Page 6 of Out of the Shadows
“They knocked over the cabinet after they broke in,” Logan said. “The police pushed it back enough to close the door, but it won’t close with the broken frame. I’ll get someone over to fix it today.”
Logan pinched the bridge of his nose then ran his thumb and forefinger over his eyes. “Someone ran Laura and the kids off the road last night. Totaled her car, so I picked them up and then we came home to this.”
“Are they related?” Jack asked.
“What?” Logan asked, confused.
“They were run off the road and then came home to a break-in—it’s a logical assumption that the two events are connected. What did the police say?”
“They were vague, said they’d look at the report and get back to us. You really think the hit-and-run is connected to this?” He waved his hand toward the broken door.
“It’s worth considering. Your sister’s a veterinarian, right?”
Logan nodded. “She has a practice in Carefree.”
Vets didn’t make natural targets.
“Does she keep drugs or valuable equipment here?”
“Laura doesn’t do drugs,” Logan snapped.
“I meant for her practice,” Jack said. Logan was certainly tired and not thinking clearly. “Ketamine, other animal pharmaceuticals that might make her a target for thieves.”
“Oh. Right. No, she has a clinic, never practiced here.”
It was worth the ask. Jack went down his mental checklist. Enemies, work, family, exes.
“Any problems with her ex-husband?” he asked.
Logan rolled his eyes.
“You don’t like him,” Jack guessed.
“I like Charlie, and I’m not going to say anything bad about him.”
“You like him, but . . . ?” Jack pushed.
Logan glanced toward the hall, lowered his voice. “I don’t want the kids to overhear.”
“Nutshell.”
“Charlie’s not a bad guy. But he lost all their money and their house in a get-rich-quick scheme. It wasn’t the first time, but this time Laura left him. It wasn’t easy. They were high school sweethearts back in Texas. The Barretts and the Monroes have been longtime family friends. But Laura grew up, and Charlie didn’t. He took out a second mortgage on their house and cashed out their kids’ college funds to invest in a scam. A golf resort in Lake Havasu. He was defrauded, lost four hundred thousand dollars. They lost everything, but his apologies were too little too late. Stealing from the kids was the final straw.”
He paused. “She wouldn’t let me cover it. She found out I’d covered for Charlie once before. It was all I could do to convince her to let me buy this house for her. And still, she pays me every month, which I don’t want or need.”
Jack respected both Logan’s desire to protect his sister and her kidsandLaura’s desire to be independent and self-sufficient. Logan had money and was happy to spend it on those he loved, but most adults wanted to forge their own path without relying on others. Jack’s parents had offered to bail him out when Whitney, his ex-wife, got them so deep in debt that Jack considered bankruptcy. Instead, he cashed out his retirement, took the hefty tax hit, worked hundreds of hours of overtime—which meant losing time with Austin—and was able to save the house his ex now lived in with their son. But Austin needed stability and security. Jack wouldn’t have done it any other way, and he wouldn’t have respected himself if he’d taken help from his parents.
What hurt worse was that after he saved their house, Whitney left him. He’d begged her to go to counseling, to help him make their marriage work, and she’d said she didn’t love him anymore and there was nothing he could say or do to fix it.
Then he learned she had cheated on him. While he’d been working overtime to get them out of debt, she had slept with another man—but blamed Jack for not being around for her.
Jack didn’t know why Whitney had been on his mind lately.
Don’t lie to yourself. You damn well know why. In twodaysit will have been three years since your divorce was final.
Jack had never wanted a divorce. He’d loved Whitney even though she’d broken his heart. But she’d demanded it. Fortunately, she hadn’t argued with him on joint custody—he would have gone scorched earth on her if she had.
As Jack looked around the living areas of the house, he noted that aside from the cabinet in the kitchen only the den had been disturbed—drawers askew, papers on the floor, files tossed.
