Walker Texas Wife (The Book Cellar Mysteries 1)

by Melissa Storm

  But Brooke refused to let the woman unnerve her. Instead of acknowledging Annabeth, she put on her signature smile and spoke directly to Marcus. “Oh, hey, can I ask you something?”

  “Shoot.” A smile spread from ear to ear on Marcus’s face, which was actually quite handsome now that she was really looking at it for the first time. Then again, she’d always found herself enamored of that sizzling tall, dark, and handsome combo. And Marcus was so tall, so dark, and so handsome. Yum. How had icky Annabeth ever managed to land him?

  Ah well, the Lord giveth, and Brooke could taketh away if she darn well pleased. Now she was doubly motivated. Step one, get some intel. Step two, get under Annabeth’s skin. She didn’t actually want to steal her man, but neither of them needed to know that. Now did they?

  “I…” She let her eyes linger on his lips as she thought of the best way to play this encounter. “I was wondering if you and Annabeth might be able to help me out. You see, a couple of our volunteers for the annual autism gala canceled on us, and it’s sort of last minute, but I was just wondering if... maybe... well.” She gave her best imitation of a true blush, and Marcus, of course, ate up the entire bumbling damsel act.

  “Say no more, Brooke. Of course, we’d be happy to help. Isn’t that right, Anna... Annabeth?”

  “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Brooke gave him a huge hug, making sure to press her breasts up against his chest as she did. “You’re a lifesaver!”

  Now he was the one blushing. “Aww, it’s nothing really… I’m—I mean, we’re—happy to help in whatever way we can. Just tell us what you need.”

  “Well, we need a new bartender, an MC, and somebody to run sound, of course—”

  Annabeth stepped forward and held up her hand. “Umm, I think I might know someone who can help with sound. That is, if my suggestions are welcome.”

  “Of course,” Brooke said. “Thank you, Annabeth. Thank you, Marcus.” She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, then jogged away with a flirty, little wave.

  She reached home at the same time as Brian. The garage door thundered open just as she was unhooking Tiara’s leash. Brooke fluffed her hair and prepared to meet her husband with a hungry kiss. After all, hadn’t she just resolved to try harder to bring the warmth back into their marriage?

  Brian shuffled into the kitchen without even looking at her.

  A sinking feeling landed in the pit of her stomach. “Babe? Is everything all right?”

  “What do you think?” he asked through clenched teeth.

  “C’mon, don’t be like that, baby.” She wrapped her arms around him from behind and attempted to press a kiss to his cheek.

  He pulled himself away so fast that Brooke fell forward and had to catch hold of the table to keep from falling. “Honey?” Her voice shook with fear. She hated that.

  “What’s the matter? Didn’t get enough play from that stupid nig—?”

  “Don’t you dare go there, Brian. Nothing is going on.”

  “It’s too late to play dumb. I saw you flirting with that, that… man outside his house. The whole neighborhood saw!”

  “Oh, you mean, Marcus, that was just—”

  “I don’t need to hear your explanation,” Brian growled.

  His voice lowered several notches. “Just don’t let it happen again, or…”

  “Or what?” Brooke asked, afraid of what the answer would be.

  Brian shook his head, and his features rearranged themselves into a placid expression. “Nothing, babe. Sorry, I overreacted.”

  “Should we at least talk about this?”

  He stretched his arms overhead then gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Nah, I’m exhausted, and it’ll be another early day in court tomorrow. Speaking of which, would you mind running my lucky boxers through the wash before heading to bed?”

  Brooke nodded and made her way to their second floor laundry room. Somehow she had a feeling that if she didn’t get this one simple thing right, there would be hell to pay. She just wasn’t sure who would have to pay it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Annabeth

  Annabeth caught herself grinding her back teeth, something she was prone to do when under a lot of stress. Brooke’s little stunt with Marcus had pushed her to the limits of her patience. It had irked her even more that he had seemed to fall for it hook, line, and sinker. The last thing she wanted to do was help Brooke with her gala, but she couldn’t very well say so in front of Marcus. She’d just look petty.

