Wedding Tea Read online

  I blushed.

  Suzi looked horrified.

  Teagan was quite proud of herself.

  “Oh. Dear. God. Teagan, shut up! You know there’s nothing Fifty Shades going on in my life. Damn. Kill the poor man’s sister.”

  “I really don’t care what you do with my brother. I just don’t want to hear about it.”

  “I’m not doing anything like the Fifty Shades thing with your brother!”

  “Look at her. I think the dingleberry is protesting too much. This house has hidden drawers on the stairs. It probably has a hidden red room. I’ll bet you when the rest of the world thinks the two of them are just sitting somewhere reading a book, there are unthinkable things going on. Our Cara has a dark side.”

  We laughed so hard we woke Evelyn up. Not easy to do in our house. It’s practically soundproofed. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe she happened to wake while we were laughing. If that’s the case, I don’t have to feel bad about scaring her awake twice in one day.

  While Suzi went up to check on Evelyn, Teagan and I started gathering all the papers and my new little idea book.

  The scream was piercing.

  Papers went everywhere.

  Teagan about killed me getting to the stairs first.

  She took those stairs two at a time.

  I was right behind her. I’d grabbed two things. My cell phone and a huge meat hammer I use to beat the crap out of cheap meat to make it tender.

  Suzi was coming down the hall with Evelyn in her arms.

  They were both crying.

  Teagan put herself between Suzi and the baby and whatever they were running from. “What?”

  “The monitor. There was someone talking to Evelyn on the monitor. He knew her name. I could see his face on the screen. It happened so fast. I walked in there. He was talking to her. He must have scared her. That’s why she cried. Why didn’t I hear it on my end? All I heard was her crying. But you could see him on the screen. He could see her. He could see my baby. It’s like he was in the room with her. Dear God. There was some strange man in the room with my baby.”

  The four of us went down the stairs. We stationed Suzi and Evelyn in the kitchen. Teagan and I ran around the house making sure all forms of entrance and exit were locked and secure.

  While we made sure everything was secure, Suzi called A.J. and asked him to come home. She said we were fine, but there had been another incident at the house.

  A.J. and Jessie made it home in record time. A.J. had called Roland’s guys on the way to the house. Turns out, he had committed to keeping them in the loop if we had any problems at all.

  Not two minutes after A.J. and Jessie arrived, Adeline’s security team arrived.

  We sat at the table and filled the guys in on the latest developments.

  Human nature guarantees a threat directed at a child brings a much more intense reaction than any other.

  A threat toward a baby — more intense still.

  Soon after the security guys got to the house, Teagan and Jessie left. They figured that we were in capable hands and that more people would only complicate the situation.

  The security team brought in some technical guys that went over the house to figure out how the baby monitor was hacked.

  Suffice it to say, we will no longer be using the simple monitor you can pick up in half the stores in the country.

  By tomorrow evening, we will have a completely new system allowing us to monitor Evelyn in a “closed” environment. It will be much more difficult for anyone to encroach on us.

  That’s the good news.

  According to the security guys, it opens us up to some bad news.

  You know the old saying that God never closes a door unless He opens a window? Well, the security guy had a really ugly twist. He said since we have closed the system and the guy won’t be able to hack it anymore, there’s a good chance he will try something else.

  Instead of making his presence known digitally, he might try something a little more physical. Like showing up at our door.

  We got all the usual advice.

  Don’t forget to lock doors. Don’t forget to have the security system armed at all times. Don’t let anyone in. Period. Not under any guise. If we need a home repair, call the security people, and they’ll be at the house to greet any person unknown to us.

  By the time the security guys left, I was terrified and completely confused.

  Earlier, the thought someone might be trying to get in the house — not good.

  The thought the person might have something to do with my work — Adeline’s grandson or some other individual trying to get to Adeline through me — scared me.

  The thought it was actually Evelyn that might be the target terrified me.

  Who in their right mind would haunt a baby?

  Nobody.

  Which meant we had someone out of his mind after a child in our home.

  What the hell has the world come to?

  The security guys couldn’t have been out of the driveway when A.J. looked at Suzi and said, “I’ll call Gran. You can stay there.”

  “I’m not going to put Gran in the middle of this. At her age, it could cause real problems.”

  “Okay, I can see that. We’ll move you to a hotel.”

  Suzi argued. “I’m no safer in a hotel than I am here. At least here we know what’s going on and there are three of us.”

  I butted in. “What about Teagan’s house? It has an alarm system at least as good as ours. Teagan and Jessie are there. You know Teagan would do anything to protect Evelyn.”

  “True. I don’t know. It seems like such an imposition.”

  “It isn’t. Besides, what difference does it make? We’re talking about Evelyn’s safety. Until we run this down, it’s probably best you guys are somewhere the weirdo on the baby monitor can’t find you. Why would he even look at Jessie and Teagan’s?”

  “If you’re sure it’s okay.” Suzi looked scared. I felt bad for her. Worse for her than I did for myself.

  “I’ll call Teagan right now. I’m sure it’s not a problem.”

