And Kacey wept.

  * * *

  Devon watched, chin tight, poised and ready to jump into action as Kyle Ashland boarded his boat.

  Devon stood there, gun in hand, chin still tensed, as he watched brother and sister gravitate to each other. And hold on.

  The whiteness of the other man’s fingers as they wrapped Kacey’s back told Devon how much strength was in that hold. Kyle’s eyes were closed for the first seconds.

  And then wide open, peering at Devon, before he shoved Kacey behind him. “I don’t know who you are, or how you know Sanders, but you’re going to let my sister go. You’ve got me. I’ll say I did it all. I’ll take the fall, knowing that if I don’t, if I ever breathe a word to anyone, even a cell mate, Sanders will be after my family. I’ve got the message, loud and clear. Now you’re going to let Kacey board my boat. She’s going to drive away, and I’ll turn over my gun. If you don’t want to play it my way, if you hurt me again, or in any way harm my family, an envelope is going to show up at the Sanders home, another with the FBI, and a third with the Utah state police—all being held by a secure source, in a secure location, to be sent if Kacey, my mother, Lizzie and I can’t all be contacted for proof of safety. If you need proof, or Sanders does, of what’s in those envelopes, I have copies, right here, on my phone.”

  The man was good.

  Taking Tommy Grainger by surprise. He’d had Kacey’s twin pegged for a weakling who’d let his sister take a fall for him.

  “If you’ve got such strong proof of something on Sanders, why not just go ahead and send it and be done with it?”

  “You don’t know, do you?”

  Shaking his head, Devon told the truth. Listening for the lies.

  “He’s a...friend...Kyle,” Kacey said, coming out from behind her brother. “His name’s Devon Miller. He’s a river guide. He saved my life and has been letting me stay at his cabin. Since you told me to stay gone, I haven’t been seen in public at all...”

  Hold everything. Kyle had told her to stay gone? And she hadn’t told him. Devon’s hand tightened on his gun. With a thought to the badge he didn’t have on him.

  But the mention of Sanders, the man in the bar Kacey had named as her kidnapper...kept Devon quiet. For the moment.

  Staring at his sister, Kyle then turned a dark glance back at Devon. “You were watching me at the marina yesterday...”

  “He’s been trying to help me find you.” Kacey spoke again, preventing any lies Devon might have told. “He’s seen pictures...”

  Did she leave out mention of Sierra’s Web on purpose? Or just didn’t see a point in clouding the issue?

  The idea that she was protecting him, his privacy, came and went.

  “If this is true, can we get to wherever you’ve been keeping Kacey?” Kyle put Devon on the spot.

  But one glance at Kacey, the expectancy there, and Devon nodded.

  With a sick feeling in his gut.

  Chapter 26

  Though it hurt to do so, Kacey fully agreed when Devon and Kyle both insisted that they leave Steve Ashland’s boat in the cove where Kyle had spent the night.

  It was early enough that they made it back up to Devon’s place before seven. He was due to go into work at ten. No more was said on the boat during the trip back.

  She’d checked her brother’s side, saw that the wound was superficial and already partly healed. As were her ankles. Funny how skin healed even when hearts were broken.

  She needed to hear about that knife wound. About all of it.

  Including whoever this Sanders was.

  But with the sun up, and Kyle with her, she was taking no chances on them being seen. She’d insisted Kyle lie down, keeping his back to a side of the boat.

  She sat on the floor between the two seats.

  Glancing at Devon more often than she’d have liked. Needing to read him. To hear what he was thinking.

  Frustrated that they couldn’t talk openly.

  Not until they knew what was going on.

  If Kyle was into illegal activity, she wasn’t going to have Devon implicated. No way he was going to be charged with harboring a criminal.

  At the same time, her heart was pounding in leaps and bounds. Could it really be ending? She’d get the truth. The three of them would figure out who to trust, how to proceed.

  Whatever Kyle had been about to confess to, he obviously had evidence on someone else. Enough to get him a deal?

