Eye of the Beholder Read online

  ACCLAIM FOR JAYNE ANN KRENTZ’S SPLENDID NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS

  EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

  “The prolific Krentz…once again demonstrates her knack for page-turning plots that masterfully inveigle and misdirect readers up to a surprising denouement.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “In the eye of the romance reader, Jayne Ann Krentz remains one of the great authors of the decade…. This wonderful writer always provides an entertaining story. Readers will relish the exciting story line. The lead protagonists are a warm, intrepid duo.”

  —barnesandnoble.com

  “Krentz weaves her magic in this exciting and passionate tale. She leads us into a maze of puzzles and adventures which we don’t want to end. Read, absorb, and enjoy.”

  —Rendezvous

  “[A] fun-filled and sensational tale by the incomparable Jayne Ann Krentz. Ms. Krentz is batting a thousand.”

  —Romantic Times

  FLASH

  “Once again, Jayne Ann Krentz brings wit and intelligence to her distinctive, sure-fire recipe for contemporary romantic suspense…. As always, Krentz pairs two equally strong people, endowing them with just enough quirks to make them real, and provides plenty of plot twists to keep her story humming. Flash is romantic suspense of the highest order.”

  —amazon.com

  “Flash glitters and glows with all of Jayne Ann Krentz’s patented humor and spice. Chalk up another winner for this perennial favorite.”

  —Romantic Times

  “[A] dazzling tale…. With superb style and skill, Krentz creates a series of false trails that cloak the identity of the threat… until the final, dramatic unveiling. This new element of suspense, plus Krentz’s trademark family squabbles and strong characters, will thrill her fans.”

  —Booklist

  “Flash has everything a reader could want—mystery, romance, humor, murder, and blackmail…. The final pages bring a surprising twist.”

  —The Southern Pines Pilot (NC)

  SHARP EDGES

  “A fast-paced mystery.”

  —Chicago Tribune

  “Entertaining…. The dialogue cuts through with… sarcasm and snappy double entendres.”

  —People

  “A fast-paced, sexy, romantic mystery… with dangerous and passionate results.”

  —Library Journal

  “A little mystery, a little romance, a lot of fun.”

  —Minneapolis Star Tribune

  “[A] brisk tale…. A risky time is had by all. And a good time is had by the reader.”

  —Associated Press

  DEEP WATERS

  “Krentz, who sets the standard for mystery romance… has the perfect inscrutable hero, spunky heroine and dauntless pet.”

  —Detroit Free Press

  ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY

  “[A] cheerful escapist package combining sex and mystery.”

  —Cosmopolitan

  TRUST ME

  “The pace is brisk and the high-tech gloss fun.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  AND PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF JAYNE ANN KRENTZ WRITING AS JAYNE CASTLE

  ORCHID

  “[A] terrifically sexy romance…. With her typically offbeat humor and flair, Castle takes a pair of powerful, ‘unmatchable’ protagonists, sets them down in her innovative, synergistic world of St. Helen’s, and gives them a mystery to solve, villains to outwit, and a passion to explore.”

  —Library Journal

  ZINNIA

  “One of the best futuristic romance[s] to come along…. A touching love story that will enthrall readers until the very last page.”

  —Affaire de Coeur

  AMARYLLIS

  “Superb…. Charming…. The climax is a stunner. As always, this multitalented author has penned a work that is sure to please.”

  —The Gothic Journal

  Books by Jayne Ann Krentz

  The Golden Chance

  Silver Linings

  Sweet Fortune

  Perfect Partners

  Family Man

  Wildest Hearts

  Hidden Talents

  Grand Passion

  Trust Me

  Absolutely, Positively

  Deep Waters

  Sharp Edges

  Flash

  Eye of the Beholder

  By Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Jayne Castle

  Amaryllis

  Zinnia

  Orchid

  Published by POCKET BOOKS

  For orders other than by individual consumers, Pocket Books grants a discount on the purchase of 10 or more copies of single titles for special markets or premium use. For further details, please write to the Vice President of Special Markets, Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10020-1586.

  For information on how individual consumers can place orders, please write to Mail Order Department, Simon & Schuster Inc., 100 Front Street, Riverside, NJ 08075.

  The sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as “unsold and destroyed.” Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for the sale of this “stripped book.”

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 1999 by Jayne Ann Krentz

  Originally published in hardcover in 1999 by Pocket Books

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  ISBN: 0-671-52307-4

  ISBN: 978-0-6715-2307-7

  eISBN: 978-1-4391-4139-7

  First Pocket Books paperback printing December 1999

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  Cover illustration by Tom Hallman

  Cover lettering by Jim Lebbad

  Book design by Irva Mandelbaum

  Printed in the U.S.A.

  QB/

  This one is for Alberta Castle,

  the best mother in the world.

  And she just happens to be my mother.

  Thanks for everything, Mom!

