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“Too much,” Melanie said with a grimace, tucking her silky blond hair behind one ear.
Tess turned back to the sink, squirted soap into the hot water and began washing the dishes. As she worked, her mind drifted back in time, to the summer her and Melanie’s lives had been linked—and changed—forever…
Friends since childhood, Tess had always been the more practical of the two, the more studious, the one who never got into trouble while the impetuous Melanie seemed to hover on the brink of one disaster after another.
So it had come as a surprise to both of them when, in the summer after their junior year in college, Tess had been the one to fall in love, and with a man totally unsuited for her.
Jared Spencer was older, for one thing. More sophisticated. More worldly. Tess sometimes wondered how she had ever let him get under her skin the way he had. He wasn’t her type at all. She’d always held nothing but contempt for the southern aristocracy with their customs and attitudes and machinations.
But in spite of her disdain and no small amount of resistance, Jared had finally gotten to her. He’d pursued her arduously and won her over, and sometimes still, in looking back, Tess wondered why he’d been so persistent. Was it a simple case of the forbidden fruit? Had she, the housekeeper’s daughter, been an irresistible temptation to rebel against a lifetime of expectations?
Melanie, perhaps not to be outdone, or perhaps because the Spencer charisma had enthralled her, too, had promptly gotten involved with Jared’s younger brother, Royce, although she’d kept the relationship a secret. Tess hadn’t suspected a thing until she’d opened the door one night, and Melanie had collapsed, hysterical, into her arms.
It wasn’t until Tess had finally gotten Melanie to calm down that she noticed the marks on her friend’s arms, the telltale discoloration where someone had grabbed her roughly.
Tess stared at the bruises in shock. “Melanie, who did this to you?”
Melanie didn’t want to tell her at first, but then finally she whispered, “Royce.”
Tess gasped. “Royce Spencer? But you don’t even know him!”
Melanie glanced away, unable to meet her friend’s gaze. “We’ve been seeing each other.”
“Melanie! He’s married!” Tess blurted in horror. In fact, he was practically a newlywed. His sudden marriage had created quite a clamor within the family, Joelle said, coming as it had after his announcement that he would not pursue an MBA at Harvard, as his brother had done before him, but would instead go directly to work for the Spencer Hotels Corporation.
“I didn’t know he was married,” Melanie defended. “Not at first. And then when I found out, I was already in love with him. I tried to break it off. I swear I did. I know now what a mistake it was. Tess—” She clutched Tess’s arm. “You should have seen the look in his eyes tonight when he grabbed me. I thought he was going to kill me. He was completely out of control.”
Tess could hardly comprehend what her friend was telling her. Melanie, involved with a married man? Royce Spencer, capable not only of infidelity, but violence?
In truth, Tess had never cared much for Royce Spencer. He’d always been on the wild side, and just a little too sure that he could get whatever, and whomever, he wanted. He and Tess had had an altercation once at the lake house when he’d made a pass at her. Tess hadn’t told her mother about it because she’d handled things herself. She’d slapped Royce’s face, he’d laughed and apologized, and for a while, he’d pursued her even harder. But then he’d finally given up, and that had been the end of it.
But this!
“What happened?” she asked.
“I gave him an ultimatum,” Melanie said almost defiantly. “I told him if he didn’t leave his wife, I’d tell her about us.”
“Oh, Mel.”
“You hate me,” Melanie whispered. “I can see it in your eyes.”
“I don’t hate you.” What Tess felt at the moment was shock. Disbelief. And, yes, more than a little disappointed. Dating a married man—that just wasn’t done in her book.
“But you’ve lost respect for me,” Melanie said. “I don’t blame you. I don’t respect myself much at the moment.”
“We’ll sort all that out later,” Tess murmured, her mind still reeling. “What we have to do now is make sure you’re okay. Do you need to see a doctor?”
“He just grabbed me. He didn’t…hit me.”
“But he threatened you,” Tess said. “Maybe we should go to the police.”
“No!” Melanie’s eyes widened in terror. “Don’t you see? No one can know about this. Royce said if I told anyone, he’d kill me. And I believe him. You don’t know how dangerous he is—”
“She’s right,” Tess’s mother said from her bedroom doorway.
