“Absolutely. I think Mom wanted us to avoid the mistakes she’d made. One thing Dawn Hardesty instilled in her kids was that you set your goals and then work harder than anyone else to achieve them. She led by example and graduated with her bachelor’s degree, and now she has the job she’s always wanted. Charlie’s done the same and he’s in college.”
In the shadowy interior of the car, Levi appeared thoughtful.
“I don’t want you thinking my life was pathetic. It wasn’t.”
“Okay.”
“Now it’s my turn. What’s it like being a Gallagher in a town where the Gallagher family is like local royalty?”
“That’s bullshit. You have a skewed view of the Gallagher family.”
“Oh, come on. Everyone loves the Gallaghers. You guys aren’t snooty about it, but it’s true. Your mom has that nonprofit and does important work for people who are struggling. Then there’s Brad. You’d think he wears a superhero cape. People here believe he can solve any problem. He’s so diplomatic and levelheaded. The community loves him. And Maddy is the reigning sweetheart princess. People go to her café to bask in a little of her sunny personality. Her cheerfulness gives a boost to their day.”
She pulled to a stop in front of the cottage.
“You could be right about Brad, but Maddy had a few rough years.” He broke off, staring intently at the front of her house. “Are the lights on your porch on a timer?”
“No, why?”
“Because they were on when we left but aren’t now.”
She peered through the windscreen as he was doing. “You’re right. Maybe they shorted out or something.” Then she heard it, the mournful howling coming from inside her home. “Something’s wrong with Lucy. She’s always been fine when I’ve left her alone before.”
Zoey had her seatbelt undone and was reaching for the door handle when Levi grabbed her arm.
“Wait.”
“Why? Lucy is upset.”
“Something’s not right.” The bright moon gave enough light that she could see his easy mood of the evening had shifted, his expression taking on what she could only describe as cop face. Intent, focused, serious. “Drive to my cabin.”
“Why? I want to—”
“Zoey, do it.”
A chill skittered up her spine, and she followed his direction without further argument. She started the car and drove slowly up the driveway to park next to the Suburban.
“Give me your keys, lock the doors when I get out, and stay put.” He must have sensed her opposition even before she said anything. “I mean it, Zoey. I’m going to check it out. I’ve got my phone, but if you see anything that doesn’t look right, call nine-one-one. And don’t get out of the car.”
He took the keys from her and was out in a flash, shutting the door with barely a sound. She thought he’d go straight to her cottage, but instead he slipped into his cabin. She had only a moment to wonder at his intention before he reappeared, moonlight glinting dully off the gun in his hand.
Lucy’s howling had anxiety twisting in Zoey’s belly. She turned in the seat to keep Levi in her field of vision, but within seconds he was out of sight.
She’d never been good at waiting patiently, having to sit with nothing to do. She went over the reasons she should do as Levi had ordered and stay in the car. He was a cop. He was trained to do exactly what he was doing. She, on the other hand, was a wildlife biologist. Want to know about deer migration? She was your girl. Helping a cop? She’d never even taken a self-defense class in her life, which now seemed like a gross oversight. She’d be smart and do what the cop said.
She turned in her seat again, peering through the back window. The moon shone enough light that the trees cast faint shadows. She strained her eyes but could not detect any movement. Lucy’s crying stopped. Damnit. She wanted to be out there to know what was going on with her baby. Her hand was at the door handle, but she stopped herself from opening it. She’d told Levi she’d stay put. Crap. Waiting sucked.
She retrieved her phone from her purse, tapped on the screen, and looked up “what to do if someone has broken into your house.” First thing on the list, call the police. Done, kind of. Second, take pictures. She hoped there was nothing to take pictures of. That somehow the lights had gone out on their own, and Lucy had been barking at shadows. Rapping against the car window had her jolting and sucking in a wheezy breath. Levi. The flashlight from his phone shone bright against the darkness as she opened the door and was greeted by a happy dog.
