by Rebecca Deel
Both of them were loaded with bags returning to his SUV.
“I need to wash everything but the pillows, Rio. Do you know where I can find a laundromat? My washer and dryer are in storage until the house is ready.”
“You can use mine. I’ll give you my spare key and you can wash whatever you want when you have time.”
“I don’t want to impose.” She had to admit, though, she was curious what made the medic tick. Personal spaces could tell you a lot about the person who lived in them.
“You’re doing a favor for my family, Darcy. This is the least I can do to repay you.”
She waved his statement aside. “There’s no debt owed, Rio. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how much you’ve been taking care of me as well as my brother. If anything, I still owe you for staying up several nights so Trent would sleep.”
Rio cranked the SUV and turned the heat on high before he turned to her. “Does it bother you?” he asked, his voice soft.
“That you stayed awake all night?”
He simply stared at her.
Ah. Not the staying awake part of the conversation. “Rio, I’m not used to someone taking care of me, but I like it. Trent’s never around long enough to do it. So, no, it doesn’t bother me.”
“I’m glad.” He shrugged one shoulder. “It’s my job to take care of my teammates.”
Her heart sank. “Do you see me as a teammate?” Boy, she hoped not. She sure didn’t feel that way about the handsome medic.
Rio leaned over the console, slipped his hand behind her neck, and tugged her toward him. He captured her mouth in a series of deep, drugging kisses. When he finally eased his mouth from hers, his eyes glittered with heat. “Does that answer your question?”
“Rio,” Darcy whispered as she brushed his mouth with hers. “Is this real?”
“As real as it gets, baby.”
“I don’t know what to do with this. I haven’t dated much over the years. No time and no interest. Until now.”
He smiled. “There’s no deadline, Darcy. We take as much time as we need to get to know each other. The only thing I ask is that you’re totally honest with me. If our relationship isn’t working for you, tell me. Have to be honest, though, in the interest of fairness. I don’t want the friends-only speech. I think that might break my heart.”
“If you promise to tell me if this isn’t what you want.”
“No chance, sweetheart. You are a dream come true.”
Her heart squeezed at his declaration. “So does this mean we’re dating?”
He chuckled. “It does.”
“I suppose I need to tell Trent soon.”
“He already knows.”
“How?”
“He saw me kissing you outside this morning. We had a discussion about it.”
Discussion, huh? She could imagine how that went over with Rio. “Was he upset?”
Rio trailed his fingers down her cheek. “He warned me against hurting you.”
Darcy’s cheeks burned. “I’ll talk to him.” She loved her brother, but he didn’t have the right to interfere in her life. For goodness’ sake, she was thirty years old, definitely old enough to know her own mind. If she didn’t want to pursue a relationship with Rio, she was capable of telling him so.
“It’s not necessary. We reached an understanding. He loves you, Darcy, and you’re his younger sister. Now that your parents are gone, he feels an obligation to protect you.”
“I don’t need protection from you.”
“No, baby, you don’t. All you have to do is tell me the truth. I can’t promise I won’t try to change your mind, but I will abide by your wishes.” He glanced at the dashboard clock. “We should return to the house. Nate needs to leave soon.”
Darcy settled back into her seat and buckled her seatbelt. Minutes later, he parked beside her car in the driveway. Arms loaded, they carried everything to the house.
Trent was in the recliner, glowering at everyone who came and went. His narrowed gaze shifted to Rio.
“Trent.” Darcy waited for her brother’s gaze to lock with hers. “I love you, but knock it off. I can take care of myself. I don’t want to ruin the time we have together fighting. Got it?”
Another glare at Rio before he growled. “Yeah, I got it. Don’t like it.”
“Too bad, bro. Deal with it.”
His attention shifted to the bags in her arms and Rio’s. “Did you buy out the store?”
“I needed to pick up more items for our linen closet and another bed.”
“Isn’t yours comfortable?”
“Mine is in storage. I need another bed for a guest.”
“Who?”
“My cousin, Mason,” Rio said. “He’s going to stay with me for a while. I didn’t want to dump him at my house and leave him.”
“So, go home, then. I don’t need you.”
Darcy gasped at the harsh comment from her brother. Rio’s hand brushed her lower back. Glancing at him, she caught the slight head shake.
“You won’t sleep, Trent, not without someone on watch. During the daytime, you’ll have too much traffic through here to sleep much. You want out of this house and back on the job? Let me provide the security you need to rest so I can leave faster. My staying will help Darcy sleep better, too. She needs to rest as much as you.”
“Fine,” he snapped. “How long will I have a babysitter?”
“Until you don’t need one.” He turned to Darcy. “Have you told him about the break-in?”
Trent sat up, clamped a hand over his gut, winced. “What are you talking about? What break-in?”
“The night you left, Rio took me to dinner,” Darcy said. “On the way back to the motel, we stopped by the house and noticed a light going across the window. Turns out I had a visitor poking around in here.”
“Did you catch him?” he asked Rio.
“Had too much head start. The police detective found smudged fingerprints and a shoe print, a size twelve work boot.”
