Jason’s voice softened. “You’ve no idea who left this for you?”
“Another employee?” She shrugged. “I thought maybe it was a love note or something.”
Eve opened he note.
Look in the former employee files.
Eve’s eyes caught Jason’s. She handed the note to him. “I thought so,” she said.
Jason took a handkerchief from his pocket and took the paper. His eyes scanned it.
“Jenny, I want you to go inside.” Jason’s gentle tone softened the command. “Jimmy, from security, will be at the door of the piano lounge. Tell him every move you’ve made for the past three days.”
“Something is wrong.” Jenny’s eyes grew large.
“Don’t worry, Jenny, just follow my directions.” With that, Jason sent the housekeeper along. He folded the paper still in his hands, taking care to not imprint it. “Jimmy has been keeping an eye on us,” he said, nodding toward the large windows of the piano lounge.
“Spying on us, you mean,” Eve rephrased.
“Backup,” he retorted.
“I’m trained in self-defense.”
“Nonetheless.” He nodded toward the door. “Come on, let’s go run those files.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere.” Eve raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t I say employee?”
“It’s former employee,” he corrected with a chuckle.
Twenty minutes later, Eve fingered the giant. “That’s him. He’s dyed his hair blond and grown a goatee, but that’s him, no doubt about it.”
“Gotcha,” Jason said enthusiastically. “Logan Briggs, we’re going to get you.”
We’re. Eve felt a broad grin well up from inside. Good. Let’s see if you can keep up with me, Mr. Jason Gregory.
Chapter 6
Eve held the hot tea and Danish she had just purchased from the Espresso News patisserie in one hand and dug into her pocket for the room key with the other. She could hear the phone ringing inside. “Hold on, I’m almost in.”
“Yes?” she said when she finally answered.
“But I haven’t asked yet.”
She recognized Jason’s voice. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Still interested in riding today? There, now I’ve asked.”
Eve grinned. “It is a great day for a ride.” She admired the October sun outside her window. She genuinely wanted to go, but hesitated. Was it the horse ride or the person who invited her that interested her the most? “It’s been a while.”
“You know what they say, it’s like riding a bike,” Jason urged. “I have more information on the case, too. I’ll tell you what. We’re gathering at the alpine stables around noon. Come if you like.”
“Fair enough,” Eve responded.
Jason inhaled deeply. Some people were repelled by the odor of the stables, but he was drawn by it. Mingled with the scent of fall leaves and pine, it was the aroma of respite.
He patted his mount. He considered Diamond Jack his horse, even though the stable owner might have something to say about that. The three-year-old male was the friskiest in the lot. Only accomplished riders were allowed on him.
“He’s ready to run,” Jason said to his friend Dale. Candy, Dale’s wife, nodded. Young Bingham, the short blond who was Jason’s security partner, grinned. They, too, were on their mounts. “I guess our other rider is a no-show.” Jason hid his disappointment. And just why should I feel let down? She’s only a client.
“Who’s the no-show?” Candy asked.
“Just a client.” Jason took a deep breath and exhaled.
“An obnoxious, gorgeous-eyed client,” Bingham added.
“She’s not so bad,” Jason protested.
Bingham’s eyes popped as he shot a look of disbelief at him.
Jason let go a long whistle. “Lucy, come on, girl,” he called.
A black Labrador retriever bounded out of the trees to join the crowd. “Good girl,” Jason said. He loved to bring his dog out on the rides, and she relished it.
The foursome, and Lucy, left the stables. Candy and Bingham’s nags didn’t really want to go, but with a little urging, they all made their way into an open tree-lined meadow.
Eve galloped into the meadow on Cheyenne, an impish and snappy mare. She spotted Jason and his friends.
Jason grinned as she approached the group. “I’d say you’re not just on the bike, you’ve made the Tour du France,” he called to Eve. “Cheyenne can be a handful.”
“She’s wonderful,” Eve called back.
“Eve,” Jason introduced when she joined the group, “you know Bingham.”
The fellow tipped his head with a wary look.
