Page 17 of Threat of Danger
Jess slid under the water, and held her breath.
Goal #1: Make the house suitable for her mother’s recovery while avoiding Derek.
Goal #2: Talk her mother into selling or leasing the place before next sugaring season and moving into a more manageable home with Zelda—like the house the Daleys had found.
Goal #3: Under all circumstances, avoid, avoid, avoid thinking about the past.
Chapter Five
DEREK DALEY SNIPPEDout the article about Hannah Wilson’s body being found. He pinned it on the corkboard taking up one entire wall of the old bedroom that now served as his office. The board was overcrowded with scraps of paper, some articles going back a decade.
He stared at the jumble, but he saw Jess’s face instead.
Jess Taylor was back.
Jesus, his luck couldn’t be this bad, could it?
He pulled his cell phone from his back pocket, and, as he walked out of his office, he texted his editor in New York.Need to push back the book release by a few weeks.
He was in his kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, by the time the response arrived.Can’t do. Sorry. All the ads have been scheduled. Print media is printed. Book is at retailers already. Everything OK?
He typed:Something personal came up.
His editor:Can you still make your appearances?
Derek hesitated, but only for a moment.I’ll try my best.
Almost immediately, the response flashed onto his screen.Let me know if I can help with anything.
He liked his editor. Diane Flynn was sixty, had seen publishing houses come and go. She knew what made a good book, and had made every single one of Derek’s books better. Derek owed her his career.
They texted for another minute; then he went and stood at the living room window to stare out toward Taylor land.
Jess.
He’d thought about her an insane amount over the past decade—tried to imagine what she looked like, what she was doing. Then he’d seen her name as a stuntwoman in a big Hollywood picture, and he watched all her movies, a wholly unsatisfactory exercise, since he couldn’t see her face.
She’d changed. She wore her shoulder-length golden hair in a ponytail, the silken locks no longer spilled in abandon halfway down her back. Her eyes seemed a colder blue now, he thought, her gaze flinty with determination.
The old Jess had been a sweet, long-legged teenager. The new Jess was a heart attack and a half. She was harder, harsher, with a lot of sharp edges. And with the body of an acrobat. She’d grown into a breathtaking woman.
Derek stared at the bright circle of porchlight over at the Taylor place. The last time he’d stood on that front stoop with her, Jess had been an innocent. Now all her softness had been carved away. She was alert every second. She hadn’t let her guard down for a moment.
She didn’t trust him. Maybe didn’t trust anyone.
And whose fault was that?
His.
Hehad asked her to go to the old cabin with him. He had stood by, helpless, while she’d been tortured. He had failed to keep her safe.
Nothing he could ever do would atone for that.
And for her to come back now ... Derek’s fingers tightened and crushed the empty water bottle he held. The timing couldn’t be worse.
At any other time, he would have welcomed her. But not now. Not when she could be walking into danger.Again.
He could remember ten years ago as if it’d been yesterday. Home from college on break, he was supposed to meet his buddies at Pip’s Pizza. He strolled in, thinking he was the shit. Grown up. A man.
