Stolen Seduction (29 page)

Nicole shrugged. “When I was in high school we had to pick a location and do a report on it. Numbers are something I never forget. And those are the coordinates of—”

Hailey placed a hand on her sister’s arm. “Daddy’s island.”

“His what?” Shane asked.

“My father bought an island in the Keys just after I was born,” Hailey said. “He used to take his

sailboat there now and then. There aren’t any buildings on it, just grass and trees and—”

“Sand,” Nicole added, frowning.

Hailey nodded. “Yeah. I haven’t been there since I was a kid. I completely forgot about it.”

Suddenly, Nicole’s eyes widened. “What were the clues again in that letter from Daddy?”

Shane handed Hailey her father’s letter from the table. “The answer lies with me. The key is set in

steel.”

“He was cremated,” Nicole said, thinking. “What does it mean, the answer lies with him?”

Shane’s eyes met Hailey’s. “You got a number for your father’s lawyer?” he asked. “I’ve got a

strange hunch.”

“Yeah.” Hailey nodded, already reaching for the phone. So did she.

“What hunch?” Kat asked as Hailey reached for the phone.

It was well after three A.M., but Ron Arnold answered on the second ring. And the answers he gave

to Hailey’s questions were a punch to the gut.

A lump formed in her throat as she thanked him and pushed end on the cordless phone, then turned

to look at the expectant faces peering back at her. “Dad wasn’t cremated,” she told Nicole. “Mother

ordered it, but Ron stepped in at the last second and intervened. Per the terms of his will, he wanted

to be buried on his island.”

“No way,” Pete muttered from across the kitchen. “You think the sixth sculpture’s buried with

him?”

It was beginning to look like the only answer.

“We need to have that body exhumed,” Shane said. “Dr. Hargrove thought your father had been cremated. If he wasn’t, they can run a tox screen and prove he was murdered.”

Hailey nodded slowly. Right. But if they left it up to the authorities to exhume the body, she

wouldn’t get that sixth statue. And she needed it to lure out her father and Bryan’s killer before the

cops tracked her down and carted her off to jail.

Even though it turned her stomach, she knew she only had one option. She also knew Shane wasn’t

going to like it one bit. “Yeah, you’re right. But we have to do it first.”

She watched that lazy, relaxed mood Shane had been in crash and burn as he raked a hand through

his hair. “You’re certifiable. You’re not digging up a grave to look for treasure. This is your father

you’re talking about.”

“I know that—”

“She’s right,” Lisa said.

Shane glared his sister’s way. “You stay out of this.”

“Watch it,” Rafe said.

Lisa placed a hand on her husband’s chest. “Chill out, Rambo. We’re all sleep deprived here.” She

glanced back at Shane. “You know as well as I do if the authorities dig up her father first, whatever’s in his coffin gets added into evidence. And if that happens, according to what you both told us

about her father’s will and Bryan’s murder, Hailey won’t find out what this is all about or who set

her up.”

“What about the second part?” Nicole asked quietly in the tense silence. “ ‘The key is set in steel.’

What does that mean?”

Hailey bit her lip and tried to think as Shane paced around the kitchen. “It could just mean the key

he left for me. We never found out what it went to.”

“That’s not steel,” Shane said in a clipped tone. “It’s brass.”

Hailey blew out a breath. Yeah, he was definitely not happy.

“What else did he leave you?” Pete asked.

“Um. The key, the deed to his sailboat and—”

“The dagger,” Billy finished for her.

Shane stopped pacing.

“What dagger?” Rafe asked as Hailey looked toward Billy.

“It’s more like a letter opener,” Hailey told him, very conscious of the way Shane walked out of the

room without a word. Okay, so he was pissed. What did he expect her to do? “Small, Italian. Daddy

picked it up at auction several years ago. Supposedly it was used to kill Alessandro de Medici. The

same person The Last Seduction depicts.”

“Maybe that’s the key,” Kat said.

Yeah, it could be. Hailey nodded. Her father’s dagger was definitely made of aged steel.

