His grin matched hers. ‘Perhaps, but I wouldn’t count on it. I could do with a shower. Care to join me?’
Her eyes opened wide. ‘The shower.’ She licked her lips, the thought of him all wet and soapy was instantly tantalising. ‘That will do for starters.’
He chuckled. ‘Do I take that as a yes?’ He stood and pulled his jeans up, letting her get off the desk.
‘Yes, oh yes,’ she said, quickly pulling on her pyjamas again. ‘I’ll race you.’
She was out the door like a shot and he took off after her.
Guilt curled in on her, but she pushed it aside. Was it so terribly selfish that she just wanted to enjoy this unexpected moment of bliss? Live in the moment, Daemon had said.
That’s what she was going to do now. Her problems would still be there later. She would face up to reality then.
Lexi and Daemon finished their shower – eventually – and were dressed and preparing breakfast when Bev walked in, the newspaper under one arm, roses from the garden in the other.
Lexi tried not to look disappointed when she saw Bev. She had hoped that as hours had passed, Cat would come in and talk to her, and Lexi wanted to have all her favourite things ready when she did.
Seeing the look on her face, Bev sighed. ‘Did you think I was Cat?’
Lexi frowned. ‘You know she’s woken up?’
Bev placed the newspaper on the table, took a vase from the dresser and began arranging the flowers. ‘Billy talked her into coming to us when she refused to come back here last night.’ Bev took the spatula out of her hands and took over cooking the breakfast. ‘Your sister was a bit distressed but she eventually went to sleep. Billy’s watching over her now.’
Lexi looked at Bev with stricken eyes. ‘She won’t come back to the house? She must hate me.’
Bev shook her head. ‘She doesn’t hate you, love.’
‘You’re just saying that.’
‘No, I’m not. She’s your flesh and blood. Surely you can feel that? Surely you know the connection you have with her?’
‘Then why won’t she come back to the house and sleep in her own bed?’
‘Sit down, eat your breakfast.’ Bev placed a plate with eggs, bacon, toast and grilled tomatoes in front of her, smiled as she brushed a stray lock of hair off Lexi’s brow. ‘Your sister is a lot like you.’
Lexi looked at her questioningly.
‘Pride. She has your pride. Catriona feels badly about what she said to you. She was too ashamed to come back. She asked me to tell you that. She’ll come back later when she’s had some sleep. She was exhausted.’
‘I know how she feels.’ Lexi sat with a plonk in one of the wooden kitchen chairs.
‘Are you all right?’ Daemon asked.
Daemon’s hand on her arm felt reassuringly real. She held on to that. ‘Yes, I’m fine. Just tired.’
‘Maybe you should lie down after breakfast? Try and get some rest before Doctor Carlton arrives.’
Lexi shook her head. ‘I don’t think I could. My mind is going nineteen to the dozen and I don’t want to be asleep when Cat comes back. When you call Phil this morning, can you explain why I can’t go in today?’
‘I think Phil will understand. I’ll let him and Craig know about Cat. They’ll be thrilled for you both.’
‘Will you go in?’ She didn’t want him to go. But she didn’t want to ask him to stay. That seemed too needy. They were lovers only. They weren’t “together”.
‘I’ll see. Craig can go in first, let me know if I’m needed.’
‘You don’t have to stay here for me.’
He stared at her for a moment, seeming to be on the verge of saying something, but then he just smiled. ‘I’m not. At least, not just for you. I’ve got some work to do, too – some things to check out. And I’d like to see Cat again.’
‘That’s good.’ Her smile wavered. Her chest hurt. Why? Because he wasn’t staying for her? Wasn’t that what she wanted? They were lovers, nothing more. It could end tomorrow and they could both walk away with their hearts and pride intact. It had to be that way. She couldn’t face anything else right now.
He smiled at her then returned to eating his breakfast, flipping through the newspaper as he did so. Lexi tried to finish her own eggs, but couldn’t manage to swallow.
After a few moments, she pushed her plate away. ‘I can’t eat any more right now,’ she said and smiled an apology at Bev. ‘I think I’ll just go and make some calls I’ve been putting off.’
Daemon looked up at her, a frown on his face. ‘Don’t be long.’ Then he returned to the paper.
She hurried off to the study to call Detective Fox and when she came back, not five minutes later, Daemon was no longer in the kitchen. He hadn’t said goodbye.
She bit her lip, trying to ignore the bite of disappointment and took a deep breath. Detective Fox wanted her to ask Bev about the letter – where it had come from – but she was afraid of the answer.
Bev turned and saw her standing there.
