Chapter Sixteen
Jake watched as Beryl closed the workshop door behind her. Having her wait in his shop while he worked out the details of a special project for his clients somehow seemed very intimate.
He turned his attention to his clients.
The couple wanted him to craft a birthday gift for their small son. They wanted a special footlocker to put at the end of his bed to collect his treasures in.
Jake thought that was a great idea and showed them photos of other trunks he’d done, explaining that he could modify the design to suit whatever they wanted.
“I mean, I know he’s only going to be four years old,” the woman said.
“But I really want this birthday present to look like it maybe came out of a castle dungeon or something. He loves dragons and castles. Since you do metal and leather crafting, perhaps you could adorn the trunk with some cool leather and metal decorations in the shapes of dragons or maybe dragon scales? Something like that, anyway.”
Her husband nodded. He seemed satisfied to let his wife do all the talking, but was just as excited about the project.
“Absolutely, I can do that,” Jake said. “Let me make a few sketches and I’ll send them to you. From those, you can select which ones you like best or we can work together and come up with something that’s more in line with what you’re thinking.”
“I can’t wait to see them,” the woman agreed.
Next up, they selected the kind of wood they wanted the trunk be built from, inside and out, and the general size of it.
Jake wrote up the order with their specifications and promised to send progress pictures as he worked in case they wanted to make any modifications along the way.
They put a sizable down payment on the trunk for the necessary supplies and he promised to have some ideas for them to look at by the end of the week.
Jake walked them to front door, intending to lock it after they left. Before they reached it, a familiar man walked in.
“Ian,” Jake said, sounding surprised, because he was. “Good to see you,” he added, though he was annoyed at the additional delay. Beryl was waiting on him.
The couple said their goodbyes to Jake and left.
Jake went ahead and locked the door, so no one else would come in afterhours.
As the owner of a small business, he couldn’t afford to turn away clients.
It was possible Ian had decided to order that veil thing he’d talked about.
Jake would just unlock the door once he’d served Ian.
“Sorry to stop in two seconds before you close your shop for the day,” Ian said. “I wanted to come and tell you I am interested in pulling the trigger on that iron veil project.”
If he were a betting man, Jake would have put money on not seeing Ian again. It just went to show his gut was not always right. He glanced at his watch, thinking about how much time he could spare.
Seeming to get the hint, Ian said, “I promise not to take up too much of your time. I thought maybe I could explain sort of what I was looking for in better detail than I did when I was last in. Maybe you have some examples of similar things in your workshop?”
Jake nodded. “Sure. My girlfriend is waiting in the workshop for me because I’m taking her out to dinner, but I could show you something really quick.”
“Girlfriend?” Ian said, in a tone that sounded like the man was shocked to his core.
That begged the question: Why? Jake kept his expression bland. “Yep.”
Ian must have heard something in Jake’s voice because he held up both hands in a pacifying gesture. “I’m sorry. Clearly you have plans and I’m interrupting them. Maybe I can come tomorrow after I get off work?”
Jake felt terrible. The guy was just trying to get his girlfriend something special and Jake was busy being all suspicious. He needed to stop it.
“No, no. Let me show you what I have along with a couple ideas for what I can make. It’ll take five minutes, no problem. I was curious and I did do a little research on iron veils after you came in.”
“Really? Awesome. If you’re sure, that would be great,” Ian said, moving to Jake’s side.
Jake opened the door and led Ian into his workshop.
Across the room, Beryl startled like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
She sucked in a breath that sounded like a startled yelp and jumped away from the wall.
Jake was surprised to see the mounted wooden frame that he’d taken little notice of before was now open, revealing a cavity he didn’t know existed.
Obviously, he’d never be a detective.
“What did you find?” Jake approached Beryl, who was looking distinctly guilty. He gave her a reassuring smile. “How did you find that? I didn’t even know it was there.”
He barely noticed as Ian silently trailed him.
“I’m so sorry,” Beryl said, her cheeks flushing. “I was snooping around and I found this little compartment hidden behind the wooden frame quite by accident.” She placed a leather-bound pouch and a notebook on the counter in front of the secret door and backed away like they might bite her.
