My Everything - Seth & Amber (7 page)

As they climbed into Cam’s company truck,
Seth thought that it might not be such a bad thing to have some
zero-stress, no-brainer work for a change. He could use the mental
downtime to figure out what he wanted to do now that his military
career was behind him. What he saw for himself in the future. Hell,
maybe he could even come to terms with some of the ghosts that
haunted his past.

“So how does it feel being back in your old
stomping grounds?” Cam’s loud voice boomed over the country music
blaring from the sixteen inch speakers, interrupting Seth’s inner
dialog.

“Good.” Seth looked down at the river as they
drove across it.

As a kid, this had been his favorite place to
be. He would spend hours down at the banks. He had his first kiss
on the bridge they were currently driving over when he was ten. He
drank his first beer that same year, and underneath the very same
bridge.

It all looked so different now, though, with
the new Riverwalk development that lined the banks of the water. He
understood the need for commerce in the small town and was happy to
see that Harper’s Crossing seemed to be thriving, but he did feel a
little bit of disappointment over the fact that nothing, save the
small and picturesque downtown area and the bucolic rural areas in
the outer county surrounding the town, looked the same as it had in
his childhood. All of the commercial and retail districts
surrounding that gem of a downtown area- which, in Seth's
childhood, had been sliding down the gradual path to eventual
decline - had, in the intervening years, been spruced up and
modernized. 'Revitalized' they called it. It wasn't a bad thing, he
knew- in fact, it was good. Very good. Just jarring. Somehow, you
never really emotionally expect life to move on when you're not
there, even though logic tells you that it will.

Well, Seth ruminated, if there's one thing
you can depend on in life, it's change. Things will constantly
change.

--- ~ ---

Seth and Cam walked out of the offices of
Lifeline Insurance, their newest clients, and Seth shook his head
in amazement. Wow. If all of the consults went that easily, Seth
would be done by noon every day. They were in and out of there in
under forty-five minutes.

“Is that normally what to expect in a
consultation?” Seth asked as Cam fired up his truck.

Cam’s head fell back as he laughed. “Hell,
no! Normally I have to explain over and over again each device’s
use, then tediously outline each feature.
Never
before has
it been that simple. I think if you would have told them that
jumping up and down on one foot while they barked like a dog would
keep them safe they would have done it.”

Seth’s brow furrowed. “But I didn’t really
say anything.”

“I know!” Cam exclaimed. “That was the beauty
of it all. You weren’t trying to sell, you just answered their
questions, and just barely did that. It was like how men go crazy
when a girl plays hard to get. By the way, you are totally the girl
in this scenario.” Cam laughed at his own joke before continuing
with awe in his voice, “They just trusted you. I could see it in
their eyes when they asked for your opinions, it was like they
innately knew you could keep them safe.”

Seth didn’t really think it was that deep. He
figured it had more to do with them knowing about his military
experience (thanks to Cam) than anything remotely personal to him.
But Cam seemed happy and Lifeline Insurance now had a security
system that would protect them and the confidential information
stored at their facility. So Seth figured, that any way you looked
at it, it was a win-win.

“Man, forget what I said about talking more
to the clients,” Cam said excitedly as he turned onto the frontage
road. “This silent-strength thing you’ve got going on is working
just fine.”

The radio on Cam’s belt chirped and he
grabbed it. “Helloooo, Darla. How ya doin’, beautiful?”

Darla, Cam’s seventy-something year old
secretary’s gravelly voice came over the airwaves, “You done with
the Lifeline job?”

Cam whispered loudly to Seth, “She likes to
get straight to the point.”

Seth remembered Darla from when he and Cam
worked for Cam’s dad at Titan Security over their summer breaks in
high school. The main thing he remembered about her was that she
smoked like a chimney, but he also seemed to recall that she was a
no-nonsense, no-muss, no-fuss lady even then. She had not seemed to
mellow with age.

“Sure am. We’re ahead of schedule thanks to
Mr. Smooth Talker over here.” Cam winked at Seth as he spoke to
Darla.

