Protecting What's Mine(114)

“Mackenzie, go to my place and wait there,” he said.

“I don’t think they’re still here,” she complained.

“My place. I’ll be there in five minutes. Go now and stay on the phone.”

“You’re overreacting.”

“And you’re underreacting.”

“Fine. Sunny, come on.” The dog trotted into the kitchen, a dust bunny stuck to her nose. “We’re going to Daddy’s house.”

She could hear Linc saying something to someone on his end and then the slam of a car door. “I think we’re overreacting,” she insisted, opening the garden gate and stepping into his backyard.

“Better safe than sorry,” he said.

She heard a faraway siren. “You better not be coming in hot. I’m fine. I’m walking into your house right now,” she said, opening his back door.

“Are you in? Is the door locked?”

Mack rolled her eyes at the dog and mouthed “overreacting.” She flipped the deadbolt. “I am officially locked inside.”

The sirens cut off.

Linc arrived two minutes later and found Mack sipping tea on his couch, her feet pulled up under her, Sunshine wriggling on her back on the floor.

“Don’t you feel silly now?” she said as he barreled in through the door.

“Nope.”

A police cruiser pulled up in front of Linc’s place.

“Oh, come on, Linc. The police?”

Deputy Hiya Tahir climbed out and adjusted her belt.

“You are overreacting,” Mack said in exasperation.

“We’ll see about that,” he said mildly as he gave her a hard, reassuring hug.





A search of Mack’s house revealed several missing items. A bottle of wine, a pair of small diamond studs that her foster parents got her for her graduation from med school, and two-hundred dollars in cash that she kept in an empty box of K-Cups in the kitchen cabinet.

The weak lock on the back door had been jimmied open, and Mack could see Linc’s wheels turning.

“No other damage that I can see,” she said as she perused her bedroom under Deputy Tahir’s watchful eye.

“Where’s your sketchbook, Dreamy,” Linc asked, peering into the drawer of her nightstand.

“It’s right…it should be right there,” she said, frowning. The charcoal pencils were there, the eraser. But no book.

“Is it missing?” the deputy asked.

“Why would someone take that?” Mack asked half to herself. She peered under the bed in case she’d mislaid it.

That tickle between her shoulder blades was back. Something was wrong.

“Dr. O’Neil, do you know anyone who would mean you any harm?” Deputy Tahir asked.

“You mean besides the Kershes?” Linc put in.

“We’ll ask any questions that need asking, chief,” Deputy Tahir said.

“Someone broke in here,” Linc said succinctly. “You think asking questions is going to keep Mackenzie safe?”

“Linc.” Mack laid a hand on his arm. “I am safe.”

“I want you to stay at the station with me tonight,” he said, his jaw hard.

“I’m not staying in a firefighter fart factory.”

“You’re not staying here alone.”

“Sunshine and I will stay at your place. Final offer.”

“I want drive-bys,” he insisted.

“We’ll have patrol come by every hour,” the deputy offered. “It’s probably just kids being stupid. But it doesn’t hurt to be careful.”

Mack waited until Linc walked Deputy Tahir to her cruiser before pulling out her phone.

“Well, look who it is. The daughter who disowned me,” Andrea sniped when she answered the call.

“Where’s Wendy?” Mack said flatly.

“What does it matter? Are you going to try having her arrested again?”

“Where is she, Andrea?”

“Andrea? I’m your mother. You will show me the respect I deserve!”

“When you’ve earned my respect, I’ll be happy to give it to you. Where is Wendy?”

“She’s in the shower getting ready for work.”

“She has a job?”

“Don’t pretend you know us, Kenzie.”

“Don’t call me Kenzie.”

“I need money, Ken—Mackenzie.”

“That’s no longer my problem. You’ve done nothing but lie to me and use me. Those checks weren’t for you to support a boyfriend and the sister who has meant me nothing but harm.”

“Wendy has had a rough time since Powell died.”

“She locked me in a room for two days when she was ten years old.”

“That’s just sisters being sisters. You’ve always been too sensitive, Kenzie.”

“And you’ve always been a lying alcoholic with no intention of changing.”

Mack hung up as her mother sputtered more lies, more excuses into the phone.

She didn’t have to listen anymore.

A minute later, Linc stalked back inside. “Come on,” he said.

“Where are we going?”

“To buy that goddamn video surveillance system I shouldn’t have let you talk me out of.”