Chapter 27
My eyes popped open at the ring of my phone in the distance. Downstairs. I”d left it downstairs. Why was my phone ringing?
It stopped abruptly. I lifted my head, only a little surprised to find myself draped over Hawk. Of course I was, because it seemed every time we ended up in bed together, I got as close to Hawk as possible the second I fell asleep.
On the other side of the bed, a second phone rang, this one Hawk’s. That couldn’t be good. He shifted against me.
His voice filled my ear, low, heavy with sleep but alert. “West.” Silence. Then, “You”re there now?” I couldn’t hear West, only Hawk.
Beside us, Leo uncurled, stepping delicately to place his full twenty-five pounds on Hawk’s stomach, which earned a grunt from Hawk, and then dropping his big head to butt into my forehead. I lifted a hand to rub it and was rewarded with a deep, rumbly purr.
“All right,” Hawk said. Then, “Yes. You talk to Kane yet?”
Hawk took over rubbing Leo’s head, the corners of his eyes crinkling in welcome to this giant, furry addition to his life. Leo switched from my rubs to Hawk’s without complaint.
“Text me what we need,” Hawk said into the phone. “Quinn and I will stop on the way. We”ll see you soon.”
I let my eyes slide closed. From Hawk”s question about Kane, I deduced West”s call wasn’t about the craziness of the night before, which meant something else had gone wrong. Why would the police chief be calling? I didn”t want to know. For just one more second, I didn”t want to know.
Hawk”s arm tightened around me, his hand leaving Leo to stroke down my back. “Baby. It’s early, but we have to get up.”
I loved that he’d called me baby again. I loved that I was waking up with him. I loved that we had this ridiculously big cat on top of us, purring and acting like he owned us. And I already knew I wasn’t going to love what was coming next.
I kept my eyes closed and pressed my face into Hawk’s neck, inhaling the scent of him, absorbing his heat. Finally, I whispered, “What happened?”
“There was a break-in,” Hawk said carefully. “At your bungalow, at Sawyer Outdoor Adventures.”
“What?” I sat up too fast, knocking Leo off-balance and jostling my ankle, sending pain stabbing up my leg. I sucked in a sharp breath as Hawk reached out to brace me, steadying Leo at the same time. Leo jumped off the bed and sauntered to the stairs, sending both of us a look of annoyance.
I let him go without comment, distracted by Hawk’s news. Of all the things I’d been worried about, my business wasn’t one of them, not beyond the hassle and disappointment of postponing clients because of my twisted ankle.
“It”s okay,” Hawk said quickly. “The structure is sound, but there’s a lot of superficial damage inside, and you lost most of your inventory. All the windows are broken, and the front lock is busted.”
“What about the shed out back?” I asked, my heart thudding in my chest, my head light with panic. The inventory was one thing, but my equipment was in that shed. Kayaks and canoes. Life vests and fishing poles. Tens of thousands of dollars in gear. Gear I needed to run my business.
“He didn’t say.” Hawk took in my panic. “Breathe, Quinn. I’ll call him back.” He dialed West and said, “What about the shed? The building behind the bungalow. Any damage there?” Hawk’s eyes stayed on my face, his free hand reaching out to stroke down my arm and close around my hand, squeezing hard. “Good. I’ll have her check when we get there. We’ll be on the way in ten.” He clicked off and tossed his phone at the end of the bed. “West said he can’t see any damage, but he wants you to take a look when we get there.”
My mind was racing with possibilities. Who? Why? To what end? What do they want?
Another question occurred to me. “Why didn”t the alarm go off?” I asked.
Hawk shook his head. “I don”t know.”
“Was it the same guy as last night? The same as in the woods?”
“I don”t know that either,” Hawk said. “Kane sent West the security footage from the cameras at the bungalow. We can take a look later and see if we think it’s the same guy as on the trail. We still don’t know what happened here last night.”
“It has to be the same guy,” I said. Nothing else made sense. I still didn’t understand why my finding a necklace my father had given to his mistress would cause this kind of reaction.
Hawk shook his head, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “I don’t like to make assumptions.”
“So what do we need to do?” I asked. “You told West we had to stop somewhere.” The only way to keep my head together was to focus on practicalities.
“We need to board up the windows at your bungalow and put in a new lock on the front door. West said he’d text me the measurements for the windows. We”ll head to the hardware store and get tools and some plywood.”
