Knowing how much his mother cared about these things, he agreed to come and bring Diane with him. As the two of them were walking from the car to the front porch of his parents’ home, the demented intruder had emerged from the bushes. The thirtyish-looking woman claimed to be in love with Payne. If she couldn’t have him, no other woman could either.

Payne saw the glint of metal in time to push Diane aside before the gun went off, but the stalker had poor aim. To his horror the bullet struck Diane in her lower back before he could knock the lunatic to the ground. The horrific experience had changed all their lives.

Diane had clung to him all the way to the hospital. In the fear that she was going to die, she’d told him how much she needed him, how much she’d always loved him.

He’d had no idea of her deep feelings for him. He’d never been interested in her that way, but at that point it didn’t matter because he couldn’t have abandoned her in the state she was in.

Several months later she still couldn’t walk though she retained some feeling in her legs. The doctors told her they’d done all they could do and suggested she go to a clinic in Switzerland reputed to have success with her kind of spinal injury.

Afraid of failure, Diane had flatly refused to consider it and wouldn’t be consoled. At that point Payne took stock of his life and decided that if he proposed marriage, she might be more inclined to get the help she needed.

But after their engagement was announced, she seemed to retreat further into herself, unwilling to discuss going to Switzerland. Worse, she’d developed an almost irrational fear of the two of them being shot again.

In order to reassure her, Payne had made certain new security measures had been added to protect her and the Wylies as well as everyone on the Sterling estate. His fiancée now had twenty-four-hour protection.

As for Payne, four security men accompanied him wherever he went on business. A helicopter took him to his office in Manhattan. If he had to fly overseas, he used his private jet. When he had to drive somewhere on Long Island, one of the security men chauffeured him in a bulletproof limousine with one-way glass windows.

En route to the used bookstore in Oyster Bay, he handed the novel to the retired Navy SEAL, Mac, who’d been his personal bodyguard for the last three years.

“What do you make of this?”

Mac took one look and whistled. His gray eyes darted to Payne in puzzlement before he gave it back to him. “How come you’re on the cover?”

“That’s what I intend to find out.”

While the driver looked for Candle Glow Books, Payne opened the novel to the copyright page.

Red Rose Romance Publishers, Inc., Second Avenue, New York, New York.

His eyes narrowed. He’d never heard of it, but that location was east of Central Park near the Turtle Bay Grill where he often met with overseas clients.

It appeared the book had been published two months ago.

That meant whatever party was responsible for his picture being on the cover had possessed knowledge of him long before the publication date. Most publishing houses had up to three or more years of books waiting to go to press.

There was a disclaimer.

Any characters, names or incidents in this book do not exist outside the mind of the author.

Like hell!

A grimace marred Payne’s features.

He turned the book over to read the blurb. By the time he’d digested the second sentence, his body had broken out in a cold sweat.

Secrets?

Powerful, dashing New York billionaire Logan Townsend, is hiding a painful secret from his fiancée and family.

“Good Lord,” he whispered.

When he’s involved in an accident in the Canyonlands of the American West, Dr. Maggie Osborn discovers what that secret is.

Unbeknownst to him, she puts her life in danger to save his.

But secrets have a way of getting out.

It isn’t until Logan returns to New York that he learns Maggie is keeping one from him.

On the verge of sealing the most vital merger of his existence, he’s torn between duty and desire.

Upon reading the last line, Payne felt as if someone had just walked over his grave. Convinced nothing about this book was an accident, he rolled it up in his fist.

He would willingly litter the island page by page to be rid of it. But for several obvious reasons he couldn’t do that and was forced to sit there while he attempted to contain the savage impulse.

Sam, the security man at the wheel, turned down an alley, then came to a stop at the rear of the used book store in question. Two of the security men, John and Andy, jumped out to enter the shop ahead of Payne.

It was near the closing hour on a Tuesday evening in June. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect if he’d hoped to avoid a lot of unwanted attention.

