One-Click Buy: February 2010 Harlequin Blaze

by Betina Krahn

  Tyler called Mrs. Wells, wondering if this whole mess could be solved so quickly and easily. The tie between the delivered meals and the break-ins couldn’t be ignored, yet he couldn’t imagine anybody working for Sister Mary Katherine who wasn’t completely honest.

  In answer to his question about the identity of the last delivery person to Cal’s place, Mrs. Wells said, “Oh, yes, I remember him. Such a nice boy.”

  “Who?”

  “Finn Hastings.”

  It couldn’t be. Andrea had said her brother did some work for the church, but…

  Andrea’s ex-con brother.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Wells,” he said in a hollow voice. “Deputy Burris will be by soon.”

  Hanging up, then dropping his forehead in his hands, he stared at the desk, the one that was supposed to be his in a matter of weeks. Provided he could keep everything under control in the sheriff’s absence. Provided he could get back the missing silver pieces.

  With dread firmly planted in his stomach, he searched his e-mail for the message from Sister Mary Katherine. Unfortunately, he found it. He read through the list of people who’d brought meals to Mrs. Jackson and saw a name and date that sent a chill down his spine.

  Three days before her silver tea set went missing, Finn Hastings had brought her lunch.

  7

  “THIS IS GETTING TO be a regular thing,” Andrea teased, stepping back to invite Tyler into her house.

  No answering smile. No hug, kiss or any sign of the affectionate, I-can’t-stop-touching-you man she’d spent the night with.

  “We need to talk,” he said simply.

  She stood in front of him, noting he’d taken the time to shower and change clothes in the last few hours. His hair appeared damp, and he wore a freshly pressed khaki uniform, complete with pistol and holster. The metal on his badge caught the overhead light and flashed, as if in warning.

  “Is there a reason you suddenly look like a cop?” Though her stomach felt hollow, she raised her eyebrows. “And not just because of the uniform.”

  “Yes.” His eyes were bleak. “There’s been another theft.”

  “Of what?”

  “The island beach volleyball trophy.”

  She started to laugh, but one look into Tyler’s remote gaze had her silencing the impulse abruptly.

  “We should probably sit down,” he said, his voice firm and expressionless.

  Since this didn’t seem like the kind of conversation for the cozy den or sun-brightened deck, she led him into the kitchen. She indicated one of the barstools that were tucked beneath the granite-topped bar in the center of the room.

  “You want coffee or iced tea?”

  “No, thank you.” As she slid onto a stool, he lowered himself to one next to her. He laid her car keys on the counter between them. “Thanks for helping me out this morning.”

  Her throat tightened as she glanced briefly at them. Something was very, very wrong. She met his gaze and saw nothing of the confident, hunky hero she’d crushed on for so long.

  This tension and uncertainty was ridiculous, she suddenly decided.

  Hadn’t she stopped being so cautious? Whatever the reason Tyler had come, he was in pain about it.

  And old habits were hard to break.

  Rising, she cupped his face between her hands. Before he could do more than widen his eyes, she kissed him. She angled her head and let the force of their passion flow through her, even as she sought to infuse him with hope.

  He hugged her against his chest as if wanting to pull her inside him. When he eventually broke the kiss, he slid his mouth across her cheek and whispered into her hair, “You might not want to do that in a minute.”

  She couldn’t imagine not wanting him. She needed his touch like she needed her heart to beat. “Then I’m glad I made the last time count.”

  He kissed her again, then lifted her back onto her stool and he rose. “You’re making this personal when I was trying to be professional.”

  This was part of his military training—separate yourself from the messy job you had to do.

  “But it is personal,” she pointed out. “Why pretend?”

  “You’re right. It is.” His gaze moved to hers and held. “The volleyball trophy that was stolen was kept in Susan Wells’s house, the mother of the winning team’s captain. Her son, Cal, has been living there since his divorce. Your brother delivered meals from the church to both her and Mrs. Jackson in the days before the thefts. He’s the only common link I’ve found between the two cases. I have to question him.”