  I was back in the kitchen in five minutes. “Teagan said they’ve got it all under control. After Joy and Joynessa stayed at their place, she and Jessie decided to turn one of their bedrooms into a guest room for the two of them. Turns out that Joynessa is prone to ear infections, and although Joy is getting more and more comfortable with Teagan, she’s not yet willing to hand over her baby. Teagan and Jessie are okay with both of them spending the night when needed, so just in case they ever decided to stay the night again, everything is in place.”

  I shrugged. “Not sure I could be that generous. I wouldn’t want A.J.’s ex spending the night in our house, but it seems to be working for them. So, you’ll have a bed and crib in the same room, and everything is all set up. She said to call her when you’re a couple of minutes out, and she’ll raise the garage door, and you can pull right in. She’ll give you a key and a clicker, and you can come and go whenever you want. You can stay as long as you want.”

  “I can’t believe she’s doing this for me. I don’t know what to say.”

  “Hey, you’re an O’Flynn by extension now. We might be a little bit crazy and annoying, but we do offer some pretty great perks.”

  Suzi chuckled. It was as much as she could muster under the circumstances.

  “I’ll just pack enough for tonight. Once the security guys get everything taken care of, we’ll be back home. I’m really sorry about all this.”

  A.J.’s eyes scrunched. “Sorry?”

  “We thought the house almost got broken into and everything was about something going on with Cara. Obviously it’s about me. That can only mean it’s Barry. Or somebody Barry got to do it for him. Who else would terrorize a baby? He’s making me pay for leaving him. He knows my weakest point is Evelyn.”

  A.J. was indignant. “She is not your weakest point. She’s your point of strength. If it’s Barry, he’ll come to find out r
eal quick you don’t mess with a mother’s child. We’ll get it figured out.”

  “Thanks. If something happened to … ”

  A.J. interrupted. “Don’t even put it out there. You guys will be fine. Think about it. He never tried to do any more than contact Evelyn on the monitor. If he were trying to get in the house or something, he would have done it by now. You guys are freaked out, but you’re safe.”

  I didn’t know if A.J.’s little speech was just to calm Suzi down or if he actually believed it.

  I didn’t have the heart to point out some person had tried to get into our house through the garage.

  Sometimes I have enough self-control to actually keep my mouth shut.

  Sometimes.

  Once we got Suzi and Evelyn settled at Teagan’s, then I’d talk to A.J. about what all this really means.

  After all, if it is Barry, he has Suzi and Evelyn and me all in the same house. It’s got to be tempting.

  The authorities swore they would let us know if anything changed with Barry’s status. If he escaped or if they let him out or whatever. We haven’t heard anything.

  Maybe he became friends with some criminal that was getting out of prison soon and made some kind of arrangement with the guy to terrorize Suzi and me.

  Do people really do that?

  It’s one thing to see on some crime show on television, but in real life, do people actually plan something like that and then actually pull it off?

  Before Barry, I thought bad guys were all about respecting women and children. Honor among thieves. I guess I watched more TV than I thought, or maybe it was unrealistic books. Rory explained the facts of life to me. It comes in handy having a cop for a brother. Things aren’t like they were even a couple of decades ago. Where once there was a code, the code is gone. There really isn’t any value to human life anymore. At least not to that subset of humanity. Barry is part of the subset. People that believe their wants are more important than rules and the needs of everybody else.

  It’s beyond sad.

  I helped Suzi get organized. Organization is probably my biggest contribution in any situation. We made sure her phone was charged, and we made sure she had everybody’s numbers listed in a way she could easily access them.

  In a moment of pure brilliance — my father’s, not mine — it was decided Suzi should sneak out of the house so the bad guy wouldn’t be following her, at least not today. Following her back to Teagan’s after work tomorrow was a whole different situation we would need to address.

  I pulled my car out of the garage, went to the store, and came back with a loaf of bread in my hand. A.J. appeared to be cleaning out his car trunk. I parked on the street and went in the house, leaving the garage door open.

  Moments later, my father came over. A.J. waved him into the garage. They chatted for a minute, carried in the stuff from A.J.’s trunk, then lowered the garage door.

  When it was time for everybody to go, Suzi took my dad’s car, and my dad took Suzi’s car. It helped that it was dark outside. We all knew there was a chance we were being exceptionally melodramatic and foolish, but when a baby is involved, you do everything you can think of no matter how stupid it sounds.

  To be honest, I was pretty impressed with us. It would have taken some families hours and hours to think up such an intricate plan and then to put it in action, but we were actually pretty quick.

  Suzi called as soon as she arrived at Teagan’s. She said she was fine, my sister was great and made her feel so much better, and she was sure she and Evelyn had not been followed.

  She reminded A.J. they had an early shoot in the morning and told us if anything happened overnight to call her.

  A.J. and I spent a nervous night at the house.

  Nothing happened.

  I mean that literally.

  I don’t feel like I’m saying too much when I say we had the house all to ourselves, and I didn’t even put on any evening wear. No fancy nightgown. No smelly good stuff.

  Our perfect home had been invaded, and I couldn’t turn my brain off. A.J. was worried about Evelyn and Suzi and couldn’t turn his brain off.

  Basically, we tossed and turned.

  I prayed.

  A.J. mostly scowled.

