Twice the Temptation

“What does your paranoid side think?”

He met her eyes. “Top of my list is that someone knew exactly when we got off that ferry and that we were headed up here. Haworth House is the primary destination spot once you leave Belle Bay.”

“They work fast,” Brie said.

Too fast, Cody thought. But her mind was clicking along the same path his was.

“Until we find out differently, I’m all for you catering to your paranoia. Agreed?”

She held out her hand. And when he took it in his, he felt that same instant sense of connection he’d felt the first time.

“Let’s go find out who tried to run us off this cliff road,” she said.

“Follow me.” As he led the way down, Cody wished to hell that his gut instinct wasn’t telling him that they weren’t going to like what they found out about the still body lying below them.

4

AN HOUR LATER, BRIE stood at the side of the road with Cody and watched two paramedics load the body of a woman into an ambulance. The biker had been female, and she’d been dead when they reached her. All she’d had on her was a cell phone. No identification.

When Sheriff Nate Kirby had arrived, he’d taken both their statements. Following Cody’s lead, Brie had gone along with his undercover story that she was his fiancée and they’d come to the island to have a getaway weekend at Haworth House.Nate had jotted their stories down in his notebook, then moved back to his car and started making phone calls.

One of his deputies had climbed down far enough to get the license plate on the bike, but there’d been no registration on it. What there had been was a toolbox.

Brie had watched enough TV to know that the lack of identification wasn’t a good sign. It made it a lot less likely that the woman was just some poor tourist who’d accidentally lost control of her motorcycle. In addition to tools, the box had contained a serious-looking handgun complete with a silencer.

It was pretty clear to Brie that Dicky Ferrante knew exactly where she was.

When Nate moved to the ambulance to have a word with the paramedic, Brie spoke in a low tone to Cody. “What do we do next?”

“As soon as Nate is finished with us, we’re going to the hotel and register. I think it’s our safest bet right now.”

She might have been a lot more confident about Cody’s plan if she didn’t suspect that it was partially based on his trust in a ghost.

But she had to admit one thing: so far, he was getting a ten out of ten as a bodyguard. Right now they were alive, and the woman being driven away in the ambulance wasn’t.

Besides, her options were limited. Who else did she have to turn to? Maxine Norville had the kind of leak in her office that could have destroyed a dike and flooded a country.

Brie wasn’t stupid. No way was she going to take off on her own until good old Dicky was behind bars.

Plus, she felt safer with Cody than she’d felt in a long time. Even as a child, she’d learned that she had to depend on herself. Her adoptive mother hadn’t been a bad person, but Denise Sullivan had always partially blamed her for the divorce, and her father had used her as an excuse to walk away from a marriage that just hadn’t worked out for him.

But Brie knew she could depend on Cody for the weekend. She’d just have to keep herself from liking that dependence too much. Hugging him had been almost as big a mistake as kissing him. When he’d wrapped his arms around her and simply held on, she’d wanted to hold on, too.

Badly.

There was definitely more than chemistry between them. Or, at least, the potential for more. For just an instant, when they’d stood on the side of the road with their arms wrapped around each other, she’d felt as if she’d come home.

Home.

The only other time she’d ever experienced that particular feeling was in her dreams, when she fantasized about those three brothers who’d taken such good care of her.

Ridiculous. Her dreams of having those brothers were a fantasy she should have outgrown years ago. She let her gaze stray to Cody. He had the face and body of a warrior. A protector. It was so tempting to just lean on him. But she certainly didn’t need a new fantasy to replace her old one.

The strategy she’d proposed to him before their close encounter with the motorcycle was their best move. They just had to be sensible adults.

As the ambulance pulled away, Nate put his phone back into his pocket and walked over to them. “So far our motorcyclist remains a woman of mystery. My deputy Tim will run her prints and the license plate number through the available databases. We may also get lucky and get an ID from the cell phone. In the meantime, Avery Cooper says that as far as he knows, there’s no one fitting the description I gave him registered at Haworth House this weekend.”

