Hidden Talents

incredulous.
    “No. At least not the way you are. I'm in control. I can view this situation much more objectively than you can.”
    Serenity leaped to her feet. “How can you say that after what happened between us last night?”
    He glanced at her, surprised. “That has nothing to do with this.”
    “Nothing to do with it? It has everything to do with it. I can't believe I'm hearing this.” She pointed toward the bedroom. “I was not alone in there last night.”
    “I'm aware of that.”
    “And it's your family that's being blackmailed.” Serenity folded her arms beneath her breasts and regarded him with grim triumph. “Don't try to tell me you're not emotionally involved right up to your eyebrows.”
    “Damn it, I'm trying to take an intelligent, logical, pragmatic approach to this problem.”
    “So take it. But don't try to tell me you're not emotionally involved. And don't try to tell me that one of my friends is a murderer or a blackmailer. Because I refuse to believe it.”
    Caleb's mouth twisted derisively. “Have you ever met a blackmailer?”
    “Well, no,” Serenity admitted, annoyed by his condescending tone. “But somehow I think I'd know one if I saw one.”
    “Yeah? What would he look like?”
    “Well, for starters, he'd be a weasely looking character with shifty eyes and very low self-esteem.”
    “This isn't a joke,” Caleb said through set teeth. “Someone is deliberately trying to rake up my past, and that person is using you to do it. He or she may have killed Asterley in order to do it. I want to know what's going on here in quaint, picturesque Witt's End.”
    Serenity sighed. “I know you want answers. I want them, too.”
    “We're going to get them.”
    “How?”
    “I think the first step is to take another look through Asterley's files,” Caleb said. “Jessie hasn't moved them out of the cabin yet, has she?”
    “No. She told me yesterday that she got the photo equipment out, but not the file cabinets. She doesn't have a place to store them. But what would we be looking for in those old files?”
    “I'm not sure.” The sound of a car in the drive made Caleb glance toward the window. “Who the hell is that at this hour of the morning?”
    “I have no idea.” Serenity turned and started for the door.
    “Hold it.” Caleb glowered at her. “What do you think you're doing? You're in your bathrobe.”
    Serenity glanced down at her attire. “For heaven's sake, I'm perfectly decent.”
    “No, you're not.” His gaze raked her from the top of her tousled head to the toes of her slippered feet. For an instant the icy control vanished from his eyes. In its place was a searing glimpse of remembered passion. “You look like you just got out of bed.”
    Serenity burned beneath his gaze. She was suddenly breathless. “Not emotionally involved, huh?”
    “Go get dressed,” he growled. “I'll see who's at the door.”
    Serenity threw her hands up in the air. “Okay, okay. I'll go get dressed. Are you always like this in the mornings?”
    “Only on days when I wake up to discover that someone's trying to blackmail a member of my family and that the lady I'm sleeping with has a habit of answering her front door dressed in her bathrobe.”
    “You know what your problem is, Caleb?”
    “Yeah. I'm old-fashioned, straitlaced, boring, and conventional.”
    “Wrong on one count,” Serenity said. “You're not boring. You're never boring.” She hurried down the hall to the bedroom before he could respond.
    Outside in the drive a car door slammed. The visitor knocked on the front door of the cottage just as Serenity pulled on a close-fitting purple turtleneck and a pair of green leggings. Caleb's low-voiced greeting held a note of challenge.
    “Can I help you?” The words were civil but his tone did not convey any great desire to be of assistance.
    “Who the hell are you?” Lloyd Radburn asked, sounding startled.
    Just what she needed this morning, Serenity thought as she hastily fastened a tie-dyed, jagged-hemmed skirt around her waist.
    “Lloyd?” Serenity yelled down the hall. “Is that you?”
    “Sure is, Serenity love,” Lloyd called back. “Just thought I'd drop by and see how things were going. Wanted to go over a few of the details of my project with you.”
    Serenity groaned silently as she walked back down the hall to the living room. She took one look at Caleb's face and knew that things were going to be a bit dicey for the next few minutes. She turned