Even though, at this very moment, she had no idea what she would say to him, she was fairly certain that over the course of an entire day at work she could come up with a rough idea. She was resilient. She was smart. She could figure it out.
Amber unlocked the back door and made her way into Bella through the employee break room. As she walked the familiar path, a strange sensation crept through her veins. She stilled for a moment. Something felt…off.
She tried to ignore the odd feeling, to shake it off as she pushed through the black-beaded curtain that separated the dressing room area from the back of the shop. As she drew even with the red painted doors of the dressing rooms her entire body tensed up as if it was on alert.
A strange smell hit her nostrils. She was trying to figure out what it was when she heard a sound behind her and sensed furtive moment. She whipped her head around to see what the movement was just as she heard a loud cracking sound echo through the silence.
An intense pain shot through her head as she felt her legs give way beneath her. Her body crumbled to the floor and the last thing she clearly saw was the black blades of the fan above her as they spun around and around…
--- ~ ---
“Oh my God! Oh my God! Amber!” Haley’s panicked voice penetrated through the fog in Amber’s throbbing head.
Amber opened her heavy lidded eyes and saw Haley hovering over her, tears streaming down her cheeks. Amber remained still. She moved her eyes, scanning the area without moving her head.
She was lying flat on the ground beside the dressing rooms. Haley knelt beside her. She held a phone to her ear as she cried.
“I think there was a break-in,” Haley’s shaking voice was telling whomever was on the other end of the phone. “I found Amber unconscious by the dressing rooms. The place is trashed.”
What?! Bella, her store, was trashed? She needed to find out exactly what was going on. She tried to sit up.
Haley’s big brown eyes shot down to her. “You’re awake!” she cried.
Amber tried to nod, but the pain that shot through her head convinced her that that was a bad idea. Haley was a clever girl. Amber was sure she could gather enough evidence to support her conclusion about Amber being awake without the benefit of the nod.
“Yes, she’s awake,” Haley announced excitedly into the phone.
See? Amber thought, my confidence was not misplaced.
Looking back down at Amber, Haley instructed, “They said you need to lay still. Don’t move, Amber. The paramedics should be here shortly.”
Paramedics. Store trashed. Throbbing headache.
None of this was adding up. She tried to piece it together, to make sense of the events, but it felt like trying to escape from quicksand. She just kept getting pulled back under. She closed her eyes figuring she would rest. Then she would be able to think more clearly.
“No Amber, stay awake, talk to me,” Haley’s voice had more than a little hint of desperation in it. “They want me to keep you awake!”
Amber felt bad for Haley. She seemed really upset. She opened her eyes to make sure Haley was okay.
She saw Haley’s face light up, “Good, that’s good! Keep looking at me.”
“Okay,” Amber weakly replied, trying to reassure Haley. She winced at the sharp, high-pitched sound of several sirens blaring through the air, growing louder as they approached.
“Oh, thank God! They’re here. Just hold on.” Haley sat beside her holding Amber’s hand as her fingers wrapped tightly around it.
“Hey, girls, looks like you threw quite a party in here.”
Alex. Amber heard Alex’s voice. She instantly felt more relaxed. Alex was here. He would take care of Haley. She could go to sleep. She closed her eyes.
“Uh, uh, uh, sleepy head. No shut eye just yet,” Alex said, and Amber realized that he was now beside her.
“Back’s clear.” Amber heard a man’s voice, one she didn’t recognize, announce.
She looked up as Alex shone a bright light in her eyes. He had placed something hard beneath her back and was taking her blood pressure and checking her pulse. She heard a hiss escape her mouth as she tried to lift her head to look around.
“What hurts?” he asked, his green eyes filled with concern.
“Just my head,” Amber moaned.
“Lay still,” he instructed, with a tone of authority Amber had never heard him use.
As Alex continued to examine her, she noticed several police officers walking around her. She wanted to sit up. She needed to see what kind of damage had been done to the store. But she knew it was no use fighting Alex, he wasn’t going to let her get up until he was sure she was okay.
Sloan men were so frustrating.
Chapter Six
The hard metal chair dug into Seth’s bad shoulder as his patience quickly evaporated. He was once again seated in his childhood friend Cameron’s small office at Titan Security. He had only been there for a half an hour and was already wondering if he had made a big mistake.
“Come on, dude. Just one time. Let me take her out,” Cam pleaded. He had not let the subject of Seth’s bike drop since Seth had walked through the door.
“No,” Seth repeated the same answer he had been giving his friend for the last thirty minutes.
“Damn, you were a lot more fun in high school,” Cam complained as he pushed a laptop across the small desk towards Seth. “This is yours. For work purposes only. No looking up porn. We monitor it.” Then, waggling his eyebrows, he added, “Unless it’s really good porn, then please peruse away…because we monitor it.”
Seth shook his head at his friend.
“Alright, so here’s the deal. You will be hanging with me the next few days, getting a feel for the ins and outs, so to speak. Then after the holiday, you'll be out on your own. Think you can handle that?”
