Chapter 15
Fifteen
Mia shaded her eyes, watching Brax tightrope walk along the edge of the roof. “Take it easy up there. You’ve never installed a tin roof before.”
He just flashed her that smile that stopped her heart. “I’ve got this, Baby. I want to put my stamp on everything in this place. Really make it mine.”
She understood the need for that. They’d had little enough that they could truly call theirs over the years. Ownership was a big deal to them both. Still, she didn’t like seeing him up there. She’d be glad when the installation was over and he was back on solid ground.
The place was shaping up. With the new siding and roofline, very little remained to remind people that this had once been The Right Attitude. That had been the entire point of the design, and Mia was proud of the work she’d done here, taking the uninspired chunk of cinderblock and concrete and turning it into something with character and style. The building would serve the guys well, and hopefully, despite all the interruptions, Mountainview would pull off completion of the renovation more or less on time.
An engine revved and tires spit gravel. Mia whirled in time to see a black SUV flying up the drive. Time slowed down, stretched out, so she saw the window lower by inches as it had on another street, in another city, in what felt like another lifetime.
No!
But she couldn’t run. Couldn’t scream as the barrel of the gun emerged. The muzzle flashed, a syncopated rhythm of destruction. Windows shattered. People shouted. And still, she could do nothing.
No, not again!
But the searing pain of bullets didn’t rip into her flesh.
With a rubber-band snap, time sped up again. Baffled, she watched the SUV drive away. She was still alive.
Something crashed behind her, and Mia spun to see Brax in a crumpled heap on the new porch. Blood spread beneath him, staining the boards a deep maroon.
Terror propelled her forward.
“No. No. No. No! No!” She skidded to a halt beside him, dropping to her knees, rolling him over. Blood pulsed from multiple wounds. Sobbing, she pressed her hands to two, desperate to stop the bleeding.
“Mia.” His voice sounded far away, weak. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth, and those storm gray eyes she so loved were dim and full of pain.
“You’re gonna be okay. Just hang on. You have to be okay. Somebody call an ambulance!”
“Mia.”
Beneath her slick hands, his labored breathing slowed.
Her tears fell harder as she bent over him. “No. No, you can’t leave me. Don’t leave me.”
But his chest was no longer moving, and his eyes had gone glassy and still.
Someone pulled her back. “He’s gone.”
She jerked free. “No!”
Luca took a firmer grip on her arms, tugging her away. “Honey, he’s gone.”
Mia screamed, letting out all the impotent rage and pain and grief.
He shook her hard. “Mia!”
She came out of the dream still screaming, fighting at the hands holding her.
“Mia! Baby, snap out of it. Wake up.”
The sound of Brax’s voice had her sobbing again as she dove for him, running her hands over his chest, checking for wounds. But there was no blood. The whole damned thing had been a nightmare. Locking her arms tight around him, she pressed her face into his throat, where she could feel the hammer of his pulse.
His breath shuddered out as he curled around her. “That must’ve been one hell of a bad dream.”
“You were dead, and it was all my fault.”
She’d broken the rules. She’d told him the secret. It was the thing she’d been warned of over and over again, how she’d been kept in line for years. And now he was at risk.
“I’m okay. I’m fine. Nothing’s gonna happen to me.”
“You don’t know that. We don’t know who this is or what they want or how far they’ll go to get it.”
He stroked the hair back from her face. “Baby, I know you’re scared. But we’re going to figure this out. Nobody’s gonna get hurt, let alone killed.”
The bedroom door flew open, crashing back against the wall, and she screamed again. Leno came charging through, teeth bared as he took a flying leap onto the bed, looking for the threat.
Worried he’d lunge at Brax, she grabbed his collar. “Stand down, Leno. Everything’s okay. Everything’s fine. It was just a bad dream.”
Finding no one to attack, he whined and collapsed across her legs, licking at the tears on her face.
She hooked an arm around the dog and laid back down. “I’m okay, pal. I’m okay.”
Brax stretched out behind her, and sandwiched there between him and Leno, she finally settled, letting the last vestiges of the nightmare go. She wanted to cocoon up and stay here the rest of the day. The rest of forever. Here, they were safe. Brax was whole.
But today was supposed to be business as usual. They’d all agreed. So, it didn’t matter that she’d barely slept, or that she felt like she’d been hit by a truck. They had to get up and start their day. The day that would inevitably lead to her having to tell her story yet again, to the police this time. The idea of enduring another recitation, plus all the questions they’d inevitably have, had her wanting to pull the covers over her head to hide.
