"Oh no?" Ryan raised an eyebrow. "Then why'd you run like a scared shitless kid?"

Ryan stared into the hooded eyes of a punk who matched Sam's description of the guy who'd broken into her room. Dark hair, big teeth, medium height and build. There was no coincidence. This was the same guy.

"I'm no idiot, man. If someone comes after me, I'm not hanging around to find out why."

"At the moment, that's exactly what you're going to do. Hang around and fill me in on why you're stalking a fourteen-year-old girl." Ryan pulled the kid's collar tighter, choking him with the tight material. "Unless you want the cops to ask these same questions?"

He shook his head, the dark long hair falling into his face. "Go ahead. I didn't do nothing they can hold me for. At least nothing you can prove. It's some troubled kid's word versus mine. But if you want some advice, I suggest you get the key to this mystery soon. Now are you going to let me go or do I have to start yelling. This is harassment, man."

Ryan scowled. The guy thought he'd back down. He didn't know Ryan at all. No way would he leave this guy walking the streets.

He shoved the guy in front of him. "Walk," he insisted.

"To where?"

"Inside the building where I can call the cops and let them decide who to believe."


* * *

AFTER HOURS in the police station where they pressed charges against Sam's stalker, it took forever for Zoe to relax and calm down. Not even a warm bath helped soothe her nerves.

Sam, on the other hand, crashed and slept like the dead. There was definitely something to be said for youth, Zoe thought wryly.

Now she lay in peace in her bed in the guest room at Ryan's and talked softly on the phone to her twin. She didn't want Ryan to overhear her conversation.

"The whole time I was at the house, I felt like Ryan's uncle had an agenda that involved Sam. I can just feel it. And after Ryan told the police what the stalker said about finding the key to this mystery, I'm more certain than ever that I'm right and it involves that key around Sam's neck," Zoe insisted.

On the other end, Ari sighed. "Is it possible he was just trying to make Sam feel welcome by buying her a necklace that the other women in the family have?"

"No, it was more than that. More than coincidence that the guy Ryan caught used the word key. I noticed Uncle Russ staring at Sam's keys. He definitely wanted to see them firsthand."

"You said he offered to let her keep the new necklace on a key chain. I think he's really just making an effort. After all, he's Ryan's only close relative, right? And Ryan trusts him?"

"Well, yes," Zoe admitted. And there had been other, more positive aspects to the day and Russ's behavior toward Sam.

Russ had been nothing but good and kind in direct contrast to everyone else in that mausoleum. He'd walked them to the car while Vivian had still been inside attending to Grandma Edna.

Though Sam had remained sullen and silent, when they'd reached the car, Russ had bent close to the teenager. "I'm really sorry. We all loved your mother, you know."

Sam had grunted something that sounded like, "No, I don't know."

At the time, Zoe couldn't say he'd been focused more on the keys than on Sam. She'd just had an uneasy feeling she couldn't prove or even justify- at least not until tonight when the guy had told Ryan to find the key. It was too much of a coincidence.

"So what did Quinn find out so far about the break-in?" she asked Ari, changing the subject since her sister would probably just continue to play devil's advocate and insist Zoe was imagining Uncle Russ's focus on Sam's beloved possession.

"He discovered that the woman who says she had something stolen has a history of filing fraudulent insurance claims in an effort to recoup money, so we're keeping an eye on her and her boyfriend, who happens to have dark hair, which matches the description Sam gave. Of course that was before Sam saw the same guy in Boston. You said the police are holding him for questioning?"

"Yes, but without further evidence or proof, they'll have to let him go," she said, her frustration mounting. Zoe bent her knees and pushed higher against the pillows, leaning back in sheer exhaustion.

"And the boyfriend I mentioned has an alibi for both the day of the break-in and the morning Sam says she saw someone lurking outside. Plus Quinn's having him watched, which means he's still in Jersey now, not Boston." Ari expelled a loud breath. "Everything just feels like a dead end."

Her frustrated tone matched Zoe's feelings exactly. "They still could have hired someone."

"And Quinn's looking into the possibility. Now, how's Sam?" her sister asked.

Despite everything they'd been through today alone, Zoe had to laugh. "Sam's Sam." She relayed some of the funnier stories and escapades about their trip so far.

