Abandoned (The Beckett Series Book 6)

by Mary Martinez

  Glenna paused. Two cops? Could she worry about two of her loved ones in law enforcement, then stopped that thought, she had a family full of them. She’d survived.

  One day at a time. She could do this, and if she kept telling herself every day she could, she would.

  “That’s part of The City University of New York, correct?”

  “Yes it is, it’s where Dad went.”

  “I remember he said something about that. Well you’ll do well there, even if there is no football team.”

  “I was thinking, Glenna, it will be nice to get to know my new family in New York.”

  She glanced at him and then back to the street. “They’re going to love you. I will feel better knowing you have the Elders close by.”

  He chuckled. “I love that you call them that. Are we going to go over our plan tonight?”

  “No. I want your dad to rest tonight and tomorrow. The weekend will be soon enough to go over everything.”

  As she pulled the car into the drive, the back door opened and Patrick leaned against the frame. She wasn’t sure if he needed the support or not.

  “Good luck with getting him to rest.”

  “We’ll keep his mind off it.” She climbed out and grabbed her packages from the back seat. “Do you have any board games?”

  Finn pulled the groceries from her arms and carried them toward the house calling over his shoulder, “Oh, yeah we have board games and I’m the resident champion of all.”

  Patrick moved into the kitchen to let them enter. Glenna was relieved to see he seemed to be moving better if not free of stiffness.

  “Board games?” He asked as he poked around in her selections for dinner.

  “Yes, I’m making a rule. No shop talk tonight or tomorrow. You’re going to rest.”

  He paused and contemplated her for a moment, she could almost see him thinking. And she knew his separation of work and home was going to be hard. Though before she’d entered his life it had been a normal thing. And if she was going to make this trial into permanent she would work to make that a normal thing again.

  Home was off the clock.

  “I hope we don’t embarrass you tonight.”

  Glenna looked from father to son, both wore identical smirks. “Why would I be embarrassed?”

  She busied herself putting out the deli meats, arranging the cheeses and breads she’d purchased. And tried not to think, that if this were a real engagement, shouldn’t he have given her a kiss?

  She felt him come up behind her, lean in and kiss the side of her neck, as if he’d been reading her mind.

  “Hmmm, you smell good.”

  “Oh guys, don’t do that in front of the child.”

  Which of course successfully ruined the romantic mood that had been about to wrap around her. But the warmth lingered.

  “Sit, both of you.”

  They followed her direction and Finn barely restrained himself from doing what he’d done at breakfast and pounce on the food before the plates hit the table.

  Over dinner they regaled her of stories of nights spent playing Monopoly and how she didn’t stand a chance. And unfortunately, they had been right. She hadn’t played board games for years. However, the evening had been a success, not one word had been said about the men who’d used Patrick for a punching bag.

  As Glenna cleaned up the evening’s dishes, the men cleared up the games and put the living room back to rights as they’d decided to move things out of the way to sit on the floor. As she’d done when she had played with her siblings growing. Memories flowed over her, and new ones had begun.

  Patrick checked the doors to make sure they were locked and secured, along with the windows. Finn surprised her by giving her a big hug, then calling Horace and the two went off to bed.

  She felt Patrick’s arm go around her, and she turned into his arms.

  “Thank you for a lovely evening, Glenna. I think we make a great family.”

  She smiled into his shoulder. “I do too.”

  “We best get to bed, Finn has practice and though you said no shop talk tomorrow, I do want to find a professional cleaner and there are a few things I need to do before we go to New York.”

  She stepped back and gave him a stern look, or she hoped it was anyway. “I promised Finn I’d make sure you were resting tomorrow.”

  “I will use my laptop and veg in that overstuffed chair I’m fast coming to hate. It may be comfortable, but I’m not used to sitting in it longer than watching the Golden State Warriors kick some opponent’s butt.”

  “You’re just going to have to tolerate it for one more day.”

  She bent to scoop up Agnes. When what she really wanted was to lead Patrick to her bed and make love. Holding her feline friend seemed like a safer choice. For one thing, she wasn’t ready to take their relationship to that level yet. And another, Patrick looked like he was about to drop. Though she was sure he’d deny that.

  He reached around the cat, who gave him a stink stare for the inconvenience and cupped her face for a swift kiss, or so it started out. A squawk from Agnes broke it up before it got out of hand. Patrick took a step back, and she was glad to see that his breathing indicated that he’d been as affected by that punch as she had.

  “I want to take you to my bed, Glenna.” He raised his hand to stop her from commenting. “I am going to wait though, because when I make love to you I want it to be perfect. I want to have all my strength back because I have a feeling I’m going to need it.”

  His last comment broke the sexual tension that had been thrumming around the two. She chuckled and took a step and with her free hand grasped the back of his neck pulling him down so she could kiss him. Keeping it light. She turned and threw a ‘good night’ over her shoulder as she walked into her room.

  After the door was closed she leaned against it to wait for her breathing to even out. She ruffled the cats’ fur. A loud meow in protest echoed over the room.

