Glow (Glimmer and Glow #2)

by BETH KERY

  “Thad Schaefer is still meeting up with the Seifert girl at night, but he’s all eyes for Ms. Reed every day at the camp.”

  “And Ms. Seifert doesn’t appreciate that much, does she?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Is she a threat to Alice?” Dylan asked bluntly.

  “I don’t believe so, but I learned early on in my training that one of the most unpredictable things in nature is a jealous woman. Schaefer is more of an issue. He’s following Alice at times.”

  “With what intent?”

  “The obvious one, I think,” Rigo said with a bland glance. “I’ve never seen him behave in any aggressive manner toward her.”

  “He’s a problem. More so because Alice refuses to see it,” Dylan mused. “She leaves herself wide open to him, and that kid is being poisoned by someone.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Dylan scowled. They both knew to whom he referred. He hadn’t briefed Rigo or Peterson on the Alice Reed–Addie Durand connection. He’d only emphasized that Alice was important. Rigo and Peterson were also aware that Kehoe and his interactions with Alice were a prime object of interest for Dylan. He knew that the two men were probably frustrated by a lack of more solid information for their mission. The fact of the matter was, however, Dylan didn’t have a specific reason for suspicion when it came to Kehoe. True, Kehoe was generally known to be bitter and disapproving of Dylan’s position as CEO. But he wasn’t the only one who was a Fall dissenter at Durand. Universal popularity was rare for a person in a position like his. But Kehoe was also a top-level performer and leader for Durand Enterprises. Just because Kehoe wasn’t a cheerleader for Dylan was hardly damning evidence against him.

  He hesitated to tell Rigo or Peterson that he’d given the two security operatives a mission mostly based on intuition and a hazy but powerful feeling of unease.

  “Have you seen Schaefer with Kehoe much?” Dylan asked.

  “I see him talking to Schaefer at times, but maybe only a little bit more than the other counselors.”

  “Is Kehoe still giving Alice a hard time?”

  “It’s more of a silent disapproval than anything too overt. He’s not as open and friendly with her as he is with the other counselors. He knows you’ve taken an interest in her.”

  “Nobody ever accused Kehoe of not being intelligent. And after yesterday in the woods, he definitely suspects that you’ve been given the job of keeping an eye on Alice.”

  “Yes.”

  “It was inevitable. If he gives you a hard time again, please let me know.

  “I can manage Kehoe.”

  “Good. I realize it’s not an easy position I’ve put you and Josh in, having to report both to Kehoe and myself. Anything else about Kehoe?”

  Rigo hesitated. “I catch him looking at Ms. Reed at times.”

  Dylan narrowed his gaze. “Like Schaefer looks at her?”

  “No. More like . . . he’s trying to figure something out about her or see some characteristic that’s invisible. He studies her.”

  Dylan nodded slowly. “Yeah. I think I’ve caught him at it a time or two.”

  “Sir, I’d like to suggest again that we consider phone surveillance.”

  Dylan closed his eyes briefly at Rigo’s familiar urging. “I’m the CEO of Durand Enterprises, not the head of the FBI, Sal.”

  “You’re the CEO of an extensive, privately held company. You have a right to know what’s happening in your domain.”

  “You call it ‘right to know,’ but I call what you’re talking about corporate espionage. I have no grounds for ordering something like that at this point. The other problem with your argument is that I’m not worried about Durand Enterprises. I’m worried about Alice. And unfortunately, no one, including the sheriff of Morgantown, believes I have any solid grounds for being concerned about Sebastian Kehoe at this point. By all accounts, he’s an upstanding, respected citizen.” He noticed Sal’s upraised brows. “We’ll proceed with my plans for the present,” he said levelly. “Did you have any other observations?”

  “Just one other thing. I noticed Sidney Gates talking very intently to her tonight at the cocktail party, but I couldn’t get close enough to hear what they were saying. I do think Ms. Reed became . . . upset in a subdued kind of way at one point.”

  “I noticed that, too,” Dylan said thoughtfully. He’d also wondered what his good friend had been saying to Alice when he noticed her stiff expression and tense posture. He exhaled. “Well, I think that’s it for now. Thank you for the briefing. I’ll see you out,” he said, starting to walk around his desk. He noticed Rigo’s hesitation and paused. “Is there something else?” Dylan asked.

