Ellie Ashe - Miranda Vaughn 02 - Dropping the Dime (22 page)

The smell of fresh-brewed coffee greeted me as I opened the back door of Aunt Marie's house and let myself into the warm kitchen. Aunt Marie was puttering around, wiping down the counters behind Rob, who was cooking something in a large skillet. They both looked tan and rested from their vacation, even after hearing about my misadventures.

Rob had sat Sarah and me down and lectured us on ethics and putting ourselves in danger, and it turns out I was wrong. It was way worse than facing the elementary school principal. But in the end, after he'd admonished us to not break the law, no matter how much we wanted to help the client, he'd given us each a hug and told us that he was grateful that we weren't hurt. I never knew my biological father, who abandoned me and my teenage mother when I was born. But I had a feeling this was a lot like what it was like to have a dad.

"Whatever you're making smells great, Rob," I said, pouring a cup of coffee and adding a generous portion of cream.

"Scrambled eggs, home fries, and sausage," he said. "Your aunt's not the only cook around here, you know."

Aunt Marie smiled and gave me a kiss. "Can you set the table, sweetie?"

The early morning sunlight streaming through the kitchen window caught her engagement ring with a flash. It warmed my heart to see her and Rob so happy. And from the size of that rock, Rob was indeed deeply in love.

I set my coffee down and grabbed the stack of plates from the counter. Aunt Marie pulled cloth napkins from the drawer and set them on the plates.

"So have you two set a date for the wedding yet?" I asked, setting placemats around the round oak table.

"No, not yet," Aunt Marie said, giving Rob a happy smile. "But we don't want to wait too long. Maybe in the summer."

"Well, don't worry, I'm looking for an apartment, and I'm sure I'll be able to find something soon," I said, placing the plates around the round oak table in the center of the breakfast nook. "Kathryn and Alexi's development is breaking ground next month, and I may look into buying a place there."

It was a little out of my price range and would make for a longer commute, but the newlyweds would need their privacy.

Rob and Marie exchanged a smile.

"That won't be necessary," Aunt Marie said, bringing a pitcher of orange juice to the breakfast nook. "I'm moving into Rob's house."

For some reason, that hadn't even occurred to me when Rob and Marie had announced their engagement. Aunt Marie's house was close to Rob's law office and the Sugar Plum Bakery. The location was why Marie had bought it in the first place. Rob, on the other hand, lived south of the city limits on twenty acres of rolling pastureland where he kept a few horses and some livestock.

"Oh." I struggled to wrap my mind around Marie not living in this house. It was nearly impossible. She'd lived in the cozy two-bedroom house since before I was born. I had lived there since I was three, when Aunt Marie took me in. "But what about the bakery?"

"I'm not retiring, but I am going to work fewer hours. Sheldon will manage the bakery. Who knows? Maybe I'll sleep in for a change," she said with a laugh.

"And God knows my house could use some of Marie's style," Rob said.

I nodded absently, assuming that Rob's office decor, with the mounted deer head over his filing cabinets, reflected his taste in home decor as well. But my mind was more focused on absorbing what Aunt Marie was telling me. She was leaving her house.

"Well, uh, are you going to sell the house? How soon do you think that will happen?" I was prepared to leave and was ready to find my own place, but I had just assumed that Aunt Marie would always be here, in the house I'd grown up in. The house with the warm kitchen that always smelled of baked goods, with the fragrant climbing roses along the fence—it was my anchor. And now I felt adrift, not tied to any place in a permanent way.

"No, sweetie," Marie said, joining me at the table. "I thought you'd want to move in here."

"Oh. Really?"

"It's your house as much as mine," she said, taking my hands in hers.

"But only on paper for estate planning purposes," I said.

She shook her head. "It's your home. You should live here."

I smiled and nodded. "Are you sure?"

"It's going to take me a couple of weeks to pack up what I want to move to Rob's, but you can move in right away. You can sleep in your old room until we get the master suite cleared out," she said, efficient as ever.

"Why the rush?"

She laughed and her cheeks turned pink. "When you've waited this long to find the man of your dreams, you don't want to wait a minute longer to spend your life with him."

I felt the tears sting my eyes at the sight of her happy face. She pulled me close and hugged me tight.

There had been so much upheaval in my life in the last two years, and through it all, my shelter was Aunt Marie and this home she had built for us. It was the place I felt safe when my world fell apart. And while I was so happy for Aunt Marie, a selfish piece of me wanted her to stay, continue being that rock for me. It was probably why I hadn't found the perfect apartment and moved out yet. But I also wanted her to go and be with Rob and be happy.

"It won't be the same without you here," I said, struggling past the lump in my throat.

"And it shouldn't be. You need to make this place your own now," she said, smoothing my hair from my face. "And you shouldn't hesitate to make changes here, too. This isn't a museum."

The thought of putting new carpet in my old bedroom made me smile. What had Aunt Marie been thinking to let a ten year old pick out pink shag carpet? With some paint, I could turn that room into a guest room or an office.

"Thank you, Aunt Marie," I said, blinking away the tears. I was surprised at how relieved I felt to not have to think about moving away from this familiar place. I loved this house, and though I'd been putting on a brave face about leaving, it was harder than I had admitted—even to myself.

"This is a good house for you," she said, patting my hand as she stood up to get more coffee. "You'll create your own memories here."

My mind was already cataloging the other changes I'd like to make, in addition to the new carpet. A fresh coat of paint in the living room and maybe some built-in bookshelves. Of course, that was going to take money.

"I could always rent out the apartment over the garage for a little extra income," I said.

"Oh, that's already taken care of," Marie said, and then moved back to the kitchen and busied herself at the sink, avoiding my eyes. Rob, too, looked away quickly, taking the skillet off the burner.

