by Jenna Ryan
On the other hand, he might not be thinking this through quite right. Lose the woman, lose the chase rabbit. Was that the best-case scenario for him?
A slow grin lit his face and made his black eyes glitter. Bad luck for the rabbit might be a lucky stroke for him. Let the woman be the focus, the diversion, the target. Leave him free to go about his business.
As he melted into the thickening twilight, the man found himself hoping the pretty blonde rabbit wouldn’t die too soon.
ISABELLA’S MIND REELED. What kind of moron put a single step in the middle of whatever this room was? Ballroom, grand hall, dining room? More to the point, why hadn’t she brought a flashlight from the car?
As her vision cleared and the pain of her hands-and-knees landing receded, the shape ahead resolved itself into a filthy tarp. Which relieved her because it wasn’t Katie and set her nerves back on edge because there was still no sign of her cousin.
An obvious thought occurred as she pushed herself upright. Katie never went anywhere without her cell phone.
She pulled out her own cell phone and punched in Katie’s number. Waited. Hissed at the pain in her left ankle when she stood, then reminded herself she deserved it for not paying attention to her surroundings.
Four rings later, Katie’s voice mail picked up. Frustrated, Isabella left a message, closed her phone and, walking carefully, picked her way to the back of the room.
The door to her left stood ajar. It screeched like an angry crow when she moved it. As she crossed the threshold, she told herself the feeling of being watched came from her mind, not from the premature darkness that had begun to spread throughout the house.
Beyond the weathered walls, purple clouds had given way to brooding black, and she could hear the wind picking up. The first raindrops hit the windows as she started along a dusty corridor toward—what else—another door.
A veritable maze of interconnecting hallways, the ground floor seemed to go on forever. She passed through two kitchens, a pantry, a massive library, three dining rooms and a dozen other spaces whose purposes eluded her.
Part of her could visualize Darkwood Manor as a Corrigan-Ross property, but a much larger part was struggling with the certain knowledge that Katie wouldn’t have ventured in this deep alone.
Spotting a thin door, she wedged it open. Uneven stairs topped by a rickety wooden railing descended from dusky shadow into fathomless black. Welcome to the cellar, she realized. Yuck.
Hesitating, she tapped her fingers on the jamb, then hit the light switch. “I can’t think of a single reason why you’d be down there, Katie, but on the off chance you’ve lost your mind, I’ll check it out. And be really pissed off if I find you.”
From a point far below, she detected a scrape, possibly a trace of smoke. When she leaned forward, a moaning floorboard blotted the sound out, but she knew what she’d heard, and it hadn’t been the foundation settling.
A bulb at the bottom provided only a weak wash of light, barely enough to make out the mud floor. Although the stairs looked sturdier than the railing, she’d encountered dry rot before and fully anticipated it here. Still, what choice did she have?
She set her foot on the first step. When it didn’t splinter, she moved to the next. And the next.
Her scraped palm stung against the stone wall. Her breath wanted to hitch. She wouldn’t let it, but couldn’t stop the prickles that raced over her skin.
“Not going to freak,” she promised herself. “Just please don’t let it be a snake pit down—”
She broke off, sucking in a startled breath as the handrail and one of the treads cracked in tandem.
Her foot shot through the plank, forcing her to grab the portion of railing still attached to the wall. That it held surprised her—but not as much as the arm that hooked her waist and hauled her upright before her trapped ankle snapped in two.
For a moment, Isabella’s head swam. Then her brain clicked in and she swung her head to face a man. Possibly young. Definitely strong.
He smelled good, she noted, like soap and skin and the rain outside. While she couldn’t make out his features, she spied the glimmer in his eyes.
“You don’t want to go down there, Ms. Ross.”
Suspicion crowded out fear. “Who are you? How do you know my name?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me.” She pushed on his arm. When he refused to release her, she twisted sideways. “Look, I appreciate the rescue, but I’m fine now, and I really don’t have time to play games.”
