Speak No Evil by Tanya Anne Crosby Page A

a squeeze. “Yeah, we’ll lock Mother’s office door from the inside tonight and maybe you should call Sadie, let her know—no more ducking out without telling me where you’re going!” She turned to call Tango into the house, but Jack was petting him. “And he stays home from now on.”
    Savannah peered over her shoulder. “Tango or Jack?”
    “Funny,” Caroline said without smiling at Savannah’s attempt at good humor. “I meant the one who barks.”
    “Good thing you didn’t say the one who bites,” her sister teased. “We both know which one that is.”
    Caroline gave her baby sister the evil eye, annoyed because she had successfully conjured intimate images of Jack in Caroline’s mind—sexy memories she really didn’t need or want to deal with at the moment. She wholly regretted telling Savannah anything.
    Her sister smiled knowingly.

    It was nearly one A.M. before the police cleared out.
    If there was a fingerprint anywhere in her mother’s office, they found it and lifted it. As far as anyone could tell, nothing had been taken and there was no evidence anybody had made it inside, but the incident left Caroline feeling a sense of dread, especially after the break-in at Daniel’s office.
    Savannah stayed by her side until she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, and then excused herself, leaving Caroline to say good-bye to Jack.
    Feeling awkward, Caroline stood on the top step of the porch, peering down at him, keeping her distance. “Thanks for coming to my rescue,” she offered.
    One side of his mouth curved upward, and for a moment, she could almost forget there were years of resentment between them. “I’m surprised you remembered the number.”
    Caroline smiled ruefully. “I’m more surprised you didn’t change it.”
    He lifted both his brows. “It wasn’t me who left.”
    Caroline nodded. “Fair enough,” she said. But they both knew why she’d gone.
    He shoved his hands into his pockets, something he did whenever he was feeling a little uncertain, and Caroline wished she didn’t know that detail about him. “Anyway . . . make sure you set the alarm tonight.”
    Caroline crossed her arms against the slight breeze in the air. “No way will I forget!”
    “You sure you don’t want me to stay . . . on the couch?”
    “We’ll be fine, Jack. Josh is coming over after he checks on Sadie.”
    For a moment, they just stared at one another. Caroline recognized the regret in his eyes and it only served to confuse her.
    “Alrighty, well . . . try to get some sleep.” He turned to go.
    “Jack?”
    He stopped and turned.
    For some reason, she was suddenly reluctant to see him go, but couldn’t ask him to stay. “There was a break-in at Daniel’s last week. Could they be connected?”
    “King Street?”
    “Yeah. They said it was kids looking for cash for drugs. They trashed the place and put Daniel in the hospital.”
    “Rough area,” he acknowledged, and seemed to think about it a moment, conceding, “Probably not. I’ll look into it anyway.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Good night, Caroline,” he said, opening his car door and sliding in.
    “Night, Jack,” she said.
    He waited for her to go inside before driving away.

Chapter Nine
    “W hen life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”
    It had been Sadie’s favorite saying when Caroline and her sisters were pouting over perceived injustices and that advice might seem to apply right now, Caroline thought, except that, no matter what lens you peered through, complaining about inheriting twenty-seven million dollars fell smack under the rubric of “poor little rich girl.”
    Pretty much Caroline’s entire life, she had been acutely aware that, in the grand scheme of things, complaints from any Aldridge were perceived as ungracious. All three girls attended Ashley Hall until high school, when Augusta had begun her personal crusade against her station in life. Aside from Sammy’s disappearance, they had lived relatively sheltered