The Perfect Bride

Chapter Fourteen

Zack was waiting by the stairs in the front entryway when they came out of the office. Leaning against the banister with his arms folded over his chest, he looked up at their approach and slowly straightened.

As they came closer, Adam studied the younger man, considering what he knew about him. It wasn’t much. Zack was only twenty-four. He’d lived in Hawthorne and at Sutton Hall for most of his life, except for a year he’d spent in Boston not long ago. He didn’t have a criminal record or any signs of trouble in his past. Adam had hired him mostly because Ray had asked him to and because he obviously knew the estate better than anyone else Adam could have found.

Now, though, he had to wonder if he’d made a mistake, especially when Zack’s gaze slid to Jillian, his mouth twisting with contempt before he glanced away.

His anger spiking, Adam speared the man with a glare. Under different circumstances, he might have dealt with the man’s attitude more diplomatically, but he wasn’t in the mood to play nice. “Everything all right, Zack?”

Zack grimaced, not looking directly at him. “Fine.”

“If you have something you want to say, maybe you should just say it.”

Zack clenched his jaw. “It’s none of my business.”

“You’re right,” Adam said. “But I think we’d like to hear what you have to say anyway.”

Zack finally turned that contemptuous glare on Adam. “All right.” He looked straight at Jillian, his lip curling in a sneer. “Guess commitments don’t mean that much to you after all, huh?”

Jillian simply looked back at him steadily. “Are you upset because you think something happened between Adam and me, or because I didn’t take you up on your offer?”

“My ‘offer’ wasn’t serious,” Zack scoffed. “I just wanted to see how serious you were about getting married. Turns out, you’re not. You’re even worse than the last one. At least she never did anything.”

Adam felt Jillian tense beside him. “You mean the first bride to come here?” she asked.

“Yeah. I saw the way she looked at me. Couldn’t take her eyes off me, all while she was supposed to be planning her wedding.” He shook his head. “Commitments don’t mean that much to anybody, do they?”

“You mean like they didn’t to your mother?”

Zack’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Don’t call her that. She doesn’t deserve the title.”

“There could have been other reasons why she left,” Jillian said gently. “You don’t know—”

“Yeah, I do,” Zack snapped. “I managed to track her down last year. She said sorry, but she wasn’t cut out to be a mother and getting married was the worst mistake she ever made. She never should have done it and she never did again after she left.” He snorted. “Maybe she should have figured that out before she bothered doing it the first time. It would have been a hell of a lot better on my dad and me if she had. The same way it would be for the guy you’re supposed to be marrying if you end it now.”

“If that’s how you feel, I’m surprised you wanted to work around weddings and brides,” Adam said coolly. “Maybe you’d be happier working somewhere else.”

Zack shrugged a shoulder. “You’re right about that. Go ahead and fire me. Just do me a favor and fire my dad, too. The only reason I came back here was to convince him to stop hiding on this damned mountain and get out of here. He needs to start living, not let his life be ruined by somebody who isn’t worth it.” With one last scornful glance at Jillian, he turned and stormed off down the hall.

“What do you think?” Adam asked softly when they were alone again. “Is he our killer?”

“He’s certainly angry. I just don’t know if he’d be that upfront with his contempt for me or Courtney, or his reasons why, if he is the killer.”

“He might be if he was completely out of control, the way the killer has to be.”

“Did he seem that unhinged to you?”

“No,” Adam admitted, not particularly happy about it. It would be easier if he could believe Zack obviously was their killer. It would mean this nightmare was finally over, that Jillian was out of danger. But even when Zack was clearly angry, Adam hadn’t sensed any real danger or threat of violence from him.

“I’d been wondering what really happened to Ray’s wife,” Jillian said quietly. “Guess now I know.”

“If Zack was telling the truth.”

“True,” Jillian agreed. “Though his story does make sense. It explains why he came back when he doesn’t really like the job and the librarian in town told me he always wanted to leave the area.”

