Читать книгу Whispering Springs - Amanda Stevens - Страница 10

Chapter Two

The great room was empty when Ava came downstairs a little while later. She milled about for a bit, studying the William B. Travis portrait over the fireplace and the framed photographs on either side before moving through the French doors to the terrace. The sun had set by this time and the sky over the treetops had deepened to lavender. She could smell mountain laurel on the breeze and a hint of rain in the distance.

The feeling of disquiet that had descended earlier came back as she took in the isolation of her surroundings. Except for the muted clatter of china and silverware coming from the dining room, she might have been alone. But then she sensed another presence a split second before she spotted a silhouette in the deepest shadows of the patio. She wanted to turn away from his relentless gaze, seek refuge inside the lit great room. Instead, she took a step toward him.

“Dylan?”

“Hello, Ava.”

Her hand fluttered to her chest. “My goodness. It really is you.”

“You seem surprised to see me. No one told you I’d be here?”

His voice was rich and deep and very unsettling. Ava shivered as the breeze blew across the terrace. “I came at the last minute. I haven’t spoken with the others yet.”

She still couldn’t see him clearly but she very much wanted to. She wanted to know if the flesh-and-blood man could hold a candle to her memory. Not a fair comparison, she acknowledged. Time had marched on. She wouldn’t like to be held to the same standard.

As if reading her mind, he stepped out of the shadows. Her hand was still at her chest. She could feel the pounding of her heart through her sweater and forced her hand to her side.

He was still peering at her through the twilight. “You don’t have a problem with my being here, do you?”

“Why would I have a problem? You were always a part of this group. You belong here as much as anyone.” She sounded fine, but her smile felt brittle. She drew a breath and tried to relax. “But I didn’t realize you’d kept in touch with the others.”

“I didn’t. Blair and I ran into each other through a mutual acquaintance. She invited me to the reunion. I had nothing else planned so here I am.”

“Here you are,” Ava echoed faintly.

He returned her cautious smile. “It’s good to see you. You’re looking well.”

“Am I? That’s kind of you to say, but I’m feeling a bit of a mess these days.” She touched her ponytail, wishing she’d taken a little more care with her appearance. Wishing she’d worn the navy sheath rather than the black pants and sweater. “You, though...” She trailed off, taking in the fitted charcoal slacks and jacket. She sighed and dispensed with discretion. “You look fantastic. I kind of hate you right now.”

He laughed, a soft, intimate sound that wrapped around her like an embrace. “Why are you feeling a mess?”

“Oh, work. Life.” She shrugged. “The usual.”

His gaze deepened as he searched her face. “Can’t be more than a temporary setback. I hear impressive things about you.”

She stared back at him. “You do? Oh, that’s right. You said you ran into Blair. She’s biased, you know.”

“I doubt she needs to be in your case. She tells me you’re an attorney.” He leaned a shoulder against a post as he observed her in the waning light. “It’s nice to know you followed through with your dream of law school. I can’t remember you ever wanting to do anything else.”

“Yes, although I didn’t go into practice with my dad. I work for the DA’s office in Houston.”

“Challenging work, I imagine.”

“It can be.” She shoved her hands into her pockets as she gazed at him across the terrace. There was a surreal quality to their casual conversation after a decadelong separation. Ava tried to decide if the meeting was easier or harder than she had imagined it would be. “You have me at a disadvantage. I haven’t heard anything about you. In all these years...not one word.” Her voice took on an accusatory edge despite her best efforts.

His voice held no such edge. “I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“It was. But I can still be curious, can’t I? What have you been up to since college? Are you married, single...? What do you do for a living?” The questions tumbled out before she could stop them.

There was a slight hesitation before he answered. “I’m still figuring out what I want to do. I’ve been at loose ends since I left the army.”

She went completely still. “You were in the service?”

“You didn’t know? I enlisted the day after graduation.”

Ava felt as if the wind had been knocked from her lungs. “I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You know why.”

