Better Watch Out
Page 1
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Excerpt
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Books by Dani Sinclair
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
Copyright
Jackie gripped the flashlight in fingers grown icy with remembered fear.
There was no way for her ex-husband to find her again after all this time. She’d covered her tracks carefully. Hadn’t she?
She fought her sudden surge of panic, knowing she wouldn’t be comfortable until she checked every room in the house.
As she reached the long, low dresser in her bedroom, a brilliant flash of lightning sizzled through the room with eerie clarity. Her eyes lifted to focus on the mirror. Her heart stopped completely.
In that instant she saw the body—dressed in an elf costume—lying sprawled across her bed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dani Sinclair began her official writing career when her sister caught her between jobs and asked her to write a romance novel. Dani had been creating her own stories since she first learned to read, so she agreed. A latecomer to the romance genre, having grown up on action-adventure, Westerns and later science fiction, Dani quickly plunged into this wonderful realm. She combines her love for romance with her need to write suspense.
Dani and her family reside in Maryland outside of Washington, D.C. An active volunteer in writers’ groups, she is a member of Romance Writers of America, Washington Romance Writers, Virginia Romance Writers and Sisters in Crime.
Books by Dani Sinclair
HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE
371—MYSTERY BABY
401—MAN WITHOUT A BADGE
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Better Watch Out
Dani Sinclair
For Roger—husband, friend, lover and helpmate. Thanks
for always being there.
And for my mother, Ruth Ann Shaughnessy, who always
made Christmas a magical time.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Heartfelt thanks to Barbi Richardson, Vicki Singer,
Jacki Frank, Linda Lou Mercer, Robyn Amos and
Barbara White-Rayczek. Thanks, friends.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Jackie Neeley—Ever since she moved in, weird things have been happening.
J. D. Frost—He would have preferred that his children’s new playmate was the little boy down the street.
Heather and Todd Frost—They need a mother’s love—and they have one all picked out.
Bessie Starnes—She’s liquidating her assets to move to Florida with her new husband.
Frank Starnes—He hasn’t let the death of his wife’s son slow his plans.
Donnie Leiberman—He rented the house from his mother—until he died in a fiery crash.
Seth Bislow—Frank’s best friend, and a loan agent in a hurry.
Oggie Korbel, Steve Pinta and Brad Volmer—
Donnie’s closest friends are disappearing one by one.
Larry Zalewoski—Did he find his ex-wife again after all this time?
Ben Thompkins—This policeman deals in facts not crazy stories about disappearing elves.
Aunt Dottie—She loves her nephew’s children, but she’s addicted to soaps and talk shows.
Prologue
“Hello?”
The sleepy response filled his ear. Nervously, his eyes swept the backyard through the uncurtained window. Nothing moved, but his fingers gripped the telephone tightly.
“It’s me,” he said. “We’ve got trouble.”
“Hey, man, it’s four o’clock in the morning.”
“Never mind the time check, will you listen up? We’ve been made.”
The voice suddenly snapped awake. “Cops?”
“No. One of the places we hit. The dude’s crazy. He wants his stuff back. Says he’ll slit our throats if we don’t come through.”
“Wait a minute. How come he didn’t go to the cops?”
Did that shadow out by the garage just shift? He stared until his eyes ached. “Look,” he said, trying to keep the fear from his voice, “we gotta meet.”
Yes, there it was again. A small movement, but enough to make his throat go dry.
In his ear his friend was saying, “Okay, man, chill. I’ll be right over.”
“No! Don’t come here!”
“Hey, man, what’s wrong?”
The shadow lengthened, taking on exaggerated proportions in the moonlight. He couldn’t swallow past the fear that clogged his throat. “I’m on my way!”
He dropped the phone in its cradle, grabbed his jacket and keys and fled down the hall to the front door. That cold voice he’d heard earlier and the echo of those softly spoken threats chilled his blood. The dude was crazy.
Crazy enough to kill.
He ran for the car, got inside and slammed the door. The frost that rimed the windshield obscured his vision, but he couldn’t wait for the defroster to kick in.
He turned on the wipers and made it out of the driveway before he powered down the window and stuck his head out to watch for parked cars and the Stop sign at the end of the street.
To think only an hour ago he’d been pleasantly buzzed. Why the hell had he answered that telephone? And that voice, that chilling voice.
Maybe they should just disappear for a while. Let the guy break in and help himself, take whatever he wanted. They could lay low, play it cool, maybe take a vacation somewhere. Yeah. Not a bad idea.
What was wrong with the car?
The steering felt funny. Man, that’s all he needed, a car problem at this hour.
He glanced in the rearview mirror, but he couldn’t see a thing out the back window. His gaze returned to the tiny circle the defroster had created on the windshield.