  Early the next morning, my dad checked in and said he’d made it home and said if Suzi started to feel uncomfortable at Teagan’s, she was welcome at home.

  I love my dad. He’s such a good man.

  The security guys were back. They called ahead and said they were three minutes out. When they say they don’t want you answering the door unless you know who it is, they aren’t kidding.

  They’d missed A.J. by about ten minutes. I wondered if that was on purpose. I had the feeling our house had been watched all night. I was prayerful it was being watched by the good guys.

  All this security must be costing Adeline a fortune because Roland wasn’t billing me. Yet. What an ugly thought. It made my knees a little weak. There’s no way I could afford Roland’s rates.

  They’d had a busy night. Roland came with them, which scared the crap out of me. When the big boss comes, it’s never good news.

  “We’ve got your guy.”

  “You got him? What do you mean? Who is he? Is he a friend of Barry’s? Why would he do this?”

  “Can we sit?”

  “Sorry.” I settled Roland into a chair in the kitchen and put on the kettle. I figured whatever he had to tell me, tea would help. Tea always helps. “Go ahead, Roland. I’ll even stay quiet until you’ve finished.”

  He smiled at me. We’ve worked together long enough now that he knows I can’t keep my mouth shut in informal situations. I’ve gotten pretty good in business meetings. I’ve gotten into the habit of writing down my questions as they come up and then holding them until the end, but in an informal situation like this, it’s going to be difficult for me.

  “Well, smart move, you didn’t turn off the monitor or touch anything. It was a big help to my guys. They were able to backtrack everything and find your guy pretty quick.”

  “He’s not my guy.” The phrase was creeping me out.

  “Yeah, we know. He’s your sister-in-law’s guy.”

  “Sister-in-law? Which one? What? What do my sisters-in-law have to do with this?”

  “Sorry. Suzi. She isn’t quite your sister-in-law yet.”

  “Oh, okay. Wait. Suzi? She divorced Barry. I’m sure she has nothing to do with him anymore.”

  “Barry, the … ” Roland caught himself before he used a term in front of me I might find offensive. The truth is, there’s no term offensive enough for a guy that beats the hell out of women. Or anyone.

  Roland continued. “The animal that put you in the hospital? No, it’s not him.”

  “He’s still in prison, right?”

  “Yep. We’ve got eyes on him.”

  “Then was it someone he hired or made arrangements with?”

  “We don’t think so. We’ll check it out before we let Grant go.”

  “You have him?”

  Roland’s tone and choice of words seemed very measured. “He volunteered to come down to the office and talk to us. Once we explained how much better his life would be if he decided to voluntarily cooperate. We, of course, explained to him we are not law enforcement, and we do not carry the authority of the government. Nor do we necessarily follow the same rule book.”

  “So who is this guy?”

  “Ready for this? He’s a guy that was trying to impress Suzi.”

  “Impress her? By hacking into her baby’s monitor? What the hell does that even mean?”

  “He told us he saw an old television special about a subject hacking into a family’s baby monitor. The guy on the special was screaming at the baby to wake up. He was, according to your guy, a sick twisted mother — you get the idea. In your guy’s mind, he’s the opposite. He believed if he hacked the monitor and was kind and friendly to Evelyn, she would grow to love him, and where the baby goes, the mother follows
.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “That’s his claim.”

  “And you believe him?”

  “Well, he volunteered for a rather sophisticated set of tests. They take a lie detector to a whole new level. If he isn’t being truthful, he’s a stone-cold sociopath. Either way, time for Suzi to start dating someone else.”

  “She was actually dating him?”

  “She’s been out to coffee and lunch with him. I think that’s as far as it goes. At least that’s his story. We aren’t done with him quite yet.”

  “Oh, no. This is going to kill her. First she picked Barry, now this guy. She’s been so careful about who she associates with since she had Evelyn. I need to talk to A.J. before I talk to Suzi. I’m not even sure how we should address this. But the bad guy, what are we going to do about him? Do you think he will leave us alone?”

  “He says yes. I have a feeling he’s not yet convinced of the error of his ways. He seems pretty stuck on Suzi.”

  “Great. So now she’s gonna have a stalker?”

  “I believe we will be able to demonstrate to him the wisdom of finding another girl.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “We’ll keep an eye on junior. You and yours go about your business. If he tries to contact Suzi again, we’ll move it on to the next step.”

  “What is the next step?”

  “We’ll take care of it.”

  “Roland, I appreciate all you’re doing, but really, this isn’t on you. Not part of my benefit plan with Adeline. I can’t afford you, and Adeline shouldn’t have to pay you because of me.”

  “Adeline’s not paying me because of you. I’m here on another matter. This just happened to coincide.”

  My heart fell. What was going on? Suzi has a stalker, and I need security based on another matter? This can’t be good. I’m supposed to be planning a wedding, not starring in a James Bond movie.

  “Remember when Christophe broke into your apartment?”

  “It’s difficult to forget when your employer’s grandson does something like that. I still flash on the blood. He really cut his hand. You guys did such a great job cleaning up though. It was even beyond my standards.”

  “Good to know. Remember he didn’t break in alone?”