Relief washed through her. “Oh baby, you’re okay.” She dodged the sloppy tongue and rubbed Lucy’s face. Comfort for Lucy meant all one hundred plus pounds of her sitting on Zoey’s lap. “Oof, off girl.” Zoey shoved, and Levi pulled back on the leash so she could get out of the car. “What happened? What did you find?”
“I’m not sure. Your things on the porch are scattered everywhere. Maybe you had a bear.” There was a thread of doubt in his tone.
“It didn’t get inside?”
“No. Whatever it was upset Lucy, and stuff was knocked around, but that’s about it.”
They walked up the driveway, and Lucy, pleased with her outing, pranced as much as she ever pranced at the end of the leash. Zoey rubbed her arms against the nighttime temperature that had to have dropped down into the forties. Levi passed his light over the bear-proof trashcan enclosures. They were intact, with no evidence of bear tampering.
They reached her porch, where Levi had already turned on the light by the door. She looked around with growing despair. Everything was a mess—a clay pot shattered, wind chimes pulled from their hooks, the fairy lights ripped down, the glass from smashed bulbs littering the floor.
“Here, hold Lucy, I want to get pictures before the scene is compromised.” He handed Zoey the leash and took out his phone.
Zoey looped the leash securely around her hand. Lucy wanted to sniff around and do her own investigation. “Lucy, sit.”
She sat with a huffing sound, obviously not pleased. Zoey took in the overturned chairs, the pitcher of wildflowers she’d had on a little side table, the flowers crushed on the wood floor. “This doesn’t make sense.”
“What?”
“The flowers being crushed like that. It looks like they’ve been stepped on and purposefully mashed. That’s not typical bear behavior.”
“How about the cushions being pulled off the furniture, the table overturned. Would a bear do that?”
“Maybe. If a bear comes up to a house like this, he’s thinking of one thing. Food. He’ll go for the trashcans first. But if he sees something that looks like food through a window? He’ll go through the window. But smashing light bulbs, and pulling down wind chimes? Bears like to play, but that seems off to me.”
Levi nodded, then held his phone to his ear. “Brad, it’s me. Zoey’s house has been vandalized.” He paused, then said, “Between seven and ten tonight. Zoey says it’s not likely a bear. I’ve taken pictures. I’ll send them to you.”
He waited, gaze on Zoey, then replied to his brother. “I’ll look into it. By the way, I’m out of town tomorrow, coming back Sunday early enough to make Mom’s thing. I want extra patrols keeping an eye on Zoey’s place.”
“Now wait a minute, I—”
He raised a hand to cut her off, listening, then responding to Brad. “I’m on it.” He slipped his phone in his pocket. “Let’s get this straightened up.”
“Hold on. What do you mean, ‘you’re on it’? What are you on?” There wasn’t much that put her back up like someone trying to manage her.
“The job. I’ll be looking into whether this is related to the hit-and-run.”
The job. Right, he was a cop, and Brad had assigned him to her case. The whole thing made her itchy. “Stuff gets thrown around on my porch, how can that be related to a hit-and-run?”
“That’s what I’m going to find out.”
Zoey secured Lucy’s leash to a post, not willing to risk letting her off leash and having to round her up in the
dark if she took off.
Levi righted a table, then tossed cushions back onto the loveseat. “What are you doing tomorrow?”
She shrugged. “Saturday things.”
His gaze was expectant, and when she didn’t elaborate, he raised an eyebrow. “Come on, Zoey. Give me more than that.”
“Why are you asking?”
“Isn’t that obvious? You’ve recently been the victim of two crimes. If they’re related, I need to find out who’s targeting you.”
“Remember that authoritarian cop thing I don’t like? You’re doing that.”
“Asking what you’re doing tomorrow is me being an authoritarian cop?”
“Yes.”
“My job is to serve and protect. That’s what I’m doing.”
“I am not your responsibility, and what I do on a Saturday is my business.”
Even in the shadows cast by the porch light, she could see the flash of temper. He straightened, hands on hips, none of the easygoing, junk-food-loving guy she’d had dinner with earlier. This version of Levi was all serious business.
