That reminded her, what had Gavin been thinking offering that much? She dried her face with one of his towels and the citrusy cedar scent that was uniquely his filled her up and comforted her. He was a good man, that’s what he was thinking. And he deserved so much better than to get tangled up with a woman who was likely nothing more than a transition person for him—and his sister’s best friend. It would complicate everything if they didn’t work out. The best thing she could do for him would be to stay away. For good.
Newly resolved, Mac left the bathroom and found Gavin standing in his small kitchen waiting for her. For the rest of her days, she would remember him exactly like that.
Leaning, with his back to the kitchen sink, he stood with one foot crossed over the other and his arms folded loosely over his chest. His caramel hair hung down over his forehead and his ruggedly handsome face looked equal parts sad and serious. When he saw her come toward him, one corner of his mouth tipped up, flashing the dimple in his right cheek as if he was trying to smile just for her, to help her, to make her feel better.
“You okay?” he asked. His deep voice rumbled out of his chest and smoothed over Mac’s frayed nerves like a caress.
“Yeah, I’m good,” she said. “In fact, I’d better go. You need to get back to work and I’m sure Emma needs me for something or other.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
Mac nodded. She knew she was in a weakened state and the sooner she put some distance between them the better, otherwise she might throw herself at him in an effort to feel comforted when in reality the only thing that could make her feel better was getting Tulip back.
• • •
“So, what are you going to do about it?” Aunt Sarah asked after Mac recounted the events of the morning.
They were sitting on the porch enjoying Aunt Charlotte’s frosty lemonade, while Mac silently plotted the death of one Ralph Lester. Okay, not really, but the idea brought her a bloodthirsty sort of comfort, which felt better than focusing on the flash of hurt she’d seen in Gavin’s eyes when she bolted out of his apartment.
“I don’t think there’s anything I can do,” Mac said. “If Tulip belongs to him and he won’t let me buy her, I’m screwed.”
The aunts exchanged a look. Charlotte looked concerned while Sarah looked annoyed.
“What?” Mac asked.
“Nothing.” Sarah shrugged. “I just figured you’d give him a proper chin check before letting him make off with your dog.”
“Chin check?” Mac asked. “As in punch him in the face? Okay, that’s it, what is going on with you?”
“Just sayin’,” Sarah said. She turned away to study her clematis vine, which was winding its way across the porch rail.
“I have to say, Mac, Sarah is right,” Charlotte said. “You’re usually much more of a fighter.” She turned to Sarah. “Remember that time she socked Pete Turner in the nose when he wouldn’t stop following her around saying he was going to marry her? That was epic!”
Epic? Mac was boggled. “Look, if I couldn’t get him to take four grand, I doubt a beating will bend him to my will.”
“Four grand?” Charlotte choked. “Where were you going to get that money?”
“Gavin and I got a little carried away,” Mac said.
“Understandable. But more to the point, why wouldn’t he take the money?” Sarah asked.
“That’s a lot for a dog he didn’t seem to be taking very good care of,” Charlotte said. “Don’t you find that curious?”
Mac looked at her two aunts. They were right. Something wasn’t right in Lester land and she was going to find out what it was.
“If you two will excuse me, I need to go check something on my computer,” Mac said.
As she got to her feet and crossed the porch, she heard Sarah say to Charlotte, “That’s our girl.”
Chapter 24
“Are you sure this is the right address?” Jillian asked. She pointed at the ramshackle one-story cottage rife with overgrown grass and a rusty chain-link fence running around the property.
The four women were in her Jeep parked across the narrow neighborhood street from the house that Mac had found listed as belonging to one Ralph Lester on the town’s property records. He lived on the outskirts of Bluff Point, barely a resident of town as far as she could tell. How Tulip had managed to get seven miles into town to be found in that alley, Mac couldn’t fathom.
“The property is listed as belonging to Ralph Lester,” Mac said. “It has to be him, unless there is more than one of them, which is unlikely in our petite community of seven thousand residents.”
