Her Other Secret Read online

  Dedication

  This one is for all my fellow romantic suspense

  authors out there. People think writing

  suspense is easy. It’s not. They wrongly believe

  that because you make it look effortless.

  The reader part of me thanks you for that.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Helenkay Dimon

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Chapter 1

  People didn’t wash up on Whitaker Island’s pebbled shores by accident. No one just stumbled around and found the small strip of land tucked into the northwest corner of Washington state. It was a destination. A person had to want to land there. By ferry or private plane, it took effort.

  Trees shadowed over half the twenty square miles, and the scent of lavender from the nearby fields drifted over the land. The island once housed a prison and continued to be the perfect place to disappear. A sanctuary for people on the wrong side of the law who needed a restart, for battered wives mysteriously gone missing, or for anyone searching for a new life.

  Tessa Jenkins ended up there because she had nowhere else to go. The island offered hope and quiet. A new start . . . and, unexpectedly, him. Nothing prepared her for Hansen Rye. A six-foot-three hottie with black hair and thick dark glasses that only highlighted his hotness. Part Asian—Korean, she thought but hadn’t asked—and all kinds of fine.

  He’d proved many times that he could build or fix almost anything, and as the island’s most sought-after handyman, he was often called on for the oddest of chores. Today, she was the one who did the calling.

  His sneakers crunched against the tiny gray pebbles lining the island’s oddly named Throwaway Beach. “Why are we here again?”

  That voice. Deep and husky and somewhat annoyed. Hansen wasn’t much of a people person and seemed to wear that as a badge of honor. He gave off the impression he only tolerated other humans, preferring to live in semi-isolation and only pop out when he needed to earn some money to pay for food.

  He had a few friends, but he listened more than talked. He tended to watch people, assessing, almost waiting for them to make a wrong move. Not that he was mean. But his mood often hovered around grumpy.

  Almost every woman on the island—age four through ninety-four—seemed to harbor a secret crush on him. There was no end to the list of “chores” women and men, everyone actually, created that required his expert handling. If he noticed the attempts to charm and seduce him, he hid it well. Even with her, unfortunately. Not that she went on the attack or stripped down or anything, though she had been tempted more than once. But she did flirt.

  A woman could flirt . . . and it would be nice if the guy noticed.

  He snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Hey, Tessa.”

  Okay, that was a little much. “Don’t do that.”

  “What?”

  He actually looked confused by her comment. She was just about to tell him what she thought about his thoroughly unnecessary dude gesture when she glanced up into those dark brown eyes and her brain blinked off. Just for a second, but there it went. “Huh?”

  He exhaled. “You said you wanted to show me something.”

  The actual chore. Right.

  “The boat.” She ignored the sharp smell of fish and salt highlighted with each incoming wave and nodded in the direction of the yacht that hadn’t moved for more than twenty-four hours.

  Hansen just shot her a blank stare.

  She tried again. “In the water.” When he doubled down on the staring, she pointed at the vessel bobbing not that far off the shoreline. “Right there.”

  She didn’t know much about boats, but she estimated this one to be more than fifty feet long. Sleek and white with slashes of black highlighting the sides. It rose up three stories from the deep blue water—the open upper deck, the main one with the windows and back area where swimmers could jump into the water, and then the obvious cabin below. She guessed it had a bedroom but there was no sign of life on the thing.

  After following the direction of her finger, he exhaled again. Put a lot of oompf behind it this time. “Yeah, I know what a boat is.”

  She ignored the sarcasm, though that was getting tough since it seemed to be his go-to tone this morning. “Why is it there?”

  “Where else should a boat be?”

  Sarcasm and snottiness. That was a powerfully unattractive combo. He was lucky he looked like that, all fit and chiseled with a healthy glow that didn’t fit the usually cloudy skies blowing over Whitaker, and had those handyman skills, or no one would talk to him. “You’re annoying.”

  He shot her one of his usual what’s-wrong-with-you scowls. “Me?”

  “I think something happened to it. The boat, I mean. It could be disabled. The people might need help.”

  “Is it possible you’re jumping to conclusions?”

  Yes, of course. Not that she’d admit that out loud.

  “No.” She recalled the mental list she put together last night when she vowed to call him if the boat still hadn’t moved this morning. The one she’d memorized in case a situation just like this happened. “It’s too close to shore. It hasn’t moved. I haven’t seen any sign of life. Not one person. And there were no lights on it last night.”

  “Wait a second.” He held up a hand, as if she didn’t know what wait meant. “You’re saying you’ve been stalking the boat since last night?”

  “Is that the point?”

  He actually snorted. “Maybe it should be.”

  The dismissive noise grated across her nerves. The guy really could use a How Not to Piss Off Your Neighbors course. “We have a harbor. There’s more than one marina on Whitaker. There’s the Yacht Club, which is right on the water. A boat could pull in there.”

