Keeping his breathing steady, Dylan moved slowly around an overgrown arborvitae to the back of the house. It was nearly midnight, and the windows on the second floor of the mansion were dark.
He sat at the edge of the woods, watching the moon move across the sky for another hour or so. The wild animals were on the prowl for food. A large wood owl hooted and screeched high in a tall pine tree behind him, letting Dylan know he didn’t like the intrusion in his world. Dylan stayed anyway, and eventually the owl flew away. He waited, occasionally moving his position. And he listened.
It was nearly two-thirty when he heard someone digging in the side yard. Dylan moved toward the sound. Someone was crouched down on the ground as he approached. If it was a man, he was slight of build, but Dylan wouldn’t underestimate his strength by his size. He crept up behind him.
“Stand up and turn around slowly. I want your hands where I can see them.”
The only weapon Dylan had was a tree branch he’d cleaned off while he was looking around earlier. But he could use it to defend himself, if need be.
The man rose slowly from the ground.
“Whatever you have in your hand, drop it!” Dylan said, his voice commanding.
Something fell to the ground. “It’s just a spade,” the man said. “I don’t have a weapon. Just garden tools. Don’t hurt me.”
Dylan kept his distance from the man. He picked up the item the man had dropped to the ground. It was indeed a small garden spade. “What are you doing out here?”
“I work here.”
“Nice try. Want to give me another? This time, something believable.”
“It’s true. Ask Aurore. I’ve worked long before before Mr. Davco was taken to the nursing home. Going on ten years now.”
Dylan took a step closer. “If you work here, what are you doing out in the yard in the middle of the night?”
“I always work at night. I can’t take the sun, and the mosquitoes aren’t as bad this time of night.”
“Just what do you do?”
“I’m the Davcos’ gardener.”
“Gardener, huh? Doesn’t look like you’re doing such a hot job, by the looks of it during the day.”
The man shrugged. “I do my best. They have a limited budget, you know? So I try to do the things that need to be done so it doesn’t look worse.”
“Right.”
“Are you a cop or something?”
Dylan eyed him. The something part was right. He was a cop, although he wasn’t here in any official capacity. “I’ll ask the questions.”
“I’m telling you the truth. I have nothing to hide. Just ask the staff here.”
“What’s your name?”
“Sam. Sam Watson. I live over in the next town.” Sam had his hands in the air and was starting to shake. “Ask Aurore. She’ll tell you. I’ve been working here for years.”
“Okay, Sam Watson. Why don’t we do just that?”
* * *
Aurore stood in the foyer, staring at Dylan and Sam in the doorway. “Was it necessary to wake up the whole house for this?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Dylan saw Tammie coming down the stairs, wrapped in a blue terrycloth bathrobe.
“What’s going on?” she asked. Then her eyes widened when she saw Sam Watson.
“He claims he’s your gardener.”
“He doesn’t claim anything,” Aurore said with an impatient sigh. “He is the gardener. This is why you felt the need to wake us all up?”
“What is he doing out in the yard at this time of the night?” Dylan asked.
“Isn’t that our business?” Aurore said. Dylan continued to stare at her, waiting for an answer. She sighed and pulled her bathrobe tighter. “He prefers to work that way. Mr. Davco approved of it, and I didn’t see any reason to change things once Mr. Davco was no longer here. The way I see it, you’re the intruder. Not Sam.”
“You’re the man I saw in the garden last night,” Tammie said, coming into the foyer and addressing the gardener.
“I didn’t know anyone saw me. I thought everyone was asleep. I don’t usually wake anyone when I’m working.”
“You’re sure this is the man you saw?” Dylan asked. Tammie nodded.
“Sam has been a loyal employee for years. I sometimes make him breakfast before he goes home.”
Dylan pushed aside the weirdness of this arrangement “Has he ever taken anything from you?”
Aurore’s eyes flared with fire. “You mean steal? Never!”
“You’re sure? Check his pockets,” Dylan said.