“And this is Dale and Candy. They’re youth sponsors at the church I attend.”
“Hats off to you both.” Eve nodded to them. “I taught Vacation Bible School for a week, first and last time. I think it was the dripping popsicles that got to me.”
The couple chuckled, and Jason looked pleasantly surprised.
“Well, shall we hit the trail?” Dale coaxed.
Jason scanned the horizon. “Lucy!” he summoned. Eve saw a dog pop her head up from behind a low-lying bush and come running.
Lucy. Eve smiled. “No Priscilla?” she asked.
Everyone but Jason laughed.
“Priscilla has made it clear that she loves horses in paintings and on calendars,” Jason explained.
“More than clear,” Candy added. “Personally, I think horses are cuddly.”
“Don’t let Jack hear you say that,” Jason teased, patting his horse’s neck. “Anyone for the pines?”
Eve had Cheyenne in motion before Jason finished his question.
“Last one there rubs down the horses,” she called over her shoulder.
Eve rode with wild abandon across the rusted colors that graced the high meadow, and Jason rode toe-to-toe with her. The flowing wind urged her on, and she inhaled the energy of God’s creation. She sensed that Jason shared that energy as he flew past her. Eve reached the meadow’s edge and entered the pine woods only seconds after Jason had reigned in his mount there. Lucy, panting, had joined the race.
Eve looked over her shoulder to see the other three riders sauntering in the direction she and Jason had ridden.
She heard Bingham’s sharp voice. “Oh, please, don’t wait for us.”
Eve and Jason laughed. Their eyes locked. Autumn fires burned in Jason’s eyes. Eve wondered if he had spotted those same flames in her own.
“I’m glad you came, Eve,” he said in a low tone.
Oh, yes, he’s spotted them. “I’m glad, too,” she breathed.
At that moment, it was Eve, Jason, and the skyward thrusting pines. The sweet whisper of the trees caressed Eve, and by the look on his face, it captured Jason as well. The gentle whisper became a passionate serenade.
“Your mounts are far more fiery than mine,” Dale announced, arriving ahead of the others. He patted his horse and looked at Jason, then Eve. Eve felt her face go pink. “Am I interrupting something?” he asked.
Jason grinned. “We’re just waiting here for the rest of you.” He shot a glance toward Eve, who steadied herself in the saddle.
Candy and Bingham rode up and joined them.
Eve, aware once again that she was in a group, turned her eyes to the spreading woods, where she spotted movement. She sat high in her saddle and strained to see. “What’s that?” she mumbled. She squinted. It was a man—but not just any man. She gasped when she realized just who it was. “It’s the giant.”
“What?” Jason’s voice had surprise in it. “Where?”
Eve pointed into the woods where the large man with spiky blond hair was now running away from them.
“A giant?” Dale asked.
Jason nudged Diamond Jack. Like a quarter horse out of the starting gate, he was off in the direction of the thief. The giant, on foot, had a huge lead on him.
Eve and Cheyenne joined in rapid pursuit behind Jason. It was a prec
arious chase, because Logan Briggs, though large, was swift and moved into thicker cover.
Eve guided Cheyenne with instant reflexes through the trees. But she was no match for Jason’s acute skill. She could just make him out ahead. He had already passed through the clearing she now entered.
Laying her head low to Cheyenne’s neck, Eve’s heart beat like a native drum, adrenaline coursing through her body. She could feel Cheyenne’s strength beneath her. “Get him,” she coaxed.
Suddenly, Cheyenne balked. She neighed wildly and raised her head as if in terror. The skittish horse came to a sudden halt just in front of a hefty decomposing log.
Unable to keep her equilibrium, Eve blasted over the horse’s neck like a bullet. She flew over the splintered wood. She screamed as she tumbled to the rough forest floor with a thud, landing hard on her leg. Pain shot from her heel to her thigh, and she rolled over on her back. Her gaze went skyward, and the towering evergreens melted into the swirling blue of the sky. She closed her eyes.