  Witness protection would be better than jail. Or death.

  It could mean she’d never see her twin again. His disappearance would devastate their mother. Could trigger a worsening of her disease...

  Kyle started talking the second they were inside Devon’s cabin. Her brother didn’t look around, didn’t check to see that she had her own bedroom. He just dropped into a kitchen chair, looking more exhausted, more hopeless, more defeated than she’d ever seen him. And words came pouring out.

  “Eli Sanders is the CEO at my mill and a couple of others.” His mill. Kyle had lost his job. Wouldn’t have any way of knowing she and Devon both knew that. “I’ve only met him a few times, but he was the one who interviewed me for my latest promotion. The one who chose me to be production manager. So when I discovered that someone was using logs with the middles sawed out to ship contraband, I went straight to him.”

  Kacey’s chest thundered. Her nerves shattered.

  Devon pulled out a chair, dropping down perpendicular to her brother. Leaned forward, an arm on the table.

  “What kind of contraband?”

  “I only saw adult films. But I did my own investigating before I went to Sanders. I needed to know the scale of the problem, who could be involved at my mill, our contacts at the destination points. I figured these were all things I could find out while no one knew anyone was onto them...”

  “Which could implicate you...” The words came with Devon’s voice. But sounded nothing like him. Completely intent, his attention appeared riveted on her brother.

  “Right,” Kyle said, his gaze also astute as he talked to Devon, with an occasional glance in her direction.

  “I found three distribution points. One in Iowa. One in Alabama. And one in Virginia.”

  Devon sat up straight. His back leaning on nothing. “I need you to stop talking for the moment,” he said. He’d turned completely away from Kacey. “My name is not Devon Miller. I’m Tommy Grainger, an undercover detective with the Henderson, Nevada, police, and you’ve just crossed into information that could be what I’ve been seeking. As you aren’t under arrest, you’re free to go. If you’re willing to continue this conversation, I need to get my partner here. And to record everything you have to say.”

  Kacey lost track of Kyle. Of her brother’s reaction or response. All she could hear was ringing in her ears. As her body was consumed with shock.

  And the greatest heartache she’d ever known.

  Devon Miller didn’t exist? She’d fallen in love with a fake? Had trusted him with her life? Her brother’s life?

  Had given him her heart and he hadn’t even given her his name.

  He’d been her strength. She’d been his undercover informant?

  Excusing herself, Kacey made it to the bathroom. Slid down to the floor by the toilet. And lost her breakfast along with her heart.

  * * *

  He thought he heard her retching. Couldn’t be sure. Tommy couldn’t stop to find out. Every instinct he had told him Kyle Ashland was ready to hand them not just a link in the chain, but the whole damned thing. Getting Rachel on the phone, he told her he needed Bonnie at his place as soon as possible.

  He offered Kyle something to drink. To eat.

  The man went to see to his sister. What was said, he didn’t know. Knew it wasn’t his place to care. His mind was on the case. It had to be.

  So many young lives...

  He shook with the anticipation of preventing more death. Of completing the job he’d started. Setting up the video equipment that would record the upcoming interview, he was aware of Kyle’s return. Again, he offered the man something to eat or drink.

  Kyle, looking wearier than ever, shook his head. Wasn’t looking at Tommy at all.

  “I begged her to give me back the knife,” he said, his head in his hands. “I’d stopped by my mom’s to fix a leaky faucet and they were there when I came out. Letting me know what I was risking if...”

  Throat tight, Tommy Grainer held up a hand. “Hold it just a few more minutes,” he said, adjusting the small tripod he’d brought out for his phone. Heard water running in the bathroom.

  “She’s stronger than any woman I’ve ever known, but she’s not cut out for this,” Kyle said, as though explaining his sister to a man who didn’t know her. “She said you gave her a bedroom that locked from the inside, showed me the gun...we owe you our lives...”