“So Houdini is most likely a male. You sure the print didn’t belong to one of the hordes of people coming in and out of here?”
“Doubtful. We found it before PSI trainees started helping.”
“So this guy was just poking around in here, looking around?”
“We think he was tearing up the floors in a few rooms as well,” Darcy chimed in.
Trent scowled. “Simple vandalism? Maybe it’s a bored teenager with big feet.”
She gave a quick grin at that comment. Good to know her brother hadn’t lost his sense of humor despite the wounds and frustration. “We don’t know yet. The police are looking into it, including Nate’s wife, Stella.”
Her brother relaxed deeper into the recliner. “She’ll take care of it. Stella’s a great cop.”
“She is also very hot.” This from her husband who walked in the room at that point, a broad smile on his face, joy in his eyes. Oh, yes, definitely a newlywed.
Trent winced. “Please. That is too much information for my innocent mind.”
A chuckle from the chef. “You’re just envious.”
“She’s an amazing woman.”
Darcy studied her brother, unsure exactly what she’d heard in her brother’s voice. Discouragement? Sadness? She was convinced something had happened in recent weeks, something Trent hadn’t shared with her. With that comment, she wondered if the trouble concerned a woman. A new resolve formed to convince her sibling to talk to her before he returned to duty. Otherwise, he’d have to shoulder this burden by himself for months. She’d bet he hadn’t talked to anyone else about whatever was bugging him. Only their father could penetrate the blank shield Trent projected to the outside world. Dad wasn’t here anymore. There was just Darcy. Oh, yeah. She was definitely going to get him to unload before he left. If nothing else, she’d hassle him about it in the car on the way to the Knoxville airport where his truck waited in the long-term parking lot. Maybe there would be an amazing woman here for her brother. He
was a good man and deserved someone special in his life. Trent would be a great husband and father.
“We good here?” Nate asked. “It’s about time to take the kids back to class.”
“Appreciate you spelling me, Nate,” Rio said.
“Not a problem.” He turned to Trent. “I left you a pan of banana pudding in the fridge, buddy.”
“Hey,” Rio protested. “He is going to share, right?”
“Get your own,” Trent said, a smug smile on his face.
Nate rolled his eyes. “If he ate all that by himself, he’d be sick as a dog, Rio.” He strolled to the stairs, put two fingers in his mouth, and let out an ear-splitting whistle.
Within a couple minutes, the PSI trainees began drifting through the living room and outside to the SUVs on the street. One woman stopped when she reached Darcy. “I don’t know if anyone told you, but we found more holes on the third floor. Every room up there has at least two holes in the floor. A few more have holes in the walls.”
What was going on in her house?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Rio dragged a hand over his face. “Every room?”
“Yes, sir.” The trainee tucked strands of red hair behind her ear. “Can’t figure out what the point of the holes is. Looks like they took a sledge hammer to the walls.”
“Do the holes in the walls go all the way through to the outside?” Trent asked.
“No, sir. There’s not much insulation up there, though. You’ll need to patch the walls pretty fast. Otherwise, the heating bill will be astronomical.”
From what Rio had seen so far, Darcy’s electric bill was going to be high anyway. He hoped Brian had a few suggestions for her to save some money. Otherwise, she would be pouring money into this Victorian year round. He didn’t know anything about her financial situation, but he suspected she wouldn’t want to waste unnecessary money in heating bills, especially since she planned to open the deli in a few weeks in addition to remodeling the house.
“I’ll have the contractor take a look,” Darcy promised. “He’ll be here in another week to start the remodel.”
“The weather is supposed to grow colder in the next few days,” Trent said. A wry smile curved his mouth. “Had nothing better to do this afternoon than watch television. You need to have the contractor check it tomorrow, Darce.” His gaze turned toward the stairs. “I can look at the walls for you.”
“No.” Rio folded his arms across his chest. “Do we need to have this conversation again?”
“Did I ask your opinion, Kincaid?”
“You’re getting it anyway. Your leg needs more time to heal before you tackle two flights of rickety stairs.”
His friend growled.
“I’ll take pictures with my phone so you can see the damage,” Darcy said. “You should be able to tell me if Brian needs to come now or if the repairs can wait until next week.”
Rio recognized the restlessness and frustration on the other operative’s face. He’d witnessed the same many times in his teammates after job-related injuries and in himself as well. Military personnel were notoriously bad patients. “Darcy, if you have the Internet connection hooked up, you can put Trent to work on his laptop doing research.”
“What kind of research?” Trent asked.
“Security systems for Darcy’s house. For obvious reasons, she needs a top-of-the-line system.”
Her brother’s surly expression dissolved. “Excellent idea. I’ll put together a list of things I want installed in and around your house, Darce. We’ll have technicians from Fortress install the system.”
“While you’re researching, check out safe rooms,” Rio said. “We don’t have many tornadoes around here, but when one occurs, it does a lot of damage.”
“Tornadoes?” Darcy’s head whipped his direction, her eyes wide. “You have tornadoes here?”