When the actual alarm clock sounded sometime later, she sighed and slapped it off.
Brax pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Why don’t you hop in the shower? I’ll let Leno out and start the coffee.”
“If I have to.”
She stood under the spray for a long time, wishing it would wash the images of blood from her brain. The crew could finish the remaining siding without them. She’d see that Brax worked inside today. Maybe nobody was planning on doing some kind of drive-by, but she wasn’t about to take any chances with him.
By the time she made it to the kitchen, Brax had made more than just coffee. He pulled muffins out of the oven, scenting the air with cinnamon and nutmeg. Mia didn’t ask where those had come from. Since he’d been spending more time over here, her cabinets had acquired a whole host of additional baking ingredients. As she’d been reaping the benefits, she certainly wasn’t going to complain.
“Apple muffins. I know you’re probably not hungry, but you should try to eat something.”
Knowing he was right, she slid onto a stool at the counter and dug up a smile for him. “Smells great.”
He plated up two and poured her a mug of coffee. “Jonah called while you were in the shower.”
“Oh?” Everything in her tensed with dread.
“He and Holt got Xander up to speed last night. They did put a deputy on site. Nobody showed up. There was no evidence on our system either. Whoever planted everything may well decide it’s not worth trying to get back in, rightly assuming we’ll be on the lookout for any additional equipment.”
“So, now what? You don’t think whoever it is will just walk away.”
“I don’t know what to think. If this was about monitoring you to make sure you aren’t revealing privileged information, could be they’re satisfied that you’re no threat.”
“And if it’s about something else?”
He jerked his shoulders. “Right now, no news is good news. We’ll take the quiet night for what it was.”
She relaxed a little and nibbled at a muffin. “So far, everything has been about observation. If this was somehow connected to the people my father worked for, it doesn’t seem like they’d go to this much trouble, over this much time, without some kind of action. There are easier ways to figure out schedules and routines if their true end goal was to target me.”
“All true. Which is what makes me lean toward something related to Curt. Or someone who’s trying to determine whether he left messes that needed to be cleaned up.”
Mia grimaced. “Well, that’s a cheery thought.”
“You’re not a mess. And in that scenario, it seems unlikely they’d target me. So maybe you can chill out enough to really eat that other muffin instead of reducing it to crumbs.”
She looked down at the pile of cinnamon apple goodness on her plate. “Sorry.”
Once he was satisfied that she’d eaten something, Brax cleared their breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and pulled her in for a hug. “You actually up to today?”
“I’ll feel better when I get to work. It’s something I can control.” Far too many things felt out of her hands. She needed to get hers on something that would produce results.
“Then let’s get to it.”
They both stepped outside. Her truck looked wrong, somehow, relative to the house. Mia paused on her front walk, blinking, trying to get her sleep-deprived brain to process what was in front of her.
“Son of a bitch,” Brax growled.
It wasn’t until he’d rushed forward that she realized her front two tires were flat. Hurrying after him, she circled around to the back of the truck, confirming that the two rear tires had suffered the same fate. One tire she could chalk up to a nail or other job-site detritus. God knew, she had that happen often enough. But all four at once? That didn't happen without human intervention.
“They got mine, too.”
Which meant that whoever was behind this had been at her house after they got back late last night. They’d violated her safe space.
This wasn’t waiting. This wasn’t observation. This was action. Violent action. The tires weren’t just punctured. They were slashed.
“We need to call the police.”
Feeling a headache circling behind her eyes already, Mia reached for her phone. It rang before she even got it out of her pocket. Luca’s number. She really wasn’t up to dealing with him right now, but she’d put him off long enough. She had to at least answer this time.
“Luca, this isn’t?—”
“You need to get down here right now.”
Mia went cold. “What’s wrong?”
“The bakery’s been vandalized.”
By the time one of the crew swung by to pick them up, the parking lot at the job site was swarming with people. Three Sheriff’s Department cruisers were angled in front of the door, and yellow crime scene tape had been stretched across it, the ends fluttering in the breeze. As they drove up, Brax scanned the exterior, looking for damage. But the framing for the roof and porch appeared to be unchanged, and the siding they’d put up yesterday was still intact. A sick feeling set up in his gut. What were they going to find inside?
Various members of the crew milled about the gravel lot, expressions divided between grave and pissed. Several lifted their hands in greeting, but nobody rushed over, seeming to sense that now wasn’t the time for delays.