“It’s just that I’m surprised he turned the offer of money down,” Jillian said.
“No kidding,” Carly agreed. “If anyone ever needed four thousand dollars, it’s this guy.”
“I have a visual,” Emma said. She was using her father’s binoculars to spy on Lester from the backseat. “Oh, my eyes!”
“What is it?” Mac asked.
“He took his shirt off,” Emma said and handed the binoculars to Carly, who was beside her in the backseat. “I didn’t know shag carpeting was making a comeback.”
“Oh, gross,” Carly said. “Wax the back, dude.”
“All right, whatever,” Mac said. She was feeling anxious and antsy about her baby girl. “Do you see Tulip anywhere?”
Carly was silent for a moment. “No, no sign of her in the room with him.”
“That’s weird,” Mac said. “She likes to be wherever her people are.”
“Maybe she doesn’t like him,” Emma said.
“This proves he’s not her people,” Carly said.
“Or not,” Jillian said. Her voice was grim.
“What is it?” Mac asked.
“Look behind the house to the right,” Jillian said. “Is that—oh, Mac, I’m so sorry.”
Mac leaned over her friend in the driver’s seat and stared out the window so hard her eyes almost crossed. It was dark out as they had waited until after the cookout at Emma and Brad’s to do Tulip recon. They had considered including the boys but Mac was afraid that much testosterone might cause problems, plus she was still trying to keep her distance from Gavin, so they fibbed and said they were going shopping instead.
She scanned the dark yard and then saw some movement in the back and a motion-activated spotlight snapped on. Mac gasped. Rage, red-hot and ready to explode like a supernova, pulsed through her entire being.
She pushed her door open and hopped to the ground. No one, but no one, tied her dog up in the backyard. She ran across the street. She heard her friends calling after her, but she paid them no heed.
She was getting Tulip out of there if she had to hop the fence and haul her out. She ran along the chain link, circled the yard to the back. Tulip must have smelled her coming, because she whimpered and her tail thumped on the ground.
“Hi, baby,” Mac called softly to her. “I’m here. It’s okay. I’m here.”
Tulip barked a happy greeting, then rose from her crouched position in the dirt and ran at the fence. Her leash was too short, however, and when she got to the end of it, she was yanked off of her feet and slammed back to the ground with a cry of pain.
It was like a knife in her chest, and Mac was pretty sure she could rip the fence down with her bare hands.
“Son of a bitch!” Carly cursed as she joined Mac at the fence.
“We have to get her out of there,” Mac said. “She doesn’t belong there. Look at it, it’s disgusting. She doesn’t have food or water. There’s no shelter, just broken down rusty old crap everywhere. She could get cut. I can’t, I just can’t . . .”
“Shh,” Emma said. She wrapped her arms around Mac and hugged her tight. “It’s going to be all right. We’ll get her out of here. I promise.”
Tulip was lying in the dirt, facing Mac. She
was whimpering as if she could sense Mac’s stress and wanted to comfort her. Mac forced herself to pull it together for Tulip’s sake.
“Okay, what’s the plan?” Her voice was hoarse from holding all of her rage in. She cleared her throat but it didn’t help.
“A little snip ought to take care of the problem,” Jillian said. Mac looked at her friend and noticed she was holding bolt cutters.
“I love you,” she said.
“You know me, I like to be prepared,” Jilly said.
“All right, Carly, come with me,” Emma said. “We’ll go to the door and distract him while you two get Tulip out. Whistle once you’ve got her and then we’ll drive the car to the next street and pick you up on the other side of the woods.”
“Okay, let’s do this,” Mac said. She enfolded all three of her friends in a quick group hug. “Be careful. I have a hinky feeling about this guy.”
“This guy? Really? Between the back hair and the toilet in the front yard, I really thought I’d found my soul mate,” Carly said.
