“There you have it. That’s why I didn’t want Jim to find out the truth. Yet.”
For several seconds, she remained in the tensed position, her mind working over what he’d told her. No. Alice definitely was not ready to have various law enforcement officials interrupt her life with questions she wasn’t ready to answer.
That she couldn’t answer, because she hadn’t fully faced the reality of those questions herself.
Dylan had stormed into those woods with a purpose. He’d been trying to shield her.
She eased back onto the pillow.
“I think you might have made things worse with Jim by acting that way.
He seemed even more suspicious by your heavy-handedness.”
She heard his soft grunt of irritated agreement. “I realize that. Maybe I have mixed feelings about telling Jim. He deserves to know the truth, but I knew you wouldn’t be ready to face the consequences of him knowing it yet. When it came down to it, no one else could have stopped him from interrogating you except for me. I was worried.”
“I’m fine,” Alice said in a pressured whisper. His hand flexed on her arm, and he drew her closer to his body. She clamped her eyes shut as emotion expanded in her chest. It seemed to rise to her brain until it throbbed in her ears.
I’m fine. Her voice replayed in her head, making her cringe. She’d sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as she was Dylan.
ALICE was dead on her feet when Dylan awoke her in the predawn darkness. She dressed in a half-conscious daze. When she walked out of the bathroom, she saw Dylan waiting for her by his bedroom door. When she neared him, he handed her a bag without a word.
“What’s this?”
“It’s for tonight. The Alumni Dinner.”
She opened the bag and peered inside. She saw a black garment. When she drew it out, she saw it was a lovely sophisticated cocktail dress, an elegant item that she’d never have the taste to choose, let alone the money to buy. It was one of several dresses he’d bought for her last week.
Crap. He’d noticed how awkward she’d felt in her sundress at the last semiformal event held at Castle Durand. The thought mortified her.
“There’s more,” he said, his low rumble emanating above and just to the right of her making the skin of her ear prickle.
Unable to look at him because she was afraid he’d see her mixed shame and excitement, she reached into the bag and pulled out a rectangular black velvet box. Inside nestled a beautiful rope of pearls. She just stared at the necklace for a moment before she swallowed thickly and met his stare.
“Yes. You can. They’re yours,” he said succinctly, preempting her response. He’d known she was about to tell him she couldn’t take the items.
Several days ago, Dylan had surprised her with a small yet stunning new wardrobe. That was before he’d told her about Addie Durand. It made her uncomfortable now, to consider his gifts, in retrospect.
Maybe Dylan expected her to look and dress the part of an heiress.
She wavered about whether or not to refuse the items. In the end, she accepted the dress: frowning, exhausted, and highly uncertain. The simple fact of the matter was she didn’t have anything else to wear. She’d been so distracted, she’d forgotten the Alumni Dinner, and both of her sundresses were in the dirty-clothes hamper.
“One more thing,” Dylan said before they headed out the door. “Give me your keys.”
She gave him a dubious look, but handed him her key ring. He took a key from his jeans’ pocket and worked it onto the metal ring. He lifted her right hand in both of his, pressing the keys gently to her palm.
“You know the security code. Now you have the key to get into the castle. If it feels strange to you tonight, being here as a guest, this is just a reminder that you’re anything but.”
A few hours of sleep were definitely not sufficient. She remained zombie-like for the entire walk through the grounds with Dylan and as she furtively entered her cabin, washed, and pulled on new clothes. She was still out of it by the time she met up with Terrance Brown for their early morning jog. The rising sun was making the eastern woods look like they were catching fire. Terrance immediately took note of her pale face and blurry eyes.
“Come on, Alice. You’re supposed to be the healthy one here. Are you hungover or something? You out partying last night?” Terrance teased her, dimpling up with a wide grin.
“Partying,” Alice mumbled with dark sarcasm. “Who’s got time for partying?”
She perked up a moment later as she joined Terrance in stretching on the white side beach. Terrance didn’t appear to be phoning it in, but genuinely trying to warm up his muscles for their run. Maybe her attempts at hooking Terrance into the benefits of exercise were paying off. At least he’d shown up independently for their early morning jogs, which was something. It wasn’t easy getting a fifteen-year-old boy up at dawn.
After they’d returned from their morning run, Alice walked into the Red Team’s cabin with Terrance, wanting a word with the night supervisor before she left. After she’d met up with Crystal, she opened the door to the nearly empty common room. Immediately, she overheard Terrance, Matt Dinorio, and Justin Arun muttering conspiratorially together where they sat at a corner table.
“They say they’ve set up some kind of secret alarm system this year to stop people from stealing it,” she heard Matt hiss. “It’s not as easy as it was for Ormitz and McCaron and those guys from the Gold Team in the past. I don’t think we can do it.”