by Jen Talty
“I don’t hear anything.” She clutched the sheets to her chest, the moonlight shining through the window, hitting her profile in just the right manner, showing off her glowing skin.
He paused, tearing his gaze from Charlotte, glancing out the window, which wasn’t angled to where he could see the main house.
“Come back to bed,” Charlotte cooed, before her eyes went wide as the sound of police cars and fire trucks filled the air.
“They aren’t too—”
Knock! Knock!
“Charlotte? Gavin?” Ned, her father called out. “Sorry to wake you.”
“We’re awake,” Gavin said, snagging his shirt before opening the door to the bedroom. He glanced over his shoulder. Charlotte had scooted to the edge of the bed, wrapping herself in a blanket. He pulled the door closed, giving her a chance to get dressed. No reason for her father to see the unmade bed his daughter shared with her boyfrie… he blinked. He’d deal with that thought later.
Her father stood at the front door in a robe. He raked a hand through his thinning hair.
“What’s wrong?” Gavin met Ned in the center of the room.
“Our alarm was tripped and I didn’t like you two out here alone if someone was on the grounds.”
“How long ago did it go off? I didn’t hear it.”
“With the number of guests we have in the house, I didn’t have the alarm set as I normally would. But someone tripped the alarm going into the pool area.”
The hair on the back of his necked prickled to attention. “Sir, you shouldn’t have come out here. You could have called.”
“First, don’t ever call me sir.” Ned arched a brow. “And second, that’s my daughter in there and I would never leave her alone.”
Gavin swallowed, nodding his head once. “I was just concerned for your own safety.”
Ned reached in his robe and pulled out a handgun. “I appreciate that. But, until I know what is going on, I’d like for you and Charlotte to come to the main house.” Ned put the gun back in his pocket.
“Of course,” Gavin said, glancing over his shoulder. “My father is a police officer, and I know he’s on duty tonight. I can give him a call if necessary.”
“You didn’t follow in his footsteps?” Ned asked.
“My mom is a firefighter, so I followed hers.”
“Wow. I’m impressed.”
Before he could respond, Charlotte pushed open the bedroom door.
“Daddy, what’s going on?” She tiptoed across the room, giving her father a hug.
“Probably nothing to worry your pretty little head about, but better to be—”
“Don’t patronize me, Dad. We both know mom defends some pretty nasty people, which is why you have such an elaborate security system. So, what happened?” She slipped her arm around Gavin’s waist.
He tensed, though it wasn’t from her touch.
“It’s possible someone tried to break in,” Ned said.
“Let’s all go to the main house.” Gavin pressed his hand against the center of her back. “I’m sure I know the first responders, so I’d like to talk to them.”
He followed Ned across the cement patio. All the lights had been turned on, illuminating the green water rippling in the pool. He expected to see the remnants of a major party, but everything had been cleaned up. The only thing left behind were the extra tables and chairs.
Three large double sliding doors lined the kitchen. He’d never seen a kitchen the size or magnitude of this one with its two side-by-side double ovens, a freezer the size of a fridge, an island that sat at least twelve people, and a floor to ceiling wine cooler. The counters were an off-white color with swirls of grey and light green. He wasn’t sure, but he assumed they were granite.
The room was filled with all her siblings. Her nieces and nephews were sprawled out on the sofa and floor in the family room, watching something on television.
“We’d like to view the videotape now,” the sound of his father’s voice rang out strong.
“My Dad is here,” he whispered in Charlotte’s ear. “I should go talk to him.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Stay here with everyone else.”
Her right brow twitched.
He’d hurt her feelings, but now was not the time or the place to introduce her to his father. He kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll be back shortly.”
Ned followed him through the kitchen, down the long corridor and to the foyer where Rosie and Charlotte’s oldest brother Ethan, stood talking with his father and his partner, Edward Hayes.
“Here is my husband,” Rosie said, holding her hand out. Ned took it and moved to stand next to his wife. “As I said before, we had a large party last night, and still have a house full of guests. He went to get our daughter and her boyfriend from the pool house.”
Gavin cleared his throat, making his presence known.
His father turned his head. “Son? What are you doing here?”
“Your son is our daughter’s boyfriend.” Rosie said.
Gavin’s mother was going to have his head on a platter, especially if his little sister had said anything.
“Why don’t we focus on what tripped the alarm,” Gavin said, looking down, realizing he was barefoot. “You mentioned something about surveillance video?”
“Yes. We have cameras set up all over the property. They run on seventy-two-hour recordings,” Rosie said.
“My wife is a criminal attorney, and I always worry someone is going to—”
“Darling, do we need to get into this now?” Charlette’s mother said.
“No dear,” Ned said, pointing down to the north side of the house. “We can access everything from my wife’s home office.”
“Mind if I take a look around the property?” his father’s partner, Hayes asked.
“Be our guest,” Ned said, leading the way through a maze of rooms, all decorated in a shaker style with a mixture of dark leathers, wooden chairs, and pieces of artwork that depicted an outdoor lifestyle.
