CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 33

"This is Eli!" Leah announced breathlessly as she extracted herself from Marilee's embrace and wrapped her arms around the waist of the new man in her life. "Eli Stone." Then she glanced at the surprised group. "Marilee, my niece; I've told you about her." She waved a gloved hand at Marilee who stood, her smile fading, appearing as shocked as Brooke felt. "And Neal . . . my brother-in-law," Leah went on, obviously on cloud nine and beyond.

No! No! No!

Brooke stared at the man, shocked to her soul.

This man wasn't Eli Stone.

He was Gideon Ross. In the flesh.

Visibly taken aback, Neal managed to step forward to shake Eli's hand. "Neal Harmon. Glad to meet you," he said, though he didn't sound it. And he hesitated, as if remembering Eli's face but wasn't able to place it. Then he shook his confusion off, his face becoming welcoming again.

". . . and of course my sister, Brooke," Leah went on, and Eli leveled his gaze directly at Brooke.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat. She swallowed hard and felt the color drain from her face.

Leah went on, "I've told you all about her."

"Yeah." Eli nodded. "You have."

Dear God!

He took Brooke's hand in his icy fingers. "Glad we finally meet. Face-to-face."

She nearly gasped and caught the cruel glint in his eye. Her knees threatened to buckle, but she forced a fake smile and stared stiffly at him. He was a little different than she remembered and she told herself that she was imagining things, that because of discovering the bracelet and camera she'd been obsessing about Gideon and this man was not him. Couldn't be.

Yet the differences were subtle. Lighter hair grown out longer and showing just a few strands of silver. Brown eyes rather than gray. His nose not quite the same—broken maybe? And possibly about an inch taller? But that jaw, even masked by a scruffy, three days' of beard shadow, appeared nearly identical, as were the eyebrows and cheekbones and the off-center, easy grin . . . If Eli Stone wasn't Gideon Ross, he was his damned twin.

She swallowed hard, heard the timer ticking off the seconds of her life. "Let's just say I'm surprised to meet you," she forced out and her voice came as if from a distance. She felt woozy as she said, "Leah didn't mention bringing a guest." Don't pass out! Don't! The words rang through her mind while dozens of images, snapshots of the time she'd spent with him flashed in rapid-fire succession behind her eyes: Gideon at Pike's Place Market. Gideon in the coffee shop. Gideon at the helm of the Medusa. Running on the beach. Making love in the bed upstairs. In the very bed she was now sharing with Neal. And Gideon with Neal's gun, threatening her life, the last words he'd ever spoken echoing through her mind:

If I can't have you, no one can.

"Brooke?" Neal's voice, sounding far away, brought her back to the here and now. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Brooke managed, though she was anything but fine as she stared at the man she'd once so foolishly trusted with her life.

And there it was, that glint in his eyes, a mischievous spark that she'd once found so intriguing and now made her blood run cold.

"My bad," Leah said, pulling her head into her shoulders like a little kid knowing she was cute. "Mea culpa. I didn't say anything because I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Beyond a surprise," Brooke managed, trying to tamp down her anxiety. Why would he come here? It had to be on purpose. What did Leah know? From the look of her, nothing. Was it possible? Could she be innocent in all this?

Eli said, "I've been looking forward to this." The voice—a little raspier, but . . . She realized he was still holding her hand. She yanked it away. Blinked back to reality. This couldn't be happening. It could not!

Recovering slightly, Neal finally pulled the door shut behind them. "Well, come on inside and settle in."

No! Oh, no, no, no!He couldn't be here! No way! No how!

"I—we have a big announcement," Leah said, taking Eli's hand in hers.

Brooke knew what was coming before Leah even said a word.

"Eli and I are getting married." She pulled off the gloves and held up her left hand, fingers splayed, a bright diamond winking on her ring finger. "He asked me just last week and I said ‘yes'!" She squeezed Eli's hand and he bussed her cheek though, Brooke noted, before he closed his eyes during the quick kiss, he shot a glance directly at her, almost mocking her.

Oh, Jesus.Stunned, Brooke couldn't say a word.

"Wow." Neal took a step back. "That's fast."

"When you know, you just know!" Leah gushed and twined her fingers in Eli's. "Isn't that right?" she asked her fiancé, but he was already nodding, his eyes catching Brooke's.

"Yeah," he agreed. "When you find the one you should never let her go."

Leah nearly swooned against him. "I won't," she said.

"Me neither." And again he cut a quick glance at Brooke. "I'll never let go. Just like I promised."

Brooke visibly started.

"Well—then, I guess congratulations are in order." Though at first visibly taken aback, Neal was trying to pull himself together, while Marilee hadn't yet said a word. She appeared as shocked as anyone.

