Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
Monday morning brought delicious eggs and bacon, courtesy of Cormac, and a very nervous phone call to Belinda from Juniper and Sage. While Cormac cleaned the kitchen, Lucy sat on the bed in the guest room and let Princess Snowball plop herself on top of her legs.
Then she made the call.
It lasted all of three minutes. Belinda answered, seemed happy to hear from her, and set the meeting for the end of the week.
“The corporate team is thrilled to hear your pitch, but they’re only available on Thursday. Our company retreat breaks up on Friday, and after that, it’ll be at least two months before we can get everyone together, and if we want to get some designs in production before the end of the year, we need to get moving now,” Belinda told her, clearly used to getting things done. “They’re very impressed with the samples I’ve shown them. We’d like you to bring your portfolio of previous work as well as one to two new examples of greeting card designs you could create for us.”
“Sure,” Lucy squeaked. “No problem.”
They said their goodbyes and hung up, and Lucy tossed the phone aside. While she reclined against the bed’s headboard, the cat deigned to walk up her legs and sit on Lucy’s stomach, letting out a rumbling purr. She kneaded Lucy’s abdomen for a few minutes as Lucy scratched her behind the ears, then jumped off the bed and pranced away, her tail sticking high up in the air.
“How’d it go?” Cormac asked from the doorway. He leaned on the jamb as he watched Lucy, who was sprawled on top of the blankets.
“Good. They want me to come up with two new designs by Thursday.”
“Is that doable? Two new designs in less than a week?”
“Sure. As long as there’s not a psychotic Stationery Man skulking around trying to kill me. That might cramp my style.”
Cormac grimaced. “Speaking of which, the police want to talk to us about what happened yesterday.”
Lucy sat up. “Are we in trouble?”
“Only one way to find out.”
The police station was just off the main square in Stirling, one block away from the Stirling clock tower. The building was brown brick, with a decently sized parking lot. The town council offices were part of the building, with the police station occupying about half of the total space. The inside of the building was old and worn, but not dirty.
Beyond the welcome desk, where a young officer had waved them through with a nod to Cormac, was a larger room with half a dozen desks and computers. The police chief’s office was in the far right corner, separated from the main room with a glass wall covered with metal blinds. Along the left side of the room were interview rooms, and the back of the building was where the holding cells were located.
Lucy had half-expected to be tossed into a cell as soon as they stepped through the doors—but she’d underestimated Cormac.
He knew all the officers by name, nodding and greeting them as he walked in. He shook hands with a tall mustachioed gentleman who introduced himself as Detective Rick Holden, but Cormac called him Ricky.
“Congrats on the promotion,” Cormac said, nodding to the man’s gold badge. “You made detective.”
“Just in time for you to drop this mess on my desk,” Ricky replied, grim. “If I’d known, I would have convinced Jim to delay his retirement another year.” The lanky man had a thick head of salt-and-pepper hair, wore slacks and a button-down that were a bit too big for him, and had an air of no-nonsense competence about him.
Lucy was immediately intimidated.
As it turned out, they were in a bit of trouble. As they sat next to Ricky’s desk, the three of them stared at his screen as Cormac’s dash-cam footage played. Two more officers drifted over to watch; a bout of fisticuffs featuring Cormac McKenna and two unknown assailants was the most interesting thing to happen in Stirling all day. Maybe all year.
On the grainy footage, Cormac hammered a blow into Meaty’s gut. Ricky leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. One hand moved up to smooth down the sides of his mustache as he watched the footage play.
The worst part of it was the narration.
“ Oh! Gus! Go help him! It’s two against one! ”
“ Whaddya want me to do about it? Oh ? — ”
“ That’s my boy, ” Vicky crowed. “ Hit him hard, honey! Hit him where it hurts! ”
“ Kick him in the balls! ” Ruby yelled.
“ Bastard! ” Vicky shrieked as Meaty’s hit split the side of Cormac’s head open.
