Page 149 of Our Little Secret

At that moment Brooke’s heart sank.

She’d seen this glow around her sister before.

No doubt about it; Leah was in love.

Again.

Leah glanced over her shoulder and wiggled her fingers, indicating someone should step inside.

“What is it?” Neal asked.

Brooke bit back a gasp.

Big as life, wearing a leather jacket and jeans and sporting three-days’ growth of beard that didn’t hide his sardonic grin, Gideon Ross stepped inside.

CHAPTER 33

“This is Eli!” Leah announced breathlessly as she extracted herself from Marilee’s embrace and wrapped her arms around the waist of the new man in her life. “Eli Stone.” Then she glanced at the surprised group. “Marilee, my niece; I’ve told you about her.” She waved a gloved hand at Marilee who stood, her smile fading, appearing as shocked as Brooke felt. “And Neal . . . my brother-in-law,” Leah went on, obviously on cloud nine and beyond.

No! No! No!

Brooke stared at the man, shocked to her soul.

This man wasn’t Eli Stone.

He was Gideon Ross. In the flesh.

Visibly taken aback, Neal managed to step forward to shake Eli’s hand. “Neal Harmon. Glad to meet you,” he said, though he didn’t sound it. And he hesitated, as if remembering Eli’s face but wasn’t able to place it. Then he shook his confusion off, his face becoming welcoming again.

“. . . and of course my sister, Brooke,” Leah went on, and Eli leveled his gaze directly at Brooke.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat. She swallowed hard and felt the color drain from her face.

Leah went on, “I’ve told you all about her.”

“Yeah.” Eli nodded. “You have.”

Dear God!

He took Brooke’s hand in his icy fingers. “Glad we finally meet. Face-to-face.”

She nearly gasped and caught the cruel glint in his eye. Her knees threatened to buckle, but she forced a fake smile and stared stiffly at him. He was a little different than she remembered and she told herself that she was imagining things, that because of discovering the bracelet and camera she’d been obsessing about Gideon and this man was not him. Couldn’t be.

Yet the differences were subtle. Lighter hair grown out longer and showing just a few strands of silver. Brown eyes rather than gray. His nose not quite the same—broken maybe? And possibly about an inch taller? But that jaw, even masked by a scruffy, three days’ of beard shadow, appeared nearly identical, as were the eyebrows and cheekbones and the off-center, easy grin . . . If Eli Stone wasn’t Gideon Ross, he was his damned twin.

She swallowed hard, heard the timer ticking off the seconds of her life. “Let’s just say I’m surprised to meet you,” she forced out and her voice came as if from a distance. She felt woozy as she said, “Leah didn’t mention bringing a guest.”Don’t pass out! Don’t!The words rang through her mind while dozens of images, snapshots of the time she’d spent with him flashed in rapid-fire succession behind her eyes: Gideon at Pike’s Place Market. Gideon in the coffee shop. Gideon at the helm of theMedusa. Running on the beach. Making love in the bed upstairs. In the very bed she was now sharing with Neal. And Gideon with Neal’s gun, threatening her life, the last words he’d ever spoken echoing through her mind:

If I can’t have you, no one can.

“Brooke?” Neal’s voice, sounding far away, brought her back to the here and now. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Brooke managed, though she was anything but fine as she stared at the man she’d once so foolishly trusted with her life.

And there it was, that glint in his eyes, a mischievous spark that she’d once found so intriguing and now made her blood run cold.

“My bad,” Leah said, pulling her head into her shoulders like a little kid knowing she was cute. “Mea culpa. I didn’t say anything because I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Beyond a surprise,” Brooke managed, trying to tamp down her anxiety. Why would he come here? It had to be on purpose. What did Leah know? From the look of her, nothing. Was it possible? Could she be innocent in all this?

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