  “I was just thinking it might be best to bring in two other people from Durand security for Ms. Reed’s night watch so they could have days off. I could recommend another good man.”

  “That won’t be necessary. The fewer people involved in this the better. I don’t expect this situation of Alice sleeping beyond the security of Castle Durand to last for long,” Dylan said grimly.

  “Of course, sir. And I can see myself out. Good night.”

  “Good night.”

  Dylan doubted very seriously it would be a good night. Certainly it’d be a sleepless one.

  Several images flashed into his mind’s eye like a video clip: Alice’s pale, shocked face when he’d threatened to send Schaefer home, her determined refusal to meet his eyes as she left the house tonight. As she’d walked out, she’d been surrounded by Schaefer and her friends in what irritably struck Dylan as a protective cadre.

  He recalled her disembodied whisper emanating from the darkness.

  I remember Addie.

  He was desperate to know what she’d experienced, but she’d denied him. One look at the stubborn tilt of her chin and the suppressed fury on her face had said it all. Alice wouldn’t be returning to the castle for any clandestine meetings with him for the time being. She was angry, yes, but he knew her well enough to recognize her confusion, as well. She was having trouble telling up from down in this new world in which she found herself.

  For now, he had no choice but to accept defeat. But it would definitely be a temporary one.

  THE night after the Alumni Dinner, Kuvi walked out of the bathroom and caught Alice peering between two closed blinds.

  “Do you think he’s out there?” Kuvi asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

  Alice started and the blinds snapped shut. “Jesus, you scared me.”

  “You’ve been awfully jumpy. You didn’t sleep last night, did you?” Kuvi asked as she crossed over to her dresser.

  “I don’t know how you can possibly know that since you were sleeping like a baby,” Alice said, rolling her eyes.

  “This morning, your bed looked like you’d been holding a wrestling match in it,” Kuvi said loftily, shutting a drawer with a snap. “As if your grouchy mood today wasn’t enough to tell me that I wasn’t the one you wanted to be spending the night with. And you never answered my question. Do you think Dylan is out there in the woods?”

  “No,” Alice replied quietly. “Not Dylan.”

  Kuvi did a double take at her solemn answer. Somehow, Alice would know if Dylan was nearby. Maybe she knew that because part of her wished like hell Dylan was nearby. She hated to admit it, but she was disappointed that he hadn’t come to claim her last night in the cabin like he had several nights ago, when he’d made her face up to her promise.

  She missed him. Bad. And Alice knew what that made her. A spineless hypocrite. She was still confused and angry about what he’d said to Thad. She wanted to apologize to Thad for her flash of temper at him, as well as console him about Dylan’s threat. Thad wasn’t giving her much of an opportunity, however. Since this morning, he’d been avoiding Alice. Thanks to Dylan, he’d probably decided his friendship with her was a black mark on his record.

  There was something else bothering her. She longed to return to the castle for another reason. She kept reliving the memory of
playing hide-and-seek with Lynn Durand. That memory continued to amaze her. Nourish her.

  As she stood there in her cabin with Kuvi, she thought of the woman in the memory as Lynn Durand. But when she’d been experiencing it, Alice thought of her as mommy. The warm, sweet sense of absolute security that unfurled inside her at that memory continued to be a source of wonder. Alice had never known she’d been capable of such a feeling.

  The fact of the matter was, she craved more of it. Another part of her dreaded recalling, though, fearful of needing those memories, afraid of the moment they evaporated like mist and she realized she was alone.

  “Do you think it could be Sal Rigo out there?” Kuvi asked presently, walking toward Alice. Kuvi had been with her the time Alice caught Rigo secretly observing a group of them while they were at the Lakeside Tavern. Later, Alice had learned that Dylan had sent Rigo to watch over her—Alice—not the whole group of counselors. But if she explained that to Kuvi, she had to elaborate on a lot of other things, like why Dylan was so paranoid about her safety.

  “It might be,” Alice said, flipping back her covers. “There’s someone out there, though. I can feel it.”

