Lexi nodded.
“Then let’s go upstairs, get you cleaned up and invite him over.”
“I don’t know how to get in touch with him.”
“Pshaw.” Air wafted over Lexi’s head from Emma’s motion. “You found him once. You can do it again.”
“I don’t do—” Lexi stopped at Emma’s glare.
“Then find his beach house.”
5
Tripp stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. “You have it all. Anything you want. But you’ve settled. Right? Yes. You have. Never settle. Break the damn cycle.”
• • •
Lexi stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. “He’s got a fiancée. You’re breaking up a relationship. You’ll be the other woman. It won’t last.”
“Yes it will. Stop thinking negative thoughts and stop saying them out loud.” Emma held up a pair of jeans and a halter top in a brilliant lavender against an ivory form-fitted silk blouse. “Which one you want?”
“You pick,” Lexi said.
“The purple.”
• • •
Tripp slid his suitcase off the top shelf of the closet. He rifled through drawers, tucked his shirts, pants and other items into the big box in a less than organized manner. His toiletries he stuffed in a corner.
He didn’t want to break his relationship with Jill by phone, nor in a simple note. Instead, he’d lie, tell her he accepted a last minute assignment and would call her when he found a moment.
If the woman blew him off again, he’d return, and Jill would never know.
He had nothing to lose.
At the vibration of his cell, he smiled. “Fox.”
“Lexi and Emma Shepherd. You didn’t say she had a sister.” Ian’s tone turned playful. “Anyway, they own the beach house, live in Rune, North Carolina. They’re fraternal twins, man. I could get my hands on some of th—”
“Focus, Ian.”
“Fine, fine. They own Wise Women, which is, at least on the surface, a real estate company. That’s crazy given what she can—”
Tripp laughed.
“What?”
“Think about it. If she can find whatever someone wants, or things that are lost, she can probably find the house that person will buy or the buyer of a house just by thinking about it. It’s like the best racket, ’cause you know each event takes her no time, and she rakes in the funds. Simple. Safe—”
“Boring. Wait. Why didn’t we think of that?” Ian laughed.
“It doesn’t work that way for me. I don’t find on a whim like a scratch-off lottery ticket. But if you told me that ticket was in the center of Fort Knox, I’d be able to get it for you.”
“Yeah, yeah. Damn, she could do that, too, couldn’t she?” Ian’s agreement confirmed Tripp’s own worries.
“Again … focus, Ian.”
“So you have her name. You know where she lives. Go after her!”
“Fine. Fine.”
“Alright, Tripp! Maybe this is the way to break the cycle. I take it you’re not flying home tomorrow then?”
“Probably not. So when Jill gets back to New York without me—”
“Yeah, yeah, I gotcha. Stay hidden so she doesn’t notice the daring duo is split in half.”
• • •
“Hey, Em?” Lexi applied a single coat of gloss, rubbing her lips together with each application. “I’m just going to walk over. I think the house is only about five or six away.”
Emma leaned against the frame of the bathroom door. “Okay. Then what?”
Lexi caught the quick smile. “Not yet, Em. You may be fine with first date sex, but I’m a little more conservative.”
Emma cocked her head. “Enh. Whatever. So what’re you going to do?” Emma turned her watch toward her. “It’s nearly eleven. Nothin’ ’round here is open.”
Lexi grinned. “We’re going to go and talk. If I don’t make it back by mornin’—”
“Just keep your cell with you.”
“I will.”
• • •
Tripp stepped from the house. He’d written a note, stuck it to the fridge and called Jill. Thanks to her overnight cruise with friends, he’d gone straight to voice mail.
“Phases in life are like the stars in the heavens. They blink until they disappear, and then a new one pops up.” His mother loved the phrase—had repeated it so many times, Tripp had it memorized by the time he’d reached two years old. As a kid, he thought she meant the stars in the sky, not the fact his life started off connected to a constellation derived from mythology.
Tripp hopped down the steps toward his Jaguar, suitcase in hand. He grinned as he thought through his plan. “No better or more perfect—”
“Tripp.” A deep voice called his name.
