Secrets Read online

  She looked at the clock at midnight, then again at one. Beside her, Skylar was sleeping deeply, her left arm flung out over the floor, her mouth open a bit. At least she didn’t snore.

  At one thirty, Cassie came alert. She’d just heard the front door open. Quietly, she got out of bed and looked out the window. It wasn’t a full moon but close enough for her to catch a glimpse of a body she knew well hurrying through the trees. For some reason, Jeff was dressed all in black and was running through the woods as though he needed to put out a fire.

  Cassie didn’t hesitate. After a quick glance at Skylar, she went to her duffel bag and withdrew a black turtleneck shirt and black trousers. She pulled them on, then hurriedly put on dark socks and slipped her feet into black running shoes. She made no noise as she left the bedroom, tiptoed down the hall, through the living room, and out the front door.

  There were cabins all around the lake, each one hidden from the other by tall trees, but the one next to their cabin had a porch light. Between the lights on some of the cabins and the moonlight, Cassie could see fairly well. Twice, she saw Jeff ahead of her, and she practically ran to catch up with him.

  When she got six cabins down from Althea’s, she lost him. She stopped and looked about her. There was only the sound of the water and a few animals scurrying about in the underbrush. She turned around slowly, looking and listening, but she neither saw nor heard Jeff. What was he doing out in the middle of the night?

  With a grimace she thought that maybe he hadn’t been able to sleep without Skylar beside him so he’d taken a nighttime jog to tire himself out. Maybe he—

  She sat down on the ground under a tree, hidden in deep shadow. There was no way that Jeff could get back to the cabin without her seeing him. Unless he entered from the other side, she thought, but she didn’t think that was likely. She leaned back against the tree and waited.

  “What is this?” Leo Norton said in a low voice. “A convention? Bloody hell! I thought it was going to be just you and Sky, but you show up with half the agency.”

  “Calm down,” Jeff said, looking about them in the dark. “I saw you by the boat. That’s why I took Goodwin out there to let him have it.”

  “Goodwin?”

  “One of my students. Althea picked him out of a bunch of photos to be her bodyguard. He’s an idiot.”

  Leo smiled. “Althea. How is she?”

  “As wily and conniving as ever. I don’t know what she’s up to now, but she sent young Goodwin up here to…she said to ‘check on’ you.”

  “How’d she know I was going to be here?”

  “That’s the first question I wanted to know the answer to, but I wasn’t about to ask Goodwin that.”

  “So what do we do now that the entire world knows about this drop?”

  “If you find out how that woman finds out things, please let me know. For all I know, she called the president and asked him. She can wheedle anything out of anybody. The question is why she wanted Goodwin to come up here. I’ve already called Dad, and he’s got two men with her this weekend, so she’s as safe as we can make her.”

  “Who’s the doll with Goodwin?”

  “Cassie. She’s nobody. Just a cover.”

  “Some cover! She’s a beauty. She’s—”

  “Cut it out! She’s a kid!”

  “Kid? She looks old enough to me.” Leo looked at Jeff in speculation. “What’s she to you?”

  “She’s my daughter’s nanny.”

  “Your what?” Leo smiled. “She didn’t come up here as a date with young Goodwin, did she?”

  Jeff clenched his teeth. “Yes, she did.”

  Leo laughed at Jeff’s expression. “Okay, send those two home, leave Sky in the cabin, then you and I can meet this guy tomorrow by ourselves.”

  “No,” Jeff said. “I don’t want Cassie alone with Goodwin.”

  Leo frowned. “If she stays, then Goodwin will stay. Do you think we should give out name tags and convention binders?”

  “Can it, will you?” Jeff said. “The four of us will go out on a boat tomorrow and we’ll meet the man near the house where we’re supposed to. Nothing will change.”

  Leo stared thoughtfully at Jeff. “I’m curious. Is that cute little nanny of yours live-in or live-out?”

  “In.” Jeff’s voice was terse. “Would you get your mind off Cassie? This is between you and me.”

  “You and me? You and young Goodwin have made this into date night. How the hell are we to escape your entourage long enough to pick up a package?”

  Jeff put his hand on Leo’s shoulder and smiled. “I trust you, old friend, to make yourself so repulsive that Cassie won’t want to be near you. Think you can do that?”

  “Make myself unlikeable to the ladies? How can I do that?” Leo said, but his eyes were sparkling at the challenge. “That’s an impossible disguise.”

  “I believe in you,” Jeff said as he started to walk away.

  “You just want to get rid of the competition with your buxom little nanny, don’t you? You better watch Goodwin. He’s not a bad-looking chap.”

  Smiling, Jeff walked away.

  As Jeff left Leo, he was feeling pretty good. When he’d first seen Goodwin with Cassie, he’d thought there was no way he could pick up the package that Leo’s man was to give him. Leo had e-mailed Jeff a map of where they were to go, to a house Jeff’s father knew that was so far up the coast that it was in Maryland. Jeff got further directions from his father so he knew exactly where to go.

  When Goodwin told his story about Althea sending him to the cabin “to find out what a Mr. Norton is doing” it had run through Jeff’s mind that his father had been the one to tell Althea that Norton was to be at the cabin this weekend. But Jeff had quickly dismissed the idea. That would mean that his father had betrayed a secret. Couldn’t happen.

  Jeff knew that when he got back to Williamsburg, he’d find out the truth, but now he just had to deal with it. Tomorrow he’d take the lot of them up the coast, pick up the package, then they’d have the rest of the weekend to…He wasn’t sure what they’d do, but it could be nice. Maybe he could tell Cassie some of the truth about Skylar, enough to make her give up her idea of leaving them. Maybe he could appeal to her—

  He broke off because he heard something. Silently, he circled around the back of the trees, out of the lights from the cabins. There, leaning against a tree, was Cassie. He had no doubt that she was waiting for him and he was sure that what she planned to do was ask him what the heck he was doing there.

  Damn, damn, damn! he thought. Now what should he do? One minute he was thinking about telling her that he was going to break up with Skylar, and the next he had to explain why he was at a lakeside cabin with her. Damn Leo! he thought. He’s the one who wanted to see Skylar. Jeff certainly didn’t want to be alone with her.

  He closed his eyes for a moment. He had to give Cassie a reason for why he was here. Quick, think! Suddenly, he remembered a story his father told him years ago when he was a kid. It was about robbers and a woman who had spent many years tracking them down. Thomas had said that with a bit of embellishment, the story could be made into a screenplay and sold to Hollywood. Jeff always thought that if he ever retired, he might write the story. Could he use it now? Maybe he could make Althea the protagonist. But the important question was, would Cassie believe him?

  He glanced at her, sitting so still. Whatever he said, he rather liked the idea of spending a little time in the moonlight with her. She stood up and looked around. If she’d heard him, he was losing his edge.

  Cassie was standing upright and in the next second, she was flat on her back, a heavy body straddling her. A hand was over her mouth.

  “What do you want?” Jeff said in a growl such as she’d never heard him use before.

  At first she couldn’t say anything because she hadn’t recovered her breath from being knocked down. She managed to make a sound against the man’s hand.

  “Oh, good Lord,” Jeff said. “