Jake
The next morning wasSunday, and as I headed downtown to check on Evie I had a little spring in my step. She might say she wasn’t attracted to me, but the way she’d softened against my palm yesterday and swayed close enough for the quickest kiss in the history of kisses made me think she wasn’t as immune to me as she thought she was.
Despite knowing at a cellular level that Evie was meant to be mine, I never would pursue her if I thought she truly wasn’t interested. I wasn’t a jerk. But her words and her actions didn’t match. Yesterday when we’d been standing close, I could see her pulse pounding in the throat and her nipples had hardened against the thin fabric of her shirt. When she’d leaned forward to kiss me I knew the truth; she might be fighting it, but the attraction was there.
After grabbing our coffees, I walked over to her store. Evie was standing in front of the cash registers, looking pissed as hell. She was wearing a short knit black skirt over hot pink leggings, a darker pink shirt with a scoop neck hugging her breasts. She’d paired the outfit with Doc Martins and her signature combination of metal and beaded bracelets.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Her eyes swung to me, then she pointed to the countertop. Someone had written ‘get out’ in large block letters, with what looked like black marker. They’d also taken a knife to the two chairs behind the counter, pulling the stuffing out of the backs and tossing it on the floor.
Whoever was messing with Evie was definitely determined, if not particularly original. I couldn’t figure out why the vandal was going through this much trouble for relatively minor damage. It didn’t make sense.
“I thought you changed the locks.”
She huffed. “I did. I have no idea how they got in again.”
I grabbed the radio that I always had with me and called into the station. “We have another break-in at the bookstore. Please send a uniform and a fingerprint kit.”
Evie stomped away and returned a few minutes later with a plastic trash bag in her hand. Moving behind the desk, she started picking up stuffing off the floor and shoving it into the bag.
“You should leave that,” I instructed.
She ignored me.
“Evie. You don’t know if that’s safe. At least wear gloves.”
“I’m fine,” she snapped.
I opened my mouth to argue, but the door opened. One of my officers, Dan Reyes, walked in and looked around cautiously, like he thought someone was going to jump him.
“Here, Reyes.” I gestured to the top. “Can you wipe the counter down for fingerprints?”
“There’s no fingerprints,” Evie said. “I already checked.”
“With what?”
“I bought a fingerprint kit on Amazon since the police weren’t doing anything. The vandal must be wearing gloves.”
“Well as impressive as that is, Nancy Drew, your kiddie fingerprint kit is not the same as ours.”
She stopped picking up stuffing to glare at me. I glared right back. Our eyes were locked in a staring contest that neither of us wanted to lose.
“Uh, Chief?”
Reyes cleared his throat, making me look away, but not before I saw a look of triumph on Evie’s face.
“There’s nothing here.”
“Score one for Nancy Drew,” she crowed. “By the way, we have the whole series here if you want to learn more about doing investigations from everyone’s favorite girl detective.”