"Sounds like she's charming her new relatives," Ari said, laughing.

Zoe grinned. Her sister didn't know the half of it.

"So what about the one subject you're avoiding?" Ari asked.

Zoe raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

"How you are. How you and your social worker are doing together."

During the silence that followed, Ari remained quiet. Zoe knew the inevitable outcome. Her twin had more patience than Zoe, and she always could wait Zoe out. "Okay, okay. I'll talk about it. I'm confused," she admitted to her twin.

"About your feelings for Ryan?"

"No, those are clear. Everything just seems brighter when he's around," she grumbled.

"I see," Ari said.

"And everything tingles when I just think about him," she complained.

Her twin chuckled. "You say all this like it's a bad thing. Now granted I wouldn't have chosen Sam's uncle as the man for you, and he's pretty much persona non grata around here right now, at least as far as Mom and Dad are concerned- "

"Jeez, help make this easier, why don't you?" Zoe punched the pillow on the far side of the bed.

"But none of those things matter if you love him," her psychologist twin said.

"Whoa. Nobody said anything about love." Except Ryan last night.

He hadn't said he loved her, but he'd mentioned possibilities. She'd pushed those words aside because they scared her.

Love?

No.

Everything inside Zoe resisted the notion. No matter how mesmerizing Ryan's brown eyes were, no matter how good he was with his hands, and no matter how excellent he felt buried deep inside her body, they weren't talking about love. Not even if he was kind and decent and protective in the best possible way, she thought.

"I don't trust in the idea, at least not for me. If Mom and Dad- two people who couldn't be better matched- argue, can you imagine the fights that would be in store for two people as different as Ryan and me?"

"I can imagine the sparks," Ari said.

"Well sparks aren't enough. I certainly don't believe two such different people can make a relationship work."

Ari snickered into the phone, leaving Zoe with the uneasy feeling her twin wasn't about to come down on her side.

"And why not?" Ari asked.

Zoe had a sneaking suspicion her sister was leading her down a tricky path, but she answered, anyway. "Well first, have you ever met anyone more unsettled than me?"

"Give me a break, Zoe. Up until recently, you had a steady job and a place to live. What's unsettled about that?"

Before last night, Zoe had never expressed her feelings about the life she'd chosen, but now she was discussing it for the second time within twenty-four hours. "Even I can face facts. I'm thirty and I still live at home with my parents. I quit my old job and I'm just starting up a new career. Chances are I'll be living off my savings for a while, especially after I move out."

"You're moving out of Mom and Dad's?" Ari asked, obviously shocked by the news Zoe hadn't yet shared.

Perhaps because she hadn't even made a real effort to find an apartment of her own. "Eventually. When I find a place. Or even have time to look." She spouted the excuses she'd been feeding herself for the last month, even before Ryan had complicated her life.

"The point is my life is at a crossroads and I told Ryan as much."

"Hmmm. And what else did you tell Ryan?" her sister asked.

Zoe thought back to their conversation. "Just that I need to settle down and find myself before I can ever think about a serious relationship. Or something like that."

"And you had this conversation with Ryan. A man with whom you claim there is no future." Ari yawned, an obviously fake, forced sound, meant to let Zoe know she found her reasoning completely bogus. "If that's what you want to tell yourself, go ahead. And maybe you'll be lucky enough that Ryan will wait around until you decide you're ready."

"And maybe Ima will fly," Zoe said.

"Don't cause unnecessary trouble between yourself and Ryan. Let nature take its course," Ari warned. "And while you're at it, don't go spouting accusations about Ryan's uncle. Not without proof."

Zoe knew Ari wasn't finished with the subject of her and Ryan. No more than Zoe was finished with the topic of Uncle Russ. But she would be careful around the man.

Funny how well she and Ari knew one another's unspoken intentions. "Oh, that psychic twin connection," Zoe said.

Like the time Zoe was seven and jumped out of a tree, breaking her leg. Ari had come running out of the house because she'd sensed Zoe was hurt.

"I do have a plan that doesn't involve me going off half-cocked. I'm going to start by talking to Ryan and broaching the subject of Sam's keys and his uncle's possible motives for wanting to see them. If he doesn't take it well, I'll back off and leave Ryan in peace, but I will look into those keys myself."