Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
S erenity rubbed her hands together. “Okay…I think I’m ready for this.”
Luca’s large hand landed on her shoulder, and he gave it a light squeeze.
Reaching out, Serenity flipped the switch on her “closed” sign to turn it to “open.” “Haha! And now we wait.”
Luca chuckled. “Do you usually get a big rush at eight in the morning?”
Serenity shrugged. “No. But it’s nice to imagine.” She walked back to her front desk. “Ten to a little after lunch are my busiest times, and sometimes I get a rush late afternoon. People like to sleep in on their vacations so there’s only a few who come in early, and they often shop when they're done visiting the beach or the lighthouses for the day.”
He nodded. “I can see that. An after dinner stroll would seem a good time as well.”
Serenity shrugged. “Any time is a good time to buy a lighthouse shirt.”
He grinned. “Right. I better go check in with the guys.” Leaning in, he left a kiss on Serenity’s temple. “I’ll text you later. You still up for dinner?”
Serenity nodded. “I’d love that.”
Luca nodded again, took one more kiss, then stepped out the front door, causing the little bell to ring.
Serenity watched him walk away, letting out the sigh she’d been holding in. His strong, confident swagger turned heads no matter where he went.
“Either that or it’s the eye patch,” Serenity murmured to herself with a grin. She laughed softly and started to turn away when a shout caught her attention. Pausing, she frowned and stepped closer to her front windows. “What in the world?”
Her eyes widened when more shouting occurred, a couple of cars honked and all heads on the sidewalk turned in the direction Luca had walked. A sinking feeling hit her gut and she knew something was wrong.
Serenity whipped open the door and immediately started running. A large crowd had gathered about a block down the street, and it was all too easy to see a tall, shiny head in the middle.
“Excuse me,” Serenity said, trying to push her way through the crowd, but no one would give way. “Excuse me!” she tried, trying to catch the crowd’s attention, but still, she couldn’t get any closer. “Luca!” she shouted, raising herself onto her tiptoes.
The bald head turned in her direction, and Serenity waved a hand in the air. Luca lifted his head just enough she could see his eyes, but he didn’t smile.
“Please back up,” Luca said, his voice carrying over the crowd. “Just back up.”
Serenity’s stomach began to churn. What was going on?
The people around her began to back up, shoving her around, and Serenity had no choice except to move as well. There were simply too many of them to fight against.
“I called the police!” a voice shouted.
Serenity nearly lost her breakfast.
Luca nodded. “Thank you,” he said, his voice still large and authoritative. “If you’ll just stay back. We don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”
She was going to hyperventilate. This couldn’t be happening. Why wouldn’t anyone move? What was Luca doing? He wasn’t looking at her and wasn’t offering her any kind of reassurance. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. This wasn’t what they’d agreed to only a few days ago.
“Oof,” Serenity huffed when someone shoved her from the side. Pinching her lips together, she decided enough was enough.
Stepping to the back of the crowd, Serenity walked around until she found an opening and began carefully weaving her way closer. She needed to know what was going on.
After one last duck around a large man holding his cell phone pointed toward Luca, Serenity popped up and froze.
“You’re blocking the shot,” the man snapped.
Serenity didn’t even acknowledge him.
“Seri,” Luca said in a low tone. “I need you to go check on Gemma.” Luca’s foot was on the back of a teenage boy who lay unconscious on the ground, his nose bleeding and a bruise forming on his jaw.
Serenity couldn’t breathe. How was this happening again? Had the boy broken into a shop? What was he doing? Why was Luca the one in the middle? Had he caught the kid?
“Seri.”
Her mind churned with so many what-ifs. Did the boy have a gun? Had he threatened anyone? Without warning, her mind immediately went back to her attack and the crowd, including the angry photographer and Luca, were gone.
“Serenity!”
She jolted, her eyes jerking up to meet Luca’s intense stare.
“Seri.” He softened his voice. “Can you come here?” Luca held out his hand.
Serenity’s chest was rising and falling too fast, and black spots danced in her vision.
“Come on, Ser. I’m right here. Come here.”
Someone shoved her from behind, and Serenity stumbled forward, Luca grasping her hand quickly to keep her from falling on her face.
“Serenity,” Luca said in a low tone, his eyes darting around the crowd. “I’m trying to keep everyone calm here, but I need you to go inside the shop and check Gemma out, okay? This kid tried to break into her store this morning, and I can’t walk away until the police get here. Can you do that?”
