Perilous Refuge. Kathleen Tailer

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СКАЧАТЬ quickly. Just Alex—not a threat to her safety, just a threat to her peace of mind. A knot tightened in her stomach as she prepared for the battle. She turned and looked at him, but instead of antagonism she saw a question in his eyes.

      “Are you going to take a whole roll up here?” His voice was tinged with disbelief as he put his hands in his pockets and watched her with the camera.

      Chelsea shrugged, determined that he wasn’t going to rattle her today, despite his constant questions and barely veiled suspicion of her. She crouched and took another shot, getting one of the sun just as it was breaking over the horizon. “Hardly anyone uses film anymore, Mr. Sullivan. This is a digital camera, so I can take hundreds of photos and just delete the ones I don’t want. Sometimes I need to take a whole slew of shots to get that one special photograph.” She adjusted the focus on her Canon and peered through the viewfinder. “Do you have a hobby?”

      Alex grimaced. “I don’t have time for hobbies. I have a law practice to run.”

      “You’re missing out,” Chelsea said quietly. She stood and their eyes locked. Despite the frustration she saw in his gray depths, an emptiness she hadn’t expected reached out to her.

      Miss Abigail had told her that Alex Sullivan basically lived at his office and worked seventy-hour work weeks. Maybe she could help him enjoy a small part of Maui before he returned to that single-minded existence. She took the strap off of her neck and handed him the camera. “Pictures tell a story, Mr. Sullivan, just like an attorney giving an opening statement. Take a look.”

      Alex paused a moment as if considering her analogy, then shrugged and took the camera. He pointed the viewfinder toward the valley and turned slowly, looking around at the different landscape that surrounded him. “It all looks the same to me.” He shrugged. “Everything is a fuzzy blur.”

      Chelsea laughed and gently reached over to adjust a setting on the top of the camera, then guided his index finger to the button on the top right of the body. His skin was warm and to her own surprise, she enjoyed the touch. “Okay, it’s on automatic focus now. Just push this button halfway down. Yes, that’s it. Now it will focus for you. When you’re ready to take a shot, push the button all the way down until you hear a click.”

      Alex played with the focus for a while, slowly pointing the lens at different views of the valley and snapping a few pictures. Then, to her amazement, he turned the camera toward her and took a few shots. She laughed and covered her face with her hands and waved him away, but he took a few more anyway, ignoring her protests. Finally he pulled the camera away from his eye.

      “So you take a hundred photos of the same thing. Then what?”

      She turned the camera over and showed him how to scroll through the pictures he had taken and delete the ones he didn’t want. “The best ones I print and put in albums. Occasionally, I frame one and put it on my wall. I don’t buy very many souvenirs when I travel. My pictures are great reminders of my trips.”

      “Do you travel a lot?”

      The question was asked in a casual way, but Chelsea raised any eyebrow to show that she understood that he was again probing for more information about her background.

      “Not as much as I’d like. I usually enjoy exploring new places and meeting new people.” She grinned pointedly at him. “Usually, that is.”

      Alex continued to scroll through the pictures, ignoring her subtle gibe. “So where have you visited?”

      Chelsea reached for the camera, but Alex moved slightly, keeping it just out of her reach, and continued to peruse her photographs. “Several different states. A few countries. This is my first trip to Hawaii. Have you been here before?”

      “No, I don’t have time to travel much.” He paused and then slowly looked away from her camera and captured her eyes with his own. “You’ve got some really pretty photos on here, and also a lot of pictures of various men—all of whom look kind of rough.” He showed her one of the pictures. “Is this a friend of yours?”

      Chelsea felt her pulse accelerate. Why hadn’t she deleted those pictures? There had been several times since she had escaped from Carver that she had worried that someone was following her, so she had taken pictures of the suspicious men to help her remember their faces, just in case. So far, each had been a false alarm, but she’d kept up her surveillance, regardless. In her book, it couldn’t hurt to be too careful. But how could she explain that to Alex? She crinkled her nose and rubbed her arms, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for the photos and warm up at the same time. The altitude was 7,000 feet above sea level and it was definitely cooler here than it was at the beaches below.

      She bit her bottom lip. Struggle as she might for a plausible reason for the photos, her mind drew a blank. She chose to evade the subject and furtively hoped that he would let it drop. “I’d better go check on Miss Abigail. Hopefully the walk will warm me up—it’s kind of chilly up here. Are you ready for breakfast?”

      Alex slipped off his fleece jacket and handed it to her with a frown. He’d obviously noticed that she had avoided the question, but he didn’t push, despite the query in his eyes. “Here. I can’t have you freezing.”

      She took the jacket gratefully and hugged it around her. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” It warmed her instantly and smelled fresh, clean and masculine. Strange how the simple gesture of him lending her his jacket made her feel not just warmer but safer, as if she could count on him to look after her.

      Strange thought, indeed. She knew better than that—she could count on no one but herself.

      * * *

      After returning to Miss Abigail, they breakfasted on shaved honey ham, Hawaiian sweet rolls and sharp cheddar cheese. Chelsea had also found some fresh pineapple at the deli and a few other tropical fruits to round off the meal. She had even brought a jug of freshly squeezed orange juice and little paper cups emblazoned with the hotel logo.

      The food was simple yet satisfying, and Alex felt himself watching Chelsea as she served the small breakfast, filled with a sense of peace he hadn’t experienced in a long time. Her eyes danced as she talked and she moved with a grace he had rarely seen. Could this woman really be a criminal? She sure didn’t fit the scheming stereotype he had in his mind. But then, would any con artist be easy to spot? After all, his fiancée had sure pulled the wool over his eyes before her true character had been revealed. Irene had professed her love one day and the next tried to steal his client’s secrets so she could sell them to his client’s adversary. Her treachery had been a bitter pill to swallow and still squeezed his heart whenever he thought about it.

      He eyed Chelsea critically. Was it possible she was just a great actress, playing a part? Who was the real Chelsea? She was definitely hiding something. His investigator’s inquiries had proved that. But what? And who were all of those men on her camera? His mind swept through various possibilities as they finished breakfast, but he still didn’t know enough about her to really come to any conclusions. As much as he hated to change his plans yet again, he realized that learning about Chelsea and her motives was going to take much longer than he had anticipated. He would probably need to extend his trip if he was going to find out the truth. He patted his pocket where he had stashed the paper cup she had been using and hoped that Tony would be able to get the fingerprints off of it without any problems.

      Several other people were milling around the observation deck and the antics of a three-year-old boy captured his attention. The child was very energetic and was throwing rocks over the railing whenever his parents weren’t looking. Alex smiled and then scanned СКАЧАТЬ