Both girls spun to face her. Wrapping a white chenille robe tightly around her, Joelle crossed the room to examine the bruises on Melanie’s arms. When she finally looked up, her eyes were grave, almost frightened. “No one can find out about this, Tess.”
“But he threatened her! We can’t let him get away with that!”
Joelle’s expression was resolved, worried. “You think the police would believe you? It would be Melanie’s word against Royce’s, and even if she did manage to convince the authorities she was telling the truth, the family would buy Royce’s way out of it. I’ve watched them get him out of one scrape after another for years, always making excuses for his behavior, always covering up for him. I’ve been afraid for a long time what that boy might be capable of.”
Tess stared at her, stunned. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“I didn’t think I had to,” Joelle said wearily. “I hardly ever let you go over to the lake house. I thought all I had to do was keep you away from him. From all of them. And it wasn’t hard, because you never seemed to like any of the Spencers anyway.”
“But Jared’s different,” Tess protested. “He would never hurt anyone.”
Joelle gave her an uneasy glance. “He may not be like Royce, but he is still a Spencer. It’s time you realize what that means, Tess. The Spencers will protect their own, no matter who they have to step on in the process. I want you to stay away from him. Do you hear me?”
“She’s right,” Melanie whispered. “You have to stay away from the Spencers before something like this happens to you.”
But what none of them had known at that moment, not even Tess, was that she was already irrevocably tied to the Spencers….
Shoving the memories aside, Tess finished the last of the dishes. She dried her hands on a dish towel, then went to kneel beside Melanie. “I need to talk to you.”
Melanie looked surprised by the urgency in Tess’s voice. “Of course. What is it?”
“I know where I can get the money I need.”
Melanie frowned. “Where?”
Tess bit her lip. “Jared’s back in Mississippi. I read in the paper that he’s been named president of the Spencer Hotels Corporation.” The article had featured a picture of Jared at a big charity event held at the New Orleans Spencer. He’d been accompanied by a beautiful redhead with a spectacular figure. His fiancé, the caption had said. Tess hadn’t wanted to look at that picture too closely, but somehow she hadn’t been able to tear her gaze from it. Jared was getting married. “I’m going to drive to Jackson tomorrow and see him,” she told Melanie.
Melanie gripped the arms of her wheelchair. “No!”
“It’s the only way, Mel. I have to do this for Emily.”
“Emily is precisely the reason why you can’t do this!” Melanie’s face had gone deathly white. “Have you forgotten why you left town that summer? Why you felt you had to marry Alan Campbell, a man you weren’t in love with? Have you forgotten what happened to me?”
“I haven’t forgotten anything.” Tess’s gaze dropped to Melanie’s wheelchair. “How could I?”
“You can’t tell him about Emily. You can’t!”
“I know all the reasons why I shouldn’t,” Tess said quietly. “I know what the dangers are. But what if we’re wrong about the kidnapping, Melanie? What if Royce had something to do with Emily’s disappearance, and I didn’t tell the police about him? What if he has her, and I’ve kept silent all this time?”
“Tess, listen to me,” Melanie said desperately. “You know that’s not possible. The police think that whoever kidnapped Sadie Cross ten years ago came back and abducted Emily. Royce had nothing to do with it. But if he finds out about her now, do you think he’d stand by and let that trust slip through his fingers? Even with Emily missing, if he thought you were still a threat to him, he’d come after you in a heartbeat and you know it. He might even come after me, too.”
Melanie’s pale, thin face hardened with hatred. “Look at me, Tess. Take a good long look. I’m in this wheelchair because I threatened Royce Spencer. He’s the one who forced us off the road that night and left us both for dead.”
“I know you’ve always thought that, but the police—”
“Wouldn’t even investigate. They never even went out to check Royce’s car. It was all swept under the rug, just like it would be now, if you threatened the Spencers. But you thought it was Royce, too, that night, Tess, or else you never would have left town. You would have stayed and fought the Spencers if you hadn’t been afraid for your life. And for your baby’s life.” Melanie cast a glance toward the kitchen door, then lowered her voice so that Joelle wouldn’t overhear them. “You burned your bridges by keeping silent, and that took extraordinary courage. Don’t get cold feet now. Think of everything you’ve done to protect your daughter.”
