the chopper. Hands from inside reached as if to detain him, but the boy slipped away easily, hitting the ground with a thud and taking off at a sprint, his face split with a big old grin.
All things considered, he was an astonishing-looking kid. About eight or so, bright red hair, decked out in a buckskin jacket, cowboy boots, spurs and two tin six-shooters that banged against his skinny legs as he ran. A blue cowboy hat flew out behind him, tethered by a cord around his neck.
The bald man tried a full body block, but the kid was wily and darted away until he all but slammed into Pierce’s legs.
“Whoa, partner,” Pierce said, catching the small shoulders in his hands, ignoring the twinge in his heart. Eight. That’s about how old Patrick would have been.
The child looked up at him with silver dollar eyes. “Are you a real cowboy?” he said.
Behind them, Jamie snickered and Pierce threw him a dirty look. To the boy, he said, “Of course I’m a real cowboy.” He looked the kid over and added, “From the size of those spurs, so are you.”
He glanced up from the child in time to see an older man with deep lines running down pale, gaunt cheeks standing at the chopper door. He wore a fur cap and military-looking wool coat over what appeared to be a uniform and stood like a conquering hero awaiting a ticker-tape parade. Upon making eye contact with Pierce, he nodded curtly, but when he hit the ground, he made his way toward the bald man who was in the process of slipping a very small derringer into his jacket pocket.
Pierce smiled. Not exactly the kind of weapon he would have pegged the big guy to carry. Soon the men were deep in conversation, smoke from the bodyguard’s burning cigarette wreathing their heads.
“I have six-shooters, too,” the boy said, looking up at Pierce.
Was it possible Cody had set him up for some elaborate joke? “What in the daylights is going on?” he grumbled.
“Beats me,” Jamie murmured from behind him.
“Cody didn’t tell you anything about this?”
“Like I keep telling you, he said nothing.”
Movement at the chopper door signaled another newcomer. This was beginning to remind Pierce of a clown car at the circus where characters kept popping out, each more bizarre than the one before.
That comparison flew out the window as a woman wearing a white hooded jacket nipped in at the waist stepped onto the field. As she pushed back the hood, shiny ebony hair cascaded to her shoulders.
The woman paused as if to assess the situation and then immediately began walking toward Pierce and the boy.
At first he was just mesmerized by her long, slender legs and the curves the tight jacket couldn’t conceal. But the closer she got the more his gaze zeroed in on her face. Damn near aqua eyes, the color of an alpine lake and just as clear. Lips full, beautifully curved, painted red. Skin that wasn’t really skin; it couldn’t be. It had to be satin or silk.
There was something about her that seemed familiar. Had he seen her on the cover of a magazine near a supermarket checkout lane? It had been a while since he’d been in a movie theater, but if she was an actress and these people were in the movie business, it might explain things.
“You must be Cody,” she said, extending a cashmere-covered hand. Her accented voice held the tiniest trace of an edge as though she was exerting a lot of effort into sounding casual.
“No,” he said, taking her hand, “my brother was called away. I’m Pierce Westin. And you are—”
“Hold it!” the older man called and immediately strode across the field toward them. The hulk stayed behind. “I thought we agreed you would wait inside the chopper until we establish security. I’m informed this man will not show his ID.”
“Why the hell should I show you my ID?” Pierce said evenly. “Seems to me it ought to be the other way around.”
“You don’t expect trouble here, do you?” the woman asked, glancing left and right, those beautiful eyes suddenly flooded with anxiety. She withdrew her hand from Pierce’s grasp and anchored it in front of her chest with the other.
“After Seattle, I expect trouble everywhere which is why I made sure you have a new bodyguard.” The older man nodded at the bald guy. Then, with thin lips pressed together, he shifted his hooded gaze to Pierce.
Beautiful woman and interesting undercurrents aside, this was all just too bizarre. “Listen, folks,” Pierce said calmly, “this has been…well, interesting, anyway, but there’s a storm approaching. I don’t know what kind of deal you made with Cody, but I don’t have time to—”
“There isn’t a doubt in my mind you’re one of Melissa Browning’s sons,” the woman said. “You look just like her. Same dark hair, same gray eyes.”
“You know my mother?”
“No, not exactly, but I do see you bear a striking resemblance.”
She had dazzled him with her looks, aroused his curiosity with a couple of telltale signs of apprehension, but to hear her accented voice speak his mother’s name—her maiden name at that—just kicked it all into overdrive. “How in the world do you know what my mother looks like?”
“I’ve upset you,” she said softly.
“Nothing about her can upset me,” he said as his gut clenched. Liar…
“I’m so relieved. Actually, I saw a photograph of her taken when she was young.”
He stepped back a few inches. “Who are you? What are you and all these other people doing here?”
She rested her hands on the boy’s shoulders. “This is my cousin, Toby.”
“No, Analise,” the child protested, looking up at her. “You promised you’d call me Tex.”
She smiled down at him. “My mistake, Tex. And this gentleman—” here she nodded at the older man “—is General Kaare. I am Analise Emille.” She frowned, her forehead wrinkling just a little, her luscious lips slightly puckered. “You weren’t expecting us?”
“Not exactly,” he admitted. “See, Cody didn’t say much before he…left.”
The aqua eyes widened. For a second he wondered if she and his brother were fooling around, then he remembered she hadn’t known Pierce wasn’t Cody until he’d announced it. Besides, Cody was still married and he wasn’t the kind of man to get involved with another woman even if he and his wife were estranged.
“Princess Analise,” the general said smoothly. “Let’s at least get you out of the open.”
“Princess?” Pierce said softly as the woman reacted to the general’s warning by flinching.
When she met Pierce’s gaze again, she tried a smile but it looked forced. “You didn’t know that, either, did you?”
Chapter Two
“Princess of what exactly?” For the moment, Pierce
