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“Thank you.” She took a cookie and hummed through a bite. “As delicious as everything Tomas makes. Please tell him I said so.”
Santos translated for her and dismissed him. “We may have made it through a night without another attack of some sort, but today isn’t over yet. I’m trying not to think about how eager someone is to see me dead, but you mustn’t take any risks either.”
“Try a cookie.” She pushed the plate toward him. “They aren’t laced with poison.”
“Libby, we need to be serious.”
She propped her legs on an empty chair and leaned back. “They’ve tried once at the bullring, another time here, but I don’t think they’ll try the same stunt twice. They must want it look like an accident, and they have to come up with a new strategy.”
“Drowning you would be something new.” He bit into a cookie and caught the sugary crumbs.
“True, but I’m not the target, you are. I can’t wait to hear what Mr. Cazares learns tonight. Could you ask him to come here after the meeting so we won’t have to wait until tomorrow for his report?”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and did so. “The meeting is at eight. He should be here before eleven. Manuel and I kept a lookout this morning, but we weren’t being followed. That doesn’t mean we won’t be when we go to see Orlando Ortiz tomorrow.”
“We can’t drive around in a tank.”
“No, we could, but the gas mileage is so poor it would be prohibitively expensive.”
“Now who’s not being serious?” She shook out her hair. “You ought to have an outdoor shower so people wouldn’t trek sand into the house.”
“There is one behind the garage. I should have shown it to you the day we went running.”
They hadn’t returned to the house together, so she shrugged as though it were a small oversight. “I’ll go rinse off and c
ome right back.”
“If you’re not here in five minutes, I’m calling the police.”
“Do you think the man who followed me is lurking behind the garage?”
“He could be. He was somewhere close before.”
“I’ll keep a eye out for him.” She strolled across the sand to reach the back of the garage and found the shower shielded from passersby with a lattice enclosure supporting a vine dripping with fragrant white flowers. If Maggie had known about it, she hadn’t pointed it out when they’d walked along the beach. She took great care in looking around to make certain no one was hiding on the far side of the garage, and then quickly showered to rinse out her hair and clean the sand from her body. She dropped back into her chair in under four minutes.
“No one lay in wait,” she reported, feeling like herself again.
“You are even prettier now than you were this morning.” He saluted her with his lemonade.
“Thank you. I’ll agree I look better all wet than under a blanket of makeup.”
He leaned forward. “We don’t eat dinner until late, come upstairs with me.”
“Is it my fault you fell asleep earlier?”
“Probably, but I’ll forgive you for it.” He pushed himself to his feet.
She rose too. “It is difficult to peel off this suit when it’s wet, and I could use some help undressing.”
“I’ve got another week before I can put any weight on my leg, but if you keep talking like that, I’m going to race you upstairs.”
“As your personal trainer, I have to advise against it. Let’s walk very slowly,” she suggested.
He had to call Manuel to help him climb the stairs, and she was waiting on his balcony when he reached his room. “This is the most glorious view,” she exclaimed. “Minnesota is filled with lakes, but the water is mirror still, not always in motion like the sea.”
“Like you.”
She walked toward him. “Loan me a T-shirt?”
