The Tempted Read online

  He frowned at the street scene below. The driver had gotten out of the car, and by the looks of his expression, was berating Tess for her carelessness. And she was apologizing, hands out appealingly. The driver would have to be hard-hearted, indeed, not to respond, because in spite of her haggard appearance, there was still something very appealing about Tess.

  It was hard to imagine her married to anyone else after what they’d shared that summer. Hard to imagine she had a daughter with another man, but then, maybe it was as she’d said—she and Jared were never meant to be together.

  Is that why she’d stolen the bracelet? he wondered. To prove how wrong they were for each other?

  He watched her disappear into the parking garage below as a thousand memories crashed over him. Tess, in the pool that day. Tess, lying beside him on his boat, watching the stars. Tess, in his arms. Tess, gazing up at him defiantly. “I wanted it, okay? I saw it lying there, so I took it. Now, do you still want me?”

  And God help him, he had.

  “I hope you’re not thinking of taking back up with her,” Cressida said.

  Jared shrugged. “If I am, it is my business.”

  Cressida sighed. “Must I remind you that you are operating at the mercy of a very conservative board, Jared? They’ve expressed concern about your age and lack of experience. A liaison with the wrong sort of person would only reinforce their trepidation. On the other hand, the right sort of union would go a long way in calming troubled waters.”

  “And you have someone in mind, no doubt,” Jared said in an irritated tone.

  Cressida smoothed back her white-blond hair. “You and Lauren Mathison make a lovely couple. She’s beautiful and charming, and she comes from the right sort of people. You and she share so much in common. You went to the same schools, you move in the same circles. She could be a real asset to you with the board.”

  “Let’s get one thing straight, shall we?” Jared walked over and stood behind his desk. “My personal life is off-limits to the board. And to you.”

  Cressida gave him a cool assessment. “I’m simply looking out for your best interests, Jared. I know how important it is to you to follow in your father’s footsteps.”

  “Actually,” Jared said slowly, “I’m beginning to think it was always a lot more important to him than it was to me. I was happy managing the New Orleans Spencer.”

  “Yes, but you have to think of the good of the company. You’re needed here now. And like it or not, this position comes with certain obligations. Certain expectations.”

  “Like hooking up with the right sort of woman,” he said dryly.

  Cressida ignored his sarcasm. “Exactly.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, Mother, but I have no intention of marrying Lauren Mathison. I’m not in love with her, and she knows it.”

  Cressida’s finely tweezed eyebrows lifted. “Who said anything about love? The best marriages are made with far more consideration than mere love.”

  Yes, Jared thought. Like the loveless pairing you shared with my father. Still, he supposed she had a point. He’d been in love with Tess Granger, and look how that had turned out. Aloud, he said accusingly, “You know, Mother, just because someone had the presumption to plant an item in the newspaper calling Lauren my fiancée doesn’t make it so. In fact, I don’t think I’ll be seeing much of her from now on.”

  “Why on earth not? She’s perfect for you, Jared.”

  “That’s not for you to decide.”

  Cressida’s lips thinned in disapproval. “Well, I certainly hope your decision has nothing to do with Tess Granger.”

  “And if it does?”

  “I won’t stand for it,” she said coldly. “I simply won’t stand for it. I will not allow that woman to worm her way into this family. I won’t allow her to tarnish our good name.”

  “What have you always had against her?” Jared demanded.

  “You can ask that, after what she did?”

  Jared shook his head. “You didn’t like her before that. And she knew it. That’s why she wanted to keep our relationship a secret that summer. She knew you’d give her a hard time. You know, Mother, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you felt threatened by Tess. Maybe you still do.”

  “Threatened?” Cressida’s chin lifted in outrage. “Don’t be ridiculous!”

  “Maybe the reason you never liked her,” Jared challenged, “was because she had the audacity to consider herself an equal to the Spencers.”

  “So there is something going on between the two of you.” Cressida’s voice had gone almost calm. Too calm.

  “Not that I feel the need to explain, but Tess’s visit wasn’t personal.” He held up the newspaper turned to Emily’s picture. “Have you heard about this?”

  Cressida took the paper from him and glanced at the headline. “That missing little girl? Yes, of course, it’s been all over the news for the past several days. What does that have to do with Tess Granger?”

  “This is her daughter,” Jared said grimly. “She disappeared from a school playground almost three weeks ago.”

  A gasp sounded from across the room, and Jared looked up to see Ariel standing just inside the doorway, her hand at her heart. “Oh, no,” she said in a near whisper. “Oh, dear God, no.”

  Chapter Six

  Standing at her kitchen window the next morning, Tess watched the bleak, shadowy hues of daybreak slowly melt away as the sun topped the horizon. She’d always liked early morning, the hour or so she had to herself before Emily awakened and the day began in earnest—the rushed breakfasts and hurried goodbye kisses, the mad dashes to school, the million and one tiny details that were a part of every single mother’s routine. How Tess longed for that harried sameness now.

  She wrapped her arms around her middle, trying to beat back the feeling of isolation, the killing loneliness that tightened like a vise around her heart. I can’t do this, she thought helplessly. I can’t do this alone.

