anymore.”
“Because of the pipe bomb explosion?”
“Yes. It flipped my entire world upside down. Do you have any idea what that’s like?”
“No,” he lied. His world had tilted in the past three years, but Eve Brooks was talking. He didn’t plan to stop her with his own tale of redemption.
“ Vogue magazine, Ms. Brooks, can you look this way? Smile. You’re looking a little thin, Eve, are you eating enough? You’ve got to drop five pounds by Friday’s Harper’s Bazaar cover shoot or the Versace isn’t going to hang right.”
“Do you miss it?” He considered her calm demeanor, but saw her fingers tremble as she locked her hands together in her lap for a moment before uncrossing her legs and scooting to the edge of the flat rock.
“Sometimes. It was a shallow existence, but I was a part of it for a while. The parties, the glamour hounds, the phenomenal connections. I started out sketching clothes I’d like to wear. Then one summer I spent it here with my dad getting over a case of exhaustion after a long bout with the flu while I was in Paris. A couple of rides out here to the falls alone, and I knew what I wanted to do.”
“Change up your life?”
“Yes.” Her head turned in the direction of the falls. “Something about the way the water flows from above and thins over the rocks had me seeing tulle and chiffon. Needless to say, I stopped strutting the catwalk and started sketching bridal gowns. With my connections in the fashion world, things took off from there. We grossed over seventy-five million last year.”
Caution worked through J.P. as he figured her net worth into the current situation. “It’s off subject, but don’t you find it odd that Thomas Avery’s kidnapper only demanded half a million dollars in ransom money?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah. It was a pittance for his life.”
“A sophisticated kidnapper does his homework. This guy didn’t, or his ransom demand would have reflected it.”
“You think he’s stupid?”
“I didn’t say that, but he’s more likely to make a mistake that’ll get us closer to finding out who he is before he tries to hurt—”
A bullet grazed the skin on J.P.’s left arm.
The sting was instant.
He half twisted, half fell toward Eve, hearing the distinctive crack of rifle report high on the ridge above them.
“Shots fired!” he yelled as he locked his arms around her and dragged her off her perch onto the narrow strip of earth between the rock and the pool.
A scream of protest gurgled in her throat, but she went limp in his arms. “Where?”
“On the ridge above us.” J.P. inched up for a look, trying to get a bead on the shooter’s location. Movement next to a tamarack tree in a bank of white pine caught his attention. A glint of sunlight against a shiny object, the flit of a blue shirt in a blaze of green foliage. He memorized the location using the tamarack as a landmark and slipped back down.
Round two ricocheted off the top of the rock in a glancing blow.
Eve’s sketch pad took the bullet, turned to confetti and spun off the rock in a shower of sharp gravel that pelted them like rain.
“We’re sitting ducks if we stay here!” J.P. said. The small meadow was void of trees and places to take cover. Only the shallow flat rock offered any kind of protection, but that wouldn’t last if the shooter flanked them. He eyed the falls and the massive outcropping of boulders where the water made landfall.
“The falls, Eve,” he said against her ear. “What’s behind the waterfall?”
“There’s a narrow opening on the left side between the rocks.”
If they could reach the rocks and climb in behind the falls, they’d be protected from the gunman. He could return fire if the sniper came within range. Right now, at this distance, his pistol was no match for a rifle.
Another bullet drilled into the ground inches from where their feet poked out from behind the rock.
Eve squealed and pulled her knees
“Because of the pipe bomb explosion?”
“Yes. It flipped my entire world upside down. Do you have any idea what that’s like?”
“No,” he lied. His world had tilted in the past three years, but Eve Brooks was talking. He didn’t plan to stop her with his own tale of redemption.
“ Vogue magazine, Ms. Brooks, can you look this way? Smile. You’re looking a little thin, Eve, are you eating enough? You’ve got to drop five pounds by Friday’s Harper’s Bazaar cover shoot or the Versace isn’t going to hang right.”
“Do you miss it?” He considered her calm demeanor, but saw her fingers tremble as she locked her hands together in her lap for a moment before uncrossing her legs and scooting to the edge of the flat rock.
“Sometimes. It was a shallow existence, but I was a part of it for a while. The parties, the glamour hounds, the phenomenal connections. I started out sketching clothes I’d like to wear. Then one summer I spent it here with my dad getting over a case of exhaustion after a long bout with the flu while I was in Paris. A couple of rides out here to the falls alone, and I knew what I wanted to do.”
“Change up your life?”
“Yes.” Her head turned in the direction of the falls. “Something about the way the water flows from above and thins over the rocks had me seeing tulle and chiffon. Needless to say, I stopped strutting the catwalk and started sketching bridal gowns. With my connections in the fashion world, things took off from there. We grossed over seventy-five million last year.”
Caution worked through J.P. as he figured her net worth into the current situation. “It’s off subject, but don’t you find it odd that Thomas Avery’s kidnapper only demanded half a million dollars in ransom money?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah. It was a pittance for his life.”
“A sophisticated kidnapper does his homework. This guy didn’t, or his ransom demand would have reflected it.”
“You think he’s stupid?”
“I didn’t say that, but he’s more likely to make a mistake that’ll get us closer to finding out who he is before he tries to hurt—”
A bullet grazed the skin on J.P.’s left arm.
The sting was instant.
He half twisted, half fell toward Eve, hearing the distinctive crack of rifle report high on the ridge above them.
“Shots fired!” he yelled as he locked his arms around her and dragged her off her perch onto the narrow strip of earth between the rock and the pool.
A scream of protest gurgled in her throat, but she went limp in his arms. “Where?”
“On the ridge above us.” J.P. inched up for a look, trying to get a bead on the shooter’s location. Movement next to a tamarack tree in a bank of white pine caught his attention. A glint of sunlight against a shiny object, the flit of a blue shirt in a blaze of green foliage. He memorized the location using the tamarack as a landmark and slipped back down.
Round two ricocheted off the top of the rock in a glancing blow.
Eve’s sketch pad took the bullet, turned to confetti and spun off the rock in a shower of sharp gravel that pelted them like rain.
“We’re sitting ducks if we stay here!” J.P. said. The small meadow was void of trees and places to take cover. Only the shallow flat rock offered any kind of protection, but that wouldn’t last if the shooter flanked them. He eyed the falls and the massive outcropping of boulders where the water made landfall.
“The falls, Eve,” he said against her ear. “What’s behind the waterfall?”
“There’s a narrow opening on the left side between the rocks.”
If they could reach the rocks and climb in behind the falls, they’d be protected from the gunman. He could return fire if the sniper came within range. Right now, at this distance, his pistol was no match for a rifle.
Another bullet drilled into the ground inches from where their feet poked out from behind the rock.
Eve squealed and pulled her knees
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