“So it was a short conversation?”
“Yes. I went back to the storage room; I wanted to see this piece again. I was thinking of buying it for my house.”
“It is a nice piece. The black and white gives the waterfall a sense of depth.”
“I agree.” Nicoleta took a sip of her coffee. “Mmm.”
“Good, isn’t it?”
“Very. I like Kylie’s choice of coffees.”
Viktor smiled. Secretly grateful to the young barista who knew Nica’s favorite brew. “So you returned to the storage room. What happened then?”
“I went to where the photograph had been placed but it wasn’t there.” She glanced down at the framed photograph and then back up to Viktor. “How could it have been moved out here? I answered the phone in the office.”
Viktor was getting a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Tia had relayed how Nica had recently had a rash of things misplaced or missing. This didn’t seem right. She was not a scattered person. If anything she was meticulous and thorough, one might even say hyper-vigilant. “So the piece was gone.” He made it a statement not wanting her to think for a second he was doubting her.
“Yes. I looked through everything in the storage room but it was not there. I went back to the office and looked. When I didn’t find it, I compared the inventory list and the book, which I had it checked off of the inventory list and logged in the book.”
“Did anything distract you? Did you hear anything, or possibly anyone?”
Nicoleta thought for a long moment. “I thought I heard the bell but when I came out of the office no one was here.”
“How long ago was that?” When she gave him a look of confusion he explained. “I walked here from KJ’s.” He shrugged. “I like to walk. I didn’t get many opportunities to do so before moving here.”
Nicoleta nodded. “I can understand that.”
He was completely charmed by the way her olive complexion warmed with a dusky rose hue.
“I would have to guess, maybe ten or fifteen minutes before you arrived?”
Viktor grimaced, far too much time for him to have seen anyone leaving the gallery. “So, after you found no one here, what did you do then?”
“I went back to the office and searched for the photo and studied the paperwork. That is what I was doing when you came in.”
“This is important, Nica. Was there anytime during the delivery when you weren’t watching the back door?”
Nicoleta gasped. “Yes.” Her voice was hushed. “The new delivery man called me to come out to the truck. I didn’t give it a thought about the door being open.” Nicoleta’s vision dimmed. Her breathing became choppy. She felt the panic rise within her like acid eating through metal.
Viktor watched her closely. He could tell she was slipping into another PTSD episode. Quickly, he moved to the side of the counter she was on, and without thought wrapped his arms around her pulling her into a tight hold. “Shh, Nica. Listen to my voice, solnishko. I am here with you.” He continued speaking to her in a dulcet tone, allowing his voice and the way he held her to ground her in the present.
Nicoleta felt herself being pulled under a particularly bad flashback until she felt herself being wrapped in his arms tightly. He didn’t rub on her, nor did he touch her inappropriately. The strength of his arms was like an anchor keeping her in the here and now, while his voice was a line she could pull herself back to the surface by.
Her breathing smoothed out once again and her vision lost the hazy darkness around the edges. She knew she shouldn’t but she allowed her weight to shift and leaned on him. She didn’t feel very strong at the moment and needed someone to hold her up for once.
“Just listen to my voice, solnishko.”
“Sunshine?” She whispered. He was calling her his sunshine. Not baby. Not bitch. Not slut. Sunshine. Tears stung her eyes but didn’t fall.
“Yes. Sunshine. You are bright as the rays of the sun. Nothing dark will ever touch you again, Nica.”
“Viktor.” She breathed his name. “I…can’t.”
“You do not have to do anything, Nica. We are just standing here in the gallery talking. I want nothing from you. You want nothing from me. We are merely friends.”
Nicoleta laughed. “Friends do not hold each other like this, Viktor.”
“They do when it’s needed.” He loosened his grip but held her gently by her arms. “Better?”
“Yes.” She blinked away wetness from her eyes as she looked up at him. “How did you know to do that? That holding me is what I needed?”
