You Can Run... by Carlene Thompson

Author:Carlene Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER ELEVEN

1

Tyler Raines leaned back against a tree holding a book—a battered paperback copy of Watchers by Dean Koontz. He’d read the book three times over the past ten years and he enjoyed it every time. Today, though, he wasn’t really reading. He was using the book as a prop while he kept an eye on Diana Sheridan. She sat on a blanket with another woman some distance away. The child Willow was taking pictures of a little girl of about the same age.

Tyler’s gaze lingered on Diana. She wore jeans and a light-green blouse open over a cream-colored tank top. Her honey-brown hair shone in the sunlight, parted on the side and left free to curl halfway down her back. He couldn’t see her eyes, but he remembered their exact shade of gray-green and the long, tilting lashes. He remembered the gentle curve of her nose, the shape of her lips over the straight white teeth, and the sprinkle of light freckles across her nose and cheeks. On the night of the explosion, when she was frantic and pale and eventually smudged with soot, she’d still been beautiful, and he’d cursed himself for even noticing her looks in the presence of such tragedy.

After they ate, the woman beside her talked animatedly, using her hands, her body leaning toward Diana, her face in constant movement, changing expressions. Diana sat motionless, never taking her gaze off the little girl Willow. Occasionally she said something to the woman, but she never relaxed her posture or looked around the park. She was no doubt listening to the woman but not for an instant dropping her alert observance or her attitude of curled intensity ready to burst forth if anything or anyone threatened the child. Tyler wondered if Willow could feel the force of Diana’s vigilance.

The little girls had been taking pictures with what Tyler thought must have been a disposable camera. They put their heads together for a no-doubt serious chat, then they began walking back to Diana. Suddenly Willow stopped, stared into the distance, and began taking small, almost robotic steps backward. Her gaze locked onto a man stalking toward Diana—a tall, heavily built man with sandy-brown-and-gray hair, a strong-featured face suffused with blood, and big hands clenched into fists.

Diana watched Willow as she raised her hands to cover her mouth, probably to prevent a scream. Diana followed the little girl’s gaze and leaped to her feet just as the man stopped within a few feet of her and bellowed, “You bitch!”

Diana stiffened and said something. At the same moment, Tyler stood up, ready to take a run at the man if he came closer toward Diana. But he didn’t. Instead he yelled, “You knew about Penny! Do not stand there and tell me you didn’t know about her and a man. Who is he? I’m her husband, dammit. I have a right to know!”

The other woman had now stood up beside Diana and held out her arms beseechingly toward the man. She resembled the man.

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