with you to talk to the police?”
“No, I can do it,” she insisted.
Half an hour later at the police station, Carolyn wondered if she was making any sense. She’d laid out the unusual occurrences of the past month: the bad reviews, the delivery problems, and an armed robbery. Detective Novak, who faced her, seemed unimpressed.
“Every business goes through ups and downs,” he said. “This might all turn out to be a coincidence.”
“It seems like more than a coincidence to me,” she argued.
“The perpetrator yesterday has a long record, from purse snatching to drug use. I’ll admit that armed robbery was a bit of stretch for him, but you never know when these guys are going to escalate their crimes.”
“What about what he said, that this wasn’t part of the plan?”
“He probably had a simple idea in his head. Walk in, wave the gun around, grab some jewelry, and run. Anything outside that he might have seen as violating his plan. I’ll note it in the report, but I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it means anything.”
Detective Novak hadn’t referred to her as little lady, but that was the sort of treatment she felt she was getting. He didn’t take her seriously. But if someone was trying to malign her business, that was deadly serious to her.
“I think it does mean something,” she said, determination filling her. “I’ll start my own investigation if I need to.”
That got the detective’s attention. “I have to ask you not to do that.” Novak waved his hands as if warding off the idea. “On the off chance you’re right, you could be walking into a dangerous situation.”
Carolyn made no promises. She thanked him for his time and headed to pick up Austin at Nina’s house on her way home. She’d called her pediatrician earlier and had an appointment the following day just to be sure Austin was fine after what he’d gone through.
He sure seemed fine, chatting away in his own lingo as she picked him up and took him home. After giving him a quick snack, she put him down for an afternoon nap and went to the alcove in her kitchen where she sometimes worked from home. She’d just checked in with her mom and Charlotte at the store when she heard a knock on the front door. She dashed to answer it, not wanting the noise to wake Austin. Without looking to see who it was, she whipped open the door.
“Hi.” Zach stood on her front porch with an adorable stuffed dog in his hand. “Is it okay if I visit Austin?”
“He’s napping…but you can come in and wait for him to get up,” she offered. She could have sent Zach away with the ready and true excuse that their son was asleep, but the truth was, she didn’t want to. And the fact that he’d thought to bring Austin a gift warmed her heart.
“Thanks. I appreciate that.” He stepped inside, filling the space as he always had. He was tall and fit, lean and handsome in jeans and a black T-shirt. Underneath, she knew, he was ripped with muscle. How she’d enjoyed running her hands over him. Her fingers tingled with the remembered sensation. She should have sent him away, she realized too late. The temptation to pick up where they had left off hit her. They’d been good together during the good times, but it had been far from perfect. His job got in the way. Carolyn didn’t know how other wives and girlfriends of the SEALs handled it when their men were gone for months with no word from them, never knowing if they were dead or alive. It had been too much for her.
She’d waited out two deployments during their engagement, but when he was about to embark on the third, she’d given him an ultimatum. It was her or the mission. He couldn’t have both, because she could no longer live with the worry and fear. When he’d chosen the mission, it had broken her faith in him, in love. And then she realized she was pregnant. During the months when she had tried to contact him and received only silence in return, she’d felt anger and betrayal, but she’d transferred her love for him to the baby they’d created.
It had been enough…until he walked back into her life. Which didn’t mean there was anything between them anymore. Zach was trying to be a good dad, and she appreciated that. Her own dad had stopped being