A Rare Chance by Carla Neggers Read Free Book Online Page A

place in town too, but he’s been spending more and more time up here. The house is only a year old. He had it designed to look as if it belongs here, part of the environment. The interior’s all grays, greens, blues, tans. The landscaping’s natural. Joshua won’t even add a daffodil.”
    â€œI can see why. It’s beautiful as it is.”
    Gabriella swung into the parking area below the house. They were among the first to arrive. Lizzie, clearly impressed, shot out of the car and exclaimed about the view, oblivious to the cold breeze that blew in off the water. Gabriella led her to the stone steps up to the main deck but stopped when she noticed Pete Darrow down on the rocks.
    Tension gripped her, her pulse increasing just at the sight of him. “Lizzie—would you mind going in without me? I’ll just be a minute.”
    Lizzie frowned. “What are you up to?”
    â€œI just want to take a peek at the water. Don’t worry. Remember, you haven’t seen me in a year. I’m a respected businesswoman these days. I got all my tilting at windmills out of my system.”
    â€œIs that possible for a Scagliotti? Go on. Don’t worry about me. When have I ever minded making a solo entrance at a dinner party? Go turn your Cape Cod soul loose. Just don’t tell me it has nothing to do with your being Scag’s daughter. You don’t see me wanting to traipse down to look at the tide in my high heels.”
    â€œI’m not going far. Back soon.”
    Leaving Lizzie to head up to the deck by herself, Gabriella took a wide gravel walk down toward the rocks, below the sprawling house. The walk soon gave way to a narrow path, barely a footstep wide, that wound down to the rocky embankment where she’d seen Pete Darrow. She watched her footing in her strappy black shoes. New England’s mercurial springs being what they were, a cold gust of wind off the water had her wishing she’d brought along a coat.
    She walked out onto a large, flat boulder that jutted out over the embankment and looked around for Pete Darrow, but there was no sign of him. He must have headed back to the house along another route, or perhaps cut down along the rocks to the security gate.
    Just as well, Gabriella told herself. Probably she’d be wise to confront Pete Darrow when she wasn’t meeting Titus and Joshua Reading and select guests for dinner.
    Still, if he’d followed her and Lizzie that afternoon, if what Cam Yeager had intimated was right and Pete Darrow couldn’t be trusted—worse, he was dangerous—then where better to confront him than on Reading Point? Let Titus and Joshua see what kind of man they’d hired.
    Of course, Pete Darrow might conclude she’d crossed him and pitch her into the ocean before anyone could stop him.
    Best to head back to the house, she decided.
    The tide was coming in and the air was brisk and clean, so she couldn’t resist a closer look at the water. Maybe it was her Cape Cod soul at work. She walked carefully out to the edge of the boulder, not daring to venture down the steep embankment dressed as she was. She could hear the ocean. Smell it. The wind whipped her hair into tangles. She didn’t care. Suddenly Scag and Lizzie and two ex-cops on her case all seemed far away.
    Then a movement down close to the water caught her eye.
    A man. He seemed to be sitting among the rocks.
    Pete Darrow?
    It was a three-foot drop to the next rock. Gabriella couldn’t do it in her strappy heels.
    The man waved a hand broadly at her, as if flagging down a car. What did he want?
    â€œOh my God.”
    It was Cam Yeager.
    She felt a stab of panic, exhilaration, anger. He’d come anyway. She wouldn’t take him, so he’d gotten here on his own. Did Pete Darrow know? Was that why he’d been on the rocks?
    Yeager waved again. She squinted in the fading light. The rocks he was on were covered with white barnacles,