Home to Sparrow Lake

Soured on relationships, Kristen would focus all her energies on rebuilding her career. She’d always known she had to learn to rely on herself, and nothing in her experience had changed her mind.

* * *

ALEX PARKED IN his spot in front of the police station and hurried inside to meet with Officer Owen Larson. After his late-night adventure, Alex had slept in. On the way here, he’d stopped in front of Sew Fine for a moment. He hadn’t been able to help himself. Part of him had wanted to go in and see if Kristen Lange was as feisty as he remembered. He hadn’t been able to put her out of mind.

He stopped at the desk. “Is Owen in?”

Before the receptionist could answer, Owen called, “Over here!”

Alex waved and walked back to the desk where Owen was checking his smartphone. His buddy was twenty-six but looked closer to sixteen with reddish hair, freckles and a wiry body that had little discernible bulk. Looks could be deceiving. As slight as he appeared, Owen had incredible muscle strength, could bench press his own weight and dead lift even more. He was fast on his feet and could jump a fence without hesitating. He’d been the star of the high school cross-country team and a champion in college.

“You’re late,” Owen said. “What’s up?”

“Late night.”

“So I heard.” Owen set his phone down, but he kept one eye on it.

“Expecting a call?” Alex asked.

“A text.”

Alex didn’t have to ask from whom. Owen and his new wife, Trina, had to text each other love notes all day. As long as Owen wasn’t behind the wheel of a patrol car when he did so, that was fine with Alex. Owen had become his good friend in the two years since he’d left the city and moved to Sparrow Lake, and he’d even been best man for Owen’s wedding a few months back. Though he was younger than Alex, Owen seemed to have his life far more together. Owen now had a wife he loved and plans to start a family.

“So what’s with you and Margaret’s niece?” Owen asked.

Alex frowned at him. “I caught her breaking into her aunt’s store, and I brought her in for questioning.”

“I hear there was more to it. A little something special going on between you two?”

Wishful thinking. Alex hadn’t had anything going on with any woman for far too long. “Who’s making up stories now?”

“Janet. She said the way you looked at the Lange woman and the tone you used when you spoke to her made them all think there was more to the story than you were telling.”

“They just need something juicy to chew over. A new woman in town fits the bill.”

“I might believe you, but—”

“What?”

“That expression on your face now. I know you too well, buddy. You may not have anything going yet, emphasis on the yet, but you’re sure thinking about it.”

Owen meant well, and he wasn’t wrong, but Alex wasn’t about to start talking about a woman he didn’t even know yet.

“Any new reports about the pranks being pulled around town last night?” Alex asked.

“Not last night.” Owen sighed. “At nine-fifteen this morning, the fire truck showed up at the library to find someone had pulled the alarm. Of course there was no fire. Not even a wisp of smoke.”

Alex shook his head in disgust. “I wonder where Brian Lange was at nine-fifteen.” And he wondered if Brian’s sister could tell him. That might be a sticking point in getting to know her better.

“If we could catch Brian and Matt and Andy in the act—”

“We could put the fear of jail time in them before they go too far.”

They talked for a bit about the situation with the boys running wild. Something bad had been brewing in this area of the state since the summer before. Alex had heard rumors of drug trafficking, and there had been a few armed robberies in nearby towns. He wasn’t about to let anything like that go down here in his town.

Sparrow Lake was pretty much crime free. So far.

Owen got to his feet. “I’d better get back to work or my boss might fire me.”

Alex grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. But once the officer left the station, Alex found himself brooding over the problem.

Since Brian Lange had moved back to town the month before, he’d been hanging out with two high school students a year younger than he was. Alex had seen the three of them together, and to his way of thinking, the local boys idolized the California transplant and would do anything to impress him. Since his return, all kinds of odd events had started happening. Pranks that made people angry. The three boys had been sighted several times in the areas where pranks had been pulled, although no one had actually seen them in action.

Nothing serious. Yet.

And Alex wanted to make sure it stayed that way by nipping trouble in the bud.

While on the job in Chicago, he’d seen terrible things happen to kids because no one got in their way when they started down the wrong path. Things that destroyed their futures. Things that took away any future they might have at all.

That was the reason he’d left Chicago. He’d been part of a gang unit in the Chicago Police Department, and they’d been dealing with a crime in progress. A crazed, drug-ridden kid had fired at his team and then had pointed a gun straight at Alex. Instinct had kicked in faster than he’d had time to blink, and he’d fired his own weapon. He’d been in the right. Had done exactly as he’d been trained to do. After the investigation, he’d been exonerated. None of that mattered, not even the fact that the kid had survived.

Alex had kind of gone crazy after that.

Haunted by the what-ifs, he swore he wouldn’t let the kids here, in his town, get on such a self-destructive road when he could steer them down a more positive path before it was too late.

Feeling down just thinking about Chicago, he went to his office and tried to bury himself in paperwork, but he simply couldn’t concentrate. He needed a distraction, something to take away the dark cloud that hung over him. Something to make him smile.

A few minutes later, he found himself in his squad car heading back to Sew Fine.

CHAPTER FOUR

“YOU WERE SCHEDULED to work at nine this morning,” Kristen told Brian when he finally strolled in the door just before noon.

“I was? Oh, sorry. The time must have slipped my mind.”

He gave her an innocent expression, yet Kristen couldn’t tell if it was genuine. He was still a kid, though, and needed some guidelines.

Kristen sighed. “Maybe you should add your work schedule to the calendar on your phone.”

“I’ll do that.” Brian kissed her on the cheek. “Sorry, sis.”

Okay, how mad at him could she be? Instead of chastising him, she gave him a big hug.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“I just missed you, is all.” She’d missed a lot of things while he was growing up, as Heather had reminded her.

His answering smile lit up his big blue eyes. He would be handsome if only he would grow out his faux-Mohawk haircut. The sides were sheared short and the top was spiked, making his already narrow face seem thinner. Not that she would make any suggestions in the haircut department and chance hurting his feelings.