Seduction of Souls (3 page)

Because there was
no return address on the envelope, she carefully opened it with the letter opener from her desk/kitchen table.  Inside she found a letter size envelope, this time with a return address.  Jonathon Chase, Esquire.  The name sounded familiar, though she didn’t know why.  What in the world would an attorney want with her?  It wasn’t as if she’d done any scathing articles or slandered anyone.  Quickly she scanned the short letter.

Dear Ms. Trenton:

I regret to inform you
of the passing of your great-great-great Aunt, Juliet Meriwether Harvey on the tenth of October, 2011.  From my conversations with Mrs. Harvey I am aware that you had no prior knowledge of her existence.  Let me assure you she was a lovely, graceful woman, passing at the age of ninety eight peacefully in her sleep. 

At her request, she was buried in the family cemetery located on a remote parcel of her land, alongside her husband and other beloved family members.
Her desire to remain secret to you until after her death remains a mystery.

Since I find that you are the sole heir to her estate, I request that you contact me at my office at your earliest convenience.

Again, please allow me to express my sympathies for your loss.

Sincerely,

Jonathon Chase, Esq.

Stunned, she sat down with a thud onto one of the kitchen chairs.  Well, in a way she had been right.  It was bad news. The death of anyone, even someone she’d never met, was sad.  She suddenly wondered why she hadn’t had to write an obituary for the woman.  The attorney’s address was here in Cassidy, so it only made sense that her departed aunt had lived somewhere around here.  Her parents had never once mentioned anyone else in the family.  After she lost them in a car accident, she could have used a relative to care about her.  Both of them were only children who had only one child, RayeAnn.  Was it possible that even they didn’t know there was an aunt somewhere out there?  Jeez, she didn’t even know which parent’s side of the family this aunt was from. 
Has to be a mistake
.  There must be quite a few RayeAnn Trenton’s in the world.  Mr. Chase had surely chosen the wrong one.  It would be an easy mistake to make, since she happened to live in the same town as the attorney. 

S
he decided to call him first thing tomorrow and let him know about the error.  Smiling to herself, she thought about the old woman. 

Doing the math in her head, she realized that Juliet Harvey had been born in 1913.  Wow, the things she must have seen in her lifetime.  The new inventions alone would be mind boggling.  Appliances, cars, phones, microwaves, television, music, movies, fashion, all of them constantly changing. 
What would it but like to watch traditions change before your very eyes?
  Or were the changes so gradual she’d barely even noticed them?  How exciting to have lived all that history instead of reading it in a cold, dry history book.  What she wouldn’t give to have been able to have a conversation with the lady before she died.

It reinforced her belief in keeping a journal, which she had done religiously since the age of ten. 
There would be volumes upon volumes of history, her history, to leave for someone someday.  Not that she had anyone special in her life, but there was always hope.  Look at Gideon Meriwether, who, she had discovered, had been married three times.  So there was still hope, but she certainly didn’t feel it in her heart.  Well, regardless, she wasn’t going to just sit around and wait for true love to come knocking on her door.  She decided to go up to the Blue Bull Inn and visit with Bryn, maybe hook up with someone she knew from college.  Either way, she wasn’t going to just sit home on a perfectly good Saturday night.

RayeAnn stood near the crowded bar, a ginger ale in her hand, and talked to one of her old neighbors from when she was a little girl.  She remembered the woman as a teenager hired to babysit, one who usually allowed her to stay up an extra half-hour.  Now she was a married woman with children of her own, still living in the house she was raised in so she could take care of her now elderly parents.  How wonderful it must be to have three generations all living under the same roof, though she was sure it had its moments of utter chaos.  Men’s shouting voices came from behind her.  She had just turned to see what was going on when the ice cold liquid hit her square in the face.  She inhaled sharply at the impact. 
God, this shit’s cold
.  Cold liquid dripped down her hair and face, soaking her silk blouse.  She could feel her mascara running down her face, beating out her eye shadow by a nose.  Speechless, she just stood there sputtering and smelling like a brewery.  The laughter that followed snapped her from her trance and she ran to the bathroom, embarrassed and humiliated. 

She looked into the mirror, not really sure where to start the clean-up. 
She bent over and rinsed her hair and washed her face, then slapped the buttons of both hand drier machines.  The blouse was ruined, dammit, and it was one of her favorites.  When she straightened from the sink, Bryn shoved a clean towel into her hand.

“Who did this to me?  Do you know who it was?”

“I don’t know the guy’s name, he’s only been in a couple of times before.  Want me to go beat him up for you?”  Bryn jumped up and down, fists raised, as she bobbed left and right like a boxer in the ring.  She pretended to spit on the ground and wiped her nose with one of her dainty fists.

Despite her anger
, RayeAnn burst out laughing.  Bryn was such a sissy, girly girl she wouldn’t hurt a fly.  Which just made it that much funnier. 

“No thanks, this one I’ll take care of myself.  Look at my blouse, it’s ruined
. 

“Don’t whine.  We’ll look online tomorrow and replace it.  Figures
that one of the few nights you come to visit me and you’re assaulted by a flying beer.  I don’t know how to break this to you, but you have really lousy luck.”

“What, you think I didn’t already know that?  Story of my life, kiddo.  I didn’t wear a coat tonight
, so I’m just going to dry my blouse before I go home.  I’ll see you tomorrow morning.  Thanks for the help and the towel.”

“The least I could do to protect the Blue Bull Inn’s reputation.”  She bowed deeply at the waist before heading out the door.

After five minutes of doing the limbo under the hand dryer she finally gave up and walked out of the bathroom.  A huge water stain decorated the front of her blouse.  Before she could make it out of the door she was grabbed from behind by a large hand pulling her arm back. 

“Hi.  I guess I’m the one
who did that to you.  Sorry.  It was kind of an accident.”

