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“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—
He glanced up at Tess. “I’m sorry. I’ve only been back in Mississippi a few days. I’ve been living in New Orleans for the past six years.”
“Yes, I know. I…heard,” she stammered, as if not wanting to reveal how she’d come by the information. Had she been asking about him? Keeping tabs on him? Jared was hard-pressed to believe it considering their final conversation.
“I heard about the kidnapping, but I never dreamed the victim was your daughter.” He got up and moved around the desk to stand in front of her. “What happened?”
Tess’s eyes filled with tears, and for a moment she struggled for composure, putting a hand to her mouth as if to suppress her emotions.
No matter how much he’d hardened his heart during the past six years, Jared couldn’t resist that. She was so obviously a woman in agony. A woman who desperately needed help. He sat down beside her, not taking her hand, but finding that he wanted to.
“What happened?” he asked again.
She drew a quivering breath and turned to face him. “I don’t know how much you remember about Eden, but Emily was kidnapped from the playground at Fair-haven Academy, a private school on the north side of town. Do you remember it?”
“A big, ivy-covered building, manicured grounds?”
Tess nodded, and Jared wondered if she had any idea that she’d just presented him another irony. Tess Granger, a fierce and proud member of the proletariat, sent her child to a private school, just as the Spencers had done for generations. Just as she’d once ridiculed them for doing. “Don’t try to change me,” she’d warned him over and over. He’d never tried to change her. All he’d ever wanted to do was love her, but that hadn’t been enough, he thought with an edge of bitterness.
“When I went to pick her up that afternoon, the teachers couldn’t find her. She’d been with a group of her classmates on the playground, but no one saw her wander off. No one saw anything. No cars, no strangers, nothing. It was as if she vanished into thin air.”
“The little girl who disappeared a long time ago,” Jared mused. “She went to Fairhaven, too, didn’t she?”
Tess nodded. “Her name was Sadie Cross. No trace of her was ever found. Emily disappeared on the anniversary of Sadie’s abduction.”
A chill crawled up Jared’s backbone. “What do the police make of that?”
“They think there’s a connection. Not only did Emily disappear on the anniversary of the abduction, but she also bears a resemblance to Sadie. Both have dark hair and brown eyes.” Her gaze settled briefly on Jared’s face before she glanced away again, as if she couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “A profiler was brought in. He thought that Sadie’s abductor might have taken her to replace someone in her life, a child who had died perhaps, and that ten years later, Emily might have been taken to replace Sadie.”
The chill inside Jared deepened. He had a sudden vision of the lake, of the secrets that could be hidden below the crystalline waters. “Is it possible that Emily was taken on the anniversary of Sadie’s disappearance just to throw off the police?”
She looked almost stricken by the idea. “I…guess it’s possible. The police have no real leads, no evidence, no clues except for a note that was found on a car in my driveway.”
“A ransom note?”
“No, a note from a child that said…she’ll be home soon. The police think it could be a hoax, but I know it was a message from Emily. I know she’s still alive, but the police have given up on her.”
“What do you mean, the police have given up on her?” Jared said with a frown.
“They’ve scaled down the search. Hundreds of volunteers came from all over the state to help in the initial ground search, but now, after so much time has passed…Emily could be anywhere.” Tess wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “But I don’t care where she is. I don’t care what I have to do to find her. I’m not giving up. I’ll never give up.”
She was so close and she seemed so frail, so distraught. The desire to touch her was so strong that Jared rose and strode over to the window, putting distance between them. “You said you needed money.”
“I’ve offered a ten-thousand-dollar reward for information leading to her whereabouts, but that may not be enough. And I want to hire a private investigator, especially now that the police have cut back on their search. All that takes money, and I don’t have any,” she said simply. Once, there might have been a spark of defiance in her tone, but now she merely sounded…desperate.
Jared turned to face her. “How much do you need?”
She bit her lip. “I’ve been told the reward should be at least fifty thousand dollars. I don’t have any idea how much a private investigator will cost.”
He walked over to his desk, sat down, and pulled out his checkbook. “Do you have anyone in mind?” When she shook her head, he said, “We’ve used a firm here in Jackson on occasion. The guy in charge knows his stuff. I’ll be happy to give you his number.”
