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“Tessa,” he started, but she stalked away from him, heading down the street toward her house.
She knew she should be worried about the robbery, but that seemed far and away the least of her problems. Even losing the deal with High West wouldn’t exactly be a family tragedy…except that it would be.
Eric was becoming more and more withdrawn into his role as head of the family. Tessa could understand that. He’d filled the shoes of their father since their parents had died in a car accident. Eric had only been twenty-four when he’d become responsible for two kids and a business. So Tessa could understand why, thirteen years later, he might have trouble stepping back from that. But he had to.
If Eric needed to relax a little, Jamie needed to add some stress to his world. He couldn’t keep living like a carefree bartender for the rest of his life. Hell, he didn’t even want to. He wanted to step up and act like a full-fledged partner. Minus, apparently, any restraint when it came to women. But plenty of successful men had that problem. There was no reason Jamie shouldn’t join their ranks.
Tessa spotted another patrol car approaching, followed by a suspiciously nondescript sedan. She ducked her head, trying to escape the crime scene undetected. Her house, the house they’d all grown up in, was only three blocks away. She’d change from her yoga pants to jeans and brush her hair as if she’d been up for an hour before receiving Jamie’s call. Speaking of…
She hit redial on her cell phone. “Did you call Eric yet?”
“He’s on his way,” Jamie muttered, then reminded her, “I don’t like this.”
“I know. But we have to make this right.”
“He’s our brother, Tessa, not our dad. I don’t answer to him.”
“No, but you owe him. We both do.”
While Jamie’s sigh was still echoing through the phone, Tessa hung up on him and rushed up her front walk. She’d done all she could for now. She couldn’t call Roland Kendall for several hours at least. If he hadn’t placed Jamie’s face yet, her phone call might trigger the connection. She’d have to be patient, and plan this deception with ruthless care.
It shouldn’t be that hard. She’d been managing her brothers’ relationship since the day her parents had died. She played referee, defused fights and forced them to spend time together over Sunday dinners and holiday feasts. They were the only family she had left and she wasn’t going to lose that, certainly not over a business deal.
“I can handle this,” she insisted to herself as she turned onto her street and rushed toward home. “It’ll be okay.”
So why did she feel so sick inside?
DETECTIVE LUKE ASHER whipped the latex gloves off and tossed them into the alley Dumpster before turning to shake hands with Eric Donovan. “Eric, it’s good to see you again, though not under these circumstances.”
“Well, Jamie was just telling me that not much was taken. In fact, I was surprised to see you here.”
“I’m sure you won’t be out more than your insurance deductible on the computer equipment. But we’re more concerned with the information on the computers. Social Security numbers, credit card information. There’s been a rash of these types of break-ins at local businesses. Patrol called me when they realized the alarm had been circumvented somehow. That makes it less likely to be a casual robbery.”
Eric’s eyes slid toward his brother. “Are you sure the alarm was circumvented? Maybe it was never set.”
Luke was sure he’d never seen someone snap from relaxed to furious as quickly as Jamie pulled it off. “I told you I set the damn alarm, Eric.”
“I know you think you did,” Eric said.
Jamie’s mouth twisted and his hands balled to fists. “Screw you.”
Hoping to restore peace, Luke raised his hands. “There’s no doubt about this. Jamie definitely set the alarm. The alarm company shows it was armed at 9:30 p.m. and turned off at 1:00 a.m.”
Jamie shot a look of pure fire at his brother, but he didn’t seem satisfied with the vindication. His tension held tight when he paced over to a patrol car, his arms crossed as if he wanted to keep his hands still. Strang
e. Luke had known Jamie for ten years, and his demeanor had always registered on a scale that started with sleepy and topped out at laid-back.
Luke cleared his throat. “Do you know what payroll information was kept on the computers?”
Jamie glanced over his shoulder. “Tessa will know more. She takes care of all that stuff. She should be here any—”
“We outsource payroll,” Eric interrupted. “So the information is limited. And I don’t think there’s any credit card information on the PCs these days. Hopefully the damage will be minimal.”
“Good,” Luke said. “We’re almost finished in there. We’re just dusting for a few prints and then we’ll get out of your way. I hope this’ll be nothing more than an inconvenience for you. They hit a temp agency a couple of weeks ago. That place had thousands of Social Security numbers on file.”
“Yikes.”
“Yeah. If you’ll excuse me, I’m just going to take a look around out here.” Luke walked to the back of the building, hoping to note anything out of place, but the exterior seemed fine. Wooden pallets were stacked in neat columns. A ten-foot-long carbon dioxide tank sat next to the building on clean concrete, untouched by weeds or debris. The same applied to the big stainless-steel grain silo.