“The others...?”

“I didn’t tell anyone. It seemed best that way. After you left, there was nothing keeping me in Austin. My grandmother was dead. Most of our friends had scattered.” He canted his head, still watching her. “I needed a purpose and I found one.”

“The army,” she murmured. “For how long?”

“Eight years.”

“Were you overseas?”

“Afghanistan for a time.”

She closed her eyes. “I wish I’d known. I should have known.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t seem right, you over there in that nightmare and the rest of us here getting on with our lives.”

“It was my choice. And for what it’s worth, it was the second-best decision I ever made.”

Now it was Ava who hesitated. “What was the first?”

“Telling you how I really felt. Laying all my cards on the table. I never had to look back with regret. I never had to wonder ‘what if.’”

Her hackles rose in self-defense. “You assume that I have?”

“I never said that. I speak only for myself.”

The conversation was getting a little too intimate for comfort. Ava felt a sense of relief at having survived their first encounter, but now she searched for a subtle excuse to go her own way, even though a part of her wanted to just stand there and stare at him forever.

She opened her mouth, but before she could utter a sound, a scream pierced the night, jangling her nerves and freezing her to the spot. For a moment, she stood in horrified silence, unable to breathe, unable to move until a second scream propelled her straight into Dylan Burkhart’s arms.

* * *

DYLAN’S FIRST INSTINCT was to pull her tightly to him, protect her from whatever danger lurked on the property, but that wasn’t a good idea for so many reasons. Too many years had passed and he had a job to do. He held her for only a moment before sliding his hands to her shoulders, subtly keeping her at bay.

“Did you hear that?” she asked on a breath. “Sounded like it came from directly above us.”

“Hold on.” He shifted his position, putting his body between her and the shadowy grounds as he moved out from under the terrace to scan the second-story bedrooms. Only one of the windows was lit against nightfall. He saw a movement in the room and then, a second later, a female figure appeared in the balcony doorway.

“Blair?” he called up to her softly.

She rushed out on the balcony, clutching a white robe to her chest. “Dylan?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not hurt, but you’d better get up here.” Her hushed voice quivered with excitement. Or was that panic?

“What’s wrong?”

“Just come up, okay?”

Ava caught his arm, her eyes wary and anxious as he moved back under the lattice cover. “What’s going on?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.” He gently untangled his arm. “Wait here while I go have a look.”

“What? No! Are you crazy? I’m not waiting out here alone in the dark.”

“Then come inside.” He took her hand, pulling her toward the French doors. “I’ll be back down as soon as I can.”

“If Blair’s in trouble, I should go up there and help her. Dylan, those screams—” She broke off. “Wait a minute. How is it you’re still so calm? You don’t even seem surprised. It’s almost as if you—”

“As if I what? You heard her. She said she’s fine. There’s no cause for panic.”

“You don’t scream like that if you’re fine.”

“Then why are we standing here arguing?” he asked in exasperation.

“That’s a very good point.” She brushed past him to the doorway.

Dylan hesitated for only a moment before catching up with her and taking the lead. He bounded up the stairs two at a time, pausing on the landing to take stock. A crystal chandelier tinkled overhead in a draft. Farther down the hallway, a door clicked shut. He turned his ear to the sound, holding up his hand to silence Ava when she would have questioned his caution.

Blair had arranged to have the ranch exclusively for the reunion. The invitees had all been assigned rooms upstairs, leaving the detached cabins unoccupied. In the two days that Dylan had been there, he’d made a point to familiarize himself with all the staff members. A stranger wandering around the house or grounds should be easy to spot. He scoured the hallway now for any sign of an intruder or anything out of the ordinary. Except for that faint click of a door, nothing seemed amiss.

Blair’s suite was just off the landing, and as Dylan started toward the door, she burst into the hallway, the hem of her silk robe floating behind her like a ghost.