Viktor reluctantly let her go. “There is not much for me to do these days but walk and read. I’ve been finding some of the more in-depth studies pertaining to PTSD quite fascinating.”
Nicoleta chose to let that go. She did not want to know why he felt PTSD studies were fascinating. Lifting the photo from the counter she moved toward the storage room. “So do you think someone is doing this as a joke?”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were joking. I don’t find messing with someone as particularly humorous.”
“Neither do I.” Nicoleta placed the framed photo back in its place in the room. Once she was certain it was safe, she closed the door and set the temperature and the electronic lock. “At least it is safe. I would hate for Tia to think I was stealing from her.”
Viktor wanted to reach out and take her hand but refrained from doing so. Nica was finding her footing once again. She no longer needed to lean on anyone. “Tiana would never think such a thing. She’s actually confided in me that you are having similar problems at home.”
“Oh?”
“Now, don’t get uppity over her concern. She only told me in passing so if I’m ever close by I can check in on you. I believe I mentioned, I do quite a bit of walking when at home. Soon I will be close to the gallery during the day as well. It only made sense to let me know what was happening.”
“You’re going to be close?”
Viktor smiled proudly. “I’ve decided it is time I go back to work. BSI has some office space available in their lower level. I’m opening a small accounting firm there. I’ll be on the next street corner up from the gallery in a couple of weeks.”
“You are an accountant?” Nicoleta didn’t believe it for a minute. The man was fit as a gym instructor, but not quite as muscled up. She just didn’t see him sitting behind a desk crunching numbers.
“I’ll have you know, I am a proficient financial advisor.”
Nicoleta laughed. It felt good to tease. “If you say so, I suppose I have to believe you.” It was strange but as at odds as his profession was to his physique, she did believe him.
Nicoleta heard the tinkling chime of the clock. “I can’t believe how late it is. I should close up for the day.”
“Have dinner with me.”
“Oh I couldn’t possibly have dinner with you, not tonight.”
Viktor gave her a teasing smirk. “I don’t think I said tonight. I just said have dinner with me.” He grabbed his empty cup off the counter and made his way to the door. “Tomorrow. We’ll have dinner tomorrow.”
“But…”
“It gives you a full twenty-four hours to come up with an adequate excuse to beg off. I’ll wait for you outside, Nica. Don’t take too long. It’s cold out there.”
As the last of his words rang in the stillness of the gallery, Nicoleta closed her gapping mouth. Had he just challenged her to not beg off from having dinner with him? Oh, she never…. “But, I will. I’ll show him I’m not afraid.”
Chapter 5
“It was right here, Tia. I swear. I put it right here.” Nicoleta worried over the missing painting. She had placed it, along with three others in the rack in the storage room. It was a small painting and she knew it would be easily overlooked so she had put it in a special holder so it would be easily found. She remembered it well. It was part of a commissioned set of paintings. They’d searched the gallery from top to bottom but the smalles
t of the three paintings was gone. It was nowhere to be found. Nicoleta couldn’t believe it just vanished. Someone had to have taken it.
But, who?
Over the last two weeks, several items had come up missing. Most they found but there were still several pieces that were simply gone. Two sculptures, a porcelain dolphin, and another painting were all missing.
Since that day Viktor had walked her through what happened with the framed photo of the falls, Tia had her husband Cole Lawson and his business partner, Devin Blackthorn, install the latest of state of the art security equipment. Whenever a piece couldn’t be found, they would check the security tapes, but nothing was ever seen on them.
Devin and Cole examined the system for problems, glitches, or faulty wiring, but the system was fine. The only people going in and out of the storage room were Tia, Nicoleta, and Cole. It had them all perplexed.
Nicoleta felt like she was losing her mind. As bad as it was at the gallery it was worse at home. The cottage was becoming a nightmare to her. She would lay something down and an hour later it would be gone. One night, she had gone to bed with the gas range on but the fire was out, filling the kitchen with deadly gas. She woke up one morning to all of her doors standing wide open. The cottage was as cold as a deep freeze. She had even considered moving back in with Amara and Duncan, she was so frightened of what she would do next.