  “Maybe it’s just your nerves,” Kuvi consoled, getting into her own bed. “Like I said, you’ve been crazy jumpy since last night.”

  Alice heard the unasked question in her friend’s tone. She knew Kuvi was curious about what had happened after the Alumni Dinner. It was clear to both Kuvi and Dave that something had gone wrong last night. Alice and Thad had been unusually tense and uncommunicative as all of them walked back to camp. If Kuvi couldn’t guess from that, Alice’s presence in their cabin last night told her loud and clear that something was wrong between Alice and Dylan.

  “It’s not just my nerves,” Alice said shortly, reaching for her bedside lamp switch. “And it’s not just a feeling. I saw a shadow out there last night and the glow of a cigarette. Whoever it is sits out there just past the tree line, smoking and watching. He’s out there again tonight. I saw his cigarette. I’m going to figure out who it is in the morning.”

  Kuvi shut out her bedside light. “How?”

  “I’ll find a way,” Alice replied doggedly.

  “Let’s suppose what you say is true, wouldn’t confronting the person be dangerous?”

  “They’re not dangerous,” Alice said scornfully under her breath. They’re just following orders.

  “Alice, do you think Dylan Fall sent someone to spy on you?” Kuvi asked, as though she’d read Alice’s mind.

  Alice hesitated. “Yes. Probably,” she finally replied.

  Kuvi was silent for a moment. Alice sensed her puzzlement and amazement. “Why in the world would he do that? Is he some kind of stalker?”

  “He’s not a stalker,” she defended bluntly. “It’s a long story.”

  “I figured. I have a long attention span, you know.”

  Alice held her breath. When it became clear that Alice wasn’t going to reveal anything else, Kuvi sighed resignedly. Guilt swept through Alice. She really had been grumpy with Kuvi lately, and Kuvi didn’t deserve it. Not by a long shot. Alice heard her turn over in bed.

  “Night.”

  “Night,” Alice mumbled. “Kuvi?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m sorry I’ve been such a bitch lately.”

  “I can take your moodiness. I just wish I knew what was really bothering you.”

  “Yeah,” Alice whispered.

  Kuvi sighed again. Alice listened as her friend’s breathing grew regular and soft. She lay there, wide awake, envying Kuvi’s peaceful sleep.

  The next morning wasn’t a day that she’d scheduled to run with Terrance, but she got up anyway and put on a jogging bra, socks, and shoes. She quietly exited the cabin and locked the door behind her. A minute later, she was jogging along the white sand beach. The sun was rising, but the woods to the left of her were still blocking much of its light. The beach was still draped in a murky gloom. She looked around, but saw no one on the beach behind her. Determined, she ran full out, racing toward the entrance to the woods that led to the stables.

  Her breath was coming fast and ragged by the time she reached the path. She wasn’t crazy about the idea of taking the dim trail. She’d been trying to avoid the path as much as she could, highly aware of its significance.

  Dylan had informed her that it was on that very trail that Addie Durand had been kidnapped and Dylan himself had been stabbed as he tried to defend her. At the time, he’d been a fourteen-year-old boy, and Addie a child of four. When she’d first arrived at the camp, Alice had thought she’d been chased by a ghost on that trail. The ghost had turned out to be a man Dylan had hired to follow her. The flesh-and-blood, secretive man and Alice’s unconscious, hazy, yet atavistic fear of what had happened in those woods twenty years ago had blended to create Alice’s phantom.

  She didn’t feel afraid today. She was too out of breath and focused on tricking her prey.

  Several hundred feet down the trail, she decided it was time to make things a little difficult for Mr. Cigarette Man. Spotting a particularly thick growth of underbrush and trees, she ducked off the path, careful to mute her footsteps. Once she was sixty or so feet off the trail, she used a thick oak for cover, pressing her back to it and willing her escalated breathing to slow. She listened for a tread on the path.

  Any second now . . .

  Was that a rapid footfall in the distance? She twisted her neck, craning her head around the tree to capture the elusive sound. Yes. Her follower was coming. Alice tensed in preparation to follow him and then confront him. She had a few choice words in mind. She hoped like hell Mr. Cigarette Man conveyed them verbatim to his boss.