  PROLOGUE

  Avalon, Arizona

  Twelve years earlier…

  He swept into the house out of the hot desert night, an avenging warlock from the dark canyons carrying thunder and lighting in his fists.

  Alexa froze at the top of the stairs when she heard his voice in the hall. Her sudden stillness was instinctive, the immediate, elemental reaction of any creature to the presence of a potential predator.

  “I don’t know whether it was you or Guthrie who killed my father, Kenyon,” he said. “Hell, for all I know, the two of you planned it together.”

  The night was warm, but Alexa shivered in the shadows above the hall. John Laird Trask was young, somewhere in his early twenties, but the taut control he exerted over his icy rage would have done credit to a man twice his age.

  “You listen to me, son, and you listen good.” Lloyd Kenyon spoke with a calm authority that reverberated with an underlying sympathy. “No one murdered your father. Once you’ve had a chance to cool down and think about it, you’ll accept the facts. It was a tragic accident.”

  “Bullshit. Dad was a good driver, and he knew that road. H
e didn’t go off Avalon Point by accident. One of you forced him over the edge.”

  Alexa felt suddenly lightheaded. A strange, unfamiliar panic left her fighting for breath. Trask was threatening Lloyd. He was not only a much younger man, he was even bigger than Lloyd, who still had plenty of bulk and muscle left over from the days when he had run construction crews.

  Her anxiety for Lloyd’s safety took her by surprise. Until tonight she would have sworn that she had no strong personal attachment to him. She and her mother had moved in with him eighteen months ago following her parents’ divorce. She had been careful to keep a cool distance between herself and this very large, unexciting, rock-steady businessman Vivien had married; careful to make sure Lloyd understood that he could never take the place of the charismatic hero who had been her real father.

  It had been a year since Crawford Chambers had been killed by a sniper’s bullet. He had been halfway around the world at the time, photographing the latest in the long list of small, brutal civil wars that had made him a legend in journalism circles.

  Crawford had been everything that Lloyd was not, a rakish, dashing, larger-than-life figure who lived life on the edge.

  Her father would have been able to deal with Trask, Alexa thought. But staid, steady, unflappable Lloyd probably didn’t stand a chance.

  Trask’s accusations were nothing but crazy talk, she told herself. Lloyd would never harm anyone.

  She had to get to the phone.

  The nearest instrument was at the foot of the stairs. With an enormous effort of will, she fought through the temporary paralysis. She went silently, cautiously, down the steps.

  “It was raining that night.” Lloyd’s voice was calm, infused with reason. “This is what we call our monsoon season. Downpours are common. That stretch of the road is treacherous. Everyone around here knows that. I’ve always said that portion of Cliff Drive should be closed during a storm.”

  “The rain had passed by the time Dad got into the car,” Trask said. “I checked with the cops.”

  “The roads were still wet. Even the best driver can make a mistake.”

  “This was no mistake,” Trask said. “I know all about the partnership between the three of you. And I know about the offer from that hotel chain. Dad was murdered because someone wanted him out of the way.”

  Alexa realized he believed every word he said. She knew that he was wrong, at least about Lloyd. But Trask was clearly convinced that his father had been murdered.

  She sensed her mother’s presence on the steps behind her. She glanced over her shoulder. Vivien’s fine-boned, ascetic face was taut with anxiety as she listened to the two men quarrel.

  “You think I was involved in some kind of bizarre conspiracy to kill your father?” Lloyd’s voice rose in disbelief. “That’s outrageous.”

  “I looked through some of Dad’s papers this afternoon. I heard about the quarrel at the country club the night he died. It didn’t take me long to put it all together.”

  “Business partners sometimes disagree. It’s a fact of life, son.”

  “That argument was more than a disagreement. I talked to the bartender at the club. He said the three of you nearly came to blows.”

  “Guthrie gets a little hotheaded when he drinks,” Lloyd admitted. “But I restrained him. There was no physical stuff.”

  “Maybe not then. But you and Guthrie knew that Dad would never agree to sell the Avalon Mansion property to that chain. So one of you found a way to get rid of him.”

  “Damn it, I’ve had enough.” Lloyd’s voice hardened. “I’m trying to be patient. I know you’ve had a hellish few days, and I know you’ve got a lot of responsibility to shoulder. But you’re going too far here.”

  “Believe me, Kenyon, I haven’t even started.”

  “You’re going to have to get your priorities straight, Trask. You’ve got your brother to think about. He’s only seventeen, and you’re all the family that boy has left in the world.”

  “Thanks to you or Guthrie.”

  “That’s a damn lie. When you come to your senses and calm down, you’ll see that. Meanwhile, you’d better start thinking about the future. You’ve got your work cut out.”

  “Don’t talk to me about my work, you son-of-a-bitch.”

  “Someone better talk to you about it. You’re going to have to get through the fallout from your father’s bankruptcy and take care of your brother at the same time. That’s a man-sized job. You need to get focused and stay that way. You can’t afford to waste your energy chasing a wild conspiracy fantasy.”