“No, I will not. I find this offensive, Mr. Montgomery. I will not have you come into this house and make accusations—”
“Sam, are you going to come clean about the noise your pocket was making as we walked to the front door or should I? Now, I’m not real good at the sounds a garden spade makes when it’s shoved in a pocket but I did see you stuff something in there, and it made an awful racket rubbing up against something else. How about it?”
“What are you talking about?” Looking at Sam, Aurore asked, “Sam, what is going on?”
The remorse on the gardener’s face said it all. He pulled out the contents of his pocket and held them in his hands for everyone to see. Wide-eyed, Aurore picked through the tangle of chains and rings and found a diamond pendant and necklace encrusted with dirt from being buried in the ground. A ring was tangled in the chain of the necklace and wouldn’t pull free. Aurore spread the jewelry out in the palm of her hand and examined it.
“I…I remember these. These were Eleanor’s. They were lost in the fire,” Aurore said, moving the pieces in her hand and brushing away dirt.
“Are you sure?” Tammie asked.
“Of course I’m sure.”
“You want to explain how you came by these?” Dylan asked.
The hurt on Aurore’s face was unmistakable. “Sam, I don’t understand. How did you get these? How could you possibly have these?”
Sam hung his head.
Tammie looked at the pieces of jewelry in Aurore’s hand. One of the rings had a large stone, but Tammie couldn’t make out what it was. “How can you tell they are the same pieces of jewelry?”
“Eleanor had a lot of jewelry. Mr. Davco was very generous that way, as was her father. But most of it was lost when the house burned. But I remember this piece well,” Aurore said, fingering the pendant. “This is the diamond pendant that Mr. Davco gave her when Serena was born. Eleanor loved it. She wore it nearly every day. She even wore it when she posed for the portrait.”
As if on cue, everyone turned to look at the portrait hanging on the wall of the staircase.
Recovered from the betrayal, Aurore lashed out. “How did you get these?”
“I’m sorry Aurore. I started finding jewelry and old coins a few years back,” Sam admitted. “They must have been turned over by the tractor when the house was rebuilt after the fire. At first I’d only found a few things and then as I worked on new flower gardens, I’d find a little more.”
“You mean, there’s more?’ Tammie asked.
Aurore eyed him suspiciously. “How come you never said anything? How come you didn’t turn over what you found?”
“What happened to the rest, Sam?” Dylan pressed.
Sam sighed and shook his head. “They’re gone. I’m sorry, Aurore.”
“What do you mean, gone? If you’ve found more of Mrs. Davco’s jewelry, you need to give them back. They belong to Serena. She needs to have them.”
“I can’t,” Sam said. “You don’t know how sorry I am.”
“Let me guess,” Dylan said. “You’ve got a friend down at the auction site who fenced them for you. It’s been a sweet little deal for you all these years, so you haven’t felt the need to say anything. What was it you said to me in the garden when I mentioned the state of the yard work? Oh, right—they’re on a limited budget. Was this your way of getting a raise for yourself without anyone knowing?”
A small gasp esc
aped Aurore’s lips. “Sam, how could you? And after Mr. Davco has been so good to you? I can’t believe it. We kept you on after Mr. Davco went away. I should think you’d have been grateful.”
“I didn’t think anyone would mind a few pieces. Everyone thought they were gone, anyway. I didn’t think anyone would miss them.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” Tammie said.
Aurore straightened her back. “I won’t press charges, Sam. That’d only upset Serena. And I won’t tell her about this. It’d only break her heart. But I do expect you to get your things and leave this house this instant. We don’t require your services any longer.”
“I’m real sorry about this, Aurore. You have no idea.”
“I am, too.”
Sam left, and Aurore continued to look at the jewelry in her hand. “Serena will want these,” she said.
Then she turned to Tammie. “Unless you thought you’re entitled to them to?”
