Cash shook his head. “He’ll tell your brother though. Jasmine’s stepbrother Bernard,” he amended. “That means Bernard will have to see for himself whether or not you’re Jasmine.”
“Is that bad?” she had to ask.
Cash swore under his breath. “It’s not good.”
She smiled and saw some of the tension uncoil from his body. “You don’t like Kerrington.”
He shook his head. “Sorry.”
“I’m the one who’s sorry. There is no way I could have been engaged to that man.”
Cash’s smile was tight. “Apparently he never got over you.”
“Over Jasmine,” she said, wondering more and more about the woman who had two men she’d promised to marry and both hadn’t let go even after seven years. She must have been some woman.
“He’s married to Sandra Perkins.” He seemed to hesitate, waiting for a reaction from her. “She was your—Jasmine’s roommate. They got married just a few months after you disappeared. I’d heard she was pregnant. Must not have been. They have no children that I know of. Doesn’t act like a married man, does he?”
Molly felt for Kerrington’s wife. “You think she’s here in town with him?”
Cash shook his head. “I doubt she even knows he’s here. And what the hell is he doing here, anyway?”
Kerrington would tell Jasmine’s stepbrother Bernard Wolfe. But would either of them chance going to the press before the fingerprint results came back?
She had no way of knowing. She still believed she could pull this off. Not that she had much choice. But she’d learned from Max long ago that a magician stayed with the trick—even when he realized the rabbit was no longer in the hat.
Las Vegas, Nevada
VINCE TRIED TO SLOW his breathing, afraid he would run out of air in the car trunk before Angel stopped and let him out.
The car moved at a snail’s pace. He could hear other traffic. He was cramped and couldn’t move, the darkness seeming to close in on him. He tried not to think about it or how much air he had left.
He thought instead about Molly and what he would do once they found her. He could understand her fear—especially if she’d heard what had happened to Lanny.
He could even understand her running. It was calling the cops that had him mystified. She obviously didn’t understand the concept of honor among thieves and that disappointed him more than he wanted to admit.
He felt the car speed up and tried to relax. It wouldn’t be long now before Angel pulled over and let him out. He took a breath of the hot musty air, feeling light-headed. He guessed they were on the interstate now, gauging the speed and the smoothness of the road. It was getting hotter in the trunk, closer, tighter.
He was sweating profusely now, the smell of fear filling the tight space. His muscles were starting to cramp, he was having trouble catching his breath and just the thought of being trapped in the trunk brought on a panic attack.
What if Angel had made him get in the trunk for another reason besides hiding him? What if he planned to take him out in the desert and kill him?
Unlike him, Angel had never held much store in the fact that they had some of the same blood coursing through their veins. Angel wasn’t the sentimental type. Angel would have killed his own grandmother if there were something in it for him.
Vince stiffened as he felt the car decelerate. The tires left the smooth pavement for a bumpy road that jarred every bone in his body. Why didn’t Angel stop and let him out? Where the hell was he taking him?
After an interminable amount of time, Angel finally stopped.
Vince held his breath and listened. He could hear the tick-tick-tick of the motor as it cooled. A car door opened and closed, no sense of urgency in the movements. The door opened again. Vince heard the scrape of the key in the trunk lock. That was strange. Why hadn’t Angel just pulled the trunk lever before he got out of the car?
The trunk lid rose slowly.
Antelope Flats, Montana
CASH LED THE WAY up the stairs to the bedroom where Molly would be staying, cursing to himself.
Kerrington. He should have known the moment he caught that fragrance. The memory of Kerrington’s cologne was now all tied up in his memories of Jasmine.
Cash knew he should call State Investigator Mathews and inform him about this latest possible development before Kerrington did. Still, he hesitated. He would know about the fingerprints by tomorrow at the latest. The call could wait until then.
And maybe he would get lucky and find out what she wanted, whomever this woman was whom he’d invited to stay in his house.
Her reaction to Kerrington had certainly surprised him—and Kerrington as well. Not just a complete lack of recognition on her part, but she didn’t seem to like him. It could have been an act, he supposed. It could all be an act. But at least Cash wanted to believe her dislike for Kerrington was real.
He couldn’t put his finger on what was bothering him about her. Part of him acknowledged that she was different from the Jasmine he remembered—the memory loss aside. He told himself that seven years and not knowing who she was would make her different. Not to mention whatever had happened to her before her car ended up in that barn.
As she’d said, she felt something horrible had happened to her. Any change he thought he saw in her could be directly related to that. And she had the scar to prove it.
Or she could be lying, just as Kerrington had accused her, the scar from some other accident. Cash hated that he and Kerrington might ever agree on anything, but there was something about Molly Kilpatrick, something that warned him to be wary whether she was Jasmine—or a complete stranger.
When had he become so suspicious? He knew the answer to that one as he turned to look back at her. She had stopped at the top of the stairs and appeared to be studying an old photograph of the ranch.
“Is this your family’s ranch?” she asked.
The photograph was of the original homestead, the old hewn-log cabin, a herd of longhorns grazing in a meadow behind it.
“Yes.” And no, he thought. But the photo was the essence of the ranch, how it had all begun. If she was curious about what his family ranch was now worth…well then that was something else.
“It’s the Sundown Ranch. My great grandfather drove a herd of longhorns up from Texas to start it.”
She nodded as if she didn’t know what else to say and he saw that she seemed nervous.
“If you’d be more comfortable at the motel…”
She shook her head. “No, it’s just…” She waved a hand through the air and looked into his eyes. Hers were a warm Caribbean sea-green in the hall light, as inviting as a kiss. He remembered almost kissing her earlier with no small regret. “You don’t know me and yet you offered me a place to stay. I could be a total stranger.”
“Could be.” He smiled ruefully. For strictly personal, selfish reasons he wanted Jasmine to be alive. Didn’t want her disappearance hanging over him the rest of his life. He wanted her to remember everything. No matter who it hurt, himself included.
“I might not be the man you think I am,” he warned her.
She met his gaze. “Or me the woman you hope I am.”
“I’m not worried,” he said, knowing that wasn’t entirely true. “Are you?”
Slowly she returned his smile and shook her head. “No. I know it’s the safest place for me to be right now.”
Or