Bikinis in Paradise (Tj Jensen Pardise Lake Mysteries) (25 page)

Tj closed her eyes. She could feel herself drifting off.

“You have to stay awake.” Kiara gently nudged her.

“I’m just so tired. Maybe if I could sleep for a few minutes
. . .”

“No
, you have to stay awake,” Kiara insisted. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. We never planned for Papa to find out we were here. Now everything is such a mess.”

“How did he know you were here?”
Tj wondered.

“I don’t know.
I didn’t tell anyone, not even Annabeth. I knew there could be trouble, so I was very careful.”

Tj frowned
. “What about Katharine? Do you think she would have told anyone?”

“Katharine only lived in the area for about a year and Papa kept close tabs on her. I doubt she even knew anyone to tell.
It doesn’t make any sense that she’d tell Papa or Aaron.”

Tj leaned against the wall as she thought about it. It had warmed up a bit. The sun was
now at an angle that allowed a streak of sunshine through the window. Tj sat in that small streak while Kiara curled up on the bed. Either Kiara or Katharine had to have mentioned their plans to someone. But who? And why?

“One of the models mentioned that Tonya
—or rather, Katharine—had a gambling problem and owed people money. Do you know anything about that?” Tj asked.

“Actually
, yeah,” Kiara admitted. “It was when we were at the regional competition in Vegas. She got caught up in the gambling frenzy and lost a lot of money. I was really mad. She almost ruined everything. She said she had no idea what came over her and was really sorry and wouldn’t let it happen again. She was lucky the Tropical Tan people put her on probation instead of firing her.”

“Did she ever say anything
about being afraid of the people she owed money to?”

“Once
, about two or three weeks ago. We met to finalize our plan and she seemed more nervous than usual. I asked what was wrong and she said nothing, but I could tell she was worried about something. I figured she was getting cold feet about trying to sneak off with Annabeth. I asked her if that was it, and she said no, she’d just gotten herself into some trouble and was trying to figure out how to get out of it. She didn’t want to talk about it, but one of the other girls told me that she’d seen Tonya talking to a man outside her hotel room a few nights before. According to the model I spoke to, the man was big and scary. She said he had a gun tucked into his pants. I asked Katharine about it the next day and she said she’d handled it and there was nothing to worry about. She left a couple of days after that to come here and make the final arrangements. I didn’t see her again until the day in the cove.”

Tj couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn’t more to the story than even Kiara knew. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that Katharine was being shaken down for the money she owed to what sounded like less
-than-respectable moneylenders. Maybe she’d seen the deal she’d made with Kiara as a way to take care of two problems at the same time, trading Kiara to her father in exchange for her own daughter and cash. Katharine was dead and it didn’t serve to sully her memory by bringing up this possibility, but it certainly would explain a lot.

“
Shhh, someone’s coming,” Kiara whispered. She climbed the stairs and looked out of the window. “It’s a gorgeous man in a deputy’s uniform; he looks madder than I’ve ever seen anyone look.”

“It must be Dylan. Stand back
; he’ll probably break down the door. He isn’t really known for his patience when it comes to someone messing with people he cares about.”

Tj got up in anticipation of Dylan’s arrival. She was about to join Kiara a
t the door when she heard a
pop
,
pop
,
pop
.

“What happened?” Tj struggled toward the small window.

“Someone shot the deputy.”

“Oh God.”

Tj tried to see what was happening, but her line of sight was limited to what was directly in front of her. She heard several more shots that seemed to come from every direction at the same time and then nothing.

“Can you see anything?” Tj whispered. Tears were running down her face.
If Dylan was dead, it would be all her fault. She should never have come looking for Kiara alone. If she’d waited and called the sheriff’s office like she should have, they would have arrived with a plan in place.

“No,” Kiara answered. “I can hear someone coming
, though.”

Both girls stepped toward the back of the room as Dylan came crashing through the door. Tj ran forward and fell into his arms. He picked her up and held her close.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Bump on the head
, but I’ll be fine.” Tj couldn’t stop the tears that streamed down her face. “Kiara saw you get shot. I thought you were dead.”

Dylan kissed her forehead and held her close to his body.
She could hear the pounding of his heart. “Bulletproof vest,” he explained. “I’ll have a hell of a bruise, but I’ll live. Are you okay?” He looked at Kiara.

“
I’m fine, but we should get out of here. I heard gunfire. Do you know who shot you?”

“A man who I believe is your father.”

Kiara paled.

“Don’t worry
, he’s alive. One of the other deputies is taking him down to the sheriff’s office. I should get the two of you to the hospital.”

“Annabeth
. . .” Tj stopped him.

“She
’s with Kyle.”

“Kyle?”
Tj asked.

“I called him after Annabeth calle
d 911 and Roy called me, which is what you should have done in the first place. It was careless of you to look for Kiara by yourself. You could have gotten hurt a lot worse than you did. And you could have been responsible for getting someone else hurt as well.”

“I know
.” Tj wrapped her arms around Dylan’s neck and cried harder. “I can’t bear the thought of you leaving. I wanted to keep this whole situation as far away from your sister as possible. I thought that if I could rescue Kiara, you wouldn’t have to be called away from your leave. Now I’ve made it worse.”

Dylan
hugged her again before he settled her into his car. He ran his finger down her cheek and gently kissed her on the lips. The kiss was so soft as to barely be felt, but it was tender and sent shivers down her spine. He looked deeply into her eyes. She sensed his hesitation. Tj knew he had regretted the kiss almost before he’d delivered it. She felt her heart break as he emotionally slipped away. She’d messed things up. He knew it and she knew it. His sister would never stay and he would have to go.

“I need to finish up here,” Dylan said, an air of detachment in his voice. “
Roy will drive you both to the hospital. I’ve called Hunter and he’s waiting there.”

