Page 12 of The Night Ride (SEALs on Wheels #3)

Chapter eight

“W e cool?” I asked Lucas with my hands in my pockets.

Beth had left for the bakery around four-thirty.

Something about needing to get it open by seven and the baking that needed to be done beforehand.

I planned on heading over once the guys left and assess the place before they opened.

None of her employees arrived until eight this morning.

Which would give me time to get the square footage on the place, and figure out the best spots to install the hidden cameras.

He glared then rolled his eyes. “Yeah, we’re cool. Just don’t fuck this up.”

“Don’t plan too. I’ll catch up with you boys as soon as the job is finished.”

Wyatt gave me a knowing stare. “Let us know when you’re done, and we’ll give you a bead on our location.”

“Any news on how James is fairing with his kid?”

“No, I’m sure he’s gonna be fine. That girl is a pistol,” Wyatt stated, and he wasn’t wrong on that. I already knew that Ben was staying in South Carolina with Moira.

I bumped fists with Lucas then Wyatt before climbing on my Harley. We started the motors and left Beth’s driveway. At the end of the street, I nodded at Wyatt and Lucas before they turned left on their trek toward San Diego, California. And I turned right, heading to Beth’s bakery.

Saint Louis was a nice town with lots of tiny Burroughs throughout the county with a different feel. It gave the city an eclectic vibe with something for everyone. But the people seemed nice, even if the roads could stand to be repaved on the main thoroughfares.

Beth’s bakery, Sweet Dreams, was located in Downtown Kirkwood, which was a small town located within Saint Louis County. It was a short distance from a Farmer’s Market and train station.

I found a parking spot at a meter in front of her store. The shop décor was rather charming. It looked like an old-time candy shop with bright rainbow colors. That was part of its appeal. The other was the woman who owned it.

I spied her through the glass front door in her ivory and pink striped chef’s apron and hat.

Her inky black hair pulled into a messy bun at her nape.

She wasn’t paying the front door any heed since the bakery was closed.

I took the time to watch her. It must make me look like a stalker, but I didn’t care.

Beth moved with a quiet grace. Her movements were precise in that they appeared routine. I respected the hell out of her and the way she conducted herself.

Her beauty wasn’t the pretty and cute cheerleader type. Hers was sexy and smoldering that sucker punched a man straight in the gut.

There was strain around her sultry eyes and goddess mouth. I remembered the way her lips felt against mine, remembered how much I had wanted to sink into her and never come up for air.

She still packed a punch. Everything in me wanted her.

Yet she was forbidden. After Evan got a few punches in I swore I would never let it happen again.

And I stayed away from her for his sake.

But also for mine, because when I kissed her that night, I saw a future with her and it scared the crap out of me.

I didn’t want to be that vulnerable ever again, not until I could be stateside twenty-four-seven.

Relationships didn’t work when the partner was overseas all the time.

It didn’t mean I didn’t want her. Because Jesus H. Christ, being near her had resurrected every ounce of desire I felt for her back then. Except it felt even more pronounced this time around. I ached for her when she wanted nothing to do with me.

I told myself it was good that she hated me now. Otherwise, I doubted I’d be able to keep my hands off her. And then I’d damn us both. The ravenous hunger she provoked simply by existing would subdue any objections.

Beth’s head shot up. Her gaze landed on me. And it felt like she laid a hot poker against my skin. The air was rife with promise, a powder keg awaiting a spark to ignite.

She approached the front door. I studied the gentle sway of her hips.

And curled my hands into fists as she stood at the door with nothing but glass between us.

She pierced me with her hazel eyes. The green damn near glowing because she felt it too.

The quixotic pull that was always present whenever we were near one another.

She opened the door and stood back, giving me room to enter.

I stepped inside, my gaze lingered on her face. She set my teeth on edge as I fought the need to drag her into my arms and plunder her lush mouth to start with.

I wanted her, simply because I did. I couldn’t fault her wariness either. She didn’t trust me.

“Morning.” My voice was gravelly and dry.

“Did Lucas and Wyatt get off okay?”