“Good, then you need to head over to Cranston
Square. There was a break in at Bella, and someone was assaulted.
The police can’t seem to reach Mr. Cranston to get the video
surveillance footage.”

“On our way.” Cam replaced the radio on his
belt loop.

“Old man Cranston still kickin’?” Seth
asked.

“Barely, but yes. He’s not gonna like that
there was a break in at one of his properties.” Cam’s fingers
tightened on the steering wheel and he nervously looked over at
Seth, “You know, your cousin works there.”

Seth looked over at his friend, “Where?” He
was unclear if one of his cousins worked for old man Cranston or at
the place where the break-in had occurred.

“At Bella. Haley works at Bella,” Cam said,
his tone growing serious.

Seth’s blood ran cold. He picked up his phone
but realized that he didn’t have any of his cousins' numbers
programmed into it. So he did the next best thing and began calling
his brothers. No one picked up. Just as he was about to call his
dad, the truck came to a stop. That was one of the great things
about living in a small town, it never took too long to get
anywhere.

As they passed under the police tape, Cam
gave his name and showed his I.D. to an officer that was stationed
at the door. Seth’s heart was pounding and he just wanted to get
inside the store and make sure that his cousin was okay.

Finally, the officer moved to the side and
let them pass. They stepped into the room, picking their way around
mounds of hastily tossed clothing. Seth surveyed the scene before
him. The first thing he saw was his cousin, who seemed perfectly
fine. The next thing he saw stopped him dead in his tracks. It was
her
. Haley was crouched beside
Amber
.

She was sitting in a chair with an ice pack
pressed to the side of her head, smiling at something Alex was
saying to her. He crossed the room in three strides.

His brother was the first to notice his
arrival. “Hey Seth, you’re a little late for the party.”

He looked down at Amber, who was
good-naturedly rolling her eyes at Alex.

“Are you okay?” he heard the intensity in his
own voice.

Her eyes widened a little at his tone then
her lips turned up into a half-smile. “I’m fine. Just a little
shaken up. What are you doing here?”

“I'm working at Titan Security,” Seth
explained.

He wanted to touch her. He needed to feel her
so he knew she was okay. He balled his hands into tight fists at
his sides to stop himself from doing just that. His eyes scanned
down her body trying to visually assess if she was in fact, all
right.

“Small world,” Alex said looking between Seth
and Amber. His face breaking out into a slow smile.

Seth raised his eyes to hers, remembering
that was the first thing she had said to him at his homecoming
party. She smiled a knowing smile, he assumed at the same
memory.

“What happened?” Seth asked.

Amber’s voice had an edge to it as she
explained, “Apparently, someone did all of this,” she gestured
around her shop, “in the process of looking for my safe. I must
have interrupted their search and they knocked me over the head
with that ceramic vase.”

Seth was barely able to contain the anger he
felt boiling inside of him. He would find who did this, and if they
were
lucky
, he would just kill them. He asked tightly, “Did
you see who it was?”

“No,” Amber said, seeming frustrated. Then
her eyes narrowed as if a realization was dawning on her. “But I
did smell him.”

“You what?” both he and Alex asked at the
same time.

“Yeah! Right before I got knocked on the head
I smelled
really
bad B.O.,” Amber explained.

“Did you tell the police?” Seth asked,
knowing that any piece of information could help them find the
assailant.

“No, I just remembered when you walked up,”
she said, her eyes darting away from his somewhat furtively, her
expression taking on the barest hint of a guilty cast.

“Man, Bro,” Alex slapped him on the back
laughing, “I think that means you need a shower. Or at least some
better deodorant.”

“I meant because he smells...” Amber sighed
in frustration as she looked at Alex before turning back to Seth,
her beautiful hazel eyes meeting his as she stammered, “I mean, you
smell so…um…good and…just exactly…you know…how I remember. So that
made me remember about the other smell.”

“You need to tell the police what you
remember.” Seth motioned for a few officers that were speaking in
low tones at the front door.