“I feel fine. I don’t need to go to the hospital,” Tj insisted. “Just have someone take me home. I’m sure Grandpa is frantic.”

“Your grandfather has been notified, and we both know Hunter is never going to let you get away without being checked out. If you don’t go to Hunter, I can assure you he’ll come to you. He’s been really worried. We all have.”

“Okay. I’ll go.
You’ll come by later?” Tj didn’t want to let him go.

“If I can.”

Tj walked down Main Street, taking in the festive atmosphere of the summer afternoon. The sun was out and the beach was packed, and when the beach was packed, so were the restaurants and small shops that made up the main part of the colorful little town. Tj paused in front of a rack of bikinis that were showcased to draw window-shoppers into the new sun-and-sand shop that featured everything one would need for a day on the beach. It had been a year since she’d gotten a new suit, and the red and orange bikini hanging at the front of the rack had caught her eye as she walked by.

It had been over a month
since Tj and Kiara had been rescued from the cellar in which Annabeth’s dad had locked them. She’d been x-rayed, poked, and prodded to the point that she felt she might scream before Hunter had deemed her fit enough to go home. She hated spending two days in the hospital. Even the nurses thought Hunter was being overly cautious. But he had been so sweet and attentive while she was in his care. He spent most of his breaks with her, and sat with her each night until she fell asleep. She’d told him that he was acting like a mother hen, requiring all the tests, but he’d held her oh so sweetly and told her that he would never be able to live with himself if he missed something and she suffered permanent damage due to his error.

Dylan’s sister was still in town
, so he’d only been by to visit a couple of times, and even then only for a few minutes. Tj understood. It seemed that everyone’s happiness depended on his sister finding a sense of security in Serenity, and reminding her that her brother had been pulled away from his family to rescue the impulsive woman who everyone knew was his sort-of girlfriend wasn’t the image any of them wanted to leave her with.

With thei
r dad in jail, Kiara had been granted temporary custody of her sister. They would need to go to court to make it permanent, but Tj saw no reason why the request wouldn’t be granted. Nona testified that Aaron, on the order of Kiara’s father, had sent her on a wild-goose chase looking for Kiara. She believed Aaron when he told her that Kiara had notified him that she was in trouble and needed help. Tj supposed that much, at least, was true. The lie came into play when Aaron fed her false leads that had her running from one dead end to another.

Aaron claimed that he never wanted to hurt Kiara or lie to Nona. He stated that his father
had threatened to hurt Kiara if he didn’t cooperate. The sheriff decided after much consideration to charge him with a lesser crime than the two men who had masterminded the whole affair. Aaron was given probation and community service and encouraged to seek employment outside the confines of Vengeance. After obtaining a job at Grainger’s General Store, which included a very small studio apartment over the storage area, Aaron made the decision to move into town and formally court the woman he knew he was destined to marry. Kiara wasn’t sure she was ready for a relationship, but she agreed to rekindle their friendship, and the two had been casually dating ever since.

Tj replaced the bikini on the rack and continued down the sidewalk. Children from five to fifty crowded the all-purpose sports trail that ran parallel to the beach as kids on skates, grandmas on bikes, and teens on Razors, made their way from one end of town to the other. Occasionally, Tj brought her inline skates down in the early morning, before most of the crowd arrived. She stopped at a cute boutique that sold clothes for the active teen, an adorable outfit in camouflage catching her eye. She’d be willing to bet it was something Annabeth would adore.
Introducing Annabeth to the luxury of new clothes was like introducing a moth to a flame. Once Annabeth realized that Kyle was more than happy to buy her whatever she needed, the awkward caterpillar transformed into a beautiful butterfly with an eye for style.

Kiara still very much wanted to go to college
, so Kyle was helping her work on a plan that, it seemed, would make her dreams come true, as well as allow her to support both herself and Annabeth in the long run. After it was evident that Annabeth’s father was going to jail, Kyle had talked to his mother about making a permanent commitment to the sisters. Kyle’s mother was in her element with two “daughters” to dote on and couldn’t wait to agree to Kyle’s idea.

Kyle
found a three-bedroom house in town where his mom could provide housing for both Kiara and Annabeth while the older girl could attend community college in order to get the prerequisites she’d need to apply to a university in a year’s time. Annabeth was thrilled to have a mother substitute doting on her, and Kiara was grateful for the help Kyle and his mom insisted on providing. With the girls to focus her energy on, Kyle’s mother was meddling in his life much less than she had since she’d arrived, so the tension that had threatened their relationship seemed to have dissipated, at least for the time being.

Tj realized that if she was going to buy an outfit for Annabeth
, she should buy one for Ashley and Gracie as well. Her dad and sisters had returned the day after she’d gotten out of the hospital. She was glad she’d spared them the worry they would have had to endure had they been home and fully aware of what was going on.

The models had gone and the resort returned to the families Tj enjoyed. She wouldn’t miss the demanding models
, but she would miss Chloe, who, to everyone’s surprise, had won the contest and would be the next Ms. Tropical Tan. In the days since the event, Chloe and Kiara had talked about applying to the same school next year. Chloe would be finished with her spokesmodel commitment about the same time Kiara would be done with her prerequisites, if all went as planned. Tj was glad that Kiara had found a friend her own age with similar goals and interests.

Annabeth was going to attend public school in the fall. She was a bright girl who, in spite of the fact that she’d had no formal education
, didn’t seem to be all that far behind. Tj had agreed to tutor her over the remainder of the summer so that she’d be ready in September. It warmed Tj’s heart to see Annabeth blossom. She was happy and carefree and thrilled with the new life Kyle had provided for her. Amber and Kiara had become fast friends, quickly settling into a routine of shopping, hanging out at the beach, and dating, as girls their age were supposed to do.