Endangered: A Delecoeur Mystery #1 (13 page)

“Is there a place she can lie down until
the weather is better?” Jack asked.

“Yes. Daniel should be back shortly.
He'll be able to take her home regardless of the weather,” Tom said.

Tess wasn't sure Daniel's car was any
more equipped to drive in freezing rain, but maybe he was better trained to
drive in it. Like the postman, rain, sleet and snow can't stop the police.

“There's a daybed in the library next to
my office,”
Asa
said absently. Clearly he was more
interested in his business dinner than a sick guest.

Jack bent down in front of Tess. “Can
you walk or should I carry you?”

“You're kidding, right?” His grin told
her otherwise. “I'll walk.”

Jack's arm reached under hers and helped
her to her feet.

“Why don't you all go to dinner? I don't
want to keep you,” Tess said, hoping to get rid of the audience as she made her
way through the room.

“Yes, dinner is getting cold,”
Asa
said.

“You can go too,” she said to Jack. “I'm
sure Walter can show me.”

“Yes miss,” Walter said. “I'll ask Agnes
to fix up something to settle your stomach.”

“Thank you Walter, but I don't know if I
can keep it down.”

“I'll help you,” Jack said. “Walter, you
can check with Agnes.”

“Yes, sir. The room is just across the
foyer.”

“You don't have to do this,” Tess said,
as they made their way across the foyer.

“Worried about Daniel? What he'll think
about a former…”

“We’re not former anything!” The
outburst was nearly her undoing.

Jack wrapped his arm around her to keep
her upright. “Worried he'll get the wrong idea?”

“No.”

They entered the library and Jack guided
her to the daybed. She couldn't remember ever feeling more relieved to sit
down. Now if the room would stop spinning.

As he'd done in the parlor, Jack bent
down in front of her. The amusement in his face was gone, replaced with
bewilderment. And maybe hurt. “Why is it so upsetting that I'm here? I thought
we'd been better friends that that.”

Until you rejected me
, she thought.
“I'm just not feeling well.”

Jack made a sound that suggested he
didn't believe her.

She lay down while he took the throw
blanket folded at the end of the daybed and covered her.

“Ms. Madison,” Walter said. “Here is
some fizzy drink. Agnes says it's what you need.”

Tess could hear the fizzing drink from
across the room and it nearly sent her stomach over. “Oh, uh…thank you,
Walter.  Just set it on the table.”

“Do you need anything else?”

“No. Thank you.” She appreciated his
attentiveness. Her parents' butler would have been more likely to put her in
the shed so she didn't ruin the expensive Oriental rug.

Walter nodded and left the room.

Jack walked across the room, picked up a
waste paper basket and brought it to her.

“Just in case,” he said, setting it next
to the daybed. “I can sit here with you.”

“No.
Asa
will
be here any moment wondering where you are. You go eat and enjoy the
dinner.”

“I don't know about enjoy.”

“I'll be fine. I just need to rest.”

He nodded. “I'll be back to check on you
soon.”

~~~~

Tess hated naps. She always had weird
dreams and woke up not knowing where she was. This time she was on the verge of
being sick, but couldn't find the waste basket or make her way through the
darkness to a restroom. Any minute she was going to ruin her family's rare
Oriental rug.

She heard arguing. At first it sounded
like her parents, but then it changed to two men, one threatening, the other
sounding unconcerned. She didn't want to interrupt them, but she needed a
bathroom. Now.

It was dark. The world was wall-less as
she groped in the darkness, but found nothing to help her find her way. Since
she couldn't see, she listened, trying to find the voices. But they'd stopped.
She was lost in a black world. And tired. So tired. Giving up, she curled into
a ball.           

Tess woke to the sound of movement in
the room. “Daniel?”

“It's Jack. How are you feeling?”

“You don't want to know. Is dinner
finished?”

He came and sat on the daybed next to
her. “We're on a break of sorts. We're supposed to meet
Asa
in the front room in five minutes. But I've come to take you home.”

“
Asa
won't be
happy about that.”

“The hell with
Asa
! 
You're not feeling well and I'm sick of his games.”

Asa
must be drawing
out the anticipation, Tess thought. He was like a cat that enjoyed toying with
the mouse before going for the kill. She could understand Jack's frustration
and desire to leave. She wanted to leave too. Enough so that she was willing to
let Jack take her home. Unfortunately, she didn't trust her stomach to remain
calm enough during the trip. “I'm not ready to get up yet.”

“I'm leaving. I can carry you out of
here or you can stay with this pack of wolves.”

Her body wouldn't comply. Any movement
made her stomach feel like she was on a ship in troubled waters. “I need a
little time to pull myself together. Why don't you go hear him out and
hopefully by then I'll be up to moving.”

He didn't say anything at first. The
room was dark, so she couldn't see his face to guess at what he might be
thinking.

“You said you wanted to know what he's
up to. You're about to find out,” she added.

“I'll be back in a few minutes. And if
you're not ready, be prepared for me to carry you.” His annoyance toward her
sounded like it equaled his irritation at
Asa
.

“So leave then. Don't let me stop you.”

She couldn't see him, but imagined he
was inwardly groaning. “Just be ready when I come back.”

When he left, Tess closed her eyes
again. Now she wished she was in a dream and that any moment she'd wake up in
her own bed at home and that this night, especially the part about seeing Jack
again, hadn't happened.  She knew she needed to get herself upright or
suffer the indignity of Jack carrying her out. But she was so tired. She'd
found the one position in which she could lay and nothing would hurt or threaten
to come up. She closed her eyes, and drifted.

