“You, sir, are very good for my ego.” She turned her head to rest it on his shoulder. Normally, that would’ve been a good sign, but in this case, he knew better. She was putting emotional distance between them by breaking the eye contact the way she had. What did he have to do to get through to her? To make her see he was serious?
Evan bit back his sigh of frustration. On the one hand, he was making progress. She hadn’t run screaming from the dance floor. And did her arms tighten around his waist just the tiniest fraction? On the other, it stung like hell every time she cut him out like that.
Or perhaps it was just his imagination engaging in some wishful thinking. Maybe it was time for him to take the hint. She was not interested in him as anything more than a friend and coworker. As hard as that would be to bear, he would man up and move on.
chapter nineteen
“Your dad was kind of a jerk,” Teddy Craig stated and followed Tam up the stairs to his bedroom suite as the final stop of the comprehensive tour of his magazine-worthy mansion. She could safely say that no one else in the area lived quite as high on the hog as he did. That was not a compliment. If she saw another chandelier made of hand blown Murano glass she’d be tempted to hang herself from said chandelier.
Tam fought to keep her expression neutral and only half focused on his bizarre statement that seemed to come from left field. She was much more interested in figuring out how she’d allowed herself to become such a coward. There could be no other explanation for the way she’d abandoned Evan after the most perfect of dances in favor of touring the monstrosity that Teddy Craig had the nerve to call home. It was time for her to hitch up the big girl britches and admit that she was really feeling Evan. If the fact that he was drop dead gorgeous inside and out made her shallow, then call her puddle.
“I’m sorry. What?”
He held up a conciliatory hand and sat on trunk at the foot of his king-sized bed. Nearly everything soft in the room – the carpet, the bedspread, the upholstery – followed the strict dress code of burgundy and gold, while all the hard surfaces – the dresser, the bedposts and various standalone cabinets and shelves – were dark mahogany wood. It was overwhelming. “Sorry. That came out wrong.”
“There was a right way for that to come out?”
“Well. No. It’s just… He was never very nice to me. In fact, I’m pretty sure he hated me.”
Tam wandered toward a window overlooking the frost-covered driveway. “That’s absurd.” She turned to face Teddy Craig “Unless you did something to make him not like you.”
Teddy Craig shrugged. “I can’t imagine what.” He stood to approach her. “But I just wanted to let you know that I never held it against him. In fact, I even shaved twenty percent off the estimate when he was looking to renovate your old house.”
Tam frowned. That was news to her. “Wait. You were the contractor they hired?”
“Yeah. We’d have done a great job, too, if not for that copper theft.” Teddy Craig rubbed her shoulders. “Your dad fired us after the damage would’ve cost more to repair than to just sell the place. I tried to talk him out of it, but he was kind of a stubborn guy.”
She couldn’t put her finger on why, but Teddy Craig was starting to creep her out. Tam moved away under the pretense of checking out an oil painting. Hearing that her dad hadn’t liked him still carried weight with her despite the fact that her dad was gone and she was a grown woman. A daddy’s girl ‘til the end, that’s who she was.
“Like father, like daughter,” Tam stated. As she was beginning to expect, the warning went right over Teddy Craig’s head. Evan would’ve picked up on it.
“You’re a whole lot cuter than your dad.” Teddy Craig smiled. All she could see were those teeth.
Tam tilted her head in brief acknowledgment of the compliment then frowned. “Do you have any idea who the copper thief could be? They’ve hit a lot of houses in the area.”
He rubbed his nose. “Don’t I know it. They hit a house, we get a call to do the repair. More often than not, the homeowner balks at the cost and we waste a trip out to give the estimate.”
“That’s got to suck.”
“You have no idea. I’m thinking about charging for those calls. You know. I got bills to pay, too.” He gestured around the room. The movement drew her attention to the stand-alone tie rack in the corner of the room.
It looked to be spring-loaded and relied on the pressure of the floor and ceiling to keep it standing upright. The top two arms held a variety of ties while an abundance of belts hung on the bottom arms. Handkerchiefs hung from the circular rings on the front on the rack.
