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)
She shook her head. “There’s no way to stitch this up. Too much skin missing.”
“Yeah, I got that, Snowflake. Put your magic glue on it and call it good.”
Behind her, she heard Rainier shift in his chair, easing his weight off, or maybe onto, the leg where the wound was. Vienna turned again, a little frown on her face. He needed to be careful and at least give his body twenty-four hours to recuperate.
“Shabina.” Rainier was persistent. “You don’t get to leave your dogs or your personal protectors behind.”
Shabina closed her fingers into two fists and rested them on the center island in the kitchen. “Actually, Rainier, I not only can, but I did. Fortunately, it’s my call to decide whether or not to use the security team or to take my dogs with me.”
She sounded serene, but when Vienna looked at her, she could read the tension in her body.
“Actually, it isn’t,” Rainier disagreed.
Shabina looked up quickly from where she had begun scrubbing the center island. She watched as Rainier took out his phone and began texting. “What are you doing?”
“Ensuring you’re safe.”
“Are you talking to my father? I’m not sixteen. He isn’t in control of my life.”
Vienna couldn’t hear even a small shimmer of anger in Shabina’s voice. She glanced at Harlow. She didn’t like what was going on. When she looked around the room, she could see none of the others did either.
“No, your father doesn’t control your life, Shabina. No one does that. But someone has to take your safety seriously if you don’t.”
There it was again, that shadow of doubt that Vienna didn’t like. If Shabina really was in trouble, why hadn’t she said anything to any of her friends? They would never have minded if she brought the dogs. This particular Airbnb was convenient because it was close to Red Rock, but it didn’t take pets. They would have kept looking until they found another house that would have allowed them to bring Shabina’s Dobermans.
“Shabina?” Stella asked.
Shabina shook her head and turned away from them, walked to the sink to wash her hands a second time and then went to the back door and stepped outside. Rainier swore under his breath and stood up immediately, holding one hand to his hip as he limped after her.
There was silence after Rainier followed Shabina into the backyard, closing the kitchen door behind him.
“Do you think one of us should go out there and rescue her?” Harlow asked.
“Do you think he’s going to shoot her?” Zale countered.
“More like strangle her,” Zahra said. “What was that all about? Shabina is careful. She’s more careful than any of us.” She looked at Harlow. “With the exception of Raine. She put threads on the windows and doors? When did she do that? And why?”
There was a small silence. Raine was in her bedroom, lying down in the dark with a migraine. Vienna knew she’d taken her medication in order to short-circuit the massive headache.
“Zale?” Vienna used the glue to cover the wound. “Do you know why Raine would put threads on the windows or doors? And how would you notice?”
“Raine is interesting to Sam, Rainier and me. She claims to be a computer analyst but she has a very high clearance, so much so that we can’t touch her.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means we have high clearances and should be able to get the dirt on anyone we want to look into. Once Sam fell like a ton of bricks for Stella, he was determined to keep her safe.”
“Which means you pried into our lives.” She felt some resentment toward him. “What happened to getting to know someone naturally?”
“Snowflake, really? That nasty little temper of yours flares up at the most unexpected times.” Zale put his hand over his heart and looked pious. “I didn’t look into you. That was Sam. He didn’t share with us either, in case you wanted to know, but when he called on us for help to protect all of you, he did mention that some of you had troubled pasts. At that time, he disclosed that Raine’s clearance protected her from his ability to check into her past. Just so you know, Shabina’s past is a mystery as well.”
Zale fell silent for a moment, staring at the kitchen door toward the backyard. “Apparently not to Rainier. In any case, getting back to Raine and the threads. It’s an old trick. If she’s gone from her home for any length of time and she’s been taught that certain men can get around a security camera or even multiple security cameras, then she might use the old-fashioned alarm system of placing a piece of thread that blends in with the door and window frames. If someone opens the door or the window, the thread will fall to the ground. The chances of an intruder noticing a single very small piece of thread floating to the ground would be almost zero. Your Raine is smart.”