Aurore looked at the picture quickly. “Byron Davco, Serena’s father. It was taken before he went into the nursing home.”
Tammie looked at the picture again. “I’d like to go visit him.”
“What on earth for?” Aurore asked.
“He may be able to tell me something about my parents.”
“His Alzheimer’s is too advanced. He doesn’t even remember Serena. I doubt he could give you any information that would be useful to you. Now, please help me with this.”
The two of them righted the dresser just as Susan came into the room with the first aid kit.
Serena lay still in the bed, whimpering. And she gave no response to the heavy bang of the dresser’s feet hitting the pine floor. She just continued to whimper, even as Aurore came back to her side by the bed.
Tammie held Serena’s wounded hand up to keep the blood from dripping on the bed. Serena quickly turned and grabbed Tammie’s other hand. “They’re stealing babies. They steal little babies,” she said, and then began sobbing, falling back onto her pillow. Tammie took her hand and squeezed it.
Susan dropped the first aid kit on the other side of the bed and opened it.
“I can take care of her from here,” Aurore said. The tone of her voice had changed from the way it had been earlier.
“What does she mean about stealing babies?” Tammie pressed. “Is she talking about me?”
“Go back to Oregon, Tammie,” Aurore said, heaving a heavy sigh and shaking her head. “I beg of you. No good can come from you being here.”
Although she was uneasy about leaving Serena, she nodded.
As she walked through Serena’s bedroom door, she heard Aurore say, “Make sure you lock your door, Tammie.”
She turned around, but Aurore had her full attention on Serena again.
Tammie walked back to her room, hearing Serena’s quiet sobs at her back as she moved. Every once in a while, a floorboard would creak beneath her bare foot, seeming to echo in the hallway.
She stopped at her door and turned back again. The upstairs was illuminated now that everyone in the house was awake. The cold light above her was as harsh and unwelcome as she felt.
Had her visit done this to Serena? Tammie couldn’t help but think that somehow it had. While Aurore hadn’t been as cold to her tonight as she had been earlier, there was a definite chill in the air when Tammie was around. Aurore had made it clear she still didn’t want her in this house, despite Serena’s wishes. And Serena wasn’t really in any shape to voice her true wishes anymore.
Walking through the doorway, Tammie closed the bedroom door and locked it, as requested. But that didn’t make her feel any more secure. Lock it from who?
She saw long streaks of light stretching into the room. The heavy brocade drapes were opened wide, letting in the light of the bright moon.
She usually liked her room in pitch darkness. But not tonight. She needed light. Or enlightenment. But she knew that wouldn’t come just because she wanted it.
The fact that she’d been woken from a dead sleep earlier surprised Tammie. She was still on West Coast time, and she normally went to bed late, doing paperwork at the kitchen table, for lack of a social life to keep her busy. A quick glance at the clock told her it was two-thirty in the morning—eleven-thirty West Coast time. If she were home, she probably wouldn’t even be ready for bed.
Pulling off her robe, she plopped down on the edge of the bed, intending to crawl back in and see if sleep would claim her, as it had earlier. She should be dead on her feet, but there were too many questions rolling around her head. She’d thought she had questions before she left Oregon. Now they’d multiplied tenfold.
She wouldn’t give them any more thought, or at least she’d try not to. If she didn’t get back to sleep now, she’d end up being in bed until noon. She wanted to be fresh in the morning, so she could talk with Serena. And after tonight, she hoped Serena would be in a good enough state to talk.
Replacing one thought only led to another that seemed equally disturbing. Dylan, she thought with a stir of awareness. He was...interesting. No, that wasn’t quite right. He was nuts! Crazy even. That’s for sure. But it was crazy because of concern for someone he loved. He wasn’t the type of man she’d normally be drawn to. He was a bit too gruff for her liking. She didn’t like men who were pushy and arrogant. And what kind of man stands in the middle of the road waiting for someone to run him down anyway?
Nuts! The guy was truly nuts.
And yet, Tammie couldn’t stop thinking of Dylan Montgomery. He’d shown a different side, as well. His concern for his brother Cash was endearing. It was clear that they were close and that he loved his family. And he’d been genuinely concerned for her and the position he’d put her in. But without his interference, who knows how long it would have taken for her to find Serena Davco on her own? Sure, she looked like Serena. But people might just assume she was Serena, like Dylan had, and think she was nuts herself when she insisted that she wasn’t Serena. Would anyone have had the guts to tell her the truth?
Dylan’s sudden concern for her when she’d made the decision to stay at the mansion still puzzled Tammie. Why should he care? They’d only just met. And having someone willing to talk to him on the inside of this mansion was surely better than spending another month knocking on the door and getting nowhere. And yet his concern appeared to be so genuine. There was more to this man than the rough exterior he displayed.
She sighed, closed her eyes. Then she laughed quietly and shook her head. “For crying out loud, he’s just a guy,” she said to herself. “It wasn’t like he was a Hollywood movie star who—”
Tammie stopped short. Why was she thinking about Dylan Montgomery at all? There was something about him that had stuck with her.
