Zahra nodded complacently. “Yep. Someone needed to find out all the facts about the places we’ll be visiting today and the risks involved. I wondered if Sam deliberately directed Stella here because secretly, he doesn’t really want to get married. Or maybe he has an insurance policy on her.”
Vienna frowned at her, not that Zahra could see because she’d already turned around to face front again as she paddled. “Why in the world would you really look up horror stories on all the places we’re going, Zahra? You get nightmares over anything remotely scary. You don’t read horror and you don’t watch scary movies. Why would you have stayed up last night reading about finding dead bodies at these places?”
Zahra really did have an aversion to anything frightening or bloody, even if it was supposed to be funny-scary. She never would watch horror films, even if they were the old ones that were classics. She might have tried to play off the story about Liam Gram being found buried upright in the desert with the cards wired into his teeth, but even that most likely had given her nightmares.
Zahra paddled several strokes, putting muscle into it. She was small, but there was no question that she was an athlete. She might appear lazy to an outsider, and she liked to complain, but she could run circles around them when she made an effort. Sometimes she didn’t even have to make much of an effort. Her body was efficient when it came to running, climbing, skiing or just about any sport. The one thing she couldn’t do, surprisingly, was swim. She sank like a stone. She kayaked with them, but she was never without her life jacket, and she practiced going underwater all the time so she could hold her breath if she got dunked.
“Zahra. Honey, why would you research any actual deaths occurring at these sites?” Vienna pushed, keeping her tone gentle. There had to be a reason. Zahra wasn’t a masochist. She wouldn’t give herself several sleepless nights just for the thrill of learning lives had been lost at each of the stops along the river kayaking tour. She was anxious enough being on the water.
Zahra glanced over her shoulder again. “I was worried about you,” she admitted.
She rubbed her chin with her forearm and the paddle swung wildly. Vienna ducked. She could see how Stella might get bashed in the head.
“You were worried about me why?”
“I know it sounds silly, but sometimes I get very strong feelings about things. Ever since I heard how Wallin told you the story about Liam Gram being found buried upright in the desert with the cards in his mouth, I’ve had this feeling that you aren’t safe. I know everyone will say it’s just because I get freaked out about scary stories, but it’s more than that.”
Zahra’s very expressive face twisted into a cute, but very concerned countenance. “I think that man was threatening you because you bested him at cards and his fragile little ego couldn’t take it. That can happen, Vienna. It can really be that simple. Some men have egos so big, if you step on them, they will start some horrible vendetta and won’t stop until they think they’ve won.”
Zahra swung back around again, dipping her paddle in the water with a powerful stroke that turned the kayak nearly sideways. Vienna corrected automatically. Was Zahra talking about her life or Vienna’s? Or both? Zahra was definitely worried, but how did that fit into researching stories of deaths at the various stops they would be going to? Vienna believed in instincts and following them. She wasn’t going to make fun of Zahra because she had a strong feeling that Vienna was in danger.
She let the peace of the river sink into both of them, watching until Zahra’s shoulders came back down and tension seemed to melt away.
“We’re coming up on the shore of Goldstrike Canyon now, Zahra. I’ll be especially careful,” she promised.
Benny stood waiting as Vienna hopped out of the kayak to run it up on shore. He barely managed to nod at her in greeting, too busy helping Zahra out of the kayak.
Zahra smiled up at him, her long dark lashes veiling her eyes. “I was just telling Vienna to be careful. I read that several people have died here. Is that true?”
Vienna stopped in her tracks. Zahra was a natural flirt in that she sounded flirty with her accent. She looked adorable, but she wasn’t a woman who ever led men on intentionally. She was looking up at Benny as if he were her hero. She even let him help her over the uneven ground.
“There have been a number of fatalities,” Benny agreed, “due to heat exposure, but the trail is closed now during the summer months. Tourists used to hike in without realizing just what they were getting into with the kinds of heat we get here. These are geothermal pools. The waterfalls are even hot. When you wade through the water, you’ll feel how warm it is.”
He indicated for Vienna to walk ahead of him, but he retained possession of Zahra’s arm as if she might not be able to make it over the ground by herself. Liza hurried up to him and began to pepper him with questions, bouncing around him in her very small one-piece that looked as if it might fall off of her.
Benny sighed and looked down at Zahra, who looked up at him more amused than anything else. Vienna had seen her charm everyone male from two-year-olds to ninety-year-olds with just that little lift of her dark eyebrow and twisted enigmatic smile. Benny looked as if he might heave Liza right back into the Colorado, although Vienna doubted it was a possibility. The woman was sticking to him like glue.
She left them to vie for the guide’s attention and joined Harlow, Stella, Elsa and Verma as they explored. Raine and Shabina waded through the warm, shallow pools and then came back to their little group.
“What is going on over there? What in the world is Zahra doing?”
“Trying to get away from Benny,” Harlow said. “At least she’s pretending she’s going to leave him. Liza is doing her best to drag Benny away from Zahra, and Benny is holding on to Zahra for dear life. I think the shark is circling and he doesn’t want his lifeline to get away.”
“She’s having way too much fun scaring him like that,” Shabina observed.
Behind them, just emerging from the narrow passage, Clay Fontaine and Burt and Blane waded through the shallow warm water to the rocky path that brought them back to the shore.
“Look at that,” Clay said, his voice a little overloud. “Benny’s got all the luck.”
They watched as Liza gripped Benny’s arm and pretended to hop around on one foot as if she might have hurt her ankle. Zahra stepped back again to give Benny and Liza room, but Benny caught at her wrist and reeled her in like a fish.
“That’s what he gets for being stinking rich and being good-looking. I want a piece of that tail,” Clay said, “but you don’t see women like that falling all over me.”
Burt whistled low. “Some guys get all the luck. I want a piece of that too.”
Blane studied the two women with the guide. “Guess we’re going to have to make a lot more money, Burt.”
“I don’t know, some women fall for the cute-boy act,” Burt said.
“You’ll have to teach that one to me,” Clay said. “I have to get them drunk. Works every time.”
Harlow and Vienna exchanged a long, mischievous look and then gazed around their circle of friends. Elsa and Verma were already on the move. Elsa slithered up beside Clay, running a hand up his arm to his shoulder.
“I don’t think you’d have to get me drunk, Clay, I’d fall all over you,” Elsa decreed in a sultry, southern voice. “Verma? Honey? What do you think? Should we take him home to the others? They’ve been looking for a really hot man. He’s a river guide. I think he’d qualify.”