Chapter 19
Lily was shaking in her boots, or at least her pretty flats. Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah contestants looked to have been targeted. What did they all have in common? Ranching, the Rocky Mountains, what else? Clearly it wasn’t just her, which in one way was comforting and in another not at all, because it was obvious there was something very bad going on.
Compared to poor Ms. Wyoming, her experience paled in comparison. And where was Ms. Colorado, she hoped and prayed she was okay and just being held captive like Lily had been. What in heavens name was going on? She was going to be glued to Drew every second of every day, he was going to have to pry her off with a crowbar just to pee.
When they started assigning groups to the cars they had, she didn’t know if she wanted to be with the other girl with her own bodyguard, too or stay as far away as possible. Would it be safer with two trained men or would they just be a bigger target?
She knew Drew would likely want to talk to the other bodyguard, to get more information, but that idea kind of scared the crap out of her. Although it didn’t look like they were going to have any choice in the matter as they seemed to be assigning cars in alphabetical order, two or three contestants per car.
Lily ended up with Ms. Missouri and Ms. Mississippi. She didn’t want to, but she breathed a sigh of relief not to be with the other girls being targeted. As soon as they got in the car the other girls began gushing over Summer, and Lily was perfectly happy to sit back and relax while Summer chatted them up.
Sitting next to Drew’s warm body calmed her, even if she could feel his gun at her hip under his duster. It was both a reminder that there might be danger, but also that he was prepared to protect her. Everything seemed to be a double-edged sword and she wasn’t sure she liked it one bit. If she hadn’t promised Olivia she would be on the next flight back to Montana, but she refused to let fear dictate her life. She was going to see this through. Period.
She was certain that if Olivia knew she was in danger that she would rescind the promise immediately. Lily felt outrage fill her heart, letting someone dictate her life by being evil just didn’t sit right with her. She was going to pay attention and see if she couldn’t help Drew figure out what was going on, and that meant she needed to get close to Ms. Utah.
She pulled Drew down, so she could whisper in his ear. “So, who besides Ms. Utah?”
He didn’t have to ask what she meant. “Idaho and New Mexico.”
She nodded to let him know she was on board, with getting close to them.
Katie was sitting on her other side, she got her attention and whispered, “Utah, Idaho, and New Mexico, we need to chat them up. Tell Cade.”
Katie squeezed her hand and poked Cade in the shoulder. He turned his head, so Katie could whisper in his ear.
Drew grinned at her and said, “You’re one of a kind, sweet Lily.”
She snuggled closer to him, happy to have been a help. She wasn’t going to cower in some corner and let some jerk take her out of the competition. Nope, she was made of stronger stuff than that. And when fear raised its ugly head again, she was going to remind herself of that. But she wasn’t going to turn down the Kipling family’s help either.
She wanted to let her mom and dad know too, her dad was good at puzzles and maybe he could help figure it out. They would be arriving tonight, just in time for the gathering to talk about today’s observations.
Lily wondered if Adam and Rachel had seen anything yet. Rachel had said she was planning to take pictures of everyone that came close to where she was, and would be using her telephoto lens to get everyone further out. They were going to have a ton of pictures to look through. She didn’t know what they might be looking for, but at least it would give them something they could do, besides worry.
When they got to the first stop each contestant was given her sash to wear, Lily wondered if the bad guys already knew her, or whether she was putting on a big fat bullseye. She looked at her sash like it was a snake and then told herself not to be a fool and put it on. At least it would be easy to find the other three they needed to talk to.
She guessed that after those three they might also want to talk to the alternate for Ms. Wyoming, but that was probably further down on the priority list because she probably didn’t know a thing.
Since they seemed to be doing everything in alphabetical order, she thought it would probably be easiest to get close to Ms. New Mexico. Everyone seemed to be milling around and not standing in line. They were supposed to be sightseeing, after all.
So, she casually wandered toward Ms. New Mexico and finally saw Adam and Rachel a few yards away. She wanted to laugh at the outfit Adam had on, she’d never seen him in anything besides his cowboy gear, so to see him all dressed in black as a photographer’s assistant was amusing.
They weren’t supposed to know them though, so she had to keep her surprise and laughter bottled up until later tonight. He didn’t look precisely comfortable though. Poor guy. Although she wasn’t sure any of them were feeling comfortable, this was not an easy thing to do. She squared her shoulders and thought no pain, no gain, and moved up next to Ms. New Mexico.
Lily had to think fast to find a way to engage the woman, she finally decided on shoes. “Your Nina, aren’t you? Those shoes are amazing, where did you find them?”
Ms. New Mexico looked at Lily’s feet which were in flats, since she could not put too much stress on them while touring. The other woman frowned, but then said, “Yes, Nina is correct, Lily, right?”
Lily nodded but waited for Nina to continue.
“Thanks, we came in early to do some shopping. They are cute, but I wonder how my feet will feel about them at the end of the day. You seem to have taken a smarter, if less appealing, approach.”
“I have pretty shoes with me for the shoots, but my feet got torn up some last week, so I am trying to be careful with them.”
