by Morgan Henry
Derek was thinking he’d have Colin and Marcus look into it as well. They were the two men who’d installed Karen’s security system and were opening up a security firm based in Hardwick Bay. At one time he would have thought the town had little need for them, but now, he wondered. He knew Allan and Zander had them looking into the break-in. It wouldn’t be too much to get them to check out this bit of vandalism as well.
The officer spoke to Mary briefly on the veranda at Karen’s. He asked the usual questions about seeing anything suspicious and who might have a grudge against her.
Mary couldn’t come up with much. She didn’t think she’d manage to offend anyone in town, and her parents were hardly likely to slash her tires, no matter how pissed they were with her and Karen.
“We can help you get new tires on Tuesday,” Logan offered.
“It’s okay. I called my insurance, and they’ll pay to have it towed.” Mary smiled at him. Derek thought it looked like a real smile, not the fake, cheery ones she had been throwing their way of late.
“I worry a little about you in that apartment alone. Do you want to stay with us?” Derek blurted it out without thinking. With Mary determined to reject them, she wasn’t going to move in. Yet.
“I’m not alone. I have Sammy.”
“You’re right. He’s fierce.” Derek didn’t consider the overly friendly cat a great source of protection, but he would let the cat cover his mistake.
It didn’t prevent him from worrying though.
* * * *
“I thought you said Allan was picking me up.” Mary cornered Karen in the kitchen and frowned at her.
Karen flushed. “Well, they were coming and offered to grab you.”
Mary rolled her eyes. “Oh sure.” Sarcasm dripped thickly off her words like the gravy Karen was currently stirring off a spoon.
“You are in so much trouble,” Mary continued.
“Me?”
Mary snorted.
“Okay,” Karen conceded. “I wanted you three to get together. They’re good for you, Mary. You’re all great people, and don’t tell me you don’t find them attractive. Why don’t you see if it will work out, you know, romantically?”
Mary hadn’t told Karen she’d slept with the two men. And obviously they hadn’t told either, which, she had to admit, was a point in their favour. They had discretion going for them.
“I’m not interested in a relationship right now. I just ditched Bob. There has to be some time in between.” Mary spread apart her hands, trying to convey a lengthy separation.
“Bull crap. Good men come along when they come along. You’re a fool if you turn them down. I think that might actually be your own words I’m throwing back at you.” Karen stirred the gravy a bit more vigorously.
It was true. Mary had called Karen and her men fools at one point when they were on the outs. But it was an entirely different situation.
“Well, I can’t deal with them until I figure out what to do with the rest of my life.”
“I thought everything was going well with Andrew.”
“Well, it is. But a partnership is a long way from being a done deal.” And I still have my job and condo in the city, Mary thought, somewhat guiltily.
“I swear, Mary, you’re going to worry yourself into another ulcer. There’s nothing wrong with dating while you see if a partnership will be feasible. Even if you go on your own, there’s no reason not to date. And you’re having a realtor deal with the condo, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
Mary waved her hand dismissively. “It’s too much. I’m not dating.”
“Well, dinner’s ready. Call the hordes to the table, and I’ll start putting things out. But we’re not finished discussing this.”
Dinner was a lively affair with the six of them.
Instead of the polite and completely boring conversation Mary and Karen were used to with their parents, there was a lot of laughter, and conversation ranged from stories of childhood to movies to Christmas plans.
It was great, but Mary was having a hard time truly investing in it. She didn’t eat much, despite the food being fabulous. She knew Derek and Logan noticed, but they didn’t harass her about it. Karen had them sitting on either side of Mary, so it’s not like she could hide from them.
“Don’t worry about the car,” Logan murmured in her ear as everyone finished up.
Mary swallowed. He thought she was worried about the car. She had almost forgotten about it after the conversation with Karen. Let them think that was it.
Allan stood and began to clear the plates. “We’re on dishes, guys, since Karen and Mary did most of the cooking.”
“I think we’ll wait a bit for dessert if that’s okay with everyone,” Karen suggested.
Groans of agreement came from the stuffed guests.
The women lounged in the living room, chatting and listening to the clink of dishes and the men’s voices in the kitchen.
Mary heard a car door slam, and someone enter the mudroom.
“Oh, that’ll be Colin and Marcus.” Karen jumped up to go and greet them.
Mary hurried after her and caught her arm. “You called them?” she hissed, forgetting to be non-confrontational with her sister. “The police are handling it!”
“Handling what?” Karen asked, aghast at Mary’s aggression. “I invited them for dessert if they got back into town tonight.”
Oh crap. Karen didn’t know. Mary assumed Derek and Logan had told her.
“Nothing,” she said quickly.
“Oh no. That’s not going to work. Talk. Now.” Karen had that look in her eyes that said Mary was toast if she didn’t talk.
Mary gave her a quick rundown of the tires, not that there was much to tell.
“Oh my God! What the hell is up these days?” Karen hugged her sister fiercely.
“It’s all fine. Let’s not say anything to them though. You know how they were when they installed the security system. I don’t want to deal with them in work mode,” Mary pleaded.
