The Gilded Cuff (24 page)

“Come on, Sophie. Wes is waiting on us.” Emery slid an arm around her waist, his grip possessive but gentle as he tucked her into his side. She craned her neck over her shoulder, glimpsing Cody as he shut his eyes and seemed already to be sleeping.

She looked forward again, leaning more into Emery’s sheltering hold. She had to figure out how to get Wes alone to tell him what she’d learned. How on earth was she going to do that without Emery noticing? Bile rose in her throat at the thought of deceiving Emery. She swallowed the unpleasantness back down. It was wrong to lie to him, knowing what she knew, but telling him could potentially be so much more hurtful. The last thing she ever wanted to do was hurt him.

“You told me you were going to take care of him,” the cold voice whispered over the phone.

Antonio clutched the steering wheel and glowered at a family walking past his car. The little children wheeled small luggage bags, laughing and shoving each other as they followed their parents toward the airport entrance for departing flights.

“He should be dead. I timed it perfectly.” He had. The entire night had gone off without a hitch, until he’d arrived at the airport early this morning, ready to catch a flight to Colorado when his client called him. It seemed Emery had survived the blast in the brewery.

The man on the other end of the line snarled. “Perfect or not, you failed. It seems the bodyguard got the hacker outside before the explosion. Emery jumped through a window into a vat of water. So you failed, completely.” There was a deadly pause. “You know how I feel about failure.”

Antonio resisted the urge to shout back at his client. He’d never had a problem carrying out a hit before, but these damn twins were his undoing. It was still a mystery as to how the boys had escaped twenty-five years ago. He had come back to the abandoned mansion that night to find one of his two accomplices dead of a gunshot to his stomach, the two boys gone, and the second accomplice missing as well. The puzzle had only grown when the next day he’d learned only one twin had found his way home. The other was gone…and he hadn’t been the one to kill him, which meant that boy might still be alive. His boss had told him to leave Emery for now, and to concentrate on finding Fenn. It had only taken him twenty-five years and the invention of the Internet to track down one little boy. A boy that had grown into a rather dangerous man.

“I’m tired of you fucking this up. You’ve got one more shot before I call in someone else. Twenty-five years is a long time to mess up something like this.” His client’s voice was smooth again, dangerous. Antonio smiled grimly. He was dangerous, too, especially when his reputation was on the line.

“I have a flight to Colorado in an hour. Fenn is going to be in a bull riding competition tomorrow night. I’ll take care of him.”

Silence on the other end.

“Mr. Lockwood?” he queried. Surely his client hadn’t hung up.

“You will stay here. Take care of Emery. He’s more of a threat. He’s the one who remembers. Fenn would have come home if he knew his identity. You can always take care of him later. I want Emery gone, and take out that damn reporter. When he dies, she’ll suspect foul play. Remove them both and make it look like an accident. I don’t want any police interest.”

Another group of people paraded past Antonio’s car, heading to the terminal. He wanted to finish this damn job and leave. It had been one hell of a disaster. His client had been displeased. Very displeased, and that wasn’t good for his business.

So Antonio focused on watching Emery for any signs that Fenn had contacted him, or revealed where he was. Apparently that had been a vain hope. If he hadn’t come across a ten-year-old picture of Rookie Rider of the Year for bull riding last month, he might never have found Fenn. At eighteen years old, Fenn had become a real expert at the rodeo. And since Antonio discovered Fenn was going by another name he was able to track his movements by the competitions he entered. It was almost laughable. The eldest child of one of the wealthiest East Coast families in America was living in an old run-down trailer in rural Colorado.

“Finish the job, D’Angelo, and I’ll double your final payment.”

“Consider it done. By tomorrow night Emery and the reporter will be gone.”

The line went dead.

Antonio flipped the phone shut and tucked it into his jacket pocket. Even though the money was a nice bonus, it had long since ceased to be about the money. Emery and Fenn had made a mockery of his life’s work.

It was time to end this.

Sophie’s hands trembled as she logged on to her laptop. The small pocketknife rested on her thigh, looking oddly harmless. No one would have guessed it held secrets that could crush or bring back the soul of a tortured man. Emery’s redemption could be at this very second on the flash drive.

