Caught in the Frame

by ReGina Welling

  “We could just ignore it,” EV suggested.

  “No! If we don’t answer, she’ll just show up here and drag us back to wedding hell.”

  Not wanting to face that option right now, EV levered herself off the chair to go pick up the phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Miss Torrence, I have a gentleman here who insists he must speak with you immediately. Please hold the line.”

  She hardly had time to run through the possibilities before Dalton’s voice rang in her ear. “EV, I had to come.”

  Her pulse sped up; maybe from the edge of anxiety in his voice, but mostly from knowing he was here.

  “What’s happened? Is something wrong back home?”

  “No, it’s not that. Bring Chloe and come down here. Nate’s already on his way.” He hung up in her ear without providing any more info.

  Pitching her voice to be heard on the balcony, EV said, “haul your lazy butt in here.” Given the urgency in her voice, Chloe wasted no time.

  “What’s going on?”

  “That was Dalton. He’s here.”

  Chloe’s mouth dropped open. “He’s here? Oh, that’s so sweet. He couldn’t stand to be without you.” EV did an internal double-take as Chloe, ever-suspicious and generally skeptical, jumped to the most romantic of conclusions.

  Could that have been part of his decision to come? A little flare of satisfaction washed over EV at the thought, yet she maintained an even, dry tone when she said, “He asked for you and Nate on his way downstairs as well, so I’m thinking he had another motive for flying halfway around the world.”

  “That’s a load of bull, and you know it. If there was a break in the case, he could have picked up the phone. If he’s here, he’s here for you,” Chloe smirked.

  EV scrunched her face into an exaggeration of Chloe’s smirk, “Let’s go find out.”

  Nate beat them to the lobby by a good five minutes. His banishment to the farthest possible spot from Chloe’s suite put him on a more direct route to the front desk. Once there, he helped Dalton sort out the problem of not having a reservation when every room would be booked for the wedding. Antoine stepped in, swapping them to a larger suite with a second bedroom. Someone else would get bumped to a smaller room, but Antoine assured Nate he would make it work.

  So much for Chloe embarking on any late night visits. He watched her walk down the stairs toward him and, even now, knowing only something major would drag Dalton here so quickly, all he could think about was kissing the breath out of his beautiful girlfriend. He did his best to banish the thought, at least for the time being.

  “What’s going on?” Chloe demanded.

  “Not here,” Nate hissed. “We’ll talk about it upstairs.” He pocketed the new room keys Antoine handed him, and led the way.

  The door opened into a shared seating area of sorts. A pair of sofas in subdued, cream-colored upholstery flanked a black lacquered coffee table. Beyond them, a four-seater table sat in front of the stationary half of a sliding door leading to a balcony. Unlike EV and Chloe’s room, there was no kitchenette. Just a pair of bedroom doors opposite each other at the far end of the room. On the right, a coat closet took up the space behind the door, and on the left was a small, but elegantly appointed bathroom.

  Stepping into the cozy suite, EV sensed undercurrents of strong emotion. She took in Dalton’s ramrod-straight back, tense shoulders, and clenched fists, along with Nate’s flat-eyed cop face, and jumped to the most obvious conclusion.

  “Remy’s coming to the wedding.” Nothing else would have caused Dalton to leave Ponderosa Pines unprotected. Not that the job was enough to occupy anyone on a full-time basis; should anything happen, Gilmore PD was one quick phone call away. No, EV knew something else had brought him here. Despite their agreement to put their relationship on hold while dealing with Remy, he would have come in the first place, if she had asked.

  “According to Marjorie.” Dalton deadpanned, his haggard face matched a voice clogged with fatigue. In the past twenty-four hours, he’d managed to spend only a scant three in sleep on the plane. Turbulence and the intense desire to protect EV from having to face Remy alone brought him alert far too often for the nap to be considered restful. Now, his eyes drank her in, while also searching for signs that this new development was too painful for her to bear.

