18. His Heart Raced

18

HIS HEART RACED

" H ow come you're here alone?" Alex asked Jarrett three weeks later. They were at The Bond Retreat for their cousin Carson Mills's wedding to Laine Connors.

"Who would I be with?" he asked.

Alex nodded his head for Jarrett to move a few feet over where there were fewer people. Jennie had walked off to talk to someone else while she grabbed their name cards from the table. Jarrett had his in his hand and knew he'd be the lone single one at his table with the rest of his family.

"Come on now," Alex said. "I know you're dating someone."

"And how do you know that?" he asked.

He hadn't been in to see Andi at the salon. She'd even given him a haircut at her house because she knew it was bothering him. He offered to go in and she'd told him no while she laughed and said that if Amanda was there she'd know right awaythere was something goingon with the two of them. It was easy for people to see.

He wasn't sure about that since he hadn't been in a relationship with someone in a while.

But the fact that his heart raced every time he saw her or they spent the night together was enough for him to know that maybe he did have it pretty bad.

"Do you think anything is a secret on this island?" Alex asked. "First off, one of the guys on my shift saw you out to dinner two weeks ago with a woman."

"So?" he said. "Going on a date doesn't mean I'm bringing her to a family wedding."

"Very true," Alex admitted. "But Mac asked me to go over to the house he's buying to walk through with the inspector also. I was looking at code things."

He laughed. "Did you go in uniform?"

"No," Alex said. "I wouldn't do that. But they knew who I was. I recommended Colin. That's why Mac asked me to go too."

"What's your point?" he asked.

"I drove by your house in the morning before we met there. I was going to get your ass out of bed, but I noticed a car in your driveway."

He'd have to be careful now with Mac not living that far away soon.

But he'd planned on telling his family about Andi. He just had to break it to her. The last thing he wanted to do was have her be alone for the holiday. They were planning on Christmas Eve together and then he'd wake with her and go to his parents and return to her place. It was only a few days away.

"So?" he said.

"Come on," Alex said. "Who is it?"

Since he was going to be talking about it soon, there was no reason to hide this. "Her name is Andi Benson."

"The girl you saved that day?" Alex asked, laughing. "Dude, I never thought you'd use that."

"Hey," he said, lowering his voice. "Be quiet. I didn't use anything. I saw her again when I went to get my hair cut. She works at Amanda's salon. She ended up cutting my hair and she asked me to dinner."

Alex laughed over that statement, then looked around. "I know a bit about her."

He sighed. "What do you know?"

"Enough. Dad and Mac were talking about it some after you left on Thanksgiving. Her cousin who is a US Marshal came to the island fast. You two had him in a room asking questions to find out if there was trouble coming to the island."

"There is no trouble," he said.

"You'd tell us if there was," Alex said. "But what about her? What do you know about her?"

"What I need to for now," he said. "Drop it."

Alex's smile faded. "Wow. She's in your blood, isn't she?"

"I don't want to talk about this now," he said.

"Sure it's not a protective thing?" Alex asked.

"Do you want me to deck you in front of everyone and get in trouble with Mom?"

Alex laughed again. "The fact you're willing to risk that just told me what I needed to know. When are you telling Mom? She's going to find out soon, you know that."

"Maybe tomorrow. We'll see," he said. "I have to talk to Andi about it some. I'll see her later after the wedding."

"What are you two talking about?" Jennie asked, walking over.

"Your husband is being a pain in my ass like he has been most of my life," he said.

"He excels at being a pain," Jennie said. "Don't you know that by now?"

Jarrett leaned down and kissed his sister-in-law's cheek. "It's a good thing he has you in his life to keep him in line."

"Don't you know it," Jennie said.

He sat through the ceremony, the bride and groom both holding one of their twins while they exchanged vows as more family members stood at the altar.

After the ceremony was done and pictures were being taken, people were up and moving around and he decided to get a drink and seek out Van Harlowe.

"Hey, Van," Jarrett said. "I keep meaning to call you. Sorry to come over during this, but I saw you and figured we'd have a few minutes."

"Did you find anything out?"

"Not a ton. I'm not convinced Miles wasn't at the house, but he says he was at the casino. We've gone over the footage and saw he'd been on the island the day before and left a few days later. He was in the casino most of the time gambling, but they can't verify his every movement. That early in the morning, he claimed he was in his room, but we have him leaving the casino around six thirty."

