Bleary eyed, she answered the door to Zach’s knock early the following morning.
“You have a key,” she said after greeting him.
“It’s your house.” His tone was, at best, matter of fact.
She sighed. “It is my house, which is why I gave you a key.”
“Is Austin up?”
So that’s the way it was going to be. “Not yet, but he’s stirring. You get him while I make breakfast.”
Over the monitor in the kitchen, she could hear the interaction between father and son. Austin happily babbled away. She should be pleased that they had such a good relationship. Instead, she felt excluded since Zach was blocking her out. She poured pancake batter onto the griddle in perfect circles, controlling her motions as she tried to control her feelings.
“Mama,” Austin greeted her when Zach carried him into the kitchen.
“Hi, baby.” She went to her son, taking him in her arms and ignoring the tingle that raced through her when she brushed against Zach. “Ready for pancakes?”
While Zach cut Austin’s food into kid-sized bites, she noticed that Zach had changed his clothes while upstairs and tried to decide what that meant. It was probably just an indication that he needed to get to work soon.
“Coffee?” she asked as she put Austin in his high chair.
“I’ll get it,” he responded without looking at her.
Since she wanted breakfast to seem as normal as possible for Austin, she talked about how Austin was going to his grandma’s house today while she had a meeting at the store with the insurance adjusters. Zach contributed almost nothing to the conversation. The few things he said were directed at Austin.
They’d barely finished eating when Zach declared he had to go. She carried Austin to the door to wave bye-bye to Daddy and saw Zach’s duffel bag sitting in the foyer. He was moving out the few items he’d moved in, sending her a clear message. Whatever was between them was over without any discussion. She met his eyes over the top of Austin’s head and knew she couldn’t keep the hurt out of hers.
“I’ll be back later to see Austin,” Zach said, as if that made it all better.
She only nodded and held perfectly still when Zach kissed Austin goodbye and left. Fortunately, their son was too young to pick up on the tension between his parents—because it had been extreme. Not what she needed when she was facing a business in ruins and a saboteur.
“Mama needs to get ready for the day,” she said to Austin. Upstairs, she applied makeup to cover up the sleepless night and put on her favorite dress, a magenta one with a tucked waist and full skirt. She opted for practical flats because of the fire scene, but she needed clothing to be her armor today.
In All That Sparkles’ office, remarkably untouched by the fire, she made phone calls to suppliers and customers explaining about the fire and assuring them that it would be business as usual again as soon as possible. In the afternoon, the insurance adjuster arrived, an experience she dreaded since he had been at her store just weeks ago following the robbery.
Her worry grew when the adjuster walked through the rubble, taking notes and saying nothing. She tried to ask a few questions, but his answers were brief or unhelpful, so she waited.
“Ms. Evert,” he finally said, “I have serious concerns about paying on this incident.”
“The fire inspector said—”
He cut her off. “My company received his preliminary report, and we agree that it was arson.”
“So what’s the problem?” Why were they acting as if she were guilty of something?
The inspector shuffled through a stack of papers and pulled out a sheet. “We’re aware of the amount of debt the business is currently carrying.”
The paper was a balance sheet from the previous month, showing just how little was left after she met expenses. Full disclosure required her to report that to her insurer, but she didn’t see what her debt had to do with paying on her claim. “Remodeling the store was costly, and rotating debt is typical of the jewelry business as we buy and sell merchandise.”
“I’m aware of the nature of your business, but your debt is enough to trigger an internal audit and raise suspicions.”
She suddenly saw where this was going. “Are you suggesting that I caused this?” She waved her hand at the burnt-out remains of her showroom.
“It’s been known to happen. A business gets in financial trouble and—”
“I am not in financial trouble,” she insisted. “My cash flow is tight, I’ll admit that, but I’m not desperate. I intend to repair and reopen the store as quickly as possible.” She didn’t add how much All That Sparkles meant to her. It was more than a business. It was the company her mother had poured everything into and entrusted to Carolyn to take into the future.
“We’ll wait for the final report on the fire and the police investigation before issuing any kind of payment,” the adjuster concluded.
With relief, she escorted the adjuster out the temporary, plywood front door. As he drove away, she turned to survey the exterior. Other than the blown-out glass and some smoke damage to the bricks, the building had held and passed a safety inspection. At least she didn’t have the worry of a structural problem.
As she was turning to re-enter the building, a hard metal object was pressed to the small of her back. She stiffened, having no doubt it was a gun. How had she not noticed someone on the street?
“Open the door and get inside,” a male voice commanded in her ear, his breath hot on her neck.
The thought that this was a simple robbery never crossed her mind. This was the person responsible for the sabotage, which meant he was willing to kill. Knowing her life depended on it, she went through the door. Inside, she whirled around to face the man, putting a little distance between them and keeping her hands clear. Her heart was racing with fear, but on the surface, she remained calm.
She studied the intruder, taking in little details about him. A narrow scar ran from his right ear to his chin. He limped slightly, favoring his left leg as he prowled back and forth in front of her. She searched her memory. Those two things together added up to someone she’d met. But where?
