by Gina LaManna
Jax groaned. "What now?"
"I caught someone breaking into my house today."
"Did you file a report?"
"Yes."
"Good. What did the cop on the clock have to say? It's weird I didn't hear a call come in."
"It's not actually that weird…not since I didn't actually call it in," I said, wincing.
"Didn't you say you filed a report?"
"Yeah…well, I guess technically I'm filing one right now."
Jax's eye roll was impressive.
"What? You're the chief."
"I thought you didn't know I'd be here."
"I didn't. I was going to call, then Donna…never mind." With a shudder, I continued. "I think it was the killer."
"Are you okay?" Jax put his hands on each of my biceps, analyzing me with the sterile intent of a doctor. The remnants of passion and emotion were gone, filled with mild concern for my safety.
"I'm fine." I wanted to push him away, but his touch felt so good I didn't move. "But the other reason I couldn't call it in…was because the culprit drove away in a cop car."
"What?"
"I chased the guy out of my house. Then he got on a bike and pedaled to the gas station, where he got in the cruiser and drove away with the lights on."
"Did you see who it was?"
"No. A guy in a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants. Oh God…" A thought crossed my mind. "What if it was Alfie digging through my underwear?"
"It wasn't Alfie."
"How do you know?"
Jax paused. A thought flitted across his eyes, I could tell. But I couldn't read what it was.
"Was he working today?" I asked.
"Yes, but I'll have to look at the time cards…he didn't respond to a stolen bicycle call this afternoon." Jax bit his lip, as if realizing he shouldn't be telling me this. "Why do you think he was digging in your underwear drawer, anyway?"
"Well…" I squirmed. "He's kind of been coming on to me lately, and the only thing I noticed that was off in my house was the drawer where I keep my fishnet stockings."
An almost-amused gleam took residence in Jax's eye. "Huh."
"Don't judge."
"I'm not."
We were at a standstill for the moment.
"Nothing else is missing?" Jax asked.
"No, not that I know of. I pretty much locked up and headed over here."
"I'm going to call some men I trust, send them over with Nathan as a watchdog, just to make sure there's no funny business if it is a cop. I'll have them look at your place. Do you have keys on you?"
I nodded.
"Give them to me. I'll have Nathan swing by on the way."
"Does Nathan usually help out with police work?" I asked.
"Nathan is helping out because I trust him," Jax said. "And also because people he loves are involved, so if I don't include him, he'd never leave me alone."
"Brothers-in-law," I said with a smile.
Jax didn't return my grin. "We'll figure this out. I promise."
My smile faltered. I sure hoped so. I had a lot of things to figure out, including the man standing before me. "Are we okay here?" I asked. "At least for now?"
Jax nodded. "I'm sorry to hear your house was broken into. If you really do need anything, please let me know. And I don't know what this business with the cop car was, but until we figure it out, I want you coming straight to me. Do you understand?"
I nodded.
"We've had our…ups and downs, but I don't want anything to happen to you." Jax lightly cupped my chin, and for a moment I was transported back into high school, when he would stare into my eyes as we cuddled with piles of blankets in the back of his beat-up Ford truck at the drive-in.
"I know," I whispered.
"I'll never stop caring about you. We didn't work out, that's all. Timing is a big part in any relationship. It does no good putting the blame on either of us."
The dull flame that'd been burning in my stomach ever since I'd come back to Little Lake and seen Jax sparked to something more. "You're a good man."
Jax looked up, away from my line of sight.
I took the opportunity to examine his face, which had only become more handsome and rugged with age. His eyes hosted more sadness than the carefreeness they'd carried in high school, and the mischievous gleam had morphed into a devilish determination. Probably due to years of experience on the job.
I cleared my throat. "Is ten years long enough to put our differences behind us and be friends?"
Jax gave a small smile, one that didn't quite crease the endearing laugh lines around his face, and gave a quick nod.
