Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Valerie
"Nolen, have you seen Vanessa?" I asked as soon as I walked out to the front of the store where Nolen was keeping guard.
"Not today."
"Huh." I plopped my fists on my hips. "Normally she would be here by now. I thought maybe she got caught up with a customer while I was in the office placing an order."
"Nope." Nolen shook his head. "No one has come in since we've been here."
Deep down I knew that because otherwise I would've heard the bell chime on the door.
"Maybe she's in the back and I just missed her."
I went back to the storage area and called Vanessa's name. When there was no answer, I headed for the back door. It was locked just as I knew it would be. With everything going on, I made sure to triple-check it every morning when I came in and every evening when I left.
"It isn't like her to be late and not call," I said more to myself than to Nolen who had followed me back.
"Try calling her."
Duh! I wanted to slap myself upside the forehead. Why hadn't I thought of that? Pulling out my phone, I pulled up Vanessa's contact information and hit dial. After one ring, it went straight to voicemail. "I think she just declined my call," I said with disbelief. That wasn't at all like Vanessa.
Before I could hit dial once again, the bell on the door chimed. "I'll be right there!" I hollered in a fake cheerful voice.
Luckily, it didn't matter; the response I got wasn't from a customer.
"No need! I'm coming to you," Aaron yelled back.
I let out a relieved sigh. Aaron was exactly who I needed in that moment.
"What's wrong?"
Like always, he knew me better than anyone and picked up my distress the second we were in the same space together.
"Vanessa didn't show up for work and now she's declining my calls."
"That's why we're here." I hadn't even noticed that Maverick, Lex, and Sheriff Andrews had walked in with Aaron. I had solely been focused on the man who made my heart flutter any time he was near.
"Please tell me something didn't happen to her?" I looked right at the sheriff and asked.
It was Maverick who answered though. "How well do you know Vanessa?"
I wasn't following along. "I don't know." I shrugged my shoulders. "Pretty well I guess, considering how often she works for me." I looked back at the sheriff. "You didn't answer my question. Did something happen to her?"
"Not that we're aware of."
That sounded ominous. "Then what's going on?"
"A package that was meant for here was accidentally delivered to Willow Creek Security today."
Relief filled me. "Oh, good. I was missing one box that said delivered. It's carrying samples of some new fabrics I want to carry."
Aaron gave me a sad look and suddenly my heart plummeted into my stomach. "It wasn't my fabric, was it?"
He shook his head at me. "No, it wasn't."
"Then can someone tell me what is going on? Because all the mystery is starting to give me a lot of anxiety."
It was the sheriff who finally gave me the answer I was looking for. Although, in hindsight, maybe I didn't want to know. "Someone shipped you two dead rats."
"Dead rats?" I choked out. "Isn't that like a mafia thing? You ratted me out, so now I'm going to kill you?"
Maybe I read just a little too much mafia romance, but it was the only thing I could think of when the sheriff mentioned dead rats.
Gross!
I was glad I wasn't the unlucky person who had to open that package.
Wait . . .
"Who opened the box?" I almost cringed at my own question because I had a feeling I knew who it was even before they said the name.
"Annalee opened it."
Oh, damn! Now I felt like shit for being happy it wasn't me.
"Is she okay? That had to be traumatizing for her. I’m only hearing about it and I’m grossed the fuck out.”
"Owen is with her. He'll make sure she's okay."
It was always good to have someone who cared so much in your life who made the tough times better.
I was busy thinking about Aaron and how he was that person for me when it dawned on me that they came in asking about Vanessa.
"Why did you want to know about Vanessa?" I asked Maverick.
"The package wasn't addressed to anyone, just this address. We were trying to figure out if it was meant for you or Vanessa."
I tried to think about everything I knew about Vanessa but nothing was jumping out at me that would explain someone sending dead animals.
"I know her as well as any employer knows their employee. She moved to town about six months ago I think. She had great references and I was sure to call all of them. She seems like a good person. Are you sure the rats don't have anything to do with the other things going on?"
I didn't even want to think that this could be a threat on my life, but I had to face the reality of the situation. Something was going on with Aaron and his friends, and because I was involved with him, I got dragged into it.
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Maverick replied. "According to sources within the government, the threat from our last op has been dealt with."
I gave Maverick an incredulous look. "What do you mean dealt with? Were the people dead? In jail? How does one deal with terrorists anyway? Actually now that I think about it, I’m not sure I really want to know.”
Maverick shook his head. "That's classified and they won't tell me anything."
Huh? That was a bit annoying.
"So the package and everything else that has happened the last couple of days?"
The men looked at each other before Aaron finally answered. "Likely something else."
Well, wasn't that just great.
"So someone else is threatening your team and the people you care about?" I didn't bother to hide my annoyance. "Who?"
"We don't know, but we're going to figure it out," Maverick was the one to tell me.
Before I could say anything to that, my phone dinged with an incoming text message. I quickly opened my messages when I saw it was from Vanessa.
VANESSA: Sorry I won't be coming in today. I had to go out of town for a few days. I'll message you as soon as I get back.
I showed the message to all four men and watched their reactions closely to see if they were as suspicious as I was. The message didn't sound at all like the Vanessa that I knew.
"Is that normal for her?" Nolen spoke up for the first time since his friends showed up.
"Not at all. Normally her text messages are upbeat and full of exclamation points and emojis. She's the most expressive person I've ever met."
"How about just leaving like that?" Sheriff Andrews asked and I shook my head.
"Completely out of the ordinary for her. She's only taken time off once and that was recently, and she gave me several weeks’ notice. Nothing about this is like her."
I was actually worried rather than upset by her curt message. With everything else going on, I didn't want Vanessa to be dragged into the mess.
"Can someone go check on her place, just in case?"
"I'll check it out," Nolen offered.
Sheriff Andrews looked like he wanted to argue but in the end he kept his mouth shut.
"Keep me posted." I wanted to know if he found anything because without Vanessa around, I was going to be stuck working very long hours.