  She wasn’t alone, of course. She had her mother and Melanie, other friends and neighbors who had given her their unfailing support. But it wasn’t the same as having someone by her side, going through everything she was going through, experiencing the grief and the terror and knowing without having to ask why she couldn’t eat, why, even in exhaustion, she fought sleep because of the nightmares.

  She thought of Jared, briefly, then tried to turn her mind away. But it wasn’t that easy. His image had hovered at the fringes of her consciousness ever since she’d seen him yesterday, but it was Royce’s face she saw when she closed her eyes. Royce’s parting words that had tormented her all through the sleepless night.

  “Oh, and Tess? I hope you find your little girl.”

  It wasn’t unusual that Royce would know about the kidnapping. Emily’s disappearance had been thoroughly publicized, not just locally but all over the state. Her picture was in all the papers, and Tess had appeared on TV.

  But that rationalization didn’t stop her blood from going cold when she thought about the way he’d stared down at her. The look in his eyes…

  Clenching her fists, Tess summoned her strength, called on every ounce of courage she possessed not to give in to the panic, to the almost overwhelming urge to confide in someone, to share her burden.

  But not just with anyone. With Jared. Six years ago she’d made a deal with his father to leave town in order to avoid having charges brought against her for the stolen bracelet, in order to avoid going to prison. She’d allowed Jared to believe her guilty of the crime so that he would let her go.

  But it was the accident that had really driven her away. As she’d gazed down into Melanie’s blood-streaked face, the full impact of what she was up against had hit Tess. She had known then just how far Royce Spencer was willing to go to win. And it wasn’t just Tess who stood in his way. It was her child.

  “Emily,” she whispered, putting her fingertips on the cool glass pane. “Where are you, baby? Where are you?”

  THIRTY
MINUTES LATER, Tess pulled up outside the volunteer center, which had been set up in a community facility in downtown Eden a few blocks over from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

  For days following Emily’s disappearance, the center had been a beehive of activity, with hundreds of volunteers pouring in to help in the search-and-rescue efforts. They came from cities, they came from towns, they came from remote rural areas in the far corners of the state. They came from different backgrounds, with different insights and motivations, but they came, nonetheless. College students passed out flyers alongside seasoned off-duty policemen. Construction workers beat the bushes with agents from the FBI, the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. They were different, yes, but they all came with the same goal: to find Emily and bring her home safely.

  But now, after nearly three weeks, most of the volunteers had gone home, and the remaining personnel seemed utterly dejected. To a person, they could hardly look Tess in the eye as she walked into the building that Saturday morning.

  It wasn’t their fault, of course. They’d done everything humanly possibly to find her little girl, and Tess would be forever grateful to them for their tireless devotion and sacrifice. But now they were going home, returning to their normal lives, and it was left up to her to carry on the search. To make sure her daughter didn’t become another tragic statistic.

  Across the room, some of the computers stations were being dismantled and the equipment packed in boxes to be transported back to the local businesses that had loaned them to the cause. Tess blinked back tears as she turned away.

  But all hope wasn’t yet lost. There were still a dozen or so volunteers who showed up faithfully every day, and now they had a new cause, a renewed fervor. The updated reward information had been printed on flyers late yesterday afternoon, and they would all work feverishly for the next several hours, addressing and stamping envelopes, sorting and bagging the mail for the post office to deliver all over the country, where the flyers would be distributed by other volunteers, missing-persons organizations and law enforcement personnel.

  “How are you feeling this morning?” Melanie asked when Tess sat down beside her.

  Tess shrugged. “Like I’ve felt every morning since she’s been gone.” She dragged a hand through her hair. “Empty. Dead inside. Like my heart has been ripped out of me. Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night, it seems like all this is just a bad dream. That if I go down the hallway, I’ll find her in her bed, curled up with her teddy bear, sleeping soundly. Then I remember. Then it all comes rushing back to me, and I just don’t know how I’m going to get through the rest of the night. Or the next day. Or the rest of my life.”

  Melanie reached over and took her hand. “It’s going to be okay. You’re not alone in this, Tess.”

  “I know.”

  “The volunteer center may be officially shutting down, but I’m not going anywhere, and neither are they.” Melanie waved her hand toward the busy group of women huddled over the folding tables. “We’re going to be right here every spare moment, doing what we’ve been doing for the last two and a half weeks. And if not here, then somewhere else. We’ll find a new place and start up our own volunteer center. Maybe we can use one of the smaller meeting rooms here. I’ll talk to the other town council members about it.” Melanie had been elected to the town council a year ago, and was very active in her civic duties.

  Tess forced a smile. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  It was true. Melanie had spent hours on top of hours at the center since Emily’s disappearance. Together, she and Naomi Cross had worked diligently to set up a nationwide poster-distribution program and a telephone and computer networking system that coordinated local efforts with national organizations that dealt with missing children. She’d also tirelessly manned phone banks and stuffed envelopes, like everyone else, and all that after she’d completed her workday at Fairhaven Academy. But her most valuable contribution had been her moral support.

  “I’ll never be able to thank you enough,” Tess said. “Any of you.”

  “Nobody here wants any thanks. All we want is to find Emily.”