Instead of slackening his grip, he drew her closer until his mouth moved against her temple. “Best use of that time you don’t have would be to get in your car and leave.”
She gave him a determined shove. “I’d love to if you’d let me go.”
“Stop squirming and listen. You need to go back to Boston. No questions, no detours, just get on the highway and drive.”
When she continued to struggle, he used the fingers of his other hand to capture her chin. “Do it, Isabella. Now. While you can.” Then he drew her closer still, set his mouth next to her ear and added a soft, “If you want to live, you need to get as far away from this house as possible.”
Chapter Two
He vanished before she could question him further. Vanished as he’d been trained to do by the government. As he’d been able to do long before anyone had thought to train him.
He knew the melodrama hadn’t worked. He hadn’t expected it would. But short of tying a blanket over her head and tossing her on a southbound train, it was the best he could manage.
He wasn’t supposed to be in the house. He’d promised his uncle he would look around discreetly, without fuss. Fuss led to attention, and that would send the rats scurrying.
If they’d been ordinary rats, he wouldn’t have cared. He still wasn’t sure why he did, but his uncle was concerned, so it wouldn’t hurt him to skulk for a while.
If it turned out Haden was right, something should probably be done. Maybe by him, maybe by someone else. The who here depended on how the local authorities reacted to a hot blonde in a long, black leather coat, with skin that shouted peaches and cream and eyes so blue he’d been struck by the color fifty feet away.
The woman had courage. He admired that. She was determined, likely stubborn. Couldn’t fault those qualities. She also had a body under that black coat…
Blanking his mind to the fantasy, he watched her from his crouch on the sheltered side of the house.
Purposeful strides carried her along the driveway to the front gate and through it to the other side. She didn’t use an umbrella, and she didn’t bother to belt her coat. She had the shoulder bag he’d rifled, her 2K camera and, he imagined, an expression on her face that matched her body language.
A reluctant smile tugged on his lips the longer he watched her. Too bad nothing would come of it, but then he was used to nothing, and what he did have—primarily his uncle—more than compensated for the lack.
Her car engine roared. The tires spit wet gravel as she turned it toward Mystic Harbor, Maine, a town where he and more than one of his ancestors had been born.
His name was Donovan Black. Like it or not—and he definitely did not—he was connected to Darkwood Manor. Which was why, no matter how tempting Ms. Isabella Ross might be, he would never be connected to her.
“YOU’RE NOT GOING TO do anything, are you?” Isabella stared down at a thirtysomething man with a crooked nose and very large teeth. “You have more important matters to attend to than searching for a woman, a stranger, that no one, including you or your deputies, has seen. In any case, Darkwood Manor is situated on the fringe of your jurisdiction, so maybe she’s crossed the county line by now. Problem solved. Have a nice night, ma’am.”
The man’s smile didn’t falter. “Could be you’re right there, Ms. Ross. Could also be you’re inventing a crime to drum up publicity for a new hotel.”
Exasperation won out. “That’s ridiculous. My family doesn�
�t stoop to publicity stunts. We go about things the old-fashioned way. We advertise. And we only do that when a hotel is up and running. Not only is Darkwood Manor not in that category, it isn’t even a hotel.”
“Yet.”
Isabella held fast to her Irish temper. “Sheriff Lucas, I’ve had a really crappy afternoon. I’m not asking you to launch a full-scale search for Katie, I just want you to take a few minutes and look into her disappearance.”
“Can’t do much in a few minutes, now can I, Blondie?”
“Excuse me?”
“Sorry. Ms. Ross.” His smirk belied the apology. “Now, I’ve been patient, and I’ve listened to your story with an open mind.”
So open, Isabella thought, that it had drained from his head.
“You say you and your cousin drove up here this afternoon from Boston.”
“I said we drove up from Portland.”
“Via Portland, but you live and work in Boston. You also said you came here then drove to Darkwood in separate vehicles. Why is that exactly?”
