“It’s nothing. Probably my imagination, but I would have sworn I smelled Harold’s pipe when I woke up this morning.”
“Weird.”
“I know. Oh, and remember the podcast I’ve been talking about? The TV Guy recaps Battle for the Throne? That’s Chase’s podcast.”
“You’re kidding.”
She smiled. “I’m not, and don’t you dare tell him how I fangirl over his voice.”
Lori chuckled. “We’ll see. I’ll scope him out today.”
“If he’s cute, enjoy the peeking while you can. He’s only here for the duration of this book.”
“War and Peace?” Lori joked.
“If only.” The front bell rang. Her heart skipped a beat. “And there he is now.”
“If he’s cute, I’ll offer him a cup of coffee. If not, I won’t.”
Fiona laughed. “Subtle.” She started to rise, but Lori said, “I’ve got it.”
***
Chase put his hands under his arms to warm them. He hadn’t expected Texas to have such a cool morning. He listened for Fiona’s cane or Huck’s toenails on the flooring. He heard neither. The lock clicked and the door opened.
An unfamiliar woman stood in the doorway. She was large-boned and tall, maybe only a couple of inches shorter than Chase’s own six-feet. Her hair had been cut extremely short, exposing small hoops in her ears. Dressed in jeans and a casual button-up shirt, she wore a bright, warm smile.
“Good morning,” she said brightly. “Are you Chase?”
“That would be me.”
“Excellent. I’m Lori Wood, Fiona’s assistant.”
He noted that she didn’t extend her hand, so neither did he. Was it his imagination or had she winced at his scars?
“Nice to meet you,” he mumbled.
“Come on in. I think Fiona is anxious to get to work.”
As she moved to the side to allow him to enter, he saw Fiona and his heart thumped hard again. Dressed in a cream-colored blouse and a pair of tight-fitting jeans, she stood next to the dining table. Ditching work and spending the day talking sounded like a great idea to him. Instead, he put his mind into work mode. “Good morning, Fiona.”
“Morning, Chase. I forgot to ask you last night where you’re staying.”
He left the assistant standing in the foyer and, with a couple of long strides, was at Fiona’s side. “Rented a suite at America’s Best Inns and Suites.”
“That’s quite a ways from here,” Fiona said.
“Not too bad. It’s only a twenty minute drive or so. Ready to get to work?”
He was. The idea that he would get to listen to her read for hours had kept him awake last night. How ridiculous was he that the thought of listening to a woman read a book might be the most exciting thing that’d happened to him in a while? He loved his work with Brotherhood Protectors, but this job? It was like asking a kid to eat tub of his favorite-flavored ice cream.
“Can I get you a cup of coffee, Chase?” Fiona’s assistant asked. “Or maybe some breakfast.”
For some odd reason, Fiona chuckled.
“I’m good.” He turned toward Fiona. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
Huck went to Fiona’s left side and stood. She leaned down and petted him. “I’m good,” she told the dog. “But come along with me anyway.” When she took a step, Huck took one also, never leaving her side. Apparently the lady could control both males in the room with just her voice.
They took the elevator up, leaving the assistant on the ground floor. Once they stepped out on the third floor, they separated with Fiona going to her soundproofed booth and Chase slipping into the production studio. Huck stretched out in front of Fiona’s door.
He put on the headphones and listened to her deep voice as she read, alternating between rough for the hero and smooth for the heroine. As she read, he tweaked the upper and lower tones very subtly, not really altering her voice so much as cleaning it up. After an hour, she flipped the microphone off and left the booth.
“What did you think of that take?” Fiona asked, as she entered the production area.
“Good,” he said. “Take a listen.”
He played back the areas where he’d tweaked her voice for her hero.
“I like that,” she said. “Hard to do?”
“Nope. How long of a break do you need?”
“I’ll be honest. I’ve got a little bit of a sore throat this morning. Makes it hard to speak for very long. I probably pushed it a little.”