Nina looked a little wary at that statement and gave her ‘boyfriend’ a quick glance. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I hope they’ll be well enough to compete.”
“Yes, they are, I’m just going to go easy on them as long as I can.”
“That’s smart. How did you meet Summer?”
They’d never talked about a story for these kinds of questions, so Lily decided to stick as close to the truth as possible. “My bodyguard knows her. So, when I hired him and told him what I was doing, I guess he mentioned it to her and she wanted to come along. She’s great with hair and makeup, but has never been around a pageant, so I thought, why not? Plus, she said it would be fun to meet other contestants and help out where she could.”
“So, she’s really willing to talk to us other girls? I wondered about that.”
“Oh, yes, she’s quite social and likes to meet new people. Would you like to talk with her?”
“Sure, but it looks like she’s surrounded now, so maybe later.”
Lily turned her gaze toward where Nina was looking, and sure enough Summer was surrounded. Cade was frowning, glancing back and forth between Summer and Lily, clearly torn between staying with Summer and helping to guard herself. Drew was close enough to feel the heat from his body and Katie was within a couple of feet, so she didn’t think there was anything to worry about.
Lily laughed. “Wow, she really is surrounded, maybe we should make her a schedule. Katie is great with things like that.”
Nina’s lips curved into a tiny smile. “Might not be a bad idea. I don’t know how much free time we’re going to have though. They’ve got our days pretty booked out.”
Drew touched her back and she took it to mean he wanted to move. “Yeah, I noticed that too. I’ll let Summer know you’d like a few minutes. It was nice chatting with you.”
Nina smiled a little larger this time. “Thanks, I’d appreciate that. It was nice talking with you, too.”
Drew guided her over near where Summer was holding court and Cade visibly relaxed. Cade said to Drew, “Sorry, I wasn’t sure if I shou
ld stay with Summer or join you. This is kind of tense, there are so many people around.”
Drew nodded. “It is, and we’re here primarily to guard Lily, but leaving Summer to fend for herself doesn’t seem right either. It’s about time for Lily’s photos, so let’s disengage Summer from the throng and get to the staging area.”
Cade turned toward Summer and caught her eye.
She smiled sweetly at the girls. “I need to go help Lily in the staging area, but I’ll be happy to talk to the rest of you as we go along. We’ve got the better part of a week so there’s no hurry.”
Summer started moving toward Lily and the crowd opened for Summer to join them. When they got to the staging area, Summer sighed. “I had no idea I was going to be so popular. I really am not an expert. I know lots of tricks and tips, but nothing spectacular.”
Katie grinned at her friend. “You just keep telling yourself that, so you don’t get a big head. Silly girl, you know more than all these others added together.”
Summer shrugged. “Let’s concentrate on Lily.”
Lily changed into her heels while Summer touched up her makeup and fluffed her hair. By the time they’d finished, it was her turn, the only thing bad about that was leaving the other three behind for her time in front of the camera, she felt very alone.
Drew didn’t like Lily leaving their protection during the photo shoot. He’d felt she was safe with them all surrounding her, but they couldn’t do that during the shoot. He kept his eyes moving over the crowd, not really sure what he was looking for, just trying to take everything in. Looking for… something.
Someone out of place, someone too interested, someone evil looking. He rolled his eyes at himself. Just what would evil look like? Jack Nicholson in the Shining or Jeffrey Dahmer? Evil could look like anything.
He simply wanted to get this damn dog and pony show over with, without Lily getting killed or even hurt. Unfortunately, this was only the first stop of many.
Drew knew he had to use each bit of information he gained to try to find the whole picture. He began by thinking about what the look between Ms. New Mexico and her boyfriend was all about when Lily mentioned her feet being torn up. Had something happened to Nina? Were they the instigators? He had no idea, but he was going to make sure Summer had the chance to chat them up.
He turned to Summer, “Sometime today or this evening, see if you can have a few minutes alone with Ms. New Mexico. She had an odd reaction to Lily mentioning her feet being torn up.”
Summer looked to Cade and then nodded. “She’ll have her boyfriend with her, so I’ll take Cade with me. I’ll see if I can set up a few minutes after we get back to the hotel.”
After the first location went smoothly everything fell into a rhythm as they went around to the different attractions. He saw either Adam or Beau with their women and cameras at each tourist spot, but neither approached him, so he assumed they hadn’t seen anything.
They managed to get close enough to talk to Ms. Idaho at the Statue of Liberty, but she was so excited to be there that they didn’t get any information about her, or any hint that she’d had any trouble. They would try again after some of her excitement about being in New York faded.
Drew couldn’t have been more ready to head back to the hotel when they finally called it a day, they would have two and a half hours before they had to be at the reception, so just enough time to rest for a few minutes and then get dressed up for the next event. He was beginning to think that ranching was far easier than what these contestants were going through.
When they got back to their room he checked to make sure the tape was secure on both doors. Lily had kept the night lock on hers, so no one could get in that way. His tape looked fine, so no one had been in their rooms, however there was a note under Lily’s door asking her to call the front desk because they had a delivery for her.
