by Dani Pettrey
“What are you doing here?” Crystal asked as she stepped into the hallway. She was curvy and wearing skintight leggings that showed every angle, slope, and well, everything. Her white short-sleeved blouse, way tighter than the designer intended, was tied above her waist. Black boots with crisscross straps completed the ensemble.
“Hello?” Crystal said, clearly annoyed she hadn’t received an answer yet.
Avery took a deep, steadying breath, refusing to get pulled into Crystal’s drama. “I suppose I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing here?”
Crystal did a sassy neck swish with her head, her blond curls bouncing with the rapid movement. “For your information, this is my boyfriend’s brother’s place. I have every reason to be here.” She glanced over at Parker standing in the doorway, and Avery didn’t miss the momentary flash of admiration in Crystal’s brown eyes. “Who is he?”
“Parker Mitchell.” He extended his hand.
“Oh.” Crystal giggled as she shook his hand. “Nice accent.”
“Thanks.” Parker winked. “Had it all my life.”
Of course he would use the situation to be friendly with Crystal. It was a strategic investigative move, but why did it bug her so? She knew exactly why. “Wait.” She mentally backtracked. “Did you just say you are Gary’s girlfriend?”
Gary walked up from behind Parker, and Crystal slid her arm around his thick waist, her neon orange nail polish a stark contrast against his black T-shirt. “That’s right.”
Avery looked at Gary, confused. “But I thought you and Sky . . . ?”
Crystal stiffened. “That’s over.” She patted Gary’s midsection. “Tell them, Gar Bear.”
He cleared his throat. “Sky and I are over.”
That’s not what he’d implied back at the trailer.
“So if you and Skylar are over . . .” Please. Those two had the most dysfunctional relationship ever. One Avery sadly doubted would ever be fully “over.” “Why were you in her place? In her jewelry box?”
Crystal didn’t look the least surprised. If she was dating Gary and believed that things were over between him and Skylar, why didn’t she protest about his presence in his supposed ex-girlfriend’s place? Because she knew he’d been in there, and so had she.
“And if you and Gary are a thing, why were you in Skylar’s place?” Avery asked.
Pink flushed Crystal’s round cheeks. “What?”
“Your fingerprints were in Skylar’s living room and kitchen,” Parker said.
Crystal’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you? Magnum, P.I.?”
“I’m a crime-scene investigator.”
Crystal frowned. “Crime scene? What crime?”
Gary squeezed Crystal’s shoulder. “They think Skylar’s missing.”
“What? Why would you think that?”
Parker explained enough of the pertinent details to catch Crystal up to speed.
When he finished, Crystal plopped down on the sofa. “That’s ridiculous. Come on, Av . . . You know how Skylar likes to take off. It’s probably just some stunt to get my Gar Bear’s attention because he’s with me now.”
Just like Crystal was probably being used by Gary to make Skylar jealous.
“I’m not so sure that’s the case. She’s not answering her phone. It can’t even be traced.”
“Traced?” Crystal’s eyes widened. “You guys really are serious?”
“I’m afraid so,” Avery said with a release of air. Reentering the art scene was uncomfortable enough, but being forced back into her past . . .
She looked at Gary. A past that really made her skin crawl.
“Okay,” Crystal said. “Suppose you’re right—what does any of this have to do with us?”
Parker linked his arms across his broad chest. “You tell us.”
“I told you,” Gary grunted. “I didn’t do nothing.”
“Then where’s Sky’s mother’s ring?” Avery asked.
“I don’t know.” Gary shrugged. “Wasn’t in her box when I looked.”
“Humph,” Carol huffed, making the first peep since they’d somehow worked their way into her living room. Billy had yet to say anything—just sat in his Barcalounger with a cup of coffee in his hand, taking it all in, or simply not caring. Avery suspected the latter. She focused her attention back on Gary. “Why were you in her jewelry box to begin with?”
“Because . . .” He shifted his stance, broadening his shoulders. “I . . . I . . . gave her a ring a while ago, and I wanted it back.”
“A ring?” Crystal said, hopping up and staring at him with pinched lips. “You didn’t say nothing about having given her a ring.”
“It was a while back. Anyway, I went to get it so I could hawk it, then get the cash and buy you one now that we’re together.”
“Oooh. Gar Bear, that’s so sweet.” She planted a kiss on his scruffy cheek.
“Where’s the ring?” Avery asked.
“What?” Gary paled slightly.
“Where’s the ring you bought Crystal?”
“I haven’t got it yet.” He tugged Crystal tighter into his embrace. “She deserves the perfect one, and I haven’t found it yet.”
Avery shook her head. Crystal, bleary-eyed in love, actually believed the guy.
“Fine. Where’d you hawk the ring?”
“W . . . what?” Gary sputtered.
“Where’d you hawk the ring you bought Skylar?”
“Oh. Uh. Modell’s, I think.”
“You think?”
“It was a busy day. I went shopping for the new ring at a lot of places. I can’t remember where I started. Besides, what does it matter?”
It mattered because she was absolutely going to follow up on his supposed claim. She turned to Crystal. “When was the last time you saw Skylar?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe a week ago.”
