LEAD ME ON by Julie Ortolon (find a book to read TXT) 📕

concern. Rory looked so tired, and her stomach had gotten huge.

“I’m fine. I just want to see if Chance is back from talking to the attorney.” On the advice of their lawyer, they’d offered to drop the libel suit if John LeRoche would drop his suit against Chance and the bank. They had yet to receive an answer and the waiting was beginning to wear on all their nerves.

“Yes, go,” Allison told her. “And put up your feet. You need to rest.”

“Don’t worry, I will.” Rory smiled as she waddled out. After she’d left, Alli and Chloe waited in the gift shop for nearly an hour before Scott finally came back downstairs.

“Hey, Chloe,” he said. “You ready for some supper?”

In unison, Allison and Chloe stared at him, looked at each other, then back at him. He didn’t show a flicker of reaction to what they’d done. “Uh, sure,” Chloe said.

“Well, come on,” he said. “We can decide what we want on our way in to town. That is, if you’re finished helping Allison.”

Chloe looked at her again, but all Allison could do was shrug. “Fine with me.”

As Allison watched them go, her shoulders slumped in disappointment. Maybe he hadn’t opened the shower door yet. Although surely he would notice when they got back, tomorrow morning at the latest.

The evening came and went without a word. Chloe ventured into the kitchen just before bedtime. “How could he not notice?”

“I don’t know.” Allison poured them each a glass of milk and fixed a plate of brownies. “Maybe we should have left the shower door open.”

“You mean, we have to wait until morning when he takes his shower?” Chloe asked.

“Looks like it.”

“I hate waiting.” Chloe took a big bite of brownie.

“Me, too. But remember, act clueless when he does notice.”

“You got it.”

The following morning, Allison waited eagerly for Scott and Chloe to come down for breakfast. Chloe came down first, beating most of the other guests. She fidgeted in her chair and giggled each time she looked at Allison. By the time Scott came down, breakfast was in full swing with guests sharing their plans for the day over the clatter of dishes.

Allison glanced up from pouring coffee, saw him enter the room, and froze as she waited for his reaction. He simply went to the sideboard, fixed his plate, and sat down. She couldn’t believe it. Nothing!

She stared at Chloe who gaped back at her. He had to have noticed by now. His damp hair proved he’d taken a shower, yet he didn’t say one single word about it. He just questioned Chloe about her schoolwork.

Okay, she decided, if he was going to pretend nothing had happened, so would she.

“I can’t believe he didn’t say anything,” Chloe complained later when she joined Alli in the gift shop.

“Me, either.”

“He must be up to something. I bet he’s known since yesterday, and he’s plotting his revenge.”

“You think so?” Allison thought that over as she dusted off a display of miniature sailing ships. “But what could he do?”

“Heck if I know, but we better be careful until we figure it out. Remember, we’re dealing with a man who drags his characters through snake-filled jungles and shark-infested waters. Heaven only knows what torments he’s capable of in real life.”

“Oh, come on, Chloe, that’s just fiction.” Allison laughed nervously. “What’s he going to do, hide snakes in our beds?”

“I’m just saying we’re dealing with a man who makes a living scaring the living daylights out of people.”

“You’re right.” Allison bit her lip.

The thought of what Scott might be planning soon had her jumping at every noise. Scott gave nothing away, though. He came down to the kitchen at noon to make lunch for Chloe and himself from the groceries he kept in the refrigerator, then went into town to do research at the library.

That evening, Allison sat in the music room, helping Chloe with her homework. Quiet had settled over the house with most of the guests in town. Rory and Chance had gone home for the day, and Adrian was playing poker at a friend’s house. Scott appeared in the doorway, startling both of them.

“What are you two up to?” he asked, as casual as ever.

“Nothing,” Chloe said, looking a bit like a deer caught in the headlights.

He turned to Allison. “I have a huge favor to ask. I’m really on a roll with the writing and don’t want to stop. So, do you think you could take Chloe out to dinner? On me, of course.”

“I...” She hesitated at the unusual request. “I suppose.”

“Great.” He reached in his back pocket for his wallet, and pulled out a credit card. “I really appreciate this.”

She took the card, still frowning.

“Yep, he’s up to something,” Chloe said when he was gone.

Night had fallen by the time they returned, both of them pleasantly stuffed with seafood. They stopped at the base of the stairs, taking in the quiet creaks and pops of a house settling in for the night. Allison hadn’t seen any lights on upstairs besides Scott’s so any guests who had returned from town had apparently gone to bed already.

“Well, I guess this is it,” Chloe said, looking up the stairs.

“You want me to go up with you?”

Chloe seemed to consider it, then squared her shoulders. “No. I can take it. Besides, like you keep saying, how bad can it be?”

“Okay, but check your shower before you go to bed.”

“Yeah, good thinking. You, too.”

“Right.” Allison waited at the base of the stairs until she heard the door to Chloe’s room close. When no scream followed, she took a deep breath and headed down to the apartment in the basement. Adrian hadn’t returned from his poker game, and probably wouldn’t for hours.

She turned on all the lights in the main room, then eased open the door to her bedroom on its creaky hinges. How could such a new door make that eerie noise? Nothing seemed out of place, though, so she ventured inside, moving carefully to the