Illusion Town Read online

  Praise for the novels of New York Times bestselling author Jayne Castle . . .

  “This highly talented author never disappoints readers. I am always looking forward to her next novel.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “Inventive and brimming with whimsy, this pleasing escapade gives sexy new meaning to the term ‘fire and ice’ and carves another brilliant facet in Castle’s mesmerizing futuristic world. Great fun!”

  —Library Journal

  “Definitely hot in more ways than one. The world and characterization continue to expand and evolve in the most delicious of ways.”

  —Smexy Books

  “The intensity a Castle hero projects toward [his] woman is what makes these books for me. It is why I keep coming back for more.”

  —Fiction Vixen

  “Castle is well-known for her playful love stories, and this futuristic tale of romantic suspense runs delightfully true to form . . . An appealing, effervescent romance mildly spiced with paranormal fun, this novel won’t disappoint.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  . . . and Jayne Ann Krentz

  “Good fun.”

  —Cosmopolitan

  “Entertaining.”

  —People

  “Fast-moving . . . Entertaining . . . Highly successful.”

  —The Seattle Times

  “Fast-paced . . . Interesting characters . . . A good time is had by the reader.”

  —Chicago Tribune

  “Along with Nora Roberts, Krentz is one of the most reliably satisfying romance writers publishing.”

  —Sunday Times (CA)

  “Jayne Ann Krentz is one of the hottest writers around.”

  —Albuquerque Journal

  Titles by Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Jayne Castle

  ILLUSION TOWN

  SIREN’S CALL

  THE HOT ZONE

  DECEPTION COVE

  THE LOST NIGHT

  CANYONS OF NIGHT

  MIDNIGHT CRYSTAL

  OBSIDIAN PREY

  DARK LIGHT

  SILVER MASTER

  GHOST HUNTER

  AFTER GLOW

  HARMONY

  AFTER DARK

  AMARYLLIS

  ZINNIA

  ORCHID

  The Guinevere Jones Titles

  Desperate and Deceptive

  The Guinevere Jones Collection, Volume 1

  THE DESPERATE GAME

  THE CHILLING DECEPTION

  Sinister and Fatal

  The Guinevere Jones Collection, Volume 2

  THE SINISTER TOUCH

  THE FATAL FORTUNE

  Titles by Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Amanda Quick

  ’TIL DEATH DO US PART

  GARDEN OF LIES

  OTHERWISE ENGAGED

  THE MYSTERY WOMAN

  CRYSTAL GARDENS

  QUICKSILVER

  BURNING LAMP

  THE PERFECT POISON

  THE THIRD CIRCLE

  THE RIVER KNOWS

  SECOND SIGHT

  LIE BY MOONLIGHT

  THE PAID COMPANION

  WAIT UNTIL MIDNIGHT

  LATE FOR THE WEDDING

  DON’T LOOK BACK

  SLIGHTLY SHADY

  WICKED WIDOW

  I THEE WED

  WITH THIS RING

  AFFAIR

  MISCHIEF

  MYSTIQUE

  MISTRESS

  DECEPTION

  DESIRE

  DANGEROUS

  RECKLESS

  RAVISHED

  RENDEZVOUS

  SCANDAL

  SURRENDER

  SEDUCTION

  Other titles by Jayne Ann Krentz

  SECRET SISTERS

  TRUST NO ONE

  RIVER ROAD

  DREAM EYES

  COPPER BEACH

  IN TOO DEEP

  FIRED UP

  RUNNING HOT

  SIZZLE AND BURN

  WHITE LIES

  ALL NIGHT LONG

  FALLING AWAKE

  TRUTH OR DARE

  LIGHT IN SHADOW

  SUMMER IN ECLIPSE BAY

  TOGETHER IN ECLIPSE BAY

  SMOKE IN MIRRORS

  LOST & FOUND

  DAWN IN ECLIPSE BAY

  SOFT FOCUS

  ECLIPSE BAY

  EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

  FLASH

  SHARP EDGES

  DEEP WATERS

  ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY

  TRUST ME

  GRAND PASSION

  HIDDEN TALENTS

  WILDEST HEARTS

  FAMILY MAN

  PERFECT PARTNERS

  SWEET FORTUNE

  SILVER LININGS

  THE GOLDEN CHANCE

  Specials

  THE SCARGILL COVE CASE FILES

  BRIDAL JITTERS

  (writing as Jayne Castle)

  Anthologies

  CHARMED

  (with Julie Beard, Lori Foster, and Eileen Wilks)

  Titles written by Jayne Ann Krentz and Jayne Castle

  NO GOING BACK

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

  ILLUSION TOWN

  A Jove Book / published by arrangement with the author

  Copyright © 2016 by Jayne Ann Krentz.

