The Lost Hart Triplet by Nicole Helm

Author:Nicole Helm
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-07-09T18:42:07+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Zara felt like every muscle in her body was tensed against her will. She kept her gaze trained straight ahead. Hung on the wall was a painting of a woman on a horse, leaning over and embracing a cowboy who was holding a bouquet of flowers behind his back.

It was a surprisingly sweet painting compared to some of the more rustic or bawdy decor. And if she thought about that, she could almost forget what Jake was outside doing.

Putting himself in danger. For her.

For himself and his brothers.

You really think so?

On and on, in circles. So she traced the flowers with her eyes, the purples and pinks. He was hiding them behind his leg. Would he give them to the woman? What would her reaction be? Why did he look a little too like Jake in her imagination, when the painting didn’t look a thing like him?

Zara jumped a foot when someone behind her said her name. Her full name.

“Zaraleigh Hart.”

The woman’s voice was unfamiliar, and Zara was about to turn, but something sharp was being jammed into her back, through her coat, and she went immediately still.

The woman leaned over her, standing behind her and likely hiding her from view of anyone around them. Her voice was low in Zara’s ear. “You’re going to stand. Slowly. Then you’re going to head to the back and calmly follow signs to the women’s bathroom.”

Zara was terrified, but even shaken with fear, she didn’t take well to orders. “If I don’t?”

“Your friend outside won’t know what hit him.”

Zara’s entire body went cold. “What do you mean?”

“Stand. Go to the bathroom.”

Zara considered her options. She knew how to fight, but the woman clearly had a knife of some kind. Zara could stand up and yell and hopefully someone would help her.

But what about Jake? Outside, all alone? He wouldn’t know what hit him. She couldn’t... No, she couldn’t let that happen.

She stood.

“Don’t look back at me. Just turn and walk to the bathroom.”

She did what the woman said, though she tried to see the woman out of her peripheral vision. But that sharp object jammed into her back again, and Zara stepped forward, weaving her way through the tables and people as the woman followed her, knife concealed by the woman’s sleeve but definitely the sharp end breaking through the skin of Zara’s back.

Zara glanced at the two men behind the bar as she passed. They were chatting and serving drinks, but as if he sensed he was being stared at, the one who’d served Jake looked up. The one she thought she recognized from the detective’s phone.

She didn’t look away. She didn’t do anything. She just held his gaze, stared at him, willing him to see that something wasn’t quite right.

He frowned vaguely, but someone must have called his name because he looked back to one of the patrons and smiled.

Zara weighed her options as she went into a little hallway that led to a back room. There was a men’s bathroom, a women’s bathroom and a swinging door she assumed went into a kitchen or storage room.

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