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Zach remembered.
“Dad said we were all getting on his nerves—now, there’s something new,” she added sarcastically.
Zach didn’t respond.
“Anyway, I think he was worried about another kidnapping.”
“No way.” Zach hauled the saddle off the horse and hung it over the top rail of the fence. “Aren’t you the one who pointed out that he wouldn’t care if one of us was abducted? Just London.”
Trisha pouted.
“You know, if I turned up missing, I think he might buy a bottle of expensive champagne and have himself a celebration.”
“He’s not that bad,” she said without much conviction, then catching Zach’s steady gaze, sighed. “Okay, so he is that bad. Anyway, it doesn’t matter why he sent us here—the fact of the matter is that we’re all stuck in this godforsaken place.”
“Is that so?”
“Including Kat.”
Zach’s stomach dropped a little, but he managed to keep his face from registering the slightest trace of emotion. “She’ll hate it here,” he said flatly.
“Already does.” Plucking a few needles from the branch near her head, she sighed and twirled the sprig between her fingers. “You should have heard their fight. It reminded me of Mom and Dad before they split up. Kat put up a battle, I’ll give her that, but despite her excruciatingly loud protests against being shipped out of Portland, she wound up here, with the rest of us, and that really pissed her off. She wanted to stay close to the investigation and I thought she might grab Dad’s .22 and put a bullet through him before she’d leave town. But, of course, Dad got his way.” Trisha’s eyes clouded and Zach knew she wasn’t thinking about Kat any longer.
“He always gets his way.”
Trisha glanced up at her brother. “I think Dad had an ulterior motive for shipping her off.”
Zach lifted a disinterested eyebrow.
“Kat’ll freak, ’cause I think the investigation’s winding down. The cops are out of leads and the FBI isn’t doing any better. All a bunch of fools with their thumbs rammed up their asses.”
“What about Phelps?”
“The private investigator? He’s a joke. Have you ever seen anyone so…ordinary in your life?” Dropping the pine needles, she dusted her hands and glared up at Zachary as if the situation were all his fault. “It’s all a front, anyway. Dad wants to believe that the Polidoris are behind the kidnapping.”
“Are they?”
“They’re not stupid, Zach. Anthony has to know that he’d be at the top of the suspect list.”
Zach wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t bother to comment. Let Trisha believe what she wanted.
“It’s all such a pain. Ever since London disappeared no one can go anywhere without some damned bodyguard prowling around behind.”
Zach tied the reins to the second rail of the fence. He wasn’t in the mood to listen to his sister’s whining. Trisha was just ticked off because she couldn’t sneak around meeting Mario Polidori. Both families disapproved of the romance between Mario and Trisha. The only subject the Polidoris and Danverses had agreed upon in the last hundred years was to forbid Mario and Trisha from seeing each other. They were adults, she’d argued, and Witt had told her that she’d better start acting like one and move out, but as far as he was concerned, while she lived under his roof, she’d abide by his rules.
Trisha had other plans. She seemed to think she was some modern-day Juliet and Mario was her Romeo. The thought made Zach sick and he spat on the dusty ground. She should have learned her lesson about Mario Polidori. With a grunt, he grabbed the saddle and slung it over his shoulder to carry it into the stable.
Following him inside, Trisha said, “I thought you and I could work a deal.”
Zach sent her a look telling her silently to get lost. He didn’t need Trisha’s kind of trouble. He had enough of his own. Though he’d gotten a slight reprieve, the old man was still making noise about boarding school and Zach was considering walking through the Danvers gates and never looking over his shoulder.
“C’mon, Zach. I need your help.”
Zach swung the saddle over a sawhorse, then dropped the blanket over the top rail of a stall. Dust and horsehair rose in a cloud that clogged the air.
Trisha coughed and Zach swallowed a smile. Served her right. She’d never shown any interest in the horses—she was only here because she wanted something. And badly.
“Okay,” she said. “Here’s the deal—I need to find a way to sneak out of here. At night.”
