The Christmas Rescue

by Laura Scott

  She let out a sigh of relief. “You’re right. I’m just being silly. And I will change the code, I promise. And I’ll clean the keypad regularly, too, as an added measure. Thanks for checking things out for me.”

  Rafe hesitated at the door, gazing down at her, his expression troubled. “Maybe I should stay. I don’t like the thought of leaving you and Brianna all the way out here alone.”

  Her breath congealed in her throat and she didn’t know what to say. Having Rafe nearby would be pure torture, and she wasn’t sure her nerves could handle the stress. And Brianna would only get more attached to him than she already was. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said finally. “And besides, you work tomorrow, don’t you?”

  His intense gaze was mesmerizing, his brown eyes so dark they were almost black. “Yes, but at least I could make certain you’re safe here tonight.”

  “We’ll be perfectly safe,” she said with more confidence than she felt. “I’m expecting guests tomorrow and they’ll be staying through the weekend. I have lots to do to get ready. Really, we’ll be fine.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, before finally nodding. “All right. But promise you’ll call if you need me. Do you have my number?”

  She hoped he didn’t notice the embarrassed flush in her cheeks. Taking his number seemed so—intimate. But when he waited expectantly, she pulled out her cell phone. “No, I don’t. But I’ll program it in now. What’s the number?”

  Rafe recited his cell number and she quickly entered the number into her phone. She wouldn’t call him, of course, but knowing he was within reach if for some strange reason she did need him was oddly comforting.

  “Good night, Kayla.” He reached up and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. The slightest brush of his fingertips on her skin made her shiver.

  She took a step back, plastering a smile on her face. She kept her tone light. Friendly. “Bye, Rafe. Drive safe.” When he left, she closed the door and then leaned against the wooden frame, her legs weak. She really had to figure out how to get a grip of her emotions around him. After all, he was just a man.

  “Mommy? I brushed my teeth.” Brianna skipped into the living room, glancing around. “Where’s Mr. Rafe?”

  “He had to go home,” she said, straightening away from the door.

  Brianna’s face fell. “But he forgot to say goodbye.”

  Her heart twisted in her chest before it plummeted to her stomach. This was exactly why she couldn’t call Rafe. Brianna already cared about him, too much.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart.” She gave her daughter a hug. “He must have been in a hurry to get back to work. Come on, it’s bedtime.”

  “I wanted Mr. Rafe to tuck me in.” With a dejected pout, Brianna allowed her mother to take her back to their private rooms. Clyde followed, jumping up on the bed next to Brianna. He’d been sleeping with her since he was an infant puppy and there was no breaking him of the habit now.

  She tucked Brianna in bed and gave her a hug and a kiss before shutting off the light and closing the door. Back in the kitchen, Kayla kept busy making a grocery list of the bare essentials she’d need for her weekend guests.

  But even as she worked, she couldn’t keep her mind off Brianna’s keen disappointment. She’d known her daughter had been hinting for a father. Brianna had gone so far as to ask why Kayla didn’t go out on any dates like her friend Sophie’s mother did. She’d tried to change the subject, but Brianna seemed to have a one-track mind.

  Going to the memorial hadn’t spurred questions about her dead father, as Kayla had hoped. Apparently, Brianna was more interested in trying to replace Jeremy with someone new.

  And Kayla was very much afraid that Brianna might have picked Rafe as a potential candidate to be her new father.

  The next night Kayla tumbled into bed, exhausted after getting her guests settled in. It seemed like mere seconds later when a sharp scream pulled her from a deep slumber.

  She leaped out of bed, stumbling in the darkness as she sought and found the light switch. She winced and shielded her eyes from the harsh brightness that flooded the room.

  The sound had come from upstairs. She opened Brianna’s door to make sure she and Clyde were all right, and then headed down the hall, through the kitchen and into the great room. Her guests, two married couples, were coming down the stairs from the second-floor loft.

  “I’m telling you, I saw a man trying to get into our room!” The older woman, Gloria Hanover, spoke in a shrill voice.

