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“So you’re Alyssa Blake, the journalist?”
Suddenly everyone was gathered around. Heath, his eyes almost as glacial as his brother’s. Kay and Phillip Saxon. Only Amy remained seated, her face cupped in her hands.
Alyssa’s gaze flickered from face to face. “Yes, I’m Alyssa—”
“You told me your name was Alice,” Joshua interrupted.
“It is—”
“Alice?” Kay Saxon had gone so white that her lips appeared bloodless.
“Don’t worry—her name isn’t Alice. She’s Alyssa Blake, that bloody journalist who—”
Alyssa cut across Joshua’s rant. “What does it matter right now what my name is? Roland is hurt.”
“You’re right! I’ve wasted enough time on a journalist in the business of telling lies.” Joshua’s gaze scorched her. “It’s my brother who’s important right now. Come, Heath.” Joshua stormed past her, his brother in his wake.
Feeling sick, Alyssa started to follow.
“Wait.” Kay Saxon grabbed her arm.
Alyssa stopped. Maybe Kay would let her see Roland if she told the older woman the truth. That Roland was her brother. That she’d dreamed for so long of this day … of finding her brother … of meeting him. Warily, she searched Kay Saxon’s face for a hint of softness.
“Did Joshua call you Alice?” Kay’s eyes held desperation.
“Yes.”
“But you introduced yourself as Alyssa Blake to the nurse.”
“Yes.” Where was this going? Alyssa could feel impatience rising in her. She needed to find a way to get to Roland’s side. To hold his hand, absorb his pain.
“Does that mean you’re Alice McKay?”
Alyssa froze. “What do you know about Alice McKay?”
“You contacted Roland.”
“Yes. He told you?” She’d wondered how Kay and Phillip would feel about her contacting Roland. It looked as if she was about to find out.
Phillip stood behind his wife, a solid wall of powerful flesh she’d have to scale to get to Roland. “Darling, the doctor will be here in a minute to talk to us.”
“Phillip …” Kay’s hand rested on his arm and Alyssa could see that the fingers were shaking. “Didn’t you hear? This is Alice McKay.”
After one startled moment when everything seemed to freeze, Phillip recovered and in a low voice demanded, “What are you doing here?”
Roland’s parents definitely knew who she was. But neither appeared welcoming. A sinking pit opened in Alyssa’s stomach. She lifted her chin. “I wanted to meet my brother.”
From across the room, she saw Joshua reappear and an ugly frown disfigured his handsome face when he saw her talking to his parents. Clearly he didn’t want them talking to the notorious Alyssa Blake.
“Now is not the time for this. We want you to leave,” Phillip ordered.
Alyssa stiffened and fisted her hands at her sides. “Now is exactly the time for me to be here—my brother is in surgery. I have every right to be here.”
Kay Saxon took her clenched hands. “I understand how you feel, but Roland wouldn’t want you here.”
Alyssa’s throat closed and she felt perilously close to the tears that she’d been fighting. “What do you mean?”
“He never responded to your letters or e-mails, did he?”
With heavy reluctance, Alyssa choked out, “No, he didn’t.”
“Doesn’t that tell you something?”
“That he didn’t get them?”
“He did receive them.” Kay’s eyes held shadows. “He chose not to reestablish contact.”
“But I’m his sister.” It was as though she’d ventured into a nightmare world, full of blood and death and unhappiness. All she’d wanted was a brother, a taste of family that most people took for granted. “He can’t not want to meet me!”
Phillip Saxon looked around, frowning.
Kay’s icy grip tightened around her fingers. “Dear, he’s a Saxon—the eldest. Not even his brothers and sister know that he’s adopted. Roland didn’t want it getting out.”
“No!” Her stomach churning, Alyssa rejected what she was hearing. She stared at Kay Saxon, hating the older woman for what she was saying. But then she took in Kay’s sincerity and the deeply etched lines of pain around her mouth and the hatred evaporated.
“This is hard enough for all of us right now, Alice. Don’t force us to reveal the truth … that Roland isn’t a Saxon.”
The impact of what Kay was saying pounded into her. Roland had rejected his birth sister in case their relationship took away his Saxon status. How could she stay under those circumstances?
Tears stung her eyes. “I just wanted to see him, hold his hand.”
“It would be selfish—and not what Roland wants,” Kay Saxon said softly, persuasively. “Right now we have to think about Roland.”
Blinking back her tears, Alyssa nodded. “All right.”
Relief flared in Kay’s eyes. “Thank you.” The older woman hesitated. “Do you have a cell phone, Alice?”
Alyssa nodded.
“Give me your number, dear. I’ll call you as soon as we get an update.”
Alyssa dug a business card out of her bag. Kay took it and pocketed it, glancing past Alyssa as she did so. “Now let’s all talk about something else—Joshua is coming.”
Three
Joshua made his way over to where his parents stood with Alyssa, Alice—whatever her damned name was.
He was aware of the incongruously glamourous, burgundy dress she wore and how it mirrored the colour of her long hair. Against the rich hue her bare shoulders gleamed like pale pearls.
