Page 15 of Shattering Dawn
He went down the outside walkway to apartment two-fifteen andknocked softly. The peephole darkened briefly. He heard the muffled sound of three locks being unlocked.
The door opened a couple of inches. Amelia peered out.
“Mr. Sweetwater.” She stared at him, appalled. “What happened? Did you fall down the stairs?”
“That’s the first thing that pops into your head? Really? I fell down a flight of stairs? Never mind. Are you going to invite me in?”
“What? Sorry, yes, of course.” Amelia stepped back. “Sit down. Should I call nine-one-one?”
“No, don’t call nine-one-one.” He moved past her and turned to watch her lock the three locks. “We don’t have time for me to spend the rest of the night in an emergency room. The good news is, you don’t have a stalker.”
Amelia spun around to face him. “I don’t?”
“No, Amelia. Someone is watching you, but what I interrupted tonight was an attempted kidnapping.”
Chapter Eight
Amelia placed aglass of white wine on the table next to the recliner. “At least you no longer think I’m delusional or that I’m a con artist.”
“Nope,” Gideon said. He was stretched out on the recliner, plastic baggies filled with ice nestled against his ribs and his right leg. He picked up the glass. “Is this all you’ve got? White wine?”
“What were you expecting?”
“I was hoping for something stronger. Whiskey, for example.”
“I see. Well, I do have some cognac that my friend Irene gave me.”
“Thanks, I’ll take it.”
She thought about informing him that the cognac, a birthday gift, was very expensive and then decided that trying to talk him out of drinking some as a painkiller would be heartless—not to mention rude, under the circumstances. After all, she was the reason he had been beaten up tonight.
“Right,” she said.
She picked up the wineglass, went back around the island that separated the kitchen from the living room, and took down thebottle of cognac. She poured a small amount into a glass, hesitated, briefly considering her obligations as an employer, and added two more splashes. She picked up the cognac and the white wine and carried both into the living room.
She handed the cognac to Gideon and watched him take a healthy swallow. “Are you sure I shouldn’t call nine-one-one or drive you to the nearest emergency room?”
“Positive.”
She decided she could use a drink, too. She sipped the white wine and sank down onto the sofa. “All right, what happened?”
Gideon used his free hand to adjust one of the makeshift ice packs. “Best guess? You have stumbled into someone’s off-the-books business operation and attracted the attention of some very bad people.”
“It’s all those trips to Lucent Springs. Someone has realized that I’m closing in on answers.”
She drank some more wine and considered the fact that her worst nightmare had become a reality. She was being hunted. Again. But at least this time she was aware of the danger. She started to draw up a list of actions that needed to be taken.
“I’ve got to warn the others,” she said. “That might not be easy. Last I heard, Talia and Luke are following up a lead in the San Juan Islands. Limited cell phone service. Ambrose and Pallas are looking for someone on the list who lives off the grid in the Arizona mountains. I’ll ask our producer, Phoebe, to try to track them down. She’s a whiz with tech. After I do that I need to hire a bodyguard and head back to Lucent Springs. That’s where the answers are, I’m sure of it.”
“Amelia, did you hear a word I just said?” Gideon asked.
“What?” She blinked and yanked her thoughts out of planning mode. “Oh. Sorry. I was trying to develop a strategy for moving forward. I didn’t expect you to close my case so quickly or—” She brokeoff and waved a hand in a gesture meant to indicate his physical condition. “Or quite so dramatically.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I haven’t closed your case. I’m just getting started.”
“I hired you to get answers. I wanted to know if I was dealing with a random stalker or the people responsible for kidnapping my friends and me. You confirmed my suspicions. Send me the bill. I’m a little short on cash right now but I promise you’ll get paid.”
“Are you by any chance trying to fire me?”