Noah watched her enter the room and thought the look on her face was priceless.

A hush fell over the gathering, and all eyes were on her as she slowly walked over to him. "What's all this?" she whispered.

"Poker night."

"Here? Poker night is here? Why did I think...I just a.s.sumed...Do you think we could just leave now?"

"Doubtful."

"We could sneak out the back..."

He shook his head. "Sneaking out isn't an option."

She understood when she turned around. Every man there was standing, and those who had not yet met her were waiting to be introduced.

Jaffee did the honors. There were so many she couldn't remember half their names. Every single one of them said "Hey." After the introductions, they bombarded her with questions.

They didn't just want to know about the fire and J. D.'s terrible death. They also wanted to rehash how she had discovered the professor and then Lloyd in her car. Jordan wouldn't have been surprised if one of them had asked for a reenactment. She answered every question-sometimes twice-in their morbid curiosity. She was able to laugh a few times, and in between the questions, Dave, the natural salesman, tried to sell her a new car.

Noah got his fair share of questions too.

"Does Joe figure it was J. D. who killed those two men?" Jaffee asked.

"He's a smart cookie," Dave said. "I'll bet he does."

"I'd heard J. D. disappeared," a man named Wayne interjected.

"Did Joe have enough to arrest him?" Dave asked.

"Doesn't matter now, does it? The man's dead," Steve Nelson reminded the group. "Say, Agent Clayborne, did you and Joe happen to go through J. D.'s house?"

It was difficult for Noah not to smile. He knew what Steve was fishing for. He wanted to know if J. D. had kept records.

"Yes, we went through it. Everything was packed up by two other FBI agents and taken away. There wasn't much there though."

Steve didn't have much of a poker face. Noah could see the relief in his eyes and understood why. He'd seen Steve's name on the list not only for sleeping with Charlene but for some questionable insurance practices.

"Do you think we'll ever know why J. D. killed those men?" Dave asked.

"Joe will tell us when he knows something," Steve said with a.s.surance.

"My heart goes out to Randy d.i.c.key. He's turned into a decent sheriff. This will be a hard blow for him. I think J. D. was his only family," Dave remarked.

Noah noticed Eli Whitaker standing among the men, listening to the conversation but saying little.

"What do you do for a living, Eli?" Noah asked.

"I raise horses, run some cattle," he answered.

"What breed?"

"The cattle are mostly longhorns," he replied. "They seem to be the hardiest for this part of the country."

Noah followed up with a couple of other questions about Eli's operation, and before long the two were standing apart, having a conversation about ranching.

Dave grinned. "That's the most I've seen Eli talk to a newcomer."

The other men in the group took notice and all nodded in agreement.

Steve turned back to Jordan. "I know you two haven't been here long, but you don't seem like newcomers to me. You've brought a lot of excitement to our town. When are you and Noah leaving Serenity?"

"Tomorrow," Jordan answered.

"It's been a real pleasure meeting you two," Dave said.

"I think they've had enough questions for one night," Jaffee told everyone. "Why don't you all get drinks from the bar and take your seats?"

While most of the men scattered around the room, Dave and Eli stepped forward with Jaffee to say good-bye to Jordan.

"I'm sure going to miss you," Jaffee said. "And I'm so sorry you lost your research papers. I heard you had to leave them at the professor's house. You go to all the trouble of making copies and then you watch them go up in flames."

"It's a crying shame. Didn't you tell us you came all the way from Boston to get that research?" Dave asked.

"You mean to say it all got burned up?" Eli wondered aloud.

Jordan finally got a word in. "I have the copies. They weren't in the fire, and I had already mailed the bulk of them home before the originals were destroyed. If Joe and the two agents in charge of the investigation now want to see them, I'll have to mail them back."

"That's real good news," Jaffee said. "Your trip wasn't wasted. Dinner's on the house, and don't even think about arguing about that. Dora and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your help. I sure hope you come back here someday to say 'hey.'"

He hugged her good-bye and shook Noah's hand.

"Either one of you need another car, you think of me. I'll drive it to Boston for you," Dave offered.

"He'll do it too," Eli called out as he headed to his table.

Noah left a generous tip for Angela and steered Jordan toward the door amid a chorus of good-byes.

Neither of them said a word until they were a block away. Jordan broke the silence. "Hmm. Poker night. Didn't see that coming."

Noah laughed. "I've never seen that look on your face before...when you saw the crowd."

"The evening wasn't too bad. We had a lovely dinner without interruptions, and we met some charming gentlemen," she said.

"Charming...and interesting," she added with a nod.

"You know what else is interesting?"

"What?"

"Half of those charming men were on the list."

JORDAN WAS STANDING IN THE SHOWER RINSING OFF THE HEAT of the day and lathering her hair with apricot-scented soap when the realization hit. She didn't want to go home. She immediately pushed the ridiculous thought aside. Of course she wanted to go home. of the day and lathering her hair with apricot-scented soap when the realization hit. She didn't want to go home. She immediately pushed the ridiculous thought aside. Of course she wanted to go home.

She wanted her organized life back, didn't she? When she'd sold her company, she had netted a staggering profit, but now she needed to decide what to do with it. She had toyed with the idea of investing some of the money in developing a new computer processor, one that would be so fast it could handle even the most complicated multimedia software several times over. She had even visualized the design and the prototype. But there was only one problem with her grand scheme to shake up the Silicon Valley giants again. She didn't want to. Let someone else come up with a design that would make the world spin faster and faster.

Not wanting to get into the game again wasn't the only startling revelation. She no longer was in a hurry to run out and buy another laptop and cell phone. In the past they had been her appendages, but she didn't feel laptop dependent anymore, and she was finding it remarkably pleasant not to be answering her cell phone every five minutes. There were definite perks to being unavailable.

