“Shane!” She stood in the open door, trembling hands over her mouth, heart banging against her ribs, watching the dark shadow race down the lane. Dear God. Shane was running outside naked, never mind unarmed, chasing a burglar or whatever the guy was. He was crazy.
Shane stopped near his car parked behind the building. As if he suddenly realized he wasn’t exactly dressed to be chasing criminals, he turned and came back.
“Shit,” he growled. “Gotta phone for backup.”
Backup? What the hell did he think he was going to do? But he was leaping up the stairs two at a time, and when she caught up to him in the bedroom he was stumbling into his jeans while he barked orders into the cell phone.
He snapped the phone shut and tossed it on the bed, shoved both hands into his hair. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“What was that? Who was that? Oh, Shane.” Trembling, she went over to him. His body was tight and vibrating.
“Gotta go,” he muttered. “See if I can find that asshole.”
“Oh no.” She watched him leave, biting her bottom lip. He wore only his jeans and shoes now, still bare-chested, and he thundered down the stairs and out the door.
Again Keara followed him, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts. She stood in the open door again, still wearing only her silk robe, then realized she should close and lock the door in case the guy came back.
So she did that, stood there trembling, peering out the small window watching for Shane. How had the guy gotten in? She hadn’t heard a thing. Even when not armed, the alarm system always beeped when either door was opened, and the sound was clearly audible in the bedroom. She’d been drowsy but not that out of it that she wouldn’t have heard it.
Her mouth dry, she tried to swallow. This was crazy. It was like trouble was following her around. What was she, a magnet for criminals?
The police were still there when Maeve arrived home. Shane glanced up from where he directed one of his officers. Her eyes widened at the sight of a uniformed officer dusting for fingerprints in her shop.
“What’s going on here?” She stood there gazing around, taking in Keara and Shane, now fully dressed.
“Oh, Maeve.” Keara moved over to her and put a hand on her arm. “Someone broke into your shop!”
“What?” Her scarlet mouth dropped open. “How can that be? Where were you?”
“I was here.”
“Oh Jaysus. Are you okay, muirnín?”
“I’m fine. Shane was here with me.”
A knowing look flashed in her eyes but she immediately grew serious again. “Well, thank Jesus and Mary for that. What happened?”
“We don’t know how he got in.” Shane walked over to them. He didn’t want to alarm her, but she had to know. “There’s no sign of forced entry at all.”
“We didn’t hear the alarm chime,” Keara added, not wanting to mention that they wouldn’t have heard an earthquake if it had happened while they were in the midst of screaming simultaneous orgasms.
“Well, how did he get in, then?” Maeve fixed her gaze on Shane.
He grimaced and shoved a hand through his hair. “No fu—uh, no idea.”
“Hey, Chief,” one of the men called to Shane. “We found something.” He strode across the shop to where Jim Mahon stood in the Staff Only doorway.
“Some stuff looks like it’s been moved in this storage room, and I think we found some dirty footprints. Come see.”
Shane had to agree, but he called Maeve and Keara to ask if they’d moved some boxes in the store room. They both shook their heads, but unfortunately he wasn’t confident of Maeve’s memory.
“I’m sure,” Keara said in a low voice. “I just stacked those there yesterday.”
“Looks like he might have been hiding behind them.”
“Oh dear God.” She put her fingers to her mouth. “You mean he came in when the store was opened and hid here all day?”
“Who knows how long he was here.” He turned to Maeve. “Were you working today? Was Jayla?”
“Jayla worked from one to six today. I was in and out.”
“Keara? Did you work in the store today?”
“I was in and out too. It got busy around four so I helped Jayla.”
“I’ll need to talk to her too, but do you remember anyone coming in who seemed suspicious?”
Keara rubbed her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t think so.”
“The guy was shorter than me, smaller, and he was wearing a dark sweatshirt with the hood over his head. Ring any bells?”
Her brow furrowed as she concentrated, but shook her head. “Jayla will likely remember more, she was here the whole time.”
“If anything comes to you, just let us know.”
She nodded.
“I don’t understand,” Maeve said. “Was nothing stolen, then?”
“Doesn’t look like it, but again, we’d like you to look around. You don’t keep cash here, do you?”
“Um. Well…”
“Maeve.”
“Sometimes if I don’t feel like going to the bank, I take everything upstairs and put it in a safe place.”
“He didn’t come upstairs,” Keara assured her. “And as far as I can tell, nothing was taken from the store.”
“People don’t often break into a sex shop to steal vibrators,” Maeve stated and Shane swallowed a laugh.
“True enough.”
After Maeve had checked around, Shane told Keara to take her upstairs while they finished up.
“This is weird,” Jim said to him. “That the guy would hide in the store. What would his motive be if he didn’t want to steal anything?”
Shane pressed his lips together. There was something about all this that bugged him. Keara had thought her apartment was being broken into. Turned out to be nothing. Someone forced her off the road. They still hadn’t heard back from the lab about the make and model of the vehicle that had done it. Now this.
Fucking weird. He scowled and paced, then turned to Jim. “I’m worried about Keara.”
Jim gazed back at him blankly. “Okay.”
Shane shook his head. “Never mind. Let’s just worry about solving this case.”
He went up to check on Keara and Maeve. The way Keara had been feeling lately, this was the last thing she needed. His gut clenched as he imagined the fear she would now be feeling.
But when he got upstairs, he found her calmly and confidently reassuring Maeve. “I’m fine,” she said. He stood there and watched her pour the Jameson’s into two glasses. She looked up at him and the way her face warmed and softened was like a fist grabbing his insides and twisting. Holy shit. He was in deep trouble here. Fighting for composure, he walked over to them in Maeve’s small kitchen.
“Would you like one of these?” Keara lifted the bottle.
He stared to refuse then changed his mind. “Yeah,” he said. “I would.” So she poured a measure of amber liquid into a third glass and handed it to him.
“I was just telling Maeve that it wasn’t that bad. The guy didn’t get upstairs or anything. Nobody got hurt. Nothing got stolen. It’s weird, but it’s all okay. Right?” Her eyes met his steadily. He lifted the glass to his lips and sipped the burning liquor.
“Right.” He paused. “And we’ll find the guy.”
He wasn’t that confident they’d be able to, but maybe some prints would show up and they’d get lucky. Maybe Jayla would remember something significant. It was possible.
He wanted to talk to Keara more about the break-in at her home in LA, but this wasn’t the time. Maeve, for a change, looked more shaken than Keara did and Keara was doing a great job of calming her down. He smiled at her as he sipped his whiskey.