Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
To Do:
- Buy Luke’s favorite kombucha
- Research LA parking laws—wtf?
- Find the professor
“So the florist had amazing news.” Mindy paused to straighten her wig in the car’s rearview mirror. “We are going to hit the very small window for peonies. They can do a mixture of blush and red for the arch at the proposal site. They’ll also throw in some cream for the table at the restaurant if we tag them on social media.”
“Perfect. One less thing for Brad to complain about.” Claire pressed a pair of binoculars to her sunglasses and leaned forward. They sat in the parking lot of a CVS, eyes glued to the entrance of the Whole Foods on Fairfax. Even though she had explicitly promised Luke not to get involved, ESA had almost kidnapped her mother. The chances of her staying out of it were less than zero.
In the twenty-four hours since her lunch with Brianna and Charlie, there had been no new developments with ESA. No threatening notes, no flowers. But it was only a matter of time, especially since their attempt to abduct Alice had been unsuccessful.
Jack’s current wife, Tanya, had been assigned her own cop. She was making use of the extra house guest by enlisting him to help her propagate succulents.
A strand of fake red hair fell across her view, and Claire blew on it until it moved. Two dozen people had come and gone from the store, but none of them were Professor Taylor.
“We’re never going to find him. What if he’s Googling himself and saw the Web Detectives post?”
“It is a long shot,” Nicole said. She was FaceTiming them from her studio. “Wait, is that a mustache? Zoom me in!”
Claire and Mindy practically plastered themselves against the windshield. Claire held her breath. Straw fedora, jet-black mustache. Could it be? A gust of wind blew his hat off. The man was bald, and a Nine Inch Nails tattoo took up most of the real estate on his head. Unless the professor had found a new, all-consuming appreciation for heavy metal, it couldn’t be him.
“Damn it.” Mindy pounded the dashboard.
“What? It’s not him?” Nicole’s voice came from the phone.
They both leaned back in their seats. “No, just some other fedora-wearing dingus,” Mindy said.
“Damn it. All right, I have to go. I have a family shoot and if I don’t eat an entire loaf of bread beforehand, I might throw up on a toddler.”
“Love you, Coli,” Claire and Mindy said together. They blew her a kiss, and the video cut out.
“So much for our lunch hour stakeout,” Claire said. She balled up their food wrappers and tossed them into the car trash can she had insisted Luke install.
Her phone rang, and she jumped. It was Luke.
“Hey,” she said. “I’m with Mindy and you’re on speaker. What’s up?”
“Just leaving the farmers’ market. They had baby carrots for Winston.”
God, even the words “baby carrots” were sexy when they were said in that gravelly voice.
“Awesome. Thank you for doing that. How did the lunch go?”
“It was good. They wanted to talk about securing some of my future projects.”
“Luke, that’s huge!”
“I know. I wish you had been there for it.”
Shit. She cringed. Luke had asked her to come to lunch with him, but she had been so consumed with proposal drama and the need to seek out information on ESA that she had turned him down.
“I’m really sorry. I promise I’ll be at the next one. I’m glad they could see past that grumbly exterior to the soft, squishy genius inside you.”
Luke grunted. “So you had a good lunch then?”
“Mmhmm. We just finished up and are about to leave for the ranch.”
“I didn’t know CVS served lunch.”
“What?”
Something banged on her window. Claire screamed and dropped her phone. The Taser was halfway out of her purse before she registered the fact that the person outside her window was a rather pissed-off Luke.
She sheepishly rolled the window down. “What are you doing here?” Did he have access to her phone’s GPS too?
“The farmers’ market is literally across the street.” He pointed at a large, glowing sign that read “The Original Farmers’ Market.”
“Oh.”
His brows were drawn together. “So, just to be clear, you can make time to do lunch with your sisters, but when I ask you to go to lunch, you’d rather sit in the parking lot of a CVS and eat gas station wraps.”
Oof.
“I’m so sorry. We were?—”
“I know what you were doing.” He pointed at the Whole Foods. “We talked about this. In fact, I remember expressly forbidding you to do this.”
“I’m not alone. Mindy’s here. And Nicole was on FaceTime.”