  “The boat is in the water right now.” He stopped as if he were trying to make some big point before starting again. “That’s basically how boats work. You get in them and then go out on the water.”

  He grew less attractive by the second. “Are you trying to be difficult?”

  His serious expression suggested he teetered on the verge of delivering the same lecture he might give an unreasonable four-year-old. “Look—”

  “No.” She was not in the mood for him to launch into some sort of condescending male speech. Honestly, it would be far too disappointing. She’d had a thing—not serious and not really worth discussing—for Hansen since she met him, which happened approximately thirty-eight minutes after she moved to Whitaker. If it turned out he really was all-ass-all-the-time instead of just a little testy as she decided sometime during the last six weeks of knowing him, well, that was more than her very active fantasy life, which centered solely on him, could handle.

  “Okay.” He nodded, all strains of frustrated male gone as if he’d found a well of calm somewhere
in that pretty head and was dipping into it. “Let’s start over.”

  Better. It was good to know that maybe she hadn’t wasted all of that fantasy time on him.

  “Last night I was—” A blur to her right grabbed her attention. It started with a wave as the water lapped against the shoreline. Then the ripple grew into a full-grown man. He wore a business suit and walked right out of the water, head down with his dark hair hanging over his face. His movements were somewhat slowed by what had to be a hundred pounds of wet wool. He walked across the pebbled beach about thirty feet behind Hansen.

  But the big news about the drenched dude’s dramatic movie entrance was how he walked away from them without saying a word, as if all of this was perfectly normal.

  Hansen cleared his throat. “You know you stopped talking in the middle of a sentence, right?”

  “The man . . .” Good lord, how did she even describe it? Instead, she reached for Hansen’s arm and tugged and shifted until she had him turning around, facing the man who was now walking toward the line of trees that grew right up to the edge of the rocky beach. “Do you see him?”

  Hansen frowned. “Huh.”

  She stepped in front of him. “That’s the sum total of your response?”

  “It’s weird. I’ll give you that.”

  “Why are you standing here? Go get him!”

  The man disappeared into the wall of trees. Didn’t stop. Didn’t turn his head or look at them. Didn’t acknowledge them in any way.

  Once he was gone, Hansen looked down at her again. “Why?”

  “Why?” She shook him because come on. “He could be hurt.”

  Hansen had the nerve to shrug. “He looks fine.”

  “Or maybe he’s a criminal.”

  “Then why would I run after him?”

  She didn’t bother to launch into the list of reasons, the most obvious being that his best friend happened to be what counted as law enforcement on the island. “He’s getting away.”

  “Where is he going to go? We’re surrounded by water.”

  “You’re actually serious right now?” When he didn’t say anything, she tried very hard to ignore the disappointment flowing through her at Hansen not being all heroic and ready to do battle.

  Her fantasy man would have chased the stranger down.

  Just as she started to move, Hansen caught her arm. “Whoa there.”

  She didn’t even spare him a glance. “Someone has to go.”

  “Seriously?” His fingers grazed her cheek as he turned her head to face him again. “No way.”

  Instead of answering, she rolled her eyes at him.

  That drew an exaggerated male sigh out of him. “Fine. Stay here.”

  “I’m not agreeing to that.”

  Before she could get her bearings or assess how she felt about him hovering so close and resting his hand on her forearm and that sexy soft touch, he was gone. The Hansen she knew usually took his time and moved slowly. It’s part of what made him such a joy to watch. He could chug a water bottle like no one she’d ever seen, throat guzzling, firm chin up. It was quite the sight. But this version of Hansen, the athletic, racing-into-danger type? Also very good.

  Small rocks kicked up behind him as he shot across the beach, dodging stray pieces of driftwood. He moved into the crowd of trees and out of sight before her mind restarted. That didn’t stop her from trying to follow. She just reached the edge of the treeline when he popped back out again, not even breathing heavily, and how sexy was that? But he was also alone, and that part she didn’t get.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “I lost him.”

  “Not possible.”

  “Actually, it is. The trees are densely packed. Very little light gets in and there’s lots of ground cover. Once he went off the path he could hide anywhere.”

  “He was weighed down by a soaking wet business suit and probably doesn’t know the island, and he beat you?” She couldn’t fight off the wince.

  “Beat me?”

  That stunned voice wasn’t good. Apparently she’d hit on some sort of soft spot on his ego. “Wrong word?”

  He gave a stiff nod. “Yeah.”

  Since his voice sounded gruff now and he had that whole furrowed brow thing going on, she let his failure go. “Let’s find Ben.”

  “What for?”

  Good. Grief. “He’s the police guy on the island. Admittedly, he sucks at it, but still.”

  Hansen coughed. It clearly sounded fake, as if he were trying to bite back a laugh. “You think he sucks at his job?”

  This was a touchy subject for her and a dangerous one to wade into, what with the two men being friends and all. “Yes.”

  For the first time all morning, Hansen smiled and it lit up his face. “Did you tell him that?”

