Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Professor Hawthorne, welcome to Montez House,” Marta said with a nod. She was a stern-looking woman. She wore all black, with seemingly no allowances for the heat of the jungle. He would guess her age around fifty from the beginnings of lines around her eyes to the steel gray that streaked her dark hair. “Dinner will be served at precisely nine.”
“Like in PM?” Tessa asked, and suddenly she seemed more interested in the food on the table.
“That’s actually pretty early in this part of the world,” David replied. He hadn’t thought about this when it had been Kyle who was coming with him. Kyle started to whine around five thirty, and if there wasn’t a plate of food in front of him by seven he started looking like Hamilton on the hunt.
Tessa grabbed one of the small plates. “Well, then I thank you for the afternoon snack. This is all lovely, Marta.”
Marta nodded. “Mr. Montez, don’t forget that we have a staff meeting in an hour.”
Eddie blinked and then nodded. “Of course. Thank you for reminding me.”
Marta gave him a tight smile and nodded. “Let me know if you require anything else.”
“Staff meeting? With your actual staff? How many are there?” He was curious on several levels. He wanted to know how the house ran. He was also interested in how Eddie handled things since he’d thought Eddie wouldn’t handle anything at all. He was a hands-off kind of guy. But then it had been a few years since they’d gotten together in person, so perhaps he took things more seriously now.
Eddie watched Marta leave, a frown on his face that disappeared a moment later as he went back into charming-host mode. “We’ve had a few recent additions, and they need guidance. It’s important to keep this place up, you know. The jungle is always trying to take it back. But that’s nothing for you to worry about. I would like for you to take a look at this.” Eddie pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket. “I’d lost the actual card he’d given me. This was a puzzle he made for my fifteenth birthday.”
“You didn’t get birthday presents unless you could solve the puzzle?” Tessa sounded the tiniest bit outraged. She’d made a plate of cheese and crackers and fruit.
Eddie shook his head. “No. These weren’t for major items. He would have these big parties for me and he would give me gifts, but this was something private between us. The gifts were more personal. My father would never have told me there was a bike hidden in the house and then not give it to me. No, these were things like books he thought I would like, or trinkets he would bring home from his travels. My father was a complex man, but he was kind. I wish we’d had more time together.”
There was the Eddie he knew, the one that was buried under all his charm and bravado. “Did you find his notes on the puzzles he created?”
“Several notebooks’ worth, but I wanted you to look at this one.” He handed the paper over to David.
Oh, this was a treat he hadn’t expected. He tried to play it cool. Tessa was watching him, and he probably shouldn’t geek out over some code written by a guy who’d died years before.
“Go on,” Tessa said with a shake of her head. She stood up and glanced around the library again. “He’s going to be useless to me for hours now. I suppose all of these are in Spanish and none of them have murders in them.”
Luis huffed. “There are books in English, in many languages. Ricardo Montez spoke five, but he certainly didn’t read anything so inconsequential as murder mysteries.”
That got Eddie laughing. “Oh, he did, but they aren’t in this library. He loved thrillers, but he didn’t talk about them outside of a few close friends. He had a reputation to protect.”
Tessa’s eyes rolled. “Well, I don’t. And lucky for me I have an e-reader. I’m going to take this to our room and enjoy my champagne and snacks with a nice side of murder that will be solved by a badass chick who also gets the guy. I’ll be quiet about it because my guy here gets distracted by me.”
“I do not.” He totally did.
She winked his way. “Do too. I’ll see you later this afternoon. If you need me, I’ll be in our room reading or maybe taking a nap.”
He didn’t think she would do either of those things. Something was going on with his bodyguard, but he couldn’t ask her about it now. He had to trust that she knew what she was doing and that whatever she was doing was for the right reasons.
Oddly, that wasn’t a hard thing for him to do.