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  JOVE® is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  The “J” design is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  For more information, visit penguin.com.

  eBook ISBN: 9780698187429

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Jove mass-market edition / August 2016

  Cover art by Craig White / Lott Reps.

  Cover design by George Long.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  This one’s for Virgil: Tell Arizona Snow I said hello.

  Contents

  Praise for the novels of Jayne Castle and Jayne Ann Krentz

  Titles by Jayne Ann Krentz

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  A Note from Jayne

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22
/>   Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  About the Author

  A Note from Jayne

  Welcome back to my Jayne Castle world—Harmony. A new adventure begins in Illusion Town. This is Las Vegas on Harmony but way more weird. The local slogan says it all: The thrills are real.

  Turns out the town sits right on top of the latest Underworld discovery, the mysterious ruins known as the Ghost City. The Coppersmith Mining Company won the contract to open up the potentially lucrative new territory. They’ve set up headquarters just outside of Illusion Town. Coppersmith outbid the competition to get the rights but could be looking at a bad case of buyer’s remorse. This is Harmony, after all.

  There are Alien mysteries and dangers lurking around every corner, both aboveground and in the Underworld, but, as usual, the real trouble is caused by humans.

  Chapter 1

  TO: E. Coppersmith

  SUBJECT: It’s late

  FROM: Finder

  You’re up late again. More problems with the Ghost City project?

  Sincerely,

  Finder

  TO: Finder

  SUBJECT: It’s very late

  FROM: E. Coppersmith

  The Ghost City project is presenting the usual challenges, most of which fall into one of the following two categories: SNAFU and FUBAR. (Sorry for using technical terms.) And it looks like I’m not the only one who is up late. It’s one o’clock in the morning. Am I interrupting anything?

  Sincerely,

  E. Coppersmith

  TO: E. Coppersmith

  SUBJECT: Nope

  FROM: Finder

  You’re not interrupting anything. A dream woke me up. I decided to do some work online. What’s your excuse?

  Sincerely,

  Finder

  TO: Finder

  SUBJECT: Your dreams

  FROM: E. Coppersmith

  Working here, too. I’d like to talk to you about your dreams. And I’d like to do that in person. Will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?

  Sincerely,

  E. Coppersmith

  TO: E. Coppersmith

  SUBJECT: Dinner

  FROM: Finder

  Thank you for the invitation to dinner. It is a very nice gesture but entirely unnecessary. I am glad that I was able to find your heirloom ring. You paid my fees. You don’t owe me anything else. Really.

  Sincerely,

  Finder

  TO: Finder

  SUBJECT: It’s not about the ring

  FROM: E. Coppersmith

  I’m an engineer. I do not make very nice but entirely unnecessary gestures. I am no longer a client. This is personal. I would like to take you to dinner.

  Sincerely, but not nicely,

  E. Coppersmith

  TO: E. Coppersmith

  SUBJECT: Bad dates

  FROM: Finder

  I have found that dates with clients generally don’t end well. Sooner or later it turns out that the client wants an off-the-books favor.

  Cautiously,

  Finder

  TO: Finder

  SUBJECT: What the hell?

  FROM: E. Coppersmith

  This isn’t about the damn ring. I told you, I’m no longer a client. Off-the-books?

  Curiously,

  E. Coppersmith

  TO: E. Coppersmith

  SUBJECT: Bad dates

  FROM: Finder

  Off-the-books, as in finding antiquities on the black market or missing-persons work. I never do the former and I try really, really hard to avoid the latter. Never ends well. Like dating clients.

  Clarifying,

  Finder

  TO: Finder

  SUBJECT: Just dinner

  FROM: E. Coppersmith

  I do my own black-market searches, and no one I know has gone missing. I just want to take you out to dinner tomorrow night.

  Sincerely not a client,

  E. Coppersmith

  TO: E. Coppersmith

  SUBJECT: Just dinner

  FROM: Finder

  Thank you. I would like to have dinner with you. My address is 15 Midnight Lane, Dark Zone, Illusion Town. I live in an apartment above my shop, Visions. Finding a specific address in this zone can be tricky. GPS and the mapping programs don’t work well. I can meet you at the restaurant, if that would be easier.

