Max looked around, studied the wall of river rock that surrounded the fireplace, the dark green sofa and two leather chairs, the rough wood coffee table, the entertainment center opposite the fireplace. Then he turned to me. “Nice place.”
I nodded. “I hope you’ll be safe and happy here.”
He brushed his hair back with both hands. “Look, Brooklyn. I don’t care if these cops are your pals. The first thing they’ll do is arrest me for murder, then ask questions later.”
Derek glanced at me but said nothing. We both knew what Max said was true.
As Max crossed the room to check out the sliding glass door, he said, “Just give me a few days before you call the cops. I need to find some answers first.”
“We’ll get answers,” Derek assured him.
Max turned and stared out at the dark night sky. “I want to talk to Angelica.”
I sputtered in protest.
Gabriel was more succinct as he walked in and dropped another duffel bag next to the couch. “Not a good idea.”
Max whipped around. “Why not? She’ll talk to me.”
“Don’t go anywhere near her,” he warned. “Not unless you’re ready to bring in the police. Let us do some investigating first.”
“Damn it.” He sat on the couch and rested his elbows on his knees. “I guess you’re right, but I just feel useless. And I’m worried about Emily. I want to make sure she’s safe before anything else happens.”
“Then you definitely shouldn’t talk to Angelica,” I said firmly. I didn’t have to add what I was thinking. From the looks on their faces, everyone knew. Emily had been a target before. If crazy Angie knew Max was back in the area, she might be inclined to eliminate her competition.
And once again, I was reminded that Emily still hadn’t called me back. Was she simply out of town, or had something sinister happened to her? If I didn’t hear from her by tomorrow, I vowed to call her back.
Now I took a moment to gaze around the room. I loved Jackson, but he was definitely my most elusive brother, so I hadn’t been here in a while. I’d forgotten how beautiful this place was. One of the men in the commune had come up with the design, and Jackson and a few of the commune members had built the two-story, craftsman-style mountain lodge.
The main room was two stories tall, open and welcoming, with dark wood walls and floors, and one wall that was almost all glass. It overlooked the rocky canyon below and the rolling, vine-covered ridge on the opposite side. The house was surrounded on three sides by a balcony wide and strong enough to hold a hot tub, a barbecue grill, and plenty of patio furniture.
The staircase near the front door led up to three bedrooms and a small office that acted as a balcony overlooking the first-floor living room. I took a minute and jogged upstairs to find the most suitable room for Max. Besides the master bedroom, there was one room that held Jackson’s weights and the other was used for a guest room. I checked that there were clean sheets on the bed, then called out Max’s name. After I showed him the room, he stowed his duffel bag against the wall, and we walked downstairs to find Derek and Gabriel talking logistics.
“What’s up?” Max asked.
“I’ll be sleeping here on the couch tonight,” Gabriel announced. “Just a precaution.”
“You sure that’s necessary?” Max said.
“Yes,” Derek said, closing the door to any arguments.
“Fine,” Max conceded. “So, what’s the plan?”
“You hunker down here for a few days,” Gabriel said. “Tomorrow morning, if it’s not raining, I’ll drive back to your farm. I want to find the exact spot where the shooter stood, see if he or she left anything there. He’s been careful so far, but if he was in a hurry, he might’ve neglected to police the area and left a cartridge behind. There might be footprints. A gum wrapper. Who knows?”
Max nodded. “Sounds good.”
“And since there’s a slim chance that the bad guys will think you’re still living there, I’ll check to make sure your neighbors are safe.”
“Thank you.” Max clenched his fists. “Damn it, I never even thought of that.”
“It’s okay, Max,” I said. “You and I aren’t wired to think in those terms, but these guys are.”
He gazed sideways at Derek and Gabriel. “Then I guess it’s a good thing they’re on our side.”
“Yeah, it is,” I said, smiling.
But Max was still tense. “I told Sam to be careful, but I’d better call him in the morning and make sure he understands. I don’t want his boys to go to my place alone.”