Neal said to Brooke, "I think we have a bottle of wine here, don't we?"

When she didn't respond he nudged her. "Brooke?"

"Yes." Dear God, what was she supposed to do? She couldn't have Gideon in the house and she couldn't allow him to marry Leah. No damned way. Her mind was racing, her heartbeat frantic.

"No worries. Of course we brought champagne to celebrate. And two of my best friends, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels just for good measure." Leah shrugged off her coat and hung it on one of the pegs in the front hall. "This place hasn't changed a bit. And oh! Look! You found Nana's little Christmas tree!" She hurried to the corner where Brooke had tucked the little fake pine. "I used to love playing with the ornaments. Remember? It was sad-looking then, but now—wow. Still, I love it. And—wait!" She made a big production of closing her eyes and sniffing the air. "You're making clam chowder? Manhattan, right?" Her eyes fluttered open. "Perfect." Her blue eyes twinkling, she linked arms with Eli. "And it's snowing outside. Gonna be a white Christmas. I take it as a good omen!"

"Really? An omen?" Brooke said, working hard to think clearly as she put the pieces together in her mind—finding the bracelet in the cupboard, discovering the camera's eye in the shower, hearing that Leah had been on the island within the last few months, and now this—Gideon Ross posing as another man.

What the hell was happening?

Dragging her gaze from Eli, she kept telling herself over and over again that he was not Gideon Ross; a dead ringer, yes, but not the man she'd left bleeding in Elliott Bay a little more than a year before.

"And another tree too!" Leah said as she stepped into the living room to survey all the decorations and the fir tree trimmed with old-fashioned ornaments. "I've got presents! And . . ." Again she grinned and hunched her shoulders like a mischievous little girl. "Another surprise."

Dread crawled up Brooke's spine as they all went into the living room. "I don't know if I can take another one."

Leah ignored her. "Come here, come here," she said to Eli, motioning him into a spot in front of the stone fireplace. The embers in the grate glowed red while flames licked the chunks of blackened oak. Linking her fingers with his again, she announced, "We're getting married here on the island."

"No," was Brooke's immediate response.

"What?" Neal didn't bother to mask his shock.

Marilee blinked and took a step backward. "Here?" she whispered. Her face had drained of all color. "You're getting married? Really? Now? Here?"

"On New Year's Eve." Leah hugged Eli fiercely.

"Wait—what?" Brooke said, aghast. "This New Year's?"

"Yes, yes! You heard me. We're getting married here, in this cabin. I've already spoken with the preacher in Marwood. And the florist. And a caterer—well, she's really just a woman who works at the restaurant—but it's going to be small, so it shouldn't be a problem! It'll just be us . . . Oh, Marilee, you'll still be here, right?"

"I—I—" Marilee was slowly shaking her head. Obviously dumbstruck, she said, "I was heading back. I have plans. With my boyfriend."

"Well, call him. Get him up here!" Leah said. "We can handle one more."

"I don't know. . . ." Marilee glanced at Brooke, as if she was looking for a lifeline.

Brooke didn't have one. "Wait a second. You can't be serious," she said, trying to keep the panic from her voice.

But she saw from the determined gleam in her sister's eye that Leah had made up her mind. Brooke stumbled on. "I mean, it's just that this is so sudden. I didn't even know you were dating."

"Neither did I," Neal said, as if Leah should have confided in him.

Marilee didn't say a word.

"Well." Leah's lips pulled into a tiny little smile, as if she'd been holding on to a little secret, a guilty little pleasure that she'd been savoring. "I admit, it's been pretty quick, really. I met Eli when I moved to San Francisco, just this past September, the twentieth to be exact, after I got the job at Central. That's the private school where I teach."

"So, how did you meet?" Neal asked.

"I swear it was kismet, or fate," Leah said, a little more seriously. "We literally ran into each other. Down on Fisherman's Wharf!" She cuddled closer to Eli. "Didn't we, babe?"

Marilee had dropped onto the couch and Shep found a tennis ball that had rolled under a side table and carried it across the room to drop it next to Eli.

Neal took in the dog's antics and didn't say anything, but Brooke knew what he was thinking—that Shep rarely initiated play with a newcomer.

"I don't think so, boy," Eli said and scratched the retriever behind the ears, just as Brooke had seen Gideon do in this very room.

Bile crawled up her throat.

Leah nudged Eli. "You remember how we met at the waterfront?"

"Of course." He wrapped his arms around his fiancée, so that he could stare over Leah's shoulder, his gaze finding Brooke's.

A chill slid down her spine.

This man was a poser.

A diabolical manipulator.

"We had coffee," Eli said.

Brooke's stomach dropped.

