SA_07 - The Secret Sister - Ann Maxwell by Elizabeth Lowell

Author:Elizabeth Lowell
Language: bg
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2005-05-07T21:00:00+00:00

YOU GIVE ME SISTERS OR I GIVE YOU BIG TRUBLE

The note was signed by what looked like a brand consisting of a 10 with an arch over the number.

The second letter was even shorter.

YOU WANT TRUBLE YOU GOT TRUBLE

The same stylized brand was drawn at the bottom of the paper.

“I don’t get it,” she said.

“Let me see.”

She held one of the notes out.

“Looks like Johnny was screwed out of some goods,” Cain said after a quick glance.

“Johnny Ten Hats?”

“That’s his sign. A number ten with a hat on it.” Cain looked at the rolled, taped envelope. “Want my knife?”

As he asked, he dug around in his pocket for the small jackknife he always carried. When he handed the knife over to her, it felt warm against her palm, infused with the heat of his body.

“Thanks,” she said, feeling oddly breathless.

As her fingers curled around the jackknife, she realized how cold she felt inside, a cold that Cain’s masculine warmth somehow eased. She knew she should resist the elemental lure.

And she knew she wasn’t going to.

Carefully she slit the tape and the envelope beneath. Another envelope was beneath. It wasn’t sealed. When she opened it, gleaming chain spilled out into her hand, along with a pile of splinters. The chain was old, handmade, fragile. Delicate gold nuggets no bigger than peas alternated with the worn links.

“Gramma’s necklace,” Christy said huskily, fighting tears. “Jo-Jo kept it for me after all.”

He looked at the splinters in Christy’s palm, started to speak, and thought better of it. “Mind if I look at what came with the necklace?”

She gave him an odd look but tipped the small mound of fragments into his open hand. “What is it?”

“Bones. Old, very old.”

Her hand jerked.

“Open the envelope again,” he said. “I’ll put them back in for you.”

She pulled the edges of the envelope apart. A slim, pale green sheet of paper was hidden inside. She knew even before she pulled it out that she would find Jo-Jo’s writing.

Hi, Sister.If you got this far, I’m in more trouble than I thought. Help me get out and then I’ll help you, because you’re in a LOT of trouble. I left a trail pointing right at you, but I’ll clear it all up from Rio.Help me, Christmas.Please. Chapter 40

Christy’s hands trembled, but her voice was even when she read the note aloud to Cain. It didn’t take him two seconds to understand what Jo-Jo had done to her sister—she’d put Christy right on the firing line.

“Jesus.” He flexed his hands on the wheel, wishing it was Jo-Jo’s neck. “She really is a piece of work. What about the other letter?”

“What letter?”

“Lover boy’s. The one she thought was special enough to hide away from the others.”

Christy reached almost eagerly for the envelope with Jay’s handwriting. His crude enthusiasm for Jo-Jo’s body would be easier to deal with than Gramma’s necklace wrapped in ancient bone fragments and a plea for help from a sister she’d never really known.

She pulled out the letter, expecting the familiar coarse endearments.

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