Sniper was confused. After Grace's demands, she had little left to give if this was going to get kinky. And having just spent weeks spying on these people, she knew she couldn't give them an inch.

"Dunno," she responded sullenly.

"I'll tell you what you can do," Marsha said. "You can a 176 a be the offi cial photographer for this party. We decide on distribution and you get a thirty percent cut."

"Forty," Sniper bargained, trying to look her gift horse in the mouth even as it trampled her into the ground.

"Thirty-fi ve, take it or leave it. I can always call around for another photographer."

"No, no. I'm in."

Sniper brightened. This sounded like a deal with good future options. No one else would have this scoop. It was an insider one-off, and she needed a break since Kelly Rose blew her off. All in all, from what she knew of this family, her fate could have been a h.e.l.l of a lot worse.

Marsha offered a bone-crushing handshake. "Grace is your a.s.sistant tonight. One step out of line and we'll unleash her. You only photograph what you're told to. Got it?"

Janie rose. "Now go get washed up and changed. We're having a barbeque tonight and you're invited to eat with us.

Grace, show Sniper to a room...somewhere." She gave her sister a long, hard look that said , I know what you're up to, before turning to Sniper one last time. "And get that sand out of your shorts. I don't need my fl oors looking like the d.a.m.n Sahara."

"Come on." Grace put her hand on the small of Sniper's back. "I'll run you a bath, and I've a nice aloe vera salve parts of you might be interested in."

Early in the afternoon, Dan's Beemer wound its way down to La Sirena Verde and pulled up in front of Janie and Marsha's home.

"Mommy!" Della's bellow announced her arrival before she'd even exited the car. "Jed called me a b.i.t.c.h."

a 177 a "I did not. Della said ac.r.a.p.'"

"Liar."

"Get your kids away from me," thundered Dan as soon Solley appeared on the front veranda. "I have a blistering migraine. They haven't shut up since we left." She clasped a hand dramatically to her forehead.

Solley shook her head in exasperation as the kids charged past her into the house. "What are you doing here? It's only been fi ve days, and they've broken you?"

"You don't understand. They keep ganging up on me."

"ab.i.t.c.h' and ac.r.a.p'? That's the language they're learning while you're in charge? You know we don't curse in front of them. They're like parrots."

"I wasn't cursing, I was driving."

Solley glared at her. "This is not what we agreed. I'm supposed to be having at least a week alone to enjoy the party and catch up with Grace."

"With Gin Ito hanging around, I think you're catching up with a whole lot more."

"And your point?"

"Did you think you could just call me up and bite off my ear about taking her money?"

"The money wasn't the issue, although I'm not happy about that either. But you lied to her about us."

Solley couldn't bear to imagine what might have happened if Gin hadn't come back for the party. They could have spent months apart, with Gin keeping her distance out of a misguided respect for Solley's supposed relationship.

Dan's expression was unrepentant. "I had to tell her we were trying to make a go of it or she wouldn't have paid up."

"I can't talk to you," Solley said, appalled. "Just go home.

Leave the kids here."

"Forget it. I'm not turning around now and driving all the way back. I'm exhausted."

a 178 a "And you wanted them for six months of the year? Are you mad?"

"On the brink of it." Dan glanced around as Marsha directed the events company crew. They were rigging up lights. "Is Kelly Rose coming tonight?"

"Oh, I get it. You're here to gatecrash this party and network like a fi shing trawler."

Will ambled up and gave her a big hug. "Missed you, Mom."

"Honey, is that nail varnish you've on?" asked Solley as she hugged him in return. Out of the three, he would always be her hugger.

"Yeah, I'm going to grow them," he answered happily before wandering into the kitchen after his brother and sister.

"It kept him quiet." Dan pointed to her head. "Look, I'm dying here. I need to lie down to ease this migraine."

"You can use my room." Solley said reluctantly. "But don't get too comfortable."

"Do you still have that eye mask, the one you can put in the freezer?" Whining and needier than the kids, Dan followed Solley into the cool of the house.

The events company was adding the fi nishing touches to the marquee that now extended out from the decking in one continuous fl ow of party lights, bandstand, and dance area.

Buffet tables stood dressed to the side, awaiting the arrival of the caterers.

"I'm so excited," Grace enthused. "I'm glad you didn't go for a theme." She stood with Sniper, examining the decor.

"I feel so sick I could throw up," Janie said nervously.

Ma.s.s entertaining was not her thing.

"Now that would be a theme. A vomitorium party."

a 179 a Sniper's wisecrack fi zzled as she caught Janie's glare. Quickly she returned to fi ddling with her camera.

Gin returned from her run to the other side of the bay, satisfi ed with the plans she was making for the coming year.

It was a bonus that the stunt academy planning would keep her in this area for the rest of the month. Then, by the time she'd fi nished the Vancouver shoot, her house would be well underway. She sighed in contentment. She felt so at peace in this little cove. It was magical. She could think of no better place to start really living again.