  “Yesterday.” She tried to beat back the warmth that spread through her at his happiness. She needed to concentrate on his refusal to see the seriousness of this situation first. “But even I can admit he needs to know if there’s some sort of merman on the island.”

  Hansen’s smile fell. “What did you just say?”

  She could only assume he’d never read a book. “Male mermaid.”

  “Nope.” He shook his head. “That’s not a thing.”

  “Which part?”

  “All. Of. It.”

  She had no idea why he was so touchy about this topic. It’s not as if she believed the wet guy really was a merman or that they really existed, but they were a thing in fiction. “Merman is a real word.”

  “I will go with you to see Ben if you promise never to say merman again.” He sneered as he said the word.

  “You’re more than a little weird, Hansen.”

  “Right back at ya.”

  Chapter 2

  The front two legs of Ben Clifford’s chair smacked against the hardwood floor as he sat forward in his desk chair. “You saw what?”

  A phone rang in the outer office of the small building hooked to the end of the library. Ben didn’t make a move to answer it. He was too busy shooting them a wide-eyed, what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about stare. Hansen thought the expression might be the funniest thing he’d seen in weeks. His usually calm, always diplomatic, hard-to-ruffle best friend looked frozen to the spot behind his big desk.

  Ben was thirty-four and had seen some scary shit as an MP in the army. He’d been in combat and right now looked like he’d rather be back there than trapped in his ten-by-ten office with the peeling green paint on the walls, facing down Tessa.

  Hansen wasn’t sure how he got tangled up in this mess of a story, but he suspected this sort of thing wasn’t all that out of the ordinary for the woman standing beside him. He couldn’t help but sneak a peek at her. He did that a lot lately. Looked, listened, imagined her legs wrapped around his waist. All things that could not happen because his stay on Whitaker was temporary and no woman should get dragged into his mess of a life.

  Still, it was hard to ignore her. Those big blue eyes and the wavy brown hair that fell just below her shoulders. He’d seen her racing around the island in shorts. Those long, lean legs always zapped his concentration. Everything about her did. Energy bounced off her. She’d been on Whitaker for six weeks and everyone knew her, liked her, and loved to talk with her.

  That shit wasn’t normal.

  “Ben needs a better description of the guy.” Tessa practically beamed up at Hansen. “I know we made that stupid deal, but can I tell him my theory?”

  “No.” The way her eyes sparkled with amusement almost derailed Hansen’s plans to get in and out of this situation and this office quickly. She wanted to say merman and he wanted to survive the next ten minutes, so no.

  It took another twenty seconds for Ben to speak. Even then his mouth dropped open and closed twice before he said anything. “Maybe he was out boating and—”

  Tessa sighed loud enough for people a hundred miles away in Seattle to hear. “I told you he wouldn’t get it.”

  Ben
leaned forward, balancing his elbows on the edge of his desk. “Get what?”

  This part . . . Yeah, Hansen had to admit he enjoyed it. Just a little.

  Whitaker was a private island, which meant a governing board ran everything. The mysterious owner of the land never spoke up, preferring to let the board handle the details instead. The board also hired Ben and tried to micromanage his every move. Never mind the fact people loved Ben—except Tessa, apparently—and his presence kept the crime rate to almost zero. The hoops he had to jump through to keep the board from calling a no-confidence vote about some new gripe every two seconds would have made most people lose their cool.

  Hansen could only imagine Ben trying to explain this case to the board. He planned to give Ben crap about that right after he figured out what was happening between Ben and Tessa. He didn’t get involved in anyone’s life but he had to know. “Apparently she questions your abilities.”

  Ben shot Tessa a quick look. “She’s made that quite clear.”

  Just as Hansen was about to ask for more details, Tessa started talking. “The unknown guy was in a suit as if he jumped off a boat in full work attire, including a tie, then washed up on the beach and kept walking. He had to see us, or at least hear us, so why walk away? Why hide from Hansen in the woods?”

  Ben made a humming sound. “I agree. It’s strange.”

  That was about as ruffled as Ben got but Tessa didn’t seem to appreciate it. “Gee, you think?”

  Rather than let them wrestle this out, Hansen stepped in. The sooner Tessa told the rest of her tale, the sooner he could get Ben alone and ask what the hell happened to set Tessa off. She was nice to everyone . . . except Ben right now.

  “Tessa also said the boat has been out there, no lights and no movement, for more than a day,” Hansen explained.

  Tessa switched her gaze from the glare she had locked on Ben since they walked in, back to Hansen. “You were listening.”

  He ignored that because the truth was he spent far too much time paying attention to her. She was impulsive and sexy, adorably cute and could talk on any subject forever. So, naturally, he wanted her. He couldn’t think straight some days because he wanted her so badly. But he wasn’t on the island to date. He still hadn’t recovered from the last time he gave a shit about anyone and was in no position to get involved . . . no matter how tempting she was.