The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

it."

    Letty stepped close and murmured, "I wouldn't argue with him if I were you, Kate. Mr. Chan will be hurt, Jared will be annoyed and you'll lose the battle, anyway. This is Jared's discount and you're entitled to it. Let it go at that."

    Kate sighed. She knew it wasn't worth an argument. She summoned up a properly grateful smile. "Thank you, Mr. Chan. You're very kind."

    "Not at all, not at all." He rang up the sale on a cash register that looked as though it had been around since before one of the less recent wars. "Please give my best to Jared."

    Kate took the paper sack full of pizza fixings and turned to follow a grinning Letty out of the store. Several people glanced at her with open curiosity and big smiles.

    "What, exactly, do you think Mr. Chan meant when he called me a close personal friend of Jared's?"

    Letty shot her a slanting glance. "What do you think he meant?"

    "I was afraid of that. Does everyone on the island know that I'm…that Jared and I have been that—" she cleared her throat"—that close?"

    "Probably. Does it bother you?"

    "It annoys me," Kate snapped as she dumped the sack of groceries into the back of the small Jeep Letty was driving. "It's an invasion of personal privacy."

    "If you wanted a lot of personal privacy," Letty said as she put the Jeep in gear, "you shouldn't have gotten involved in an affair with the biggest honcho on the island."

    Kate closed her eyes in brief frustration. "You've got a point. Getting involved with Jared is probably not the brightest thing I've ever done. Maybe the tropical heat has warped my brain. Where are we going now?"

    "Thought we'd make a quick stop at a dress shop run by a friend of mine. She carries some nice things, and her prices are a lot better than the ones in the resort's gift shop."

    Kate perked up. "Sounds like a great idea."

    But twenty minutes later when Kate selected a colorful full-length island dress and asked to have it hemmed, she was confronted with another example of Jared's inescapable presence. He might as well have been looking over her shoulder, she thought wryly.

    "I'll have my seamstress hem it immediately," the shop owner promised. "It will be delivered to the resort this afternoon. Will that be soon enough?"

    "There's no great rush," Kate said quickly. "I can pick it up tomorrow."

    "I wouldn't hear of it." The woman waved the idea aside with a graceful movement of her hand. "You're a personal friend of Jared's, and I insist. It's the least I can do. After all, Jared was the one who loaned me the capital I needed to open this shop. I'm delighted to be able to do a favor for a friend of his. Heavens, just about everyone on the island is happy to extend a few favors to Jared. Isn't that right, Letty?"

    "I'm afraid so." Letty's eyes brimmed with amusement. "Come on, Kate. Let's take a peek inside the gallery next door. You might see something you like."

    "And get it at a Hawthorne discount?" Kate asked dryly.

    "Probably. Mary Farrell, who runs it, gets most of her business from the resort visitors. She undoubtedly feels she owes Jared a favor, too. Her artists would all be starving if it weren't for the customers Crystal Cove sends her way."

    Kate threw up her hands. "I give up. Why don't you all just admit you're living in a feudal kingdom and buy Jared a crown?"

    "Not exactly a feudal kingdom," Letty said, laughing. "Just a very small town on a very small island that's tucked away in a very far-off corner of the world. If it weren't for Jared Hawthorne and his resort, Amethyst would either be completely deserted or look a lot more like Port Ruby, a run-down, sleazy dump. People around here know that."

    "And they're suitably grateful."

    "You could say that."

    "You know something, Letty? I'll bet things around here worked very much the same way back when Roger Hawthorne was in charge."

    "I wouldn't be surprised."

    Kate came to a halt on the path, glanced quickly back over her shoulder and then ducked under the heavy chain that guarded the route to the Hawthorne castle.

    She felt extremely daring as she slipped past the barrier. She was now on forbidden territory.

    There was no real reason to worry about being seen, though she continued to glance back over her shoulder. There was no reason to be nervous, either, she reminded herself. She had been at Crystal Cove long enough to learn the routine. It was barely dawn and no self-respecting guest at the resort arose at this hour. Neither did members