Chapter 7
Over the next few days, Owen thought about what he and Anna had learned from Sonya. He thought about it while rafting clients down the Yuba River. He thought about it while hanging off the side of a mountain on Donner Summit with Ky, trying out a new adventure to add to their menu. He thought about it while walking into the memory care facility to check in on his great-aunt Ruby.
Entering her two-room apartment, he found her pacing while Nan, one of her caregivers, tried to get her to sit.
“I don’t want to sit!” Ruby snapped.
“I’ve got her,” Owen said quietly to Nan. “Why don’t you take your lunch break? I’ll stay until you get back.”
When Nan smiled gratefully at him and left, Owen took Ruby’s hand and looked into her eyes. They’d always been sky blue, but they had faded in the past few years. Now there were whole days and weeks when the sparkle in her gaze was also gone, replaced by a dull lifelessness that terrified him. Today she wasn’t lifeless, she was agitated. “You okay?” he asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
She’d gotten dressed today, which was good to see. She’d even gone to bingo again—which was why he was here. He’d gotten a call from the front desk that they’d had to boot her out of the room. Not for the first time either. Since she didn’t want to stop walking, he tried to loop her arm in his to keep her steady on her feet, but she kept swatting his hand away.
“Boy, I’m not a damn invalid.”
“Well, given that you just got kicked out of bingo, I’d definitely agree with you.”
She snorted. “They’re an old, fussy, self-righteous gaggle of geese. Janice, Mabel, Sarah Jane, Thelma, Opal, Phyllis, Judith... none of them can take a joke, not a single one.”
She’d been ejected for heckling, and he absolutely believed it because he’d been on the wrong end of her sassiness for... well, all his life. But that she was even aware of her surroundings today—and could name every single person in that bingo room—was such a huge relief, he couldn’t bring himself to ask her to stop being so unruly, as the manager of the place had asked him to do.
“And I know it was Judith who got me kicked out.” Ruby shook her head. “She’s been complaining about my apple tree shedding in her yard—like I can control that! And anyway, she lets her dogs poop on my front lawn!”
Ruby hadn’t lived in her house for a year now. And she didn’t have an apple tree, which Owen knew because he took care of her house and yard himself. He tried to get her to settle on the couch while he unpacked the two bags of groceries he’d brought her, but she didn’t want to sit. She wanted to tail along after him, complaining about everything he unloaded.
“I hate tomato soup,” she said. Which, for the record, was her absolute favorite lunch and had been for decades. “Just go away,” she said. “I don’t need anyone coming around here stealing from me. You took that twenty from my purse. I know it was you.”
He scrubbed a hand down his face, feeling emotionally and mentally exhausted. “How about a nap?”
“I’m not tired. Do I look tired? You just want me to go lay down so you can rifle through my things and steal something else.”
He hated this part, where she vanished into her agitation and fear. “Are you hungry? I’ll make you lunch.”
“No.”
“A TV show then? I could put on one of your favorites.”
She hesitated. “Not the news. I hate the news.”
“I know.” He took her hand and helped her into her recliner. Then he remoted the TV on and navigated to one of the Real Housewives shows, which, for reasons he didn’t understand, she loved.
Ten minutes into an episode, he got a call from Sami. Anna had stopped by the warehouse, looking for him.
Interesting. He texted Anna, letting her know she could come by and giving her the address, then called the front desk to approve her.
After his and Anna’s visit with Sonya the other day, she’d been nearly silent when he’d driven her back to her car. It’d been then that she’d met his gaze, and for a single heartbeat, there’d been an energy between them that had nothing to do with the mystery and everything to do with good old-fashioned chemistry.
Immediately afterward, Anna had exited the truck with a speed that suggested her ass had caught fire. When two days had gone with no word from her, he’d tried calling. She hadn’t answered. He could take a hint, but she’d agreed to be partners, and he intended to hold her to that. He’d told himself if she didn’t get in touch with him in the next day or so, he’d track her down.
Seemed he wouldn’t have to do that after all.
When a soft knock came at the door, he turned up the volume on the TV so Ruby would be distracted, but he needn’t have bothered: she’d fallen asleep.
