Firefly Run (20 page)

"What?"

"The roses—what color are they?"

"Oh, yellow."

****

The tone of Shelly’s voice was enough to alert Reed to something wrong, and the draining of color from her face confirmed his suspicion. Yet, she did her best not to sound alarmed, ever mindful of her parents’ current stress.

"Is Sean there?" She paused while her father replied. "That’s okay. I’ll just call him at home."

Reed reached out and wrapped one of her hands in his, but she didn’t look at him. A couple more minutes passed while she and her father talked about how he was faring.

"Don’t worry about anything. And do what Mom and the doctors tell you so you can come home soon." Another short pause. "I love you, too."

Her hand holding the receiver dropped to her lap. Reed retrieved the phone and hung it up.

"Shelly, what’s wrong?" His words caused a little jolt to visibly run through her, as if he’d jerked her from a trance.

"Eddie. He sent my father yellow roses."

"How do you know?"

She shared what her father had said about the large bouquet and the card. How it all tied into the song she’d heard on the phone that day. Everyone else they knew in Texas would have signed their names. "I’ve got to call Sean, warn him. Can we get protection for my parents without them knowing? I don’t want them to worry, especially Dad, but I don’t want them left vulnerable either." Shelly shook her head slowly back and forth. "And I thought he might be here."

"What do you mean? Has something else happened?"

"I’m not sure. None of it makes sense."

"Tell me." He hoped she’d not been holding out on him again, but she wasn’t in any shape now for him to scold her.

"When we were at Luigi’s, for a second I thought I saw a face at the front window, but when I looked no one was there. And then the stuff in the office." She looked up at him, her eyes so filled with confusion and worry. "I feel like I’m losing my mind."

He pulled her into his arms, and she clung to him as if he were the only solid, dependable thing in her life. Perhaps he was. That was an awesome responsibility, but one he was now more than willing to assume. He wanted to be her protector, her rock.

She pulled slightly away. "I’ve got to call Sean."

Reed caressed the side of her face. "I’ll do it. Why don’t you go take a shower? I’ll take care of everything."

Shelly looked up at him and held his gaze, then lifted her mouth to his and planted a soft kiss on his lips. "Thank you."

He watched her, beautiful and strong despite every problem heaped upon her. After calling Sean, who said he’d take care of getting protection for his and Shelly’s parents and determining which florist delivered the roses, Reed called the local sheriff department and updated him on the situation. The sheriff said he’d inform all his deputies to be on the lookout for a man matching Eddie’s description and that he’d increase the patrols near Bobcat Ridge.

Though Shelly had been concerned Eddie might go after her parents, Reed’s gut told him Eddie was in the area. All the little occurrences that Shelly had discounted added up in his mind to a plan carefully crafted to keep Shelly on edge and begin to doubt herself. Eddie was the type of person who’d put such a plan in motion and then pounce when his victim finally conceded she’d lost her mind and been imagining everything. Reed hated that he didn’t have a team of officers at his disposal to canvass the area. The best he could do was keep his eyes and ears open and have Chris and Shelly do the same.

And hope he was fast enough to catch Eddie before he struck.

****

Through their combined efforts, the cleanup and repair work went quicker than Shelly had dared hope. Soon, sawdust and a large brush pile would be all the evidence left from the storm. The job was manageable enough now that she left it to the two men and returned to neglected office duties.

But even with Reed only a short distance across the yard, she couldn’t manage to keep her back to the door. Thoughts of Eddie Victor creeping in and slitting her throat before she could scream had her looking over her shoulder every five seconds.

She watched as the retired Army buddies from Georgia drove out of the parking lot for a day of hiking. She couldn’t believe she had any guests left. She’d spoken with all of them about the potential danger first thing that morning and braced herself for the mass exodus. The two couples with young children and the newlyweds from Kentucky opted to move to other lodgings in Townsend or Gatlinburg. But the two guys from Georgia had gotten an odd light in their eyes, like they were getting ready to go into battle again.

