by Jeannie Watt
“I didn’t mean to look so surprised,” he said as his expression cleared. “It’s just that, well, I haven’t been at this for too long.”
“Have you been at it long enough to take a look at my back entrance and tell me what you think?”
“Sure,” he said. “I take it you’ve been having some issues.”
“Our prep cook found a man loitering near our van when she left the other night.”
Eden led the way through the kitchen, past Patty, who was busily stirring away at the stove.
“Do you have an alarm system?”
“We never saw the need, since it’s a kitchen and there’s really nothing to steal.”
“Are any of you ever here alone at night?”
“My brother. My sister and I tend to go home at a reasonable hour.” She opened the door and said, “I thought you might just check the lighting and locks.”
Nick ran his hand over the door frame, then opened it and went outside. Eden followed him into the alley, where he closed the door and once again inspected the frame and doorknob.
“You have a sturdy door and lock. Not easy to jimmy.” He looked around the dead-end alley. The Tremont van was parked on the opposite side, and he pointed at it. “That offers a good hiding place, as do those narrow passages between the buildings.”
“Should I park the van out front?”
“Just be aware it can be used for cover.”
He took a few steps back, frowned up at the light over the door and those on the other side of the alley. “The lighting’s not bad, but staying out of the alley is probably the first line of defense. Be aware of your surroundings. Keep away from bushes and cars in the front lot, too. Don’t come and go after dark if you can help it.”
He met her eyes, his expression quite serious. “I wish I had a better answer.”
“Me, too,” Eden said, “but it’ll have to do. The city is changing.”
“Well, people are trying to fight back. That’s why I do what I do.”
“I guess so.” She took a backward step. “I appreciate you taking the time to look at this.”
“No problem. And Eden? If you have any more trouble with guys hanging around behind your building, let me know, okay?”
“You got an in with the cops?” she asked with a smile.
“Yeah,” he said seriously. “I do.”
NICK WAS GOING to have to hurt Marcus. Security. This was obviously the groundwork he’d laid. What was going on in that guy’s squirrelly brain? This was how he was going to maneuver Nick into gaining Eden’s trust? By having him evaluate the locks and lighting?
Also, Nick hadn’t planned on hiding his occupation as a cop, since he figured his reason for being there was legit enough not to raise the Tremonts’ defenses. It wasn’t as if he was asking questions about their finances. But now…it was going to look damned strange to have his “friend” Marcus saying one thing and him saying another. So he had another lie to cover.
He was going to have to find Marcus and discover the next step of the master plan so he could circumvent it.
If the accountant would even talk to him.
Maybe Nick should let Daphne shoot him, as she’d often threatened to, or maybe wing him. Just enough to put him out of action until Nick could get the information he needed.
EDEN WAS AT the computer working on menus for a new brochure, a bit ahead of schedule for a change, when the office door opened and Ian walked in. No flowers this time, but she felt like banging her head on the keyboard all the same. He was one of the best-looking men she’d ever dated. Twice. Tall, dark blond, muscular. He could get any number of women—probably women who wouldn’t care if he cheated—but no. He had to keep after her.
“I want to talk,” he said flatly. He adjusted the lapels of his wool blazer, telling Eden that he meant business. “And since you’ve been avoiding me, I came here.”
“I’ve been avoiding you because we have nothing to talk about.”
“You are absolutely wrong.” He spoke as if it was the last time he was going to say it. Eden certainly hoped so. “We have several issues to clear up. Some things you need to understand.”
“I saw you groping your friend’s wife.”
“Damn it, Eden. I was drunk. Frustrated. And she came on to me.”
Eden put a hand to her head as he spit out the classic it-wasn’t-my-fault argument. “Frustrated?” she demanded, mashing her hair down as she wondered how on earth he could possibly use that excuse. “I don’t see that you had any reason to be frustrated. It wasn’t like we didn’t—” She abruptly shut her mouth and glared at him. Finally, she said through gritted teeth, “What kind of frustration?”
There was a very long moment of silence, then Ian said, “I need variety. It’s the way I’m wired.” He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “But it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Variety?” she repeated in a deadly voice. Surely he didn’t mean… “You need to see other women.”
“You need to understand that I love you. You are the woman I want in the forefront of my life. To share the important aspects.”
Eden had no idea what he was talking about. “The what?”
“Forefront. You are number one. The woman I want to have kids with.”
She could barely believe what she was hearing. “I’m number one. But…” she sucked in a breath before saying darkly “…there are other numbers?”
“Not serious ones.”
Eden clenched her fists. “Not serious?” Her voice rose sharply.
Ian’s expression became impatient, bringing harsh lines to his handsome face. “Be realistic, Eden. It’s normal to be attracted to other people while in love with only one.”
“But you don’t have to screw them. You have been screwing them, right?”
“It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Oh, please. Don’t give me that bullshit.”
“It’s true.”
“How many other times have you done this? Worked out your frustrations elsewhere? With those who are not number one? Did you do it when we were together before?”
