Erica Spindler - Cause for Alarm

Kate laughed a bit self-consciously. "I should say, maybe stolen. Maybe misplaced. Suddenly, it was just gone."

"That happens to me all the time. I just hate it." Julianna shook her head. "I'm sure it'll show up."

Kate said she hoped it did, then having finished the tour of the upper floor, which served as the main residence, led the other woman downstairs to her studio. Julianna wandered through, touching this and that.

Kate let her wander, using the moments to study her. Richard had said that Julianna reminded him of her. At first, she hadn't seen it. But now she did. Gazing at Julianna was like gazing at a distorted image of herself in a fun house mirror. Julianna wore her hair the way she did; her dress, though made of different fabric and in different colors, was the same style as hers; Julianna's smile, laugh, the way she gestured, all reminded Kate of herself.

Kate swallowed hard, unsettled. It was almost as if the woman had crept into her bedroom in the middle of the night and borrowed her identity.

She wondered what else of hers the young woman might want.

She glanced at her watch. "I'll bet the steaks are almost done. Why don't we go check on Richard?"

Julianna acted as if she hadn't heard her. "I wanted to be an artist," she confided. "But I…" She let her words trail off and picked up Kate's autographed copy of Dead Drop. "I just read this. Have you?"

"Not yet, no."

She opened the book and read the inscription. Again Kate had the urge to snatch something of hers out of the girl's hands.

"You and Richard know the author?"

"Yes. He's an old friend of ours." Kate crossed to her and held out her hand for the book. Julianna handed it over, and Kate laid it back on the shelf. "Now, we really must go upstairs. I'm certain Richard's waiting."

Hours later, after Julianna had left and Emma was soundly asleep, Kate stood in front of the mirror in their master bathroom, thinking of Julianna Starr. Richard was already in bed, going over his notes for court the next day.

She glanced his way. "I don't like her, Richard."

He looked up. "You don't like who?"

"Julianna."

He looked completely astounded. "Why on earth not?"

"There's something about her…" Kate looked from him to her own reflection, recalling the sensation of Julianna having stolen her identity. "A secretiveness. I don't think she's told you everything about herself."

He chuckled and shook his head. "Of course she hasn't. I'm her boss, remember?"

Kate frowned. "That's not the way she looks at you."

"For Pete's sake, Kate. She's-"

"You don't see it." Kate squeezed toothpaste onto her brush, then waved it at him. "She looks at you like she'd like to eat you up."

He burst out laughing. "Now there's a thought."

She glared at him. "I'm serious about this. Did you see the way she looked at Emma. As if Emma was hers, not ours." She began to scrub her teeth, then stopped. "When I walked her through the house she all but drooled." At his amused expression, she added. "She acted like she had been here before. Like she knew this house."

"She probably has been, Kate. In her dreams." At her look he lifted his shoulders. "What kid starting out hasn't looked at what we have and drooled? Or maybe fantasized about how someday this would all be theirs? A beautiful home, nice things. A great marriage, successful careers." He smiled softly to take the sting out of his words. "Instead of being suspicious, maybe you should be flattered."

Flattered? She felt threatened. "It wasn't like that," she said, frustrated. "You didn't see it."

"No, I didn't." He patted the bed beside him. "Come to bed. You're exhausted and overwrought. In the morning you're going to feel pretty silly about being so suspicious."

But in the morning, Kate didn't feel silly. She felt uneasy and unsettled. She hadn't slept well, tormented by dreams of being stalked by a creature she couldn't see but knew was deadly. A creature who threatened to consume her and all she held dear.

As Kate sat in her kitchen sipping her coffee and trying to shake the cobwebs from her head, she acknowledged that urging her husband to hire Julianna Starr might have been a mistake.

In the two nights since her dinner with Richard and Kate, Julianna hadn't been able to sleep. Both nights she sat on her bed, knees drawn to her chest, eyes wide and mind racing. Whirling with what she had learned about Kate, Richard and their relationship.

She saw now. She understood. What Richard needed. How she could win him from Kate. It had been so obvious, once she had spent an evening with them.

Julianna worked to slow her breathing, to calm herself. Her mother had been right. Every man had a place inside him, a well that needed to be filled. She had found Richard's.

Kate didn't love him enough.

Not the way she, Julianna, loved him. Not enough to sacrifice her own needs for his, not enough to lay herself adoringly at his feet. Richard needed a woman who made him feel strong and sexually potent. A woman who leaned on him, who not only asked for his opinion, but depended on it.

Kate was too strong-willed, too independent for that. She was too focused on Emma's needs to cater to her husband's. Julianna made a sound of disgust. Kate had hardly put the infant down all night, even bouncing her on her knee during dinner. She had stroked and kissed her, had cooed to her and attended her needs. In contrast, she had simply raised her mouth for a kiss from her husband.

Kate was making it easy for her.

Destiny.

A giggle bubbled to Julianna's lips and she brought a hand to her mouth to stifle the sound, as if someone might hear. Kate's inattention to her husband's needs was only one of the weapons available to her-Luke Dallas was the other. At dinner, Julianna had brought up the author and Kate's autographed copy of his latest book.

Richard had stiffened at the mention of the other man, an angry flush staining his cheeks. Kate had become defensive; she'd lied about where she had gotten the book. A friend had gone to his signing, she had said, and had gotten them a book. He remembered Meg Martin, didn't he?

Julianna knew the truth. She had been at The Uncommon Bean that Saturday morning, had overheard Marilyn tell Blake where Kate had gone. Kate had driven to New Orleans to be with Luke Dallas. She had lied to her husband about it.

Julianna could use that against the other woman. She could use that and Richard's jealousy as a wedge to drive them apart.

And once she did, she would make her move.

What she had to do was so simple. Be there for him. Cater to him, look up to him. Make him feel like a man. Smiling to herself, she scooted down under the covers. Be ever understanding and adoring. Richard would begin to confide in her, small confidences would lead to big ones. Each would bind him to her. Each would solidify their relationship.

And when the rift between the husband and wife grew too great, she would be there, waiting with open arms.

John stood on the sidewalk outside Buster's Big Po'boys. His heart raced; a line of sweat formed on his upper lip, another trickled down his back. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply through his nose, working to overcome the slight trembling in his limbs, the excitement. It had taken him eight months, but he had finally found her. His Julianna. His angel.

He double-checked the address he'd gotten from his source at the IRS, saw that it matched Buster's, then moved his gaze over the restaurant's dumpy facade. He couldn't believe Julianna worked here, couldn't believe how low she had sunk. But she did work here-her employer had filed a 1099 under her social security number.

Lucky for him.