Stars of Fortune (The Guardians Trilogy, #1)(17)

“You’re a good boy.” She straightened, set a hand on Apollo’s head when he sat. “What are you guys waiting for?”

“Just waiting to see how big a chunk he might take out of you.” Bran launched himself out of the jeep and, just as casually as Riley, stroked a hand down the dog’s back.

“Come on, Sasha, read him if you’re worried. You should be able to read a dog,” Riley pointed out. “They have feelings. What’s he feeling?”

“Happy.” Sasha sighed and got out of the jeep. “He’s feeling really happy.”

“Pack animals.” Riley bent down, kissed the dog’s head. “Need a pack, and that’s going to be us for a bit. I’ve got the alarm code, too, and it seems the caretakers left the keys in the potted palm by the cliff wall, so . . .”

Riley, striding confidently in worn boots, the dog at her heels, walked over to the wall. “Wowzer view. Have a gander.”

Sasha made herself walk over to the stone wall, and there, far below, was the beach she’d drawn at the table at the tavern, when the image of it had overlaid the other.

“It’s only missing the moon and the woman,” Bran said quietly.

“Say what?”

“I drew this while we were waiting for you at Acharavi,” Sasha told Riley. “I didn’t know where it was. Now I do. She was there, down there at the edge of the water. The woman we haven’t met yet. And the villa was a silhouette on the cliff.”

Pleased, Riley fisted her hands on her hips. “Excellent. So this is where we’re supposed to be.”

“I guess it is.” The dog bumped his head under Sasha’s hand, looked up at her with appealing dark eyes, radiating the happiness she’d just felt from him. It made her smile again. “This is where.”

“Then let’s go check it out. I call first pick on bedrooms.” Riley set off at a run, and with a joyful bark, Apollo raced behind her.

“We can flip a coin for second pick,” Bran offered, and Sasha felt her balance return.

“As if I’d flip a coin with a magician. I call it,” she announced, and ran after the dog.





CHAPTER FOUR




Sasha believed herself to be a creature of order, of practical routine. When she elected to do something outside that routine, it was after careful thought and deliberation.

Or it had been until she’d flown to Corfu.

Now, roughly twenty-four hours after she’d checked in, unpacked her bags, she was packing them again, preparing to check out, to move into a villa with two people she’d known less than a day.

And no matter how many times she questioned the sanity of it, she knew it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do if she wanted real answers.

The villa was beautiful, spacious, and even a woman who considered herself practical couldn’t deny the thrill of walking through it, considering she’d live there for . . .

However long she did.

Tumbled tile floors, she thought as she carefully packed, wide, wide stretches of sparkling glass, the soaring entranceway and double curves of stairs leading to the second floor. Where, Sasha recalled, Riley had arrowed toward.

Her new friend chose the master with its massive bed, one Riley had bounced on gleefully before bulleting into the en suite and crowing in triumph over the freestanding stone tub—big enough for a party—and the equally generous shower.

For herself, Sasha had studied several options, all lovely, but had fallen for the four-poster with its domed and pleated canopy of sea-blue linen. Like the other bedrooms, it opened to a terrace, and she imagined herself painting there.

Even when she realized her view would include the promontory, she couldn’t persuade herself to select a room facing away.

She closed her suitcases, checked the room twice to be sure she’d left nothing behind, and was about to call for a bellman when someone knocked at the door.

She opened it to Bran.

“Are you set then?” he asked.

“Yes, just now. I was going to call for a bellman.”

He glanced in at her suitcases, pack, tote.

“We should be able to handle it.” He hooked her tote around the handle of one suitcase, slung her pack over his shoulder. “Can you manage the other?”

“Sure, but can we handle your bags, too?”

“I’ve already taken them down, loaded them. Of course, I’ve about half of what you’ve got here.”

“Of course you do. You’re a man.” Sasha walked out behind him without giving her room a backward glance.

“I am that. I’ll just check on Riley, and we’ll— Well, no need,” he added as Riley stepped out, rolling a single wheeled duffle behind her.

“That’s it? Your backpack and a duffle?” Sasha demanded.

“Got everything I need and room for more.”

Sasha looked at her own luggage, actually felt Riley’s smirk. “I have my art supplies,” she began.

“Uh-huh.” With the smirk still in place, Riley headed for the elevator.

“I do! And my travel easel, several small canvases, a spare sketchbook, not to mention paints, brushes.”

“Your brushes aren’t going to make it in this elevator on this trip.”

“You two go,” Bran suggested. “I’ll take the stairs.”