“You could be with an entire team of Navy SEALs and I still wouldn’t want you dangling yourself in front of them like a piece of meat. We’re not done talking about this.” He shook a finger at the car, then turned and strode off down the street.
“Love you,” Claire called out the window. She rolled it back up. “Oh boy. He’s mad.”
“I think we’ve eclipsed mad and gone straight to fuming. You should have gone to lunch. This was a total bust.”
“I know. But now that I know he’s here somewhere, I just need to find him.” Claire typed the address for the ranch into her phone. She would make it up to Luke later. Skipping lunch had been shitty. She needed to do better. “Think we can stop for ingredients for apology pie on the way back?”
“I think you better,” Mindy said.
“Okay, let’s get going. It’s going to take us either twenty minutes or two hours to get to the ranch.”
Mindy backed the car out of the spot and sped toward the hills. As they drove, Claire checked the doggy daycare app. With everything going on, leaving the dogs home alone was no longer an option. They had enrolled Winston and Rosie in a twenty-four-hour daycare the day before, and Rosie had been so exhausted she had to be physically carried out to the backyard to go pee before bed. The app had a live camera available at all times. Both dogs were safe and sound. Rumor had it that Rihanna’s dog attended the same facility.
Thirty minutes later, they rolled into a dusty parking lot. Claire and Mindy stepped out into the sunshine.
“It’s a beautiful day!” Mindy stretched her arms out and twirled in the light.
“Are you just saying that because you’re going to see Sawyer this weekend?”
“Maybe.” Mindy booped Claire on the nose. “Riding boots?”
“Right.” Claire popped the trunk and pawed through half a dozen garment bags before finding the right one. She slid on a pair of socks and her rarely used equestrian boots.
“Ready?” Mindy brushed a bit of dirt off her jodhpurs.
Claire glanced over her own outfit and tossed her French braid over one shoulder. She may have copied her equestrian outfit from an American Girl doll. “Ready. The website said the ranch is about a quarter of a mile up that way. It’s too narrow to drive.”
“That’s fine. I could use the steps.”
Claire locked the car and nodded. After a quick bout of hula dancing, they were on their way. Sweat pooled on her lower back by the time they reached the check-in area of the ranch. This hunt coat was not breathable. A flannel-and-denim clad woman greeted them inside.
“You must be Rita. It’s so nice to finally meet in person.” Claire extended a hand to the woman. The woman reached over and returned the handshake with a strong grip. She couldn’t have been more than five foot two, and there was a gold tooth where her incisor should be. “This is the saddle I told you about.”
Claire handed over a shopping bag containing the saddle they had picked up that morning. A pang hit her. It wasn’t the original. She had lost something irreplaceable. Would Karen be able to tell?
Rita whistled through her teeth. “Well, goll-dang. That’s a beautiful saddle.”
“And it’ll fit the horse okay?” Claire knew nothing about horses.
“I don’t see why not,” Rita said, rubbing the saddle with the end of her sleeve. “You wanna ride Sugar today?”
“Sure,” Claire said. She had never ridden a horse before, unless she counted the pony at a classmate’s tenth birthday party. If she could handle the quick jaunt on Sugar, there was no reason to think that Karen, an accomplished equestrian, would fair any differently.
Twenty minutes later, they trotted down yet another dirt path at a fair speed. Sugar had not been impressed with Claire’s attempts to get in the saddle, but she seemed to have forgiven her. Mindy had ambled onto Rhone, a majestic brown thoroughbred, as if she did this every day. They captured a quick selfie as the horses plodded down the path.
It was peaceful out here in the hills, far away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. Aside from the arid beauty of the hillside though, the ride was exceptionally boring. Visually, there was nothing to look at but patches of dirt and scrubby little plants. This wouldn’t do for the country’s most romantic and over-the-top proposal. This wouldn’t do at all.
“Scenery kind of sucks, no?” Mindy whispered.
Claire nodded fervently. “Some adjustments are definitely needed.” But what would be appropriate? Lanterns? Floral wreaths?
They rounded a bend. The back of her neck prickled. She turned abruptly and peered over her shoulder. No one was behind them. The path ahead was clear as well. So why couldn’t she shake the feeling that she was being watched?