He turned toward the sound.
The shot in the arm threw him against the car door.
His head slammed into glass.
His body fell to the ground.
• • •
Lexi screamed as a pain radiated through her shoulder, down her arm and reached into her fingers. “Emma!” She slumped to the stair, pulling her arm against her.
Oh, my god, I’m having a heart attack.
Emma’s hurried steps reached her a moment later. “What’s wrong?” Her voice reached a frantic pitch and speed.
Nausea consumed her as the fire in her arm burned. She pitched forward as Emma hefted her up and a second spear penetrated through her chest.
“C’mon, Lex. C’mon.”
The weight of her own head nearly took her down. “I … can’t—”
“Yes, you can. Walk. Now.”
The command bolstered her, but the heat, mixed with sharp stabs wracked her body. “I don’t—”
“Me neither, but I have an idea.”
Their ability to understand half sentences served them well.
Emma led Lexi to the couch as her muscles tried to drop with each step. The more she walked, the heavier she grew. At the edge, she collapsed. Emma lifted her legs until she lay straight along it.
“What’s—”
“Shhh. Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
“You’re—”
“Lexi, lay back down. Don’t move.”
The heaviness of Lexi’s body anchored her to the couch. She struggled with her one and only need: to breathe.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“Emma?”
No response.
“Em?”
Lexi tried to turn her head.
“E—”
• • •
An ultra-bright light shone in Tripp’s eye.
It disappeared.
The light hit him again before it, too, went dark.
Footsteps, calls of his name and the blare of sirens wrapped around his mind, but agony kept him from saying a word.
“His name is Tripp. I don’t know his last name.”
Lexi? No. Something’s … off.
His body stretched out and, like the starting motion of an elevator, rose, though he himself made none of the movements.
“You shot your husband?” That male voice didn’t match the one Tripp heard before he parted ways with some part of his own body.
“He’s not my boyfriend or husband, and no I didn’t shoot him.” Her voice took on a factual yet irritated tone.
No. A man did. Maybe.
Tripp wanted to sit up, but his body failed in his attempt.
“How did you know he was here?” That same male voice asked.
“I heard a gunshot, saw the lights on in this car but didn’t see anyone. So I came out to see. There are only two houses on his stretch of road with people living in them right now.”
“Sir? Can you hear me?” A different male voice asked.
Tripp grunted his acknowledgement, but he couldn’t think through the knives and hammers whacking at his side.
“We’ll be at County, Miss. I’ll need to get more of your statement—”
A calm overtook him, blanketing him in darkness.
• • •
“Lex.” The whisper woke her.
She turned toward the sound.
“Lex, can you hear me?” More whispers, right at her ear.
“Em?” Lexi pushed up on her elbows. “Wha—”
“Shh. Listen. We need to go to County. Your Tripp’s been shot.”
Lexi circled her shoulder, stiff as if it had remained motionless for days. A spot at her bicep and against her rib cage throbbed to the rhythm of her own heartbeat. “Why—”
“I don’t know.”
“My arm is killing me.” A breeze passed over Lexi’s face. She blinked sleep-infused lids. “What time is it?”
“Just about midnight. Do you want to go to the hospital?”
“No.” She shifted to sit, pausing a moment. “Yes.” Her legs wobbled as she stood.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I think.” Lexi took Emma’s hand. “I thought I was having a heart attack.”
Emma’s eyes narrowed.
Lexi rubbed her bicep, triceps and the side of her chest. The ache she remembered when on the staircase had disappeared, but the residual throb remained.
“Let’s go then,” Lexi said.
• • •
A white room greeted Tripp along with a fog he hoped came with a heavy dose of painkillers.
“Mr. Fox? Are you awake?” A sweet southern twang made him want to smile.
Pressure on his arm had his stomach roiling. He blinked his eyes open to find a woman, a nurse—unless his eyes misjudged the puppy-dog pattern on her V-neck scrubs. She worked, wrapping his arm in fresh gauze.