When the all clear was given, Mac covered Payne’s back as they got out of the limousine and went inside the claustrophobic shop. It was a maze of cubbyholes and narrow aisles. With novels stacked to the ceiling everywhere he turned, there was no doubt this was a paperback lover’s paradise.

The eyes of the older saleswoman behind the counter lit up at his approach. “Mr. Sterling- Good evening! I’m Alice Perry. It’s a real honor to have you in my store.” She extended her hand which he shook.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Perry,” he answered back.

“What can I do for you?”

He handed her the novel which would never lie flat again.

She took one look at it and her gaze lifted to his with excitement. “I knew this was you!” she cried. “Every romance reader who’s come in here lately has been talking about it.”

Payne groaned. “According to my niece, there are other novels besides this that appear to have my likeness on the cover.”

“Oh there are!” she blurted. “But this one…”

So neither Catherine or Nyla had exaggerated anything. The news was going from bad to worse.

“At this point there isn’t a copy of Manhattan Merger to be had anywhere on the Atlantic seaboard. My phone’s been ringing off the hook with book dealers wanting copies! Those people lucky enough to have purchased it when it first came out are holding on to it for dear life.

“I kept copies of it and those other books for myself and my daughter who helps me run the shop. Perhaps before you leave you’d be willing to sign them? We’d be so thrilled if you would.”

“I’d be happy to oblige, if I’d given my permission to appear on their covers.”

Her smile faded. “I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I, Ms. Perry. That’s why I’m here, to try and solve this mystery.”

“You mean they just went ahead and used your picture?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” He had to tamp down hard on his anger. “May I see them please?”

“I only have four left. They’re locked away in the back room until a book dealer from Connecticut arrives on Friday. He’s a collector and is going to pay me five thousand dollars apiece for them. Give me a moment and I’ll bring them out.”

“Only five thousand?” Mac said in a teasing whisper as the woman disappeared.

Ignoring the aside, Payne wandered over to the nearest bookshelf marked Mysteries. It was crammed with titles by various authors and sorted according to the alphabet. He pulled one out, curious to see what kind of cover was on the front.

The photograph had captured a busy street scene somewhere in London. A quick look at the copyright page gave the name of a British publisher.

He moved to another section marked Upbeat Romances published in Los Angeles. Their covers were done in cartoon caricatures.

“Here we are.”

He reshelved the book and joined the woman who’d laid the four books out on the counter for him. At first glance, he was horrified.

It was his face all right.

One of them depicted him as a Norseman with a flowing mane of white-blond hair, hazel eyes, bulging thighs and biceps twice his size. The book was called Roald’s Bride.

Another showed him as a Castilian prince in royal ceremonial robes with pitch-black hair and eyes entitled, Her Prince of Dreams.

In the third book, Undercover Love, he was a gray-eyed Royal Canadian Mountie in full red dress uniform wearing a hat that covered his hair.

The Star Grazer was the last book. It portrayed him as a man from the future with auburn hair and brown eyes.

On all of the covers he had his arms around a beautiful woman. It appeared the same person had done the artwork.

“That’s some life you lead,” came another crack from Mac, sotto voce.

Payne made no response as he looked at the spines. All four were a product of Red Rose Romance Publishers, and had been printed within the last year.

“How many publishers put out paperback romances besides Red Rose?”

“Dozens of companies throughout the world, but the ones on my shelves come mainly from the United States, England and Canada. Red Rose produces the most every year by quite a margin.”

“Have you seen my face on the covers of any romances other than Red Rose?”

“No.”

That was the only good news so far. He could hope Red Rose was a mom-and-pop outfit that probably didn’t have a large distribution base. “Do you have your romances sorted by publisher?”

“Yes.”

“Will you show me where the romance section is?”

She laughed. “It’s practically the whole shop except for the mysteries and science fiction here at the front.”

He tried hard not to reveal his shock. “Why don’t we try the Red Rose section first.”

“Follow me, Mr. Sterling.”

She led him a fourth of the way back. “It starts here and goes to the rear of the store.”