‘Did you forget something, love?’
Lexi shook her head and swallowed hard, taking her courage in hand. ‘No. I wanted to know if you or Karl picked up the mail yesterday.’
Bev shook her head. ‘With everything that happened, we both forgot. I hope there wasn’t anything important you needed straight away. I can ring Karl and ask him to go into Fellhaven and pick it up now if you want.’
Lexi forced a smile. ‘No, it can wait.’ She turned to go and then stopped. ‘You didn’t find a letter addressed to me outside and put it in the study last night, did you?’
‘No. Have you lost something, love?’ She sprinkled flour on to the counter and began to knead the bread dough. ‘I can look for it later if you like.’
‘No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’ She walked out of the kitchen, fear crawling like a spider up her back.
He had been in her house.
How had he got in, got past Karl and the men?
Why had he only left the letter?
She had to be thankful that was all he’d done. Maybe that was all he was capable of doing. In some strange way, the thought made her feel better. Still, she would tell Detective Fox and she was definitely going to ask Karl about further security this morning. But how could she have more men come here for security reasons without letting anyone but Karl know why? She didn’t want to put herself or Cat in danger – or anyone else here for that matter – but she also didn’t want to worry anyone. Especially not now, with Cat having woken up.
She had to create as stress-free an environment for Cat as possible. Whatever security measures needed to be made had to be done so discreetly. Perhaps she could say the extra security was to keep any media intrusion from bothering the band, what with Melissa’s accident and all. Yes. That’s what she’d do. It would work. It had to.
The man who had sent her the letters would have to be pretty insane to try anything with extra security around.
The phone rang and rang. Daemon was ready to hang up when Lyall answered.
‘Hello, C & F Management, Lyall speaking. How can I help you?’
‘Lyall, it’s Daemon. Is Nigel there?’ There was a pause and Daemon could hear Lyall fumbling, sounding puffed. ‘Did I catch you at a bad time?’
‘No, not at all. I was at the other end of the house and hadn’t taken the phone with me so I had to run to get it. Nigel’s out.’
‘Damn. I need him to check on something for me.’
‘Is it about the chopper? It’s on its way to pick up Doctor Carlton as we speak.’
Daemon grimaced at Lyall’s miffed tone. The man could get so prissy, particularly if he thought his ability to do his job was being questioned. ‘I wasn’t worried about that. I know you took care of it. I just needed to ask Nigel something else.’
‘Oh. Well. Is it anything I can help you with?’
Daemon thought for a moment but knew Alexia wouldn’t like him talking to Nigel, let alone Lyall. ‘Do you know when Nigel’s due back?’
‘He shouldn’t be long. I know he doesn’t have anything on his calendar because he had me clear it yesterday after we found out about Melissa. We’re probably going to head up there in the next day or so. He’d like to be there now, but he felt it necessary to stay in London and deal with the tabloids directly, with the lawyers on tap.’
‘Of course.’ Daemon wasn’t really interested. ‘I don’t suppose he’s taken his mobile with him?’
‘Nope. When I gave it to him this morning it had run out of charge, so he left it here.’
‘Damn it!’
‘Can it wait?’
‘No. I really need him to take care of this now.’
A thought had crawled into his mind when he’d picked up the newspaper Bev had brought in this morning. A horrible thought that wouldn’t let go and had made him get up without finishing his breakfast, murmuring a goodbye to Bev before racing back to the Dower House.
There had been an article about Jenny Harrison, with a photo of the young woman, on the same page as a photo of Lis’s car accident. His eyes had skipped over the article about the accident – they couldn’t know anything he didn’t already know about it and he wasn’t surprised the story had been picked up so quickly – but his attention had been held by the picture of Jenny. She had a hairstyle very similar to Alexia’s. Cold had crept over him as he read the physical description of her in the newspaper report. Similar height and build to Alexia. Similar hair colour and style – she’d possibly modelled it after Alexia in a bit of hero worship. She wasn’t identical, but there were definite similarities.
She’d been choked to death while being raped and then left there like so much rubbish. A line from the letter he’d read last night blazed into his mind. He shuddered to remember such vividly violent words.
Then his gaze had swept across to the picture of the smashed Rover.
Alexia’s Rover.
The four-wheel drive had dark-tinted windows and was well known in the area as her car.
Their conversation from last night played in his head. According to her, the letter-writing stalker had upped the ante lately, going much further with his threats than he ever had before, last night’s being the worst – as if he was angry.
Could Jenny’s rape and murder, and Lis’ accident, have something to do with Alexia’s stalker? Had he used Jenny as a substitute when he couldn’t get to Alexia? Had he meant to run Alexia off the road and got Lis by mistake?