“You took a nasty spill, Mr. Fox. Two gunshot wounds. One barely missed your brachial artery, and the second nicked a few ribs on your right side. Surgery was a breeze, only left a little scar, but your fall against your car did the damage to your head. You’ll have a nice bump there for a while.” She switched sides, adjusted a monitor dial. “Doc said the MRI revealed no hemorrhaging, so a bump is all it is. Now then, since you’re awake, let’s get you sitting up a bit.”
“Cell phone?” He squinted up at the woman who leaned over him.
“Didn’t find one in your belongings, though you have a few visitors in the lobby. Trying to call one of them?”
The back of his head tapped out a beat one pace off from his arm and shoulder. He adjusted his body by little bits as the bed raised behind him, a dizziness overtaking his head the more he sat upright.
“You okay there?” His nurse stopped the bed’s motion. “Want me to ask those beautiful ladies to join you?”
“Who are they?” He imagined she meant Jill, but a night of fun on a boat would have superseded a trip to the emergency room.
“A blonde and her exact opposite. Said they live a couple houses down and found you, called the police and everything. They’ve been here since you went into surgery and have waited all night in that lobby. Gotta say the chairs aren’t comfortable, so to spend—” She turned her watch toward her. “—nearly eight hours in them had to hurt. You must be one lucky guy.”
Lexi.
Tripp smiled.
• • •
“Ladies?”
The nurse’s voice woke Lexi from her half-asleep state, though how she and Emma got a moment’s rest, Lexi didn’t know. They’d propped themselves up against each other like dominos, their balance precarious in the plastic chairs.
Lexi’s eyes fluttered open. “Is he okay?”
“He’s just waking up. I told him I’d let you in for a quick visit.”
“Thank you. Can we have just a second to splash some water on our faces?” Lexi shoved Emma as the nurse nodded and disappeared.
Emma rubbed at her eyes. “Wah?”
“Tripp’s awake. We should go see him, give him his cell phone at least.”
Emma yawned. “Mmm. ’K. These chairs are awful. Geez.”
If Lexi had the energy, she would have laughed and agreed. “I’m going to pee.”
“’K. I’ll wait.” Emma dropped her elbow to her knee and her head to her palm.
In the bathroom, Lexi stared at her reflection. Bags under her eyes. Hair mussed. Tripp still hadn’t seen her in any state besides terrible. “Guess that’ll be good enough.” She chuckled to herself, pulling her hair into a tighter ponytail.
• • •
A shuffle of feet stopped at Tripp’s door.
“Tripp!” Jill’s voice carried through the small room. Footsteps hurried across the tile. “Oh, my god. I thought you died.” Her hands rubbed against his cheeks. “They told me you were shot. What happened?”
“I’m okay, Jill, really.” His heart sank that Lexi hadn’t walked in.
Jill stood straight. “You are not. Otherwise you wouldn’t be in this bed.” A firm scowl raced across her face. “We’ll have you transferred to New York tonight. We don’t need this po-dunk town and its back-ass doctors. You need specialists.”
Tripp chuckled. “It’s not bad, and I kinda like it.” He grabbed her wrist with his free and unmarred arm. “I thought you were on a boat.”
“I was, silly, but my Dad called, and they got ahold of me. He sent the helicopter to get me here super quick.” She snapped her fingers.
Of course he did.
“How did he know?”
“Shush now. Doesn’t matter. The only thing that means anything is you’re going to be just fine. Right? Just fine?” She dropped to the chair next to his bed.
Tripp gave his attention to the woman at the door.
“Oh, sorry, honey. This is Isabelle. She came with me. Moral support, and all.”
He nodded at Isabelle as she did the same. He must have misinterpreted the nurse’s description.
• • •
Lexi stepped from the bathroom, pulling at the hem of her shirt. “You ready, Em?”
Emma stirred, though Lexi could tell she’d fallen back to sleep. “Hmm?”
Lexi snickered behind her hand. “You really aren’t a night owl, are you? How about I go without you?” Emma’s head bobbled in what Lexi took as agreement.
She walked through the double doors, down the hallway, and checked off each room number as she passed. From the one on the end, marked twenty-one, voices trickled into the hallway. She snuck to the side to peer in, caught Tripp’s eye, but a woman blocked Lexi’s line of sight.
