Twin Seduction

She’d had time to study his hands before the helicopter had arrived to transport him. They were badly bruised, bloodied and swollen. One of them might have become that seriously injured in a fall, but not both.

Over and over again in her mind, she’d tried to figure out what might have happened. The ledge they’d found Pete on was about halfway up the cliffside. There was what looked to be a cave opening near the top. If he’d simply lost his balance, there were several ledges where he might have landed and gotten a handhold. Someone had made sure he’d fallen a second time.

He’d regained consciousness just as the medics were loading him into a stretcher. For just a second, she’d seen a light of recognition come into his eyes. And then he’d said her sister’s name, the sound thready and faint. “Maddie?”

Moving to one of the windows, she stared out at the night. He was going to be all right. He had to be all right.

She nearly jumped when Cash put a hand on her shoulder. When she turned to face him, she saw that Shay Alvarez had joined him.

“Any news?” Jordan asked.

“They’ve stabilized Pete,” Cash said. “But according to the nurse, he’s still in line waiting for an MRI. The hospital’s a bit backed up because of a tractor-trailer accident, and there are a couple of people with more serious injuries ahead of him. Shay here is the one with news.”

“My men found evidence at the scene that backs up your theory that Pete’s fall wasn’t an accident,” Shay said. “There are a string of caves that run along that section of the canyon wall, and in one of them, they discovered cigarette butts. Since Pete doesn’t smoke, we think someone else was up there, perhaps waiting for him.”

Jordan glanced at Cash, then back at Alvarez. “Why?”

“That’s the question,” Shay said. “Lea Dashee and her mother are Pete’s next of kin. When I contacted Lea to tell her about Pete’s fall, she told me that he’d mentioned something to her about six months ago. He’d said he had a feeling that someone was following him. No proof. No solid evidence. A few minutes ago, she called me back. She’d stopped by his trailer on her way here to pick up some things for him. The place had been trashed.”

“Six months ago is just about the time that the vandalism started on Maddie’s ranch,” Cash said.

Shay nodded.

“There’s a connection,” Jordan insisted.

“Maybe. Maybe not,” Shay said.

“Why? Why would someone do that to Pete?” Jordan pressed her fingers to her temples. She was beginning to feel like a parrot that only knew one word.

“Not for the turquoise he’s been collecting,” Shay said. “He had several packets of them in his saddlebags. Whoever helped him off that cliff didn’t rob him. The only other possibility that occurs to me is the belief around here that he has old maps of the turquoise mines that his ancestors once worked. Someone may have gotten the idea they were valuable. That may have been why he was being followed. If indeed he was.”

“Is there any way to figure out if the thief found any old maps?” Jordan asked.

Shay smiled. “If I know Pete, they didn’t find any. I doubt he’d keep anything that valuable in his trailer, not when he spent so much time away from it, or in his saddlebags. And if he felt he was being followed, he was forewarned.”

Over Shay’s shoulder, Jordan saw a tall man using a cane step through the waiting room door. “D.C.,” she said as she hurried forward, her arms outstretched.

“YOUR COMPETITION?” Shay asked.

Cash studied the tall man in the doorway. “D. C. Campbell, her roommate Jase’s brother.”There was nothing in the friendly hug Jordan and D.C. exchanged that even hinted at a more passionate or intimate relationship. So why the hell did he have this coppery, bitter taste in his mouth? “He’s on leave from Iraq where he’s been serving as an MP, and he’s flown out here at his brother’s request to provide backup.”

“Good idea.”

Cash continued to watch as Jordan tucked her arm into D.C.’s and led him over. The cane and the slight limp didn’t seem to bother D.C. much.

“Your leg,” she said. “How bad is it?”

D.C. smiled at her. “Just a little collateral damage. The army sent me home for a few months to get it rebuilt.” He tapped his thigh with one hand. “They replaced a lot of parts. I’m hoping some of them turn out to be bionic.”

Jordan laughed. “Stop. I just got a mental image of you leaping over a tall building in a single bound.”

“That’s what I’m hoping,” D.C. said.

