Stolen Identity

by Lisa Harris

  *

  Jason hadn’t intended to kiss Danielle, but standing beside her, feeling her heart pounding, had changed everything. Every excuse he’d come up with about guarding his heart vanished at the touch of her lips against his. It didn’t matter that she’d once broken his heart with nothing more than a flimsy excuse. Didn’t matter that he’d once vowed to forget about her.

  All he knew was that the one woman he’d ever loved was right in front of him, and this time he had no intention of losing her again.

  “Jason…” She pulled away before pressing the back of her hand against her lips.

  He couldn’t read her expression. “What’s wrong?”

  She took a step back, careful to avoid the glass. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this.”

  “No, I’m sorry.” He dropped his hands to his sides, wondering what he’d just done. “I had no right to take advantage of the situation. I don’t know what came over me. I just…”

  Except he did know. Although she’d shattered his trust, a part of him had never stopped loving her. Never stopped hoping that even after all these years something would bring them back together. And as much as he’d fought it, he’d spent his whole life comparing every girl he’d ever met to her, a habit that had been wrong. They were silly fantasies grounded in foolishness, but even that knowledge had never seemed to matter.

  Danielle went back to cleaning up the glass. So much might have changed between them, but the need for her in his life still existed. As hard as he’d tried, that spark left dormant all these years still refused to die out.

  Jason cleared his throat. As much as his heart wanted a second chance at their relationship, there were still certain things that needed to be said. “There are things we have to talk about. There were things left unresolved. Things I’ve never understood or been able to forget.”

  She dumped the dustpan full of glass into the trash can. The wall surrounding her heart was back up. “It’s been a long time, Jason. Please don’t tell me you never got over me…never got over us.”

  He could see the confusion in her eyes, but he wasn’t ready to let her run this time. He deserved an explanation. Maybe with it he’d learn to forget the past and find someone else who might one day fill the void in his life.

  “What really happened back then?” Now was as good a time as any to face the situation head-on. “I planned to spend the rest of my life with you. Maybe I wasn’t the perfect catch, and yes, we were young, but I loved you. I never would have hurt you on purpose, you have to believe me.”

  Danielle dropped the dustpan back into its place under the sink and turned to him. “Watching my father walk out on my mother changed me, making it harder for me to trust. And then there were things that happened the months leading up to our wedding. Things that made me wonder if I really could trust you with the rest of my life.”

  He leaned against the counter and folded his arms across his chest trying to read her expression. “What did I do to break your trust in me?”

  “Looking back I don’t know that it was ever anything you did. I loved you, too. You have to believe that. And I planned to marry you, have your babies and grow old together. But fear…fear can be a powerful motivator, and I didn’t know how to tell you what I was really feeling…”

  So she’d simply called off their wedding. Jason tried to sort through his own tangled web of feelings. They’d never been completely honest with each other back then. Which meant that they both had to start being honest now—no matter where things ended up between them.

  “I’m not sure how to say this, because the past—our past—belongs there. I came to Pacific Cove to find my friend and business partner. Finding you here was totally unexpected.” He took a deep, bolstering breath. “When you walked out of my life all of those years ago, you told me not to chase after you and I didn’t. I wasn’t then, nor am I now, looking for a second chance at love—” or being hurt again “—but the truth is that I’m as drawn to you now as the day we first met.”

  They’d taken the same art class their sophomore year. He’d tried to blow it off, like he had with most of his classes, while she’d soaked up everything there was to learn. Somehow they’d found truth in the saying that opposites attract. He’d been the class clown; she’d been the studious one with good grades. He loved slamming dunks on the basketball courts; she’d preferred an afternoon at the museum. Somehow she’d fallen for him, captured his heart, and his life had never been the same again.

  Losing her had left a gap that he’d never been able to fill. And all these years later, he still managed to avoid commitment.

  “You can’t tell me you don’t feel the same way?”

  Danielle rubbed her fingers against her temple. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel something, but I don’t know that I can deal with this right now.”

  Jason realized if he wasn’t careful, he’d end up pushing her away. She’d loved and lost which made her heart vulnerable. But he’d also loved and lost. And while finding her again hadn’t been a part of his plan, how could he simply let her go? Kissing her had only proven that his heart still felt.

  “I’m not asking you for anything other than your honesty,” he continued. “Because even I don’t know if I’m ready for anything more than that. I’m just asking you to keep your mind—and heart—open and don’t push me away.”

  “I just… I can’t do this right now. I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head, wondering what he had been thinking. She’d been right all along. Those lost years between them were too much to circumnavigate. Just because Garrett’s murder had thrust them together didn’t mean he could expect her to feel the same way he did right now.

  “I guess I should go.”

  She nodded then turned away without saying anything else.

  Jason slipped out the front door and was gone.

  ELEVEN

  Danielle watched the red glow of her bedside clock switch from 4:29 to 4:30 a.m. Lightning flashed in a zigzag pattern behind the heavy drapes covering her window. Last night’s predicted storm had finally hit, bringing with it driving rains and howling winds. She rolled over, drawing the pile of blankets with her, surprised Lauryn hadn’t woken up to join her in the queen-size bed.

