WindSwept Narrows: #18 Paige Andrews

by Diroll-Nichols, Karen

  “Went into the police academy,” she said, twirling the creamy pasta around a piece of broccoli. “Spent a little over two years there.”

  “And that isn’t on your resume, but it explains the ability with the gun that I saw,” he said with a nod to himself. “Why did you leave?”

  “Phew…” Paige bit into the pasta and looked toward him, past him and into the darkness outside. “You know what you get with a little girl surrounded by big brothers her whole life? Someone who has to compete or die. Someone everyone lectures on how fragile and…girl…you are. So things are off limits…out of bounds. I went in to prove to myself I could. I left because I got tired of having to be better than all the males around me. I…I started losing me. The girl me…because if you let the girl out, you’re never good enough, you’re never smart enough, you’re never strong enough, you’re never quick enough,” she stopped, shaking her head and scooping up a forkful of salad. “And I began hating half the population…because of a few chauvinistic pigs. And I didn’t like that me.”

  Sebastian ate quietly. He didn’t know what to expect. Maybe burnout. She would easily be the type to throw all of herself into the job.

  “Guess that’s what you call full disclosure,” Paige said cheerfully, taking a long drink of cold water.

  “It bothers you.”

  “It bothers me because I liked the work. I liked the job…I think some silly part of me wanted to think I was making a difference,” she shrugged. “No matter. Long over and done with. I’m good at my job now and I know I make a difference because you and Chase need me.” She took a chance and peeked over at him. “Aren’t you just a little tiny bit curious about what they’re looking for?” She held up her fingers. “Just a tiny bit?”

  “At the cost of you or anyone else being harmed,” he seemed to think all of one minute. “No. I’m telling you here and now, Paige, stay away from the site until after the demolition,” Sebastian could almost see her straighten another inch and cursed. “Damn it, Paige.” He heard his words repeated inside his mind, coming on the edges of her disclosure, he realized his timing could have been a whole lot better.

  “Excuse me,” she said formally, standing up and heading to the restroom.

  It was his property. It was his business.

  It was nothing to her, despite the things she had uncovered. So what if it was another case of, no you can’t, because you’re a girl. So what? She didn’t have to prove anything to him or anyone else. Ever. Just herself. That generally got her into enough trouble without anyone’s help.

  She stood in the bathroom and pulled in long drafts of air. She could handle this. Talk about the weather. Discuss the food, the décor. Talk and just keep talking until the meal was finished and she could take him back to his bike and go home and drown herself in the tub. Perfect. Good plan, she announced to herself as she stalked the table, sitting down and applying her best smile.

  “So…how’s the spaghetti? This is one of the better places around…not a chain restaurant, locally owned. The cook is fantastic,” Paige twirled the thick pasta and took a big bite.

  “Paige, I didn’t mean to sound like…”

  “I really like the balsamic vinegar they use. I keep meaning to ask where she finds it, but always forget somehow,” she looked over at him, carefully applied smile in place. “How are you enjoying the area? Chase said you were from Kansas City. Hard to guess if you’ll like the weather here or not. But at least you won’t have to worry much about tornadoes sweeping through.”

  “The weather is fine, I’ve lived here before,” he said through his teeth and a bite of the very good spaghetti. “The meal is perfect, just what I was after. Now…will you let me apologize…”

  “No. No…there is nothing to apologize for,” she set her napkin on the table and held up one finger. “Excuse me…I need to go off and do something decidedly girl and have no wish for a witness at this time,” she stood up and fled.

  It was the only word she could think of, she realized when she slipped into the restroom and latched the door. She wanted to escape. She slid to the floor, her back against the door and knees pulled in tight to her body. She hung her head between her knees and squeezed, wishing she had a pillow to scream into so as not to alarm the patrons of the restaurant. But for now, she’d have to settle for deep breathing exercises.

