“We’d never have made it as spies.” She waved away her comment. “Actually, Callie and I are still friends. I’m in her bridal party. I was surprised I haven’t seen you at any of the wedding events since you’re one of the groomsmen. I guess with all the duties of being the chief, you’re pretty busy.”
“Right.” He took a deep breath. “Back to the fight…”
“We didn’t catch the kids fighting.” She shook her head. “No one would talk about it when the teachers got out there and the cameras don’t capture that part of the field. It doesn’t happen often.” She shrugged.
“If you hear anything about who it was, what it’s over, will you let me know?”
“Sure. But I have to say, these things are usually nothing more than a little dustup that gets out of control for only a moment. Once the kids have time to think things through, they usually work themselves out pretty quickly.”
Jax nodded. She was probably right. Were it not for the break-ins downtown, this wouldn’t have even been on his radar. Sure, fights needed to be broken up, but the chief of police didn’t need to come out and oversee anything.
“Okay, well…if anything comes up, you let me know.”
“Will do. And I’ll see you soon.”
Jax paused and frowned.
Patti’s auburn eyebrows rose. “At the wedding.”
“Right. Yes. See you then.” Jax turned and headed back out of the school. Even though he’d gone in for his tux fitting he hadn’t given his sister’s wedding much thought. It was the first wedding in his family in years. He was pretty sure his mother had given up hope for him long ago, when he refused any and all of her attempts at matchmaking.
His step stumbled as he approached his cruiser. He’d need a date. Marissa popped into his head. He could ask her. That was a big step, taking a woman to a family event—especially one as dubious as a wedding. It screamed of commitment.
He stuffed the keys into the ignition. Would she even say yes? They were sleeping together. But did they have a relationship beyond that?
Whatever they had, he realized as he pulled from the high school parking lot, he wanted more. He wanted to take her to the wedding. He needed her beside him. To humanize him in the sea of Carlisles and the likes. He wanted to take her to dinner and talk over Sunday brunch. He wanted the day-to-day. Every damn thing he could get from her.
The thought of doing those things without Marissa, and the loneliness that engulfed him then, was enough to know he wanted her there with him. Always. He was definitely further gone than he might have admitted even yesterday. He loved her. Loved her so much it had practically short-circuited his brain. But now that he’d acknowledged it, he was damned determined to make sure to do everything in his power to make it happen. Marissa might not be prepared, but she would be his soon enough.
* * *
Once Marissa found her rhythm, she worked the rest of the afternoon on Callie’s order. Every time the phone rang, though, she half-expected it to be the bride calling to cancel her order.
The call, however, never came, so she chugged away on the extra cupcakes. Marissa had made a huge dent in the order by the time lunch rolled around. Thankfully, Kya had agreed to put in a little extra work so Marissa could focus on that order alone.
By the time she was ready to call it an afternoon her back and feet ached like a son of a bitch and she’d gotten two full flavors finished and half of the third. By this time tomorrow she should be able to complete the order. Then it would be smooth sailing the rest of the week.
“Boss, I need to go.” Kya was wiping her hands on her apron.
“What time is it?” Marissa rolled her neck and glanced at the small clock on her desk. It was half past four. She frowned. “Did Hill come in? I didn’t hear him.”
“I haven’t seen him. I thought maybe you gave him another day off.”
The weird hum in her shoulder changed to a stinging prickle. “I’m sure he’s just running behind after missing school yesterday.” She said the words, but she couldn’t make herself believe it. Lexi had brought all his work so there would be no need to be late today.
“Do you want me stay?” Kya paused in removing her apron.
“No, you go ahead.” Marissa stood and followed her employee from her office. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She waved as Kya shouldered her purse and headed out of the shop.
Marissa took inventory of the front case, then wiped down all the counters to busy herself so she wouldn’t worry. Just before closing, Cherry came in to pick up an extra order for the Bistro. On her way out the door, she said, “I can’t believe you’re dating the captain of the football team.”
“I’m not ‘dating’ the captain.”
“You’re not not dating him.”
Marissa shook her head and laughed. “Whatever. Jax is not that kid anymore. He’s grown up.”
“And you’re not Lulu anymore. You’re a grown woman who has her own business and who has taken on the responsibility for all the homeless teenagers in the town.”
“One. One homeless teenager.”
“In Oak Hollow, that’s all of them.” Cherry headed toward the door. “If Captain Football can outgrow his high-school persona and be better for it, so can you, Lulu. Love it, own it. It made you who you are now.” The door closed behind Cherry before Marissa could comment.
It gave her something to stew on other than the fact that Hill hadn’t shown up for his shift. Her relationship with Jax, she couldn’t pin down, but it was easy to focus on Hill.
By the time she closed the shop at eight, she still hadn’t seen him. The teen didn’t have a phone—she made a mental note to get him one so she’d have a way to get in touch with him. Up until now, it hadn’t been an issue. She sped through her evening routine to hurry home and see if he was there. She hadn’t given him a key, so it was a long shot at best. No one was waiting on her stoop when she got home. She did a mad dash through the house and backyard to no avail, then she called Lexi.