It was true. Tess had gone to great lengths to guard her secret, not the least of which had been changing Emily’s birth certificate. Alan Campbell had been a medical student before he’d gotten too sick to continue his studies, but he’d still had connections at the hospital in Memphis where he’d trained. He’d had one of his friends who worked in medical records change the entry of Emily’s birth from April to August, a full year after Tess had left Eden, as well as the date on all Tess’s medical records.
All she’d had to do then was apply for a corrected birth certificate from the state. And since Emily was small for her age, no one had questioned the four-month discrepancy in her development when Tess had returned to Eden two years later. No one knew Emily’s true birthday except for Tess, Joelle, Melanie and Emily’s pediatrician. And there was no way Royce could get his hands on those records.
“Please, please, think about what you’re doing,” Melanie begged. “You can’t tell Jared the truth. You can’t.” Only one other time had Tess seen the same level of terror in her friend’s eyes. “You can’t take the chance that Royce would find out. He’s still dangerous. He got away with attempted murder back then, and his family helped him. They’d help him now, too, if they had to. For God’s sake, don’t bring those people back into our lives.”
Tess glanced up at her friend. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a choice. They have money and I don’t.”
“Yes,” Melanie said bitterly. “And what if Royce uses his money to make certain Emily stays missing forever? Have you considered that?”
Chapter Three
Secrets have a way of coming back to haunt you, Tess’s mother had warned her that summer. As Tess hovered nervously in Jared’s office doorway the next day, she felt almost sick with apprehension. The prospect of what she was about to do terrified her.
Melanie was right. The consequences of Tess’s actions today could be dire. The threat that had driven her from town—and from Jared’s arms—that summer still posed a grave danger. If he refused to help her, she could be risking everything for nothing. She could be putting her daughter in even more jeopardy.
But what choice did she have? What choice had she had six years ago?
Tess swallowed and took a fortifying breath, slowly, deeply, to calm herself, repeating the litany she’d chanted to herself all through the sleepless night. I’m doing this for Emily.
Across the room, Jared stood at the window, oblivious to her presence, and for a moment, the urge to slip away before he noticed her was almost overwhelming. But Tess hesitated, her gaze moving over him, drinking in the familiar lines of his body. The wide shoulders. The narrow waist and slim hips. He was just as tall as she’d remembered, his hair still dark.
In point of fact, Tess had forgotten nothing about Jared Spencer because she still dreamed about him. She still thought about him at night, after Emily had gone to sleep, when the TV was turned off and the house settled into deep silence. Sometimes lying in bed, unable to drift off, Tess would wonder about what might have been, but mostly she thought about what was never meant to be.
She and Jared had come from two very different worlds—his one of wealth and privilege, hers one of hard work and sacrifice. Still, it might have worked, they might have made it work, if it hadn’t been for a series of events that summer that had changed Tess’s life—and Melanie’s—forever. The night Melanie had showed up at Tess’s door had only been a portent.
But Jared had loved her once, Tess thought, her eyes misting. He’d once promised her there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her.
Would he feel that way now when he found out the truth…?
“Promise me,” Tess whispered as she and Jared lay on his boat, watching the stars turn on one by one in an indigo sky. They were alone on the lake, drifting aimlessly, neither of them anxious to return to shore. To reality. “Promise you won’t say anything until I’m ready.”
Jared rolled to his side and propped himself on his elbow, gazing down at her. “They’re going to find out about us sooner or later, Tess. They may even already know.” He trailed a finger down her bare stomach, making her shiver. “Why are you so afraid?”
“You know why. I’m not the sort of girl your parents would want to see you bring home. They won’t approve of me and you know it.”
He hesitated, frowning. “They will in time.”
“But what if they don’t? What if my mother loses her job?”
“You think she’d get fired because of us? I wouldn’t let that happen.”
“Maybe you couldn’t stop it. Maybe they’d kick you out, too.”
“I’m not a kid, Tess. I’ve got my own place. I’m not exactly worried about being homeless.”
