French Kiss (Silver Cove Series Book 2)

by Jill Sanders

  “Cliff. It’s a cliff.”

  She giggled. “I’m sure you’ll love it. It sounds more like an adventure than a honeymoon.”

  “Both.” Sarah’s voice turned dreamy. “Sounds like you and Adam are getting chummy.”

  “Later,” she warned. “Right now I have to go be a boss.”

  “Are you enjoying it? Or are you hating me for leaving you in charge.”

  She thought about it for a moment. “Both.”

  Sarah laughed. “Fair enough. If you need—”

  “Nope,” she broke in. “You go swim with the fishes. Send me some pictures. I’ve never been snorkeling in Hawaii.”

  “I’ll send you some today. Thanks, Lil.”

  “Anytime.” She felt her eyes water. “Thank you.”

  “For?”

  “Being my sister,” she choked out.

  There was silence on the line. “Now you’ve gone and done it. You’ve made me cry on my honeymoon.”

  “Then hang up and go have fun with your husband.”

  “That I can do.” She heard Sarah blow a kiss and then hang up.

  After a quick fruit bowl for breakfast, Lilith made her way up the stairs and waited for the workers to arrive. The rain continued to drizzle outside, causing most of the guests to remain indoors. Which, she quickly found out, was driving her employees nuts.

  She’d never met a more demanding group of people. In the last two days’ she’d heard a complaint from every single employee about the group. The new guests were quiet and reserved where the Robinson clan was quickly becoming louder and more boisterous. She’d even broken in on a few arguments in the dining hall before she’d headed up stairs.

  When the workers finally arrived, she quickly laid out her plans and showed them the storage room where she wanted everything moved to. She had planned on going through the boxes herself to see if there was anything useful, so as the men hauled them into the storage room, she spent her time looking in them and separating what could be useful.

  By lunchtime, she was thankful Adam had picked the darker slacks for her to wear. She dusted her hands and decided to eat lunch down in the kitchen instead of the office.

  The workers had cleared the entire attic and she swung by there to check it out as they started sanding and worked on restaining some of the wood.

  The crew sat in the corner, eating the sack lunches she had brought up from the kitchen.

  “It’s coming along,” she said, nodding to them.

  The room was easily double the size of the main dining room. She thought about purchasing some folding round tables and thought they could easily be stored in the closet she’d been locked in yesterday. She avoided glancing towards the door and avoided that corner of the room all together.

  The window was one of the nicest features of the room. There was a small fireplace along one wall that she had seen the day before. It would need some work.

  When her stomach growled again, she headed downstairs to the kitchen and found Adam holding an employee against the wall in a death grip. His face was red and she’d never seen him so angry before. Several other employees stood back, watching in horror.

  ***

  Adam’s morning had gone from wonderful to terrible quickly. It had started when he’d journeyed into Lilly’s room to gather some items for her to dress in.

  He’d found the green piece of paper sitting directly inside her door, like it had been pushed under.

  His fingers had fisted and he’d felt like throwing it, but held off and turned it over slowly instead.

  “Stop it! Last warning.”

  He thought about showing Lilly but then remembered how she’d looked last night and decided to keep it to himself. He would call the police back and talk to them.

  He was due to leave the island around noon and planned to swing by the police station himself and show them the notes.

  When he’d walked out of his room, leaving Lilly alone to talk with Sarah, he had bumped solidly into one of the men who had been top on the list of suspects.

  Rob was one of his best sous chefs, however, the man was single and a little creepy when it came to talking about his personal life. No one knew if he was seeing someone or just lying about all the women he did see. Every time he came back from his time off, he would brag about all the hook-ups he’d had.

  Adam knew for a fact that the man’s room was on the next floor down. He reached out and took the man’s arm.

  “Is there something you want?”

  “Hey, man,” Rob said, stopping. “Sorry for bumping into you.”

  “What are you doing on this floor?” Adam demanded.

  Rob’s eyes searched around, then he smiled. “Guess I just got lost.”

  Adam moved towards him, but then the door next to them opened and Heather stepped out, a towel wrapped around her and her hair wet.

  “Were you going to leave without saying goodbye?” She glared at Rob, who looked guilty.

  Then Adam realized that the man’s shirt was on inside out and that he was obviously unshaven for the morning. Adam dropped his arm and stepped away as Rob moved towards Heather.

  “Oh, come on baby. I never say goodbye.” He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on Heather’s waiting lips. Then she pulled Rob back into her doorway and winked at Adam. “I’ll make sure he’s on time, boss man.”

  Adam tried to hold in a chuckle, but the worry had built up about trying to find whoever had locked Lilly in the closet yesterday. He hadn’t even mentioned the fact that there was no way that the door had just closed by itself and the wardrobe had magically moved back in front of the doorway.

  As the morning shift started, his eyes and ears were open to everything. He could only watch his staff in the kitchen, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t make sure it wasn’t one of his crew.

  His mind played over and over the list in his mind. Who had been around yesterday. Who hadn’t.

