Best-Kept Secrets

The town of Fools Point, Maryland, has seen quite a few odd occurrences in the past year. Explosions, shoot-outs, kidnappings…and a fair share of weddings. So much has happened here, in fact, the townsfolk have taken to calling the place MYSTERY JUNCTION. This is, after all, the place where one can find danger and desire around every corner.

Folks are still wondering about our newest business owner, Jake Collins. Though gossip is flying that he has connections to the Mafia, or he was wounded in battle, Jake won’t say a word about his past. But let’s not forget that he has taken in that troubled teen, Matt Williams. Jake can’t be all bad.

Speaking of possible relationships…Now that Amy Thomas has moved back to town, does anyone see a resemblance between her young daughter and Jake Collins? It’s in the smile, I’d say. Amy has been overseas these past several years, and some insist that Jake was in the military—though no one seems to know where he was stationed. Hmm. Anyone up for a doing a little math?

Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,

The recipe for a perfect Valentine’s Day: chocolate, champagne—and four original romantic suspense titles from Harlequin Intrigue!

Our TOP SECRET BABIES promotion kicks off with Rita Herron’s Saving His Son (#601). Devastated single mother Lindsey Payne suspects her child is alive and well—and being kept from her deliberately. The only man who’d be as determined as she is to find her child is Detective Gavin McCord—if he knew he’d fathered her missing baby….

In Best-Kept Secrets (#602) by Dani Sinclair, the tongues in MYSTERY JUNCTION are wagging about newcomer Jake Collins. Amy Thomas’s first and only love has returned at last and she’s ready to tell him the secret she’s long kept hidden. But would revealing it suddenly put her life in jeopardy?

Our ON THE EDGE program continues with Private Vows (#603) by Sally Steward. A beautiful amnesiac is desperate to remember her past. Investigator Cole Grayson is desperate to keep it hidden. For if she remembers the truth, she’d never be his….

Bachelor Will Sheridan thinks he’s found the perfect Mystery Bride (#604) in B.J. Daniels’s latest romantic thriller. But the sexy and provocative Samantha Murphy is a female P.I. in the middle of a puzzling case when Will suddenly becomes her shadow. Now with desire distracting her and a child’s life in the balance, Samantha and Will are about to discover the true meaning of “partnership”!

Sincerely,

Denise O’Sullivan

Associate Senior Editor

Harlequin Intrigue

Best-Kept Secrets

Dani Sinclair

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An avid reader, Dani Sinclair didn’t discover romance novels until her mother lent her one when she’d come for a visit. Dani’s been hooked on the genre ever since. With the premiere of Mystery Baby for Harlequin Intrigue in 1996, Dani discovered she not only enjoyed reading this genre, she loved writing the intense stories, as well. Her third novel, Better Watch Out, was a RITA Award finalist in 1998. Dani lives outside Washington, D.C., a place she’s found to be a great source for both intrigue and humor!

Books by Dani Sinclair

HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

371—MYSTERY BABY

401—MAN WITHOUT A BADGE

448—BETTER WATCH OUT

481—MARRIED IN HASTE

507—THE MAN SHE MARRIED

539—FOR HIS DAUGHTER*

551—MY BABY, MY LOVE*

565—THE SILENT WITNESS*

589—THE SPECIALIST

602—BEST-KEPT SECRETS*

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

790—THE NAKED TRUTH

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Amy Thomas—Trapped in a web of lies whose origins she can’t begin to comprehend, a web that threatens to destroy her family.

Jake Collins—Made a serious error nine years ago; now time is running out for him to make amends.

Kelsey Thomas—The eight-year-old has become a pawn in a thirty-year-old nightmare.

Matt Williams—Jake’s teenaged nephew has a history of being in trouble and now he really wants to change his image.

Susan and Cornelius Thomas—Amy’s parents share a secret that threatens to destroy their world and the family they love above all else.

General Marcus Perry—Above reproach and up for his second star, but he’s been keeping a terrible secret all these years.

Millicent Perry—The general’s proper Bostonian wife.

Gertrude Perry—The general’s sister is slipping in and out of dementia, but just maybe, her ramblings hold the key to everything.