“Too bad it’s gone,” Billy mumbled.

Rafe glanced at his brother, and like a lightbulb going on, his eyes narrowed. “How the hell do you

know that? And while I’m thinking of it, what were you doing with Hailey and Nicole in the middle

of all this in the first place?”

Okay, that was one part of this whole fiasco Hailey definitely did not want to have to explain to her

ex-husband. “I told him about it,” she said quickly, shooting Billy a warning as she sat in the nearest

chair. “But he’s right. It is gone. The last time I saw it was at the Roarke offices in Miami when I

was attacked in the elevator. And if that’s the key to something my father designed, we’re screwed

because according to Maxwell, they found it at the murder scene in Chicago. Whoever set me up

did it well.”

Silence settled over the room. And a sense of defeat washed over Hailey. It couldn’t end like this.

Not after everything that had happened. She closed her eyes and rubbed a hand over her brow.

A soft clank came from the table in front of her. And when she opened her eyes, she was staring at

her father’s dagger. Almost as if she’d willed it into appearance. Only instead of gleaming under the

kitchen lights like she’d envisioned, it was wrapped in a clear plastic evidence bag, labeled by CPD.

“Oh, shit,” Lisa muttered.

Hailey’s eyes shot to Shane, who had backed up to stand alone in the doorway.

Her mind flashed to their confrontation on the tarmac just before she’d gotten on her plane to come

down here. He’d been pissed. And now she knew why.

He’d taken evidence. From a murder investigation. Long before he’d known whether she was truly

innocent of killing her cousin. And he’d done it all for her.

Words lodged in her throat. She pushed up slowly from her chair.

He’d screwed his career. For her.

The phone on his hip rang before she could put her thoughts into words. He flipped it open, pressed

it to his ear and said, “Maxwell.” A heartbeat later he added, “Yeah, Tony. I can talk.” Then with

one last lingering look her way, he walked out of the kitchen.

Shane rubbed a hand over his hair as he came back into the kitchen twenty minutes later. The news

from Tony was good but not great. And he needed to talk Hailey out of this crazy grave-robbing

idea before it was too late.

The kitchen was quiet and dark, a dim light shining above the stove. Lisa was the only person in the

room, sitting at the table with her arms crossed over her chest.

Oh, yeah. He knew that look.

“Where’d everyone go?”

“To get some sleep,” she said. “Big day tomorrow.”

Oh, lovely. He definitely didn’t need this. “You’re not all going.”

She lifted one brow. “And you have me to thank for that. Rafe and Pete were more than happy to

dump everything here and take off for a few days to help Hailey. As it is, I talked them in to letting

Billy and Nicole go instead.”

“I don’t need Billy Sullivan tagging along.”

“Too bad. I hate to point this out, little brother, but this isn’t about you. It’s about Hailey. And

Nicole. And where Nicole goes, Billy seems to want to go. So I think you’re stuck with them.”

Shane rolled his eyes. Just what he wanted—to have Sullivan and the Paris Hilton wannabe dogging

them. Neither would talk a lick of sense into Hailey.

“I’m gonna try to get a few hours’ sleep.” He turned for the back stairs that ran from the kitchen to

the second level.

“Hold on.” When he looked back, she pushed away from the table and came to stand in front of

him.

She was almost a foot shorter than he was, and they didn’t share any physical characteristics other

than the shape of their eyes. But personality-wise they were the most alike of any of his siblings—

bullheaded, persistent, bordering on OCD, and overly perceptive, especially when it came to each

other. He’d like to think those were twin traits, but something in his gut said even if they hadn’t

been twins, Lisa would still be able to read him like an open book.

His lips thinned because he already had an idea what was coming. “What?”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Lisa—”

“No.” She held up a hand. “Don’t give me that. If what Hailey said is true, someone doesn’t just

want her father’s company, they want to see her gone for good.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“Is it?” Shadows played over her face and that fire red hair of hers as she stared at him. “Because I

have a feeling you’re here for something else. And judging from the way you’ve been the last few

months, I’m worried you might not be able to handle it.”