“Good idea,” Gabriel said, keeping his tone casual.
“I’m already tired of this,” Max admitted.
“It’ll be over soon,” I assured him.
“I hope to hell you’re right.” He paced a few feet, then turned. “I want to see Emily.”
“Not a good idea,” Gabriel said. “Whoever’s behind this might be watching her, too.”
“All the more reason to check that she’s safe.”
I glanced at the men. “I left a phone message for her, but I haven’t heard back.”
“She could already be in danger,” Max said.
I pulled my cell phone out of my bag to double-check my messages, then groaned. “My battery’s dead. I can’t tell if she called or not.”
“Don’t you have your charger with you?” Derek asked.
“No, I didn’t pack it.” Stupid move on my part, but I’d figured we’d be back home by now. My mistake.
“I’ll drive back to the city in the morning and pick it up for you,” Derek said.
“You will?”
“I know you want to stay here.”
“You do?”
His lips twisted in a smile. Of course he knew. There was no way I would simply drop Max off at Jackson’s and drive back to the city.
“Look. There’s probably another reason why Emily hasn’t called you back,” Max said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’ve been gone three years. She’s moved on by now. I never even gave her a ring. She doesn’t even have the book to remember me by.”
I stared at him in surprise. “Jeez, Max, it’s not like she threw the book away. She was planning to keep it forever. She didn’t even want me to restore it.”
“Maybe not, but as far as she knows, I’ve been dead for three years. She might’ve sold it by now, anyway.”
I slapped his arm lightly. “Dude, it was stolen. You need to have a little faith.”
“I gave up on faith a long time ago, Brooklyn.”
I stared heavenward. “Where’s my violin?”
“Brooklyn,” Derek said in a warning tone.
“Max knows I love him,” I said to Derek, then smacked Max’s arm again. “That’s a love tap and my little way of telling you to lose the doom-and-gloom attitude. We’ve all had a long day, and your whimpering is starting to bug me.”
He frowned back at me and we had a brief standoff. Finally he said, “I’m a soulful artist, Brooks. Doom and gloom is my stock-in-trade.”
“Oh, please.” I made a scoffing sound. “You make goat cheese.”
He flinched, then choked out a laugh. “Come here.” He grabbed me in a choke hold and gave my head a noogie.
“Stop it,” I cried, laughing as I slapped at him like a little girl. “I’m too old for this.”
He let me go and we both collapsed on the couch. We really were like brother and sister. It was amazing that we’d fallen back into the same old behavior patterns so quickly.
After a minute, I pushed myself off the couch. “I’ve got something to show you.” I found my bag, pulled out Beauty and the Beast and handed it to him.
Max unwrapped the tissue paper and stared at the book for a long time. Opening it, he ran his fingers over the dedication he’d written to Emily a little more than three years ago.
“I’m just going to say this once,” I murmured, standing next to the couch. “You should’ve had more faith in her.”
He
looked up at me and smiled crookedly. “You said it once already, so that makes twice.”
“Okay, smart-ass,” I said, smiling. “That’s the last time I’ll say it.”
He studied the book, his slow breaths in and out the only sounds he made. A minute later, the smile was gone as he gazed at me again. “I lost faith in everyone, Brooklyn. I was thirty-two years old, but in a lot of ways, I was still a kid and scared to death. I couldn’t deal with the insanity, so I ran. Maybe that was a mistake, but I couldn’t see any other way out. And I’d do the same thing again in a heartbeat to keep Emily safe.”
“Oh, Max.” I sat and wrapped him up in a bear hug, then used his shirt to wipe the sappy tears from my eyes.
Derek and I drove back to my parents’ house later that night and managed to get a good night’s sleep in my luxuriously decorated bedroom.
When I woke up the next morning, I had a plan fully formed in my mind. I knew how we could find the answers to our biggest questions from last night.
The plan was simple. The Art Institute was close to Dharma, barely eight miles away in nearby Sonoma. The students and professors all lived in the area. Some were in my own family. Why not enlist their help?