The tall one came over. Seth stepped to the
side and Amber told the young officer what she had just remembered.
The officer knelt down and placed his hand on her knee asking her
if that was all and giving her his card in case she remembered
anything else or just wanted to talk.

Seth, for one, certainly
did
want to
have a little talk with him, and the subject of that talk would be
the officer's much-too-friendly behavior.

As they continued speaking, Seth looked
around the store. It was pretty thoroughly tossed but he could see
how amazing it must be when everything was in order. So this must
be the business Amber owned.

Alex leaned over to him whispering, “She not
only owns Bella. She designs most of the clothes that she carries
here.”

It was unnerving the way his brothers kept
reading his mind. Seth had never thought of himself as an “open
book” type person. Usually people struggled to figure out what he
was thinking or feeling. But it seemed that his brothers did not
suffer with any such challenges.

Cam entered the room, stepping over several
piles of clothing that were strewn about the floor. “The cameras
are no good. They haven’t been operational for years.”

“None of them work?” Seth had noticed two
cameras in the parking lot and there was one on a pole pointed
directly at the front entrance.

He looked down at Amber, interrupting her
conversation with Officer Hands-On. “Did you know that they didn’t
work?”

Amber shrugged. “I never really thought about
it. Harper’s Crossing is such a safe community. But it doesn’t
exactly surprise me, since I've been asking Mr. Cranston to fix the
light in the back lot for over a year now and he still hasn’t. I
mean, it may be a safe town, but it’s still dark when the girls and
I leave a lot of nights.”

“Alright well, I'm taking off. Call if you’d
like an estimate,” Cam said handing Amber his card. Then turning to
Seth, “Are you staying here with Haley?”

Seth knew he should leave. He should not get
involved in this. He could tell himself that he was just staying to
ensure his cousin’s safety, but he wasn’t big on lying, especially
to himself.

“I’m staying,” he said, staring directly at
Amber. He saw her breath hitch at his statement.

“Alright, buddy, see you tomorrow.” Cam
winked at a female police officer as he left.

Seth took a deep breath through his nose,
then instructed Alex, “Stay with her.”

As he walked to go check out the back lot he
heard his brother say, “Is it wrong that I want to tell him he’s
not the boss of me?”

He heard the girls laugh. Well, at least Alex
was keeping them distracted from the break-in, even if it was at
his expense.

“How’s your head?” Haley asked, her face etched with worry.

“It’s feeling better,” Amber tried to
reassure her friend.

She knew she wasn’t doing that convincing of
a job though. The truth was that she just wanted everyone to get
out of Bella so she could clean up. It was driving her crazy that
the store was such a mess.

Plus, she needed to figure this out. Who
would do this? Why? Was it random? It had to be. No one she knew
would want to hurt her.

Right?

Amber reached down and rolled her gold
bracelet around her wrist. She let the sensation of the ridges
beneath her fingertips instantly cause a calm to wash over her. As
soon as she touched the metal, it anchored her, made her feel more
secure.

Officer Williams came over, a serious
expression on his face. “Obviously we won’t be able to pull any
prints, since there are so many people in and out of here every
day. Once you are able to go through your inventory and let us know
what was stolen it may give us a clue.”

Amber once again scanned the room. “No
product was stolen. They damaged the cash drawer in the process of
prying it open, but we don’t keep cash in there when we're closed
so they didn’t get anything. And they never found the safe, so it's
still intact.”

The officer raised his right eye brow. “How
can you be so sure that nothing was stolen?”

Haley chimed in, “She has a photographic
memory. Which, incidentally, makes her unbeatable at memory games.
If you ever go to game night, make sure she’s on your team.”

Amber knew Haley was trying to lighten the
mood and she appreciated it.

“Do you have any disgruntled employees?”
Officer Williams was writing something down on his pad of
paper.

Amber was starting to get a little irritated.
This was the third time she had been asked that question, “No, I
don’t. But let’s follow that theory for a moment, shall we? If it
was a ‘disgruntled employee’ don’t you think they would have known
I don’t keep money in the cash drawer, not to mention exactly where
the safe is?”