Vigilant (8 page)

A box fell on the table.

Long, sleek, and heavily lacquered, the box had small gold flowers embossed on the side. Ari pushed it away and checked the envelope again. Flipping it over, she saw there was no return address, no identifying marks, nothing but her name printed in large block letters across the front. Again, she picked up the heavy box, and unlatched the tiny gold hook.

“What the heck?” she said. Empty. But wait, lying against the silk lining, Ari spotted a small rectangular slip of paper tucked into the lining. On one side, in narrow, elegant script, were the numbers three, seven, and four. On the other, were the simple words, Thank you.

EIGHT

“You’re late,” Oliver chided from the couch. He pointed to a drink on the coffee table, similar to one in his own hand. She dropped the bag and picked up the drink, taking a gulp. Better. “We’re meeting everyone at seven o’clock at The Garage.”

“Tequila?”

“It’s been one of those weeks,” he said, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “But I convinced Veronica to meet us tonight.”

“Outside the office?”

“Yep. Finally wore her down.”

Ari took a fast gulp of the bitter alcohol. “Yowza! That’s strong!” She flung her jacket on the couch and kicked off her shoes. “Sorry I’m so late. Maria never showed up. I had to call the Apprehension offices to place a warrant and that took forever. Plus, today has just been really, really crazy.”

“Really?” Oliver mocked. “That never happens to you.”

“Extra-special crazy. Let me go change and I’ll fill you in on the way to the bar.”

Ari grabbed her bag off the couch and left Oliver for her room. Once inside, she removed the black box from her bag and set it on her dresser. The box must have been from the mystery guy. Had to be. Thank You? For what? Keeping her mouth shut?

She rushed, opening her closet for a pair of jeans and a gray sweater, the color her mother said matched Ari’s eyes. Sitting on the bed, Ari tugged on black leather boots one by one. Her eyes held steady on the box. What was she supposed to do with it? How did he find her? How did he know where she worked?

“Girl!” Oliver called from the living room. “Let’s go!”

“Coming!” she shouted. On a whim, Ari picked up her phone and typed a message. She pressed “Send” hoping she wasn’t making a fool of herself. With one last glance at the box, Ari shut the door, ready for the night.

* * *

Evenings at The Garage were popular despite its size.

The bar was within walking distance from their house and built in a former auto shop. It had perfect dark corners to meet up and talk, a long bar across the back, and tiny tables crunched together in the middle. Most of Ari’s crowd sat amongst bottles and half-full glasses littering the table. Ari stood in one of the dark corners, drink in hand, talking with Nick.

“Eighteen wheelers?”

“Yes,” Ari laughed. “Only eighteen wheelers. That’s all.”

Nick tipped back his bottle of beer, draining it and discarding it on a table nearby. “So this kid goes to truck stops, steals eighteen wheelers and drives them around the city, until he gets caught or runs out of gas.”

“Yep.”

“Then what happens?”

“Typically he gets arrested, and now that he’s eighteen, he spends some time in jail, but due to over-crowding they release him out and he does it again.”

Nick shook his head. “If I wasn’t part of this system I wouldn’t believe it.”

“Tell me your craziest case,” Ari suggested. She drained her drink and set it on the table, next to his empty bottle.

“First, I’m getting another drink. You want one?”

“Sure, thanks.”

Nick squeezed off through the crowd and the minute he disappeared, Oliver left his spot at the table and found her.

“Huh. Wonder how Nick knew we were here?”

Ari made a face. “I texted him.”

“Hmm…so you like him.”

“What? Are we in third grade?”

“Yes.” He pulled a strand of her hair and stuck out his tongue.

Ari smacked his hand away and laughed at his stupid behavior. “Why do you care so much?”

“I don’t know. I want you to be happy. And to get laid. And I needed to know if that has a chance of happening tonight, because I can’t decide how tacky it would be to invite myself to Veronica’s house.”

“So really, this is all about you.”

Oliver raised an eyebrow. “Pretty much.”

Nick came back from the bar and handed Ari her glass. He turned to Oliver and smiled wide. “Hey man, what’s going on?”

“Not much, just checking with my girl to see if she needed a walk home.” Oliver tilted his head in her direction and smiled sweetly. Ari narrowed her eyes in response but all that got her was a bigger grin. Way to throw me under the bus, Oliver. She’d deal with him later.

