The receptionist, Gen, brought me my tea not long after I’d settled down at the conference table across from Frank. I nearly blushed—I was so embarrassed by her having to clear her throat to get my attention, cup of tea in hand.

“Thank you,” I said, smiling as sweetly as I could at the receptionist. She’d been really wonderful over the phone, especially after the night I’d been having and the wreck of a house I’d woken up to. But now that I was here at Frost Security, I surprisingly felt a little better.

“Can you walk me through everything again?” Frank asked, pen and notepad at hand. “From the beginning, ma’am?”

“From the beginning?” I asked, sighing a little as I grabbed my cup of tea and brought it to my lips, savoring the warmth. Something about a cup of tea always felt comforting.

“I know,” he said, a drawl in his voice that seemed reassuring and manly. Like he could go rope cattle and shoot a gun or something, and still have time to ride down the bad guys. “You’ve probably had to do a lot of this already. But this will be the last time, I promise.”

I nodded and took another sip of tea before clearing my voice. “Okay.”

I walked him through the drive up to the house.

“What time was it again?” he asked.

“Sometime after midnight, I think. I know it was before midnight when Sheila and I turned in for the evening, since I thought one more would get me a little too tipsy.”

“No exact time, though?”

I shook my head, and he nodded for me to continue.

“I pulled up at the house and put the car in the garage.”

“Nothing out of the ordinary that you saw in the garage, or anywhere else?”

I pursed my lips and thought about it. “Only that Father has all the cars in the shop for to get them checked for winter.”

He nodded. “Are you sure about that?”

“Well, they weren’t there when I got into town,” I said with a shrug. “So I don’t think they were stolen last night or anything, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

He smirked a little and made a note on the pad. “You went into the house? The door was locked?”

“Yes. I went in, I think the alarm was going off, so I turned that off, then went into the kitchen and got out stuff to make a sandwich. When I was making my sandwich, I felt the breeze, and that’s when I discovered the broken window in the living room.”

He grunted and tapped his pen on the notepad. “You say you turned off the alarm, ma’am? You disarmed it or it was going off?”

I stopped to think about it. “To tell you the truth, I just typed in the passcode, so I don’t know for sure. Maybe I did disarm it, or the alarm was going off? I don’t think I’ve ever even heard what the alarm sounds like when it goes off. And, please, stop calling me ma’am. I think I’m younger than you, Mr. O’Dwyer.”

“Force of habit. I’ll try and remember to break it.” He smiled, his eyes going back to the notebook open on the table in front of him. “And don’t worry, we can call and check on the alarm. They’ll have a record of it from last night. With your permission, of course, ma’am.”

I cleared my throat and gave him a look.

“Sorry,” he said, his face stony. “And, please, don’t ever call me Mr. O’Dwyer. My uncles were Mr. O’Dwyers. I’m just Frank.”

“You’ll need my father’s permission, or one of his people I guess,” I said, laughing a little. Just something about this man, he seemed so capable and dependable. So completely unlike the boys I normally ran into. They were all just faux-macho. Frank, he had some kind of quiet confidence, and I knew he never had to boast about how strong or tough he was. Unfortunately, I could tell he didn’t come from money or any kind of well-heeled family. Definitely not marriage material or anything, but definitely a good bodyguard. “The cabin belongs to him and I think everything’s in his name. And you’re forgiven.”

He smiled and nodded. “Got it. And nothing was stolen? Nothing that you saw?”

“The Deputy and I, oh shoot, I forgot his name–”

“Glick?” he asked, glancing up from his notebook.

I nodded. “Right. Deputy Glick and I walked the cabin, but we didn’t see anything gone, or missing, or anything.”

“Just ransacked?”

“Ransacked,” I agreed. “Good word.”

“We’ve got whole books of them. What does Glick think about it? Did he say?”

“He thinks it was just some local boys, that they thought it was one of the vacation homes, and didn’t think anyone was there yet since it’s off-season.”

“Could be, I guess,” he ventured, his brow furrowed.

I looked up at him and looked in his eyes. I thought I could see uncertainty there at what the deputy thought. “What do you think it is?”

“Oh, I’d prefer not to make any assumptions about anything just yet. These kinds of cases, when we get one, we like to look at all the evidence at the scene, anything the police might have missed, and everything they have before we start making theories. But Glick’s thoughts on it could be accurate. We won’t know for sure until we spend some time at the site.”

“So what do we want to do?” I asked.

“First, have you contacted your father and let him know what happened? You see, you’re an adult, so normally I wouldn’t ask, but you did mention that it’s his cabin…”

I shook my head. “No. I’m pretty sure my father knows I’m up here, but he and I aren’t exactly on the best of terms. I’m going to call his assistant as soon as I leave here and let her know what happened.”

“Good. Because you’ll definitely want to get that window replaced. It’s supposed to get cold soon. There’s a contractor I know, if you’d like his number.”

“Thank you.”

“But other than that, one of the guys from the office and I would like to go visit your cabin, look at the scene ourselves before you begin any kind of cleanup. I know Deputy Glick probably made a report, but you’re paying us to visit and investigate on our own, correct?”

