Hart To Hart by Vella Day Read Free Book Online

weekend.”
    “You can rest assured I will. Got a date tonight.” She grinned.
    He was happy for her. After she headed out, Vic began with the members of El’s class, starting with Cal Forsythe because he seemed to be the most interesting of the lot. Vic quickly learned that Cal’s father had died when he was five. That might not have been so bad had his mother not been a drunk. Cal was eleven when she passed away from alcohol poisoning. After that, he was put in a foster home. His first foster parents were artists and taught him to appreciate art, but when they couldn’t afford to keep him, he went back in the system. From some of the awards Cal had won, he had some artistic talent.
    The man was forty-one, but the only picture Vic found of him was as a twenty-five year old. He had classic good looks despite being on the thin side. El claimed he had a crush on her. As someone who might be able to help Cal with his career, it made sense he’d gravitate toward her. The motive for him stalking her wasn’t apparent, however. Damn.
    Vic had to be missing something. He leaned back in his chair and stretched. It was almost nine. Sharon was right. Things might be clearer in the morning, so he packed up his files and laptop and headed out. Wow. He hadn’t expected snow. The wind was quite still, making it pretty but cold.
    His mind continued to swirl with scenarios as he headed out of town toward his house. Vic wasn’t ready to eliminate Hilton, but he seemed the least likely suspect. The man’s wife had passed away seven years ago, and she left him quite a lot of money, much of which he’d invested in the Davies-Hart Gallery. Surely, he had to know that El was no longer seeing Brian, which might explain the flowers, but not the emails and texts. Unless, what El said was right—that they were dealing with more than one person. That would complicate things.
    Halfway to his house, a pair of headlights came behind him—fast—and he flipped up the rearview mirror to prevent the glare from blinding him. With no streetlights this far out, he couldn’t see much. Vic slowed then moved closer to the side of the road to let this ass pass. The lights drew near. Just as Vic was about to press hard on the accelerator to speed up, the guy rammed the back of Vic’s SUV.
    What the fuck?
    He gripped the wheel tight and slammed on the brakes, but the large truck behind him had the momentum. One minute Vic was on the road and the next he was sliding down the snowy embankment, bouncing on two wheels and then flipping over. Upside down, the car slid on the roof, jarring Vic right and left, his head hitting the side window with force. Shit. The seatbelt yanked him back as his body tried to fly forward. Glass broke and Vic’s face was sliced open. Blood trickled down his cheek. The car rammed into something solid, and then blackness engulfed him.
    *     *     *
    The ringing phone in Ellie’s dream caused her to jerk in her sleep. She was in the middle of a recurring dream in which she was young, thin, and happy. She and Vic were holding hands, wading ankle-deep in the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. They’d been married only a few years but were still talking about their exciting future—how he wanted to protect mankind while she wanted to make the world a better place, one brush stroke at a time. Then his cell rang, like it always did at this point. It was the call they knew was coming—the one that would signal the end. Vic was being deployed.
    Every time she reached this part, Ellie had woken up—the rest of the vacation bitter, argumentative, and very painful. Then why was the phone still ringing if Vic’s cell was at his ear and he was talking?
    A rush of reality reached her. Her phone was ringing. She jerked awake, but it took a moment to recognize that she was not at home but rather in Montana. She reached across the bed to the hotel phone. “Hello?”
    She glanced at the glowing clock. It was three in the