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  She headed for Custer, wondering what her reception would be. She had no goodbyes to say to Rory. She was over her initial surge of anger, and now when she thought of him there was only a quiet numbness. Maybe in time it would wear off and she’d feel the pain that his actions had caused. For now, though, she was happy to leave it alone. There were more important things to attend to.

  RORY LOOKED LIKE HELL, and Johnny couldn’t say he didn’t deserve it. The man had left devastation in his wake. Johnny couldn’t suppress the sense of betrayal he felt, but he had come for answers, not recriminations. He wasn’t prepared for the sense of sorrow he felt when Rory saw him and his face lit up.

  “I didn’t think you’d come,” Rory said. Even though he struggled to breathe, one arm was handcuffed to the bed rail. He was a federal prisoner.

  “I had some questions.”

  The smile fell from Rory’s face. “I expect you do.” He pointed to a chair.

  “I’ll stand, thank you,” Johnny said. “Why, Rory? Why did you do this?”

  “Which part? Taking the microchip or involving Stephanie?”

  “Take your pick.”

  Rory closed his eyes, and Johnny could see the exhaustion and pain. “You won’t believe it, but I didn’t have a choice.”

  “You’re right. I don’t believe it.”

  “I had to get the microchip. The man who had it put it on the market to the highest bidder, who happened to be Carlos Diego. When he sent me to get it, I knew I couldn’t let it fall into his hands, and I couldn’t leave it with Capricorn, who’d already arranged to double-cross Carlos, retrieve the chip and sell it to a terrorist group. I had no choice. I had to take it, and I had to make it disappear. Until I could figure out a way to keep the agents on the list safe and to satisfy Carlos.”

  “And you thought taking it and disappearing as the victim of a plane crash would accomplish that? Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you contact Bevins or someone at Omega?”

  “Carlos had begun to suspect me. It was a matter of days, maybe hours, before he ordered me killed. If I died on my own, I thought I could come back here, retrieve the microchip and turn it in. Then maybe the agency would give Stephanie some protection.”

  “You didn’t think Carlos would figure out that you were alive?”

  Rory bit his lip. “I covered my tracks pretty well.”

  “That’s why we’re all here in South Dakota. You left a long trail, Rory.” Johnny felt his anger bloom again. “And Stephanie? What about her? You put her life in danger and she loves you.”

  “I love her, too,” Rory said softly. “No one will ever believe it. Least of all her. But I do love her.”

  “Fine way to show it.”

  “I thought I could protect her,” Rory said. “I never meant to leave the microchip there. I had to stay hidden longer than I expected. And then…”

  Johnny cut him no slack. He waited.

  “Then when I realized what I’d done and how badly it must have hurt her, I didn’t want her to know I was alive. I thought I could get into the cabin, get the microchip and be gone. She’d never have to know my death was a lie.”

  Johnny threw his hands up. “So you’re a coward on top of everything else.”

  Instead of the anger he expected from Rory, his old partner merely nodded his head. “As it turns out, that’s exactly what I am.”

  “And yet she still loves you.” Johnny paced the room. “I saw the two of you, the way you touched her cheek and the way she looked at you. Despite everything, she still loves you.”

  Awareness dawned in Rory’s eyes. “So that’s what’s eating you. You’ve fallen for her.”

  Johnny gritted his teeth, but he didn’t deny it. Rory’s laughter made him want to throttle the man.

  “You’re a fool, Johnny. You can’t see what’s in front of you. The woman cares for you, not me.”

  Johnny stopped pacing. “What?”

  “We were playing a strategy. She had to make me see the earring. We had to act like lovers. Carlos was going to kill us and Stephanie wanted me to know the microchip was safe, hanging from her ear. That way it didn’t matter if Carlos’s gunmen went to the cabin and tore it apart. There wasn’t anything there for them to find.”

  Johnny processed everything Rory was saying, but he found it difficult to believe.

  “Ask her,” Rory said. “She loved me once, I think, but I destroyed that. Ask her.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Stephanie thought her heart would drum out of her chest as she waited quietly at the hospital door, standing ajar, and listened to the conversation between Johnny and Rory.

