Whispering Springs

* * *

DYLAN’S FIRST INSTINCT was to pull her tightly to him, protect her from whatever danger lurked on the property, but that wasn’t a good idea for so many reasons. Too many years had passed and he had a job to do. He held her for only a moment before sliding his hands to her shoulders, subtly keeping her at bay.

“Did you hear that?” she asked on a breath. “Sounded like it came from directly above us.”

“Hold on.” He shifted his position, putting his body between her and the shadowy grounds as he moved out from under the terrace to scan the second-story bedrooms. Only one of the windows was lit against nightfall. He saw a movement in the room and then, a second later, a female figure appeared in the balcony doorway.

“Blair?” he called up to her softly.

She rushed out on the balcony, clutching a white robe to her chest. “Dylan?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not hurt, but you’d better get up here.” Her hushed voice quivered with excitement. Or was that panic?

“What’s wrong?”

“Just come up, okay?”

Ava caught his arm, her eyes wary and anxious as he moved back under the lattice cover. “What’s going on?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.” He gently untangled his arm. “Wait here while I go have a look.”

“What? No! Are you crazy? I’m not waiting out here alone in the dark.”

“Then come inside.” He took her hand, pulling her toward the French doors. “I’ll be back down as soon as I can.”

“If Blair’s in trouble, I should go up there and help her. Dylan, those screams—” She broke off. “Wait a minute. How is it you’re still so calm? You don’t even seem surprised. It’s almost as if you—”

“As if I what? You heard her. She said she’s fine. There’s no cause for panic.”

“You don’t scream like that if you’re fine.”

“Then why are we standing here arguing?” he asked in exasperation.

“That’s a very good point.” She brushed past him to the doorway.

Dylan hesitated for only a moment before catching up with her and taking the lead. He bounded up the stairs two at a time, pausing on the landing to take stock. A crystal chandelier tinkled overhead in a draft. Farther down the hallway, a door clicked shut. He turned his ear to the sound, holding up his hand to silence Ava when she would have questioned his caution.

Blair had arranged to have the ranch exclusively for the reunion. The invitees had all been assigned rooms upstairs, leaving the detached cabins unoccupied. In the two days that Dylan had been there, he’d made a point to familiarize himself with all the staff members. A stranger wandering around the house or grounds should be easy to spot. He scoured the hallway now for any sign of an intruder or anything out of the ordinary. Except for that faint click of a door, nothing seemed amiss.

Blair’s suite was just off the landing, and as Dylan started toward the door, she burst into the hallway, the hem of her silk robe floating behind her like a ghost.

“Dylan, thank God. You have to see this—” She halted abruptly when she spotted Ava. Her hand flew to her throat in alarm. “Ava! I didn’t know you were here.”

“I got in a little while ago.” She moved around Dylan. “What’s going on? We heard your screams. That was you, wasn’t it?”

“Yes...”

“You scared us half to death,” Ava said. “It sounded as if you were being murdered up here.”

Blair seemed at a loss as her gaze darted to Dylan. “Murdered? No... I...”

“Take a breath,” he said, “and tell us what happened.” He kept his voice neutral, but his eyes warned her to proceed with caution.

She bit her lip and nodded. “I’m okay. I...it’s nothing really. I feel completely stupid. I saw a scorpion in my bedroom.”

“A scorpion?” Ava repeated in disbelief.

“On my bed.” Blair clutched the lapels of her robe. “They’re everywhere in the Hill Country so I shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose. But you remember how deathly afraid of spiders I’ve always been. A scorpion is a million times worse.”

Ava nodded. “I remember, all right. You nearly drove us into a ditch once when you saw a spider in your car.”

Blair shuddered. “It was a very big spider.”

“I can see you’re upset,” Ava said. “Why don’t I call downstairs and have someone come up and take care of the problem?”

Dylan maneuvered around Blair to the door, blocking Ava’s path into the suite. “I’ll deal with the scorpion. You go downstairs and let everyone know that Blair is fine. We can’t be the only ones who heard her scream.”

“Yes, would you?” Blair managed a weak smile. “I’m too embarrassed to face anyone right now.”

“There’s no need to be embarrassed. I’m sure I would scream, too, if I found a scorpion in my bed.” Ava addressed Blair, but she trained her gaze on Dylan. Unease niggled. He could almost hear the gears turning inside her head. The scorpion cover wasn’t bad, but Ava North had never been anyone’s fool.

“Thanks,” Blair murmured.

Ava shrugged off her gratitude, but she had a determined look on her face that Dylan remembered only too well. “Think nothing of it. I’ll take care of everything. But are you sure you’re okay? You still look a little pale. My room is just down the hall. Would you like to wait there while Dylan exterminates yours?”

“I’m fine now.”

“If you say so.” Her gaze on Dylan was direct and slightly challenging. “You’ve got everything under control up here?”

“Yes, no worries.”

She nodded though she didn’t look particularly convinced. “I’ll see you both downstairs, then.”

Dylan waited until she’d disappeared across the landing before turning back to Blair. “What happened?”

“It’s better if I show you.”

He followed her into the suite. A small entryway opened into a luxurious sitting area with buttery leather furniture, a limestone fireplace and a row of French doors that looked out on a wide balcony. Blair paused in the sitting room and pointed to a doorway through which Dylan could glimpse a bed and another set of French doors.

“In there.”

The lamp on the nightstand cast a soft glow over the room. More light spilled in from the open bathroom door. Dylan quickly scanned the area, peering into shadowy corners and taking note of the night air drifting in through the open balcony doors. Like the sitting area, the room was both rustic and luxurious with a vaulted beam ceiling and plush rugs on a wide-plank floor. But it was the bed that drew Dylan’s attention. Or rather, what had been placed on the covers.

Lying atop the opulent linens was a doll, the kind of expensive keepsake his grandmother had once collected and kept behind the locked glass doors of her curio cabinet. Only this one hadn’t been so lovingly preserved. The porcelain arms and legs had been shattered and the neck grotesquely twisted so that the painted visage faced the doorway. Light glinted in the glass eyes, prickling Dylan’s scalp as he moved into the room.

Behind him, Blair said breathlessly, “You see it, don’t you?”