Unraveled (Love in Salem, book 2) (26 page)

“Insurance will cover all the repairs and any appointments that will be missed in the process will be rescheduled so there won’t be any real loss.”

Lt. Halliday cleared his throat drawing their attention back to him.

“I have my partner checking the whereabouts of Randall Wellington to see if he is a viable suspect.  Is there anyone else that comes to mind for us to check out?”

Aidan shook his head at the same time Atayla whispered “Brittney.”

Surprise registered on Aidan’s face as looked questioningly at Atayla.

“Why do you think Brittney did this?  We haven’t heard from her since that fiasco at home.”

She loved how he always referred to his home as hers too.  She would have smiled if not for the fact that she knew she was about to make him really, really mad.

“
You
may not have heard from her, but she has taken to leaving messages on my work voice mail after hours.”

Aidan took a step back from her.

“What?”

Ooh, she hated that calm, controlled voice.  It told her just how angry he was.  Whenever his emotions hit their peak he locked them down tight so they didn’t explode.  She would rather he rant and rave and yell at her then put that distance between them.

Atayla took a deep breath.  “She has left a few messages on my voice mail.  Most calling me horrible names and telling me how unworthy I am to have you.  In a couple she told me I would stay away from you if I knew what was good for me.” 

Then she did the most surprising thing of all.  She got her back up and actually rammed her finger in his chest.

“And before you start yelling at me for not telling you, let me remind you that I have had my own battalion of beefy men at my back watching every move I make because you insist that I have a constant bodyguard.  I knew if I told you it would push you over the edge and I didn’t want to lose what little freedom I still have!”

Aidan visible relaxed.  “Okay, okay.  But you still should have told me.  I would have put a stop to it.”

“Can you give me Brittney’s contact information?”  Lt. Halliday requested.

Aidan rattled off her name, address and phone numbers.

“Alright, I’ll check in to this.  It’s too bad you don’t have cameras in the shop.”

“Yeah.”  He rubbed the back of his neck.  “I was trying to save money.  We only put cameras in Bound & Decadent, the office and the back parking lot.  Looks like I’m going to have to upgrade though.”

“I would like to see the footage of the parking lot.”

Lt.
Halliday’s cell phone rang.

“Yeah?  Okay, thanks.  I have another suspect for you to check out.”  He gave Brittney’s information to the person on the other end of the line before hanging up.

“That was my partner.  You will be happy to know that Mr. Wellington was at home when he called to verify his whereabouts.  No way could it have been him.  There simply wasn’t enough time for him to return home.”

“That is a relief.  Thank you.”  Atayla commented.

“I still have a few questions for you Atayla.  Will you stop by the station tomorrow?”

“She will be there.”  Aidan stated, the look to on his face daring her to argue.

She was smart enough to know when keep her mouth shut.

Halliday nodded.  “I’ll see you tomorrow then.  Hopefully I will have more information for you by then Mr. Aiello.”

With that he gathered up the rest of his team and left the premises.

Atayla blew out a frustrated breath.  “So what now?”

“Now I get to wake up my brothers and cousins to see if they can come help me board this window up.  We can clean tomorrow.  Right now all I’m concerned about is keeping people out.”

He walked away from her to use the office phone.  While she waited, she went around and picked stuff up off of the floor and righted chairs.  There was a broom in the closet in the back, so she went and got it and began sweeping up the debris.

Aidan said he wasn’t concerned with cleaning tonight, but she wasn’t going to just stand around and do nothing while he worked his ass off.  The police had already taken pictures for police report and insurance claim, so she didn’t have to worry about tampering with anything.

Once she had a large pile of debris she went and got the trash barrel from the back and began filling it.  It wasn’t much, but at least the guys wouldn’t be stepping on broken glass while they were boarding up the window.

With that cleaned up she went over and began cleaning up the stuffing from the chairs.  Before too long Aidan came up behind her and grabbed the broom and dust pan from her with a terse “Thanks.”

Anger vibrated off of him, and his body language made it clear he didn’t want to deal with her right now.  She stepped back not knowing what else to do.  She had never dealt with a surly Aidan before and didn’t want to now either.

Did he finally realize this was all her fault?  If not for her, his shop would be in one piece and his business wouldn’t be suffering.  All she had to do was heed the warnings that were given to her.  But she didn’t.  She had continued to see Aidan, and now he had been hurt because of it.

Atayla found the seat behind the counter undamaged so she pushed it to the corner out of the way and sat down.  Maybe if she stayed quiet he would forget that she was even here then he wouldn’t take his anger out on her.

It wasn’t long before Bridger and Knox showed up and unloaded boards from the back of a beat up truck.

“Paxton didn’t want to wake Hayden up, so we called Clint and Eddie.  They should be here shortly.”

Aidan didn’t even acknowledge them as he continued to toss broken pieces of furniture in the trash barrel.

“So.  You want to tell me what happened?”  Bridger asked.

“What the hell does it look like?”  He snapped back.

“You in a fit of temper?”  Knox joked.

“God dammit!”  He threw the remains of chair across the room.

Startled, Atayla yelped and fell off of her chair.  Knox was immediately at her side.

“Whoa there, beautiful.  Are you alright?”  He helped her up off of the floor.

“Yes.”  She mumbled, not looking at Aidan.

Bridger confronted his brother.  “Man, you need to calm down.  Why don’t you take Tay home and let us take care of this?”