Leah agreed, nodding, and before he could go on, she added, "In that little shop on PIER 39! And we've been together ever since!" She wrapped her arms around Eli and hugged him close.

Oh. My. God.

"So you've known each other for what—a couple of months?" Neal asked, his gaze moving from Leah to Eli.

"Almost three!" Leah piped up, the diamond in her ring winking in the firelight. "And trust me, it was like something out of a fairy tale. Magic, you know. I turned and saw him and I knew, I just knew. It was almost as if we'd met before. A weird déjà vu. Like in another lifetime or something."

Not in another lifetime, but when a stranger on a motorcycle pointed her in the direction of a missing dog.

Leah giggled, twisting her face up to stare at Eli. "Isn't that right, babe?"

"A little different for me," Eli said, "but basically, yeah."

"It was love at first sight for me," Leah assured everyone. "Like I said, almost as if it were preordained. I mean, what were the chances that we would meet like that?"

"Exactly," Brooke said, trying to keep the disbelief from her voice, tamping down the fear in her heart. Eli Stone had to be Gideon Ross. He had to be. Not just his nearly identical twin. "A fairy-tale romance."

Leah looked up sharply, as if she'd caught the sarcasm in Brooke's words. "I know, I know, I've said it before," she admitted, little lines creasing her brow. "And let's be clear, Eli knows all about my previous marriages, but this time is different."

"Of course it is," Brooke said flatly. "And what about you, Eli? Been married before? Any kids? Or old girlfriends?"

Leah's mouth dropped open.

Neal shot Brooke a look that warned her to be careful and Shep settled in next to Marilee, who stroked him absently, her attention fixed on Leah and the new man in her life, her future husband.

Eli took the questions in stride. "No ex-wives," he said with the lift of one shoulder. "And no kids. At least none that I know of." His cocky smile hardened a bit, and Brooke remembered the miscarriage, the blood visible in the water near the marina where the Medusa was docked. "There are a few women in my past, of course," he admitted. "One in particular I always thought was the one who got away." Leah's smile faded for a second and she glanced sharply at him. "Then, though, I met Leah and everything changed." He gave her a squeeze and her smile returned, though it didn't seem to shine quite as brightly as it had earlier.

The ancient timer on the stove buzzed loudly and Brooke turned back to the kitchen, grateful for the distraction. Her head was pounding with a headache, her thoughts spinning, and it was all she could do not to panic.

This was all so wrong.

So very wrong.

"Look—the snow's really pilling up!" Leah pulled Eli to the window overlooking the backyard. "There must be two inches already!" Leah was as delighted as a kid who thought she would miss school for a snow day. "Look, babe!"

Eli did stare out the window but, Brooke noted, as he looked at the glass, she sensed he wasn't caught up in Leah's enthusiasm.

Nor was he surveying the snow.

Instead, his reflected gaze caught hers. Cold. Piercing. Ruthless.

It turned her blood to ice.

"Brooke?" Neal's voice brought her around. "The bread?"

"Oh! Crap! Right," she said automatically as she turned to the stove, opened the oven door, and fumbled with the hot loaf. She dropped it onto a cutting board, but her mind was reeling. She was not about to serve goddamned Gideon Ross Christmas Eve dinner and . . . and . . .

"The soup?" Neal said, looking at her strangely.

"Oh. Sorry, sorry," she said and saw that the chowder was at a roiling boil. She picked up the wooden spoon and dropped it into the pot, splashing hot broth onto her hand. "Ouch!"

"You okay?" Neal asked.

Brooke was already reaching into the freezer for the ice but found the old cubes frozen into a solid block. "Fine." A lie, but one she could live with as she found an ice pick in the old knife rack and chipped off some ice, jabbing at the block ferociously.

"Taking out your frustrations?" Leah said from the living room.

"Something like that," Brooke bit back and slid a knowing glance in Eli's direction.

Sensing the festive mood on the verge of being destroyed, Leah said, "As I said, we brought champagne! It's in the car—?" She motioned to Eli and in that cutesy voice she sometimes used when she was wheedling a favor, a high-pitched baby voice that Brooke detested, she said, "Maybe you can bring it in? With the luggage?"

"Sure." He winked at her and turned on his heel to walk outside.

Brooke held the ice to her fingers.

The minute the door closed behind him, Leah rushed into the kitchen. "Isn't he fabulous?" Then, finally understanding that Brooke was tending to the burn on her hand, said, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine," Brooke snapped. "But tell me, what is all this about you getting married to this . . . this man you barely know!" Her hand smarting was making her more irritable than she was already feeling, feeding the panic she'd felt since the moment she saw Gideon posing as Eli. Now that he was out of the house Brooke saw no reason to dance around the subject.

