Page 53 of Unveiled

Nerves twisted her stomach into knots as she sped toward the shop, and blue lights pierced the gray light of dawn up ahead. By the time she pulled to a stop at the curb, she could tell it was more than a simple malfunction of the alarm. Three cruisers sat outside the shop, and the front door stood wide open. She couldn’t tell if they’d found it that way, or if they’d left it open for ease as they made multiple trips in and out.

She made a beeline toward one of the officers standing out front and introduced herself. She followed him into the salon, her heart sinking at the destruction that greeted her. Dresses had been ripped from the racks and strewn about the floor. Accessories from the glass cases littered the carpet, and every shelf was completely bare, their contents swept onto the floor.

One of the officers guided her through the salon. “Are you able to tell if anything is missing?”

They had already begun to fingerprint the doorknobs and several other surfaces, the black dust stark in contrast to the myriad of white gowns littering the floor.

Trying not to touch anything, she examined the contents of the empty glass cases and jewelry shelves that now littered the floor. With a defeated shrug, she turned to the officer. “It’s hard to say, but I don’t think we’re missing anything. I would have to do a full inventory to check though.”

He nodded. “I was afraid that would be the case.” He popped his hands on his hips and looked around. “On the bright side, if there is one, it doesn’t look like anything was truly destroyed.”

As she gazed around the room, she realized he was right. Someone had made a huge mess, but they hadn’t done a whole lot of damage. Thank God for that. She turned back to the officer. “What now?”

“We’ll check with the surrounding businesses to see if any have security footage, but getting warrants for those will take some time, if they’ll even approve it. We’ll analyze the prints we picked up here to see if we can find a match. If nothing comes up…” He offered an apologetic shrug, and she knew without asking what he meant. If the perp wasn’t in their system, and with no witnesses, they had nothing.

He took her fingerprints in order to eliminate them from the dozens they’d collected from the doorknobs and other surfaces, then stowed them in an evidence bag.

Once that was all taken care of, she turned back to him. “When will we be able to get back in here?”

“We’re wrapping up right now. Maybe half an hour or so.”

She fired off text messages to her employees, letting them know that the salon would be closed today. She was drained mentally and physically and had no interest in sticking around for several more hours to clean. Instead, she asked the girls to meet at the shop an hour early tomorrow to get everything back in order. She called Amy and asked her to reach out to the clients they had on the calendar today and reschedule them.

She crossed her arms over her chest and stood off to the side, watching in despair. The shop was her baby. Who would do something like this? Immediately, Caryn Andersen’s face came to mind. She shook it off. Caryn was nasty, but she doubted she would be caught breaking and entering.

As the officers completed their work, they began to pack their things away and file out the front door. Exhausted, Adalyn closed and locked it behind them. Once they were gone, she surveyed the mess before her with a grimace. Though she was dead tired, she hated to leave thousands of dollars' worth of material just lying on the floor. Scooping a handful of dresses up, she flung them over her forearm and carted them off to the back room.

Once everything else was cleaned up, she would have Jenn check the dresses and see if any were salvageable. Hopefully, whoever had broken in wouldn’t have had much time to do a whole lot of damage. It seemed that whoever was in here had just pulled them off the hangers and thrown them on the floor. She hoped that was the case—it would be much easier to fix a few beads than have to damage out several dozen dresses.

She picked up the jewelry scattered on the floor and spent a good portion of time untangling the strands from each necklace before setting them aside to be checked for quality. Tears burned the back of her eyelids, and now that she was alone, she let them fall freely.

She allowed herself only a couple moments of pity. She needed to get back home and take Jaclyn off Jaxon’s hands. Almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she heard the soft rumble of an engine pull up outside then cut off. Craning her neck to look out the front window, she saw a familiar truck sitting at the curb.

She watched in fascination and relief as Jaxon climbed out of the driver’s seat, then opened the rear door of the cab. Her heart jumped into her throat, and she burst out the front door and down the steps to meet him. She reached the truck just as Jaxon extracted Jaclyn from a bright pink car seat. It looked completely out of place in the huge truck, and she blinked at the sight.

“When did you get a car seat?”

A small smile tipped up the corner of his lips. “I called in a favor. Took me nearly half an hour to get the thing installed.” His face contorted into a grimace. “Might not be able to get it out ever again.”

She let out a laugh and took Jaclyn from Jaxon as she stretched her arms out for her. Adalyn cuddled her close, burying her nose in Jaclyn's fine blonde hair, soaking up her sweet scent. God, what was it about babies that smelled so good? It was like they were so clean, so pure that they took all the bad away. Holding her in her arms, Jaxon at her side, Adalyn felt the tension begin to leave her body.

Jaxon turned to her, his voice quiet. “How did everything go?”

Blowing out a sigh, she gave him a brief rundown of the past several hours. “They lifted some fingerprints and poked around a little bit, but I don’t think they have anything concrete.” She shrugged. He nodded but didn’t say much as he reached into the cab for something.

She glanced up at him. “Why are you here?”

He paused his rustling around in the back of the truck and met her gaze. “Gonna do some work here, and I thought you’d like to see Jaclyn for a bit.”

Immediately on guard, she examined him warily. “What do you mean, ‘do some work?’”

Her grip tightened on Jaclyn, and she squirmed in Adalyn's arms, reaching for Jaxon. Adalyn reluctantly handed her back to him and watched as Jaclyn snuggled against his broad shoulder. The sight caused a momentary pang in Adalyn's heart, and she rubbed the heel of her hand over her chest.

Jaxon slammed the cab door and gestured with his chin to the small silver sedan that slowed to a stop behind his truck. A pretty, petite brunette climbed out of the driver’s seat, while a hulking giant of a man unfolded from the passenger side. It was almost comical to watch, and Adalyn couldn’t help but smile. The man rounded the car and slipped an arm around the brunette’s shoulders as they made their way toward them.

With Jaclyn balanced on one hip, Jaxon gestured toward the couple with his free hand. “This is Luke Stone.” The man nodded in greeting, and Jaxon continued. “And this is his girlfriend, Hannah.”

The woman held out a hand, and Adalyn slipped her palm into hers. “Nice to meet you.”