“That’s okay. I did leave you in here. I likely would’ve snooped around as well.”
“So, this isn’t your stuff?” she asked.
Jake peered inside, shaking his head the whole time. “Nope. It’s not mine.”
“That you know of,” Beryl said. “Maybe you just forgot about it after you lost your memory and everything.”
Jake was about to agree when he turned and saw Beryl standing next to Ian. The similarity between them was striking. “Wow. Are you two related?”
Beryl gave Ian a curious glance and frowned. “No.” She gave Ian a more thorough stare. “You do look a lot like my brother, Jett,” she admitted.
Ian said, “Yeah? You look just like my—” He stopped abruptly, his gaze darting to Jake, then back to Beryl. “Doesn’t matter. We might look alike, but I don’t think we’re related. I don’t have any family in town, as far as I know.”
The other man’s awkwardness was almost palpable.
“Life is full of little oddities,” Jake said after performing the introductions. He invited Ian to join him at the table where he kept a stack of sketchpads and pulled one free.
He showed Ian the sketch of some chainmail he’d drawn after the man’s last visit, plus some of the wire gauge he had on hand to determine the size and shape he might want. As promised, it only took about five minutes.
Jake didn’t miss how, surreptitiously, Beryl and Ian kept looking at each other. Beryl seemed intrigued; Ian looked disturbed.
Ian said he was interested in going ahead with the work, but needed to think about some of the details. He promised to come back in a few days to finalize the project and make a down payment for the materials.
Jake let him out through the front door and locked up, eager to return to his workshop and his date, Beryl.
“Are you ready to go?”
“Yes. Do you really forgive me for being a big snoop?”
“Of course. If you didn’t find it, I’d have never known it was there. Now I know where to hide my valuables.”
They laughed and exited his shop out the back door, where his truck was parked in the alley behind his store.
“Do you want to follow me in your car? Or I could just drive you back after dinner.”
“You can drive me back after dinner,” Beryl said with a smile.
Jake’s heart flipped over in his chest at the lovely shape of her mouth.
Darkfall left Jake’s shop like his butt was on fire because meeting Beryl had been so surprising. Not in a love interest sort of way, because clearly Jake and Beryl had feelings for each other, but the redhead did look remarkably like Olivine.
His younger sister had the same raven-black hair as his brother, Onyx, and both of their parents. Well, Obsidian did have a few red glints sometimes, but only if he spent an extended period of time in the sun.
However, his surprise didn’t excuse what he’d almost revealed. What a rookie mistake, blurting out something so personal as the fact that Beryl looked like his sister. What was wrong with him? He had never outed a member of his family while on a mission, not even accidentally. Not ever.
He blamed his near lapse on the greater shock of seeing Luca’s stash out in the open with Beryl snooping through it.
The hidden compartment was standard operating procedure for members of the Alpha-Prime Command Secret Service.
They were all trained to set one up while on long mission protocols in order to hide their alien identity papers, gadgets and notes.
Beryl had apparently rummaged through the hidey-hole, nabbing Luca’s mission notebook, but obviously she didn’t know what it was. It sure seemed to Darkfall like Jake had no earthly idea that the stash was his. Or that he should know what all those things were.
The world was upside down.
Despite the surprise of meeting Beryl, and the fact she’d been snooping, she seemed sweet.
Darkfall liked her for Luca. It was too bad that his friend would probably never leave his clandestine job for her.
Then again, if Luca never remembered who he was, maybe this would be a great life for him, post-clandestine career.
The logical step, of course, was for Darkfall to break into Dark Matter Metal he enjoyed winding Hunter up.
“Sure,” his friend drawled. “Who do you have in mind?”
“Calling my bluff, I see.”
“Yep. So do you or don’t you have any blind date prospects for me? I’m holding my breath.”
“Don’t do that. Breathe, for pity’s sake. And If I can’t harass my best friend, who can I harass?”
“Aw. I feel so special.”
Wyatt laughed. “Okay, bachelor man. Have a good one.”
“I will. You have a good one, too, family man.”