Cindy Lou Perry Baranski—The general’s daughter who is up for reelection as the town mayor.

Eugene Perry—The general’s son spends a great deal of time and money inside the local bar, with no visible means of support.

Ben Dwyer—The Perrywinkle’s bartender, who may have a few secrets of his own.

John Hepplewhite—Fools Point’s police chief always gets his man.

DEDICATION

For Mary McGowan, an unconditional friend.

Thank you. For Natashya Wilson and the past two years

of friendship and support. And for Roger, Chip,

Dan and Barb always.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Many thanks to Sgt. Rick Cage and Officer Melissa Parlon of the Montgomery County Police Department. They generously shared their time answering numerous questions. Errors in police procedure are mine alone or were purposefully done to fit the needs of the story.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Prologue

The workman’s heavy-booted foot dislodged something, causing it to roll across the ground and bounce off the side wall. The flashlight followed its course, spotlighting the dirt-encrusted skull.

“Holy sh—”

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Oh, man, oh, man, oh—”

“Come on,” Will said, reaching for the ladder, not waiting to see if Buddy followed on his heels. The burly foreman stepped back as the two men scrambled over the lip of the hole and into the brilliant September sunshine.

“What the hell are you doing?” Zeke demanded.

Will pointed, angry that his hand was shaking. “We got us some bodies down there.”

“In the sinkhole?”

“That ain’t no sinkhole,” Will told him. “There’s some kinda room down there.”

“What?”

“Yeah.” Will hated that he was still shaking. “Buddy, you’d better go tell the boss.”

Zeke stared at them. “Never mind the boss, Buddy, go get the police.”

Buddy’s eyes were wide, his skin strangely pale beneath his dark bronze tan. He skirted the pile of debris from the torn-up corner of the parking lot, headed around the dump truck with its heavy load of gravel and started running across the tarmac in spite of it being ninety-eight degrees in the shade. The other two men watched him head for the restaurant before turning to peer back down into the hole.

“You sure about this?” Zeke asked again.

“I know a skull when I see one,” Will growled. “Even a tiny one like that.”

“Tiny?”

Will sized it in the air with his hands. “There’s another one. Bigger. You wanna go look?”

“Hell, no.” He tipped back his hard hat and scratched at his thinning hair. “It could be an animal,” he said hopefully.

Will didn’t dignify that with an answer.

“You just better be sure, is all,” Zeke said.

“I’m sure.”

The two men resumed staring into the deep hole.

“What’s going on here?”

They whirled, Zeke nearly falling into the opening at the sound of their current employer’s deep voice. Jake Collins, owner of the restaurant whose parking lot they’d been hired to fix, stood staring at them, his dark eyes watching intently. He was rumored to be a gambler with Mafia connections. No one seemed to know if it was true or not, and no one had the guts to ask him. But he sure looked the part.

Everyone in Fools Point was a little afraid of Jake Collins.

“Buddy says you found two bodies,” Jake said quietly.

The foreman nodded his balding head. “It’s true, Mr. Collins. Down there. Reason the parking lot collapsed is someone built it over an old root cellar or something. Bodies are at the bottom.”

“Whose bodies?”

Zeke looked at Will who swallowed before shaking his head. He hoped the only thing shaking was his head beneath that penetrating gaze.

“One of ’em’s a baby,” Will told him.

“A baby?” Jake’s voice deepened a full octave.

“Yes, sir. Real tiny, the bones are.”

“Bones?”

“Yeah. They’ve been down there an awful long time.”

Jake Collins didn’t say another word. He simply grabbed the ladder, swung his neatly pressed trouser leg over the edge of the hole, and disappeared from view.

“He’s gonna get them fancy duds all dirty down there,” the foreman muttered.

“Yeah,” Will agreed.

Minutes later Jake reappeared. His face, as always, was an impenetrable mask. “Don’t move anything. Don’t touch anything. Don’t let anyone except Chief Hepplewhite or Officer Garvey down there.” He started to walk away.

“Yes, sir. Uh, Mr. Collins, what are we going to do about the pit?”