  She, on the other hand, had been awake the past hour, her thoughts alternating between desperate prayers for wisdom and peace to futile attempts to shut off her mind so she could fall back to sleep. Instead, she’d fought to suppress one frightening scenario after another. Her father had always told her to look the worst-case scenario in the eye and face it—but in this case the worst meant losing everything she’d worked for.

  She wasn’t sure she could face that outcome.

  Thunder crackled in the distance, stirring up memories of storm watching with her father while waves crashed against steep cliffs and rocks jutting out of the Pacific’s swirling waters. They’d hunkered down in seaside cafés or restored lighthouses and studied the ever-changing mood of the Pacific. Until her father had left for another woman and never returned.

  Which was one reason her hacker wasn’t the only thing bothering her tonight.

  On top of everything else there was Jason who had stepped back into the picture and managed to find a hole in her normally well-fortressed heart. She’d never meant to hurt him all those years ago, and she’d never meant to hurt him last night, either. But neither was she willing to jump into a relationship when her emotions were already in a jumbled mess. His kiss might have proven that she still had feelings for him, but her need for support wasn’t the same as her need for love. And mixing the two would only get them both into trouble.

  She ran the back of her hand across her mouth. She had no idea what category to fit Jason into. College sweetheart? Hero? Heartbreaker?

  In a sense, Jason Ryan had been all those things—until she’d given him up for a stint in Europe. And while she might still harbor regrets over their breakup, even she had to admit her surprise in discovering dormant feeli
ngs for the man she’d once promised to marry.

  Danielle dismissed the thought as she threw off the covers, and hurried across the carpeted floor toward the shower. She shivered in the cold outside her electric blanket. Neither of them were the same person they’d been back in college. Her past nostalgia had simply been intensified by the explosive situation they’d been thrust into together. If they’d met on the street, they’d have said hello, caught up politely on friends and family then went their separate ways. She didn’t owe him anything, nor should she feel guilt over what happened between them.

  Except none of that was exactly true, either. She turned on the hot water and grabbed a thick towel from the cabinet, wishing she could erase the lingering threads of betrayal to Quinton…and the long-forgotten question of what would have happened if she’d chosen to marry Jason.

  Her phone dinged with an email message, from where she’d left it last night on the bathroom counter. Her breathing slowed as she thumbed through the messages and junk mail that had come through overnight, while the hot water steamed up the mirror in front of her. But there was no response from their hacker. No indication at all that he’d received their ultimatum.

  They’d baited him, but until he responded, she’d simply have to wait. The game wasn’t over.

  Forty-five minutes later, she turned in to the parking lot of The Bamboo Closet earlier than normal after dropping off a sleepy Lauryn at her mother’s, thankful her mom was always up before the sun rose. Pulling into an empty space, she grabbed her handbag and keys and exited the car while trying to open her umbrella. A gust of wind caught the edge of the waterproof fabric as she braced herself against the pouring rain and rushed toward the front of the building.

  Her hand trembled as she unlocked the door of the shop, the shaking as much from the circumstances she found herself in, as from the morning cold. Dropping the wet umbrella into the round metal bin, she automatically locked the door behind her. She might feel paranoid, but with all that had happened, being careful seemed prudent.

  Running her fingers through her damp hair, she tried to pretend that today was just like any other day in her weekly routine. Drop Lauryn at her mother’s at seven for the day, open up the store, spend a few quiet minutes reading her Bible, ensure the store was ready for a new set of customers…. She loved the early mornings before her employees arrived. It had taken years of hard work to establish her business, along with the need for continued marketing and sales strategies. But all the sweat and tears had been worth it.

  Doing it all on her own after Quinton’s death had been a challenge, but losing him had forced her to adapt. Knowing she had to provide for her daughter had kept her going. She’d learned to handle the employees, deal with customers, keep up with the accounting, while still doing all the buying for the store.

  Danielle flipped on the light switch at the entrance. Nothing. She flipped it again, then sighed. She’d have to call the electrician. It wasn’t the first time she’d had trouble with the electricity, but Kate and Sarah would arrive within the hour and customers after that. Which meant besides getting the lights back on, she needed her daily caffeine jolt to get her moving.

  The dim glow from the outside streetlight was enough for her to make her way toward the small employee room at the back of the store. Halfway across the showroom floor, she froze when she heard the familiar squeak of the wooden floor in the back corner. Someone was in the building.

  No. She forced herself to take a calming breath. She was only imagining things. The past forty-eight hours had managed to put a boogeyman around every corner.

  Danielle leaned into the shadow of an antique French armoire and listened. One of the last things she’d asked Quinton to do was replace the warped board. He’d died before he’d had a chance to fix it, and she’d never made it a priority. The old shop had its quirks, but she’d always loved the quaint, seaside building with its rustic exterior and aged wood floors inside.

  The floor squeaked again.

  This time she knew she’d heard something. Someone was in the store.