Moving to the door, he pulled it open. He really didn’t want it to, but the sight of her somehow made his day. She was in jeans, beat-up sneaks, and a white tee that showed off her toned body in a way that made his blood hum. She also had a GoPro on a chain around her neck and an earpiece in her ear, and he had to admit, at least to himself, that seeing her gave him his first smile in hours. “Heading to work in the mines, or are you Secret Service?” he asked.
“Don’t start. And don’t ask.” She paused. “And please, for the love of God, stop talking.”
He went brows up.
“Not you,” she said. “Wendy.”
Owen bent down and looked into the camera. “Hey, Wendy. How you doing today?”
Anna put a finger to her ear. “She says she’s good, which is ridiculous because she called me at three a.m. to drive over and make her pancakes because her husband’s on an overnight business trip and the babies were hungry.”
“Babies?” he asked. “Plural?”
“She’s having triplets.”
He let out a low whistle. “Well then clearly, pancakes were in order.”
Anna listened to something from Wendy, then said, “No.”
As an only child, Owen found himself utterly fascinated by this sibling relationship. “What did she say?”
“No,” Anna said again. “Hell no.” She listened to something more from her sister and sighed. “You’re seriously going to blackmail me about the Disneyland thing? Fine, but remember, paybacks are a bitch.” She looked at Owen. “Wendy would like you to know that you have the kind of voice that should be narrating sexy romance novels.”
He grinned. “Thanks. And now I need the Disneyland story.”
She grimaced. “Trust me, you don’t. I’ll just say it involved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, a swim, and being locked away in the Disneyland jail for a few hours.”
“Wow. You go all in.”
“Yeah, that’s me. All in for just about anything.”
“Except mixing business with pleasure,” he said.
Anna put a finger to her twitching eye.
“Are you having a seizure?” he asked. “Blink twice if you need help.”
“How many times do I have to blink in order to vanish? Wendy, I’m disconnecting now. Your feet better be up or I’m telling Hayden you put a gallon of chocolate syrup on your pancakes.” She pulled out her phone and cut the call, then met Owen’s gaze. “I’m sorry for the imposition. I thought we should talk.”
“You could’ve saved yourself a trip and just answered the phone when I called. Or better yet, asked me out when I saw you last.”
“I’m not here to ask you out.”
“Too bad. I’m good at dates.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” She sighed. “And I’m sorry, I was working when you called. And as for the last time you saw me, after the visit with Sonya...” She hesitated. “I wasn’t at my best. Not that it mattered, because as we’ve discussed, this is strictly a professional relationship.”
He smiled. “You said relationship.”
A sense of satisfaction filled him at the genuine irritation in her gaze. They were nearly on even ground then, as she definitely invoked massive amounts of irritation within him as well. Except... he was fooling himself. Irritation fell to a distant second place behind a near-blinding animal attraction to her.
“To review,” she said, “this is work only.”
“Understood.” He cocked his head. “But just out of curiosity... why?”
She hesitated, and he got even more curious.
“Fine,” she finally said. “If you must know...” Her gaze shifted from his. “People don’t tend to attach to me.”
Moved both by the words and the soft way she’d let them escape, he thought he might enjoy even five minutes with anyone who’d hurt her. “So you hold yourself back.”
She shrugged. “It’s worked out pretty good for me.”
He was good at reading people. Real good. He tended to go with body language and eyes over the words coming out of a person’s mouth. And at Anna’s slightly hunched shoulders and hooded eyes, an unwanted emotion tugged on his heart, hard. “Well, while we’re being honest,” he said, his voice a little husky, “then you should know I’m a leaver.”
She met his gaze, unable to hide her initial response of surprise. “Perfect,” she said a beat later. “So we can never be.”
She looked relieved enough that he felt a little insulted.
“Do you think I could talk to your great-aunt?”
“No.”
“No?” she asked. “I know you want to solve this thing as much as I do, and she’s the only person still alive who might have answers, like real answers.”
“I get that, but she’s having a bad day—” He broke off when Anna’s eyes shifted from him to something over his shoulder.
Owen turned just as his aunt came up at his side. In the five minutes since he’d left her sleeping in her chair, she’d gotten up, put on her pj’s, had curlers askance in the front of her hair, and had applied a face mask as if it was bedtime and not one in the afternoon. She looked small, fragile, and older than he’d ever seen her. Worse, the once strong, once incredibly resilient woman would hate knowing someone was seeing her in such a weak moment.