"Plus, I really like your girlfriend. I was just being a brat earlier at the store. She's different than I remembered her." I laughed. "Hell, she can even dance. She seems very sweet, and she helped make my class flow a lot smoother today. In fact, she even volunteered to help me figure out this whole Anthony Jenkins mess. We're going to some comic store together."
Jax's forehead creased. "When are you going?"
"Don't worry. I'm not dragging her into anything unsafe. She overheard some gossip that Anthony frequented this place late at night, so we're going to go check it out. If there's anything dangerous, I won't bring her into it. I promise."
"If there's anything dangerous, I don't want you going into it."
I raised an eyebrow. "Well, I don't have much of a choice if I want to find the person who was in my studio, in my house, and killing my landlord. I didn't do it, Jax."
"I'll help you out where I can," Jax said. "When are you going? I'll go with."
"You can't go with. Everyone knows you're a policeman, and they won't talk as freely as they would with two—"
"With two beautiful young women," he interrupted
I gave a hesitant smile. "I was going to say with two chicks who don't work for the law."
Jax let out a guffaw. "Then you don't know the comic store type. They're more scared of girls than they are cops."
I grimaced. "True. But it's worth a shot. I promise I'll call you if anything appears at all fishy."
"When are you going? I'll make sure I'm in the area. I'll throw your BB gun in my trunk, just in case."
I made a face. "Tomorrow night."
Jax paused. "Really?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I assume you're going to the sketchy comic store down in the city center."
"Yeah."
"They're not open tomorrow night."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive." Jax bit his lip. "One or two of the cops hang out there. They always request to work on the nights that the joint isn't open. They're dedicated frequenters of the place, let me tell you—spend all their free time there. If they had the night off and the place wasn't open, they'd have no idea what to do with themselves."
"Hmmm. Okay, well. I'm sure Sarah didn't know. She's probably never been there before. I'll give her a call and see if she wants to reschedule."
"We should head back out to dinner. We'll only give Donna a little crap for being so sneaky, playing this setup game to get us both here at one time."
"Sounds good." I smiled. "Pinky swear we can be friends? For old time's sake?"
Jax's brown eyes melted into gooey chocolate, and his grin took on a painfully charming quirk. "I like our pinky swears."
I blushed. It'd been our thing in high school. We'd pinky sworn never to leave each other. That'd been the day before he'd proposed and I'd run for the hills. I'd never expected a proposal so soon.
"This time, I mean it." I smiled and held my hand out.
Jax encircled my pinky with his, and we both kissed our respective thumbs. His lips grazed his thumb for a longer time than necessary, and a flutter took off in my stomach.
He shook me out of my wandering thoughts with a firm shake of our pinky fingers.
I glanced back up at him. "One more thing. Could I borrow your cell phone?"
"Where's yours?"
"It's at home." Technically
this was true. I just didn't add that it also didn't have a plan or minutes attached to it and was about as useful as a dead log.
"Why didn't you bring it with? Your home gets broken into, and you walk over here all alone with no phone?"
I crossed my arms. "Yup."
"The thing doesn't work, does it?"
"Nope."
Jax sighed. "Here. If you don't have a phone by tomorrow, I'm assigning you an old one from the station."
"I'll get one."
"Fine." Jax handed it over. "Who are you calling?"
"Your girlfriend. I gotta let her know that the shop is closed tomorrow."
Jax unlocked his phone and handed it over. "I could just tell her, you know."
"I'd rather do it. Maybe she'll want to reschedule." I scrolled through his contacts. "Do you have her number in here?"
"Oh. Yeah." His cheeks tinged pink. "Let me find it."
"Uh, uh, uh!" I dangled the phone behind my back. "What did you name her? We're friends. We can talk about these things."
"I didn't name her."
"Then who did?" I winked.
"She entered it on our first date."
"Oh, for cute. And what did she enter it under?"
Jax cleared his throat. "Let me—"
"No, let me." I gave him a light punch on the arm. "Be a pal."
