Assumed Identity(41)

“You go ahead. I just need to push this pallet out of the main path and shut off the lights in here.” She turned the handle of the pallet mover and released the brake. “I’ll be out shortly.”

“Good.” He pulled the handle on the insulated steel door and pushed it open. “Shirley, my love, are you ready for your escort?”

Robin smiled at his over-the-top charm. She was glad she and Mark had sat down together to work out the bookkeeping issues. It was a relief to finally feel like she’d gotten back into the routine of work and running her shop. Heaven knew that, except for Emma’s bright shining star, her personal life was still a complicated mess.

Inhaling a resolute breath and refusing to let the fear those letters and phone calls engendered take hold of her again, Robin leaned her shoulder into the pallet mover to start it rolling. By the time she’d parked it out of the way and retrieved her clipboard, she was back in cool, calm and collected mode. She went to the door and pushed.

But nothing happened.

She quickly squelched that bubble of fear that had never truly left her and pushed the handle again.

Nothing.

She jiggled the handle one more time and pressed the emergency release latch. Only, something had jammed and it wouldn’t engage the lock. This door wasn’t opening. At least, not from her side.

“Mark?” She knocked on the door to see if anyone was on the other side. “Shirley? Leon?” Robin knocked again. “Hello? I’m in here.”

Someone had gotten a little overzealous with the locking-up directive. At least she hoped it was an accident—that whoever had slipped the locking pin into the other side of the door handle simply hadn’t realized she was in here, and that, considering recent events, this wasn’t some poorly timed joke.

“Hello?”

The same insulated walls that kept her from hearing anything outside the fridge room were probably muffling her shouts, as well. Maybe the guys were walking the female employees to their cars and no one was out there. It was impossible to hear through the thick door unless they were standing in the adjoining hallway.

A fearful suspicion simmered inside her. But she tamped down the panic and tried to think this through. Had she stayed in here longer than she thought? She reached for her cell phone, but that was in the diaper bag in her office. She found the tiny canister of pepper spray in the pocket of her jeans. She’d started carrying it again after that awful night. But she was locked in, not under attack. At least it was a walk-in refrigerator, not a freezer. Things could get mighty uncomfortable, but she wouldn’t die in here. And this door wasn’t the only way out.

“Ugh. Robin.” She chided the foreboding that had momentarily silenced logic and ran over to check the delivery entrance where they loaded and unloaded large orders through the double doors. She rattled the handle on one, tried them both. But nothing budged. Normally, this was padlocked from the outside unless they were using it. “Leon?” Maybe he was back there with the van. She flattened her palm against the cold steel and pounded. “Leon!”

Everything was locked up tight. Just the way she wanted it. Two sets of locked doors to keep anyone from sneaking into the shop from the back alley.

Two sets of locked doors that trapped her in between.

The panic bubbled over and Robin ran back to the hallway door and pounded again. “Hey! Mark? Anyone? I’m locked in!”

Robin was trapped. But that wasn’t what scared her.

She couldn’t get to Emma, who was sleeping peacefully in Robin’s office. Unguarded. Alone.

This was no accident. And it was certainly no joke.

I’m taking your daughter.

Forget cool, calm and collected. Robin pounded on the door and shouted. “Help! Let me out!”

* * *

JAKE LEANED AGAINST the top railing of the fence surrounding the Fairy Tale Bridal parking lot and watched the lights in Robin’s shop go out one by one. Careful not to let the glare from the street lamp reflect off the face of his watch and alert anyone to his presence, he checked the time. 9:00 p.m. sharp. Good. He appreciated punctuality when it came to security.

Robin Carter had been consistent for four nights in a row now. He’d seen her lock the front door, check the windows, turn out the lights and walk to the parking lot with the rest of her staff before loading that bulky baby carrier into the backseat and driving off to whatever all-American suburban home they lived in.

Despite his best intentions to forget the leggy brunette and her blue-eyed baby, despite every lick of sense that said he shouldn’t care about her troubles or get involved any further in their lives, Jake had planned his dinner break from the bar just before nine. And for the past four nights, he’d made the brisk walk around the corner to this hiding place away from the bridal shop’s security cameras, and watched to make sure the Carter girls got safely out of this neighborhood where too many innocent women had gotten hurt.