“No.  This is my problem.  I’ll take care of it.  Why don’t you take Atayla home?  I’m not exactly fit for company right now anyway.”

Bridger looked back and forth between Atayla, who was pointedly not looking at anyone, and Aidan.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“My shop was broken into, the place is a fuckin’ mess, and I’m pissed off.  What the hell do you think is going on here?”

Knox and Bridger shared a knowing look then Knox put his arm around Atayla’s shoulders and guided her towards the door.

“Come on, Tay.  I’ll run you home.  It’s pretty chilly tonight, and your man is being an ass.  There’s no sense in subjecting you to this any longer than necessary.”

They walked out to the parking lot without another word.  Knox helped her up into the beat up truck before walking around the front and getting in himself.  When he started the engine she was surprised at how smooth it ran.

“Whose truck is this?”

“Jasper’s.  He let us borrow the truck, boards, nails and stuff.  He said he would write up a bill for the supplies to turn in to the insurance company.”

After that the ride back to Aidan’s house was subdued.  She wasn’t in a talkative mood and Knox didn’t know what to say to her.  It wasn’t until he heard her sniffle that he looked over and saw tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Aw, hell.  Don’t cry, angel.  I know he was being an ass, but it wasn’t directed towards you.  Once he calms down and realizes how he was acting he’ll probably come home groveling.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“But you don’t really believe that, do you?  Why not?  You know he loves you.”

“I know.  I just can’t help but think, no matter how much he or you or anyone else disagrees, that this happened because of me.”

“How do you figure?”

“Well, all this awful stuff keeps happening to me, and I feel like this is about me too.   I thought it might have been my ex since he has been a suspect in everything else that has happened.  Then the police confirmed he was still in California so it couldn’t have been him.  Then there is Brittney.  She has made it perfectly clear that she wants me to leave Aidan.  What if she did this because I didn’t do as she demanded?  I didn’t tell Aidan about her voice mails because I didn’t want to cause him any more grief, but would things have gone this far if I had?”

“Doubtful.  Even if you had told him he wouldn’t have backed down.  He would have confronted her and she would have acted sooner.  Only instead of his shop it would have been directed towards you.  Your house, maybe?  Who knows?  I do know that Aidan prefers this over anything happening to you.  And you can rest assured that whoever the culprit is, Aidan will make them pay a hefty price.”

He pulled into the drive and parked.

“I’ll send Aidan home once he has cooled down enough to be reasonable, alright?”

Atayla nodded and jumped out of the truck.  Knox sat there and kept an eye on her until she had unlocked the door and was safely inside.

Chapter Twenty-five

The next day Atayla walked out of the police station, Aidan right behind her.  She had answered all of
Halliday’s questions.  Not that it did a bit of good.  There was absolutely no evidence that pointed to a suspect in either case.

Halliday believed both cases were related and Atayla had agreed.  It was no coincidence that Aidan’s shop had been broken into.  Someone was out to hurt him because of her.  He was nothing more than an innocent victim.

She just wished she could prove who had done it.  Nothing added up.  If Randall was still in California, and the police had proved he was, then it couldn’t have been him.  But if it was Brittney, how would she know enough about her past relationship with Randall to have the pictures mailed to her from same town Randall lived in?

She seemed the more likely suspect since she lived here in Salem and had the means, opportunity and motive.  According to the guys she was vindictive enough to do it as well.  The question was: Why?  She didn’t want Aidan when she had him.  In fact, she left him for someone she thought was better.

So did Brittney realize what she had lost and decided to harass her in belief that she would get tired of it and leave Aidan? 

Ridiculous. 

And did she really think that breaking into Skinz would endear her to Aidan?

It was insane.

Atayla stopped on the street and cradled her forehead in her hand when it began to throb.  Between lack of sleep and the stress she had been under, she had one hell of a migraine.  All she wanted to do was crawl under the covers and sleep the rest of the day away, but there were too many things that needed to be taken care of.

Fingers softly caressed her cheek and masculine heat surrounded her.  She could feel his breath on her cheek chilling the wet rivulets of tears.

“Are you okay, baby doll?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you crying?”

He wiped away her tears.

“I’m not crying.”  When he snorted she pressed.  “Really, I’m not.  My head hurts and when it gets this bad my eyes tear up.  I’ll be alright.”

He kissed her forehead. 

“Maybe you should go home and go to back to bed.  I’m sure Mandi can take care of things for one day.”

“No.  I need to go in.  There are a few things I have to complete today in order to meet their deadlines.  Maybe once I have them finished I can go home and rest.”

“Okay.”  He kissed her again.  “Call me when you get there and before you leave to come home.  I still don’t like the idea of you driving around by yourself.”

“I’ll be fine.  I promise.”

Atayla got inside her car and shut the door.  She gave Aidan a little wave before pulling away from the curve and heading towards the office.  He watched until she was out of sight before getting into his SUV.

He needed to fax a copy of the police report to the insurance company and buy new furniture for the shop.  Luckily there wasn’t that much damage and they had finished cleaning up the shop last night.

It had taken the entire night for him calm down enough to go home and apologize to Atayla for his outburst.  By then she was waking up for the day and he had only enough time to make her breakfast and sufficiently beg her forgiveness before jumping in the shower and getting ready to start his day.

She had easily forgiven him, but he still saw the shadow of doubt in her eyes.  He didn’t know if that shadow was because she didn’t fully believe him or that she was a little afraid of him after seeing his temper explode.  Aidan hoped it was neither and that she was just tired from having her night interrupted.