"Really?" Van asked.

"Yes. Griffin has the grounds under surveillance. Miles left in a white van at six thirty and returned at seven thirty-eight."

"Enough time to leave and stop to put lettering on the van, then drive away, stop to remove itanddrive back to the casino," Van said. "The house is about fifteen minutes away."

Van used to be a detective in Kansas before he moved to Amore Island.

"It is," he said. "But no proof other than our gut. Not sure how much more we can do other than keep an eye on him. There were no fingerprints. Nothing was taken. The renters seem happy with the results."

"I guess if they are satisfied that is all that matters," Van said.

"But you're not?" he asked. Jarrett wasn't convinced, but it wasn't like he had all the time in the world to keep chasing things that could be closed.

"I don't know what I think. I can't get it out of my head. Could be because I own the place and feel guilty. I've installed cameras on all the properties and I'm not sure why my grandfather hadn't before."

"It's all you can do," he said.

Jarrett went back to his table after that and sat down. The next few hours went by fairly fast. When he felt it was a safe enough time to leave, he took off before the rest of his family.

It's not like he was going out on the floor and dancing and he had something else better waiting for him.

He pulled into Andi's driveway and grabbed his bag from the backseat. He was going to spend the night.

"Look at you," she said, grabbing him by his suit jacket and pulling him in. "Yummy. Damn. I thought you might be hot in your trooper uniform, but this is something else altogether."

He felt the flush fill his face. "I've got a few suits. Lots of weddings in my family lately."

"I like this suit," she said. "And I'd like to get it off you too."

"Do you mind if I take a quick shower?" he said. "I always feel hot and sticky in these things."

"Sure," she said. "I'm going to watch you undress."

He rolled his eyes at her as she followed him to her room. He thought she was joking, but she wasn't when she sat on the bed and watched him remove every article and hang his suit up.

The whole time she was grinning at him and making him feelself-conscious.

He was getting dressed when he was done cleaning up and thinking he should have just invited her into the shower with him when he heard his phone ringing.

"Here you go," she said, opening the bathroom door and handing it over.

It was Van and that told him it might not be good.

"Hi, Van."

"Sorry to bother you," Van said. "Someone broke into my house tonight."

"Text me the address. I'll be right there."

"You need to leave," Andi said.

"I do. I need to call Mac too. This isfamily related. An ongoing case and now something happened when we were at the wedding."

"Go," she said. "I'll be here when you return."

He felt bad but left and wasn't too worried she was upset about it.

He called Mac and swung by and got his brother.

"You should have called me," Mac said to Van fifteen minutes later when they pulled in front of Van's house. Damn, this place was gorgeous, but he shouldn't have expected any differently.

"I should have," Van said. "But I think this is connected. Two of my properties now."

Jarrett had called Mac because technically this was something that happened on the island and would involve local police, but since it was family, with Van seriously dating a Bond cousin, and he was already involved with more going on, it was best to have the state police also.

"You're sure someone was in the house?" Mac asked.

Van turned to Mac. "Don't you set traps in your house?"

"Of course," Mac said.

"Always," Jarrett said.

"Well, so do I. Someone was in the office looking for something," Van said.

"Do you know if anything is missing?" Jarrett asked.

"I'll find out, but first I'm going to pull up the security cameras. I'll know when they were shut off and wanted to make sure I did this all while the police were involved."

"Why?" his cousin Kelsey asked, as she stepped into the room holding her dog in her arms.

"Because you don't want to worry about any tampering. Van would know this. It keeps the investigation cleaner."

Van pulled his laptop out and they saw exactly when the alarms were shut off. They'd have no idea when the person left since they weren't turned back on. Whoever it was knew the code to get into the house and the alarms.

"Who set up this system, do you know?" Mac asked.

"I've got a card here somewhere. I'll call and see if they can see something I'm not able to." Van went through the videos and tried to scan any movement in the front and didn't see anything. No one coming through the front of the property.

"Go back," Jarrett said. "Lights flickered there."

Van rewound and noticed on another screen that the motion lights in the back came on, but an animal could have caused that. Only no one thought so when it was a minute before his alarm went off.

"There is a door to the garage back there. You need a key for it," Van said.

"Which might explain how someone got in," Jarrett said. It was the first thing that came to his mind.