“Yeah, it’s that the guy is nuts,” she decided. She already had enough in her life to deal with, and she didn’t need to add a guy who was clearly on the wrong side of normal to her troubles.
The only reason he was of interest to her was that his brother and Serena were somehow connected. Maybe they could help each other.
Instead of crawling back into bed, Tammie padded to the window. Resting her palms on the windowsill, she stared out into the backyard. She couldn’t see much because the moon had dipped beyond the shadow of the tall pine trees that lined the yard. Reaching wide, she clutched the heavy drapes and began to close them, only to stop when she heard an odd sound and caught the image of a dark form crouched down near the stone wall.
Eastmeadow was out in the middle of nowhere, and there were sure to be a lot of wild animals around. The figure was too large to be a dog. A bear? Or worse. A mountain lion? Were there mountain lion in Western Massachusetts? Of course there must be. She’d seen some in the hills of Oregon while she’d been on vacation once. Why not deep in the forests of Massachusetts?
She thought of Dylan staying at the campground. The thought of sleeping while wild animals lurked outside the tent gave her the creeps. Even being in a camper wouldn’t give her the same sense of security as being on the second floor of a house.
The figure moved and then stood up. Since it was in the shadows, she couldn’t make out the details until it moved into the light of the moon and turned its face toward the house, looking up at her window.
With a gasp, Tammie stepped back into the shadows of the curtain.
That was no mountain lion outside in the garden.
It was a man. A man holding a shovel.
* * *
He was one lucky bastard, Dylan thought as he looked at his clean face in the little mirror. At least he had running water.
He dropped his razor into the small sink and swished it back and forth to clean it.
Okay, it wasn’t hot running water. He’d had to warm it in a pan on the propane stove in order to attain that benefit. But he didn’t have to haul water in like some of the other campers who’d checked into the campground after him, either. And the end result was still hot water eno
ugh to wash and shave.
To top it off, his timing had been perfect. He’d managed to snag the last camper from Julius, and last night as he slept on a mattress instead of the cold ground, he’d been grateful for that. The night would have been a whole hell of a lot longer otherwise.
While the walls of the camper weren’t thick, they did afford a little bit of soundproofing. That was a good thing, because his neighbors in the next campsite had decided that quiet hours didn’t apply to them. Julius had set them straight by one o’clock and he’d finally been able to get some sleep. This morning he almost felt like himself again. Almost.
After inspecting his chin to make sure he hadn’t missed any spots, he set the mirror down on the small counter. He splashed his face with the lukewarm water to wash away the residual soap, blotting it dry with the SpongeBob SquarePants terry towel he had bought from the camp’s store and now had wrapped around his shoulders.
He didn’t need a second look in the mirror at his tired eyes. The camper’s bed was comfortable enough. He’d slept on many cots and even on the cold ground in his years with the Marines. He’d learned to do without comfort in exchange for rest. He could sleep on a rock, if he needed to, and still be refreshed. It hadn’t been the bed that kept him tossing all night.
Tammie Gardner. Now she was a surprise he hadn’t counted on at all. Who’d have thought Serena Davco had a sister? He certainly hadn’t, especially since nothing had come up in the database he’d searched before he’d left Providence.
However interesting, Dylan wasn’t sure he liked this surprise. He was used to being in control. He had to be. Whether in a foreign land with his unit or on the streets of Providence with his fellow officers, he needed to stay in control.
Yesterday he’d missed that mark by a long shot. That would never happen again. He wasn’t normally one to get broadsided, and he had been yesterday—in a big way—when he met Tammie.
It’s not like he hadn’t been with other women or met a pretty face before. He’d had his share of relationships, although given his career in the military, they didn’t last more than a few months. That was the challenge of moving around so much and being committed to a job he loved. The women he’d been attracted to were driven, just as he had always been. It was probably the reason why he’d been so drawn to Tammie.
But living overseas and constantly going wheels up on a black op made it difficult to have any kind of lasting relationship. The idea of waiting her life away, not knowing where her man is or if he’s even coming home, hadn’t been too appealing to most of the women he’d been with.
He couldn’t say he blamed them. Still, he was thirty-seven years old and still without a family of his own.
Most of the time, that didn’t bother Dylan. He’d had a full life in the military. Whenever he thought of his life, he had no regrets. It was fulfilling in every way but one. Except the older he got the more he kept thinking about what came next. What else would complete him in the same way his life in the military had?
Since he’d come home and seen how preoccupied Cash had been, Dylan had begun to wonder if he’d traded in the good part of life in place of something else. It hadn’t felt like that at all while he was living it. He hadn’t been ready for a family back then, couldn’t imagine fitting a wife and kids into his crazy schedule. Family had always been one of those “someday” things. But “someday” had kind of snuck up on him.
He tried to shrug it off as he pulled the plug and watched the soapy water drain. Some of the women he’d dated in college had been married for years now. A few even had kids who were starting high school. Christ, high school! If that didn’t make a man feel his years, he didn’t know what did.
Dylan blew out a quick breath. “Damn, you’re getting on,” he muttered, and grabbed a paper towel to wipe the water that had gotten all over the counter. These last weeks since Cash had disappeared made him feel his years even more.