She had to work fast. She’d only been able to tell Wes in a few brief minutes that he needed to occupy Emery for an hour while she checked out the information.

Jamming the USB drive into the computer, she immediately opened the files and scanned over the folders. Her heart stuttered to a stop when she saw one titled “FL.” She clicked it open and started sorting through the PDFs until she saw a birth certificate with the name Fenn Smith. It was classified as a replacement document for a lost birth certificate.

“Fenn Smith,” she murmured, reading over the details before moving on to the next documents. There were pictures. Hundreds of them. All of them had the same person, a boy who looked exactly like the one from the photo of the night Emery was found by the police. She clicked photo after photo, watching this other boy grow into a man. Her breath hitched as the reality of what she was seeing sank in.

It was Fenn. He was exactly like his brother, a living, breathing copy of the man she cared so much about. Fenn’s long unruly hair nearly reached his ears, calling for a woman to run her hands through it. It was tousled, a wild reflection of Emery’s more tame style. She stopped to gaze at one particular picture, of Fenn leaning back against a paddock fence, wearing faded worn blue jeans that hugged his legs enough to show his lean, muscled figure. Brown cowboy boots crossed at the ankles, a Stetson tipped back on his head, and a rakish grin stretching his lips wide. He was so alive, so vibrant. The build and shape of his body were a perfect mirror to his twin’s. Their faces had the same chiseled beauty that had her body melting and her brain fogging with desire.

Fierce tears stung her eyes.

And then there were two
. She couldn’t stop smiling.

Fenn was alive.

The news hit her again, as the shock began to finally wear off. Then the panic set in.

The assassin sent to kill Emery was on his way to Colorado this very second to finish off Fenn. She couldn’t delay a second longer. She grabbed her phone and texted Wes. Fenn was in Walnut Springs, a small town in Colorado mainly famous as a resort town for skiers in the winter. She sent Wes the directions and emphasized how important it was that he get on the first flight out of Long Island. He’d have to make his excuses to Emery and leave right away.

They couldn’t tell Emery, not until they were sure Fenn was safe. He couldn’t lose his brother twice. No one was strong enough to survive that. Her heart twisted at the guilt of not telling Emery, but it was better this way, and hopefully he’d never know she’d kept the truth from him, even for a short time. He’d never understand why she had to deceive him. Someday soon she’d be able to tell him Fenn was alive and help reunite him with his brother.

Her cell phone vibrated with a text message from Wes.

On it. Will text when I find him. Booked flight for tonight.

Tonight? She wished he could leave sooner.

Her phone rang and she picked it up, expecting to hear Wes’s voice, but it was his sister Hayden.

“Hey girlie, I’ve got to get out of town for a few days. Wes is pretty upset about the club thing.”

Sophie grinned. “He’s mad, huh?”

“Yeah. He’s acting like I’m some sort of depraved lunatic for going there. This coming from the man who is dating one of the subs from the Cuff, and he goes there practically every weekend. I swear he should have ‘hypocrite’ tattooed on his forehead.”

Hayden’s husky laugh cheered Sophie up.

“So you’re leaving?”

“I figured I’d take a quick vacation. We have a house on Lake Michigan and I thought I’d go and spend a week there, let him cool off before I come back. You don’t need me here, do you?” Hayden’s tone turned odd and almost worried.

“I’ll be okay.” She hoped to God that was the truth. Although she and Hayden had only known each other a couple of weeks, she felt connected to the other woman and their growing friendship was deep.

“You don’t sound too sure. I guess if it was me I’d be nervous if left alone with all these men. Talk about a testosterone overload. Emery can be a dominating tyrant, Royce just a dominating ass, and I won’t even get into what my brother is.”

Sophie laughed, surprised at how easily Hayden could make her feel better. She’d never had many girl friends. She’d always been a loner and had never understood most of the women back in Kansas. Hayden was like her, different somehow.

“I think I can handle them, Hayden,” Sophie assured her.

“Okay, well call me if you have any problems. I’ll set them straight.”

“Thanks. Have fun on your trip.”