I sighed. “I’ve got a pretty stocked toolbox. Electric drill, hammers, nails, screws, stuff like that.”
“Plywood?” Hawk asked.
“I don”t have plywood,” I admitted.
“So just plywood and a lock,” Hawk confirmed. “West said they”ve almost finished processing the scene. By the time we get there, we should be clear to go in. Maybe by then Kane will have some news on what the cameras caught.”
I looked over to where my pack leaned against the wall beside the bed. I had one last pair of clean hiking pants, one pair of clean underwear, a mostly clean T-shirt, and my hoodie. I”d have to remember to go back to the main house to restock. A shiver went down my spine at the thought of going into my room to get to my closet. I pushed it aside. I needed clean clothes, and Hawk would go with me.
“Give me a second in the bathroom,” Hawk said, interrupting my drifting thoughts. “You get that boot on your ankle, then I’ll go down and make us coffee while you get ready.”
Less than ten minutes later we were in Hawk’s SUV headed into town, leaving behind an annoyed but fed Leo. I let out a gusty sigh, too sleep-deprived to really think about what was happening. I loved my little business, the cute bungalow that housed Sawyer Outdoor Adventures. Why would someone break in? Why break every window? It was destructive, and if I was being honest, felt personal. Someone intent on breaking in to steal stuff for pawning wouldn’t have targeted the main building. They would have gone for the shed.
None of this made sense.
As we drove, it occurred to me that I”d better call Sterling. She”d been planning to go into the office to start calling clients about the schedule changes caused by my twisted ankle. It was still early, but I didn”t want her walking into whatever mess was left from the break-in. She picked up on the second ring.
“Hey, did I wake you up?” I asked, remembering that I wasn’t the only one who’d been up half the night.
“No, no, I didn’t sleep well after the light show last night. I’ve been up for a while, was about to head into work.”
“I’m glad I caught you,” I said. “Look, um, don”t go in to work today.”
She paused, clearly confused. “Why? I have calls to make.”
I found myself not wanting to tell her. Sterling had taken enough hits in life, and the last year hadn’t been easy. I wanted to shield her. I’d always wanted to shield her, my baby sister, so full of love and so easily bruised. But this was life, and she’d shown all of us she was tougher than she looked. I wasn’t going to lie to her like she was a child.
“West called,” I said. “Someone broke into the bungalow. They smashed all the windows. Trashed the place, I guess. I don”t know all the details. West is going to meet us there. We”re headed to the hardware store to get plywood.”
“Well, I”m coming to help clean up, then.”
“Sterling, you don”t have to?—”
“I”m coming in, Quinn. I’ll be there soon.” Her voice faded out as she said, “I need more coffee for this bullshit.” The phone clicked off in my ear.
That was Sterling. She looked like a princess, but when it came down to it, she was stubborn as hell.
She’d had to be. She’d spent most of her teens and early twenties drinking herself into an early grave, angry at the world. Leaving everyone who loved her to watch, helpless, as she spiraled. Nothing we said, nothing we did, made a difference. Then Prentice had died and Griffen had hit her with his own brand of tough love.
I didn’t know the details. That was between Griffen and Sterling, but it must have been what she needed. After a brief period of adjustment that included a few minor tantrums, she’d gotten her shit together with the same focus she”d put into tearing her life apart. She’d stopped drinking and asked Griffen for a job. Now, despite the setbacks she’d faced along the way, she was back to being the sweet, bullheaded little sister I’d adored as a child. Emphasis on bullheaded.
“Sterling is going to meet us there,” I said as we turned into the parking lot of the hardware store. “I told her not to, but…”
Hawk just nodded. “She is your sister,” he said.
“What does that mean?” I asked, catching the spark of laughter in his dark eyes.
“Stubborn runs in the family,” he said, the side of his mouth quirked just a fraction.
I couldn’t help grinning back, despite my heavy heart. Hawk was the least funny guy I knew and possibly the stingiest with his words, but he made me laugh more than anyone, even when everything seemed too dark to bear.
We were in and out of the hardware store in less than twenty minutes, the back of the SUV loaded with sheets of plywood, a shiny new deadbolt, a box of commercial-grade trash bags, duct tape, and assorted other things Hawk thought we’d need to clean up the mess.
“You want to stop at Daisy’s bakery?” he asked as we made our way through town.
I thought about it and shook my head. “I need to see how bad it is. And after, that’s when I think I”m going to need some sugar. A lot of sugar.”
