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At least the owners of the store had an alarm. When it’d gone off, the alarm company had alerted them, as well as the police department. One of his officers, Jeff Connors, had finished on his call and had met him at the store, but the thieves had already cut out.
“The owners are on the way. They were in Fort Worth at a show.” Jeff flipped through a little notepad. “They closed up about two hours ago. It’s the first time they’ve had a break-in since they’ve been open.”
Jax nodded. It was the same story he’d read in a month-old report from the dry cleaners a couple of blocks over. Hole in the door and everything. There was a pattern emerging. The only problem was, it didn’t jibe with Marissa’s break-in. Her shop, the suspect had stayed on the premises. He’d all but made himself at home from the sound of it. The cleaners and this store had been a “grab what you can and get out.” Granted, both of those places had alarm systems in place and Marissa’s didn’t.
He made a mental note to talk to her about installing something as soon as she could.
After three hours helping Jeff write up the report, then going over what the owners lost in the robbery, Jax was nearly as wiped out as he had been in the morning when he left Marissa’s. Chief Kendal had warned him there would be a rough transition period taking over an entire police department. He just hadn’t expected it to all hit in the span of a few days on next to no sleep.
The next morning he was running on coffee and carbs as he went through a pile of paperwork. Jeff had found him the file on a break-in at a clothing boutique that had happened before he’d taken over. That made three robberies on the strip downtown. There was no notation of there being a hole in the back door, so he was headed over to the boutique after lunch.
He filed the newest report and headed through the station looking for his daytime dispatcher, Chief Kendal’s granddaughter, Macey. She was Otto’s older brother’s kid. It was a little disconcerting to think kids he’d grown up with had kids old enough to vote or drink beer. Or work for him.
“Hey, Mace.”
Macey shifted one of the earpieces from her headset back. “Hey, Jax. I mean Chief.” She gave him a quick little salute. “What can I do for you?”
“Do you know that cupcake place over on Flower Tree?”
“Marissa’s.” She nodded. “Sure.”
“What was there before that went in? I know it’s been there less than a year.”
She tapped her manicured nail to her lip. “Um. It was a burger place. No, last it was a pizza place. For a couple of years. Before that it was a burger place. It lasted almost as long, I guess.” She settled her headset back into place. “Man, now I’m hungry,” she mumbled just as the phone lit up.
He made a mental note to look for reports for either business when he had a little more time. As it was, he barely had time to grab a quick lunch from a fast-food chain a block away from the station.
Jax drove out to the clothing boutique. The last time he’d been in town, nearly ten years earlier, the “business district” was an odd assortment of storefronts mixed with houses. Now it was all commerce with new storefronts mixed in with the businesses that had been around since he was a kid. The small, three-by-four street section of the town had been transformed into a mini shopping mecca. Flower Tree was on the far edge of the shopping center. Two of the burglaries had been there. The cleaners was two streets over and the boutique was on the opposite edge.
He parked his SUV cruiser three stores down from the clothing store. All the other spaces were filled with minivans and station wagons. He was glad to see the downtown area had picked up from when he was a kid. Back then the stores had been hard-pressed to get any customers on weekdays. Weekends were the main haul.
When he stepped from the cruiser he glanced up and down the street. Houses lined the backs of the business. A tree-lined alleyway separated the commerce district from the residential area. It gave a false sense of separation of the two, and made for easy access to cross through. He’d reread the report of the break-in of the clothing store. The alarm had tripped just before four in the morning. The small safe had been completely lifted from its spot under the manager’s desk. A few pieces of clothing had been stolen—nothing high end—and all the costume jewelry on display had been taken. Worse seemed to be the umpteen displays the thieves broke for no apparent reason than to cause additional damage. The department had responded within six minutes and by the time they got there, the store was empty. If there’d been a hole in the door it hadn’t been reported.
A bell tinkled above the door when Jax walked in. He removed his sunglasses while his eyes adjusted. Several startled females froze. The store catered solely to women. Dresses and blouses hung from the walls as displays. One corner had a variety of lingerie, the other had a small group of dressing rooms. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been in a store like it.
A tall blonde came from behind the register and hurried toward him. She was dressed in a form-fitting teal dress. Could she sit in it—and still breathe? Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with her store logo—covered in flour—Marissa was more beautiful than this done-up woman and her scary high heels.