He glanced sideways before looking down and then back up at her.
“You’re kidding,” Eden said flatly, unemotionally, although her stomach felt like a tight fist. “You’ve been screwing around on me and then have the audacity to tell me that I get the honored position of number one?”
“It wasn’t serious,” he repeated hotly.
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I suspected that you would react this way.” He folded his arms over his chest.
“Oh, you mean you were afraid that I would take exception to being lied to and made to look like a fool.”
“That wasn’t my intention,” he said, lifting his knuckles as if to caress her cheek, calm her.
Eden automatically jerked back. “I don’t care what your intentions were,” she said between her teeth. “I only care about the outcome.”
His eyes shifted again, became thoughtfully assessing. “It’s not that I cheated on you, is it? It’s the fact that you felt foolish.”
What an idiot. “Goodbye, Ian. Take your forefront position and offer it to some other woman. Or better yet, shove it up your ass.”
He turned on his heel and stomped off. It wasn’t until the door banged shut behind him that Eden realized she hadn’t mentioned the envelope.
EDEN DROPPED BY Reggie’s house on the way home from work that night to deliver a meal. She’d made extra for herself, but wasn’t feeling all that hungry, and she didn’t particularly look forward to going back to her lonely house. Besides, Reggie was leaving in a matter of days to join Tom in France, and Eden wanted to bounce a few things off her before she left.
“I thought you had a date,” Reggie said when she answered the door. Rosemary, dressed in tiny denim overalls and a lacy pink shirt, was cradled in the crook of her arm.
“Nope. I have food,” Eden said, walking into the spotless kit
chen and setting the containers on the counter.
“When I stopped by to pick up the time sheets this afternoon, Patty told me you had a date after you made your deliveries.”
“Not a date,” Eden said, touching the baby’s cheek and watching her smile. “Patty misunderstood. It was coffee with Jason.” The former star quarterback from her cheerleading days was now the staid owner of a sporting goods store. “He called me today and wanted to talk about his divorce.” Eden let out a sigh and met her sister’s eyes. “I couldn’t do it. I canceled.”
After Ian, she didn’t want to hear about anyone’s relationship issues.
Reggie shifted the baby onto her hip. “You never cancel on Jason. You always let him pour his heart out to you.”
“Ian came by today.”
“Yeah?” Her sister went into instant protector-mode. “What did he have to say?”
“What he had to say was that I’m stupid for not allowing him to screw around.”
“Excuse me?” Reggie said, affronted.
“Yes. I am to be the front woman. The one with the house and the kids, because he loves me, you see. The other women he screws…he doesn’t love them, so it doesn’t count.”
“What a scumball.”
“Perfect assessment,” Eden said, reaching for the baby. “And I told him so.”
“So it was more than the woman at the party?” Reggie popped the lids off the containers and put them in the microwave.
“I guess it was going on while we dated the first time around, as well.”
Reggie’s hand hovered near the keypad. “No kidding.” Her arm fell to her side. “Should I even bother with the food? Are you going to be able to eat?”
Rosemary cooed and squirmed, and Eden held her closer, breathing in her sweet baby scent. “Yes,” she said adamantly. “And do you know why?”
“No.”
“Because I’m not going to let some jerk like Ian disrupt my life. Eating is a pretty big part of my world.”
Reggie pushed the button.
“You know what else?” Eden asked, rubbing her hand over the baby’s back.
“Not a clue,” Reggie said, getting two plates out of the cupboard and setting them on the table.
“I’m not going to let this jerk destroy my confidence.”
“Good.”
“I hope,” Eden amended. The truth was, as good as it felt to utter those words, her confidence was severely rattled.
When the timer dinged, her sister put the warm containers filled with fettuccine Alfredo and scampi ala marinara on the table along with serving spoons.
“The thing is,” Eden said as she filled her plate with one hand, balancing the baby on her lap with the other, “I keep dating the same kind of guy. Hell, I keep dating the same guy. Charming. Professional. Upwardly mobile. Cheating. Scheming. Lying.”
Reggie laughed, but there was a cautious edge to it.
“I need to keep an open mind. Consider all the many possibilities out there that are not Ian. Maybe I just need a wild rebound fling.”
“Maybe,” Reggie agreed.
Eden let out a sigh. “I guess what I really need is to remember that Ian is an asshole and that there are better men available.”
“The best revenge is living well,” Reggie quoted.
“Right now I’d settle for living adequately with people I can trust.”
Reggie lifted her glass of water in salute. “Here, here.”
The baby started fussing not long after Eden loaded the dishwasher, and Reggie started yawning, so Eden drove home feeling tons better after unloading to her sister.
Ian was simply an unpleasant blip on the radar. She wouldn’t allow him to be anything more.
The motion sensor light was on when she drove into her driveway, telling her that a cat must be in the vicinity. Or so she thought until she walked into the house and shut her front door. It slammed shut easily, whereas she usually had to give it a little push.
A chill chased up her spine.
Her front door closed easily only when the back door was open.