  Andrea blinked. It took a minute to absorb the onslaught of information.

  Finn? He thought Finn was the thief?

  She pressed her hand against her chest in an effort to soothe the ache in her heart. “You think Finn stole Mrs. Jackson’s tea set?”

  “I don’t know. He’s the only person who delivered meals to both women.”

  Rising, she turned away from him. Her thoughts were so scattered, so full of opposing emotions, she wasn’t sure which one to grab on to. For the moment, anger worked. “So the ex in ex-con is irrelevant,” she said when she calmed down enough to face him.

  “He has a history. He’s linked.”

  “It’s coincidence. Come on, Tyler, the beach volleyball trophy? How ridiculous.”

  “These thefts point to a young offender. Crimes of convenience, like the thief doesn’t know what the items are worth, but they look shiny and expensive, so he takes them.”

  “Like a car?” She ground her teeth when he simply stared at her. “Maybe your thief is really clever. Maybe this guy took the trophy to confuse the efforts to find the tea set.”

  She could tell he hadn’t thought of that possibility. She wondered if he’d thought at all. Closing this case with Finn as the convenient, guilty party would wrap everything up nicely before the election.

  “Finn is young, not stupid,” she stated.

  “I still have to talk to him.”

  “Officially?”

  “Yes,” he said miserably. “I’m sorry, but yes.”

  She glared at him, and he’d been exactly right—she had no desire to kiss him again. “He’s my brother.”

  “I don’t know him.”

  “You know me.”

  “You believe in him. You’re his sister. You’re supposed to. But I swore an oath to the people of Palmer’s Island.”

  “Serve and protect?” she asked, her tone mocking. “And trust no one.”

  “Andrea, please.” He held out his hands. “This is my job.”

  “Are you going to arrest him?”

  He hesitated a second. “Not at this time.”

  “Should I call his lawyer?”

  “That’s up to you. I have to record his statement. We can do it here if you like.”

  She knew Finn had done nothing wrong, and no matter how betrayed she felt by Tyler, she was also sure he wasn’t doing this simply to get elected. He wouldn’t arrest her brother without hard evidence. Which he wouldn’t find, since Finn was innocent.

  But nobody could accuse her of stupidity. She wanted someone besides her on Finn’s side. After calling her brother’s cell phone and asking him to come to her house right away, she called Carr.

  Though he reminded her he wasn’t a criminal attorney, he agreed to come over. As she laid the phone in the cradle, she let herself mourn the opposing sides she and Tyler were now standing on.

  “I thought Hamilton was a civil litigation attorney,” Tyler said from behind her.

  “He is.” Turning, she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the counter. “But how do you know that?”

  “It’s a small island.”

  A smooth answer. But Andrea knew it was an exaggeration. In her job, whenever a fake masqueraded as the real thing, she felt a prickling along her spine. She felt it now.

  Tyler had asked somebody about Carr. After seeing him with her last night, he was either curious enough or jeal—“You ran him.”


  His face was blank. “Excuse me?”

  “Carr.” She walked toward Tyler, watching his face closely. “You used the computers at the sheriff’s office to click and point your way through his official records. You wanted to find out more about him.” Somehow furious and flattered, she leaned against the bar. “I’m not sharing.”

  At least he didn’t pretend not to remember his own words. His blue gaze burned into hers. “That’s right.”

  “But you don’t trust me, either.”

  “Of course I trust you.”

  “You think my brother’s a thief.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think anything yet. I have evidence that suggests he might be involved.”

  “You have a coincidence.”

  “So far on this case that’s all I have. I’ve got to start somewhere.” He speared his hand through his hair in obvious frustration. “Would you rather I ignored the connection, or covered it up?”

  The sister in her wanted him to do just that, but the practical woman, the professional who took pride in her own work, knew that wasn’t possible. “I guess not.”

