Magnolia and Moonlight Read online

  Holly poked her head forward from her spot in the backseat. “Nah, not our place. You must have been looking at the lights in the neighboring duplex,” she pointed out.

  Maggie blinked several times. Sure enough, except for the porch light, their home was dark. She frowned. She only drank one glass of wine after the gig and had excellent eyesight. She could have sworn the lights were on their side of the building when she first looked.

  She suppressed a yawn. “Guess so, must be more tired than I thought.” Her stomach clenched. Maggie lifted a hand from the steering wheel to tug on an earlobe. Something just did not feel right to her.

  “Maybe. It’s been over five months, but everybody’s still a little jittery thanks to my stalker,” Rose, her best friend and lead singer of their band, added to the conversation. Rose lived over in Mount Pleasant with her fiancé, Jeremy Barrett. Jeremy was called out of town on an emergency, so Rose was staying with them for an after-gig girls’ night.

  Maggie parked in her spot, and the ladies hopped out. The nice thing about back-to-back gigs and having an in with the club owner was being able to leave their instruments at the venue overnight. Lily unlocked the front door and pushed it open. The four of them stepped over the threshold.

  Maggie dropped her keys on the table in the foyer and headed straight to the kitchen. It had been a rough month, and she could use another glass of wine. Her grandmother, who had also lived in Charleston, passed away three weeks earlier. Maggie and her sister Savannah spent a month with their grandmother every summer as children. Some of her best childhood memories were entwined with those visits.

  Unfortunately, life got in the way as she grew into adulthood, and visits became further and further apart. Maggie’s relocation had changed that, at least until her grandmother died peacefully in her sleep. One good thing came from her grandmother’s death. The two sisters inherited their grandmother’s historic home on Broad Street. Savannah, who lived and worked in New York City, was more than tired of the rat race. She was working out her notice, wrapping up things in the Big Apple, and moving back down south in a few weeks. Maggie could not wait to live in the same city as her beloved older sister once again.

  “Something is wrong!” Lily suddenly exclaimed in a soft whisper.

  Maggie turned her attention to her roommate. “What’s going on?”

  “Look at the cabinet doors, a couple of them aren’t shut all the way,” she pointed out. “I cleaned the kitchen this afternoon, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t look like this when I was done.”

  Maggie twisted her lips together. Lily was fairly OCD about most things, including the cabinets and doors. If she said they were closed, Maggie was certain they were closed.

  Holly put her hands on her hips. “I told y’all my cupcake disappeared last week, but everyone insisted I ate it and forgot about it. Not a chance! I was really looking forward to the triple chocolate treat.”

  Maggie felt all eyes turn to her. She held her hands up in the air. “Don’t look at me! I know I’ve been stressed since my grandma died, but I swear I’m not stealing food or messing with doors,” she insisted.

  Rose cleared her throat. “We never had any kinda problem like this when we roomed together in Atlanta,” she reminded the ladies. A deep frown marred her usual happy-go-lucky features.

  She was right, they hadn’t. Of course, Lily did not live with them then, but Maggie’s intuition told her Lily was not the problem. She stepped out of the kitchen and walked around the living room before she charged up the stairs. Maggie stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she caught sight of her bedroom door. It was cracked, but Maggie was damn sure she closed it before they left.

  Her heart thumped against her chest. She whirled around, looking for anything else out of place. Her leg muscles tightened. She raced down the stairs to rejoin her friends.

  “I think somebody’s been in the house,” Maggie yelled. “My door’s cracked open.” Her gaze flitted around the room. “I’m ninety-nine percent sure I closed it when we left for the gig,” she announced in a shrill voice that grated on her nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

  All the color faded from Rose’s face until she was pale as a ghost. Maggie knew she was thinking about the stalker who ambushed her in Atlanta. Their house was burned to the ground, but luckily, Rose, her bodyguard turned fiancé, and dad all three survived the horrifying experience.

  “Get out now,” Rose hurriedly insisted. She snatched up the purse she had placed on the kitchen floor and sprinted for the door.