  EV went silent for a moment while she flipped through an internal catalog of her own emotions. Anxiety over having to face her ex again after all this time—check. Dread of having to tell Lila the whole sordid tale of her past—check. Worse, having to possibly hash that out with Remy—check. And finally, a deeply-seated satisfaction over playing avenging angel for her town—big fat check.

  That last didn’t exactly cancel out the rest, but cushioned them enough to spread a savage grin over her face. “What’s the plan? Whatever you need me to do, I’m in.”

  “If I’ve never said it before,” Dalton walked over and kissed her soundly on the lips. “You’re one hell of a woman, Emmalina Torrence.”

  Chloe, delighted at seeing the kiss, let out a loud whoop that forced Nate to crack a smile. With the tension released, Chloe ordered a couple of pizzas from room service—hoping to counteract the threatening sugar coma—and the four of them sat down at the table to hammer out a plan for getting to the bottom of Remy’s vendetta against Ponderosa Pines.

  “I could see him coming back to take some sort of revenge against me, though for what reason, I have no idea. But what could he have against an entire town?” EV frowned. “And more importantly, why now? He’s been nothing but a bad memory for thirty years. Something must have triggered him. And Marjorie still has no clue? I don’t get it.”

  “That’s been the problem all along. Without a clear motive, we’re struggling to make what evidence we do have fit any kind of actionable reason for what he seems to be trying to accomplish. Best we’ve got now is several counts of identity theft.” Nate snagged the last piece of pizza. ”Even if he’d managed to get Evan to convince the town to throw in the towel and combine with Gilmore, I can’t see any profit in it for him. He has no financial stake in Gilmore that I can find. They’ve been very helpful over there, by the way. Not just the police department; the entire town management team.”

  His comment pulled a raised eyebrow from EV. In her experience, the leaders of the town of Gilmore had always looked down on the residents of Ponderosa Pines. It was easy to forget the fact that Nate had been top dog back in Portland; his foray as a small-town lawman seemed natural to her, but perhaps his status legitimized Ponderosa Pines in the eyes of Gilmore’s officials.

  Dalton took up the narrative. “Nate’s investigator friend dropped off everything she’s found so far.” He twisted in his chair to grab the briefcase he’d brought with him, and pulled out a sheaf of papers.

  Jumping up to clear the pizza leavings from the table, Chloe brushed past Nate. The momentary touch raised goosebumps on her arms, and for a second she considered kicking Dalton out of his own room. Love ya, Dalton, but you’re blocking me pretty hard right now. Just as Veronica and Mindy had suggested, it looked like skulking around the castle for some alone time was their only option.

  As Dalton laid out the papers, EV snatched each one up, scanned it quickly, then placed it back on the table. What she saw was enough for her to know Remy was the culprit. There was even enough evidence that Nate had been given the green light to officially reopen the investigation, but no judge would issue a warrant based on what they had amassed so far.

  An hour later, Dalton’s eyes were drooping and the bones of a plan had formed.

  Chapter 7

  Chloe’s usually-groomed hair fell in a disordered mess around her face—the result of running her hands through it while resisting the urge to yank it out by the roots. Listening to Lila argue with the sacrificial lamb of a liaison to the atrium manager over why it wasn’t prudent to unleash five hundred live butterflies indoors was right up there with getting her teeth cleaned on Chloe’s
list of least favorite things to do. That the seemingly timid little mouse had drawn the short straw was evident. Remarkably, she held her ground and insisted Lila have the wedding of her dreams, while remaining within managerial guidelines. EV had been alternating between silent laughter and slipping into some state of meditative avoidance ever since Lila’s dainty hands hammered on the connecting door right before she let herself into Chloe’s room earlier that morning.

  With caffeine coursing through her system, Chloe could handle her mother in full-on diva mode, but before breakfast, she was a little much to take.

  “Butterflies do not poop.” Lila’s near shriek knocked the zen right off of EV, who beat a hasty retreat to the bathroom. Seeing EV’s lips pressed tightly together, Chloe suspected it was to keep from peeing her pants with laughter.

  Traitor, Chloe’s eyes shot daggers at EV’s back before she gave in to the inevitable and stepped into the fray. She waived the harried young woman—whose only error had been trying to placate the bride beast—out the door before rounding on Lila.