“Oh, honey,” the voice from the beach said.
Jill.
Lexi closed her eyes. When she opened them again, Tripp met her gaze.
She spun, away, sighed and rubbed at the spot on her chest where the star burned again. At the front desk, she dropped the cell phone into an envelope for patient medications. On it she wrote, ‘Tripp Fox’.
After a moment, she added one more line.
See you in another life.
Without a look back, Lexi left.
6
Jill kept Tripp sequestered at her beach house for a day, after which she forced him into her Dad’s private jet for the return to New York. Cabin fever set in two hours later. For seventy-two more hours, Jill enforced a no talk, no stress, no ill effects moratorium Tripp called torture.
He hated every minute of it.
Being confined to a sling left Tripp limited to computer work, but at least the return to the office gave him an opportunity to talk with Ian.
“How the fuck did this happen?” Ian paced from one end of the room to the other.
“I don’t know.” Tripp shook his head. “I was at my car, getting ready to … well, you know … and heard my name. I turned, got hit in the arm first and then a second time. My head hit the car door, and the next thing I remember, I woke up in the hospital.”
“And Jill showed up just hours later?”
“Eight hours apparently.”
“What about … you know who?” Ian shrugged one shoulder.
“She was there, but she left before I could talk to her. I figure she was just making sure I was okay. Really, what other point would there have been? She pushed me away and rightfully so.” Tripp slammed his good fist against the wall. “I never should have listened to you about going over there.”
“Or you might have gone faster and avoided whoever had it in for you.”
Tripp glared at his friend. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“How did someone know who you were, find you at your car … at the right moment, and shoot you unless they had insider knowledge.”
“You and I have enemies. People knew that was our last weekend there, and Jill was out.”
“Coincidence?”
“Don’t know.” Tripp walked to the window, in the office he and Ian had shared for over ten years.
Towers formed New York’s landscape like an overgrown lawn of steel and glass. Exhaust fumes and the stench of general pollution added to Tripp’s sense of imprisonment. The wide open space of the ocean had given him more a sense of home.
“So, what are you going to do?” Ian asked. “Back to the scene of the crime to conduct your own investigation?”
“The locals are on it. I’ll leave it to them, and if they need my input, they’ll find me.”
“We got a couple of requests for an assist by the NYPD. We could play those out, see where they go and keep the work really simple.”
The thought of any project for the police didn’t sit well, but time at his desk left Tripp fidgety. He needed to get out, stretch his mental and physical muscles.
At a nudge of his shoulder, he cried out. “Son of a bitch! This fucking sucks.”
Ian laughed. “I’d say you need a vacation, a week at the beach, but man, that’s what got you in this situation in the first place.”
“I gotta get out of here. Away from New York.”
“Wanna go up north? My folks got a place in Maine.”
Tripp shook his head.
Ian’s chuckle grew.
“What?”
“I know exactly where you want to go. Do it.” Ian grabbed the keys from the desk, held them in front of Tripp’s face. “What are you waiting for? Motive? Means? Opportunity? You’re primed with all them. Hell, I could even find us some work and tag along.”
Tripp eyed his friend. “You want to shut the office down, take a sabbatical and see where life leads us?” His smile grew.
“Nothing tying me here, ’cept my brother Michael and he’s going to do whatever he wants anyway.” Ian waved through the air. “Everything here is paid for or leased. Easy peasy to get rid of.” He knocked on the surface of the desk. “What about … you know who?”
“I’ll be safer down south after you tell her I’m leaving than here in New York.”
Ian’s eyes widened. “Me? What the— Me?”
Tripp batted his lashes the way Jill did to him. “But Ian … you’re so much better at schmoozing than me.”
Ian’s middle finger soared into the air, facing Tripp with rigid stillness. “That one’s on you.” He switched to his index as if inspiration struck. “Meant to tell you what I found out about that necklace.” He sat in the leather-backed chair, opened up the laptop.
That was too easy.
“Something good, I hope?” Tripp snorted a quiet laugh.