  Paige stood over the sink a few minutes later, splashed water all over her face and wished it was sunny so she’d have an excuse to wear sunglasses. She pressed cold fingers to her eyes and finally just gave up and went back to the table. She’d tied her hair back into a ponytail and worked to finish the mostly cold pasta and salad.

  “Paige…will you wait until Saturday?” He watched a pair of suspicious eyes rise to meet his. “Saturday morning. Nice and light. I’ll go with you, all through the damn rooms. Even Sunday, if it takes that long.”

  “No, thank you. I’m fine. Don’t need to be there. Don’t want to be there. I have a job and it’s quiet, peaceful and fulfilling. Thank you for the offer, though,” she pushed her plate back and reached for her water glass.

  “You’re angry.”

  “Nope. Not a bit of it. Nothing to be angry about. It’s your project. It’s your property. What do I care if people tromp all over it searching for illegal contraband,” she listened to the low growl from his throat and made sure her and her ponytail were out of his arms reach. She pulled her pack onto her lap. “I don’t care. That’s what the world should be made up of, isn’t it? People who don’t give a flying fig about anything or anyone but themselves,” she tossed twelve dollars to the table. “I’ll be in the car.”

  Sebastian watched the jean covered behind twitch as she strode out on long legs and not a wasted step. He ran one hand heavily over his neck. He’d had better first dates, he thought, pulling his wallet out and signaling to the waitress. He moved slower, thinking.

  Perhaps angry was far too mild a word for what she was feeling. He could hear the music half way across the parking lot and knew immediately where it was coming from. It dropped to almost nothing when he pulled the door open and slid his jacket on before joining her inside.

  “Where did you leave your bike?” She asked politely, staring straight ahead, listening.

  “Just the other side of where you entered yesterday,” he watched her after buckling his seat belt. “Paige, I’m not ungrateful for your…concern about the property.”

  “Do you want me to sign a paper that absolves you of the legality of the risks I’d taken? I will. I’m no one’s responsibility,” she told him flatly.

  “Damn it, will you stop being so bloody stubborn?”

  “It’s finished. I like my work. I like my job and want to keep it,” she pulled before the large gleaming bike parked half a mile from the granary. “Good night, Mr. Hartley.”

  Paige didn’t even feel it when the door was slammed, her hands moving swiftly to turn the wheel and head home. She didn’t want to think right now. Why did it still make her so angry? No, she corrected herself as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. Beyond angry. Furious. And she had to find a way to deal with it before it consumed her again.

  She changed clothes and went for a run. It was after ten when she fell face down on the bed and six when she groaned and the radio sounded wake up time. But she indulged herself when the morning registered and pulled a pillow over her face, her scream was loud and muffled before heading into the shower.

  Chapter Three

  She was feeling professional, she mused as she stood before the tidy closet. Prim. Proper. Stiff. She had the long red hair pulled into a tight bundle at the nape of her throat. A high collared white blouse, fitted vest, jacket and skirt. Comfortable black heels finished off the morning as she hit a button on the blender filled with fruit, yogurt and chocolate soy milk. She filled the go-cup and headed out, pack slung on one shoulder as her heels tapped on the stairs.

  Paige stayed under her ear pods unless the bells sounded on the door or the
phone rang. She was lucky because at this stage of the project, things were easy to handle. With the exception of a demanding boss.

  It was noon when Chase came out of his office glaring from the open door to Sebastian’s office and back to the woman busily hitting keys at the computer. Paige looked over at him, waiting.

  “A problem?”

  “I’m looking for the frigging Titanic so it’ll shatter the iceberg between you two. You’ve been snapping at each other all morning. Do I need to put you both in time out somewhere other than here so I can have some peace?” Chase watched Paige open her mouth and close it tightly.

  “No, sir.”

  “Oh, for…” he turned and went into Sebastian’s office, the door slamming behind him. “You want to give it a shot?”

  “Gee, dad, I think I can handle my life now,” Sebastian read through the contract and signed off on it, sliding it into the folder.