He didn’t really like the sound of that, what kind of delivery? Who would send something? Her parents maybe, or his? One of her sponsors? He went into her room while she called and asked the front desk to please take the delivery to his room.
When Drew answered the door, one of the hotel staff handed him a large fruit and snack basket. He tipped the guy and brought it in to set on the table. He handed Lily the card and it said it was from the pageant committee. She was excited to open it, but he still felt uneasy, so he asked her to stand back just in case. She rolled her eyes at him, but did as she was told.
He pulled the cellophane off the basket and heard a slight sound. Lily had heard it too, and her eyes got as big as saucers. “Was that what it sounded like?”
Drew pulled his knife out of his boot. “I hope like hell it wasn’t.”
She stepped back further as Drew pulled the largest thing he could find out of the basket, a box of chocolates. Sure enough, there was another rattle sound, this time it was louder, more distinct.
He peered into the basket to see if he could see inside, but it was too dark.
He texted Cade to bring ice and hurry. Fortunately, Cade’s room wasn’t far. Within a few minutes Chase was there with a bag filled with ice and an ice bucket full also, Katie was right behind him.
“Cade sent me. I was bored. What’s going on?”
Drew took the ice and put it around the basket. “Rattler in the basket, sent to Lily.”
“No shit? Are you trying to put him to sleep or draw him out?”
“Either, got your knife on you?”
Chase nodded. “Hell, yes.”
“Get it out. Katie girl?”
Katie was already reaching into her purse. “Absolutely, I don’t leave home without it.”
Lily had fled to her room, but then she walked back in with a hunting knife that would rival anything they had on them.
Drew was surprised, but not a bit sad to find out there would be someone armed on all four sides of the basket. He looked Lily in the eye. “You know what to do?”
“Yes, I’m from Montana, but I don’t really like it.”
Drew figured Montana had its share of snakes. He and his brother took opposite sides of the table with Lily and Katie in between. Drew was in front of the hole he’d made and hoped the snake came his way. It didn’t take long before he saw movement and then the reptile slid out of the basket. Chase took Katie’s place to put both guys on the snake side. As soon as the snake’s head hit the table Drew lunged and quickly beheaded the menace. Chase sliced through the body, just a handspan further from the head.
Katie said breathlessly, “Any others?”
Drew nudged the basket and didn’t hear anything else moving. So, he pulled out a few other items from the basket. “Nope, just the one I think.”
Lily breathed a sigh of relief. “We should empty the basket to make sure.”
He nodded. “I agree. Chase and I can do that.”
Katie slid her knife back in her purse. “I’ll call room service and have them send us up some beers.” She looked at Lily. “Unless you prefer wine.”
“Beer is good. Whiskey would be better, but we have that damn reception in a while and it’s obvious we need to be on our toes.”
Drew turned his head slowly towards Lily, the woman was full of surprises. Whiskey? A huge hunting knife in her luggage? What was next? Not that he was against those things and he was glad she hadn’t run scared from the snake, but it sure didn’t fit his perception of her. “I was hoping that wasn’t going to be the case, but it is.”
With a grimace Lily asked, “Do you think the food in the basket is poisoned or anything?”
“I doubt it. Everything but the fruit is sealed, and I doubt they took the time to poison it. The snake should have been good enough to knock you out of the running. Even if you quickly got medical care, you wouldn’t feel good enough to compete.”
Lily nodded. “They didn’t count on you being with me, and us all having knives to defend ourselves with.”
Katie picked up the card from where Lily had dropped it. “I wonder if all the cont
estants got baskets.”
Chase put his arm around his girl. “That’s a darn good question, how can we find out?”
Katie fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I could chat up the hotel staff.” Chase frowned.
Lily rolled her eyes at Katie and Chase and their silliness. “We can have Summer ask the ones she’ll be talking to.”
“I’ll text her.” Katie got out her phone and sent off a quick text. Within seconds she had a response. “She said no problem. She’s meeting Ms. Utah in a few minutes in the lobby.”
“Cade’s going with her?”
Katie nodded. “We’ll sneak Chase back to the room in a bit. Lily, let’s go to your room for a while. I don’t want to look at that snake or the basket.”
Drew dropped the snake pieces into the trash and got a wash cloth from the bathroom to clean the table. Chase cleaned up the ice and dumped it in the bathroom sink to melt. They put the fruit in the fridge and the other food by the TV. Setting the basket outside by the door, hopefully whoever brought the beer would take the basket with them.
When they were done setting the room to rights, Drew looked at his brother. “As long as you’re stuck here. Did you find out anything useful today?”
“After you sent me your hypothesis about the girls being targeted all being from the Rocky Mountain states I did some research. I made a table of things they had in common and also things that differed. I didn’t really see any patterns, but it’s some information to look through.”
“Good, we’ll do that tonight. Anything else?”
“I walked around the hotel some. Looked over the rooms where everything will be held. Checked out the deets on them. Made a sketch of it all for everyone to take a gander at. Also looked over the sightseeing for tomorrow.”
“You were busy.” Drew was impressed with his brother’s activities.
“You were gone a long time. One thing about the reception tonight?”
Trusting Drew: Burlap and Barbed Wire Page 16