“Where at?”
“Her place.”
Yeah, right. Crystal and Skylar both dating Gary and actually being chummy. She highly doubted it. “For what?”
“We hung out, drank beer, watched a movie. Same stuff we all used to do.”
Memories Avery preferred to forget.
“Which one?” Parker asked.
“Which one, what?” Crystal said, frowning.
“Which movie did you watch?” Parker asked.
Avery smiled. The devil was in the details, and Parker was impeccable at his job.
“Oh.” Crystal twirled a blond curl around her finger. “The Other Woman.”
“That’s ironic,” Avery said. “I mean wasn’t that awkward considering you were sleeping with her boyfriend?”
“Ex-boyfriend.” Crystal glared at her. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Gar Bear and her were done.”
Avery looked at Parker. Neither of them was buying it.
“Any idea why someone would be following you?” Parker asked Gary, switching tactics.
“Me?” Gary tucked his chin in. “What are you talking about?”
“While we were following you here, someone else was tailing you.”
Gary swallowed, a shadow of fear filling his dark brown eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“Maybe they were following you,” Crystal suggested.
“We haven’t done anything,” Avery said.
“Neither have we,” Crystal protested.
“Other than breaking and entering and stealing a ring.” Avery pinned her gaze on Gary.
“I didn’t break in. I have a key and, like I said, that ring belonged to me. And, like Crystal said, Sky and I were no longer together.”
He still has a key. Maybe he was last night’s intruder. He was the right height and build, and using the key would prevent any signs of a break-in. Maybe he and Sky really had split yet again and taking her mother’s ring was Gary’s way of getting back at her. If he took a ring, it was Skylar’s mom’s. Avery knew him too well. No way Gary had ponied up money to buy Sky a ring. Even
if, on the outlandish chance he actually had bought her one, no way would Sky care enough about it to keep it in her puzzle box. Taking a deep breath, she linked her arms across her chest, feeling silly she was still in her evening gown. “Where were you before you showed up at the trailer?” she asked.
“McDougal’s. Like I already said.”
“What time did you head over there?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Eight thirty.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Come on, Gary. You never hit the bars until close to ten.”
“What can I say?” He took a seat in a burgundy La-Z-Boy separated from Billy’s lounger by a small table still lined with empty beer cans. Gary tugged Crystal down in his lap. “I felt like starting early.”
“Uh-huh.” They’d be verifying that information too. She looked at Parker and he nodded. They’d gotten enough to go on. Time to let Gary and Crystal sit and stew about who was after them. A little panic and they might just make a move that exposed what was really going on. There was more to it than some supposed ring.
“I’ll call Kate and ask her to send a sitter over to keep an eye on Gary and Crystal,” Parker said as they exited the house and climbed into Avery’s car.
Clementine rays of sunshine flooded through the windshield. It wouldn’t be long before the sun was high in the sky and the temperatures soaring up with it.
“So,” she said, starting the engine. “They’re both full of it.”
“Ya think?” He slipped off his black CSI windbreaker, his cobalt blue T-shirt accentuating his toned physique.
She quickly shifted her gaze to the window.
“You okay?”
Always so darned perceptive.
“Yep. Just thinking.” About exactly what she shouldn’t be. “So what now?”
“We head to Modell’s and confirm Gary’s story or we track down Sebastian Chadwyck.” He paused. “Actually, I think the most pressing need is for me to take that portrait back to the office and examine it. Then we can coordinate with the whole gang so we can divide and conquer.”
“Sounds good. Let’s head in.”
The long drive to Charm City Investigations—the private investigation firm that Kate Maxwell owned—provided Avery with plenty of time to ponder exactly what Gary may have said to Parker before she’d entered Billy’s house.
“So . . .” She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “What went down with Gary before I came in? Did you get anything out of him?”
“Just asked him to give it to me straight. Man to man.”
Greeaaat. “And?”
“He played the bravado card. Said he’d moved on from Skylar.”
“But you think he was lying?” She could hear it in his voice.
“I think she moved on from him.”
“So he decided to take what mattered most to her, her mother’s ring, and hawk it? I bet that’s what he hawked, not some ring he supposedly bought Sky. Gary is not the jewelry-buying type. His idea of a gift is a new pair of tires.”
“So a practical fellow.” Parker smiled, still not asking about her and Gary’s past.
The suspense was gnawing at her. When would he ask? Or would he really just let it go?
Could she just let it go? It felt like a secret burning a hole in her heart, something she had to release before it burst.
The past was in the past—at least that’s what she kept telling herself, and she’d actually believed it right up until today.
Now she was smack back in the middle of it, and the one man she had hoped would never gain an inkling about her past was right in the thick of it with her.
While she loved having him at her side—far more than she should—her past was the last place she wanted him. Talk about a nightmare sprung to life.
She wasn’t that person anymore, but that life, her past life, would always be a part of her—even if she didn’t allow it to control her anymore. It was a buried memory that had just busted through the surface, and the man she loved was going to learn about it no matter what she did. He was too good, and this time, it was to her detriment.
She shook her head.
“What?” He arched a brow.
“Nothing. Just thinking.”
