had a thing, well, my family gets nosy.”
“They won’t hear about us from me. You and I will have a code if you’re in trouble. I’ll be the doctor calling with your test results. You’ll tell me it’s a bad time to talk. If there’s one bad guy, say the baby is kicking a lot today. Two bad guys, the twins. Three, the triplets. Do you understand, Zoe?”
She nodded. “Is all this necessary?”
Ben spread his hands. “You never know what you’re going to need to know.”
The door opened, and the male receptionist that initially greeted her poked his head inside. “Excuse me, Ben, Ms. McKnight? The police were on the phone for you, but we got disconnected.”
“Why?”
“I had your sister first, but she hung up to talk to them. She said your cell phone dialed the store and she could hear your meeting. She was trying to call and tell you that your store just got robbed. When she couldn’t reach you, she called the police. Then they called us.”
Panicked, Zoe jumped up. “She has to cancel them. There can’t be a report.”
Zoe pushed the button on her Treo handheld for the store, but nobody answered. She dialed Faye’s cell but got no answer. “I’ve got to stop her. I told her to go home and help my father, but no. She had to help me.” She grabbed her portfolio and started for the door.
“I’m going with you.” They hurried up front and the receptionist handed Ben his jacket, taking the folder from Ben’s hand.
“You can’t.” Zoe trotted toward the exit. “Nobody is supposed to know about you.”
“Are you arguing already?”
“No. I’m not. No.” She took a deep breath. “Can you guarantee me that you’re going to get these bloodsucking scumbags?” Zoe dug into her purse for her car keys. “Promise, or I’m buying a bigger clip for my .45.”
Ben offered his hand to Zoe as they headed out of the building. “I promise. But you go in first and let me make my own entrance. I need to see things from my own perspective.”
“I’ll see you there.”
Chapter 4
Zoe entered the upscale mall at the lower-level south entrance, passing through the food court. The blending of Thai, Chinese and fast food odors usually made her hungry but today roiled her stomach. The casual lunch crowd formed jagged lines. She decided to take the escalator rather than the stairs so that she could quickly assess.
She’d chosen the second-floor corner for her boutique because she’d wanted to be able to say park at the south entrance, come through the food court, and we’re at the top of the escalator. People would be able to find her easily. The strategy had worked well. Sales had quadrupled since she’d opened three years ago and like she’d told Rob, tripled over the last months.
Zoe’s unique designs had brought a renewed sense of excitement to a business that was now saturated with trolley-cart vendors that sold inferior products at lower prices. Today’s incident wasn’t helping as customers were turned away by two cops who stood outside the doorway.
Bold onlookers still craned to see inside, but there wasn’t anything going on. Nobody was in custody and Zoe’s heart sank. That would have made her day.
Ireland, one of Zoe’s managers, was irritated, gesturing in big sweeping motions as she talked, and when the officer seemed to ask her to settle down, her neck went back, and she gave him a piece of her mind.
As Zoe walked toward the store, she noticed that none of the cases were broken, and while she was thankful, fury burned her. How had they gotten her this time?
Zoe turned, and Ben was behind her. “I thought you were going to stay incognito,” she said, startled to see him. The reassurance she felt was hard to hide. She’d reached out and gripped his arm and was about to pull her hand back when he touched her hand in a reassuring way. “I’d planned to, but I changed my mind.”
“Why? We had an agreement.”
“Hugh’s on his way to do the camera work and I want to hear everything you hear, Zoe. I don’t want you to have to relay anything to me. I’m going to try to work within your two-week time frame, so let me do my job.”
Zoe had a brief flashback to the moment when Ben picked her up in his arms and she had the best orgasm of her life. She’d been weightless and there had been nothing to support her but him. She’d had to put all of her trust in him. “Trust me,” he said.
“I’ll do my best.” She approached the uniformed officers. “This is my store. I’m Zoe McKnight, the owner. I’d like to go in.”
“You got ID?”
Irritated, Zoe withstood the visual inspection of herself and her ID, her patience slipping toward anger that the cop wouldn’t let her in until Ireland acknowledged her. The statuesque blonde stalked over. “What the hell do you have her standing here for? She owns the damned place!”
Ben walked in and moved unobtrusively to the side while the cop corralled Zoe and Ireland in the center of the store.
“We were scared,” Ireland said, “but I kicked ass and got the jewelry back.”
Zoe shook her off. “You did what?”
“I chased down the tall guy and got the jewelry back. Initially, there were three of them. The tall guy asked me to model the tiara, plus see some other pieces. No sooner had I unlocked the case and put it on than we were flooded with twenty men, all dressed alike. They were loud, crowding and rushing me and everyone else.”
“You chased who? And where did you chase them?” the police officer asked.
Ireland looked at the three of them. “The tall man I told you about,” she said to the cop, “I chased him down the escalator to the outside parking lot. I nailed him with my shoe. Got him in the back of the head.”
“We’ll need that,” the cop told her, glancing at her feet.
“You think I’d be wearing it if it were evidence? These are my back-up shoes,” she said of the sparkly black kitten heels. She pulled out a clear plastic bag with the other pair of two-inch heels. He took the bag as evidence.
“These are the shoes I had on when I ran him down. I caught up to him and was screaming my head off. He may have seen all these football-player types heading toward the mall entrance and thought he didn’t want to explain to them why he was dragging a woman around. I wouldn’t let go and he dragged me for a few seconds.” She showed them her leg that was still flaky with Georgia clay.
The cop closed his notebook. “I’ve got this already. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving.”
Ireland’s blond hair swung from side to side. “There’s nothing more.”
“Thank you. When can I get a copy?” Zoe asked.
“Twenty-four hours,” the cop said, and walked out the store. Zoe pulled the gate back down and returned to Ireland and Ben. There