Ian tapped at the keyboard as Tripp stared out at the vast, hazy city below them.
“I don’t know if it’s related to the shooting, but the gem …” Ian’s fingers continued to click.
The swish of the laptop, as it turned, brought Tripp around.
“It looked just like this, didn’t it?”
Tripp stepped toward the image on the screen. The pendant which had hung hidden within the folds of Lexi’s dress matched the photo Ian found.
“It’s a sapphire, and from what I can tell, it’s as real as a baby’s butt is soft.”
A laugh broke Tripp’s woe-is-me brood. “Nice analogy.”
“Anyway,” Ian started again. “From the photo and measurements I took, I traced it back to a Sherrill and Robert Targus. They’re in the middle of a divorce. He’s got twenty insurance claims pending about just that one jewel, which brought it to the attention of the FBI for fraud. It’s called the star sapphire because of those rutile needles within the stone.”
“Interesting.”
“You gave it back, right? ’Cause there is one freaked out man looking for it.”
“I did.”
“Seems he wants the jewel bad enough to risk his own freedom if the feds are involved. Here’s a picture of him.” Ian clicked the keys again and brought up the face of the man Tripp had held in a lock on the beach. “Looks like you recognize this guy. He the one who shot you?” Ian’s raised one eyebrow as he tilted his head.
“Don’t know who shot me. Had a little run-in with that one on the beach. Thus the realization of who Lexi is. Shit.” Tripp pounded his fist into the desktop. “If he thinks Lexi has the stone, he could go after her again.”
“You know what they say about friends and enemies. Let’s stick close to the source and take care of it.”
Tripp stood straight. “Yeah, let’s.”
Ian clapped his hands together. “Whoa, baby! The man is back.” He stomped his feet under the desk, but the muffled sounds of the plush carpet did little to spread the excitement.
Tripp lifted his arm by an inch but closed his eyes as a wash of agony radiated down his side. His doctor told him to take at least two weeks before he picked up more than ten pounds, but he’d attributed that to Jill’s influence, not reality. Day four and Tripp wanted to be a hundred percent.
To get the necklace without Lexi knowing, he’d have to rely fully on his gift. Or he should take a different tactic altogether.
“North Carolina, then?” Tripp said.
Ian’s eyes lit up like a child about to open his biggest birthday present. “I’m in.”
• • •
Lexi sat at her desk across from a young, well-dressed couple who told her all about their desire to own a home. Her office, painted a seafoam green, reminded her of the ocean on a super-heated day when the sand mixed within the top layer and turned it a pale but dense color. She’d added childhood photographs taken by her parents, who lived a few hours away and often met her, and Emma, for weekend dinners.
“So,” Lexi began as the couple laid their hands in their laps. “You want to buy a home. It’s a big decision and finding the right one is often a chore, but we’ll make the process fun, a little exciting and very fulfilling in the end.” Lexi snapped her fingers and realized how much of an idiot she sounded. She kept a smile plastered to her face. Did her life amount to such banal excitement?
After her week at the beach, she’d firmed her resolve to stay put and find everyone’s dream house instead of pursue the more dangerous work. She simply didn’t trust people enough to put herself at further risk.
“What do you need us to do?” The husband leaned forward. “We’re prepared to pay, though we have a budget—”
Lexi waved her hands in the air as if he might drive through a stop sign. “No, no. Agents don’t take money. We work on commission—a percentage from the final sale price.”
“Okay.” He sat back.
Lexi switched her attention to his wife. “Can you tell me what you think you want?”
As they described it, Lexi responded with Mm-hmms and Ahhs, jotting a few notes down and turning on her computer. As they jabbered, her mind wandered to more unique activities, such as midnight walks on the beach.
“So, um, that’s what we’d like,” the wife said.
Lexi returned her attention to them, though they would never know it left in the first place. As soon as the couple walked through her door, she knew the house for them. An image of the duo in its kitchen hit her like the location of the pendant had. Three taps later, she made the photo of the house—the same one she’d pictured in her mind—appear on her screen. She kept it hidden behind a few other application windows so she could draw out their excitement.
