Royal Heir

“Because my home blew up. I wasn’t living with Nicole by then. And I suspected she might have had a hand in trying to kill me.”

“Why would you—”

“Later. Right now, you’re the one in danger. Someone tried to run you down a few minutes ago. It doesn’t fit with what I think happened to Leo, but maybe there are two different agendas at work or maybe your boyfriend went postal—”

“Don’t be absurd.”

“You think he’s too stable? You never know—”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, wincing as the muscle in his upper arm flexed. “Do you think we could get out of here and go somewhere a little less…open?” he said.

“I need to go home. I need to be there to answer the phone.”

“Why?”

“The police think someone will call with a ransom—”

“No,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“If my suspicions are right, Leo is in no danger of being hurt. There’ll never be a ransom call. The danger will be that he’ll all but disappear off the face of the earth. We have to move fast.”

She studied his eyes for a second then swore under her breath. She wanted to believe him. She wanted Leo to be safe, but how? “I don’t understand. You know who kidnapped him?”

“I have my suspicions.”

“Then tell me. Tell the cops or the FBI. Why are we standing here talking—”

“Because I’m not going to tell anyone anything until I use a phone and make certain.”

“I have a cell phone—”

“It’s not that easy. Finding the right number is going to take a little work.”

“Listen,” she said, turning again to the car, “it’s been a long day and I’m tired of your riddles. I’m going home.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said.

Bristling, Julia whirled to face him. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean someone just tried to mow you down.”

“So you say.”

“Your house might be the next place they try.”

She swallowed a jolt of fear. Her house was her refuge. The thought someone might breach it—

“Go to a friend’s house for the night,” he said.

“I can’t. I have to be there if the kidnappers call.”

“But—”

“I can’t bet on your suspicions even if I understood them, which I don’t. I’m going home.”

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“Hold on,” she said. If this man was Nicole’s husband, he was turning out to be just as infuriating as her cousin had always insisted he was. Julia didn’t have the time or energy for any more verbal sparring. Time was passing, Leo was gone…

She added, “I don’t want you to come to my house. If you follow me, I’ll drive straight to the police station—”

“I can’t follow anyone right now,” he said. “I hitchhiked down here when I read that Leo was being sent to you. I was lucky to make it to the airport on time. Come on, Julia, think. There must be something about Nicole that wouldn’t make its way onto a fact sheet and would convince you I was married to her. Some habit, some gesture. Like the way she flipped that mane of hair. The way her eyes could turn you to stone when she was unhappy with you. The obsession with red underwear, the mole on her left thigh, the way she flossed three times a day. Something.”

His description of Nicole was right on the mark. But anyone meticulous enough to dig up George Abbot’s name could dig up all these things as well. On the other hand, she realized she was beginning to give up. If he wasn’t William Chastain, who was he and what did he want with her?

“Okay, I’ll play along,” she said, searching her memory for some obscure detail of Nicole’s life. “I know. Tell me what kind of diet she started after Christmas.”

He looked startled by her question. “I was living on my boat by then. I saw her when I came to see Leo and she did as much to make that next to impossible as she could.

“Besides, she was always on a diet. Wait, we met for lunch in January. She complained she’d gained half a pound over the holidays. Half a pound. I didn’t even know they made home scales that measured down to half a pound. Let’s see. She settled on some kind of seaweed algae smoothie. It looked like bilgewater. Smelled like it, too.”

“It did smell like bilgewater,” Julia said.

“Well?”

“You’re William Chastain?”

“Call me Will. Only Nicole insisted on calling me William.”

“Nicole told me a lot…well, about you.”

“None of it good, right?”

“No, not much.”

His voice softened. “Things were good at the beginning, but you didn’t know her then. By the time you discovered she existed, things had gone sour. My fault as much as hers.”

It was decision time. Julia, trusting her gut instinct, said, “Okay.”

“Does that mean you’ll take me along?”

“Yes. But I’m warning you, I know how to defend myself.”

This time his smile reached his eyes. “I don’t doubt it for a minute,” he said.