  Familiar, too, eavesdropped, nodding his head as Rory talked. When Rory urged Johnny to ask her about her feelings, Familiar surged through the door with a cry.

  Startled, Johnny turned and faced her. She froze. For several seconds that felt like an eternity, they simply stared at each other. Then Johnny took two long steps toward her and she ran to meet him.

  His arms wrapped around her and pulled her against his lean, hard body and she clung to him, never wanting to let go.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I never meant to hurt you.”

  “I should have seen that,” he said. “I would have done the same thing.”

  When she looked over Johnny’s shoulder, she saw Rory watching them. Sadness tinged his handsome features, but true to the man she’d first fallen for, he winked at her. “The best man won,” he said.

  She knew he was hiding his pain behind casual banter. She eased out of Johnny’s arms, but she kept her hand on his shoulder, kept the connection she wanted more than anything. “I heard, Rory. At least you didn’t sell out your country.”

  “No, just my fiancée,” he said. “I’ll never be able to make up to you what I did. It won’t fix things, but at least you know I recognize what I’ve lost. And I did remove the lead rope from that black stallion after Plenty let him loose. I remembered what you said about the danger of dangling ropes, so I unsnapped it.”

  She felt the trace of a smile touch her lips. “That was the right thing to do. Rory, I suspect you’ll find someone else who makes you happy. You’ve got the gift of attracting people.”

  “No one like you, Stephanie. You’re one in a million.”

  “I agree with you on that,” Johnny said. He drew Stephanie against his side. “I’ll call Bevins and explain all of this. Someone should remove the handcuffs.”

  “No worries,” Rory said, jangling the cuffs merrily. “It’s just a bit of bling.”

  Stephanie eased to the bed. “I’m sorry I shot you.”

  “It did put a kink in my plans,” Rory admitted, “but I deserved a lot worse.”

  “Yeah, you did.” She took the sting out with a smile. “I wish you the best, Rory.”

  “You’ve got a good man there, Stephanie. A better man than I’ll ever be. And you deserve it. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened.”

  Stephanie held out her hand to Johnny, and he grasped it. Things had turned out far better than she’d ever expected. Rory would straighten out the tangled mess of his involvement with Carlos Diego and the microchip. “What are you going to do, Rory?” she asked.

  “Maybe start a charter airline down in sunny Florida. I mean the government gave me flying lessons. Seems like a shame to waste them. And I enjoy the life. And you?”

  Stephanie didn’t get a chance to answer. Johnny spoke up. “Build Running Horse Ranch into a training facility. Maybe start some classes on how to properly gentle a horse.”

  “That’s a tough life for a woman alone,” Rory said. “Somehow, though, I don’t think she’ll be by herself.”

  “Meow!” Familiar added from the foot of the bed.

  ANOTHER CASE CLOSED. Another couple brought together by Familiar, Black Cat Detective. When I get too old to actively solve cases, maybe I should take up dispensing romantic advice in some kind of newspaper column. I could call it Familiar Wisdom. It could be a smash success
. If I could just teach humanoids to understand cat lingo, I could do talk radio.

  The potential is endless.

  Until then, though, it’s back to the ranch while I wait for Eleanor and Peter to show up and fetch me. And not a moment too soon. It’s not that I don’t care about Stephanie and Johnny, but I get the sense that they won’t really miss me. At least not for a few months. They’ll have Black Jack to watch over them and protect them. With Rupert Casper headed for prison, Stephanie is going to take in all of the horses at his place. They’ll have a wonderful life now, and from what I heard, at least one of Casper’s ranch hands is coming to Running Horse to work with Stephanie and Johnny as they build the ranch’s reputation of a place to gentle horses.

  So I’m heading back to D.C. and my Clotilde.

  She’s kept the home fires burning, and I’m ready for some of Eleanor’s gourmet cooking, a pillow in front of the hearth in the library and my calico delight to snuggle against.

  Life is good.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3825-5

  FAMILIAR SHOWDOWN

  Copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Haines

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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