Jake paused to pin them with a haughty stare. “Wait for the cops to finish their investigation. Then fill the thing in permanently with that load of gravel.” He continued across the parking lot, not even bothering to brush the dirt from his tan slacks.

“That guy gives me the creeps,” Buddy said suddenly.

“Yeah.” Zeke’s gaze drifted back to the hole in the ground. “Who do you suppose dumped a helpless little baby and its mother in a root cellar?”

Chapter One

A shiver stole up her spine. “Did you say Jake Collins?”

Her mother nodded, folding the last towel and placing it in the basket. “Rumor has it that he’s Mafia connected, you know.”

Amy Thomas shook her head even as her heart continued to pound. Jake Collins wasn’t Mafia. He was the father of her daughter. But her mother didn’t know that. No one knew that except her. What was he doing here, in Fools Point of all places? And running a bar and restaurant?

That wasn’t the gung-ho navy lieutenant she’d known. Maybe this was a different Jake Collins and not her Jake Collins—not that he’d ever been hers except in the physical sense, and then only as a summer fling. Amy’s gaze darted to where her daughter played on the floor with her mother’s pair of cats and a feather toy. Kelsey giggled at the animals and their antics.

Her daughter. Jake had simply been the physical fluke that had helped in the child’s biological creation.

“I don’t believe that for a second, either,” her mother went on, undisturbed by the cats, the child or her daughter’s silence. “He’s just a very private sort of man, but you know how this town is. No secrets here, they simply aren’t tolerated. If he won’t tell people about his past, they’ll make up their own details. Look how they discuss the wife of Chief Hepplewhite. Poor woman. She just sits in that wheelchair day after day never saying a word and no one knows how she came to such a fate. The rumor is—”

Amy stopped her mother from lifting the basket of clothing or speculating any further on the lives of the residents of Fools Point. “I’ll take it, Mom, you shouldn’t be carrying things.”

“I’m not an invalid despite what your father thinks. I have a heart condition. Millions of people do, you know.”

“I’ll still carry the basket.”

“Have it your way. Who am I to argue with free labor? Anyhow, you should see what Mr. Collins has done with the old Perry place. Who would have thought that old eyesore could have been turned into such a fabulous restaurant? Of course, your father hates to eat out so he only took me there once, and only because I insisted. Still, it’s beautiful inside. Mr. Collins did a fantastic job on the renovations. I don’t think Gertrude would appreciate the changes, but then her mind is really starting to slip. I guess that’s why the family sold the estate in the first place. Did you know Gertrude’s niece, Cindy Lou, is the mayor now?”

Jake’s name had caught Amy unprepared. While her mother had been filling her in on the latest gossip since she’d arrived in town yesterday, his name left her stunned.

“I have an idea, Mom,” Amy said, barely registering her mother’s words. “Why don’t we get cleaned up and go over there for lunch?”

Excitement sparkled in her mother’s faded blue eyes. “Oh, that would be fun, but I made egg salad for lunch.”

“We’ll have it for dinner instead. If we eat a big lunch we won’t want a heavy dinner anyhow. You can give Dad a steak or something. Come on, what do you say? We’ll be back home before Dad finishes delivering the mail. My treat.”

It was probably a different Jake Collins, Amy mused, but she wouldn’t be able to sit still until she knew one way or another. For nine years she’d dreamed of meeting Jake once again. A dozen scenarios had helped her pass many a sleepless night, especially when their daughter was a tiny infant. Being a single parent had seemed overwhelming at times.

“I’d like to go, of course,” her mother said.

That was enough for Amy. “Come on, Kelsey, let’s change. We’re going out for lunch.”

“Do I have to change?”

Oh, yes, for this lunch she definitely had to change. Amy wanted Jake to see just what he’d given up nine years ago. “How about wearing your new sundress?”

“The blue-green one that matches yours?”

“Why not? We’ll dress like twins.”

She saw her mother pale and reached out a hand toward the older woman. But Susan Thomas smiled quickly. “I have a blue sundress, as well,” her mother announced. “We shall be the best-dressed ladies at the Perrywrinkle.”

