Alana Candler, Marked for Murder (25 page)

Brad laughed at his description. “Yep, you got it all right. Ain’t it grand?”

Jaydn just laughed and nodded. “Better than anything I could have imagined.”

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation.

“Come in.”

Bo stuck his head in the door. “We just got a call from Elliott. A body washed up on the shore of Lake Morgan. He said you need to see this one.”

Brad jumped to his feet. “Drowning?”

Bo shook his head. “Nope. He has a bullet hole right in the middle of his forehead.”

Jaydn, thankful he had not gone into police work, watched Brad grab his gun and holster from the coat rack beside the door.

Brad turned to Jaydn. “I gotta run. Tell Alana I’ll call her tonight.”

“Will do,” Jaydn said as he preceded Brad out the door.

Brad locked his office and strode down the hall with Bo. Jaydn leaned against the wall and looked up at the ceiling in defeat. He hadn’t had a chance to ask Brad how to handle telling Alana the truth. Blowing out a frustrated breath, he trudged back to his office to get to the helicopter, fly to the cabin, and face Alana.

FIFTY

ALANA SAT DROOPING IN THE
armchair in front of the television. She sighed, telling her heart to stop wondering what Jaydn was doing. Sitting around the house was rarely something she enjoyed, and for some reason Jaydn’s face kept invading her mind, distracting her from the movie she was trying to watch. The DVD collection stored in the den contained a wide assortment, but even the
Indiana Jones
movies almost seemed tame compared to the life she was living at the moment.

She flipped off the TV and stood up decisively. Maybe Sam would let her cook supper since she’d been busy doing laundry all afternoon.

The laundry room was located at the back of the house and smelled like cotton candy—or was it lavender? Alana sniffed appreciatively and smiled at Sam, who was carefully ironing a man’s shirt.

“Hey, Sam. Would you mind if I cooked supper tonight?”

Sam smiled at her thankfully. “That would be great, Alana. I was just thinking I needed to stop soon and get some kind of meal started. These men are all a hungry bunch. I guess guard work makes for big appetites.” She laughed. “I’ll be glad when Naomi gets here. She’s better at cooking than I am. I’m not used to cooking for so many.”

Alana laughed. “Well, I’ll take care of it this time. I’m used to cooking for a passel of kids at the orphanage, so it’ll be fun.”

Sam sighed. “Thanks, Alana. There’s plenty of food in the pantry. A couple of the security team went and bought groceries this morning, and I think they bought out the entire store. There should be ingredients for just about anything you might wanna cook.”

“I’ll find it. Thanks, Sam.”

Sam smiled at her warmly and went back to ironing.

Adding up the number of security men she could remember, she formulated a mental note of how many servings she’d need. Then, she opened the pantry and checked to see if the ingredients were on hand for chicken parmesan.

Everything was there except for the bread crumbs—a batter with flour would do just as well.

The first thing she’d make would be a chocolate cake. The kids loved her white icing made with Crisco, flour, milk, and just a little bit of sugar. Not too sweet—but just enough to taste like dessert.

When she had the cake baking in the oven, she pulled out the ingredients for the main course.

Carefully, she lowered spaghetti noodles into boiling water to let them cook while she sautéed onion, garlic, and bay leaves in a little olive oil. Then she carefully added basil and tomatoes and cooked it slowly until the mixture thickened. Setting that aside, she beat the strips of chicken until they were a consistent thickness and dredged them in a mixture of flour, salt, and pepper. After coating them completely in the flour mixture, she dipped them into eggs beaten with water until they were frothy, then back into the flour mixture for the final coating. When they were completely coated with the seasoned mixture, she laid them carefully into a pan with a thin covering of hot olive oil and cooked them until they were tender.

While the chicken cooked in the pan, she found several jars of home canned vegetables and poured them into pans to heat. Then she whipped up a batch of butter biscuits. They were just coming out of the oven when she heard the helicopter.

A helicopter meant only one thing—Jaydn was home. Her stomach did flips, and her heart turned over in her chest.

Behave!
She scolded herself as she dumped the biscuits into a basket lined with a towel, and stirred the cake icing vigorously, trying to let out some of her bottled-up emotions.

“Mmmm, something smells good. I’m starved.”

Even though she knew he was coming, she still jumped at the sound of his voice from the doorway. She turned around and smiled at Jaydn’s bemused expression.

“I thought it was Sam in the kitchen when I smelled dinner cooking,” he said. “Where is she?”

“She’s busy doing laundry, so I offered.”

“It smells delicious. What is it?” He lifted the lid off the pan on the stove containing the chicken and gave an appreciative sniff.

“Chicken parmesan.”

When she turned her back, he pinched off a tiny piece of chicken and popped it into his mouth. “Mmm. This is great!”

“Hey! Stay out of my food, you buzzard.” Her shaky smile took the sting out of her words as she slapped at him with the dishtowel.

“Where’d you learn to cook?”

“My mom.” The sadness in her heart lasted two seconds before she turned back to icing the cake. “I cook quite a bit for the orphanage. It’s fun, and I enjoy seeing the kids. Of course, the kids are easier to please than a whole group of men. To be honest, I’m a little nervous.” She glanced up and smiled.

“They’ll love it, believe me. Should I call the first shift in?” He snitched a corner off one of the biscuits as he walked out the door to ring the dinner bell hanging on the iron railing.

Alana laughed and turned to drain the noodles in a colander and mix them with the tomatoes and spices. Then she spooned it onto each piece of the browned chicken and sprinkled them all with mozzarella cheese and a touch of parmesan. When everything was ready, she set all the food on the island—buffet style—and pulled out plates and silverware.

