“This situation is far too dangerous, sweetheart. It probably was before, but arson shows that the perp has escalated his attempts. I know what the business means to you, but your life means a lot more to your family and to me and Austin than the store. Promise me that you’ll leave it alone.”
Her eyes were dark and sorrowful. He wanted to kiss away the pain he saw there, but not until she promised to drop her investigation. He hadn’t admitted fully what was on his mind. He loved her, even more than he had two years before. It wasn’t the right time to say those words, and he wasn’t good at expressing his emotions. He was good at eliminating threats, though, and that he could do for her.
“If you put it that way, I promise,” she whispered. “You’ll get him, won’t you?” He nodded, making a silent promise of his own. “Good. Make love to me, Zach. I need you tonight.”
He kissed her then, slow and deep until her body relaxed under him and her arms wrapped around him. Taking his time, he trailed kisses down her neck and shoulder, working his way to her breasts. She sighed when he flicked his tongue over a nipple and gasped when he took it in his mouth.
“That’s so good.” Her voice was a soft purr. “More.”
He moved to her other breast, giving it attention until she moaned his name. Still kissing her soft skin, he made his way to the apex of her thighs and teased them open. He knew her body so well, her scent, the feel of her, what made her come. With that knowledge, he feathered his tongue over her moist clit, garnering more moans as the tension built in her.
“Inside me,” she murmured. “I want to feel you, all of you.”
He did as commanded and entered her heat. Resting on his elbows, he moved inside her, pushing her to climax. When her muscles tightened around him and she sobbed his name, he kissed her, pouring his love for her into every movement of his body, every pleasure he could bring her until his own orgasm ripped through him.
He rested his head against her shoulder to catch his breath. Then, rolling onto his back, he pulled her close to him and stroked her back until her body softened with sleep. He didn’t know how long she’d rest, but he’d be there for her when she woke.
14
Carolyn picked her way around the wreckage in All That Sparkles the morning following the fire. Ceiling tiles lay on the floor along with the remains of display cases. All the money she’d spent on the remodel had literally gone up in smoke.
“Any idea about the cause?” she asked the fire inspector after he’d spent two hours poking through the rubble.
“It’ll be in my report, Ms. Evert.”
“Give me a hint, please.” She’d watched the man record notes and photograph the store. He must have an idea of what happened. “My sister said she heard a crash and an explosion. That doesn’t seem accidental to me.”
The inspector pointed to the right front window. “Something came through that window, hit the floor here,” he said, indicating an area near his boots, “and sprayed an accelerant, which I’m currently trying to identify. This was no accident.”
She’d known in her heart the fire had been intentional, but hearing it confirmed in such crisp, no-nonsense language sent the message home. This was meant to damage the business beyond repair—and might have taken a life if anyone had been in the showroom. She’d talked to Charlotte earlier. Her usually pragmatic sister still felt shaky and had no desire to enter the store. Carolyn couldn’t blame her.
“What happens next, then?”
“I turn over my findings to the fire chief and copy the police and prosecutor’s office on all of it. An investigation will be opened, as it becomes a criminal case. Arson is a felony offense, punishable by several years in prison.”
“What’s the conviction rate?” Charging her saboteur with arson was one way of getting him.
The inspector clicked his pen and put it in his shirt pocket before answering. “About one percent.”
“One percent?” She was shocked. “So most arsonists get away with it?”
“Afraid so. You have cameras in here.” He gestured to one. “We’ll pull the footage from them, and it might help.”
She shook her head. “I spoke with my security company already. There’s nothing.”
“I’d still like to see the film,” the inspector insisted.
“No,” she said, her sense of exasperation growing, “I mean the cameras weren’t operating at the time.”
“Is that normal?” The inspector gave her a perplexed look. “The store had just closed, correct?”
“It is not normal,” she confirmed. “The cameras are supposed to film twenty-four hours a day.” Her IT company and security company worked together on that system. Someone had dropped the ball, or it was another strike against the IT company. Had the cameras been intentionally disabled at just the right time? Her computer forensics expert might be able to answer that question, given time.
“I’ll notify the police department of my findings today so they can begin their investigation. They will canvass the street to see if anyone saw something, but the chances are slim. My official report will be ready in a few days. You’ll need it for your insurance company.” He handed her a business card. “Call me if you have questions.”
“Thank you.” She watched him walk out, ducking under the yellow caution tape as he went.
Carolyn kept busy throughout the day checking on her employees, answering questions for a police investigator, and sifting through the rubble until her hands were covered in ash. Frustration set in at the hopelessness of it all. She was getting nowhere, and whoever was targeting her had scored a hit—a bull’s-eye.
She had to put a stop to this, take action in some way, despite her promise to Zach the night before. How could she stay out of it when she was ankle deep in the remains of her family’s business? She considered her options, the information she possessed. Something in her still felt her mother’s former business partner was involved. The woman was dead, but a plot to take revenge on All That Sparkles might have been put in place long ago.