I nodded. “Yep. They left the same time I did. I have your spare key in my pocket.”

She shut and relocked the front door after I entered. “Would you like some coffee? It’s fresh, I just brewed a pot.”

“I’d love a cup. If you have the tape measure, I can get started. That way I can finish before your employees arrive.”

“Let me go grab it. How do you take your coffee?” she asked on her trek behind the counter.

The woman had an ass that wouldn’t quit. I wanted to bend her over the nearest surface and…Jesus, I had to stop thinking with my dick. This was Evan’s sister. She was so far off limits, she might as well be stationed on the dark side of the moon. “Black’s fine.”

“Are you sure you don’t want some half and half, sugar, or sugar substitute?”

“Nah. I’m used to drinking it black. Maybe when I retire, I’ll start drinking it with other stuff in it. But it’s easier to go without, that way when I’m deployed, I don’t miss it.”

“It’s got to be hard, leaving all the comforts of home behind.” Beth grabbed the largest of the to-go coffee cups. Filled it almost to the brim and snapped on a lid before handing it to me.

Studying the way the light hit her hazel eyes, I took a sip and bit back a groan.

I had no clue how she made coffee this exquisite.

It was just black coffee. But the flavor rolled over my tongue like ambrosia.

And it was just the right temperature. Enough to warm my body on this cool, crisp spring day, but it didn’t scald my tongue nor was it burned.

It was perfect, just like Beth. “It can be. But I’ve been in the military half my life and it’s what I know. ”

“Still, I know I wouldn’t do well.”

“You might surprise yourself.”

“Nope. I like my creature comforts way too much. I have a difficult time sleeping on a bed that’s not mine. And I hate camping.”

I chuckled at her candor. Couldn’t help myself. Beth was a breath of fresh air. “Camping ain’t half bad. Don’t you want to get back to nature and enjoy the outdoors.”

“I can enjoy them just fine on my back deck, sipping a mojito. And then I go inside where there hopefully aren’t any bugs and sleep on my mattress that feels like a cloud.”

I lost it. Almost spit out the sip of coffee I’d taken.

And the quixotic pull, full of yearning, drew me in, like it did that night long ago.

Lust hit me. Yet it was more than simple lust, it was layered with a desire, a craving even, to know this woman inside and out.

I wanted to know the things that had broken her heart and what her hopes were for the future.

In a blink I could see how it could be, how it might have been, had I chosen her over my oath.

And I wanted to erase the time and distance between us. Though it was doubtful she would accept me, not after the way I bungled things back then.

Beth eyed me, with a dramatic raised brow, telling me what she thought of my hilarity. God, this woman would put lesser men in their place with a single arched brow.

I wasn’t most men. Yet it left me in a quandary unsure of my next step. A feeling as foreign as sleeping on a cloud. I wanted her but couldn’t touch her. Or could I?

It’s doubtful she would want an advance from me. And I felt the specter of Evan’s ghost. As if the fucker knew I was considering his sister once again in an unholy light. But the truth was, I never stopped thinking about her or that night. The feel of her, the taste of her, had remained.

I took a testing step toward her. And then another. A flare of desire illuminated her goddess hazel eyes. Beth retreated, the pulse in her neck erratic.

She put a hand up to stop me, landing on my chest like a hot brand that scorched through my layers into my soul. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

I didn’t fucking know myself. Except I did, but I lied because I couldn’t admit the thoughts flowing through my head, many of them were rather x-rated for starters, and the rest were an unattainable field of dreams. “You have some flour on your nose, I was going to wipe it off.”

Bald faced lie. There was no flour. Just a craving for her that went soul deep.

“Oh,” she swiped at her nose a few times. “Did I get it?”

“Yes.” And now I knew something I hadn’t before—Beth still wanted me. She might not like me. I might have botched things. But the kinetic energy that had swirled between us that night long ago still existed and was even more potent than before.

I took a few steps back, giving her space. “I like your place. Give me fifteen minutes to scope it out and get the proper measurements, then I’ll get out of your hair.”

“I appreciate your help.” A buzzer sounded.