Jax looked me in the eye, trying to maintain some dignity. "Schnookie."
"Mmm. For real cute."
"Shut up." Jax turned and stalked out of the closet, yanking the chain on the light and slamming the door behind him.
In darkness, I hit the dial button on the screen. "Talk to me, Schnookie."
The phone rang, and an innocent, childlike voice answered. "Sugar Pie, how you doing?"
"Hi, uh. This is actually Misty Newman. I…uh, where to start. It's a bit of a long story."
"Okay…" Rightfully so, Sarah sounded a bit skeptical as to why I was using her boyfriend's phone. Little did she know, I'd also dragged him into a closet, and though my intentions had been (mostly) innocent, it didn't sound all that great when I said it aloud.
"My house was broken into tonight, and I didn't have a phone to call the police from. So I ran over to my friend Donna's house, well, you probably know Donna—Jax's sister—to use hers. Jax happened to be here, so I just reported the crime to him instead of using her phone."
"I'm still not sure why you called me…"
"Oh, right." I did an eye roll at myself. "I'm sorry. The point I was getting to was that I mentioned to Jax you and I were going to hang out and visit the comic store tomorrow, and he said it was closed. I just wanted to let you know so we didn't make the trip down there for nothing. Maybe we can reschedule?"
"Why did you tell Jax?"
"I don't know. I just mentioned it offhand."
"Ah. What did he say?"
"Not much. He told me not to get you in trouble."
Her laugh tinkled on the other end of the phone. "I do that enough myself, I guess."
"I don't think that's what he meant." I clicked the light back on, realizing I'd been standing in the dark. "I think he meant I'm a bad influence on you, and he'd like to keep you around, all in one piece."
"Sorry to hear about your break-in. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Thanks for asking. I scared them away."
"Who was it?" she asked. "Do you know?"
"I'm not sure who it was…I only caught a glimpse of their back as they ran away. They wore baggy clothes."
"Ah, well, I'm glad you're okay."
"Thanks, I appreciate that. But enough bad news. Did you want to reschedule our visit to the comic store?"
"I'm not sure," Sarah said. "It might not be such a good idea. I mean no offense, but if people are breaking into your house and stuff, maybe I shouldn't be publicly asking about it around town."
I bit my lip. "Of course not. Absolutely, that's a much smarter thing to do. I shouldn't have even asked."
"It's not that—I'd still love to help in any way I can, maybe just not so much in the public eye. In fact, if you want to bounce ideas off of me or vent or anything like that, I'm always here."
"Great. Thanks."
There was a small pause as I waited to see if she had anything else to say.
"Call me if you need anything," she added.
"Will do. See you in class Monday, if not before."
Sarah clicked off the line.
Now that Sarah was out, I needed a backup plan. Stat. I was sick of hiding out in my home, walking on eggshells, and sneaking into closets. Well, not so much the latter, but that was only because it was hardly punishment being pushed nose to nose with Jax.
I rejoined the party that hadn't stopped with my absence in the dining room. The kids now had ice cream face paint on their lips and cheeks, and the smell of strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla hung potent in the air.
One glance at Harmony was enough to tell me she'd had enough sugar to sustain her energy levels for the next three hours. The crash that followed would be quick and hard, I was certain. Donna and Jax sat at the dining room table, talking in low voices. Each had a glass of wine, Donna's significantly emptier than Jax's, who was busy shoveling in bites of lasagna between phrases.
They both looked up as I entered the room, their mouths halting movement at exactly the same time. They looked more like twins at this moment than siblings, Jax the older brother and Donna the youngest.
"Don't stop on my account." I sat down at the empty seat on the other side of Jax. I lazily draped my arm over his shoulder. "PS, we're friends now."
"I see that." Donna took a sip of wine, and her cheeks brightened. "Good to see."
"What'd she say?" Jax asked as I handed him his phone back.
