Free From Boss to Bridegroom by Victoria Pade Page A

Wyoming, Rand. Where Dad grew up. It seemed like a sign that someone was watching over me.”
    Rand closed his eyes against the thoughts of how naive this reasoning was. But now wasn’t the time to get into that.
    â€œJust tell me you’re all right,” he reiterated.
    â€œI am. I’m fine. But will you help us?”
    â€œYou mean help you and Liza prove there’s an imposter mother at the ranch?”
    â€œYes. Will you do it?”
    â€œI don’t doubt that someone tried to hurt you, Em. But what makes you think it wasn’t an attack by a random someone who broke into the house to kidnap you?”
    â€œI just know, that’s all, Rand. I know. And he wasn’t there to kidnap me, he was there to kill me,” she insisted. “ Me. Because I know that woman isn’t who she wants everyone to think she is.”
    â€œThere was a ransom note.”
    â€œI don’t care. I know this wasn’t an attempted kidnapping. I know that that woman who haseveryone thinking she’s Mom is evil, Rand. Please believe me and help prove she isn’t who she says she is.”
    Rand heard the desperation in Emily’s voice and it wasn’t something he could ignore, even if he couldn’t buy into Emily’s imposter theory. But how could he convince Emily unless he agreed to do what he could to check out his own mother?
    Besides, if he did as Emily asked, he reasoned, he could prove to her that she was wrong. That their mother was their mother and that the “two mommies” Emily was so sure she’d seen at the accident had only been a part of the trauma of the accident itself. Something that had festered in her mind as time had passed. Something that now had such power she believed it was the reason behind other, totally unrelated things that happened to her.
    â€œI’ll do what I can,” Rand finally told his sister.
    â€œOh, thank you!” Emily said on a gust of breath, her relief flooding through the wires of the phone. “I know if anybody can find the truth you can.”
    â€œIn the meantime, why don’t you come here, Em? Stay with me.”
    â€œI can’t,” Emily said without thinking about it. “Then you’d be in danger, too. Just the way Liza is.”
    He heard the fear—no, the terror—in Emily’s tone and he backed down. “What about money, then? Do you need that?”
    â€œI only need your help, Rand. That’s all I need. For you to find the truth and stop what’s going on.”
    â€œWill you at least give me a phone number where I can reach you?”
    â€œNo. I’m in a phone booth now. I’ll give you some time to look into things and then I’ll call you.”
    â€œI want a promise from you in return for my promise to do this,” he said then. “I want you to agree that if I don’t turn up anything suspicious you’ll go home.”
    There was silence on the other end of the line for a long time before Emily said, “I know you’ll turn up something because I know that woman isn’t who she says she is.”
    â€œPromise me, Em.”
    â€œIf you can prove without a shadow of a doubt that that woman is your real mother, then okay. I’ll go home,” Emily vowed but clearly without believing that was going to happen.
    â€œYou’ll let me know if you need anything,” Rand said then, an order not an offer. “And, Em, I’ll get on the first plane to Wyoming if you say the word. To be with you there or to take you home to Prosperino, or to bring you here. You know that.”
    â€œI know. But there’s enough of us in danger already. As it is, I’m putting you at risk just doing this. If your phone is tapped and she finds out you’re going to help me expose her, she could send someone to hurt you, too.”
    â€œYou just think about yourself and be careful. Let me worry about me.”
    â€œBut