  She walked across the kitchen, looking out the windows along the back wall. Whenever she was feeling lousy, that sight could always make her smile. Today, she only felt an uneasy churning in her stomach like when the endless tide stirred the bottom of the sea.

  Soon, Tyler joined her. “Why’d you call Hamilton?”

  “He was the first person I thought of.”

  “I’d rather you think of me.”

  She turned her incredulous gaze on him. “You’re the one standing here with the questions.”

  “Do you think I like this? Do you think I like upsetting you? Calling your brother in for questioning? I have to. This is my job.”

  “And it’s important enough to cause this division between us?” she asked, even though she knew the accusation underlying it wasn’t fair.

  “My family expects the best,” was his surprising answer.

  “What—”

  The doorbell interrupted any further questions, but she promised herself she’d get back to the topic of family and duty very soon.

  Carr pulled her close for a hug the second she opened the door. “Are you sure you don’t want to call Spencer?”

  “I will if you think this is starting to go badly.”

  He laid his hands on her shoulders and studied her face. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he nodded. “Deal.”

  Footsteps echoed in the hall behind her. “Who’s Spencer?” Tyler asked.

  Andrea turned to face her lover, knowing her friend had her back. “Finn’s defense attorney.”

  Tyler shook hands with Carr, though the move was stiff and clearly forced.

  There was some satisfaction in knowing Tyler liked Carr being in her house even less than she liked her brother being questioned by the police.

  The men sat at the kitchen table, and Andrea poured out glasses of iced tea simply to have something to do with her hands. She and Finn had built an unshakable bond of trust. With Spencer and Sister Mary Katherine’s help, they’d surrounded him with a new kind of family, replacing the brutal codependency of the gang.

  He wouldn’t risk all that.

  And if he had, she’d kick his ass all the way back to jail personally.

  “Is Finn under arrest?” Carr asked, his dark gaze focused on Tyler’s.

  “Not at this time,” Tyler returned.

  “And the only evidence you have is the fact that he was in both homes prior to the thefts.”

  “Yes.”

  “No fingerprints near where the items were taken?”

  “I still need Dwayne’s report from Cal’s place, but no.”

  “No witnesses to the break-ins?”

  “No.”

  Carr’s teeth flashed in a hard smile. “You don’t have much, do you?”

  “Not really, no,” Tyler said casually, though nobody in the room took his tone as anything less than serious. And the authority behind his words, as well as the resentment in his eyes, clearly communicated his resolve.

  “Andy!” a familiar voice called from the foyer. “What’s so—”

  Her brother stopped as he rounded the corner to the kitchen and noticed the gathering around the table.

  Wearing baggy jeans and a white T-shirt, his short, spiky blond hair kissed by the sun, he looked even younger than his twenty years. Only as she watched his hazel eyes narrow, responding to Tyler’s uniform and slow rise to his feet, did she remember he’d spent his high school years swallowed by violence and nearly two years in prison.

  She walked toward him, wrapping her arms around his lean waist. Her head fit neatly under his chin. “Deputy Landry needs to ask you a few questions,” she said calmly as she tried to bely the anxiety she felt.

  “About?”

  He was vibrating with uncertainty, and after everything he’d been through, she feared subjecting him to the humiliation of this more than anything. “Can I have a few minutes alone with him?” she asked, turning toward Tyler.

  Tyler indicated the chair across from him. “I really—”

  “Yes, you can,” Carr said, sending Tyler a glare as he stood. “Why don’t the three of us go out to the deck?”

  Finn’s gaze shifted from Carr, to Tyler, then to Andrea. “Whatever.”

  Without looking at Tyler, Andrea took her brother’s hand and led him and Carr outside.

  “I didn’t take Mrs. Jackson’s tea set,” Finn said the moment they stepped into the breezy sunshine.

  Andrea whirled on him. “How did you know why Tyler was here?”

  “Something’s missing.” His shoulders jerked in a shrug. “Ex-con right around the corner.”

  Andrea cast a glance at Carr. “We don’t think you took anything.”