  Tommy’s jaw clenched. He swallowed. And found his air when he heard Bonnie’s car pull up.

  “Detective Bonnie Donaldson, from the Phoenix police, meet Kyle Ashland,” he said as soon as his partner walked in.

  He heard the bathroom door open.

  Saw the way Bonnie’s eyes widened, as Kacey entered the room, taking the seat at the table closest to her brother.

  His houseguest would be out of camera range, was the only thought Tommy allowed himself. He wouldn’t need to see her image when he went over and over the tapes. Or, if all went well, watched them in court.

  His seasoned partner said nothing, just took the seat next to Tommy, who hit record.

  And got the job done.

  * * *

  Kacey unlocked the door to her home, stumbled to the couch, and started to cry. Kyle, who’d stopped to thank Detective Donaldson one more time for driving them home, came straight over to her, the second he followed her in.

  Hugging her. Rubbing the top of her head as their father might have done. Awkwardly. Telling her it was over.

  She knew better. For her it would never be over.

  But the moment wasn’t about her.

  Memories faded with time.

  She’d get over it.

  And Kyle...he truly was the hometown hero. And had been through far more than she’d ever have been able to take.

  Through his diligent, quiet investigating, he’d found evidence of nearly a decade’s worth of contraband being shipped in the middle of sawed-out logs, from his sawmill to the destinations in Iowa, Alabama and Virginia. He’d thought the manager of the mill had been responsible. He’d seen, and filmed, the man overseeing the placement of cargo into a shipment of logs.

  Come to find out, the man was only a middleman. Getting paid a hefty sum for watching packages get loaded and shipped out and keeping his mouth shut.

  Sanders had been the one running the operation. When Kyle had first gone to him, a couple of weeks before, the CEO had offered Kyle a ridiculous amount of money to look the other way. And when Kyle had refused, saying he didn’t want to get rich that way, the man had started with threats. First Kyle’s job. Then seeing that Kyle couldn’t get decent work anywhere close to his family. Sanders had let Kyle know that Sanders had friends in the Boulder police, and the next night, Kyle had been stopped for an offensive taillight that hadn’t been broken until the officer broke it. And finally, the night that Kacey had witnessed, Sanders had shown up in town, at their mother’s home, with two of his henchmen and threatened Kyle.

  One of the men with the CEO had stabbed Kyle. Telling him it was only the beginning.

  That’s why Kyle had begged Kacey not to turn in the knife. He didn’t want Sanders to retaliate. He’d panicked, had to go after the three. He would say he’d take the money, and figured along the way he’d find a way to expose Sanders. He’d ditched the knife in case he got stopped with it in his car, didn’t want any ties to it. Unaware that Kacey had seen the encounter, he’d planned to go back before dawn and secure the knife until he could figure out what to do.

  He hadn’t caught up to the three men that night.

  But had managed, by talking to a close friend at the mill, to find out more about Sanders. About some of his contacts. Apparently, Kyle wasn’t the only who’d been threatened into complying with the shipments. And he’d found out that the marina where Devon and Rachel had been working had been one of the three hubs on the river that supplied the three sawmills with contraband. From lethal heroin to handbags and jewelry.

  Kyle had found proof that the other two sawmills Sanders owned were running similar operations before he’d been fired.

  One of Detective Grainger’s and Donaldson’s next challenges would be to conduct interviews and investigate police departments until they could find the officers Sanders owned.

  Or, Kacey figured, until someone offered Sanders a deal to expose those under him. The ones who’d done the actual dirty work.

  She’d come through the ordeal with her life.

  She’d lost her ability to believe the best of people during the scuffle.

  It might return.

  Or maybe she’d learned a valuable life lesson. You couldn’t believe in the best of people unless you wanted to get run over.

  Either way, it was time to stand up, brush herself off and move forward.

  Because she was alive.