  “I didn’t hear anything,” her husband, Edward, muttered.

  “I’m so sorry,” Kayla said, hurrying forward. “Did you already call the police? Or should I?”

  Gloria shook her head no.

  “I already checked out their room,” Allen Russell said, rolling his eyes. Apparently he wasn’t too impressed with Gloria’s claim. His wife, Lorraine, went over to stand close to his side. “There’s no one there. And even if there had been someone there, I’m sure her shriek scared him off.”

  “Are you insinuating I’m crazy?” Gloria demanded, facing Allen, her face flushed and her hands propped on her ample hips. “Because I know what I saw. There was a man standing there, his face pressed against the patio door.”

  “There now, no one is calling you crazy,” her husband, Edward soothed, patting her arm.

  Kayla tried to smile, but deep down, a cold fear settled in her stomach. Each of the guest rooms had access through a patio door to the deck outside. And she couldn’t help remembering how the security system had been turned off. “I’m calling the police. If Mrs. Hanover saw a man, then we need the authorities to investigate.”

  Leaving her guests to talk among themselves, she went back toward the kitchen to find Brianna standing there with the dog at her feet. She rushed over to give her daughter a hug.

  “What happened, Mommy?” Brianna asked sleepily.

  She didn’t want to scare her daughter, especially after all the strange events over the past two days, but she couldn’t lie to her, either. “One of the guests heard a scary noise so I need to call the police.”

  Luckily, Brianna didn’t ask too many more questions. Kayla set her down and made the call. The sheriff’s department promised to send a deputy right away. Since everyone was up, Kayla brought coffee, tea and the pastries she’d planned for breakfast that morning to the great room. Playing hostess helped soothe her frayed nerves.

  Had her guest really seen a man? If so, who?

  The deputy’s investigation didn’t take long. He took her upstairs to the wraparound deck. Jeremy had designed the house so that every guest room had access to the balcony outside. The deputy pointed with a grim look. “See these gouges? Looks like someone did try to get in.”

  She swallowed hard, unable to tear her gaze from the evidence. Apparently Mrs. Hanover hadn’t been imagining things at all. Someone had actually tried to break in.

  “I’ll file a report,” the deputy continued. “Could be just a random burglary unless you have reason to believe someone has targeted you, specifically.”

  “Not that I know of,” she said faintly. As much as she wanted to believe in the random burglary theory, the sick dread in her stomach wouldn’t let up. What if someone had targeted her? She couldn’t imagine why, but the thought wouldn’t leave her alone. She forced herself to go back downstairs to where her guests were waiting.

  “Edward, I want to leave right now,” Gloria Hanover was saying. “I’m not staying here another night.”

  “Great, just great,” Allen Russell muttered.

  Kayla’s heart sank, but she didn’t protest. How could she blame them for wanting to leave? They’d been woken up from a sound sleep by a burglar.

  “I won’t charge you for last night’s stay,” she informed the couples graciously. She’d been depending on their fees to help her sagging bank account, but there was no way she could see taking their money. Not after this.

  Dawn was beginning to peek over the hori
zon as the two couples packed their bags and trooped out the door. After they left, she set her security system and then sank down at the kitchen table, propping her aching head in her hands.

  What should she do? Why had someone tried to break in? None of this made any sense.

  She desperately wanted to call Rafe. Maybe she was overreacting, but as a single mother alone with a young daughter couldn’t help being worried. She had an awful feeling there was something significant behind this recent break-in. There had been too many odd things happening lately.

  And she wouldn’t be able to relax until she understood exactly what was going on.

  On Saturday morning, Rafe returned home to review the plans he and his partner, Evan Marshall, and his commanding officer, Luke Sanders, had made the day before.

  They only had a couple of thin leads to follow up on. They needed a break in the case, big-time. There was no point in continuing their surveillance on Schroeder’s business, considering the local police had Schroeder’s boats taped off as a precaution in case it was a potential crime scene.

