Free Betrayal by Christina Dodd Page B

the kitchen.
    Penelope stared at Brooke, quivering with aftershocks as sharp and nasty as after an earthquake. “Why is everyone armed?”
    “I told you. We’ve had problems.” The answer wasn’t so much curt as brief; Brooke appeared to be listening.
    So Penelope listened, too. Listened to the sound of the men’s shoes on the floorboards, listened as the back door opened and closed, listened as the house creaked and moaned. “Problems? Like vandalism?”
    “Problems.” Brooke shot a sympathetic sideways glance at Penelope. “Like murder.”
    Penelope took a quivering breath. “Oh.”
    “Things have been happening here. Ugly stuff. It’s not the same small, quiet town you left nine years ago. But listen.” Brooke glanced toward the back of the house, then spoke quickly. “I want to talk to you. Explain… I swear to you I didn’t set you up. About Noah, I mean.”
    “Oh.” Yes. First Noah, then weapons, then a search for someone who had broken through the Di Lucas’ security while she and Brooke were actually in the house… maybe taking this job was not such a bright idea.
    Brooke continued. “I’ve been asking Noah to come and look over the house for weeks. He knows a lot about remodeling, about building. He has to, because of the resort. But he’s been busy, and I’d given up on him. His showing up while you were here—that was pure bad luck.”
    “I never thought you… It didn’t occur to me that you had set me up.” It didn’t matter right now, either. What mattered was this almost casual acceptance by a seemingly normal woman of that most heinous crime—murder.
    The old house, formerly so welcoming, now felt cold, haunted. Penelope bunched up her shoulders and sidled closer to Brooke.
    Still in that urgent, quiet tone, Brooke said, “I didn’t tell you my husband’s name because I thought you’d hesitate to take the job, and I’ve interviewed so manyinterior decorators, and you wouldn’t believe how unwilling they are to listen. I want my house to be done my way, not theirs, and you… you have exactly the same instincts I do, and I really want you to work with me. I should have told you about Rafe. I did intend to, but just not yet.”
    “He’s going to investigate me, isn’t he?” Penelope had secrets. Probably nothing Rafe would care about, but she hated that sense of exposure.
    “He’s jumpy.” Brooke excused him. “Everybody is these days, but a couple of months ago I was almost murdered—”
    “You… you…” Brooke was almost murdered? “When you said murder, I thought—”
    “Yes, we’ve had real dead bodies, too.” Brooke looked down at her hands with a grimace. “If you don’t mind, I don’t want to talk about it. I urp easily these days.”
    “Sure. No problem.” Although Penelope probably needed to know some details before she signed a contract. “But you’re okay now?”
    “I’m fine. I fight back.” Brooke smiled tightly. “You’d think I should be the one having nightmares, but no. Rafe is. He’s so afraid of losing me.”
    Everything about this conversation was surreal. “I thought… Wasn’t it Rafe who broke your heart all those years ago?”
    “We’re the proverbial star-crossed lovers. But this time, we got it right.” Brooke passed her hand over her belly again. “We were supposed to move to Sweden. Then we found out we’re having this baby.”
    Penelope wavered between joy at a new arrival and envy… and a surge of sorrow. Concentrating on the joy, she said, “Congratulations.”
    “We didn’t mean to, not yet, but you know what? Mess up one time…” Brooke’s mood turned in a moment; her laughter was a lighthearted trill of amusement. “I can’t believe it. It’s such a miracle. My mom is so excited, and Nonna—so we’re staying in Bella Terra, and we bought this house, and we’ve only got six months, maybe a little more, to get it in shape. I want to make the little bedroom into a nursery—”
    “And the attic