“Well, he won’t have to worry about the job for long,” Adam said grimly.

Jillian glanced up at him. “So you’re going to fire him?”

“I don’t think I have much of a choice.”

“And Ray?”

He sighed. “I don’t know. It might be for the best, though I don’t know if it’s fair to him.”

Before Jillian could respond, the sound of approaching footsteps reached them. A few seconds later, Meredith stepped into the foyer.

As soon as she spotted them she came to an abrupt stop. “Oh,” she exhaled in surprise. “I was just coming to check on you, Jillian.”

Adam didn’t miss the way her eyes slid between him and Jillian, a contemplative—and apprehensive—gleam in them. He doubted Zack had a chance to tell her that he’d found the two of them together. Could she sense something had changed between them, or did she just still have the same suspicions she’d had earlier?

“I’m sure the two of you have a lot of work to do,” Adam said. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to check on a situation in the basement.”

Meredith’s eyebrows raised. “Everything all right?”

Fighting a twinge of guilt at keeping the truth from her, he worked up a smile. “Nothing to worry about from the sounds of it.”

He met Jillian’s eyes. She nodded shortly before turning toward Meredith. “Should we finally check out the ballroom?” she asked with a smile.

Adam watched them go for a moment, fighting the unease rising in his gut. He wouldn’t be gone long, and they should be safe together. But as they disappeared from view, it took everything he had not to follow. The thought of anything happening to either one of them was unimaginable. He’d let Meredith be hurt far too much for one lifetime. And Jillian... He’d just found her.

He couldn’t let anything happen to either one of them.

More importantly, he wasn’t going to.

* * *

DINNER WAS EVEN more uncomfortable than usual, tension lying thick and heavy over the dining room. At the head of the table, Adam sat as grim and remote as a statue, seemingly deep in thought. Even Meredith made no attempt at conversation, leaving the meal to pass in uneasy silence.

Jillian figured the storm was the main reason for it. The dining room curtains were drawn tight, but they couldn’t completely block out the sound of the raging wind and the lash of the rain on the glass. The noises were loud in the relative quiet of the room, making it impossible to forget that nature was raging all around them.

Still, she had to wonder if that was the only reason, or if Zack had told anyone how he’d found her and Adam together.

Rosie avoided looking at anyone as she served the meal, a heavy frown on her rounded face. But she’d been the same way that morning when Jillian had seen her at breakfast, her mood edgy and distracted, so Jillian didn’t know if she could read anything new into the woman’s behavior.

As for Grace...

Even as she thought it, Jillian suddenly sensed someone was watching her.

She looked up and met Grace’s eyes.

It wasn’t the first time Jillian had caught the woman looking at her. Grace’s cool gaze was steady and appraising, her face as stoic as ever. After a moment, she slowly lowered her attention back to her plate.

But not before Jillian caught the subtle change in her expression, the knowing gleam in her eye.

A sudden chill rolled through her from both the knowledge and the look she’d seen in the woman’s stare.

She knows.

It was all Jillian could do not to reflexively reach out and straighten her clothes further, fully aware it would only make things look worse. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind Grace knew about her and Adam. And if Zack had told Grace, it was likely he’d told Rosie, too, and it was only a matter of time before Ray and Ed found out, too, if they hadn’t already.

Which left the question of what the killer would think—or do.

“Mr. Sutton.”

The voice was like a clap of thunder in the stillness, nearly making Jillian flinch. Everyone in the room turned toward the sound.

Ed stood in the doorway, water dripping from his clothes, his normally smiling face even more serious than the last time Jillian had seen him.

“Ed?” Adam said, already pushing away from the table. “What happened?”

“I was checking the upper floors in the west wing. We’ve got a tree down. It busted straight through a window in one of the back bedrooms on the second floor. I tried dislodging it, but it’s pretty well stuck. The rain’s coming straight in, and it’s hard to tell, but I think the tree might have done some damage to the wall.”