“I can walk myself, Oliver.”

“Like heck you can,” he said with a wink. “An armed robbery and a car vandalism in one week?” Oliver looked at Nick.

“I can walk you,” Nick said.

Oliver pointed a finger at him. “Make sure she gets inside and sets the alarm before you go.”

“I’m happy to walk you back,” Nick offered, looking between the two of them. “If you want?”

“That sounds nice, thank you,” Ari agreed, a little embarrassed. “I think Oliver has other plans anyway.”

“You got that right,” he said, smiling at the two of them. He clapped Nick on the back and said, “Thanks man, I owe you one,” before darting back to Veronica.

“Who’s the girl?” Nick asked, watching him settle back in at the table.

“Some chick he’s messing around with from work. It’s either true love or a pure disaster. Either way I want a front-row seat. “

“To watching our friends fall in love,” Nick held out his beer for a mock toast. “Or crashing disastrously.”

Ari held out her glass and clinked it to his and laughed. “I’ll drink to that.”

* * *

Nick held her hand on the way home. It was a sly move, one he’d probably perfected years before. While they walked down the cracked and broken sidewalks, he’d slid his hand down hers and wove their fingers together. Calm and casual. Between the lunch and dinners and The Garage, things seemed to be progressing. Ari decided to just accept it even though easily moving into a relationship wasn’t something she was familiar with. Normally, her emotions bounced all over the place and she fought over a million questions…too fast? Too slow? Is he the one? Is this for fun? But none of those questions filled her mind at that point as they walked slowly to her house.

“Which house?” Nick asked as they climbed the hilly street.

“The green one, on the left. With the star pendent light.”

“Oh, I see it. Do you rent?”

Ari shook her head. “I bought it. Oliver rents from me.”

“Homeowner at age twenty-six. Impressive. Living the American dream, huh?”

They reached her driveway and she led Nick to the front porch. “I guess. I came into some money and it seemed like the right decision.”

The money came from her parents’ estate. Money she’d rather not have but she decided to be responsible with it, make the choices they would have wanted her to make.

“I think you have good instincts.”

And there it was, the moment things went from calm and cool, to nerve-wracking and exciting. Nick, in his leather jacket and perfectly fitting jeans, leaned against her door but never let go of her hand. She felt a little woozy from the alcohol but not enough to lose her head. He tugged her closer and bent down to give her a kiss. One she happily returned.

Nick shifted away from the door and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck. They kissed this way, engrossed in one another, until a car drove by thumping a loud bass beat.

Ari broke away, laughing at the distraction and rolled her eyes. “Welcome to the hood,” she said, touching her fingers to her lips.

“Gives it personality,” Nick said. He pushed her hair back over her ear, trailing his fingers along her neck.

“Nice way to put it.”

Ari took the break in kissing to suggest, “Do you want to come in?”

Nick tilted his head and said, “Um…well, can we talk about this?”

“What, this?”

“Me and you.”

Ari looked around wondering where things were going. Was the kiss that bad? Because it didn’t feel bad to her. It felt pretty awesome. “Uh, sure.”

“You’re amazing. And I really like you. And kissing you? I’ve been wanting to do that for weeks.” Ari blushed and fought back a smile. So the kiss wasn’t bad. “I wasn’t sure if it was going to work out and when you texted tonight—I was pretty damn excited.”

“Darn,” Ari corrected out of habit. “Sorry.”

He smiled and ran his hand behind his neck. “Basically, and this sounds like I may lose my man card here, but can we take this slow? If we blow this and have to see each other every other day at work it’s going to be a train wreck. I don’t want that.”

Ari nodded in false agreement. “Yeah, I don’t want that either.”

“But please understand. I’m all in for finding out if this will work. I just don’t want to rush it.”

“Makes sense,” Ari agreed. “I can take things slow.”

“Good,” he said with a relieved smile.

“So how do we handle this?”

“I think tonight, we end this here, and I don’t come inside. Because once I get inside, I’m staying,” he laughed and Ari blushed.

She unlocked the door and quickly walked through the house, checking all the rooms for anything weird while Nick waited on the porch. When she finished she said, “All safe.”