Hawk nodded and we rode in silence, his hand wrapped around mine, his grip warm and strong. I didn”t know what was happening with us. He’d said things were over. He hadn’t made a move on me since the cabin. But he”d held me in his arms all night. That wasn’t sex, but it wasn’t nothing either.
I wasn’t going to think about it. I didn’t have room in my brain to process whatever was going on with Hawk. Not when I was obsessing over the state of my business. I was just glad he was with me. Glad I wasn’t alone.
We turned into the small gravel parking lot of Sawyer Outdoor Adventures to see the door hanging open at an awkward angle, the window on either side smashed, glass littering the front porch. My stomach twisted, the violation of it physically painful. Why?
It took me a few seconds to see past the destruction. Two cars were parked in front of the bungalow. One was Sterling’s. I didn’t recognize the other, but I did recognize the man sitting on the front steps, his arms braced on his knees, his dark curls damp with the morning mist. Forrest Powell. The CFO of the Inn at Sawyers Bend, and Sterling’s ex.
Forrest was a mystery to me. He”d shown up in Sawyers Bend not long after we’d all moved back into Heartstone Manor to satisfy the terms of Prentice’s will. By all accounts, Forrest was a great CFO, but he’d been a shitty boyfriend. Sterling had been crazy about him until it came out that he’d come to town for two reasons: revenge against the Sawyer family, and to recover an ugly little statue Prentice had stolen from his father. Sterling had just been convenient access to the Sawyers and the Manor.
In the end, Forrest had let go of revenge. Prentice and Ford had stolen Forrest’s father’s statue and his company. Griffen had tried to save it. Forrest got his ugly little statue back, a statue that contained the key to finding what remained of his family’s fortune. He’d even kept his job at the inn.
But he’d lost Sterling.
I’d figured he”d leave town as soon as he reclaimed the statue from West. Who wouldn’t? He’d gotten what he wanted. But according to Forrest, what he wanted had changed. Now that he’d lost her, what he wanted was Sterling. And Sterling wasn’t having it.
She’d quit her short-lived job at the inn when the truth came out and had come to me for work. I’d been happy to have her, even happier to be working with my sister, getting to know her all over again now that we were both adults. We were closer than we”d ever been, but even I didn”t know where she stood on the subject of Forrest. Not really.
I knew she’d dumped him. I knew she still refused to speak to him. She’d asked Griffen to ban him from Heartstone Manor, and he’d happily complied. But she”d also insisted Tenn and Royal not fire him. She’d said he was good at his job, and just because he was a shitty boyfriend didn”t mean they should have to look for another CFO. Tenn and Royal had reluctantly kept him on, though their budding friendship with Forrest had chilled.
And Forrest had stayed. He did his job well, as far as I knew. Everyone spoke highly of him on that front. But no one in the family had anything to do with him. He didn’t have any friends in town. And still, he stayed. And in the last few months, every time Sterling needed him, he was there.
I knew West had taken her aside to see if she wanted Forrest run out of town, which wasn’t really a West move. Our police chief was so close to my brothers he was practically family, and still, West didn”t bend the rules. But Sterling was as good as a little sister to him, and for her, he might have. She’d turned down that offer too. And here Forrest was again, exactly where Sterling needed him.
“You talk to her?” Hawk asked Forrest, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to study him.
Forrest shook his head. “Not sure she knows I”m out here. But she called West for details on the break-in, and he called me. Said he didn’t want her here alone with the alarm offline and the lock busted, but he didn’t have enough manpower to cover her. She’s inside, cleaning.”
Hawk gave a short nod. “Got it. We”re going to go inside to take a look around. You busy?”
Forrest shook his head, his eyes sad but resolved. “I’ve got time.”
“Stick around and help me board up these windows.”
“No problem.” Forrest stood. “You need coffee? I’ll run down to Sweetheart while you check out the damage.”
I’d turned down Hawk’s offer a few minutes before, but now, seeing the splinters in the doorframe from the broken lock, the shards of glass scattered over the front porch, I needed that sugar sooner than expected.
“I could use something sweet,” I admitted. “And maybe a metric ton of caffeine.”
Forrest nodded. “I’ll be back in fifteen, and then I’ll help you take care of those windows.”
Hawk gave him another short nod, and his warm hand came to my lower back, urging me to the door. “Come on. Let”s go see what we”re dealing with.”