Daemon had to find out. He really needed Nigel to use his contacts to push the investigation further along.
‘Are you sure you don’t know where he is?’
Lyall clicked his tongue. ‘I have no idea. Are you sure I can’t help you with the problem? I know everything that goes on around here.’
Daemon sighed. He had no other option. He needed the police to treat the threat to Alexia seriously. He’d deal with her anger later. He quickly outlined his thoughts. ‘I assume Nigel has police contacts he can use.’
‘Nigel doesn’t, but I do.’ Daemon could hear the smug satisfaction in Lyall’s voice. ‘It was my contact Nigel used to get the information on Alexia. Would you like me to see what he can do?’
Daemon was surprised to hear that little piece of information. It wasn’t the story Nigel had told him. Daemon shrugged. What did it matter who had the contact as long as they got the ball rolling? ‘That would be great.’
‘Where shall I call you to let you know what he says?’
‘On the mobile. I’ll be up at the house for most of today.’
Lyall paused. ‘That’s really fabulous news about Alexia’s sister.’
Daemon smiled. ‘Yeah, it is.’
‘How does she seem?’
Daemon frowned at the question. ‘What do you mean?’ He could almost see Lyall shrug his shoulders, a jerky defensive motion.
‘I don’t know. I suppose I mean: is she all there?’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Nothing. Not the way you’re taking it, that’s certain. I was only wondering if she’s okay. It’s all pretty traumatic, I imagine, and you know how Nigel is. He likes to know about everything to make sure “his boys” are all fine. I swear, sometimes he’s more like your mother than your manager.’
Daemon laughed. ‘I know. Not to mention that underneath that hard-nosed businessman image Nigel likes to project, he’s really a gossip.’
Lyall’s laugh, a sharp-edged sound, grated on Daemon’s nerves. ‘You’re not wrong. You’re lucky you don’t get the brunt. Sometimes he drives me insane with his need to know everything.’
‘I’m sure he does.’
‘Yeah, he even had a file on Alexia before you asked for anything.’
‘What?’
Daemon’s suddenly cold tone was lost on Lyall, who was clearly enjoying the shared camaraderie. ‘Yeah. He had a whole file on her career – newspaper articles, interviews, the whole lot. And the minute Craig told you all her real name he had me checking into her. He’s so paranoid about knowing everything about anyone who comes into contact with you and the band. I swear, it’s almost as if he thinks she could hurt you or something.’ His laughter died away. ‘Are you still there?’
‘I’m here.’ Daemon’s voice was hard, low. ‘Nigel didn’t tell me he’d done that.’
Lyall sounded surprised. ‘Really? You weren’t surprised at how quickly he got the information for you? I thought you knew.’
‘No, I didn’t.’
He could hear Lyall shifting uncomfortably on the other end of the phone. ‘Listen, don’t tell him I told you, okay? I’d prefer not to lose my job over it.’
‘I won’t tell him.’ Daemon paused; he couldn’t let on that he was angry with his manager. ‘Tell Nigel when he gets back that I need to speak to him. I’ll tell him about Alexia’s sister myself if he asks.’
‘Okay. I’ll get right onto my contact and let you know ASAP.’
‘Thanks, Lyall. I’ll hear from you soon.’
When Daemon hung up the phone he headed straight back up to the house. He’d been so preoccupied after reading the paper, he’d forgotten to let Alexia know where he’d be – and to kiss her goodbye.
Now he could make up for the lapse by kissing her goodbye and hello. And once he’d done that, he’d find some way of not letting her out of his sight until this was sorted out. He knew she would object if she worked out why. She could be so bloody-minded and independent. For some reason, she seemed reticent to let him suggest they might be more than lovers. It was kind of laughable, really. He was pretty certain she’d never felt about any man the way she felt about him; otherwise, why had she let him make love to her?
But she’d mentioned now a number of times that they didn’t have a future together, that they had only the present. He didn’t like the sound of that. He didn’t like it at all. Angry possessiveness had risen in him at the thought she might turn him away. He wouldn’t let her. He wouldn’t let her throw away the best thing that had ever happened to him. But she had a lot on her plate at the moment, so he wouldn’t push the issue. Couldn’t tell her yet he was in love with her. But he would. When things calmed down.
For now, he would act the lover and stay by her side. He’d just have to make sure she had no idea as to the real reason he was sticking close – and make sure she had no reason to object.
He wondered what information Lyall’s contact would come up with. Keeping Alexia on a leash while he waited was going to be difficult.