“Looks like the paparazzi took the night off,” Karen said.
Gwen removed her keys from her purse as they stepped to her car. “I still feel like someone is watching me,” Gwen said.
“I’d say you’re paranoid, but I have to agree. Ever since Michael and I started to date I always feel eyes on me.” Karen turned in a circle. “If someone’s watching tonight, I think the stealth eyes are on you. The guys following me don’t care if I see them.”
“Neil?”
She giggled. “You think?”
Perhaps he did care.
Karen walked around to the passenger side of the car and squealed. “Eweeh.”
“What?”
Karen backed away from the car and looked at the ground. “What is up with the suicidal birds?”
At her feet was another dead crow. This one larger than the last.
“Do you think someone knows you don’t like birds?”
Karen’s eyes widened. “Oh, you don’t think…oh, yuck. You think this is here on purpose?”
Gwen reached down and moved the bird a few feet away. “Two dead birds in as many weeks. I guess it could happen.”
“That’s sick.”
“C’mon. Let’s go home.”
That night they locked all the doors and checked all the windows…twice.
The news of Michael and Karen’s wedding was everywhere by Friday evening. The media followed them to New York and reported them leaving via private jet, compliments of Lord and Lady Harrison, to take them to France.
Samantha insisted on lending them the plane. A flight to France for a honeymoon was a simple token for the newlyweds.
By Sunday evening, the media that had been attempting to get information from Gwen had left the neighborhood. There had been three phone calls over the past thirty-six hours. One from Eliza “checking in” and Samantha called to see if Gwen “needed anything.”
And then there was her mother.
“You should return to Albany.”
“That isn’t going to happen, Mum.”
Linda had always been very proper and direct. “You’re not equipped to live alone, Gwendolyn. Blake and Samantha aren’t even there.”
“Mother, please. I’m not a child.” Lord, Neil must be loving this conversation. That was of course if he was listening. Gwen glanced at the video monitor and rolled her eyes.
“What if I told you I was lonely?”
“I’d suggest you find a lover.” That ought to quiet mother.
“Gwen!”
“What?”
“One does not simply find a lover.”
Gwen laughed. “You’re right. One chooses a lover.”
Linda paused on the line. “Is that what you’ve done? Is there a man in your life?”
“If I told you there was would you leave me alone?”
“I’d insist on meeting him,” Linda said.
“In that case I won’t tell you.”
“You were never this difficult when you lived here.”
No. She was always perfect…the perfect daughter, the perfect sister. Perhaps that was what attracted her to Neil. He wasn’t perfect. His edges were hard, rough, and complex.
“Gwendolyn? Are you still there?”
“Yes. Exactly where I plan on staying.”
“Oh, very well. But be prepared for a proper amount of guilt when I see you in Aruba.”
Gwen laughed. “I’d expect nothing less. Love you.”
“I love you too, dear.”
Gwen smiled as she hung up the phone.
Neil turned the Taser over in his hands. Damn thing was pink.
He felt a genuine smile on his lips when he looked at the thing. Only Gwen would carry a pink Taser. At first he thought, Hell no…I’m not buying a pink weapon.
But it was for Gwen, his little blonde fireball that held a gun with purpose and pride. His? He really needed to get her out of his mind as his.
His phone rang, removing pink Tasers and Gwen from his mind.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, Mac.”
“Rick.”
“Looks like Mickey is back to his day job.”
“Confirmed?”
“Shit, Mac. You know that’s impossible. When you’re in deep, no one knows crap.”
Neil remembered. Their last assignment was cloaked so dark he and his men didn’t know what there were doing until they were in the air. There were no official orders, no files. What happened in Afghanistan didn’t happen. Not officially anyway.
The deaths of his crew were “training accident fuckups.”
“I’d feel better knowing where he was.”
“You and me both, buddy.”
“Where you headed now?”
“Billy’s.”
“It could be a trap.” He should go with him.
“I don’t have a wife, Mac. My family thinks I’m crazy and stays away as it is. There’s no emotional garbage this asswipe can use against me.”
Neil rubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin.
“I could use some backup, man.”
Neil glanced at the Taser in his hand. Maybe it was time to move on. “I need to secure a few things first.”
Rick blew out an excited whistle. “Hot damn. I knew I could count on you.”
“Where are you now?”
“Washington State. Let’s hook up in Colorado in four days. That give you enough time?”
He looked around the empty walls of what he called home. “Yeah.”
“Rock and roll. It’ll be like old times.”
Neil thought of the ones who didn’t make it home. Let’s hope not.
As much as Neil wanted to leave the acting to the man Karen had just married, he needed to step up and put an end to any romantic ideas Gwen had about him. He was going to play with her mind and break anything that might have been between them.
He had to.
His conversation with Smiley reminded him why men like Neil didn’t have normal lives. Look what love cost Billy.
Two hundred Taliban soldiers armed to their teeth, willing to blow themselves up for their cause didn’t take Billy out…but add a woman to the mix, and his friend was dead.
The chances of finding Billy’s wife alive were less than zero.