~~~~

It could have been minutes or it could
have been hours. Tess wasn't sure how long she'd been out when she heard
movement again.

“Jack?”

The figure stopped. “No Miss, it's
Walter. I was just checking if you needed anything.”

The room was dark except for the light
that slipped beneath the doors on two sides of the room. She heard him move
away from her. One of the doors opened, letting in a stream of light that
flowed around Walter's figure and forced Tess' eyes shut.

“Is Daniel back?”

“No miss. But I think Mr. Showalter
heard from him. Shall I go get him?” 

“No. I'm just going to lay here a minute
longer and then I'll get up and join the others. Are they still in the parlor?”

“They're just gathering there now.”

So she'd been out only a few minutes.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She still had time to pull herself together
before Jack hauled her out of there.

“Thank you, Walter.”

“I'll let Mr. Valentine know you're up.
He seemed keen to take care of you.”

Leave it to the help to notice the
nuances of the people they work for. “That's okay. I don't want to disrupt Mr.
Worthington's meeting.”

Tess lay in the dark, thinking about
hiding until Jack showed up. She could stay where she was and avoid the
Worthington angst. It was a good idea. Too bad her pride had other ideas.

Determining she needed to salvage her
image, Tess risked opening one eye. It was dark again except for a line of
light under the doors. She knew one door led to the foyer and figured the other
one led to
Asa's
office.

Slowly she rolled to her side and pushed
herself to a sitting position. Her stomach lurched, reminding her that her
situation was still precarious. She reached out towards the coffee table in
search of the fizzy drink. It was there, but no longer fizzing. Deciding it
still might help calm her stomach, she picked up the glass and took a sip.

“Ugh!” She nearly spit out the chalky
brew, but caught herself before she could ruin the daybed or carpet.  They
were probably nineteenth-century antique originals. She didn't need the night
to get any worse by ruining priceless pieces of history.

After a few deep breaths, she worked her
way up to a stand and made her way to the nearest door. She'd never been in the
room before. She couldn't remember which door she'd entered from. She reached
for the handle, hoping it was the door she'd just seen Walter exit. She was
sure
Asa
wouldn't appreciate it if she invaded his
inner sanctum. She pulled the door towards her and peeked into the room.

The dark colors of the room, along with
the long mahogany desk with the white light glowing from a laptop, told her
she'd found the wrong door. She started to leave when the smell of smoke caught
her attention. Stepping inside the room she saw a pillar of smoke being drawn
outside to the frigid February air by the open door behind
Asa's
desk. But what worried her most was seeing
Asa
slumped over his desk.

She moved towards the smoke first and
discovered the dwindling fire was contained in his waste paper basket. She
wondered what sort of evidence he'd been trying to burn. She went to check on
him, remembering his flushed face after his altercation with Lauren. Perhaps
his heart was bad. Tess tried to remember the CPR she'd learned. Was it two
breaths and ten compressions? Or one breath and fifteen compressions? Why were
they always changing it? She was in the process of determining that maybe it
wouldn't matter so much as long as she did something, when she saw the blood.
It pooled on the desk around his head and was dripping onto the floor.
Oh
God
, was her last thought, as her world spun away into darkness.

Want to find out happens next?
Check out
Deadly Valentine
, available in
print and Kindle versions.

JENNA HARTE is a
die-hard romantic, writing about characters who are committed to each other and
frequently getting into trouble. She is the author of three romantic mysteries featuring
Tess Madison, a chocolate and French underwear connoisseur and Jack Valentine,
her handsome, environmentalist love interest, and a novella involving Max and
Madeleine Delecoeur. When she’s not telling stories, she work by day as a
freelance writer and blogger. She lives in central Virginia with her husband,
two teenage children and two cats.

Learn more about
Jenna at
http://www.JennaHarte.com

More
Books By Jenna Harte:

Deadly Valentine: A Valentine Mystery,
Book One
(Print and eBook) -  Tess Madison walked away from her
two-timing fiancé, a multi-million dollar trust fund and a cushy corporate law
job to pursue the single life indulging in chocolate and fancy French
underwear. But her newly reordered life comes unraveled when she reluctantly
accepts an invitation to a dinner party and stumbles upon the host’s dead body.
Now Tess is in the middle of a murder investigation pitting her
wannabe-boyfriend police detective against Jack Valentine, a man from her past
with blue-green eyes and sinful smile that causes her to rethink her
self-imposed celibacy. Tess has many reasons to avoid Jack, including the fact
that he’s the prime suspect in a murder. But Tess doesn’t believe Jack’s the
murderer and with an honest attempt to keep her hormones in check, she agrees
to represent him. With Jack’s help, she uncovers a thirty-year-old secret
someone is killing to keep hidden and discovers sensual delights that don’t
include chocolate or French underwear. But when her professional and personal
relationship with Jack threatens to ruin her career and end her life, Tess has
to decide if Jack, is worth the risk.

Old Flames Never Die: A Valentine Mystery
, Book Two
- Tess Madison
is jobless, homeless and hopelessly in love with the sexy, blue-green-eyed Jack
Valentine. But their new love is put to the test when the husband of an old flame
of Jack’s is murdered. Jack thinks she is innocent and vows to help her. Tess
isn’t so sure and with the help of her friend and Jack’s nemesis Detective
Daniel Showalter, she joins the investigation. Now Tess is pitted against Jack,
and as they each seek answers, not only do they put their love at risk, but
their lives as well.