Reece shifted his weight from one foot to the other in a moment of discomfort as he turned her words over in his mind. “Let’s just say that I have an old score to settle with someone.”
He allowed his tensed muscles to relax while carefully choosing his words. He didn’t want to do or say anything that would cause her to stop confiding in him. “I want to find out if there’s a possible connection between what’s been happening to you and something from my past.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t think that’s pertinent to our discussion.”
Brandi stood up, dropped the blanket to the floor and took a couple of steps toward the fireplace. She held her hands out toward the warmth. “I see. I’m supposed to bare my soul to you, but whatever is going on in your life is none of my business.” She turned to face him. “That doesn’t seem very fair to me.” She leveled a stern look in his direction. “How about you? Does that seem fair to you?”
There was no doubt in his mind about the message she had just delivered. He was pushing her too much, too hard and too fast. He needed to back off and let things calm down. He had to keep his own issues off the front burner if he was going to get the information out of her that he wanted.
Reece shifted gears in an attempt to gain her confidence. He extended a warm smile. “I’m hungry. I notice you helped yourself to some soup, but that’s not much of a meal. Now that I have food in the refrigerator, could I interest you in some dinner? Maybe a steak and a green salad?”
A tentative smile curled the edges of her lips. “I have to admit that Iam hungry. You’re right, soup isn’tmuch of a meal and that’s the only thing I’ve had to eat all day.”
He went to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with an opened bottle of wine and two glasses. “My favorite merlot to go with the steak. How do you like yours cooked? Rare, medium…”
“How about a pink center, but not really too red?”
He smiled—a warm, engaging smile. “Consider it done.”
Brandi took a sip of her wine as she watched him return to the kitchen. He had a marvelous smile framed by an incredibly handsome face. His eyes were honest, eyes that didn’t look away as if they were trying to hide something. And a smooth voice that she suspected could lull anyone into believing whatever he wanted them to believe. Or so it seemed.
She was beginning to relax as the stress started to melt away. For the first time since the nightmare began, she felt a flicker of hope try to assert itself. If Reece Covington truly was a private investigator maybe he could help her. She allowed a slight sigh of resignation. It took more than someone with a handsome face, a hard body and enough sexual magnetism to fill the Grand Canyon to be able to help her. She knew the danger surrounding her would not go away on its own. Should she trust him more than she already had? After all, what did she have to lose?
Only her life, that’s all.
She leaned back and closed her eyes. The sound of the rain on the roof mingled with the crackling and popping of the burning wood to form an intimate coziness. With his office in Rocky Shores he certainly would have come into periodic contact with the Rocky Shores police. As a private investigator he surely had occasion to interface with the local police on cases he was working on.
There seemed to be a lot of mystery surrounding him, but she felt somewhat reluctant to question him too much. Her mind drifted to myriad thoughts, some of them about the trouble she was in, some of them about this very disconcerting man and others to what the future held for her. It seemed no time at all before Reece returned with a tray. He set it on the table.
“Dinner is served.”
They ate, sipped their wine and engaged in superficial conversation. She immediately recognized his mastery at controlling the situation, including the direction of the conversation and the topics they discussed. If he was even half as good a private investigator as he was at manipulating what went on around him without giving the impression of seeming to be demanding or intimidating, then perhaps he would be the ideal person to help her.
If he really was a private investigator.
And if he meant what he said about not harming her.
When they finished eating, he indicated the sofa in front of the fireplace. He put another log on the fire, then sat down next to her.
“Now that we’ve had some dinner and you’ve had an opportunity to relax, perhaps we could get back to the main issue at hand.”
She gathered her composure and challenged his take-charge attitude. “Okay, I believe my question was what had happened in your past that you apparently think might be linked to what’s going on in my life right now. What kind of a connection are you talking about and why do you think such a connection would even exist?”
He emitted a soft chuckle, amused by her attempt to put him on the defensive. “I meant getting back to your description of what this policeman who abducted you looks like.”
“I’ve answered lots of questions for you. I think it’s time you answered at least one of mine.”
He turned her words over in his mind. He had to admit that it was a reasonable request. “All right.” He chose his words carefully, not wanting to fully disclose the nature of what had happened. “I had a run-in with a Rocky Shores police detective that turned out very bad for me. Ever since then, I’ve had my suspicions about him, his honesty and his ethics. I’m trying to determine if it could be the same man who abducted you.”
“Wouldn’t that be a little too coincidental? Something from out of left field?”
“No more so than finding you in my cabin.”
Brandi leaned back and slowly nodded her head. “Touché!”
“Besides, we’re both connected to Rocky Shores, a town of only thirty thousand people. I worked there and you live there. That ties it together with some reality rather than mere coincidence, certainly much more than if it had been a large city like Seattle.”
He softened his voice to a soothing timbre. “Now, tell me what the man looked like…as much as you can recall.”
“Well, I’m five-seven, and he was definitely taller than I am but not as tall as you.”
“I’m six foot two. So, would five feet eleven inches be about right? Or would he be a little shorter than that? Or taller?”
“That sounds right…five-eleven. He was average weight for his height. His hair was sort of a sandy brown color with some gray mixed in. I’d say he was in his mid-forties.”
The excitement built inside him. His mind raced almost faster than his mouth could keep up with it. “Did you notice the color of his eyes? Any scars, tattoos or other distinguishing marks? A beard or mustache?”
“His eyes? No, I didn’t get that good a look at him. As I said, it was only a quick glimpse before he blindfolded me.” She wrinkled her brow in concentration. There was something else…something she could almost see, but not quite.
He cocked his head and looked questioningly at her. “Yes?”
“I’m not sure. I know I saw something important, but I can’t bring it into focus. It was so fleeting. Maybe I only thought—”
Her body stiffened. A quick jolt of fear crashed through her when he placed his hand over her eyes. She grabbed his wrist and frantically tried to pull his hand away from her face.
Her sudden burst of fear came out in her voice. “What are you doing?” Had her tentative trust been misplaced? Was this the moment she had dreaded? Was he in league with her stalker?