"Bring him on," Clyde had said. "I might be a little grayer than I was in Korea, but honey I can still shoot the same."

Shelly had tried to convince him to stay clear should something happen, but he was having none of it. He and his buddy Sam pretty much ignored her after that, and she’d left them to discuss particulars with Reed. Great, just what she needed, guests putting themselves in the line of fire.

She tried to concentrate on the financial records but gave it up in favor of rearranging the office so she could face forward while working on the computer. She’d just completed rehooking all the assorted wires and cables when she heard gravel crunching in the parking lot. Her heart jumped into her throat despite the fact she doubted Eddie would just drive up and stroll in the front door. She kept the back door to the office locked and barred for that reason.

Shelly rounded the front counter and stepped to the screen door to find her big brother striding toward the office with a grim look on his face. Her heart skipped a beat. She met him at the top of the porch steps.

"What’s wrong?" she asked.

He looked startled at her question. "Nothing, why?"

"Lord, Sean, you had this look on your face that scared me half to death. I thought something was wrong with Dad."

"No, it’s you I’m worried about."

"I’m fine." She pointed toward where the cleanup work continued. "We got through the storm pretty well considering how bad it was. Some people had their roofs torn off."

"Mother Nature isn’t exactly what brought me here."

She looked back toward Sean and noticed the bag in his hand.

"Did Reed ask you to come?"

"No, but he should have."

"Why, so you can sit around staring at the woods all day?"

"If necessary," he said.

"What about your family, your job?"

"Tina took Jolee to visit her mother, and I took vacation."

"Seems everyone takes vacation to come be my bodyguards."

Sean looked Reed’s direction, nodded at him. "You should be thankful people care about you."

"I am, but I don’t want anyone getting hurt."

"Well, I’m not planning on it and I doubt Reed is, so you can just stop worrying."

"Yeah, right."

"So, are you going to let me in the cabin or do I have to stand here holding this bag all day?"

Shelly led her brother to her cabin, all the while trying to figure out a way to get him to go back to Nashville out of harm’s way. Preoccupied with those thoughts, she didn’t think about Reed’s things being in her cabin until she opened the front door.

"Uh, I’ll have Reed move his stuff into one of the free cabins."Her face warmed despite her best efforts to project a cool front.

"Should I stay in one of the other cabins?" Sean asked.

"Why don’t you stay at Mom and Dad’s house?"

"Well, that would do a lot of good wouldn’t it, being three miles away? But I can stay in another cabin."

She ignored the question underlying his words. Even though she’d fallen in love again, she wasn’t quite ready to share that knowledge, especially not with her overprotective older brother. "No. Reed insisted on sleeping in here when I was by myself."

"Oh."

Shelly pressed her lips together and kept her back to Sean to keep from asking him just what he meant by that "Oh." Instead, she gathered Reed’s things, thankful none were in her bedroom, and shoved them into his duffle bag.

"There’s some sandwich stuff and lemonade in the fridge if you’re hungry." She headed for the door, intent on demanding Reed force her brother to go home. It was bad enough that he and Chris insisted on putting themselves in danger to protect her. She didn’t need to worry about her only sibling, too.

But every time she started in Reed’s direction, something interrupted her. First a UPS delivery, then a call from a man in Ohio wanting to book the entire place for a family reunion in September. One thing after another, including her brother’s constant questions about the business, the latest on Eddie’s whereabouts and some deliberately probing queries about Reed, kept her busy throughout the remainder of the day. When she closed the office, she felt as if she might explode.

"Will you do me a favor?" she asked Sean when she stepped out on the office porch to find him lounging in the swing, arms along the back of the swing and legs extended as if he really were on vacation.

"What do you need?"

"Since you don’t seem to want to help the guys, will you run into town and get us some lasagna from Luigi’s?"

"I’m not out there working because someone needs to be with you all the time."

"Good grief, there are two full-grown men right there." She pointed toward Reed and Chris, who could reach her in mere seconds should the need arise.