  It’s for a good cause, she reminded herself.

  Even though it was getting late, she needed to get out of the house. A swim would do the trick.

  Annabeth snapped the hair tie off her wrist and pulled her hair up off her neck. She missed the Olympic-sized pool back home where she’d swum almost every morning before work to help manage the stress of the job and her ever-complicated personal life. Now it had been two weeks since she’d been in the water. The tension inside her was nearing critical levels. Between her disastrous day at class, her argument with Marcus, and dealing with Brooke, she knew she needed to swim. Now.

  It took her less than five minutes to change into her sleek one-piece suit and a sheer black cover-up.

  With a towel under her arm, she set off on the five-minute walk to the small pool in the back of their subdivision. As she walked across the street, the heat from the blacktop seeped through the thin rubber of her flip-flops. Like walking on the sun, she thought.

  The pool had two designated lap lanes. It wasn’t Olympic-size by any means, but it was serviceable. She carefully tucked her hair underneath her swim cap. Years of exposure to harsh pool chemicals had done a lot of damage to her hair and scalp, so now she religiously wore her cap even for a quick dip. The comforting smell of chlorine filled her nostrils as she padded across the cement to the pool—dropping her things on one of the lounge chairs.

  A relieved sigh escaped her lips as she dove into the lukewarm water. Her arm rose and dipped down. Her fingertips sliced through the water, propelling her forward with each scoop. Right, left, right, left, she rotated her shoulders back and forth until her fingertips touched the wall. Annabeth tucked and rolled in the water so that her feet met and she pushed off the side wall. The thrill of shooting through the water sent happy little endorphins through her veins. Ever since she had been a little girl, swimming had been her drug of choice.

  After she rounded out her fifth lap, she paused at the ledge to catch her breath.

  “Bravo,” a voice called out from the far end of the pool.

  Annabeth turned her head to see Jesse standing at the end of the pool, clapping. His adorable little ponytailed girls bookended him. They were both clad in matching Hello Kitty pink suits and water wings.

  “Wow!” the oldest girl exclaimed. “You’re a good swimmer!”

  “Thank you.” Annabeth smiled at the girls as she adjusted her swim cap.

  “Go ahead and jump in girls. We only have an hour today. No complaints when it's time to come out, either.”

  “Okay, Dad.”

  The girls broke out into a run for the shallow end of the pool. Jesse cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, “Walk!”

  The girls halted their running and instead speed walked the rest of the way into the pool. Jesse rolled his eyes as he slid into the lane beside Annabeth.

  His snoopiness made her nervous. She didn’t want all her hard work to be put to ruins by some bored house husband. She had done a little research and had discovered that his blog was quickly becoming an Internet phenomenon. Even though his main audience was stay-at-home moms—most of whom not-so-secretly wished he was their husband—he could still cause any number of problems for her and Marcus.

  Still, she’d take his warm, friendly presence over Brooke’s scolding frigidity any day—even on a hot one like this.

  “My girls were very impressed with your laps. So am I. You been swimming long?” He tipped his head back into the water and slicked back his wet hair.


  Annabeth thought about his question carefully before answering. She knew very well that the best, most believable lies were the ones that had a kernel of truth to them.

  “Yes,” she said at last. “I was a lifeguard in high school and college.”

  Jesse looked away from her for a second. He blew little bubbles in the water and looked over with a smile at his girls who were splashing each other, then twisted his body back toward her. His large eyes squinted against the late afternoon sun.

  “You never swam competitively?”

  “No,” she said without missing a beat.

  “You’re pretty good,” he said, pointing out the obvious as he seemed so often keen to do. “It's hard to believe that you wouldn’t have been on a swim team or something.”

