Spring Secrets - Allie Boniface Page 0,69

you would be spending time with Dash Springer, to be honest.”

“Don’t talk to me.” Her legs shook as she yanked open the door, and she had a hard time keeping them under her. Just get in. Close the door. Close it on his hands if he tries to grab you again.

“You know he spent time in prison, right?”

“What?” All the blood left her body. She felt it run through her stomach, down her legs, and out her feet. Prison? Dash?

“Felony theft,” Al went on as he got up. “That’s a pretty serious crime. Not like he ran a stop sign or forgot to pay a few parking tickets. Seems to me you could do a lot better than someone like that.”

Sienna’s throat closed. She hadn’t studied law, but she was pretty sure felony theft meant Dash had stolen a large amount of money. Not a wallet. Not a hundred dollars. Thousands and maybe tens of thousands of dollars or property. Why would he do that? Could he have done that?

She started the car without another word. Al could be lying. He probably was. He probably was trying to bring Dash down with him. Without another look behind her, she squealed her tires as she left the parking lot and headed for town. I’ll just ask Dash. I’ll tell him what Al did, what he said, and he’ll tell me it’s crazy. She repeated the words inside her head until she’d convinced herself.

But as she neared Springer Fitness, two police cars sped by, lights whirling. They pulled up outside the gym. Three cops jumped out and hurried inside, faces somber and hands on their hips, cradling their guns. A small crowd of spectators stood on the sidewalk, and she could hear murmurs as she parked and walked toward them on wooden legs.

Might-a been going on since he opened the place

Someone said they’re kids

He’s not, he knows what he’s doing

It’s always the ones you never think...

DASH WHISTLED AS HE pulled into the parking lot, whistled as he unlocked the back door, whistled all the way to the front desk. “Hey, man.”

Hans looked up from his phone. “You’re in a good mood.”

Yeah, he was. It had been one heck of a day, but everything with Dawn had ended up okay. And everything with Sienna was ending up more than okay. The way she’d looked at him in the parking lot, the way she’d smiled when he suggested dinner...he was pretty sure she felt the same way he did, lit up and overflowing, like a fizzy glass of champagne whenever their paths crossed.

Maybe something’ll happen tonight, he thought as he glanced at tomorrow’s training schedule. He didn’t want to wait until Friday to be with her, and he didn’t think she did either. He had two early clients tomorrow, but if dinner with Sienna turned into dessert and then something more, he wouldn’t mind a late night. Not at all.

“Hey, boss?”

Dash looked up at Hans’s tone of warning. “What is it?”

Hans’s head bobbed toward the locker room, where two guys in their late teens huddled just outside the door. Dash didn’t recognize them. “Are they members?”

“Said they wanted to check out the place. I gave ‘em a tour and then left ‘em in the locker room. But that was a half-hour ago.”

Dash tapped the counter. Something felt off. “I’ll see if they want anything else.” If they didn’t, he’d show them the door. He was all for welcoming new clients, but these two looked like they were more interested in a free place to hang out, shave and shower.

“Can I help you?” he said as he approached them. Then he realized two other guys, not much older, stood just inside the locker room. One held a red duffel bag. The other was bent over his phone texting like mad.

“Give it to me,” hissed the guy with the bag.

Dash froze. The kids from the parking lot. The ones who’d been smoking, vaping, passing around drugs—at least a couple of them now stood inside his place of business. And unless he was mistaken, that duffel bag didn’t hold workout clothes.

“What the hell are you doing?” He grabbed the bag, and its contents spilled everywhere. Baggies of weed. Baggies of white powder. Bottles upon bottles of prescription drugs. No. He glanced over his shoulder at the sound of sirens. Down the street. Getting closer. He had no idea where the Whispering Pines cops might be headed, but he couldn’t be found with any of this inside his