Isabella refused to let him rattle her composure. “I’ve already explained. Katie was going on to Bangor. I was stopping here. Two destinations, two vehicles.”
“And your cousin’s vehicle, like your cousin herself, is currently unaccounted for?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t suggest anything to you?”
Her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “It suggests that both Katie and her car are missing.”
The sheriff’s smile grew strained. “A stronger suggestion would be that something at Darkwood Manor spooked her. When she couldn’t find you, she gave in to her fear and ran.”
“She’s not answering her cell phone.”
“Maybe she dropped it in her rush to escape. People have been known to leave all manner of personal possessions behind as they scramble back through those gates. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a believer myself, but more than a few folks hereabouts swear the manor’s haunted.”
“Oh, good.” Isabella mustered a false smile. “Here comes the ghost story. Katie wasn’t spirited away, Sheriff, and she didn’t run out on me.”
“You think someone kidnapped her and stole her car.”
“I think that’s a more plausible explanation than believing she ran from a ghost.”
Yet, in spite of herself, her conviction wavered. To bolster it, she jammed her hands in the pockets of her coat. “Whose spirit is supposed to haunt the place?”
“Take your pick. Aaron Dark, builder and owner. Aaron’s wife, Sybil, who ran off with another man. The unborn child some swear she was carrying. Hell, it could be Dark’s sister took up residence after she died, as penance for having her brother locked away.”
“Interesting. But you don’t believe any of those stories, so it can’t be fear that’s stopping you from driving out there with me.”
He gave her an insulting once-over. “Do you drink, Ms. Ross?”
She wouldn’t react, she told herself, would not lose it because some pasty-faced sheriff was either too lazy or too jittery to help her.
So instead of answering his question, she tipped her head to the side. “Tell me, Sheriff Lucas, is there something untoward going on at Darkwood Manor? Some illegal activity that might necessitate Katie’s removal from the house and cause me to be warned off?”
The sheriff’s open mouth closed with a snap. “You didn’t mention that you were warned off.”
“You didn’t give me a chance, and I’m mentioning it now.”
“Who did the warning?”
“I have no idea. A man on the cellar stairs. He told me to leave Darkwood Manor and not come back.”
The smile returned. “There you go, then. He probably told your cousin the same thing. Only unlike you, she took his advice.”
“At a dead run. Dropping her cell phone in the process. And since then, hasn’t bothered to stop and contact me. She wouldn’t do that, Sheriff—as I’ve already said.”
“What did this man of yours look like?”
“Again, no idea. He stopped me from falling down the cellar stairs, told me to leave and disappeared. If you won’t help me find Katie, you could at least help me track down this mystery man. It’s possible he saw what happened to her, and that’s why he warned me to leave.”
The sheriff’s brow furrowed. Rain streaming over the station windows gave his face a streaky look, as if it were melting.
When he didn’t speak, Isabella tried one last time to reason with him. “Sheriff Lucas, all I’m asking—”
“Is that I drive out to a deserted house with inadequate lighting in search of tire marks that will have long since washed away—if they ever existed—to look for a woman and or a mystery man that only you saw and or heard, and in the process risk breaking my neck the way you almost did in broad daylight.”
Isabella’s eyes glittered. “I take it that’s a no.”
“On all counts.” Rolling back from his desk, he stood. “Your cousin doesn’t contact you by tomorrow, I might have one of my deputies take a drive out there with you. If she shows, you’re welcome to come in and apologize for jabbering at me over nothing when I should be home eating my wife’s crab cakes and helping my kid with his algebra. Hotel charges eighty bucks a night off-season. Turn left at the end of Harbor Road if you’re looking for the highway. Your choice, Ms. Ross. You have a good night one way or the other.”
To Isabella’s astonishment, instead of ushering her out, he snatched his raincoat from a peg, crushed his hat down onto his head and stalked through the door of the small station house.
She stood there for a moment, stunned, until a thread of humor slithered in.
“Okay, then. No worries to you, too, pal. And apparently none to whoever’s in your cell block.”