Luca stepped out of the building, ducking under the crime scene tape to meet them. His dark eyes glittered with fury, his jaw set, and for once, it wasn’t aimed at Brax.
“How bad?” Mia asked.
“You’re gonna need to brace yourself.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, starting to step forward.
But Brax caught her arm. “Before we go in, is it just vandalism? No one’s hurt?” The last thing she needed was to walk in on a body or something.
Catching his drift, Luca shook his head. “Nobody’s hurt. It’s just stuff. The police are inside.”
Following his lead, they ducked under the crime scene tape and stepped into chaos. In the course of ripping out the ceiling and upgrading the electrical, they’d planned to overhaul the lighting. But the fixtures hadn’t yet been installed, so work lights had been hauled in to illuminate the scene. Their harsh glare showed the pallet-board shiplap in the front room, pockmarked with holes. Big ones, presumably from a sledgehammer. Others had been pried off and tossed on the floor. Cameras flashed as Investigator Hammond and Deputy Brooks documented the damage.
Xander stood near the door to the kitchen, talking to Holt and Jonah. Luca passed them, gesturing Mia and Brax into the back. The kitchen, still waiting for all the commercial appliances—thank God—was ransacked. Debris was piled in the space they’d prepared for the walk-in cooler. The range they’d salvaged had been beat to shit, one side caved in and the controls destroyed. The gas lines were intact. A small mercy. But all of this was a big fucking escalation from observation. Brax wondered what was next and if the perpetrator would be satisfied stopping with inanimate objects.
Mia said nothing as she took in the destruction.
“The worst of it is out here.” Luca led them to the newly finished bathrooms.
Mia stepped inside first. Some sound slipped out, something between a sob and a scream that had Brax moving in behind her. All the freshly laid tile was busted. The sinks were cracked in half, the mirror above them shattered. The only thing unmolested were the stall partitions. Their doors hung open to reveal a pool of water around the upgraded toilets—tanks cracked, seats ripped off. The only reason the place hadn’t flooded was the drain in the floor. Someone had, at least, thought to shut off the water supply.
“Is the other one as bad?” Brax asked.
“Yeah,” Luca replied.
Which meant the bathrooms would have to be redone entirely. Again.
On a shout of rage, Mia drove her fist into the stall partition.
Before Brax could get to her, Luca had slid between her and the partition.
“Hey. Hey.” He pulled her in, and this time she didn’t fight him. “It’ll be okay.”
Her voice hitched as she tucked her head against Luca’s shoulder. “They destroyed everything.”
That gesture, more than anything else, told Brax how much she trusted the other man. And he had no idea what to think about it.
Luca stroked her hair, his tone softening as he spoke. “Not everything. And what’s broken can be fixed.”
“All that loss. Materials. Money. Time. We were already behind schedule.”
“Yeah. I know. But we’ll fix it. We know how, and we’re really fucking good at what we do.” When she didn’t respond, Luca pulled back and tipped her chin up. “We’ll fix it. Okay?”
Mia swallowed and nodded.
He wiped at the tears streaking her cheeks. “Now pull yourself together to go talk to the cops. The sooner the formalities are sorted, the sooner we can get started setting things to rights.”
Brax watched the exchange and wondered how the hell Mia didn’t realize Luca was in love with her. Whatever else the man was, Brax would lay money he’d never hurt her. Not on purpose, anyway. And he didn’t think the other guy’s anger over the vandalism was feigned. His work had been destroyed, too, and he was well and truly pissed. Which meant Mia was probably right, and he wasn’t behind any of this.
She stepped back, swiping both hands down her face. “Okay. Let’s go do the thing.”
Brax didn’t ask if she was okay. He knew she wasn’t, knew she’d be second guessing and blaming herself. Luca was right. The only way she was likely to feel better would be to take control and rectify the situation. So, he merely followed as she crossed to join Xander and the others.
The sheriff nodded at them both. “Mia. Brax. I understand y’all had some problems at your place, as well?”
“All our tires were slashed,” Brax told him.
Xander arched his brows. “Well, I’d say somebody’s having a right tantrum over all this. Neither of you heard or saw anything out of the ordinary?”
Mia wrapped her arms around her middle. “No. We didn’t get home until after eleven last night, and my dog didn’t raise any alarm.”
“All right. As soon as we wrap things here, I’ll have someone go over to check your house.”
