“I don’t know why I married him in the first place. I guess I’m just a sucker for a big, strong male body and sexy golden-green eyes.” An odd wistfulness had crossed her face. “And he does have the sexiest eyes.”
Ah, Camryn! There’d been times when Kate had wanted to shake her.
If only she’d shaken some information loose from her that night. But Camryn had been too exhausted to chat for long. She fell asleep within an hour. Kate, on the other hand, spent half the night reeling from the news that her twin had married again, given birth and divorced since they’d last spoken. She mulled over those developments while walking the floor with Arianne, who’d been wretchedly suffering from teething woes.
Kate hadn’t handled a baby in years, but her vast experience from growing up in the Tallahassee Methodist Children’s Home came in handy that night…and ever since.
It had been so typical of Camryn, dropping in unexpectedly after eighteen months without contact and blindly assuming that Kate would baby-sit for weeks at a time. She’d also stolen her car, leaving nothing but a mechanically challenged convertible and a brief note that thanked Kate in advance for keeping Arianne while Camryn went to New York to get them roles in a soap opera.
Oh, Cam.
The call had come less than an hour after Kate had read the note. The highway patrol contacted her from the number listed on the car’s registration. Looking back, Kate was glad that Camryn had taken her car, or Kate might never have known what had become of her twin. Whatever identification papers she’d carried had gone up in flames. The head-on collision had rated only a brief mention on the evening news, without names or pictures of the deceased.
Grief, regret and a terrible sense of loss haunted Kate, especially in the oppressive silence of night. During the day, she kept herself busy tending her motherless niece. Despite the financial strain and interruption to her career, Kate had taken the spring and summer semesters off from teaching to spend time with Arianne during these formative months of her life.
Kate had lost her twin after failing her in some fundamental way long ago. She couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t felt vaguely guilty over Camryn’s emotional neediness. She should have tried harder to take her parents’ place in Camryn’s life; to supply more of the love she’d so clearly needed. Until the day she died in that fiery wreck, Camryn had been desperately searching for validation of her own worth…and always in the wrong places….
Kate swore she wouldn’t allow Arianne to travel the same path. Bright, beautiful Arianne would remain her top priority from now on.
Kate felt only pleasure at the prospect. The baby filled a void in her heart that she hadn’t known existed. She brought sweetness and warmth to her home and a deeper meaning to her life. Kate loved her more intensely with every passing day.
I’ll take good care of her, Cam. I won’t let you down again.
As she turned a corner into her own subdivision, clouds drifted across the late-afternoon sun, throwing the suburban Tallahassee street into momentary shade. She savored the respite from the July heat and pushed the stroller past neat lawns and brick homes toward her own modest ranch-style house.
By the time she reached the welcoming shadows inside her attached garage, Arianne was snoozing. Kate parked the stroller alongside the red Mustang convertible Camryn had left, ignoring the grief the sight of the car induced. Drawing the house key from a pocket of her khaki shorts, she turned to unlock the door.
A form loomed up from behind her. Before she could react, a hard hand came down over her mouth and jerked her backward against a large, solidly muscular body.
“Hello, Camryn,” a gruff voice rasped in her ear. “Long time no see.”
CHAPTER TWO
FEAR PARALYZED KATE into absolute stillness. Her assailant thought she was Camryn.
At the sound of footsteps behind her and a muffled murmur, she realized he wasn’t alone. Though he’d greeted her in perfect English, he rattled off some brusque instructions to his accomplice in a language sounding like French. The only word she recognized meant “baby.”
She tried to cry out, but the sound barely escaped the callused hand he’d clamped over her mouth. Dread slowed her heartbeats to a near standstill. Arianne was sleeping in the stroller behind her. God, please don’t let them take Arianne!
With the key Kate had inserted in the lock, the man opened the door. His hand still covering her mouth, he nudged her inside.
Fear hammered through her. What did this stranger want with her—or rather, with her sister? Was he a jilted lover? Or maybe a psychotic fan from one of the bars where she’d performed. Or a bookie. A loan shark. Camryn may have owed him money. Stories of brutality flashed through Kate’s mind, terrifying her.
With steellike strength, her assailant swept her down the short hallway and into the kitchen, where she looked for something to use as a weapon. Not a knife, fork, glass or bottle was anywhere in sight. The wall telephone hung a few feet away. If only she could get to it long enough to dial.
He dropped his hand from her mouth, gripped her shoulders, turned her around and pushed her down into a kitchen chair. Bracing his hands on its carved wooden arms, he leaned in close. “Don’t even think about getting up. You’re not going anywhere until I tell you to.”
His lean, sun-browned face blazed with frightening anger. But it was his eyes that held her riveted—a vibrant, golden green, shocking in the ruggedness of his face. A memory stirred. Sexy green eyes… Her absolute terror pushed the memory beyond her reach.
He straightened to his full, imposing height, his fists on his hips, a threat in every tensed, muscled contour of his body. “Don’t look so stunned to see me. You had to know I’d find you.” His deep, rough voice held a hint of an accent she couldn’t quite place. His thick hair shone in tawny waves, the color of a lion’s mane, with his skin glowing slightly darker. From the sweep of his arrogant forehead to the long, clean line of his jaw, she saw no weakness in his face…only uncompromising strength and hardness. “I wouldn’t have stopped looking, Camryn. Ever.”
“You have the wrong person,” Kate managed to whisper. “I’m not Camryn.”
A harsh laugh tore from him. “And I suppose the baby isn’t Arianne.”
He knew Arianne. Fear engulfed Kate. “What do you want?”
“I want what’s mine.”
His deadly soft answer frightened her all the more. A terrible suspicion dawned. “And what,” she asked haltingly, “do you consider yours?”
Grim humor glinted briefly in his gaze, surprising her. “Don’t worry, chèr’. Not you.” The humor quickly vanished, leaving his expression granite cold. “I meant my daughter.”
The world tilted crazily around Kate. He had to be Mitch. Arianne’s father. The man whom Camryn had called “mean.” And he’d come to take Arianne.
Kate rose from the chair in a horrified daze. “You can’t take her. I won’t let you.”
Anger flushed beneath his tan. “The judge granted us joint custody. Joint! You had no right to run with her.”
She shrank back from his fury, his thunderous words ringing in her head. Joint custody. No right to run with her. Could it be true?
“I’ve spent a fortune to track you down, Camryn. Nice try with the name change, Kate—” he uttered the name with scorn “—but the game is up. I’m taking Arianne.”
“No, no, please,” she whispered, her thoughts in a whirl. What he claimed might be true, or might not be. She knew nothing about him. Not even his last name. She couldn’t let this stranger take the baby—especially not before she’d checked out his story. “Give me time….”
“You’ve had her long enough. It’s my turn now.”
Panic