It jolted me into awareness. What the hell? Where did it come from? Was there a bomb in Beth’s place?

Beth laid a comforting hand on my forearm. “It’s just my oven timer. I have croissants in the oven. Hollar if you need me.”

She looked like she wanted to say more, yet left me standing in the front of her shop.

Because she knew what I’d thought. How could I not?

I’d been in far too many firefights and dangerous situations.

It would be odder if I didn’t have a reaction and think an attack was imminent.

If I lost my edge it would be disastrous for me and my unit, especially given my new post was a command position over my own team.

While she was in the back, I took measurements from different angles.

If video was required to figure out the culprit behind the theft, then we needed as many angles of the registers as possible.

I figured one for each side of the register, one in the front and back of it.

And then one directly above, capturing every movement from every angle.

I noted the distances, marking the positions, Alpha, Beta, Charlie, and so on.

When I finished in the front, I headed into the back. I located Beth in the kitchen pulling some heavenly confection from the oven. I didn’t want to startle her, so I waited until she set the hot pan on top of the stove and shut the oven before I said anything.

“I’m done up front.”

Beth spun around with a splash of fear on her face, before it vanished without a trace. She put a hand on her ample chest. “Jesus, you scared me. Even snakes make more noise than you before they strike.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. But I figured I would try to get in and out before you have any customers.”

She nodded. “Okay, I’ll show you where the back office is, and you can do your thing.”

“It might behoove you to have cameras in here too.”

She frowned. “Why? They aren’t stealing pastries, they’re stealing money.”

“I understand that. But you don’t know when the theft is occurring. It could very well be during the transfer of the till from the front to the back and vice versa.”

“Hmm. That’s a valid point.” She blew out a breath and her bangs ruffled in the sudden breeze. “All right, fine. I want them caught.”

Dark clouds entered her eyes. I wished I could erase them. Because I saw with perfect clarity, the strain this had placed upon her slim shoulders.

“Good enough. I’ll start here so you can finish what you were doing. And then you can show me the office. Deal?”

She cast a tight smile. “Deal.”

I took measurements of the kitchen, including her dry storage and cold storage, because I was going to be thorough if nothing else.

“Okay, that should do it for the kitchen. Why don’t you show me the office.”

Beth stripped off her oven mitts and laid them on top of the counter with a nod. “Very well. Follow me.”

We headed down a short hall past the dry and cold storage.

I’d take measurements of the hall that had the employee lockers and coat racks too.

There was an employee bathroom. We couldn’t put one inside the restroom.

But I sure as hell planned to place some outside the bathroom to see if there’s any funny business taking place.

“This is the office where I store the tills.” She flipped the lights on. It was a small office. No more than six by six-foot space with a safe in the corner and a small desk with a ten key calculator.

“Does anyone else have access to the safe?

“Yes, my two assistant managers. But none of the other staff do. At the end of the night, they have to count the till, then deposit it there.” She pointed to a secondary safe with what looked like a postal mailbox slot.

“Only myself and the two assistants have access to that safe too. In the morning, I double check the deposit and count out the till for the day or one of the assistant managers does.”

“Have you started going through your records of who was working when money went missing?”

“Yes. It was always on mornings I wasn’t opening. And I know what you’re going to say, it was likely the person who opened. But not necessarily. It could have happened the night before and the assistant manager was simply logging the difference.”

What’s more, she didn’t want it to be any of the people working for her. I understood her sentiments. This level of betrayal had to sting.

“Regardless of whether you want to believe that someone you trusted is stealing from you, someone is. And we’re going to find out who. I’m going to measure this room, then I will head out and get the supplies needed. I can come back tonight after hours to install it all.”

She inhaled and nodded. “Okay. Did you have breakfast before you came?”

“No. I was going to pick something up after I was done here.”

“You don’t need to do that. I’ll have something ready by the time you’re done.” Before I could argue that she didn’t have to, she left the room.

She didn’t appear to want to take my head off.

And I wondered if five years ago the timing between us had simply been off. Not because Evan was gone but because we weren’t ready for each other back then.

Could this be our second chance?