“I know you,” she said, opening the conversation.
“I’ve been here before, talked to you on the phone even.”
The cadence of his voice filled in the blank for her. “You work for my IT company.” He’d been one of the techs who had come to set up equipment for them after the remodel.
“Very good, princess,” he snarled. “What’s my name?”
She searched her memory. Dan? No. Dale. She didn’t think he’d ever given his last name, but she couldn’t shake the idea that she knew him in some other way. She’d seen him more recently, but in what capacity? The memory of an image she’d seen during her online research came to her. Except it wasn’t him. It was someone he resembled. She took a guess. “You’re Dale. Dale Huntly.” The son of her mother’s former partner. Carolyn’s instinct had been right. The sabotage was connected with Marta Huntly. It was a hollow victory, considering he had a gun pointed straight at her.
“Smarter than I thought you were, princess,” he said.
“You’re the one trying to destroy my business?” She wanted the truth from him.
He smiled, a terrible smile. “How’s it feel to finally face me?”
Raw anger was how it felt, she wanted to yell at him, but she needed to buy some time so she could plan how to get away from him. Her mind was drawing a blank, too dominated by fear and loathing.
“The robbery?” she questioned to get him talking.
“Yeah, I started with that. Robberies look bad to customers. I thought you’d take a hit there. Damn druggie I hired screwed that all up, but you finished him off for me. Thanks for tying up my loose end.”
She wanted to shiver at his gratitude. “And the orders and email? That must have been easy for you, considering your access to my accounts.”
“Sure. I just did a little dancing around
in the coding to hide my tracks. Since I work with morons, I didn’t think they’d be able to track it back to me. I was right until you sent in the expert.” His expression changed to one more sinister.
“Steve?”
“Yeah, the guy knows his shit. He was closing in on me, but I got a little revenge.”
“Against him?” She hoped not. Zach’s friend was doing her a favor.
“You, princess. It’s all about getting you and yours. Just so you know, I rearranged your employees’ direct deposits and transferred money out of your accounts. Going to clean you out.” He seemed to feel a sense of triumph. “But the fire was the best. It was fun watching it burn.”
He’d been in the crowd, then. She’d done some reading about arson and had seen that the arsonist usually enjoyed watching their work.
“At first I was hoping you were the one in the building,” he continued, “but it was your sister. Then I decided that seemed fitting. Too bad, she lived.”
Carolyn’s fear was dissipating, and she’d mastered her anger, even in the face of his comment about Charlotte. She needed to be calm, to face him as an adversary as she’d learned in all her years of martial arts training. Anger would solve nothing. Control and mastery of her movements were all that mattered.
“You haven’t said why,” she said, keeping her voice bland. “Why target me and my store?”
“Your mama didn’t explain it to you?”
“I know our mothers were in business together, and they dissolved it.” She didn’t bring up that his mother had been sleeping with her father.
“Screwed her over is more like it.” His tone became belligerent. “Stole the business right out from under her.”
“I—I’m sorry to hear that,” Carolyn said instead of objecting to the falsehood.
“Do you know what that did to her?” Dale kept rolling up on the balls of his feet and back down as he spoke, putting himself off balance. She might be able to take advantage of that.
“Tell me,” she invited softly.
“No one would hire her, and she had me and Gloria to raise. We lived on nothing, while you and your sister had everything you wanted. Regular little princesses.”
That wasn’t true, but he seemed to believe it. Had his mother fed him a steady stream of lies about her family?
“She went to your mother once,” Dale continued, “asking for help, and she told her to go away—threatened to call the police on her and have me and my sister taken away. We hid for a couple years after that.”
Faith had no love for Marta after breaking up her marriage, but she’d never denied a person in need, especially children. Carolyn didn’t believe that incident had ever happened.
“And then Gloria died.”
“That’s too bad,” Carolyn said, sympathetically. “She must have been young.”
“Nineteen. She had cancer, and we couldn’t afford the treatments.” He waved the gun at Carolyn again, his finger poised over the trigger. “That’s your family’s fault, all of it. Gloria’s death and Mama’s. They died because your mother took everything away from us.”
His conclusions weren’t rational. Her family had nothing to do with their misfortunes, but his mother must have painted a very different picture. Carolyn imagined her being an embittered woman after losing her friend and business partner. And, of course, Carolyn’s father had left Marta, too, adding to the problem. Marta had felt abandoned and placed the blame on Carolyn’s family. Marta had poisoned her son with lies that he’d internalized, apparently going over the edge after his mother’s death. He’d been planning this for a while, she realized with a shiver.
She heard her phone ring from the office. She’d left it there while talking to the adjuster. The buzzing seemed to spark something in Dale. His eyes gleamed with hatred and fanaticism.
“Now it’s time to even the score.”
16
Zach drove back to Carolyn’s house that afternoon feeling like an asshole. He owed her an apology, a big one. The fact had nagged at him throughout the sleepless night and all day at work. His supervisor had even sent him home an hour early because he wasn’t focusing. Zach hadn’t bothered to argue the point, because the man was right. He didn’t have his head on straight and would be a liability if the security company had a call he needed to respond to.
