Chapter Nine
Nick took the steps from the second floor of the BB on silent feet. It was still black outside, and he didn’t want to wake the owner. He hadn’t been able to sleep the previous night, his head filled with pictures of Gracie when he’d left her with Antonio the night before. Accompanying Rafe to the sheriff’s office, they’d interrogated the man he’d caught skulking around the outside of her apartment. Things would have been different if he hadn’t been carrying a gun at the time.
As he’d suspected, the guy was some two-bit piece of garbage who’d caught wind of the job from a buddy currently a guest of the state, doing ten years. Simple enough job, since he’d been provided not only with the name and address of Gracie, but also photos of her. Candid shots of her around Shiloh Springs. At Jill’s Bakery. Daisy’s Diner. But especially at her coffee shop.
The guy had been hired to scare her. Nothing more. To make her jumpy enough to make mistakes. Under their intense questioning, he’d admitted he’d planned to do more than simply scare her, and it had taken every bit of Nick’s self-control to keep from jumping across the table and strangling the man with his bare hands. The thought of this low-life getting his hands on Gracie…
Shaking his head to clear away the thoughts that plagued him all night long, he opened the front door and walked outside, closed it gently behind him, and headed for his car. He’d barely made it into the parking area when he knew something was wrong. The car sat at an abnormal angle, lurching to one side like a drunken sailor.
Squatting down by the front driver’s side tire, it was easy to see the deep slash in it. The back tire was cut too, making them a matched set. He didn’t touch anything, though he doubted they’d be able to pull any prints from them. It was a rental, and probably dozens of people had left prints all over the car and the tires.
“Perfect.”
Straightening slowly, he glanced around, taking in his surroundings, which he should have done in the first place. He’d gotten lax since coming to Shiloh Springs. Instead of focusing on the job, he’d found himself and his mind pulled in too many directions. Reestablishing his relationship with Ms. Patti and Douglas, as well as getting to know the rest of the Boudreaus had him thinking about coming back to the States permanently.
But if he was honest, he knew the reason he hadn’t kept his head in the game, hadn’t focused enough on figuring out who was after him, and her name was Gracie Medeiros.
Something about her that fascinated him. She was pretty, no doubt, but he’d been around beautiful women most of his adult life. Gorgeous women were part of the job, and he’d admit he’d dated his fair share. But there was something about the coffee shop owner that made his heart race. Made his brain lose all train of thought with a simple glance.
He suspected it wouldn’t be long before he made a trip to Huntsville to have an up close and personal chat with Brewster.
Pulling his cellphone from his pocket, he snapped a few quick pics of the tires, and texted them to Rafe, along with a short message. It didn’t take but a few seconds for his response.
“Don’t touch anything. On my way.”
Nick chuckled softly. He wanted to text Rafe back and tell him not to bother, because chances were good they wouldn’t be able to find anything. The graveled parking area wouldn’t show any footprints. The three other cars in the parking lot looked untouched, which meant that his car had been the intended target.
He’d planned on heading out and running for a bit, needing to burn off some of the excess energy and clear his head from the lack of sleep. Maybe go over everything again, figure out what he’d missed, who’d targeted him and why. Instead, he’d fixated on Gracie and her problem.
Sitting on the front steps of the BB, he waited for Rafe, who showed up about fifteen minutes later. Watched the other man circle Nick’s parked sedan, hunkering down to do a cursory inspection. He waited, not wanting to intrude, allowing Rafe to make his own assessment of the damage, draw his own conclusions.
Finally, Rafe walked over and stretched out a hand, helping him to his feet. “Looks like somebody’s not happy about you being back in town.”
“Seems that way.”
“Still no leads on whose chain you’ve yanked hard enough to have ’em chasing you?”
Nick shook his head. “It does seem personal though, doesn’t it? Nobody else’s car was touched.”
Both men turned at the sound of the front door opening. “Don’t just stand there jawing on the front steps, you’re gonna wake the other guests.” Ms. Edna stood silhouetted in the doorway, her diminutive frame encased in a terrycloth bathrobe, head encircled with foam curlers. Nick did a double take when he spotted the pair of combat boots encasing her feet.
“Sorry, Ms. Edna. Hope we didn’t wake you.” Rafe pulled his cowboy hat off when he addressed the older lady, and Nick heard the respect in his voice.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve been awake for an hour. There’s coffee in the kitchen. Come on.” Turning her back to them, she walked back inside, leaving the front door ajar. Nick shook his head while Rafe chuckled.
“I have known that woman my whole life, and every time she opens her mouth, it still surprises me that a little lady like her sounds like a sailor on leave.”
Nick nodded. “The first time I heard her talk, when I checked in, I swear I started looking for the man behind the front desk. Could’ve knocked me over with a feather when I realized that deep masculine voice was coming from a four-foot something woman with an attitude as big as the state.”