  Suddenly a glove-covered hand was covering her smirk. She spun around, her eyes springing wide.

  Dylan eclipsed her vision. He pressed his big body tighter against her, pinning her between him and the tree. Alice realized she’d been struggling in panic and went still.

  “Shhh,” he hissed.

  They both listened as the footsteps grew louder on the path in the distance. Alice stared up at Dylan’s tense face. He hadn’t shaved yet. His thick hair was mussed. It had fallen forward, parenthesizing his dark, narrowed eyes. He looked scruffy and rugged and delicious.

  Shit.

  He looked like he did every morning when he left his bed and escorted her safely to her cabin. She’d forgotten that he went horseback riding every morning after that. The gloves pressed against her lips were his riding gloves. But she hadn’t heard a horse. How did he know to find her here?

  He wasn’t watching her, but instead staring into the distance. She knew he was tracking the approaching footsteps. It was hard to focus on the man on the path, however, with Dylan’s long hard body pressed against hers. He wasn’t allowing her to move or look down, but she could tell he was wearing jeans, like he did most mornings. The fly of them was pressing against her lower abdomen. His body felt dense and unforgiving against her flesh. His masculinity was flagrant . . . pervasive; about as impossible to ignore as a blow to the head. She caught his scent.

  Against her will, arousal blazed in her body. Two nights away from him. Too long.

  His stare suddenly zipped to her face, as if he’d sensed the flash fire inside her, like the spark of lust had jumped into him. He pressed his crotch closer. She felt his cock harden against her. The man was on the path directly in front of them now. Alice hardly cared. She twisted her head angrily. Dylan lowered his head until his face hovered an inch over hers, and removed his hand from her mouth.

  Instead, he used his mouth to silence her. It was a good thing, too, because Alice whimpered in stark longing at the hard pressure of his kiss. He grabbed her shoulders and bunched her to him, his actions a little angry and a lot possessive. He plunged his tongue between her lips, a thirsty man slaking himself. In that moment, Alice knew for certain that he was every bit as desperate as her.

  She tried to pull her hands up so that she could touch him
, but he pressed even closer, preventing it. Her hands remained pinned against the tree. His cock felt fuller now, the sensation of it commanding every fiber of her attention that wasn’t already ruled by his demanding kiss. Time passed. The man on the path was forgotten. She drowned in his taste. Her head swam. God, she needed air.

  She needed him more.

  She twisted her head, moaning softly. He moved his hands to her jaw and kept her face steady while he fucked her mouth with his tongue. He plucked at her lips forcefully with his own and bit the lower one, scraping the sensitive skin between his teeth. Alice quaked against him.

  “Always rebelling, even when you don’t know what against. I ought to spank your ass red, do you know that?” he breathed out in a husky whisper next to her parted lips. Arousal shot through her at his dark threat. His eyes glittered with angry lust between narrowed eyelids. She squirmed against him and tried to break her chin free of his hold on her face. He grasped her more firmly, the feeling of the soft, well-worn leather against her skin only amplifying her excitement. “I ought to spank you good and hard and then fuck you even harder.” He plucked at her mouth hungrily and she felt his cock swell against her belly. “I ought to fuck you so deep and come so hard, you feel me inside you as a constant reminder as you go about your day of rebelling. Would you like that, Alice?”

  “No.”

  “Yes, you would,” he growled, recognizing her lie instantly. Holding her stare, he reached between them and began to jerk down her running shorts. Her heart leapt.

  “If you spank me, whoever you had follow me will hear it,” she said in a panicked, choked whisper.

  “Then I’ll have to save the spanking for later. The other part isn’t going to wait, though. If that incompetent jerk is stupid enough to come back here while I’m having you, he can just be fired sooner versus later.”

  “But—”

  He shoved unceremoniously at her clothing and she felt her shorts and panties fall against her shins to her ankles. He grabbed her hand and pressed it against his erection. She bit her lower lip, air hissing between her teeth. Her hand moved of its own accord, cupping and massaging large, round testicles, and then the heavy, protruding staff of his cock. He snarled at her touch. “You’ve asked for it before against a tree in the woods. Ask for it now, little girl,” he taunted. “Ask for the nice hard fuck you deserve.”