  He only had until noon before he had to pretend to leave the island. The weather had yet to let up and he knew that sneaking back onto the island would prove a little more challenging than he’d first expected.

  He even thought about cancelling his time off, but knew that it would only postpone finding out who was doing this to Lilly.

  It was just before lunch that he overheard several of his wait staff talking about how Lilly had been locked in the attic.

  He stood around the corner from the two men and overheard them talking.

  “If you ask me, she did it for attention. I mean, women are always doing crazy stuff like that to get attention. The last girlfriend I had tried to convince me she was pregnant just to get me to marry her.”

  “What happened?” the other man asked.

  “I ditched the bitch when she started bleeding again.” He chuckled. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Lilith locked herself away just to get Adam to sleep with her. God knows she’d need to do something drastic to get my attention.”

  “She’s not your type?” the other one asked.

  “Are you kidding me? I like my women with less meat on them. If they can’t be on the cover of Playboy, I don’t even bother.”

  Adam felt his temper spike. Lilly was perfect. More beautiful than any woman he’d ever seen. He could remember the first time he’d seen her. He’d actually felt his heart skip when the sun had settled on her hair.

  “Besides, I’ve been here for almost five years. If you ask me, I think she’s a dyke waiting to happen. She’s just stringing Adam along because he’s the boss.”

  Adam’s temper hit an all-time high. Before he knew what he was doing, he rushed around the corner and had the man in a headlock.

  “Adam!” Lilly’s voice sounded somewhere in the back of his mind.

  “If you ever talk about Lilly like that again,” he growled out lowly.

  “Sorry, man,” the guy said as he let him go.

  “You’re fired,” he barked out, only to have Lilly step between them.

  “No, he
’s not. Shane, why don’t you take a break.”

  “Yes, he is,” Adam scolded, turning to her.

  “No.” Lilly turned to him. “Hiring and firing falls under my title. I’d be happy to discuss this further with you in my office.” She turned to the man. Adam squinted his eyes at him, causing the guy to take a step back.

  “Shane, go, take your break.”

  “I didn’t mean anything.” He shrugged. “You know me; I like to talk.”

  “I understand. Go. I’ll talk with you later.” She turned to him. “Upstairs. Now,” she said under her breath.

  “I have lunch…” He turned away, the anger still vibrating through him.

  “Then after.” She walked out of the room without another word.

  He turned back to all his employees. “Back to work,” he growled, then stormed to his office and slammed the door.

  Damn it, he was just trying to protect her. If that ass, Shane, talked behind her back, what was to stop him from… He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.

  Really, the kid hadn’t done anything that Adam hadn’t done himself at one point. Gossip. Especially about women. Actually, before he’d started seeing Lilly, he’d said and done a few things in front of her himself that he was ashamed of.

  “Damn,” he said to the empty room. He realized he was going to have to apologize.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It took several minutes for Lilly to calm down. She leaned against the office door and took several deep breaths. She played out exactly what she was going to say to Adam once he came upstairs.

  She ignored her growling stomach and sat behind the desk finishing some work until she heard the knock on the door.

  “Come in,” she called out. She was surprised that it was Carl, the officer from the mainland, who stood outside her door.

  “Hi, Lilith. I hate to bug you at work,” he said.

  “It’s not a bother.” She stood up. “Please, come in.”

  Carl walked in and shut the door behind him.

  “Please.” She motioned for him to sit down.

  He walked over and sat down. “I’m here about your case.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “My…”

  “The break-in.”

  “Yes.” With everything else that had gone on in the last few days, she’d completely forgotten about her room being destroyed. “Have you found anything?”

  “I’m afraid not,” he said, leaning forward. “I’m here to ask you a few more questions.”

  “Okay.” She leaned forward, her elbows on the desk, while Carl pulled out a pad and pen. She thought about how a few months ago she would have considered going out with the man sitting across from her. He was good looking enough, around her age and, to her knowledge, single. He’d even asked her out a few times, but she’d never really thought about dating, that was until Adam had come into town.

  “There’s a rumor going around that you and the chef…”—he glanced down at his notes— “Carriveau, have recently started seeing one another.”

  She felt her head start to ache. “Yes. How is this pertinent to the break-in?”

  He glanced up at her. “We’re just checking on every lead.”

  “I was with Adam the night someone broke in,” she supplied.

  Carl’s dark eyebrows rose. “The entire night?”

  She blinked. “No, but all before then. Before the break-in, I mean. He couldn’t have snuck into my room and messed it up since I was with him.”

  He leaned back, crossing his leg over the other. “I remember when you moved into town.” He smiled slightly.

  She was thrown off for just a moment, then sighed. “I came in with a bus full of people.”

  “You’d been evacuated from the south.” She nodded. “Katrina?” he asked.

  “Yes.” She felt her heart skip. “My family died,” she added, still holding onto the lie.

  “That’s right. I was a senior in school.” He chuckled. “God, life was simpler back then.” She smiled slightly, wishing he’d change the subject.

  She’d never been comfortable around cops, especially when she was lying about who she was.

