I took swift, albeit, weaving steps around the counter. “I just want to decide. That’s it.” I grabbed the hammer and wound my way around the counter again. The wall seemed to wobble a little bit, which probably meant I was wobbling. I didn’t care.
Everything I did seemed to fall apart, and I just wanted to be good at something. But didn’t that mean changing? I couldn’t keep everything the same way as it had been when Mom ran the coffee shop. I had to take opportunities when they came.
I raised the hammer above my head.
“Sanders, wait! What are you doing?”
I flashed him a smile. “Knocking down a door to Narnia.”
His eyes widened. “Oh, I don’t know about that. What if—”
“What if what? I run this coffee shop now. I know it’s my mom’s, but I’m the manager, right? I can do this. I can run this business and my own life!”
I brought the hammer down, chipping part of the drywall away.
Leo bit his lip but didn’t say anything.
“I just want to decide!” I took another swing at the wall. Destroying things was fun. Why didn’t I do it more often?
“Didn’t Briggs say something about that being a load-blocking wall…. load-bearing… load-something. It was a load wall. Should we knock down a load wall?” Leo asked.
Behind the drywall was pink insulation that looked kind of like a cloud. I pounded my hammer into it anyway.
Clouds could be destroyed too, and the resulting fluff I flung about the place was glorious.
“It will be fine,” I insisted and whacked the wall with all my strength.
But instead of a knocking noise, the hammer created a different sound altogether—a distant, high-pitched wail.
It took me a second to figure out it was a siren.
“What did you do?” Leo asked. “Does Briggs have a security system or something? Oh no, they’re going to arrest us and take us to the big house!”
Oh my god. This couldn’t be happening.
“But I was just making a door to Narnia. That isn’t against the law!”
“It might be,” Leo said.
I ran around the counter and ducked my head. Leo followed me. “What if they haven’t read C.S. Lewis?” he said in a hushed voice. “They wouldn’t know.”
My phone started ringing. My head was too fuzzy to understand who would be calling this late. Did the police already know it was me? How had they found out?
I pulled out my phone and brought it to my ear.
“Hello?”
13
Briggs
I was pulled out of a dead sleep by the blaring ring of my phone. Rubbing my eyes, I picked it up, tugging out the charger. Frowning, I answered the call from the security company that manages the bookstore’s alarm system. “’Lo?”
“Good evening, Mr. Daniels. This is Matt Harbor calling from Pinnacle Security. Your security system has been triggered by movement inside the store, sir. We’re checking video feeds and not seeing anything at first glance, but we’ll take another pass at it. In the meantime, we’d like to call the police to check it out.”
“Yeah. Please. I’m going to head down there as well to see what’s going on.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll be in touch.”
“Thanks, Matt.”
I hung up the phone and rubbed my face, trying to shove off the last vestiges of sleep while I stood to get dressed. As I was tugging on my jeans, a flash of the sinfully sexy, yet drunkenly adorable Sanders popped into my head, and I froze in fear.
Fuck.
If Sanders and Leo were still at the cafe and there had truly been a break-in, they could be in danger. Shit, shit, shit. Fumbling for my phone, I called Sanders’s cell. It rang, and rang, and rang some more. “Come on, Sanders. Answer the phone, baby.”
Although, maybe if he wasn’t answering the phone he was no longer there. That was the best possible scenario. But just as I was about to hang up, a fearful voice whispered, “Hello?”
Heart lodged in my throat, I had to clear it before I could speak. “It’s Briggs. Sanders, are you okay?”
The whimper on the other end of the line had my anxiety spiking to insane levels. The boy continued to whisper. “I don’t want to be arrested.”
Confused, I grabbed my keys from where I’d tossed them on the kitchen counter earlier and asked, “Why would you be arrested, sweetheart?”
Sanders’s little whine came down the line, and I didn’t know if it was a reaction to me calling him sweetheart or the fact he seemed to be scared to death. Either way, I needed to reassure him and calm him down.
“Narnia.” The whisper was so soft I barely heard him.
“What?” How many drinks had the boy consumed since I’d left? I climbed into the Rover and started the engine. “Sanders, where are you in the cafe?”
“B-behind the counter on the floor. I’m so sorry.”
Fuck. “There’s no reason to be sorry, okay? Listen to me now. I’m sure you heard the bookstore’s alarm. I don’t know what’s going on or why it was tripped, but I want you and Leo to hide in your office in the back. Lock the door if there’s a lock, and don’t open up for anyone until I call you and tell you it’s okay to answer the door.”
The sniffle let me know he was crying and damned if my heart didn’t break nearly in two. “I just wanted something for myself. I thought you’d be happy. I’m so stupid.”
More sniffling, then I heard Leo’s voice trying to reassure him. I hated I wasn’t there to help him already. “Sanders? I need you to be strong for me, okay, sweetheart? Can you be strong for me?”
“Yeah. Okay.”
“Good boy. I want you and Leo to get yourselves to your office right now. Lock yourselves in. Once you’re in there, let me know.”
Sanders took a deep breath. “All right. Leo, we have to go to the office and lock ourselves in.”
I let out a relieved breath that he was able to follow directions when he was so scared, not to mention drunk. I heard scuffling on the other end and a few curses from Leo. “Grab my hand, Sanders. Come on. It’ll be okay.”
Thankful Leo was there to help his best friend, I waited, letting out a gust of breath when Sanders finally replied, “Okay, we’re locked in.”
“That’s good. Really good. Now hang tight. I’m on the road headed toward you and the police should be there any minute.”
“Oh, god. It’s ruined. I fucked everything up.” The boy started crying again.
Just the thought of that much sadness in Sanders’s voice was killing me, but before I could reassure him that nothing was ruined and he hadn’t fucked up, I heard a dial tone. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Not knowing if Sanders had hung up or we’d gotten disconnected, I went to redial when I glanced up and realized I’d drifted onto the shoulder of the road. Jesus.
Righting the car, I figured I’d get there faster if I just concentrated on driving. What was usually a twenty minute drive felt like it took two hours, but I finally pulled into a parking space beside a police cruiser, hopped out, and headed toward the officer who looked like he’d just arrived as he used his flashlight to see inside the darkened store.