His face grim with purpose, Adam moved to join the man. “Where are Ray and Zack?”

“I don’t know. I’m looking for them, too.”

Grace rose from her seat. “I’ll help find them.”

“Thanks, Grace,” Adam said. “Please send them up when you do. I’m going to head up with Ed to see how bad it is.”

With a nod, Grace moved toward the kitchen.



“Is there anything I can do?” Meredith asked.

“No,” Adam said. “You and Jillian stay here. We can take care of it.”

“I can help, too,” Jillian suggested.

“No,” he said, a little sharper than necessary. “Just stay here with Meredith.”

Jillian didn’t take offense at his tone, reading the warning in his stare too clearly. She understood. In the middle of a chaotic situation, with everyone dealing with the mess and both of them distracted, it might be too easy for somebody to try to do something to her. She couldn’t exactly be on her guard if she was focused on trying to help, and she wouldn’t be much help if she was trying to watch her back at the same time. She was better off staying with Meredith, where she’d ostensibly be safer.

“All right,” she murmured.



She didn’t miss the flash of relief that briefly passed over his face. She waited, expecting him to turn and leave. He paused, and she sensed his sudden reluctance to go, his eyes sending her an unmistakable message.

Be careful, they seemed to say.

Jillian gave a tiny, barely perceptible nod. I will.

A heartbeat later, he turned back to the other man. “Okay, Ed. Show me where it is.”

The two men quickly made their way out of the room. Jillian watched Adam go, her heart feeling uncommonly heavy in her chest. It was a strange feeling having someone looking out for her. She was so used to being on her own, she couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at her with any concern that was more than mere politeness.

There was nothing polite about the worry in Adam’s eyes. He genuinely cared about her well-being. Jillian understood the feeling. Even though she knew he wasn’t really facing a dangerous situation, she couldn’t deny the flicker of unease that struck low in her belly as he disappeared from view.

“I’m sure they can handle it, especially with Ray and Zack to help,” Meredith said, perhaps misreading the worry on Jillian’s face. “Why don’t we go into the living room? We can talk about ideas on how to use the outdoor space.”

Jillian forced a smile. “Great.”

As they prepared to leave the room, she did her best to put Adam out of her mind. He had a job to do, but so did she. Solving Courtney’s murder.

That was what she needed to focus on.

* * *

ONE GLIMPSE IN the room Ed had led him to was all it took for Adam to see the situation was even worse than he’d imagined. The tree was massive, practically filling the entire space of what had once been a sizable window, a mess of branches and leaves jutting several feet into the room. Adam didn’t doubt that an object that huge must have done some damage to the wall beneath the window when it had crashed into it, though it was hard to tell how bad it was with the tree in the way. Rain seemed to pour in through every spot that wasn’t taken up by the tree, water drenching the floor and spraying across the room. Beyond it, the sky was so dark it might as well have been the dead of night.

“Damn,” Adam muttered under his breath.

The word was nearly lost in the wind that rushed into the room and lashed at them. Ed clearly heard it just the same, grunting in response. “Yep.”

“What do you recommend?” Adam asked, fully prepared to rely on the man’s expertise.

Ed eyed the tree solemnly, his cheek working as he considered the problem. “It’s too big and too heavy to push out. I already tried that. We’ll probably have to take a look from outside, cut it out there so we can push it out. Maybe break off as many of the branches in here as we can so it’ll be easier to move, too.”

“Then it’s just a matter of the window and the wall.”

Ed waved off the comment. “I can handle that. Getting this thing out of here is my main concern.”

The sound of feet pounding down the hall reached them. Adam glanced back just as Ray and Zack appeared in the doorway.

The two men came to an abrupt stop just inside the room, staring in disbelief at the sight that met their eyes. Zack swore lightly.

“As you can see, we have quite a job to deal with,” Adam told them. “I hate to ask it of you, but I think I’m going to need you outside on this.” He quickly explained the plan Ed had outlined. “If we work together both inside and out, we should be able to get the tree out of here.”

