Serena listened in stunned silence. She shook her head as a sense of vertigo seized hold of her for an instant. Another facet of her well-ordered life shattered. Mason. Staid, stoical, kind Mason Talbot, a man she had always liked and trusted, had paid to have her killed. He had allowed his greed and his love for Shelby to mutate into an ugly catalyst that had driven him to murder.
«And the fire?» Lucky prodded.
Mason ducked his head. His shoulders sagged. «I believe I've said enough without having my attorney present,» he said softly.
«That's all right, Mason,» Sheriff Hollings said as he sauntered into the room with a pair of deputies at his heels. «I've heard all I need to hear for now.»
Serena watched with a sense of disbelief as the officers each took charge of one perpetrator. Burke protested loudly as handcuffs were slapped on his wrists. Mason said nothing. Shelby fell sobbing across the desk and had to be helped to her feet by the sheriff.
«This is all your fault!» she shouted at Serena as they were being led from the room. Her face was awash in tears and mascara, her mask of beauty melting away to reveal her hate and inner torment. «You never should have come back! None of this would have happened if you hadn't come back!»
There was nothing Serena could think of to say. She stared at her twin and felt a terrible aching hollowness inside. They should have been closer than sisters, but they were poles apart. The only thing left between them now was bitterness and pity and regret.
Lucky came up beside her and put his arm gently around her waist, silently inviting her to lean against his strength. They stood together and watched as the officers herded their prisoners toward the door with the sheriff drawling, «Y'all have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…»
Lamar rose slowly from the leather wing chair, scratching his chest. «I believe I'll go and return this little microphone to Sheriff Hollings. Simply amazing the technology the police have at their disposal these days.» He gave Serena an apologetic look and patted her shoulder with a wrinkled hand. «I truly am sorry, my dear, about all that's happened here today. What a terrible shock it must be to you.»
«Yes,» Serena murmured. «Thank you for your help, Mr. Canfield.»
«Don't mention it. I was merely performing my civic duty. If you need any further assistance, don't hesitate to call.» He rolled his eyes heavenward and heaved a dramatic sigh. «I may have every appearance of a dotty old codger, but I believe I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.»
Serena managed a pale smile as she watched the elderly lawyer stroll gracefully into the hall, Panama hat in hand. She listened as he exchanged a few lines of banter with Odille on his way out. Then the house fell into silence.
She could feel the power of Lucky's gaze on her as she went to the French doors. Trying to block the sound of departing squad cars from her mind, she looked through the panes of glass past the gallery, across the lawn. The bayou was a dark ribbon at the feet of the trees. The sky was a turbulent patchwork of rapidly changing cloud formations and patches of blue; it looked as unsettled as she felt.
She felt as if her life had been thrust into the winds of a hurricane. Everything had blown apart- her family, her image of herself, her sense of control over her own destiny-everything lay in fragments around her and she didn't know where to begin to pick up the pieces. She had come here for a few days of vacation. Instead, her life had been irreparably altered; she had been irreparably altered.
«What happens now?» Serena heard herself ask the question, but it felt as if it had come from someone else. She couldn't imagine why it would have come from her; she didn't think she really wanted to hear Lucky s answer.
«There'll be a hearing,» he said, deliberately choosing the mundane interpretation of the question. «They'll be charged. Bail will be set-for Burke and Shelby at least.»
Serena glanced back at Lucky. He was sitting back against the desk, turning a smooth glass paperweight over in his hands, his gaze steady on her.
«I never would have suspected Mason,» she murmured. «Never.»
«No one would have.» He put the paperweight down and came to stand behind her at the glass doors, his face grave. «No one can guess the kind of things pressure can drive a man to do,» he said softly. «I'm sorry about Shelby, Serena. I have my own grievance with her, but I know she's your sister and it must hurt.»
Tears stung Serena's eyes as she nodded. «I always wished we would have been as close as twins are supposed to be. We never were. Now we never will be. What's happened will always be between us.»
Lucky slid his arms around her and leaned down to lass her cheek. «I told Hollings I'd take a deputy out to where we left Willis and Perret.»
Serena nodded, rubbing her hands over her upper arms as if to warm herself through the fabric of the soft faded chambray shirt she had borrowed from Lucky's wardrobe. It hung to her knees, and she had needed to fold the cuffs back five times to reveal her ruined silk blouse and the memories attached to it. She hadn't been able to look at that pile of clothing without shuddering. Lucky had taken the garments outside and burned them, then loaned her his shirt and a pair of old gray sweat pants.
«I suppose I should go and change,» she said. «You'll be wanting your shirt back.»
«Keep it.»
The words seemed innocuous enough, but Serena felt what was coming as surely as if he had just held up a red flag. This was it. This was going to be the moment Lucky chose to end it. He would say good-bye and ride off into the swamp without looking back, and she would be left with a broken heart and an old blue workshirt.
«A souvenir?» she asked dryly, looking up at him over her shoulder. «Something I can pack away in my hope chest and take out whenever I want to remember you fondly?»
Lucky stepped back, frowning. «Serena, don't.»
«Don't what?» She arched one golden brow. «Don't remember you fondly? Don't remember you at all? You want me to pretend I never fell in love with you? Is that what you're going to do, Lucky? Pretend you never told me you loved me?»
«I told you from the beginning what we could have.»
She held up both hands to ward off his words. Anger rushed into her head and pounded like mallets in her temples. «Don't you try to feed me that line again. I'm ready to gag on it! I don't care what boundaries we set. I don't care that it's been only a matter of days. What we have goes way beyond sex, and you know it.»
«I know it can't work,» he insisted, glaring at her.
She returned his hard gaze, matching his stubbornness ounce for ounce. «You won't let it work.»
Lucky spun away, his hands raised as if to strangle somebody as his temper surged. She was going to make this as difficult as possible for them both. She wouldn't just accept the facts and meekly walk away. No, no, she would tear them all apart and analyze them and try to find a cure.
«Dammit, Serena, you saw what happened out there last night,» he said tightly. He stared down at his boots because he was too ashamed to look her in the eye. «Is that the kind of man you want for a husband? Next time I might just slip off that edge.»
«I saw what happened,» Serena said softly, aching for him. «And I saw you get through it. You saved my life. And I watched you take care of me afterward, and I was there when you made love to me too. What happened with Willis doesn't make me love you less, Lucky. If anything, it makes me love you more.»
Lucky shook his head impatiently as he paced before her. «That's not love. That's pity. I know what you see when you look at me, Serena-some poor, crazy bastard who needs someone to take care of him.»
«Damn you, Lucky Doucet,» Serena snarled. She came around in front of him and grabbed the waistband of his jeans to keep him from walking away. She glared up at him, her face scratched and bruised, fury in her eyes. «I will thank you to stop interpreting my feelings for me. I don't pity you, you pity yourself. You're so damn proud and stubborn, you can't bear the idea that you're not perfect, that you have flaws and frailties like everyone else. You make me mad as hell, but I love you. You're strong and good and tender under all that macho bullshit. And you love me. Look me in the eye and tell me you don't.»