“I have to know him.” Lara stopped at the bottom of the stairs and then whirled and headed for the front door. “And I don’t feel like going up there and picking out some fancy suite. I want to look over the grounds, and then I’m going to take another glance at that thorn-jungle we drove through to get here.”

“Why?”

“I don’t like that Tanner was stressing how difficult he found it. Maybe it was a warning. And I should know how to get out of here if we need to. If I study it, it might not be that hard.”

“And then it might. It would be humiliating if I had to ask Tanner to go rescue you. You’d hate it.”

Lara smiled. “Which is why I wouldn’t let it get to that point. I’d be certain I could do it before I made an attempt. And I’d have to have a good reason.” She opened the door. “I’ll be fine. I’m just taking a look around. I’ll see you later.”

“See that you do. And not much later.”

“Right.” Lara closed the door and looked around her. Beautiful blossoms, perfect order, lush greenery…but that wasn’t what she was looking for. She wanted to see what was beneath all that perfection. She headed for the tall stone wall in the distance…

*  *  *

“Are you going to jump down on the other side? Or are you going to make me climb up on that wall and get you?”

Lara looked down from where she was sitting on the top of the stone wall to see Tanner in the garden below her. He didn’t look pleased, and she automatically braced herself. Then she forced herself to relax her muscles. “You don’t have to come up, I was finished here. I just wanted to take another look around.” She started to climb down the wall. “I wasn’t going anywhere. I would have taken Maria with me if I’d decided to do that.”

“That’s what I told Rennell, but he thought that if you were at all important, I might want to keep you from tearing yourself up on those bushes.” He lifted her down the last few feet to the ground. “Next time I won’t follow his advice.”

“Rennell?” She looked around and spotted him leaning against a maple tree about a hundred yards away. “I didn’t see him following me.”

“Because he didn’t want you to see him. He watched you for a while and then got nervous when you climbed the wall.”

“I wouldn’t have cared if I’d known,” she said. “I just wanted to know if I’d have as hard a time as you did on foot down there.”

“And you decided you would?”

“There’s a good chance. Those thorns look nasty. What kind of bushes are they?”