Page 15 of Two Hearts' Accidental Heroes

He tried to tell himself that what he was thinking was crazy. She had her mom, and Anya.

And her dad…

There was just something about the guy that seemed off.

Rick kept remembering how her dad had yelled at her in the parking lot the previous day. There was something strange about the fact that he’d screamed at her about wearing makeup but didn’t seem to think that there was anything wrong with the way she was dressed.

Supposedly, there would be someone handling surveillance on their house tomorrow, but that wasn’t going to stop Rick. He was going to ride his bike to Callahan Construction early the next morning and speak with Shanna’s mom since he probably wasn’t going to be able to go to baseball practice after everything that had happened.

* * *

When Rick woke early the next morning, everything that was going on with the family suddenly hit him hard. Not only would he be attending a new school, but he’d also have to make new friends and not have any contact with anyone from Crystal Rock.

Well, he’d just have to suck it up, he decided, struggling to get out of bed. It was only about five, but it would be light soon, and he knew that the lumber yard and offices opened early since he’d already called and checked with them yesterday. It had probably even been Mrs. Weldon who’d answered the phone.

He showered quickly and dressed, deciding he’d take the bike path along the lakefront when he rolled his bike through the side door of the garage. He could see a couple cars parked along the road at the base of the driveway, but none of the neighbors would have noticed since it was fairly isolated where they lived.

Rick could bypass the guys who were watching the house by catching the road from the bike path farther along the trail. As he made his way along the path, he noticed that another vehicle with heavily tinted windows was parked near the intersection at the end of their access road.

Now, that seemed suspicious. Rick continued along the trail, stopping long enough to jot down the license plate numbers on the notepad in his bag before he caught the main road. Callahan Construction was on the west edge of town, so he could bypass the main roads completely.

Another twenty minutes later, he pulled his bike into the parking lot, just in time to see a woman parking a compact car in the row alongside the lumber yard.

Rick waited until she stepped out from the car. She had to be Mrs. Weldon. He could see the resemblance to both Anya and Shanna right away.

After dropping the kickstand for his bike, Rick called out, “Mrs. Weldon?”

She turned. “Yes?”

“My name is Rick O’Neill.”

She blinked. “Are you one of Eric’s brothers?”

“I am. I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute? Alone would be best.”

“Sure,” she said. “Come inside. I need to start some coffee. Anyone who’s here is off loading orders right now, so we won’t be bothered. We don’t usually have many customers come in until after seven, when our salespeople arrive.”

When she unlocked the front door, he held it open, following her inside. Once she’d rested her purse on the desk in back, she looked at him curiously.

“I’ll make some coffee. Would you like some, Rick?”

“No, thanks, Mrs. Weldon. I should probably get home before anyone notices I’m gone,” he replied.

“Okay. So, what did you want to tell me?” she asked, stepping up to the coffee pot nearby.

“It’s about your daughter, Shanna,” he answered softly. “I think she might be in some real trouble.”

Frowning, she paused, giving him a startled look. “What makes you think that?”

When Rick went on to describe how he’d run into her at the park the other day, she looked at him oddly.

“She told me that she had a date to go to the beach with a boy she goes to school with and some of her friends. But you’re telling me, that’s not what she did?” Mrs. Weldon asked.

“She might have gone to the beach. She was wearing a skimpy bikini. But the guy that dropped her off was an older kid. I think his name is Wade Armstrong. She argued with him, and then your husband showed up at the parking lot to pick her up.”

“My husband?”

“The odd thing about it was that he yelled at her about her makeup but didn’t say anything about the clothes she was wearing or the high heels. He wanted her to take off all the makeup because he didn’t want her to look like that when they went to Rice Lake. It seemed like wherever they were going was planned.”

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