“Thank you.”
Jared filled in the check, scribbled his name, then handed it across the desk to her.
Her gaze lifted to his. “Just like that? No…questions asked?” The intense relief in her eyes was almost painful to witness.
“Your child is missing,” he said grimly. “I think that pretty much answers all my questions.” He nodded toward the check. “Will that be enough to start?”
She glanced at the amount and gasped. “I didn’t mean…that’s too much…”
“You said you didn’t know how much it would take. Will that get you started?”
She seemed overcome by emotion. “I don’t know how to thank you,” she finally managed to say. “I’ll pay you back. Every cent of it, no matter how long it takes me.”
He held up a hand in protest. “Don’t worry about that now. Just find your daughter. Will you keep me posted?”
Fear flickered across her features. “There’s one other thing.”
“Yes?”
She glanced down at the check in her hand. “I don’t know how to say this after you’ve been so generous.”
“Just say it.”
“Could this remain confidential?”
Annoyance darted through him. “If you think I’m going to issue a statement to the press—”
“That’s not what I meant,” she cut in. “I’d…rather your family not know.”
He gave her an exasperated look. “They’re not the ogres you’ve always made them out to be, Tess. Do you really think any one of them would have refused to help if you’d come to them? Even after what you did that night—”
Tess rose swiftly, as if she suddenly couldn’t wait to get out of his office. “Just promise me.”
“You’ve always been one for extracting a lot of promises, but it seems to me you’ve never been that great at keeping them.”
She gave him a hard, brittle look. “Only when I had good reason not to.”
“Is that so?” He stood and walked around the desk to face her. She still looked as if she wanted to flee, but to make sure she didn’t, he reached out and took her arm. Awareness shot through him. “Why did you do it, Tess?”
“What does it matter?” she asked. “It was a long time ago.”
“Really? Because it seems like yesterday to me.”
“Jared—”
It was the first time he’d heard her say his name in six years, and he couldn’t help but respond. The throaty quality of her voice…the way she gazed up at him…
“Just tell me why,” he said almost savagely.
A hint of the old rebellion glinted in her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about that night. What’s the point?”
“The point is—” He drew her slightly toward him. “You took something valuable that night, Tess. Something that didn’t belong to you. And then you just walked away. I’m not letting you leave here until you tell me why.”
Chapter Four
Because your brother wanted me dead, Tess almost blurted.
She caught herself in time. She couldn’t tell Jared about the conversation she’d overheard that night between Royce and his wife, Ariel. She couldn’t tell him about the accident that had left her best friend in a wheelchair, because Royce Spencer was still a threat. His motives for wanting Tess and her daughter out of the way were as strong as ever.
He had his own children now, Tess had read somewhere. A boy and a girl. The perfect family. But Emily would always remain the first Spencer grandchild. The heir to a secret trust that only a handful of people had known about until Davis Spencer’s death.
And that was why Tess had left town. That was why she’d married Alan Campbell, a young man who had been just as lonely and scared as she was that summer. Alan had given Tess his name so that Emily could be born a Campbell. And in return, Tess had watched over him, remained by his side until he’d succumbed to the AIDS-related disease that had ravaged him.
But she could tell Jared none of that.
She shouldn’t have come here, Tess thought in despair. She should have found another way to get the money instead of opening up all these old wounds. She’d long ago resigned herself to the fact that she and Jared were never meant to be, but she’d taken comfort in the knowledge that she’d done the right thing back then. She had Emily, and they were both safe.
But her daughter was no longer safe. Emily was missing, and in order to save her, Tess had willingly walked back into a den of lions.
A shudder ripped through her as she thought back to that night. As she remembered the fear and desperation that had driven her from Jared’s arms….
“Tess, I swear. I’ve never seen you like this. You’re as nervous as a cat,” her mother scolded. “What’s wrong with you?”
They were standing in the spacious kitchen in the Spencers’ lake house, preparing for the anniversary celebration. Though it was to be a small, intimate affair, a caterer had been brought in from the city to prepare the meal, but it was Joelle’s job to keep everything running smoothly. And since the caterer had arrived shorthanded, Tess had been pressed into serving.