Because there was definitely someone snoring away in the back. Whether deputy or prisoner, however, she didn’t care. Bottom line? Lucas was an ass. And he wasn’t going to help her find Katie.
Following the sheriff’s lead, Isabella let herself out. The street was virtually dead. The rain had let up and fog had moved in, a great swirling bank of it. Water droplets plopped onto the sidewalk behind her. To her left, a woman’s high heels tapped in the opposite direction.
She thought about the hotel across the street. Their brochures read Come Inn to the Mystic, which would have been a good tagline if the place hadn’t been a cardboard cutout of every generic hotel in rural America.
Oh, there was plenty of room for competition in this town.
Jingling her keys, she turned for her car.
“No assistance to be had, Ms. Ross?”
The silence was so pervasive, it made the words, spoken from the fog in front of her, sound like cannon fire. But even with her heart in her throat, Isabella’s restraint held.
“The ghost thing won’t work on me. I’m not in the mood for games, and I’m not leaving, so if you’re planning a repeat performance of our cellar staircase encounter, you can save your breath. My cousin was here. Now she’s not. I’m going to find her. End of conversation.”
“I didn’t take her, Isabella.”
“Yes, I reasoned that one out, although given the circumstances, it’s possible you came to my assistance at Darkwood Manor to throw me off.”
Amusement colored his tone. “You’re being too clever, and giving me way more credit for that quality than I deserve. I told you to leave because a man I trust insists there’s something going on at the manor. Since he’s not prone to hallucinations, there probably is. Hidden agendas frequently go hand in hand with crime.”
“Spoken like a true cop.” When he didn’t respond, she arched her brows. “Would that be a silent confirmation or the silent voice of criminal experience?”
“Possibly a little of both.”
That did it. Yes, the man had a great voice. She liked the way he smelled, and what she’d seen of his eyes in the cellar had mesmerized her for a moment. But her love of a good mystery paled next to her c
oncern for Katie’s life. So…
She took a challenging step forward. “Did you go through my purse or my car to find out who I am?”
“I didn’t see your car until later. Your purse was hanging at the bottom of the stairs.”
“My stairs, Mr.…”
“Black. Donovan. And I’m aware that you own Darkwood Manor.”
“So you are a cop.”
“Of sorts.”
“Friends with the local sheriff?”
“Good friends.”
Why that surprised her, she couldn’t say, but as long as it was there, she might as well seize the opportunity. “In that case, would you do me a favor?”
“I might.”
“All I want—”
“Is for me to persuade the sheriff to search for your cousin.”
“Which you won’t do because…?”
Again, the suggestion of a smile. “Sheriff’s in Florida, recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest. The man you talked to is his replacement, Senior Deputy, aka acting sheriff, Ormand Lucas. Genuine-article sheriff won’t be back until after Halloween.”
Pressing the fingers of both hands to her temples, Isabella murmured a disbelieving “Remind me to get my Aunt Rose to put a curse on this town.” She dropped her hands. “Let’s cut the small talk, okay? How do you even know about my cousin? Did you see us at Darkwood Manor?”
“I saw you. Searching for your cousin there and talking to Orry here.”
“So you eavesdropped through a closed door.”
“From the back room. Mystic Harbor’s a small town, less than a thousand residents at this time of year. Alley doors are seldom locked. Have you had dinner?”
Was he joking? She squared up. “Why are you hiding in the dark, Mr. Black?”
“I’m not hiding, I’m leaning on a lamppost having a conversation with a beautiful woman. Dinner?”
Part of her wanted to laugh. The rest… “It might have escaped your notice, but I’ve had a few more important things on my mind. Katie wasn’t spirited away by the ghost of Aaron Dark. She didn’t bolt in fear or lose her cell phone, and she doesn’t play practical jokes. She’s gone, her car’s gone, and your soon-to-be-cursed acting sheriff couldn’t care less about any of it. Forget food. My question is, as a cop of sorts, are you going to get involved or not?”