“But you’re destined to take over the company someday. It’s what you want. Your father could force you out because of me.”
“Stop borrowing trouble. That’s not going to happen, either.”
He was trying to reassure her, but Tess longed to hear him say that he didn’t care if it did happen. He could be happy without the Spencer money, without the prestige and power, so long as he had her.
But he didn’t say it, and Tess was afraid his silence spoke volumes.
She closed her eyes as his fingers whispered along her skin, barely touching her and yet eliciting a response so needy, so primal, she hardly recognized herself. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not to her. She was too levelheaded. And she didn’t even like the Spencers.
But Jared was different. He always had been, and Tess was only now starting to admit to herself that she’d nursed secret feelings for him for years. Maybe that was why she was so reluctant to bring their relationship out into the open. Jared Spencer was a fantasy come true. She didn’t want reality screwing up everything. When his family found out about them…if they made him choose…
Tess shivered, and Jared pulled her even closer.
“I’ve got an idea,” he murmured.
“What?”
“My family’s having a celebration here at the lake next week. It’s my parents’ anniversary. I want you to come as my date. Maybe once you get to know us, you’ll realize we aren’t the monsters you seem to think we are.”
“I can’t,” Tess said in alarm. “My mother has to work that night, and I promised I’d help her.”
Jared rolled to his back and stared at the sky. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Why not?” she challenged. “I’m not ashamed of what my mother does for a living. If it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me.”
“Still wearing that chip on your shoulder, Tess? Still think you’ve got something to prove?”
“It’s not that.” She drew her knees into her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. “I just want you to see me for who I really am. Don’t expect me to change just because of us.”
“Then why should I have to change?”
“I never said you did.”
“Not in so many words, but there’s always this underlying tension when we’re together,” he said. “I always feel as if I have to make excuses for who I am and for what my family has. You put up defenses that I don’t know how to break through.”
“If I’m so much trouble, why do you even bother?” she asked, stung by his words.
“Because no matter how hard you try to push me away, I can’t stop thinking about you.” He tugged her down beside him, holding her close, discarding her bathing-suit top in one fluid motion. “I can’t stop wanting you,” he whispered.
The night air swept over Tess, cooling her, drawing an inevitable response. But Jared was there to keep her warm. Jared was there to cover her nakedness with his, making her want him so badly Tess could hardly believe that just a few short weeks ago, she’d never been with a man, never experienced the intense pleasure of lovemaking.
But Jared had changed all that.
He kissed her deeply, making her melt in his arms. Making her sigh his name.
“Meet me,” he whispered in her ear.
“When? Where?”
“I’m going to New Orleans tomorrow, but I’ll be back next week for the party. Meet me down by the lake after dinner. I can’t spend the whole evening under the same roof with you and not touch you.”
“Touch me now,” she begged.
And he did. Over and over….
As the memories spun away, Tess saw that Jared had turned from the window and was staring at her. Her face flushed hot, and she braced herself for his reaction. Her mouth dry, the muscles in her throat taut and aching, she stared back at him. And for the life of her, she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
But it didn’t matter because his first words said it all.
“May I help you?” he asked in a tone that held not the slightest note of recognition.
THE YOUNG WOMAN who stood in his doorway looked as if she might turn and bolt at any second. When Jared started across the room toward her, she did exactly that.
“Wait!”
She hesitated, glancing over her shoulder. Uncertainty flickered in her eyes.
“Are you lost?” When she didn’t answer immediately, he said, “Whose office are you trying to find? Maybe I can help you.”
Resentment flashed in her hazel eyes. “I’m not lost. I came here to see you.”
“Do we have an appointment?”
“No.” Her chin lifted. “I slipped passed the receptionist in the lobby. And your secretary wasn’t at her desk.”
He cocked his head slightly, studying her. “Do I know you?”
“I’m Tess,” she said, and now it was annoyance that settled over her features, precisely the way it had six years ago when he’d failed to recognize her.
Stunned, Jared could only stare at her. Back then her transformation from a gangly teenager to a striking young woman had taken him by surprise, but this new metamorphosis was even more shocking. And disturbing.
