Betrayal of the Dove (Men of Action) (18 page)

They pulled into Shane’s parking space and they both got out of the truck. He wasn’t thrilled that she hadn’t waited for him to open the door. “I can get my own door,” she had said. “I’m getting out and I don’t have to wait for you to open what I can open.” She had noticed his very chivalrous demeanor. He had opened the door for her getting in, and that was sweet and definitely scored points in her book, but getting out wasn’t an activity that she expected him to help her with. He didn’t need to jog around to the other side of the truck just to open a door she could open herself. They were almost to her door when Shane stiffened and stopped her from walking. “What’s wrong?”

“Shh,” he said without thought as if she were one of his men serving under him on the battlefield. He slid his hand back and lifted his un-tucked shirttails exposing the gun tucked between his jeans and back. “Stay,” he ordered. She wasn’t a dog. She didn’t stay on command. She would have given him a piece of her mind on that fact except since he was reaching for a gun she was sure now would not be the time to discuss all the ways he shouldn’t talk to her.

Craig surfaced from around the corner, causing her to relax, but not Shane. She patted his shoulder and he removed his hand from his weapon. She was still wearing Shane’s shirt so she was sure that look of disapproval on Craig’s face had to do with what he thought had been going on last night.

“What are you doing back here?” She asked.

“There was another robbery last night,” he said. “Two shops down. I tried your backdoor bell this morning, but you didn’t answer.”

“I wasn’t home,” she said. She couldn’t believe how frequently the robberies were happening now. Before there was some time between them, now it just seemed uncontrolled; unstructured.

“I guess there’s no need to ask you about your alibi then,” Craig narrowed his eyes and glared at Shane as if he wanted to rip his head off, but thought better of it.

“He was with me,” she said. “Or more like I was with him.”

“All night?”

“All night,” she confirmed. “Why are you even looking into Shane? These robberies started long before he became my security guard.”

Craig shrugged. “Maybe they started so he could become your security guard,” he said caustically.

“Doubtful,” she said with measured hostility. “Shane didn’t even know me before he came to work for me. A mutual friend asked him to help me. Beyond that, if he had started the robberies so he could come work for me he wouldn’t need to keep doing it.” She felt her anger reaching the tipping point. It was one thing to be jealous. It was another thing to throw baseless accusations and try to ruin a good man’s name.

“Noted,” Craig said. “The robbery happened at the
Icicle
, two doors south of you so you might want to be more careful around here. It would seem things are getting closer to your store…a lot closer,” he mumbled before turning and walking away. She could tell he was still trying to find fault with Shane, but she wouldn’t let him blame these robberies on him just because he didn’t like that she and Shane were a couple now.

“Come on,” Shane put his hand on her low back and nudged her forward. She hadn’t realized she was still standing there frozen in place until Shane prompted her to move forward. Craig was getting out of hand, and she was quickly losing the patience she had been known for having.

“That man’s head is as thick as a cinder block,” she mumbled. “I just don’t think he gets it…even now.”

“He doesn’t,” Shane agreed. “Right now he thinks I’m coercing you into being with me. He doesn’t see, whether he can’t see it or he refuses to see it is another matter, but he doesn’t see that you’ve made your choice.”

“What do I do to get him to understand that?”

Shane shrugged. “You can’t reason with some people, Alyssa. Sometimes you just have to stay sharp and remain aware of your surroundings. People like that don’t give up, and sometimes they get violent.”

She knew the truth in that statement, even if she didn’t want to think about all the ways Craig could hurt her, she knew he could. She could fight—moderately anyway, so she figured she could hold her own with a guy who had basic self-defense training, but Craig was a cop. There were so many ways he could get back at her. He could, under the cover of his badge, make her life hell if he wanted to. “Oh good Lord,” she sighed. “Why do things always happen in triplicate?” Just when she thought she was getting things on track, Craig came along and threw another wrench into her engine. That man was going to be trouble and she knew it.

Chapter Ten

A
lyssa had spent yesterday at work and everything was business as usual, with Shane inside his security area while she managed the store—a very busy store. She had crowds coming in which was good for business, but bad for her nerves. First of all, with that many people in the store at the same time she didn’t have a way to really watch what was going on. Most of her pieces were behind glass inside a locked case, but a few of the broaches were out on display by the cash register. It was her idea to have the last minute purchase sale because while she was getting ready to ring up their item they would be forced to see a beautiful, delicate and oh so fabulously wonderful broach that would be the perfect addition to their purchase. She had learned the trick when she worked for a jewelry store part-time while she was in high school. It worked about sixty percent of the time. Usually, she could keep watch on things and monitor what was going on in her store, but that day she just didn’t have time. She found herself running from one corner to the next trying to honor the, “show me this, show me that,” requests that kept coming at her. A lot of people bought items, and some, as she would call them, were wish book shoppers—the kind of people who looked through the catalog but knew they weren’t going to purchase anything. She had some of the wish book mentality shoppers come into her store usually a few times a week where they had no intention to buy anything, but they wanted to hold the pieces in their hand to see how they would look if they had actually bought them. Sometimes it was more about a pass time activity than an actual desire to shop.