Slipping into the house, she hurried upstairs for a quick shower before joining the others for a pre-party drink. At the top landing she hesitated, seeing Solley's bedroom door ajar.

Imagining she could faintly smell her cologne and unable to stop herself, she moved quietly to the doorway, drawn by a tantalizing glimpse of a negligee draped over a chair, a discarded summer sandal.

There, sprawled on her belly across Solley's bed, her half naked body covered by only the thinnest sheet, lay Dan.

What was that using b.a.s.t.a.r.d doing in Solley's bed? Gin's heart lurched in disbelief. With a sharp intake of breath, she slowly backed away from the sleeping woman. Her withdrawal was hampered by the sudden appearance of Nelson at her heels.

With a wag of his fl oppy red tail, he ambled past her into the room and hopped onto the bed beside the sleeping woman.

Gin held her breath, waiting for Dan to wake and catch her hovering like a thief. Nelson proceeded to drop two well-placed, sloppy licks across Dan's mouth and cheek before curling up to snooze alongside her.

Gin couldn't prevent an evil grin, but her amus.e.m.e.nt was soon squashed when, without waking, Dan murmured into the furry head, "Sol?"

a 180 a "What's she doing in your bed?" Gin hissed like a fury.

She had pounded downstairs to fi nd Solley on the veranda with Grace and Sniper.

"Who? Dan?" Solley was stunned at her lover's vehemence. "She's sleeping off a migraine. Jesus, what did you think? Don't you trust me?" Her quick-fi re temper fl ared.

Gin was momentarily appeased, but she pushed on belligerently. Seeing Dan in Solley's bed had pushed b.u.t.tons she didn't even know she had. Jealousy burned off her like a satellite on reentry. "Well, what's she even doing here?"

"Babysitter whiplash." Solley and Gin were almost nose to nose in their stand off. "Why, did you think your check had bounced?"

"What the h.e.l.l is that supposed to mean?"

"It means Dan may have blackmailed you, but it doesn't mean you own me. You didn't buy me. I don't care what she said about open relationships."

"What's going on?" A stressed Janie appeared beside Grace and Sniper, who shrugged in confusion.

"Dunno, sis. They just started clubbing each other."

"Stop it, you two. I don't need a domestic incident before guests start arriving." Janie's fretful tone brought Marsha out to see what was annoying her wife. Strident voices began to rise as each bickered over the other.

"This is not a domestic. We're not together," Solley informed Janie.

"We are together," Gin yelled.

"You f.u.c.king red-haired b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Dan roared. "I'm gonna kill you."

In the stunned silence all eyes turned to Dan, who was wiping her mouth on the T-shirt that hung over her briefs.

Nelson pranced at her side, trying happily to trip her up.

"f.u.c.king furball had his putrid tongue in my mouth,"

a 181 a Dan complained. "I'm diseased. We all know what he does with it."

"Why the h.e.l.l did you let him do that? And what did I tell you about language?" Solley scolded angrily.

"I thought it was your tongue. And I only cursed because this is an emergency."

"What? You thought it was me?"

"See!" Gin spat.

"Solley, what's going on here?" Janie asked, hands on hips.

"Well, I was half asleep and I saw the red hair," Dan spluttered defensively. "At least it explains the breath."

"If Gin thumps her, can I take pictures?" Sniper whispered to Grace. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to snap the famous Gin Ito pounding on Marsha Bren's evil twin.

"But you still thought she was in bed with you-" Gin accused.

"Oh, f.u.c.k off, Gra.s.shopper. Is that why you're looking daggers at me? You thought we were still together?"

"You told me you were."

"Hey, if you're so keen to be the new daddy, you can mind the kids for the rest of the week." Dan stabbed an indignant fi nger in Solley's direction. "And take her. The farther away from me the better. That madwoman spat seven levels of h.e.l.l into my ear on the phone the other night because you brokered a deal with me. That was meant to be private."

"There are no secrets in this family," Solley declared self-righteously.

"No secrets, huh? Marsha, Janie, and I had a threesome."

Dan pointed at a mortifi ed Janie. "Bet she never told you about that."

"It was years ago," Marsha blurted.

a 182 a Janie glared at her.

"What?" the others rhymed in a stupefi ed chorus.

Janie turned anxiously to Solley, scrabbling for damage control. "It was before you and Dan even met."

"You holier-than-thou tramp!" Solley howled, outraged.

"Hey, my sisters swing like lemurs," Grace snorted, amused that her siblings were sliding off the soapboxes they so often preached to her from.

"Oh, you hypocrite, after the covering-up I did for you last week." Janie railed against Solley's slur. "Sol humped Sniper in the sand dunes."

"What?" another chorus of disbelief rang out.

"I never did," Solley gasped.

"You humped my sister?" Grace bellowed at Sniper who blanched, then panicked.

"No. No. But I helped her set up the Rayner Terror Web site," Sniper confessed, because that, of course, made everything better.

"A Web site?" Gin looked aghast.

Dan looked proud.

"A Web site?" Janie echoed. She looked bilious.