  He and Evan had agreed to split up the duties in their attempts to jump-start the investigation. Evan’s job was to begin a preliminary surveillance on Karl Yancy, the recluse who’d taken up residence near Pelican Point, renting a boat slip conveniently located right next to Schroeder’s charter fishing business. Yancy had showed up on their radar because of his timely appearance in Pelican Point, the same week as Bruce Pappas’s sighting on Schroeder’s boat. The coincidence of his showing up when a well-known criminal had escaped was too much to ignore.

  Evan’s theory was that Yancy was involved too, working with Shroeder. No one seemed to know much about the stranger since he didn’t socialize with anyone around the lakefront. And his background information was sketchy, in that it was almost too clean. Which was suspicious enough in itself. So Evan also agreed to do more digging to see what they could find out about the guy.

  Rafe’s job was to work on getting information out of Charlie Turkow, the grizzled, older man who had a charter business that was in direct competition with Schroeder’s. They’d spent some time watching Charlie’s charter, too, and had seen some of the same sort of suspicious activity, his boats coming and going at odd times of the day and night.

  But when they’d dug deeper, they’d discovered Charlie had a daughter who lived in Michigan. Sure enough, the next two times they were able to follow him, that’s where he’d gone. Still, his commanding officer believed Charlie Turkow knew more about what might be going on in Pelican Point than he was letting on and wanted Rafe to uncover whatever the older man knew.

  Rafe had swung by Charlie’s charter after leaving the gym earlier that morning, but the older man wasn’t anywhere around and one of this boats was gone. Since finding him in the open water of Lake Michigan wasn’t likely, he returned home. And stewed over what little he knew about Bill Schroeder’s activities before he’d died. It bothered him that the guy had gone to visit Kayla. That he’d recently mounted a memorial in honor of her husband’s memory.

  He raked a hand through his hair.

  He didn’t like the idea of Bill Schroeder being anywhere near Kayla. Leaving her alone Thursday night had been difficult. At least he could rest a little easier, knowing she had guests staying with her this weekend.

  But what about once her guests were gone? She and Brianna were all alone in the middle of the woods.

  His cell phone rang, and his chest tightened when he Kayla’s name on the display. He couldn’t imagine she’d call unless it was important. “Kayla? Is everything all right?”

  “We’re both fine,” she said quickly, as if knowing he might be imagining the worst. He tried to calm his racing pulse. “But Rafe, someone tried to break in last night.”

  “Break in?” he echoed, jumping to his feet. “Why? What happened?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, sounding truly bewildered. “I had guests, so I didn’t have the security system on. But now I’m worried. My guests left early and I changed my access code, but what if the burglar tries to break in again? I’m scared, Rafe.”

  The underlying fear in her voice gripped him by the throat. “I’m on my way,” he said, heading out to his jeep. “Make sure the alarm is set, and I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

  THREE

  The fact that Kayla didn’t argue worried him even more. Rafe shut his phone and started the jeep, more shaken than he cared to admit. He headed for her house, pushing the speed limit as much as he dared.

  Someone had tried to break into Kayla’s home. What had the intruder been looking for? Had he missed something the night they’d found the security system turned off? Somehow it didn’t make sense that simple burglars would target a home so far away from town.

  He’d been a fool to leave her alone.

  His cell phone rang again. “DeSilva,” he answered, when he saw Luke Sanders’ name light up the screen.

  “The medical examiner has finished the autopsy on your dead body. The base of his skull was cracked, and the ME confirmed he was dead before he hit the water. Because of the location of his skull fracture, the medical examiner is leaning toward a homicide. The pathology results won’t be back for thirty days.”

  “Did they confirm his ID with dental records?”

  “Yes. With the tattoo they were pretty certain he was Bill Schroeder and finding his dentist wasn’t hard. He doesn’t have a lot of family, so the police are heading out to inform Jeannie, his ex-wife, now.”

  Rafe grimaced. “I’m sure that will be difficult.”