"Schnookie said she doesn't want to reschedule." I smiled at Donna. "Schnookie, can you believe it? What's it been, like three weeks?"
"I don't call her that," Jax growled.
"Okay then, Sugar Pie," I said.
He looked away.
"Fill me in," Donna said. She reached over and poured me a glass of wine.
I took a few sips before I began. I recounted the afternoon's events to Donna, hitting the high points like making plans with Sarah, chasing away an intruder, and finding out that the store would be closed tomorrow.
"I don't want to wait," I groaned. "I don't have time to wait for the place to open."
"Let's go tonight." Donna finished her wine, then reached over and started on Jax's still-full glass.
"No," Jax said, just as I said, "Sure!"
"No," Jax said again. "Who would watch the kids?"
"You?" I asked, at the same time Donna said firmly, "You."
Jax stood, a bit wobbly as he tried to scoop one more bite of lasagna into his mouth and push his chair back. "No, thank you. No can do. I like kids, but this many is…impossible."
"Crack open a beer, turn the television on, and watch football. Make sure none of the kids kill each other, listen for sounds of screaming, and don't let Alec eat his chalk. It doesn't taste like strawberry, and it's definitely not edible."
"Have you tried it?" I asked.
Donna raised an eyebrow but didn't stop talking. "Please? You don't want Misty to go alone."
"And you can't go poking around, since you're a cop, and we've talked about that," I said.
"Fine." Jax sat down heavily.
"We'll be quick. I promise." Donna plowed ahead. "Nathan is close by, anyway. You just told me he's headed to Misty's house to look around. I'll tell him to swing by here to help until we get back."
"Where's your beer?" Jax finished his food and started for the kitchen with his dirty dish in hand.
"Right hand side of the fridge—and thanks! You're the best." Donna leapt up and grabbed my wrist. "Adventure!"
I smiled, hoping for more than an adventure.
I wanted answers.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After Donna's speech to the kids, which included things like no sword fights, no nu
dity, and mandatory toilet flushing, we encountered a last warning from Jax, who was already looking like he needed earplugs and serious Advil.
I kissed Harmony on the head and promised I'd be back soon, but she was already tugging Jax's finger and begging for an action movie instead of a princess one. My little feminist. Donna and I slipped out after another ten minutes of good-byes and hugs from little hands. When we reached her car, the silence felt almost cold.
"Pretty crazy, huh?" Donna asked as we got inside. "I bet that doesn't make you want kids."
"A little," I said, honestly. But another small part of me disagreed.
"But?"
I smiled. My best friend could always read my mind. "There's something nice about having a bunch of people who love and care about you, running around all loud and chaotic. It keeps life interesting, or so it seems."
"Interesting, yes. Stressful, yes. Glamorous, no."
"But you love it?"
"I wouldn't trade it for the world." Donna reached a hand over. "You'll find it someday too, if and when you want. And if and when you do, you'll know."
We rode to the city center in silence. I couldn't tell what Donna was thinking about, but I had a lot running through my mind. Everything from kids and families, intruders stealing fishnet stockings, and comic books, of which I knew nothing. The latter scared me the most.
It was a good thing the drive took only five minutes. Otherwise, I would have probably talked myself out of going before we pulled into the dark, gray alley Donna's phone GPS directed us to.
"This can't be right," she muttered. "I've lived here for how many years, and I never knew this was here?"
"They're not exactly your type," I said. "Anthony was always a little bit greasy, a little bit creepy, and a little bit strange."
"A lot a bit strange," Donna said, driving by the doorway once more. "Anthony gave me the shivers."
As much as I didn't want it to be, I was fairly certain the plain, dark-brown door off the alley was where we were headed. "Unfortunately, I think we should park."
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked.
"After the day I've had? Not at all. In fact, I want to go back and eat more lasagna and drink the rest of the wine."
Donna put the car in park. "But we should go in. We've got to find someone else who has a motive. We can't let this nonsense go on any longer. I really don't like when people break into your house."