She stopped a few feet from him. A hesitant smile crossed her mouth. “Chief Carlisle. How are you? Was there something I can help you with?” She glanced over her shoulder and one of the patrons giggled.
“I was hoping to speak to the owner about the break-in the store had several months back.”
The blonde’s smile fell away as her brow pulled down slightly. “I’m the owner. Joan Barkley. Follow me. We’ll go to my office.” She motioned for him to follow. When they went into the stock room, she told a young sales girl to go out and watch the store.
Her office consisted of a little cubby in the back corner of the stockroom. A small desk sat with a computer atop it, as well as a couple of dainty, girlie chairs in front. There was a door that he presumed led outside and another door that looked like it might be a restroom. The rest of the stockroom was lined with shelves and racks loaded down with merchandise.
Once they were alone, she offered him one of the small chairs. “No thanks.” He was afraid it might break under his weight.
He ran her name through his head. It was so strange coming back to town. So many people knew who he was thanks to the Oak Hollow Country Club or school. He’d been told all the rumors skittering around when he’d been hired, his name on everyone’s lips. Some speculated he was a bad cop who’d been ousted from his job in Austin and was coming home with his tail tucked between his legs. Others said he was leaving behind a scorned woman whose husband had threatened to kill him. If only his life had been half as interesting.
Now he was running across people, wondering, when they knew immediately who he was, if he’d forgotten some long-lost connection to them. Most he found knew of him, but didn’t actually know him. Joan Barkley didn’t ring any mental bells so he stated his business. “I was hoping you could walk me through what happened after your break-in.”
Joan hugged her arms around herself. She replayed the story as it had been in the report.
“How did they get in?”
Joan shrugged. “Don’t know. We were never quite sure. Nothing looked disturbed. They ran out the back door, though. A scarf was hung up on it when the police got here.”
“This door?” Jax moved over to the large metal door.
“Yes.”
He squatted and examined the door. There wasn’t a hole in it like at the other locations.
“Well, yes, but no.”
He swiveled to look up at Joan. “Beg pardon?”
“We had to replace that door. A delivery truck backed into it a couple of months ago. The kid was talking on his phone.” She waved her hand. “He took out the door and the A/C unit. I lost a week of business. It was too hot without the A/C.”
Jax stood and nodded. The door could have had a similar hole at the time of the robbery. They’d never know for sure. “Have you had any other trouble since then? Any other robberies?”
“No. Why all the questions now? The officers who took my statements back in September got all the information.”
Jax didn’t want to panic the business owners. Definitely an emerging pattern, though he didn’t have enough info yet. So he said, “I’m just going over some of the unsolved crimes.” That was true enough, even though there weren’t all that many crimes in Oak Hollow that went unsolved. Nestled far north of Fort Worth, it wasn’t like they had a lot of carryover crime from the “big city.”
The blonde morphed before his eyes. Gone was the worried store owner, in her place was a smiling, flirty female. She shifted her stance, stuck out her hip. “That’s very kind of you, Chief. To be so conscientious.”
He nodded slowly. “It’s my job.”
“Oh sure.” She lifted one thin eyebrow. “How have you adjusted to town? I’ve heard you’ve been eating all alone every night. That’s no fun.” She took a few steps toward Jax.
“It’s okay.” He backed up and suddenly the small stockroom seemed to shrink by half as she cornered him. In high school, he would have loved flirtation like this. He’d have soaked it up. Hell, when he’d first come back to town, he might have been flattered, and responsive to a degree, but his mind zipped to Marissa. He wasn’t the least bit interested in Joan Barkley.
“Aw, now, that can’t be true.” She tilted her head and battered her eyelashes. “You know, if you’re free Friday night, I’d be more than happy to have dinner with you, help you get reacquainted with Oak Hollow.”
“That’s awful kind of you, ma’am.” He backed up another step and his back bumped a stack of boxes next to the wall. The only way to get out of there was to push past Joan. He wasn’t quite that desperate…yet. “But I have a pretty busy schedule with my new job and all.”
“They obviously let you out to eat. No point in doing it all by your lonesome.”
He nodded. “Something to consider.” He took a step closer to her. “Tell you what. Let me check what’s going on and I’ll get back to you.”
The shy smile he’d seen when he’d first walked into her store was nowhere near the thousand-watt gleam he got in response to that noncommittal answer.