“Cool, Grandma.”

More than cool, Amy decided while trying to calm the butterflies attempting to launch their way free from her stomach. If it was the Jake Collins she’d known nine years ago, he was in for a real surprise.

Amy dressed quickly, brushing out her long brown hair until it snapped with energy. When Jake had last seen her she’d worn it pixie-short and the color had been a much deeper brown, but a few weeks at the beach with Kelsey had lightened her hair color and darkened her skin. Otherwise, she didn’t look all that different now from the woman he’d known.

As she started to put the opal studs in her ears, Amy hesitated. She turned and began hunting through the boxes she’d been storing here at the house. She found her old jewelry box after a few false starts. Almost defiantly, she picked out the crystal earrings Jake had given her so long ago and put them in her ears instead.

Staring at her image, she had second thoughts. Would Jake see the earrings as a sign that she’d been pining for him all these years? Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Jake had taught her a valuable lesson. One she’d never forget.

Falling in love was easy. Making someone else feel the same way was impossible. Jake had wanted a summer fling and she’d obliged, foolishly picturing forever. But his only commitment had been to the navy and the secretive work he did for them. The moment they told him it was time to move on, he did. Alone.

She took heart from the way the earrings sparkled in the sunlight sweeping in through her window. Hopefully, Jake would get the message she intended. He’d meant so little she’d practically forgotten him.

The Perrywrinkle was in easy walking distance. Mindful of her mother’s bad heart, however, Amy wanted to drive.

“Nonsense, darling. It’s much too beautiful a day to ride in a stuffy car when the restaurant is at the top of the hill.”

“Exactly. At the top of the hill.”

“So we’ll take our time,” Susan Thomas told her.

They did, even pausing beneath the bright September sun to watch a caterpillar make its way across the sidewalk. Though they had taken a popular shortcut up the hill behind the restaurant, her mother was huffing by the time they got to the top.

“I knew we should have taken the car,” Amy said worriedly.

“Don’t be silly, dear. I may not be young like you, but I can still walk a block without collapsing.”

Actually, it was Amy who was more likely to collapse. Her palms were sweating and her heart was beating much too fast. Surely in nine years she’d gotten over any infatuation she might have had for the man. He’d dumped her! He hadn’t even responded when she’d written and told him about their baby.

No, she wasn’t infatuated with Jake any longer. She just wanted him to see the beautiful, brilliant child he hadn’t wanted to claim all those years ago. And anyhow, it probably wasn’t the same man, she told herself for the umpteenth time.

“What’s going on, Mommy?”

Amy stared at the beautifully landscaped grounds for the first time. She realized a work crew was gathered around a deep pit only a few feet away. Even as she watched, more people left the restaurant and hurried over.

“I have no idea.”

“Can I go see?”

“Definitely not.”

“Well, I want to see what’s going on,” Susan announced, and headed in that direction.

Amy should have known. In Fools Point everyone minded everyone else’s business. She trailed behind her mother and her daughter. A police car appeared on the scene and a white-haired man stepped from the vehicle. Her mother came to a halt.

“That’s Chief Hepplewhite,” she said sotto voce. “This must be something big.”

“It’s true,” someone in the growing crowd was saying to his companion. “They found a bunch of bodies down there.”

Bodies?

“I want to see! Come on, Mommy!”

“No! Kelsey…”

They’d reached the edge of the crowd. Chief Hepplewhite and another police officer were descending a wooden ladder into the yawning pit. Amy’s mother and daughter paused several feet behind a dump truck to get an unobstructed view.

One of the construction workers stepped forward to correct the speaker. “There’s only two bodies down there and one of ’em’s a real tiny baby.”

Amy saw her mother go white. She began to sway unsteadily. “Mom?”

There was a sudden grinding noise and the dump truck suddenly began to roll backward.

“Get back!”

Amy reached for her daughter and her mother. Her mother stumbled. Before she could pull them to safety, someone roughly shoved all of them to the asphalt, out of the path of the runaway truck. A man’s large body, lying across her back, partly covered her.

“Stay still,” a masculine voice rumbled in her ear.

