Beauty (A Midsummer Suspense Tale) Read Free

that part first.”
    Of all things, Gina chuckled , but it was warm and eased some of Bryar’s concerns. “That’s okay. I can show you and you can learn as you go. Before you work cash, I’ll have you get a police check for insurance purposes...” The look of horror must’ve shown on Bryar’s face as that was enough to make Gina pause. “You have a record?”
    “Juvenile. Minor. I never stole money. Vehicles, yes. From...nuns. Which sounds a lot worse than it actually was, and I’ve lost the job already, haven’t I?”
    “You haven’t. Because at this point, at least I know you’re honest.”
    “Right, if I steal from you, I promise to tell you about it.”
    Gina smirked. “ And funny. I could use that around here. I was looking at hiring a teen part time—there aren’t a lot of hours at this point, so that’s probably the most likely candidate—but sometimes I could use help during the day when they’d be in school.”
    “I can help out any time. Whatever your schedule needs.” That probably sounded too desperate, but then Bryar was at this point. And Gina didn’t seem to mind.
    “Finish your cookies while I get the calendar and we can discuss what time would work for you to do some initial training.” She slid off the chair, about to head toward the back of the room, but paused and frowned at the window. “Now that’s...weird.”
    Bryar followed her gaze, narrowing her eyes. A large silver SUV rolled down the street, moving just a touch faster than most of the cars, and with rental license plates. The windows were tinted dark and paint job gleamed like new. Not someone from Midsummer, and it was doubly weird as vacationers didn’t come by in October. And the only bed and breakfasts in the area were in the other direction.
    “Very strange,” Bryar agreed as they watched the vehicle continue on until it was out of sight.
    The one thing about small town gossip, at least, was that she’d hear sooner or later who the mysterious new addition to town was. People couldn’t help but talk about it.
     
    ****
     
    Sean Philip Sawyer was grateful for the tinted windows—his head was killing him and the bright afternoon light wasn’t helping matters. Too much to drink last night, despite his resolve that he’d stay sober, and now it was catching up with him.
    Everything was catching up with him, it seemed.
    He leaned back in his seat, eyes closed, and breathed in deeply through his nose. The voices around him continued to chatter; the driver, Jeffrey, had remained silent as usual, but Scott and Val were nattering on in the row of seats ahead of his. Talking about what, he didn’t know. Didn’t care. Tuned them out.
    Tuned everything out.
    Midsummer, the town was supposed to be called. Visiting Midsummer in October—he was wryly amused at the thought. It was out of the way, well down the coast away from any cities, some tourist stop that went dead around this time of year. They hadn’t planned to go anywhere in particular but then he’d found this spot. Somewhere he wouldn’t be recognized, wouldn’t be hounded, wouldn’t be followed. Wouldn’t be asked questions he didn’t know how to answer.
    Granted, such a place didn’t really exist, he knew. Sawyer had been at this long enough to realize that. But hopping on a plane would just arouse more questions, draw more attention to him. Staying in the country seemed like the best option.
    For now.
    “There’s a hotel—” Val started, and both her tone and rising volume drew Sawyer’s focus as it was clearly aimed at him.
    “No hotels,” he said.
    “It would be safer—”
    “No hotels.” Safer, no. What she meant was “room service.” Val liked that part. He couldn’t blame her, he supposed—she had few of the headaches and got all the benefits as his sister accompanying him places. She liked the part where they were waited on hand and foot, since she’d done most of that herself when they were kids and dirt poor. But they