  Danielle moved quietly toward the back wall of the showroom lined with chunky framed mirrors and unique artwork collections. She reached for her phone in her jacket pocket, but came up empty. She frowned, trying to remember where she’d left it. She’d called her mom on the way to see if Lauryn had gone back to sleep. She had to have left it in her car.

  During the day, the cluttered arrangement of the shop worked with the eclectic mixture. In the darkness, though, the yellow glow of the streetlights hanging outside the store simply cast eerie shadows along the wall. But she knew the store layout, which gave her the advantage in the darkened space.

  She made her way silently through tall wooden shelves of pottery and glassware, candlesticks and heavy wooden chests. She stopped again, searching for movement, anything that would give away his position in the darkness. She drew in a deep breath and prayed for clarity. Quinton had insisted on putting in an alarm system. All she had to do was get to the panel and punch in the panic code.

  She caught movement among the shadows.

  Danielle grabbed a metal candlestick from the display behind her and slowly raised it above her head. She’d trained for three triathlons over the past five years, but knew little about self-defense. She leaned farther back as another thought emerged. What if the intruder was her hacker? A cold shiver ran down her spine. He’d murdered Garrett…and had a gun.

  If he was desperate, as they believed, he might not hesitate to make her his next victim.

  Danielle crouched beside a glass table and reached up to grab the back of one of the padded chairs with her free hand for balance. She studied the shadows on the wall, searching for a way out. Shades of yellow and gray flickered in the dim light. She caught sight of a silhouette coming around the corner. She squinted, trying to make out his features, but all she could see was a hooded figure about her height. He’d just blocked off her route to the security panel in the back. Taking the time to unlock the front door would make her the perfect target.

  She pressed her lips together. God, I need a way out of here….

  On the table beside her was a bowl of decorative spheres. She gripped one between her fingers, then threw it as hard as she could. The sphere smashed into a mirror near the back door.

  The intruder rushed toward the noise.

  Danielle ran toward the key pad and punched in the distress code. Seconds later, the shriek of a siren filled the room.

  *

  Jason pulled into one of the open parking spaces in front of The Bamboo Closet. Despite what had happened between them last night, he never should have left her alone. At a minimum, he should have insisted she spend the night at her mother’s, then he could have picked her up this morning and driven her to work.

  He’d stayed up half the night, working with Philip. They’d scoured Garrett’s financial records and did full background checks of her employees, looking for anything they might have missed that would in turn lead to Garrett. But everything they’d studied came up empty. He’d finally fallen asleep about two o’clock, only to be awakened by Danielle’s frantic phone call a few hours later.

  All he knew was that someone had broken into the shop, and Danielle had sounded scared and vulnerable. Somehow, they had to find a way for this to end.

  She sat in the middle of the showroom on a square leather ottoman staring off into the distance while someone from the security company asked her questions. There were dark shadows beneath her eyes. If she’d slept at all last night, she hadn’t slept well.

  He waited until the man left. She looked up at him, her gaze a mixture of raw emotion and determination. “Thanks for coming.”

  “Of course.” He hesitated for a moment then sat across from her on a teal ottoman with pink flowers on top. “What happened?”

  She crossed her arms over her knees and continued staring off into the distance. “Someone was in the store when I showed up.”

  “Are yo
u okay?”

  “I was able to avoid a confrontation, though maybe I shouldn’t have. If it was the hacker, at least we’d know who we were dealing with. I don’t even have a decent description beyond the shape of his shadow in the darkness.”

  “You think it could have been the hacker?”

  She shrugged, then let the air seep slowly from her lungs. “Without more evidence, the police want to treat it like a typical breakin, because a couple hundred dollars is missing from the cash box.”

  “All that matters at this point is that you’re okay.” He leaned forward, wishing he could reach out and grasp her hands, yet respecting her need to keep her distance. Instead, he folded his hands together in his lap. “What about your alarm system? Did it go off?”

  “I was able to punch in the panic code. The siren went off, and he escaped through a window in the back, running away on foot. I’ve just spoken to the security company and need to answer some more questions for the police who said they’d talk to me again in a few minutes. As soon as everyone is gone, they want me to take an inventory to see if anything else was taken.”

  “What can I do?” he asked.

  “Exactly what you are doing. Showing up at the crack of dawn, sitting here with me and reminding me that I’m not going crazy.” She looked up at him with those big eyes of hers. He understood the internal battle raging inside when you felt that everything in your world was out of control. “Especially when I practically kicked you out of my house last night.”

  He cleared his throat. “This might not be the time, but…” It was a subject he’d rather avoid, but knew he couldn’t. “I owe you an apology for last night.”

  “Forget it. I think we’ve both done enough apologizing over the past few days to make it even between us.” She shot him a weak smile. “I just… I wasn’t expecting you to show up in my life again, and then with the kiss… It’s been a tough week. Everything that has happened has managed to play with our emotions.”

  Which was something else he’d realized. He’d been foolish to think that any emotion either of them felt was anything more than a result of the situation they’d both been thrust into. Because she was correct. Tense circumstances had a way of toying with one’s emotions. Which meant that any feelings he thought he still had could easily be little more than his heart’s wishful thinking. It was time he let her go.