Angrily he suppressed the flare of reckless want. He’d just taken a call from the surgery team advising that his brother was in critical condition—worse than the medical team had originally believed—and here he was lusting after Alyssa Blake, accomplished liar. It was insane.
But even as he drew closer, she gathered up her bag and rose to her feet. He stopped beside his parents and thrust his hands into his trouser pockets, at a loss to convey what he had learned. As Alyssa started for the doors one hand shot out and snagged her arm. “Where are you going?”
She kept her head down and continued to walk. “I’m leaving.”
“Wait … I need some answers.”
But she pulled free of his hold and marched toward the external glass doors in a flurry of dark red. Joshua started after her, then stopped as Heath came over and murmured, “Have you told Mum and Dad?”
He shook his head.
His parents must come first.
The next two minutes were a nightmare as he relayed what the surgeon had told him. “It’s the internal bleeding they’re worried about, and the head injury. Roland wasn’t wearing a seat belt. He was catapulted from the SUV. The surgeon said they don’t expect to be out for hours.”
His mother’s eyes stretched wide, shocked. His father straightened stiffly. Heath, his brave, bad-boy brother, was still pale under his tan. Joshua knew they all feared the same unspoken thing—that Roland might die.
Through the glass doors he could see Alyssa Blake’s back, bare above that killer dress. She must be freezing. Then he put how cold she must be out of his mind.
All this had started with her arrival.
Anger turned his vision bright red. Leaving his parents with Heath, he stalked forward. The doors slid open and cool, dank night air rushed against his face.
The doors hissed closed behind him. Ahead lay the almost-empty car park. Alyssa didn’t spare him a glance.
He drew a deep, steadying breath. “You came with me. How do you propose to leave?”
She brandished a cell phone. “I’ve called a cab—I need to collect my car from your home.”
“You can’t be intending to drive back to Auckland tonight?”
“Don’t worry, there’s not a drop of alcohol in my system.” She gave him a sideways glance. “But, no, I won’t be leaving tonight. I want to stay near Roland.”
He drew another, deeper breath and forced himself not to react. Instead he said as calmly as he could manage, “You must be freezing. Here, take my jacket.” He started to shrug off the black dinner jacket he’d grabbed before they’d left the homestead.
But she said, “No, thanks. I’m fine.”
“You’ve got gooseflesh.” He touched the skin on her upper arms, and she leapt away as if he’d singed her.
“I don’t need it. The taxi will be here in a moment.”
“You can give it back to me tomorrow.”
She stilled. “Okay, thank you.”
He slid the jacket off. It sounded as if it had taken a lot for her to accept his offer of help. Contrary damn woman. Watching her wind the jacket around herself, he relaxed a little as the pale tempting flesh disappeared out of sight.
“Where will you stay?”
Her mouth curled. “Don’t worry, you won’t need to track me down. I’ll return it to you tomorrow.”
“I wasn’t worried about that.”
She named a popular hotel in town.
“And you’re leaving tomorrow, right?” Part of him wanted her to leave, never come back. He couldn’t help the ridiculous superstitious stab of dread that her arrival had heralded Roland’s accident. But there was another part of him, the sybaritic pagan part, who wanted to see her again. Touch her again. Kiss her again.
For one reckless instant he considered doing just that. It would be so easy. One tug, and she’d be up against his chest. He’d feel her body warm against his, he’d taste her lips under his mouth. The cold that froze him inside might seep away under her touch … her kisses.
And then he’d despise himself for it. He shook his head to clear it.
Maybe Alyssa Blake was a witch.
“I might leave tomorrow. It depends.” Alyssa gave him a sideways glance.
But Joshua barely heard. He frowned as he took in her red-rimmed eyes, the silvery stains on her cheeks where the wind had already dried the tears. “You’ve been crying.”
Quickly she averted her face.
“Why?”
The look she gave him revealed too little. Secrets, he thought suddenly. He glanced through the glass doors and his gaze landed on Amy, curled up in the chair, her face wearing an expression of intense misery.
His gaze came back to Alyssa and narrowed. Instead of drowning her, his dinner jacket simply increased her upmarket city sexiness. She was gorgeous, stylish, smart. The kind of woman Roland had always dated before he’d become engaged to Amy….
And Amy had been upset earlier this evening—she and Roland had fought, even though it was common knowledge they never fought. The uncertain suspicion coalesced into certainty.
Alyssa had been having an affair with Roland.
She must have confronted Roland during the evening, and Amy had found out.
It wasn’t important, Alyssa had said when Joshua asked her about her conversation with his brother. He’d known from the flicker in her eyes that she’d been lying. The conversation had been very important.
And now Roland was unconscious….
No wonder Alyssa was upset. Did she feel responsible for causing her lover’s accident?
Did she love his brother?
He raked his hands through his hair as unruly thoughts churned round and round in his overwrought brain. “Who invited you to the ball tonight? You weren’t on the list of official guests—it had to be a personal invitation.” From Roland?
“I didn’t have an invitation. I gate-crashed.” There was defiance in her gaze.
Then she turned away. He heard what she had, the sound of the taxi pulling up at the curb.
But all he could think about was that Roland hadn’t invited her. Or she could be lying. Again. “Why? What did you hope to achieve?”
She didn’t answer and started to move away.
