Out of Uniform (Wingmen Warriors 14)

“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.”

“What?”

“Jacob?” Emily sidled toward Chase. “You can’t really think—”

“Now, Chase.” A cool core of certainty congealed in him. “If I’m wrong, I’ll apologize. But I’m going to get her side of the story as soon as she calms down.”

Chase eyed the door again.

Emily gripped the arm of Chase’s jacket. “Prove him wrong. Please.”

Chase shrugged free. He jammed his hand into his pocket and whipped out a stack of folded twenty-dollar bills. He didn’t even bother making excuses.

“No, Chase.” Emily’s chin quivered as the nursery monitor hummed in her hand.

“Fine.” Chase slammed the wad of cash on the counter. “I didn’t walk out of here with it, so there’s not a damned thing you can do to me.”

Jacob stared at the money and focused on the feel of Dee’s hair beneath his hand. When would the anger hit him? Logic told him that’s how he should feel. Instead he’d gone numb. Probably for the best, since he had to take care of the mess with Chase and deal with Dee. “Sit down, Chase.”

“No way, I’m—”

“Sit,” Jacob snapped.

Chase dropped onto the sofa. What had Emily seen in this guy? An escape from Clyde? Or more likely choosing Chase because he was surely the sort who would tweak the old man’s nose at every turn.

Jacob relaxed his jaw, lowered his tensed shoulders and regained control. He needed to distance himself from everything, all of them. Emotions clouded judgment.

He turned his attention back to Dee and cupped her face in his hands without allowing himself to savor the softness of her skin. “Snap out of it, Dee. You need to talk to me, or we’re heading to the hospital.”

Her eyes widened, then cleared. “Jacob?”

“Yeah, Dee.” Relief taunted him, so close. “Are you okay? Are you…hurt?”

“I remember everything.” Her eyes deepened, darkened, assumed a different quality.

The look of a different woman. The real Dee.

Dee? Hell, he didn’t even know her name.

But she’d remembered. He should be happy. He’d worked with her for this moment, yet somehow wasn’t ready. Maybe because he knew this was it. Now she would leave.

His hands slid from her face as he let her go. “Tell me.”

“I remember my child…and my husband. He took my son, Jacob. He stole my baby.”

Deirdre fingered her “Dee” necklace as she waited for the county police. She’d never so much as logged a speeding ticket in her life, yet lately she’d talked to the cops on a regular basis like some criminal. Like her husband. Thanks to her husband.

The metal chilled in her hand. Her son had given her the necklace for Christmas. He’d bought it at a preschool Santa’s Gift Shop for students to choose gifts for parents.