“And a heart just as big,” Rafe added, as he climbed the steps.
Heading through the lobby and into the kitchen, Ms. Edna already had coffee poured and waiting. Nick sucked down half of it immediately, needing the extra boost of caffeine. He needed to catch a break, one bit of information to help give him a clue to who wanted him dead—and why.
“I know why Nick’s here, but what brings you around at the crack of dawn, Sheriff?”
“I contacted him,” Nick answered before Rafe got the chance. “I didn’t want to disturb you so early. Just a little trouble with my car.”
“Not mechanical or you’d have contacted a mechanic, not a lawman. What happened?” Her deep matter-of-face tone belied the intense interest he read in her face. He winced, not wanting to get involved with a busybody gatekeeper.
“Little problem with Nick’s tires, Ms. Edna. Appears somebody took a knife to them.”
Her gaze shot to Rafe. “On my property? Oh, heck no.” Mumbling under her breath, she rose to her full height. “Well, what are you waiting for, Sheriff? You know I installed those fancy surveillance cameras your brothers recommended after all that hullabaloo with Lauren and those fake FBI agents. Let’s take a gander and see who’s behind you’re gonna be tossing in a jail cell.”
With that, she clomped out of the kitchen, the sound of her combat boots echoing as she crossed the kitchen threshold and headed toward the office space behind the lobby’s front desk. With a shrug, Rafe picked up his coffee mug and followed behind, with Nick bringing up the tail. He hadn’t spotted any cameras inside the BB, and he’d looked. Hadn’t bothered checking the outside, which was sloppy of him. Usually he was more observant.
Ms. Edna was seated behind an enormous computer monitor sitting on a credenza behind her desk, with multiple open boxes filling the screen. He couldn’t help being impressed with the ease she manipulated the camera feeds, or the quality of the images. Full color too.
“Shiloh and Ridge set her up with state-of-the-art closed circuit cameras. There have been a couple of incidents here, and we all agreed that it would be smart to be sure Ms. Edna and her guests were protected.”
Which Nick took to mean the Boudreaus had footed the bill to protect their friend. Hadn’t spared any expense either, as he watched the feeds.
“It’ll take a while to go through everything unless we know what time it happened. Bet it’s some of those high school kids out joyriding and destroying property. Nuisances, the lot of them.” She shot a steely-eyed stare at Rafe, and he raised his hands, still holding his coffee mug in one.
“None of the high school boys have been out causing mischief in the last six months, Ms. Edna. I’ve got patrols running from midnight to six a.m. every night, which put a stop to that.”
“Humph.” Typing briskly on the keyboard, she cackled and pointed to the screen. “There you go, Rafe. That sedan is yours, ain’t it, Nick?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered, his eyes glued to the monitor. A solitary figure dressed in all black, with a baseball cap on his head that obscured his face. A black oversized hoodie, dark pants and sneakers had him blending into the night for the most part. He glanced nervously around the parking lot before heading for Nick’s car. Since he’d parked on the left, that meant the driver’s side of his car was the side facing the cameras, so it was easy to see the exact moment when the tires were slashed.
Furtively glancing around, he quickly sprinted out of sight. He wondered if the guy had a partner waiting with a car, or if he’d come solo and had parked out of range. Nick was betting on the latter.
“Guess we know this was aimed solely at you, Nick.” Rafe patted Ms. Edna on the shoulder. “Can you play it again, please?”
The image filled the screen and Nick watched it again, studying the lone figure. Something niggled in the back of his head, some fact he should know, but whatever it was eluded him.
“Want me to send you a copy, Rafe?”
“Appreciate it, Ms. Edna.” He turned to Nick. “No point in taking prints, unless you want them done. With a rental, it’s probably not worth the time. In the meantime, we should call Dante. He’ll get you fixed up good as new.”
Nick started to nod when Ms. Edna’s voice stopped him. “Something about this video is bothering me.”
He’d learned to trust his gut a long time ago, and with something nagging at him about the video, and somebody else getting the same feeling, he wanted to hear what she thought.
“What’s that, Ms. Edna?”
“See this here,” she pointed toward the figure then zoomed in for as close-up—well, as close as she could. The cameras could only capture so much. “Look at the feet.”
Nick moved in closer to try and get a better look. Shaking his head, he admitted he didn’t see what she did. “What exactly am I looking at?”
“I’ll admit he’s a little fella, but even so, look at the feet. They are tiny. Ain’t no man I’ve ever seen with feet that small. And this,” she added, changing the angle of the camera to the person’s hands. “They aren’t wearing gloves. See the shadows on the nails? Now I know some of you fancy guys are all wearing nail polish these days, but I haven’t seen much of that in Shiloh Springs. But you ask me, that’s nail polish.”