“She wasn’t looking her best down there,” Brie said.

Nate shifted his gaze to her. “True. Avery’s offered to run a check on the guests and see if anyone turns up missing. One of my men will also be showing her photo at the two ferry offices to see if anyone can identify her through a ticket. But it will be a while before we have any definitive answers.”

There were a few beats of silence. Then Nate looked directly at Brie. “It would help if I could know exactly who you are.” He shifted his gaze to Cody. “And what one or both of you have done to attract the services of a professional hit woman.”

To her surprise, Cody grinned at Nate. “You’re not buying into the weekend getaway with my fiancée story?”

“Well, we don’t get a lot of crime here in Belle Bay, but we do watch TV. In addition to the rather interesting tools and the gun our mystery woman was packing, there’s this.”

Nate walked over to one of the guardrails and picked up one of the cables. “These look to be freshly cut. One of them being down is worrisome. All of them being cut at the same time is something that pushes hard against any accident theory. I was up at the hotel earlier today on business, and when I returned to Belle Bay a couple of hours ago, the cables were fine.”

He glanced up at both of them. “They haven’t been down long or somebody driving past would have reported them to my office. Those are the kinds of calls I get everyday here on Belle Island. Two attempted homicides in one day is an all-time record for Belle Bay.”

“Two?” Cody asked.

Rising, Nate nodded. “The business I had earlier up at Haworth House involved arresting a woman who was trying to kill Reese Brightman. She was just being airlifted to a hospital on the mainland when you called.”

“Reese is all right?” Cody asked.

“Yeah. Better than all right, I’d say. I suspect that Hattie’s fantasy box has played a role in bringing her and Mac Davies together.”

“Mac Davies?” Brie asked, her mind racing. She knew that name but—

“He’s the TV producer who created Reese’s show,” Nate said.

The memory clicked into place. Brie had read about him in the trade papers where he’d been nicknamed a “star maker.”

“And they didn’t meet until they ran into each other here at Haworth House,” Nate continued. “I’m sure you can get the whole story once you get up to the hotel.”

Brie put that on her to-do list. Meeting Mac Davies could be step number one in getting her old life back. She glanced down at the ledge below. Just as soon as she got through this weekend and the trial.

“But before you go, why don’t you answer my original two questions,” Nate said.

“Have you heard of Dicky Ferrante?” Cody asked.

“Yeah. We get cable news here. He’s one of the two Ferrante boys who are vying to take over their grandfather’s position in the mob. His case goes to trial on Monday?”

“Brie’s the star witness at that trial,” Cody said. “Her testimony could put Dicky on death row.”

Nate gave a low whistle.

“I figured Belle Island would make the perfect hiding place.”

Nate glanced down at the ledge below them. “Not exactly perfect, I’d say. Any idea how your mystery woman tracked you here?”

“Good question.”

It was a good question. Brie gave it some thought while Cody filled Nate in on the two previous attempts on her life and how he’d gotten involved.

“So your mystery woman followed you onto the ferry, then shot ahead of you on the road to lay in wait,” Nate said. “Impressive.”

“Too damned impressive,” Cody said. “The question bugging me is how she found us. I’ve never mentioned this place to anyone. And I used a friend’s car to get out of the city.”

“They can do amazing things with GPS tracking devices,” Brie said.

When the two men turned to stare at her, she swallowed hard. “Like the sheriff, I watch TV. I have a cell phone, one that I was given when I went into the witness protection program. On NCIS, they track people with cell phones all the time. I was only to use this one for emergencies, to get in touch with Marshal Norville’s office.”

“They’ve never used it to get in touch with you?” Cody asked.

“No. In the last six months, I’ve only ever been contacted by the local office, and they used my regular land line. But after the shooting at the airport, I used it to contact Marshal Norville.”