All this time she’d always thought it was his past that was going to keep them apart. Now she wasn’t so sure.
10
After dropping Parker at his car back at the trailer park and making a quick stop at home to shower and change her clothes, Avery felt more prepared for whatever the day would bring. The coffee and espresso she held in her hands from Pitango Bakery, two blocks over on the water next to Urban Pirates, only added to her optimism.
Parker held the glass door of Charm City Investigations open for Avery, while also holding the pastries they’d picked up at Pitango as well. Griffin, Finley, and Kate were already present, thanks to Parker’s call, as was Tanner.
Tanner?
She had been staying with Kate for the last nine months while she adjusted to life back in the States and was no doubt intrigued by the case she’d gotten a glimpse of at Declan’s side last night.
Tanner and Declan.
Avery saw something there, and apparently Parker did as well. It was nice to finally see Declan over Kate. The shift had begun around Kate’s announcement of Luke’s proof of life on Thanksgiving and with the entrance of Tanner into their lives, but regardless of the core cause, Declan was finally over Kate.
Ready to move on with Tanner? She wasn’t sure.
Parker said he’d probed a little last week while he and Declan were hiking, but that Declan maintained his typical cone of silence. Though, Parker did say the flicker in Declan’s jaw upon hearing Tanner’s name and the possibility of the two pursuing a relationship indicated there was something lingering there. Question was, how long until it surfaced?
“Hey, Tanner. I’m sorry,” she said, refocusing on everyone in the room and feeling horrible for not bringing Tanner something. “No one told me you’d be here. You can have my drink.”
“No worries.” Tanner shook her head and lifted her ceramic brewing cup she was never without. “I’ve got tea.”
“Intrigued by the case?” Avery asked. Tanner was always curious, and Avery appreciated that about her.
Tanner blew a loose strand of brown hair from her lightly freckled face and smiled. “From what little Declan shared with me.”
Parker smiled widely as Declan entered. “So how was your evening with Declan?” he asked Tanner, but kept his gaze fixed on Declan, who stopped short at Parker’s grin, his eyes narrowing.
“What?” Declan asked, hesitation in his eyes.
“Tanner was just telling us about your time together last night.” Parker’s grin widened.
Declan’s cheeks flushed.
Avery chuckled. Declan was too easily riled, but his reaction was yet more evidence that he at least felt something for Tanner.
“She was at that gallery for Avery,” he responded, a little too abruptly.
Defensive. This is getting interesting.
“I was helping a friend out by taking the initial report, what little the inebriated Gerard Vaughn was able to tell me,” he continued, his tone leveling as he shifted gears to focus on the case. Work mode was his comfort zone.
“You’d think Gerard would have at least tried to sober up some before the authorities arrived,” Avery said, shaking her head. “He is such a drama queen.”
“I also talked with the staff on hand,” Declan said. “No one seemed to know anything overly helpful, but at least they were sober.” Declan took off his black blazer, revealing a white button-down shirt with black trousers and patent leather shoes. Clearly he was not trying to hide his profession, even on a Saturday, even in August’s heat.
Declan was most certainly the boy scout of the gang, and yet Avery sensed something underneath—something lurking, longing to be set free, something separate from his feelings for Tanner, whatever they were. He was wrestling with somet
hing, but the question was, what? He possessed far more depth than he showed, a lot more humor—she’d gotten the occasional glimpse—and a hunger for the outdoors, but he was always so set on being straightlaced. That’s what would have to change before he and Tanner, or any relationship, could work for him. Declan had to relax into himself.
He tossed his blazer over the silver rack by the door, and Avery handed him his coffee.
“Thanks.” He rolled up his sleeves. “But I’m still annoyed that you removed a key piece of evidence from a crime scene. You know better.”
“I didn’t have a choice. They were going to put it in the trash bin. That would have compromised its integrity far more than me carrying it with gloved hands and wrapping it up.”
“Where is it now?”
“Right here,” Parker said, carrying it in and heading for his lab. “I’ll place it in my office and be right back.” On the drive back that morning, Parker had explained that, needing greater flexibility, he’d moved his office from the ME’s office downtown to Charm City Investigations a month ago.
Declan exhaled. “Thanks for protecting it the best you could.”
“No problem,” she said, and then proceeded to hand out the rest of the drinks she and Parker had picked up.
“I love you,” Finley said as Avery handed her the steaming marrochino. Same drink she’d gotten. Espresso and dark sipping chocolate, which basically equaled perfection.
Griffin had ordered a triple espresso and Kate a vanilla latte. Declan, of course, was the only plain coffee drinker—medium, dark roast, black. Not surprising for the Fed. Simple and straightforward in everything he did. Another reason why his dating life never lasted past the third date. He was too precise, too focused on his job, too withdrawn to really give a partner what she needed. And yet, something deep inside told Avery it would just take the right lady to change all that, to push him past his boundaries. Once the right person walked into your life . . .
Her gaze shifted to Parker, returned from his lab and now setting out the pastries. The man had turned her world upside down. Shaking off her giddiness at simply being in his presence again, which was ridiculous because she of all people didn’t do giddy, she forced herself to focus her attention on the pastries.