Being responsible for his own life Neil could live with.
Not Gwen’s.
Neil worked his way to the back of the estate and let himself in the kitchen. Mary sat at the kitchen table with newspapers and glue everywhere.
“What are you doing?”
“Not cooking. I can tell you that.”
The newspaper clippings were pictures of Karen and Michael from every tabloid in LA. He noticed one of Karen and Gwen eating in an outside café.
“It’s a scrapbook for Karen. Can you tell I’m bored?”
Mary was a good woman.
“Women like these things,” Neil told her.
Mary picked up a paper and looked at the one below. “Yeah, they do.”
Gwen was art at the end of a camera lens, Neil thought.
He looked closer.
The girls were standing beside Gwen’s car. Gwen had something black in her hand.
Neil grabbed the paper.
“Hey, you’ll mess up my system,” Mary scolded.
He read the caption bellow the photo. Lady Gwen isn’t as fragile as she looks as she clears a dead crow from Karen Jones’s path.
Every muscle in Neil’s body tightened. He twisted the paper in his hands. The article had been written a week ago.
“Jesus.” Dead crows…Ravens. Rick’s words filtered in his head. They found a dead raven shoved inside Billy’s coat.
“Neil? What’s wrong?”
“I’ve got to go.” He ran from the main house to his. He checked the monitors and Tarzana feeds. Saw Gwen wearing a bathrobe and cleaning dishes.
He picked up the phone. Saw her answer it.
“Hello, Neil.”
The backyard motion det
ectors were fuzzy again.
“Neil?”
“What’s going on in the backyard?”
“Not this again. Remember what we talked about? A simple hello goes a long—”
“Damn it, Gwendolyn. Skip it.”
“Do not cuss at me, Neil MacBain, or I will hang up the phone. There is nothing going on in my backyard.” Now she was pissed. Something he didn’t hear very often, but at least she answered the question.
“Are the neighbors in the Jacuzzi again?” There was a light glow from beyond the reach of the monitors.
“I don’t know. I think so.”
“Go check.”
“Neil, this is silly. We both know there isn’t anyone roaming my yard.”
His hand clutched the phone so hard he heard the case around it pop. “Please, Gwen. Just check.”
Gwen turned her back to the camera in the kitchen, tossed the towel in her hand on the counter, and marched upstairs.
“This is the last time, Neil. Next time the monitor goes nutty you’re just going to have to come over here and check it out yourself.”
Gwen walked into her room and out of reach of the video monitors.
Then she screamed.
Chapter Eleven
Gwen dropped the phone and backed away from the window.
Both her naked neighbors were floating facedown in the water. Lifeless. Her body started to shake.
She needed to help them. Pull them out of the water. Call 911. Something.
“Gwen? Gwen? Fuck, Gwen?”
She heard her name. Didn’t know where it was coming from.
The phone.
She dropped to her knees and the alarm in the house suddenly started to scream.
She jumped and turned toward the door of her room. Half expecting someone to be standing in it. It was empty.
“Gwen?”
Her fingertips found the phone. “Neil?”
“Jesus, Gwen.”
“They’re dead, Neil.” Her breath came in short pants.
“Who?”
“The alarm. My alarm is going off.” Her whole body shook. What’s going on?
“I tripped the alarm from here. The police are on their way. Who’s dead, Gwen?”
She looked toward the window. “The neighbors. In the Jacuzzi. I need to see if I can help them.”
“No! Fuck. No, Gwen, listen to me! Stay inside. Stay in your bedroom. Lock the door.”
“But I can help.”
“Damn it, Gwen, no. You have to trust me. Where’s your gun?”
Gun? Why do I need the gun? It was hard to think above the screaming alarm filling her house. Neil was frantic, which wasn’t keeping her calm. Didn’t she need to be calm?
As she asked herself those questions, she opened her bedside table, found her weapon, and grasped it. “I have it.”
“Is your bedroom door shut?”
She scrambled to it, closed it with a loud bang. “It is. Do you think someone is here? Is someone here?” Was someone in her yard? She’d felt a set of eyes on her for weeks now. Did Neil know something?
“Hold on.”
She glanced outside again but kept her body shielded from the window.
Only her bobbing neighbors were visible. Lights from several neighbors’ houses went on. Probably because of the noise coming from her house.
She stepped away from the window, and pointed the gun in front of her as she looked in the bathroom, checked under the bed, her closet. Nothing. She released a shuddering breath.
She heard Neil talking to someone else through her phone. “Directly behind the residence. My client sees two bodies in a backyard hot tub.”
Gwen scrambled into the middle of the bed and listened to Neil barking information and orders. His tone was deadly. One she’d never heard him use before.
“Gwen?”
“I’m here.”
“Hold on.”
Like she could do anything else. She asked herself why she wanted to live alone. This wasn’t independence…this was fear. Raw unadulterated fear. Seconds ticked into minutes.
Her body jolted as the screaming of her alarm went silent. “Did you do that?” she frantically asked Neil.