It was difficult for Gavin to reconcile that Charlotte came from this much money and lived the modest lifestyle she portrayed. The only experience he had with wealthy people had been Lydia and the occasional fancy house he had to enter due to a fire or other emergency.
All the way at the far end of the house, through a set of French doors, was Rosie's home office. It had a large white, u-shaped desk, with a set of computer screens displayed prominently on the back wall. Ned sat behind the desk, pulling out a keyboard drawer. The monitors buzzed to life.
“The call came in at 2:38,” his father said, leaning over Ned’s shoulder. “If we could look at every angle you have from 1:38 until now.”
“Sure thing.”
“Why don’t you pull it up, and my son and I can go through the footage and if we see anything, we’ll let you know.”
“That’s fine.” Rosie stood at the door, waiting for Ned. “I’m hoping that it was nothing, though I hate wasting your time.”
“Not a waste of time at all. It’s our job.” His father sat behind the desk, taking over the controls of the recorded video.
Gavin leaned against the desk, behind his father, scanning the screens. When he’d been younger, he dreamed of being a police officer. He’d spent much of his youth reading and watching police shows. He spent summers working for the Sheriff’s office, admiring his father. He still revered his father and his job, but one day with his mother at the fire station when he’d been eighteen-years-old, had changed his world forever. Watching his mother, and other relatives, deal with a three-alarm fire, and the lives they had saved, put the fireman’s bug in his heart. Not that his father’s profession was any less admirable and important to the safety of the community, but the call of the flames had burned deep in his blood.
“So, you have a girlfriend now?” his father said, glancing over his shoulder. “How long?”
“Since yesterday.” He saw no point in lying to the old man. He’d
never done it in the past, not even as a stupid teenager, so why start now. “She’s my next-door neighbor. I’ve kind of had eyes on her for a while, I just didn’t think she had any for me.”
“Care to tell me how you ended up spending the night here if it’s so new and why they are calling you her boyfriend?” his father’s tone was neither accusatory, nor laced with disappointment, but it did have a certain edge to it.
“I had enough to drink that driving wouldn’t have been safe. They were kind enough to let me crash here after the party.”
His father let out a short laugh. “You must have made quite the impression that they allowed you to sleep in the same bedroom with their—”
“She let them believe we’d been dating longer than we had.”
His father whipped the chair around.
“Let me finish.” Gavin held up his hand. “To make a very long story short, her ex-boyfriend married her sister and since then, she’s been withdrawn from her family, and they in turn have been concerned.”
“Rightfully so.” His father had turned his attention back to the screens, pausing, rewinding, fast-forwarding, searching for what had breached the security area. “So, what you’re telling me is she’s using you to get her family off her back and there is no relationship?”
“No. We’re dating.” The words rolled off his tongue easily, leaving a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Then I can tell your mother you’re bringing your new girlfriend to dinner this week.”
He was about to balk at the idea when a car rolled to a stop across the road from the main driveway with no lights on. “You see that, Dad?”
“I do.” His father punched the keyboard, zooming in on the car.
Gavin inched closer to the screen. “I’ve seen that car before.”
“Where and when?”
“Outside my duplex this morning just as Charlotte and I left to come here.”
“Can you be sure?”
“The car had an insured by Smith & Wesson bumper sticker on the right fender.” Gavin studied the man, dressed in black, getting out of the car, trying to pull memories of the person he saw this morning from his mind.
“Looks like we found our guy,” his father said, following the man from one camera to the next until he disappeared near the side of the house.
“That’s where all the cars are parked.” Gavin tapped the screen. “No idea how many are left, but I know that’s where they put my truck.”
His father pulled out his cell and called Hayes, asking him to take a look in that area.
“Dad, look.” Gavin tapped the top screen where the same man he’d seen this morning jumped the back gate to the pool. “I remember that the man I saw this morning had dark rimmed glasses. That’s him. I know it.”
“Did Charlotte know him?”
“She said she’d never seen the car before.”
“I take it you didn’t notice if he followed you or not?” His father pulled out a small notebook and jotted down a few notes.
“I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t.” Gavin watched as the man from the white car bolted back over the fence and across the yard just as sirens echoed in the background.
“No reason you would.” His father’s phone buzzed. “What’s up, Hayes?”
“You and Gavin need to come to the detached parking garage.”
Gavin glanced down at his father.
“Why does my son need to come?”
“His truck has been vandalized.”
Chapter Nine
Charlotte hadn’t envisioned meeting Gavin’s father under the pretense of being questioned, even if only as a witness.
She sat in the plush leather loveseat in her mother’s office, Gavin leaning against the desk while his father, who had the same probing glare only with a few more wrinkles around the eyes, began his questioning. “You’ve never seen that car or man before?” Gavin’s father Eric asked after showing her all the footage from the security cameras.
“I remember the car from this morning, but I honestly don’t recognize the guy.” She locked gazes with Gavin.