The two men had been pretty fierce when they came to Karen’s and put in the alarm. Mary had admitted to Karen she privately nicknamed them Hawk and Grumpy. Karen was in agreement. They both found the men completely intimidating.
“Okay,” Karen agreed. “But I bet Derek and Logan will talk.”
“Shit.”
“Hey, Mary,” came Derek’s voice from the kitchen. “Could you come in here a minute?”
Chapter 13
“What’s up, guys?” Mary entered the kitchen, holding her empty wine glass, trying to appear as though she hadn’t just been discussing her slashed tires.
Tires, what tires?
All the men in the room were staring intently at her.
Mary’s stomach clenched painfully. Maybe it was a good thing she hadn’t eaten much at dinner.
“Why don’t you sit down?” Colin was by the kitchen table, holding out a chair.
Mary strolled over to the table. Not a problem, I can do this. They’re not intimidating.
She sat down and crossed her ankles, stretching out a little. “Hey, can you give me a refill?” She held out her glass and tried to smile winningly.
Colin gave her what was almost a smile and took her glass.
Marcus sat down and took out a notepad. “So, what did the note say?”
Mary sat bolt upright. “How the hell did you know about the note?” she demanded hotly. She hadn’t told anyone about the note. Not even Sammy.
“I didn’t,” replied Marcus calmly. “But generally, people don’t go to tire slashing without something ahead of it. What did the note say?”
Mary slumped in her chair. “It said, ‘Go home.’”
Colin set down her wineglass. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Derek and Logan pulled out chairs on either side of her and sat down. Derek was frowning, and Logan appeared to be trying not to frown.
“So where was it?” Derek asked.
; “On my car.”
Marcus made a circular gesture at Mary.
“Tucked under the wiper,” she said with a sigh.
“Mary”—Logan put his hand on the small of her back—“you need to give them some more details.”
“It was in an envelope, tucked under the wiper two days ago. I threw it out.” Mary hated admitting it. She hated that someone in town disliked her enough to send her a shitty note.
“Was it printed or hand-written?” Colin asked. Marcus continued to take notes.
“It was written, in capitals. Black marker,” she replied.
“Was your name on the envelope?” Colin seemed in charge of the questions.
Mary thought. “No. Just my initials. Doesn’t that seem weird?”
Colin gave a non-committal grunt. “What other contact has this person made?”
“None. I swear,” Mary added hastily at their disbelieving looks.
“Have you heard from Bob recently?” Colin continued with the questions.
“Um, not really.”
“Define ‘not really’ for us,” said Derek.
“A couple of voicemails. I… I didn’t even listen to them all.” Mary fiddled with the cuff of her shirt. She hadn’t listened to all of the last one, anyway.
“What did they say?” Logan asked.
Mary shrugged. “Mostly that he missed me. Sometimes he was angry.” She omitted the threats that he’d get back at her somehow and the guilt trips he tried to lay on her. She knew he was drunk in most of them, so she discounted a lot of what he said.
“Where’s your phone?” asked Marcus.
“In my purse, and no, you can’t have it.” Mary had deleted the voicemails, but she wouldn’t put it past the two ex-cops to be able to retrieve the messages anyway.
“Fine.” He scribbled a few more notes, frowning.
“Thank you, Mary. I’m sorry we had to do this today, but we like to talk while things are fresh. If anything else happens, please call us.” Colin handed Mary their card. “And make sure you keep the security system activated.”
“Okay,” Mary mumbled. What else could she say?
She stared at her wineglass. Today had started out great, but it was heading downhill fast.
She realized that Derek and Logan were still on either side of her. It was so tempting to think about crawling into one of their laps and letting them help her shut out the hurt for a while. Lean into the comfort she knew they would offer her.
But that couldn’t happen.
“Mary, like it or not, we’re not giving up on us.” Derek spoke softly into her ear. “We care about you, and we’ll help you out in any way we can. Get used to it.”
Logan’s big hand squeezed her hip. “What he said. Now let’s get some dessert.”
Mary cleared her throat. “It’s really nice of you two to offer to help, but we’re just friends. I told you I can’t do a relationship right now.”
The kitchen had cleared out. They were alone.
“Do you still want to be with Bob?” asked Logan, his voice tight.
“No!” Good Lord, no. In fact, she'd rather have another ulcer than marry Bob. “But, you know, people should have time between relationships.”
“Why?” pressed Logan.
“Because they should. It gives time for, uh, reflection.” That sounded adult.
“Well, you’ve been reflecting for at least a few weeks. Longer than that, Karen said. How long does this take?” queried Derek, sounding a little amused.
“As long as I say,” Mary replied, only half serious.
“And why can this reflecting not be done while two intelligent and handsome men do their best to convince you that the three of us would be great together? We already know the sex is great. The rest of our lives could be just as good.” Derek leaned over and kissed the shell of her ear.
Mary shivered. She liked that, and she knew that he knew it.
“Shouldn’t we join the others for dessert?” she asked.
“I’d rather eat you,” Logan whispered in her ear. He stood up. “Okay, let’s find some pie.”