  “Really? That’s what you call this morning? The two of you have done nothing but snipe at one another since you got here,” Chase shoved his hands in his pockets and stood glaring at his friend. “We’ve been friends a long time, Bastian…”

  He leaned back in the comfortable desk chair, a booted foot on the open drawer of his desk. Two sets of fingers were shoved through his hair and held.

  “What was it like when you met Pepper?”

  “Like I’d been slammed into a wall,” Chase answered through a long breath of air. Now it made sense. “You hit a wall?”

  “Stinking wall of China,” he growled. “You know how I met her? Away from here? At the damn site where she pulled a gun on me, thinking I was a trespasser. It went downhill from there, believe me.”

  Chase pulled a chair over and sunk into it in front of his desk.

  “Why was she at the site? She’d asked me about it…weeks ago…”

  “She drives past it on her way home. She saw some lights…” Sebastian let his hands fall to the arms of his chair. “She’s worried someone is attempting to delay the project.”

  “And this caused a problem?” Chase asked carefully. “I know she phoned the police twice, but whoever was there, disappeared before they got there.”

  “And it doesn’t bother you that she’s wandering around the site in the dark?” Sebastian said flatly. “What if it had been Pepper?”

  “Okay…I see the trail on this one…no, it didn’t bother me, yes, it would if it were Pepper,” Chase pushed air between his lips. “Sorry. This would probably fall into Pepper’s category of ‘we’re going to fight about this’ things.”

  “You talk about fighting?”

  “Pepper talks about everything. It takes a little adjusting to,” Chase admitted slowly. “But I’d rather talk about everything than nothing. And yeah…one or the other of us usually knows when something is off…it isn’t that it ends up in a fight. Maybe the right words would be animated discussion. You want someone who will fall into line and never let you know what they really think?”

  “No. But there has to be someplace in the middle between her trying to play detective and a normal life,” Sebastian said quietly.

  “She cares about the project,” Chase offered with a shrug, shoving against the chair and heading for the door. “I’ve got meetings and strings to pull. I’m forwarding you all the copies so you’ll know what to expect when the demolition’s competed and the cleanup begins.”

  “Thanks. I’ll work on my manners,” Sebastian exhaled thickly and turned back to his computer until his stomach growled. He was up, pulling keys from his pocket and reaching for his jacket when he noticed her desk empty. He didn’t like the prickling at the back of his neck, but went off in search of lunch.

  Chapter Four

  Paige carried the small box into the jewelry store, her gaze sweeping around at all the cases filled with everything from barrettes to rings, to bracelets and pendants and earrings.

  “Paige…in the middle of the day?” Jack slid his stool from behind the desk to the front counter, standing up and looking down at the velvet case she laid on the glass.

  “Lunch break…I need an evaluation, Jack, please,” she slid the blue velvet over the glass, her fingertips barely touching it.

  Jack Garrett reached for his jewelers glass and opened the velvet pouch, glancing with only a little frown at Paige. He’d known her for a few years. Level headed, stable and nice. She hit it off instantly with his wife, Emily, who worked in the shop next to the jewelry store in the small coastal town.

  “Do I get a little background, Paige?” He felt his eyes widen at the old-fashioned choker style with a red stone in the center almost an inch across. Gold glittered even though it was in need of cleaning to form the neckband, dotted with smaller white and red stones. He looked over each one and set it aside, pulling out a matching bracelet and a set of earrings.

  “Well…” Paige pulled a stool over and opened the buttons at the side of her skirt. “Maybe. Later. Are they real?”

  “In need of serious cleaning…probably at least a hundred years old…guessing by the style and cut…and most definitely real,” Jack sat back on a stool, his eyes watching her chew on her lip. “Where’d you get them, Paige?”

  “I found them…actually…that’s only one of the sets,” she leaned her elbows on the glass, two palms up and covering her face. “How much…?”

