Page 35 of Landon

Noel glared at Landon, then back to Penny. “Any special reason he gave you the creeps?”

“Just the way he looked at me on the plane. Not when Mom was around, but sometimes I’d look over, and he always stared at me. Then when we got here, he said we needed to spend as much time on the beach as possible since a storm was coming and we’d have limited beach time.”

“This whole trip was stupid,” Tad grumbled. “As soon as we got here, Horticia kept talking about the storm that was coming. Mom just grinned and said it might keep us here a couple of extra days. I told her I had a math test coming up, but she ignored me. Then Mom got mad at Roger and pouted in her room.”

“When did Roger and Horticia get so close? I could see them outside my window when they were down in the garden afterMom stayed in her room,” Penny asked Tad, twisting around to look at his face.

“Mom said she’d come down here before. Something about a man she knows who had invited her. What’s weird is that I know she brought Roger here at least once because he mentioned it. Since Horticia works for some of the guests here, I guess she’d met Roger before.”

“Horticia and Roger were awfully chummy yesterday.” Penny huffed as her eyes narrowed. “I think he’s a gigolo.”

Noel’s eyes bugged out as Tad snorted.

“Mom probably makes Roger jealous with talk of the other man, and then he makes her jealous with Horticia.” Tad shrugged, then grimaced as he looked at Noel. “Mom doesn’t make good choices.”

Noel sighed and nodded. She had an intuition that Pamela’s boy toy was banging the housekeeper. But then it seemed that Pamela was involved with the man who’d invited her to the island before.

“How chummy were Roger and Horticia?” Landon’s low, steady voice broke through Noel’s swirling thoughts.

She turned toward him, finding his sharp gaze fixed on the kids, his eyes narrowing slightly as he processed the information. His intensity was palpable, a constant undercurrent she had come to recognize.

“Um… after we got here yesterday, I saw them talking. I was looking out at the back gardens from my bedroom, and they were behind some of the bushes. They were talking at first, but then it looked like they were arguing. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, though. After a while, they stepped out of my sight. Horticia came back into the house, but I saw Roger down on the beach later. I didn’t want to go down there if he was around,” Penny said.

Noel had no idea what was going through Landon’s mind, but she turned to look at him. He held her gaze, but she couldn’t read his thoughts. He sent a silent message with a quick shake of his head. She turned her attention back to the kids, sensing the need to shift the conversation.

“Is there anything else on your mind that you want to talk about tonight?” she asked gently.

Tad shook his head. “Not for me. I guess I’ll figure out what to say to Mom when we see her tomorrow. But honestly, now that I know she brought us here without telling Dad and then tried to get more money from him… it makes it hard to know what to say to her.”

His shoulders slumped, the weight of betrayal pressing down on him. At that moment, the determined young man was replaced by a heartbroken boy, and Noel’s chest tightened with empathy. Before she could respond, Penny straightened, her hand reaching out to cover Tad’s in a gesture of comfort.

“It’ll be okay, Tad,” she whispered, her small voice steady but filled with quiet resolve. “You know Mom’s always been a little... flighty. I think she loves us in her own way, but it’s not a healthy kind of love.”

Noel’s breath caught, the air rushing from her lungs. She had been bracing herself to console them, but now, here was Penny, taking on that role with a maturity beyond her years. “It’s been a rough couple of days,” Noel said softly, her voice thick with emotion. “Why don’t you both try to get some rest?”

Tad nodded, his movements sluggish. “I’m not sure I can sleep,” he admitted, though a yawn betrayed him.

As they settled down onto the tarp, their breathing soon deepened, the exhaustion of the past few days pulling them into sleep. Noel watched them for a moment, her heart aching for the burden these two young souls carried.

She leaned back, the storm’s howling winds and relentless rain filling the silence. Landon sat beside her, his focus glued to his phone, his fingers tapping furiously as he updated his team. The glow from the screen illuminated his face, casting shadows that emphasized the hard lines of his jaw and the determined set of his mouth.

Noel sighed, dropping her chin to her chest and rubbing her tired eyes. The whirlwind of the past twenty-four hours weighed heavily on her mind. What was supposed to be a straightforward trip had spiraled into chaos—an attempted extortion, a storm, a kidnapping, and a desperate rescue.And I shot at a man.The thought echoed in her head, the gravity of it still surreal. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel if she’d actually hit him.

She’d been in the presence of law enforcement many times in her job, but none seemed to carry themselves with the edge of danger she felt pouring from Landon. Not danger to her or the children… but danger to anyone who might try to harm them. He’d charged ahead as soon as they’d neared the place where the kids were kept. His movements were sure and resolute. And even though he’d told her to stay in the vehicle, just being in his presence made her want to rush headlong into the unknown to ensure the kids were safe.Who am I kidding? I wanted to make sure he was safe, too.It had been a reckless act, yet, she hadn’t hesitated. Not after the kiss they’d shared. She had never kissed someone on a case. Or kissed someone after just meeting them. Or kissed someone with such intensity. But just like in a movie, the kiss had felt right. The right time with the right man. She glanced to the side as though drawn to him.

His phone landed in his lap, and his gaze landed on her. “You okay?” he asked.

His voice was soft, making sure the kids were still asleep. She nodded. “Yes. Just a lot on my mind.”

“Want to talk about it?”

A bubble of laughter burst forth, and she quickly slapped her hand over her mouth to muffle the sound. Seeing his brows draw together in a silent question, she whispered, “You’re doing what I did to the kids earlier.”

He smiled and nodded. “Yeah, but it helped them get their feelings out. Maybe it’ll help you.”

She had to admit his reasoning was sound. She leaned back and rested her head against the rough wooden wall. “I was trying to make sense of this day, but I’m not sure that any of it makes sense.” She inhaled deeply, then slowly let the air free from her lungs. “I told you before that one of the things I like about my job is that everything is different. Some days more mundane than others, but even in my toughest cases, I’ve never had a day like today.”

She rolled her head to the side and found his gaze on her. It was something she’d come to learn about Landon—when he listened, he gave his full attention. A warmth bloomed inside her chest, and she realized that the trait was rarer than most people would think. She had come to know we live in a society where people's attention spans have gone from about twenty minutes to about twenty seconds with all the distractions of cell phones and tablets. When world news was at our fingertips, the ability to truly listen to another human as they sometimes bumbled and fumbled through tangled emotions became lost. Counselors and social workers were trained to listen, and she supposed that investigators were, too.

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