“Makes sense,” Ray said simply, with no trace of rancor. “And taking care of the trees is my job.”

“Good,” Adam said. “I’ll come with you. With the three of us working, we should be able to get the tree cut and possibly pulled out. Ed will stay here to break off the branches and prepare to deal with the window as soon as the tree’s out.” He paused, a thought occurring to him. “We’ll need to keep in contact on both ends. Do you all have phones on you?”

“I do,” Zack said.

Ed and Ray shook their heads.

“Mine’s in my office,” Adam told Ed. “I’ll bring it back up here for you and we’ll call you from Zack’s phone so we can communicate what’s happening.” He just had to hope they’d be able to get a workable cell signal in this weather. If not, they’d have to figure out another system, with someone probably running back and forth, which would take far more time.

“Sounds good,” Ed acknowledged.

“Great. Let’s do it.”

Leaving Ed behind, Adam broke for the door with the other two. He didn’t exactly relish the idea of heading out into the storm, but he didn’t have a choice. It was a big job, one that would require as many hands as possible. Sutton Hall was his responsibility. He couldn’t sit by and leave its welfare in the hands of others when his help was needed. Even if it meant venturing out into the wind and rain.

Even if it meant being unable to watch out for Jillian while he was out there.

She’s fine, he told himself. She’s with Meredith. They’re both fine.

But telling himself that didn’t do anything to ease the dread he could feel pooling in his belly at the thought.

* * *

“WHAT ABOUT SOMETHING like this?”

Seated on a sofa across from Meredith, Jillian looked up to find the other woman holding up a magazine for her to see. “Oh, that’s nice,” she said. “Let’s keep that one in mind.”

Smiling, Meredith marked the page and turned it to the next.

Jillian returned her attention to the magazine in her own lap, not absorbing it any more than whatever Meredith had just shown her. She did her best to look as if she was perusing it for wedding ideas the way she was supposed to, trying not to let her restlessness show.

Outside, the wind seemed to have picked up, the frenzied howling matching the churning in her gut. She’d meant what she’d told Adam. She believed they could figure this out. She just needed to figure out how.

Perhaps his investigator would find something. In the meantime, she had to try to get the staff to open up to her more, as unlikely as that seemed. Unfortunately, with everyone busy dealing with the storm, she’d probably have to wait until it was over to find out for sure. Which left her biding her time, sitting here when all she wanted was to be doing something, anything at all.



“Excuse me.”

Jillian raised her head at the sound of the voice. Rosie stood in the entryway. In her hands she balanced a tray bearing a teapot, a small pitcher and two cups.

“I heard about the commotion,” she said, her expression still tense and grim. “I thought you could use some tea.”

“That actually sounds wonderful,” Meredith said. “Thank you, Rosie.”

With a curt nod, the woman crossed the room and placed the tray on the table between them. Straightening, she glanced warily at the window on the far wall. “Tea’s good for a day like this. Calms the nerves.”

“Do you have a lot of days like this around here?” Jillian asked.

“Sometimes,” Rosie said distantly. “In the spring. This one’s worse than most, though.” With a shudder, she turned away from the window. “I need to get dinner cleaned up.” Her face still creased with worry, she strode from the room.

Jillian studied the scene outside the window. Rosie was right. It was bad out there, virtually pitch-black. Jillian was pretty sure it had gotten worse, the wind howling louder, the rain pelting the glass like bullets. It barely seemed like the window should be able to withstand the onslaught, as though it would shatter at any moment.

Like the window upstairs had when the tree came through it. She wondered how Adam was doing, how bad the situation was up there.

“Would you like a cup?”

Jillian looked back at Meredith. Having poured a cup for herself, she had the pot poised over the other.

Jillian wasn’t much of a tea drinker, but at the moment something to calm her nerves didn’t sound so bad. “I’d love one.”

