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Millie turned and stared at Tate. Her head tilted back as far as it would go. “Who are you?” she asked.
Lara’s cheeks heated as she realized she should have introduced them. “Oh, I’m sorry Millie. This is Tate Vickers. He’s here to work on the base.”
Her cheeks burned hot and her chest filled with heat, as she realized she wasn’t totally sure what he did out there, but he wasn’t working on it, per se.
Tate grinned and chuckled. “I’m actually here to stop the vandalism out at the base. Anything you can share, the better it will be for us.”
Millie actually tittered. It was all she could do not to roll her eyes.
“Ohh, well, um.” Millie lightly cleared her throat. Her eyes never left Tate’s and a rosy color tinted Millie’s wrinkled cheeks.
“Well, it wasn’t just the old sewing factory. They actually also broke windows at the school and the Lutheran church just out of town. They seemed to focus on the windows and nothing else. Rumor about town is they stuck to the windows because they are just causing trouble but not enough to get thrown in jail.”
“But why?” Tate asked.
Millie shrugged her older shoulders and smiled. “That’s the million-dollar question, Mr. Vickers.”
His eyes darted to hers and held for a few moments. Butterflies swirled in her tummy.
Her father stood abruptly and knocked his chair over. He jerked his head to the side and bent to pick up the chair, but he never looked her way. Aidyn stood, his shoulders back and his posture rigid; Tate strode over to join the men. Their voices were hushed but harsh.
Tate asked, “Why can’t you just be honest?”
Her father’s voice rose. “I’m honest…” He glanced her way then inhaled deeply and shook his head. He turned and stomped out the door as Tate and Aidyn watched him.
Her father slammed his squad car door, and she raised her eyes to Tate’s as he turned toward her.
Millie tittered. “Well now, that’s not very friendly.”
Lara sighed. The gossip mill would be busy today.
She smiled. “It’s been rather stressful lately, Millie.”
“Goodness, that’s an understatement.”
Chapter19
He leaned closer to Aidyn. “That’s a tell.”
“It sure is.”
He turned and Lara and Millie were staring at him. He smiled and cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind, I’ll go check your security system.”
“Not at all. It came back up around five-thirty this morning.”
“I can check the logs to see what happened.”
She nodded, but her eyes were wary.
He turned to Aidyn, then strode to Lara’s office. He shook the mouse on her computer and waited for it to wake up. Aidyn leaned against the door frame and waited.
Logging into the system, he checked through the logs. “Power outage at three-thirty this morning.” He scanned the logs and other than the power outage and then the power restoration, there wasn’t anything else to point to the issue.
“Addy said she heard the BRR Jeep revving up and down streets last night around two thirty. The power outage here was at two thirty. Lara said when she came to the bakery this morning, the power was off around town and lights were flashing. Seems like too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?”
“Yep.” Aidyn scratched his jaw and looked over his shoulder into the bakery. “Bennit’s a bit touchy today too.”
“You think he had something to do with it?”