  “Everything poops, Mother. Give it a rest. It’s not going to happen. Don’t we need to be somewhere else right now?” Sighing, Chloe pressed fingers to her temple; the ache there was starting to throb.

  Lila glanced at her watch. “Yes, we need to meet Baylee in the cafe in five minutes.” She pitched her voice louder, “Get out here, EV, we’re leaving now.”

  Before Lila could pull open the door, a loud knocking preceded the shrill, singsong question, “Where’s my newest bri-ide? Are you in there Lila?” A pause. “Hellooo.” Whoever was on the other side of the door had the voice of a whining child; her tone pierced the air like the screech of metal on metal.

  “Shh.” Whispering, Lila said, “Be quiet and maybe she’ll go away.”

  “Who is it?” When one person whispers, everyone does. Chloe nudged Lila aside to squint through the peephole. It could have been the distortion from the fish eye lens, but the woman on the other side of the door reminded Chloe of the Cabbage Patch Doll she’d bugged her mother for when she was little. Blond hair framed a round, dimpled face with a button nose. Chloe had to stand on tiptoes and angle her gaze downward in order to see the tiny woman.

  “Hush up, she’ll hear you. That’s Hannah Frank, former wedding coordinator to the stars.”

  “Former?” EV also whispered.

  “Lot of rumors. Some kind of scandal put her out of commission. Now she’s trying to work her way back in. She heard I was getting married and followed me here.”

  Chloe watched Hannah frown, then reluctantly walk away. “She’s gone. And now that you mention it, I received an alert from one of my social media monitoring tools that your name was tweeted—the post came from HF Events, and mentioned your engagement. I figured it was legit; that maybe you had hired a wedding planner, so I didn’t think much of it at the time.”

  “What does she want?” EV asked.

  “To help with the wedding. Gratis, of course, because she just happened to be staying at the castle. Coincidence? I doubt it.” Why was she still whispering? “I think she’s trying to use me to get back in good graces with her former clientele.” Lila added in her normal tone of voice. “I told her we’re planning a small, understated wedding and I don’t need her help. Apparently, I wasn’t speaking her language.”

  “I see.” EV grinned. “A small, understated wedding. In a castle, with 500 butterflies, and how many of your closest friends?”

  “Hey, I’m only going to do this once.” Lila answered EV’s grin with one of her own. “But I don’t want that twin-set-wearing airhead involved.”

  “So, just tell her that.” Chloe suggested.

  “You make it sound so easy. I’ll tell you what,” Lila retorted, “You try it when she comes around again. See how far you get. She’s more relentless than a bulldog. I already had to warn the staff not to take orders from her after I found out she’d been telling everyone she was in charge. I caught Antoine just before he sent back the four racks of bridesmaids dresses I ordered in from various sources. He had no idea she wasn’t legit. I think that’s why his nose is so brown right now; he’s feeling guilty.”

  “The nerve.”

  “I think she’s gone. We’re going to be late for our lunch with the photographer.” Lila hoped Hannah wasn’t lurking around the next corner. While EV and Chloe exchanged amused sidelong glances, Lila sidled along the wall and peeked around just to make sure.

  “Clear.”

  When Lila glanced back, it was to see EV and Chloe doing their best Charlie’s Angels imitation. Lila looked away to hide her grin, and maybe, even if she would never admit it, her jealousy that the two of them were so close. A visit to Ponderosa Pines might not be the worst thing. After saying she would consider one to attend EV’s wedding to Dalton when she thought such a thing impossible, Lila now hoped it would come to pass.

  Chapter 8

  Baylee Delarosa and her assistant Ross Adams were already seated at one of the larger tables in the cafe’s atrium when Lila breezed in with her entourage—if Chloe and EV could be called that. After kissing Baylee on both cheeks and offering an apology for her tardiness, Lila made the introductions.

  Running an appraising eye over the attractive woman who stood waiting to shake her hand, Chloe judged Baylee to be in her early forties. A swing of smooth auburn hair framed an oval face scattered across the middle with freckles. A ready smile bracketed by the kind of fine creases that came from long years of practice contradicted the shallower frown lines etching their way into her forehead. The soft twang in her speech pattern gave away a childhood spent in Georgia before moving to Europe after college.

