Free Lisa Jackson's the Abandoned Box Set by Lisa Jackson Page B

whoever he was, had had the decency to call the Coast Guard. His curiosity was burning as to the man’s identity. Victor nevertheless decided that this time he had to trust Marnie. Though she hadn’t spoken of a male passenger on the boat, she was entitled to live her own life.
    â€œYou can’t just let Marnie and some guy shack up in Deception Lodge!”
    â€œI don’t think I’ve got any other choice.”
    â€œBut you’re her father,” Kent protested, his face flushed, his lips thin and hard.
    â€œThat’s the problem.”
    * * *
    T HE LODGE OCCUPIED a long stretch of the headlands, three rambling stories of sloping roofs and shingled gables. Most of the windows were still intact, Marnie noted, as she swung the beam of her flashlight over the weathered siding and covered porch. Only a few glass panes had been boarded over. The old structure had once been grand, a unique out-of-the-way retreat for those who spent their summers in the San Juan Islands.
    Now the lodge’s grandeur was little more than a memory. One creaky shutter banged against the wall, and the porch sagged a bit at the northerly end. Dry leaves rustled as they blew against the door.
    â€œNeeds a little work,” Adam remarked, eyeing the rustic old building as he set his bags on the creaky floorboards of the porch.
    â€œNothing the Montgomery touch can’t fix.” She fit a key from her ring into the heavy lock chained across the double doors and twisted. The lock held firm for a second before springing open. Marnie let the chain fall to the porch and shoved open the doors.
    Inside, she swung the beam of her flashlight over the lobby. Yellowed pine paneling dominated the room. There was a massive rock fireplace and all around the room, scattered like leaves in the wind, were tables with upside-down chairs stacked atop them. Furniture, draped in sheets, had been shoved into one corner of the cavernous lobby.
    â€œYou planned on staying here?” Adam asked, scanning the dusty interior with a grimace.
    â€œJust for a few days.” The beam of light dancing ahead of her, she walked to the wall behind the desk and found a bank of light switches. She flipped each switch in turn, but nothing happened. The room was still dark except for the pale lights from their flashlights.
    â€œYou’re staying until…”
    â€œUntil I figure out my next destination.”
    â€œAnother Montgomery Inn?”
    She threw him a dubious smile over her shoulder. “No.”
    Adam rubbed the crick from his neck, and Marnie could feel his eyes following her. She couldn’t quite figure him out. Sometimes she felt as if there were a hidden side to him, as if he were, as her father claimed, evil. Victor had told her often enough in the past year that Adam Drake was a predator, always on the move, ready to stalk his next prey.
    She wasn’t anxious to believe her father’s opinion that Adam was such a lowlife. From her own dealings with him, she’d found Adam Drake to be honest and hardworking. He’d been tough, but Adam’s toughness, mixed with pure cunning, had worked many deals in her father’s favor. In those days Victor had praised Adam Drake for his ruthlessness, for his sense of knowing “when to make the kill.”
    So was he really a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Or a man who’d been turned into a scapegoat? Marnie wondered if she’d ever know the answer. Not that it mattered. Adam was an inconvenience for one night. Nothing more.
    â€œSo this is Victor’s next project,” he mused, running the beam of his flashlight over the staircase and upper balcony. Cobwebs caught in the light, and dust swirled in the illumination.
    â€œOne of many.” Spying a short hallway that separated the bar from the kitchen, Marnie headed toward the back of the lodge. She remembered seeing blueprints of this place in her father’s office and had listened with