  Annabeth had been a very competitive swimmer growing up and had even tried out for the Olympics, missing the time trial by a tenth of a second. Her event had been the women’s 200-meter freestyle. Her real name was all over the Internet with pictures of her as a young girl and woman standing on podiums all over the U.S.

  She couldn’t tell him that, though. If he knew her past, he would know her secrets. She couldn’t afford to have him snooping around and messing everything up for her.

  She shrugged in a way she hoped looked natural. “I don’t like competition. I just did the lifeguard gig because it was easy and paid really well.”

  “Hmmm.” Jesse seemed to consider her answer as he treaded water with ease. “So I guess you wouldn’t want to race me then?”

  Annabeth met his challenging look head on. “No, not really.”

  In actuality she wanted nothing more than to swim against him and win. Anything to wipe that smug, self-satisfied grin off his face.

  No wonder he and Brooke were so tight. They were both annoying as all heck.

  For the life of her, though, she couldn’t figure out why Vi was friends with either of them. She seemed so sweet and unimposing. But how much did Annabeth actually know about any of her new neighbors?

  She pushed any thoughts of making Jesse eat her watery dust out of her mind and swam over to the ladder on the side of the pool. “I should actually get going. I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow.”

  He smiled with a knowing look behind his eyes.

  What does he know?

  “Have a good night, Annabeth,” he said before diving underneath the water.

  She watched with interest as his broad arms and shoulders sliced through the water with a measured ease and speed.

  Annabeth wondered for a moment if he had swum competitively. She let the thought go and wrapped her towel around her, securing it at her breast.

  Her phone blinked blue, letting her know she had a message. It was from Fernando. A chill ran down her spine, though she wasn’t exactly sure why.

  Annabeth, tell your friend I am free to send up the sound equipment for the event. I was hoping your message would be an invite to go out, but I guess getting me a gig is second best. A bunch of us from the department are going out Friday night. I hope you can make it.

  Annabeth lifted her eyes just in time to catch Jesse as he broke the surface and shot a quizzical expression her way. His easy smile put her ill at ease. The less time she spent around Jesse the better.

  Fernando, however, was a different story. As much as she wanted to avoid him as well, he was necessary for her to move forward with her mission.

  Text me the info. I’ll try to make it after my book club, she texted back.

  Her flip-flops clapped against the cement as she we walked out of the community center and toward home. A block away, she saw two cop cars parked in front of a two-story stone house.

  Annabeth walked with purpose toward the police.

  “Excuse me, officer. Is everything all right?”

  “Ma’am. We’re just here about a suspected robbery.”

  Annabeth scrunched up her nose, trying to look cute and innocent. “Oh? I just moved in down the street. Should I be worried?” She tilted her head to the side and bit her lip.

  The officer gave her a slow once-over before he cleared his throat and gave her a syrupy sweet smile. “Tell me, what street do you live on, ma’am?”

  “William Street.”

  The officer rested his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. “A car was dispatched to William this morning, but it was a false alarm. Don’t you worry though, we’ll catch the folks responsible for this nonsense. Just give us a call if you see anything suspicious.”

  “Well, thank you, officer. I appreciate all you and your men do to keep us safe.”

  “My pleasure, ma’am,” he said with a grin. “You have a good night.”

  “You too.” Annabeth let out a deep sigh as she continued on her walk.

  Trouble seemed to follow her wherever she went. She had been foolish to think otherwise. This wasn’t a new start in a new place. No, this is just where they’d run to escape from their problems.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Vi

  Vi took in a long, deep breath. Three days of being cooped up with a nasty case of the flu had been three days too many. Nobody had time to be sick in this day and age—least of all her.

  Her boss had told her she could take the whole week off, but she couldn’t stand a minute longer in bed. She was ready to get back to work and being her useful self. She didn’t want to disappoint her clients at the shelter. They needed her.

  She also needed a break from Brooke who had been over nearly every day to “take care of her”. When all she really wanted to do was gossip about the neighbors and speculate about the reasoning behind the stuff they had found in Marcus’s room.

