Gabrielle glanced at her friend as she slipped the check into her purse. "What do you mean?"
Jamie finished munching a shard of broken fortune cookie, then brushed the crumbs off his fingers. "Well, once I arrive at the address they gave me - one of those corporate suite places, with multiple tenants - I'm met in the lobby by some kind of bodyguard. He doesn't say anything to me, just mumbles something into a wireless mouthpiece, then leads me into an elevator that takes us up to the top floor of the building."
Megan's brows rose. "The penthouse?"
"Yeah. But here's the thing. The place is empty. All the lights are on in the suite, but there are no people inside. No furniture, no equipment, nothing. Just walls of windows, looking out over the city."
"That's bizarre. Don't you think so, Gabby?"
She nodded, a creeping sense of unease spreading over her as Jamie continued.
"So, the bodyguard tells me to take the first photograph out of the portfolio and walk it over to the north bank of windows. It's dark outside, and I've got my back to him now, but he tells me that I am to hold each photo up in front of me until he instructs me to put it aside and get another."
Megan laughed. "With your back to him? Why would he want you to do that?"
"Because the buyer was watching from another location," Gabrielle answered softly. "Somewhere in view of the penthouse windows."
Jamie nodded. "Apparently so. I couldn't hear anything, but I'm sure the bodyguard - or whatever he was - was taking directions through his earpiece. To tell you the truth, I was getting a little nervous about the whole thing, but it was cool. In the end, no harm done. All they wanted were your photographs. I only made it to the fourth one before they asked me for a price on all of them. So, like I said, I pitched high and they took it."
"Weird," Megan remarked. "Hey, Gab, maybe you've caught the interest of a devastatingly handsome, but reclusive, billionaire. This time next year, we could be dancing at your lavish wedding on Mykonos."
"Ugh, please," Jamie gasped. "Mykonos is so last year. All the pretty people are in Marbella, darling."
Gabrielle shook off the odd niggle of wariness that was gnawing at her from Jamie's strange account. Like he said, no harm done, and she had a fat check in her purse besides. Maybe she would treat Lucan to dinner, since the meal she'd made in celebration last night went to waste on her kitchen counter.
Not that she could summon the slightest bit of remorse for the loss of her manicotti.
Yeah, a romantic dinner out with Lucan sounded great. Hopefully, they'd have dessert in... breakfast, too.
Her mood instantly lightened, Gabrielle laughed along as her friends continued trading outlandish ideas about who the mysterious collector might actually be, and what it could mean to her future and by association, theirs as well. They were still at it after the table was cleared and the bill was paid, and the three of them exited the restaurant to the sunlit street outside.
"I have to dash," Megan said, giving Gabrielle and Jamie each a quick hug. "See you guys soon?"
"Yes," the two replied in unison, waving as Megan started up the sidewalk toward the office building where she worked.
Jamie raised his hand to hail a cab. "You heading right home, Gabby?"
"No, not yet." She patted the camera case that hung from her shoulder. "I thought I'd walk over to the Common, maybe burn a little film for a while. You?"
"David's due back from Atlanta in about an hour," he said, smiling. "I'm playing hooky for the rest of the day. Maybe tomorrow, too."
Gabrielle laughed. "Give him my best."
"I will." He leaned in and bussed her cheek. "It's good to see you smiling again. I was really worried about you after last weekend. I've never seen you so shook up. You're gonna be all right, right?"
"Yes. I'm fine, really."
"And you have Detective Dark-and-Sexy looking after you now, so that's not half bad."
"No. That's not bad at all," she admitted, warmed again just thinking about him.
Jamie embraced her in a brotherly hug. "Well, honey, if there's anything you need that he can't give you - which I highly doubt - you just give me a call, you understand? I love you, sweetie."
"Love you, too." They separated as a taxi pulled up to the curb. "Have fun with David." She lifted her hand to wave goodbye as Jamie climbed into the cab and the car eased back into the busy lunchtime traffic.
It took only a few minutes to walk the handful of blocks from Chinatown to the park at Boston Common. Strolling along the expansive grounds, Gabrielle snapped off a few photographs, then paused to observe a group of children playing blindman's bluff in a grassy picnic area. She watched the girl in the center of the game, eyes covered with a blindfold, her blond pigtails bouncing as she spun first one way, then another, her hands outstretched as she tried to tag her dodging friends.
Gabrielle lifted her camera and lined up a shot of the darting, giggling kids. She zoomed in, following the fair-haired girl's blindfolded face with her lens, hearing the peals of laughter that fell from the children's lips and carried across the park. She didn't take any pictures, just watched the carefree play from behind her camera and tried to remember a time when she might have felt so content and secure.
God, had she ever?
One of the adults supervising the kids from nearby summoned them to lunch, breaking up their raucous game. As the children dashed over to the picnic blanket to eat, Gabrielle swung her camera's focus back across the Common. In the blur of movement through the lens, she glimpsed someone looking back at her from within the shade of a large tree.