Zach would think her reasoning faulty. And he might be right, but she had one lead she could follow: Marta Huntly’s last known address. She’d found it before she found the obituary, and she’d plugged it into Google Maps. It was in a run-down neighborhood on the other side of the city, a matter of a few miles. She could just take a swing by for the sake of curiosity and see if the woman’s son still lived there—if the house was still standing. Some of those areas were being bulldozed to get rid of urban blight. But if he was there and she could speak with him, maybe she could put her suspicions to rest and see for herself that the Huntly family had nothing to do with her troubles.
She left the store and walked down the block to where she’d parked her car. She worried about leaving the structure unprotected, but what could she do? Plywood had been put up in the morning to cover the gaping holes where windows and the door had been, but the store was far from secure.
Once in her car and headed across town, she had second thoughts about going against Zach’s wishes. He’d asked for time to get a team together. To assuage her guilt, she picked up her phone. She’d call him and ask him to meet her at the address. But her call was forwarded to his employer’s home office, where an efficient-sounding woman informed her that, unless this was an emergency, Zach Vale was unavailable due to his current assignment. It wasn’t an emergency, and she wouldn’t make that claim, so she hung up without leaving a message.
Her rational brain reminded her that Zach’s employer could expect his dedication. It was his job. But a nagging voice in her head whispered that history was repeating himself. Zach would be perpetually unreachable—off on a mission, likely dangerous—and she’d be left waiting for him and worrying about what might happen. She, and now Austin, would always be left behind, abandoned as she had been by her father and Zach when he left on his final SEAL mission.
She continued negotiating the maze of streets taking her to the grittier side of the city. Her thought
s were deteriorating as rapidly as the buildings out her windshield. What if Zach was only with her because of the danger? He might view protecting her and Austin as an assignment. Once they were safe, what was his motivation for sticking around? He’d become tired of the routine of family life and seek the next adventure. That’s why he’d stayed in the SEALs past the time when most of his buddies were getting out. God, she couldn’t go through losing him again, and she wouldn’t put Austin through it either.
She tried to pull herself together. The man who’d made love to her the night before hadn’t seemed like he wanted to run from her. If anything, of late he’d insisted he was staying. The niggling doubt, though, had taken root in her brain.
Later. She’d deal with it later, she told herself, as she made the final turn onto a street containing row houses. They had probably been built a hundred years before to house the workers for the industrial part of Sheridan Falls. Most were dilapidated, showing signs of long-term neglect. They seemed deserted, with no signs of life. She pulled to the curb across the street from the house number she remembered from her research.
From her car, she studied the house. Nothing about it suggested someone lived there, except an envelope sticking out of the mailbox. The shutters were falling off, the paint was reduced to a dull gray, and the roof was patched with shingles in multiple colors. What had once been a fenced yard was open to the street, with weeds chaotically growing among untrimmed shrubs.
This was her only potential lead, though, and she was following it. She opened the car door and stepped onto the cracked concrete of the street. She picked her way across until she stood on the sidewalk in front of the house. Up close, it looked in even worse shape. Age and neglect had worn the place past the point of repair.
A sense of dread descended on her, and she had the unmistakable feeling that someone was watching her. She turned to scan the street around her. No one appeared, even though it was late afternoon, a busy time elsewhere in the city. Zach’s caution against putting herself in a dangerous situation echoed in her head, making her pause before approaching the house any further.
If her assumptions were right, she could be walking into a trap with a very dangerous person, someone willing to hire robbers and commit arson. She wanted answers, but it wasn’t worth her life. That’s what she had promised Zach the night before. She pivoted and jogged back to her car, slamming and locking the door before putting the car into gear and escaping from the street.
A few blocks away, she breathed easier and felt sure she’d done the right thing by retreating. She took the on-ramp to a road that bypassed the city’s center and was usually a faster way home. Not today, she realized when brake lights showed ahead of her and she stopped on the highway. She flipped on the radio, searching for a traffic report. An accident was blocking all lanes half a mile ahead. She was stuck, but she was safe, so she called her mom to let her know that she’d be late picking up Austin.
Rolling down the window, she shut off the engine and waited with the other motorists. Twenty minutes later, her phone rang.
“Hey, sweetheart, my office said you called earlier.” Zach’s voice was concerned.
“I was hoping you could help me with something, but I decided not to do it.”
“Okay…what was it?”
“I’ll explain when I get home,” she said, already dreading his reaction even though she hadn’t gone through with her plan. “I’m stuck in traffic on the bypass.”
“I’ll pick up Austin, then,” he said.
“That would be great.” It would make things easier for her, since she was running so late.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” He didn’t seem convinced, which said something about his perceptive abilities.
“I am. I’ll be home as soon as this accident is cleared up.” She hung up before he could ask more questions. She’d tell him everything: what motivated her to seek out the address, and what had her running back to her car. He wasn’t going to like any of it.
An hour later, she pulled into her garage. The door leading into the kitchen opened immediately, and Zach stood in the doorway.