Jillian snorted and kneeled down, getting ready to start cutting the chain-link as soon as Emma and Carly were in place at Lester’s door.
Mac followed them and waited where she could see Lester answer them. Emma and Carly knocked and waited. Mac wondered what they were going to use for an excuse to voluntarily stop by this dump. Encyclopedia sales? Engine trouble? Religious messengers? What would Lester go for?
She heard the door open and Emma started talking. Mac beat feet back to Jillian, who started cutting the chain-link as soon as she saw Mac coming. The chain was thick and it took longer than Mac would have expected. She rocked on her feet, planning to dive into the backyard as soon as the opening was big enough.
“Okay, now!” Jillian said. She dropped the bolt cutters and curled the chain-link back. She’d managed to cut a hole large enough for Mac to wriggle through and Mac dropped to her belly and crawled through. When her shirt got snagged, she didn’t stop but let it tear as she kept going.
Tulip’s tail was thumping on the ground and her whimpering had grown even louder. Mac rose to her knees and hurried across the hard packed dirt.
Tulip pounced on her as soon as she was within reach. She licked Mac’s face, on the mouth, and hit her like a cannonball with her front feet, knocking Mac to the ground, which was fine with Tulip because she could keep licking.
Mac laughed and rubbed her ears. “Okay, easy does it, girl. We have to get you out of here fast.”
Mac had just unclipped the chain from Tulip’s collar when a bright white beam of light slapped her right in the eyeballs.
“Hey, you there, what are you doing?”
Mac held up a hand to shield her eyes. From the authoritative sound in the man’s voice, she knew this was bad.
She turned and glanced over her shoulder and hissed, “Run, Jilly, run!”
“I can’t,” Jillian said. She gestured beside her and Mac saw another cop standing there.
“Oh, crap,” she said.
The back door to the tiny house opened and out walked Lester. He looked smug. “Did you really think I didn’t notice you casing my place for fifteen minutes before these two showed up at my front door?”
Emma and Carly came out behind him with another officer at their back. Okay, so an inordinate amount of back hair didn’t mean the guy was stupid. Mac had really felt there was a correlation there but obviously she’d been wrong.
“Officers, I can explain,” Mac said. And she did, in the middle of the backyard with Tulip at her side. The three officers listened to what she had to say. They looked sympathetic to her plight but not enough to let her take Tulip.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Officer Morgan said. He looked to be the senior of the three, but Mac doubted he had more than a year or two on her in age. “But you can’t just take the dog. If you genuinely suspect abuse, there are procedures in place.”
“But she has no food or water,” Mac protested. “She’s chained in a backyard. What sort of person does that?”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Lester blustered. “How I take care of my dog is none of your damn business.”
“Easy, Mr. Lester,” Officer Polson said. “It is my business if I make it my business and you’d best keep that in mind.”
Polson reached down to pet Tulip and Mac liked him for it. Maybe they could get out of this with the puppy after all.
“I’m sorry, but I felt it was important to take care of the dog first and follow procedure second,” Mac said.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Officer Morgan said.
“Well, it should,” Carly said. She moved to stand beside Mac, as did Jillian and Emma.
“I want them arrested for trespassing and for destroying private property,” Lester said. “Just look what they did to my fence.”
Morgan went over and examined the gaping hole. “I’m sure the ladies are willing to make restitution. Right, ladies?”
“Sure,” Mac said. “As soon as he gives me my dog.”
“She’s not your dog!” Lester yelled. “You found her in an alley a few days ago.”
“Yes, but I’ve been taking care of her and I got her vaccinated. Did you?” Mac asked.
Lester threw his hands in the air. “Get off my property.”
“Fine,” Mac snapped. “But I’m taking my dog with me.”
Tulip’s ears went back and she pressed herself against Mac’s side. It was clear she didn’t like the yelling. Mac felt bad and tried to rein in her temper.
