A Little Too Late (Madigan Mountain #1)(48)

Oh. Duh.

We get out of the car, both of us careful not to slam the doors. “Come on,” he says. “Stick with me.”

I find myself taking that instruction literally. I get close to him, so close that our hands bump as we circle the building.

After the second bump, Reed takes my cold hand in his warm one. I like the way his long fingers close over mine.

I always have.

“Sure hope they don’t have any motion-detecting lights,” Reed murmurs. “Hey, look.”

When we round the building, Reed’s rental SUV is visible beside a large house. There are two other vehicles, as well. One of them is a white van from Penny Ridge Catering.

“Looks like someone is throwing a dinner party,” Reed whispers.

“I wonder if they brought the moonshine,” I whisper back. I glance at him to find him looking back at me.

Suddenly, we’re both trying really hard not to laugh. I have to clap a hand over my mouth.

“I think you drank it all, Ava.”

“You shut up.”

My stomach shakes with the threat of nervous laughter until Reed’s hand tightens on mine. I take a gulp of cold mountain air and master myself, and we edge closer to the house.

But the window is a good five feet off the ground, I can’t see inside. “What do you see?”

“A kitchen,” he says, standing on tiptoe. “We haven’t found them yet.”

“I hope they’re not upstairs,” I point out. “My free climbing gear is at home.”

“Wait,” he whispers as we edge around the back of the building. “You like to go rock climbing?”

“Of course,” I whisper back. “I live in Colorado, Reed. I had to learn some new tricks.”

He gives me an appreciative glance, his brown eyes glinting in the moonlight.

But this is no friendly stroll, so when we arrive at the next set of lit-up windows, he drops my hand and edges closer to peer inside. “Bingo.”

“What are they doing?” I mouth.

“Talking,” he whispers into my ear. “There are maybe eight guys around the dining table. There’s a projector pointed at this wall.” He indicates the wall we’re standing against. “Let’s walk around to the front and try to see what’s on the screen?”

“Okay, 007.”

He flashes me a grin and then takes my hand. Quietly, we duck below the window and follow the wall to the front corner. There’s another window here, but it’s higher off the ground, and he can’t get a good view inside. “Ava, let me boost you up.”

A nervous thrill runs down my spine. “All right. But if we get arrested, this was all your idea.”

“Sure, sure.” He squats down in front of me. “Let’s do this piggyback style. Or climb onto my shoulders.”

“All right. But this pencil skirt was a mistake.”

He snickers as I tug my skirt up my thighs and then throw one leg over his shoulder, and then the other. A moment later I’m rising into the air, my heart pounding. I grab the window frame to steady myself and peer into the room.

On the projector screen, there’s an architectural drawing. It shows a big development with downtown Penny Ranch in one corner of the screen. I count five big buildings, many smaller ones, and a parking garage. I take a deep breath. “It’s…a development. A big one. Looks awful, honestly. And the whole spread is labeled Sharpe Chalet at Penny Ridge.”

“No lie?”

I tap his shoulder, asking to be put down. “You have to see this.”

“How big?” he asks after lowering me to my feet.

“Like, five hotel towers. It would look ridiculous and destroy the whole town’s view of the mountains.”

“Shit.” Reed looks around, as if a stepstool might suddenly appear. He braces his shoe against the stone foundation. “I’m going to grab the window frame. Will you steady me?”

“Um…”

Before I can finish that thought, he pushes up, grabbing the window frame like a monkey on a climbing wall. I hurry to brace him, but there’s no good place to hold onto, and I end up clamping my hands to his muscular ass.

I’ve had worse jobs, honestly.

Reed holds the position long enough to let out a curse before dropping back down again. “Quick—back up there. Take a photo.”

“Great idea,” I say, fumbling for my phone.

After he lifts me to the window again, I spend a tense moment focusing the camera on the projection screen. I take several shots, praying that one of them will be crisp enough to read when we enlarge it.

When I’m down again and busy straightening out my skirt, Reed picks through the photos I took. “Block must be selling them land—the foothills acreage on this side of Madigan Mountain. The Sharpes will connect to it with ski trails over the peak. And they’ll build a monstrosity of a resort on this side, too.”

My mind reels. “Would that even pass the planning board?”

“Hard to say. But if you owned the land, you could devote a lot of time to tweaking your plan and wearing them down.”

“Why would the Sharpes reveal their plan to Block but not to us?”

Reed looks up. “Maybe Block doesn’t want an outright sale. Maybe he wants in on the profits. The Sharpes would have to show him where the money is coming from. The bigger they build, the bigger the potential profit.”