Seth stared directly into his friend’s eyes as he leaned forward giving his shoulder a break, resting his elbows on his knees.
Cam’s blue eyes sparked as a huge smile spread across his face. “You realize when you are dealing with clients you will have to speak...like, with actual words? Not just the intimidating body language which seems to be your preferred method of communication?”
Seth felt the corners of his mouth pulling up into a grin. Cam had always had the gift of gab. He tended to rub people the wrong way at times, but Seth had always appreciated his friend’s ability to say exactly what was on his mind.
“We have a consult over at the new office building on Eleventh St. It's for a company called Lifeline Insurance. You can ride with me. Next week, we'll have a company truck for you. You can’t roll up to appointments on that beast. A hog doesn’t exactly scream safety and security,” Cam explained as he stood, gathering his keys, and then grabbed what looked like a gym bag on steroids from a locker in the corner of the room.
A quick glance inside the bag showed security cameras, monitors and several other devices that Seth assumed they would be presenting to their new clients.
“I know we haven’t really gone over your job description, but basically what I need is for you to do the initial consult and analysis. I have plenty of guys that can install and I’ve got a great marketing and sales team, but I haven’t found anyone - other than myself, that is - who can quickly survey an area and see where the blind spots and weak areas are, the ones that would need to be covered. I know that sounds crazy, but these idiots just don’t see it.”
“Not a problem.” For Seth this job would literally be the equivalent of Picasso doing a paint by numbers portrait.
As they climbed into Cam’s company truck, Seth thought that it might not be such a bad thing to have some zero-stress, no-brainer work for a change. He could use the mental downtime to figure out what he wanted to do now that his military career was behind him. What he saw for himself in the future. Hell, maybe he could even come to terms with some of the ghosts that haunted his past.
“So how does it feel being back in your old stomping gro
unds?” Cam’s loud voice boomed over the country music blaring from the sixteen inch speakers, interrupting Seth’s inner dialog.
“Good.” Seth looked down at the river as they drove across it.
As a kid, this had been his favorite place to be. He would spend hours down at the banks. He had his first kiss on the bridge they were currently driving over when he was ten. He drank his first beer that same year, and underneath the very same bridge.
It all looked so different now, though, with the new Riverwalk development that lined the banks of the water. He understood the need for commerce in the small town and was happy to see that Harper’s Crossing seemed to be thriving, but he did feel a little bit of disappointment over the fact that nothing, save the small and picturesque downtown area and the bucolic rural areas in the outer county surrounding the town, looked the same as it had in his childhood. All of the commercial and retail districts surrounding that gem of a downtown area- which, in Seth's childhood, had been sliding down the gradual path to eventual decline - had, in the intervening years, been spruced up and modernized. 'Revitalized' they called it. It wasn't a bad thing, he knew- in fact, it was good. Very good. Just jarring. Somehow, you never really emotionally expect life to move on when you're not there, even though logic tells you that it will.
Well, Seth ruminated, if there's one thing you can depend on in life, it's change. Things will constantly change.
--- ~ ---
Seth and Cam walked out of the offices of Lifeline Insurance, their newest clients, and Seth shook his head in amazement. Wow. If all of the consults went that easily, Seth would be done by noon every day. They were in and out of there in under forty-five minutes.
“Is that normally what to expect in a consultation?” Seth asked as Cam fired up his truck.
Cam’s head fell back as he laughed. “Hell, no! Normally I have to explain over and over again each device’s use, then tediously outline each feature. Never before has it been that simple. I think if you would have told them that jumping up and down on one foot while they barked like a dog would keep them safe they would have done it.”
Seth’s brow furrowed. “But I didn’t really say anything.”
“I know!” Cam exclaimed. “That was the beauty of it all. You weren’t trying to sell, you just answered their questions, and just barely did that. It was like how men go crazy when a girl plays hard to get. By the way, you are totally the girl in this scenario.” Cam laughed at his own joke before continuing with awe in his voice, “They just trusted you. I could see it in their eyes when they asked for your opinions, it was like they innately knew you could keep them safe.”
Seth didn’t really think it was that deep. He figured it had more to do with them knowing about his military experience (thanks to Cam) than anything remotely personal to him. But Cam seemed happy and Lifeline Insurance now had a security system that would protect them and the confidential information stored at their facility. So Seth figured, that any way you looked at it, it was a win-win.
“Man, forget what I said about talking more to the clients,” Cam said excitedly as he turned onto the frontage road. “This silent-strength thing you’ve got going on is working just fine.”
The radio on Cam’s belt chirped and he grabbed it. “Helloooo, Darla. How ya doin’, beautiful?”
Darla, Cam’s seventy-something year old secretary’s gravelly voice came over the airwaves, “You done with the Lifeline job?”
Cam whispered loudly to Seth, “She likes to get straight to the point.”
Seth remembered Darla from when he and Cam worked for Cam’s dad at Titan Security over their summer breaks in high school. The main thing he remembered about her was that she smoked like a chimney, but he also seemed to recall that she was a no-nonsense, no-muss, no-fuss lady even then. She had not seemed to mellow with age.