But to his shock, Ruby took one look at Anna and her face lit up. “Cami! Oh, honey, I was hoping you’d stop by today.”
Cami had been Owen’s mom, and she’d been gone for years. But the one surefire way to turn his aunt into a shrieking banshee was to correct her when she forgot something—such as Cami’s passing. He met Anna’s gaze and tried to figure out how to avoid the bad situation barreling down on them at the speed of light.
But Anna smiled warmly at his aunt. “Of course I stopped by.”
Ruby beamed, and it was so surprising, Owen found himself choked up as his great-aunt took Anna’s hand in hers. “You look beautiful today. How’s your mom, honey?”
Owen’s maternal grandma had been gone for a long time, but that wasn’t what caught his attention. It was the quick flash of pain on Anna’s face. Her voice was rough with emotion when she spoke. “My mom’s doing good.”
“Oh, that’s lovely. You know she promised me her recipe for her famous rum balls, but I think she’s holding out on me.”
Anna’s lips quirked. “She holds out on everyone.”
Ruby surprised Owen by laughing and then hugging Anna, her curlers quivering. Anna didn’t hesitate, just wrapped her arms around Ruby right back.
Owen honestly hadn’t known he was into sharp, cynical, feisty firecrackers with a side of sweet, but apparently there was a first time for everything.
Anna looked at Owen, not sure how he wanted to play this.
“Come in, come in,” Ruby said. “I’ll rustle up some snacks.”
Anna had always been told that she’d been impulsive from the womb—Always in a hurry—and nothing had changed. But now that she was here, she knew it’d been wrong to surprise Owen like this.
He met her gaze, his own hooded. Was he annoyed? He wouldn’t be the first to be exasperated by her and certainly wouldn’t be the last... Before he could remove her from the apartment, she started to follow Ruby to the kitchen, but Owen caught her by the hand.
She braced herself to be kicked out, something else she would understand, but she really wanted to know what Ruby remembered, if anything, about the coins and the necklace. “Owen, I—”
“Thank you,” he said. “For playing along.”
She froze, surprised. “Um... no problem. And for the record, I know I should’ve called you first.”
“Agreed,” Wendy said in her ear.
Anna turned off the GoPro and removed her earpiece. Then she pulled her hand from Owen’s. Mostly because she liked the feel of his warm, callused palm against hers far too much. “I’ve got a question.” She hesitated, already knowing the answer but hoping all the same. “You still think my dad did it.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
She gave him a long look.
He didn’t smile, but she was pretty sure he wanted to. “It’s all circumstantial at best,” he said, “but I don’t think he can be ruled out.”
She drew a deep breath. Let it out. Last night she’d had drinks with Nikki. Anna had asked for details on the other suspects in the theft of the coins and the necklace. And this morning, Nikki had sent her a quick text with shocking information.
Information she had to share since she’d promised him they were partners on this. “After your aunt reported the theft, the investigation yielded four other possible suspects in the theft.”
His eyes sharpened. “I researched the case extensively. That’s not public knowledge.”
“No,” she agreed.
He waited a beat. “And...?”
“I’m not revealing my source, but I will tell you that the intel is good. No arrests were made.”
He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, a woman came up behind them. She wore a name tag that read: Hi, I’m Nan Alcott, and I’m your caregiver today. “I’m back,” she said to Owen. “And I brought sandwiches to share with Ruby.” She lowered her voice. “Sometimes a meal she isn’t used to can nudge her out of her own head.”
“Thank you. She said she was going to make snacks.”
“She always says that when she needs a moment. I’ll go look after her.”
Owen nodded, and Anna took in the solemn look in his eyes. She could only imagine what he went through with Ruby on a daily basis, but she figured he wouldn’t appreciate sympathy. “I’m still planning on proving you wrong about my dad.”
He gave a very small smile. “Just out of curiosity, do you always have to be right?”
She grimaced. “Yes.”
“Only at work?” he asked, clearly teasing. “Or at home too? Wait, let me guess. At work, at home, and also in bed.”
That jerked a startled laugh out of her. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” She shook her head. “Can we go back to being serious?”
“Sure.” He leaned against the doorjamb, arms crossed over his chest. “By all means, let’s go back to serious. What’s the plan?”
She took a beat, because how many guys did she know who could’ve let her be in charge on this? Other than Hayden, zero—a fact she appreciated more than she could say, given what the stakes were for her.