Serenity nodded numbly, her mind still struggling to grasp the present.
“Serenity.” Luca gave her a slight shake.
“What?” she blinked several times.
He blew out a breath. “There you are. Can you check on Gemma?”
Serenity took in a long breath. She was fine. She was here. Luca had things under control. Her thief was gone. This wasn’t her store. “Yeah…yeah. I can do that. Was she hurt?” Serenity’s heart kick-started for another reason, and suddenly, she was all too awake from her momentary stupor.
“I don’t know,” Luca admitted.
A siren broke the air, and Luca looked down the street. “Hurry. She’ll be happier to see a familiar face than a strange emergency worker.”
The boy groaned on the sidewalk, and Serenity stumbled back. Turning, she didn’t care that the crowd didn’t want to move this time. Using her shoulder, she shoved her way through until Gemma’s Gems was right in front of her.
Yanking the door open, Serenity lunged inside. “Gemma!” she shouted. “Gemma! Where are you?”
“Over here.”
Serenity’s head whipped to the side, and she blew out a breath.
Gemma was sitting on the floor, hugging her knees, a palm sized blue paperweight at her feet and her eyes red rimmed and glassy.
Walking over, Serenity knelt down. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
Gemma didn’t look her in the eye, but shook her head. “No. But he did.”
Closing her eyes and sighing, Serenity shifted and plopped herself on the floor next to Gemma. Not knowing what else to say, she took Gemma’s trembling hand and clasped it with one of her own hands while chafing it with the other.
After a moment, Gemma’s shoulders began to droop, and her head fell sideways until it landed on Serenity’s shoulder. Gemma sniffed, and tears began to trickle down Serenity’s sleeve and arm.
“It’s going to be okay,” Serenity whispered, putting her own head to rest on Gemma’s. “We’re going to be okay.”
She wasn’t okay. Luca had seen the exact moment that her mind had gone somewhere else. More than likely straight back to the moment when she’d been attacked.
Luca shook his head, grateful Serenity had headed inside. He couldn’t worry about her right now, though it was all he wanted to do.
The kid beneath his boot stirred.
“Stay down,” Luca commanded, hoping to frighten the thief into complying.
Gemma had done a good job of whacking him in the face with her paperweight. It was impressive, really, and Luca almost wanted to laugh about it.
He’d parked on the street today instead of the back of Serenity’s property and ended up about a block away from the store. When he’d left Serenity and headed to his truck, just as he was passing Gemma’s store, the door had burst open and the teenager had come stumbling out, Gemma behind him, swinging her hand wildly while holding the weight and screaming.
Without thought, Luca had jumped in, giving the kid a swift hit to the jaw and knocking him flat.
A crowd, of course, had gathered. Cars had come to a screeching halt and Luca had tried to control the situation, but guessing from the number of phones aimed his way, it hadn’t worked very well.
After sending Gemma inside, Luca had stood guard over the boy’s body. He’d been grateful that one onlooker had the capacity to call emergency services. Most were simply gawking, and Luca was growing increasingly uncomfortable.
“Luca…why am I not surprised?” Officer Montoya drawled, walking up with his eyebrows raised.
Luca shrugged. “Trust me. I wish I wasn’t here.”
“Well, I think others think differently.” Montoya turned to his fellow officers. “Get those cameras off.” The officers started working their way through the crowd, ordering people to stop recording, and Montoya turned back to Luca. “Who’s this?”
Luca took his foot off the boy’s back as he groaned again. “I don’t know. Gemma was chasing him out of her store after hitting him with a paperweight. She was kind of hysterical, but I caught that he was trying to rob her before she went back inside. Serenity’s with her now.”
Officer Montoya blew out a breath. “I thought moving to a smaller town would mean a quiet job.”
Luca shook his head. “I don’t remember it being like this when I was a kid.”
Officer Montoya nodded. “Good to know I wasn’t completely off my rocker.” He came the last few feet and reached down to grab the teenager by the collar. “Up and at ‘em, bro. We need to go downtown.”
The boy continued to moan, but he mostly held his feet when the police brought him upright.
“What’s…goin…on?” he slurred, his head lolling from side to side.
“Wow, she got him good,” Officer Montoya said, studying the teenager’s face. “You said she used a paperweight?”
“Fist sized blue ball,” Luca said, shifting his weight from side to side. Now that the police were here, his desire to get in and check on Serenity and Gemma was mounting.
