The Look-Alike Bride (Crimson Romance) (14 page)

In truth, she had no idea what to think. The whole thing with Adam, in her opinion, ranked as highly suspicious. Compared to Zara, she knew most men would consider her ordinary, maybe even boring, but Adam seemed to find everything she did and said interesting. If that wasn’t a suspicious circumstance, what was?

She wasn’t even wearing Zara’s clothing the way she was supposed to. Instead, she wore her own jeans and one of the two T-shirts she had brought along. Zara’s elegant little sandals polished the outfit considerably, but only because she had forgotten to bring a pair of her own running shoes. Zara’s high-tech running shoes disturbed her entire sense of equilibrium and were at least one size too big for her.

Butch sat alertly on the back seat and regarded the passing scenery with interest. She wondered what he thought of the situation with Adam. So far as she could tell, Butch still looked upon Adam as an interloper, but being a well-mannered dog, he would not take steps to run Adam off unless Leonie gave the signal.

Leonie sighed and concentrated on a business alongside the highway that bore a sign that read, “Crystal Shack.” She needed to keep her mind on the “romance” aspect of her vacation romance. Worrying over why Adam had picked now to make his move on Zara struck her as unproductive. Her job was to enjoy his company, enjoy her vacation, and make memories. She would need some good memories when the month was up and she went back to Houston and got busy hunting for a job and a new apartment.

Thoughts of searching for a job and an apartment at the tag end of the summer season, when all the apartments were rented and the jobs were already filled, depressed her so much; Leonie rubbed her forehead to stave off the impending headache.

“Are you all right, angel?” Adam glanced her way with concern. “Do you have a headache?”

“I’m fine,” Leonie said quickly. “We just passed an interesting crystal shop. Maybe we can stop by there when we’re through with our rock painting.”

“Anything you like.” Adam smiled and returned his attention to the road, much to her relief. “Just don’t buy anything too big for me to carry to the Jeep.”

“I was thinking more on the order of a coffee-table display piece. Nothing too big or fancy.”

Many of the crystal clusters she had seen on display in the front yard of the Crystal Shack must have weighed somewhere on the order of fifty to a hundred pounds. Naturally, she coveted a really big cluster, but when one lived in an apartment, one stuck to coffee-table-sized displays.

Adam grinned. “Sure, you were. I saw you studying those big rocks on the lakeshore. You were sizing up the possibility of acquiring a few to paint flowers on. Do you have a black thumb instead of a green one by any chance?”

“I refuse to notice or reply to that remark. Just because I happen to think a rock-flower garden would be easier to take care of than real flower beds . . .”

“Can’t say I disagree with you there.”

Leonie closed her mouth before she could say more. When they were children, Zara’s flower beds and vegetable patches won prizes while Leonie’s imitated overgrown lawns. The problem, she now realized, lay in the amount of attention flowers and vegetables required. She didn’t mind pitching a baseball over and over again to perfect her style, but overseeing a garden required more patience than she had.

“Here we are.” Adam zipped his Jeep into an empty spot at the old school building that housed their class. “Do you think we’ll be allowed to touch anything but black paint today?”

“Are you telling me you intend to pick up a paintbrush?”

“I’d just like to see something brighter than black paint sitting on our table, angel.”

“I’ll see if I can borrow one of the teacher’s sample pieces. Maybe that one with the violets on it.” She reached back for Butch’s leash.

“On second thought, let’s just wait and see what she’s got in store for us today.”

Leonie turned to face the street and froze. “Adam, that bronze car that followed us yesterday just went by.”

“I wonder why they haven’t changed cars.” Adam followed her gaze and they both watched the bronze rental car vanish over a rise in the road. “That’s the first thing they teach you in spook school. Change cars, change clothes, change your looks, change everything, and change it regularly.”

“I don’t like being followed,” she grumbled. “I’m going to complain to somebody.”

Adam turned back, frowning. “Maybe they’re trying to scare you for some reason. Let’s go inside before they come back. If they keep on following us, I’m going to alert the police.”

Leonie found this statement tremendously comforting. As far as she was concerned, Adam could report that car to the police at once.