And him.
“I’m waiting for a detailed email with info on the other suspects to hit,” she said. “Should happen today. In the meantime, I was hoping to see if Ruby remembered anything. Were the necklace and coins taken from here?”
He shook his head. “From her house, which is in the area. Immediately after the theft, I searched the place up and down to make sure she hadn’t just misplaced them, but they’re not there. As for talking to her about it, unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen today. Not in her current state.”
“Who was Cami?” she asked quietly.
“My mom.”
She took in his careful calm. She was starting to get that it was his default, and that he held a lot in far beneath the surface. Even so, because she sensed that his grief, well-hidden as it was, felt a whole bunch like her own grief, she had to look away. “I understand,” she said quietly. “I lost my mom too.”
His gaze was back on hers. “How long ago?”
“When I was born.”
A rough sound of pain escaped him, and that, along with his quiet but heartfelt oath, reached her more than any “I’m sorry” would have.
“It’s especially hard to lose the good ones,” he murmured, and maybe because she was standing there feeling far too choked up to speak, he filled the silence for her. “We were in Santa Barbara when I was a kid, so we didn’t see much of Ruby in those days. Didn’t matter, my mom gave me everything of herself. We were poor as could be, but she made life an adventure.”
She smiled at that. “Did you guys travel?”
“No, we could barely scrounge up enough to eat, but I never even realized how much she must’ve struggled. She’d bury pennies in our small, un-landscaped backyard, leave huge boot prints in the dirt, and hand me a treasure map. She’d tell me pirates had come in the night to bury their treasure.” His mouth curved. “I’d stay out there for hours, while she got quiet time to herself for the price of a handful of pennies.” He shook his head. “I was always kinda skeptical about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, because visiting every kid in the world over one night never seemed plausible. But the pirates only visited me, so they had to be real.”
She laughed. “That’s how you ended up adventuring for a living. You were bit early by the bug.”
“Definitely how it started,” he agreed. “My mom and I ended up here in Tahoe when I was in fifth grade. When she died, I waited time out until I graduated high school, then walked away from a college scholarship and left town. I just needed out. Ky and I did the whole backpacking-through-Europe thing. And then Africa. And then South America. Asia.”
“Next-level adventuring.”
A small smile came into his eyes. “All thanks to my mom, really.”
She looked away, unable to shake her own upbringing and how much she realized she hadn’t known her dad at all.
“Anna.”
She closed her eyes. She felt him tip her face up to his and met his gaze.
“What you’ve learned about your dad doesn’t have to change how you feel about him,” he said.
“But how can it not? I mean, it’s starting to feel like I never knew him at all, and now...” She said the rest on a whisper: “I don’t know who I am either.”
“You’re the woman who cares about... well, everything. Deeply. But...”
She narrowed her eyes at the “but.”
He smiled, probably at her attitude. “You see things in black and white,” he said. “Your dad breaking the law hurts you, but you need to put yourself in his shoes. A single dad with two little girls to take care of and no one to help him out. You heard my story. I’ve been destitute. At rock bottom, with no light at the end of the tunnel and no way out. Your dad knew what that was like and simply did what he had to in order to protect his own.”
She stared at him. “You can say that because it’s not your dad.”
“True.” A muscle bunched in his jaw. “My dad was never part of my life. His choice, not mine.” He shook his head. “My mom brought herself and me here to Tahoe, to Ruby, who took us in. She never made us feel unwanted, and supported us without question, even though she hadn’t even had a family of her own, by choice.” He paused. “Life isn’t black and white, Anna. You like your control and living by a set of rules because of the way your dad lived his life. It makes you feel safe. But you’re not responsible for what he did. And that’s not the only thing you are, the daughter of a man who walked a line you wouldn’t have. You’re you. Fierce. Passionate. Protective. And once you get your mind set on something, you don’t let go.”
She took a deep breath at all the truths he’d flung at her. And more than that, he’d said it all in a tone that said he admired her. Well, except maybe for that last part. “The not-letting-go thing didn’t sound like a compliment.”
“To me, it is.”
“Because you’re Mr. Easy, Mr. Nothing Bothers You?” she asked.
His eyes were steady on hers, maybe a little amused now. “Not always.”
She wanted to hear more, but just then her phone lit up with a text from Wendy, and all it said was 911.