“Usually fall and spring. Otter Creek is in a relatively flat section of Tennessee, so if a tornado spins up, there aren’t many obstacles to slow it down.”
She swallowed hard and turned to her brother. “I want the best safe room out there.”
Suited Rio as well. He and his teammates weren’t sent on missions as much as Trent’s team, a choice Durango had made together, but he wanted to know Darcy was safe while he was out of the country. One less thing for him to be concerned over.
Trent gave a short nod. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost me?” Darcy asked.
“Doesn’t matter. I’m paying.”
“I can handle the price, Trent. I want to know how much to set aside.”
“Think of it as a housewarming present.”
Darcy frowned. “A toaster is a housewarming gift, not a security system and safe room.”
“I’ll throw in a toaster if you want one.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Darce, I want to do this for you. It will give me peace of mind when I’m out on a mission.”
“You fight dirty, bro. I don’t want you distracted. Knock yourself out shopping on the Internet.” She checked her watch. “I’ll call the telephone company and arrange for the Internet connection.”
Quinn jogged down the stairs. “Everybody’s out except Red here.”
“Excellent.” Nate tugged on his leather jacket. “We should get back to PSI in time for a couple sessions before dinner.”
Red groaned. “Please tell me it’s class work and not PT.”
“One session’s in the classroom, the other in the gym.”
“Come on, Red,” Quinn said. “I’ll help you to the SUV since you’re in such bad shape.”
A scowl, then, “I can handle it.” She stalked outside.
“Darcy, there are two more rooms to be cleared,” Quinn said. “The trainees have sessions in the next few days that can’t be rescheduled. I’ll bring them back to finish at the beginning of next week.”
She shook her head. “That’s not necessary. I can’t believe how much work you’ve done. I can handle two rooms.”
“I’ll help her,” Rio said. “And Trent will be more mobile in a few days.”
“It’s no problem for us to come back, Darcy,” Nate said. “Let us know the day before you need us. We’ll adjust the schedule.”
“I’ll be fine, but thank you. Tell your trainees how much I appreciate their help. Once my deli is open, I’ll feed you and your colleagues lunch along with your students.”
He grinned. “Looking forward to it. Trent’s been bragging about your wraps all day.”
On the way out the door, Quinn glanced back over his shoulder. “Your Dumpsters are full again, Darcy. Schedule a pickup for tomorrow.”
“Quinn, can you help with Trent tomorrow? I’ll be gone all day.” Rio didn’t want Darcy here by herself with her brother in case there was a problem. Not likely, but he’d rather be sure.
“I’ll ask Sanders to cover for me.”
A minute later, the caravan of SUVs was gone.
“I don’t need Quinn,” Trent said.
“And if you fall, do you expect your sister to help you up? You want to be stubborn, fine. Do it when the stubbornness won’t impact Darcy.”
The other operative glared his direction until he saw Darcy’s distressed expression. “Check the new holes the trainees found, Darce. We need to see what we’re up against.”
Darcy grabbed her phone. “We’ll return in a minute.”
“Take your time,” he said, his lips curling upward. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Rio accompanied her up two flights of stairs. By the time they reached the last step, Darcy was panting. When she would have proceeded into the closest room, Rio wrapped her in his arms. “Just for a moment,” he murmured. “Catch your breath.”
Darcy rested against him until her breaths came at a normal pace. “Thanks.”
He dropped a quick kiss on her upturned lips, then released her. “Come on. Let’s walk through the rooms, see where re
pairs are needed.”
Red wasn’t exaggerating. Every room on the third floor had holes in the floors and several in the walls. He frowned. What was the point? If it had been teens, he would have expected spray paint on the walls, crushed beer cans tossed around, and cigarette butts littering the floor. This was more deliberate. Not vandalism, necessarily, though there was destruction. No, this was intentional. The vandal was looking for something, but what? What did Gretchen Bond have that someone wanted badly enough to risk detection to find? More important, was Darcy in danger from the man destroying her house?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Rio frowned. How long had the searcher been destroying floors and walls? Bond had been dead for two years and the most recent break-in was less than a week ago. The damage appeared to be recent. Why wait this long to hunt?
“Got it.” Darcy waggled the hand holding her cell phone. “Do you know anything about repairs like this?”
“Not as much as Mason. I don’t know about now, but while growing up he loved working with his hands. Uncle James is a carpenter.”
“I see.” She looked thoughtful. “Do you think your cousin would repair the walls and floors for me? I have to pay someone to do it. Why not Mason?”
“Ask him.” He’d probably appreciate the freedom to do something he enjoyed. “If Mason agrees, he’ll have to do it in the evenings. He needs to find a job soon.”
“I understand. We can close the doors until the repairs are completed. In fact, that’s probably a wise idea for all the rooms.” A wry smile curved her mouth. “At least it will cut down on the drafts.”
“The house will be more energy efficient when Brian’s finished.”
“That will take a miracle, Rio.”
They retraced their steps downstairs where Darcy handed her phone to her brother. “Take a look at these.”
Trent scrolled through the pictures, blew up a few. “These need to be repaired as soon as possible, Darce.”