Inside the crafts mall, she and Butch settled beside Adam at the table they had used before. “Look. We’ve got green paint and black paint. I’ll bet we’re going to paint leaves today.”

Adam regarded the paints and their two black rocks with a grim expression she had not seen before on his face. “If you don’t mind, angel, I’m going to go out to the Jeep and make a few calls. I don’t like you being tailed by this pair of bozos.”

“They haven’t done anything but follow me,” she began and halted.

“I’d like to take them out before they decide to try something else.” Adam rose, sliding his phone from its holder on his belt. “Explain to the instructor that I’ll be back in as soon as I’ve taken care of some business that’s come up.”

With that, he gave her a swift kiss on her mouth and strode toward the door. She watched him go, comforted that he took the situation so seriously, mingled with some fright for the same reason.

“What do you think, Butch?” she muttered. “Will he ever apply a single dab of paint to that rock of his?”

Butch looked from Adam’s disappearing figure back to Leonie. To her amusement, Butch seemed to think he ought to follow Adam.

“You turncoat,” she said. “You’ve been bribed, haven’t you? One slice of bacon, and you’re his for life. I’ll have to fix you a whole meatloaf or something in order to win you back.”

Butch, obviously a dog who knew on which side his bread was buttered, regarded her with an expression of such intensity, she wondered if he understood her.

“Never mind,” she told the dog. “He’ll be back in sooner or later, or he’s in serious trouble. He’s our ride back to the cabin, and he’d better not forget it.”

• • •

Adam sat in his Jeep for almost an hour making and receiving phone calls. He reported the bronze car to the Hot Springs Police Department and received assurances that the police would send someone out to take a statement from him. He also called the park ranger station that had jurisdiction over the public lands at Lake Ouachita and reported the suspicious boaters that he now felt certain were monitoring Leonie’s activities. Hopefully, a park ranger checking the boaters’ fishing licenses might put a damper on some of the spying.

He called his contacts in Washington, D.C. once more, and the only thing he could learn was that Agent Zara Daniel was on a highly classified mission, and he was not to interfere in any way.

It was most frustrating and left him with the same option he had already chosen; namely, that he was not leaving Leonie’s side during the next week or so. However long she stayed at Zara’s cabin, he was staying. That meant he needed to know exactly how long she intended to take Zara’s place.

He returned to the classroom at last and took his seat beside her, pausing to give Butch’s head a rub. “What are you painting?” He could see very well that she had applied green paint in the shape of leaves all over her rock, but he had to open the conversation somehow.

“We’ve progressed to primrose leaves.” She showed him a sheet covered with leaf sketches. “This is the shape of primrose leaves, so you’d better get started if you want to catch up.”

“Sure.” He made a show of pulling his rock toward him and picking up a paintbrush. “How long are you going to stay at your cabin?”

Instantly, her suspicious blue gaze riveted on his face. “A couple of weeks at least, maybe longer. I’m not quite sure.” She thought for a moment. “A lot depends on when my boss gets back. I was told a month, but that’s not at all certain. ”

“Ah, yes. I’d forgotten about him.” He smiled at her. “I just want to know how long I need to make arrangements to stay. My brother usually uses the cabin for a couple of weeks in July, and that’s coming up next week.”

“Oh.” The suspicion faded from her face. “Well, if you have to go back to Dallas, I’ll certainly understand.”

She had no idea. None at all. Marveling at her obtuseness, he said, “My brother would never dream of chasing me off. He’s been after me to spend some time with him and his wife for a couple of years.” He studied the leaves she had painted on her rock and added casually, “You’ll like them.”

Zara had never shown a bit of interest in meeting his relatives, and he had certainly gone out of his way to make sure she never came near the cabin when his relatives were there. He’d have hated to explain Zara to them.

From the look on her face, Leonie had no intention of ever meeting his brother and sister-in-law. “I’m sure I will. The teacher says we’ll put the flowers on tomorrow, so you’d better get busy on your leaves.”

Adam dipped the tip of his paintbrush into the green paint, thinking hard. From the little she’d said, he gathered she was to impersonate Zara for a month, but if Zara finished her project and returned to the States in less time, Leonie’s job would end when Zara returned.