“The hell with that. I’m doing my job, and I need your cooperation. See this?” He motioned to the destruction on her porch. “When someone is targeted, the perpetrator usually starts small, but when that doesn’t satisfy them, they escalate.”
“Then it doesn’t make sense that this is related to my accident. That had a lot more impact, no pun intended, than throwing around cushions and ruining a bunch of flowers.”
Levi speared a hand through his hair, exasperation evident in the gesture. “Is there anywhere you and Lucy can spend tomorrow night?”
“Yep. Right here in my own little cottage.” She gave him a fake sweet smile as she moved past him to pick up the strand of broken lights. Setting them carefully aside, she went through her front door that Levi had left slightly ajar. Flipping lights on inside, she crossed to the kitchen to retrieve the broom and dustpan. When she stepped onto the porch again, she gave Levi a feigned look of surprise. “Still here?”
He ignored her snarky tone. “What about Eva and Diego? I’ll call Eva and see if you can spend tomorrow night with them.”
“Don’t you dare.” She pointed a finger at him. “I am not going to impose on Eva and Diego, in no small part, another pun for you, because me spending the night means Lucy spending the night. And beyond that, I don’t want to go anywhere. Someone throwing things around on my porch, while it hits the odd scale, is hardly life threatening. This is my home, and I’m staying.” While she spoke, she swept broken glass into a pile.
“You being hit by a car is life threatening. You’re damn lucky your injuries weren’t a lot more serious. If this,” he indicated the porch with his hand, “is connected, then I don’t want you here by yourself when I’m not nearby.”
She tried for a patient tone. “I appreciate your concern, Levi. I won’t be alone because I’ll have Lucy, and we’ll be fine. Amazingly, I managed to live here quite happily before you moved in, what? A week ago?” The patient tone didn’t make it quite to the end of her statement.
“Will you be reasonable?”
“Reasonable? What exactly is that? Men use ‘reasonable’ to suggest that women are emotional and not capable of making rational decisions. For you, me being ‘reasonable’ means to do what you want me to do.”
“Fuck that. My mother would kick my ass if she thought I didn’t respect women or their intellect.”
“Well, my mother would kick my ass if she thought I didn’t stand up for myself and for what I believe in.”
“Now you’re being difficult.”
“You want to see difficult? How about this?” This time her finger pointed to the steps. “Why don’t you get off my porch, Levi Gallagher? And while you’re at it, why don’t you take your reasonableness and shove it up your ass?”
***
Levi throttled up the drive to the cabin a solid twelve hours after he’d left, set the kickstand, and cut the engine. He sat there, letting the silence roll over him. Riding through Yosemite and over the Tioga Pass made for some beautiful scenery, but five-plus hours on a motorcycle added on top of five-plus hours in the Suburban and he was feeling a bit rough. He eased off the bike and stretched.
He had to check on Zoey.
Her Prius was parked out front, and there was a light on inside the cottage. He hoped she was home and everything was okay. He’d confirm that, then figure out what he had in his fridge for dinner before hitting the sack. He’d also have to apologize. He had two sisters and knew how this worked. It didn’t matter that he’d been right last night; his approach might have come off as a little heavy-handed, and god knew Zoey didn’t like heavy-handedness.
He pulled the helmet off his head as he climbed the steps to her porch, stopping in his tracks when he spied her through the front window. She was in the living room, on her phone, talking animatedly with her hands the way she sometimes did. She wore one of those flowy skirts, and her curly hair formed spirals around her head. Her all-in laugh carried through the window and shot him through with an unexpected clutch of lust.
Lucy’s bark announced him as he raised a fist to knock on the door. A moment later it opened. Zoey stood there, and his heart took a solid jolt he felt deep down to his bones. She gave a half smile. There was still hesitancy in her expression, but he’d count the smile as a win.
“Hey.”
“Hey, Levi.” Zoey’s gaze ran over him as Lucy pushed past her and began busily sniffing his pants. “Why are you dressed like that?”