He shrugged. “No problem. Take a break and I’ll work on this morning’s recording.”
She reached out and touched his shoulder. Her fingers rested only lightly on his shirt, but the effect was as though five matches had landed. His heart beat faster, and he resisted the urge to lay his hand over hers.
“Take a break with me. I’d like to get to know you better.”
Fine with him. He could always work on the recording later.
“Sure.”
She coughed. “Yikes. That didn’t sound good.”
Worried, he stood. “Maybe it’d be better if you don’t talk. Could make the whole thing worse.”
“I think I’ll go lay down for a while.”
“Good idea.”
After she left, he sat back down and began the laborious task of manually removing each of her breaths from the recording. Not every audio engineer did that, but he’d found that hearing someone take a breath could rip his attention from the story. Besides, Harold had told him he always removed Fiona’s breaths.
He’d been working for almost an hour when Lori entered the production room.
“Hey,” she said. “How’s it going?”
“Good. How’s Fiona?”
“In bed. A little raspy.”
“Too bad.” A stab of disappointment struck him. He’d hope to work a little longer with her today.
“I know. Let me ask you a question.” She pulled out a chair and sat down at the mixing console.
“Okay. Shoot.”
She pressed her lips together, as though reluctant to begin, then sighed. “Do I have the voice to do what Fiona does?”
“Audio narration?”
“Yes.”
He shrugged. “No idea. It’s more than reading a book into a recorder. In a way, it’s an acting job, except the actor has only his, or her, voice to convey the story.”
“I know that,” she said, her voice thick with exasperation. “But what do you think? About my voice. It’s good right?”
“I suppose.”
She opened her mouth to reply but was stopped short by the sound of the elevator running. Both of them turned in time to see Fiona exit. Chase stood, insanely pleased to see her.
Lori hopped up and hurried over.
“What are you doing out of bed?” she scolded.
Fiona coughed and then sniffed. “I wondered if Chase was still here.”
“I am,” Chase said. He leaned against the door frame. “I was working on today’s recording.”
“Horrible, wasn’t it?”
“Not at all. Want to listen?”
Fiona shook her head. “Tomorrow will be soon enough.” She sneezed. “Why don’t we all call it a day?”
Later that evening, Chase couldn’t get Fiona out of his mind. Lori had left at the same time he had and even though she’d left dinner in the refrigerator for Fiona to heat, he’d bet his last dollar that she hadn’t left the bed. That couldn’t be good.
He picked up a couple of sub sandwiches with chips and drove to Fiona’s house. There were no lights on, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t awake, or at least that’s what he assured himself. He rang her cell.
“Hello?”
His heart still stumbled a little when she spoke.
“Fiona? It’s Chase. I know you were feeling pretty crummy when I left. I wondered if you’d had dinner or even felt like dinner.”
“I haven’t.”
“How does a fresh sub sandwich sound?
”
“Like heaven.”
“Great. I’ll grab a couple and head your way.” At the last minute he’d decided not to tell her he was outside and had already bought the subs. It sounded too presumptuous. “Need anything else?”
“Yes,” she said, her voice excited. “On the way over, you should pass a Dairy Queen. Have you noticed it?”
He thought back. Yeah, maybe he remembered seeing the ice cream place.
“Sure,” he lied.
“Can you bring me a brownie sundae with extra nuts?”
He smiled. So, she had a sweet tooth. He filed that tidbit away for later.
“Of course. Be there in just a little bit.”
He turned his truck around and back onto the main drag and headed back down the road for a couple of sundaes.
***
“Ohhh,” Fiona moaned as she took another bite of her sundae. “The sandwich was good but how can you beat brownie, ice cream and hot fudge?”
After clearing his throat, he said, “You can’t.”
“Thank you again for coming back. I know Lori left something in the fridge for me but this is so much better.”