Old friends, Cash thought, and something inside of him eased.

After Jordan made the introductions and they shook hands, Cash asked, “How are Jase and Maddie?”

D.C.’s eyes immediately sobered. “I checked in with Jase when I landed, and they were tucked up all safe and sound in a hotel. But there’s been a development since I left New York. Earlier this evening, there was a second attempt on Maddie’s life. Someone tried to run her down just outside her mother’s apartment.”

“That’s where my mother was killed,” Jordan said.

“Yes. The car—a cream-colored sedan—fits the description witnesses gave of the car that struck down Eva Ware. But this time they got a partial plate, and a taxi driver is sure it was a Mercedes.”

Jordan stared at him. “That description could fit my mother’s car.”

“Yes. Jase has a friend at the NYPD who’s working to track the car down even as we speak.”

“But—” Jordan broke off when there was movement in the doorway and Lea Dashee and an older woman stepped into the room, and Jordan and Shay moved toward them.

“Pete Blackthorn’s next of kin,” Cash explained to D.C.

“He’s the reason Jordan told me to meet you here, right? He’s the old man who took a bad fall off a cliff.”

“We’re sure he was pushed.”

“Ah.” D.C. pulled a notebook and pen out of his pocket. Then he shot Cash an apologetic glance. “Sorry, old habit.”

“No problem. Did Jordan fill you in on the fact that she’s masquerading as Maddie while she’s here?”

“No.” He glanced at Cash. “That could put her in even more danger.”

“She felt it was the best way to help her sister out at the big jewelry show tomorrow.”

“It may also be helpful in our getting a handle on who’s behind all this.”

“You think the attacks on Maddie and Jordan are connected.”

“Hard not to, but we’ll see.”

While Cash watched Jordan settle the two women on a couch, he filled D.C. in on what they knew about Pete Blackthorn and his fall. After pouring coffee and serving the three women, Shay rejoined them.

“Let me see if I got everything,” D.C. said. “Pete’s been successfully prospecting the land around here as long as anyone can remember, and he reputedly has old maps of the mines his ancestors worked. Starting six months ago, he gets a ‘sense’ now and then that he’s being followed. And today, you suspect someone was waiting for him in one of the caves and pushed him off the cliff.”

“That’s a good summary,” Cash said.

Beyond D.C.’s shoulder, Cash watched Jordan take Lea’s hands in hers. He wasn’t at all sure how she was managing to hold up through everything. In one day, she’d learned her mother had been murdered, and then her sister’s and her own life had each been threatened twice. And right now, her entire focus was on offering some comfort to Maddie’s friend, Lea. He was beginning to understand that she’d had a lot of practice coping and taking care of others. Had anyone ever taken care of her?

He turned back to D.C. “Something else you need to know. It was six months ago that the incidents of vandalism began on Maddie’s ranch. And six months since Daniel Pearson, our local wannabe real estate mogul, approached Maddie to list the ranch with him. Since then, the seriousness of the vandalism on the ranch has escalated. And this morning someone—we think a pro—tried to run Jordan and me off the road and over a drop-off. Later, there was an incident at the hotel’s exhibition hall. The wall of a booth nearly fell on Jordan.”

D.C. gave a low whistle as he met the eyes of Alvarez and then Cash. “You didn’t mention either of those incidents to Jase.”

“No,” Cash said as Jordan rejoined them. “We figured he and Maddie had enough on their plates.”

For a moment, D.C. glanced down at his notes. “Let’s see if I can connect all of the dots here. We’ve got a man who’s made a successful living collecting stones—mostly turquoise—from various abandoned and supposedly tapped-out mines in the area. Someone may have been keeping an eye on him for the last six months, and today this person may have helped him off a cliff. In the same time frame, Maddie is being urged to sell her ranch and there are some incidents perhaps designed to pressure her into doing just that.”

“You’ve got the picture,” Cash said.

D.C. scratched his head. “I may be taking a leap here, but what if Pete has at some point discovered a new vein or batch or whatever it’s called of turquoise? One that hasn’t been tapped out, and what if it’s on Farrell land?”