He could have said something to Carolyn over breakfast that morning, but he hadn’t known what to do. He was upset with her for putting herself in danger. He couldn’t deny that, but suggesting she was anything like his mother was beyond the pale. He only hoped she would forgive him, even if it meant groveling. He’d do it. Being on the outside of her and Austin’s life was no place to be.
He grabbed his phone off the seat next to him when it rang, hoping it was Carolyn. Disappointment hit him when he saw Steve’s name on his screen.
“Hey, Steve,” he answered as he turned onto Carolyn’s street.
“I’ve got some new intel on that name you gave me. Dale Huntly,” Steve reported.
“Yeah, what?” Zach had filled Steve in about any possible lead, including the history with the Huntly family. A little digging around had netted that the son’s name was Dale.
“Dale Huntly works for All That Sparkles’ IT company. He’s been there for about nine months. Records show that he helped install tech at the store, and he had access to their email and other accounts. Strange coincidence, if you ask me.”
It could be a coincidence, but Zach was sure it wasn’t. This was connected to Carolyn’s problems. He could feel it in his bones. “Can you tell if Huntly sent those fake emails?”
“I’m unraveling that as we speak. It took some work, since he pinged it off other IP addresses to cover his tracks, but I’ll get to the bottom of the rabbit hole.”
“We’ll need proof.” Zach had to have documentation he could take to the police, something that would get their attention and make a criminal case against this guy stick.
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” Steve replied. “I know what we need. Probably take me another twenty-four hours.”
“Thanks. I owe you.” While they’d talked, Zach had turned into Carolyn’s driveway. The garage door was down, which wasn’t unusual, but no lights were on in the house. She’d said she would be home by now after speaking with the insurance adjuster.
He got out of the car, fingering her house key in his pocket. He’d refused to use it earlier, a decision he regretted along with everything that had happened between them the past day. All his fault. She had chosen to go to Huntly’s house but had turned around, exactly as she should have. His reaction, his fear of losing her, had come out in his words to her.
He’d never been good at managing his emotions, ruthlessly suppressing them instead, but he’d been unable to do that when his panic over the mere idea of Carolyn being hurt had hit him square in the chest. He’d lashed out where she was most vulnerable, not for a second considering her life had been turned upside down by the threats against the business and the recent fire. Instead of supporting her as he should have, he’d added to her troubles.
The Admiral would be disappointed in him, he acknowledged. He was disappointed in himself. And worried since she didn’t appear to be home yet. He weighed his options, deciding quickly to use his key and go inside. He paused to listen after the door swung open. No sounds. If Austin was awake, there was constant chatter. Zach moved into the kitchen, looking around. Carolyn’s purse wasn’t on the counter, nor was the bag she carried for Austin.
They weren’t home, which compounded the feeling in his gut that this mission had gone sideways. He took a quick look through the house for any signs of a disturbance or struggle but found nothing.
He pulled out his phone and dialed Carolyn’s number. After four rings, it beeped and went to voicemail. He left a message for her to call him as soon as she could.
Something was wrong. She kept her phone on her and always answered, out of concern for Austin. She could be angry with him and refuse to
take his call, but she wasn’t petty like that. His every instinct was on high alert. He scrolled through his contacts, pressing the button for Carolyn’s mother.
“Hello, Faith. Is Carolyn there?” He was being barely polite, but his concern was overriding everything else.
“Not yet,” Faith replied, sounding surprised at his question. “She was dealing with the insurance at the store. Austin’s with me, though. Do you want to say hi to him?”
He did want to talk to his son and hold him, but he needed to know Austin’s mother was safe first. “Kiss him for me,” he said. “Are you sure you haven’t heard from Carolyn?”
“Stop worrying, Zach. She just got held up at the store. Insurance issues always take longer than you think they will.”
“Where’s Charlotte?” His concern shifted to include Carolyn’s sister, who had nearly been killed in the fire. She was a potential target as well. They all were.
“Here with me. What’s got you so worked up?” Faith asked.
“Lock your doors and stay there. Inside,” he commanded. “One of my brothers will be over soon to protect you.” He hung up before she could object or demand an explanation.
The store was the logical place for Carolyn to be and the first place he needed to look. He jogged back to his car, gunning the engine on the quiet street. He called Colin first, instructing him to go to Faith’s house. He followed that with a call to Alex, telling him to meet him at All That Sparkles. His brothers didn’t ask questions. He could count on their help no matter the situation they were walking into.
17
Carolyn backed away, bumping into the remains of a display case. She held her hands away from her body while her mind plotted her possible actions. Running wouldn’t work. He held the gun, and it was a tight space. A bullet would hit her before she could get down the hall to the office. Talking him down didn’t seem like an option either, since his hatred appeared boundless.
The SEAL’s Surprise Son: The Admiral’s SEALs Book One Page 11