  Maggie was right on her friend’s heels, only stopping long enough to grab the keys she dropped off by the door when they entered the duplex. Holly and Lily followed behind her. Holly was the last one out, and she only paused long enough to slam the door shut and lock it.

  The four women zoomed toward Maggie’s car. She tapped the button she needed on the remote twice, unlocking the doors. Everyone piled into the vehicle. Maggie slid behind the wheel, shut the door, and locked them inside. She gripped the steering wheel tight enough to make her fingers hurt.

  “What do we do now?” Lily wondered out loud.

  “Don’t know, but we can’t sit out here all night,” Holly proclaimed.

  Maggie cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. “Any chance we’re overreacting?” Maggie had to ask the question, though, she didn’t think so. Something strange was going on inside that place.

  “No!” Rose, Lily, and Holly exclaimed at the same time.

  “Y’all are staying with me tonight,” Rose insisted. “I’ll call Jeremy and see what he has to say about all this.”

  “Works for me,” Maggie quickly agreed.

  “Why’d Jeremy go out of town anyway?” Lily wanted to know. “I hope everything’s all right.”

  “Not quite, one of Barrett Security’s bodyguards was critically injured on the job,” Rose absently answered as she pawed through her purse.

  Maggie’s eyelashes fluttered. She did her best to disperse the unwanted image that tried to form in her mind. She cleared her throat. “Anyone we might know?” she nonchalantly asked. Maggie refused to make eye contact with her long-time friend.

  “Actually, yes,” Rose replied.

  Her stomach quivered. Maggie swallowed three times before she could speak. “Yeah, who?” she asked in a shaky voice.

  “Ben Galvan, remember him?” Rose answered.

  “Sure do. He was a big help after the house burned down. What happened?” Holly spoke before Maggie could find her voice again. “That is if you can tell us.”

  Maggie held her breath. She waited to see if Rose would answer. Barrett Security dealt with celebrities and the wealthy on a regular basis. They signed iron-clad confidentiality contracts with some of their cases.

  “He and Marcus were working an assignment together,” Rose answered after only a slight hesitation.

  Maggie’s heart skipped a beat when she heard Marcus’s name. She froze. She did not dare speak, not wanting to interrupt Rose’s explanation.

  “They were shot at while on horseback. Ben was thrown from the horse, and he got smacked in the leg with a hoof.” Rose slumped further down into her seat. “Concussion and a broken femur, rehab’s gonna take some time,” she sadly informed them.

  “How’s Marcus?” The words escaped before Maggie could call them back. She shrugged. “His head’s probably hard enough to escape harm, but thought I’d ask anyway.”

  Several giggles erupted around Maggie. She could lie to herself all she wanted, but her friends were not so easily fooled.

  “Ahh, Marcus made an impression, did he?” Rose teased.

  “Yep, of the insufferable kind,” Maggie quipped back at her friend. If she dared show an ounce of interest Rose and the others would play matchmaker faster than Maggie could blink.

  “Luckily, Marcus escaped without injury, kept their charge protected, and made sure Ben got medical attention.”

  “Got to admit the man is sexy as hell,” Lily threw in her two ce
nts worth.

  “Hell yeah!” Holly agreed.

  “Whatever,” Maggie tried to sound blasé. From the looks on her friends’ faces, she still wasn’t fooling anyone.

  In her mind, she saw a tall, toned, muscular body with chiseled abs that she wanted to run her hands over to feel if they were as rock-solid as they appeared to be. She pictured a strong, well-defined, and ruggedly attractive face with a pronounced chin covered by a neatly trimmed beard. But it was his eyes that Maggie could not forget. Brooding eyes the color of indigo that she thought might be capable of seeing all the way down to the bottom of a person’s soul. She shivered, and fervently hoped the others did not notice.

  Rose held up a hand, urging everyone to be quiet. “Jeremy just answered,” Rose said a second before she greeted her fiancé and launched into an explanation of their suspicions.