  * * *

  Tommy’s world was consumed with conducting interviews, following up on leads, and traveling. Arizona to Nevada, to Utah, to Iowa, Alabama, Virginia and back to Nevada. He, along with his partners, slowly found the evidence federal prosecutors were going to need to prosecute Eli Sanders, and many of those who worked for him.

  He’d personally spoken to the two men who’d followed him. One, the fiend who’d tied Kacey’s feet, and been told to watch the boat, but who’d gotten drunk instead, only to find her missing. He’d seen Kyle’s truck leave the area and had followed it.

  The other, a friend of Belen’s who’d been watching Rachel, wanting to know everyone she associated with before going to his bosses with her offer.

  Eli Sanders had found a way to beat a lot of the charges Tommy wanted to stick to him. Sanders thought he was clear of the kidnapping of Kacey Ashland, and the subsequent near death she’d suffered. According to him, he’d merely walked up behind her as she’d left the police station where he’d just had lunch with a friend, telling her to watch her step. He’d gone his own way and had no idea that two other men had stepped in and forced her into a van. The other two had confirmed Sanders’ testimony.

  It would be Kacey’s word against Sanders.

  Tommy had almost punched the guy when Sanders said as much. The CEO had an alibi for the rest of that evening. He’d caught a charter plane back to Utah.

  And he’d gone on a fishing trip in Colorado, too. Only flying out one night when his friends were in the boat for an overnight catch. He’d been back in their cabin when the guys had come out of their rooms at noon. Not that Tommy had found evidence yet to prove that.

  But he knew it. He’d been told under the condition of anonymity so that Tommy would find the evidence.

  Sanders was smart. Thought he had it all worked out.

  Tommy wasn’t resting until he had enough to put Sanders away for life.

  So far, he hadn’t found the evidence he needed to hold over the guy. To get him to cry like a baby and ask for leniency. For a deal.

  That was when Tommy planned to line the table in front of Sanders with pictures of teenagers who’d died from his drugs.

  They’d arrested Belen Alexopoulos, and the Arizona middlemen who’d not only killed Antonio and Jerome Hardy, but who’d accepted shipments from an older couple, posing as grandparents, from Devon’s marina, and taken them up to the sawmills. It would all fall in place.

  Someone would take the deal and roll on the rest.

  Tommy needed it to be Sanders. The guy had been personally responsible for Kacey’s abduction. For making her suffer through a nightmare that would haunt her forever. The guy was going to pay.

  By the law.

  Always by the law.

  Overall, Tommy figured life was good. The commendations and congratulations rolling in didn’t puff him up as he’d thought they would. Even an offer to lead the narcotics detective squad for the LVPD didn’t faze him much. His parents were the ones who’d suffered the most from injustices in their past. His dad, being murdered, and made to look like a dirty cop. His mother, having to live with the aftermath.

  And on that front, Sierra’s Web hadn’t yet found hard evidence to exonerate Hilton Grainger. Tommy had begun to accept that they never would.

  Life didn’t always play fair.

  But Tommy and his team, thanks to Kyle Ashland, had saved lives.

  Had helped Kacey Ashland get hers back.

  And that had to be enough.

  * * *

  Kyle received more than a year’s worth of pay in a severance agreement. With all the money he’d saved, living alone and frugally, over the past ten years, he’d be independently wealthy for a while. He was talking about going to college to get his teaching degree, but also to pursue a dual major in athletics. He wanted to coach football someday. Had already applied to both degree programs at the University of Las Vegas, an hour and a half away.

  In the meantime, he was moving in with their mom and Lizzie, planning to fix the place up so they weren’t moving from one leaky faucet to the next. He’d start work as soon as he could convince their mother that he was allowed to spend his own money on her home.

  Kacey figured he was coming to her for help in that venture when her twin called a couple of weeks after they’d returned home to say he needed to talk to her.

  He wanted her to meet him down at their dock.

  While she hadn’t been out on the water since her return, she saw how her brother was killing two birds with one stone. Getting her cooperation in working on their mother, and getting Kacey back to the river she loved, too.