I gripped the tea mug a little tighter, my knuckles white as I looked down into it, lost in thought. I didn’t say anything for a long moment, just thought about the picture of me and my mother on my birthday, of the broken frame that had once held it. Even though Deputy Glick had dismissed my questions about why nothing was taken, it still felt like something other than a robbery.

“Ashley?” Frank asked, snapping me back into reality.

“I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m just—it’s been a long night, you know? What were you saying again?”

“It’s okay,” he said with a tight smile. “I understand. I’ve had plenty of those myself. I was just confirming that you wanted us to investigate it, see if we could track down the person who did it. That’s correct, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’d be cool. I mean, yes, that’s what I’m looking for.”

He smiled and pushed his chair back, and rose from the table. “Okay. Gen will be in here in a little bit with a quote. As soon as we get your first payment we’ll head out.”

“Frank?” I asked as crossed to the conference room door.

He turned back to me, a questioning look on his face, his strong jaw set to take whatever the world gave him.

“Thank you. I didn’t know what to expect when I came in here, but you’ve been wonderful.”

He nodded, giving me a polite smile. “That’s what we’re here for.”

I picked up my mug again and took another sip as he left. I stayed there with my thoughts for a few minutes. I considered posting something on social media, but I didn’t know what to say.

What would I even say? “LOL! Totally got broken into last night!”

I shook my head. What if one of my friends tried to contact my father or something because they saw my post? Or started up some kind of rumor? No, that didn’t seem right. He needed to hear it from me, even if it was by way of his assistant Barbara, the old battle ax.

The more I thought about it now, the more worried I was that my father would freak out no matter how he found out. Hell, what if the old man tried to make me move back in with him? He could do it, too, if he really wanted. All he had to do was cut off the money from my trust. I didn’t get full control over it until I was thirty, which meant he controlled the purse strings for quite a few more years. I’d be screwed!

I realized then that my heart was racing almost as fast as it was last night, thumping harder at just the thought of being stuck in the same house as him. Hell, the same city. Shit.

No, I could handle this on my own, I decided. No need to worry Father. I could pay for the security guys, the contractor, clean up, all that, with the credit cards I had. They hardly batted an eye when I went on a shopping spree or flew over to Europe. I don’t think they even looked at the bills anymore.

“You okay on tea, dear?”

I glanced up, surprised at the sudden interruption of my thoughts.

“Honey?” Gen asked, a look of grandmotherly concern on her face as she came around to my side of the conference table and peered down at me. “You okay, dear?”

I shook my head, dispelling all the negative thoughts and worries. “I’m sorry,” I said, trying to reassure her, “I’m fine, Gen.”

She smiled, pulled out the chair next to mine, and took a seat, papers in hand. “So, Frank asked me to draw up a quote for you.” She began taking me through the quote line-by-line. “This is our daily rate here for one man, but he mentioned that he was taking Mr. Wayne up to the cabin with him as well. This is what you should expect.”

I glanced over it as politely as possible, absently following along with her. It really didn’t seem like that much. It was less than what I spent on the new fashions that came out every year. It was less than what I spent at Burning Man the year before, even.

“Do you take credit?” I asked after she got to the end.

“Of course, dear.”

I pulled my wallet from my purse and handed one of my cards to her that I’d used the least this month.

Gen excused herself and went to run it, leaving me again with my thoughts.

Deep down, I really wished this was all just teenage assholes being teenage assholes. Really, I did. But, still, something in the back of my mind nagged at me as I chewed my lower lip and stared deeper into the tea like it was some dark crystal ball that could see the future.

Gen returned to the conference room a few minutes later. “Do you happen to have another card? It seems this one isn’t working.”

No big deal. It had happened in the past when I hit a limit because it was the end of the month and I’d been a little too rowdy or gone on a huge spree. Without fail, Father’s people just cleared the balance and it was fine the next month.

“Oh?” I asked, digging for another. “Here,” I said, handing her two more, “one of these should work.”

She came back a few minutes later though with a frown.

“Ashley, dear,” she said in that grandmotherly tone again. “Do you have a check, by any chance? Those wouldn’t clear either.”

“Check?” I asked, confused. “The cards didn’t…?”

She shook her head slowly, her lips pressed into a tight, thin line. “We can take a check. Our owner knows who your father is, and he knows he’s fine.”

Worried, I dug back into my purse and pulled out an almost-forgotten checkbook from when I had to pay rent on my old apartment back in school. It was a mystery how it had made it into this purse, but my purses were all graveyards for miscellaneous items. Book of slips in hand, I turned back to Gen, making a face.

“What’s wrong dear?” she asked, looking me over.

“I don’t remember how to write a check.” I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment. I was the epitome of the dumb millennial.

A look of shock appeared on her face, then she stifled a laugh. “Oh, sweetie. Don’t worry, my granddaughter doesn’t either. Everything’s Paypal this, bitcoin that. She can even wave her phone at some of the gas stations. I’ll walk you through it, dear, don’t worry. We’ll get you set up right, okay?”