Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Stella rolled her eyes. “Put your laptop away, voice of doom. If we’re heading to the coffee shop, we have to go now. I’m marrying Sam no matter what. If you bet against me, you’re losing your money.”
“I bet a lot of money against you,” Raine confirmed. “Couldn’t you at least make a run for it and make Sam chase you so I recoup some of my money? I’ll share.” She closed her laptop and slipped it into a case with a special lock.
“Vienna, did you bet against me?” Stella asked.
Vienna burst out laughing. “I play the odds, my friend. The odds were strong that you would freak out, but Sam would see it coming and talk you off the ledge every time. He knows you so well, or he has a gift with you. He always seemed to know when you had a bad day. Even before the two of you were together.”
Stella nodded. “He did. I’d get to the house and he’d be on my deck grilling a meal for me. He’d nod toward a cooler and there would be ice-cold beer in it. I didn’t have to talk. He never expected me to. He’d just have dinner ready and then he’d leave. Sometimes he’d stay with me and we’d sit outside and he’d tell me all the names of the stars. He knows them all.”
“It must have shocked you that he knew how to talk,” Zahra said.
Zahra had been Stella’s best friend for years. They’d been soul mates almost from the moment they’d met. No one could make Stella laugh the way Zahra could with her droll sense of humor.
“As a matter of fact, it did shock me,” Stella admitted. “But his voice was sexy, and the next thing I knew, I was having all these erotic fantasies . . .”
Zahra put her hands over her ears. “Stop. I don’t want to hear another word.”
Vienna and her friends burst out laughing. “If we don’t get a move on, it’s going to be too hot to do any bouldering. Getting up before it’s even light won’t do us any good if we sit around talking and forget we’re climbing. Especially if we’re really going to make a stop at a coffee shop. You know we’ll spend time there we don’t have.”
Zahra groaned. “I am not getting up this early again, so we’re leaving immediately.”
“You have to get up for the kayaking trip,” Shabina pointed out with just a little too much glee.
Zahra threw one of the smaller decorative pillows from the couch at her.
“Vienna’s right,” Stella said. “We can come back to our little mystery of Daniel, Liam and Miriam when we get back tonight.”
“We’ll get it done,” Vienna agreed as they hurried out to Stella’s 4Runner.
CHAPTER NINE
The coffee shop wasn’t yet crowded, and all the best pastries had just been put out in the cases as they arrived. They found a table as they waited for their to-go orders of mostly lattes. Even as they sat down, the door constantly opened and closed, letting in the early morning customers. Their table faced the bank of windows, allowing them to see the sun come up when it was rising.
Raine always took the seat facing the door. This time Vienna found herself sitting just to the right of her, so she could watch as well. After the attack on her from Charles, and then the two security guards coming into her room, she felt shaky inside. She hadn’t admitted to anyone, or even herself, that she was more shaken than she’d realized. Daniel’s warning and his grim story about Liam’s murder had only added to her feeling of vulnerability.
Raine leaned toward her. “Are you feeling okay, Vienna? If you prefer to just bike first and boulder in the evening, we can switch things up.”
“I’m doing fine.” When Raine’s blue-gray eyes remained on her, Vienna decided it was better to talk about the unexpected way she felt. “Actually, I had no idea I was so shaken up by those men coming into my room the way they did. I tell myself they thought I was some kind of secret agent or something, but it doesn’t help.” She gave Raine a wan smile and pressed a hand to her queasy stomach. “I don’t think I’m cut out for a life of intrigue.”
Vienna felt inexplicably sad. She was adventurous. She never thought she would be that woman who would fall apart because she had hidden in a closet while two men searched her suite with the intentions of killing her. She held out one hand where Raine could see it while the other women at the table laughed and talked all around her. Her hand shook.
“I can’t be like this. What happens if I’m climbing a cliff to help some poor kid who went over the edge and is counting on me and I start shaking like this? I can’t have someone like Zale in my life. What was I even thinking?” She rubbed her forehead as if she could erase him from her mind.