Point Blank Protector by Stephanie Newton

Author:Stephanie Newton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

TEN

Where was Gracie? Her car was in the driveway, but she wasn’t answering the door. She wasn’t answering her phone either. She wasn’t at the main house because he’d looked there, too.

Tyler’d about decided to kick down the door to her pool house and risk the crazy alarm that Wonder-geek had installed when, through the window, he saw a pair of her shoes by the bedroom door. He thought to look in the soft gravel and sand near the edge of the sidewalk. There it was—the print of a running shoe.

Feeling reasonably sure that she’d gone running, he started down the driveway. Maria had said that Gracie’d been upset, but she hadn’t been able to figure out what it was that had sent her running out the door.

As he got to the end of the long curving driveway, he saw her. She slowed to a stop and leaned over, catching her breath and timing her pulse with her fingers on her neck and her eyes on her watch.

Tyler opened his mouth to call her name as he walked toward her. And barely reacted in time to dodge her fist before it connected with his chin. “Easy, Gracie, it’s me.”

“Tyler, what are you doing here?”

“Maria called me. She was worried about you.”

“She shouldn’t be.”

“Did you find something?” he asked.

Gracie dropped onto a concrete bench set into the woods. Who had that kind of stuff, just sitting around in the woods? People who had enough money to have the woods around their house landscaped, that’s who.

She grabbed a flyaway curl poking her forehead and smoothed it back into her ponytail. “I did. I’m just not sure what to do about it. My dad bought a house in Sedona for a woman who’s still listed as the owner.”

“Do you think she knows what this is all about?”

Gracie stared up into the canopy of tiny green spring leaves. “Maybe. She’s the right age to have a daughter with my dad.”

Tyler watched her. There was something going on inside that mind of hers, something eating at her. He didn’t say anything, just waited for her to want to share it. Or not.

“Do you know why I live in the pool house, really?”

“I don’t have a clue. I figured that it was because the main house is so big and empty without your dad.”

“That’s part of it.” She stared down the road for a long minute before continuing. “My dad was gone so much when I was young and my mom hated that big house. I didn’t understand it then. I had the most beautiful room and everything I wanted…” Her voice trailed off.

“But?”

“But now I guess I understand. I love that house, but it isn’t mine.”

“Your dad left it to you.”

“I know. And I need to decide what to do with it, but for now, I’m living in the pool house because it fits who I am now.”

“And we’re talking about this because…”

“For several reasons, but for one, I’m thinking about asking my father’s partner if we can use the plane to get to Arizona.

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