“That’s an interesting rack.” Tam moved closer to get a better look. Anger warred with disbelief in her gut. It couldn’t be. Could it?
“Yeah. My mom picked it up at some flea market. You know how she is with her antiques.”
Tam’s fingers trembled when they found the tiny green heart etched into the pole of the rack. “It’s copper, right?”
Teddy Craig shrugged. “I guess. Why?”
Her growing anger was making her downright snarky. “Better watch out for copper thieves. Apparently they don’t just take pipes and wiring.”
He laughed. “Well, they can try. With our state of the art security system, they won’t get far.”
“Yo! Boss man. Your TV is wiggin’ out again. Should I just bang on the side until it stops?” Clive called upstairs.
“Bang on the…No! I’ll be right there.” He stomped his way downstairs. No one would ever accuse him of being light on his feet.
Just like that, Tam was forgotten. She could’ve been upset at his running off so fast, but decided to be grateful instead. She whipped out her cell phone and snapped a shot of the tie rack. Her parents had used that very rack for towels in their main bathroom since long before she’d even been born. She didn’t buy Teddy Craig’s flea market story for a moment. That rack was in his house for one reason and one reason only. Teddy Craig was the copper thief.
Tam looked around the room with new eyes. Now that she had a focus, it seemed like every piece of copper jumped out at her. From the knickknacks on the fireplace mantle to the knobs on the four poster bed. What kind of man slept on a four poster bed anyway?
She didn’t waste a moment. Tam snapped photo after photo documenting the copper items. The sick feeling in her stomach only deepened when she recognized items from Sharon’s, Trey’s and Vivian’s childhood homes.
Teddy Craig’s sob story about providing estimates then not being hired had rung false in her ears from the moment he uttered the words. What a creep! Both Sharon and Trey’s parents had hired him to do the repairs. Since she hadn’t even known about the theft at Vivian’s parents, they must’ve hired him, too.
Tam was positively seething at the scam Teddy Craig had going here. The fact that it was wrong ticked her off. The fact that he’d run it on her parents made her beyond livid. They’d had to choose between the house and her mom’s cancer treatments. It was no wonder they’d lost the house to foreclosure.
So furious she could barely see straight, Tam hit Evan’s speed dial button. She was sorry she’d made fun of him for programming it now. She wasn’t rational enough to remember anybody’s number. Much less his. He picked up on the second ring.
“Don’t tell me lover boy is finished already.”
“Can you come get me or not?” Tam was nowhere near a mood that included pleasantries.
“Yeah. I’ll turn around right now. Is everything okay?”
“I’ll text you the address.” Tam hung up. She immediately felt bad for being such a bitch to Evan just now. After all, he was coming to rescue her. She called him back. His tone was wary when he answered. She couldn’t blame him. That was what she’d done to him. Taken his normal, bubbly Evan demeanor away.
“I’m sorry. Something happened… I’m not mad at you. It’s me.” Tam heaved a sigh. She was taking her frustrations out on the wrong person. She yanked a tie off the rack and
threw it across the room. It was too light to get very far, but she felt her mood improve a fraction.
“Are you okay?”
A wicked smile spread across her face. She tore off another tie. “Yep. See you soon.”
She hung up and really got into her tie flinging frenzy. None made it very far from the epicenter of her escapade, but they made a wonderful mess in Teddy Craig’s freakishly tidy bedroom. Tam picked off her first belt. That one got some decent flight time when she hurled it across the room buckle first. It bounced harmlessly off the side of the bed and landed on the carpeted floor. It wasn’t long before several more joined it.
Winded by her temper tantrum, Tam paused to consider the rack itself. No way was she leaving without it. She tossed a glare at the stairway where voices still drifted up, but not much else. She knelt next to the bottom of the rack to try to release the spring that held it in place. She’d always had difficulty getting the mechanism to twist. Today was no exception.