“But, Mary, we’ll be keeping an eye on your safety.” Derek was very serious. “You’re ours, and Hardwick Bay takes that very seriously.”
Mary sighed and followed them for pie.
The next day was Thanksgiving Monday. Mary was supposed to visit her parents at their cottage that afternoon. She hadn’t told Karen and hadn’t planned on it but had to fess up when she needed to borrow her sister’s SUV.
Karen wasn’t happy and let Mary know it when she came to pick up the vehicle. “You know all they’re going to do is pressure you to return to your old job and ditch everything here in town, including me.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Well, I have a few problems with that. One, I don’t want us to go back to barely speaking. I know that’s selfish, but I can’t help it. I like that we see each other and talk all the time again, like when we were younger but better. And you weren’t happy before. You were so unhappy you were hospitalized!” Karen eyes were a bit shiny.
“I know. I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here and see you all the time. But I can’t completely cut ties with them.” Mary did know that to go back would end badly, but “I’m not as strong as you,” she whispered.
“That’s crap,” Karen started to sniffle a bit. “Do you want me to go with you? Because I will. We could even take Allan and Zander. Mom and Dad would have a collective heart attack.”
“No, they drink too much red wine. It’s protective, you know. They’d have an aneurysm instead.” Mary gave her sister the best smile she could muster at the moment.
Karen smacked her arm and then enveloped Mary in a hug. “Talk to me when you get back, okay?”
“Okay.”
Mary got in the SUV, relieved that Karen didn’t come. If she had, her sister might have found out that Mary hadn’t actually quit her job or put the condo on the market.
Chapter 14
Mary pulled into the gravel drive at her parents’ cottage. It looked the same as always. Neat and tidy. No colourful flowers in the small garden at the door, just three identical green plants.
Mary knocked and entered when bidden.
She removed her shoes and walked down the short hall to the open living area at the back.
Her stomach was twisted up tight, as if someone was wringing it like she would a dishcloth. She didn’t want to be here. Conflict with her parents had always upset her far more than it should. She thought that she must have made almost all her decisions based on what would avoid any confrontation with them.
Well, no wonder. She would do a lot to avoid feeling like this.
But she couldn’t anymore, could she? Living their version of her life didn’t work.
She tried to put aside the twisty feeling in her belly and carried on.
“Hi, sugar lump.”
That dishcloth in her stomach twirled itself into a knotted mess that was even tighter than before.
“Bob. I didn’t expect to see you here.” Mary was quite proud that came out calmly and evenly.
“Wouldn’t miss seeing you.” Bob looked like crap.
Mary was a little shocked to see his slightly reddened eyes and a bit of bed head. It was just past noon, and he was already drinking a glass of what appeared to be whiskey. His shirt had a tiny spot on the pocket. For obsessively neat Bob, he was a walking disaster.
“Hi, Mom. Dad.” She greeted her parents.
“Sit down, Mary.” Her dad gestured to one of the chairs in the living area.
“What, no offer of coffee?” Wow, had she just said that?
“I see your sister’s bad manners have been rubbing off on you,” her mother quickly responded in a very irritated voice.
“Sorry,” Mary replied automatically and regretted apologizing immediately. “Actually, I think I would like some coffee. I’ll get it.”
She stood and went to the little kitchen she knew so we
ll. There was already coffee on, so she helped herself.
Sitting back down in the living area, she somehow felt a bit more confident. Like the coffee was liquid protection.
“Bob has been doing damage control at work for you,” LeeAnn said in her clipped voice that meant she was irritated and out for blood.
“I can’t imagine why. I’m on a leave, the person who is looking after things in my absence is competent, and I’ve helped her out here and there as she’s needed it.” Damage control, my butt. Bob is likely doing the damage, not repairing it.
“When anyone is away from their career, they risk losing opportunities for advancement that may never come again. Maybe your replacement is better, and the partners will keep her and let you go. It’s also easy for rumors to get started about your character. Karen certainly hasn’t helped that with her illegal and immoral marriage.” Her mother was sitting ramrod straight, as she always did for a fight.
“How would they know about Karen’s marriage unless someone in this room told them?” Mary wondered.
“The professional community can be very small,” her father pointed out.
“Sure.” Mary didn’t think the professional community really gave a crap about who was in her sister’s bed, but her parents clearly did.
“Mary, sugar lump—”
“Don’t call me that!” Mary snapped at Bob. “I’ve always hated it.”
“Mary,” Bob started again. “You worked so hard to get that position. You’re respected in the firm, despite your relative youth for the position. Why would you throw that away?”
“What is wrong with you? I worked myself into the hospital, not that anyone in this room visited.” Yeah, she was holding on to some resentment about that.
“You obviously need to learn some further skills. It must be a failing in your management or selection of staff perhaps, which contributes to your inability to manage career-related stress. Certainly others in similar positions are just fine,” said her father, who didn’t have to manage staff in his position in the university.
“Oh, thank you very much. So instead of finding a new job that I might love, I should go back to the place that I ‘failed at’ and make it work?” Having three people that were close to her attack her for her failings was making Mary angry, but more than that, it was wearing her out.