“Sure am. We’re ahead of schedule thanks to Mr. Smooth Talker over here.” Cam winked at Seth as he spoke to Darla.
“Good, then you need to head over to Cranston Square. There was a break in at Bella, and someone was assaulted. The police can’t seem to reach Mr. Cranston to get the video surveillance footage.”
“On our way.” Cam replaced the radio on his belt loop.
“Old man Cranston still kickin’?” Seth asked.
“Barely, but yes. He’s not gonna like that there was a break in at one of his properties.” Cam’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel and he nervously looked over at Seth, “You know, your cousin works there.”
Seth looked over at his friend, “Where?” He was unclear if one of his cousins worked for old man Cranston or at the place where the break-in had occurred.
“At Bella. Haley works at Bella,” Cam said, his tone growing serious.
Seth’s blood ran cold. He picked up his phone but realized that he didn’t have any of his cousins' numbers programmed into it. So he did the next best thing and began calling his brothers. No one picked up. Just as he was about to call his dad, the truck came to a stop. That was one of the great things about living in a small town, it never took too long to get anywhere.
As they passed under the police tape, Cam gave his name and showed his I.D. to an officer that was stationed at the door. Seth’s heart was pounding and he just wanted to get inside the store and make sure that his cousin was okay.
Finally, the officer moved to the side and let them pass. They stepped into the room, picking their way around mounds of hastily tossed clothing. Seth surveyed the scene before him. The first thing he saw was his cousin, who seemed perfectly fine. The next thing he saw stopped him dead in his tracks. It was her. Haley was crouched beside Amber.
She was sitting in a chair with an ice pack pressed to the side of her head, smiling at something Alex was saying to her. He crossed the room in three strides.
His brother was the first to notice his arrival. “Hey Seth, you’re a little late for the party.”
He looked down at Amber, who was good-naturedly rolling her eyes at Alex.
“Are you okay?” he heard the intensity in his own voice.
Her eyes widened a little at his tone then her lips turned up into a half-smile. “I’m fine. Just a little shaken up. What are you doing here?”
“I'm working at Titan Security,” Seth explained.
He wanted to touch her. He needed to feel her so he knew she was okay. He balled his hands into tight fists at his sides to stop himself from doing just that. His eyes scanned down her body trying to visually assess if she was in fact, all right.
“Small world,” Alex said looking between Seth and Amber. His face breaking out into a slow smile.
Seth raised his eyes to hers, remembering that was the first thing she had said to him at his homecoming party. She smiled a knowing smile, he assumed at the same memory.
“What happened?” Seth asked.
Amber’s voice had an edge to it as she explained, “Apparently, someone did all of this,” she gestured around her shop, “in the process of looking for my safe. I must have interrupted their search and they knocked me over the head with that ceramic vase.”
Seth was barely able to contain the anger he felt boiling inside of him. He would find who did this, and if they were lucky, he would just kill them. He asked tightly, “Did you see who it was?”
“No,” Amber said, seeming frustrated. Then her eyes narrowed as if a realization was dawning on her. “But I did smell him.”
“You what?” both he and Alex asked at the same time.
“Yeah! Right before I got knocked on the head I smelled really bad B.O.,” Amber explained.
“Did you tell the police?” Seth asked, knowing that any piece of information could help them find the assailant.
“No, I just remembered when you walked up,” she said, her eyes darting away from his somewhat furtively, her expression taking on the barest hint of a guilty cast.
“Man, Bro,” Alex slapped him on the back laughing, “I think that means you need a shower. Or at least some bet
ter deodorant.”
“I meant because he smells...” Amber sighed in frustration as she looked at Alex before turning back to Seth, her beautiful hazel eyes meeting his as she stammered, “I mean, you smell so…um…good and…just exactly…you know…how I remember. So that made me remember about the other smell.”
“You need to tell the police what you remember.” Seth motioned for a few officers that were speaking in low tones at the front door.
The tall one came over. Seth stepped to the side and Amber told the young officer what she had just remembered. The officer knelt down and placed his hand on her knee asking her if that was all and giving her his card in case she remembered anything else or just wanted to talk.
Seth, for one, certainly did want to have a little talk with him, and the subject of that talk would be the officer's much-too-friendly behavior.
As they continued speaking, Seth looked around the store. It was pretty thoroughly tossed but he could see how amazing it must be when everything was in order. So this must be the business Amber owned.
Alex leaned over to him whispering, “She not only owns Bella. She designs most of the clothes that she carries here.”
It was unnerving the way his brothers kept reading his mind. Seth had never thought of himself as an “open book” type person. Usually people struggled to figure out what he was thinking or feeling. But it seemed that his brothers did not suffer with any such challenges.
Cam entered the room, stepping over several piles of clothing that were strewn about the floor. “The cameras are no good. They haven’t been operational for years.”
“None of them work?” Seth had noticed two cameras in the parking lot and there was one on a pole pointed directly at the front entrance.
He looked down at Amber, interrupting her conversation with Officer Hands-On. “Did you know that they didn’t work?”
My Everything - Seth & Amber Page 5