“Yes. I’m in my car. On the way. Don’t open the door for anyone.”
She already heard sirens approaching from outside. “But the police.”
“For no one. I’ll let you know when I’m there.” It was a twenty-minute drive under the best of conditions from Blake’s home to hers. She didn’t think she could wait that long.
“What’s going on, Neil?” Something was wrong. Very wrong.
“Ten minutes.”
There were flashes of lights behind her house. She crawled to the window and noticed the flashlights of the police as they roamed the neighbors’ yard.
“Gwen?”
“The police are here.” One of the uniformed officers moved to grab one of her dead neighbors from the water. Another man stopped him by pulling him back. The officer tossed something in the water, and the water sparked.
“Oh, God.”
“What?” Neil asked.
“The police are trying to remove my neighbors but the water…It’s charged. It just arced.”
“Electrical current?”
“I guess. How is that possible?”
“Is there a power line down in the water?”
She looked around, didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
“No.” She heard the horn of Neil’s car. “Be careful.”
“Are you still in your room?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Minutes ticked by at a painfully slow speed. Finally, Neil said, “I’m pulling onto your street.”
She squeezed her eyes closed and thanked God he was close.
“I’m coming in now.”
She heard him running up the stairs.
One urge from his foot and the door popped open, cracking the wood as it crashed against the wall.
Gwen flung the gun on the bed and jumped into Neil’s waiting arms.
He held her. His massive arms wrapped around her in a cocoon of safety.
“It’s OK.”
She held him tighter. Buried her face in his chest.
“Shhh, it’s OK.”
“I’ve never been so scared.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Miss Harrison?” Someone called from downstairs. “Tarzana Police.”
Neil loosened his hold and held her face in one hand.
Real fear traced Neil’s brow. He tried to smile and failed miserably.
“Miss Harrison?”
“Up here,” Neil answered for her.
The heavy feet of the officer made it up the stairs. He glanced briefly at the door and then at the two of them. The officer, a kid not much older than twenty-five, looked around the room.
“Miss Harrison?”
Gwen nodded, not trusting herself to speak just yet. Neil still held her and she wasn’t about to push away.
“I understand you saw the bodies and notified the police.”
“I was on the phone with her and sounded the alarm by remote access,” Neil said.
The officer raised a questioning brow. “Remote access?”
“That’s right.”
Gwen’s gaze slid to her blinds.
The officer moved into the room and looked out the window. “You can’t miss that. You spy on your neighbors often, Miss Harrison?”
Neil’s arm tightened around her. “You’re out of line, officer.” The anger in Neil’s voice was thinly reined.
“Duly noted, Mr.…?”
“MacBain,” he answered. “C’mon, Gwen, let’s get you out of this room.”
Gwen was still shaking as she made her way downstairs with Neil holding her up.
When she closed her eyes, she saw her neighbors bobbing in the bubbling water. How long would she live with that image as company?
Neil perched himself at the edge of the couch and sat her dow
n beside him.
Another officer had made his way into the house. “Are you the homeowners?”
“I am.”
“You reported the bodies?”
Gwen blinked twice. “So they are dead?”
The officer looked at Neil and nodded once.
Bloody hell.
The officer upstairs called his colleague.
“I need to talk to the police. Are you going to be OK here?” Neil asked.
Gwen wrapped her robe closer to her body. “I’ll be fine.”
“Where’s your cell phone?”
“In my purse, why?”
“I need you to call Eliza, get Carter on the phone if you can. I need him to clear a path for me to see what happened over there with my own eyes.”
Gwen cringed. “Clear a path? I don’t understand. It’s probably an unfortunate accident.”
Neil looked around the room, spotted her purse, and brought it to her. “Just call her.”
Eliza’s voice might help to calm her down, even if Gwen had no idea why Neil insisted on sticking his nose into the investigation.
While Gwen removed her phone from her purse, Neil walked up the stairs to the officers in her bedroom.
The phone rang twice before Eliza picked up. “Hey, Lady…what has you calling this—”
“Eliza?” Gwen heard the distress in her own voice.
“Oh, no, what’s wrong?”
Gwen closed her eyes; saw the bodies. “My neighbors…they’re, they’re…”
“They’re what, honey?”
She swallowed. “Dead.”
Eliza gasped.
“I was washing dishes. Neil called, pissing about the monitors in the backyard.” Recalling the events now made her remember the distress in his voice. More than normal.
“And?”
“The monitors have been acting up a lot. They don’t work when the neighbors are in their hot tub for some reason.”
“The naked neighbors?”
Naked and dead neighbors. Gwen sucked in her bottom lip and refused to let tears surface. “Neil told me to go check if they were in the tub. I was pissing mad at him, Eliza. Ordering me around. I told him it was the last time I was running up stairs to look down at my neighbors. And then…then I looked. Then the house alarm went off, and Neil was ordering me to lock the door and wait for him.”
“Oh God, Gwen. That’s awful.”
“Neil needs to talk to Carter. Is he there?”
Fiancé by Friday Page 9