“It’s not only simple and easy, it’s also subtle,” I announced, as Mom placed a platter of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and fruit in front of me. She’d insisted on waiting on all of us this morning. There was a smaller plate of toast, butter, and several different jams. Enough to feed a medium-sized country, as usual. “Are we expecting company?”
“Are we?” Mom said cryptically.
“Okay,” I said, letting that go. People had b‹?een coming and going through our house since I was a little kid. “Anyway, I’ll need you and China to help me.”
Mom’s ears perked up. “I can be subtle. What’s the plan?”
Derek walked into the dining room just then and shot me a look of incredulity. No, Mom wasn’t known for her subtlety and Derek knew it, but I figured we could work on it. Derek’s eyes narrowed on me. “What plan is she referring to?”
I took a good, long gander at Derek and had to smile. The man looked way too dapper for someone who had awakened in a strange house at the crack of seven o’clock in the morning. How does he do it? I wondered. He appeared ready to sit down at a baccarat table in Monaco and ante up two million dollars or so, then parachute over a cliff into shark-infested waters to rescue an errant nuclear device.
And he wasn’t even wearing a tuxedo, just jeans with a thick, forest green flannel shirt. So it had to be the British vibe. He’d been born dapper. He’d probably worn dapper diapers. Now, that was a weird image.
I chuckled at the direction of my reverie, then realized he was still watching me as he poured his coffee. He took a sip, then shook his head. “What goes on in that mind of yours?”
His voice was still a bit gravelly, so maybe he did have a tiny chink in his all-too-perfect armor. Good to know.
“You don’t want to know,” I murmured, taking a bite of toast.
“You’re probably right.” He sat down next to me, caught my chin, and angled my face so he could kiss me soundly. “Good morning, love.”
“Good morning,” I whispered.
Mom walked back into the room and set another plate in front of Derek.
“You don’t have to cook for us, Rebecca,” he said.
“Don’t be silly. I love cooking for you.” She sat down across from us and sipped from a cup of tea. “Let’s hear the plan.”
“Yes, let’s do hear all about it,” Derek said with a touch of sarcasm.
Flipping him a supercilious look, I said, “The thing is, Dharma’s a small town. Small-town people pay attention to things going on around them. They see things. They worry. They talk. This is the perfect place to ask questions.”
He shook his head but said nothing, so I continued. “I figured I’d walk around town, talk to people. My sisters might know something. They both took classes at the institute. We’ll noodle around, ask a few questions, and find out what’s going on with Solomon and Angelica.”
Derek leaned his elbow on the table-a very un-British thing to do-and stared at me.
“What?” I asked finally.
He rubbed his jaw in frustration. “You do realize these are the sorts of conversation that scare the hell out of me?”
“But this isn’t dangerous,” I said, grabbing my mug and taking a long sip of coffee. “It’s going to be easy. And we need to find out who was shooting at us yesterday.”
“Somebody was shooting at you?” Mom cried.
I clamped my mouth shut. Crap! I am a loose-lipped nincompoop! Glancing sideways at Derek, I could see he agreed.
“Nobody, Mom,” I said quickly. “It was a hunter who was in the wrong…um…”
“Oh, stop trying to lie,” she said. “You’ve got to be the worst liar in the world.”
“I get that a lot,” I muttered.
“This is why I don’t want you asking questions around town,” Derek said. “It’s dangerous, and now you’ve upset your mother.”
“Darn tootin’, I’m upset,” Mom said. She pressed her hands together in a yoga mudra, closed her eyes, and began to breathe deeply.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” I said. “Okay, yes, someone did take a shot at us out at Max’s farm. Derek’s right. It’s too dangerous to have you asking questions around town. You could get hurt, and I would never forgive myself.”
She popped one eye open. “What kinds of questions are you talking about?”
“Um, well, I was thinking we could ask if there’s anyone in the area who reloads their own ammunition. I’ll pretend I want to learn how.”
“But that’s a lie,” Mom said, opening both eyes and reaching for her teacup.
