wine.
Agent Lenehan’s response was odd, to put it mildly. I suspected a story lay beneath her evasiveness.
Hmm…
Adam must have seen the wheels turning in my mind as he caught my attention and shook his head, as if to say, “Let it go.”
I wished I were back in Harbour Falls. Then I could look into things. What was Agent Lenehan up to anyway? Why was she blushing at the mention of Stowe? Surely my charming, good-looking neighbor hadn’t somehow won over one of the pivotal players in the Wickingham Way project, had he?
Good God, what if he had? Stowe Hannigan was a very persuasive, very handsome man. Hell, he’d charmed me…to an extent. But his intentions towards me had been harmless compared to this situation. If Agent Lenehan were compromised, I couldn’t begin to imagine what that would mean for Adam…or for me.
I glanced around, suddenly feeling far less secure than I had before Erin’s visit. I kept silent, but what I was really thinking was, Just how safe is this safe house?
Chapter Four
D espite my concerns, I knew the cabin would be safe for now. And that’s all that really mattered. If trouble arose, then Adam and I would face it. But until that time, we were having far too much fun to worry.
Partially into the third week of our stay at the safe house, Adam and I took a break from all the reading we’d been doing. We shelved the books—for the time being—and dug out the board games Adam had told me about when we’d first come to the safe house. They were packed away in a crawl space on the second floor of the cabin.
Adam, feeling brave, volunteered to venture in and retrieve a few. When he emerged, he was carrying an armload of games. And he was covered in cobwebs.
“Aw, Adam, you look cute all dusty like this,” I proclaimed as I brushed gray-white cobwebs from his raven hair.
Adam brushed a hand through his hair and rolled his eyes. “The things I do to keep you entertained,” he playfully retorted.
Adam set the pile of games down, and I grabbed one from the top. “Oh, Monopoly,” I cooed as I twisted the box in my hands and read the title. “Let’s play this one first.”
And so it was decided—Monopoly was up first.
I felt so certain I’d win that I bragged to Adam, “I used to always kick my brother’s ass in this game.” I blew on the dice and rolled. “So get ready to go down.”
Adam laughed, smug. “We shall see about that, Maddy. You’ve never played this game with me.”
No I had not. And an hour later, I came to the conclusion that Adam Ward was quite a different opponent than my brother, Brent, had ever been. Needless to say, I lost our first round of Monopoly. Badly.
“Damn Boardwalk!” I lamented when I ran out of money and all my properties were mortgaged.
I’d landed on the stupid square with the dark blue heading almost every time my poor little dog had made his way around the board, limping by the end. I accepted defeat gracefully, though, and promptly proposed a rematch.
To my chagrin, I lost that game as well.
“No more Monopoly,” I groaned following my second crushing defeat.
Following a quick break for lunch, Adam held up some war-strategy game with the ominous title Risk.
Let’s just say it was a bad move on my part to agree to play a game like Risk with the formidable Mr. Ward. I soon discovered Adam excelled at games where you either had to strategize or just flat-out take over the world. Adam was even better at that game than he had been at Monopoly.
“I give up,” I said when I lost stupid Risk too.
In need of something a little simpler, I suggested Twister.
Adam laughed and said, “That’s a kid’s game, Maddy.”
“Not really,” I shot back. “After all, it was with the rest of the games you pulled out of the crawl space, right?”
“Only because when I brought those games from my parents’ house—which was a long time ago, mind you—I just grabbed every game in sight.”
I arched an eyebrow and smiled
Agent Lenehan’s response was odd, to put it mildly. I suspected a story lay beneath her evasiveness.
Hmm…
Adam must have seen the wheels turning in my mind as he caught my attention and shook his head, as if to say, “Let it go.”
I wished I were back in Harbour Falls. Then I could look into things. What was Agent Lenehan up to anyway? Why was she blushing at the mention of Stowe? Surely my charming, good-looking neighbor hadn’t somehow won over one of the pivotal players in the Wickingham Way project, had he?
Good God, what if he had? Stowe Hannigan was a very persuasive, very handsome man. Hell, he’d charmed me…to an extent. But his intentions towards me had been harmless compared to this situation. If Agent Lenehan were compromised, I couldn’t begin to imagine what that would mean for Adam…or for me.
I glanced around, suddenly feeling far less secure than I had before Erin’s visit. I kept silent, but what I was really thinking was, Just how safe is this safe house?
Chapter Four
D espite my concerns, I knew the cabin would be safe for now. And that’s all that really mattered. If trouble arose, then Adam and I would face it. But until that time, we were having far too much fun to worry.
Partially into the third week of our stay at the safe house, Adam and I took a break from all the reading we’d been doing. We shelved the books—for the time being—and dug out the board games Adam had told me about when we’d first come to the safe house. They were packed away in a crawl space on the second floor of the cabin.
Adam, feeling brave, volunteered to venture in and retrieve a few. When he emerged, he was carrying an armload of games. And he was covered in cobwebs.
“Aw, Adam, you look cute all dusty like this,” I proclaimed as I brushed gray-white cobwebs from his raven hair.
Adam brushed a hand through his hair and rolled his eyes. “The things I do to keep you entertained,” he playfully retorted.
Adam set the pile of games down, and I grabbed one from the top. “Oh, Monopoly,” I cooed as I twisted the box in my hands and read the title. “Let’s play this one first.”
And so it was decided—Monopoly was up first.
I felt so certain I’d win that I bragged to Adam, “I used to always kick my brother’s ass in this game.” I blew on the dice and rolled. “So get ready to go down.”
Adam laughed, smug. “We shall see about that, Maddy. You’ve never played this game with me.”
No I had not. And an hour later, I came to the conclusion that Adam Ward was quite a different opponent than my brother, Brent, had ever been. Needless to say, I lost our first round of Monopoly. Badly.
“Damn Boardwalk!” I lamented when I ran out of money and all my properties were mortgaged.
I’d landed on the stupid square with the dark blue heading almost every time my poor little dog had made his way around the board, limping by the end. I accepted defeat gracefully, though, and promptly proposed a rematch.
To my chagrin, I lost that game as well.
“No more Monopoly,” I groaned following my second crushing defeat.
Following a quick break for lunch, Adam held up some war-strategy game with the ominous title Risk.
Let’s just say it was a bad move on my part to agree to play a game like Risk with the formidable Mr. Ward. I soon discovered Adam excelled at games where you either had to strategize or just flat-out take over the world. Adam was even better at that game than he had been at Monopoly.
“I give up,” I said when I lost stupid Risk too.
In need of something a little simpler, I suggested Twister.
Adam laughed and said, “That’s a kid’s game, Maddy.”
“Not really,” I shot back. “After all, it was with the rest of the games you pulled out of the crawl space, right?”
“Only because when I brought those games from my parents’ house—which was a long time ago, mind you—I just grabbed every game in sight.”
I arched an eyebrow and smiled
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