  Oh, she knew her license and information was good. The government had seen to it themselves, a fact that Crystal had assured her of years ago. She’d never asked how Sarah’s mother had had the contacts to make things like that happen, and she doubted she wanted to know at this point.

  “I asked you out a few times.” His eyes met hers.

  “Yes.” She chuckled, hoping it would hide her nerves. “Things just never really worked out.”

  He nodded, then wrote something down in his book. “So you are seeing Mr. Carriveau?”

  She was thrown for a loop once more. “How is this going to help find whoever broke into my room?” She leaned back.

  His eyes moved up to hers and held there. She was thankful when another knock sounded on the office door.

  “Come in,” she called out quickly and was relieved when Adam walked in. Immediately he was on guard.

  “What’s happened?” he asked Carl.

  Carl stood up and tucked his booklet into his pocket. “Just had a few more questions for Lilith.” He turned and, as he was walking out, bumped shoulders with Adam.

  “Excusez.” Adam stepped further out of the way. “Oh.” He stopped the man from exiting. “We have these.” Adam pulled out the notes from his pocket and handed them to the man, who frowned down at them.

  “We’ve found three of them, but the first one is gone.” Adam frowned at her. “But we’ve found these since then.”

  “I’ll put them in the file and look into it.” Carl tucked them into the folder and then said sternly to Adam, “I’ll be in touch.” Carl glanced back at Lilith then quickly disappeared out the door.

  “What was that all about?” Adam turned to her and moved closer.

  She shrugged. “I’m not quite sure. Apparently he believes you’re the one who trashed my room.” She felt a shiver run down her entire body when she remembered that someone was still out there, stalking her.

  Adam scowled at the door. “Pourquoi?” He turned to her and when he noticed that her eyebrows had moved up, he shook his head. “Sorry, it’s an old habit. Why?”

  “Beats the heck out of me.” She frowned, then remembered why Adam was in her office. She jumped at the chance to get her mind off of the notes and the madman who wanted her. “Let’s talk about Shane.”

  She leaned back slightly and watched his face change from anger to concern.

  “I’ve already apologized to Shane and the other members of my staff.” He sighed.

  “Good.” She crossed her hands.

  “I don’t appreciate my employees bad-mouthing you.”

  Her eyebrows shot up again. “I don’t care what people say about me, employees or guests. We should never manhandle—”

  “I get it,” he broke in. She heard the remorse in his tone. “I’m sorry.” He sighed, then stood up and walked around the desk. “I guess you could say I let my temper get the best of me.” He laid his hands softly on her shoulder as he turned her chair towards him. Then he pulled her up until his arms wrapped around her.

  “I’m sorry,” he said into her hair.

  “How am I supposed to stay mad at you?” she said into his shirt.

  He chuckled. “You’re not.”

  Finally, she pulled back. “So, are you set for tonight?”

  He frowned down at her. “I was thinking…”

  She shook her head after seeing determination in his eyes. “You are not backing out.”

  He frowned. “After what happened—”

  “No.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I accidently lock myself in a closet and you want to cancel everything.” She almost stomped her foot but stopped herself.

  “Lilly.” He took her shoulders. “The wardrobe had been moved back to block the door. There is no lock on the door.”

  Somehow, his words skimmed over her mind
.

  “Don’t be silly,” she said. She felt her knees weaken, so she sat down.

  “It’s the truth. Come.” He took her hand and pulled her up once more. She followed him silently to the attic, where the workers were back at work.

  They walked over to the closet and she saw it for herself. It was an older handle without a spot for a key. She looked at both handles and shut the door, yanking it open again smoothly. Then she stepped back and tried hard to get the heavy door to swing shut on its own. It wouldn’t budge. At least without a little help. She felt all the blood leave her face.

  “Someone…”

  “I’m staying.” He broke into her thoughts. She turned to him and noticed several of the workers watching them.

  “No,” she said softly. “We need to finish this.” She felt her anger grow. “I’m done being scared. Whoever is doing this needs to be caught and our plan will work,” she said quietly. “Go, I’ve made sure everything is in order.”

  “But…”

  “Adam, we may not have another chance at this when Sarah and Ben return. Then I’d live the rest of my life in fear, like I used to.” She started walking out of the room, and he followed her closely.

  “Okay, but promise me you’ll make sure to have your phone on you at all times until I get back tonight.”

  She nodded. “Of course. I only left it…” She shook her head. “Never mind. Yes, it won’t happen again.” She smiled.

  They made a scene after lunch of kissing each other goodbye. Everyone knew each other’s schedules, so it was no surprise that he climbed aboard as other employees got off the ferry.

  They had checked the schedule themselves and noted who was coming and who was going. Only three people left on Mondays and four arrived. Two maids, one waiter, and Stacey, who worked at the main desk.

  Plus, Rodney had requested the next two days off due to a doctor’s appointment in Portland. His grandson was driving him down there. She didn’t see a need for either of them for the next few days since the rain had hampered any work they had been scheduled to do.

  She had leaned against the railing and watched the ferry slowly disappear.

  “Your guy taking off on you?” Kaleen said as she stepped out and lit a cigarette then blew the smoke towards her.