By then, it was much too late to worry if he was being followed.
Chapter One
The watcher was back. Jackie tried to slow her breathing. She must not scare the children.
“Jackie, here’s another red one.”
She pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and accepted the sparkly red ornament from the little girl’s hand, proud that her fingers weren’t shaking. Only her insides were doing that. She glanced around the brightly lit store, wishing she hadn’t let Angel go home early. There were no customers inside the ice-cream parlor at this hour. Only the two neighborhood children helping her decorate the tree in the front window.
“Jackie,” the exasperated young girl said, “you already have a red one right next to that.”
“It’s okay, Heather, I’ll fix it in a minute. I have to get down right now.” She scurried down the ladder, heart hammering against her ribs.
Ten-year-old Heather followed her gaze to the window. “Uh-oh.”
Her younger brother looked up from the tiny plastic reindeer he’d placed on one of the crowded bottom branches. “How’d it get so dark already?” Todd found the clock prominently displayed on the holly-draped wall. “It’s still early.”
“Looks
like a storm,” Heather told him. “Aunt Dottie says this is the craziest weather we’ve had in years. We’d better get home. Aunt Dottie’ll be mad.”
“Naw, she’ll still be watching that talk show.”
Jackie drew her eyes from the shadowed figure at the back of the parking lot, almost indistinguishable from the evergreen trees. For the first time, she took note of the weather. A rumble of something that sounded suspiciously like thunder rolled across the sky.
Jackie looked back to where the watcher had been standing, unsurprised to find him gone.
“Heather, Todd, get your things together. I’m going to run you home.”
“Now? What about the store?”
“Yeah. It’s too early to close,” Todd argued.
Jackie shook her head at the nine-year-old boy. “Not tonight. Hurry up. Go into my office and get your stuff.” She couldn’t fight the sudden feeling of urgency. She had to protect these children.
No doubt, her apprehension came from finding the damaged teddy bear the previous morning. A garish yellow teddy bear just like the one Larry had won at the carnival nine years ago. A teddy bear she couldn’t find today.
Carefully, Heather placed a green-and-white ornament back in the box. “What about the tree?”
“We’ll finish it tomorrow.”
Todd’s face mirrored his confusion. “But…”
Heather watched Jackie closely with a solemn expression. “Come on, Todd.”
The little girl had immediately picked up on Jackie’s distress. It wouldn’t do to frighten the children.
Was the back door locked? Hadn’t Angel used it when she went home?
Jackie skirted the booths and the tables whose chairs hadn’t been straightened yet for the night, and hurried to the rear of the store.
The back door was unlocked. She threw home the dead bolt and brought down the steel bar that went across the door. Her eyes swept the dimly lit storeroom, fastening on the walk-in freezer next to the bathroom. Shut, but not locked—she wouldn’t allow a lock on something so dangerous. Opening it, she flicked on the light and peered inside. No one hid in the freezer.
She poked her head in her brightly lit office as the children ran toward her. Empty, thank God. She started to feel foolish. There were lots of reasons why someone might be loitering in the parking lot the past few days. But not one of those reasons explained the appearance or the disappearance of the yellow teddy bear tied to the front door of her store yesterday morning. A teddy bear whose eyes had been plucked from his fuzzy face.
Jackie swallowed her fear. Larry couldn’t have found her again after all this time. He couldn’t have. But there had been that menu stuck to her windshield the day she moved from the apartment. The menu had come from a local Chinese restaurant with dinner items for two circled in red ink. Items that just happened to correspond to the last meal she and her ex-husband had shared.
If only she hadn’t thrown the menu away. That had been a stupid reaction born of fear and denial. But the bear was another matter. She’d resisted her first impulse to toss it away, as well. There was always the chance that it wasn’t the same bear Larry had given her, but one some child had lost—a child who had plucked off both black button eyes.
Jackie shuddered and glanced around as the bell tinkled over the door out front. The sound sent adrenaline racing through her system.
Someone had entered Sundae Delights.
“Stay in here,” she whispered to the children. “Shut the door.” They looked at her with luminous eyes, and Heather hurried to obey.
Jackie told herself to stop scaring the children. She told herself it was just a customer. Fear told her otherwise.
She reached the counter in time to watch a large, lean man move through the small shop with a predator’s supple grace. His dark eyes missed nothing as he took in the white walls and the cool blues and greens of the furniture along with the multitude of holiday decorations that added a festive air.
Fear trickled away, leaving her shaken. She had never seen this man before in her life. A customer, after all.
“Okay, where are they?”
