by Lori Ryan
He’d come in ahead of time to choose a ring, then told his girlfriend he needed to swing by and pick up a watch his mom left to be repaired. The look on her face was priceless when he dropped to one knee after Ava passed him the ring box.
“Nice,” Kirsten James said, winking at Ava from her spot by the door. The woman might look harsh in her guard uniform, but she was as much of a softy when it came to that kind of thing as Ava was.
Ava grinned and turned to go to the back to check on her sister, but the door chimed again. What she saw when she looked back was anything but expected.
The man entering her family’s jewelry store had filled out. His face was different, worn in a way, but in a good way. At least, she thought it looked good on him. His eyes were the same, though.
John Sevier’s eyes trapped and held her, his light brown gaze doing things to her just like they had years before when she’d been stupid enough to walk away from him.
To say he was the one who got away was an understatement. She’d been so naïve and focused on all the wrong things at that time in her life. She never realized what she was losing until it was far too late for her to do anything about it.
Not that she would have been able to hold on to him anyway. Halfway through college, her life had changed drastically, and she’d had to drop out to help her dad and sister. She would have lost John then, anyway. Still, an eighties rock ballad was playing in the back of her head somewhere as she thought about not knowing what you had ’til it was gone.
Kirsten stiffened and looked ready to move into action if Ava didn’t say anything. It was no wonder. A six-foot-one man who looked like he could eat glass for breakfast if he got the craving, was standing frozen in their showroom. And Ava probably looked like a deer in headlights.
“John.” Ava breathed the word out, then shook herself to clear the fog. She waved a hand at Kirsten. “It’s all right. John’s an old friend.”
She thought she saw something flicker in his eyes at the words, but if it had been anything more than her imagination, it was gone.
“Um…” Ava looked around the showroom. One of her salespeople was on the other side of the store helping an older gentleman pick out a bracelet for his granddaughter. Kirsten was still staring at her and John.
Ava swung a hand in the direction of the workshop and offices at the back of the store. “We could, um…”
Thankfully, John nodded, seemingly unconcerned at the fact she couldn’t seem to get a sentence out that didn’t include “um.” Scratch that, she hadn’t actually gotten a complete sentence out, period.
She went to the back, hoping to pass right through the workshop where her sister, Janna, designed most of the jewelry they carried. They had other artisans who worked for them, repairing jewelry and watches and such, but Janna was their only bench jeweler. Anything in their cases that her sister didn’t make was ordered from jewelry wholesalers or outside artisans.
Janna stood at her bench, the spotlights that surrounded her all aimed at a four-inch square space in front of her as her hands worked with small samplings of metals and gems. Janna had a habit of getting lost in her work, but today when Ava hoped she might do just that, her sister looked up.
Janna’s eyes went from Ava to John and back to Ava in a comic demonstration of her surprise at seeing a man with Ava.
Yeah, it was somewhat of a shock to Ava, too.
“John, this is my sister, Janna. Janna, John and I were friends in college.” Ava watched as Janna’s eyes went wide.
John smiled and nodded. Whether he remembered Ava mentioning Janna’s issues with anxiety when they dated, or he just read people really well, she didn’t know. But for whatever reason, he didn’t offer his hand to Janna to shake. That was good. It was what Janna was more comfortable with.
Janna looked to Ava. “Big John?”
Oh Lord.
Ava’s cheeks flamed hot, and she knew they must be red. She and Janna shared everything, which meant Janna knew all about the John Ava had dated in college. She just hadn’t expected Janna to put the man standing before her together with their conversations about John in college. And yes, Janna had truly nicknamed him Big John in college, but it wasn’t for the reasons one might think.
Not that he couldn’t have earned the nickname that way. Back in the day, one of Ava’s friends had described John’s body as “call him if you need your house moved over a few inches” kind of big. She wasn’t wrong.
Ava put her hands to her cheeks, and a small semblance of a laugh slipped from her lips. She dodged John’s smiling eyes and Janna’s impish grin without answering and led the way back to her office.
She could try to explain to John that Janna had given him the nickname because that was how he’d seemed to her at the time. Ava had talked about John so much when they were dating that Janna had labeled him “big” in Ava’s world.
She didn’t know how to say all that without making the whole situation worse, though, so she clamped down on her lips, imprisoning them between her teeth as she shut the door behind them.
The look he gave her told her he was enjoying this far too much.
“For your information,” she said, crossing her arms, “Big John is another John. Not you. It’s…” she didn’t have any ideas… “someone else.”
“Uh-huh.” He matched her crossed arms and let a smile cross his face.
Ava deflated a little. It was good to see him. She’d known he moved to Dark Falls after college. He and his wife had made the city their home when he’d been offered a spot on the police force. She heard about him from time to time from old college friends, and they’d run into each other once at the farmer’s market downtown.
She’d heard about his divorce, too.
She leaned her hip on her desk and tried to get her heart to stop pounding and her hands to stop shaking. “It’s good to see you. You look good.”
Oh hell. She should just shut up.
