“Can we please,” he finally said on an exasperated sigh, “for the love of God, go for a walk in the garden?”

“If you tell me who she is.”

“She’s Julia Nash. A reporter for Equine Earth Magazine.”

Brittany rocked back. That wasn’t what she’d expected. Not that she’d expected anything in particular. “She must have written some story.”

Alex rose. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I mean,” said Brittany, coming to her feet, “the woman wasn’t drowning.”

“You really need to talk to Harrison about this.”

“Why? Don’t you make up all his lies for him?”

Alex’s jaw went tight all over again. “Does Harrison know you’re like this?”

Brittany couldn’t help but grin. She wasn’t normally like this. But there was something about Alex that brought out the devil in her. “You mean nosy?”

“I mean rude and sarcastic.”

She gave him her sweetest, most innocent, wide-eyed, finishing-school smile. “But, Alex. I’m never rude and sarcastic. Ask anyone.” She turned for the door with a flourish.

Julia clutched the door handle of the SUV as Harrison rounded a bend on the dirt road leading to Route Eleven. They were meeting Melanie and Robbie in Dubai this afternoon, an hour’s drive away.

“Melanie said they’d checked the hospitals,” Julia told Harrison, recapping her telephone conversation. “And they called the police. But the police didn’t know anything about me.”

“That’s because my bribe was large enough to erase all records of your arrest.”

Julia’s attention shot from the dusty road to Harrison’s profile. “Your bribe?”

He nodded, wrestling the steering wheel as they rounded another bend.

“You bribed the police to release me?”

He gave her a brief sideways glance. “You’d rather I’d left you there?”

“What kind of man are you?”

“Oh, right. You break into my property. You lie through your little teeth. You try to steal from me. And my ethics are in question?”

“I wouldn’t even know how to bribe a police officer.” She didn’t mean for the assertion to sound superior, but somehow it did.

He hit the brakes as a herd of camels appeared, ambling alongside the road. “I find cash usually works best.”

It was unnerving to discover he did this with some regularity. “So I was never really in your custody?”

“Yes, you were.”

“But not legally.”

“I don’t know if you want to hang your hat on the term legally under these circumstances.”

“Who are you?”

“The Right Honorable Lord Harrison William Arthur Beaumont-Rochester, Baron Welsmeire.”

“Did you bribe somebody to get the title, too?”

“For God’s sake. It was a minor charge. I helped a couple of officers with their pension funds to expedite its dismissal. A thank-you wouldn’t be out of order.”

The road turned from dirt to pavement, and a few adobelike houses and some scattered greenery popped up along the desert.

“Thank you,” said Julia, reminding herself how grateful she’d been to him that night.

He grunted a response, pressing down on the accelerator as the road smoothed out and traffic began to increase.

“Do you always drive this fast?”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, I have company back at Cadair.”

“Who was she?” asked Julia.

“My grandmother.”

“She sure didn’t look like your grandmother.” In fact, the woman looked like a movie star-perfect nose, perfect teeth, perfect hair.

“Brittany’s not my grandmother. She’s a family friend from London.”

“A close friend?” asked Julia with obvious meaning.

Harrison sighed. “Yes. A close friend.”

“Oh.” So much for pursuing anything resembling Stockholm syndrome. Not that Julia had planned to pursue it. But that almost kiss had been, well, almost amazing.

She supposed Brittany was the reason he’d backed off.

Poor Brittany.

Harrison wasn’t much of a prize if he’d seriously considered kissing another woman only moments after his girlfriend had arrived from London.

“So that’s what you meant by ‘not yet.’”

Harrison glanced her way, raising his brows.

“When I asked you if you were engaged, you said ‘not yet.’”

“And I’m not.”

“But Brittany’s on the short list.”

“Brittany is the short list.”

“Yet…” Julia bit down on her bottom lip. None of her business.

“I didn’t kiss you,” said Harrison, catching her meaning as he geared down, slowing his speed and easing into a traffic circle.

“But you thought about-”

“Brittany and I have an understanding.”

“That you kiss other women?”

“Not that kind of an understanding.”

Julia thought about it. “Oh, my,” she said, getting the point. “You’re royalty. Is she royalty, too? I didn’t think they did arranged marriages anymore.”

“It’s not an arranged marriage.”

“Right. It’s an understanding. Aren’t you worried your children might have webbed toes?”

