“Any news about Betty Jo?” Mrs. Bowen asked, Mia knew the two had been friends for decades.
“She’s starting to wake up and is slowly healing.”
“When you see her, tell her the whole neighborhood is rooting for her.”
“I will, I promise.”
She ended the call. “She said one of the police officers was on the roof and the window was already broken when she came out of her house.”
“These two have been instructed to do a job, so I’m going to let this play out. It’s only a warning.”
Close to tears, Mia slipped her arms around his waist and hugged him. “I’m sorry.”
He draped an arm around her and brushed his lips against her temple. “You’re not responsible.”
They drew apart as two young officers reappeared. “No sign of any disturbance,” Jackson said. “I wedged a piece of cardboard in the space where he broke out the middle section of the window to reach in and open it. And by the way, it didn’t work because the window was painted shut.”
“It might have been the same guy who attacked your grandmother coming back for a second try,” Cliburn added. “I’d put shutters over the windows upstairs. They’d have a harder time breaking in that way. Everything else here looks secure for your grandmother’s return.”
“That’s what I’m aiming for,” Gage said.
“What do you do for a living, Mr. Fontenot?” Officer Jackson asked.
“I’m a Petty Officer in the Navy.”
“Are you stationed here?”
“No. I’m on the west coast.”
The two cops glanced at each other. “Be sure to keep the alarm armed when you’re not here, sir,” Jackson said, his dark brows knotted in a frown.
Neither man seemed to be able to meet Gage’s gaze.
“I’ll be sure to do that. Thanks for the suggestion.”
The two left, and Gage shut and locked the door.
“I wonder which one of them broke the window,” Mia said.
“It doesn’t matter at this point. I’m going upstairs,” Gage said.
“I’m coming with you.”
Gage turned on the attic light and the first thing they saw was the glass littering the floor just inside the window, and part of the structure of the window lying on the floor. “One of them must have climbed up on the roof and kicked it in.”
Standing in the space with boxes of Christmas ornaments and sweater boxes full of wrapping paper, Mia wondered where the two police officers would have hidden something if that was their intent.
“There’s some plywood in the garage. I’ll go out and get it to cover the windows.”
“Why don’t I look through these boxes in the meantime?”
Gage nodded.
She opened a couple of boxes and began sorting through the contents.
Five minutes later, after clattering down the roof, Gage appeared in the window with a hammer and a piece of plywood. He covered both small windows with the plywood and started hammering in nails.
Mia searched through several more boxes, and then untied the ribbon around an old hat box and took the lid off. A plastic bag of at least twenty pills, envelopes of powder, syringes, and other drug paraphernalia lay atop some old photo albums. She leaned back against the wall.
She turned when she heard Gage’s footsteps on the attic ladder. “I found something.”
He joined her there in front of the hatbox. “That was not in there when I searched the attic. There’s not a box that I didn’t open and go through.”
Mia bent to pick it up, and he grabbed her arm. Once again emotion tightened her throat. “Let me take care of this, Gage.”
“Are you going to call Jules again?”
“No, there’s no need.”
Gage raised a brow. “Don’t touch that bag. I’m going downstairs for some gloves.”
She was sickened by her brother’s persistence and the petty cruelty exhibited. She leaned against the slope of the ceiling and fought to keep her rage contained. Finally she eased away from the wall when Gage returned, his hands encased in rubber gloves, a paper takeout bag in one. He shook the bag open, picked up the plastic bag, and dropped it in.
Gage stood at the bottom of the steps while she climbed down.
“What’s the plan, Mia?” Gage asked.
“I’m going to take an Uber. I’ll slip out the back door and meet my ride in front of Mrs. Hebert’s house. I’m going to my mother’s house. Mason will probably be home. He rarely stays out past eleven on a workday.
“While I’m gone, I want you to pack a bag. Until Mama comes home, I think it would be a good idea for you to stay with me. I have an extra bedroom, and you can come and go as you please, plus you can monitor Mama’s house from there. If you’re not here, they’ll have no reason to do any more damage or try this again.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Mia.”
“They won’t try to plant drugs on my property. It isn’t in their best interest to destroy my reputation or interfere with my business.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I own twenty-five percent of B and B Industries. And I put it up as collateral to secure the loan for my business. They mess with my business and cause it to falter, the bank will own twenty-five percent of their business.”
And if they did anything to mess up what she built, she’d sue them for everything they owned. And she knew exactly the person who could help her with that. Someone else her mother and Mason had screwed over.
She shook off the rush of anger. “If you decide to take me up on my offer, leave your grandmother’s car here in case someone is following you, and come over to my apartment.”
She contacted Uber and arranged a ride. The driver said he’d be there in ten minutes. She took the bag from Gage.
When she started past him, he caught her arm. “I’m coming with you.”
“You’ll need to wait in the car until I’ve delivered this package.” She held up the bag.
“All right.”
Nerves did a jig in the pit of her stomach. She hadn’t really expected him to agree. “Hurry and grab what you need.”