"I'm starting to scare myself," she whispered.

What was happening to her? It was as though she were morphing into a completely different person. Maybe sitting in 120-degree heat waiting for Noah to examine the fire wreckage had done something to her brain. Maybe the heat melted it. Or maybe all the showers she'd been taking since she'd arrived in Serenity had washed away her brain cells.

She was dehydrated from exposure to the sun. That's what it was.

She put on her T-shirt and boxer shorts and brushed her teeth. With her toothbrush sticking out of her mouth, she wiped the steam off the mirror and looked at herself. Blotchy skin and freckles. What a prize she was, especially wearing her unis.e.x pajamas.

Jordan put the toothbrush down, reached for a jar of Kate's special body lotion, and opened the door. She'd never worried about how she looked, but now everything was upside down.

Jordan knew what the real problem was. Until this moment, she had refused to admit it. Noah. Oh, yes, he was the problem. He had changed everything, and she didn't know what she could do about it.

Worrying wouldn't improve her situation. A smart woman would run as fast as she could in the opposite direction, but she guessed she wasn't smart because, at the moment, all she could think about was going to bed with him again.

She needed a distraction to take her mind off s.e.x. She decided she would curl up in bed with the professor's research papers and read another grisly tale about bloodshed, decapitation, mutilation, and superst.i.tion. That ought to do the trick and take her mind off Noah.

Where were her gla.s.ses? She thought she'd left them by her contact lens case in the bathroom, but they weren't there. She crossed the bedroom to the desk and stubbed her toe on the leg of a chair. Groaning, she hopped on one foot while she dug through her satchel.

"Noah," she asked, "have you seen-"

"On the table," he called through the open door between their rooms.

How did he know what she wanted? Was he a mind reader? Her gla.s.ses were right where he'd told her they were. "How did you know-"

"You're squinting," he answered before she could finish her sentence. "And you just ran into a chair."

"I wasn't watching where I was going."

He laughed. "You couldn't see see where you were going." where you were going."

Jordan noticed water spots on her lenses and went back into the bathroom. She thought she heard someone knocking on her door and called out, "Noah, could you get that?"

A few seconds later she heard a woman's voice coming from Noah's room. The knocking had been at his door, not hers. Curious, she hurriedly cleaned her gla.s.ses, slipped them on, and went into the bedroom. Oh, great. Noah was getting personalized turn-down service, and Amelia Ann was doing the honors. Noah leaned against the door frame watching her, but when he heard Jordan, he glanced over his shoulder and winked at her.

He was getting a kick out of the preferential treatment. Jordan wasn't. She couldn't stop staring at Amelia Ann through the doorway. The woman was dressed like a c.o.c.ktail waitress in a seedy bar. She had on short-shorts; red, open-toed, stiletto heels; and a low-cut blouse she'd apparently forgotten to b.u.t.ton. She was definitely advertising. The way she bent over the bed when she smoothed the sheets was comical, but Jordan wasn't laughing. Amelia Ann's behavior was disgraceful.

Muttering to herself, Jordan spun around and pulled off her own bedspread. She put it in the corner, then dumped a stack of papers in the middle of the bed, grabbed a bottle of water, and sat down to read.

The room phone rang. It was her sister, Sidney, calling. "You'll never guess where I am."

"I don't want to guess. Tell me," Jordan said.

"You don't have caller ID?"

"You called my motel room, Sidney. You should know I don't have caller ID."

"I'm in Los Angeles, and I'm surrounded by boxes. Since I can't check into my dorm for another week and a half, I'm stuck in a hotel. Actually, it's a very nice hotel," she admitted. "The bellman carried up all my stuff."

"I thought Mother was going out there with you next week. Why are you there so early?"

"Everything suddenly changed," she said. "I spent the other night with my friend Christy, and when I got home the next morning, Mom had my flight all set up. It was like she couldn't wait another minute to get rid of me. I think I was driving her crazy worrying out loud about Dad."

"So you're on your own now."

"And loving it," she said. "I'm going overboard with room service, but since I can't get into my dorm, what else can I do? I hope Dad doesn't have a fit when he gets the bill on his credit card."

"How's Dad doing?"

"Okay, I guess. You know Dad. Death threats don't seem to faze him. Mother's another story though. She's a wreck, but trying not to let it show. Everyone is so stressed out over this trial."

"Any updates on when it will be over?" Jordan asked.

"No," Sidney answered. "Dad's bodyguards are becoming permanent fixtures on Nathan's Bay. Everywhere I looked, there they were: constant reminders that someone wants our father dead."

"The threats will stop as soon as there's a verdict."

"How can you know that for certain? That's what everyone keeps saying, but come on, Jordan, this is a racketeering case. It's...major."

Jordan heard the anxiety in Sidney's voice. "I know."

"And if that horrible man is convicted, won't his family and his business a.s.sociates still come after Dad? And if he's not convicted, won't the other side-?"

Jordan cut her off. "You'll drive yourself nuts thinking about all of this. You have to hope for the best."

"Easier said than done," she replied. "I am glad I came out here early. I was making it worse on Mom. Now she's got Laurant to worry about...and Nick's freaking out..."

"Wait a minute. What did you say? What's wrong with Nick and Laurant?"

"Nothing's wrong with Nick. His wife is the worry. I thought you knew..."

"Knew what?" she asked impatiently.

"Laurant started having labor pains, really bad labor pains, and the doctor put her in the hospital. She can't have the baby yet. She's only six months along."

"When did this happen?"

"Nick took her to the hospital yesterday. I was already on my way to L. A."