Hidden (Nicole Jones #1)(53)

‘Miss Adler?’

Again, I was by the pool, and he startled me. I hadn’t heard him approach, the soles of his shoes moving across the tiles silently, stealthily. I shut the laptop cover and squinted up at him from the chaise lounge.

‘Zeke Chapman? FBI?’ He was disappointed I didn’t immediately recognize him.

I flashed him a smile. ‘Sorry, but you all march through here and I’m bad with names.’

He gave me a small smile and sat down on the edge of the chaise lounge next to mine. He cocked his head toward the laptop. ‘Working on something?’

‘Just playing around.’

He ran a hand through his hair and the sun again caught the glint of his gold wedding band.

‘Is your wife FBI, too?’

He laughed. ‘Oh, no. She’s a teacher. Elementary school.’

‘So she likes kids. You got kids?’

‘No.’ The answer was short, clipped, and I wondered how long they’d been trying.

‘I suppose you’re looking for my father.’

He leaned toward me and smiled. ‘No. I was looking for you.’ It was the intensity of his stare that unnerved me, that made me tingle all over, a feeling I’d only ever had before with Ian.

‘Why?’ I whispered.

‘Because you’re prettier than your father and seeing you doesn’t feel like work.’

‘So this really is work?’

Zeke sighed and sat back again. ‘I’m afraid so.’

‘You’re keeping an eye on me to find out if I know anything about my father’s business.’

‘Give the girl a gold star.’

‘I don’t know anything.’

‘I figured you’d say that.’ He spotted my drink on the glass top table next to me. ‘You got any more of that?’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘It’s Scotch. You drink on duty?’

He made a show of looking at his watch. ‘Oh, look at that, my shift is over.’ When he looked back up at me, his eyes were twinkling and his smile was infectious.

‘Sure.’ I swung my legs over the side of the lounge and went over to the bar, where I poured him a short one, then thought twice and added a little more. I brought it over to him.

He’d gotten up and was staring across the pool at the ocean beyond it. The water was a mix of turquoise and cobalt blue, the blue sky dipping into it and casting a bright shimmer across the horizon.

‘You live in paradise,’ he said.

I handed him the drink. ‘I suppose.’

‘Why, it’s not paradise?’

‘Sometimes a house can be a prison, you know what I mean?’

His Adam’s apple twitched; his lips pursed into a straight line. He lifted the glass to his lips and took a long swallow. When he was done, he turned to me and said, ‘Yeah. I know exactly what you mean.’

There was a longing in his eyes that caught me off guard. I didn’t mean to do it, or maybe I did, but I kissed him. For a second, I thought he was going to move away from me, but then his hands were in my hair, and his lips opened. They were softer than I’d imagined, and when I took him up to my room and we undressed each other, there was an intensity, a need in him that made me breathless. Ian had never needed me like that.

I didn’t realize he suspected me for three weeks.





TWENTY-SEVEN


The sun is coming up, and the streaks of pink and orange dance across the sky. I sent Jeanine home when I started my search for Amelie Renaud, but not before I asked her if I could borrow her bike, the one that doesn’t have any gears. I teased her when she bought it, how she wouldn’t be able to get up the hills on the island, and what was the point in a bike if you can’t even get around properly.

So when I asked to use it, she raised one eyebrow. ‘Really? I thought you have one of Pete’s mopeds.’

‘I took it back.’

She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. ‘OK, fine. It’s out front in the bike rack. How long will you be?’

I knew she was trying to figure out where I was going. ‘I’ll be back in a couple hours. Maybe sooner. Don’t worry, I won’t run off with the bike.’

‘That’s not what I’m worried about,’ she said, a hint of sadness in her tone.

I pulled her into a hug, which was unexpected, since she is the hugger. I felt her arms go around me, and she held me tight for a few seconds.

‘I’ll be fine,’ I said when we pulled apart. But she still had that look in her eyes, the same one Steve has now, the one that thinks every time they see me will be the last time.

One of these times, it will be. But not now.

I shrug on my backpack and climb onto her bike. She left it unlocked for me.

Her bike is uncomfortable between my legs. The seat is too big, the handlebars too high. I keep reaching for the speeds, but then I realize they’re not there and I pump the pedals hard to keep my momentum up. I take Old Town Road and turn onto Center, which runs around the perimeter of the airport. I think about the BMW. Is it still there, or has Frank Cooper impounded it? Do they even have a place for abandoned cars on the island, or do they send them over to the mainland on the ferry? I am wondering about that as I approach the intersection with Cooneymus. Rodman’s Hollow is there, not too far. I could ditch the bike and hike the trail down to the beach. Hide for the day.