  Tess’s throat clogged. “I know that.”

  “Tess—” Melanie leaned forward, lowering her voice. “What happened yesterday with Jared? I know you got the money, but you didn’t tell him about—”

  “Emily?” Tess shook her head. “No, I didn’t tell him. I didn’t have to. Once he learned she was missing, he just sat down and wrote me out a check. No questions asked.”

  Something flickered in Melanie’s eyes. “As easy as that?”

  No, Tess thought. It hadn’t been easy. Nothing about her visit to Jared had been easy, but seeing Royce again, having him inquire first about Melanie and then mentioning Emily’s disappearance…

  Melanie touched her arm. “Are you okay?”

  Tess glanced at her friend. “I think there’s something I should tell you,” she said worriedly.

  Melanie seemed to brace herself. Her fingers tightened around the arms of her wheelchair. “What is it?”

  “I saw Royce yesterday.”

  The color drained from Melanie’s face. “Where?”

  “He was just getting off the elevator as I was getting on. I bumped into him. He didn’t recognize me at first, but then…”

  Melanie stared at her in dread. “What happened? What did he do?”

  Again Tess hesitated, not certain she was doing the right thing by telling Melanie about her confrontation with Royce. But at the same time, she didn’t think she should keep it from her, either. “He asked about you.”

  Melanie’s knuckles whitened on the arms of her chair.

  “He talked about the accident,” Tess said. “And then he told me to tell you that he hasn’t forgotten you.”

  “Oh, God—”

  “Melanie, it’s okay.” Tess put her hand over Melanie’s. “He can’t hurt you now. I won’t let him.”

  “How can you stop him?” Melanie wrested her hand from Tess’s grasp. “I knew this would happen. Why? Why did you have to go there?”

  Tess drew back in the face of her friend’s anguish. “You know why I went. I had to.”

  “No, you didn’t. We could have figured out a way to get the money. There’s no guarantee offering a reward will help anyway. And now that Jared knows about Emily…God, Tess. Don’t you see what you’ve done?”

  “Melanie—”

  “You’ve brought them back into our lives. We’re all in danger now.”

  “Melanie, please,” Tess said, glancing around the command center. She lowered her voice. “Think about it. There’s no reason for Royce to come after you now. He has a family. He has the trust. That’s all he ever wanted.”

  Melanie gave her a bitter look. “I’m all too aware of that.”

  “He doesn’t know about Emily. He can’t.”

  “And what about Jared?”

  Tess’s heart tightened at the thought of him, but she hardened her resolve. “He isn’t a threat. There’s no reason why he should suspect anything. He’s been out of my life for a long time.”

  “If he’s out of your life,” Melanie said harshly, “then what’s he doing here?”

  TESS SPUN, and from across the room, her gaze collided with Jared’s. The impact was almost a physical jolt. Every muscle in Jared’s body tightened as he became overly aware of the attraction. It was still there. Undeniably. God help him, Tess still had the same effect on him. The same hold over him.

  Today she wore jeans and a simple cotton blouse that made her appear even thinner. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and Jared saw that it still hung in spirals, although the golden highlights were gone, along with the luster. Her tragedy had taken a toll.

  As he moved across the room toward her, her face mirrored some of the emotions he felt at that moment—confusion, anger, trepidation. And, yes, even the attraction, although he didn’t think she’d admit to that
.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked with a frown when he stopped before her.

  “I came to see if there was anything else I could do to help.”

  A look of alarm flashed across her face. “But…you’ve already done so much.”

  “Surely no effort is enough until your daughter is brought home safe and sound.”

  Tess looked as if she didn’t quite know what to do or say to that, and Jared could sympathize. In truth, he was a little puzzled by his actions, as well. He wasn’t sure why he’d come here except that he’d lain awake all last night, thinking about Tess and worrying about her daughter. He couldn’t get either one of them out of his mind. And then come morning, the need to drive up to Eden, to see Tess again, to find out if there’d been any news had been overwhelming.

  So he’d skipped out on a Saturday-morning board meeting, although he knew that would garner a black mark against him. He’d canceled lunch with Lauren, racquetball with his brother, and here he was.

  Suddenly uncomfortable, he glanced around the community center. His arrival had generated momentary interest, but everyone except for Tess and the woman beside her had gone back to work. Folding tables and chairs, littered with stacks of flyers, envelopes, staplers, rubber bands and various other office paraphernalia, were scattered about the large room, and the walls and windows were papered with Emily’s picture. Everywhere Jared turned, her dark eyes stared down at him. And below her picture the terrible question: Have you seen this child?

  My God, he thought. How did Tess stand it?

  “How did you know where to find me?” she asked, meeting his gaze head-on. She’d lifted her chin slightly, but there was an unmistakable edge to her voice, an indefinable flicker in her eyes that might have been fear.

  Jared shrugged. “I went by the sheriff’s station and spoke to a detective named Cross.”

  “Abby?”

  “That’s her. She told me you’d probably be here.” He glanced around the room again. Despite the activity, the place seemed empty, subdued. Sergeant Cross had warned him that the volunteer center was being shut down, although the investigation would remain active.