“I can’t believe you said that.”

Julia couldn’t actually believe she had, either. Maybe it was a backlash from having been under his control for two days. And now that it was over, she was free to speak her mind.

Still, it was rude and uncalled-for. It was none of her business who Harrison did or did not marry. Another couple of hours, and she’d be out of his life forever. And Brittany was probably a perfectly wonderful woman. They’d certainly make gorgeous children together.

“Did you find out how to ship Millions to Spare’s blood sample?” she asked.

Harrison nodded, apparently as eager as she was to get out of their previous conversation. “My vet’s in contact with Carter Phillips. They’re going to run the test in Switzerland to save time.”

Julia nodded, sobering. “I can’t decide whether to hope it’s nothing, or hope it’s something.”

“It’s not nothing,” said Harrison.

The road widened to four lanes, and Harrison moved to pass the panel truck in front of him.

Julia waited.

“Apollo’s Ice is Millions to Spare’s sire,” he said.

Julia digested that news. “Picture of Perfection, the horse Carter found in California, was also sired by Apollo’s Ice.”

“I’m sure Carter will warn them,” said Harrison.

“It’s his fiancée’s horse,” said Julia. “And maybe the poisoning had nothing to do with the mystery of Leopold’s sire.”

“Possibly,” Harrison allowed.

“I can’t figure out what would be gained by killing Millions to Spare.”

“It could be as simple as revenge.”

“Against you?” she asked.

“First place I’d be looking is my enemies or rival stables.”

It seemed far-fetched that a rival stable would go so far as to kill an innocent animal. But millions of dollars were at stake. And the rich were involved. Who knew where the trail would lead?

Then, an idea came to Julia.

She paused, taking in Harrison’s profile, screwing up her courage.

“Would you mind if I wrote the story?”

He glanced at her.

“About Millions to Spare? I could help with the investigation, then write a story exposing the killer.”

“You want to turn his death into a salacious headline?”

“I want to turn it into a serious news story. Somebody killed a valuable Thoroughbred, and there has to be a reason why.”

“And you want the byline.”

“Yes,” Julia admitted. “I want the byline.”

“There you go again,” said Harrison as he pulled past another truck.

“What?”

“Making your actions match your words.”

“Is that a yes?”

“We’ll see.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but then decided to leave well enough alone. She’d planted the seed of the idea, and he hadn’t said no. She’d have to be happy with that for the moment.

Melanie pulled Julia firmly into her arms in their hotel suite at Jumeirah Beach, holding tight and rocking back and forth. “I am so happy to see you.”

“It was a big mix-up,” said Julia, deciding to downplay her time at Harrison’s.

Melanie drew back. “We’re just glad you’re safe.”

“I’m safe. How’s Something to Talk About?”

“He’s fine,” said Robbie, giving Julia a quick hug himself. It was the first one she could remember from him. When he released her, she was surprised by the joy and relief on his face.

She stepped in with the introductions. “Robbie, Melanie, this is Harrison. He’s…” She hesitated. Her rescuer? Her kidnapper?

“The owner of Cadair Racing,” Harrison put in.

Robbie stuck out his hand, and the men shook. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Me, too,” said Melanie, offering her own hand. “I was very sorry to hear about your stallion.”

Harrison nodded. “Thank you. Any news from America?”

“I wish there was,” said Robbie. “We’re holding out hope. If we can identify Legacy’s real sire, and if he’s registered, the problems could all go away. Since Apollo’s Ice was the listed sire, we’re very interested in Millions to Spare.”

Harrison nodded. “Can you bring me up to speed?”

Robbie gestured to the table where his laptop was set up, and the two men settled into chairs.

Melanie pulled Julia down on the sofa. “You were in jail?”

Julia shuddered. “Thankfully, not for long. They let me go home with Harrison last night.”

“Tell me again why he wouldn’t let you call us?”

“He seemed to think I had accomplices. I didn’t want to tell him about the DNA, so my story kept falling apart.”

Melanie reached out to rub Julia’s arm. “Talk about above and beyond the call of duty.”

“I just wish I’d found something more.”

“We have one more DNA sample.”

Julia nodded. At least that was something.

Robbie and Harrison rose from the table.

“Thank you for bringing Julia back,” said Robbie.

Harrison shot an amused look Julia’s way. “You might want to tell her she should stick to reporting.”