Page 70 of Say Yes to the Death

Claire groaned as she exited the car and slammed the door. Nicole, arguably the most competitive and adventurous person she had ever met, had planned a field day full of events for the bridal party to bond. She had arranged it before Luke and Claire’s relationship had imploded. Now Claire would be playing flag football with the man who karate chopped her heart. Maybe Coli would switch it to tackle football so she could at least ram her head into his gut.

At least the Chamber of Commerce Award for Event Planner of the Year was all but guaranteed to be hers. Nicole’s May proposal had been a masterpiece, even with the carriage tampering. But the ceremony meant sitting in the same room with her ex-fiancé and the twatwaffle who was suing her. And now that Luke was dead to her, she would be arriving dateless.

“Want to be my date? I don’t think I can face Wendy and Jason alone. I’m going to need some backup.” She pushed open the door to the stairwell and began to climb, Rosie trotting after her.

“I would, but I had to pencil in a meeting at the gallery with Nicole and Aaron. We’re going to show him the gallery while his girlfriend is visiting her parents. I could see if we could change the time but?—”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s okay. Ask him about the progress on his sketch, will you? I know he’s sheepish about it, but Jane is going to love it.” Claire clasped her hands to her heart. With the private room set up at the gallery and custom uplighting, it was going to be stunning.

Rosie tugged her down the hall toward the apartment door. Before the trip, Claire had forgotten to pack Rosie’s second favorite toy, a one-eyed monkey named Sam. He probably needed a quick tumble in the washing machine. She added it to her To Do list as she pulled out her keys and slid them in the door. She pushed her front door open and faced her friend to mention the lighting she wanted for Aaron.

“Ahhhhhh,” Mindy screamed.

“What? What?” Claire turned around in time to see an expensive purse go flying across the room.

A shadowy figure turned away from the window at the last second and caught it by one strap.

Claire hammered the panic button on her wall unit as Mindy picked up a bar stool. Mindy ran across the room, holding the chair in front of her like a battering ram.

Claire sprinted into the living room and yanked Taser #5 from its hiding place under the coffee table. She swung it like a gun and pointed it at the intruder. Rosie sat on her butt and tipped her head.

This was it. It was happening. Whoever the new stalker was had broken into her apartment. And he was going to pay.

“That is quite enough,” the shadowy figure said, relieving Mindy of her chair and artfully using her momentum against her, twirling her and dropping her into the chair as easy as breathing. He stepped in front of the window and revealed his face. A face she hadn’t seen for two decades, but there was no mistaking him.

Claire stopped, mouth gaping open. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe.

“Dad?”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

To Do:

- Ask Sawyer why system is not break-in-proof

- Call Mom & Charlie

Jack Hartley stood in Claire’s kitchen, dressed in overshined dress shoes and a black suit and tie. His salt-and-pepper hair was combed perfectly into place, and a clear earpiece nestled in his right ear. His footsteps were completely silent as he stepped closer to her. He was tall, but not so tall that he would stand out in a crowd. A distorted, male version of herself stared back at her. The slope of her nose. Her earlobes.Her own brown eyes peered out from an unfamiliar face, and she didn’t know whether to scream or run or cry.

The bottom fell out of her stomach, and her head spun like she had climbed onto a Tilt-A-Whirl. What could he possibly want with her after two decades of silence? And how had he gotten past her security system?

Had she stumbled into some kind of alternate universe? One where she had a caring father who made sure she arrived home safely and who would offer to sit on the front porch cleaning a shotgun in case that good-for-nothing Luke ever came back?

But no. Jack Hartley wasn’t that kind of father. He wasn’t a father at all. At least not to her.

Mindy cleared her throat, still sitting in the kitchen chair. “So. What the hell are you doing here? Did Claire’s sudden media appearance remind you that you had a daughter you abandoned twenty years ago?”

Claire’s phone vibrated in her pocket, but she couldn’t catch her breath. Her eyes flicked between Jack and Mindy, and she was unable to find her voice.

“Claire,” Jack said, digging in his pocket. “Forgive the intrusion. When we heard you were out of the country, we had to catch you as soon as you came back. Local law enforcement really should have informed us of your whereabouts but?—”

“We?”

He withdrew a badge from his wallet and flashed it at her briefly. “FBI. We need your help.”

For fuck’s sake.

She stared at him, then threw her purse onto one of the barstools. She slapped the Taser on the counter then marched up to Jack. “Did I stumble onto the set of a bad movie? You come back into my life after two decades of absolute silence, claiming to be with the FBI, and you suddenly think I owe you something?”

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