“Eve?” She could hear a voice that sounded like distant water. She struggled to open her eyes and saw Bingham kneeling over her, Dale at his side. “Tell me what hurts,” Bingham said matter-of-factly.
Eve winced. “Cheyenne.”
“That horse is in better shape than you are,” Bingham said flatly. “What hurts?”
“All of me.” She groaned and touched her left leg. “My ankle.”
“Candy’s gone back to the stables for help,” Dale consoled her.
“Did Jason get him?” Eve closed her eyes again and caught her breath as pain screamed up her shin.
“Jason always gets the bad guy,” Bingham said as he pulled her tennis shoe off with a gentle tug. He poked the bottom of her foot. “Can you feel that?” he asked.
“Yes,” Eve responded as a tear rolled down her cheek. No, she wasn’t going to cry, no matter how much it hurt. “I want my grandmother’s quilt squares back.”
Bingham shook his head. “You and those quilt squares. If anyone doubted your resolve before, they don’t now. Let’s get you back to the hotel.”
Chapter 7
Eve winced while trying to fluff and rearrange the pillows piled against the headboard of her hotel bed. She pulled herself up to a sitting position, which was not an easy task. Her pink pajama tank bunched around her middle.
Everyone on the ride had been very gracious and helpful. After trained stable personnel got her back to the hotel, Dale scurried her to the hospital.
“No broken bones,” the ER doctor had assured Eve. “A nasty sprain that needs a few days bed rest,” was his prescription.
After the hospital visit, Candy established Eve in her hotel room, making sure all the procedures and needed items were in place according to the doctor’s specifications.
Even Bingham showed concern, by arranging for fresh ice packs to be delivered to the room every four hours. The only person who was nowhere to be seen was Jason.
“Taking care of business, I’m sure,” Bingham had assured Eve.
And why should she expect that he would be doing anything else but taking care of business?
Eve eyed the clock and downed a pain pill.
“A couple of heated glances don’t mean anything more than natural attraction, nothing to do with a real relationship,” she said to the pillow she wrestled. “He’s involved with another woman. He has a certain assurance that can border on arrogance.” Now she punched the pillow into a favorable position. “It’s a necessary, purely professional relationship.”
She lifted her quilt square from the nightstand where Candy had placed it after retrieving it from Eve’s purse. With tender attention, Eve took tiny embroidery stitches to recreate the design of Gran’s quilt square. “Just like me,” she said to the square, “you have cousins to meet. Only yours will be delivered to you by a very handsome man.” She stitched in a steady rhythm until her eyes became heavy and she fell into sweet slumber.
Jason entered the open meadow. Diamond Jack was fatigued. Lucy crept behind. The late afternoon sun created long shadows across the ground. Jason glanced around, feeling a sense of frustration. “Come on, Jack, Lucy, back to the stables.”
When he arrived at the corral, Shelly, the stable manager, had a face like thunder. She approached Jason with determined steps. “I have a bone to pick with you, John Wayne,” she said with fire in her voice. “Galloping like mad after the bad guy doesn’t sit well in my stables, and leaving someone injured behind makes it worse.”
“Injured?” Jason asked. “Who? How?”
Eve was awakened by a gentle knock on her door.
“Yes,” she called. Her eyes were heavy. “Is it my ice? Come in.” She knew the maid had a passkey.
Eve kept her eyes closed as the person entered the room. “Put it here on the nightstand, please,” she mumbled.
“Eve?”
Her eyes became slits. She was able to just make out the figure. “Jason?”
He wore a light blue shirt under a black sport coat that made his shoulders seem even broader. She smiled. “You’ve rescued my quilt squares.”
“Eve …” Jason’s voice was flat.
She blinked and roused herself. “Look.” She displayed her quilt square to Jason. “This yellow fabric is from my gran’s kitchen curtains.” She ran her finger across the design and grinned. “Gran and I would sit and stitch in that little kitchen, talk about everything from how the pea vines were growing to the hope of eternal life. Some of my sweetest memories. Every stitch I take keeps those memories alive.”