Her gaze probed the hills as Rita chatted about the history of the ranch. Something down the hill flashed, like sun hitting glass. Her heart leapt into her throat. As hard as she looked, nothing jumped out of the arid terrain. Was someone down there watching them? Was that the sun flashing across the scope of a rifle? Or was it just an influencer with a malfunctioning ring light?
Mindy nudged her. “What’s up? You’re on high alert.” She looked over her shoulder.
Claire patted her cross-body purse. Her Taser, at least, had not fallen out during her attempts to get on the horse. “Just a weird feeling. It’s probably nothing.”
Mindy puffed herself up like a cat, staring all around them with a glare that would intimidate even the scariest misogynist.
Claire’s shoulders hunched and the reins went limp in her numb hands. They were here. Even if they weren’t watching right now, ESA was in the city. What were they planning? How much time did she have before they made their move? And who would they hurt in the meantime?
Her vision darkened at the corners. Sugar’s ears flicked. Everything seemed far away. Her breath hitched. Numbness tingled up and down her arms.
Mindy leaned forward and peered at her. “Hey. Take a breath. Do you need to stop?”
Claire shook her head. She was not about to give ESA the satisfaction of a dramatic reaction. What did Dr. Goulding say she should do? Deep breaths, mindfulness, find a focus object. This was just a panic attack, and she wasn’t dying. She swung her head left to right, fighting the tunnel vision. A scrubby tree stood at a fork in the path.
If she had to plan a proposal at that exact spot, what would she do? If it was winter, dress it up like a shabby Christmas tree for sure. Stage some fake plants. A gingham blanket and a classic picnic basket. Maybe even a yurt.
By the time they reached the end of the trail where the picnic was scheduled to take place, the imaginary proposal she was planning had distracted her long enough to allow the panic to recede. Her limbs still shook, but at least she could function.
Claire and Mindy hopped down from their horses, and Claire’s knees nearly buckled. Mindy steadied her, concern written across her face.
“I’m fine, seriously.” It was almost true. “Let’s go over the checklist.”
They spent twenty minutes drawing a diagram of exactly where everything would be stationed. Claire took dozens of pictures and sent them to Nicole to help plan her shots. The Hollywood sign stood tall on the hillside above them. Claire wasn’t an expert in photography, but even her untrained eye could imagine the airlifted Marry Me letters shining bright in the sunset. It would be beautiful. Now she needed to address the ride.
“So, Rita,” Claire said on the way back down. “I was wondering if you might allow me to make a couple of enhancements to the trail.”
“What kind of enhancements?” Rita called over her shoulder.
“I’m thinking some fairy lights to mark the path and maybe a framed and backlit picture of our couple every hundred yards or so.”
“Honey, for an extra hundred bucks, you can throw all the crap you want out here long as you pick it up after,” Rita said.
Well, that was a relief. Now she just needed to talk to Brad about the extra cost, choose some pictures, and spend the weekend scrounging up supplies. Easy. She and Luke were supposed to have a day date on Saturday, but surely he’d be okay with making a few pit stops.
“One more thing. It’s kind of silly.”
“Oh?” Rita looked over her shoulder and raised one eyebrow.
As much as it pained her to admit, something was telling her walking back to their car alone right now would be a very dangerous idea. “Are there any men working at the ranch today? Maybe a couple who might not mind walking us back to our car? My mom worries,” she hastily explained. Hopefully if she had reinforcements, ESA wouldn’t do whatever it was they were planning.
“Sure thing. Hank and Brycen will see you the whole way. Hank’s a bit of a talker, though, just to warn ya.”
“Thank you so much.”
Thirty minutes later, Claire and Mindy trudged back to their car, kicking up dust the entire way. Hank, a bow-legged man wearing overalls with more dirt than denim, regaled them with story after story. Brycen, almost as if to compensate, didn’t say a word the entire time.