“Great. Let me see now.” She clicked on the keyboard, creating a random set of letters and numbers in her text program. A quick delete and with a faked enthusiasm, she said, “Aha!”
Two sets of wide eyes stared back at her.
“I have the perfect place.” Lexi swiveled the screen to them, showed off the sample photos, specifications and talked through financing options. “Would you like to go see it?” In anticipation of a ‘yes’, she’d already set up an appointment via an online contact page.
“We would, yes,” the man said.
“Great. Emma is going to take you to it, and when you get back, we can talk more about it.”
The faster Lexi could shoo them out, the more time she’d get for herself.
The day started as it always had. She met with clients, produced the same results with each one, and took on one new seller. The latter she did sporadically since true success required she touch on the finding people part of her gift—which she avoided, ninety-nine point nine percent of the time.
She never should have looked for Tripp, not the first or second time.
As the couple walked out with Emma, Lexi dropped back into her seat. No sooner had she scooted up to her desk, dropped her head into her hands and sighed, than the chime of the door sent a twinkle of sound through her office. “Geez.” She stood again.
We need an ‘out of office’ sign.
In the hall, she took a moment to adjust her suit jacket and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Using the portrait’s glass reflection, she checked her lipstick and her teeth.
Time to get a mirror for this hallway, too.
One deep breath and another sigh later, she stepped into the lobby.
Lexi froze.
He
stood at the door, one arm in a sling, his jeans drawn low on his hips, and a T-shirt stretched tight over muscles she’d had her hands on twice before.
“Tripp.”
“Lexi.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks; she’d never told him her real name. Except for the few arrangements of flowers which added color and fragrance to her office lobby, she didn’t hold the title of florist either.
“What are you … doing here?” Despite the air conditioning, Lexi wished for a fan as her embarrassment flashed through her entire body.
“I’m looking to buy a house.”
She angled her head to the side. “Where?” In an unconscious move, she wiped sweaty palms against her skirt.
He smiled, raised an eyebrow. “Here. In Rune.”
“Ah …” Lexi found herself at a loss for words.
Why would he come here to buy a house? What about his fiancée?
Tripp’s gaze traced the room. “That’s something you can help me with, right? I believe your sign said real estate.”
An image came to mind of a house on the market for over ten years. The owners didn’t want to rush their sale. In fact, they’d agreed to sell only with Lexi as a dual agent and only when she found them the perfect buyer. On a number of occasions, Lexi showed the house just so she could walk through it, breathe in the scents of fresh baked breads and pies, and experience a place that called to her.
Dammit. I want that house!
She clenched her fists but forced herself into professional mode—or tried to.
Tripp stepped toward her.
Lexi kept to her spot, refusing to back away from the barrage of emotions running through her body like sensory overload.
He took another step. “Are you willing to take me on?” A smile bloomed against strong cheekbones.
“That’s a trick question. Are you already otherwise engaged?” Hers held a double meaning, too.
“Yes and no. Why didn’t you stay?”
“My vacation was up. Duty called.”
Tripp’s grin remained as he moved even closer. “I was coming to get you.”
She closed her eyes as the burn of tears hit the back of her eyes. “It’ll never work.”
“One can’t know if one doesn’t try.” With his free hand, he removed the necklace from his pocket.
Lexi’s hands went to her hips. “How in the hell did you get my pendant … again?”
“You know it won’t matter if you get mad or call the cops because what’s done is done. This is a sapphire, Ms. Shepherd, and it should be around your neck forever and always.”
Lexi backed up as he advanced. “You broke into my house?”
“Only to show you who I am.”
“I know who you are. You know who I am. Which means you already know this will never work.” Her voice broke. “Go back to wherever you live, Tripp. I said goodbye once, and I meant it.” She pressed at a spot on her arm, the throb growing more intense the closer he came.
“Why are you rubbing your arm just there?” His brows drew together.
“It … hurts.”
“I see. But why right there?” He pointed to her arm, to his sling, and back to her again.
The dawn of recognition broke. “Oh, my god. I felt you get shot.”