Shadows At Sunset - Anne Stuart [47]
“Keep Dean occupied. You told me you were giving him the Wentworth project. That’s perfect busywork. Between that and his computers he’ll be so tied up he’ll have no time for snooping into what doesn’t concern him. As for you, I want you to concentrate on keeping Jilly out of my way. She’s far too nosy for her own good.”
“What would she be nosy about?”
Meyer frowned. “You don’t need to know everything, Coltrane, just enough to protect me. I’ve got some stuff in the works that I don’t want complicated. You do as you’re told. Keep Jilly occupied. Someone with an agenda could do a lot of damage, and Jilly’s someone with an agenda.”
“Which is?”
“The stupid house, for one thing. And her brother and sister. She thinks they need protecting from me.”
“Do they?”
Meyer shrugged. “Dean’s harmless. As long as he keeps out of my way he doesn’t bother me. And I wouldn’t let anything happen to Rachel-Ann. That’s a warning, Coltrane. You cross me and you won’t know what happened to you.”
“Got it,” he said dryly. “Sleep with Jilly, distract Dean, keep away from Rachel-Ann, keep the Justice Department off your back. Anything else while I’m at it? Any seas to part, water that needs turning to wine?”
“You can handle it. Jilly’s probably easier than she looks. She fell for a pretty boy like Alan Dunbar, she’ll fall for you if you put a little effort into it.”
“And Rachel-Ann?”
“Leave her to me. I’ll look out for her. I always have. In the meantime, why don’t you make yourself scarce around here? Take a few days off, enjoy the luxuries of La Casa de Sombras,” he murmured. “Make sure Jilly and Dean know I’ll be out of town.”
“Will you?”
“Maybe,” Meyer said. And he smiled his affable, charming smile. That had never fooled Coltrane for even a moment.
Rachel-Ann left the house before nightfall. Her BMW wasn’t running smoothly, and if she’d gotten it together she would have dropped it off at Meyer’s mechanic to have it overhauled. She had almost no cash, but Jackson would pay the bills without complaint. He always did.
She wanted a drink. Quite badly. It had been another in an endless line of endless days, and she wanted it over before it got any worse. The house was deserted when she woke up, early that afternoon, but the scent of perfume and tobacco followed her wherever she went, until she wanted to scream. She tried to call Jilly at her office, but she was out on a site, probably trying to save another lost cause, and she must have turned off her cell phone. Jilly had spent her life on lost causes, Rachel-Ann thought, including her older sister. Sooner or later she’d have to give up.
The one thing Rachel-Ann didn’t want was to be home alone when Coltrane returned. He gave her the creeps, there was no other word for it. If she had to choose between the ghosts of La Casa and the tall, gorgeous, available Coltrane, she’d take the ghosts. There was something about the man that disturbed her, roiled her stomach and scratched at her veins, and she was afraid to look too closely at why she found him so disturbing.
It wasn’t lust. The very thought was unsettling, and if there was one thing Rachel-Ann was comfortable with, it was lust. She recognized it when she saw it, recognized it when she felt it. And it had nothing to do with whatever was going on between her and Coltrane.
Not that anything was, she reminded herself shakily. He was after Jilly, which wasn’t much of an improvement. Maybe that damned, unwanted gift that enabled her to see the ghosts and know things that people shouldn’t know was telling her that Coltrane was trouble. Maybe her instincts were screaming at her to get Jilly away from him.
But that was the trouble with instincts. You could never tell if you were just being paranoid, or if it really was some kind of message. And she’d look like a hell of a fool if she got between Coltrane and Jilly without offering herself as live bait.
And she didn’t want him. Odd as it was for her to believe, she most definitely didn’t want him.
Belatedly she realized she’d ended up