There was a silence as Cormac flipped the second man onto the pavement.
“ Gosh, that boy packs some power, doesn’t he? ” Lucy’s father said quietly, clearly impressed. “ Look at the way the other guy landed. ”
Lucy’s mother moaned. “ Do you really think he’s the right man for our little girl? ”
“ You saw the way he looks at her, Dolly .”
“ I know, but still… ”
Lucy slapped her hands over her face and watched the screen through her fingers. Her parents were discussing her dating prospects instead of panicking about the two men who had decided to attack them in broad daylight.
“ Well, he’ll fight off anyone who tries to hurt her. All that blood on his face doesn’t seem to even bother him.”
“ But he’s so… ”
Vicky’s voice cut in. “ Watch your next words, Dolly. I like you, but I won’t have anyone saying anything bad about my son. ”
“ He’s a lovely boy, ” Dolly answered, placating, then everyone on the recording gasped as Cormac dislocated Meaty’s shoulder. Lucy winced as she watched the screen, remembering the noise that Meaty’s shoulder had made. Remembering his shriek.
The crowd around the computer had grown, and all the assembled officers hooted. One of them slapped Cormac on the shoulder. “You’re a lovely boy,” the officer said, and everyone laughed.
Cormac just watched on, grim-faced. He knew what was coming.
Vicky appeared in the frame. The woman was in her early sixties, and she had obviously remained in shape. She sprinted across the street and dove into the car. On the recording, Lucy stumbled back from the hood as the driver’s door slammed.
“What’s she doing?” one of the officers asked, leaning forward. She was a sharp-boned woman with a very tight bun at the nape of her neck, and she watched the screen intently. Another officer ducked around her shoulder to get a closer look.
Lucy glanced at Cormac, who met her gaze with pinched lips.
“ Mom! ” A door slammed and Ruby appeared on the screen, obscuring part of the frame. Behind her, the car crashed into the plate-glass window of the Stirling Stationery Store’s frontage as Lucy stumbled back, staring in shock.
Behind her, the two men sat and stood bleeding and injured, gaping. Ricky leaned forward and paused the recording, frowning.
He glanced back at the female officer and pointed to Lanky on the screen. “You seeing what I’m seeing?”
The woman’s lips were pinched. “Paul Wendell. Didn’t take him long to get back into trouble.”
“And where Paul is, Pete isn’t far behind,” Rick said, gesturing to Meaty.
“Who are they?” Lucy asked. “You know them?”
“Paul just got out of prison,” Detective Holden answered, grim. “Arson. Burned down his grandfather’s house, and wasn’t subtle about it.”
“Firebug,” the female officer added. “Both brothers have been in the system since they were teens. Both done time. They have no real allegiance to anyone, but they get wrapped up in different criminal schemes every year or two.”
Lucy glanced at Cormac, who nodded. She’d told him she recognized Lanky’s face, and now it was time to tell the police. “I saw the tall one, Paul, on the day of the Wedding Expo. He’s the guy who kneeled in front of my car before it exploded.”
The detective let out a long sigh but didn’t look surprised. He pressed a button, and the dash-cam footage resumed.
On the screen, Ruby ran forward and gave a clear view of Cormac helping his mother out of the front seat as he ushered everyone back to the car. She’d blocked the screen at the moment of impact, so it was impossible to see what Vicky had been doing. Where she’d been aiming.
Cormac advanced toward his SUV. The camera caught the look in his eyes as they approached his vehicle. He looked a hair’s breadth away from snapping. Lucy stared into his eyes as Ricky paused the footage, remembering all that had happened after.
She’d helped him shed all that energy, that adrenaline, that fury. She’d accepted him as he was, and it had been one of the most powerful moments of her life. Last night had altered her. This thing growing between them, it had been born from the chaos of the last few days, but it felt real. In her heart, Lucy knew that Cormac was the man for her.
“Hmm,” the detective said, rewinding the footage to the point where Vicky appeared on the screen. “What happened here?”