  “At auction…probably close to a million dollars,” he said with a shrug. “Depends on how badly someone wants them and where they came from. I can do some checking for you,” he saw her nod slowly. “Want to leave these with me?”

  “Yeah…you have a safe…”

  “Where are you keeping the rest?” Jack asked cautiously, concerned.

  “Oh…here and there…no one knows about them, so it’s alright,” she stood up and inhaled deeply. “Well…back to work for me. Thanks, Jack…thanks,” she offered an absent wave and went to her car. More and more complications. Do they belong to the original owners? Or the person who now owns the property?

  Paige wasn’t focused when she entered the office, her body and hands moving automatically to begin sorting and filing the folders that had returned to her desk. She forgot lunch she realized an hour later and went to the office fridge for a bottle of chocolate she kept there. She’d drained half the soy milk when the shadow fell over her desk, her eyes shifted to the side and over the jeans and casual button shirt.

  “Did I mess up something?” She asked carefully, setting the bottle down and turning her chair to face him.

  “No. It’s fine. I made changes to the documents,” Sebastian ran a heavy hand over his neck. “Have dinner with me tonight, Paige.”

  Paige opened her mouth and closed it, her head shaking slowly. “I can’t. I have other plans, but thank you.”

  She went back to her work, noticed her hands shaking and rubbed her face before turning her music up and sticking an ear pod in place. It helped drown out stray thoughts. He is your boss, zinged a stray thought that had her fingers missing the right keys. She swore softly and made corrections.

  For the first time in weeks, she shut down before Chase and was out the door at four-thirty. She locked herself in her car and spun out of the parking lot. Wide brown eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses that met the eyes of the man striding out to mount the motorcycle. She refused to feel guilty because she turned him down. Nothing but headaches could come from dating a boss, she told herself. Again.

  She threw her pack to the chair and hopped out of her heels, tossing them toward the closet as she striped and hung up her suit, digging for running clothes and shoes. Paige was out the door at the same time the sun was well below the mountains across the Sound. Tiny glow lights sparkled on her shoes and in her hair as she ran the long path along the waterway.

  And she kept telling herself that she really didn’t care that he had really nice eyes and she would like to run her fingers through his hair…then there was that hard body he crushed her against a couple of times that promised to feel re
ally nice. Paige groaned aloud and ran a little faster.

  “He is your boss!” She screamed out over the water, hands on her knees and breathing ragged as she dropped to her heels and watched the boat come cruising silently toward the granary.

  This time, she decided she’d wait inside and just listen. Paige made it around the first set of pilings and into the dilapidated warehouse when the world went dark, dust flying into the air as she settled onto the ground.

  Chapter Five

  Sebastian had tried her cell. Repeatedly. He didn’t know what she did in her off time, aside from investigate abandoned properties. At ten there was still no cell answer and he mounted the bike with a growing sensation of apprehension. The male in him chided it was the thought of her out on a date with someone other than him. But the same instincts that had led him through his life, told him this wasn’t about male jealousy. He pulled before her two unit apartment at ten-thirty, the sensation creeping higher when he found her car parked there, the hood cold. He looked up at the wall of windows, but there was no light visible.

  He’d climbed the stairs, listening at the door before knocking loudly. He was sitting astride the bike when the lights came into the driveway, a twenty something guy hopping out and waving at the departing vehicle.

  “Hey,” he said with an easy grin. “You looking for Paige?” His gaze swept the man, the bike, the car and up to the bank of dark windows.

  “You’re a friend of hers?”

  “Neighbor,” he said with a shrug. “You know…hi, how ya doing kind of thing, she’s nice. Likes weird ass music for her age…she’s usually still awake. I saw her taking off on a run about five-thirty when I took off with Chip.”

  “You know which way she runs?”

  “Sure…down the street toward the water then along the waterway path,” he shook his head, keys jangling in his hand. “Then she hits the beach toward the old granary. I think she said she works for the people who own it or something. See you around.”