She’d removed her glasses before Chase arrived. Now, as she looked in the direction of his voice, she wished she could see more of him than the wavy, gray shadow. Even from the indistinct shadow he formed, she could tell his shoulders were broad. What would it feel like to touch them? She’d bet her best pair of glasses they were thick with muscle. Her stomach tightened at the thought of touching him.
If his shoulders were thick with muscle, did that mean he worked out? Would her fingers find ridges and valleys if she trailed her hands down his abdomen? There was a tug in her gut.
“Fiona? You okay?”
“Uh? What?”
“What’s wrong? You’re a little flushed?”
She hastily scrubbed her hands over her face. “I’m fine.”
“Gosh, you’re not getting sick, are you? I mean, you were sneezing and coughing when I left.”
“It was weird. Once I got away from the third floor, I started feeling better. Odd, huh?”
“Yeah. Very odd. But you feel okay now?”
“Yep. Ready to get back to work on the book.”
She heard his intake of breath.
“Not tonight,” she added hurriedly. “Tomorrow.”
He chuckled.
She’d found her new favorite sound.
“Well, it is almost ten,” he said. “I’d better get going.”
“Ten? No kidding. Wow. The time flew by.”
“It did. You know, Fi, if you want to work tonight and sleep in tomorrow, we can. I mean, I’m at your beck and call until this book is done.”
“My beck and call.” She smiled. “That sounds interesting.”
She heard her new favorite sound again.
“I think tomorrow will be fine,” she said. “I really appreciate your coming over and bringing me dinner.”
“It was just a sandwich” he murmured.
“Still, it was quite thoughtful. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.” His chair scooted on her hardwood floor, and she could detect some movement. She assumed he stood, so she rose.
“Do you have a house alarm?” he asked.
“I do. I’ll turn it on once you’re out the door.”
He stroked the side of her face. “You really are something, Fiona Samuels. I thought I was impressed before I met you. Now that I have, you’re way more extraordinary.”
Heat flamed to her cheeks, and she gave an embarrassed chuckle as she dipped her face toward the floor. “Thank you.”
“Tomorrow then,” he said.
As she locked the door behind him and set her alarm, the pondered her new producer. She was out of her male-friend comfort zone with Chase Adams and she wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Chapter Three
Chase arrived the next morning, had a quick cup of coffee with Fiona while she finished her breakfast, and they got to work. The morning was taken up with Fiona’s recording, with breaks to rest her voice.
In the afternoon, they went over the morning work, tagging areas that would need another read or breaths removed. That set the work pattern for the next couple of days.
However, working with Fiona wasn’t Chase’s only job at the moment. He still had responsibilities to Brotherhood Protectors.
The day after he’d arrived in Texas, Hank had asked him to help on another Brotherhood Protector case. Since so much of his work for Brotherhood Protectors was computer-based and could be done almost anywhere, he agreed to give Rhys Morgan a virtual hand with his electronic surveillance at the Dream Vistas Guest Ranch. Whenever Morgan needed to be away from the video stream, Chase could watch from here and file a report for Morgan and Hank.
Sometime early Friday morning, Fiona’s heart jumped and she sat straight up in bed. Something had jarred her awake. A noise? No, an aroma. The scent of pipe smoke was strong, much stronger than in the past. Was someone in her bedroom?
She touched her clock. “It is three a.m.,” it said.
She moved her left hand and found Huck. He wasn’t alarmed in the least. His breathing was regular, as though he’d been deep in sleep.
Still, the smell was so vivid.
“Is someone here?” she asked with a snarl. “My dog is trained to attack if I give the command.” He wasn’t, but she was the only one who knew that. “Get out.”
She waited for a reply. Holding her breath, she strained her ears to listen. Was she hearing someone else breathing?
Her heart was a bass drum pounding so loudly in her ears it could drown out another person’s breaths…If there was another person.
Other than Huck’s snores and her own breathing noises, her bedroom was silent. There were no creaks from the stairs. No sounds emanated from anywhere else.