It was true, though. He still wore his brown hair short in what she guessed was some kind of police regulation, above the collar kind of cut. His skin was tanned and scarred in some spots, making her want to trace the pattern of his history written there and ask him about every little mark. His jaw was the kind you read about being chiseled, and that mouth looked like it could do things no woman could refuse.
What was she doing? She focused back on his eyes and tried to get her inner hussy to shut the hell up for a minute.
“You, too. I should have stopped in and said hi before. I, uh…” He ran a hand over the back of his head, from the base of his neck up to the top of his head. It was something he’d done in the past, too.
“I’m sure you’re busy,” she offered. “I heard you made detective.”
He nodded. “That’s why I’m here.”
Ava tilted her head.
“I wanted to stop in and make sure you knew about the jewelry store robberies that have been happening.”
She frowned. “I think I saw something in one of the papers about a store being robbed last week, but honestly, I don’t pay a lot of attention to the news when I get busy. There are others?”
John was all business now. “Yes. There are details I can’t share, but what you need to know is that three stores have been hit. They’re all lower end stores that don’t have a guard posted. You have your guard out there all day, every day?”
Ava was stunned. She didn’t think people really robbed jewelry stores anymore. There were guards in many of them and most of the other owners she networked with had high quality cameras and good security systems.
She looked toward the front of the store where Kirsten was standing guard, even though there were several walls between them, and she couldn’t actually see the showroom from her office. “Yes, Kirsten works two days a week, and we have two others. Kirsten and one of the others are former military, and the other is a former campus officer from one of the out-of-state colleges. I don’t remember which school.”
At the moment, all
she could remember was that they all had families, loved ones. She brought her hand to the gemstone on her neck. Her birthstone, garnet. “Have there been injuries?”
John looked grim. “Thankfully, only during this last robbery. One clerk was shoved into a glass case. No serious wounds, though. He’ll be fine.”
Ava stared at a spot over his shoulder. She had to wonder how fine she or any of her people would be if they were held up at gunpoint. She assumed they had guns, or a weapon of some other sort.
He went on. “They’re not hitting shops like yours yet, but I wanted to make sure you guys are on your toes. Your cameras and alarms are working?”
“Of course.”
“You’d be surprised how many times people let those go, thinking the alarm sticker in the window is enough of a deterrent. Until their insurance company forces them to get into compliance, they let things go.”
Ava blinked. “Our cameras and alarms are all working. We put paste jewels in the window displays, but that’s the only fake thing around here.”
John stepped closer, and Ava was overly aware of the small size of her office in that moment. The man had always taken her breath away, but now that he was more than a college boy, he was almost overwhelming.
She’d long known she’d been an idiot to let him go. The point was no more obvious to her than it was right now as his eyes bore into hers. Still, he was here for business reasons. She needed to remember that, even if her body seemed to have other ideas at the moment.
“Good,” he said. “I want you to be safe.”
Ava swallowed. She opened her mouth to say something—she had no idea what that would be, since the sight of him in her office after all these years had her flustered beyond reason—but the intercom on her phone buzzed.
“Ava, you’re needed in the showroom, please,” came the polite voice of her salesman. He probably had more than one customer. They knew from experience, if you let someone browse too long without helping them on the showroom floor, they’d walk out without making a purchase.
John stepped back. “I’ll let you get back to work.”
Ava nodded, trying to let the breath she’d been holding slip out slowly and quietly enough that he might not hear it.
John led the way back to the showroom, pausing to turn to her when they were in the doorway between the front and back of the store.
“You look good, Ava. Really good.”
Ava nodded again, still struck mute, it seemed.
“Stay safe,” he said as he turned away.
“You, too, John.” She echoed his words in her head. Stay safe.
Then she watched for a moment, not letting herself worry about customers and sales quite yet. She stood at the back of the showroom and watched as John Sevier walked away.
Chapter Two
Corey clenched his hands into tight fists as Josh lit into Adam.
“Goddammit, Adam, what the fuck was that?” Josh railed.
That hadn’t been at all what they’d planned. “Fuck.” Corey swore as he looked at his hands. He couldn’t stop the shaking. He scanned his friends, clenching his fists at his sides again. Maybe they wouldn’t notice.
Adam looked ready to do damage to Josh if he didn’t let up on him, but those two had grown up together. They always went at it.
Adam’s sneer was in place where it always was, and his pupils looked huge. Corey didn’t know if it was because he was so cranked up or if Adam was on something. They all smoked a little pot sometimes, but Adam had been doing other shit lately. Corey was sure of it.
“The guy was dicking around. We don’t have time for that. If we aren’t in and out on these jobs, we’re going to get caught.” Adam closed in on Josh as he talked, using his size to push Josh back.
Josh stood his ground. “We won’t get caught, but if you pull that shit again, the cops are going to be coming down on us hard. You think they gave a shit about some small-time jewelry stores in the armpit of Dark Falls? Nobody gives a fuck about these places. But if you start beating the shit out of people, they’re going to come looking for us. They’re going to crank up the heat a lot hotter than we can handle.”
Corey couldn’t get the sight of Adam pummeling that store clerk out of his head. Yeah, the guy had been moving slowly, but fuck, Adam had made a mess of him. Josh was splattered in blood from where he’d pulled Adam off the old man.