"Do you know anyone that your grandfather might have given a key to?" Kelsey asked. "I'm positive my father knew how to get in the house, but he was at the wedding and he'd never do that."

"I have no idea," Van said. "I'm going to see if I can notice any activity in the last few days around the house."

There wasn't far to go to see a face show up on his front porch and then move back before it could trip the fact someone was there on his phone.

"Who is that?" Mac asked.

"My father," Van said.

"Why is your father here?" Kelsey asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Van said.

"Have you had any communication with your father?" Mac asked. "Any reason he'd be here and walk on your porch and not even ring the bell or knock?"

If Jarrett thought that was odd he wasn't sharing that fact either. He wasn't one to judge someone's personal life.

"No to it all," Van said. "But I'll find out."

"Are you going to call him now?" Kelsey asked. It was seven at this point.

"No," Van said. "I'll call tomorrow. If it's him I'm not giving him the satisfaction of my knowing he was here. Didn't you say you can track the dock cameras?"

"We can," Mac said. "But that won't stop him from leaving."

"Something in my gut says he wouldn't come in and look around and leave. Again, the alarms were shut off. A key had to be used. He'd have none of that. It's not him that was in the house."

"Are you sure?" Kelsey asked.

"Positive. There is another reason he's here and right now I can't deal with him and this. I've got to focus on who was in my house. We aren't staying though. Let's change and go back to your house tonight."

"Probably smart," Jarrett said. "Let us know if you think of anything else." There wasn't much more for them to do. Nothing had been damaged, nothing missing. Mac and he would both log the call and file a report.

"I will," Van said.

Jarrett drove Mac home and then returned to Andi's.

"Everything okay?" Andi asked him when he walked in the door.

"Yes. Nothing to worry about. My cousin's boyfriend is having some trouble with break-ins, but nothing was taken either time."

"Someone searching for something," she said. "That is worse than anything. You don't know their motive then."

"No," he said. "It's unsettling and I know Kelsey, my cousin, is worked up, but Van used to be a detective. He's got a good handle on it."

"He had traps set in the house to know, didn't he?" she asked.

Which meant her father did the same thing. "Do you do that?" he asked.

"No," she said sighing. "I don't see a need to though I know how to. I don't want that stress in my life to come home and wonder if something was moved. Did I move it? How long had it been moved? All those things. Do you do it?"

"I do," he said. "I can't help it. But it's not something that I do daily. I've got alarms too, but this is more that I've got things set at the back door that I don't use often. Each night I check the lock and make sure the trap is still in place."

Just a piece of paper in the corner that would falldownif the door opened.

"Too much for me," she said.

She was on the couch and he was next to her. She snuggled under his arm some. It was close to eight.

"How was your day?" he asked. It felt like her playful mood was gone. That was fine. He just liked to hold her.

"Good. It was a long one, but I got some big tips," she said, smiling. "I'm getting more and more clients from word of mouth and that is always great."

"I'm glad to hear that," he said. It just told him she was fitting into the community more.

"Me too," she said.

When she yawned, he picked up the remote and handed it over. "Let's find something to watch on TV before bed."

"Sure," she said. "You find something."

He was scrolling through and five minutes later realized she was out cold. He didn't want to move to wake her so found some show to pass the time.

His phone ringing an hour later had her jumping and him reaching for it to see it was Mac.

"Hey," he said. "What is going on?"

"Kelsey's house was vandalized. They went there and she found spray paint on the back of her house when she let her dog out."

"Jesus," he said, listening to what Mac had been up to for the past hour. "Do you think it's connected? I should have been called."

"I'm not sure. Kelsey says no. It didn't make sense that it was, but I never discount anything. Van made some comments about a guy that Kelsey met on social media. It could be anything from kids to someone she knows and has pissed off or something to do with Van."

"Can you send that report to me?"

"You'll get it when I'm done. I'll do it tomorrow. I'm ready to call it a night."

"Me too," he said. "Talk to you tomorrow."

"Everything okay?" Andi asked.

"Just more going on with my family tonight. Nothing for you to be concerned about."

No reason to draw her into his drama or maybe bring up any bad memories she had of her own.

The most important thing he learned tonight was that she seemed almost unfazed over the interruptions and that told him that, no matter her secrets, he'd been waiting for her most of his life.