  “Did you talk to Charlie Turkow yet? He must know something about the criminals being smuggled out through Canada.”

  “Not yet. He wasn’t around when I stopped in. I’ll talk to him as soon as I can.”

  “All right. Call me if you get something significant.”

  “Will do.” Rafe hung up the phone and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel thoughtfully. Should he let Kayla know about Bill Schroeder? The news was better coming from him than through the media. And he was fairly certain Schroeder’s death would make headlines, especially since the medical examiner would likely deem his death a murder.

  Rafe pressed a little harder on the accelerator. He couldn’t explain this desperate need to get to Kayla. He hadn’t felt this protective toward a woman in a long time. Since Angela.

  He tried to tell himself to relax, but his lead foot was ignoring the message. When he pulled into Kayla’s driveway, he was amazed to note he’d made the trip in a record thirty-three minutes.

  The instant he stopped, the front door popped open and Kayla stepped out. His first instinct was to yell at her for not waiting with the alarm set.

  But when she hurried down to meet him, he couldn’t speak. Instead, he leaped from his jeep and threw caution to the wind, pulling her close in a warm, reassuring hug. “Are you all right?” he murmured, filling his head with her light, strawberry scent.

  She grasped him tightly around the waist, burying her face against his chest. “Yes,” she said in a muffled voice. “Thanks for coming.”

  “You couldn’t have kept me away,” he assured her. Holding her close was sheer heaven. He would have been happy to stay like this all day, but of course, she pulled away when Brianna and Clyde bounded out of the house, followed more slowly by an elegant-looking older woman with silver hair. He recognized her as Kayla’s mother-in-law, Ellen Wilson, whom he’d met earlier that year when he and Alex had insisted on putting Kayla’s security system in place.

  “Mr. Rafe!” Brianna heedlessly flung herself at him and he sucked in a quick breath and caught her before she could get hurt. He lifted her into his arms as the dog barked excitedly at his feet. “You forgot to say goodbye,” she accused, looking him directly in the eye.

  “I did?” He frowned, distracted by her accusation. He cast his mind backward in time, wondering what she meant.

  “The night we had pizza.” Brianna’s green eyes were full of reproac
h. “You didn’t say goodbye.”

  “I’m sorry, mi nina,” he murmured. “You’re right, I guess I forgot.” He glanced at Kayla who watched their interaction with a worried frown.

  “Brianna, I explained how Mr. Rafe needed to get back to work,” Kayla said, walking back to the house. Still carrying Brianna, he followed on her heels. “Remember? He works all different times of the day and night.”

  He wasn’t used to anyone making excuses for him. In fact, he hadn’t even considered the idea that Brianna would notice he’d left without saying goodbye. He could see by Kayla’s guarded expression that he’d inadvertently hurt her daughter.

  It was clear she was worried her daughter might be growing too attached to him. And could he blame her? Brianna was at a vulnerable age. He took a deep breath and tried to collect his thoughts. Brianna was a great kid, but he wasn’t ready to be a father again.

  Not when he’d failed so miserably last time.

  He hadn’t been able to save his infant son’s life. To have another child dependent on him was inconceivable. The very thought shook him to the core. No, having a family was not an option.

  “Next time,” he promised, quickly setting Brianna back on her feet and closing the front door behind him.

  “Rafe, you remember my mother-in-law, Ellen, don’t you?” Kayla said, belatedly reintroducing them.

  He cleared his throat and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Nice to see you again.”

  “Nice to see you, too,” Ellen said, although her expression was guarded and he wondered if Kayla’s mother-in-law viewed him as some sort of threat. As if he was trying to replace Jeremy in Kayla’s heart. He was tempted to reassure her he’d only come to offer protection, not to start something he had no intention of finishing.

  They all walked into the house and Kayla reengaged the security system once they were safely inside.

  “Come on, Brianna, we need to finish making Christmas cookies,” Ellen said, as if sensing the two adults needed to talk alone.