“Dylan, thank God. You have to see this—” She halted abruptly when she spotted Ava. Her hand flew to her throat in alarm. “Ava! I didn’t know you were here.”

“I got in a little while ago.” She moved around Dylan. “What’s going on? We heard your screams. That was you, wasn’t it?”

“Yes...”

“You scared us half to death,” Ava said. “It sounded as if you were being murdered up here.”

Blair seemed at a loss as her gaze darted to Dylan. “Murdered? No... I...”

“Take a breath,” he said, “and tell us what happened.” He kept his voice neutral, but his eyes warned her to proceed with caution.

She bit her lip and nodded. “I’m okay. I...it’s nothing really. I feel completely stupid. I saw a scorpion in my bedroom.”

“A scorpion?” Ava repeated in disbelief.

“On my bed.” Blair clutched the lapels of her robe. “They’re everywhere in the Hill Country so I shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose. But you remember how deathly afraid of spiders I’ve always been. A scorpion is a million times worse.”

Ava nodded. “I remember, all right. You nearly drove us into a ditch once when you saw a spider in your car.”

Blair shuddered. “It was a very big spider.”

“I can see you’re upset,” Ava said. “Why don’t I call downstairs and have someone come up and take care of the problem?”

Dylan maneuvered around Blair to the door, blocking Ava’s path into the suite. “I’ll deal with the scorpion. You go downstairs and let everyone know that Blair is fine. We can’t be the only ones who heard her scream.”

“Yes, would you?” Blair managed a weak smile. “I’m too embarrassed to face anyone right now.”

“There’s no need to be embarrassed. I’m sure I would scream, too, if I found a scorpion in my bed.” Ava addressed Blair, but she trained her gaze on Dylan. Unease niggled. He could almost hear the gears turning inside her head. The scorpion cover wasn’t bad, but Ava North had never been anyone’s fool.

“Thanks,” Blair murmured.

Ava shrugged off her gratitude, but she had a determined look on her face that Dylan remembered only too well. “Think nothing of it. I’ll take care of everything. But are you sure you’re okay? You still look a little pale. My room is just down the hall. Would you like to wait there while Dylan exterminates yours?”

“I’m fine now.”

“If you say so.” Her gaze on Dylan was direct and slightly challenging. “You’ve got everything under control up here?”

“Yes, no worries.”

She nodded though she didn’t look particularly convinced. “I’ll see you both downstairs, then.”

Dylan waited until she’d disappeared across the landing before turning back to Blair. “What happened?”

“It’s better if I show you.”

He followed her into the suite. A small entryway opened into a luxurious sitting area with buttery leather furniture, a limestone fireplace and a row of French doors that looked out on a wide balcony. Blair paused in the sitting room and pointed to a doorway through which Dylan could glimpse a bed and another set of French doors.

“In there.”

The lamp on the nightstand cast a soft glow over the room. More light spilled in from the open bathroom door. Dylan quickly scanned the area, peering into shadowy corners and taking note of the night air drifting in through the open balcony doors. Like the sitting area, the room was both rustic and luxurious with a vaulted beam ceiling and plush rugs on a wide-plank floor. But it was the bed that drew Dylan’s attention. Or rather, what had been placed on the covers.

Lying atop the opulent linens was a doll, the kind of expensive keepsake his grandmother had once collected and kept behind the locked glass doors of her curio cabinet. Only this one hadn’t been so lovingly preserved. The porcelain arms and legs had been shattered and the neck grotesquely twisted so that the painted visage faced the doorway. Light glinted in the glass eyes, prickling Dylan’s scalp as he moved into the room.

Behind him, Blair said breathlessly, “You see it, don’t you?”

He glanced over his shoulder. “The doll?”

“It’s not just a doll. It’s an effigy. Notice the color of her hair, those eyes. The way she’s been posed. You must see it.” A note of hysteria rose in her voice. “Dylan, it’s Lily. Your Lily.”