He was going to find that girl and make her tell him everything. Every last thought in Paige Seaver’s twisted mind. Every last method the woman planned to use to get Bella away from him. Then he would turn Everly over to Costa Rican police for trespassing and anything else he could think up between now and the time they carted her off to jail.
Damn, he felt stupid. Gullible. Naïve.
Him, of all people, naïve. How fucking ironic was that? After all he’d done, all he’d seen, how could he have simply fallen for a pretty face?
The soft sound of moving water touched his ear and interrupted his thoughts. His mind veered to the pool. He glanced right and found the path along the side of the house to the garage—and all his equipment—empty.
Repositioning his grip on the Glock, he quick-stepped to the edge of the house, sure to stay out of the detection angle of exterior lights. Even as he peered around the corner, the soft rhythmic sound registered, and he found someone swimming in the darkened pool.
Everly. Of course. Her strokes smooth, quiet, steady. When she reached the wall, she performed a flip with barely a splash or a sound, then continued her gliding freestyle the opposite direction.
All the stress leaked from his muscles. He exhaled heavily and lowered his weapon.
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, running a hand down his face.
He was so damn keyed up over security. When he straightened, he must have moved into range of the sensor, and a floodlight on the corner of the house illuminated a one-hundred-eighty-degree area.
Everly stopped swimming and glanced around the yard.
Austin moved toward her. “It’s just me.”
Her gaze jumped to his, a hand covering her heart. “Oh my God, you scared me.”
He laid the Glock on the arm of a chair before approaching the pool. “You know it’s three a.m.?”
“I’m sorry, did I wake you? I was trying so hard to be quiet.”
“You didn’t wake me. The howlers and Kujo did.”
“What?”
“You didn’t hear it?”
She cut a look around the dark borders of the yard. “Hear what?”
Her utterly clueless expression eased another sliver of alarm. Austin dropped into a crouch and rested his forearms on his thigh. “The jaguar. He was pissed about something. My security team ran him off.”
She eased toward the side of the pool, fear brightening her eyes. “He was here? Right here? No. The sound of the water blocks everything, and I get lost in my thoughts. I know you said they hunt at night, but I didn’t think… I mean so close to the house…” She trailed off, clearly feeling the gravity of danger. Her chest rocked with quick breaths from the exercise, and Austin got an amazing view of her breasts swelling above the edge of the same suit she’d worn earlier in the day.
He forced himself to scan the dark borders of the property. He purposely hadn’t seen her much in the last two days in an effort to reestablish his inner equilibrium. Only one minute with her alone in the dark, and he was all out of whack again.
“Can’t sleep?” he asked.
“No. It always helps to do something to burn off the extra energy. Guess I’ll need to find another way to get back to sleep.”
He could think of a few. And they all involved sweaty skin-on-skin action.
He eased to a seat and let his legs dangle over the side. The water was a cool seventy-eight degrees. “What’s going on?”
She shook her head and crossed her arms on the deck. “A new place. New people. New responsibilities. Old memories popping up. Sometimes it’s hard to wind down.”
“Was Bella all right for you today?”
“Oh, yeah. She’s no trouble. Took great to yoga.”
That amused him. “Yeah?”
She nodded.