Lester had handed his ownership papers to the third officer in the group. The officer shuffled through them and then handed them to Morgan.
“Everything looks in order,” he said. He didn’t sound happy about it. “It looks like the dog is his.”
“I think it’s time you ladies left the premises,” Morgan said. He wasn’t unkind about it, but he did sound firm.
“I won’t leave without my dog,” Mac said.
“Me either,” Carly declared and linked her arm with Mac’s.
Jillian and Emma joined the human chain and Officer Morgan squeezed his temples between his fingers as if he was warding off a headache.
“Okay, fine,” he said. “But you’re giving me no choice but to place you under arrest.”
• • •
“I can’t believe he really arrested us,” Carly said. “I mean I thought he’d get a good laugh out of it and let us go, but look at us; we’re actually in freaking jail!”
Mac sat slumped on the metal cot, leaning up against the cement wall. They were in a narrow cell made up of two cement walls with bars for the remaining two walls, one of which had a door, also made of bars. Quite the ambiance.
The Bluff Point jail had exactly two cells, one for boys and one for girls. The four of them filled the girl cell, while the boy cell was currently unoccupied. Thank goodness.
“I’m sorry,” Mac said. “This is all my fault.”
She dropped her head onto her knees, but then reeled back as the smell coming off of her clothes made her eyes water. One more thing about a dog being chained, they really didn’t have a lot of options on where they went to the bathroom. Mac in her haste to get to Tulip had obviously rolled in something stinky.
“No, we’re in it together,” Emma said. “I really thought we’d be able to get her out of there. It kills me that we had to leave her with that . . . that . . . hairy troll.”
“We’ll save her, don’t you worry.” Jillian sat on the cot beside Mac and put her arm around her, then she sniffed the air around Mac. With a look of disgust, she checked the bottom of her shoes.
“It’s not you, it’s me,” Mac said. She pointed to the mysterious brown stains on her pants and Jillian flinched.
“I’m just going to move back over there,” she said.
“Understood,” Mac said. She
’d peel off her clothes if she could, but naked in jail just seemed so much worse than smelly in jail.
“Oh, man, I just had a horrible thought,” Carly said. “What if they keep us in here and you miss your wedding?”
Mac looked at Emma. That could not happen. She would feel horrible, awful, devastated.
“Nah,” Emma said. “They can’t hold us that long; seriously, this is a misdemeanor at best. Besides, even if they did, Brad would come and save me.”
“Like he is right now,” a man’s voice spoke and they all turned to see Brad striding into the jail with Zach, Sam, and Gavin at his back.
“Oh, girls, what did you do?” Zach asked.
“It’s a long story,” Jillian said. “How about we tell it over drinks after we get out of here?”
“Sounds good to me,” Sam said.
Officer Polson arrived with the keys to the door. He unlocked it and let Emma, Carly, and Jillian go. When Mac went to follow, he held her back with a hand on her arm.
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” he asked.
Unaware of her plight, her friends headed out the door. Mac didn’t call them back. She figured if she was going to get the verbal ruler across the knuckles, she’d take it for the team. Besides, if she had to, she’d do it all over again, but next time she’d get her dog out and hopefully not reek of poop.
“Listen, Ms. Harris—”
“Mac,” she said. “Everyone calls me Mac.”
He nodded. “Okay, Mac, here’s the thing. I understand why you did what you did. Between you and me, I’ve got a bad feeling about that guy, and I plan on going back to Mr. Lester’s house quite often and if I see anything that warrants my involvement, I will not hesitate. Does that help?”
Mac felt the hot spurt of tears fill her eyes. She nodded quickly. “Yes, it does, a lot actually. Thank you.”
He looked away as if he was unsure of what to do with a woman’s tears. He closed the cell door and led the way out of the room. Mac went to follow him and found Gavin standing off to the side waiting for her. She tried to look brave and strong and even forced a smile but it unraveled on her. Her lips wobbled and she started to cry.
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