  “That was hard, Agnes.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  She woke with a start. Had she heard something? The room was still dark with the exception of the glow of the clock on the bedside table. Three in the morning. She sat up and listened. Then she heard it. Someone was in the kitchen.

  Dread ran over her. Carefully so as not to let the culprit know she was awake. She got to the door without mishap, she eased the door opened and light spilled into the room.

  Finn was at the counter in the process of making a sandwich. Relief flooded her. She didn’t like that every sound, creak of the floor, innocent rattling of the windows brought dread. Would things ever be normal and sane again?

  She gently closed the door. The boy needed his rest, if she went in they’d have a conversation and it would be much later when he made it to bed. Let him have his middle of the night snack and get back to sleep. He was a growing boy and needed his energy.

  It seemed she’d barely laid her head on the pillow and the alarm went off. She would make a substantial breakfast, run Finn to practice and shower later. She pulled her hair into a sloppy ponytail, and threw on some sweats. No need to dress up for kitchen duty.

  First order of business, coffee. While it brewed she pulled the eggs from the fridge and began the preparation omelets. The boy needed a good breakfast.

  “Something smells awesome in here.”

  As was fast becoming the routine, Finn reached over her shoulder to grab the first piece of bacon as she moved it to the plate.

  “Hey.” Again she was unsuccessful in rescuing the bacon.

  “I need my energy,” he said echoing her earlier thoughts.

  “You checked on the old codger yet?”

  “Old codger?”

  They both turned to watch Patrick walk in, straight if a little on the stiff side, he looked almost fifty percent better than he had the night before. He was on the mend.

  He grabbed the boy around the waist and began to wrestle him around. For which Glenna was going to have none of. She grabb
ed an arm, and until she pulled Finn away she hadn’t known whose.

  “You two are going to knock things over and my delicious breakfast will end up on the floor. Now both of you behave and sit down.”

  “But mum, he started it!” Patrick sat down with a mock frown.

  Glenna burst into welcome laughter. She was still smiling as she dished up the omelets and placed all the serving dishes on the table. She glanced at the clock it was barely six in the morning.

  “Come on, Finn we need to have you to practice at 6:30.”

  *****

  The men in the van watched. The lights had come on not long after they’d pulled into their spot.

  The leader frowned. “The kid must need to go to school soon.”

  “Football. That’s where he went yesterday. A big game tonight.”

  “Good, maybe we can check things out while they’re otherwise occupied.” The words sounded bored as the man flipping through a magazine.

  The leader twisted in his seat to get a look at his friend. “Good point.”

  “Distraction. The agent’s mind will be elsewhere.”

  Thoughtful, the man in the front settled again to watch as a few minutes later the 4Runner slid by them, the Beckett woman behind the wheel, with the kid in the passenger seat.

  Oblivious to their presence.

  Good.

  *****

  Lost in thought at the kitchen table where she’d sat up a temporary workstation, Glenna stared at the laptop. Her mind was far from whatever the words were on the screen. She kept replaying the trip to the school that morning. Something was off, Finn had been chatting a mile a minute about the game that evening. Whatever she was trying to remember this morning was on the edge of her subconscious. There was a detail she’d thought of or noticed she’d filed away to tell Patrick when she got home. What?

  “Hey beautiful.”

  Glenna jumped, nearly spilling her water she’d been about to sip. “Why do the men in this family insist on sneaking up on me?”

  “It’s fun?”

  Patrick pulled the fridge open, she noticed he bent like he was the tough old bird Finn had called him. After retrieving a bottled water he pulled a chair and sat, more than a little gingerly, across from her.

  “What are you working on?”

  “You mean what am I pretending to work on?”

  He grinned. “That too.”

  “Something about the drive to school is bugging me,” she said. She thought a minute, then snapped her fingers. “That’s it.”

  He raised a brow, gulped down some water replaced the lid. “And that would be?”

  “A van.” She slid her chair back and went to stand to the side of the front window. She motioned for Patrick to stay back. “They’re still there. I saw them out of the corner of my eye and I didn’t want to interrupt Finn’s enthusiasm. I meant to tell you when I got home. But then you were sleeping and I started reading my email….”

  Careful not to be seen from the window she returned to her seat.

  “They’ve been there since I got up.”

  “And you didn’t tell me?” Her surprised tone said it all.

  “I know you and Finn both wanted to be kept up on things.” He gave a shrug and winced. “The same reason you didn’t say anything. I planned to tell you when you returned as you pointed out, I was taking a bit of a beauty nap.”

  She chuckled. “As if you need it. Seriously though, why are they watching us here? Do you think they guessed we have the painting?”

  He stretched his legs out to the side of the table. “Maybe they do. But I think it’s a distraction. The want us to know they’re watching.”

  “You’re right, and I have an idea about that.”

  His brow hiked a little higher this time. “And?”

  “You’re cute when you do that.”

  “Didn’t your brothers tell you, a man never wants to be cute?”

  It felt good to laugh. “No. But talk about distracting.”

  She put up a finger to pause the conversation for a moment. She reached to the chair on her left and pulled the laptop bag off of it and held it up. Patrick frowned in confusion.

  “Luckily our treasure is one of the smallest of Bellini’s work.”

