LITMIR.BIZ

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“Agreed?”

      “Yes.”

      “One thing I don’t get,” Piper said. “Why did they send this letter to you? You’ve been traveling the country. And Adair and I have a proven track record. We each found one of the earrings.”

      They think it’s my turn, Nell thought. What she said was, “The two of you stirred up quite a bit of publicity. Anyone paying attention knows that Adair is now engaged to a CIA agent, and you’ve hooked up with an FBI profiler. I don’t come with that kind of baggage.”

      Piper studied her for a moment, before she nodded. “Okay. Makes sense. But another thing puzzles me.” She tapped a finger on the last sentence. “Why do they say ‘if you refuse your mission again’?”

      Guilt stabbed at Nell, and she felt heat rise to her cheeks. She hadn’t told Piper about the first letter. Whatever excuses she’d come up with in Louisville for keeping it a secret vaporized the instant she’d read that last sentence. She took a deep breath. “I received a letter very similar to that one a week ago.”

      Piper stared at her for two beats. “You what?”

      Nell dug into her purse, pulled out the letter and laid it next to the other one so that Piper could read it. “I put it in a plastic bag, like the evidence bags they use on TV shows. Any fingerprints, including mine, are preserved. You can see it’s the same message—except for the last line.”

      And the last line in the second letter was the kicker.

      Piper frowned down at the first letter. “Why didn’t you tell me or Aunt Vi immediately? We could have arranged for someone to protect you.”

      “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell anyone,” Nell said, lifting her chin. “The last thing I wanted was for everyone to descend on Louisville. I’m not a child who needs to be rescued anymore. Besides, it could have been just a prank.”

      Piper took her hand and spoke in a tone that Nell remembered too well from her childhood. “Pranks have to be taken seriously when a fortune in sapphires is involved. Adair and I were both nearly killed.”

      Nell raised her free hand, palm out. “Point taken.” The best way to handle Piper was to pretend to go along. But there was no way she was going to miss this chance to prove to them that she no longer needed to be sheltered and protected. They’d always taken care of her. Now she’d take care of them.

      “It’s going to be all right,” Piper said.

      Nell barely kept herself from rolling her eyes. How many times had she heard that sentence while she was growing up? She took a second sip of icy chocolate-flavored coffee and mimicked Piper’s tone. “Yes, it is. I’ll leave for the castle by noon.”

      Piper’s gaze narrowed. “No, you won’t. It’s too dangerous. You’ll stay here with me until we figure out what to do.”

      “I’ll put all of us in even more danger if I don’t go. I have to find the necklace, and we’re not going to find it across the street in your apartment. Everyone agrees that Eleanor must have hidden the necklace somewhere on the grounds of Castle MacPherson.”

      “That’s the problem. Everyone does agree it’s there. Since the word leaked out that Duncan and I found a second sapphire earring in the caves, the treasure seekers are coming out of the woodwork, and the castle is getting more visitors and trespassers than usual. It’s too dangerous up there.”

      Nell’s eyes narrowed. “But it’s not too dangerous for Aunt Vi or for Adair, who’s coming back from Scotland soon. Or for you. I don’t suppose it’s too dangerous for Duncan or Cam Sutherland, either.”

      “Cam is CIA. Duncan is FBI. They’re professionals. You’re not.”

      Biting her tongue, Nell reminded herself of her strategy. Pretend to go along.

      Piper released her hand and gave it a pat. “I’m calling Duncan. I wrote down the name of the delivery service that brought this to the bookstore. He’ll know how to trace it, and he has a friend who works for the D.C. police, a Detective Nelson. He can check for fingerprints. Then Duncan can let both his brothers know about this, while I call Aunt Vi at the castle. She’ll make sure the word gets passed on to Adair and Dad over in Scotland. We’ll handle it. Don’t you worry about a thing.”

      Don’t you worry about a thing. Another familiar sentence from her childhood. In fact, the whole scenario, with her family sidelining her and solving her problems, had been the story of her life.

      Until now.

      Nell squared her shoulders and met her sister’s eyes. “You can’t handle this for me. I know that’s what everyone has done all my life, but whoever wrote that letter wants me to find Eleanor’s necklace. I was planning on looking for it anyway. Adair and Aunt Vi found the first earring in the stone arch. You and Duncan found the second one in those caves we used to play in. So it’s my turn to find the rest of Eleanor’s dowry. That’s the way the story is supposed to go.”

      She paused to beam a smile at Piper. “Once I have the necklace, this person will contact me, and we’ll find out just what he or she wants. I’m personally interested in discovering why they think they have a claim on the sapphires. Aren’t you?”

      Piper had retrieved her phone and now scowled at her. “This isn’t one of your stories where you can plan out the happy ending. The person who wrote this could be very dangerous, and he planned this meticulously. He knew you had that book signing today. He’s probably watching us even now.”

      Nell ignored the chill that shot up her spine. “I know.” That would be exactly the way she would write it. “There’s this scene in an old Clint Eastwood movie, Absolute Power, where his daughter asks him to meet her at this sidewalk café right here in D.C. The FBI wants to arrest him, and two snipers are waiting to take him out. He escapes, of course.”

      “Of course he does. He’s Clint Eastwood. And at the risk of repeating myself, you’re not.” Then Piper narrowed her eyes. “And what do you know about snipers? You write children’s stories.”

      “Doesn’t mean I don’t read grown-up ones. My point is that it’s not any more dangerous at the castle than it might be right here. There could be a sniper taking aim at us right now.”

      “All the more reason why you need protection. Ever since that article brought the missing sapphires to the public’s attention, there are a lot of people, including some professional thieves, who want to get their hands on those jewels.” Piper tapped a finger on the last line of the second letter. “This is a clear death threat.”

      “Yes.” The chill Nell experienced was colder than it had been before. She firmly ignored it as she leaned closer and tapped her finger on the same line. “Piper, the writer is not threatening me. He’s threatening all of you, if I don’t find the necklace. So I’m going up to the castle, and I will find it. You’re not going to talk me out of it.”

      “I’m calling Duncan.” Piper punched in numbers.

      While Piper relayed the situation to Duncan Sutherland, Nell studied her sister’s face and delighted in the way it softened and then began to glow as she spoke to him. No one believed in the power of the stones more than Nell did. But as a writer, she also knew that the power of the legend didn’t cover all scenarios. Her parents were a prime example of that. They had found true love, but her mother’s death had cut their time short and had devastated her father. Life gave no guarantees.

      That meant that she had to be very careful about the way she handled Reid Sutherland.

      She reached for her drink and took a long swallow. She and Reid went back a very long time to the magical summer he was ten and she was six. She and her sisters had played games every single day with the Sutherland triplets, games that had opened up all kinds of story possibilities in her mind—posse and sheriff, pirates and treasure, good and evil.

      That was the summer that she’d fallen in love with Reid. From a six-year-old’s

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