  Maggie had gotten to know Jeremy over the last few months, and she trusted his judgment. Not to mention security was his business, and he was one of the best. He would flat-out tell them if they were overreacting, and if they were not, well, he would tell them that too. Her breathing came a little easier with the knowledge that the head of Barrett Security would know what to do.

  ****

  His keys jingled as Marcus fished them out of his pocket. He just arrived home after catching a late-night charter flight from Atlanta to Charleston. He had not slept in over twenty-four hours and was going to crash on his bed and not move for twelve hours straight. At least that was the plan, much to the vexation of the flirty flight attendant he turned down flat after she asked him out for drinks before the flight landed.

  He unlocked the deadbolt and door lock and stepped inside the exact second his phone vibrated. Marcus bit back a groan. He slid the phone from its holster and glanced at the screen. The boss man was calling, possibly with an update on Ben. “Easton,” he grunted into the phone as a greeting.

  “You back in Charleston yet?” Jeremy barked out the question, skipping any pleasantries.

  His scalp prickled. The hair lifted on the back of his neck. His blood chilled, and he froze, listening intently for Barrett’s next words. He fully expected to hear bad news about Ben.

  Instead, Jeremy explained an ongoing situation with his fiancée Rose and her bandmates. Marcus thought of Magnolia Rains. The petite, willowy brunette with her long wavy hair and unusual blue-green eyes looked as beautiful and delicate as the flower she was named for. The thought of any harm coming to her caused a chill to snake its way down his spine.

  “What’s the address? I’ll check it out.” He took small steps toward the door and resigned himself to a few more hours of lost sleep.

  Jeremy recited a number and street name. Marcus relocked his door and jogged to his black SUV. Good thing he did not bother to park in the garage.

  He knew the place he was going to. It was a neighborhood of duplexes about ten years old. The community was less than five miles from his place in a relatively safe area of town. Still, shit happened.

  “I’ll be there in five,” Marcus promised as he slid behind the wheel and started his vehicle. The engine roared to life. He put the SUV in gear and shot backward out of the driveway and onto the empty street.

  True to his promise, he arrived at his destination in five minutes flat. He found an empty spot, parked, and hopped out of his vehicle. Rose exited a small four-door car and ran his way. He shot off a quick text to Jeremy, letting him know that he arrived before law enforcement and would be in touch.

  Rose gave him a friendly side hug, which he returned. “Hey. What happened to Ben was awful, glad you’re all right and were there for him.”

  Marcus tried to play it off. “All in a day’s work,” he quipped. “Could have been worse, but luckily it wasn’t.”

  Her gaze landed and lingered on his face. “You’ve got to be dead tired, thanks for coming,” she softly whispered. “Maggie called 9-1-1, but no one’s showed up yet.”

  He ran a hand over his face and rubbed his gritty eyes. Marcus pushed aside the exhaustion that weighed him down and took a deep breath. “Saw the car you got out of. The others in there?” he wanted to know.

  Rose nodded her head. “Nobody was going back inside until we got Jeremy’s opinion. He told us to wait for you.”

  He rocked back and forth on his heels. “Excellent.” He was glad they had the sense to get out of the duplex and listen to reason, but of course, with Rose’s close call with a stalker, the band was well-versed in showing caution when warranted.

  Marcus walked over to the driver’s side of the Mini Cooper, none too surprised to see Maggie sitting behind the wheel. He tapped on the window and waited for her to lower it. She looked at him with those unique blue-green eyes, and his heart skipped a beat. They did not get off to the best start, and she had been prickly around him ever since.

  “Tell me what happened, and don’t leave anything out.” He had the basics from Jeremy, but he wanted to hear Maggie’s spin on the incident.

  She talked in a sweet, melodic voice that warmed his blood. Her voice was not as professionally strong and pure as Rose’s, but it worked magic on Marcus. After she finished her explanation, Marcus turned to Rose. “Get back in the vehicle and lock the doors. I’m going to clear the house and have a look around.”

  “The police are on the way,” Maggie reminded him.

  The muscles in his jaw and face tightened. “I know my way around a crime scene,” he interrupted before she could say more. “I won’t disturb any evidence, but since I’m here, I’m going in.” Jeremy expected him to do no less.