“Where’s Austin?” she asked, concerned there was a problem.
“He was really tired. Your mom had him outside a lot today, so I put him down for a little nap before dinner. Hope that’s okay.”
“Sure,” she said, walking past him into the kitchen. It was just as well Austin didn’t witness what was probably going to be a disagreement between his parents.
“What were you doing on the bypass?” So he didn’t plan to beat around the bush. “I thought you were at the store today.”
“I was most of the day,” she said. “The fire inspector says it was arson, as you suspected.”
“Wish I was wrong about that. What else, Carolyn?”
She blew out a breath and got a glass of water before responding. “I went to the last known address for Marta Huntly, over on Decatur Street.”
“Not a nice part of town,” he observed, his tone dry. “Why’d you go?”
“I wanted to see if her son still lived there, if maybe he could give me some answers about all this. It was probably a crazy idea, but I don’t have much to go on.”
“I thought we agreed that you weren’t going to move on anything.” They faced each other across her kitchen, the tension thick between them.
“We did, which is why I didn’t knock on the door. I got to within ten feet and remembered your warning, so I left.” She hoped that would satisfy him, but from the look on his face, it hadn’t.
“You called me to join you there? That was your plan.” He was putting the pieces together.
“Yes,” she admitted.
“And when I wasn’t available, you went on your own. Jesus, Carolyn.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “You could have been walking right into a trap. Did you think of that?”
“Like I said, I didn’t—”
He cut her off. “You shouldn’t have been in that neighborhood by yourself. It’s not a place where women should go alone.”
“Okay,” she said, “so I made a mistake, but it’s fine. Nothing happened.”
“It’s not fine. You promised me that you’d wait and let me handle this.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to apologize, but she stopped herself. She’d done the right thing by backing away. Why was he acting as though she’d thrown herself in the path of a speeding bus? Her sense of fear and self-preservation had kicked in at just the right time. They stood feet apart, staring at each other, and she had a flashback to the night she’d ended their engagement. The scene had played out in a similar way, but she’d been the one talking, and he’d been on the defensive.
“I need to go.” He pushed off the counter and walked to within a foot of her. His usually vibrant eyes were steely blue and unforgiving. She imagined this was how his adversaries saw him, an uncompromising, dangerous man.
“Zach, please…” She wanted understanding from him, but he wasn’t giving it to her.
“I cried for years for my mother,” he said, “but she never came back for me and my brothers. I don’t know why she left. I never will. But she made a choice to walk out on her kids and leave us behind.”
Why was he bringing up his mother? She struggled to understand his train of thought.
“You have choices as a mom, as well. I expected you to make the choice that was best for our son, but you didn’t.” His face was pained. She’d never seen him like this. “Today, I saw what sort of choice you’d make.”
He walked out of the kitchen without another word. A few seconds later, her front door slammed, and she was alone. She sagged into a chair, exhausted by their argument and his accusation. She had not forgotten or abandoned her son. She was not like his mother, who had left without a word or backward glance. It was Zach’s words from last night about how important she was to him and Austin that had prevented her from knocking on the door of that decrepit house.
Zach saw it all d
ifferently than she did, and he’d given her little chance to explain her actions. All her doubts from earlier about Zach’s willingness to be with her flooded back. She dropped her face in her hands and let the tears spill over.
15
At midnight, Carolyn pulled back the curtain in the living room to see Zach sitting in his car down the street. She’d gotten through the evening, smiling at Austin and pretending everything was fine. Daddy had to work, she’d told her son, but she assured him Daddy would be there the next day. She hoped that was true. Austin’s crestfallen face when he realized Zach wasn’t putting him to bed had nearly broken her already damaged heart.
She dialed Zach’s number and saw his phone screen light up in the dark vehicle. “Come inside, Zach,” she said without preamble. “There’s no reason for you to be sitting out there.”
“I’m fine where I’m at,” he insisted.
“Austin missed you.” She didn’t say that she’d missed having him across the dinner table, watching television with him in the evening, and snuggling next to him.
“I’ll stop in in the morning to see him.”
“Really, Zach?” She let her annoyance show in her voice.
“Get some sleep, Carolyn,” he said and clicked off.
Damn. She tossed her phone aside and went up to her lonely bed, but she didn’t sleep. The feeling of abandonment in her chest was too sharp, too familiar from her childhood experiences with her father and her previous experience with Zach. Maybe she’d been naïve to think it was different now. Whatever she’d done in the past had never been enough to keep the men in her life from walking away from her.
Zach had seemed so committed this time, but perhaps not to her. He was committed to being a father to Austin, which she couldn’t fault him for. She’d felt, though, that a strong bond was forming between her and Zach. They were parents and lovers together. Ah, damn. She collapsed back on her pillow, forcing herself to close her eyes but knowing that sleep wouldn’t come.
The SEAL’s Surprise Son: The Admiral’s SEALs Book One Page 10