Page 73 of Shadow Redemption
They ate lunch at one of the hotel’s restaurants. Autumn and Ruth both laughed when Ben’s hamburger with all the trimmings arrived along with their small salads and fruit. “I’m looking forward to eating like a real person,” Autumn said when she’d caught her breath. “A few more months and I’m finished with this part of my life.”
“I heard you were retiring soon,” Ruth said. “What will you do?”
“I’ve been taking online classes and will graduate in December with a degree in graphic art design. I’ve already been designing websites on the side for more than a year.”
“That’s great, Autumn. Congratulations. I know you’ll be a success.” And she might be the perfect person to design the website for Ruth’s foundation for children. “What does Tito think about your plan?”
“He loves the idea.” Joy flooded the other woman’s face. “It’s the perfect job for me to be able to travel with him when it’s baseball season. It’s also a win for me. I hate being away from him.”
“Should I expect a wedding invitation soon?”
“If you’re not on assignment, we’d love for you to come.”
“Send me an invitation. I’ll work it out.”
“Awesome! You’re welcome to come as well, Ben.”
When they finished their meals, Ben escorted the women back to the changing tent where they donned new swimsuits. After changing, they went to the pool deck where the rest of Shadow stationed themselves around the fenced perimeter.
As Ruth followed Scott’s directions for various poses, she noticed a dark-haired, dark-complected man watching from inside the hotel. At first, she didn’t think much about it. Every time she was on a photoshoot, she and the other models attracted attention.
The man made her uneasy. She did her best to ignore him and focus on the job. The sooner Scott got his shots, the quicker she and the other models would be able to call it quits for the day.
In between poses, she checked to see if the man was in the same place and perhaps why he made her uncomfortable. Thirty minutes into the session, she figured out what caused the alarm. The man didn’t watch the proceedings as a whole. His gaze never deviated from her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Ben’s nape felt as though spiders crawled on it. He slowly scanned the pool area. Wall-to-wall people crowded around the exterior of the wrought-iron fence and beyond to the lobby doors of Casa del Mar. Although no one acted suspicious, someone set off his alarm. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was missing someone focused on him or Ruth.
Nico caught his eye, eyebrow raised in silent question. Ben sent him a hand signal and his team leader surveyed of the area, his movement casual and easy.
Ben shifted a few feet to the right and leaned against the fence to change in his field of vision. Although concentrating on the milling crowd of excited onlookers, he noticed when Ruth missed a cue and earned a sharp verbal reprimand from the photographer. That wasn’t her first slip in the past few minutes. Was she feeling the same thing he was?
He glanced at her and caught the subtle tension of her body. Despite doing her best to follow Scott’s instructions, Ruth was distracted. Was she feeling the residual effects of the allergic reaction or did she see something that alarmed her?
A movement on the other side of a lobby window caught Ben’s attention. As soon as he focused on the man, the stranger turned away and left, disappearing into the crowd of people pressing close to the windows to watch the activity around the pool.
When he looked back at Ruth, she seemed more at ease. That was enough for Ben. Whoever that guy was, he’d been the source of Ruth’s uneasiness. Signaling his teammates to watch over his woman, Ben hurried into the hotel and weaved through the crowd. Since the watcher had a big head start, Ben doubted he’d catch the man. He wanted a better look at his target to give Zane a decent description to narrow the suspect pool.
This man didn’t have access to Ruth’s job sites, though. Perhaps he was a nosy guy watching beautiful women. If so, he was one of many lingering near the pool to watch the models.
Ben’s gut said that wasn’t the case, either. No, this was probably connected to Davidson and his cronies. The knowledge sat heavy in his gut. Instead of being a protective shield for Ruth, he’d become a danger magnet.
He pushed free from the crowd and hurried through the lobby to the front of the hotel. He made it onto the sidewalk in time to see a black four-door luxury sedan pull away from the hotel at a high rate of speed. He committed the license plate to memory and grabbed his phone.
“Yeah, Murphy.”
“It’s Ben. I need you to run a license plate.”
“Go.”
He rattled off the plate number and description of the car and driver. “I don’t know if this guy is connected to our situation or not. Could have been interested in watching a bunch of beautiful women modeling swimsuits like about a thousand other men near the pool.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“Nope.”
“I’ll see what I can find out.”