Sometimes she hated dealing with the people who bugged her just so they could have something to do with their day, and other times it didn’t bother her as much. There was one guy, Lars is what he said his name was; he came into her store at least twice a month looking without the intent to buy. He was young, maybe in his twenties, and he always expected her to show him what was new. It’s like he came out on the days when he knew there would be new products, which was usually a twice a month thing for her. “If I were going to buy something for my girlfriend,” he would say; “which piece would you choose?” She resisted the urge to laugh because she didn’t know why she should be the one choosing since it was his girlfriend, but after about the fourth time of him coming into her store and doing the same routine she figured there wasn’t a girlfriend and he wasn’t planning to buy. He made her laugh most times, but yesterday was not one of those days where she wanted to have to deal with his, “show me everything,” persona. He could, and would, literally spend a good forty minutes just walking around her store. She was too busy yesterday to give him the attention he wanted. Fortunately he hadn’t pitched a fit like some people had.

Lars had been on time with his bi-weekly visit, but she hadn’t been on time with stocking the store. She had been busy with other things the previous night and so her usual get up early and take the new pieces down routine wasn’t in the cards. Instead, she had to do it this morning. It was also garbage day so she had to take care of that too. If the morning was starting off this hectic she wondered what it would be like once she actually opened. Shane was going to come in a little early with his friend so she could meet him. She wasn’t sure what Leo was going to do after that because Shane had assured her he was staying at work the entire day even though she had given him the time off should he want to use it. After yesterday maybe he thought twice about taking the time she was offering him free and clear.

Thanks to Shane she didn’t lose a sixty dollar piece of jewelry. It was only sixty dollars, but in her book, sixty dollars was sixty dollars and she didn’t want to lose any of her pieces. He, Mr. Shane Maxwell security extraordinaire, had come out of the security room; something he didn’t do often during the day, and he said, “you’re going to pay for that right;” in such a loud voice that all activity in the store came to immediate cessation. If he hadn’t caught it, a rather not-so-honest leggy blond would have walked off with the sterling silver broach encrusted with several small gems.

She locked the back door as she briskly walked to the dumpster. It wasn’t exactly close by, but it was a shared dumpster for the three shops to the right of her, plus her shop. The bistro had their own dumpster—thank goodness that wasn’t near her shop because the pungent smell of the food rotting would take over her store and her home until the trash collector came. Even though she had to walk to get to the dumpster the planning committee had assigned her to use she didn’t mind the walk because that meant when the truck came to collect the trash she didn’t have to hear much of the clanking that went along with collection.

On her way back inside, just as she had unlocked the back door, she felt a firm hand close over her mouth, and a strong arm wrap around her neck and shoulder area. She sent her elbow back and jabbed her attacker in the ribcage before swiftly turning and going for a palm up jab to the nose. She knew not to go for the groin because that’s where men always expected a woman to strike first, so she went for the move that would break the guys nose and give her time to get away; except he had anticipated that as well, either that or he was just expertly skilled at evading. She got a couple hits in before he punched her in the face, grabbed her by her hair before swiftly turning her and slamming her head into the door. After that it was lights out Alyssa until she came to and found herself bound to the chair she used at her work table. Only instead of being at her work table, it was in the center of the room, and it had a not so nice looking rattle snake curled up not too far in front of it.

She couldn’t move. Her ankles were bound with rope, but her wrists were bound with flex cuffs, those very sturdy, very secure plastic things cops seemed to carry around. There was no way Craig would have done this to her. He was being a jerk, but he wasn’t crazy—at least she didn’t think he was. The reality was it didn’t matter who had done it, it had been done and she was stuck. She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there because she wasn’t facing any of her clocks, but it was light out now, not that barely-light setting that had been there when she took the garbage out. She always took it out early and she never once thought anything of it, but maybe she should have. “Oh good Lord,” she whispered breathlessly as the snake coiled in front of her decided to start waking up. “I hope you’re not as mean as you look,” she said low. “I am so soon to be dead,” her eyes widened as the snake started to uncoil. The only thought in her head now was that she hoped her brothers found the bastard who did this and ripped him apart piece by piece. Gavin would do it too; she knew that because while Eve had Thomas, she had Gavin. They didn’t have the same relationship, but she knew he had taken it upon himself the day she was born to be her protector. He wouldn’t let her death go unpunished. Unfortunately, not even that thought was bringing her comfort because she so didn’t want to die.

Shane pulled into his park and got out of the truck. He was deep in conversation with Leo when he noticed the back door slightly ajar. “I told her she shouldn’t leave it open when she takes the trash out,” he shook his head.

“Does she usually do that?”

“No. She did it once and that’s because she had to run back upstairs for the last bit of trash.” When he reached the door and saw her keys on the ground he felt an acute awareness that something was wrong. He didn’t wait; he rushed inside, noticing that the upstairs door was wide open too. “Alyssa!” He ran up the stairs like a man on a mission and he didn’t stop until he saw her sitting there, bound to the chair with a rattler shaking its tail. Leo was right behind him.

“A little help; please?” She said softly.

“Who did this to you?”

“I don’t know.”