  “I’ll bite. What does that have to do…”

  Glenna cut him off by standing and going to her room returning with the Madonna and Child.

  “It’s about 14 inches by 18 inches, a little snug but look.” She carefully slid the wrapped picture into her bag. “We can transport it with us, without the men outside knowing.”

  Patrick started to slide his chair away from the table, placed a hand on it to push himself back.

  “Wait, I just checked. Remember.”

  “Yeah, but I wanted to make sure it’s our guys? It was too dark this morning when I caught sight of it.”

  “Well I didn’t get a good look with all of Finn’s football talk. I bet it is though. It’s a van, just a different color this time. They’ve been there all day.”

  “How do you know?”

  “After you’d been asleep for an hour or so, I got curious and decided we needed a few things from the grocery store.” She shrugged. “They were still there when I left and though they’d moved by the time I came home, I saw their van parked down around the block.”

  “I like that.”

  “That they’re watching?”

  “No.” He chuckled. “The sound of you saying ‘home.’”

  Warmth filled her. She did feel at home. As much as she loved her cottage, this was fast becoming home to her.

  “Back to the bad guys. We have until Tuesday to figure out where to stash this. If we take it in a box again, they’re going to be alerted.”

  “Brilliant. I don’t think I’ve seen you more than two or three times without that bag slung over your shoulder.”

  “Exactly, it’s going to be a tight squeeze to fit my laptop in also, but it’s doable.”

  In order to check it out, she put her laptop to sleep, folded it and slid, shoved, and shimmied until the computer and picture fit nicely. She slung the bag strap over her shoulder and walked around the kitchen.

  “No one will be the wiser. You’re doing great at this espionage stuff. Maybe you should become my partner, what do you say?”

  She considered him while she pulled her laptop out. Placing the bag, with the painting inside, on the chair. Only when she decided he was messing with her did she answer.

  “I think I’ll be the perfect partner.” He tossed her a surprised look. She smiled, dropped into the chair, and continued. “For this case only. Then it’s back to boring shop keeper for me.”

  “Speaking of the shop, while you were in their sounding like a freight train, I made a few calls.”

  “I do not snore.”

  She didn’t deem to comment on that one. “Anyway, I found someone to clean up. I will do the glass cases but they’ll do everything else. We’re meeting them there tomorrow morning at nine.”

  “Sounds good. What are we doing for dinner?”

  The change of subject caught her off guard for a moment, then she heard a loud rumble. She chuckled.

  “You must be recovering, because you’re hungry. I think maybe I’m a little hungry too.” Her stomach rumbled on queue. “Will Finn come home before the game? He said he’d call if he needed a ride.”

  “The coach usually has them carb up before the game. A few of the boys go to the little mom and pop Italian café by the school and order very large portions of spaghetti. I’m not sure how they eat like that and then go run around the stadium.”

  “Why don’t we join them?”

  “What and embarrass our boy by having us show up?”

  “Oh, I didn’t think of that.”

  “Glenna, I’m joking. Let me get ready and we’ll stop on our way to the game.”

  He stood with effort and then look down at her. “We’ll be taking your laptop, if they’re watching it will be the p
erfect opportunity to come snooping.”

  “What about Horace and Agnes, you don’t’ think they’ll hurt them.”

  “As much as the animals will hate it, we should probably kennel them for the night.”

  “They will, but I’d rather them be in a huff with me, than the buggers hurt the furry kids.”

  She pushed away from the table. She was sufficiently out of the mood to work, she snapped the laptop shut and did the shimmy to shove it into the bag again. He’d barely reached the kitchen archway when she glanced up and caught him watching her.

  “What?”

  “I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”

  “I thought that would be your ex.”

  “That porcelain woman couldn’t hold a candle to you.”

  He walked back to her and pulled her into a hug, with only one small wince. “In case, you’ve got any crazy thoughts in your head that you have competition for my heart.”

  He dropped his lips to a breath away from hers, she felt the words more then heard them. “You are my heart.”

  Just a tender graze at first turned into a heated tangle of tongues. The air stilled, her heart pounded against her ribs in rhythm with his. For the first time in she didn’t know how long she felt safe, loved, and home.

  There was such a thing as love at first sight.

  “Oh man, get a room!” They both started apart like guilty teenagers. “Horace is watching, you’re going to traumatize the poor guy.”

  She barely had enough room between her body and Patrick’s to put hand to heart. “Jeez, did your dad teach you how to sneak up on people. You scared the living daylights out of me.”

  Finn chuckled and shook his head. “Kids, do I need to have the talk with you?”

  “We weren’t expecting you home.” Patrick ran a hand through his ginger hair, leaving it with a rakish look. Glenna saw his hand shook and knew she wasn’t the only on rattled with the connection or whatever it was that had happened when his lips touched hers.

  “That was obvious.” Then he turned his attention to Glenna, she felt the burn roll up her neck over her cheeks. “Weren’t you supposed to be making sure he was resting?”

  “Aw…”

  This time he threw his head back and laughed. “I’m just messing with you, Glenna. It’s going to be awesome around here.”