“Marcie says that you haven’t had that much to drink in a long time.”

He met my eyes. “My reformation began when you hired her six months ago. She’s made me see things differently because she sees me differently. No one has ever believed in me the way Marcie does. She’s helped me to change.”

He was in love with her. I could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. Did he have any idea that Marcie’s interest in reforming him might be motivated by the possibility of his coming into a great deal of money and land? And if Marcie was so intent on helping Austin change his ways, why had she been with him in Vegas on the very day that Cameron had disappeared?

“Look. I’ve done a good job in the last month. You can even ask Uncle James about that. All I want is the chance to continue.”

In spite of the questions and suspicions spinning around in my head, I really wanted to believe Austin. There was the possibility that he’d been taken in by the Lintons and that he was just a pawn in a bigger game the sister and brother were playing. But there was also the possibility that Austin was his father’s son and was trying to con me. In my mind, I could picture the story line going either way. And if Austin was trying to con me, my best bet was to let him think he’d been successful.

“I don’t see that as a problem,” I said.

A mixture of relief and hope washed over his face. “You’ll give me a chance then?”

I reached out and covered his hand with mine. “Of course, I will.”

“Thanks, Cam.” He looked so pleased as he leaned over to brush a kiss on my cheek that I felt a twinge of guilt. “I won’t disappoint you.”

What was he going to think when he found out who I really was and that my assurances meant squat?

As Austin urged his horse forward to join Marcie again, my cell phone rang. I dug it out of my pocket and checked the caller ID. Pepper. I reined in Lace Ribbons. “What have you got?”

“Hello to you, too,” Pepper said with a laugh.

“I’m out riding the range,” I explained. Well, not really, I thought as I glanced around. As we’d followed the stream, it had widened and the forest had dropped back a bit from the bank. There was still plenty of room for the horses, but trees effectively hemmed us in from the open country.

“You have company I take it, so I’ll be brief. Cole checked in Las Vegas, and Austin and Marcie were both seen in a restaurant and at the gaming tables. One of the croupiers remembers that Austin lost about ten thousand dollars. However, no one was able to verify that Hal was with them.”

“Interesting,” I said. It meant that Austin hadn’t been quite truthful about his reformation. He’d been gambling on the day that Cameron had disappeared. It also meant that Hal didn’t have an alibi for that day. Ahead of me Austin and Marcie urged their horses into a trot and disappeared around a bend. Hal turned his horse around and headed toward me.

“Beatrice was indeed at the flower show in San Diego,” Pepper said. “Several people saw her there. She gave a speech at the luncheon.”

So that leaves Sloan, James, Doc Carter and Hal Linton without alibis. “Any chance you could find out if either of the Lintons have any expertise with guns?” I asked in a low voice as Hal slowly but surely closed the distance between us. Through the trees to my right, I saw that Marcie and Austin had veered off from the path we’d been following and were probably headed out of the woods.

“Sure, but I don’t like the sound of that.”

What I didn’t like was the fact that I’d once more been outmaneuvered by the Lintons. Unless I wanted to turn tail and run back the way we’d come, I was now alone in an isolated area with a man who had no alibi for the day my sister had disappeared. A man who might have a very good reason for wanting her to disappear.

17

“I’M SORRY FOR LAST NIGHT,” Hal said as he reined to a stop directly in front of me.

No, I decided. I was not going to turn around and run. Mallory Carstairs certainly wouldn’t and I didn’t think Cameron would, either. Besides, this was my chance to learn more about the man my sister had kissed in the garden the night before she’d gone missing. “This seems to be my day for getting apologies.”

He had the grace to wince a bit. “Austin and I both behaved poorly last night.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if behaving badly was an aberration for Hal Linton, too. I thought it might be. The man had all the marks of one smooth operator. He reminded me a bit of a character on Secrets who managed to always come out on top.

Studying Hal, I tried to see him as Cameron might have seen him. With that dark hair, tanned skin and good bones, he was handsome in a pretty way that Sloan wasn’t. Hal’s features were smooth while Sloan’s were rugged. Hal was sleekly groomed, his hair neatly trimmed. Sloan looked as if he was long overdue to see his barber. I remembered how it had felt to run my hands through that hair and of how messed up it had looked when we’d just finished making love. Heat crept into my cheeks.

Hal dismounted and held up his hand. “Why don’t we rest the horses and walk for a bit?”

I hesitated, looking to my right, but Marcie and Austin had completely disappeared.

“Please,” he said. “This is a place that we came to more than once. Doc Carter thought it might help you remember.”

Curious now, I held out my hand and dismounted. Hal’s palm was soft and smooth with none of the calluses that were on Sloan’s. He was a more sophisticated dresser, too. Last night, he’d worn Armani, and I knew that the golf shirt and riding breeches he wore today had designer labels. There was a sheen of money and sophistication here. This was a man who’d court a woman carefully with flowers, champagne, elegant restaurants. As a lover, he’d be both smooth and skilled.

If Sloan wanted a woman, I didn’t think he’d bother with all that. In fact, he hadn’t. In my mind, I pictured him standing in the archway to his kitchen and the way he’d looked at me when he’d closed the distance between us. He’d had me right then. But later, he’d provided the romance. I thought of our picnic on that flat rock in Cameron’s favorite place.