Jason dropped his head then raised it. “Eve, I don’t have the squares.”
“Oh.” Eve tried to pull herself forward and grimaced.
“I have these, though.” He held out a small vase of orange and yellow asters.
Eve brightened. “How sweet.” She took the flowers and sniffed them. He was thinking of me.
She caressed the petals with her fingertips as she set them on her nightstand. Jason moved the large chair across the room close to the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m managing.” Eve nodded. “Thanks.”
A heavy silence draped itself across the luxurious room until Jason stirred.
“I could sit here and lecture you about how you shouldn’t have gone off riding at breakneck speed onto dangerous ground like that.” He gripped the arm of the chair. “Even in the case of going after a thief.”
“Could you?” Eve tilted her head. “Wouldn’t that be a bit like the pot calling the kettle black?”
Jason’s jaw set. He sat forward in the chair, concern registered across his face. “Eve, I ride almost every day, and I know my horse. I’m the law enforcement agent.”
Eve swallowed and smoothed the floral comforter. “Point taken.”
Jason leaned back again. “This shouldn’t have happened.”
“This?”
“This.” Jason waved his hand toward the bed. “You, getting hurt. As a professional, I’m supposed to protect the client.”
Eve stared at Jason. “The client.”
He turned his eyes away from Eve. “And Briggs got away.”
Eve felt an arrow of pain and panic zip to her heart, and she knew her face wore it. “He was so close. How? I thought you had him.”
Jason steadied his gaze back to Eve. He twisted forward in the chair again and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “He went into the woods. Lucy and I tried to track him, but …”
Eve took a deep breath. Suddenly everything caught up to her. The thief, so close, had gotten away. This meant her precious quilt pieces were still missing. Confined to bed, how would she get them back? Her blissful holiday was now completely sideways. And if that weren’t enough, the emotional confusion that raged at being Jason’s client caught in her throat. A nasty pain radiated up her leg. Deep disappointment made a salty mist well up in her eyes. She couldn’t contain it. A single tear hit her cheek. She wiped it quickly, but Jason was gazing straight at her.
<
br /> He squeezed his lips. Like a wild hare from its burrow,
he sprang up from the chair.
Eve looked downward, avoiding eye contact. “These pain pills make me a bit soppy.” She tried to cover her disappointment.
Jason grabbed a Kleenex box sitting on the desk and laid it by her on the bed.
She wanted to grab his hand and ask him if the shared moment earlier today in the pines meant anything at all to him. But she couldn’t risk the answer.
“I’m sorry, Eve. I’m really sorry.” Jason fumbled for words. “I-I’ve got to go. I’m picking up Priscilla in ten minutes.”
Eve kept her eyes down, nodded, and grabbed a tissue. Priscilla.
Jason opened the door. “You work on getting better, Eve,” he encouraged. “And don’t worry. Briggs is mine.”
He left, but the words hung in the room like a mountain mist. A mist that came rolling down Eve’s face.
Jason fumbled the dessert menu.
The waiter stood patiently as Priscilla purred the order. “We’ll take two Death by Chocolates, please.”
“None for me,” Jason corrected, and handed the menu off.
“You aren’t acting like someone whose birthday is in a few days.” Priscilla smiled. “Two forks, please,” she instructed the waiter.
Jason pulled his thumb through the condensation that collected on the outside of his water glass.
“You’ve been quiet all evening, Jason.” Priscilla leaned across the table. “You’re sulking.”
“It’s just that I let a client down today.” He took a deep inhale. “They got hurt on my watch.”
“On your day off?” Priscilla took Jason’s hand. “We’ve all let people down. The question is, have you let yourself down?” Her brow lifted. “We all have disappointments. It’s a part of life.” She relaxed and released Jason’s hand. With a well-manicured finger, she fiddled with her glistening earring. “We’re resilient beings. We get back in the saddle.”
“What makes you say that?” Jason asked. “Back in the saddle.”
“We move forward, Jason.”
He looked into Priscilla’s beautiful face. Her words sounded so warm. So why did they feel so cold?
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