“I’m sorry, sir, but I’m afraid I cannot let you in to see Mr. Williams. Do you want to speak with him through the glass or not?”

Ansel spitefully eyed the officer. “I want to hug my brother.”

“That’s very touching,” the officer retorted. “But it still isn’t going to happen. Through the glass or nothing.”

Ansel gritted his teeth. Titus was going to kill him.

“I’ll speak to him through the glass,” he sighed. He offered his brother’s ID and went through the metal detector before being led through the corridors of the Clark County Detention Center. Seating himself at the table, he waited for his identical twin to appear, knowing that Titus was going to be livid with him.

After a few minutes, Titus appeared, his eyes narrowing as he glared at his brother.

“You have a lot of nerve showing up here,” he snarled. “If I ever get out of here—”

“You will,” Ansel assured him. “I spoke with your lawyer today—”

“You mean your lawyer!” Titus spat. “I am going to set you—”

“Shh!” Ansel hissed. “These conversations are being recorded. You know better.” Titus gritted his teeth, and Ansel continued to speak. “Be patient, all right? If I had known this would turn out like this—”

“You would have done it anyway,” Titus growled. “Because you are selfish and never care about anyone but yourself.”

“I care about Nora,” Ansel replied quietly. “That is the only reason I did this.”

Titus narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “And, where is she?”

“She’s coming tonight,” Ansel answered. “But while I am here, I have some business to take care of.”

“That business best include me!” Titus yelled. “Because I am not spending another day—”

“Just trust me,” Ansel said calmly. “I heard some interesting news from your lawyer today.”

“I don’t care about interesting. I care about getting out of here!”

“I know. And you will.” He offered his brother a timid smile and replaced the receiver, glancing at the overhead camera as he walked away.

I better have a plan to get him out of here, Ansel thought worriedly. Because Titus has much less patience than me, and if he takes down the walls, he’s going to take the entire building down with him.

On the plus side, Ansel had spoken to his American attorney, who had informed him that the ballistics had come back on the gun, and they matched a hit from two years earlier.

“Probably a mob thing,” Gary Grant had explained. “But that doesn’t mean the gun wasn’t dropped on the black market and repurchased by someone else.”

“There are so many holes in this case, I can’t even count!” Ansel had snapped. “Can’t you talk to the prosecutor about this?”

“I have, and she is offering a deal. Ten to twenty.”

“No one is doing any time,” Ansel had snapped.

At least he knew he was on the right track. If ballistics had matched the gun to a mob hit, it was more evidence for his theory that Valducci had murdered Carrie.

God, Ansel was antsy for Nora to return. He should have flown out with her, but he’d wanted to see Titus before he exploded, and Nora had wanted to deal with Jerome on her own, anyway. Ansel had to admit he was very curious to know how she had planned to punish him, but he had not dared to ask. Perhaps it would do more harm than good.

She will tell me what she did when she is ready, he told himself. Maybe I will simply have her take care of Valducci, too. Tony never begged for forgiveness like Jerome did.

Ansel glanced at his watch. She would be landing in a few hours. He just had enough time to go back to the hotel, shower, and take a nap before she arrived. He decided he was going to surprise her at the airport.

Ansel nervously touched his suit jacket, oblivious to people who were pointing and staring at him at the gate. The flight had slowly let out over half an hour, but he still had not seen any sign of Nora.

Did I get the flight wrong? he wondered. Or did she fly over another way?

It would be an incredible trip to make from London to Las Vegas, and Ansel knew that Nora had been exhausted. Had things gone awry with Jerome, after all? A thousand horrible possibilities fluttered through his gut, and he waited until he was sure no one else was coming from the gate before picking up his cell phone and dialing his house in London.

James answered on the third ring.

“Master Williams!” he said, sounding surprised. “I—how are you?”

“Is Nora there, James?” Ansel asked without preamble.

“Nora? You mean the young lady who was here this morning?”

“Yes, James. Is she still there?”

“No, sir,” James answered. “I—I called for a car to the airport this evening. I was under the impression she was coming to see you… in prison.”

Ansel ground his teeth. “Are you sure she went to the airport?”

“Yes, sir! She said her flight was at six o’clock.”

“Thank you, James,” he said, and he was about to hang up when James spoke again.

“Master Williams?”

“Yes, James?”

“I—I’m glad you’re out of prison, sir.”

Ansel smiled slightly. At least someone had faith in him.

“Thank you, James,” he said. He disconnected the call and stared back into the crowded airport.

Where could Nora be?

Nora, can you hear me?

Ansel waited, checking his watch again. He closed his eyes for a moment and willed himself to be calm as he listened to the sounds around him. Had something happened to Nora on her way to the airport? He wiped his palms on his pant legs, nervousness making him sweaty.

In his pocket, his cell began to ring.

“Nora?” he answered.

“No, Mr. Williams, this is Gary Grant. I have some good news for you,” the attorney chirped into his ear. “Your brother is being released tomorrow morning due to insufficient evidence. The prosecution has declined to press charges.”

Ansel exhaled in relief.

“That’s great news,” he agreed. “Have you told him?”

“I tried to get through, but it’s late now. He’ll get the surprise in the morning, I just thought you might want to be there for him when he gets released at 9 a.m. The paperwork should be done.”

“Thank you, Gary,” Ansel sighed. “Does this mean I… he has to watch his back from now on, or is this done?”

Gary chuckled dryly. “Well, I never say never, Mr. Williams, but I have a feeling that they are taking this mob angle a little more seriously. It seems that Miss Halpstern spent a great deal of time in Vegas with several suspicious characters.”

Ansel felt a stab of guilt. Even if she had, Tony had only gone after her because of him. He was the one who had brought her into this mess.

“I hope they aren’t going to drag her name through the mud,” he muttered. “She was a nice girl.”

“Did you know her?” Gary asked, and Ansel grunted to himself.

“No. My brother told me she seemed like a decent person,” he lied. “Anyway, thank you for the update. I will be there for him in the morning.”

He hung up and shoved the phone back in his breast pocket. The cell hit the box he was keeping inside the pocket, and Ansel took out the blue velvet container and opened it to gaze at the ring. He had forsaken his nap in favor of doing some shopping.

We should have been married a million years ago, he thought. She won’t even be surprised. She’s just going to look at me and ask what took me so long.

But the proposal could wait until after the mess with Tony Valducci was resolved.

Ansel called out to Nora again. Nora, please don’t ignore me. I’m worried about you, love. Where are you?

There was still no response, and Ansel was filled with dread. He refused to believe something else had happened to her. In seven hundred years, she had only been in one situation she couldn’t handle, and in the end, she had managed to get out of it on her own. The odds that she had fallen into a similar situation again were nil. Ansel just had to be patient, and Nora would tell him where she was.

But as the minutes ticked by, his panic only continued mounting, and he could not shake the sensation that Nora was in over her head again.

The problem was that this time, he had no idea where to start looking for her.