  Rose did not argue. She climbed into the front passenger seat and silently closed the door behind her.

  Lily, another band member, poked her hand out the window. “Here’s my house key,” she offered.

  He took the cool piece of metal, grumbled out a thanks, and jogged toward the unit number Jeremy mentioned as part of the address. He pulled his gun of choice from the holster at his back just before he pushed open the door and entered. Marcus methodically worked from room to room, clearing each area. He noted that there were no obvious signs of disturbance or vandalism.

  Marcus stepped out of the front door and noticed a man in uniform who talked to Maggie, Rose, and their two friends. He quickly shoved his weapon back into its hiding place and slowly walked toward the group that stood near Maggie’s car.

  “Let me see if I got this straight. You didn’t see anyone. There are no visible signs of a threat or vandalism, and you’re not sure if anything was stolen except for maybe a cupcake last week.” The officer sounded dubious.

  “So, what exactly do you want me to do? I could be spending this wasted time on a real crime,” he grated out. “Wasting emergency resources is a crime,” the officer informed them.

  Marcus’s muscles tensed, and he got a twitchy feeling in his extremities. He cleared his throat to get the other man’s attention.

  The officer spun around to face him. A hand flew to his holster. “May I help you, sir?”

  Marcus held his hands up in the air for the officer to see that they were empty. He gave the other man a hard smile. “Marcus Easton, Barrett Security.” He did not offer his hand for a shake.

  “Barrett Security?” The officer raised his brows in recognition. He glanced back at the women. “You know them?”

  “Considering Jeremy Barrett’s fiancée is part of the group, yeah, I know ‘em and can vouch for ‘em. They aren’t the kind of women who go around making up shit to get attention.”

  The guy’s eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open as he gave Marcus an oh shit look. Marcus wiped a hand over his face to hide a smirk. Barrett Security had a topnotch reputation all over the Southeast, not just Charleston. The company had an excellent working relationship with local law enforcement, and Jeremy was friendly with the sheriff, the police chief, and the mayor.

  “I cleared their place. No signs of a break-in or disturbance,” he reported to the lawman.

  The officer shrugge
d. “Not much I can do. Doesn’t sound like any kind of crime’s been committed.”

  “I’ll have the ladies go through the place tomorrow and make sure nothing’s missing. If so, they’ll drop by and file a report then,” he said, letting the officer off the hook.

  He gave Marcus a grateful look, nodded at the women, and strode toward his squad car.

  “We’re not paranoid,” Lily said in a huff.

  “And you’re right, we don’t make up shit to get attention,” Holly insisted. “We don’t need to. We get plenty of attention from our fans already.”

  Maggie rubbed her hands over her arms. “Someone was in our home. I just know it. But why!”

  Her body trembled. Marcus clenched his hands into fists to keep from touching her. He sensed it would not be welcome, and he did not want to add to her stress. He ignored the urge.

  “They’re staying with me tonight,” Rose told him. “You want to be here tomorrow when they go through the house? You know, just in case.”

  “Yeah. Let’s meet up at ten.” He could get several hours of sleep and make some necessary arrangements before the women arrived.

  Everyone agreed. Marcus crossed his arms over his chest and waited for the women to pile into the car. Maggie started the engine. He tapped the hood twice and watched her reverse out of the parking spot and drive away.

  The car was out of sight when he realized he still had Lily’s key. He smiled. He would be able to start added security precautions before the woman could resist or give him a hard time. He trudged to his SUV, hauled his exhausted body inside, and headed home.

  He would probably sleep like the dead once his head hit the pillow. He rubbed a hand over his heart. That is if dreams of Magnolia Rains did not keep him awake most of the night.

  THREE

  A shirtless Marcus on top of a ladder was the first sight to greet Maggie’s eyes as she parked in front of the duplex. She quickly glanced at her reflection in the rearview mirror before her gaze flitted back to Marcus. Her heart raced. Nerve endings tingled, and a pleasurable shiver worked its way through her body.