DeadlySuspicious.epub by Amarinda Jones Page A

chocolate and then fall down and sleep.” The smile he gave her was one of total, loving indulgence. She didn’t need that. It would make her want to like him and Lois wasn’t sure she was prepared to do that just yet.
    “Oh, shut up.”
    “Yes dear,” he responded with a smile.
    Lois scowled and looked around her. The area they were in appeared to be a living room. There were a couple of large, over stuffed sofas, a sturdy wooden table and the timber of the walls appeared to have been hacked out of the forest itself. She could feel the breeze from multiple ceiling fans and was grateful for it as the climb up the stairs reminded her she was in the tropics and that meant dense, sweaty humidity. “This is—”
    “Hey, I never said it was a palace,” Tuck interrupted before she could say anymore. “I was looking for a safe place, easy to defend.”
    Lois touched his arm. While what he did still rankled, she knew he had done his best for all of them. “It’s good.”
    “Yeah?” He placed his hand on hers.
    “Yeah.” Lois watched as Wylie Smith and Tasha Knowles approached them. He carried their son William in his arms. Lois was impressed with the baby. He was quiet and watchful, as if he knew he had to pay attention and learn from the people around him. She was also amazed at the change in Wylie. While their relationship had started out badly, Lois did grudgingly concede the man had an honorable streak she suspected he buried to survive. She couldn’t fault him on that. All of them had done things that were unlike their true nature to endure.
    “This is good. Easily defendable and hard to see unless you’re right on top of it.”
    “How safe are we?” Tasha asked Tuck as she surveyed the room.
    None of them had been safe for a long time. The word itself was foreign to them. However now, with children in their lives, they had to hunker down somewhere and protect them.
    “The local people up here believe in one thing and that’s looking after themselves. They follow the law up to a point but the reason they live in the rainforest is they want to be left alone,” Tuck explained. “Jacobson to them is ‘some fella who went bush with his missus.’”
    “Perfect,” said Frances Beaton as she appeared in the room.
    Lois wasn’t surprised to see the seventy year old women had made it to the top of the stairs under her own steam and that she wasn’t puffed. She had insisted to all of them she was capable of doing so. Lois hadn’t doubted it. She was glad to hear the older woman speak. She had been quiet for most of the journey. It was like Frances had been lost in her thoughts. “Okay, so I’m not even going to pretend to be stoic. I need to shower and then fall face down on a bed.”
    Tasha nodded in agreement. “Me too. How many rooms does this place have?”
    “All the living space is up here. Kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms, of which there are four.”
    Tuck helped Lois to her feet. “We’ll put Frances in one, me and Lois in this one—”
    Lois shook her head. “I don’t want to share with you.” Yes, she had to get over her anger with the man but sharing a room? Seeing him naked? Accidently bumping into him naked? She wasn’t sure she was ready for that. Besides, other than having sex a couple of times, living together was a completely different type of intimacy.
    Tuck ignored her objection. “—and Wylie and Tasha in the other room.”
    Tasha held her hand up at that. “I don’t want share with him.” She indicated Wylie who just shrugged.
    “William can go in the other room that we’ll use as nursery,” continued Tuck pointing down a hallway to his left, seemingly not interested in managing anyone’s objections.
    Tasha walked over to Lois and stood at her side. ”I’m going to share with Lois.”
    Lois knew that, like her, she had issues with Wylie. It would be less complicated for both women if they could just have some peace for a while. “Agreed. You two,” she indicated