Yet, he wasn’t exactly handsome, at least not in a movie star pretty way. In my experience, actors built their muscles and hardened their abs in state-of-the-art health clubs. Sloan Campbell looked as if he kept in shape the old-fashioned way. He might not be movie star handsome, but there was something very compelling about his rugged features, something that made you believe that in a fight, this was the man you’d want on your side.
My instincts also told me that this was a man any red-blooded woman would want in her bed. I blinked as a thought struck me. Was this a man I wanted in my bed? Was that why I was so fascinated by his picture? I could feel heat flood my cheeks. He was my sister’s fiancé. And they looked very happy.
“Earth to Brooke.”
I dragged my eyes away from the newspaper clipping and met Pepper’s again.
“I’m waiting for you to elaborate more on this ‘feeling’ of yours that your sister isn’t a runaway bride.”
“Okay.” I drew in a deep breath. “From your accounts, Cameron loves the ranch and she holds an important job at McKenzie Enterprises. She gets to travel around the country, entertaining old clients and courting new ones. She’s good at what she does, and the business depends on her. The other thing that’s clear in your report is that she loves horses. That’s one thing I share with her, and I don’t think she would run away from her responsibilities. I think she’d handle her cold feet another way. She’d simply break off the engagement.”
“Dammit.” Pepper leaned back in her chair.
It was my turn to stare. “What’s the matter?”
“You’re beginning to make sense.”
Before I could comment, a waitress appeared at our table.
“Can I get you something else?”
“Two glasses of your best Chardonnay,” Pepper said. “I’m going to need more than chocolate to settle my nerves.”
As soon as the waitress moved away, she leaned closer. “I’ve talked about this with Cole, and we tend to agree with you that Cameron wouldn’t have run out on the job or the horses for this amount of time.”
“Then you can understand why I have to go there.”
Pepper grabbed my hand again. “What I see is a reason why you shouldn’t go there. It’s too dangerous. If someone else is responsible for your sister’s disappearance, he or she is not going to be happy if you show up as Cameron. Plus, we still don’t know who sent the anonymous letter—or why.”
“You’re not going to talk me out of this.”
“Yeah,” Pepper said as the waitress set down the glasses of wine. “That’s why I ordered the drinks.”
We reached for the wineglasses together and I raised mine in a toast. “To the best friend ever. Wish me luck?”
She touched her glass to mine and took a long swallow. “I have one more argument.”
As cocaptain of the debate team, she’d always had one more argument.
“How in the world are you going to carry this masquerade off? All you know about your sister is in that file. And what about the fiancé? How do you intend to handle him?”
Very carefully, I thought. I had a good idea that Sloan Campbell would be my biggest challenge once I got to the ranch. Once more, I attempted a confident smile. “I’ve got it covered. I’m going to tell them that five weeks ago I got mugged, and when I woke up in the hospital, I didn’t have any ID and couldn’t remember who I was. That’s why I haven’t come back sooner. And that way I won’t have to remember a thing about Cameron’s past life.”
Pepper sighed, then took a good gulp of her wine. “I should have known you’d come up with something. You always do.”
I met her eyes steadily. “I have to do this. She’s my sister. And I’m going to need your help.”
“You bet your life you are.” Pepper pulled out a notebook and began scribbling. “The mugging is a good idea. You arrived at the hospital with only the clothes on your back. So there was no way to trace you. We’ll need to establish where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing for the last five weeks. You’re a millionairess. Someone in the family is going to check into everything. And when the press gets hold of the story…”
She paused in her scribbling and tapped her pen on the notebook. “There will have to be a report about the mugging. Here in San Francisco, I think, because Luke has a friend who’s a captain in the SFPD. Because of the amnesia, you won’t have to explain why you were so far from home.”
“I knew you’d know what to do,” I said.
Pepper glanced up at me. “If you’re determined to do this, I want your ass covered.” Then she continued scribbling. “We’ll also need a doctor who can verify the memory loss, a place where you’ve been staying the last few weeks, a job. Maybe when you came to Rossi Investigations to ask for our help, we gave you something temporary. We’ll figure it out. Cole’s really good at this sort of thing. And what he can’t handle, my brother Luke can. He’s magic when it comes to hacking into official records and tweaking them a bit.”
I smiled at her. “This is just like Charlie’s Angels with Charlie handling all the background cover stuff.”
Pepper’s brows shot up. “Except that Rossi Investigations is much better than Charlie Townsend any day.”
“Of course, they are. That’s why I hired your firm to help me find out who I was.”
Pepper frowned at me. “And it took us five weeks to do the job?” Then she grinned. “Just kidding. Let them think we’re some kind of hick agency. Plus, your mugging took place in San Francisco, and Cameron’s disappearance didn’t even make the papers around here.” Her grin faded. “A definite sign of the power of the family to keep a lid on the story. You’re going to have to be very careful.”
“I will. Thanks for understanding.”
Pepper leaned closer. “I know what it’s like to find family that you didn’t know existed. But once you get to the ranch, I want you to keep in daily contact with me. Cole has a plane. We can be there in less than an hour.”
She set her pen down, and took a sip of her wine. “Once you get to the ranch, what’s the rest of your plan?”
“You always ask the tough questions.”
Pepper’s eyes narrowed. “That’s what friends are for.”
I shrugged and took a good gulp of wine myself. “Once I get inside the hacienda, I’m going to play it by ear. I’m sure something will come to me. My best plots always come to me on the fly.”
2
“WE’RE ALMOST THERE,” Cole Buchanan said as he turned his sporty red convertible onto the winding road that led to the McKenzie ranch. He and Pepper had decided that Cole should bring me to the ranch, get the lay of the land, and test the atmosphere before he left. He would explain about my memory loss, the investigative work that Rossi Investigations had done to help me find out my true identity, and that way everyone at the ranch would know that there was someone on the outside that I could turn to for help—just in case.
Cole was my driver instead of Pepper because the Rossis had decided he had a bigger intimidation quotient than Pepper did. It was really no contest. At over six feet, with a rangy body that was pretty much all muscle, Cole was not someone you would want to go up against. I’d also learned that he’d done sniper work for the CIA.