Finding Summer - Suzanne Halliday Page 0,194

speaking in sharp, direct bursts.

“You and Stan. Wheels up at five a.m. Dottie and your father will follow later. Everything will be ready when you reach Los Angeles. You’ll be collected off the plane and given your physical equipment. After that, you assume full control.”

It all sounded so cut and dried, but there was something nobody was mentioning.

“Giselle,” he ground out. “Where is she? Do we have eyes on her?”

His father grunted and crossed his arms. “She slipped away like skunk smell on the wind. I’ve got Wells on the hunt. He knows her methods.” Turning to address King, he added, “He’ll come in to talk when he returns to the city.”

“Where are my bags? Did they come with me, or is my stuff still at Granddad’s?”

“I have everything,” Dad replied. “In the car.”

Glancing at the clock, he noted the time and calculated the hours between now and getting on a plane. He didn’t want to go to his apartment. Being alone wasn’t wise. Not while he was free-falling and capable of anything.

Tapping away on her phone, Dottie chimed in. “You boys are booked into connecting suites at The Plaza. Ned, I’m sending you the confirmation information. A car is reserved for the early morning airport run.”

She looked him up and down. “Get him showered and fed. Izzy will be over once she has everything assembled.”

Jon raised his hands in the air like he was testifying at a church revival. “There ya have it, kids. NIGHTWIND has been activated. The mission to save Arnie’s ass is now in progress.”

26

The January sun felt wonderful on her face as she sat on the two-person glider with Ari right next to her in a baby seat. Rocking slightly, Summer kept an eye on the sky, looking for the intrusive drone driving Bud crazy.

She craved beams of sunlight the same way a bee craved nectar. The golden rays fueled her spirit. If an office job was in her future, hopefully, it included a window so she always had access to the sky.

Ari yawned. Her sweet little face glowed. She was grateful for the blessing of a healthy child. The baby was growing like a weed. At every doctor’s visit, the nurses assured her she was doing a great job.

As Ari’s eyes drifted closed, Summer thought about a phone call earlier. What Reed had to say confirmed what she somehow already knew—the long wait for Arnie to figure it out was almost over.

While this realization was good news, it wasn’t without a dark side. The quiet threat surrounding her and the baby not only strengthened but it also grew in malice. Arnie finding them in time and the growing threat balanced on the head of a pin.

Hours before Reed’s phone call, Summer awoke filled with certainty. In her dreams, she heard Arnie’s voice—deep, rich, and firm—telling her to be careful.

The danger she warned him about was closing in on her, and he knew. Thank god because she honestly didn’t know how much longer she could hold on.

Reed also had a long talk with Cyrus—the poor man was a mess. Joanne had been through hell, and the way Cy told it, picking up their lives where they left off before Jo’s mom entered her final days was easier said than done.

“He dropped the ball, Summer. And he feels like shit about it. Especially now.”

She blew out a deep sigh. Her emotions were all over the place. Thinking Arnie had never looked back was one of the things she found most painful. It didn’t make sense. The man she fell in love with was neither shallow nor insensitive, but the facts, as she’d known them before today, came down firmly on the side of her having been deliberately abandoned.

When she pulled her Santa Barbara disappearing act, Cy installed a person he knew in Summer’s apartment. Her cover story was simple. She was Summer’s cousin, staying at the apartment to keep an eye on things and water the plants while she, Summer, went off on an imaginary cruise with friends.

It was a ridiculous ruse, but at the time, she’d been panicked and operating on adrenaline. Running away to hide was the only thing she could handle. After a certain point, with all she had to deal with, her pseudo-cousin in Santa Barbara was forgotten. Out of sight and mind should signal the end to this part of the story, but man, oh man, she wasn’t prepared to learn what really happened.

So the woman? Stacey? Yeah, she was the