His jaw clenched. “I can handle it just fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I do, though,” she said quietly as he turned for the stairs. “A lot .”

“Well, don’t. I’m fine.”

He made it two steps before her voice stopped him. “One more thing.”

He heaved out a breath and gripped the banister. “What now?”

“Whatever it is you can’t seem to let go of, be sure you’ve got it under control before things go any

further with Hailey. Don’t play loose and easy with her, Shane. Because no matter how tough she

looks, that girl’s been through a lot. And I’m not so sure she’ll be able to handle it when you finally

crash and burn.”

He should have reassured her he was keeping his distance from Hailey, that he was only here to

help solve this puzzle, that he wasn’t interested in anything but making sure justice got served and

that nothing happened to Hailey in the process. But there were too many contradicting thoughts running through his head for him to formulate a coherent sentence. And that little voice whispering

See? Even Lisa doesn’t think you can save her was so damn irritating, all he wanted was his box of

Tic Tacs and about three hours of peace. Instead, he said nothing and continued up the stairs.

The second level was quiet and dark when he reached it. Floorboards creaked as he moved down

the hall. When he pushed open the door to his room, he did a double take.

Filtered moonlight through the window highlighted a trail of white specks along the taupe carpeting. He knelt to pick one up, only to realize they were Tic Tacs. His Tic Tacs.

What the…?

He closed the door and followed the trail around a corner, only to pull up short when he saw Hailey

sitting on his bed, wearing nothing but that Bon Jovi T-shirt he’d bought for her in the Keys. Her

curly blonde hair fell around her shoulders in a gentle sweep, her legs were long and bare, one sexy

thigh crossed over the other, her eyes luminescent in the dim light.

He swallowed. Tried to kick-start his brain so he could come up with one logical reason for her to

be in his room, dressed like that. But no matter what he tried, all he could come up with was how

damn sexy she looked and what he’d wanted to do with her from the moment they’d first met.

“Did Chen have info about the investigation?”

He nodded slowly.

Their eyes held. She bit her lip. Swung her top foot slightly. His gaze went down the long, shapely

line of her leg to her purple-painted toenails. “Good or bad news?”

His blood warmed. Don’t play loose and easy with her. “A little of both.”

She sat where she was a few seconds, then pushed up and crossed the floor to stand in front of him.

The lilac scent he associated with her drifted around him, heightening his senses, reminding him exactly what she felt like, tasted like and what he would have done in the Keys if Billy’s phone call

hadn’t interrupted them.

She won’t be able to handle it when you crash and burn.

“If you don’t mind,” she said, her blonde curls falling over her shoulder as she tipped her head to

the side, “I think I’d rather wait and discuss Chen’s news later. Right now I’m way more interested

in how you got my father’s dagger.”

Her eyes were the bluest he’d ever seen. Her skin, like porcelain in the low light. At that moment,

even exhausted from everything that had happened the last few days, she looked like she could handle just about anything life threw at her. She was a thousand times stronger than he was on a good

day, and they both knew it. Not physically, but mentally, emotionally, and God, he wanted to be part

of that. To remember what it felt like. If only for a minute.

“If your department finds out—”

“They won’t. Evidence gets misplaced all the time.”

Her eyes held his. And quietly she said, “You took it before I even explained what was going on

with my father’s will. Before you’d even made up your mind whether I was guilty or not. Why?”

He could give her a dozen logical reasons why he’d done what he had, starting with using it to lure

out the real killer, to prove to the pompous Jim Hill at the DA’s office that he hadn’t been in on it

with her from the start, to prove to himself his gut reaction was still right. But none of those were

the real answer. And tonight at least, he was tired of pretending what was happening between them

wasn’t personal. He reached for her left hand. Lifted it. Ran his fingers down her smooth palm.

“You’re left-handed.”

“I am.”

“I didn’t figure that out until I saw you boxing. But by then I already knew you hadn’t killed your

cousin.”