“Do you have any ex-boyfriends that might have an axe to grind?” Eric questioned in a kind tone, but it didn’t make this any less awkward.
“Not that I know of. My last real boyfriend was my sister’s husband. I dated this guy a few months ago, but haven’t heard from him since we broke up and that guy,” she pointed to the screen, which had been frozen on the best angle of the man who had been driving the car and had jumped the fence to the pool area, “…isn’t him.”
“What about co-workers? Friends? Anyone that might have it in for you?” Eric swiveled in her mother’s chair, rocking back and forth. “Someone you might have brushed off, or who could be jealous of you?”
She chomped down on the inside of her mouth. The only person that came to mind had been Charlie, from the dating site. Even though she hadn’t give her real name, she had used her personal email to register on the site and no one was completely anonymous no matter how hard they tried. “There is this one guy, but he doesn’t know my address.”
“What guy?” Gavin asked with an arched brow and a frown.
“Someone from the dating site.”
“What dating site?” Gavin’s father asked.
“You were talking to other men?” Gavin’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits.
“It was before we met online or went out,” she said, wishing she didn’t have to do this in front of his father.
“I’m sorry, but I’m confused,” Eric said. “The two of you met on a dating site? I thought you were neighbors.”
“We were talking in a singles chat room, but didn’t know it until, well...” Gavin looked at his watch,“…yesterday.”
Her stomach pitched. She didn’t feel guilty, but she could see the hurt behind Gavin’s eyes. “I had blocked him, but he posed as you.”
“As me? How did he do that? And when did he do that?” Gavin folded his arms across his chest.
“Yesterday morning, a few hours before we left for here. He came on using a different screen name. He said something like, hey, it’s me. I responded with…” she paused, chewing on her fingernail.
“With my screen name?” Gavin asked, saving her from having to say sexyfirefighter in front of his father, which would probably be as embarrassing to him as it was to her.
She nodded. “No more than a minute later, you pinged me, so I blocked him again.”
“What time was that?” Eric asked, scribbling in his notebook.
“I’d have to look at my history on the site to give you an exact time.”
Eric raised his eyelids, but not his head. “Can you access the conversations?”
“Only the ones I’ve saved, and I didn’t save any of his, but I believe when you block someone it’s time stamped.”
“Mind if we look inside your account?” Eric asked.
Gavin cocked his head. His chest raised before she heard a long exhale.
“If you think it will help catch whoever slashed Gavin’s tires and keyed his truck, sure.” She continued to assess Gavin’s expression.
He rubbed his temples. “Why’d you block this guy?”
“He got weird. And possessive.”
“I wonder if the site archives conversations?” Eric stood, stuffing his notebook in his back pocket. “I’m going to take your mother up on some coffee. Do either of you want some?”
She nodded.
“That would be great, thanks, Dad.”
“I’ll be right back and then we can log into the site and see what we can find out. I’ll get Hayes to call the cyber unit, and see if we can’t get the owner of the dating service to give us access to any archives.” Eric stepped out of the office.
She leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes.
“How many men are you talking to?” Gavin’s accusatory tone lingered in the air like a thick layer of smoke in a cigar bar.
“I was only talking to you. I had ta
lked to a couple other men before that, which I told you about online.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this guy before?”
“I told sexyfirefighter and I didn’t think I needed to be worried. My address isn’t associated with the account.”
“But it’s possible he could have found your real name and looked you up, right?”
She nodded, lowering her chin and opening her eyes. Gavin had pushed himself from the desk and stood in front of her. “You saved our conversations?”
“I did, but it’s not like we had internet sex or anything.”
“You say that as if you’d had it before.” He planted his hands on his hips and glared.
“If I had, before I went out with you, it would be none of your business. But since this seems to be the Spanish inquisition, I can tell you I’ve never done that.”
“It’s just that my dad is going to read it and things are already awkward.” He glanced around the room before taking a seat next to her on the loveseat.
A long silence settled between them. She wanted to break through the tension, but she didn’t know how, much less what to say. Her love life, once again, was on display. It had been hard enough when she’d caught her sister with Ralph, and she had subsequently lied to her family about how she’d found them together so her sister could save face.
“I’m sorry about your truck,” she whispered, lacking anything better to say.
“It’s not your fault.”
“Indirectly, it is if it’s this asshole from the website.”
“Not even remotely close. He could have latched onto anyone and probably has before.” He shifted his body, tapping his finger on her thigh. “Why is it you come from all this and you live in a duplex across town when you obviously could be living somewhere much nicer?”
“Why is that obvious?” Another reason never to bring anyone home. Once they know you come from money, they make assumptions about you.
He let out a curt laugh. “You drive a Hyundai when you could afford a Porsche—”
“Just because my parents can afford a Porsche doesn’t mean I can.” No one in her family ever had a free ride. She knew she had opportunities others never had, and she appreciated that, but she valued the idea that her parents made all their children make it on their own once they flew from the nest.