Voices shouted. Someone screamed. And the truck bounced past, scant inches from where the man had flung them. Amy gripped her daughter’s hand, fighting the adrenaline rush of fear.

There was a horrific sound as the truck’s rear wheel hit the lip of the hole. The truck canted to one side, off balance. The heavy load groaned and shifted. There was a tortured cry of metal as something gave way and gravel began spewing everywhere.

A haze of dust swept over them. The sudden silence that followed was almost painful. The person on top of her pulled away. Amy rolled over and came eye-to-eye with the only man she had ever loved.

“Are you okay?” he asked. An incredulous expression suddenly swept his harsh features as recognition hit him. “Amy?”

“Hello, Jake.”

“My God! What are you doing here?”

“Mommy?”

Amy sat up and tugged her daughter to her side. “I was taking my mother and my daughter to lunch.”

Feeling sucker-punched, Jake rose to his feet and stared down at the face that had haunted his dreams for nine years. Amy hadn’t changed a bit—and yet she had. She was older, of course, but more beautiful than ever. Her sea-green eyes still glowed with that vibrancy he remembered, only now there was a maturity that hadn’t been there before. Her hair was gloriously long. It was silky, and lighter in color than he remembered, but one thing hadn’t changed. Her mouth had always been made for kissing.

“Is anybody hurt?”

Jake tore his gaze from her face at the sound of the police chief’s question. Hepplewhite and Officer Garvey had apparently made it out of the pit before the truck had half filled it full of gravel.

“I’ll be damned. I think my leg’s broke,” Zeke announced, sounding stunned.

Jake turned back to Amy, assessing her for injuries. Other than smudges of dirt, she was fine. Amazingly, Zeke was the only one in the crowd who’d been struck by the truck. Several people had been hit by flying gravel, but no one was seriously hurt.

“What happened?” Hepplewhite demanded of the foreman.

“I don’t know. Look out!”

Near the edge of the pit, the ground gave way beneath the weight of the truck. More of the gravel spilled into the hole.

“Get everybody back! Lee, secure the scene until I can get Osher and Jackstone over here,” Hepplewhite ordered the other officer with him. “Now we’ve really got a mess.”

“Do you want help?” Jake offered.

The police chief sized him up. “See if you can get these people inside the restaurant and keep them there until I can ask a few questions.”

Jake nodded. He kept his gaze impersonal as he looked at the crowd, refusing to stare at the one person he wanted most to look at. “Everyone inside where it’s safe,” he said firmly in a tone that started people moving. “You and you—” he picked two of the construction workers “—carry Zeke inside and set him down in the bar until the ambulance arrives.”

Zeke managed a smile. “I could use a beer,” he announced. “For the pain.”

“We should go home. My mother isn’t well,” Amy protested.

“Grandma?”

Jake squatted beside the frail woman he recognized as the mailman’s wife. “Are you hurt?” he asked gently.

“It’s her heart,” Amy said quickly.

Jake glanced around and spotted one of his dishwashers lingering at the scene. “Billy, get inside and call for an ambulance.”

Instantly, Amy’s mother struggled to sit up. “I don’t need an ambulance! I’m fine. I’m not an invalid.”

“One of the workmen was injured,” Jake said reassuringly. “We’ll need the ambulance for him.”

“Oh. Oh, of course.”

Before she could protest, he lifted her into his arms and stood.

“I can walk.”

“Of course you can, but surely you won’t deprive me of a chance to carry such a beautiful woman to safety.”

“Oh.” She blushed a deep rosy pink. “I’d heard you were a charmer,” Susan Thomas said. “Isn’t he a charmer, Amy?”

Jake’s eyes locked with Amy’s. He saw a flash of remembered hurt before they turned to green chips of ice that sparkled like the crystals in her ears.

“Oh, yeah, he’s a real charmer, Mom. Come on, Kelsey.” She pulled her daughter tightly to her side and turned away without another word. Her skirt whirled almost defiantly about her shapely, graceful legs. The rush of remembered heat startled him. It had been years, but he could still feel those legs wrapped tightly around his body as they came together with incredible abandon.