“So one time,” Hank said, pausing to sling a rifle over one shoulder. “Me and the wife were in Italy, right? On a bus tour, the whole thing. One morning she was mad at me because I didn’t want to wear the collared shirt she had picked out, so she sat ten rows ahead of me on the bus. Frankly, I didn’t mind as I enjoyed the peace and quiet. Now we stopped at a gas station in Naples. Everyone got their snacks and piled back on. I took a nap and woke up when we arrived in Rome. Got off the bus, looked around, she was nowhere to be found.”
Mindy gasped. “You left her in Naples?”
“I sure did. This was way back before cell phones too, so we had a helluva time meeting back up. Doesn’t help that neither of us spoke a lick of Italian.”
“That’s quite the story,” Claire said. She would have murdered Luke if he had left her behind in Paris.
“I still don’t think she’s quite forgiven me. This you?” He lifted his chin in the direction of the black Porsche. They had finally reached the parking lot.
“That’s us. Thank you so much, Hank. And Brycen. I felt a lot safer with you two.”
“Can’t be too careful out here, miss. Never know what you’re gonna see. Those wild pigs are becomin’ a real problem.”
Great. Another topic to add to the safety meeting.
Claire paused with her hand on the driver’s side door. She hadn’t done her vehicle safety check. As she knelt, the dirt clung to her hands. She wrinkled her nose and glanced under the car.
“You all right, miss? You lose an earring or somethin’?” Hank called.
“Just taking a look. I’ve had some trouble with?—”
Something caught her eye. There, behind her passenger side tire, was a shining, two-inch-long screw. She froze, paralyzed. The screw wasn’t laying on its side, accidentally discarded by a maintenance truck. It was standing straight up, directly behind the tire, ready to puncture it. Breath caught in her lungs, and she choked back a scream.
She stood so quickly that she staggered, dizzy for a moment, then reached into her purse and pulled out her pepper spray.
“Claire? What the hell is going on?” Mindy ducked down and looked under the car. She gasped. “Motherfuckers.”
Claire inched around the car, keeping her back to it as she surveyed the area. Arid hills rose around her, showing nothing but short, scrubby plants. A dense patch of trees stood on the hillside between her and the ranch. Her knuckles went white as she clenched the pepper spray.
Hank and Brycen whirled around, each staring into the distance.
“Should we call the police?”
“I don’t know. And tell them what, I found a screw behind my tire? Maybe we should just go.” Nothing moved on the hillside except for the bushes stirred by breeze, but she couldn’t shake the sensation of eyes on her.
“I don’t like this,” Claire muttered.
A shadow moved in the patch of trees that separated them from the ranch. She pointed a shaking finger.
Hank whipped his rifle up, but didn’t release the safety. “Damn tweakers,” he muttered. “ Hey ! You are trespassing on private property. I’m going to give you to the count of five to clear out of here. You hear? One…two…”
Just then, a man dressed all in black sprinted from the tree line and crossed over the road. Claire screamed. Hank lifted his rifle in the air. The man flinched and turned toward them, face as pale as the moon. He made menacing eye contact for a split second before disappearing over the crest of the hill.
Brycen took off after him, footsteps thudding heavily in his work boots.
Hank sighed and slung his rifle back over his shoulder. “I swear we get a new troublemaker every day. What do they think we have up here, a meth lab?”
Claire’s stomach shriveled. That was no run-of-the-mill tweaker. That was ESA.
Her hands shook, and she clenched them into fists. Her feet propelled her across the lot to the place between trees where she had spotted the shadow. There, lying in the dirt, was a pile of zip ties, a brown glass bottle, and a filthy rag. She backed away, nearly stumbling down the incline.
“Mindy?”
Her friend appeared next to her. She inhaled sharply. “I’ve got it.” Mindy dialed a number on her phone and held it to her ear. “Hi, we’re going to need an officer at Twilight Ranch. We need to report a suspected abduction attempt. White male, midtwenties, super pale.” Mindy walked off to the other end of the lot.
Claire glanced around her, but the overwhelming feeling of being watched was gone.
If even one thing had gone differently today—if Mindy hadn’t wanted to go along, or if Hank and Brycen hadn’t been at work, she would be dead. Tortured by a bunch of woman-hating hooligans. She was tired of being harassed and intimidated. It was time to do something about it. She dialed Luke’s number, a plan already forming in her mind.