  “I don’t need you to tell me what I have to do, Kenyon. I’ll take care of Nathan, and I’ll take care of myself. But one day I’ll find out what really happened at Avalon Point the night Dad died.”

  Alexa reached the bottom of the stairs. Neither man noticed her. They were intent only on each other. Lloyd had his back to her as he confronted Trask.

  This was the first time she had seen John Laird Trask in person. She knew from what Lloyd had said that his family came from Seattle. It had been Harry Trask’s plan to restore the old Avalon Mansion and turn it into a destination resort. The project had brought him to Arizona on a frequent and regular basis during the past year. His two sons had remained in Seattle.

  Alexa paid little attention to Lloyd’s business affairs even though he managed the inheritance she had received from her grandmother. As a result, she knew almost nothing about Harry Trask and even less about his sons.

  But after tonight she knew that she would never forget John Laird Trask.

  From where she stood she could see him looming in the hall, taking up far too much space. The warm glow of the overhead fixture did nothing to soften the sinister angles of his face and jaw. She could feel the energy waves of his fury.

  She was only a step away from the phone now. She took a deep breath, stretched out her hand, and picked up the receiver.

  “If you don’t go away right now, Mr. Trask, I’m going to call the police,” she said with a fierceness that startled her as much as it did everyone else.

  Both men swung around to stare at her, but it was Trask’s relentless green-gold gaze that riveted her. For an instant she could not move. Her hand clenched around the phone.

  “It’s all right, Alexa.” Lloyd’s face gentled as he looked at her standing there with the phone clutched in her hand. “Everything is under control. Trask is leaving now. Isn’t that right, Trask?”

  Trask continued to watch Alexa for another second or two, as if assessing both her and her threat. Abruptly he turned away, dismissing her with a cold disdain that sent another chill through her.

  “Yeah, I’m going now, Kenyon,” he said. “But one day I’ll come back for the truth. And when I do, someone will pay. Count on it.”

  Without another word, he walked out into the night.

  A startling silence gripped the entire house for a few endless seconds.

  Then Lloyd exhaled deeply and quietly closed the front door. He turned to give Alexa a reassuring smile.

  “Don’t worry, he didn’t mean any of that nonsense.”

  She thought about the pitiless determination she had seen in Trask’s eyes. “Yes, he did.”

  Outside a pickup truck engine roared to life.

  Vivien came slowly down the stairs. “He sounded very serious, Lloyd. Do you think he might come back to cause trouble?”

  “Nah. That was the pain of a young man who has just lost his father talking.” Lloyd put his arm around his wife. He looked at Alexa with perceptive eyes. “You know what he’s going through, don’t you, honey?”

  The phone buzzed. Alexa realized that she still held the receiver in a death grip. Slowly she replaced it. “Yes,” she said. “I guess I know how he feels.”

  “He was just lashing out at the nearest target and I was it.” Lloyd shook his head. “Trask has got some tough times ahead of him. His father was a great one for dreaming up projects, but he wasn’t much good at the bottom line.
He left his finances in a shambles. And then there’s young Nathan to worry about.”

  “Do you think that Trask will be able to handle things?” Vivien asked uneasily. “He’s only twenty-three years old.”

  “He’ll be okay.” Lloyd raised his bushy gray brows. “But I’ll contact the lawyer who’s handling Harry’s estate in the morning and see what I can do about arranging some financial assistance.”

  Alexa hugged herself and listened to the pickup roar off into the night. “Trask won’t take your money, Lloyd.”

  “After he calms down and realizes what he’s up against, he’ll see that it’s the only reasonable thing to do,” Lloyd said.

  “No.” Alexa thought about the savage determination that had blazed in Trask’s eyes. “He won’t accept any help from you or anyone else.”

  “Thank heavens he’s gone,” Vivien whispered. “I don’t mind telling you that he scared me.”

  “Once young Trask is back in Seattle he’ll settle down and get on with his life,” Lloyd said.

  Alexa stared at him. In the short time she had known him, she had learned that he was usually quite accurate when it came to judging people. She was amazed by his failure to comprehend the obvious.

  “You’re wrong,” she said. “He’s gone for now. But he’ll come back someday.”

  1

  Seattle, Washington

  The present…

  “Damn it, this isn’t about opening another hotel, JL, it’s about your obsession with revenge.” Nathan planted his hands on the polished glass surface of the desk and scowled at Trask through the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses. “This is about what happened to Dad all those years ago. Admit it.”

  “For the last time, I’m going to Avalon on company business.” Trask leaned back in the gray leather chair and steepled his fingers. “I thought I’d made that clear.”

  Only Nathan still called him by the initials, JL. To the rest of the company and the world he was simply Trask, president and CEO of Avalon Resorts, Inc. It had been that way for five years, ever since he had left his position with Carrington-Towne Hotels to go out on his own.