Page 36 of Pressure

“Four actually,” she said, holding up four fingers.

“Gimme twenty minutes. I’ll meet you outside the main building. We’ll go get breakfast in town.”

She nodded and backed off his porch with a slight wave. He watched her ponytail swing as she jogged along the path toward Solitaire.

He’d forgotten her penchant for early morning runs.

Back in the cabin bedroom, he dragged on jeans and a t-shirt and splashed water on his face. He looked at his contacts case and grabbed his glasses instead. On his way out the door, he grabbed a brown leather jacket.

He stood on the porch for ten minutes waiting for her to emerge.

When she did, she wore a dark red sweater and jeans with knee-high boots.

“Who’s driving?” he asked as he pulled out his key to lock the front door.

“I’ll let you.”

He dug his keys out and jogged down the steps to his car.

“In the mood for anything specific?” he asked as he drove down the hill.

“Anything’s good.”

As they pulled up to the gate at the bottom, he pressed the button on his visor to open it. Something in the bushes caught his eye.

“God damn it.”

“What?” Marissa asked, looking out her window.

“On the left. Guy with a camera. I’m betting it’s a reporter.”

Marissa glanced that direction. “Spotted. Do we keep going or do you need to go back?”

“We’ll eat. Let me just call Eli.”

He tapped a button on his steering wheel and used voice commands to dial Eli.

“You up?” he asked.

“Yeah. Holly had a six AM conference call. We’re at breakfast now.”

“Marissa and I are headed to breakfast too. I spotted a guy in the bushes just outside the gate taking pictures. I didn’t confront him, but we should park security at the gate tonight and check membership before we let anyone up. Might just need to become our standard operating procedure for a while.”

Eli agreed.

“Where are you for breakfast?”

“The little diner not far from the club.”

“We’ll meet you there.”

He ended the call and looked at Marissa. “Sorry, I should have asked. You OK with that?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Totally fine. Might be better for us to have a buffer anyway.”

He hated that she was right.

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