Nick looked at Rafe, found him staring at the screen, a bemused expression on his face. Could they be looking at a woman? If so, that put an entirely different spin on who was out to get him.
“Good catch. Definitely send me the footage. I’ll have the sheriff’s department computer expert see if she can enhance the details.”
Ms. Edna laughed. “Sheriff’s department computer expert. Boy, who do you think you’re talking to? You’re gonna have Destiny work her magic. Probably doing it on the sly so y’all don’t get her in trouble.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny your guess, even if you’re right.” Rafe grinned. “Nick, I’m going to need you to come down to the office, fill out a report for the insurance company and the rental agency.” He sighed. “Paperwork. Some days I think all I get done is paperwork.”
“You mind giving me a lift? I’ll call the garage, get them working on the car as soon as we get there.”
“No problem. Ms. Edna, thanks for the coffee and the security footage. I’ll be sure to let Ridge and Shiloh know the cameras are being put to good use.”
Nick followed Rafe out to his cruiser and climbed into the front seat. His mind was spinning with the possibilities of his quarry being a woman. It was probably sexist of him, but he hadn’t even considered a woman might want him dead. At least not in an official capacity.
“With this new information, can you think of any females who want you eliminated? Maybe your playboy ways finally catching up to you?”
Nick shook his head. “Honestly, the thought never crossed my mind. There might be one or two who wish they’d never met me, but I don’t think they’d actually want to kill me. I’ll call Calvin and have him run the parameters again with this new information. Maybe a name will pop in the system.”
They drove the rest of the way to the sheriff’s department in silence. Rafe parked in front of the building and cut the engine. “Come in and let’s get the paperwork sorted for your car.” He paused for a second. “Are you planning to stake out Gracie’s place again?”
He struggled to hold his body loose and relaxed, not wanting to give anything away. It wouldn’t do for Rafe to think he felt anything for Gracie except in a professional capacity. At the slight uptick at the corner of Rafe’s mouth, he figured he’d failed at that miserably.
“If I hadn’t, we wouldn’t have caught the guy yesterday.”
“True. He’s still in custody until Chance has an opportunity to get him before the judge. He’s drawing it out as long as he can, buying me a little more time to try and get anything else out of him, but he’s expecting the guy to want to make a deal. With the gun charge, it should make things interesting though.”
“Ugh. This is such a mess. I can’t afford to be distracted now. There’s somebody out there with a grudge who’s trying to take my head off, people are getting caught in the crossfire as collateral damage, and I can’t focus because of a woman I can’t stop thinking about.”
Rafe patted his shoulder. “Been there, done that, my friend. When Tessa showed up in town, my whole life went sideways. I’d make up excuses to see her. Shoot, one time Dad found us pulled over to the side of the road kissing.” Nick’s shoulders shook as he tried to hold in his laugh. He could just picture Douglas’ face on seeing his upright son and his girl making out on the side of the road. “I will say this, if you decide you’re serious about Gracie, I think you’d be a good match. I know, I know, there’s still a lot I don’t know about you, only what the records from your boss say and what Destiny dug up when you first showed back up in town.”
“Bet that made for some interesting reading,” Nick murmured.
“You have no idea. Like some James Bond-type adventure fiction. Only it wasn’t fiction, was it? Anyway, Gracie is an amazing woman. She’s been through a lot, but she’s one of the strongest women I know. Don’t treat her with kid gloves. Yeah, I know that’s always our first instinct. We’re guys, it’s what we do. The whole caveman thing. You woman, me man, me protect you. I’m telling you right now, forget that crap. She’s stronger than people think. She had to be to deal with everything she’d been through. You know she changed her identity, moved around a lot to get away from Brewster. When she found Shiloh Springs, she found a place where she felt safe enough to put down roots. To build a business. To find friends, and trust me, she has a lot of them. But she’s vulnerable too. All I’m saying is…don’t hurt her.”
Nick drew in a deep breath, considering his words. “I’ve never let a woman come between me and getting the job done, although this isn’t an official job per se. Still, she’s got my head spinning. I want to push her away and pull her into my arms at the same time. It’s confusing, and right now I can’t afford to be distracted. Otherwise, somebody else might not be as lucky as Antonio.”
“Sometimes, when the right woman comes along, we don’t have a choice.” Rafe’s expression was stone-faced at the mention of his brother. While Antonio had pretty much recovered from the gunshot wound, it had been touch and go for a while, and Nick still felt guilty for having led the shooter practically to the Boudreaus doorstep.
“Let’s go get that paperwork done, and maybe we can ask the man you caught skulking around Gracie’s place a few more questions before he smartens up and asks for a lawyer again.”