  Sincerely,

  Hannah

  TO: Finder

  SUBJECT: I’ll find you

  FROM: E. Coppersmith

  I’m an engineer. I’ll figure it out.

  Good night,

  Elias

  The Coppersmith Mining headquarters of the Ghost City project was located several miles outside Illusion Town. The narrow two-lane highway cut through empty desert for the entire distance. Roadside signs promising flashy casinos, high-payout slot machines, and sexy shows appeared every couple of miles.

  At the posted speed limit the drive took about forty minutes. A man behind the wheel of a Cadence could cover the distance in half an hour. A man driving a Cadence who was looking forward to an evening with an intriguing woman could do it in twenty-five minutes.

  Elias Coppersmith was driving a hot, enhanced Cadence and he was making very, very good time because he was looking forward to meeting Hannah West in person.

  For the first few weeks of their online connection he had known her only as the Finder. She specialized in locating missing, lost, or stolen antiquities in the murky underground world where secretive collectors bought and sold powerful relics and crystals. She dealt in hot crystals and he was a crystal engineer. He figured they had a few things in common.

  When he contacted her two months ago, he hadn’t expected much. She was just one in a long line of experts he had consulted. But she had located the long-lost Coppersmith family heirloom within days. He had known then that she possessed some very powerful psychic abilities. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out that she was a dreamlight talent.

  Dreamlights were not uncommon. After all, everyone dreamed and, to some extent, everyone possessed some psychic ability. But most dreamlight psychics ranked at the lower end of the paranormal scale.

  Powerful dreamlight talents were scarce and he was pretty sure he knew why. Para-psych researchers were convinced that strong dreamlights possessed unstable, fragile para-psych profiles.

  Given the general consensus of the research community it seemed perfectly reasonable that very strong dreamlights would keep the extent of their abilities to themselves. No one wanted to be labeled unstable or fragile.

  He knew a lot about keeping paranormal secrets. His family had kept a few for generations.

  The online connection with Hannah had evolved quickly from a business relationship into something that he hoped was about to become much more personal.

  Night fell fast in the desert. The glittering lights of the opulent casinos and hotels of Illusion Town had just come into view when Elias got the call. He would have ignored it but it was coming in on the frequency reserved for emergencies.

  By the time the call from headquarters ended he knew that all of his carefully laid plans for the evening had just gone up in smoke.

  So much for assuring Hannah West that their relationship was no longer a business affair.

  Another sign came up in his headlights.

  WELCOME TO ILLUSION TOWN.

  THE THRILLS ARE REAL.


  Chapter 2

  The dream walk started the way it always did . . .

  She rose from the bed and stopped to look down at herself. Over the years she had become familiar with the weirdness of an out-of-body experience but it always sent a psychic shock across her senses. She had been dream-walking since the age of thirteen, yet the sensation of being in two places at the same time was still disorienting, at least in those first few seconds. She was both the dreamer and the doppelgänger—her very own double.

  The dreamer was curled on her side, asleep on top of the cheap, faded bedspread. The doppelgänger was relieved to see that she was still wearing the new, pricey little red dress that she had saved for a special occasion. The skirt of the dress was hiked up high on her thigh but at least she wasn’t flashing the room. Her high-heeled evening sandals were on the floor beside the bed.

  The crystal necklace that she had worn earlier in the evening was gone.

  “Not good,” the doppelgänger said in the silent language of dreams.

  “I know,” the dreamer replied in the same soundless whisper. “Need to find it.”

  “Finding things is what we do.”

  “Careful with the ‘we,’ pal. Remember, ‘we’ were recently diagnosed as having a para-psych personality disorder. Our goal is to try to pass for normal.”

  “Grady Barnett is a lying, cheating bastard. We aren’t going to pay any attention to his diagnosis.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Speaking of finding things, let’s try to stay focused here.”

  “Right.”

  The light filtering in around the blinds was a familiar eerie green.

  “We’re near the Dead City ruins,” the doppelgänger said. “Probably better than being stranded somewhere in the desert.”

  “That’s right. Think positive.”

  The doppelgänger surveyed the shadowed space, searching for something that was important. She was dream-walking so there had to be a reason. There was always a reason for a lucid dream.