being ridiculous,” she ordered herself. “The lights are just out. There’s no bogeyman lurking around the corner.”
But she couldn’t deny why she’d come here in the first place. Mom had called her in a panic, talking about a stalker, and there was a man living right on the plantation property who could be up to no good.
With her heart pounding, she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark. The moon was up, and a small amount of light came through the windows on either side of the door.
When she could see well enough, she crossed the hall and turned the lock on the door. Then she started for the kitchen to get the flashlight that Mom kept in the utility drawer.
Was there anything she could use for a weapon?
They’d never kept a gun in the house, but maybe she should have something with her, like a hammer.
SHE MADE IT TO THE KITCHEN as fast as she could in the dark and opened the utility drawer. The flashlight was there, but when she tried to click it on, the batteries were almost dead. Only a feeble light came from the bulb, and she clenched her fist on the shaft, then shut it off again. All it would do would tell someone where she was, not light her way.
Now what?
Go up to her old room? Or was it better to get out of this house, where she already felt spooked?
Luke Buckley was living in Cypress Cottage. But there were two others on the grounds. Water Iris was the closest. She’d feel more secure spending the night over there than here.
Wishing she could see what she was doing, she fumbled through another drawer and found the wad of spare keys that Mom kept. In the dark, she couldn’t even be sure they were the right ones, but that was the best she could do at the moment.
After slipping the set into her purse, she headed for the back door. On the porch, she looked toward the cottages, barely making out their shapes in the darkness. Water Iris was on the extreme right. Cypress was on the left. And Crepe Myrtle was between them. That would put some space between her and Buckley.
All were blacked out, and she couldn’t even discern the shape of a car parked in front of Cypress. Maybe Luke Buckley was away. Or sitting in the dark plotting murder? He’d taken care of the mother, and now he would finish off the daughter.
Acknowledging that her fears were making it difficult to think rationally, she descended the steps, then headed across the yard to the cottage. It hadn’t started raining yet, but the wind was blowing the trees, sending leaves flying across the lawn.
In Gabriella’s long ago memories, the grass had been well tended by a gardening company that did yard work in town. Mom had given up that service after Dad had died. For a few years, she’d tried to keep up the grounds around the house herself. But that had gone by the wayside, too, and now the grass was choked by weeds and needed mowing. She stumbled several times into what had formerly been flower beds, then finally made it to the cottages. But as she approached Water Iris, she had the sensation that someone was stalking her—like they’d been stalking Mom.
She started running, but before she’d gotten more than a few yards, a figure sprang out of the darkness at the side of Crepe Myrtle, grabbing her and pulling her to the ground.
A scream rose in her throat. Before it reached her lips, it choked off as large hands grabbed her throat. A man’s hands.
At his touch, a confusing welter of impressions and sensations assaulted her.
Chapter Three
In a blinding instant, Luke Buckley knew he had made a terrible mistake. In the darkness, he’d seen a shadowy figure sneaking across the lawn and been sure it was a Mafia hitman sent to murder him.
Instead, it was Gabriella Boudreaux, who had as much right to be here as he did.
But he hadn’t known who she was until he’d pulled her to the ground. He loosened his hands from her neck, intending to let her go and apologize.
Except that he couldn’t take his hands off her. And he couldn’t put any coherent words together. Not yet. Because in the moment of grabbing on to her, something strange happened. Her mind had opened to him in a way that knocked the breath from his lungs and made his heart start to pound.
At least he was able to open his fingers and make the hands that had gripped her neck move to her shoulders.
“Sorry,” he managed to whisper. Or had he even spoken the apology aloud?
His head swam as her memories leaped into his mind.
He saw her as a little girl being scolded for making a mess in the kitchen by a younger version of the woman who had rented him the Cypress Cottage. He saw her in high school squirming away when a boy crowded her into her open locker and tried to corner her there. Wandering alone into the bayou and sitting on a fallen log to get away from a town where she had never felt comfortable. Then later, more satisfied with her life, taking culinary courses and icing a chocolate cake.
Overlaying it all were the most recent, sharpest memory and the emotions swirling around it. Her coming home to discover that her mother was dead.
He cursed under his breath, feeling her pain and also her confusion at what was happening between them now.
As her memories assaulted him, his own memories were streaming into her mind. Especially one particularly vivid scene.
The reason why he was on the run.
Three months ago, he’d been at his computer, working on the book that had gotten him into so much trouble.
He’d heard a noise and turned to see a man with a gun standing in the doorway of his little office.
“You’re finished with that writing project,” the man growled. “Get up.”
Luke got up slowly, reaching under his desk for the fire extinguisher he kept there. As he straightened, he pulled the trigger, spraying the man in the face. The guy choked and clawed at his eyes. Luke lunged forward and clunked the heavy canister down on the man’s skull.
When the assailant went still, Luke reached for the phone cord and used it to tie the man’s hands behind his back. Then he wound packing tape around his ankles and reinforced the phone cord with more tape.
By the time the guy’s eyes blinked open, Luke was holding the gun.
“Rudy Maglioni sent you?” he growled.
The assailant sneered. “Like I’m going to tell you.”
“What happens when you have to go back to him and explain that you failed? Or will you have to skip town?”
The only answer was a string of curses.
Luke grabbed the man’s hair, yanking his head up and using more masking tape to gag him. His heart was pounding, but he began methodically gathering up the papers on his desk.
He unplugged his laptop, took an already packed duffel bag from the closet and walked out of the room, forcing himself not to run when he wanted to dash to his car.
His attention