Tommy shuffled forward. “Drop it, all right, guys? We got what we wanted, and we got in and out without getting caught. Just…” He ran a hand through his hair, and Corey saw he was shaking too. The only one who wasn’t was Adam.
Corey came to stand next to Tommy. “Let’s not do this, okay? We can’t turn on each other.”
Adam’s ice-cold eyes held Josh’s for another minute. He never liked to be shown up or told what to do.
In a dizzying shift, Adam broke into a grin and stepped back, hands raised. “Sure, Tommy. It’s all good. I got carried away when I realized the guy was holding us up on time. Didn’t want him to jack us up, is all.”
The tension broke with that gesture, and the guys all gave some version of an “it’s all right,” as they moved to the living room to unload the duffle bag and look through the stash.
It wouldn’t be a big haul. The places they were hitting had lower end stuff. A lot of gold bracelets and necklaces with chips of diamonds in them instead of larger stones. There were some diamond engagement rings, though, and gemstone necklaces that looked like they could be worth something.
They pawed through it, most of them quiet now. Usually, after a job, they were cranked up. Things had shifted today. It was palpable on the air as it crackled around them.
Corey kept his mouth shut for now, but he was edgy. This wasn’t at all the way this should have gone. None of it was the way it should have gone. They shouldn’t be here. They shouldn’t be doing this.
He watched as Adam packed everything away and passed the bag off to Tommy.
“It’s your turn, Tommy,” Adam said.
Tommy nodded and took the bag. “I’ll head out in the morning.”
The words were unnecessary. It was how they always timed it.
They all nodded, and Corey caught Josh’s eye. There was a warning there. Adam was getting out of hand. Corey wasn’t an idiot. He could see that, too. The only problem was, he wasn’t convinced they could do anything to keep him in line.
He rubbed at his chest. The tightness that seemed to be there all the time now was getting to him. He didn’t like this. Didn’t like any of it. But there wasn’t a way out. He was stuck.
Chapter Three
“You’re a man whore,” Nate said to Eric. The two sat in Eric’s cubicle in Major Crimes. The partition walls were shorter than they would be in a business office, letting the detectives talk to each other more easily as they worked. This was a unit that needed to be able to communicate quickly and easily at all times.
John couldn’t argue with Nate on the man whore label, though he did want to stick up for his partner. Still, it wasn’t easy since Eric openly took advantage of the badge bunnies who trolled Leo’s, the bar most of the law enforcement in Dark Falls gravitated to at one time or another.
Eric saw nothing wrong with, as he put it, taking what was thrown his way. He meant it literally. He didn’t have to do anything to impress these women. The fact he wore a badge was enough.
At least Eric wasn’t married. There were guys on the force with wives at home and a beat girlfriend—a woman they slept with in the precinct—on the side. One thing John could say about his failed marriage, he’d never once cheated on Lucia, and he was pretty sure she’d never cheated on him.
He’d let her down in more ways than he could count, hadn’t been able to give her the one thing she needed most, but he’d never cheated.
Even after his divorce, John just wasn’t that guy. He didn’t jump from one bed to another. Eric, on the other hand, absolutely was.
Eric grinned at Nate, not a repentant bone in hi
s body at the accusation. “Damned right I am.”
So much for having to stick up for his partner, John thought. At least Eric told the women he got involved with exactly what they’d get from him: a good time, respect, friendship if they wanted it… but nothing more.
“There once was a man whore from Mumbai. He loved soft women, cold beer, and sweet pie. The women loved him, he said with a grin. There was nary a one he’d deny.” Eric finished the limerick with a laugh.
John tossed a pencil at him. “You’re not from Mumbai.”
Eric shrugged. “Details.”
Conrad Underwood poked his head in the door of the third-floor bullpen, where the detectives of Major Crimes had their cubicles. He caught John’s eye, a question on his face.
John waved an arm at him. “Come on in, Connie. We can find something for ya.”
Connie was a green cop, still only two years into his required four years on patrol. He aspired to be a detective, though, so he’d come into the Major Crimes division whenever he could to pick up assignments from the guys. Sometimes that meant staying a few hours after his shift. Other times, Captain Scanlon offered him and some of the other uniforms overtime when Major Crimes needed boots on the ground running down leads.
Rhys came in just as Connie settled into the guest chair next to John’s desk. Connie made to stand and give the seat to Rhys, but Rhys raised a hand to still him. He spoke over the cubicle wall to Eric and Nate, including all of them in the conversation.
“OPS.”
John saw Connie’s confusion and mouthed, “Official Police Shit.” It meant shut up and pay attention.
Connie nodded, and Rhys went on. “Patrol units just responded to another jewelry store robbery.”
John felt the tight sensation, like his skin didn’t fit him right, hit him almost immediately and had to fight the urge not to claw at the back of his neck. It was a feeling he got when something wasn’t right on a case, although, this time he suspected it had to do with the fact Ava owned a jewelry store and might end up in the sights of this group if they didn’t stop them.