Meredith proceeded to pour. “Milk?”

“No, thank you.”

Setting the pot down, Meredith offered the cup and saucer to Jillian.

Taking them, Jillian raised the cup to her lips for a small, experimental taste. Not bad.

As she let the warmth of the tea sink into her system, she glanced back at the window. She really could see nothing outside. It was as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist, making them seem even more isolated out here than ever.

Isolated with a killer.

Suppressing a shudder, Jillian turned away from the glass. She would certainly be glad when the storm was over, for more than one reason.

* * *

AS SOON AS Adam reached the first floor with Ray and Zack, he moved toward his office. “I’ll meet you both out there as soon as I can,” he told them.

Nodding, father and son headed toward the back to retrieve their coats.

Adam quickly made his way to his office. His cell phone was on the desk where he’d left it. Picking it up, he checked the battery level. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d charged it. He had to hope it had enough power left—

The landline on the desktop suddenly rang.

He was prepared to ignore it when he remembered the call he’d placed to his investigator earlier. He’d had to leave a message. This might be them calling back. He really would like to get them started on the background checks as soon as possible.

He reached for the phone. “Sutton Hall.”

“This is Vince at Best In Class Rent-a-Car. I’m trying to reach Jillian Jones.”

Adam frowned. Why was the man calling the house number? “Have you tried her cell phone?”

“Yes, sir, but I didn’t get an answer and she left this number as a secondary contact so I thought I’d try it.”

Of course. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure where she is right now. Can I take a message?”

“I just wanted to let her know we had the car checked out. It looks like somebody played a prank on her.”

Adam froze. “What do you mean?”

“It appears somebody poured sugar in the gas tank, which clogged up the filter and caused the engine to stop running. Didn’t do any damage to the engine, but was enough to get her stranded. Stupid kid stuff. Doesn’t even work half the time, but in this case, it did.”

After everything that had happened to her, Adam didn’t believe for a moment it had simply been a prank. Someone had deliberately sabotaged her car. But why?

“Thanks for calling,” he said into the phone. “I’ll definitely let her know.”

Lowering the phone, he quickly thought back to the day her car had died. He wasn’t the only one who’d been in town when someone would have tampered with the car, he remembered.

Ed was in town then, too.

Ed, who hadn’t come back with the sugar Rosie had asked for.

It had to be him. But why would Ed want to sabotage Jillian’s car? To try to hurt her? Was he the one behind everything that had happened to her since she arrived here?

Standing there thinking about it wasn’t going to get him any answers. There was one surefire way that would.

Adam bolted for the door.

Leaving his office, he quickly headed to the living room, needing to check on Jillian, needing to know she was safe.

He peeked into the room, instantly spotting her. She and Meredith sat across from each other on separate sofas. Their heads were bowed over the magazines, papers and various items they had spread out in front of them.

A sigh of relief worked its way from his lungs. No point in disturbing them.

Jillian was safe with Meredith.

He needed to talk to Ed—now.

* * *

ADAM.

Jillian felt the prickle of recognition at the nape of her neck. Her heart lifting, she automatically glanced behind her toward the door to the room.

No one was there.

Jillian frowned as she took in the empty doorway. She could have sworn he was there, right behind her.

She nearly shook her head. The place must be getting to her. She was imagining things.

She felt Meredith glance over at her, then twist her neck to look toward the door. “What is it?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Jillian said quickly. “Just thought I heard something.”

With a shrug, she turned back to the magazine in front of her. She wasn’t surprised she was imagining things. She was suddenly exhausted. Probably not a surprise given how little sleep she’d gotten the past few days, not to mention how much had happened today alone.

She gave her head a hard shake. She didn’t have time to be tired. Not while Courtney’s killer was still out there, still unidentified. She needed a plan.

Swallowing a yawn, Jillian willed herself to focus.

She had to figure this out.

* * *

ADAM FOUND ED where he’d left him in the room the tree had crashed into. He was breaking off some of the branches, leveraging his body weight against some of them to get them to weaken.