CHAPTER FOUR
EDEN TOOK A backward step, then turned and yanked the door open. She shot outside, running down the sidewalk to her car as if she was being chased—which she was, for all she knew. Blood pounded in her ears, so there was no way she could have heard a pursuer.
Thank goodness it was impossible to get her car into the garage.
She climbed inside, locked it, and only then did she chance a look at her house, half expecting someone to be staring back at her out the open front door.
Nothing. Just blackness. And both her neighbors’ houses were equally black.
The motion-sensor light clicked off automatically, making Eden jump in her seat. She sucked in a breath and dialed 911.
She was going to look kind of stupid if the back door wasn’t open, but she wasn’t checking it herself, and there was no way she was phoning Justin. He’d have to do the manly thing and investigate on his own. Someone could still be in the house, and she wasn’t going to risk her brother when she could have a trained professional handle the job.
Twenty-five minutes later a police cruiser pulled up and Eden got out of her car. She was still nervous, but nearly half an hour spent sitting on her quiet street watching her house had made her wonder if perhaps she’d jumped to a wrong conclusion. Perhaps the back door wasn’t open....
It wasn’t.
But someone had thrown a large rock through her bedroom window, creating the same effect. Eden didn’t know whether to feel vindicated or horrified. Both, perhaps. She wrapped her arms around herself as she talked to the police officer in the spare bedroom, where the big rock lay beneath the window, glass shards scattered around it.
“No one you know who’d have a reason to do this?”
“I, uh…”
“Any bad partings with friends or boyfriends? Neighborhood feuds?”
“I recently broke up with a guy, but this isn’t his style.” Although, honestly? Risky back bedroom shenanigans hadn’t seemed to be his style, either.
“Name?”
“Ian Bartelli.”
“Address?”
Eden gave his street and office addresses, then shifted uncomfortably. Her gut was shouting that this wasn’t Ian’s modus operandi…but maybe running over the envelope and then telling him what a jerk he was today had sent him over the edge.
“Are you going to talk to him?”
The officer drew in a breath that made his shoulders rise beneath his uniform, then closed his notebook. “Unless there’s a witness—” and he’d already checked with the neighbors and satisfied himself that there wasn’t “—we don’t have the manpower to run down leads on a vandalism case. I can’t make any promises.”
So that’s what she was. A vandalism case. “What if it was an attempted robbery?”
“With no witnesses, we really don’t have anything to go on.”
Eden pressed her lips together as she focused on the officer’s shoes. Shoes very much like those Nick Duncan wore. “I understand.”
“Do you have anyone you can stay with until you get this window fixed?”
“My sister.”
The officer started walking down the hall to the kitchen and Eden followed, wondering if she would ever feel safe in her home again. “Have there been other occurrences of vandalism in the area?” she asked, a little ashamed of how hopeful she sounded.
“We have a lot of this kind of stuff.” The officer spoke with both honesty and concern, which she appreciated. “You might want to invest in some better locks for your doors and windows.”
“Won’t do much good if they break the window, will it?”
“’Fraid not. A big dog might, though.”
“I’ll give that some thought.” Eden didn’t want to admit that she was kind of afraid of big dogs. Brioche, Reggie and Tom’s little dog, was about as much canine as she could handle.
The officer was kind enough to wait
the few minutes it took her to pack a change of clothes and her small jewelry box, which contained the only things she couldn’t replace if they were stolen, and then walk her to her car. She thanked him, then got in her vehicle and waited for the cruiser to disappear around the corner before she flipped an illegal U and drove in the opposite direction, hoping that everything would be still in her house when she got back.
When she was three blocks away from Reggie’s she called to ask if she could have a bed for the night. The answer would, of course, be yes, but Eden hated worrying her sister, so she’d waited as long as possible to phone.
Reggie didn’t answer the first time Eden phoned, so she tried again. This time her sister picked up on the second ring. “I was sleeping. Sorry.”
“No. I’m sorry,” Eden said. Sorry she was adding worry into her sister’s life. “I’m almost at your house, and I need a bed for the night. Okay?”
“What’s wrong.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Just…I’ll tell you when I get there.”
“How far away are you?”
“Pulling into the drive.”
Reggie had the back door open by the time Eden turned off her car. She locked the doors and walked up to Reggie and Brioche, who were waiting for her. Instead of moving aside so Eden could come in, Reggie stood in the doorway.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Someone threw a rock through my back window. The police have been there and we agreed that I should sleep somewhere else tonight.”
Her mouth had fallen open almost as soon as Eden started her explanation, and now she snapped it shut. “Of course you shouldn’t sleep there. And you didn’t call Justin, did you?”
“I’m not stupid,” Eden muttered as Reggie shut and locked the door, then turned the dead bolt. Eden set the jewelry box on the counter where she’d put the food containers earlier that evening, and dropped the plastic grocery bag with her extra clothing on a chair. For a moment they stood staring at each other across a few feet of tile, then Eden rubbed her cold hands together. “The police officer thinks it was just a random thing.”
