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planning a recovery?”
    “That doesn’t make it less of a crime. That doesn’t make me feel less guilty when Cook gives me that hound-on-the-scent look and asks me about forgeries.”
    “You handled him.”
    “And I was starting to enjoy it,” she muttered. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. Every step I’m taking or planning to take is outside the law.”
    “Inside, outside.” He gave a slight shrug. “The line shifts more often than you might think.”
    “Not my line, Ryan. My line’s always been firmly dug in one place.” She turned away. “There was a message on my phone machine here. From Carlo Rinaldi.”

    “Rinaldi?” He set down the cracker he’d just spread. “What did he want?”
    “Help.” She squeezed her eyes shut. She wasn’t helping anyone, except possibly herself. What did that make her? “He asked me for help. No one believed him about the bronze. He must have gone to see my mother, because he said she tossed him out of her office. He said I was the only one who could help him prove the bronze was authentic.”
    “And that’s what you’re going to do.”
    “He’s dead, Ryan. He and Giovanni are dead. There’s nothing I can do to help them.”
    “You’re not responsible for what happened to them. You’re not,” he insisted, turning her to face him. “Now ask yourself this . . .” He held her shoulders firmly, kept their gazes locked and on level. “Do you think either of them would want you to stop until you’ve finished? Until you’re able to prove the bronze is genuine? Until by proving that, you’re able to point the finger at whoever killed them?”
    “I don’t know. I can’t know.” She drew in a breath, let it out slowly. “But I do know I can’t live with myself unless I do finish. One asked me for help, the other did me a favor. I can’t stop until I’ve finished.”
    “The line’s shifted, Miranda. Whoever killed them drew it this time.”
    “I want revenge.” She shut her eyes. “I keep waiting to feel ashamed of that, but I don’t. I can’t.”
    “Darling, do you always question every human emotion you feel?”
    “I suppose I’ve been feeling a lot more of them lately. It makes it difficult to think in a logical pattern.”
    “You want to think in a logical pattern? I’ll help you. I want to hear your plans for the exhibition.”
    “No you don’t.”
    “Of course I do. The Boldari Gallery is lending you some very important pieces.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “I want to know what you intend to do with them. This is business.”

    “Ryan—” She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, and never had the chance to say it as Andrew opened the door and came in.
    “Things are moving fast,” he commented, eyeing the way Ryan nibbled on his sister’s fingers.
    “Hello, Andrew.” Ryan lowered Miranda’s hand, but kept it in his.
    “Why don’t the two of you tell me what’s going on here?”
    “Happy to. We decided to go ahead with our earlier plan for a cooperative loan between my gallery and your organization. Expanded on it. It has the benefit of raising a great deal of money for the NEA, and putting Miranda back where she belongs.”
    Ryan turned to the table, lifted a glass pitcher and poured three glasses of water. “Your mother was very enthusiastic about the project.”
    “Yeah, I’ve spoken with her.” Which partially explained his sour mood, he supposed. “She told me you called her from New York.”
    “Did she?” With a smile, Ryan passed the glasses out. “I imagine she assumed that’s where I was. Why don’t we let her, and everyone else, go on assuming that? So much less complicated. Miranda and I prefer to keep our personal relationship private.”
    “Then you shouldn’t stroll through the building holding hands. The gossip mill’s already chewing up the grist.”
    “That’s not a problem for me—is that a problem for you?” he asked Miranda, then continued smoothly before she could speak. “Miranda was about to tell me her plans for the exhibit. I have some ideas of my own for that, and the gala. Why don’t we sit down and see what we can come up with?”
    Deciding it was best, Miranda stepped between them. “This will be an important event for us, for me personally. I’m grateful that Ryan wants to go ahead with it. It got me back here, Andrew, and I need to be here. All that aside, an exhibit of this scope is something I’ve hoped to do for years. Which is one of the