Tammie’s eyes widened, the hurt in them unmistakable. “You said that pendant was a gift when Serena was born. I think it’s only right she get it, and the rest of the jewelry.”
Aurore nodded and sighed. “Forgive me. It’s no excuse, but I’m a little tired. And this is...upsetting.”
“Apology accepted.”
“I’ll see to cleaning these pieces tomorrow morning. I suggest we turn in, and... Mr. Montgomery...what were you doing out there this late at night, anyway?”
“I was checking on Tammie.”
Aurore nodded, and to Dylan’s surprise, she didn’t challenge him. “Good night.”
She was halfway up the stairs when Aurore turned and said, “Make sure you lock your bedroom door.”
“I will. Good night.”
* * *
Tammie waited until Aurore was upstairs before she spoke to Dylan. “Do you believe Sam’s story?”
Dylan made a face. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Fatigue was pulling at him. Dark, puffy shadows were under his eyes, and his shoulders had a slight droop, as if he could barely keep himself standing.
“You should go back to the campground and get some rest.”
“I know, but...” He stared at her as if he wanted to say something but was holding back.
“I’ll be fine here.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “Now that I know there won’t be any other strange men lurking outside tonight.”
“Are you sure?”
“About what? Strange men, or that I’ll be okay?”
He gave her a half smile that made him look completely...adorable. Why, she didn’t know. He was wearing army fatigues and a black T-shirt that hung loosely around his frame. His hair was a mess, most probably from him rubbing his hand over his head to try to stay awake while he’d been outside. There was nothing movie-starish about Dylan Montgomery, and yet...
“I’m fine,” she said.
But she wasn’t. Sam Watson’s midnight rounds in the garden had put her on edge. She wondered if he would come back tonight. What would keep him from digging up more valuables in the garden when everyone was asleep? It wasn’t that she cared so much about him stealing. It was the creepy feeling that someone was always watching.
But she wouldn’t tell Dylan that. Just because she was uncomfortable, that didn’t mean Dylan should stay and risk falling asleep at the wheel because he’d stayed up all night watching the house. And she had a feeling he would, if she voiced her concerns.
She followed him to the door.
“Are you really okay?”
She answered honestly. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s just a scraped knee, but...”
“But what?”
She closed her eyes, felt his fingertips on her chin, lifting it ever so slightly. When she opened her eyes again, he was staring directly into her eyes.
“Talk to me.”
“After today, I’m not sure I’m strong enough to handle what I find out. That accident today—in part, it was my own fault.”
His brow furrowed.
“No, really,” she insisted. “I’ve been so preoccupied with finding out information about my parents. I kept thinking I had to talk to everyone, and I was so eager to talk to people that I wasn’t paying attention. Not to people or where I was going. Maybe that man was right, and I just shouldn’t have been there.”
He nodded, but didn’t appear convinced. “Do you really think that accident wasn’t staged?”
“You really believe it was?”
He shrugged. “Did you see the name on the truck? Aztec Corporation?”
“What about it?”
“I’ve seen that name before. I figured out where earlier. But something about it doesn’t fit.”
She lowered her head, feeling the weight of the day crashing around her. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, about it not being an accident. But it doesn’t make sense. No one knew we were going to be there,” she said.
“But they knew we were in town. Being at the auction grounds was a logical next step. And when they saw us there, I don’t know. It was easy to stage something. Trudie said the vendors are given times different than the surrounding vendors to prevent that very thing from happening. Yet, they were there and they’d ignored it.” He frowned as he looked at her. “Hey, are you sure you’re okay?”
She gave Dylan a weak smile. “I don’t know. I thought I was strong enough to handle all this. Now I’m not so sure.”
He looked at her, seemed to read the uncertainty she felt. Then he said, “You don’t give yourself enough credit, lady. You’re a lot stronger than you think.”
“How can you tell?”
“Because the woman who came all the way across the country and made her way into this house after I tried for a month to do the same is incredibly smart...and brave. You may be feeling alone right now, Tammie, but you have to know that you’re not. I’m here, too.”