“Hey, have you seen Hill?”
“Not since lunch. His classes are down the senior wing. Why?”
She didn’t want to alarm the girl. “I just missed him at the shop. I’m sure it’s nothing.” She said her good-nights and hung up.
Marissa bit her lip. Should she worry? Hill had been living on the street for over a year. Maybe she was crowding him. But she didn’t think so, especially after their conversation the night before. Should she call Jax and give him a reason to put Hill on his radar? No. Not yet. Not until she knew what was going on.
Where would Hill go?
The only place she could think of was the clearing next to the road. She scooped up her keys and headed out that way. Her stomach knotted more and more every mile she got closer. For a moment, she hesitated parking her car on the side of the road since darkness had already fallen. But once she got close enough she’d be able to tell pretty quickly if he was there or not. She parked her SUV and slid down the side. It was darker in among the trees so she couldn’t see as easily as she’d hoped. Finally down the embankment, she walked to where she’d seen his belongings before he’d come to stay with her.
Her heart lurched when she spotted his backpack. He’d had it that morning when he’d left for school.
“Hill? Are you here?” Marissa moved a little closer. “Hill?”
“What are you doing here?” The voice came from her left. Hill stood under an overhang of branches next to a tall pine. Even in the dark, she could see the bruises on his face.
“What the hell… Are you okay?” She took a step toward him.
He backed up. “Go away, Marissa.”
“I will not go away. What the hell happened to you?”
“I got in a fight at school.”
“What did the school do about it? Why didn’t you call me?”
“The school didn’t do anything. Why would they?”
“Come on, Hill. Don’t be like that.” Her brothers had gotten in a couple of scrapes when
they were teens but neither of them ever looked like this. She marched over to him and gently grabbed his chin to examine his face. Both eyes were blacked. His left cheek was puffed up to nearly the size of a golf ball. There was a small rip in his T-shirt. “You better start talking right now.”
“Some guys I used to run with jumped me.”
She tried not to panic. This was all new territory for her. “Get your shit and get your ass in the car. Now.” Luckily Hill did nothing more than nod before he helped her back up the embankment to her car. She drove him to the urgent care clinic to get checked out. A few hundred dollars later, he had a needs-time-to-heal assessment but, thankfully, was otherwise okay.
Back at the house, Marissa walked in without saying word. She set her things on the table and stopped Hill before he could head to his room. “I want some answers. Now.”
Chapter Eighteen
“You’d better start talking.” Marissa stood next to her fireplace. She had her hands shoved in the back pockets of her jeans, afraid she might shake the truth from him.
Hill stood tall and proud—and silent—his head bent, his eyes cast down, much the same way she’d found him that first night in her shop.
“Come on. Talk to me. Why would you run off?” She hated the pleading edge in her voice but she wanted to know what was what. She needed to get him to open up to her. Hadn’t she given him every reason to trust her? Hadn’t she bent over backward?
“I’ve done all I can do. If you aren’t willing to trust me…” She pulled her hands from her pockets and ran them over her hair as she leaned against the wall behind her. Sheer exhaustion leeched her strength.
“I trust you.” The words were spoken in barely more than a whisper.
She shrugged. Cleary he didn’t or he wouldn’t have run off.
“I know who it is.”
Marissa narrowed her eyes. “Who is what?”
“I know who’s breaking into the stores.”
Marissa’s stomach turned. “You what?”
Hill paced the length in front of the sofa for a moment before he dropped down onto it. He set his elbows on his knees and covered his face with his large hands. “I know the guys who have been breaking into the stores. They’ve been doing it for a few years now.”
A shiver crawled down Marissa’s spine but she didn’t want to voice her thoughts.
“You’ve seen them,” he added. “They came by the shop. They’re the ones.”
Marissa frowned, then closed her eyes. The teens who’d been at the shop on Sunday were responsible for breaking into half the businesses in the downtown area?
“How do you… Have you…” Her knees weakened. She’d defended the boy to Jax. She slid down the bricked wall until her butt hit the backs of her sneakers. “You’ve done it, too?”
“The first few times, yeah, I was there. But that was years ago. I still knew how to get in, though.”
“How?”
“Bryant’s brother.”
“Who’s Bryant?”
“Bryant Travers is a guy I used to go to school with. He dropped out my sophomore year. His brother went up to the pen about that time. Two years ago or so. Drugs or something, I don’t even remember. But he’d been breaking and entering around here and Fort Worth for a while.”
Marissa rolled her hand at him to continue.
“He got his hands on this heavy-duty drill. He’d drill a hole in the doors with a crossbar latch. Like yours. Then he could go in anytime he wanted. He’d test out a few and see if they had security systems.”
“And you robbed these places?”
Hill’s head came up. “I never took a single thing.”
“But you were there with them, when they did?”
He held her gaze for a long moment, nodded then looked away. “When they started tearing up the shops they were robbing, I got away from them. I didn’t want any part of that.” He shrugged. “We’ve been avoiding each other for well over a year. I don’t know why Bryant started coming around. Him and Cooper, the dark-haired one, they’ve been friends since they were little. I don’t even know who the other guy is.”