Joan stepped aside. “I look forward to hearing from you. Welcome home, Chief.”
Back out on the street, Jax only glanced back at the store once. The way the ladies had giggled when he left, there would be new gossip going around town about him before he could even get back to his vehicle. He shook his head. “Welcome home.”
Chapter Four
For the rest of the week, Marissa went through her regular routine. No one had broken in again as far as she could tell—she’d rigged up a theft detector every night like flour on the floor and spoons precariously balanced on crates by the door. Everything was as-is when she returned to work in the morning. It didn’t, however, make her worry any less for Hill. She hadn’t seen him again. She’d even considered going up to the high school to follow him and see where he went. Cherry had talked her out of it.
She hadn’t seen Jax, either. She’d expected him to come in and try the new cupcake she’d been telling him about. Or even just to see her. They had hit it off, hadn’t they? Or was he just being polite at the restaurant the other night? He was a busy man. Had an entire town to protect. The last thing he needed to preoccupy himself with was some girl he’d gone to school with years and years ago.
The end of the week—the last Friday of March—Lexi came back in with her friends. Marissa hadn’t seen her since she’d asked about Hill. Lexi gave a sly wave behind one of the other girl’s backs, then acted as if she’d never spoken to Marissa by completely ignoring her.
Marissa sighed. There were days she longed for a family, wanted so badly to be a mom, but she often worried she wasn’t cut out to parent. Her mother hadn’t been. And unfortunately, unlike her siblings, she favored her runaway mother with her almost khaki eyes and brown hair so much it was scary. She’d catch her father staring at her every now and again with a wistful expression. Marissa had always wondered if that was why she was the serious, responsible one in the family. She had a deep-seated need to make up for the flighty woman who bore them all.
Both her brothers were married with kids, though. They made a family and made it work. How hard could it be? At least that was what she asked herself until the kids from the school would come by and she was glad she didn’t have to deal with the mess of raging hormones. Every now and again she’d babysit for Duff. He and his wife didn’t go out much, but when they did, they liked to leave their two-year-old, Meg, with family. Usually it was with their dad. They’d never leave her with Marlie, who was so absorbed in her new business she rarely had time for herself much less family. More often than not, Marlie was so busy with new clients she was frazzled and half-crazy—not a good combo to go with a precocious two-year-old.
Marissa shook herself and went back to going over the orders she had to get ready for the weekend. She had three birthday parties and a baby shower all to get ready by Sunday morning for pick up.
She’d just finished the paperwork and closed a folder when a shadow fell over her. Lexi stood with her bright pink backpack looped over her shoulders and small soda in her hand.
“Yes?”
“You didn’t turn Hill in.” Lexi tilted her head sideways. “Why?”
Marissa linked her fingers together and arched an eyebrow. “Turn him in for?”
“He told me you caught him here one night.” She shifted from one foot to the other. “Then when you found out his name, you didn’t bust him. You could have gone up to the school and told them, but you didn’t.”
Marissa sat staring at the girl. She didn’t know what to say.
Lexi glanced back over her shoulder. Her friends were packing up to leave. “Will you be here later? Like after six?”
“I’ll be here ‘til we close at seven.”
Lexi gave a quick nod and turned without another word.
“What was that all about?” Kya tucked a rag into the pocket on the front of her apron.
“I have no idea.”
As the girls were leaving, Marlie came barreling through the door. “Mar, you will never in a million years believe who I spoke to today.” She was dressed in a bright yellow sheath dress with tan high heels. Her blond hair was pulled up in a loose bun at the back of her head, and she had a large Coach tote bag slung over her shoulder.
“I can’t believe you two are twins,” Kya whispered before she headed toward the kitchen. “I’m outta here, boss. See ya tomorrow.” She waved over her head.
Marissa smiled at Kya’s departing back, then looked at her sister. “Who?”
Marlie beamed. “I was just sitting at my desk looking over the latest bridal catalog. I wouldn’t even think she knew my name much less my phone number.” She pointed at an orange crème cupcake. “Can I?”
Marissa took the cupcake from the case. “Who was it, Lee?” She used her sister’s nickname hoping it would spur on her tale. When they were little, with such similar names, she’d been designated Mar and her sister Lee. Too many times Marissa’d been unsure if she was in trouble when their father would yell Mar-Lee. Was it the both of them, or just her sister? After a while, though, she was too well behaved to be doing anything wrong, so she’d been able to ignore him.