Tears pressed against Tammie’s eyes. Dylan had touched upon the exact sense of insecurity she’d been feeling. She’d struggled to stay strong, but everything she learned seemed to be pulling her farther away from her parents, instead of bringing her the closeness she sought.
“You can’t stay here forever.”
“You just try to run me out of town. It won’t work. I’ll be here as long as it takes to find out what happened to Cash and to help you find out about your parents. I promise you that.”
“Thank you.”
His voice was low when he spoke again. “You’re welcome.”
Dylan bent his head and inched closer to her. She felt the heat of his body increase the closer he came. Her heartbeat quickened and her breath caught in her throat when his face was only inches from hers. He was going to kiss her, she knew. But what surprised her was how much she wanted him to. She wanted it as much as she wanted her next breath.
Cupping her cheek, he pressed his lips tenderly to her mouth. He wasn’t in any hurry to break the connection, and neither was Tammie. She leaned into the kiss, reaching her arms up to his shoulders and pressing her body closer to his. Her head was swimming and her mind seemed to shut down as she breathed in the scent of him and tasted his lips.
Dylan’s arm dropped to her waist and then he moved his hand to the small of her back and pulled her to him. Her insides exploded as he enveloped her in his embrace in a way that made Tammie feel cherished and desired, not possessed.
The feeling was like a drug, making her float deeper and deeper into the swirl of desire consuming her. The kiss ended sooner than Tammie would have liked, leaving her dazed and unsteady on her feet.
Dylan’s face registered shock, and he drew in a deep breath. “I’m s—”
“Don’t. Don’t say it,” she said softly, placing her fingers gently against his lips. “I’m not.”
His gaze lingered on her face as he placed his hand on her cheek again, rubbing it with the pad of his thumb. She leaned into the warmth of his touch. It felt good to be this close, to feel this connection to someone. S
he wasn’t sure she’d ever felt this way with a man before.
“I knew you’d taste sweet,” he whispered. Bending forward again, he kissed her head and said, “Good night, Tammie.”
“Good night.”
He was leaving. And she didn’t want him to. She wanted Dylan to come back and kiss her the way he’d just done. She wanted to be in his arms and feel his strength. He’d made her feel small and protected. And desired. She still felt it. She still wanted it.
* * *
Tammie closed the door behind Dylan as he stepped out onto the porch. The cool night air slapped him in the face as he stepped off the porch steps and onto the walkway.
Guilt crept into his mind. “You’re a shit, buddy. The last thing this woman needs is a man coming on to her now.”
He shook his head. His timing was beyond bad. But he wasn’t sorry.
As he walked up the path, he thought of how nice Tammie had felt in his arms, the feeling that had enveloped him and still hung on.
“This isn’t what I came here for,” he muttered, looking at the bright stars up in the sky as he walked the short distance to his Jeep with unsteady legs. He hadn’t expected this or the way he was feeling.
When he’d made it to the place where he’d parked his Jeep, he climbed in and gunned the engine. With the top off, it was going to be a cold ride back to the campground, but it would keep him awake and alert.
Tomorrow he’d go to the library. Maybe Sonny will have emailed him the information he’d asked for by then. If she hadn’t, then he’d call Jake or Kevin in Providence. This small town’s resources were limited. He needed a big-city computer and a few people who were good at sniffing out facts. Sonny was more than capable, but he needed someone with access she didn’t legally have. And she was right. She wouldn’t do anything illegal and he wasn’t about to ask his kid sister to put herself or her reputation in jeopardy. Even for their brother.
But all that could wait until tomorrow morning. He needed to shake off this feeling that had him reeling. For so many years, he’d been alone. Oh, he had a loving family with Sonny, Cash, and their parents. He had more cousins than he knew the names of. He was rich with family.
Reckless Hours: a Romantic Suspense novel (Heroes of Providence Book 3) Page 13