She pushed what little vision she had to see, but other than the gray shapes from her bedside table, there was nothing. The house alarm remote control found its way into her hand without conscious thought. The buttons were in the “alarmed” position, as they should be. No one could get in or out without setting off the earsplitting siren.
After setting the panic remote back on her table, she slid down into her sheets. Getting back to sleep would be impossible, but she needed to get some rest. She lay there, her ears straining to pick up any stray noise. The pipe tobacco aroma was beginning to lessen. After an hour, she finally dropped off into a restless sleep.
***
Bobby Wood stood in the bitch’s doorway. He didn’t dare breathe or move. She might be blind, but she seemed to possess an uncanny ability to know what was around her. He was well aware that his pipe smoke had filtered into her room. He’d meant for it to. One day soon, she’d find out that she wasn’t nearly as safe as she thought.
But that time wasn’t tonight. He was still having too much fun getting her rattled.
“My dog is trained to attack if I give the command,” she said, and he almost snorted. Right. That old hound wasn’t good for anything but shedding dog hairs around a house that, in all seriousness, should have been his, and would be some day.
But not tonight.
He stood rigid for two hours while he waited, making sure she was asleep before he left. The second he heard a slight snore, he made his way downstairs, deliberately missing all the steps that might produce a noise. Downstairs, he put on his shoes and headed out the back door, the same door that he’d removed the alarm sensor from a couple of weeks ago. He could come and go as he pleased and she would never be the wiser. Dumb bitch.
Right now, he had to get home before his nosy sister noticed he was missing. He walked the two blocks to where he’d left his car, got in, and raced home.
***
The continued buzz of Fiona’s alarm finally penetrated the fog of sleep. She rolled onto her back with a groan. She was so exhausted her bones ached. Then she remembered last night and froze. A quick sniff revealed n
othing but the scent of her lavender air freshener. Beside her, Huck stretched, pushing all four paws against her side. He certainly wasn’t concerned.
Still, that icky feeling that her private space had been invaded remained strong.
After deactivating the security alarm, she and Huck tromped downstairs so she could let him out to do his morning business. At the same time, she brewed a cup of coffee hoping the caffeine jolt would sweep the cobwebs out of her head.
It didn’t.
However, the second cup combined with a cool shower and fresh clothes, did help reinvigorate her for the day ahead.
By the time Lori arrived, Fiona had shaken off her funk and was ready to move on. As usual, Chase arrived during breakfast.
“Morning,” he said, greeting her with that deep voice of his that suggested all kinds of naughty potential.
She swallowed, her toast pushing the lust back down her throat. “Good morning. Glad it’s Friday?”
“I’m always glad it’s Friday.”
“Can I get you something, Chase?” Lori asked. “I can scramble up some eggs for you.”
“Thanks, Lori, but no need. The hotel has a breakfast buffet, so I hit it before I left.”
Fiona stood. “I’m going to run and brush my teeth before we start. I’ll meet you on three.”
“Works for me.”
His chair screeched as he pushed it back.
Fiona climbed to the second floor and stopped. The mild scent of pipe tobacco lingered. She leaned over the second floor railing.
“Hey, Chase.”
“Yeah?” came his reply from below.
“Do you smoke a pipe?”
“Nope.”
“Cigar? Cigarettes? Electronic vaping?”
“Nope, nope and nope.”
“Shoot. I keep getting whiffs of pipe smoke or maybe cigar smoke. I thought maybe it was on your clothes or something.”
“Oh, damn, Fiona. I meant to tell you,” Lori said.
“What?” Fiona called back down.
“It’s my brother, Bobby,” Lori said. “He’s taken to smoking a pipe. I didn’t know until a day or so ago, and I totally forgot to say anything. I guess I’m carrying the scent on my clothes without realizing it.”
“By any chance, were you in my room yesterday?”
There was a noticeable pause before Lori said, “I think so. Maybe putting away some clothes.”
Brotherhood Protectors: Texas Ranger Rescue (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 3