He gazed around the room. “These rooms will be comfortable enough until the house is finished. Another week ought to do it.”
“Don’t you think you’re taking a lot for granted?”
He smiled. “Is there still some question about our marriage? Your friend Robert understood when I told him he wasn’t needed anymore. Yet you still need convincing, don’t you?”
“So that was why Robert…oh! What are you doing in New York, Slade, really? You don’t fit in. You’re a gunfighter, a product of the uncivilized West. You can’t mean to live here.”
“I think I’ve proved I can fit in just about anywhere.”
“But you’re not really going to settle here, are you?”
“Why not? I always wanted to see more of the world, but I’ve traveled enough. I’m afraid it wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be, but maybe that’s because I couldn’t get you out of my system. We’ll have to see Europe together some time.”
“Europe? Then you went to Europe with Lucas?”
“You might say that.” He grinned. “By the way, Lucas met an acquaintance of yours in France, a disgusting little peacock who makes wagers involving naive virgins.”
“Antoine?” she gasped.
“I’m afraid Lucas took exception to the man’s sport. He wiped the ground with Gautier’s face, which isn’t so pretty anymore.”
Her eyes lit up with amazement and unmistakable pleasure. “Lucas did that for me?”
“I did,” Slade answered softly.
“You? But you said—”
“When are you going to realize the truth, Sharisse? Don’t you see? There is only one of us.”
The color drained from her face. “That…that isn’t possible,” she said shakily.
He knelt down beside her so his eyes were level with hers, and said as gently as he could, “You’re not frightened of me. You were before, but now you’re not. Haven’t you wondered why?”
Her eyes scanned his face. It was true. He just wasn’t, well, dangerous anymore. If she hadn’t been so angry, she’d have realized it sooner.
“Then, you have to be Lucas,” she concluded.
He sighed and stood up. His expression hardened. The gentleness was gone—just like that. The change was abrupt and startling, leaving her no doubt. He was Slade.
“Sharisse, Lucas is dead.” His voice was tinged with bitterness. “Feral Sloan killed Lucas the same day he killed my father. I didn’t know that until the day I shot Sloan. For nearly ten years I thought Lucas had got away, that he was alive somewhere and I would be able to find him some day. I had blocked his death from my mind because, you see, I saw it happen, just before I lost consciousness.”
Slade turned away from her to hide his grief. “Lucas didn’t ride on when I fell from my horse to the bottom of a gorge. The fool kid stopped to try and help me. I suppose I would have done the same thing. We were just too close, being twins, too much a part of each other. That closeness gave Sloan the chance to catch up with us and put a bullet in Luke’s back.
“There was so much blood covering me from a gash on my head, I guess Sloan assumed I was dead. He figured taking one body back, along with my horse, was enough to prove there were no more Holts alive to claim that gold mine. He took Luke’s body.” There was a long silence. “I was nineteen when I found my brother’s grave beside my father’s in Tucson.”
Sharisse stared at his back, pain welling in her chest.
“You killed Sloan. Why didn’t you kill Newcomb, too? I would have!”
He faced her, surprised by the fury in her voice. “I told you. He was too well-protected. I would have been a hunted man for the rest of my life, and I already knew what that’s like. There was only one way Newcomb could get what he deserved. I took away what he valued most, his wealth. His ill-gotten gains.”
“But you waited so long to do it.”
“It took that long, Sharisse. It took planning. And besides, I never could have got away with it as myself. You saw how the people of Newcomb regarded me. You were frightened of me yourself.”
“Your manner was brutal, Slade.”
He grinned at her. “Honey, I’ve been a saint compared with how I was eight years ago. After living half of my life with fear and hate as constant companions, I knew no other way to be. There wasn’t any friendliness in me. How could I get Newcomb to trust me when he saw me as a killer? I had to change myself completely, to create a different man.