Where had the time gone? It didn’t seem like fourteen years since he’d graduated college. Twelve years in the military seemed like a blink of an eye now. He could remember every soldier he’d ever worked with on a mission. He’d needed to. They’d had to depend on each other, whether they liked each other or not.
But the women in his life, well, that was a bit blurry. Although it had never bothered Dylan before, it wasn’t sitting so well with him now. He was suddenly wondering just when he’d become the kind of shit guy to take a woman to bed and then forget about her.
He could blame his fitful night of sleep on a lot of things. Worry over what had happened to Cash was on the top of the list. Being in different surroundings would have been a good excuse, but it made no sense, given his life in the military.
And then there was Tammie Gardner. He still couldn’t believe she’d actually stayed at the mansion last night. The woman was crazy! It didn’t matter that she was practically a mirror image of Serena. She didn’t know those people. For all any of them knew, Serena Davco could be a serial killer. Anything could have happened.
It wasn’t Dylan’s place to tell Tammie what she should and shouldn’t do. What little time he’d spent with the woman told him she probably wouldn’t appreciate him doing it. But it hadn’t kept him from worrying about her last night even though he’d only met her less than twenty-four hours ago.
He shook his head as if to shake her memory from his mind and sat on the bed, pulling his boots in front of him to put them on. He slipped both his feet inside and began lacing the first boot.
“Twilight zone,” he muttered as he worked. “Yeah, that’s what this place is. I could plead insanity, too. This town is a good enough excuse for that.”
He finished getting dressed, pulling on a favorite T-shirt that his mom always threatened to throw out because it was so old.
He was debating about whether to eat some breakfast before heading over to the Davco mansion or wait and invite Tammie out to join him when he heard a car pull into the spot next to his Jeep.
Curious, Dylan pushed aside the faded curtains on the small window to see if it was Julius. To his surprise, he was met with a warm smile and a wave from a beautiful girl. That beautiful girl sitting in the front seat of the car had a nicer smile than the campground owner by far. Dylan wasn’t quite sure he liked the effect that smile had on his gut.
Pushing the camper door open, he stepped outside just as Tammie got out of the car and shut the door. She looked around, and then her gaze fell on him.
“What happened?” he asked, stepping out onto the gravel driveway of the campsite.
She looked at him, seeming puzzled. “Nothing. What makes you think something has happened?”
He glanced at the sky. “I don’t have my watch on, but I can guess it’s pretty early. There had to be something that drove you from the house to come and seek me out. Especially since just yesterday you tried to run me down with your car.”
She gave a sheepish grin and touched her lips with her fingers. “I did do that, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.”
Tammie nodded. “Well, stranger things have happened.”
“Such as?”
Her brows furrowed. “Boy, you just get right down to things, don’t you? Not even a mention of coffee—which, by the way, I haven’t had and am dying for right now. In case you forgot, I’m still on Oregon time.”
With a shrug, he said, “No coffee, I’m afraid. I didn’t have a chance to pick up anything for the kitchen yesterday.”
She gave a mock pout and snapped her fingers in disappointment.
He added, “We can get some at the campground store, or just run down to the diner for breakfast. Take your pick.”
Tammie lifted her eyes to him and held her gaze. “There was a man in the backyard last night.”
“A man? What man? You mean, outside the mansion?”
“Yes.”
He laughed humorlessly. “And you say I cut to the chase. We went from coffee to a man in the backyard?”
She si
ghed and rubbed the back of her neck. “I haven’t had coffee yet. My mind is a little fuzzy.”
“What was he doing?”
“I don’t really know. It looked like he was digging.”
“In the dirt?”
With a roll of her eyes, she said, “Where else?”
“Did anyone else hear or see him? Any of the other people in the house?”
“It was the middle of the night. They should have heard him. He was making enough noise for me to hear him from the second floor. But Serena had had a nightmare, and Aurore and Susan were so busy with her, they probably didn’t notice.”
His brow creased. “Did the man try to come into the house?”
“Not the house. But he did go into a shed out back.”
Dylan nodded. He’d never gone out back. He’d never even made it past the front door before yesterday. But with all the trees surrounding the property, and the desolate country roads that led up to the mansion, it would be easy for someone to get in and out of the yard unseen.
Tammie was leaning against her car, her arms folded across her chest and her head bent slightly.
He cleared his throat. “Did you say anything to anyone?”
Another roll of those beautiful eyes. “Do you think I would have gotten a straight answer if I had?”
“Point taken. But still, if someone is searching the grounds in the middle of the night, whoever it is might get bold enough to try to get into the house next time.”
Looking alarmed, Tammie stood straight and unfolded her arms.
He answered the unspoken question written on her face. “That mansion is like a fortress, but people have been known to break into buildings with even the tightest security systems.”
“I wonder if that had happened before,” she said, her eyes shifting to one side, as if she were thinking of something.
He waited, and when her eyes met his again, she said, “Aurore told me to lock my bedroom door last night.”
“Was anyone else in the house besides the four of you?”
She shook her head.
“Strange.”
Reckless Hours: a Romantic Suspense novel (Heroes of Providence Book 3) Page 6