He pulled off the leather jacket, then the Velcro straps that secured the body armor so he could pull it over his head. “Protection from road rash.”
She frowned. “You have a motorcycle?”
“Yeah. I borrowed the Suburban from a friend for the move. I returned it today and picked up my motorcycle.”
“I made rude comments about the Suburban and it wasn’t even yours.”
“Do I look like the kind of guy who’d drive a hearse?”
There was that smile again that hit him square in the solar plexus. “Motorcycles are dangerous. I’m putting that out there.”
“Hence the helmet and body armor.” He dumped both onto the loveseat with the jacket and peeled off black leather gloves. “But they’re also fuel efficient and easy to maneuver through Bay Area traffic. Not good for winter in the Sierras, but I have a couple of months before that becomes an issue to figure out what I’m going to drive.” Lucy gave up sniffing his jeans and wandered out onto the porch.
“So you drove all the way to Oakland and back today? Did you just get back?”
He nodded. “Everything okay here? No unexpected visitors?”
Watchfulness returned to her eyes. “Nope. Only me and Lucy, best buds hanging out.” She hesitated, then seemed to come to a decision. “Do you want to come in? I made chili for dinner if you’d like some.” She gave him a sideways glance. “It’s made from scratch, not from a can, so it may not be what you’re used to.”
He held her gaze, not answering, and she finally asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Hell if I know. You were mad at me, and now you’re not. At least I don’t think you are. I haven’t even apologized, and I was ready to do that.”
She cocked her head. “Apologize for what? Wanting to keep me safe?”
He narrowed his eyes. “There’s got to be a trap here somewhere. I have a mom. I have two sisters. This isn’t how they operate. When we argue, even if I’m right, I’m made to suffer before I’m forgiven.”
“You weren’t right, but I don’t hold a grudge because you thought, however misguided, that you were doing the right thing. Have you eaten? Do you want that chili?”
“No, I haven’t eaten, and yeah, chili sounds perfect.”
“Then you can come in and tell me how your drive was. The cornbread is almost ready to come out of the oven.”
Levi followed her into the house. Lucy trudged behind him and gave a groan as she did her bear-r
ug sprawl in front of the fireplace. “I feel you, Lucy,” he muttered. Zoey’s couch with its brightly patterned slipcover looked inviting, making him think he could be like the dog and stretch out.
Zoey confused him, no doubt, but he could deal with being confused. A woman who was hitting all the sexy marks for him had invited him to dinner. He had chili and cornbread in his near future, and he couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be.
An hour later, Levi carried bowls to the sink. For not having meat, the chili had been amazing, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten homemade cornbread. When she reached around him to run water over the dishes, he held up a hand. “If you put the leftovers away, I’ll wash the dishes.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“You fed me a fantastic meal. I’m doing the cleanup.” He began filling the plastic basin with hot water. “And next time I see Brad, I’m talking to him about installing a dishwasher in here.”
“No, you’re not. I don’t mind washing dishes, and I don’t want to give up the cabinet space. You don’t have to manage things for me, Levi. If I wanted a dishwasher, I’d ask Brad myself.”
“Right,” he grunted. She had a point. She was capable and could deal with her own affairs. He had to check the impulse to assume he always had to take care of people.
He scrubbed dishes, then rinsed, and placed them on the drainer. He guessed the task wasn’t so bad, particularly since an interesting woman was sitting at the table sipping from a mug of tea, golden brown eyes watching him as he worked.
“Didn’t you tell Brad you were coming back tomorrow?”
He paused, suds on his hands, then resumed washing. She did use an inordinate number of pots and pans for what was basically two food items. “I did. I changed my mind and decided to make the trip in one day.”
“And how was that?”
“Traffic around Oakland was a bitch, per usual, but the drive around the Yosemite Valley never disappoints.”
He caught her speculative look.
“I see. Did your decision to make the trip in one day have anything to do with me not leaving my home after someone messed with my stuff last night?”
Break Away Page 7