  Hunching his shoulders, Finn shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “But the cops do?”

  Just the introduction her only family needed to the man she’d been sleeping with. “Not necessarily. Tyler is a…friend. We went to high school together.”

  “You’re not under arrest,” Carr added. “You simply need to answer the deputy’s questions.” Carr laid his hand on Finn’s shoulder. “Be honest, but don’t offer any information he doesn’t ask for.”

  “Like?” Andrea asked, not sure what Carr meant herself.

  “Did you go out last night after work?” Carr asked Finn.

  “Sure. Some buddies and I went to Mabel’s for burgers, then we—”

  Carr held up his hand to stop him. “The answer to the question I asked you is yes. That’s it. Don’t elaborate unless there’s a follow-up question. Now, did you go out last night?”

  Looking wary, Finn nodded. “Yes.”

  “Excellent. Where did you go?”

  “Mabel’s.”

  Carr ran him through a few more questions, asking him about the nights before both the tea set and trophy went missing. He asked him if he’d done anything to violate his parole in the last month.

  Thankfully, the clear answer to that was no. Unfortunately, Finn’s alibis—and, dear heaven, Andrea couldn’t believe that word was even in question—weren’t great. The night before the tea set had been found missing, he’d been in his apartment on the church grounds, reading and watching TV. He hadn’t talked to or been visited by anyone. He swore he hadn’t broken his curfew, though.

  Last night, though he’d helped Sister Mary Katherine with the youth sleepover, he’d actually slept in his apartment, not in the gym with the kids. The sister hadn’t felt it appropriate to have a young, single male as an overnight chaperone for teenage girls.

  Andrea felt much calmer after Carr’s coaching even though she had no idea where any of them would stand after the questioning. She tried to stifle the selfish thoughts that flooded her brain.

  Why did this have to happen between her and Tyler at such a delicate place in the relationship they’d started to build? Last night he’d known she was t
he high school math nerd, and he’d wanted her anyway. She’d felt treasured, sexy and powerful in his arms. How would they now breach the chasm between them? Would they even want to?

  “Is this guy more than a friend, Andy?” her brother asked suddenly.

  “What guy?” she asked, pretending ignorance while hiding a wince.

  Finn stabbed his finger toward the French doors, through which they could clearly see Tyler pacing by the kitchen table. “That guy.”

  “We’ll talk about it later. You really weren’t out past midnight this week, were you?”

  “No, Mom,” Finn answered on a sigh.

  Andrea wrapped her arm around his waist as they headed inside. “Hey, pal, it isn’t me you have to answer to on that point. It’s Sister Mary Katherine.”

  Finn scowled. “Yeah. Like I’m dumb enough to disobey her.”

  “HAVE A SEAT, Mr. Hastings,” Tyler said firmly, but gently, to his suspect.

  His girlfriend’s brother.

  Hell, could he even call her his girlfriend? They had a tenuous bond—in bed. Outside their cocoon of closeness, however, they seemed to rarely agree, and right then, they stood on opposite sides of a deep ravine of suspicion and disappointment.

  To think he’d made fun of crime on his sleepy hometown island. Rose and palmetto bush vandals would be welcomed with open arms at the moment. Anything that didn’t involve the woman he…

  Well, the woman he had the hots for and wanted to be with, glaring at him as if he was a particularly pesky bug she needed to squash.

  He ran through the pertinent questions about both thefts with Finn, easily noticing a lawyer’s touch in the coaching. It was his right, so Tyler had no issue with the consultation. Still, he couldn’t help wondering if this could be cleared up much quicker without the protective hovering of Carr Hamilton.

  But maybe that was simply a personal bias.

  “Did you take Mrs. Jackson’s silver tea set?” he asked, forcing himself not to glance at Andrea.

  “No, sir.”

  “Did you ever touch it?”

  “No, sir. She kept it—” He stopped after a quick glance at Hamilton. “I didn’t touch it.”