  I’m not sure which is more taxing, Brooke or the flu. It was too close to call.

  When she arrived for duty, the Lighthouse Crisis Center’s waiting room was already full. Vi knocked on the Plexiglas window for Rosa, the receptionist, to buzz her in. As she always did, she greeted Vi with a big friendly smile.

  Rosa had been a kindergarten teacher for over thirty years, and when she retired, she got a job at the Center as the full-time receptionist. She was the perfect person for the job—everyone’s stand-in-grandmother.

  “Hey, Vi. It’s great to have you back. How are you feeling?”

  Vi moved her magnet into the in slot. “I’m still pretty tired, but what can you do? There are always more bills to pay.”

  Rosa handed her an intake file. “Room #1 is open. She, uh... she used to volunteer here. She seemed pretty upset, so I took her back to wait in private. All the other advocates are in with clients, and this one asked for you by name.” Rosa flashed Vi a sympathetic smile. “You picked a heck of a day to come back to work.”

  Vi’s shoulders slumped as she read over the paperwork the client had filled out. A gasp escaped her lips when she got to the middle of the questionnaire—her reason for requesting services.

  Rosa nodded. “Yeah, I know. She was pretty adamant about not wanting to involve the police. An EMT brought her in. She was in a car accident. And, well, you’ll hear the rest soon enough...”

  Vi hugged the file to her chest and said a silent prayer for the young girl in the other room. In their small town, they were used to the garden variety domestic disputes, but sex trafficking? This was definitely a new one. She needed a few moments to brace herself before proceeding in to talk with her newest client.

  “Is she hurt?”

  Rosa shook her head. “The EMTs cleared her. She’s pretty banged up though.”

  “Okay.” Vi hesitated. She would be lying to herself if she said she wasn’t afraid of making a mistake.

  I can do this!

  She played the mantra over again in her mind, trying to psych herself up.

  “You’ll do fine.” Rosa smiled at Vi, giving her the boost of support she needed to get moving.

  It didn’t matter how many intakes she had performed in the past, she always worried about saying or doing the wrong thing. Knowing the girl behind the door
didn’t help, either. Ideally, an advocate would pass off on cases where she knew the person, but in a small town like Herald Springs, everyone knew everyone.

  But sex trafficking? How could...?

  You’re stalling, Vi!

  She took a deep breath and twisted the doorknob. There. Just like pulling off a Band-Aid.

  Vi gave the girl a quick glance before she dropped her gaze back to the client file. The irony of how often she’d drilled in to Joy the importance of eye-contact was not lost on her.

  “Hi, Anjali. I don’t know if you remember me or not. My name is—”

  Anjali looked up at her with almond shaped dark brown eyes. “I remember you, Miss Vi.”

  Vi felt herself get flustered, of course she remembered her, she had requested to speak to Vi directly. Though Vi couldn’t for the life of her understand why she would pick her over the other far more talented and seasoned advocates on staff.

  Mother Mary, give me strength!

  Vi sat down on the chair across from Anjali, whose upper lip was split and the side of her face swollen. The memory of Anjali from two summers ago flashed before Vi’s eyes. She had been an energetic and happy young woman, eager to spend her time helping others despite her full course load at the University of Austin.

  One day last fall she hadn’t shown up for her volunteer shift. Vi remembered that the volunteer coordinator had been surprised since Anjali had expressed such an interest in the work despite her parents’ insistence that she study engineering instead of social work.

  Vi shook her head to break apart the memories of how vibrant the girl had been in the past. It seemed this new version of the girl shared only a name with her former self.

  Vi exhaled slowly. “Umm, on your intake form you checked that you feel your life's in danger and that you are seeking shelter.”

  Anjali rocked back and forth—a comfort seeking motion that Joy often did when anxious. “I am needing a safe place to stay until I can get a ticket back to India. This is the only place I could think that might accept me.”