Tam kicked at the bottom hoping it would slide across the carpet enough for her to tilt it out of position. It was just about free when it just wouldn’t budge millimeter farther. She stood, gripped the pole and gave the bottom another kick. The top moved instead.
Tam checked the ceiling and noted the black smudge the rack was leaving in its wake with glee. She grabbed the pole a little higher and tugged some more. The black mark grew longer, but the ceiling still didn’t release the rack. She sucked in a deep breath and yanked with all her might.
This time, the rack sprang loose. Off balance, Tam toppled backwards against the wall. Or what she’d thought was a wall. She went through the flimsy structure butt first and landed on some solid round cylinders. The rack hit her on the nose on its way to the floor.
She paused a moment to assess the situation. The voices continued downstairs as before so no one must’ve heard her fall through the wall. She breathed a relieved sigh. As mad as she was at Teddy Craig, she hadn’t intended to destroy his home. Maybe she was overreacting. There was still the possibility that he had gotten those copper pieces from a flea market. Oh, who was she kidding? The man was guilty as hell.
Tam struggled to get up out of the wall, but she was stuck. She placed her palms on the wall surrounding her hips and tried to leverage herself out. It would’ve worked if the wall hadn’t continued to crumple. Teddy Craig must be a pretty sucky contractor.
Maybe it was time to change tacks. She started chipping away at the fragile material that held her in place. In for a penny, she figured. When she was finally free, she tumbled out onto the carpet then turned to inspect the hole. No wonder it had been so flimsy.
Piles of copper pipes filled the makeshift room. There were so many pipes in there that there was no way Teddy Craig’s thefts had been limited to their small community. Livid, Tam fumbled with her phone. She managed to turn on the video camera and aim it at the hole her ass had made. After tucking the phone in the bodice of her dress, she pulled a pipe from the pile and held it up for the camera.
“Seriously, Teddy Craig? You keep the stolen copper in your bedroom?” She narrated for the video.
Tam swung the pipe as hard as she could at the remains of the wall bringing it down. It gave her and the camera a much better view of the illicit goods.
“Oh, my God!”
Tam jumped at the sound of Teddy Craig’s voice behind her.
“What the hell are you doing?” He stormed over and yanked the pipe from her hands.
She bent and grabbed the towel rack. “Just taking what mine.”
“You must really be out of your mind. Thinking you can come in here and steal from me.” He reached for the rack, but she held tight and backed away.
Tam barked a humorless laugh. “That’s rich. You. Calling me a thief.” She gestured toward the hidden room full of copper. “You broke into my parents’ home and destroyed the place.”
He tossed the pipe back in the room of his illicit goods. It landed with clang. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. C’mon. Let’s all calm down and get this straightened out.” He held out a hand toward her. Tam ignored it.
“I am calm.” Tam wrestled with the towel rack to get a better grip. “And I’m leaving.”
He nodded to the rack. “Not with that, you aren’t.”
“Wanna bet?” She challenged.
He reached to grab the rack. She swung it with everything she had in her. The end caught him in the ribs, and he roared in pain. This really was not how she’d expected the evening to go.
“Stay away from me!” Tam commanded and cocked the rack back for another swing.
The ruckus must’ve alerted the guys downstairs because they came charging up there.
“Hey boss? Everything okay?”
Clive and Steve stopped at the top of the stairs and took in the standoff. “What the…? You showed her the copper, boss?”
With one hand pressed tightly against his ribs Teddy Craig gave Clive an annoyed look. “No, you imbecile. She found it. Get that thing away from her so we can get her out of here.”
Clive and Steve blindly followed their orders. Tam backed away as they advanced on her. “Stay away from me,” she warned. The only exit was the stairway behind the men. She wasn’t getting past them very easily.
Clive reached for the rack just as Teddy Craig had. She swung again and caught him in the neck. Steve tried to follow up, but she just kept swinging wildly with the pole while backing away. He managed to avoid getting struck, but he didn’t dare get any closer, either.