For a moment, Jackie could only blink in astonishment. The deep, gravelly voice didn’t frighten her. Friendly exasperation rather than menace lay behind the words. Still, her fingers reached under the counter, seeking the reassurance of the ice pick she kept there. She was very conscious of her vulnerability in the face of such a strong masculine presence.
“May I help you?” Her voice sounded amazingly calm, but it was the only part of her that was.
“Where’s Jackie?”
She tried to swallow, but the acrid taste of fear filled her mouth. This was not a customer. She drew back her shoulders as her fingers found what they sought. “I’m Jackie.”
“You are?”
She stood completely still as those dark eyes swept over her. If he thought her helpless, he was mistaken. “I’m closed for the day, so please state your business.”
The underlying aggression she sensed in him disappeared in a heartbeat, replaced by sudden wry amusement. “According to the sign, you’re open until six.”
Her voice was amazingly steady when she answered him. “The sign’s incorrect. Today I close at…” she glanced at the clock, “ten past four.”
“I won’t beat them, you know,” he said, eyes twinkling, inviting her to share his humor.
“What?” Her hand loosened on the ice pick beneath the counter. He was an impressive man. Handsome in an assertive way. The sort of man no doubt used to women doing whatever he suggested.
“Tempting as the idea might be at times, I’m not into child abuse. I just wish they weren’t into parental abuse. At the rate they’re adding gray to my hair, I’ll only need a beard and some padding to play Santa next year.”
Confused, she could only stare at him. “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve come for my children. My aunt just informed me that they think they work here now.”
She released both her tension and her fingers on a long sigh of air. This was “poor Daddy”? This was the downtrodden father who slaved night and day to keep his family afloat? Talk about having the wrong image entirely.
Jackie saw his eyes flick to the spot below the counter where her hand had been.
“Were you planning to shoot me?” he asked, nodding to the area out of sight.
“Only as a last resort.”
All trace of humor disappeared. His brows furrowed in concern. “I don’t like the idea that my children are around a loaded gun.”
“Me, either. You shouldn’t have one.”
He shook his head. “I meant yours. I don’t own a gun.”
“Neither do I.”
“Were you planning to shoot me with your finger?”
Jackie pulled out the ice pick and shrugged. “Whatever works.” She didn’t have to lift her head far to look him in the eyes, and she thought she saw a trace of respect there. Good.
Thunder rumbled overhead. The sky had turned a sullen dark gray which even the store lights had a hard time staving off. Jackie hated storms. Her gaze went to the window and the parking lot beyond. She couldn’t see the watcher from here.
The man shrugged beneath his expensive-looking topcoat. “Look, as delightful as this inane conversation may be, I want to get my children home before it starts to rain “
“Good idea.” She pushed at the wide lenses of her glasses and stared at his handsome face. She’d seen that same wavy dark hair on his daughter, and no mistaking those eyes. Todd often looked at things with that exact assessing expression. She’d thought he’d grow up to be a heartbreaker. Now she knew her instincts had been right. How could she possibly have pictured this man as some mousy accountant?
The lights flickered without warning. Her body jerked, head swiveling toward the window as rain began to batter the pane.
“It’s only a storm,” he said quietly.
“I know.” The lights flickered again. Jackie heard th
e door to her office open.
“Jackie?”
“Come out here, Heather,” the stranger called before Jackie could respond to that soft cry.
“Uh-oh,” she heard Todd say.
Jackie caught the briefest trace of amused exasperation before the man hid it behind a stern expression. “I’d say that sums things up rather nicely,” he agreed in that quiet, gritty tone of his.
The children came around the corner looking submissive. Having never seen that particular expression on either child’s face, Jackie watched them closely for any signs of fear.
Heather took the lead, as usual. “Hi, Dad,” she chirped brightly. “What are you doing here?”
“I think that’s my question, don’t you?”
“We’re helping Jackie decorate,” Todd explained. “I did the bottom of the tree all by myself.” He gestured toward the far end of the store and the heavily decorated lower half of the pine tree that stood there, its fragrant scent discernible even from here. “Heather did the middle and Jackie’s doing the top ‘cause she won’t let us on the ladder.”
“Smart woman,” the man muttered.
“We been helping her put up all this neat stuff,” Todd continued. “Isn’t it great, Dad?”
His gaze traveled from face to face, landing squarely on Jackie’s. She stifled an urge to shift under that penetrating stare.
“They do good work,” she told him almost defensively.
“I can see that.” He smiled wryly at his children.
Her pulse rate picked up at that smile and the two dimples it cleaved on either side of his face. The man had a terrific smile. Then, he turned it loose on her.
“The store looks very nice. The problem is, they aren’t supposed to be here. I told them they weren’t allowed to hang around the shopping center.”