He wouldn’t have recognized her. Not in a million years. Her face was pale and drawn, with dark circles underneath her eyes and deep pain within. And she was so thin! Not fashionably slender, but skin and bones, as if she’d been sick recently and hadn’t completely recovered. She wore a slim, dark skirt and white, sleeveless blouse, but the elegant lines of her clothing did little more than hint at the curves she’d once had. The curves he still remembered so well.
She’d pinned up her hair, taming the curls that used to cascade down her back so freely. Gone was the luster, the golden highlights that had glinted like fire in the sunlight. He’d always loved Tess’s hair, Jared thought with a stab of regret he didn’t want to analyze too closely.
It was he who stood speechless now.
She took a tentative step inside his office. “If you have a moment, I’d like to speak with you.”
At least her voice hadn’t changed. It was low and slightly husky, not as overtly sexy as Demi Moore’s or Kathleen Turner’s but close. When she’d used that voice to whisper to him, to tell him how much she loved him, how much she wanted him…
It had been a lie, of course. She’d played him for a fool that summer, and he would be crazy if he gave her anything more than the time of day.
He glanced at his watch and frowned. “I have a meeting in fifteen minutes. I can spare you ten of those.”
Some of the old resentment flashed again in her eyes, but something else, another emotion he couldn’t quite define, subdued it. She nodded and walked into his office.
He motioned for her to take a seat and he moved around his desk, putting the heavy expanse of granite between them. “So what can I do for you?”
“First, let me say, I heard about your father, and I’m sorry.”
“Thanks,” Jared said curtly. He wished he could take some satisfaction in the pain he saw in her face, but he couldn’t. Not even after what she’d done.
“So this is all yours now,” she said softly, glancing around the commodious office. Her gaze came back to his. “Just the way it was always meant to be.”
He shrugged. “Somehow I don’t think you came here to congratulate me.”
Regret flickered in her eyes. Regret for what she’d done? For what she’d thrown away?
She placed her purse in her lap, the fingers of her right hand moving back and forth over the clasp, squeezing and releasing, squeezing and releasing. She was obviously nervous. Jared couldn’t imagine what she had to say to him after all these years. And though he had a good deal he’d like to say to her, he held his tongue.
“I realize you’re a busy man, so I’ll get right to the point.” Her chin lifted slightly. “I need money. A lot of it.”
He schooled his outward reaction, but inside, Jared was astounded. Tess Granger was the last person he would have expected to come asking for money. Six years ago, she’d worn her pride like a shield, against him, against his family. Against the whole world, he sometimes thought.
And now here she was, with her hand out.
“That’s a little ironic, don’t you think? That you would come here, of all places.”
Color tinged her pale cheeks. “This isn’t easy for me. Believe me, if there’d been any other way…” She trailed off, closing her eyes for a moment. “But I thought…we were close once—”
He cut her off. “Do yourself a favor, Tess. Don’t go there.”
The flush deepened, but anger glinted in her eyes.
“All right,” she said in a grim, determined voice. “I’ll put it as simply as I can. My daughter is missing, and I need money to get her back.”
“Your daughter?” Jared’s gaze dropped to her left hand. She wore a thin, gold band around her third finger. “You’re married?”
“I was.” Her gaze met his without wavering. “My husband died a few years ago. I have a five-year-old daughter named Emily. Almost three weeks ago, she was kidnapped from a school playground. We don’t know by whom or where she was taken. The police have—”
“Wait a minute.” Jared picked up the newspaper from his desk and opened it to the picture of the missing child. For some reason, he hadn’t been able to toss the paper out. “Is this your daughter?”
Tess’s face grew even paler as she stared at the photograph. “Yes. That’s Emily.”
Jared turned the paper so that he could study the picture. He was struck, as he had been yesterday, by the extraordinary beauty of the child. In spite of her dark hair and eyes, she looked a lot like Tess, although he hadn’t made the connection before, at least not consciously. But now he could even see that same damnable pride in the way the little girl held her chin, that same glow of defiance emanating from her brown eyes. And also like Tess, there was something exquisitely vulnerable about the child, something that brought out a protective instinct in Jared he never even knew he possessed. The thought of someone taking that innocent little girl, harming her—