For one outraged moment he wondered if Zara would actually try and take Leonie’s place in his bed. More to the point, would Leonie let her?

Leonie gave a faint, horrified exclamation. “Adam, that is not a primrose leaf. I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t look like a leaf at all. You’re ruining your rock.”

He glanced down at the big green splotch on a background of black. “It’s moss. What’s wrong with a moss-covered rock?”

“Moss-covered rocks are a dime-a-dozen out in the woods behind our cabins.” She studied him severely. “We’re painting primroses on rocks. Now give me that paintbrush and let me try and straighten out this mess.”

He gladly sat back and watched while she turned the splotch into several leaves by using small strokes of black paint. “Thanks, angel. I think I might be a little artistically challenged.”

She made a sound indicative of amusement. “How would you know? Have you ever actually tried any kind of art?”

“I’m afraid not,” he said meekly. “I could tell it was beyond my modest capabilities the minute I looked at it.”

“Then why on earth are you in here?” she demanded. “And don’t try and tell me you’re in here because I’m in here.”

“Okay, I won’t.”

She looked up and promptly turned fire-truck red. “If you make me ruin this rock, I’m bouncing it off your head.”

Adam grinned, well pleased with her reaction. He reminded himself that Leonie Daniel was not accustomed to men going out of their way to get her attention. Very likely Zara had claimed all the male attention during their youth, and Leonie probably thought he was really interested in Zara.

He wondered when she would realize that he wanted Leonie Daniel instead of Zara, and how she would react.

That was a day he looked forward to with great anticipation.

• • •

Leonie had a wonderful day. After she had painted primrose leaves on both their rocks, Adam took her and Butch to a downtown café that boasted outdoor tables, and ordered her a lunch of soup, salad, and sandwiches. Then he drove them back to the Crystal Shack, followed her around the dozens of crystal-filled tables and shelves inside, and stood beside her as she pondered the huge chunks of crystal-studded quartz lying all over the yard.

“You can forget that one,” he said. “It’ll never fit in my Jeep.”

“Maybe I can have it delivered,” she said, tongue in cheek. “It sure would look great by the back deck.”

Adam let out his breath on a long-suffering sigh. “They’d have to use a truck. I’ll bet delivery would add fifty-dollars to the cost of that thing. What happened to the coffee-table piece you were talking about earlier?”

“I’ve already picked out—There’s that bronze car again.” Leonie watched it, narrow-eyed. “This time, I’m getting the license number.”

Adam turned to watch the highway. “It was LMP836 this morning.”

The car flashed past them, and Leonie strained her eyes to the utmost. “It’s not the same car,” she said. “The plate reads: QLT484.”

“It’s the same car,” Adam said. “They just changed the plates. It’s a common ploy, angel.”

Leonie glared after the car, outraged. “They can’t do that. It’s against the law.”

“It is that.” Adam grinned at her. “But what’s a little change of plates compared with all the other things they probably get away with?”

“Like what?” she asked suspiciously.

“Who knows?” He laid his hand on her waist. “But let’s not hang around here. Let’s buy your coffee-table display and get back to the cabin.”

“Why?” Leonie sucked in her breath. “Do you think they’re going to break into my cabin and go through my things?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me in the least.” Adam kept his gaze on the highway. “Now would be a good time, while you’re involved in your class and away for at least a couple of hours. Have you been working on something highly sensitive?”

“I suppose so.” She thought a moment on what a secretary to the president of a special interest group would consider highly sensitive. “My boss has always said environmentalists are fanatics who will stop at nothing. I’ll bet they’re trying to find out what our new talking points are going to be. So they can develop counter-arguments in advance,” she added.

“You think the environmentalists have hired spies?” Adam sounded amused.

“Not the environmentalists. Their lobbyists. Believe me, Adam, lobbyists are a different breed. Nothing is too low for a lobbyist to attempt in order to get an edge.”

She hoped Adam didn’t know any lobbyists. She wondered if Zara knew any and decided she had better tell Zara the tale she had told Adam to explain her spies.

“I had no idea that all this sort of thing went on in the hallowed halls of our government,” Adam said, shaking his head sadly.