“How could you possibly have guessed that?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Well, I never would’ve guessed if you hadn’t told me that you write. I almost joked that you sounded a lot like the dialog in the novels, but I thought I was insane.”
“You’re not insane, but you did guess one of the biggest mysteries out there in the modern world.”
“That’s because I know you, Jack Hayes.” Her eyes went round. “Wait, is your name even Jack?”
He chuckled softly and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Yes, my name is Jack. My pen name RJ comes from my real name, which is Richard Junior, but my whole life, people called me Jack to differentiate between my father and me. I never felt like a Richard. I knew I was a Jack the second my mother started calling me that when I was a little boy.”
“And the Phillips? Where does that come from?”
“It was my English teacher’s name in my sophomore year of high school. She was a nice lady, and she was the one who noticed I needed an outlet. She encouraged me to write, and she also helped me send some of my books out to agents. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have published at all.”
“If you’re RJ Phillips, that means …”
“I started publishing when I was in high school, yeah. At first, my pen name was to keep my identity as a minor hidden, but then once that secret identity was built, it was easy for me to leave my life behind. I became RJ Phillips for real.”
“And how did that equate to moving here? To Half Moon Key?”
“Do you happen to know Mrs. Francis’s maiden name?”
She shook her head. “She’s always been Mrs. Francis to me.”
“Well, a long time ago, she left Half Moon Key for a bit. That’s when I met her at my high school. When things went down with Sage after my father died, Mrs. Francis asked me to move here. My uncle here wanted to retire at the time, so it was a perfect fit.”
“Are you telling me Mrs. Francis is the reason why you’re here?”
Jack nodded and brought her hands up to his face to kiss her knuckles. “Yup. That woman has saved my life more times than I care to admit.”
“Well, I owe her all of the shredded carrots she could ever want for bringing you to town. To me.”
“Are you really not mad right now?” he hedged, wary.
“Why would I be mad at you for having a history? I’m a virgin, Jack, not an idiot. I knew you were mysterious, but now I get that it was also by design. To protect yourself from Sage and the rest of your family. Do you still think they could come after you out here?”
Jack considered her question for a bit. “Yeah. I think Sage would be here in a second if she thought I was alive and well. There are some things Sage doesn’t want anyone in the world to know. Bad things that she has done.”
“Worse things than your father?”
He took a deep inhale. “I’m pretty sure she had my father murdered so she could take over when she wanted. I don’t think Sage wanted to wait until he died or retired. He died under very mysterious circumstances. The same kind of circumstances as a few people in our pr …”
He stopped short, feeling his nostrils flare with the word he didn’t want to say. He could hardly tell her that he had almost inherited a pride of lions that had a penchant for crime and murder. That would be way too much. “A few people who worked with my dad died in very strange ways, and I wasn’t the only one who suspects my sister of those murders.”
“Do you think she murdered peopleforyour father?”
“Oh, that is a guarantee. She definitely did.”
“And you think that she killed your father?”
He nodded. “I also think that she would have wanted to kill me if she was able to find me.”
“Then we just need to make sure she can never find you.” She gave a firm head nod as if her resolve alone could keep his evil sister from tracking him down and finishing what she had started all those years ago.
“Thanks, Nora.”
“Whatever for?”
“For not running in the opposite direction,” he answered simply.