“My mother tried to move their vehicle out of the way so we could drive off,” Cormac lied with a completely straight face.
Rick had clearly been in the business for a while, because he didn’t react except for a subtle arch of his brow. “Did she, now.”
He played the recording again, and the store’s windows came crashing down.
“Some would look at that recording and say that your mother deliberately crashed into the front of that store,” Ricky mused.
Cormac shrugged. “She was overwrought and lost control of the car.”
“Now, I’ve met your mother,” Ricky said, narrowing his eyes at Cormac. “That woman doesn’t do ‘overwrought.’”
Cormac met his gaze and said nothing.
They stared at each other like two poker players who had just gone all-in. Cormac didn’t even twitch.
In her hard metal chair, Lucy fought the urge to squirm. The tension between the two men continued to rise as their gazes bored into each other, and Lucy’s heartbeat began to rattle.
This pressure wasn’t even directed at her, and she was going to snap. She couldn’t handle this. She didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to answer any questions. She just wanted to design wedding invitations in the comfort of her home, make a decent living, and maybe have sex with Cormac every day for the next hundred years.
But when Ricky swung his gaze to her, she knew it was her time to be questioned. He was going to crack her open like a walnut, and she’d tell him that Vicky hadn’t been trying to move the car at all. She’d intentionally smashed the store to smithereens, because she was a badass lady who didn’t tolerate people attacking her son.
The pressure bore down on her. The detective’s gaze was incisive, reading her weakness. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t hold back. She had to tell him the truth. Tell him something. Get him off her back.
Ricky opened his mouth. “Is?—”
“There’s a secret room,” Lucy blurted.
Ricky’s mouth snapped shut. He leaned back, frowning. “What?”
“There’s a window at the back of the building that doesn’t match up with the inside. But there’s no visible door on the inside of the store, so it’s not a normal storage room.”
Barely—just barely—did Lucy stop herself from adding, “That’s where they build the explosives,” because that would be a ridiculous statement based on nothing but the conjecture of her and Cormac’s batty parents. Even though it might be true.
Cormac came to her rescue by tapping on his phone and emailing something through to the detective’s computer. “The original blueprints for the building,” he said. “There are four and a half feet that aren’t accounted for in the dimensions of the shop. We cross-referenced them against the permit applications sent in to the town council.”
Lucy arched her brows, impressed. Cormac and his men were good. He pointed to the area on the screen that denoted the back of the building.
Ricky grunted and stood. He strapped his shoulder harness on with practiced ease, black gun resting against his ribs, then covered it with his suit jacket. “Wyatt. Chrissie. With me.” Glancing at Cormac and Lucy, he lifted his finger to point at them. “You wait here.”
“I gave you the video,” Cormac noted.
“That was your civic duty, McKenna.”
Cormac clenched his jaw. “I want to know what’s in that room.”
“You’re civilians. We need to do this by the book.”
“Aaron Phillips tried to attack Lucy at her apartment yesterday morning. Then as soon as we showed up at his shop, two men attacked us again. I want to know why.”
“And you will. As soon as we investigate. We’ll find Phillips, bring him in, and let you know. Thank you for coming in.”
“You haven’t gotten a whiff of the man, and we’ve been attacked twice. We let you go check his place out, and while you’re doing that, Phillips comes after us; what happens then?” Cormac asked through clenched teeth. His anger was plainly written on his face. “I’m just trying to protect my girl.”
Totally, totally the wrong time to swoon about Cormac calling Lucy his girl. She knew that. But she couldn’t help it.
The detective was grim. He studied Cormac, then swung his gaze to Lucy. Finally, he let out a sigh. “You can come, but you don’t touch anything. Not a single thing. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” Cormac said, and he led Lucy back out to his SUV while the officers headed for their cruisers. That’s how, twenty- four hours after their last visit, Lucy and Cormac ended up right back in front of the Stirling Stationery Store.
Except this time, they were going in.