It was the next step, but it felt like nothing. Simmering with impatience, Brax folded his arms. “So how the hell did someone get past your deputy and our surveillance to do this?”
“The security feed was spliced with a loop. Cash confirmed it just a bit ago,” Holt explained.
“As to my deputy, he was here from about midnight on, as soon as I was informed. He didn’t come inside at the time, and the exterior looked fine, so we presume the damage was already done by the time he got here.”
“We figure he—or they—were here around about the time we were at the office last night.” Jonah shrugged. “So, it looks like we shut the barn door after the horses were already out.”
Brax swore. None of them had thought their target would act this fast. What else would that mistake cost them?
Looking sick, Mia scooped a hand through her hair. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Jonah asked. “You didn’t do this.”
“But I—” She cut herself off, glancing around at the others in the room. “If not for me, this wouldn’t be happening.”
“Maybe, maybe not. We don’t know the whys behind any of this yet,” Xander said evenly. “That’s just one possibility.”
“Either way, nobody’s blaming you,” Holt added.
Brax could tell by the distant look in her eyes that she wasn’t buying it. She needed something constructive to do. “How long until we can start the cleanup process?”
“It’ll probably take another couple hours to process the scene here and talk to everybody. Then we’ll need to do the same at y’all’s house. But I expect y’all can dive in early this afternoon.”
“Is there any reason I can’t walk around and make notes in the meantime?” Mia asked.
“Nope. Just don’t disturb anything.”
She nodded. “I’m gonna get started figuring the damage to the budget and timeline.”
Brax started to follow her out, but she held up a hand. “Just… I need a minute. Okay?”
“All right.”
He watched her go, feeling powerless to do anything to make things better for her.
Luca strode over. “Brax. A word.”
Whatever softness he’d had for Mia was gone, replaced by his usual I-want-to-crack-some-heads expression. Brax was low on sleep and tolerance, and the last thing Mia needed was for the two of them to be snarling at each other like a couple of junkyard dogs. But he met the man halfway.
“Look, we really don’t have time right now for whatever territorial pissing contest you’ve got in mind.”
Luca’s brows drew together for a moment before he nodded. “I deserved that. But that’s not what this is about. I’m worried about Mia. She’s gonna take this real hard. She shouldn’t be left alone, or she’ll get too deep in her head. I don’t want to see her backslide from this.”
What the hell did that mean?
“Has this happened before? One of her work sites being vandalized?”
“Once. We did a lot of flips in crap neighborhoods that were going through gentrification. Had some guy, high on God knows what, break in and trash one of them two days before the open house. She was there by herself. Hid in a closet upstairs until he left. She wasn’t hurt, but…” Luca trailed off, his face clouding with self-condemnation. “I should have fucking been there.”
Brax could relate. How much more had she been through that he hadn’t been around to protect her from? “Was the guy caught?”
“Yeah. That helped. But she was in bad shape mentally for a long while after. I’ve never left her alone on a job since. Not until she moved here.” He shifted on his feet. “Look, man, I don’t know how much you know about her past, but she’s got some serious trauma. She’s never gotten into it with me, and I’ve never pushed. I admit, I assumed you were to blame for a lot of it, no matter what she said. I can see different now. She trusts you, and I trust her, so I’m going out on a limb to trust you with her. Stick close and fucking take care of her this time. Okay?”
Brax hadn’t expected an olive branch. It made him think that somewhere past whatever rivalry they had going on was a man he might be able to respect. “Count on it.”
Apparently satisfied, Luca nodded. “I’m gonna go help her with inventorying this mess. She’ll do better if she’s occupied.”
“Okay. Oh, hey. Since you’ve been around for a long time, do you ever remember seeing anybody following her? Watching her?” Maybe this wasn’t the first time.
Luca blinked, taken aback. “Not anybody specific. Not more than the kind of attention any attractive woman gets from assholes out there. Why? Is she in some kind of trouble?”
Mia hadn’t brought him into the loop. Hadn’t told him about her past. It wasn’t Brax’s place to do that now. “We don’t know for sure. But just… keep an eye out, will you?” They needed all the help they could get.
“You’ve got it.”
After Luca went outside, Brax rejoined his friends.
“You two reach some kind of truce?” Holt asked.
“Something like that. Can you get Cash to run him?”
Holt went brows up. “You still don’t trust him?”
“I don’t think he’s out to hurt Mia. But no, I don’t trust him.”
“I’ll see what Cash can find out.”