Her sister had the same mischievous glint in her eye now as she had back when they were little and she was up to something.
“Who, Lee?” Her sister’s excitement was infectious.
Marlie bit into the cupcake. “This is so good.”
“If you don’t tell me who you spoke to…”
“Relax,” she said around a mouthful of cake. When she swallowed she said, “Before I tell you, though, I need you to do me a huge favor. You have to promise me.”
Marissa frowned. Her sister had asked her for many favors over the years, none with such a hazy preface. “What’s the favor?”
Marlie picked at the wrapped edge of the cupcake. “I have a new client and I need some help. Will you act as my assistant? It won’t be all that time-consuming, but I need an extra set of hands. Not to mention it will make my business look better if I have an ‘assistant.’”
“I guess.” Weddings were months and months of planning. She’d be able to schedule her employees around the wedding activities and the times she had to prepare for parties.
“You have to promise. Say, ‘I pinky swear’.” Marlie bounced on the balls of her feet.
“You’re calling out the pinky swear?” Since they were six and hatched a scheme to sneak out Duff’s favorite cassette tape so they could play it—and promptly broke it—they’d pinky swore every time one needed the other to cover for them. They’d never broken a pinky swear. And Duff never found out they were the ones who destroyed his copy of Van Halen.
“Yes, it’s that big of a deal.”
Marissa leaned over the counter and held out her pinky to her sister. “I pinky swear, I’ll be your assistant.”
Marlie squealed and latched on her finger for their elaborate handshake.
“Now tell me.” Marissa grabbed a cupcake for herself and sat with her sister at the closest table. “Who called you?” She took a bite of the black cherry cupcake.
“None other than Bunny Carlisle.”
Marissa didn’t even taste the food as she chewed. It had been almost a full week since she’d seen Jax Carlisle and that was after nearly twenty years. Why hearing he was getting married sat so heavily with her… Probably because the moments she did sleep over the past week, she’d done nothing but fantasize about the man. “That’s…great.”
“It’s more than great. It’s going to be the wedding of the year.” Marlie dragged her finger across the top of the icing and scooped some up. “There’s only one catch.”
Marissa frowned around another bite of her food. There was always a catch. Her mouth was too full to ask, but she didn’t need to—Marlie plowed right on anyway.
“It’s a less than a month away.” Her sister swiped at her mouth with a paper napkin and folded it neatly on the table.
“What is?” she asked when she finally swallowed. “The wedding?” Marissa’s easy schedule was quickly flying out the window. “Why so fast?” Why such a speedy wedding after he’d just moved to town? Not to mention, why was Bunny involved? The last she’d heard they weren’t on the best of terms. Was it an olive branch to get back in his mother’s good graces? Though, that was a hell of an olive branch. “Can you get a wedding done under a month?”
Marlie pouted, as if Marissa had insulted her, then she said, “I can get it done. Most of the details are in place. Bunny has already fired the three previous wedding planners.” She leaned closer. “Actually I think I heard the last one walked out and forfeited her fee. Anyway, it’s more or less overseeing the finishing touches.”
For the next two hours, Marlie ran over the details that were already in place from the previous planners. Most of the details were already set in motion. Why couldn’t the Carlisles just proceed on their own? When she wasn’t helping her customers, she made notes of what Marlie needed her to do.
“I have a face-to-face with Callie and Bunny first thing tomorrow morning. Do you think you could tag along?”
“Where is it?”
Marlie looked away briefly and mumbled, “At the country club.”
Marissa’s stomach pitched. It was bad enough she’d agreed to help her sister with the Carlisle wedding. To have to go to the Oak Hollow Country Club was almost too much. She’d worked there in high school, not fancy or rich enough to become a member. But she’d been good enough to wash towels and table linens. “You’d go back there? After what they did?”
Their father had worked at the club for nearly twenty years, the last five as the head mechanic. Marissa and Marlie’s senior year in school, all the white towels and linens had turned up pink. Marissa had been the last one on duty, and though they were white and in the closet when she’d left, she’d been promptly fired. As had her father. They said if he didn’t agree to it, they’d press charges against her for property damages.
Even though her father believed in her innocence, he didn’t want to chance that the incident would adversely affect her and her chances in college.