“Of course it is.”
“You’re no good at lying, remember?”
“I’m working on it, Mom.”
She thought for a moment. “Maybe we should all learn how to reload.”
“Better if you don’t,” Derek said.
“Anyway,” I continued, “if someone gives us a name or two, I thought I would then mention casually that I seem to recall that one of the teachers out at the Art Institute used to do his own reloading.”
“Who’s that?” Mom asked.
I hesitated. Did I really want to get my mother involved in this whole nasty situation?
“She might as well know what she’s getting herself into,” Derek said, taking the decision away from me. “His name is Solomon. He goes by the one name only. He’s dangerous. Do not mention his name to anyone you speak with.”
Mom frowned. “Is he the one who took a shot at you?”
“Possibly.”
She raised her fist in the air. “Then let’s get him.”
“Rebecca, I’m not sure-”
“Don’t you worry about me, sweetie,” Mom said, waving away Derek’s fears. “I’ll just be my friendly old self, nattering up my neighbors. You know, people in small towns do like to talk. And you wouldn’t believe the things they know about their neighbors.”
“I would believe anything at this point,” he said. “I just wish you both would opt for more caution.”
“But we need to move fast,” I said.
“Yes, I agree. But I’m concerned for your safety. The fact is, someone with extremely evil intentions is behind this operation. Don’t forget that they’ve already killed one person and tried to kill one of us.”
“That’s right,” Mom said. “Your bookseller friend was killed.”
Derek nodded. “Yes.”
“Then we need to get on with it,” she said with a determined nod.
I squeezed Derek’s arm. “Besides, you’ll be around to keep watch on things.”
“But I won’t be, darling,” he murmured, touching my cheek. “I have to go back to the city.”
“Oh. Right.” I tried not to show my disappointment, but it was impossible. I hadn’t forgotten, exactly, but I’d hoped…But of course he ha
d to go back to the city. It was Monday, a workday. My sense of time had flown out the window with my phone’s dead battery. I used the phone as both a clock and a calendar.
“I’m sorry, love. I’ll be back as soon as I can get away.”
“Maybe I should go back with you,” I said without enthusiasm.
“No, you stay here with your family and Max. I’ll drive back tonight and bring your phone charger with me.”
“You’ll drive all the way out here to do that?”
He chuckled but didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. His look said he’d drive to the moon for me. At least, that was my interpretation.
“Thank you,” I said. “And please don’t worry. We’ll be fine. I’ll call Gabriel to let him know what we’re doing.”
“Yes, do call him,” Derek said, then checked his wristwatch. “He’s already left for Point Reyes, but he expected to be back by noon.”
“I forgot he was driving out there.” I sighed. I guess I’d forgotten all sorts of things. “Well, then it’ll just be me and Mom.”
“Take extra care while I’m gone, darling,” Derek said, pushing away from the dining table. “You may be stirring up more trouble than you know.”
I smiled and hugged him. “I’ll be surrounded by my family and friends. This is my town. Nothing bad could ever happen to me here.”
“Whoa, sweetie, don’t push your luck.” Mom’s eyes were wide as she quickly rapped her knuckles on the tabletop. “Knock on wood.”
Chapter 13
Derek and I held hands as we walked out to his car. It was still early so the sun hadn’t cleared the hill. The sky was blue and cloudless, but the air was still nippy, though it promised to warm up later. It was so quiet out here, not like the city at all, and we both seemed to notice it at the same time.
The scene was tranquil, uncomplicated, sweet. Naturally anxiety began to dribble through me like an IV drip. Was it my fault that Derek was on the verge of becoming completely domesticated, as my friend Robin had recently observed?
We chatted about the weather and what he planned to accomplish at the office today. He intended to look deeply into Solomon’s and Angelica’s backgrounds to see if there were any red flags. Even though the local sheriff had considered Solomon a pillar of society a few years back, Derek wasn’t convinced-especially in light of what Max had told us about Solomon’s wild parties. Was it possible that the man had escaped arrest all this time?
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