Out of Uniform (Wingmen Warriors 14)

The lanky teen glanced from the button, to Dee’s blouse and back to Jacob. Chase’s eyes widened. “Uh-uh. Not a chance. It’s not what you think. She flipped out, just the way I said. I tried to keep her from going outside without a coat. That’s how her shirt got ripped.”

“Then why were you running away when I got here?”

Chase hesitated. “Uh, I saw you drive up.”

Jacob wanted to believe him, but his instincts clamored that Chase wasn’t telling everything—shuffling feet, refusal to make eye contact, all the typical signs of lying. Jacob’s jaw clenched. He didn’t want to wrap his mind around the possibility that Chase had assaulted Dee, or even tried.

A glance at Dee told him she was still out of it. He needed answers from Chase before he could help her. Jacob pinned Chase with an interrogator’s gaze and continued smoothing a hand along Dee’s hair. “Be straight with me now, or you can talk to the police.”

Emily gasped, stepping forward. Jacob kept his eyes on Chase but directed his words toward his sister. “Emily, go back to your room and take care of Madison.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her wave the nursery monitor but didn’t advance deeper inside.

“Police?” Chase eyed the door hungrily. “I didn’t do anything to her. She’s just acting or something. Come on, man, you know me. Who’s she, anyway, huh? Just some nutcase claiming she has amnesia.”

“Enough.” Jacob sliced the air with his hand. “Last chance, Chase. The truth.”

“Okay.” The teen fidgeted, gulped, tugged at his sagging pants and gulped again. “I hate to tell you this, but when I got here, I found her taking a stack of money out of your cash drawer.”

Jacob’s hand stilled. His mind turned white-hot. For all of two seconds. Then reason kicked in. Dee wouldn’t steal from him. He wished he could attribute the surety to trust, but logic had saved him from the test. If cleaning him out had been her plan, she could have done so a hundred times over. She was the type who turned over pocket change found in linens while cleaning.

But what about Chase? Jacob could see it in the boy’s eyes, and the realization made him sick for Emily. He resumed stroking Dee’s hair while he studied the signs of guilt stamped all over Chase.

The kid had stolen from him. Jacob swallowed the bilious sting of disappointment. “Empty your pockets.”>As she snagged a can from his refrigerator, Dee heard the front door to the lobby blast open. She swallowed a sip and hollered, “Hold on a minute. I’ll be right out.”

Dee nudged the refrigerator door shut with her hip. In the lobby, she found Chase hovering behind the counter. “Sorry, Chase, but they had to go on without you. Jacob said for you to meet them at the base. If you leave now, you can probably make it before the ground crew heads out.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” He jammed his hands in his pockets, his baggy camouflage pants riding low from the extra pressure.

She waited, but he didn’t move. “They’re only about ten minutes ahead of you. Maybe you can call on the cell phone and ask them to wait.”

“I’ll just skip this one.”

Dee chewed her lip to keep from dishing out a lesson on following through with responsibilities. “You could hang out with Emily. I think Madison is already asleep.”

Chase shuffled from foot to foot. “Nah, no need. I’ll just hit the road.”

Her bottom lip was getting a real workout tonight. Rather than argue with Chase, she decided to phone his mother after he left. “Good night, then.”

“’Night.” He brushed past, his hip bumping the half-open cash register drawer.

Dee stared at the drawer, trying to deny what she knew to be true. She’d closed it after making change. She wouldn’t have been so careless as to leave the drawer hanging open.

Chase couldn’t have possibly…She cast a furtive glance at the teen crossing to the door.

Instinct told her he most certainly had.

Popping open the drawer the rest of the way, she looked inside. The slot that should have held a stack of twenties now contained a lone bill, as if someone hadn’t wanted to be so obvious as to empty out the space. “Hey, Chase. Hold on a sec.”

His jerky look back over his shoulder, the defensive glint in his eyes, confirmed her fears. He’d lifted money from the cash register.

Jacob would be livid. Hell, she was livid. She couldn’t even bear to consider what this meant for Emily and Madison.

She reacted with her heart rather than her head, wanting to save Jacob from knowing. “Put the money back, Chase, and we can let this go.”

With a snap of his head, he flicked a hank of walnut hair from his face. The defensive glint evaporated, a belligerent glare taking its place. “What money?”

“I’m not stupid, so don’t act like I am. Put it back.”