Page 124 of Big Bad Wolfe

A pearl.

One lone pearl lay on the wood floor.

Picking it up, he pocketed it and surged to his feet, looked at the manager. “Is there a back exit nearby?”

“Yes. Continue down the main corridor about forty feet. It’s only for emergency use, we don’t—”

“Everybody stay put until you hear from me,” Zane ordered, and walked into the hallway. Staring at the floor, he strode toward the exit. And found another pearl about ten feet farther down. He snatched it up, a small gleaming beacon of hope in the midst of chilling fear.

Jillian had known he would come for her. She’d left him a trail.

He eased out the back exit, palming his Beretta. Stood looking, listening in the moonlit night. On his left, the sea roared and thrashed at the base of a steep cliff. On his right a rough, sandy path wove upward through looming evergreens. He didn’t hear anything except the angry sea.

But another gleaming pearl led him up the path.

Listening carefully for any sound other than the sea, he followed the trail of pearls, like glimmering tears on the ground. Marveling at his wife’s ingenuity and praying with everything he had for her safety.

Each pearl reassured him that she was still alive to lead him onward, upward along the snaking trail in the darkness.

The wind picked up as the height increased, a salty tang blowing off the lashing sea.

Andfinally,when he’d almost reached the cliff’s crest, the wind carried the sound of female voices over the thundering waves.

Zane edged behind a boulder to assess the situation. Adrenaline surged though his system, his heart jackhammered, but icy resolve steeled his muscles, steadied his hands. Emotion would get his wife killed.

Jillian stood straight and steady with her back to the plunging drop-off, far too close to the cliff’s jagged edge … with Brooke beside her, weaving in a drunken sway and blubbering hysterically.

Lynn was facing the two women, holding them at gunpoint.

“Lynn,” Jillian said, and only because Zane knew her so well did he realize what the calm, reasonable tone was costing her. “I understand you’re upset. Let’s all go back to the inn. We can talk about this, and then forget it ever happened.”

Zane prowled through the undergrowth, sticking to the cover of tree trunks, foliage clumps, and boulders as he circled to put himself behind Lynn.

“Forget?Forget?” Madness tinged Lynn’s voice, etched her profile. Her trilling laugh chilled Zane to the marrow. “I told you when you intruded on us in the tea parlor thatshe…” Lynn sneered at Brooke. “Hired a PI to spy on you and bug your house. She paid gang members to terrorize you so your home situation would look unsafe to the court. She confessedeverythingto me when I confronted her withthis…” She waved the gun. “When her investigator’s hidden transmitters allowed her to overhear you talking about Wade’s … indiscretion … she used it to blackmail him into endorsing her in the custody suit.”

“But she regrets it now, right, Brooke?” Jillian elbowed the crying redhead. “Tell her you’re sorry and you won’t mention what you heard to anyone.”

“Yes, yes,” Brooke sniveled. “I won’t. I won’t say a word.”

“It’s too late,” Lynn said. “The damage has been done.”

“No,” Jillian insisted. “We can all still go home.”

“I’ve always liked you, Jillian, and I don’t want to hurt you. You’re a good person and a good mother to that poor little boy. He’s already lost one mother. I got rattled when you caught me taking Brooke from the parlor, and I made you come along. I know exactly what I have to do with Brooke … but … I’m not sure about you.”

Christ,Lynn was completely unhinged—and completely unpredictable. Trying to maneuver into position faster, Zane stepped on a twig, froze when it cracked.

“Why don’t you just do the right thing for everyone—including yourself—and let us both leave?” Jillian’s question covered the noise he’d made, and he started moving again.

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid Brooke’snotsuch a good person. Invasion of privacy, harassment, extortion. She knows too much, is too dangerous to my family.” Lynn shook her head. “Brooke did a bit too much ‘celebrating’ at the party, thanks to the extra alcohol I spiked her drinks with. Plenty of witnesses saw the way she was lurching around the ballroom. The poor tipsy woman went out for some fresh air, got disoriented, and will accidentally stumble off the cliff.”

Brooke wailed, staggered, and Jillian propped her up. “Nobody’s been hurt yet, Lynn. What about your daughters? What will happen to them if you go through with this?”

“EverythingI’ve done has always been for my girls. Hundreds of personal sacrifices for Wade’s advancement. Decades of playing those horrid political games Iloathed. Pretending I was unaware of his infidelity the past few years.”

“You knew?” Jillian said softly.

“I’m not stupid. Men, especially powerful men, need their diversions. But it didn’t matter as long as Wade could be President one day, and then my girls would finally get the opportunities and acclaim they deserve. And I’d be the First Lady.” Bitterness laced her words. “But it was all fornothing.Because in the end, afterIhelped him climb the ladder every step of the way, he intended to throw everything in the trash. Walk out on his family, walk out on hisdestiny… and marry his whore.”

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