“How do you have ‘kind of an accident’?  Wait, let me guess.  You threw it in my face on a dare?  Maybe as a joke?  More likely both.  Just let me go, I’m getting a crick in my neck having to look up at you like this.
  Only thing I can see from this angle is that you need a shave.” 

“No, really, I’m sorry for all the trouble.”

“You know, I might have believed you if you hadn’t laughed at me not only when it happened, but the whole time you were supposedly apologizing.  You’re an ass.”  She jerked her arm out of his grasp, grateful now that she had worn the silk, and stormed out the back door.  Tears stung her eyes as she searched for her car keys in her huge hobo bag.  She had been the brunt of a cruel joke.  The humiliation she felt kept the tears coming.  She felt like she was back in high school with the mean girls, and she hated that feeling.  She rushed out of the bar and headed straight for her car, her fingers trembled so much it took her three tries to get the key into the lock.  Her unshed tears blurred her vision, so she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, started the car, and took off for home. 

Be
ing so wrapped up in your own feelings wasn’t always a good thing.  Sometimes it caused you to not notice some of the more important things in life.  Like someone following you home.

CHAPTER 4

“RayeAnn, wait!”   She froze in her shoes.  Fear caused her stomach to drop to her feet.

A very deep, masculine voice bellowed from the parking lot of her apartment complex
, not a familiar voice, but very sexy none the less.  She stopped and peered into the darkness, trying to make out the rather large figure approaching her. Once he passed under the light of the parking lot she recognized him. Shit.  The asshole from the bar.  How did he know my name?

“Go.  Home
.”  She said it with as much authority as she could muster before she took in the total look of him.  All right, so he was tall.  No, make that very tall, maybe six foot four, almost a foot taller than she was.  His jet black hair hung over his collar, waving seductively on its way down his neck.  He moved gracefully for a man as large and muscular as he was.  His shirt stretched tightly across his pectoral muscles and arms.  Vibrant blue eyes peered back at her through lush, long black lashes. 
Why do men always get the good eyelashes and hair?
  Too bad the guy is such a jerk.

“Look, Mr. Throws
- a-beer- at- innocent -women, just go away.  It’s over.  I’m sure it’s early enough that you can get back to the bar and find someone else to humiliate.  I’ve already taken my turn.”

Suddenly she found herself scooped up in his arms and being held tightly to his chest.

“I just need to talk to you for a minute.  Promise you won’t run off and I’ll put you back down.”

“Umm, yeah, okay, sure.  Put me down.”
  Humoring him might just work.

“You’re lying and I’m not falling for it.  I just wanted to explain.  It wasn’t what you think.  I was there with
the group that I work with.  This guy was getting pretty pushy with one of the women and I could see she was getting scared.  I figured the easiest way to get rid of him was to ‘accidently’ spill my beer on him.  As you know, that didn’t pan out very well.  I just couldn’t stand the thought of you thinking I did it on purpose.  I was laughing at myself when I apologized.  I was embarrassed.”

“Okay.  Thank you for explaining it
to me.  Apology accepted.  Can you put me down now?”  She looked into his handsome face.  Did she really want him to put her down?

Immediately he set her gently on her feet.

“How did you know my name or where I lived?”

“Bryn
at the bar told me your name,” he grinned, “so I followed you home.”  His grin became a frown when he rubbed the back of his neck.  “You mean to tell me you didn’t notice me following you?”

“No, I had other things on my mind.  Well, thanks for clearing everything up.”  She turned to head into her apartment
, thinking the conversation was over.

“Hey, don’t you even want to know my name?  How else are you going to tell everyone the
whole story at work Monday morning?”

“
I work from home, and Bryn is my roommate, but I’ll ask, anyway.”  She cleared her throat as if fine tuning an instrument. “Hey, what’s your name?”

“Thank you kindly for asking.  It’s Ryker Whitcombe, ma’am.  Pleased to make your acquaintance.”  He made the motion of tipping
an imaginary hat, like a good southern gentleman, adding a little twang to his words. 

“Nice name.  Aren’t there any numbers after it?  It sounds too snooty to just end at Whitcombe.”

“Actually, it’s the fourth.  You’re good.  Most people would never make that leap.”

“I do a lot of research
, so it kind of comes naturally to me.  Well, Mr. Ryker Whitcombe the fourth, I need to get inside before I freeze to death.  See ya’ around the watering hole, partner.”  She saluted smartly before dashing inside, shivering, but not sure if it was from the cold or her attraction to Ryker.   

“Goodnight.” The chuckle in his voice made walking away more difficult but very necessary.

First thing Monday morning, she made a point of calling Jonathan Chase.  She cursed quietly when she got his voicemail instead of a human.  Leaving a message, she informed him of the mistake he’d made, hoping that would do the trick, so they wouldn’t have to play phone tag for the next week.  Just in case, she left her cell phone number. 

By the time she finished up at the newspaper she had forgotten all about the message she’d left
.  Something was going on around the paper.  She noticed small clusters of people whispering furiously amongst themselves.  Every time she tried to get close enough to join in, the conversation abruptly ended.  Frustration had her jumping to her feet and yelling out to the room.  “Someone tell me what the hell’s going on!  What’s all the whispering about?”  She threw her hands up in the air only to bring them down on her desk with a loud thud.  Suddenly the entire office staff was trying to work their way into her cubicle, everyone talking at once. 

“Stop.  One person at a time.  Jessica, you begin.”  She gestured with her hand for her coworker to take the floor.

“The newspaper is folding.  If you’ll check your e-mail there’s a form letter from corporate and a hardcopy in your mailbox.  We’re closing down in two weeks.” 

RayeAnn
looked around at the grim faces.  No one had seen this coming or she would have heard about it through the gossip mill.