“You idiots! Just grab her already.” Teddy Craig demanded, but she noticed that he didn’t bother to approach her himself. She tossed a glance over her shoulder at the balcony doors. She could probably make it. No idea what she’d do next, but it was her only option at this point.
“She’s dangerous,” Steve complained.
“And crazy,” Clive added. Tam glared at him. Pot and kettles, asshole.
“She’s just a little girl. Would you grab her already?” Tam raised an eyebrow at Teddy Craig’s insult.
“Yeah, well this little girl’s gonna tell everybody that they can find their missing copper in your bedroom.” She smirked at Teddy Craig “Can’t wait to hear how you explain this.”
Clive and Steve turned their attention to Teddy Craig “She’s got a point, boss,” Steve said. “You promised me this operation wouldn’t send me back to jail.”
Teddy Craig gestured toward Tam. “Speak freely in front of the company why don’t you?” He turned an arrogantly hostile look on her. “She’s not going to tell anybody.”
Without warning, Teddy Craig lunged at her. He snagged her around the waist and dragged her toward the balcony doors. She struggled to keep her footing on the soft carpeting, but her heels continued to throw her off balance. She did manage to hold onto the rack, however.
“Open the door.”
“It’s cold out there,” Clive pointed out, even while Steve jumped to do Teddy Craig’s bidding.
“No!” Tam screamed as Teddy Craig shoved her out on the balcony. He made one last attempt to grab the rack, but she stomped on his foot with her heel. He howled in pain and fell away from her. Finally, the stilettos were good for something.
Steve gave her a final shove outside. She slid on a thin layer of ice before catching her balance. She dropped the rack and lunged for the door just as Steve pulled it closed and flipped the lock.
“Open this door!” She demanded, pounding her fists against the glass. “Right now.”
The three guys spared her a look, and then huddled up. Their voices were faint, but she could hear them if she stopped pounding.
“We can’t leave her out there all night, boss,” Clive protested.
“He’s right. You can’t,” Tam added to the conversation. Teddy Craig just shot a glare her way before ignoring her completely.
“Call in the other guys and clean up this mess.” Teddy Craig smirked at Tam. “We’ll let her go once it’s gone. She has nothi
ng on us. Without any evidence, who’ll believe her wild rantings?”
Tam frowned. Wild rantings? Too bad for him those rantings were backed up by video. She leaned over the railing and looked at the ground. Except, it was stuck out here in the cold with her. Pissed, Tam looked around the balcony for something that would break the glass. Nothing, including the rack, appeared to be up to the task. She was trapped and completely at Teddy Craig’s mercy.
chapter twenty
Evan checked the GPS on his phone one last time before turning down the hidden driveway he’d almost missed in the darkness. He was almost to Tam. After what seemed like an insanely long trek, Teddy Craig’s gigantic mansion came into view. Against his will, Evan had to admit he was impressed with the sheer size of the thing. His next thought was that he hoped Tam wasn’t one to be fooled by size alone. He had a great house in Pacific Palisades, but it was nowhere near as large as Teddy Craig’s.
Evan looked around the empty space surrounding the mansion. Of course, there wasn’t this kind of room available in Pacific Palisades, either. He glanced at his phone again. Tam must be on this side of the house. Another thing in his favor was that she’d called him for a ride away from Teddy Craig. Maybe things were starting to go his way after all.
He eased the Escalade to a stop near the front door. He started to get out, but noticed that Tam’s signal was farther along the right side of the house. No reason not to follow the driveway around there.
As soon as he’d reached the side of the mansion, he spotted Tam on a second floor balcony waving her arms. With a frown, he stopped almost underneath her and climbed from the SUV.
“Aren’t you cold out here?” Evan asked, noting that she didn’t have on a jacket. Just the black halter cocktail dress she’d worn to the dance. His concern was almost forgotten when something landed with a muted clank on the ground beside him.
“Put that in the car,” Tam whispered down to him.
Evan looked at the pole lying at his feet and planted his hands on his hips. “Am I about to become an unwitting accomplice in some crazy high school prank?”
Blurred Boundaries Page 19