“Dammit, Hill.”
He stood. “I’ll leave.”
“And what will that solve?” Marissa stood too. “Sit your ass back down.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Marissa paced the length of the floor. “God. I should have realized… I was stupid not to question you more on how you got in. She set one hand on her forehead and the other on her hip. “He tried to tell me. But I was too stubborn to listen.” She stopped. “The fire?”
His face hardened. “I didn’t set it.”
“I don’t think you did.” She rolled her eyes. “Was it those guys, too?”
“I don’t know. If I had to guess, I’d say yes.”
“And the fight.” It wasn’t a question. She motioned to her face indicating all the bruises he’d gotten. “Why?”
Hill paled and fidgeted.
“Hill.” Marissa sat next to him on the sofa. “What was the fight about?”
“The chief.”
Marissa frowned. “I beg your pardon.”
“Bryant thinks I’m gonna rat him out to the police.”
“But Jax doesn’t even know about him. Or any of this.”
He leaned back and turned his gaze to hers. “But Bryant sees the chief over at your shop all the time.”
“And this was what, a threat to keep you from talking? To make you leave?”
Hill snorted. “All of the above I guess.”
“I need to tell Jax.”
“You can’t.” Hill fisted his hands.
For the first time, he looked terrified. “He can help you, Hill. He needs to know what’s going on, otherwise the guys are going to keep breaking into people’s businesses. This is people’s livelihoods they’re messing with. And what if someone gets hurt? One of these times someone could be in their store. Not to mention what they’ve done to you. What if they’d hurt you worse? What if they come after me? Or Lexi?”
“I don’t think—”
“I was there the last time you broke into my shop, remember? What if it had been Bryant? Do you honestly think he’d be compliant like you were? Do you honestly think he would not hurt me? Hell if he did set fire to that Dumpster, you do realize it could have taken out the entire block.”
Hill held her gaze. She could see the indecision warring in him.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.” She set her hand atop his fists. “You have to trust me.”
* * *
Jax stood on Marissa’s front porch. When he’d gotten her call half an hour earlier, he’d expected some kind of apology for sneaking out, but her brusque request that he come over… Something about her tone made him think it was something else. He hadn’t even bothered to go home and change, but came straight from the station, still wearing his uniform. He knocked on the door and stood back.
Only a moment later the door whisked open. Marissa looked over her shoulder into her house, then stepped out onto the porch, pulling the door nearly closed.
“Um, I need to ask you a huge favor,” she whispered.
Jax’s gut twisted. Something was definitely going on. He gave her a noncommittal grunt.
“I want you to keep an open mind. I want you to hear everything I tell you before you get all…I don’t know, chiefy.”
Chiefy? What the hell was going on?
“Can you promise not to overreact?”
“I can’t make any promises when I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
She frowned. “I think I can help you with the break-ins. But—” she held up her hand when he started to speak “—you have to hear everything out before you start whipping out your badge and whatnot. If you can’t promise me that, I won’t let you in.”
He shifted his stance, shoved his hands on his belt. “You’re impeding an ongoing investigation.”
“One that you need info on.”
She pulled the door shut the remainder of the way. Then she held out her wrist to him. “You can arrest me right here and now and take me in, but I’m gonna tell you, I’ll lawyer up and you’ll get nothing from me.” Marissa looked up at Jax. “What’ll it be?”
“Fine. Open mind.”
Marissa nodded and opened the door. He followed her into the living room. Paul Hillman stood at the entrance. The teen’s face was bruised and swollen.
“The fight at the high school?” Jax motioned to the teen.
The teen nodded.
“Sit down, please.” Marissa motioned Jax to the large chair while she and Paul Hillman sat side-by-side on the sofa. “So here’s the deal.” She looked up at the teen. When he nodded she continued, “Hill can tell you about the break-ins, tell you who’s been doing it.”
“Besides him, you mean?” It popped out before Jax could stop himself. Was Marissa blind? The boy had broken into her shop. Of course he knew about the break-ins.
“I told you—” Hill shifted and tried to stand, but Marissa put a staying hand on his arm.
“Open mind, Jax. Remember?”
Jax eyed her for a long moment, then rolled his hand for them to go on.
The teen explained to Jax about the break-ins going back at least three years. How they’d gained entry, how they’d started off with petty items and how when it wasn’t noticed at first they ratcheted up their burglary. One of the boys’ older brothers had been the one to drill into the doors.
Everything he said meshed with what Jax had uncovered in the old case files. “And your face?”
“They were trying to make him back off. They thought he was talking to you.”
“So that’s why you decided to come forward?”
Marissa’s mouth turned down. “Does it matter why he tells you as long as he tells you? He could’ve kept his mouth shut altogether and no one would have been any the wiser.”
Jax ignored the whole, “unlawfulness of withholding information” thing. For that matter, Marissa could be just as culpable depending on how long she’d known. “I need names.” He pulled out his little notebook.
Baker’s Law Page 19