"What? Who's renting the apartment?"

A knock at the door sounded, and Rob nearly leapt at the chance to escape the kitchen to answer it.

"Now, sweetie, I know I should have checked with you first, but he needed a place to live, and Rob said we owed him big time," Marie said.

"Wait a minute…"

"It's only for a few months. Six at the most. While his house gets rebuilt." She gave me a smile and a shrug. "It was your car that burned down his house."

"Hey, that wasn't my fault. It wasn't my bomb."

"Rob says he's very nice, for a fed," she said, giving me a wink. "And I know it's ridiculous, because you're a grown woman, but it does make me feel a little better knowing there's a federal agent living here."

"Oh, God, no," I said, my heart sinking. It didn't make me feel safe at all. I imagined living across the small backyard from Jake, seeing him every day, knowing he was right there, nearly within arm's reach. Every day. Every single night. "Oh, no."

I did not have that kind of willpower.

I started to protest the arrangement, but Rob walked back into the kitchen. He was followed by Jake, who held out a bouquet of spring flowers for Marie. Then he turned those warm, dark eyes to me.

"Hello, neighbor," Jake said with a smile that made my heart skip.

Marie pulled Rob toward the dining room to get a vase off the top shelf, leaving me alone with Jake in the breakfast nook. It was the first time we'd been alone since Sunday morning when his house nearly burned to the ground. The guilt gnawed at my stomach, even though I had told myself all week that it wasn't my fault.

"How are you doing?" he asked, leaning back against the counter between the kitchen and the dining area. He crossed his arms in front of him, and I was distracted by the bulge in his biceps.

"Oh, fine. Still have a job, so that's nice," I said. Rob had also been nice enough to explain that it wasn't technically burglary when I broke into the Leonidis home. More like trespassing, which would be a misdemeanor. But that still wasn't allowed, he had stressed. "I heard you arrested Mark Ramsey."

Jake smiled. "Yeah, that was fun. Once we told Sean Keogh that we knew who he worked for, he decided it was time to talk."

I frowned. "Is he going to get out of jail because he's cooperating? Is he the one who put the bomb under my car?"

"No, he's not getting a walk," he said, his face serious again. "He'll get a more lenient sentence for his cooperation, but he's still going to plead guilty to attempted murder."

"What about Mark?"

"Caught him at the airport, about to get on a private jet," Jake said, his eyes narrowing. "He really had a sweet deal going for a while, paying his ex-wife with money stolen from her family's customers."

He shook his head. "I don't know if we would have caught that line item on the escrow documents. How did you find it?"

I shrugged. "Quinn told me that the Bishops had sued the Leonidis family for using the name Bishop Ranch on the subdivision, to protect the trademark. So the water district's name stood out on the list. Then I couldn't confirm that it existed, and that's it. It was just a suspicion until I told you. You and Finn did the work to find out where the money was flowing."

"We still thought that Ana was the one stealing it, until we showed up at the Leonidis house."

"Finn didn't get his man," I said. "Was he disappointed to learn that Simon Leonidis wasn't a criminal mastermind?"

Jake laughed. "Well, he didn't get
that
Leonidis, but I don't think he's too disappointed. Anyway, Finn has a new way to annoy Simon Leonidis, since he's got a date with Ana next week."

I raised an eyebrow at the memory of Ana clinging to the IRS investigator. "It was really lucky for us that you showed up when you did. A few minutes more and Ana would have been shot by that drone."

Jake stared at me and then shook his head. "Luck had nothing to do with the timing. Finn and I were keeping an eye on your apartment and saw you and Sarah tear out of the alley on her bike. We were behind you until she ran a red light. Luckily, we were close to the Leonidis family's homes, and I figured that's where you were heading."

He reached out and took my hand, pulling me closer to him. My heart skipped a beat at the touch.

"I'm not so sure it was only Ana that Mark was trying to kill with the drone. He knew you were on to his scheme. I think he figured that if Ana were dead, the investigation would end because the money's trail ended with her. But he couldn't let you live, because you'd figure it out," Jake said. His thumb stroked my hand while he spoke, and both his words and the contact with his skin sent shivers through me.

"That's why he had Sean put the bomb under my car," I whispered.

He nodded then gripped my hand tighter. "He planted it on Saturday, after you and Sarah left for the Leonidis party."

Had Sean connected the wires correctly…I shivered at the thought.

"Stop that," Jake said softly.

"What?" I asked.

"You're thinking about what would have happened if the bomb had detonated as planned."

I nodded, and he took both my hands in his, the warmth enveloping me.

"It didn't happen. You need to let go of those thoughts." He gave my hands a gentle squeeze.

I exhaled and tried a shaky smile. "I'll try."

We stood like that for a long moment, his hands securing mine.

"Are you all right with me living here?" he asked, his eyes watching me closely.

"Sure, fine," I said, nodding quickly. "Aunt Marie thinks I'll be safer with you nearby."

A slow grin spread across his face. "Well, I'll certainly do what I can to keep you safe," he said, then leaned in closer. "At least safe from wayward cowboys."

I frowned. How did he know about Quinn?

"Unless, of course, that's what you want." His voice was low and very, very near. His breath brushed my neck and sent a shiver through me.

"No," I said, nearly stuttering over the word. "Quinn and I are friends."

That was the truth. So far. But only because I was dragging my feet. He'd made that clear. Quinn was there, if I wanted him.

But what did I want?

I lifted my gaze and met with Jake's warm brown eyes, usually brimming with amusement but now serious. He continued to watch me, and his expression softened until his eyes crinkled a bit at the corners.

"Good," he said, his voice soft and hoarse.