The Phantom of Black's Cove by Jan Hambright Read Free Book Online Page B

destroyed any evidence she’d ever been there. She was sure she’d left more than a few fingerprints and her lucky red ball cap. She pulled in a breath and tried to focus on the task at hand.
    Slowing to a crawl, she came to a stop.
    An ornate archway with a family crest and the name Trayborne forged in wrought iron marked the entrance to the estate.
    She turned onto the lane lined with tall trees on both sides. A veil of mist hung in the air and seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere, deepening as she maneuvered her car along the drive.
    Did everything out here have to exude creep? Too bad. She wouldn’t turn back now. And even if she wanted to, she couldn’t. Her investigation had ground to a stop. Talking to Jack was the only way, short of a court order, to get the facts. The grade steepened and leveled off just before the shadow of the mansion loomed in front of her.
    For an instant, she doubted her approach and eased down on the brake. She turned chicken for a minute, something that had happened only a dozen times in her life. Returning her foot to the accelerator, she rolled through the gatehouse and pulled into the circle drive in front of the house.
    It looked oddly like the clinic.
    Glancing into the rearview mirror to pat her hair, she nearly jumped out of her skin.
    He stood ten feet behind her car holding the reins of a big black horse.
    Jack Trayborne. She knew his eyes. Swallowing, she gathered her nerve, climbed out of her car, shut the door and moved toward him.
    “Can I help you?” he asked, staring at her with an intensity she could feel in her bones.
    “Yes. I’m looking for Jack Trayborne.”
    “You’re in luck.” He stepped toward her, leading the magnificent horse with him. “I’m Jack Trayborne.” He extended his hand. She reached out and took it. A rush of electricity jolted her and zinged up her arm. He squeezed with a firm grip and didn’t immediately let go.
    “But then, I’m sure you already knew that, Miss Morgan.”
    Tension coiled her nerves like a spring. She put on an apologetic smile and looked him in the eye. She’d been outed. “Then you know why I’m here?”
    He held a blue gaze on her that made her ears burn. She returned it with one of her own. She wouldn’t be intimidated by him. She wouldn’t back down just because he made her nerves fray and her insides feel, well…bothered.
    Sucking in courage with a deep breath of air, she leaned against the back of her car and prepared for battle.
    “Nothing goes on in Black’s Cove, Miss Morgan, that I’m not aware of.”
    “That’s just creepy, Mr. Trayborne.”
    A slow touché sort of smile bowed his mouth and shefound her gaze locked on his lips. This odd attraction certainly wasn’t intentional. Some other driving force was at work here. Hormones.
    “Come with me. I’ve got to put Odin up. Then we’ll talk.”
    That was encouraging, she thought, as he turned and led the horse away. She fell in step well back from the animal’s rear hooves, hooves she was sure could take her head off with a single kick.
    Fog swallowed horse and rider and only the rhythmic clop of hooves on cobblestone alerted her to the direction Jack and Odin had taken.
    Olivia zipped up her sweatshirt and pulled on her hood to block out the dampness that permeated the air and soaked into her skin. It was only then that she realized the horse had stopped. Her compass was gone.
    She stopped, too, listening for direction in the silent air around her.
    A knot formed in her gut. The hair at her nape stood at attention. She was lost. About to turn back for her car, somewhere in the direction she’d just come, she felt a hand grasp her elbow.
    She startled and jerked around, prepared to fight.
    “Miss Morgan?”
    Staring long and hard at Jack Trayborne, her fears calmed, soothed by his close proximity.
    “I got lost for a minute.”
    “Black’s Cove is a hundred yards in front of us. It produces evaporation fog, but it will lift