Page 22 of The Restaurant on Plum Island
She knew she’d promised Harley she’d stay on the grounds, but walking on the beach and dipping her toes in the ocean always calmedher. As she crossed the road, the same prickly sensation Carly had felt earlier returned. She glanced nervously over her shoulder.
She caught a movement from the corner of her eye and turned to see a bush rustle from across the street.
A shudder slid up Carly’s spine.Am I being followed?
Suddenly, shadows seemed to shift and morph in her peripheral vision, making everything seem super creepy, as if there were a million eyes on her. Carly took a deep breath and shook off her paranoia but increased her pace. The prickling sense of unease got stronger as she was about to step onto the cool white sand.
That’s when she heard it. The faint click, like a camera shutter, mingled with the rustle of the palm trees that graced the entrance to the beach. Carly whirled around.
“Who’s there?” she called out sharply.
There was a scuffle from one side of her and then silence. Carly turned and noted that the Beach Hut was open. She saw its owner, Finn Shaw, waxing a surfboard near it.
Her heart pounding in her throat, Carly hurried forward, her breath quickening. The sand filled her shoes as she pushed forward, but she didn’t care. Carly’s objective was to reach Finn and call Harley. But before she could get within hearing distance of Finn, a hand grabbed her shoulder. Carly jumped as her heart slammed into herrib cage, and her fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, as did her brother’s self-defense training.
“Leave me alone!” Carly yelled, twisting from the person’s grasp and turned around swinging.
“Carly!” The deep, familiar voice growled, ducking her blow.
“Harley?” Carly clutched her chest in relief as her brother stood before her. “Was it you following me?”
“One of Ethan’s men saw you leaving the grounds and alerted me,” Harley told her. “I knew you’d head for the beach, so I tracked you here.”
Carly gave a shaky laugh as she admitted to her paranoia. “I was getting so paranoid when I thought someone was following me that I even thought I heard a camera clicking like it was taking photos.”
“What?” Harley frowned, his head spinning around as he scanned the palm trees. “From which direction did you hear it?”
Carly pointed, frowning at her brother. “I was probably imagining it.”
“Stay here,” Harley ordered. “I think it’s better to check it out. I’ll be back.”
Before Carly could respond, her brother disappeared into the thicket of trees like magic.
It wasn’t long before Harley reappeared, dragging a man by his collar along with him.
“Let me go!” the man yelled as he struggled in Harley’s grip. “You can’t do this.”
“You were taking pictures of my sister without her knowledge,” Harley pointed out. “I think that’s called stalking.”
“I was doing my job!” he muttered.
“Your job is stalking and harassing people?” Carly growled as the fear turned into red-hot anger.
She stepped forward, snatched his camera from his hands, and flipped through the photos, turning cold as she saw pictures of herself, her family, and her friends. Carly showed Harley before she took the card out of the camera.
“You’d better not have more of these,” Carly warned him, pulling out her mobile phone.
“Who are you calling?” The man’s brows creased worriedly.
“The police,” Carly told him. “The last time I looked, you couldn’t go around stalking people like this.”
“Wait!” The man said, holding up his hands. He was about to reach into his pocket and glanced at Harley. “I’m going to get my ID.”
Harley nodded, not taking his eyes from the man he still had in a vice grip. The man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled outhis wallet, flipping through to find a plastic license card he handed to Harley. “I’m a private investigator. I was hired by a client to get information on you.”
Carly’s brows shot up, stunned.A PI? Who would hire someone to investigate me?
Harley’s eyes bore into the man. “Who hired you?”
