Page 6 of Barbed Wire and Burglary
Pocketing his phone, he drawled, “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation. Maybe someone who used to live here lost it.”
“Or my brother is secretly planning on proposing to a woman I’ve never met.” She made a face. “If it’s true, I have to wonder how many other secrets he’s been keeping from me.”
You don’t know the half of it, darling.Thankful she remained in the dark about the nefarious side of her brother’s dealings, A.J. steered the conversation back to safer ground. “About the good news you said you wanted to tell me…”
“Right!” She closed her fingers around the diamond ring, drawing a deep, cleansing breath. “Modello’s has signed a contract for me to create an exclusive line of perfume for them.” She did a little happy dance in the corner of the living room.
Modello’s!The tension in A.J.’s shoulders escalated to a painful level. It didn’t feel like a coincidence that his girlfriend would be working closely with the wife of the man who’d gone out of his way to track A.J. down earlier.
“And the best part of all,” she trilled excitedly, “is it’ll give me an excuse to extend my stay in Heart Lake where my two favorite guys are.” She watched him expectantly. “To be honest, I was already looking for every excuse to visit here as often as I could.”
A normal man would’ve been ecstatic to find out the woman of his dreams would be staying in town indefinitely, but there was nothing normal about A.J.’s life. On the contrary, everything that had happened today felt alarmingly connected to his case. Like the silken threads of a spiderweb, each new detail felt like it was weaving with the other details to form a picture.
A picture he greatly feared would soon become a problem for him and Aurora.
Chapter 2: Family Ties and Lies
He doesn’t look happy to hear my news.
Aurora felt like her insides were imploding. Her earlier fears that something was wrong resurfaced and grew. Had A.J. figured out she was leading a double life? She certainly hoped not! Though she was ready to share her secrets with him, her brother was not. Aaron was still too paranoid about her safety. And since he’d spent the last two years serving as her self-appointed bodyguard, she felt he deserved a say in the matter—at least to a point. However, if he continued to boycott her growing relationship with A.J., she was afraid she would be forced to choose between them.
Her life was such a mess right now!
Once upon a time, joining their family-owned business, Diamondback Corporation, had felt exciting. Not only was being a security consultant a rewarding career, it had gained her the approval of her hard-to-please parents. She’d enjoyed working alongside them—right up to the point when they’d disappeared two years earlier. The authorities had ultimately blamed their tragic helicoptercrash on poor weather conditions. Their remains had yet to be recovered from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
For days and weeks, Aurora had lived in anticipation of her brilliant parents miraculously resurfacing with a wild and crazy story about being washed ashore on some deserted island. But as weeks had faded into months, her optimism had faded along with it. She’d finally shed her tears and said her goodbyes. Helen and James Cannon weren’t coming back. She could feel it deep in her bones.
Aaron, on the other hand, had refused to accept that they were gone, claiming there was no way an experienced pilot like their father would’ve lost control in a simple rainstorm. He was convinced that something more sinister was in play—sabotage or even a professional hit, since the crash had occurred on the heels of foiling a record number of jewelry store heists. To make matters worse, someone had shared Diamondback Corporation’s track record with the world, calling their parents heroes and plastering their names and faces all over social media. They’d gone missing approximately forty-eight hours after the doxing. For reasons Aurora couldn’t explain, her own name had been left out of the story, which had probably saved her life.
Their parents’ disappearance had left Aurora alone to continue Diamondback’s cutting-edge risk assessment of jewelry stores across the country, mostly JSA members. Their uncle, Cary Cannon, had stepped up to take the reins as CEO, helping her ensure Diamondback remained one of the most trusted names in the industry.
Her last assignment had taken her to a jewelry store in Pinetop, Arizona, where she and her brother had helped put a handful of crooked holiday craftsmen behind bars. Ever since their parents’ disappearance, he’d been applying for job transfers that kept him near her when she was onlonger assignments. Sadly, he’d gotten caught in the crossfire during the last round of arrests. He’d taken a bullet in the shoulder, a wound that had gotten infected and knocked him on his back for a few weeks. He was finally out of the woods and expecting a full recovery.
Thank you, Lord.She smiled at the realization that she had been praying inside her head. Though she hadn’t been raised in church, losing her parents had propelled her to seek comfort on the back pew of the nearest church. Shortly afterward, she’d purchased her first Bible, started reading it, and felt better ever since. Stronger. Happier. More hopeful.
Aaron hadn’t found any such comfort, but she wasn’t giving up on him. He’d certainly never given up on her. Quite the opposite. He’d used his convalescence as an excuse to follow her to yet another assignment.
And here we are together again.
For the next several weeks, she would be spending most of her time poking around the security system at Modello’s. The ritzy clothing boutique was in the process of branching into two new lines of products: jewelry and perfume. The owners had installed a comprehensive intrusion prevention system to safeguard the valuable inventory that would soon fill their display cases—a system that had been triggered twice in the past month. So far, nothing in the store had been stolen, but the back-to-back alarm triggers were still being treated like warning shots. More than likely, someone was casing the place, and Aurora had been hired to find out who that someone was.
Because of all the confidentiality agreements in Diamondback’s client contracts, she’d fed her new boyfriend the usual cover story about her owning a perfume lab in Dallas. Granted, it was no more than astorage unit, but she’d built a vibrant website around it that made it sound like her signature scents were flying off the shelves. To keep things simple, her products weren’t offered for private purchase or resale, only via proprietary product lines for other firms. Or so her website claimed.
It had thrown a bit of a monkey wrench in her plans when A.J. had decided out of the blue to relocate to Heart Lake, presumably so they could continue dating. He was at liberty to do stuff like that now that he was retired from the military. His hobby was tinkering with cars as a part-time mechanic. There was no telling if he’d stick around after finding out she wasn’t really a perfumer. He’d made it clear the night they’d met that he valued honesty above all else.
Whereas all I ever do is lie to him.
Their relationship could be summed up with one word—complicated.
At the moment, he was studying her with so much concern that she blurted, “Did I say something wrong?” Maybe he’d had a bad shopping experience at Modello’s or heard something unsavory about one of their employees.
“No, not at all.” He set Bandit down on the floor and received a yowl of protest. “It’s good news. I’m happy for you!”
“Are you?” She moved around to stand directly in front of him. “Because sometimes it feels like…” She wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence, wishing she knew how to break through the wall of reserve that always seemed to be between them. The only time it ever came down was when they were kissing. She chalked it up to the number of years he’d spent in law enforcement. He’d undoubtedly witnessed things he’d never be at liberty to talk about.
“Feels like what?” He reached out to tangle their fingerstogether.
“Like you’re holding back.” She spoke hesitantly, knowing she was on shaky ground since she was the one who was guilty of holding back. “The only time it doesn’t feel that way is when,” she glanced shyly away from him, “we’re kissing.”