“We’ll find it, Nicoleta. It has to be here somewhere.”
“We’ve said that before and we never find anything.”
She could see the doubt in Tia’s eyes. She knew they would never find the painting, just as they never found anything else that had vanished.
“Maybe I should just quit.”
“No. I won’t hear any of that. This isn’t your fault, Nicoleta. Someone is doing this. We just need to be patient and we will find them.” Tia pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “I’ll call Cole. He’ll want to look at the tapes again.”
Tia wrapped her arm around Nicoleta’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze. She was getting used to Tia’s demonstrative shows of affection. As her pregnancy progressed, it seemed as if her need to show she cared grew with it. Tia was never intrusive and had a knack for knowing when to hold back, of knowing those times when Nicoleta needed her space.
“I just hate this. You never had a problem until I started working here. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“I know. But we will get to the bottom of this eventually.
“I’m telling you, Devin, I have that gut feeling. Someone is setting Nicoleta up.”
“Why? What would be the point, Duncan?” Devin’s frustration was evident. His voice was low and he was growling most of his words.
“Who would do it?” Cole asked just as frustrated.
“I’m calling Banks,” Duncan announced as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He wanted an update on Baxton, now.
“Banks?”
“Scott Banks, the Marshal who took over after Valdez was arrested. He keeps tabs on Baxton since he is being held in his territory.”
“You don’t think it could be Baxton, do you? The man is being held at a black site. How could he arrange it? Why would he arrange it?” Devin tapped his pen on his desk thinking aloud.
Duncan paused in scrolling through his contacts to look at his brother. “Baxton lost. That isn’t something that he is going to let slide, Devin. He doesn’t lose well. Amara and Nicoleta both got away from him. He swore he would make them pay.”
“And stealing art from the gallery, moving things around at her house, and turning on the gas range is going to make her pay?” Cole scoffed.
He threw the hacky sack he always carried with him in the air and caught it. He had several and never went anywhere without at least one of them. Devin was a growler and pen tapper when he was stressed. Duncan paced and scrubbed his hands on his head. Cole preferred to focus on throwing something in the air and catching it. It helped him think.
“If he’s gaslighting her, yeah. It makes perfect sense.”
“Do you really think he would do something like this? Duncan, Cole and I have been in this business a long time. When an ex-spouse goes after the one that got away, it’s usually more sinister than this, devious and with the agenda of one or both of them being dead in the end.”
“Think about it for a minute, Devin. If Baxton is behind this he can’t do anything himself. He would have to have one of his lackeys doing it until he could get out. Keeping Nicoleta in a constant state of agitation, making her think she’s losing her mind, and ostracizing her from her family and new friends would only make it easier for him to get at her when he is free.”
“I must be tired, Duncan is making sense.” Cole threw the sack up again and caught it.
“Okay, I agree when put like that it makes sense, but how do you explain there is no one on the security tapes other than the three of them?”
“Somehow they’ve found a way to hack into your system. They are either shutting it down or erasing it.”
“You can’t erase it. It’s digitized and saved to the server. Those tapes are rotated every six months.”
“Who has access to the server?”
“I do, of course. So does Cole. Grayson does as well, but he’s in Miami. Eric Hawks knows the system inside out, but he isn’t here either. He’s in Seattle. The only other person in Sapphire Springs who has access to the server room is Ethan Cage.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s everyone. The rest of the BSI team isn’t into working on tech. They’d rather be in the field.”
“There has to be something on those tapes that we aren’t seeing.” Duncan scrubbed his hand over his head as he began to pace. His gut was telling him Baxton was behind this.
Cole tossed the sack in the air again. When he caught it he stood. “I’m going to call Julian. See if she won’t come in and look at the system and examine the tapes.”