“I’ll bet it’s one she made for her shop,” Officer Montoya murmured. “Blythe!” he called.
A middle-aged officer came up and grabbed the teenager’s arms. “Sir, you have the right to remain silent?—”
Officer Montoya let go of the kid and turned to Luca. “You said Gemma’s inside?”
Luca nodded. “This way.” He marched right through the crowd, the onlookers parting like the Red Sea. He wasn’t sure if they were afraid of him, or if they just wanted to stop him from bumping into their cameras, but Luca was grateful to be going in the building where they couldn’t continue to watch him like a zoo exhibit.
The front door dinged as he came in. “Seri?”
“We’re over here.”
Luca and Officer Montoya turned to see the two women sitting against the wall behind Gemma’s work desk. Beads and string and precious stones were scattered all over the floor, and the weight Gemma had been wielding was lying at Gemma’s feet.
Luca rushed to Serenity’s side while Officer Montoya squatted in front of Gemma.
“Ms. Griffith,” the officer said softly.
Gemma brought her head up from Serenity’s shoulder. Her eyes were glassy and slightly vacant. “I have to come into the station, don’t I?”
Officer Montoya offered her a regretful smile. “You do.”
“Am I going to be in trouble for hitting him?”
The policeman blew out a breath. “I don’t know. It’ll depend on how it all went down.”
“She was defending herself and her shop,” Serenity argued, her eyebrows furrowed and her skin flushed.
“It’s okay,” Luca assured her. “It’ll all work out.”
“But…”
Luca took Serenity’s free hand. The other was clasped tightly around Gemma’s. “He has to do his job, Seri.”
She huffed. “The kid was on her property, trying to take things and would have hurt Gemma if she hadn’t defended herself. She shouldn’t get in trouble for that.”
“If we can prove it happened just like you said, then everything will be fine,” Officer Montoya said. He stood and offered Gemma a hand. “But I will need you to come with me, Ms. Griffiths.” He helped the quiet woman to her feet, keeping a hand on her elbow. “Luca. I’ll need your statement too.” Officer Montoya looked at Serenity. “Were you witness to anything?”
Serenity shook her head, and Luca sighed in relief. “No. I had just opened my shop when I heard a bunch of commotion outside.”
Luca helped her stand while she talked, then tucked her into his side. She went willingly, hugging him around the middle.
“Luca had just left that direction, so I ran out to see what had happened.”
“Your boyfriend here needs to become a cop,” Officer Montoya murmured. “Somehow he does more of my job than I do.” He grinned to show he was kidding. “But seriously. I’ll need both of you. Ms. Michaels, you’re free to go.”
“Can I walk her back?” Luca asked. “I need to call my brothers and let them know why I’ll be late, but I can come in straight after that.”
“That works.” Officer Montoya looked down at the still silent Gemma. “Are you ready, Ms. Griffiths?”
She shrugged. “As I’ll ever be, I suppose.”
Serenity stepped away from Luca and spontaneously hugged Gemma. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered. “We’ll make it okay. And then we’ll never let anything like this happen to our street again.”
Luca wished he could promise her those exact words, but he knew too well that there was ugliness in the world. And apparently, it was reaching his hometown.
Gemma only nodded, then turned to the door.
“Grab your key, and we’ll lock up,” Officer Montoya instructed. “Luca, you and Ms. Michaels go first.”
“On it.” Luca took Serenity’s hand. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you back.” His head fought with his heart the whole way back to the souvenir shop. Luca didn’t want to leave Serenity, but there were definitely things that needed to be taken care of. Once he had her back inside her own shop, he pulled her straight into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Are you going to be okay if I go to the police station? I don’t care what Montoya said. If you need me here, I’ll stay.”
Serenity’s laugh was humorless, but she nodded against his chest. “I’ll be fine.” Leaning her head back, she looked up at him. “But I’ll be counting the hours until tonight. I was scared for you.”
Luca tried to smile, but he couldn’t quite manage it. Leaning down he took a short but fierce kiss. “Okay,” he croaked. “I’ll check in with you soon.”
Serenity nodded and stepped back, giving him permission to leave. She clasped her hands in front of her waist. “I’m fine. Go ahead.”
Luca nodded and went back to the door, then outside. His head was screaming at him, but duty called and Serenity had said to go. He’d take her at her word, even if he hated it. He’d have to get used to this if their relationship was going to work. She was a big girl. She could handle it.
He just wasn’t sure he could.