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“Don’t be such a wimp. We’ll carry it off, as long as you don’t lose your nerve.” She looked at me, and even beneath her unflattering disguise, I could see the real Bella, the hard Bella. “So why don’t you tell me what’s between you and Ian?”
That was the last thing I wanted to discuss with her, when I had no idea where I stood. I did know he’d pretended to accept her as Podge, and I wasn’t about to set her straight. If Ian wanted to keep our secret, he must have some reason, and I wasn’t about to say anything until I talked with him.
“Nothing,” I said. “We fight all the time.”
“Well, at least that’s nothing new. And he seemed normal enough when he greeted me. He was very sweet. You know, I used to wonder if he had a thing for you, Podge. After all, he couldn’t have me, and there’d always been a protective air about him where you were concerned.”
I ignored that. “And he didn’t doubt who you were?”
“Not at all,” she said smugly. “He gave me a kiss on the cheek and even called me ‘Podge.’”
What the hell was going on? Ian would have known who she was—why hadn’t he confronted her? “You must have been doing your job well,” Bella continued. “I never thought you could carry this off.”
“You sent me off thinking they were going to recognize me?” I demanded, horrified.
Bella shrugged, that insouciant gesture I’d worked so hard to replicate. What Would Bella Do? “It was worth the chance.”
Not for me, it hadn’t been. But then, I had learned the hard way that Bella didn’t think about anyone but herself.
“Come on, Podge, get in the car,” she wheedled, that pretty smile on her face. “You can drive us down to the first turn and I’ll get behind the wheel after that. I’ve missed my car!”
“This isn’t your car. It’s an exact duplicate. Yours was in an accident.”
Her fine eyes narrowed. “Who was driving it?”
“Ian. The brakes failed and we plowed into a tree.” In the ensuing days, I’d almost forgotten about my concussion, but right now my head was pounding.
“So where did this come from?” She was sounding very displeased.
“Marcus bought me a new one.”
“Don’t you mean Marcus bought me a new one?” she said in a silken voice.
“Whatever. It’s definitely yours, not mine.”
“I want to drive it. Get in.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to.”
“Don’t be such a stick in the mud. Obviously, I can’t take it out myself, and it’s been too damned long. Besides, we need to talk where we can’t be overheard.”
She made sense. I was being irrational and stupid about the car—just because I’d had an accident in one didn’t mean the replacement was a death trap. I reached out for the passenger side door when I saw something out of the corner of my eye, over by the stables.
It was Salvador, and he was shaking his head “no.” I practically jumped back from the car as if it were electrified. “Come up to my room—we can talk there. I want to know why you decided to show up out of the blue...”
“They were looking for me. For you. Sooner or later, they would have found out too much—it only made sense to show up. After all, it’s not every day that you’re bequeathed hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“You weren’t bequeathed it. It was a mistake, something Granda should have fixed. The moment I get back to the States, I’m going to take steps to relinquish it.”
“I wouldn’t be too hasty about that.”
I froze, dumbfounded. “You wouldn’t?”
“It’s a lot of money. You and I could split it, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. And you needn’t worry about your precious Ian—I’d give him enough to keep the farm going.”
“You’re not serious!”
“Aren’t I?” Bella asked. “Get in the damned car, Podge, and we’ll talk about it.”