"Shel, I—"

"Don’t worry. If I even breathe funny, Reed shows up closer than my shadow."

Sean lifted his eyebrows. Once again, she refused to rise to his bait and discuss the topic of her relationship with Reed. It might go nowhere, probably shouldn’t, so there was no sense clueing in her nosey brother.

"Fine, but I won’t be gone long." He rose and pulled the car keys from his pocket.

He turned at an angle where she noticed the unmistakable bulge of a gun beneath the back of his T-shirt.

"Since when do you own a gun, Sean Wynn?"

"Since a murderer decided to go after my sister."

She sighed. "I’m sorry about all this."

Sean stepped toward her and took her shoulders in his hands. "You have nothing to be sorry about. This is not your fault. You’re my only sister. I wouldn’t be much of a big brother if I didn’t protect you."

"But you shouldn’t have to put your life in danger to do it."

"And you shouldn’t have to face this alone, shouldn’t have to face it at all. I don’t know if there’s anything going on between you two, and I figure you’re not going to tell me. But I’m thankful that when I asked Reed this afternoon about the seriousness of the situation with Victor, he told me the truth. I know you well enough to know you wouldn’t have."

"Stubbornness runs in the family," she said.

"That it does, so you know I’m not going anywhere until this matter is settled. That bastard isn’t getting anywhere near you."

Shelly looked up at her brother, love rising in her heart. She blinked unexpected tears. "Swear to me you won’t get hurt. You have a wife, a little girl."

Sean shook her, surprising her. "You have a family, too. Did you think what it would do to us if something happened to you?"

"I know it would hurt, but it’s not the same as a spouse and children."

He must have thought of Troy because his hold on her shoulders relaxed. "No, it’s not the same, but that doesn’t mean it would hurt any less. I’ll be careful if you promise me the same thing."

She nodded, afraid if she opened her mouth she’d start crying. She hadn’t truly realized until that moment how frayed her nerves really were. Sean kissed her forehead before turning toward his car. He stopped at the bottom of the steps.

"And Shel, I hope you realize your family aren’t the only people who’d grieve if something happened to you."

She looked in the direction her brother had turned his attention and saw Reed wielding an ax on some of the smaller limbs extending from one of the last of the fallen trees. The temperature had climbed into the nineties, and he’d discarded his shirt. Sweat shone across his strong back, and her body flamed to life. Embarrassed that she’d stared so long at a man who was supposedly only a friend, she returned her attention to her brother to find him watching her with a smile on his face.

"It’s about time," he said, then walked to his car.

Shelly waited until both Sean and Chris left before she approached Reed, who sat on one of the downed trees wiping sweat from his face with his balled-up T-shirt. She crossed her arms and tried to sound firm when what she really wanted was to take his face in her hands and kiss him.

"I wish you hadn’t told Sean the truth. He shouldn’t be here."

"Neither should you. Must be a family thing. And for the record, I tried to convince him to go home, but he’s not budging."

She sank onto the log beside him. "I hope this is over before Mom and Dad come home. I couldn’t stand it if they were put in danger, too."

Reed took her hand in his, a bit tentative as if he thought she might jerk away. Instead, she leaned against him. "I packed your bag. The second cabin down is free," she said. "I...I’m not ready to..."

He shushed her by placing his fingers over her lips. "You don’t have to explain. He’s family. He should stay with you." He nuzzled the hair at her temple. "If you need to talk to me, call me, no matter how late. I don’t want you walking outside alone, especially at night."

Her skin crawled. "I feel like he’s out there somewhere watching me. I keep thinking he’s going to shoot us before we even know he’s there."

Reed slipped his arms around her and pulled her closer. "I’m watching and walking through the forest several times a day. With Sean here, I can do that more often. Thankfully, the trees are thick enough that you have to be pretty close before you can even see the clearing and the cabins. But don’t go outside any more than you have to, especially at night."

"What about you?"

"I’m pretty good at not being detected."

She wrapped her arms around his waist. "I wish..." She didn’t finish the thought, still uncertain where they stood.