  “Baylee is married to Javier’s brother, Tomas.” Lila explained when everyone was seated once more. “We’re going to be sisters-in-law.”

  “Congratulations.” The shadow that flickered through Baylee’s eyes was gone so quickly Chloe later decided she had imagined it.

  Leaning sideways in her seat, Baylee looked toward the entrance. “Isn’t Javier coming?”

  Lila sighed, “No. He’s somewhere in the bowels of the castle talking shop with the security techs about the updates and resets or whatever it is he has to do while we are here.”

  “That’s our Javi, always on the job.”

  “Even when he’s on vacation.” Lila smiled indulgently. “I’m sure he’ll have it sorted out in no time.”

  Ross, a strapping young lad of no more than twenty, couldn’t manage to keep his dark eyes focused on the conversation, given the way a pair of similarly-aged young women not-so-subtly flirting with him from their table at the other end of the room. “Now that you’ve met Lila and her family, I think it’s okay if you go take some personal time.” He lingered only long enough to toss a nice meeting you in their general direction before sauntering over to chat up his admirers.

  “Oh, to be young and hormonal.” EV mocked with good humor.

  “I’m fine with being old and hormonal.” Lila waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

  “Can we please change the subject. I’m getting mental images, and there’s no such thing as brain bleach.” Chloe complained.

  For the next few minutes, while Chloe fidgeted and EV’s eyes glazed over, Lila chatted with Baylee about things that had more to do with her soon-to-be family than with the real purpose for this luncheon. When she could take no more, Chloe cleared her throat, “Have you had a lot of experience with wedding photography?” The question sounded abrupt, though she hadn’t meant it that way.

  “Would you like to see my portfolio? Your mother tells me you’ve done some work in the industry as well.” While she spoke, Baylee pulled an iPad from her bag, cuing it up to start a slideshow.

  “Mostly fashion. A couple weddings.” Chloe answered absently, her attention focused on the play of images across the small screen.

  “Lovely.” EV ventured, after watching Chloe flick through fifteen or so images.

  “You have a great eye for color,
and a knack for catching those candid moments that tell a story.” Chloe couldn’t help but admire the skill. “These are spectacular.”

  “Thank you.” Baylee said sincerely.

  “There’s one thing, though.” Lila said. “Well, two, really. First, make sure to catch my best side; and second, you’re also a guest at this wedding, so I hope you’ll take some time out for a little fun.” Chloe heard lightheartedness and also something weightier, more serious, in Lila’s command.

  “And Photoshop out all my wrinkles.” EV chimed in. “And the zit that’s going to pop up on Chloe’s forehead six hours before the shindig.”

  “Seriously? Thanks for cursing me, evil one.” Chloe tossed an exaggerated mock glare at EV. “If it happens, there will be payback.”

  “I’d expect nothing less.” EV looked at Lila. “Did she tell you what she did to me with the online dating service?”

  “You started it.”

  “Now, now, children.” Lila cautioned. Baylee listened and laughed with the three animated women who were going to be a joy to photograph.

  Half an hour later, amid empty plates, Lila put both elbows on the table and leaned forward to say conspiratorially, “If a troll named Hannah tells you she’s my wedding coordinator, you ignore her and call me right away. The woman is delusional, and I wouldn’t let her coordinate my dog’s birthday party.”

  “Hannah Frank? I’ve heard of her before.” Baylee’s tone suggested none of what she had heard was good, “Wasn’t she involved in some sort of fracas last year?” Baylee searched her mind. “The details were kept hush-hush, which probably makes it sound worse than it was.”

  “That’s the one. Just keep an eye out for her, and ignore anything she tells you to do.” Lila tapped her fingers on the table.

  “You should be able to pick her out of the crowd pretty easily, she’s a cross between Barbie and Hitler.” An inelegant snort almost caused Baylee’s drink to fly out of her mouth at EV’s dry comment.