“Don’t worry, I will. Bye, Sophie.”

Sophie started to say good-bye but the line disconnected. A deep-seated ache settled in her chest and she felt suddenly very alone. It had always been hard to connect to people in general. With the dark history of Rachel’s abduction always looming large on the horizon, she’d stayed clear of people, except to write stories. As a journalist she could talk to people, interview them and stay distant. Emery, though, was her own personal sun—intense, overpowering—and he pulled her into his orbit. It was only a matter of time before he burned her up. She wanted nothing more than to be in his arms and turn to flames as long as his lips were on hers, his body pressed flushed to hers.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the bedroom door opened and Emery stood there, dressed in his dark suit, a blood red tie against his white shirt. Heat flooded her cheeks as she remembered that same tie around her own neck, his hands smoothing it down her bare chest between her aching breasts. It had been the only thing he’d allowed her to wear except for her cuffs, in their bed. And it had been so erotic, decadent, to wear something that was so uniquely his.

His immaculate clothes were his armor; she knew that now. Her eyes dropped to the screen of her computer for a second, seeing Fenn’s face and a pain knifed through her ribs. She forced herself to feign a casual manner as she smiled at him, logged off her computer, and set it down.

“Hey.” She hoped her face showed more warmth than her suddenly rough voice.

“What’s wrong?” He crossed the room and joined her on the bed, curling one arm around her shoulders. He cupped her cheek and turned her to face him. “Talk to me.” Emery dropped his hand to her hands, his fingers gliding over the gold cuffs still locked around her wrists. They didn’t match her clothes, but that wasn’t the point. They were his mark of erotic ownership and she wanted to show them to the whole world.

“It’s just everything that’s happened. I think it’s starting to set in, you know?”

“You’ve been in shock. It’s only natural.”

Sophie shivered as guilt slithered up the length of her spine where it nested at the base of her neck and sank its fangs there, making her shoulders tense. Why did he have to be so perfect and understanding? It made her silence about Fenn seem so much worse. She did the only thing she could do to keep her lips sealed. She kissed him, praying he wouldn’t taste her betrayal when her trembling lips met his.

Finally he drew back and cupped her cheeks. “I want to take you somewhere.” He dropped his hands and took hold of her arm.

“Where?”

“A place I go to think sometimes.” He led her from the room.

Hayden zipped up her suitcase and checked her phone one last time. No new messages. That was good. Her brother Wes had arranged a flight to Colorado tonight. She’d called their family’s private pilot and gotten him to take her to their destination first, beating her brother’s request by a mere minute. She smiled with glee. Her bug on Wes’s phone was still intact and she knew everything that he knew.

Including the biggest news of her life.

Fenn Lockwood was alive, in Colorado, and in danger. She was going to get to him before Wes. She was tired of being his little sister and not her own person. No one liked being a shadow, especially not her. She would prove she was a woman to be reckoned with. She would rescue Fenn and bring him back and earn the respect of the community she’d been raised in. Returning to Long Island with the long-lost boy everyone believed dead, she would in a way return the innocence of her world. The northern shore of the island had suffered greatly after the kidnapping because the Lockwoods, a strong social and economic force in Weston, had withdrawn almost completely from life for at least a decade after losing Fenn. The golden gleam of promise that the mansions had basked in had long since been shrouded in the mists of the tragedy and it was time she burned away the heavy cloak of fog.

Maybe then her parents would stop pressuring her into situations that would leave her married to a wealthy man, who would start sleeping with a mistress the second their vows were spoken. Every girl she’d known in prep school seemed stuck in a bitter, loveless marriage and suffering the plights of mothers with spoiled children. Such would be a fate worse than death for Hayden. There had to be a purpose to her life, something that motivated her. She only wished she knew what that was.

She dropped her phone into her purse and gripped the handle of her luggage to lift it off the bed. She was ready to get out of here. Colorado would be a blessed change of scenery from the choking closeness of the elite community on the island. She loved it with all of her heart, but the people in it seemed determined to drive her insane with their petty concerns for money, clothes, and pride. Hayden would be happy to do without the glamour.