"I know, I know, I know! It's fast."

"Speed-of-light fast!" Brooke countered as the ice melted, drizzling down her fingers to her palm.

"That's the way it happens sometimes!" Leah said as Brooke found a plastic bag and loaded chipped ice into it. "I can't believe how we met just when I'd sworn off men for good." She let out a sigh. "It's funny how life works, isn't it? How fate steps in and makes decisions for you?" She glanced up at the crucifix still mounted on the wall, a relic from the past, and crossed herself fervently. "Nana would've said it was God's work."

"You think God was involved?" Brooke asked skeptically as she replaced the melting chip with the plastic bag.

"Some greater force, yeah." Leah had that dreamy look in her eyes that Brooke found irritating. "This time, Brookie, it's different. With Eli. I mean it. He's definitely ‘the one.'"

"What do you know about him?"

"Everything I need to." Some of her dreaminess evaporated. "Why?"

"Have you checked on him? Met his family? Any of his friends?" She tossed the nearly melted ice chip into the sink.

Leah didn't answer, but her blue eyes darkened.

"I knew it!" Brooke said. "You can't marry someone you don't even know!"

"We connected immediately and—"

"Do you even know if that's his real name?" Brooke said, feeling herself unravel. "I mean, really, what do you know about him?"

"Enough!" Leah said. "I know enough. And I know the way I feel when I'm with him. Happy. Special. Safe. Loved." Her voice was rising. "You could be happy for me, you know. Would it be that tough? Why do you always want to ruin my life?"

"No, no! This isn't about me ruining anything. This is about him." Brooke pointed to the door. "And you planning to marry a virtual stranger!"

Neal stepped between them. "I think what Brooke is trying to say is that this is all so sudden. So fast."

Leah angled her chin upward to glare at Neal. "Well, sometimes fast is better than slow! At least I know where I stand with Eli."

"Isn't that what you thought about Ryan and Harrison and Sean?" Brooke reminded her. "Dear God, you married them all. And you almost walked down the aisle with Robert Whatever-his-name-was!"

"You left one out!" Leah charged and stared straight at Neal.

"For God's sake, I'm just saying that you should slow down," Brooke said.

"Why?"

"To be sure."

"I am sure. That's what I'm telling you. And I came here to make up with you and to share my happiness and spend the holidays and have you witness my wedding and . . ." She started to choke up, tears filling her eyes.

"I can't stand this," Marilee said from the living room. "It's all . . . it's all just crazy." Not looking back, she ran up the stairs, Shep following.

"Why can't you just be happy for me?" Leah demanded.

"I want you to be happy, but I just want you to think, Leah," Brooke said, grabbing her sister's upper arms. "And this time with your head instead of your heart."

"Think? Like you did, when you started fucking Neal behind my back, when you stole him away from me by getting pregnant?" she spat.

Brooke released her grip, pushing her sister away.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Neal interjected.

"Not true?" she threw back and Neal's jaw tightened as she stared at him.

A vessel pulsing by his eye, Neal said quietly, "Ancient history." But a fleeting shadow of guilt passed over him.

Leah finally broke the stare down. "I knew this was a mistake. Coming here. I told Eli we should just elope. Go to Vegas. But he wanted to come up here. Practically insisted on it. ‘Let's start out strong,' he said. ‘I really want to meet your sister and her family,' he said, and I thought he was right! Obviously I was mistaken!"

The front door opened, a gust of icy wind following Eli inside. With a bottle of champagne tucked under one arm and a duffel bag over his shoulder, he dragged a huge roller bag behind.

"This conversation is over," Leah muttered between clenched teeth, then pasted a smile on her face and spun to face him. "Let me help you!" she said, rushing to the front hall.

"Got it."

"Is there anything else?" Neal asked, making his way to the door.

"Are you kidding?" Eli paused at the bottom of the stairs, setting the champagne bottle on the console table next to an Immaculate Heart of Mary figurine. "Leah doesn't know what it means to pack light."

Leah snagged the bottle of champagne, carried it into the kitchen, and placed it in the refrigerator. "Let's open this later, after we settle in." Then, to her husband-to-be, "Come on upstairs!" Her mouth twisted into a naughty grin. "Let me show you to your—er, our room." She cast a questioning glance at Brooke. "And that's—?

"I set you up in Mom's old bedroom," Brooke replied dully. This couldn't be happening. The thought of Leah and Gideon/Eli sleeping together and making love in their mother's room made her stomach turn over.

But worse than that was the fear, the feeling that at any moment he could do something rash. Something dangerous.

How far would he go?

"Ah." Leah was nodding. "I figured." She took Eli's free hand and led him up the stairs. Neither one looked back.