Jaydn walked in the door ahead of the security team. “I think I’ll work in my office until all the men have eaten.” He turned before he reached the door and handed her a bag he’d been carrying around. “Oh, by the way, I brought you something.”

The strange look he gave her as he left the room made her place the bag carefully on the counter. When she looked inside, a warm blush covered her face.

Caramel popcorn!

The back door slammed as the first group of men came in, and she stayed busy dishing out food for the hungry men who were keeping her safe.

After all the security detail ate and gave a cheerful thanks for the delicious meal, Alana took a plate out of the cabinet and filled it with her meal while Sam was washing up the dishes. She covered the serving bowls and left the rest of the food on the bar for Jaydn. A large picnic table sat on the wooden patio outside, so she picked up her plate and sat down on the bench seat contentedly. In such a peaceful setting, she could almost forget why she was here.

Halfway through her meal, she heard shouting from the lake. One of the guards yelled up the yard toward her. “Get down, Miss Candler! Get back in the house!”

Alana looked where he was pointing and saw a motor boat slicing through the water, approaching the dock. Terror turned her legs to water, and she couldn’t move.

Jaydn pushed open the back door and grabbed her, pulling her back into the kitchen. An alarm was sounding from somewhere above her and made her insides vibrate.

“Get down, Alana, and stay here with Sam.” He pushed Alana to the floor next to where Sam was sitting away from the windows and door. Then he jerked the basement door open. Inside was a tall rack that held four or five rifles. After loading one with bullets from the shelf, he turned to glance down at Alana’s pale, stunned face.

“In the basement, there’s a secret lever hidden under the bottom shelf of the bookshelves. Sam can show you where. Pull that lever, and a hidden closet will open. A lever inside the closet closes the door. If I tell you to, get in that closet and stay there until I come get you. Understand?”

She nodded, but the alarm in his eyes flamed a feeling of helplessness. She wrapped her arms around her waist and looked up at him. “Please, don’t leave me, Jaydn,” she said as he carefully peeked out the door window.

“It’ll be okay, Alana. The guards are good at what they do.” He smiled at her and took a stance just inside the back door.

Sam took Alana’s hands in hers and smiled at her reassuringly. Alana leaned out and peered around the corner cabinet into the backyard. She saw two of the guards approach the boat that was now parked at his dock—guns drawn and tense in their stance. She saw them talking to the man and woman aboard the boat and breathed a sigh of relief when the couple started the engine and pulled back out onto the lake. She turned back to Sam and whispered, “The boat’s leaving.”

Marty, the head of his security team, ran back to the house and entered the back door.

“False alarm. They were looking for the concession stand at the swimmer’s beach. I told them there wasn’t a place to park their boat there, so they headed back the way they came.”

“Where
did
they come from? I thought there was no access to the lake on this side of the mountains.”

“There’s a private campground on the other side, but it’s not usually that busy. It’s a long boat ride around the mountain—most people don’t come all the way around.”

“Are you sure they were telling the truth?”

Marty looked at him pointedly. “I’d stake my life on it.”

Alana remembered Jaydn saying Marty had been with him for several years and knew Jaydn trusted his instincts.

“Tell the men to be on the look-out for more boats. Thanks for being alert, Marty.” Jaydn patted him on the back as Marty turned to leave. Marty nodded then headed back to his security team.

Alana was sure they would be on extra alert for the next few hours.

After Sam gave her a hug, Alana turned from her with trepidation in her heart. Going outside to eat was a stupid thing to do. Being out in the open was dangerous.

Her appetite gone, she headed upstairs to spend time in her Bible. Only God knew why these things were happening. She needed to spend time with Him and let Him deal with everything.

FIFTY-ONE

THE NEXT MORNING, JAYDN USHERED
Alana outside into the sunshine.

“Where are we going?” Her voice held a touch of trepidation.

“What you need is something to help take your mind off the last few days and relax a little.”

Alana was a little nervous to be outside where anyone could be lurking in the dense stand of trees surrounding the lake, but when Jaydn led her to a small pathway surrounded by reed cane, she began to relax. He stopped in a small clearing under several old oak trees and dug something out of his pocket.

“My buddies and I played this game when I was little. We called it Washers—for obvious reasons.” He opened his hand and showed her a pile of the largest washers she’d ever seen. “Have you ever played a game like this?”

The surprise on her face made him laugh. “I’ll take that as a
no
. It’s a lot of fun when you get the hang of it. Let me show you.”

Alana saw three round holes dug in the ground exactly the same distance apart. The bare dirt around the three holes was packed, and she could tell this game was played often. About twenty feet away, there were three more holes dug in the same way.

“It’s a lot like horseshoes, but a little different. You stand behind the hole closest to you like this.” He gently pushed her until she stood behind the small round hole closest to her.

“Then you take a washer and throw it to the other set of holes. You have to land the washer completely in the hole for the points to count. If you get your washer in the first hole, it’s five points. The second hole is ten points, and the hole farthest away is fifteen points.

“The object of the game is to get exactly sixty points. If you have fifty-five points and you get more than five with the next throw, you start all over with the extra amount. Let’s say you had fifty-five points, and in the next throw, your washer landed in the fifteen-point hole. That is ten points over sixty, so now your score would be only ten. Do you understand?”

Alana nodded and took the washers he held in his hands. “I’ve never seen such large washers. Where did you get these things?”

“Believe it or not, I bought them at the local hardware store. They’re cheap, and this is a fun game. Evan and Sam play it a lot during their hours off.”

“Do they stay here at the house all the time?” she asked as she took the first washer in her hand and looked toward the three holes at the other end.