“Two minutes.” His long strides ate up the distance between Mama’s bedroom and his own. He appeared in less than the time he requested with a gym bag that had seen better days, went into bathroom, retrieved his ditty bag, and shoved it in.
“We can catch the Uber around the corner. I’ve texted him the location.”
“Okay.”
They slipped out the back door, and Gage locked it and hit the fob on his keys to activate the alarm again. They walked across two neighbors’ yards to reach the sidewalk.
Gage left the gym bag in the shadows next to the neighbor’s house. “While we’re out here, I’m going to recon the area and see if I spot anyone watching Mama’s house.”
He walked to the nearest yard and seemed to melt into the shadows between the houses.
Mia glanced at her watch, nervous about the driver arriving and having to wait.
Her stomach clenched. She was about to break the law and plant drugs on her brother.
He deserved it for continuing to harass Gage and his family, but it was still a conflict for her. She prided herself on being a fair and reasonable person. A better person than her mother or her brother.
But she couldn’t just sit back and allow them to continue their vendetta against Gage and his family without doing something about it. And she refused to allow them to dictate who she could have a relationship with.
Mason had sent Gage a message. She was going to send that very same message to Mason.
A hand touched her shoulder, and she gasped and jerked in fear, then exhaled in a woosh. “Jesus, Gage. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
He grinned. “There’s a guy in a car parked diagonally across from the house two doors down. I’ve called the cops and reported a strange car and man in the neighborhood.”
“Too bad you won’t
be here to watch them harass him, if they even show up.”
Five minutes later a Nissan Rogue pulled up and the driver got out. “Ms. Blanchard?”
“Yes, that’s me. Thank you for coming.” They slipped into the back seat, and Mia gave the driver her mother’s address in the Garden District.
Gage leaned close to whisper in her ear. “I think I’m having a déjà vu moment,” Gage commented. “Remember how we used to sneak around to see each other?”
A half smile crooked his lips. He was actually enjoying this. But then if what she read about SEALs was true, they were famous for sneaking around unnoticed during covert ops. This was probably a walk in the park to him.
“Yes, I remember the time you climbed the iron trellis outside my room, knocked on my bedroom door, and scared me half to death.”
“As I remember, you got over being scared pretty quickly.”
They made love in her bed for the first time that night. The fear of discovery had given their coupling an edge of excitement adding to the hot, frantic need they felt for each other. A heated flush crept up her shoulders and neck to her face just thinking about it.
“You were a bad influence,” she accused, her tone husky with the memory.
“You didn’t seem to mind that either.”
“You’re right, I didn’t.” She loved him without reserve at sixteen. He kept his distance, knowing she was too young, until she initiated their first kiss on her eighteenth birthday. He’d been so careful, so tender. And it was another four months before they made love for the first time. Four months of eager agony, because by the time they consummated their relationship she was as hungry for him as he was for her.
She glanced up at Gage to find him studying her. Something in his expression fed the aching hunger her memories had triggered. Unable to sustain his gaze, she turned away and looked out the window.
When they were almost to the house, she instructed the Uber driver to go around the corner and let her out at the back gate.
She slipped her keys out of her pocket and held them in one hand and the paper bag in the other.
He’d barely stopped the car when she opened the door and hopped out. When Gage would have followed, she shook her head. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”
She walked along the six-foot wrought iron fence that bordered the sidewalk along the property line. A hedge planted inside acted as a second buffer for anyone planning to climb over and enter the property. Her heart raced with nerves, and she took several calming breaths while unlocking the gate and easing it open.
She cut across the lawn, out of sight of the house, and walked toward the back of the garage. The exterior lights mounted on the structure cast deep shadows across the grounds and shined off a slice of white concrete drive. It might as well have been daylight.
The back door to the garage was locked, so she crept around to the front, where the doors stood wide open. The car Mason drove for work, a Mercedes-Benz sedan, sat in its usual place. She eyed the camera mounted between the double-wide doors as it swiveled in a slow arc from one side of the garage to the other. She counted the seconds and waited for it to swivel back, then stepped into the garage and walked quickly to the car.
She slipped behind the sedan and squatted down for a moment, hyper-aware of the camera’s backward swing, while she continued to count in her head. When she peeked out again, it had already started its swing back to the other side. She went to the rear door of his vehicle, opened it, and smiled. Her brother was notorious for not locking his car. This time he would regret it.
She got in, shut the door, and lay across the seat. The leather interior smelled like new car. She breathed it in as she tipped the bag upside down so the bag of pills, powder, and syringes dropped onto the floor. Next she folded the paper bag into a tube and used it to prod the package under the driver’s seat, out of sight.
Still counting, she eased up to double-check the camera position. Finding it moving once again toward the other side of the garage, she quickly exited the car, eased the door shut, then nudged it with her hip to make certain it was closed.
Footsteps came from the stairs to the office above, and for a moment she froze, losing count. The camera swung slowly back, and she ducked down behind Mason’s vehicle again, lay down, and rolled beneath the bumper.