“Good.” He leaned down and kissed her again. “Call you tomorrow?”

“Sounds good.”

He kissed her again and then twice more before she finally pulled herself away and shut the door. Nick didn’t leave the porch until she set the alarm and turned off the lights.

NINE

Ari sat straight up in her bed, surrounded by nothing but pitch dark and she held her breath. On instinct, she reached under her pillow for her phone. Someone or something had made a banging sound out in the living room and Ari’s throat lodged in her chest.

Another crash came from the living room, and she turned on her phone to light the room. For the third time that day, she fought a panic attack. Not one to lie in wait, she got out of bed, tip-toeing across the hardwood floor over to the door. She pressed her ear against the smooth surface, her thumb on the keypad of her phone, ready to dial 911.

Footsteps passed her door, clumsy and loud. She heard a man’s voice followed by a sharp, low, “Shhh!”

Ari sighed and swung the door open, “Oliver! What the heck are you doing?!”

Oliver and Veronica swayed against one another in the hallway. Veronica at least had the good sense to look apologetic.

“We had too much to drink and walked back here,” she said.

Oliver shrugged and pulled his latest conquest into his bedroom. He winked at Ari before he closed the door.

Exhausted and still a little tipsy, Ari shuffled back to her room. Just before she closed the door, the hallway light splayed across her room and dresser. She noticed immediately. The box was gone.

Ari knew she had seen the box when she came in her room for bed. Sleek and black, glinting like a secret. Confused, she flipped on her light. She walked to the dresser, opening the first drawer, tossing socks and panties on the top, next to her jewelry box and a photo of her parents. She felt around inside.

Nothing.

Shoving everything back inside, she did the same to the lower drawers, even pulling the dresser away from the wall, wondering if maybe it fell behind. Again, no box.

Ari turned to the bed, straightening the covers and looking under the pillows, one by one.

“Where did you go?” she mumbled, turning on the bedside lamp, and there it was. On the small table on top of the book she’d been reading. Tiny gold flowers glinting in the light.

Not where she left it. She would’ve sworn on it.

Ari wracked her brain trying to remember if she’d moved the box when she got home, but she had been giddy over her kisses with Nick, not to mention sleepy from the drinks at the bar. She couldn’t remember clearly, and obviously no one had broken in—the house was empty when she came home and the alarm had been set. Judging from the muffled banging through the wall, Oliver hadn’t noticed anything unusual when he and Veronica had gotten home.

Ari turned off the overhead light and got back into bed. She picked up the heavy box and opened the lid slowly. Inside she found the note, exactly as she’d left it.

Clutching the box in her hand, Ari drifted back to sleep, thinking of mystery men and secret messages.

* * *

Ari spent the weekend fighting a hangover, dodging questions from Oliver, and catching up on paperwork. Monday morning yielded a staff meeting where her boss’s boss, Mr. Lincoln, attempted to enforce a new dress code—less casual—and by the time it was over, the stack of pink slips from missed calls sent Ari into a full blown meltdown.

“I spent four hours yesterday catching up on my files so I could tackle my already overwhelming to-do list, and a two-hour meeting, about not wearing denim, just set me back two more days! I can’t catch a break!” Ari paced around Stanton’s office waving the pink papers around as evidence.

“I hear you girl. Things are swamped right now.” He pointed to the organized stack on his desk as though that represented “swamped” or something. Everything in his office was neat and orderly. The photos of his family on the shelf behind his desk. The neatly stacked “In” and “Out” trays. “These kids can’t stay out of trouble for a minute. But you know how this operates. Better jump on this stuff now or it’ll only get worse.”

Ari rolled her eyes and said in the most sarcastic voice she could manage, “Thanks for the pep talk, Coach.”

“That’s what I’m here for!” he yelled as she slammed her office door.

Ari dropped in her desk chair and reached for the phone. Time she stopped having temper tantrums and started returning some of her calls. She flipped through the papers and noticed one was from the juvenile counselor, Mrs. Cox, with the subject listed as: Hope.

Ari knew Mrs. Cox only called when necessary. She was responsible for hundreds of girls and their emotional needs while in detention at the courthouse. Ari pressed number three on the speed dial.