“Julian Reeds?” Devin asked surprised.
“Yep. She’s the best in the business.”
“She charges us a fortune, Cole.”
“Do you want to know if the tapes have been tampered with?”
Devin leaned back in his leather chair. His mind was going in so many directions it was hard to keep anything straight. Christmas was in less than a month. Kylie was due in January and was nesting. God, was she ever nesting. The trials were over, but Nadine had been requesting he visit her in prison.
Not that Devin had told anyone. Nadine McKinnon could rot as far as he was concerned. She’d given up the right to ask motherly favors when she helped Allen evade the law for so many years. She’d gone further than that when she helped Lexie Petrovich kill Kylie’s parents in a car wreck. But the final nail in her coffin was when she attempted to hire someone at the prison to kill Kylie. Nadine was dead to Devin.
Then there were the mired of problems his siblings were going through. Grayson was still running after a woman who stole from him this past spring. Nick was bitchier than ever because no one would help him at the Flying D ranch. Ian was up to his eyeballs in debt and construction on his latest business endeavor, a bar. Cade was being cagey as ever, disappearing for days sometimes weeks at a time, and refusing to talk to anyone about the bug up his ass. Braden was still riding the fence on whether to move back to Sapphire Springs or not. Elizabeth was studying her ass off for finals in Colorado and was talking about going skiing with friends for the holidays. Pop and Katy were begging him to talk her out of it as if he had any pull with his twenty-three-year-old baby sister.
Then there was Duncan, who had recently moved back home but in the process brought along Amara and her mother, Nicoleta. Amara was an ex-fugitive who recently was cleared of all charges against her after the truth about her stepfather, Craig Baxton, came to light. Nicoleta had been held prisoner by Baxton for a decade and was having her own troubles adjusting to life as a free woman. Not to mention the tension that easily arose between her and Amara after being separated for so long
.
Through all of this, Duncan had been suspended for six months from the US Marshal Service for his role in helping Amara evade capture. The little shit was lucky his ass wasn’t in a cell. He could have easily gone to prison for aiding a fugitive.
Devin couldn’t blame him for his actions. If it had been Kylie running from the law, Devin would have done the same thing.
“What are you thinking, Devin?”
“I’m thinking all I wanted for Christmas was some peace and quiet.”
Cole laughed. “Not gonna happen, bro. We live in Sapphire Springs. Home of the notorious, land of the freed.”
Duncan laughed. “You guys are the ones who said to bring them here. I just did what I was told.”
“How the hell did we end up with so many residents using assumed identities and hiding from both sides of the law?” Devin asked, but he was smiling.
“Call Banks, Duncan. See if he knows anything. If Baxton is behind this then we need to stop him before it gets worse.” Devin leaned forward, planting his elbows on his desk. “I like Nicoleta. She’s a nice woman and she’s been through enough. Someone is screwing with her. It’s time to make it stop.”
“Agreed,” Cole added. “I like Nicoleta too, as does Tia. She told me the other day it was almost like having a mom around. With her being pregnant that means a lot. This situation is upsetting her, and I want it to stop.”
Devin looked at Cole. “See if Julian will come to town, but try to talk her down on her fees. We’re beginning to sink here with all these off book ops we’ve been running. If we don’t get some revenue coming in, we’re going to have to start cold calling for customers.”
Cole chuckled, but he knew Devin wasn’t too far from the truth. Since last year they’d ran three major operations off the books. The last one, saving Amara and her mother, had scraped the bottom of the barrel. They needed to bring in some paying customers and damn fast.
Duncan nodded his agreement as he placed the call to Scott Banks. If Baxton wasn’t behind this, he didn’t know who could be. The bastard had promised Amara he wouldn’t let her or Nicoleta go. Duncan had promised her, Baxton would never touch her again. This time, he would keep his promise to her. He had too.
Flawed Perfection: A Collection of Winter Wishes Page 30