She caught a glimpse of her mother’s driver, Gerome, dressed casually in dark slacks and a shirt, as he exited the stairway. She listened intently to his footsteps, tracking his movements while he walked around the front of the six vehicles housed in the garage. His feet became visible as he stopped alongside a Mercedes convertible two vehicles over. then he got in, started the car, and pulled away.
Mia eased forward from beneath the edge of the bumper to see where the camera was. Finding it at its farthest pointed-away position, she rolled out from under the car, leapt to her feet, rushed to the back door of the garage, unlocked it, and slipped outside. She pressed back against the building and waited a moment to catch her breath. Her heart drummed against her temples and thumped in her throat from the close call.
How on earth did Gage maintain his composure in similar situations? And he’d have the added stress of being in danger the whole time. But she wasn’t in physical danger. The thought quietened her nerves a little.
She peeked around the back of the garage, and, not seeing anyone approaching, ran toward the fence, then walked slowly along the shrub border. Attempting to appear casual and unhurried, she pushed the gate open and exited onto the sidewalk. When she slipped her key in, she caught a glimpse of Gerome walking back to the garage, so she quickly locked the gate, turned, and walked back to the Nissan Rogue.
She smiled at the fifty something driver as he exited the car. “I’m sorry it took longer than I expected. I’ll be sure to give you a tip for waiting for me.”
“No problem.”
She slid into the car next to Gage, and he tucked her in against his side with an arm around her shoulders.
The driver asked, “Where to, folks?”
Mia gave him her apartment address and leaned back in relief. She gripped Gage’s hand and held tight until her breathing and heart slowed to something approaching normal.
“Trouble?” Gage asked, his voice a soft rumble in her ear.
Sensual chills rushed over her skin. “Almost. I’ll tell you about it when we get to my apartment.”
CHAPTER 11
‡
For several moments shock kept Gage from commenting. He should have asked what she planned to do before he got in the car.
He assumed she’d confront Mason, throw the drugs at him, and storm off.
But planting drugs in Mason’s car… hadn’t even entered his mind.
Just knowing she’d broken the law for him…Jesus. He had to set this right.
“Mia, you could go to jail if the police prove you planted those drugs in his car. Your fingerprints will be on the door handle and the interior of the vehicle, even if they aren’t on the drugs.”
“Relax. I’m not going to call the police. Though that was my first thought.” She grinned at him. “I really wanted him to be harassed by the cops like you were, but I just can’t be as heartless as he and Camille are.
“So I decided that he deserves to be driving around with them in his car, totally oblivious to them being there. And when he or Gerome finds them… Imagine how shocked they’ll be. And of course Gerome will take them directly to him. And Mason will think, ‘Shit! If anyone had stopped and searched me, I probably would have been arrested.’”
Gage laughed.
“I understand what an inept criminal I am,” she said drily.
Gage laughed. “It’s called having a conscience, cher. I’m glad you haven’t changed enough to have criminal tendencies. I remember how guilty you felt when we sneaked around behind your grandmother’s back to be together.”
She got up from the couch and went into the kitchen to retrieve the bottle of wine she opened the night before, poure
d half a glass, then asked, “Would you like a beer or wine?”
“Beer.” Her sudden move to get a drink made him wonder if she wanted to avoid any reference to their past escapades. But he knew she was turned on by the things he reminded her of in the car earlier.
She set the beer on a coaster in front of him and sat next to him on the couch. She turned the wine glass in her hands without drinking. “You know they’re going to send someone to search Mama’s house.”
“Probably.” He twisted the top off the bottle and took a swig. “But the drugs won’t be there. And when Mason finds them, it’ll send him the same message he sent me.”
“I suppose there is a kind of circular logic to that.” She sipped her wine, then leaned back, kicked her shoes off, and propped her feet on the coffee table. Jazz jumped up on the couch beside her and butted his head against her hand to be petted. She stroked him absently.
Gage stretched his long legs out and rested his head back against the couch cushions. “There could be some serious fallout when they do show up to search. That bag of drugs looked pretty significant. If they’ve borrowed it from another case, they’ll be scrambling to find it. Otherwise they’ll have to drop the case.”
“And they won’t be able to ask either of us where they are, because if they do it’ll expose what they did,” she said.
“They might even decide the two police officers who were supposed to deliver the drugs kept them to make a little extra money on the side. Which would really cause some backlash.” He almost felt sorry for those two. After all, they wouldn’t have had any reason to put drugs in Mama’s attic unless they were ordered to.
“Whoever took the bag out of the evidence room, if that’s where it came from, might have some questions to answer when they discover it’s missing. Which will be an all-encompassing fuckup for them,” he added.
“Like dominoes falling.” Mia grinned and sighed. “I’m so glad I planted those drugs.”
Gage laughed.
She glanced up at him. “My only regret is that we won’t have a front-row seat for any of the fallout. Unless I let Jules know what went down tonight.”
Hot SEAL, Midnight Magic (SEALs In Paradise) Page 9