For a moment, Adam stood in the doorway and watched the man. He considered everything he knew—or thought he knew—about this man he’d worked with for a year. He was a good worker. Always pleasant, always had a smile. But a killer? Adam never would have guessed it.

“Ed, I need to talk to you.”

The man stopped what he was doing and glanced back at him. “Got the phone?”

Adam looked down at the device in his hand, surprised to realize he’d forgotten all about it. “Yes, but that’s not what I need to talk about.”

“What is it?”

“The rental company Ms. Jones got her car from called. They had the engine checked out to see why it stopped running. Do you know what they found?”

The utter stillness that gripped Ed’s body, giving him the appearance of a trapped animal, told Adam he knew full well.

Ed dropped his head. “No,” he mumbled. “Why would I?”

“Because you’re the one who poured sugar in her gas tank, aren’t you?”

The man didn’t respond at first, swaying uneasily on his feet. “Don’t know what you’re talking about—”

He didn’t even have the words out before Adam lunged forward in a burst of fury, getting right in the other man’s face. “Don’t you dare lie to me right now! Damn it, tell me the truth. Did you also push her down the stairs? Attack her in her room?”

Ed’s eyes flared with alarm, with desperation. “No!”

“Why should I believe you?”



“I didn’t want to hurt her! I was just trying to scare her a little. I just wanted her to go away.”

“Why?” Adam demanded.

“She’s not safe here.”

“Right! From you!”

“No! That’s not it. I was trying to protect her.”

“Jillian?” It didn’t make any sense.

“No, not her.”

The man was talking in riddles. He was trying to protect somebody by sabotaging Jillian’s car, but not Jillian herself. That only left one possibility. “Rosie?”

Ed finally looked Adam square in the eyes, his expression desperate and pleading. “You understand, don’t you? A brother has to take care of his sister.”

He wasn’t making a damn bit of sense. “What the hell does your sister have to do with this?” Adam exploded.

The man’s eyes skittered away, his shoulders slumping so that he looked thoroughly defeated.

Ed’s words turned over and over in Adam’s mind, a vague suspicion beginning to take hold. His first impulse was to reject it. It was ridiculous. It was crazy.

As crazy as a killer targeting brides at Sutton Hall.

With a creeping sense of dread, he knew he had to ask. He forced out the question.

“Ed, who is your sister?”

* * *

FOCUS.

Jillian had repeated the order so many times it was starting to lose all meaning. It certainly wasn’t doing any good. If anything, she could barely keep her eyes open.

She opened her mouth to say something to Meredith, hoping the conversation could keep her awake, only to have a yawn emerge. Fighting it back, she realized it had been a while since Meredith had said anything, either. She glanced up at the other woman.

Meredith was slumped in her seat, her chin resting against her chest, her eyelids shut.

Frowning, Jillian stared at her. Meredith’s chest rose and fell gently, her breathing deep and even. She was asleep.

That was strange. Meredith hadn’t seemed that tired. Then again, Jillian really hadn’t been, either. And now she was. So groggy.

No, something was wrong here, she realized, alarm starting to break through the fuzziness in her head. Something... Why couldn’t she seem to think?

“I thought she’d never drift off,” a voice said.

Jillian turned her head toward the speaker, a process that seemed to take an eternity. Why was she moving so slowly?

Rosie stood in the doorway again. She stared at Jillian blankly, her face wiped clean of all expression. But her eyes seemed cold. Furious, even.

At least that was what it looked like to Jillian, though she was having trouble focusing, the woman’s face wavering slightly before her eyes.

“You wanted her to drift off?” she asked. Heck, even her voice seemed funny, her tongue feeling thick and fuzzy in her mouth.

“Of course. I needed her out of the way for this.”



Only then did Jillian catch the open malice in the woman’s steely tones, the sound sending a shiver of warning through her.

“And now I just have to take care of you.”